So, I’ve gone nearly 3 months without a blog post here. The hectic life of (relatively) young couples in Singapore leaves little room for leisure, especially when tying the knot.
In October we finalised our choice of home.
In November we got married.
In December we came back from our honeymoon.
Who knows what lies ahead?
With less than 3 months to the wedding and me wanting to be a generally sharper and more effective person, I realise I need to heal quickly, tone up a little and be mentally alert.
In order to achieve this, I have thought of a new schedule which involves sleeping by midnight (which just passed, oops), waking up at 7am, actually having time to read the papers / check a round of emails / do some light exercise before going to work.
Nutrition wise, that means:
Fitness wise, this means:
Other wise, this means:
Time for bed!
I sought a second opinion this morning and learned that I had been walking about for the past 3 months with a fracture in one of my metatarsals.
Interestingly, I had correctly diagnosed my own condition when I first hobbled over to see a private GP 3 months ago, only to be told (wrongly) that I had simply pulled a tendon.
How did I know what it was? Because I am a football fan and learned all about metatarsals when Wayne Rooney broke his foot. And at the time, the pain was great and it felt like I had indeed broken something.
As I was told it was just a sprain, I treated my foot accordingly. I bandaged it daily - until my skin started to react to the bandage. I rubbed anti-inflammatory gel on it. I even got my foot vigorously massaged by a Chinese sinseh!
But colleagues noticed that my foot was taking longer than expected to heal. I couldn’t wear high-heeled shoes anymore, nor could I go to the gym. Some days it seemed like I was recovering; on other days the foot would swell up again.
The other thing that was strange was the pain sometimes shifted from the side of my foot, to different toe joints. How could this be explained?
The visit to a specialist and an X-Ray helped to shed some light. The third metatarsal was broken, and while the second and fourth metatarsals were fine, more weight was put on them and this may have inflamed the joints of those toes. That also explained why the area in the middle of my foot was generally sore and swollen.
All I can think of now, is the need to recover quickly in order to walk down the church aisle in a few months’ time.
On the bright side, I am really glad to have received care and concern from many people, particularly my colleagues (who are obviously in the right line of work for this sort of thing).
I also got my feet analysed and learned I had high arches, which places greater pressure on certain parts of my feet. So now I wear special insoles to redistribute the weight. I am also increasing my calcium intake and hope to gradually increase physical activity levels as my foot recovers.
When it comes to health, one must ‘toe’ the line… or ‘foot’ the bill!
Yesterday morning, I attended a lecture by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Ritz-Carlton. Due to the nature of the occasion, I was dressed formally, in a black pants suit and white shirt.
Then I headed back to my office to attend a meeting, walking briskly into an open lift.
Two little elderly men were already inside - one Chinese, one Sikh. The elderly Chinese man had his finger on the lift button.
The Sikh, who had stepped in shortly before me, looked at his elderly counterpart and said, “Kam Sia”.
I turned to look at the Sikh, impressed that he spoke in Chinese dialect!
Then the Sikh looked at me, and asked, “Are you a lawyer?”
I was stunned, and replied, “Well… in a way, I used to be. How can you tell?”
He said I looked like one, from the way I dressed.
The lift door opened and the two old men stepped out. I called after the little Sikh man, “Are you a lawyer too?”
He shook his head and continued walking. “No…”
As he walked further away, I heard him mutter, “…Struck off the list.”
Hopefully so.
This is the year that I’m getting married and moving out; moving into unchartered territories at work as well, and realigning my priorities; realising I can’t do everything and should rather focus on doing a few things well.
That includes upkeeping various social media profiles, including one on this blog. Most of my activity now is at Facebook (limited to people I know) and sometimes Twitter, so do look out for me there.