The urge is back....

Its been months since my last insomniac "attack". Woke up this morning bright and feels fully "charged" even though I slept at about, what I should think 3 or 4 am. Strange..... But then again there are stranger things happening around in the world, so I should not say that the "fully charged" feeling is strange.

During this time, what kept me up was the sudden urge for a ciggie!! It has been more than 7 years (has it?) since the last time I light up any form of tobacco: cigars, ciggies and shisha; which is BTW, I'm pretty proud of. I find myself some how changed now with regards to ciggies and people who do smoke them.

Yeah, yeah, I know that I might stun some people reading here since not many of you do know this side of me. And how many of you people that read this blog knows that I've got a tattoo as well? Well I do, and I'm not telling you where its located but still its not a big deal, as they say "the difference between people with tattoo is that they don't care if you've got one as well!" And oh! Mum found out in the end (the tattoo, NOT the ciggies) and all she had to say was; didn't it hurt? Which pretty much surprised me to finally find that mum was a cool person as well despite being in her 50s! LOL!

On her finding out about ciggies and me. Well let's just put it, its better that she doesn't know but then again she might know, just that she has not caught me red handed... LOL! Not that I wanted to be caught! When I started, it wasn't peer pressure as all (well 90%) of people I know aren't smokers. As all teenagers, I got curious and decided then I like it then. Thinking back, I surprised myself at how many sticks a day I had during my uni years; no thanks to friends who'll ask if I'm going for ciggies every time we see each other for breaks or after meal times! That was good times then spent with uni friends. Its still good times spent with them, just that ever since we finish uni, most of us stop smoking... I know, strange.... But the reasons for quiting for me was financial (ciggies are bloody $$$$!), health (fingers smell, out of breath etc etc) and work issues (non-smoking areas pop out every where now) . Did you know smoking cause stress to be even worst? Something to think about huh?

Now I try to stay clear of smoky places. Even more after we have Owen. We still have a box of high quality Cuban cigars, a gift from a friend. Think we'll save it for a very special occasion eh? hehehe... Till then, I'll try my best to resist.

Christmas 2008

Owen looking "serious"

This is an overdue post.

I do hope everyone had a wonderful festivities with the family with lots of eating and jolly making. We certainly had.

We were up in the mountains with 1st SIL (and family) for 4 days at ski station called Super-Besse, central of France. This winter we're having (and are still having with minus temperature now) plenty of snow fall. Basically ski stations were open weeks before the full swing of Christmas holidays. As we drove there from our place, it took us about 5 and half hours drive - which is about the same time as to Paris. We initially thought that it'll take us longer with the snow and all but thank goodness the roads were cleared and it was a pretty good day for driving.

SIL's family rented an apartment for a week (Sunday to Sunday) and we arrived on Christmas eve. The place was basic but clean and we even have small (small as in only 1 person could stand there) kitchen smack in the middle of the already cramped apartment with 4 adults and 3 boisterous boys aged 6, 2 and 1 and half!! I still shuddered when I think about it and plus this is not having another nephew aged 8 (another hyperactive boy) that could have joined us!!!

The kids were having loads of fun from the time they wake up in the morning till late at night, when they drop like flies! LOL! We brought all of them up for sledding and the eldest of them for ice skating once and skiing. This time, its my 3rd try at skiing my entire life. It wasn't as bad as the 1st time. Not much "casualties" to report except the tumble and rolling on the a slope at 1800 meters!!

Hubs actually brought me up to that level (a blue or intermediate slope) where else I'm suppose to be on the green or beginner slope with the 4 or 5 year olds!! Ya, trust the men to protect me.... NOT! Whenever I fell (visibility was low in the early morning with fog, wind and snow!) , he got angry and finally left me half way down. Well I got so angry as well at him the entire time I was up there!! AAARRGGHHHHH..... But still I made it down in once piece and alive! THANK GOODNESS!

I actually quite enjoy skiing later on as I was on the green slope with the kids. I think I'll do it again this winter or the next but I'm going to buy my own boots. Rentals have weird fitting. And guess what I found out later in the day as I came back to the apartment after the whole day (well 9am till 4pm skiing time)? Hubs actually fell on the last lap, hurting his left wrist - which BTW swelled up within the hour as he's going down too fast!?!? I mean the whole hand and wrist looks like a ballooned prune like colour.... Serve him right to bring me up on the blue slope, expecting me to learn ASAP and then leave me when I slowed him down! HA!

Besides the skiing on Christmas day, Christmas eve dinner was Chinese fondue (YUM!) with the family. Then it was bed time for kids as they were really anticipating Santa early on the very next day. It was "VERY IMPORTANT FOR THEM TO SLEEP", as we adults told told them... hehehehehe.... This is ONE way that we could finally sit down in peace and have some wine together! The very next day, they were up and thank goodness we're on the 1st floor! The noise they created was enough to wake the entire building!!! LOL! Owen got a musical book, really colourful toy cars and a wooden rail toy. Nephews got Transformers, Hot Wheels and some Batman gear.

The entire trip was fun but on the day that we're all pack up, it was still kinda sad to leave. The entire mountain and its valley below was really beautiful and picturesque. It still takes my breath way every time I look at the pictures we took up on the slopes. We hope to go up the mountains once again soon.

Pictures are here for your enjoyment!

Pain in the A**!

Well its 2009 and this the tile of my 1st post of the year! LOL! Honestly I think I'm getting so glad that the new year is here but actually really happy about it?..... Ok, the year is still fresh but to me it may and may not really mean happy occasion.

Why? I'm really a pessimist deep down despite the positive outlook I tend to have on the surface. For one, you'll never know what's gonna happen this year and I just wanna prepare myself to brace for the worst case scenario - which works for me up till now that is.

Now what I didn't aspect was that at 30 years old, I'm still having my wisdom tooth growing!?!? AND WHY IS DOES IT HAVE TO "GROW" ON NEW YEARS TILL NOW?!?! I've been having this ache every month for a week since it started growing 6 or 7 years ago.... My whole left jaw up to my temples are throbbing right now and I'm certainly NOT in the best mood except to snap at something or someone!

Have been to the dentist and he said; well unless it has a cavity or you're having problem eating, there's not much I can do. I could pull it out if you like but you might end up having more problems later. Like what kind of problems? It seems that there could be nerve problems which seems to connects itself to the brain. Why?!? I don't know and not sure why. I've had several friends who ended up in the hospital few weeks after having their wisdom tooth pulled out. They were having massive headaches, vomiting, massive pain on the neck and shoulders etc. Now that is what I'm not looking forward to. Lets just hope that this tooth will FINALLY grow out! Mean while, let me just sit quietly in a corner and endure it while I stitch or try being creative in some way...