The Whole Tooth

I went to get the last of my wisdom teeth out today. Ouch. And while trawling the web (as usual) for all things related to tooth extraction, I came upon THIS site.

Here are some highlights:

After the tooth is removed, a blood clot forms to help the healing process. This is why you bite down on gauze for up to an hour after the extraction - to help it form in the hole left behind by the extracted tooth.

Once the clot has formed, it takes 24 hours or more for it to set in firmly.

You DON'T want to dislodge this clot because you end up with what is known as a dry socket - the bone is exposed, it will hurt like mad and you can't do shite about it except treat the pain while you wait it out. Eventually it will heal, but prevention is better than cure right?

How to prevent it (this is quoted directly from the website) :

• After a tooth extraction, dentists advise their patients to exert a firm biting pressure on the gauze, placed over the site of extraction, for as long as the next 60 minutes.
• Normally, this will offer time and opportunity for the formation of a protective blood clot at the site of extraction, which is the intention of your dentist.
• It may take 24 hours or more, after a tooth extraction for the blood clot to get settled firmly.
• After, the blood clot is in place, the patient must take care not to disrupt and dislodge it.
• From your side you can do this by avoiding vigorous rinsing of your mouth for the first 24 hours.
• Actions, like sucking on a straw or cigarette can dislodge the blood clot by lowering the pressure around it, than the pressure in the cavity or space under it.
• Abstaining from alcohol and tobacco, exercises, and most importantly from drinking hot liquids, such as coffee or soup can help you in preventing a dry socket after tooth extraction.
• For dental patients with gum diseases such as peritonitis etc, your dentist may advise an antibiotic course for you to counter infection.
• Antibacterial mouthwash may help a patient, who is not a great dental hygienist, in countering the pre and/or post operative bacterial growth near the site of the tooth extraction.
• Following diligently, the specific post-operative instructions deemed important by your dentist for you, may help you in avoiding or having to attend fewer post-operative complications, and in wisdom teeth removal recovery.

And now I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll feel better when I wake up.

A1 - Curry Chicken Chinese Style

If you're looking for authentic Indian curry (the prata type) this is not for you. The recipe calls for quite a large portion of coconut milk, making it a very Chinese style curry. The first coupla mouthfuls don't do much damage spice-wise. But keep going and you'll find that halfway through the meal it gets spicy enough you'll want a drink.

This particular brand also calls for 1.2kg of chicken, which is significantly more than the other almost-ready-to-serve brands I've used (and blogged about). In general most of these types of one-step gravies ask for between 300-500gm of meat to be added.

Here it is:

Stir-fry everything in the pot till the meat and potatoes are nicely coated with the paste.

Then add water and coconut milk and let it simmer till the potatoes are nice and soft.

The Spices of the Orient brand meat curry seemed a little bit more oily compared to this one. And since I enjoy a good rich Chinese curry, A1 gets my vote. :)

2 Hot Girls in the Shower

by LKG Productions:- "2 Hot Girls in the Shower is a PG-rated comedy advice show with short episodes that run between one and two minutes. Our content is for mature adults who enjoy immature comedy."

Total time-waster... for those of you looking for a quick break in the middle of your hectic work day.

Secret Recipe 50% off at selected outlets

Mashups

Let me just say, this post isn't for everyone. It's got the potential to be extremely irritating, so read on (and click on the videos) at your own risk. You have been warned.

I came across this video on Youtube. And it's kinda kooky and weird-sounding (that whole electronica thing is not something my classically trained ears are used to).  It's a Mashup: Mason Vs Princess Superstar.

First, some info.

Princess Superstar, real name Concetta Kirshner, is rapper, singer and music maker. She has 5 albums and 2 chart hits.

Responsible for PERFECT

Mason : stage name of the Dutch music producer duo Iason Chronis (below) and Coen Berrier. Popular with Ministry of Sound featuring on many of their annual compilations.

Responsible for EXCEEDER

And now, the video. This is Mason Vs Princess Superstar - Perfect (Exceeder). Enjoy.

My title's in the plural form. What's the other Mashup? Thanks to CH who threw this link into my FB inbox, I will now have more Boomz nightmares. Yes. It is her. On the Shan & Rozz show.

Ok, the first I heard about this Shan & Rozz thing was when I saw the Angmo Speaking Singlish video a few days ago which I subsequently posted. Never knew it existed before that. (Er, I don't know everything about everything, you see.) I've decided that I like them. Well, I like what their show represents. Presenters who speak decently enough, a media broadcast that doesn't have beeps put over every potentially offensive word and free use of vulgarities and innuendos. And then they went and spoilt it with a Ris Low interview. Sigh. Bad Mashup. Click to play if you will.

The Pin is Mightier than The Sword

Have you noticed that with time your showerhead becomes lethargic and gives out weak sprays (or even dribbles) of water? Or else you'll find that instead of coming down in a refreshing stream onto you, the angle of the spray goes wonky and the tops of your bathroom walls get wet from  annoying misty semi-sprays shooting out of the tiny little holes - usually the ones at the very edge of the circular pattern.

Go get a needle, or a pin, shut off the water, and poke away. Right into them holes. Ever so often, turn it to face away from you (duh..) and turn on the tap to get out whatever gunk you've loosened.

Do this a few times, and your showerhead'll be good as new!

(If it's really bad, soak the shower head in a bowl of vinegar for a coupla hours before trying the trick with the pin again. Remember to wash thoroughly before use!!)

Yellow Walls n other Stories

A few things happened over the weekend. Well, a lot really. But here are some highlights.

Coming back from church on Saturday evening I had the opportunity to sit at one of those sideways-facing seats at the back of the bus. In front of me were 4 teens. 2 couples. They all had fringes ending right on their eyelids, cut on the diagonal, so that it began slightly above the left eye then slanted to just below the eyelashes on the right eye. I kept blinking. I mean, how do you see anything with all that hair obscuring your vision?

The blokes, in addition to the slanted fringe, sported a zig-zag style. Long in front of the ears, then cut upwards as it went behind the ear, only to fall straight down to the collar. I can't explain it any other way. But you HAD to see it. They looked like Anime characters. Seriously. And they were silent the whole 20 minutes it took me to get home. Sullen-faced and jap-inspired youth. Is this the future of my country?

At midnight I needed a drink. Off we went for Coca-Cola, MySO and I. En route he mentioned how every time he looked across the carpark he thought there was a wake going on - no thanks to the  spattering of yellow-painted  walls at some void decks. They weren't ALL yellow you see, oh no. Some were white, then every 5 pillars or so you'd get 2 or 3 yellow ones. Then they went back to being white for another 5 or 6 pillars. You get the idea.

We eventually got closer and he started giggling. "What's so funny?" I nudged him in the rib. "Look - it IS a wake!" That's when I got the giggles. The one time he chooses to mention how the yellow walls remind him of a wake, there actually IS one. What are the chances...

Anyhoo, remember the coke? Well, it was for the whiskey. Famous Grouse. Cheap and Good. I love that stuff. We polished off half a bottle chatting and munching on nuts till almost 6 in the morning. I concussed after that. It makes me wonder if I'll ever go out to a club/pub again. I mean, it's way cheaper to drink at home. And if it sounds sad, that's only because there's the implication that drinking at home means drinking alone. If you think about it though, it would work as a couple thing, it would work as a girls' night thing, it would work as a bunch of friends hanging out thing. I'm a little more certain after that night that it would take A LOT for me to be convinced to go out and drink at a bar / club.

This weekend I also ventured out to Tampines Mall. I had time on Sunday afternoon so me and the sister headed out to run an errand at Singtel. It was crowded. We queued for no less than 30 mins to get the Q number. Then waited another hour and a bit before we were summoned to the counter. While waiting I saw the new Sony Ericsson Satio. Lovely. Oh so lovely. And expensive.

And since I'm not made of gold, I think perhaps I'll just settle for a HTC Hero. It's supposed to be the closest thing to an iPhone on the market presently. And since I'm enjoying the games on MySO's new iPhone, maybe I'll get it. (Fingers are crossed that I'll be able to play similar games on the Hero).  He's also offered to trade in the phone he was using previously so that I can get this one FOC. Ah, my Hero *smile*. It's good being a girl.

I had a productive weekend. Saw things. Did things. Worked out another small percentage point's worth of my life's problems. That's all I can ask for in one weekend right?

New Moon - NOT the abalone

So I'm a sucker for these teen-angst love-me-love-me-not type films. What's there not to like? Whatever the genre, whoever the actor, 2 things are a must for me when it comes to movie-watching:

1) No need for too many brain cells.
2) Eye Candy.

By that measure, New Moon passes with flying colours :) Enjoy the trailer!

Paying It Forward. Singaporeans how?

I first came across the concept of "paying it forward" a long time ago. A film, I think, it was that introduced the concept to the world. And now as I watch news reports of it actually happening in real life (this isn't the only one), I wonder if Singaporeans could do this too? I'm doubtful, but I just might try it someday. The only problem is, how do I stick around to see if it gets passed on?

Shan & Rozz show...

I'm not quite sure what to make of this... the jury is still out. He does sound kinda Singaporean-like... but then the presenters, erm, I dunno... you tell me what you think leh.

Spicy Dinner in 30 mins

I usually eat alone if I'm eating in. This means I don't want the hassle of having to deal with long preparation times, massive quantities of meat and having to look for storage containers to freeze leftovers in afterwards.

So I'm constantly on the lookout for single (or double) portion ready-to-eat gravies that are yummy, affordable and easy to prepare.

My favourite brands are Brahim and Spices of the Orient for almost-instant dinners, something MySO insists is "making hot" instead of "cooking".

Here's Brahim's Sambal Tumis and Spices of the Orient Meat Curry. (As promised... it's been a long time coming, I know, and I apologise. Still, better late than never, right?)

Instructions are on the back. 2 steps. See? Easy.

It's traditionally cooked with prawns or squid but I prefer frozen fish fillets.

You pour out the gravy from the pack into a pot. Add water. When it starts to bubble a little bit, pour in your seafood. Let simmer and stir till your seafood is cooked.

Done!

This one I've been meaning to try for some time. So here it is.

First you get 250-300g of meat (I'm using pork).




As with the Brahim gravies, you pour it out of the pack, add water and warm it up. When it starts to bubble, dump in the meat, stir it up, let it boil, and once your meat is cooked, you're ready for dinner!

Ta-da!

It was a little oily but you can always skim the top layer of oil off with a spoon. Great with prata!

Agadoo - remember this?

What I've been up to

Last week I spent about 4 days in Malacca. I've put on some weight, renewed my interest in sewing them beaded shoes, and have decided to spend at least an hour a day sewing so that I don't lose steam.

This also means that I probably won't have much time for anything else. I know an hour a day sounds very do-able. But because I'd much rather be sewing out in a coffee shop than at home, it means I'll have to factor in chit-chat and travel time. So an hour of sewing means about 3-4 hours out of the house.

This has prompted me to remove some games from my Facebook account.

Speaking of which, if anybody's interested, here are the fotos of the recent Melaka trip.

If you don't know what beaded slippers (kasut manek) look like, here's a pic of my very first pair, and the pattern of the pair I'm working on currently. Will post more pictures as I make progress :)

And yes, before you ask, each bead IS sewn down individually.

Spices of the Orient - Seafood Spicy Sauce

Following the Melaka trip, I was a little lazy to cook up anything from scratch so I scrounged around my kitchen and found this.

First I chopped up some onions (not necessary but I like the added texture that onions bring to a dish) and wilted them in a little bit of oil.

Then I added the fish (frozen fillets from the supermarket).

Then after letting it simmer for about 8-10 minutes

It was ready to be served with rice. The verdict? Good enough for me! MySO liked it too!

G-Force : Jump

A current favourite. Addicted to the chorus!

Enjoy

He Taught His Teacher

I've always preferred to use time values such as Ta and Ta-Ah for teaching little ones instead of calling them by their proper names (Crotchet and Minim, respectively). The reason being "real" names are difficult words for the kids to learn, or so I thought.

Last month as I flipped the page of the Piano Party book with one of my 4-year-olds, I saw that we had come to that part of the book where it was time to introduce Notes and their Time Names. I immediately thought to myself, if a 7-year-old has problems with it, surely a 4-year-old will too. So I decided there and then that I would introduce the names of the notes, but more importantly, teach the little 'un how long each note should be held. That, I thought, would be the goal of the lesson. And if he (and the other little 'uns whom I teach) can't quite remember these difficult words, then so be it. They'll have lots of time later on as they grow older to learn them.

So I quickly told him that the black, coloured note with the stem (that's the vertical line on those musical tau-gays, for those of you who don't read music) was called a Crotchet and when we see it we clap 'Ta'. The white, uncoloured one with the stem is a Minim and we clap then bounce our clasped hands once and say 'Ta-Ah' (clapping on the 'Ta' and bouncing on the 'Ah', you see). I finished up with the Semibreve and then thought we should play a little game. We did, and he performed splendidly. When I pointed to the various notes, he'd clap and say the appropriate 'Ta's and 'Ah's.

Then I packed him off home feeling pleased with myself.

A week later, to recap the previous week's lesson, I decided instead of reminding him what anything was, I'd  first let him show me how much he could remember. So I pointed to dear old black, coloured note and said "Do you remember what this is?"  Imagine my surprise when instead of saying 'Ta', he said "Crotchet". And continued to give me the Time Names of all the notes on the page. Correctly.

This incident reminds me of something I always knew, but sometimes fail to remember. When you're a child, every word is new. As we grow we learn more and more new words. It doesn't matter if those words are specific to a particular subject, if they're technical jargon, if they're in another language. They're all equally new. A 4-year-old is no better suited to learning one word over another if he didn't know either of them before that point.

And so all this while, I've been assuming that Time Names are difficult to learn, because they're not words we hear and/or use all the time with people in general. A 10-year-old might find them strange words to learn because they've already amassed such a large number of words in their vocabulary. But when the child is as young as 4 or 5, it ain't so strange. Every other word they come across is going to be new. So why not just teach them the proper Time Names?

Why not indeed. Every single little 'un that I've taught these words to since that first incident has managed to remember them. And quite easily I might add. I'm glad I learnt this lesson tho. Or at least that I was reminded of it. I wonder what other adult-acquired assumptions I've imposed on those I teach...

TV Series I love

What (and who) am I watching these days?

Leverage (Gina Bellman, Beth Riesgraf)

 

Bionic Woman (Michelle Ryan)

GLEE! (Cory Monteith)

Better Off Ted (Portia Di Rossi)

Castle (Molly Quinn, Stana Katic)

Jeri Ryan

She first made an impression as 7 of 9 on Star Trek Voyager. In fact, she's the reason I watched it at all.

Here's a picture tribute to Jeri Ryan. I'm not sure I think much of her acting skills, but I do know she makes the screen sizzle.

Star Trek Voyager

Shark

While watching the last episode of Leverage  I was pleasantly surprised to see her on the show. Seems she's joining the cast for their next season. Whoop! One more reason to keep watching.

Glee

This is what's keeping me occupied these days. I'm a sucker for teeny-bopper high-school-angst disney-moral-at-the-end-of-the-story type of shows. Plus every episode is like a mini musical. Why wouldn't I love it?

My Showflat

This weekend I've been busy.

MySO is away on a work trip and instead of slouching the whole weekend away like I usually do when he's out of town, I find myself playing host to some Malaysians (2 ladies are bunking in with me) and opening up my home to a family of Australians.

Neither of these 2 parties are my immediate friends.

The Malaysian party consists of a friend's sister and one of her lecturers from school - they're here for 2 days and needed a place to crash. Since I bunk in with their family whenever I'm in Malacca, this gives me the opportunity to return the favour.

The Australian party is actually one of my besties' pals. They've expressed interest in looking around a HDB estate, so he's decided to take them around my neighbourhood and end it with a visit to a HDB flat. I'm glad though, cos he's Godpa to the 2 daughters (and has told me all about them and I'd love to meet the girls) and he's been so kind to me, particularly during my emo messes, that I'm grateful I could be of help.

What does this mean for a borderline OCD bibik then? Fussing, Cleaning, Kemas (tidy up) -ing. Keeping the place decent is easy enough when I'm here by myself. Keeping it tidy while I have houseguests, not so much. I suppose though, that the visiting Ang-mohs will just have to cut me some slack on that account.

Still, I'd say it's pretty safe to roam about the flat as long as they keep out of the piano room. Fold out bed is folded out, plastic bags with shopping occupy one corner and travel bags and personal effects have pretty much obscured any available table-top space.

But hey, I live here right? And since I've had enough comments made about how obsessively neat I am, it might turn out for the better that the place isn't as showflat-esque as I'd normally like it. I mean, this way I don't have to try too hard to make it look lived-in.

John Williams is the Man

I saw this a long time ago. And forgot about this until now. I've been reminded recently so here it is. (And by the way, yes, I love it)

This is the one I saw:




This is youtuber neomp5's remix with original music and his notes on it:

it just had to be done
original scores pitch and tempo-matched to the acapella using audacity
i do not own john williams' spectacular music, nor moosebutter's tribute to it. this is a tribute to a tribute. a quadbute?







And finally, openmind 1969a says:

UPDATE: I just found out Moosebutter has linked my version of the video to their website. Thanks guys.

Moosebutter did the song.

Corey Vidal Did The Video.

Youtuber neomp5 added the music.

I put it all together. Hope you like the results.

Note: I am not trying to take anything away from Corey's Video or neomp5's work. I just wanted to put it all together and have some fun with the video. Hope you like the results.




IF you CLICKED and WATCHED EVERY SINGLE ONE and then went on to the Moosebutter site and clicked on more videos, you're as big a geek as me *wink*

This is why Technology is SO Important

New Pot

NTUC Fairprice's latest promo is a range of Royal VKB cookware -  pots and saucepans and such stuff.  (I'd link the site for you but it's awful, awful. Don't bother.)

Now how it works is you need X number of coupons and then you pay X amount of dollars for whichever pot takes your fancy.  

MySO was  given the task of redeeming a pot for me (I declared it his gift to me) and so I gave him an envelope with the 20 coupons my sister had painstakingly collected for me, the necessary number of coupons required for the pot of my choice. Unfortunately, when he left that night for home, he'd forgotten to take it with him.

So we agreed that I'd go get the pot first and he'd reimburse me for it later.  I proceeded to put it somewhere prominent. Like my dining table. So I wouldn't forget all about it and miss the deadline for redemption.

A few days later saw me heading out to NTUC to get groceries but when I looked around the house, the envelope was gone. Sadly, I trudged out the door and resigned myself to not bringing home a new addition to my kitchen cupboards.

When I told MySO about it, he admitted to sneakily taking it on another day (having seen it on the dining table) so he could go get it for me after all. *Aww... wasn't that sweet?*

Anyway, so off we went to dinner today and since there was an NTUC right next to the coffeeshop,  suffice to say my kitchen cabinet is proud to welcome another to the fold :)