Spymama @ Mamakshop

I popped into my local drugstore for my allergy medicine. I’ve been on this since many years ago. It is actually an antihistamine that stops me from having rashes whenever I take too much seafood. Poor me, I cannot take seafood such as those raw oysters and certain shellfish. I do so love them so I’m so glad that there is help for me still. As long as I don’t indulge too much, I still survive the occasional luxury food. I just avoid the raw oysters, I’m fine with medication for the rest.

So what happened in the drugstore? Pretty juicy tale I have here. This lady, rather young - as a matter of fact. I ‘overheard’ her asking the Pharmacist for some ointment. I DIDN”T PURPOSELY STAND THERE TO LISTEN, OKIE?  I had to get my Clarityne from the Pharmacist too, you know? But since she was first, I am the perfect Gentleman, Gentlelady. She was reluctant to say it but she did say it. It was meekly soft but I heard. She asked for an ointment for vaginal dryness. Then I thought, ( I thought or perhaps I could feel the heat) she blushed. The pharmacist was a lady so perhaps not as embarrasing. She walked to the shelf where all the Jellos are and asked her to try this. Hmm perhaps she had some itching problem? No need to be shy. Why didn’t she consult her GP instead ah? If that was me, I’d be on the internet doing research first. Then I go buy. But then you never know what she uses it for. Perhaps one day, I’ll be needing one of those. Not for anything suggestive in your mind. C’mon!

My dear friend showed me a picture of her apartment in Chang Zhou (if that is how it’s spelled). She is now lecturing in an international school and rental is quite cheap there. She told me how blessed she is having a job although her salary is not as high as one would expect from an expat. She decided to go there since middle of last year, for a change of environment after going through a bad patch of marriage. It was about living life and starting a fresh. She is fine now, and enjoying a slower pace of life. She had two offers from her school, teaching in Chang Zhou or in Shanghai. She picked Chang Zhou because she wanted to start slow and worry that the pace in Shanghai may be too fast for her. Shanghai is actually speedier pace than Singapore, did you know? And the best thing is that many things are cheaper in Chian Zhou. I am happy for her and we chat on Skype almost daily. I leave mine on so that she knows there is always a friend online for her at home, in the office and don’t feel so cut off from Singapore.

Back to the apartment, her landlord is a very nice couple. Oh and did you know that in China, the people usually place their refrigerator in their living room? She told me the landlord says it’s normal there and she has to walk to her fridge in the living room, located next to the tv stand whenever she needs to take something while cooking.. hilarious! She says having guests means you don’t remain anti-social in the kitchen preparing meals …Interesting, eh?

The shopping malls have been hit bad. Retails reported low sales since the economy crisis. Perhaps everyone is worried about the outcome. People lost jobs when they are retrenched. They worry about where their next wage comes from.

Our government is asking us to spend. Spending will prevent further recession. It is true. Without any sales, shops may not be able to cover operating costs, that is when it leads to retrenchments. I hope you get the picture. When jobs are lost, people can’t find jobs because the shops are not hiring when there is no sales.

It is up to us to keep the businesses alive during a time like these. It is going to be a hard struggle but it works like a domino effect. Of course, during this time, we all want to spend wisely. There are many shops who are putting their products out on sale. At least to cover back their capital and a little bit more. It’s not about a lot of profit. And at times like these, everyone is hunting down the best buy they can ever get their hands on. Online stores such as www.buy.com has good prices. They always have.

So it’s up to you and me. As much as we need to curb spending, we need to help these business succeed this economy crunch. And when they grow, there will be jobs for all of us.

Today, we chatted about losing weight. We both wanted to lose weight, more him than me. He was overweight. He was recently diagnosed as having hypertension of 150. What are these readings? Is it bad? I think the first thing would be to change his diet. Then again, he doesn’t eat at home much. Maybe once a week. He eats at work most of the time. I know him well. It must be his salty preference and the love for meat. Even if he took the best diet pills in the world, he needed to change his diet totally. Gosh foot problems, hypertension and now diet. I really have to find a way to get him to heed these warnings. Well today being the last day of Chinese New Year, I can let all hell lose tomorrow. I don’t want to be horrid during Chinese New Year.. LOL!

What would you do if you were me? I’d blame on his over indulgence on beer and liqueur too.

After Spypapa’s visit to see the Orthopedic surgeon on Friday, I decided to source online for some good walking shoes for him. If you asked me about good shoes, I’d tell you Scholls would be a good choice but I know there are many more good ones that I am just ignorant about. Then I came across a brand that I believed my eldest uncle ever mentioned before. He used to wear this one by the name of Mephisto. I remembered seeing it when he took if off to enter the temple once and he bundle it up into his backpack in case it gets stolen.. I had a good laugh of course. He told me he’d be lost without those shoes that has brought him to many countries of travel and each time he wore those, he always never felt tired. He calls it his lucky feet as they felt like his second skin.

I decided to key in and found that this brand has a history of 35 years of existence and is known as one of the world’s best walking shoes! I was impressed and wasted no haste to check out Mephisto allrounder collection in the site. I was pleasantly surprised by the many unique designs of their shoes. It was like a cross between comfy sandals and sneakers for some designs but they really looked awesome! On the other hand you can even pick out those that are really classified into Sandals, Athletics and also Shoes. They are all so awesome. I’m gonna measure Spypapa’s feet tonight and get him a pair for… his birthday? I love their Lime Nubuck design a lot!

I followed Spypapa to the Orthopedic specialist the other day. He had some pain in his foot. The GP recommended him to get a scan or x-ray to make sure he is ok. He had problems walking lately. Gosh, what a terrible thing that we both are down with foot ailments.. It certainly looks hilarious to have an older couple walking and limping side by side, eh.. We’d make a good limping pair…yikes.

Anyway, I was totally amazed at the recent technology in x-rays nowadays. They don’t use films anymore… Gosh, have i been so out of date that I didn’t know that? The doc provided him with a CD of his x-ray.. He, too got worried when he was handed this CD during payment at the X-ray. You know, it’s like those in the movies when someone is leaving you and cannot be there to talk to you for some reasons and you view it in a videotape? So the CD was certainly a shock. Why can’t the Doc tell us, why why why.

Upon going in the consultation, only did we realize that passing the CD to the Specialist Doc, he pop it in and Oh! It’s an X-ray.. Country bumpkins like Spypapa and Spymama were awed by it all that we didn’t really absorb much of what he said. But lucky he did repeat about how how his bones at the toe part looked like an old injury, thus, the bones were kinda like jutting out. Spypapa’s weight this year being the heaviest probably caused the stress. So, next step. Get some exercise to lose some weight.

So that was it. And while waiting for the next appointment at the customer’s waiting room, I browzed through some travel magazines that featured some New York City hotel and wondered. If his foot is fine, does that mean we get to travel next year? Hmm… just thinking.

I had a bag of unopened flour in my pantry and was going to open it for baking last week and horror of all horror! I realised that in the cupboard had some flying insects as I open the doors. I didn’t know what they were and thought they were mosquitos. My friend saw it and told me those are flour moths. I knew why now. I had an opened cake mix that I didn’t want to use and I had left it there for a few months so I quickly took it out, put it in a bag and threw it straight into the bin. Gosh, I cleaned out the pantry straight away check the unopened bags of flour (they were alright) and looked online to research about these flour moths. I found that you can actually buy this things called flour moth traps to get rid of any flour moths that may be lurking in them. It works like a sticky trap and the moths are stuck on it and prevent further breeding as they fly around. I’m going to buy a few of these and place it in the pantry cupboards to make sure.

I know we should be clearing stuff before our Chinese New Year but my PC corner really is in need of an overhaul. I don’t like the desk and chair that I’m using currently. My desk is in boring grey and the chair is squeaking! I would probably have to source for a nicer and trendy looking office furniture if I am going to be here blogging for at least most part of the day. I would love to have the kind of chair that has a high back, arms and if it’s not too expensive, one that can decline too. It would be great to sit here and enjoy the online movies I’ve been bookmarking to watch. So where should I start?

Gosh, I need to clear my desk first! I can’t find anything in this pile here! Perhaps it’s me!! LOL! Excuses, excuses! But I’m pretty sure that if I get a new set of furniture, I’ll definitely feel better!

Every Thursday and Sunday, I hear the horns coming from a little truck who collects old newspapers, cardboards and old clothes. The old man who would climb up every level in the block, not missing any, will sound his hand held horn, shouting ‘Kalang Guni’. in local dialect, ‘Kalang Guni’ is actually the Rag and Bone Man, that collects these things to sell for profit.

I’ve been selling him my newspapers to him for as long as i can remember. In between these days, there would be an occasional Rag and Bone Man that comes to ask for second hand or spoilt hand phone, electrical items like fans and old computers. I once sold 2 old pc hard-disk and my usable CD Player, speakers, sub woofers to him and it only fetched a miserable $20! A friend once told me that they usually dismantle the pc for a small ‘piece of gold’ inside. Had I had known that, I’d have taken out the old video cards inside as now my cousin has an old pc which is in need of the card since his is already giving him problems. Currently, I have 2 old cellphones that had some problem with the lcd display.. now I wonder if I should just keep them for any spare parts.

I have to confess that I belonged in one of those screaming fan clubs of movie stars and pop artistes way back in the 80’s. We’d gather and chat nothing but about our favourite pop idol. We’d be in a cab or in someone else’s car trailing the star from the airport all the way to the hotel, all the way to the back stage.

We had one shiny and glittering glove each in our hand and a little curl on our forehead. We love moonwalks.

We’d be there with banners, large hand held signage, T-Shirts that read “I LOVE MICHAEL” and we’d be staking out nearby or camping overnight where the stars are putting up, hoping to get a glimpse of our movie star. Erratic, ridiculous, crazy, we are. Tell me about it. That too explains why I had lifesize figures of cardboard displays of my favourite pop star in my room. Mom was horrified. She had a weird teenager. What a mess it was. What fun I had.

Those were the days. Now, you see me cooped at home, with a cuppa in my hand. Raising and giving a toast to that familiar face on TV. Whaaat? How did he get into all that mess? He looks pathetic. What did the media do to him. Poor fella. My heart goes out to him. He did produced good songs, MTVs and he still is the ultimate moonwalker. He is still the King in my heart. Oh.. and I believe in my room at mom’s house, that portrait of Mike in his bright yellow vest is still hanging there.