Sorry for the long silence....

It's been quite hectic for the past three weeks. Okay, where do I start?

The last week of July I was in Bangkok for 5 days. Purely job related, but it was fun. The first two days was a Field trip organised by Yokogawa, one of the big Instrument and Control System vendors that have installed bases in our plants groupwide. We stayed at the Imperial Queens Park Hotel (jacuzzi bathtub, woo hoo!!) off Sukhumvit Road, but the trips took us two hours out of Bangkok to Sara Buri and Rayong. The remainder of the trip was a Users Group Symposium organised by Honeywell, another I&C vendor. My boss had assigned me to present a paper at the Symposium, which I only finished preparing the night before the presentation itself. It went very well, I have to say. Being the first presenter does have its advantages. Oh yes, the shopping and food was really enjoyable too. And I would really recommend the Bangkok Marriott Resort & Spa on the Chao Phraya River to anyone (not to be confused with the Bangkok JW Marriott on Sukhumvit Road).

The first weekend I got home, I had to attend a KAED (Kuliyyah of Architecture & Environmental Design, UIA) function that my sister was a committee member of. I guess it's all part of the Convocation festivities at the university. Most faculties organised their own fests, and part of the KAED Fest was an 'Image Enhancement Workshop' for female students. The wrokshop consisted of several events, the first of which was a Forum entitled 'Challenges & Dilemmas faced by Professional Career Women'. I was one of three speakers, and the only one not from an architectural background.

The week after that, the first week of August was the most hectic. I could write three separate blog entries on that week alone, but I'll try o condense it all into this one.

You see, my son has been suffering from a teary right eye for some time now. It started off as conjunctivitis, complete with the puffiness and redness, but after the swelling and redness disappeared his eye started tearing. He'd also squint during the day and seemed particularly uncomfortable with bright light. We saw a specialist who said it was a viral infection of the cornea, but when the teariness didn't disappear Mak advised me to get a second opinion. Someone recommended a Professor Muhaya from HUKM, so I took my son to see her. The first visit my son was so uncooperative, and after the third visit, which was on Tuesday after the Bangkok trip, she told me that the best thing to do was to put him under General Anaethesia just so she could have a good look and determine what was really bothering him.

So on Wednesday morning I took an EL, and checked myself and Nuaim into 'Hotel HUKM'. We were advised to get in by 10 a.m. so that the anaesthetist could visit during her normal rounds, but she didn't get to see us till 5 p.m. The Operation was scheduled for 8 a.m. the next morning, so Nuaim had to fast from 4 a.m. onwards. I set my alarm to wake up and prepare a bottle of milk at 3.30 (6 ounces should keep him fairly satisfied till after the procedure) but he would only drink 2 ounces before going back to sleep and refused to wake up till an hour later. By then, of course, he was really hungry but I couldn't feed him then, so he got really upset and cried for a whole hour. He would only quiet down for the Subuh azan, and by then I wasn't even allowed to feed him water. What made things worse was, his operation was delayed by an hour due to some mix-up with the schedule. And Nuaim simply refused to be put down all the while, so I had to carry him for a whole hour. Both Ummi and baby were tired, hungry and intimidated by the unfamiliar surroundings.

When they finally managed to gas him, I was told to leave the OT and wait outside. It took all of my resolve not to cry. I mean, it's only going to be an examination, there's no surgery involved or anything. I wonder how people can endure worse.

The good news was, they found nothing more serious than a surface scratch (could've been caused by his own nails) which should heal on its own in time. We were still given some medication, and some eyepatches to help speed up the recovery.

And then the HAZE hit KL and PJ.

Oh well....