Undoing the ties that bind

It's been a thought-provoking few days.

I couldn't sleep much last night at the new place. New sights, new sounds, new smells. It's funny how I had less problem adjusting to life in Melbourne some years ago compared to how difficult it was last night in a place less than 20km away from my old apartment.

Strange how that sounds. Having to address the former place as "old". Granted that it's been more than 3 decades since the first residents moved in (including my parents). There used to be a graveyard behind, now it's prime estate. I used to be able to see the CBD skyline because it's on top of a small hill. On some days, the angle would be just right and I'd get a view of the full moon rising between the skyscrapers of Raffles Place. On the other side, I could see the glow of the industrial fires burning on the southern islands. Now the views are blocked by shiny new high-rise apartments that boast full-length windows and owners who put up full-length curtains to maintain privacy. How ironic.

There used to be pretty wooden furniture carved in 60's fashion. Downlights hanging from the ceiling, paneled walls, sunken-in wardrobes, wallpapers with pastel coloured circles, floors with chip tiles, a laundry area where the evening sun would ensure dry clothes before night.

The fate of the old apartment has been sealed, now that the collective sale has materialized. The wrecker's ball will swing into action early-2007. I wonder if it'll be kitsch for me to take a brick off the walls as souvenir. This place is the last physical tie I have with a father whom I never knew. In a way, this apartment was meant as a legacy from him. It has provided shelter from the rain and a place I could hide temporarily away from the troubles of the world.

It's feels almost like mourning for someone. Maybe it's poetic that this place should die before I find new life in another. Maybe this place needs to die as a symbolic and very real release of all the emotional baggages of my adopted-family. Maybe, finally, everyone can move on with their own lives.

the final 24 hours (IV)

Dead tired after packing and running around the whole day.


@ 9.30pm, battery flat

Pretty dramatic day. It began "normal" enough if you'll consider moving house normal. Anyway, as I was walking across the carpark of the old place in the morning, the property agent spotted me and shouted out my name. Now, this person is a very prim and proper lady who's also eight months+ pregnant, like Wifey. So it was rather uncharacteristic for her to shout my name from across the carpark. And why would a property agent know me by name? Well, this old place is going under the hammer. The whole estate, I mean. Most of the residents have been trying to sell this place collectively (en bloc) since before the economic crash of 1997. I believe at one stage we were hoping for over 2 mil per unit, before the Thai baht took a beating. There had been many attempts since then and I'm pretty tired of another attempt now for the en bloc sale.


the main door, with the shoe area

Anyway, here's the conversation between me and the agent...

Agent: Andrew!

Me: Oh hi! (groaning inside...argh...not again)

Agent: How have you been?

Me: ok lor, moving house tomorrow.

Agent: Wow, already? All set for the sale huh?

Me: What sale?

Agent: Oh I forgot to call you. The en bloc sale went through with 80% agreement.

Me: ....

Agent: Oh yeah, and we got X million more, which translates to Y million more per unit.

Me: ....

Agent: And one more thing, the court order will probably be issued soon and you'll be expected to move out & get the cash by next Christmas.

Me: ....

Agent: So you don't actually need to move that soon.

Me: er, ok...so when's your baby due?

*

Well, that's about all I can recall.

Talk about serendipity.

This is a weight taken off my shoulder, having looked after this place for everyone else for the past 2+ decades. Having said that, I will still miss this place. Yes, it is going to be a trauma moving away. It will probably linger in my memory for a long, long while. I might even look back with nostalgia and regret in future, leaving this place. I will miss having Botanic Gardens at 10 minutes' jog away and walking through its quiet grounds whenever I feel like it. Whatever it is, time to move on.

Take care, my old friendly dragon. You will always be the fairy tale of my teenage years.


view from the balcony

last 24 hours (III)

@10.50am packing the plates in old newspaper


snapshot of the living room


door number, made by Wifey


main entrance

the final 24 hours (II)

@9.15am blogging


preparing soft eggs for late breakfast


interesting view from Google Earth
X marks the spot

the last 24 hours...

Don't cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance

From the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice

No, no, this isn't another post about the pros and cons of the death penalty...

It's about the last 24 hours that I will spend in this apartment before moving on to another place. At lost for words as many thoughts run through my head earlier this morning. Maybe this photo essay of the final 24 hours of living here will be the catharsis I need to get this move over and done with.


@7.05am, Wifey getting ready for work

The significance of it will slowly dawn on me in the later days. It's funny how I've always thought of the old 2-room rented flat in Queenstown as my original home.


the lime green dining room
i'll miss the 20+ yr-old round table

Then as I brushed my teeth this morning I suddenly realized that this apartment, which my dead father left to my granny, was my original home all along. I had spent the first 2 years of my life here before being more or less kidnapped to live with my granny's family in Queenstown for the next 9 years. The MRT project in the 80s forced the family to relocate and since my dad had already transferred the title of this apartment to granny, she took all of us here.


kitchen, where I whipped up inedible stuff...

And here was where I spent the rest of my life.

Apple II computers, Centrepoint Kids, Michael Jackson's "Beat It", flirting with IJ girls, rugby competitions, National Service, Med School, getting married, expecting a kid. All the major milestones of my life so far happened here. Perhaps it's poetic that the first home Faith returns to from hospital will be the new flat. A new lease of life in more ways than one.


cosy corner of the living room

From 150 sq. metres to 85, there's going to be less room for crazy running antics. Well, the good thing is, this place will be around for a while before the en bloc sale formally goes through. As I jokingly told Wifey, people go to ulu places like Downtown East for frenzied weekend chalet vacations, we get to come to town for prata and nasi goreng pataya...

Thimerosal

Photo linked from CERHR website

Thimerosal, also known as thiomersal. Used as a bactericidial agent, infamously in many vaccine formulations. Note the 'Hg' symbol in the above diagram. That's mercury. It poisons the body. People of all ages are susceptible to it but the brains of children especially so because the blood-brain barrier is not as developed in the early years of infancy thus allowing more mercury to be accumulated in it. Like how salmons and large fish do.

A controversial story from Rolling Stone magazine posted online in June this year reported about the alleged dark and sordid side of so-called "scientific research".

An excerpt from the story:

...the company continued to promote thimerosal as "nontoxic" and also incorporated it into topical disinfectants. In 1977, ten babies at a Toronto hospital died when an antiseptic preserved with thimerosal was dabbed onto their umbilical cords.

The resulting controversy garnered a response from the writer and editors, who wrote, among other things:

"Science," as one doctor in our story insisted, "is best left to scientists." But when the scientists fail to do their job, resorting to closed-door meetings and rigged studies, others in society have not only a right but a moral obligation to question their work.

Link to the response

Having barely scratched the surface of scientific research, I cannot judge the academic merits of other scientists but from what I've gleaned from attending conferences and talking to big shots, one thing is certain: BIG money is at stake and I'm not talking just about sums enough to buy condo's and COEs. These figures dwarf the GDPs of many small countries.

We all know what happens when $$ is at stake...

Conversations with Wifey

She moves like lightning, food's up in no time!

While cooking dinner with Wifey last night (or rather, watching her cook)...

Me: Dish out more for yourself leh.

Wifey: No, getting fat lah.

Me: You gonna breastfeed, must get fatter a bit. Wait malnournished.

Wifey (without looking up): Not enough then I bite you lor.

She _always_ wins even before I get warmed up.

RV 2 Old Airport (III)

So the action's been centred around the old apartment. Been trying to get rid of unwanted baggages and pack essentials into cardboard boxes.

Not as neat as what yl's done to her newly-monopolized room



Went through a lot of things, some of which have been around since I was a pimply 11-year-old when I first moved in here. More than 30 years of memories. I'm going to miss more than just the physical, it's the state of being around somewhere familiar.

Things I'm going to miss when I move:
1. Jogging around the lush environment in and around Botanic Gardens.
2. 3 a.m. prata/fish-head soup/chicken rice sessions & Video-EZY rentals just across the road.
3. The non-crowded cinema halls of Great World City during weekends.
4. Zion Road Hawker Centre.
5. 5-minute walk to Orchard Road.
6. The resident stray cats.
7. My 5th-floor neighbour's Golden Retriever.
8. Sunday mornings at a deserted Starbuck's Cafe across the road.
9. The old uncle who carries his poddle for daily morning walks.
10. The remaining neighbours who've yet to move out. Especially the 13th floor auntie, Anna the domestic help, 大只老 from 4th floor, "Captain" & his wife.
11. "Did you sign?" hahahahaha

Infectious Diseases Act (Chapter 137)

Here's the deal on what is required by law in Singapore, regarding vaccinating children (taken from Singapore Statues Online):

Infectious Diseases Act (Chapter 137), Section 46(1):
The parent or guardian of every child in Singapore shall ensure that the child is vaccinated against the diseases set out in the Fourth Schedule.

And the Fourth Schedule:
Diseases against which a child is to be vaccinated
(1) Diphtheria.
(2) Measles.

So it is possible to request your physician to have diphteria-only and measles-only vaccines given to your child. There is no compulsion to use only DTP, DTaP or MMR. There is also no compulsion to use vaccines with thimerosal. By the way, vaccines that guard against more than one pathogen are sometimes known as multi-valent vaccines while those which guard against only one disease are known as mono-valent vaccines.

I am now trying to find out if there is a time frame by which parents or guardians must comply with this legislation. Currently the practice is to give DTP at 3 months and MMR at 15 months. Perhaps it is possible to delay giving a child these vaccines until a year before school-going age, 4 years for kindergarten and 6 years for primary school, when the child's body and immune system are stronger and more settled.

Vaccination schedule for children in Singapore

Age - Vaccine given

At birth - BCG & Hepatitis B
1 month - Hep B (2nd dose)
3 months - DTP (i.e diptheria/tetanus/pertussis) & Polio
4 months - DTP & Polio (2nd dose)
5 months - DTP & Polio (3rd dose)
6 months - Hep B (3rd dose)
15 months - MMR (i.e measles/mumps/rubella)
18 months - DTP & Polio (booster dose)
6 years - DT (without pertussis) & Polio (2nd booster)
12 years - DT, Polio (3rd booster) & MMR (2nd dose)

Now, here are some prominent problems associated with these vaccines:

Hepatitis B
In 1998, France withdrew the Hep B vaccine because of linkages to multiple sclerosis as well as other immuno- and neurological problems developing in children who received it.

DTP
The DTP vaccine was taken off the shelves in Japan during the 1970s, again, because of adverse reactions to the pertussis component in DTP. A milder form of the vaccine, DTaP was developed instead because the original pertussis component was too strong and caused severe reactions in people who received DTP. The Kitasato Institute states that "Whole-cell vaccine (DTP) is does(sic) not recommended for use in the Japan." DTaP was introduced in the US only in the 1990s. “aP” means “acellular pertussis”.

MMR
There is a suggested linkage between MMR and autism. This is currently a hotly debated topic with politics and egos being thrown around. Watch this space, it's going to be news.

Polio
The polio vaccine has 2 forms, one given by injection, the other orally (i.e drinking it). The oral form has been known to cause polio in some people instead of protecting them.

The issue of thimerosal or mercury in vaccines
Most of these vaccines are produced in vials and in volumes suitable for multiple doses per vial. Now, the problem with such an arrangement was the repeated introduction of the needles (albeit a different needle each time) into the vials, thus increasing the likelihood of contamination. So to overcome this problem of contamination, a chemical is put into such vaccines. This chemical is thimerosal, which is a form of mercury. So everytime a shot given, mercury is injected into the body along with the vaccine.

Are vaccines safe for children?

The reasons for asking this question are:

1. Too many of my friends are having children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD or commonly known as autism).

2. My daughter is about to be born this November and will be expected to go through a battery of at least 13 doses of vaccines against 9 different diseases.

Get this book for a thought-provoking read.



What started out as a casual remark by a friend about the phenomenon of more and more children being diagnosed with ASD started a chain of literature search and email queries to health authorities here. I've also taken to reading instruction leaflets that come along with all OTC as well as prescription-only drugs. Let's face it, most of us, even those in the practice, would simply throw away these leaflets and just either follow DIMS (Drug Index of Malaysia & Singapore, essentially a guide to drugs published by drug companies) or what's conventionally being dispensed by others. A case of following the majority.

Here are some disturbing issues yet to be resolved:

1. The long-term effects of vaccines are rarely studied. Most pre-market release trials observe test subjects over a period of a few days or weeks for short term effects like fever, swelling of injection areas. No one knows what vaccines do to children over months and years.

2. Heavy metals such as mercury and aluminium are often used as preservatives in quite a number of vaccines. We know for a fact that minute amounts of heavy metals do severe damage to the body and that these heavy metals, unlike some others like iron and zinc, have no known beneficial effects on the body. Why then, in this age where even the tiniest amounts of mercury in salmon and big fishes are considered harmful, are we knowingly putting these metals into infants?

3. The principle of vaccination is basically putting the pathogens into the body, in a controlled manner, to stimulate the immune response. Are the levels of pathogens safe?

Heavy questions for all concerned parents indeed.

Sunday gaigai with Wifey

Had a good Sunday recovering from the stresses of the week. Went shopping for books at Kinokuniya @ Ngee Ann City, browsing at National Library @ Bras Basah and some food at a hawker centre along Victoria Street before heading home.

Faith's arrival is getting nearer.

We're moving to a new flat this weekend.

My thesis is due end-November.

New job around Christmas.

Did I mention stress?...

hand itchy again...

one week neh blog, hand vely der itchy.

here's a picture of cute Jason, hard to believe that he was a 28-week premmy baby...



much credit goes to his care-giver, Wifey's mother, who will be around next month to look after Wifey & Faith during the confinement period.

RV 2 Old Airport (II)

It's always messy before it gets better. Like the storm before the calm.



Like a woman half-done with her make-up (Wifey's analogy)



And everything's laid bare in all its rawness

Oh yeah, before I forget, here's the Mr. Bean / Jackie Chan stunt that the door pulled on me yesterday...



More than one loose screw. Situation unhinged.

RV 2 Old Airport (I)

So Ikea, Sim Siang Choon (yes they that sell all sorts and shades of 马桶 or horse bucket) and Mayer delivered their goods today up to the new place. It looks kinda messy now with everything unpacked but none installed. The Ikea guys are coming over tomorrow to nail everything on to the kitchen wall. After which the gas and plumbing folks will come by to connect everything. Hopefully it will be voila! but I'm not expecting a small sail after one of the bedroom door fell off its hinges today while I was mopping the floor. I'd think this sort of stuff happens only in Mr. Bean and Jackie Chan movies but what do you know? Truth is stranger than fiction. The HDB contractor will come by Saturday to, as they put it, 'rectify the problem'.

Hopefully, like I say...

Go with God

Update:Baby L has been born to D & P. Mother and child are well. Congrats!



If you can't make out the above image, here's another view of the same but rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise, enlarged and centred around the face...



Eye sockets and right zygomatic arch (cheek bone) are prominently visible.

Well, eagerly awaiting Faith's arrival in another month. Wifey, Faith and I have come some way since that fateful February Sunday when the test-kit showed a '+' sign. Well, the experience so far has been one of humility. There are so many things in life that I cannot control, least of all the beginning of another. As someone once said to the late Dr. Wee Kim Wee when he was despatched to cover a civil war in Belgain Congo, "Go with God." Indeed.

Update:
P & D are expecting a baby boy any time now. Just got news that P went into labour early this morning.

铁板烤 (teppanyaki) party @ Erwin's

Had a nice evening with friends over at dinner table's place last night, celebrating the launch of their band, Stewie Says. Three of the four members (dinner table, fushionjack & Agnes) were present. Stayed til late watching them cook up a storm in the backyard. Juliana and breadcrumbs were there, too.


L to R: dinner table, wifey, Agnes, breadcrumbs (back facing) & fushionjack

It's a nice feeling, just sitting around the hot plate and chatting about stuff. Too bad the humidity became too much of a bother as the night wore on.


Le chef in action

Dwelled much on childhood TV shows. Looks like we can never forget stuff that happened around us when we were kids. Such is the power of nostalgia.



Erwin will be staying in Perth for the next 3 months. Good luck and best wishes to him. Come home soon for another recording session!

everything's stressed

Was taking measurements around the new flat when the self-winding measuring tape snapped and the whole tape just shot out instead of getting sucked back in as usual.


Highly stressed indeed...

Think I've been stressing it too often...

Even inanimate objects break down when overused or abused, so why shouldn't humans?

By the way, I've always thought that abuse is a combination of 2 words: abnormal + use = abuse.

So...use with caution and use normally.

Chill out, ya?

Hunky happenings

So I was reading the papers yesterday when I came across the article titled Blinking studs to alert drivers.

Now I know what or who a stud is but why would such an individual need to blink to alert drivers? (especially female and not-so-male drivers)

Well, it turns out that, according to the Land Transport Authority, these studs aren't merely physically well-endowed but come with some brains too...


Snapshot from LTA website

On a serious note, if you're a driver and on the road most of the time, do take time to offer them feedback on the effectiveness of these devices. Every accident is one too many. Click on the link above to offer your feedback.

another one bites the dust...

So the big story now is that Dr. BL Og has committed blogicide. Well, I'll miss his posts and the memories it brings. Funny how I thought I was in living hell while stuck in the system that's the medical establishment in Singapore. Memories of awful things have an ability to coat themselves with sugar.

Anyway, back to the grind...

kena whacked tagged

Got tagged by cutting edge.

So what's the 10 things I enjoy doing? All water-related

1. Dropping water bombs next to unsuspecting stray cats from the balcony of my flat
2. Sleeping in on a rainy day
3. Jogging in the rain
4. Swimming in a deserted pool on a sunny morning
5. Sitting beside a window on a rainy day
6. Eating from a hot pot on a snowy day
7. Walking through the mist at Mait's Rest
8. Taipei city centre on a rainy evening
9. Getting married on a rainy morning
10. Kissing my wife in the mist of a gentle rain

Tell me about yours?

Passing this tag to: keepsaker, amithyst, rainbowsfromgod, passingsights, dr bl og.