Tuesday, October 28, 2008

My de-stressing process...

Thanks to all who had put in words of comfort and advice in my "Stressed Out" posting before this. It felt good after I poured everything in the posting, but, it felt even better reading your comments. Thanks again :)

Just an update on what happened after that posting -

FRIDAY 24/10/08

(1) I managed to finish all that was needed to be done by 5:30a.m, and somehow I also managed to squeeze in a 2 hour sleep before getting ready for work. That was the first step of me de-stressing myself (albeit just a bit).

(2) And I managed to improve on my slides for my presentation at the office and print out all handouts for my session. Felt better when I looked through the finished work. More de-stressing factor for me :)

(3) I delivered my presentation at 11:30a.m, and received some very positive feedbacks and suggestions. An Aussie Professor who also presented his paper during the same session had proposed that I expand my paper and write a book on the topic! And he said he would be more than happy to provide me with all the old maps which I might need for the book (he's a professor of maritime cartography, by the way). Now, THAT was a MAJOR de-stressing factor for sure :)

(4) We had our Faculty meeting at 3:00p.m. Thank God it did not drag on like it usually did, and this time around there was no intra-departmental bashing of this ONE particular Department at our faculty meeting. So, it was not as stressful as I thought it would be. I just so hate it when departmental issues are brought up at faculty level. Your mess, you clean it up yourself la, kawan... And please, la... keep your politics confined to the department. Buleh?

Anyway, that didn't happen that Friday - so, another de-stressing factor for me :)

(5) My MIL had a makan-makan session at her place for her staff on Friday night, so all of us had our dinner there. No worries for me - no need to think about what to cook for dinner and all. Bliss...(thus de-stressing myself further :)

(6) However, in the middle of dinner, I received a phonecall from my Mommy, informing that my eldest brother had been admitted to the ICU at Si*e D*rb* Health Centre. Ayah and I went to fetch my Mommy and Abah at KD and straight to the hospital. Apparently, my Abang I** had a stroke (bleeding of his brain-stem) while conducting a meeting at work, and the cause of it was his BP. He went in with a BP reading of 240/100+! (Hmmm...obviously HIS stress level was more than mine!)

But, Syukur alhamdulillah, he was alert and conscious, and did not have any weaknesses on any parts of his body. His grip was firm that night, and no slurs as such. He was only complaining of severe headache and numbness on his left side. As I'm writing this, he is now at the normal ward, and the doctors are trying to get his BP down, and he's been given 6 weeks to rest. (But, knowing him, he would be back at work next week for sure...Sigh...)

Anyway, of course this piece of news had brought my stress level up a few notches, and I need to de-stress myself more after that.

SATURDAY 25/10/08

(7) Saturday morning - stress level went up a bit as it was my Supersupir Day, and I had to send and fetch the kids to and from a few of their classes.

(8) Stress level went down in the afternoon when we attended the Badan Anak Negeri Sembilan Raya Do at KG*A. I'm no anak Negeri, but I'm a member by virtue of being married to one and because my MIL is orang kuat persatuan. So, no choice. Hehehe! Anyway, good food can never go wrong. So, the raya do really helped the de-stressing process a lot :)

(9) We spent the rest of Saturday afternoon at Mak's as she was flying off to Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday. Right after maghrib, Ayah and I decided to bring the kids to One-U for dinner. The last time we went to One-U was just before Raya. We had dinner at Fi*h & Co., and after that, we didn't know what happened (probably there was something in our dinner?!), the kids managed to persuade Ayah and I to watch HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 at GSC! As we had nothing planned, and it had been a while since we went out on a proper outing with the kids, Ayah and I surrendered. We also had to drag Dar along.

I hate to admit it, but, I actually ENJOYED HSM3! The choreography was just superb, and the songs were very catchy. But, of course, like the previous HSMs there were so many lame scenes. Even Hanna and Hasya could not help themselves from giggling and laughing out loud during those lame scenes. But, overall - if you need a major de-stressing treatment (like I did), watching HSM3 should do the trick :). Go watch it with your kids!

SUNDAY 26/10/08

(10) Sunday morning, went to Te*co for grocery shopping. Was there from 11:40a.m until 2:15p.m! Punya la banyak manusia!!! Stress level - CONFIRMED shot up. But, I managed to get everything to fill in my fridge and pantry. And there's no better way to de-stress myself than by looking at my fridge/freezer and pantry full to the brim later when I got home (and DAR kemas everything while I surf the net. Kalau I yang KEMAS, blood pressure sure go upstairs... Hahaha!)

I just love it when I open the fridge and freezer and the pantry, and I see that I have everything in there, just in case I suddenly feel like cooking something special. It doesn't matter if I didn't. Yang penting - the ingredients are there. Just in case. A good feeling - that one :)

(11) at 4:15p.m, got a phonecall from Ab*d (one of my MT friends) -

Ab*d : Are you there yet?

Me : There? Where?

Ab*d : Aw*n's House-warming and Open House?

Me : Errr... When did she move to a new house? And errr...I didn't get the invitation pun!

Ab*d : It was in the group e-mail lah!

Me : Ye ke? Alamak. Sorry lah - I've not checked my e-mails for 2 months laaa. Okay, never mind, I'll check it now, and I'll see you at Aw*n's house in an hour.

True enough, the invitation to Aw*n's new home was in one of the 2580 un-opened mails in my Inbox!

Another MAJOR de-stressing session at Aw*n's house that afternoon - with good food and good company in the form of other MTs and their spouses. After Isya', we later adjourned and convened at Ab*d's house in Vi**a Dsara, and lepak till about 11:00p.m.

MONDAY 27/10/08

(12) We left the house just after 9:00a.m and headed straight to the MPH Warehouse Sale at Section 13 PJ. We thought we were early, but there were already throngs of people there. Everybody managed to get books for themselves. Not bad at all - we got 38 books all in all, for about RM600!! That was definitely another major de-stressing point for me - hilang all my guilty feelings that I had with Hanna (especially when she got 18 books for herself!). And of course, it was also a very de-stressing moment when we paid for the books (especially for Ayah) because we thought they would cost us more than RM1,500! Happy, happy, happy!

(13) What better way to further de-stress myself than tucking in in some good food for lunch with the family. We went to Co*y Co*ne* at Jaya 33 and everybody had their favourites. Their sharks fin soup was so yummy...

(14) We then went to jenguk our BJ house (which we had not jenguked for more than 2 months!). Suffice to say, it's time for another call to Badhal Khan. And we also found out that the roof was leaking in a few places and there were water marks in some areas of the house. Stress level naik balik... But, I'm just going to tell myself that IT IS NOT A MAJOR PROBLEM. I'm not going to stress myself out over this. I'm not going to worry. I'm just going to be happy :)

All in all, the de-stressing process over the long Deepavali weekend has really helped. And I'm ready to face it all, insya Allah.

And I guess, what I could gather over the last few days ni - there'll be stressful moments everyday BUT, some things might just creep up while we least expect them, and make us feel better. And we have to always prepare ourselves for other unexpected things which might spoil our day again. The trick is to wait for the positive things to happen, or it they don't, we take things positively. Or we make them happen.

And however stressful we feel our lives are, there are others who lead an even more stressful lives than we do. So, we have to bersyukur with whatever it is that is thrown to us.

Cheers, you all :)

24 comments:

Ezza Aziz said...

shana,
termenung akak bila baca posting you ni..mak oii sibuk gler kamu niii..
kalau la akak ni pandai bawak kereta ,sure punye akak macam lipas kudung...sesak nafas tadi bila baca entry ni,ni baru ok. (macam kita punye cerita plak..hheheh

Anonymous said...

Kak Shana,
So many things that could make your BP naik but you maintain your cool...wow...kena belajar from you...
and here I thought my "commissioners" are killing me with their missed flights, salah nama on tickets etc..rupa2nya ada jugak yg lagi teruk workloadnyer...(of course la kan...hehehe)

IBU said...

The mere mentioning of "Badal Khan" is a major de-stressor oredi. HAHAHAHAHA..... cannot tahan, kelakar.

But aiya, Rawang punya Badal Khan pun tara datang sudah lebih 6 minggu. Itu hari telefon, dia kata, kakak.... saya sudah tara potong rumput. Pinggang sudah reput. Hahahaha.... Hampeh.... Di mana kan ku cari ganti?

fifi said...

Feet up Kak Shana! Sorry to hear about your brother, hope he is much better

MAMAMIA said...

Phew!!! How glad I am eventho I'm just one of those desperate housewives... What is stress????

By the way, what's the case with that 2000plus unread emails???

anom said...

Kak Shana,
Glad to hear that you have managed to destress yourself albeit the few bad news..

Take good care of yourself and enjoy ur family!!

Madam Tai Tai Again said...

Hi Shana,

Glad to see that you have de-stressed, despite having gone thru a pretty hectic schedule over the weekend!

So when we get the paperback copy of your soon-to-be published book ni? I'm sure bila dah jadi mcm JL Rowling semua stress dah tak de...because you akan stresskan orang pulak!

Dad of 4+1 said...

You are right....No point being stressed kan? :)

You are the 2nd person to say HSM3's not bad...Luckily none of my kids is into HSM

wanshana said...

Kak Ezza,

Hehehe! Actuallynya, normally tak lah sesibuk macam ni. Ada fasa-fasa tertentu every year yang kelam-kabut hidup dibuatnya, and last week was one of the phases :)

I think Kak Ezza pun boleh tahan sibuk jugak. Akak mintaklah permission Abg Aziz ambik driving licence. Sure akak pun terbang merata nanti! Shana ni pun baru started driving 5 years ago :)

Harap-harap akak dah tak sesak nafas dah ;)

wanshana said...

Bella,

Bukan selalu K.Shana boleh maintain cool ni (like last week, for instance!), but, yes, most of the time I'm quite a calm person. I think by nature I'm a phlegmatic person, and not highly excitable :)

Yes, there are so many people out there who lead a more stressful life, with heavier and crazier workload than us, I'm sure. So, we should be grateful :)

Hmmm, I take it that you're in the travel and tour industry? Maybe, we can engage your service one of these days, buleh? ;)

wanshana said...

Ibu,

Nanti I tanya Badal Khan BJ kalau dia cover Rawang area. Harap-harap pinggang dia tak reput jugak. (Ada ka pinggang "reput"??!! Hahaha!)

And we also have another gardener recommended to us - a Mr. Sundram, who apparently tends to the garden twice a week.

So, itu Badal Khan and Mr. Sundram has to "O-som" to get our business from now on :)

wanshana said...

Fifi,

Thanks, dear.

My brother is better now, but he's still under observation. I've not visited him for a few days now coz' everytime he receives visitors, his BP shoots up!

Are you already back in Notts? Sorry to have missed you guys when you were back home hari tu. We knew how packed your schedule was. Insya Allah, ada rezqi next time to meet up.

Salams to A'bar and hugs to Adam and Farah, please :)

wanshana said...

Mamamia,

Being a housewife pun ada jugak hari-hari yang stressful, and sometimes can be more stressful than working at the office, I'm sure.

The 2000+ unread e-mails? Errr...panjang cerita. Suffice to say, it's a case of "no news is good news" to me... Hehehe!

wanshana said...

Anom,

Thanks, dear.

Yes, dah cool down and feel more relaxed now, syukur alhamdulillah.

Tapi, tak leh nak berhappy-happy with the family lagi coz' the kids' exams belum habis lagi ni. In fact esok baru nak start! After 7/11 nanti baru boleh enjoy :)

You take care, too :)

wanshana said...

Madam Tai Tai,

I don't think my book will be a best-seller. It'll be one of the driest piece of writing, I'm sure, and you'll probably need a couple of months (at least) to finish it (IF you finish it, that is! Hahaha!)

I also can bet that reading the book memang can cause a lot more stress to the readers. Highly academic, and no commercial value at all loorrr...

wanshana said...

Dad of 4+1,

Hi there! It has been a while. How are you now? Hope the physio is working well and you're back on your feet now.

Yup! It has been said that stress can shorten our life expectancy. We don't want that, do we? We plan to live longer so that we could torture our kids longer, no? Hahahaha!

Try watching HSM3 when you feel down, or when you need a good laugh, or when you don't want to think too much. It'll work wonders. Even if you didn't watch it at the cinemas, go get the DVd when it's out :)

fifi said...

Gutted couldn't meet up with you all Kak Shana.. InsyaAllah next year, eh? Glad to hear your bro is better, Alhamdulillah. Seriau when I saw the dreaded 'brainstem' word. I can never thank Haizal (and Imran) enuff for helping us out with dad after that painful painful episode 5 years ago.Anyway, you take care. Hugs for Hanna, Hasya, Hilman.

ms hart said...

Wanshana, reading your de-stressing process makes me stressed lahhh!!!! he he Cepat, tulis itu buku...kengkawan bloggers sediarela dan sukarela jadi promoters!! Cost saving tu!

wanshana said...

Fifi,

Yes, insya Allah next time around when you all in KL, okay?

Haizal was quite surprised that my brother was very alert and fully conscious after the stroke actually. But, I guess it was because his staff acted really fast and brought him to the hospital within an hour. Syukur alhamdulillah.

Our do'a that your Dad is keeping well despite all, insya Allah.

You take care, too, dear :)

wanshana said...

ms hart,

Breath in...breath out. Breath in...breath out. And repeat. Hehehe!

Thanks, but, itu buku rasanya lagi 2-3 years kot baru boleh siap kot?Offer to promote still valid ke by then? ;)

Anonymous said...

Kak Shana,
Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm in logistics in O&G and NOT travel...though I wish I were so that I can travel all the time...hehehe

MrsNordin said...

I hope you are completely de-stressed now. Cheer up!

wanshana said...

Bella,

Logistics is good.

We can never have too much/many of logistics, can we? :)

Cheers!

wanshana said...

mrsnordin @ bj,

Thanks! I'm all relaxed now.

But, I gather today has been quite stressful for you, huh? Take it easy, dear. As long as it's not a matter of life and death, don't fret about it :)

The weekend is just around the corner. Yippeee!!!