Walking a Mile for a Smile

My siblings are blessed with small, well-structured and beautiful teeth. Well, not me.
I have been trying to have my protruding teeth to be straightened since I was 12, but end up being rejected by the dentist because of several reasons. It seems my jaw was located as such, that my teeth appeared protrude. Well, thank you very much.

That doesn't stop me from smiling. I have always been confident and happy with the way I am. I like to smile or laugh out loud and always appear to be smiling from ear to ear in most of my pictures.

Nowadays, I seemed to have lost my 'trademark' smile. It wasn't the same anymore. Thanks to my ever-determined wisdom teeth; pushing and wanting so much to grow in a very limited mouth space that I have. As a result, crowding happened and causing my teeth to protrude further.

After being convinced by a few people, I finally visited an orthodontist in Kuala Lumpur during my previous visit to Malaysia. The first orthodontist convinced me that I don't need braces because my smile is OK and my bite is perfect. However, after a second opinion and an x-ray, I was approved for braces. It was done during my second visit to the clinic. A self-ligating orthodontic brackets were fixed that day. I may need to extract four teeth in future to rectify the crowding.

Braces taught me a very important matter. Never underestimate your teeth. I could never eat, smile, chew, or even talk the same again. It was such a nuisance to be blocked by the metal, which kept hurting my gums and lips. I just couldn't wait to have it removed!

Anyways, here I am with braces at last. It better be worth all the pain and hardship I'm going!

Fear

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

~Frank Herbert

Hello Osaka!

We are finally here. We are located at Suita city in Osaka; a very beautiful and peaceful place. We are still adapting and hope to enjoy our stay here.

I have finally arranged our furniture and stuff in our apartment. It looks livable and hope the spring enlighten our spirit; thus blessing us to begin our new life here.

I have started a new hobby here in Osaka.
It's gardening.
I have just started. I bought a few pots and had a rough time ploughing, sowing and watering. It was a new experience as I sowed seeds into the pots. I hope to see the plants sprout from seeds and eventually grew to become beautiful flowers. Shall update on the outcome with pictures, should my gardening project succeeds.

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit ~ D. Elton Trueblood

Departing Yokohama

The new financial year has begun. Satya's office has been relocated to Osaka, Japan. It is time to depart Yokohama, Japan. I had so much fun at Yokohama. I guess that I adapted well and was very comfortable at Yokohama. But we had to move on, leaving behind many wonderful friends; especially my doctors and nurses. I was well cared by Professor Aikawa, Dr. Ken Sakai and Dr. Hyodo, the three amazing titans that help me through my transplant.

Wishing you all the very best! Thank you so much for helping me out despite my disability to speak nihongo. We hope to see you again. I am so much indebted to you all and there are no words to describe how thankful we are to you.

Christmas 2010

Last year, my family and I celebrated Christmas at Sabah, for a change. It was a very memorable and wonderful trip as the whole family gathered after a long time and we flew to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah as a group for the first time.

It was exceptionally special to me because I get to return home and see my family members after a year. Besides, this was my first holiday after my kidney transplantation. Previously, my holidays were limited to 2-3 days due to my medical requirement (dialysis).

Anyways, we started off by flying as two groups from two different places, as my siblings are scattered around the country. We all met at Kota Kinabalu International airport around 8pm. After a loud dinner at an Italian restaurant, we checked in a double 3-room apartment. It was fun to chat and to get back on track on latest family gossips and stories. The next day, on the eve of Christmas, we went shopping around Kota Kinabalu, buying some native products. Later at night, we attended the Christmas Mass. It was a very wet Christmas as it was pouring cats and dogs!

On Christmas morning, after exchanging gifts, we checked out and drove to Mount Kinabalu Heritage Resort & Spa. It was a very beautiful place with an excellent and breathtaking view of Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Malaysia. We spent two days at the resort and our activities include; watching the sunrise amidst the Mount Kinabalu peak, visiting the Desa Dairy Farm, Sabah Tea Plantation, dipping ourselves in the Poring Hot Spring, awed at the Mesilau Park view and so much more!

After fulfilling days at Kota Kinabalu, we headed to Labuan, Sabah. Since, it is an island, we went there by a boat. It was a bizarre experience as we took the boat at night. The sea was so dark, and we felt the water brushes us as the boat speeds up leaving us to scary imaginations. The mind blowing part was when the boat came to a curvy halt panicking us a little. The reason was a huge wooden log was floating; thus hitting it could have been disastrous. As we approached the land, we could see the beautiful lights of many docked ships. It was an amazing view as if watching the bright stars in a very dark sky. The boat trip was one of the best adventurous voyage ever! We stayed at my brother's place in Labuan. We spent some quality family time there enjoying some home-cooked food.

On the second day, we took a ferry to Brunei and stayed at The Empire Hotel. We dined, swam and just relaxed at Brunei. We also visited the famous Brunei Mosque with the pure golden domes. We headed back to Labuan after two days stay at Brunei.

We finally flew back home after a day at Labuan, with lifted spirits despite the sore and tired muscles. It was truly an amazing getaway and family gathering. Looking forward to such bonding and trips again in future :)

Major Earthquake in Japan 11.03.11

A lot had happened since I last blogged. I was planning to write about my adventures and pleasant holiday at Malaysia, but a devastating earthquake happened here in Japan and it's most important for me to blog about our experience about the disaster.

Yesterday, a 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck east coast of Japan and triggered tsunami that battered its coast. The powerful tremor together with the ferocious tsunami destroyed homes, building and killed many lives :(

At about 2.30pm yesterday, I was in the kitchen trying to prepare dishes for an early dinner. I heard a loud noise and everything began to shake violently. I spontaneously headed to the door, ran towards the stairs and went downstairs as fast as I could. It was a little hard as everything was shaking violently and it's hard to get a grip. I was trembling and ran to save my life. I came from Malaysia. We don't have tremors there. But, yesterday's earthquake somehow seemed violent to me. I knew it's serious when people started running behind me as well. We arrived at the ground floor and gathered at a safe area. I was barely able to stand as the ground was shaking quite badly. It was scary to hear the shaking sound coming from the building. I was trembling and was worried about my husband. The tremor lasted for few minutes but seemed like hours to me. Since I ran downstairs unprepared, I was feeling quite cold. I waited for the earthquake to stop and when it appeared safe, I ran back upstairs to our apartment, wore proper winter clothes, grabbed my phone and started calling Satya, my husband. It was dark in our apartment as we lost electricity, gas and water. Even the phone wasn't working. So, I decided to grab my medicine, adequate water, some snacks, our traveling passports hoping to look out for Satya in his office. Just as I was packing, Satya opened the door and entered. I was so happy and relieved to see him.

He told me that he wasn't able to get out of his office until the earthquake stopped. It seems the emergency stairs access were closed. He waited for people to evacuate the building and came back to see me as soon as he can. We were so glad to be together. We both waited downstairs at the safe area until things seemed fine. We were still unable to contact our families as the phone was still down.

When things seemed better, we went back to the apartment still not knowing the seriousness of the earthquake and the epicenter. We waited in our room, dark and cold. After several tries, I was able to check my email on my phone and sent messages to our families.

At about 10pm, the electricity and water supply were reconnected and we felt relieved. We contacted and spoke to our families. We checked the news and was devastated to learn about the major earthquake and disastrous tsunami in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture and its neighboring regions.

I was tired, shocked and was having terrible migraine because of the continuous aftershocks. It happened all night, alerting me to stay safe.

We felt much better and fine this morning. But the news were not pleasing. It was painful to see the after effects of the tsunami at the northern region. The death toll was rising, the damages were terrible and so many people were still missing. The worst part was the news about the radiation leak and the explosion of the nuclear plant in Fukushima. It was a suffering sight, seeing so many people left homeless. But it was encouraging to see many heroic helpers doing all they can to help the victims.

Well, we keep our eyes peeled and keeping ourselves updated to the latest news. We just hope that things will be better soon.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!
It has been some time since I last blogged.
I was away, in fact I went back to Malaysia for Christmas break.
It was wonderful and great to see my family after one year.
More stories on my trip on my next blog :)