Friday, April 18, 2008 by Allan in Allan's Thoughts, General Blog Posts, Some Nice Quotes

Many people wonder how someone can just open their eyes underwater just like that. Does it not hurt? Can you actually see clearly underwater? The truth is, it is really easy to do it and it does hurt, and you actually do not see everything as clearly as out of water. Visibility is within 10 metres if its clear water with good light.

I used to be afraid of opening my eyes underwater. I supposed its an instinctive thing. Since young, I have never dare to open my eyes when it comes in contact with water, shampooing, swimming, water bombs or even when I was training to become an SAF lifeguard (we were allowed to use goggles).

It was only until when I was training to become a lifeguard under the Cardiff Council that I have made myself learn how to open my eyes underwater. It wasn’t easy to make that big step. I have to fight the 24 years old instinctive response, and force my eye muscles to open it wide. I had to practise at home in the bathtub. I did it in the end only because of survival instinct.

I love my then girlfriend a lot, and we really wanted to make our relationship work. So we decided that I had to go and stay in UK to let her family to get to know me better and also for her and myself to know each other better, earn some money and get married.

And that time I was working at a bakery. Not earning a lot unless I go for overtime work shifts. Then one day, I saw a notice about training to be a lifeguard, and potential earnings of a lifeguard is better than that of a bakery worker. So went on to take on the training, since I thought I went thru the SAF lifeguard training, and I am medic trained so basic life support will be really easy. Everything was easy until 1st day of training, we were told we cannot use goggles for the lap tests and rescue tests.

And because of that survival instinct, telling me I want to quit the bakery work, and I have to have a skill to earn better pay, that I went to push myself to open my eyes underwater. Before you know it, I was swimming like a dolphin underwater, literally. I could swim better and faster without the goggles, in actual fact.

So I think it was survival instinct and love that gave me the strength to overcome the fear of water into my eyes. I truly thinks that love can create miraculous things. The power of love can really change someone.

So how do you open your eyes underwater? My tips: Simply just hold your breath and open your eyes underwater, initially for a split second, then a few seconds, and then you will be able to open whenever you want for however long.

Today I am gonna share this nice little love quote.

“Love is what you make it and with whom you make it; it is what it is.”

I love you my wife. Thank you for your inspirations and support all this while and knowing that you will continue to inspire and support me. Let’s open our eyes under the water that lays ahead of us.

Sunday, April 6, 2008 by Daisy in Daisy's Thoughts, General Blog Posts

Recently, the topic of smoking has sprung up far too often… I personally HATE the habit of smoking (Sorry to the people who do smoke)… But it really does upset, or is it annoy me, when they just don’t understand the consequences… Is it becos they don’t know the real facts? Is it becos they are addicted? Is it becos they care only for the enjoyment of now?

I may not understand how they feel.. I certainly don’t understand when they describe the feeling of “relaxation” or “high” after a ciggy! All I know are facts… and they are hard and supported facts!

I used to think I could “force” someone to give up smoking… But I realise that only themselves can do it, and they must want to do it… You can scare them as much as possible, you can threaten them with death, you can show them a gross picture of the after-effects of smoking.. But all this is useless, when they don’t listen, or is even half-hearted….

I must say, it’s sad to see customers come into where I work, who have been smoking (maybe for only a short period of time, or for years) and suddenly be told that they have cancer or some other disease caused by smoking… And then they start to feel sorry for themselves! I am angry with these people because they are so “selfish”…. I feel sorry for their loved ones - who have to look after, worry and care for those who had the bad news and suddenly have their world turned upside down, if the unfortunate event of death happens….

For over 30 years, my Dad used to smoke more than 20 cigarretes a day… None of us in the family smoked… He was selfish and smoked in the house (so technically, we, as a family, were inhaling the 2nd hand smoke)… No matter, how we persuaded him to give up, he never listened… He had 2 scares which could have taken his life, with my eldest sister working in a top London hospital in the research section to help treat lung cancer and all of us nagging him… he quitted!

I am thankful that he has quit, but then I think to myself… Why is it only when your life is in danger, do you then think about how important your own life and loved ones are… and then do something about it?

This is all I can say and will say to anybody who chooses to continue or start smoking….

The facts are there.. read them and when I say read them - take it in… Then, if you choose to continue - pls take the responsibility to accept all the consequences and don’t ever feel sad about it nor complain… Also, harm only yourself - if you want to smoke - smoke somewhere else cos passive smoking kills those around you…. Just remember, whilst you’re having a “good time” puffing away at each ciggy - your family may be the one to suffer in the future….

Happy reading:
-Patient information leaflet on smoking
-Quit4life

Wednesday, April 2, 2008 by Daisy in General Blog Posts

So glad that I finally reached home!!!

Flew from Singa at 10:45pm… Comfortably sitting on my 11C seat (one of the three seaters, towards the aisle, with no seat in front of me)! Nice! All of a sudden this huge whopper guy from Holland asks me to excuse him, as he tried to squeeze into his 11A seat! There was absolutely NO WAY possible that he could squeeze in there.. and rightly so, he didn’t! I felt really silly - such a petite person in comparison, sitting in the outside - so offered to swap seats! My good deed of the day! I did remind him, that I hope he didn’t mind that I get up often - due to my bad back - He was more than welcome… So all was well!

Slept pretty well… then before I knew it, just over 12 hours later we had arrived at Amsterdam… About 5 hours to go until my connecting flight - so just shopped and chilled….

On my flight to C’diff, all seemed well… It takes about 1hr and I should arrive at 10:05am…. Whilst approaching C’diff - the captain informs us of bad weather conditions - so the plane will circulate in the sky until a good opportunity. My first impressions was major thunderstorms or rain (cos Mum had said it was raining heavily the past few days…. The sky above the clouds was beautiful and bright, so it was weird that there should be horrible weather underneath!

45 mins later, all of a sudden the captain states that there is an opportunity and he will take it! Umm…. as we descended… I noticed that it wasn’t raining, it was EXTREMELY foggy… all of a sudden, the descent was aborted and the nose of the plane raised up sharply and then we were back up in the sky -above the clouds!! Scary stuff!

Next anouncement was that we needed to be diverted to another airport…. B’ham! That’s about 2.5 hours away! Great!!! Well, all for our safety, nothing could be done…. Got to B’ham and things were a bit messy.. no real organised form of transport back to C’diff…. Eventually, our airline managed to get a coach for us and we all hopped on!

30 mins into our journey, one of the passengers shouted to the driver… “Wake up”!!! Oh no, the driver had done an all-nighter and was faling asleep at the wheel!! Thank goodness I had my seatbelt on… I think the rest of the passengers quickly put theirs on too! From that point on, everyone was on guard!!!

1.5 hours later, we stopped at the hard shoulder of the motorway and the hazard lights come on… I thought, emergency cigarette break? Emergency toilet break? Guess what? The radiator of the coach had over heated and we needed to stop to cool it down! About 30 mins later - we were off again, driving slower than ever!!!

We finally reached C’diff where Mum picked me up… Got in the car and noticed that the windscreen had a crack from where a stone on the road had chipped it! Surely not, I thought to myself!!! Went to a windscreen repair centre to see if it could be fixed - but no spaces until tomorrow. So off home we went. I finally arrived home, 8 hours later from the actual time I was meant to touch down at C’diff airport…. Oh boy was I glad to get home… Quick time unpacked, showered, ate and slept…. Long long journey home….