Chilling Out and Cleanliness

Most, if not all, like to return to a warm nest. I like to return home and just chill to some music and good read. I have a bedside lamp so that I can read in the comfort of my bed up to moments before I fall asleep. Then I will reach out to the remote control beside my pillow and flick off the music. Come to think of it, my bed isn't the most comfortable. It is friggin stiff. Supposedly good for the back. But I don't see how it is helping my aching parts from crouching over the laptop. Sometimes, I wake up to the pain of the spring digging into my ribs/spine. If I look at things in a positive light, well at least it doesn't make me a *bedworm.

Chilling out at home - it helps that the house is clean. That way you can lie in bed w/o itching. You don't get runny nose, it keeps your hands free of tissue, and leaves it free to hold your book in one hand and a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in the other. Important especially now that my skin has taken a turn towards sensitive type. Recently, there will be sudden red patches on my face, especially during the week when I need to put on makeup. My colleague says that I have sensitive skin so I should avoid those pharmacy brand cosmetics. Then she helpfully list some of the brands that I could try to alleviate this problem: Bobbi Brown, Lancome, Shiseido, etc. I still cannot bare to spend that kind of money for cosmetics. Maybe one day when I have more moola... So typical Singapore Dreaming.... On this topic of higher-earning-power-colleagues, I had $6 chicken rice for lunch on Wednesday and $13 laksa for lunch on Thursday. I used to spend $2 per day for lunch. Maximum was $3.80 for the Nasi Padang set lunch from Khandar Street. I hardly spend more than $12/week previously. Now it has went up to $30+/week Spending for food has went up 2 folds. But salary did not.

Back to the topic, when did my skin ever get so sensitive?!?! It does help that the house is very well-maintained with daily wipe downs. As one cleaning product advertisement puts it, "Dust?! No chance!"

Yet, this sort of cleanliness makes me feel very claustrophobic and highly uncomfortable. You have to handle food carefully so as to not dirty the area. Food and drinks rarely gets to go beyond the kitchen. Which makes the chilling out in bed incomplete since I can't sip your freshly squeezed OJ while you read. "Quickly finish drinking it so that the condensate don't drip onto the marble floor!"

Which brings me to another issue - preparing freshly squeezed OJs. Orange is an acidic fruit. It erodes and it leaves a yellow stain. Just look at your finger nails after peeling an orange. If it drips onto the marble floor, a very wonderful chemical reaction takes place and it leaves a permanent pockmark on the marble floor. The OJ squeezer, that piece of equipment with a pointy part which you insert the halved orange into? Let's call it the OJer. My Mr OJer is made of a creamy beige colour plastic. Over the years, it has been through a lot of O-J'ies and got worn and is no longer smooth. Yellow lines are starting to form at the base of the pointy tip where the OJ accumulates. This is Natural Ageing. It cannot be reversed. Scrubbing harder may be able to remove the yellow colour temporarily, but Mr OJer cannot go against his destiny of providing OJ. The lines will stain a darker yellow again. And when it turns a mucky brown, we will have to look for an OJer Jnr. Meanwhile, I try to treat him as gently as I can, giving it a gentle rinse each time. I am not being lazy, am I?

*Bedworm - A species of human that rolls around in the bed like a worm.