The transition from bottle to cup is going on smoothly,

but not without hiccups.

 

Taken @ Holiday Villa’s breakfast buffet …

 

 

I dun wan ... milk. from Zee SHK on Vimeo.

 

 

“When you don’t share your problems, you resent hearing the problems of other people.” - Chuck Palahniuk

 

I stopped, and pondered. Could it be true? Is that why some people whom I know are not very good at lending their ears and shoulders?

 

 

Have you ever read a book so thick (600+ pages) and so good that when you are at the last few chapters, you are just too reluctant to finish off the story, because you just need and WANT to savor or stretch the narration for as long as possible?

 

Sigh .. the Hour book has this effect on me. I’m just very (and extremely) reluctant to proceed to the very last chapter!

 

*Don’t read this though, if you have not attempt Wally’s first fiction – I Know This Much Is True. I’m hunting around for the third one already – She’s Come Undone.

 

   
.: A modern-day Dostoyevsky in these books ...

 

 

  

The Diva Strikes from Zee SHK on Vimeo. 

 

 

 

Pau2 has just showered. With a towel wrapped tightly around him, starting from his underarms all the way down to close to his ankles, hair all wet with bits of leftover toothpaste on his chin, he looked so … so … *sigh*.

 

Anyways, he saw me and as he stepped out of the shower, he said: Ibu, my brain is halal, right?

 

I went: Huh? Your brain is halal? What do you mean?

 

He: Yes … because I eat halal foods only.

 

Hee.

 

 

Here, I am going to relate a real life experience – a near-death experience, I should say. And who better to tell it as it unfolded, other than the one who experienced it?

 

You know how it is often said that on a verge of death, one would have flashes of one’s life and loved ones before him? Do you notice that in most drowning cinematic scenes, the camera angle would be positioned such that horizontal plane would be 50% land and 50% water, and the camera would be jerking up and down, alternating between these two views?

 

All of the above? Those are true – at least in my experience.

 

It was Pau2’s birthday. As a treat, we decided to spend the day at a pool somewhere in the West.

 

We got there nice and early, and the pool looked inviting. Once they were in, the boys were having fun running around and screaming away. After a while, I got tired of being in a knee-height pool and gestured to Ibu Ros that I wanted to have a short swim stint at the adult pool.

 

I walked away.

 

Now, I’m not exactly a swimmer, but I can easily manage a very short length. Unlike Hubs, I can never do a full length of a pool. I’d go out of stamina fast. So, I would usually just swim from the edge to the middle of a pool and then turn back.

 

I started at the edge – there weren’t many people; it was a weekday, after all. I could easily stood up in the pool – my feet were firmly on the bottom and the water was somewhere near my chest. I looked out for the signage – pools usually have this to indicate the middle section.

 

The sign read 1.8 metres and had an arrow pointing downwards and outwards to my opposite direction. I thought, ‘OK, no problem. I’ll swim to the sign and then turn back.’

 

Which I did.

 

When I started to get tired, I looked up and saw the sign again – 1.8 metres. Great, time to stop swimming and maybe take a breather, and then to turn back.

 

Except that when I stopped swimming, and tried to take a breather, I realized then that my feet could no longer feel the ground. Instantly, I remembered – that I was way shorter than 1.8 metres; I am only 1.59 metres tall.

 

That’s when I almost lost it. I was immediately gripped by a sudden fear – fear of death, fear of not being able to see my loved ones again and that’s when I saw their faces flashed before me – my sons, my husband, my sister … My arms were flailing and my legs were kicking, trying desperately to feel ANYTHING on the soles of my feet. My vision was as described earlier – 50% water, 50% land. I was panicking, I was holding onto any glimpse of hope there could be. I tried to scream, but the more I opened my mouth, the more water I swallowed.

 

Just as soon and as sudden as I panicked, I regained a grip on reality. NO! My heart screamed – it’s my son’s birthday and no way am I going to spoil it for him by being dead. NO! I refuse to go down as easy as drowning in my own lapse of memory. NO! NO! NO!

 

I do not know how I managed to have the strength, but I certainly had the will at that time. I heard a voice in my head – throw your body to the water and use the force and weight to swim back to the edge.

 

And that’s what I did.

 

I pushed and pushed, and swam madly towards the edge. I could sense the distance that I had managed but I knew if I stopped, and if my feet did not touch the bottom of the pool, there would be no way I could regain my superwoman strength again. And so I swam, and swam, or rather thrashed madly in the waters.

 

I crashed into several people whilst fighting my way to the edge and could sense the hostile stares. But I didn’t stop nor did I take the trouble to steer away from them.

 

I just thrashed on … till one of my outstretched fingers touched the edge of the pool.

 

Only then, I stopped and very gingerly, placed my feet to the bottom of the pool.

 

I realized then, that I just had a very real and harrowing experience – one that did not take more than 10 minutes, but one that could certainly mean life and death to me.

 

God has looked over me.

 

Work is really taking its toll on me. Only 2 days off work, and

now, when I come in, on Monday, I’ve committed the following:-

 

1. Forgot the password to my workstation > Had to call helpdesk to assist in resetting my password.

2. Forgot the password to my Lotus > Had to call helpdesk AGAIN to assist in resetting my password AGAIN.

3. Forgot the Access Code to the Kyocera Machine > Had to rush through the level, frantically trying to locate someone in the department who shares the same A/C.

4. Forgot the number Access Key to the Vault > And this is worrying, because the Vault is actually every secretariat’s second cubicle.

 

Oh dear … where work used to provide me the distraction from other troubles, it has now become a major source of one instead – all in the name of ‘moving you up’.

 

And just 3 seconds ago, I turned around to chat with my colleague, and I realize her name has slipped my mind …

 

Gasp.