Bite me

Generally speaking, teeth are hip. For this I have to thank Twilight, True Blod, Vampire Diaries and other phenomenal pop-culture productions that has put fangs (and teeth) in the spotlight of our attention. Teeth are getting bloody sexy.

My teeth are however constrained by my braces. When people ask me why I have this little steel harness in my mouth, I laugh and say "I didn't like the prospect of turning 30, so I u-turned back to 15". At the same time, I die a little on the inside. Not a lot, but a little. When people ask if it hurts, and I answer "it only hurts my ego", I'm telling the truth. Sort of. It does actually hurt physically, like hell at times, but pain is momentarily and victory (straight teeth) is forever (at least if I put in a permanent retainer).

Most of my friends are a little surprised by my wicked grin-bling, as they do not remember my teeth being crooked. This is most likely so, because one of my front teeth (the evil one, the one that was on the move) was hiding all the crookedness that was happening behind. But my dentist did gently inform me that the front tooth is indeed slowly moving outwards, and will eventually succeed. Unless I brace it. And so I did.

My dentist is great. He is a young man, most probably younger than me, but very nice and to my limited experience he does a great job. For example he has taken my very sharp nose into consideration when moving around my teeth and jaws. This aspect was first highlighted when I took x-ray images before pulling out two teeth and getting the rest straightened out. Dr Dentist showed me how my lips are not pushed out so much by my one obnoxious front tooth that my lips would be further out than my nose, seen on x-ray profile picture.

Silently I thought to myself, who has lips that pout further out than their nose, is that even possible? I tried to think of Angelina Jolie's profile but failed as I got caught up in giving her mental braces in cheerful colors  Thankfully I just had to glance around the dentist room to notice that the standard nose of any Asian person is small and flat, and quite frequently their lips pout out more than their nose, in profile. Neither good nor bad, as pointed out, my "very sharp nose" will make my "very thin lips" appear even smaller if the teeth are pulled back to much. And so Dr Dentist is fixing it to just the right angle. Taking my looks into great consideration while reshaping my mouth. Much to my appreciation.

So far this is what has happened:
1) X-ray and mold of my teeth done.
2) Pulled out two teeth from my upper jaw. Not painful, but something is actually pulled out from your skull, and that is indeed a strange sensation.
3) Braces fixed, and gets tightened every third week. The first time my braces was tightened it hurt like hell. Again, someone is messing around with your skull, and it is not a great feeling. My brain simply shut down, and I was half gone for a couple of hours until I came back to my body and took some pain killers. The subsequent visits have been much less painful.
4) Rubber bands are placed between upper and lower jaw to speed things up and move the desired teeth to the desired position. The nice and sweet rubber bands, the ones that does not hurt are called Raspberries. The rubberbands that pulls my jaws tightly and firmly together and cause some mild discomfort to put it nicely, are called Lemons.

Here I am now. I have small gaps here and there, and I cannot say certain sound clearly, like th, s and ch for example, but my lower jaw teeth look great, and I feel certain that my upper jaw teeth will soon follow. At my last appointment Dr Dentist said the wonderful words that it looks very good, soon it will all be done. As I had stuff in my mouth I couldn't press him for details on what "soon" means to him, so I will just cross my fingers and wish for maybe just another couple of months.

Then I shall eat spinach, knäckebröd (very hard Swedish bread), Indian food and everything else that I'm currently restricted from eating. Well, spinach is actually eatable now as well, I just have to do a whole lot of cleaning after the meal (it's not something I eat in public). And knäckebröd can be eaten with the right amounts of painkillers circulating my body. Indian food however is something I miss badly. It appears that everything I like from the Indian kitchen comes with the ability to stain nice white braces into neon yellow- shine in the dark- type of braces.

Living on the hope here. Soon, sometime soon, I will go back to being a normal adult. With straight teeth.

Love and other stuff

Valentine's Day. Not traditionally celebrated by myself, as I find the commercial aspect of the whole shebang to be a little disgusting. However I'm all up for celebrating love at any given time of the year. My cute local friends go wild at Valentine's - with flowers and balloons. I must say that my initial reaction to the Singaporean fascination for balloons, a reaction of complete disbelief, has given way to a sort of admiration for the ability to find joy in the little things in life. That was until I realized how expensive balloons are, and then I just went back to thinking "that's so weird".

As the break-up with Hubby is going along more smoothly than I thought was humanly possible, I tend to get into a lot of interesting discussion with friends on the topic of love. People are impressed with our genuine love for each other, a love that is still there, and will most likely stay. We trust and respect each other completely, and are now helping one another out with dating advice and general life coaching. Then there is the other side, that question my need to "throw away" or "risk everything" by letting go and leaving behind a good relationship that never went bad, it just didn't feel right. Honestly, there is no right answer here. It does take a lot of courage, and it sure as hell is not an easy way to go, that's for sure. There is no way of knowing what the future holds, yet I do think this break will make us both stronger, no matter how our stories end.



Back to love and stuff. Generally speaking we all agree that the fluffy pink version of love sold by Hollywood rom-coms is really way too artificial and any idiot could see that in REAL life, it's a whole different story.  But then the conversation goes on, and questions very similar to those asked in these popular movies arise. Is it really possible to have everything in a relationship (an emotional, sexual, intellectual and spiritual connection)? What is a perfect relationship? When does a compromise become a sacrifice? How many soul mates can we have - and do we really have to look for them so desperately?

The BBC has an interesting article on how we have hyped up love into something completely unattainable here.
And Dr Frederick has scientifically proved it, and is also showing how finding love in the little things in life, rather than the white knight on a shiny horse (yeah, you get it), can help us all realize that love actually is all around. Read all about it here.  

Welcoming the Water Snake

Once again it is a new year and gong xi gong xi gong xi gong xi is on repeat everywhere all the time. Don't know what I'm talking about, or just want to read this post with a wicked soundtrack; check out a very catchy version on YouTube.

So what is the Chinese New Year (CNY) all about? Well, in Singapore you get a few days off to go around seeing your relatives and throw fish in the air to ensure a prosperous future. Oranges are being exchanged high and low, children are getting rich on Red Letters, love letters are being eaten and all the Ang Moh's get seriously pissed off that there are no cabs around. To find out more, check Wiki, there is indeed a lot to learn about the CNY.

As I myself is born in the year of the Dog, according to the Chinese astrology, us dogs are happy that we are finally entering the year of the Snake, leaving the Dragon behind us. Apparently this coming year will bring me great career opportunities and new romance. As I am both jobless and without partner, I get a feeling they might be on to something these astrology people.

More importantly I just discovered that even though I am born in the year of the Dog, it does not mean I am a dog. Ha! I have been a little upset about my zodiac animal, feeling that being kept on a leach and getting excited about balls is not really who I truly am. Now however I have discovered that the "Lucky Element" tells you what animal you really are, according to when you are born, gender, etc. You can give it a try here. I did, and found out I'm a White Metal Tiger. Hell yeah!! Feeling empowered already.

Staying away at home

Friends living in the condo where we used to live are currently exploring the cold weather in far away places, and so now I have got a whole apartment to myself, whilst babysitting plants and checking in on the letter box. The flat is identical to the one we used to live in, even on the same floor, only facing slightly different view as it is located in another block. So it sort of feels like home, just different interior.

The plan was to enjoy some alone time and the condo facilities. So far that has not really worked out too well. Yesterday I went down to the condo gym to do a little running on the treadmill. The small room smells like hell, it was hot like an oven and I realized the treadmill has definitely seen better days. So no more condo gym, sticking to the one I paid for, enjoying the fresh cool air, abundance of workout options and helpful staff. And today it's raining, so who needs a pool.

Good stuff in CondoHome is the view and the breeze that the 27th floor offers. Especially post-rain breeze is freakishly good. I also enjoy running into neighbors that I am friends with instead of the Bangla-workers and mainland Chinese people that I bump into going up and down the stairs at WalkUpApartmentHome. The elevator is absolutely a plus for CondoHome tough. And the kitchen. I just stocked up with lots and lots of frozen pizza. Having an oven rocks!

The alone time however is really crappy. Well, naturally it is nice at times, I kind of enjoy being on my own. But I think being alone takes some getting used to, and I'm just not used to it at all. I sort of get the feeling that most things in life were made for two. Like having breakfast, complaining about the weather, drinking wine, etc. Things that are awesome for one person is reading a book, look for a job and I guess getting to know oneself. None of which I'm currently interested in doing. I'm happy I have the blog and can ramble on and actually feel both alone and not alone at the same time. Like being at home, yet away. If anyone got the hint I'll be all kinds of free for another week plus. :)