Thought on computers

I am sitting at a Deli for lunch right now.
After this I am going HOME to that I can actually get some work done!
That's the marvel of living in the 21st century.
U can carry ur life's work in a thumb drive, u can have computers at work and at home, u can carry around a netbook with u and u can do the work almost ANYwhere.
Isn't life wonderful?

Actually it was not so wonderful earlier cos I could not concentrate on my work.
There are so much distractions where they get u to do stuff that is out of the main current project.

Last night I found that the wire that connects my netbook's charger had konked yet again. Third time in 2010!
Today before going home I stopped by the computer shop.
Bought one replacement wire and a whole new set of charger as an extra.
Then I looked at the new netbooks and laptops on sale.
There was one of each that were screaming at me to take them home.
But I decided to wait.
I do deserve a present or two but I think I shall wait for next year before i make the purchase.
What I have still works tho they are already showing signs of aging.
Maybe I'll get one of it soon.
Maybe.

'Cash' payment.

This morning I wrote about enjoying my Christmas clean-up of my wardrobe and my plans to donate the unused clothes to charity.
Now I have to write about what my friends and I call 'cash' payment.

We used that term to remind ourselves that what u do something bad, u get the payment for that.
Yes, KARMA.
The thing is we always say that God extracts a cash payment method.
No credit terms.
U do not wait till to die to be punished.
U get 'it' soon enough.
So that is what 'cash' payment is all about in our lingo.

Today I also learned that God also gives 'cash' payments for good deeds too.
I have sent those clothes to my eldest sister's place.
I do not think she has sent it to the needy as yet.
These things needs a little more time, I am sure.
But I feel that God has given me a wonderful day today.
I enjoyed my visit to my sister's.
Upon returning I dropped by my second sister's house to deliver an envelope or money to my nephew for his good results.
Then I went home.
My second sister (who was at a wedding0 when I visited her house) called, asking me to join her family visiting my mom.
All of us went and we met my brothers and their families.
Sister showed the video/pics of her recent holiday.
My brother's son who is studying there had met my sister's family for lunch.
There was so much family togetherness.
I enjoyed the meet-up.
Ended the day with dinner at a restaurant with second sister's family.

Simple day.
But I enjoyed it tremendously.
Maybe it is just coincidence.
Maybe it was God' s 'cash' payment.
I am gratified.

Christmas clean -up

My niece had her kindy graduation on the 23rd so I took Christmas eve off from work.
We all had a fun time at the concert cum graduation ceremony.
The next day I spent time with my mom and my nieces.
We shopped and ate at our usual spots.

I then left for my condo and was wondering what I would do for the next two free days.
Of course I had work to do but I only had my netbook with me so I could not use that to get the info from the CDisk. I need my laptop or computer which i had left at work.
It was Christmas after all so I should not be doing too much work, right?

I woke up Christmas morning with an idea that I wanted to clean up my wardrobe and donate so many unused clothes to charity.
I thought that would just take me a few minutes but the cleaning up grew in proportions. I went from one area to the next.
I do have lots of stuff.
I remember on an Oprah show which tells us that if u haven't used an item for 12 months u do not need to keep it.
Well, I had some stuff that had not been used for longer, I am ashamed to say.
Now I have one big box and one small box of 'to-give-away' stuff and two large black garbage bags for 'to-throw-away' stuff.

My eldest sister has the contacts for charity give-away.
Tomorrow I plan to go send them all.

I did not visit friends who celebrate Christmas but I had an enjoyable day.
I sweated. I have a cleaner wardrobe. I have more space.
I feel good at the end of the exercise.
Hopefully someone else will also get to feel good about receiving the still-good clothes soon.
I had a good Christmas Day even tho I did not think I would.

P.S.
My sister and her family are back from their Cairo Cruise.
Her youngest son has just gotten his exam results and he did very well.
Congratulations, nephew!

Biopsy - Part 2

I was at the hospital by 7.15am today.
Made friends with a 60 plus year old woman who accompanied her daughter for an ultra-sound check. She is from one of the royalties of one of the states of my country. She talks a lot but its ok....that kept me occupied for a while.

Entered the ultra-sound room where they also perform biopsies at about 9am.
It was a different lady doctor from the one who performed my biopsy last year.
The latter was a sweet-natured lady but this one seemed tensed and grumpy initially. I saw how the junior doctors kept their distance from her but I must say she knew how to do her job well.
Slowly she became more relaxed and even shared a joke or two with me.
Both breasts were injected with local anesthetics.
She aspirated the right side cos in her opinion it was mostly liquid with some debris inside. It was a brown liquid that was extracted.
The left side was zapped with a tool that looks like an extraordinarily huge syringe. Zap it goes. The tool was used to extract some of the solid mass.
It was very cold in the biopsy/ultra-sound room. Brrr.

A white car was doubled parked in front of my car at the car-park. There really is a lack of even paying car park space at that hospital.
I tried to push the car but it did not move an inch.
I did not have the strength even though I tried for a couple of minutes.
Luckily a guy with his little son passed by an offered to help.
I thanked him profusely and together we pushed.
The car moved and I could go home.
(I hope the owner and thoughtless driver will be 'paid' by the Almighty somehow!)

Either the anesthetic had worn off or the strenuous exercise of car pushing had taken it toll but I drove home in pain.
Right now I am home. I took a pain killer and am resting on my bed.
Oprah is on and I shall enjoy today.
I will only know the results on my next specialist visit due in January 2011.
Waiting is my next job.

Early riser

I am a morning person and find it easy to be up and about early in the mornings.
This works very well with the fact that traffic on the roads is much easier if u leave for work before the sun is up.
I am up by 5.30 am (o.k. ...I have an alarm clock for this, but I never need to put the snooze button on).
I leave my condo around 6.30am when it is still rather dark at this part of the world.
I love driving around this time of the day. It is much cooler (sometimes below 80F) with not much traffic. The sun slowly makes its way up and beautifully lights up the earth. I enjoy the changes of the views with the natural change of the lighting. The best thing is this happens almost every day through out the year because living so close to the equator, there is no spring, summer, autumn or winter. It is just summer with rain or summer without rain here! Lovely.
I like it a lot less on the rainy days cos the sun is hidden by the thick clouds and is unable to do its job.
I am normally at work by 7 am. Almost always amongst the first to arrive. Officially we start work at 8am. I have an extra hour daily giving me some kind of a head start. Most of the people at work have to clock in at 8am to 5pm but my job allows for flexible hours. This means I can leave at whatever time as long as I make a certain minimum hours per week BUT I need to get the job done no matter what. Thus it also means working thru many weekends when it is needed.

I tend to keep with the 'early to rise' habit even on weekends and on vacations.
Maybe its one of the reasons why I gel well with JAR and his family. They were raised on a farm and have been trained to be up extra early. They follow that thru even till now - years later when they all live in the city and have professional jobs. All of us would be up early and ready for the day on our travels.
This also means we are all tired out early in the evenings.
Thus, not much need for night life.
Of course when I was much younger I too have had the taste of that but u soon grow (at least I did) out of the meaningless dressing up and hanging out with people who are probably not being their true selves partying the night away.
I prefer my current routine and am so glad that I surround myself with people of the same habit.


Note:
I am currently at the hospital waiting for my turn to see the specialist. Of course I had arrived way before time. Gotten my number and sitting peacefully with my net-book typing this.
Keeping urself mentally busy is the way to stop worrying. :-)

Australia - Part 2 = Biopsy - Part 1

The day before I left for my vacation I went for what was supposed to be a routine mammogram. I felt that I actually did not need to do so because just last year they had removed a solid mass (fibroadenoma) on one breast. Tiny clean cut. For those who have (is there any?) been reading my blog, u might have read about this.
The specialist told me that because of that, I am in a higher risk category. Yeah, I thought.

I thought it would be a fast doctor's visit. Then I could go home and do my final packing. They had the mammogram machine and I was the first patient of the day to use it. The previous year I was told that I would need to do an ultra sound as my breasts fall under the 'dense category'. Funnily enough they still made me go through the machine this year. As expected, then I had to go for the ultra sound. U can tell from the way the doctors work if there is going to be bad news. They suddenly become quiet (I normally chat with the doctors as they work). They found another solid mass on the other breast.

I put the issue aside as I went on my long awaited for vacation. I had a great time. I had earlier blogged about the first two days.
On the third day we took a ferry to Frementle. That was a fun time as my niece took photos of me pretending to be Kate Winslet in Titanic.
Frementle has two markets which sells lots of artsy stuff (anything with shopping? of course we would get there. After all, my sister was the one who picked the places we would go to.....and I learned during this trip, she LOVES the shops!) Somehow we actually wasted about two hours cos my bro-in-law got us on the Frementle tour tram which was expensive AND boring! However we all made up for it when we got to the market area.

On the fourth day we went to a wildlife park where we saw the kangaroos, wombat, emu, etc. We fed the kangaroos and saw a new specie of totally white kangaroos. They mated albino kangaroos until they actually got a new specie.
Then we had a sheep shearing show.
During the show (which was expertly carried out) I received a phone call from an unknown number. I did not answer and silenced my phone. I noted that there were more calls.
After the show I switched the phone back on and this time I answered the call. It was from the hospital. They were setting the date for my biopsy.

Now the vacation is over.
My second sister who is the anesthetist and the one who always accompanies me when there is a major medical appointment will be away on a Cairo Cruise with her family until Christmas.
My biopsy test is next week and this time I will go through it on my own.
I'll be fine. Positive thinking. Always.

Australian trip 2010 -part 1

I am at the hotel lobby making full use of the free Wi Fi.
Its the second night of the trip and so far the good times exceed the blah ones.

Its my first time traveling over several days with my sister's family.
By nature, my eldest sister is kind of a stress giver.
She is a good person but is more highly strung than average.
I love her as a sister but I do need an 'out-time' after being in her company for a couple of hours. Hehehe.

We had a wonderful flight that took more than 5 hours.
Being in the Business Class made the journey that much more enjoyable.

The hotel we booked in situated very close to the shopping areas so we are out walking around until the shops are closed the first and second day.
We walked all over the place, took buses (this is FREE too!).

I am enjoying the times I spend with my niece and nephew.
We can communicate as adults.

Tired right now cos its been such a full day.
More later.