Goodbye Tiger

The Year of the Tiger is drawing to its close. In a few days, the Rabbit will be hopping in and what a wet welcome.

The weather leading to previous Chinese New Years have always been very hot and dry but this year, it has been raining incessantly, with floods hitting various parts of the country.

Spring cleaning has been done and we are looking forward to ushering in the Year of the Rabbit.

There will be the big reunion dinner at my youngest brother's house, although he will not be there. The traditional rituals will be performed before we sit at the table laden with a variety of food.

Another year will soon be history and the future is yet to unfold. To a happy and prosperous year ahead!!

Do you know that if we sleep on too firm or too soft a mattress, we are in for back pain? Reminds me of Goldilocks who found Papa Bear's bed too hard and Mama Bear's bed too soft but Baby Bear's bed was just right and she had such a good sleep that she didn't know the bears had returned and were looking at her! So a good mattress that supports our back will give us quality sleep.


Back pain can make our lives miserable as they can last from a few days to a few months. We can't do what we usually do without feeling the pain.

It can be caused by sports injury,
gardening or simply standing too long at the kitchen sink.When you are bending and then you get up suddenly, jolting your spine,this can cause lower back pain too.

As we age, our muscles lose their tone and elasticity and sudden movements can cause the vertebrae discs to slip or even rupture. This can lead to severe pain when the nerve ends are compressed and the only option is surgery.

So to avoid these problems, we have to be careful when lifting things.
We have to lift them in the proper way to avoid straining our back muscles. Good posture will also help and exercise such as walking and swimming will strengthen our muscles.

Agonising

Agonising is the word to describe the bout of food poisoning I had yesterday.

No, it wasn't because I pigged out and over ate over the New Year. Quite the contrary,I didn't have my lunch but all along I took in tidbits (some would call it junkfood. Come evening, the pain began and I could hardly stomach the sight of all the tempting dishes laid out on the table at a potluck gathering that evening.

The night was a nightmare. The gnawing pain in the stomach and abdomen stole whatever relief I thought I would get from sleep but sleep was elusive.

I vomitted out most of what I had eaten a few times but even that wasn't enough. My abdomen remained hard and painful. Finally I managed to doze off but come morning, I didn't feel any better. To drink even a bit of water was intolerable. The pain wouldn't subside so I huddled in misery and opened my computer for solace.

By this evening I still couldn't take in any food. The abodomen has softened a bit but when I press it, it hurts still. Luckily I told my golf buddy last week that I wouldn't be playing tomorrow morning. Must have been some sort of premonition!

Hope tonight will be a better night. Hope all of you had a great time welcoming in the new decade.