A severely compromised Immune System?

That is, my immune system. My friends and family have known this for a while now - the frequency with which I seem to fall ill - all the common illnesses strike me quite commonly, so to speak - be it cold or fever or influenza. In fact, currently I am in the middle of recovering from a debilitating influenza attack. I got hit by the virus some time last Tuesday when I visited a cardiologist in the Gleneagles hospital here (that's another story altogether, but so far nothing seems to be wrong with my heart, so no worries there). Since then, I have been on medical leave for 7 continuous days and I still have not recovered. Days 3 to 5 were especially bad when I was sneezing uncontrollably and feeling weak and dizzy all the time. Today was the first time in a week that I went to work. The phlegm is still there in my system and my nose is still blocked. At the end of the day, I started sneezing once again just as I was leaving work. And in between all this, I have been unable to sleep well in the night for some odd reason (despite the supposedly "knock-out" medicines).

So what's wrong with me? I know it has to be my immune system. I maybe termed obese in the strictest numerical sense, but I do not think that that is the cause of all this - I do not experience the symptoms of obesity and I quite love to (and without any difficulty as well) run and indulge in physical activities. So what happened to my immune system? And when? I do not recall being susceptible to these common illnesses during my 4 years in the US. And before that I do not recall falling sick at all when I did my Junior College in Singapore. It's only after coming back in 2004 that my immune system has tanked. I do agree that unhappiness at work is a contributing factor. But that much? I am not that unhappy at work (at least not yet) that it would impact my immune system so severely (although I attribute my hypertension problem solely to the torturous and agonizing first few months at work). So what happened? Do you have a clue? And more importantly, do you know someone (a doctor or wise old men/women or a body of knowledge) who can suggest ways on how to rebuild my immunity (preferably without ingesting big pharma tablets into my body)? I would be really grateful if someone could point me to such a source. Because I think the time has come for me to really address this issue...I will be 30 in a couple of years and I want to be in good health before I hit that number.

Yes, I am a bit scared, somewhat in despair and quite lost as to what to do.

A quiet dinner made interesting

After work on a day of heavy torrential downpour, I decided to head to the nearby Siglap area to have a quiet (and brooding) dinner by myself. My first choice was to eat cheap - at Rajah's prata shop. To my disappointment, it was closed and I decided to move on to my second option - Pizza Hut - only if they had the summer vegetable soup. I knew tonight was not going to be my night when they told me that they no longer have that soup on their menu. So, I decided to exercise the safest option available - eat at Chutney Mary (a small restaurant serving Indian snacks and main courses). Having ordered a biryani and a rogan josh, I sipped my masala tea, looking forward to the dinner in solace.

Before the food I ordered arrived, an old couple (maybe in their 60s) sat on the table next to mine. And then started a somewhat interesting, somewhat irritating but devoid of solitude dinner. They were a stereotypical old Indian couple - the lady a nagging complaining wife, the man listening to his wife's nagging but not caring much about it husband. The lady spent many minutes trying to get the waiter to explain what was meant by "Shami Kebab" in every minute detail. Dissatisfied after the poor waiter's best attempts at explaining, she then spent a few minutes lamenting how the waiters neither know how to serve nor know what they are serving, with the husband joining in with a nod of his head. After a few more detailed queries on some other items, the couple finally got down to the business of ordering. There was another mini disapproval session when the waiter actually understood and repeated one of their somewhat complicated order correctly, but the lady decide to ignore that and re-emphasize the whole thing again, making sure the waiter felt that he had got it wrong after all.

Now that the waiter had gone (and I bet none of them wanted to hover around their table, and by a sad spacial extension mine as well), the lady started making comments about the dishes being brought to a party of 3 at another table (my food had not arrived by then, ergo I was spared). Somehow the mini-basket in which they serve the bread caught her attention so much that she called the waiter to ask "what is that thing on that table" in a voice loud enough for the diners at that table to hear. After a few minutes of explanation from the poor waiter with the "oh-kill-me" face, she finally understood that that is how the restaurant serves bread. She loudly remarked that she wanted the basket too, although I suspect that they hadn't ordered bread in the first place. By this time my food arrived, and I think she remarked something about the dish in which my biryani was served, although I did not catch the exact remark. This was followed by some more lamentations about how Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta & co were just shaking their hips and not actually dancing in the song "Maahi Ve" that was being shown on the television screen in the restaurant. Throughout all this, I was so tempted to do a House and say something very House-like to them but I guess real life is not a televised drama and one should refrain from bringing House-like characters out in such situations.

So that was my dinner...which I had hoped would be peaceful but it never was. At the end of it, I was thinking "I hope Nirva and I do not end up like that when we grow old" (Don't worry jaan, I know you can never been that nagging lady-:)). That was definitely not what I wanted my old age to be. And that led me thinking to the frequent discussions I have had with my friend and colleague Edwin about whether we will repeat the same mistakes as our parents as we grow old and as we bring up our kids. Both of us have seen that our dads have not been the dads they should have been through our childhood and teenage years. Having gone through that experience and being cognizant of those flaws should enable us to consciously avoid repeating those same mistakes when we grow old and raise our children. But Edwin will always say that that might not be the case - there is a good chance that we will also end up repeating those things, despite knowing the contrary. I don't believe so, but sometimes I do wonder, will we? Will I be a good husband and a good dad as I grow old? Will I learn from watching my dad when I was growing up and not repeat those mistakes?

I guess only time will tell.

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

No, I am not writing a tribute to Bill Withers or bringing up a reference to Notting Hill here. This is exactly how I feel and how it is since Nirva left for India last night for her sister's engagement. It has been raining since last night. It's been gloomy and dark all day today. So this is for you my dear:

Ain't no sunshine when she's gone.
It's not warm when she's away.
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And she's always gone too long anytime she goes away.

It is true...she's really always gone too long anytime she goes away. Eagerly awaiting her return Friday of next week.

CNY 2008 - Pulau Ubin Trip

The Chinese New Year holidays this year offered a rare long holiday as it fell on Thursday and Friday (7th, 8th Feb). And it so happened that both Nirva and I had no plans to go anywhere, and most of our friends were out of town on holiday. So the two of us decided to go to this small island near the mainland of Singapore known as Pulau Ubin (shown circled in the map). Both of us had been wanting to go there for a while and this was occasion parfait.

So we set out at 9 am on the morning of 7th Feb, taking with us bottles of water and food in our backpacks since we planned to come back only around 4 pm. Pulau Ubin is a cycling/walking haven and we planned to cycle around the islands, so we had to be well stocked up with water. The weather outlook for the day was sunny with lots of wind. Our first destination was the Changi Point Ferry Terminal from where we can take a $2.00 per person 10-minute bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin. Luckily Bus No. 2 went all the way from the bus station near our house to the ferry terminal thereby simplifying matters.

The bus ride itself was a revelation to us because we went through parts of Singapore that both of us had never been to. It took us about 45 minutes to reach the Changi Point bus terminal. We decided to have breakfast at the hawker centre there before catching the bumboat. Since it was CNY, very few stalls were open and we had to queue up at a roti-prata stall for 15 minutes to get food. Having washed down 2 egg pratas with a glass of Teh-Ci, we proceeded to the Ferry Terminal nearby to line up for the bumboat.

Again, owing to CNY, there were many people going to the islands nearby. But we got lucky once again...the bumboat can accommodate a maximum of 12 people and it so happened that the bumboat that was leaving was short of 2 passengers. When the boat captain asked for 2 more people to join, we put our hands up quickly since rest of the people were in their own large groups and wanted to travel together.The bumboat ride was quite something, for me at least. The waves were high since it was around 11:00am and the boat really rocked. The 10 minute ride seemed like 1/2 an hour to me. But it was very scenic as well.I secretly wished that on the way back it would be low tide and a relatively smoother ride-:)

And so we set foot on the island of Pulau Ubin. After a quick photo-op, we proceeded to the rather small visitor center to grab a map of the island. The island looked quite conquerable to us and we decide to head towards the bicycle rental shops ahead of us to grab our bicycles for the day. We were stopped in our tracks by the owner of the first bicycle rental itself...he advertised his bike prices as the lowest we could find on that island (not that we had 100s of choices), and gave me some mercedes-honda analogy when I asked for specific bikes. We tried out a couple of "hondas" which were going at $12 for the whole day. Nirva was not too happy initially, more so with the haggling of the rental owner than with the bike itself. But soon we found bikes to our liking and paid the 24 dollars.I am not sure if this really was the cheapest available, but we did not want to delay our bike hike any more. We were all excited and revved up to discover the island.

The owner had suggested to us the route to take and the recommended spots. We had read online that Chek Jawa wetlands (eastern tip of the island) were a must-see and so we decided to head towards that direction. The entire bike trail was composed of roads as well as dirt paths, and was hilly. With the sun hunkering down on us and the humidity in the air, it soon became quite hard to cycle up and down the hilly roads. We finally reached the point where we had to drop off our bikes and continue on foot to the Chek Jawa wetlands.

After anchoring our bikes to the bicycle stands, we started on our walk and within 2 minutes arrived at the Chek Jawa visitor centre. A sign on the board there informed us that the day's lowest tide would be at 6:28pm. Chek Jawa wetlands are the best to see when the tide is low because it is then when one can see all the marine flora and fauna in its full glory. We decided that since we had already reached the area, we would go ahead with touring the wetlands, but we made a mental note to come back to the area around 4pm or so to get a better view when the tide is falling. Looking for a WC before embarking on our walk, we saw a house-like structure overlooking the ocean. The scenes from there and from the jetty behind it were breathtaking. We really had a fun time there admiring the beauty of the place, although the sun was really baking us by then since it was noon already.

There were two different boardwalks around the Chek Jawa wetlands - Coastal and Mangrove. We decided to walk both since they were just over a kilometer. Once again, the scenery was absolutely fantastic. The mangrove trees all around the wetlands were beautiful to look at and admire. The coastal boardwalk led into the mangrove one and we saw some cool natural growth - we saw a tree which was 40% submerged in water and it looked something out of the ordinary. And we also spotted this flowing sheet of green algae near the beach at one point - it looked as if a green plastic sheet was spread across the area. We also encountered some marine life unique to Chek Jawa wetlands. All in all we had a great time going around the wetlands and decided to have lunch at the visitor centre there, before heading back to grab our bikes.

Mind you, the sun was at its strongest throughout our biking and walking and we had grown increasingly tired. After lunch, we had to spend some time fixing Nirva's bike since the chain had come off the axle. My hands were covered completely with black grease and I had to spend 15 minutes trying to get rid of all that muck. We finally set off again and to our dismay discovered that the path back was really very ragged and rough, making cycling almost impossible. To make matters worse, it was mostly uphill, so we ended up pushing our bikes up the dirt path. It took us a good 20 minutes to cover the dirt road before we could start biking again. We decided to go to a beach nearby but it turned out it was nothing much and we turned back again. We had decided to visit the western part of the island but the heat had made us really exhausted and we decided to call it a day. We biked back to the rental shop to drop of our bikes and then we headed towards the jetty to take the ferry back to mainland Singapore. We may have spent only 4 hours at Pulau Ubin, but we had fun. We knew we were going back with fond memories of the beautiful scenery on the island and vowed to return some day to view the wetlands during low tide.