Of being sick and the lucky escape

I’m rather glad to announce (as if anybody’s interested) that the swelling on my eyelid is healing quite nicely. After religiously applying eye drops and other medication, the subsidence is encouraging. Slowly recovering my mojo after days of discomfort. Well maybe I’m not too vain after all. Come to think of it, I didn’t make regular trips to the toilet to check my eye out in front of the mirror. I have a new resolution. I’m going to cherish the feeling of being healthy now. Although I have this niggling feeling that I may be saying too much too soon. Let’s see what happens when I wake up tomorrow morning shall we?

After being sick and seeing others get sick, I have a fairly good knowledge about medical stuff now. No, I’m not about to become Dr. Shahrin Albakri anytime soon, but I know a fair bit about these things. You see, whenever I’m unwell (or the people around me are unwell) I do a great deal of research about whatever sickness that is afflicting myself and people around me. Back in 2008, I was admitted to the ICU of Selayang Hospital because of a bad asthma attack. I was unconscious for 36 hours, I think. I really believed I was on the brink then. Apparently the doctors told my family I would only regain consciousness after 5 days (if I do regain consciousness). That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?

Now, I try to take care of myself. Since I moved to JB, I’ve managed to shed 8 kilogrammes in all. Not bad at all. No, I didn’t suddenly become an exercise freak or watched what I eat. I just didn’t know what to eat. Every night I go to the same place I’m already good friends with the guys there. I wrote about it more than a month ago. I’m wary of the fact that losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re healthy. I’m fine with that. To me, losing weight is a lot better than being obese (although I think I still am) and being a magnet for diseases. So I’m fine as it is now. There’s more weight to lose though. I have this totally weird way of judging the way I look. My yardstick is how I look on a bike. Once I look like a bear riding a bike, that is the time when I know I’m overweight. Although I don’t exactly look like Nicky Hayden on my bike now, I think I’m still OK.

Now, about last week’s rally. No, I’m not going to write about my stand on it. I’m just going to write about something else in connection to the rally which nearly affected me in a big way. A few days ago, I wrote about going on leave on Friday, 8th July after settling the work in relation to the company’s Board of Director’s meeting. Actually I just felt tired and went on leave on Friday. So I left for KL on Thursday night. Little did I know that by going back on Thursday night I managed to escape one of the worst traffic jams in recorded traffic jam history. The massive jam was as a result of police roadblocks to monitor people who were coming into the city. Luckily on my way back on Thursday I was only impacted in a small way. There was a roadblock near my house in JB and another one on the highway. Nothing major.

So I was already home on Friday. Apparently commuters were stuck on major roads for three, some four hours. Reading my friends’ remarks (or rather, curses) in Facebook made me rather grateful of my inadvertent escape. All the major routes to my house in Gombak were closed. Jalan Tun Razak, Lebuhraya Mahameru and Jalan Kuching. I would have to brave through the MRR2. I don’t take the MRR2 even on normal days. It’s an absolute nightmare. So again, I’m grateful. On a side note, apart from monitoring people’s entry into the city, I honestly believe the roadblocks were held to instil hatred at the organisers of the rally. Probably the most often used phrase the whole of last week was “menyusahkan orang” or something along those lines. Which I think is absolutely spot on.

There, I’ve let it out. I have other thoughts on the rally, but that’s private. Involves expletives. So I’d rather not put it in writing just yet. For now.