I just received an SMS from my mom saying that my uncle’s 6-year-old daughter, who lives just 2 kilometres away from my house, has been admitted to the hospital due to dengue. The epidemic is getting so widespread its scary.
All these while, I’ve been hearing about how paranoid and obsessive I am with protecting my baby Clarisse. Even family members think I’m being overly protective by limiting her time spent outdoors. “What’s the worst a mosquito bite or two can do apart from itching?”, to me, is one of the most annoying, irresponsible and ignorant phrase. But I’ve been hearing less of it now that mosquito-borne epidemics like dengue and Chikungunya are hitting record highs.
Just a few nights ago, my friend related to me how her parents, despite having mosquito netting installed in their homes, fell victim to Chikungunya. Apart from causing high fever, Chikungunya attacks the joints. Her parents experienced weakness in their legs and had trouble walking. Even having recovered from Chikungunya, their joints are permanently affected by the virus. Although there are medication to relieve the pain, there is currently no cure and they will have to live in a state of weakened joints.
My husband has a soft spot for fine watches. I don’t know much about watches. All I know is whenever he points out one to add to his list of favourites, he can’t afford it. There are more brands in the watch market than handbags too. I’m sure you are familiar with popular brands like Rolex, Seiko, Omega, Tag Heuer and such. But have you ever heard of Pierre Kunz, Panerai, MCT or De Bethune even though their watches cost more than five figures? Truly a hobby fit for the rich only.
A few months ago, Clarisse picked up a very annoying habit. Grinding her teeth. It annoyed us to no end because the more we asked her to stop doing it, the more she’d do it.
It may simply be her sudden discovery of a new physical sensation by grinding her teeth. I have even asked the paeditrician why Clarisse is doing it and would it be advisable to bring her to a dentist. According to her experience, dentists have yet to determine what cause toddlers to grind their teeth. At least the mental and emotional side of it. But I was also told that teeth grinding, as horrible as it can sound, would never be severe enough to cause much worry. Baby teeth are only meant to last for a span of few years so long lasting problems are negligible. Even so, it would take much more severe grinding to wear out their teeth.
While riding her toy push car in the living hall today, Clarisse went a bit too fast, slammed onto a cabinet and the table lamp on top of it fell down. Luckily the lamp has a cloth exterior guarding the glass bulb inside it. It was only slightly damaged. The cabinet doesn’t appear to budge easily as it is quite sturdy and heavy therefore I didn’t thought of it as a danger to Clarisse. But it does have a narrow base and high centre of gravity now that I think of it. And I underestimated Clarisse strength as the force she inflicted onto the cabinet should have been quite strong to cause it to nearly topple over. As from now on, I’ve moved all table lamps to safer placements to prevent any unforeseen accidents from happening to Clarisse.
I’m sure most you have heard BN used dirty tactics to snatch Perak’s state government away from Pakatan Rakyat by now. I’m utterly disgusted and frustrated at Barisan Nasional for this. My blood pressure was up a few notches when I tuned in to the news and saw Badawi and Najib faces at the press conference to announce their so-called victory.
