:: jotting the lines ::

As the clock passed 10:45 am on 28 September 2007, I reluctantly crawled my way to St. Andrew’s Dental Surgeons from office to keep my wisdom teeth removal appointment at 11:00 am. For a person like me which have never stepped into an operation theatre, never had any of the surgeries before would certainly be very fearful. I don’t know what I can anticipate except with the unknowns. The questions of how a dentist will pull out both infected wisdom teeth puzzled me.

St. Andrew’s Dental Surgeons @ Amara, Tanjong Pagar

I must thank God for the wonderful encounter with Dr. Justin Leong, a young, gentle & humorous fatherly figure yet who can execute his responsibilities with professionalism. Dr. Leong is patient and he definitely knows some tricks to comfort you and guide you how to cooperate with him throughout the surgery. Although my surgery was considered a minor one according to him, doctor still treated me with care.

The Dental Chair Yours Truly Sat On.

Dr. Leong has explained what I should expect before the operation began. Hence, I had no issues following his instructions during the surgery. As I was mentally getting ready for the extraction, doctor asked me to take a deep breath and open my mouth. I knew it had begun.

“Ok, Vicky ….open your mouth big big, I am going to apply some numbing gel around your gum before I give you the local anesthetic.”

And he continued.

“This is strawberry flavoured, many of my kid patients like it a lot.” He said it persuasively.

I was like thinking, “Man, this doctor is treating me like another kid now…”

The gel started taking its effect after a few minutes stay around my gum. Doctor asked his “partner in crime”, the nurse- Ms. Sharidah covered me with two thin layers of blue clothes and eye mask so I would not freak myself out seeing the tools they used. That is a normal operation house procedure. Sometimes things are better not to be seen.

The local anesthetic application was a bit warm and ticklish, I couldn’t feel much as the strawberry flavoured numbing gel helped easing the discomforts.

“Do you feel numbness around your left jaw now, slightly over your cheek and your lip?”

“Hmmm. A…lil…bit…” I was mumbling due to the numbness of my mouth.

“Good, you can’t talk means it’s working.” He grinned cheekily.

Subsequently, Dr. Leong inserted his finger and touched my teeth and asked me if I felt anything. Yes, I could only feel his movement over my teeth. Nothing else.

And then, the real fun had begun. This time I couldn’t remember what he did inside my mouth, all I could remember was breathing very heavily. It was believed that taking deep breathe could calm myself down. On and off, doctor will stop where he was doing and asked me to “take a deep breath, inhale………hold……..and exhale….”.

“Good, Vicky. You’re doing very well!”

My mind started picturing myself giving birth in the labour room. Don’t ask me why, maybe due to the breathe in and breathe out.

Dr. Leong jokingly teased saying, “How to give birth ah next time, cannot bear the pain?”

And knowing I couldn’t talk, he self-answered, “Nevermind ……..now we have this pain killer. What’s that called ar? Aiks cannot remember now.”

“Ahh, Epidural!” He remembered the term.

So, can you imagine how humorous my dentist is?

On & off, nurse will apply Vaseline on my lips to prevent dryness as Dr. Leong continued drilling the tooth.

Finally, Dr. Leong pulled out my teeth effortlessly. He then stitched the wound and got me to bite on the gauze pad. I don’t know if I had bitten him since I couldn’t feel anything on the gum. ha ha.

The fruit of Dr. Leong’s work. hee hee. Tooth without being sectioned.

Did you see the decayed wisdom tooth?

Doctor Justin Leong & Ms. Sharidah & Yours Truly. Doctor Leong don’t dare to scare you with the blood on his fist. haha…it’s my A+ blood!

Dr. : How are you now? Okay ?

Vicky: *Nod Nod*

Dr. : Ya, can take picture means absolutely OK!

Well, this is just my first round of extraction. I have one more round on my right jaw and another separate session to replace the silver filling with white ones.

A special note to Doctor Leong : Thank you very much for making the surgery a most pleasant one I ever had. You have certainly affirmed and assured dentistry experience is not bad at all. I appreciate your patience and your lullaby jokes. Please continue to be my dentist.

Make up is not my everyday’s routine. The max I would do would probably just put on a lip gloss or lip stick to work. And very often it depends on my mood, what time I get up in the morning and who will I be meeting for the day. I barely apply eye shadow, mascara or blushes nowadays ever since my work role change unless I have on-site appointment when I have to meet clients. Well, you must be an important person if you see me wearing ICI paint.

I am more towards angmoh style where make up to them is simply making lips more glossy look. Now at this century, we encourage natural beauty, don’t we?

Natural beauty. Ha ha do I even have one? If I do, you probably won’t hear what they said below:

Scene 1

Location: My Office

“Oi Vicky, Please lah….. put some make up lah. You know you look as pale as zombie! If you’re in Korea, people will condemn you for being ill-mannered. Putting make up is showing politeness to them.” - My Colleague’s comment No. 1 took place 2 weeks ago.

“Tsk tsk tsk … don’t you feel naked without putting make up? Ok lah, I give you my Christian Dior eye shadow as gift.” My Colleague’s comment No. 2 took place 1 week ago.

Scene 2

Location: Offce Lobby

I bumped into my friend’s father at the office lobby two and a half year ago. This is what he said,”Vicky, you’re doing sales now. You have to see clients and people, so presentation is essential. Put some make up, eye shadow, mascara, blushes and lipstick everyday. You never know who you’ll meet one day.”

Geez! I felt so embarrassed because the words are out from a man, not woman. Harsh harsh yah. My lipstick just fade only mah. Forgot to put back during the mid day.

Scene 3

Location: Outside the church

Ok, two and a half years later. I greeted the same person -my friend’s father, we are churchmate. We see each other (the father) very often in church anyhow. I’ll call him Uncle KY here.

“Vicky, you losing weight eh? How did you do that?”

“Ahh? Did I? I didn’t do much.” *roll eyes & wonder if I really lost or just an illusion*

“Aww Vicky, lose a bit more and you’ll get prettier. Trust me. Put some make up, remember mascara, eye shadow and lipstick. Doll up yourself, do something to your hair and you’ll be even attractive. ”

“But Uncle KY I just cut my hair and I like it short now, it’s refreshing! Didn’t it give a more sophisticated look by the way?”

“Vicky, you’re a grown up woman now. Not drinking liquid like you used to when you’re young. Now you’re eating solid food. So time to doll up yourself.”

OMG!!!!!!! I don’t know where should I hide my face. I just had to keep nodding to agree with his say   Man, it’s more real than calling it a deja vu. Same statement made two years ago and two years later.

Ok Uncle KY just in case if you’re reading this piece which I believe it is very slim chance you’ll drop by my blog. Uncle KY, your words of advice are precious. I did search through my wardobe finding myself the best clothes and ICI paint myself when your son and I went for a date.* clear throat* Ahem, to be polite mah

Time to change?

Time to change.

Those who are in the corporate are very well-known of CC and BCC in emails, no?

But do you know what that really means? I’m sure you do, otherwise you won’t be doing it right?

CC means Cover CarCheng*

BCC means Better Cover CarCheng*

Despite all email ethics we studied in univesity times, I couldn’t agree more with this person coming up with the new meaning and how useful it is to cc and bcc everyone! Yes, I learned something in the corporate world too!

The question now is : Have you learned yours?

Definition : CarCheng - Back side a.k.a A$$ …hahahahaha….

After watching sales falling off for three straight months at Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Colonel calls up the Pope and asks for a favour.

The Pope says, “What can I do? “The Colonel says, “I need you to change the daily prayer from, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘Give us this day our daily chicken’. If you do it, I’ll donate $10 million to the Vatican……

The Pope replies, “I am sorry. That is the Lord’s Prayer and I can’t change the words.”
So the Colonel hangs up.  After another month of dismal sales, the Colonel panics, and calls again. “Listen your Excellency. I really need your help.  I’ll donate $20 million if you change the words of the daily prayer from ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘Give us this day our daily chicken.’

And the Pope responds, “It is very tempting, Colonel Sanders.  The church could do a lot of good with that much money.  It would help us to support many charities.  But, again, I must decline.  It is the Lord’s Prayer, and I can’t change the words.” So the Colonel gives up again.

After two more months of terrible sales, the Colonel gets desperate.

“This is my final offer, your Excellency.  If you change the words of the daily prayer from, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ to ‘Give us this day our daily chicken’ I will donate $50 million to The Vatican.”

The Pope replies, “Let me get back to you.”  So the next day, the Pope calls together all of his bishops and he says, “I have some good news and I have some bad news.  The good news is that KFC is going to donate $50 million to the Vatican .”

The bishops rejoice at the news.  Then one asks about the bad news.

The Pope replies, “The bad news is that we’re losing the Gardenia account.”

HAHAHAHAAHAH… 

I had a minor accident 2 weeks ago. Many decisions to make in mind, hence I wasn’t paying full attention until I realised I was driving nearly on the opposite direction. There was this car driving towards me, so to escape from being hit I turned the steering back to my lane but I had however ramped over a sharp kerb on the hillside. No big damage, thank God!

I later found out my tyre was punctured. I couldn’t be stopping my car at an isolated hillside to change the spare tyre. I whispered to my leeetle car to hang on until we crawled to the nearest petrol kiosk. I was kinda panic since I had no experience in changing tyres. The old saying “A friend in need is a friend indeed” and the person you call when you’re in urgent need is usually someone you regard as important. So I called ‘him’ for rescue. I was able to get help with his assistance although he didn’t manage to turn up.He sent me an sms advising me to check if the tyre can be patched and get ready of the moolah to replace two tyres. The replacement of two tyres somehow reminded me of a joke my colleague once had said.

“Change tyre sure change both sides lah…!”

“Why?”

“Why?? Have you seen girl with one breast implant?”

“Ya oh!!!! HAHAHAHAHA”

So I got both tyres change changed at the end and I feel safe driving on the road again!