When I was 18, I dated a guy who, unfortunately, was losing his hair at such a young age. Even back then, he was telling me how he was going to get a hair transplant when he had enough money saved up to cover his thinning hair. I didn’t really minded, cause I thought he was cute as he was then, bald or not.

It’s been years now, and I’ve never thought about him nor hair transplant, until now. Yesterday, I came across this blog about this lady who did an eyelash hair transplant, to get longer, lusher eyelashes!

I mean, who knew!

Amazing stuff people can come up with nowadays.

And the price we pay for beauty.

Her long, long lashes

Some of us may have too much hair, but we all certainly know people (men and women) who desire more hair. Hair on the head, hair on the chest, even hair on eyelids ….

I came of better understanding of the technique of hair transplant after reading about this lady’s experience. I did see a show about a bald man doing a hair transplant, but that didn’t do anything for me. Somehow, weird isn’t it, but this one did. Maybe it’s because it’s a female want.

Here’s an excerpt of what she wrote;

I was given a local anesthetic injection to the back of the head where a small strip of hair (complete with follicles) would be cut out.   I remember the numbing agent going to work quite quickly and then the  doctor, aided by two others, proceeded to cut into the back of my head.  This did not take long and they soon sewed up the area with dis solvable thread.  I was then asked to just wait quietly in the recovery room while the nurses spent an hour combing through my  hair follicles and “cleaning” them. Before I was taken out though, they injected local anesthesia into both outer corners of my eyes.  An hour or so elapsed and I returned to the room where I was asked to lie on my back and a cold metal (best way I can describe this!) spoon-shape device was placed between my opened eye and eyelid for protection. From this point on, the real work commenced! The doctor spent an hour on each eye, transplanting about 30 lashes (my very own from the back of my head!) onto each lashline with a microscopic needle and dissolvable stitches. The whole procedure was painless however I do remember being on edge and feeling very tense and nervous throughout the whole process. I remember swearing to myself that I would never do this again, that this was just too nerve-wracking, etc…mainly because the thought of getting blinded in the eye by an accidental slip of the needle terrified me to the point of no return. But those words were exactly just that: no point of return. I felt like she had started already so I was imprisoned to the chair, sentenced to 2 hours of nervous emotions washing over me while the doctor hummed away quietly to herself while she continued sewing one eyelash in at a time.  Oh! and the tearing of the hair strip from the back of my head! It was the worse noise I have ever heard in my life. Akin to velcro fastening coming undone, the noise made me jerk and I whimpered like a coward (understandably, in my defense) when they proceeded to tear the strip. I felt like I was in the movie “Last of the Mohicans” where I was getting scalped alive. Honestly, that was the worst part of the whole transplant procedure. The rest was just nerves.

Two hours later and the work was done, MUCH to my relief.  I was then told not to apply any eye makeup for 2 weeks and not curl my eyelashes for at least 6 weeks.  My eyes were slightly red and puffy as if I’d been crying but the results were immediate: my lashes were long, QUITE long.

To read more, go to http://www.citygeisha.com/?p=673

ps Just had a great thought! Won’t it be great if we could harvest other people’s head of hair to transplant instead of our own? Just think what it would do for Jon Gosselin the Octodad!

It’s been three days now, and my kids, me, my brother’s family and my mum have been hit with a highly contagious gastrointestinal infection. Somewhat reminiscent of the time we all got Rotavirus diarrhea attack a while back.

Anyways, we all got infected within one day, and until now, we have yet to trace where the infection came from. It’s not from food that’s for sure, but we know that dirty kids make a highly infectious pot of trouble. No matter how clean we may like to be, you know how toddlers are, they don’t wash their hands often enough and they pick the strangest things from the floor, table, grass to eat! And the worse thing is we all end up sharing saliva. Baby picks up brother’s water bottle and suck on it, for example. Toddler niece snatches a tasty morsel from the baby. The adults kiss and feed food off the plates with the kids.

Bam! Recipe for disaster!

Ethan with his fingers in his mouth

Ethan with his shirt in his mouth

Ethan with his fingers in his mouth again.
At least he doesn’t try to eat his booger like his older 3 year old brother!

Oddly enough, the doctor, I took my 1 1/2 year old kid to check with on Sunday, said, there’s no need to consume anything else but 100 Plus and other soda like Coca-Cola. Skip all porridge, fruits, dairy, juice. It’s like telling a mother, “don’t give the kid anything to eat but sweets!”

I checked on the  internet and most sites say about the same thing;

You’ll feel better if you stay well hydrated, so drink lots of water. In addition to fluid that is lost during bouts of diarrhea, electrolytes (sodium and potassium) are also lost and need to be replaced because the body cannot function properly without them. Try sipping broth or soup, which contain sodium, and 100% fruit juice (with no added sugar), which contains potassium.

When you feel ready to eat something more substantial, try soft fruits or vegetables, which also contain potassium. Avoid milk products and fatty, high-fiber, or very sweet foods until the diarrhea subsides, and don’t drink sports drinks or soft drinks — although they contain electrolytes, their high sugar content may aggravate diarrhea.

This means, that most sites are saying something very different. I have been racking my brains out, wondering about this old Doc’s advice. I did ask him why just drink soda and nothing else, but he just mumbled something about making the diarrhea worse. Now, it’s true everyone should drink lots of fluids for this type of infection. And generally, an empty stomach will not make the sick person vomit badly. So why not take lots of raw fruit juices? Well, I happen to know, unhealthy people with an unhealthy diet could go into massive detox if they suddenly drank lots of healthy, vibrant, raw fruit and vegetable juices. If, over the years, lots of unhealthy people parked their butts at his clinic complained about the side effects of drinking fruit juices , then maybe he might have thought that fruit juices was not the way to go then. And so, perhaps his sweeping advice is just to drink calorie laden, no nutrient whatsoever soda drinks to keep up one’s strength?

Actually, whatever the advice is surprisingly not about diet. I believe that the best thing to do is stick to one doctor and make that doctor your family doctor. Someone you trust and feel comfy with. A regular doctor can track your health history easily and is probably able to give a better advice. It was unfortunate that the health crisis started on ungodly hours early, early Sunday, and so we had to see a doctor, like NOW. Nightmare I tell you. My niece started vomiting at 10pm on Saturday night. Sister-in-law was frantically searching the internet yellow pages for a good 24 hour doctor while my brother was probably holding a bucket under his little daughter’s head all night long. My eldest kid started vomiting all over his bed, our bed and the bathroom floor starting from 2am onwards and didn’t stop even at the clinic that mid morning. Baby started his purging all morning as well. My mum was no better.

Oh well. The good news is gastrointestinal infection is usually short-lived.

When I was a teen, I got a letter of acceptance to study at Pittsburg State University. Where was this place? Who cared!  I was just grateful to be accepted there. Period.

All the arrangements, like the plane tickets and so on, was settled by another girl who was going to the same place as me.  All I had to do was hand her the money.

So there I was, a month later, in one piece, and at the correct location. In Pennsylvania Kansas. That’s right. Home of Dorothy, corn fields and cows.

The PSU Football Traditional Walk

Why am I writing about this? Well, apparently, I read that this Dutch 15 year old boy and his 71 year old grandpa took a flight to the wrong Sydney: Canada, not Australia – 10,000 miles in the wrong direction.

So, you see, I’m not the ONLY one who makes this type of mistake when it comes to location.

It is not the first time travelers have mixed up the Sydneys as well.

In August 2002, British tourists Raeoul Sebastian and Emma Nunn from London spent their holiday in Nova Scotia after thinking they were flying to Australia.

And in 2008, Monique Rozanes Torres Aguero from Argentina flew into the wrong Sydney for her vacation but decided to stay after befriending a local woman at the airport, according to the Cape Breton Post.

Here’s the thing. Did you know Northern America has many cities and towns that share the same name? Brad Pitt comes from Springfield, Missouri but so does The Simpsons (not the same town though). Then there’s Springfield, Ohio, the Antique Shopping in America’s Heartland. There’s others who share the same name I swear. And it can get confusing.

This is Brat Pitt before he got old looking, taking care of 6 kids.

And that’s The Simpson family.

It gets worse. Traveling, you see is not so straight forward. Back before I got married, Shaun decided to take me on a holiday to Europe to see a Magic Competition in Year 2003. He needed a tour guide as he was clueless reading a map, and I love to travel.

Win-win.

I couldn’t find pics of Shauna and I in that Spanish airport
cause it’s past midnight and I’m past caring,
but I’ve got this lovely photo of me in Beijing
at this crazy street where they dug up the entire area,no signage, no warning, no nothing.
You’d get fired in England, in America, or even in Malaysia
for no proper safety regulations.

I booked all the hotels, the BBs, the backpacking hostels, the cheap plane tickets. It was going to be wonderful. And we were on budget. That is was, until I made a mistake in Barcelona.

“Wrong way man. It’s over there”  Peter, our Beijing guide seemed to say. Peter was showing us around the Forbidden City. The tour was organized by Tim Ellis for some of the FISM 2009 (Magic competition) participants held recently in Beijing. Thanks Tim. Lovely tour.

See, I didn’t know Barcelona had 2 airports. I should have been clued in when we arrived in a small airport with hardly anybody in it when we arrived on Ryanair. Cheap airlines tend to stop at the most remote places don’t they? So, when it was time to get out of Barcelona, I obviously got back to the same airport, could not locate our flight, pleaded with some airport staff there who spoke no English, who probably thought we were some insane Asian tourists.

It all got lost in translation.

_________________________________

More on awesome our Beijing FISM 2009
(Magic Competition) trip ….

• It takes years to get it right
• Peach so cheap

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If we had spoken the same “language”, they would have told us we were at the wrong airport. It took Shaun, the genius (and he is a brainy one in the family, really) to tell me that. Alas, we could not get to the next airport on time because it was an hour away, and well, I just banged my head on the wall in shame, vowing not to make the same *cough* mistake again!

So anyways, now you know all this, don’t get lost the next time you travel ok?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzm74pfTrLw

These are 4 Chinese female magicians.
Female magicians are fairly uncommon in most parts of the world, but apparently not in China. Click here to view one of these ladies’ magic acts. If you’ve never seen a Chinese magic act, you won’t want to miss this. Very oriental.

Maybe not the best face mask for smog / haze but it's sure darn cute!

A new study showed a link between exposure to smog before birth and low IQ in children, as reported by the Washington Post, and published in the August issue of Pediatrics.

This was why, hubby and I (pregnant with my first child back then) went all out and bought an outrageously expensive air filter at the height of the smog problem we had in Year 2005. I had nightmares about my unborn being smothered with really bad air! This annual smog / haze problem has been around for years. Now, if only we can get the Indonesians to stop burning on their side of the fence because really, the burning haze is really affecting us in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore. Plantation owners and farmers who wanted to clear their lands find burning the cheapest way to clear the brush. And really, it’s just a greedy, greedy, selfish method.

The head of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Dr. Syed Babar Ali, called it an international catastrophe.

And I agree! And unfortunately, for the past one month, I had bring out the air filter from my storage and use it again to protect my babies as best I can.

My Sharp Hepa Air Filter

Unusual, flat looking peaches I bought from a Beijing street vendor

My goodness. It’s peach season in Beijing. I saw vendors selling them everywhere. And they are so cheap. 1 kilo (2.2 pounds) of the juicy peach was selling for Remminbi 4. That’s about Ringgit 2 or USD0.60 for that 2 pounds of fruit! You can bet I ate them every single day because nowhere else can I get fresh raw peaches this cheap! Those who know me knows I advocate eating more raw food for health reasons. So, it’s a real yummy treat. Anyways, it beats having to eat crappy airline food.

"Tasty" airline food. Today's menu: soggy tuna sandwiches.

Han Seol-Hui (Double quick stage sleight of hand)

Read about what it takes to be good in what you do! On your left is Soma. He’s the Grand Prix winner of this year’s FISM magic competition.

Courtiers walk backwards during the state opening of Parliament

The centuries old tradition of walking backwards after seeing the British monarch has become the latest victim of health and safety regulations.

The royal protocol, which is meant as a sign of respect for the Queen, has been dropped in most circumstances amid fears it could lead to someone injuring themselves by bumping into something or toppling over.

With concerns that this could result in someone suing Buckingham Palace, just two senior royal aides are now expected to regularly walk backwards as they leave the Queen’s presence.

Other courtiers and royal visitors are allowed to turn their backs on her as they exit without any fear of causing any offence.

The tradition of walking backwards when leaving the sovereign is believed to date back to medieval times.

It was regarded as offensive for a courtier to turn his back on the king or queen, meaning for centuries those close to the monarch had to learn to take steps in reverse.

The English crown was not alone in demanding this exaggerated show of respect.

Ethiopian emperors also insisted that their subjects, regardless of rank, exited backwards, bowing as they went.

Aztec Kings also made their underlings walked away backwards when they had finished addressing them.

Patrick Cracroft-Brennan from the Heraldry Society said in England the tradition was more rigorously enforced after the Stuarts came to power in the 17th century.

He said: ‘They emphasised that kings had been granted their positions by divine right and were believers in absolute monarchy, so things like walking backwards would have been very important to them.’

The tradition began to fade out during the 19th century but was reinvigorated at  the turn of the last century after the succession of Edward VII.

He introduced the elaborate ritual for the state opening of parliament which is still used today, including Black Rod knocking on doors and the practice of courtiers walking backwards.

But Mr Cracroft-Brennan said it was a tradition that was doomed in the modern age.

‘The present Queen has always hinted that she’s not particularly fussed by it,’ he said.

‘I think she takes the view that it’s far better for someone to walk normally than to fall over.’