APPS Taiwan: Sky Lanterns

A picture speaks a thousand words. I give you EIGHT pictures. So, EIGHT THOUSAND WORDS!!!

The Wonder of Braces

A random post again.

No, actually it is not that random.

Today is the 2nd of Ramadhan 1433, 22nd of July 2012.

My phone is still alive, and so am I, alhamdulillah.

I went to the orthodontist at Metro Specialist Hospital for my braces appointment. It was supposed to be at 4.30 pm and it looked like I was the last patient who was waiting outside the room. I could hear the doctor talking and nagging inside the room, drilling something onto the poor patient's teeth.

I brought Cecelia Ahern's 'A Place Called Here', of which I have read 3-4 years ago, but decided to read again. I must say, this book is one of Ahern's boring books. I love Cecelia Ahern! I have read all of her books! (though I haven't bought the recently released one, which is half A4-sized and a bit expensive, gotta wait for the normal paperback size). I've reread 'The Book of Tomorrow' the week before, and I was so captivated with the storyline that I decided to revise all her other books. 

Okay, enough about Cecelia Ahern. Back to 'Braces' story.

So, I waited and waited patiently and hungrily for the nurse to call out my name. Then, at about 4.55, the patient inside the room came out. I waited for the nurse to call my name. 

Just when I was about to close my eyes, the nurse called me and smiled upon seeing me almost dozing off. 

Went inside, took off my glasses, put the 'sunglasses'. sat on the yellow dentist chair, the orthodontist lowered the chair, followed his every instruction:-

Open wider!

Close!

Bite!

Open!

Bite!

Then he twisted some sort of wires, tightened my braces, which made my teeth and gum feeling sore. Your teeth are moving, of course it hurts!

Back at home for iftar, my teeth hurt as I chewed the Rendang Daging. But my hunger overpowered my pain and I successfully sliced and chewed through the meat! Yeehaa!!

At night, I couldn't really sleep because it was very painful. But nothing could beat the pain I first felt when I first got my braces last year. I couldn't sleep properly and I almost cried because of the intense pain! ALMOST okay, almost. I did not cry. 

Anyway, I survived, woke up early for sahur. My teeth hurt still. You want to know the sensation?

Open your mouth really wide, expose your teeth, then ask someone to punch your teeth. Yeah, that was how it felt like, I think. Because no one ever punched me, haha. But majority of those who wear braces describe the pain as being like that- getting your teeth punched by someone, or getting your teeth being hit by a high-speed baseball. 

I checked out my teeth at the mirror, and I was surprised (still surprised) and delighted to find out that the gaps had been half-filled in just one night! The wonder of braces, you see? Haha, I guess it will take another two or three appointments for the gaps to be fully closed. Another year to go, or maybe another year after that. I only got my teeth checked 6-7 times in a year. 

My teeth still hurt as I'm typing this. No pain, no gain, right?

Phony death

It's the first day of Ramadhan!

Ramadhan al-Mubarak everyone!

I have read several blogs and I must say, those that interest me are the ones which the bloggers posted totally random entries just to kill their boredom. LOL. 

I'm glad that there's not many people out there who read this blog so I could write as freely (not quite, there's still restriction) as I could!

Yeah, just returned from the 12th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) held in Taipei, Taiwan. I'll post entries about it, insya-Allah. Maybe not in the short time period. Well, sooner or later. I shall post about my 8-days adventures and what I learned from the experiences! Yes!

Back to the title of the entry. I have been using my current phone for 4 years and 4 months. Yup. It is still functioning well. The screen, the keypad, etc are still intact. There are only minor scratches at the back, due to uncountable times of it falling to the ground, bla bla. 

The only problem is... the battery is weak! The heart of my phone is weak. I need to charge my phone once a day at least, because the power runs out very quickly.

Sometimes I got fed up and just left the phone lifeless for about 1 day or 2, which means that I couldn't contact anyone during that period. I'm so happy at home that I don't need a phone,yeah.

My parents are offering to buy a new phone for my birthday. That sounds agreeable, but not really. I couldn't bear to be apart with my fellow phone, the one who was with me through thick and thins. The one who woke me up every morning for Subuh prayer. Yeah, I love my phone.

So just now, I charged my lifeless phone again. It refused to come back to life. I tried pressing the 'On' button for 2 to 3 times, but to no avail. Hereby, I pronounced the time of death to be at around 9 something am on the 21st of July 2012, 1st of Ramadhan. 1433.

I was a bit sad initially, and after a few moments, I thought about my parents' offer. I was immediately comforted and delighted with the prospect of having a new, cool phone.

I went out from the room, thinking about the kind of phone that I'd like to have, and after I've made up my mind,  I came back into the room again to check out on my old phone. Imagine my surprise when I saw the screen was all lit up. 

Status: Charging

PFTTT. My phone faked its own death! Or perhaps it came back to live upon hearing that I'd be getting a new phone (we have 4 years worth of relationship, you see). So I couldn't get a new phone. Well, I could, if I wanted to. But no thanks. I'll use it until it is finally  unusable, then I'll buy a Samsung Android/Galaxy SIII or something (depending on the latest model at that time). Not Blackberry please. Blackberry is boring. Yup.

With that, thank you...

I think I shall make a wordpress account of which I could write serious stuffs on current issues or something. Something 'journalistic'. Haha. 

Okay, thank you. Assalamualaikum w.b.t. Eid Mubarak Ramadhan al-Mubarak to all Muslims around the world and happy holiday to the others! :) 

P.S. I miss writing these kind of stuffs. I don't have to check on the sentence structure/grammatical incoherence/spelling mistakes. Just write everything out. Ahh, it is so pleasant.