Sunday, July 18, 2010

The way it is


Busy times these. Humid, hectic. The hearing in my right ear is still overly sensitive so I've been avoiding attending church services with the obligatory drums pounding deep into the recesses of my ear bones and making me miserable. It's almost 3 months after the surgery but I have no idea when my ear will acclimatise itself. Also most sounds are still higher on the bass register and I can't wait to be able to hear treble notes again.

I've also put on a lot of weight. Not sure how much precisely since I don't make a habit of stepping on the scales but definitely enough for all my clothes to feel tight and stretched. And that's if I can still get into them at all. I feel heavy, slow and sluggish, and the monsoonal weather isn't helping any. Oh, and did I mention my arthritis? I inherited it from my maternal grandmother who couldn't get up from a herhsawp (a low circular stool made of cane or bamboo) without clutching her knees and yelping "Aaih, aaih, aaih!"

The World Cup was great. The last two passed by with me not really registering much of it because it takes a lot to wean me off the computor and the internet. This time Facebook provided great company. A page called Ban the Annoying Vuvuzela etc gave me daily laughs as people (as in regular, eloquent, adult folks and not silly, incoherent teens) threw in wit, sarcasm, indignation, annoyance, and a generous dose of plain stupidity to make for a very lively discussion group. Unfortunately, the page sank under the weight of its own popularity, and disappeared halfway through the competition.

At work, I've been assigned something new that I'm not sure I can do justice to. Rhetoric and prosody is something that I never formally studied so it's going to be a tremendous challenge mastering all the intricacies involved enough to be able to teach it all in turn. I know I'm going to benefit a lot from it once I sort out what's what but for the moment, argh, my workload weighs heavy. Wish me luck.

13 comments:

  1. it's so nice to hear from you again after a break.. i have also been on and off diets in the past few months without any expected (or fervently wished for) results.. i am sure once the new challenges at work start keeping you busy, you will lose the few extra pounds.. also, wish that your ear gets better now. how's your sis coping without Tokie? keep writing and keep in touch.

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  2. Thanks, Gauri, I really hope I lose these extra pounds soon. There've been a few times when I lard up but it goes off again pretty soon. I've never gone on a diet at any time ever though I really do need to health up my food intake :( We miss Totie but he had a good long innings so we think it's ok that he's now at rest. Thanks again, and good luck with your diets.

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  3. Hope your hearing gets better soon. I am not a fan of noise, and I can imagine how terrible it must be having a few decibels added to every slight noise.
    And once you've mastered Rhetoric and prosody maybe you can share it with us. Sounds pretty deep to me.

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  4. It's tiresome in the extreme, ambs! I stuff cottonwool in when things get really noisy like when I'm out in traffic. Machines (vehicles, ACs, escalators, fridges, exhaust fans, ceiling fans etc etc) are the loudest culprits, I've found. R&P is good to know for writers so maybe you should bone up on it too.

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  5. I'd almost forgotten about your ear, sorry! Hope it gets better soon. My mom had a perforated eardrum and she would either not hear, or every sound would be amplified. She went to all the ENT doctors in Aizawl and was even referred to Vellore. I don't exactly know what cured her, but thank God she's fine now. I hope you will get better soon too, because it must really be a pain, even if it's not causing you actual pain.
    About the weight loss, the best thing for me was my evening walks. I hate dieting, and extremely routine exercise like the treadmill, calisthenics etc bore me to death. So walking briskly really helped me lose weight. And good luck with the new assignments. You boss wouldn't ask you to do unless he/she knew you can handle it.

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  6. i thought your ear-problems are solved...hope u get better soon and attend the church services (i think i miss that the most)

    's*x is the best way to burn calories' ... i read this somewhere...so get married and lose those extra kilos :D

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  7. Hope the ear problems get better. If it was me Id have been acting positively bear-ish by now.
    And maybe the stress of coping with rhetoric and prosody (arrgh) would help you shake off that excess weight.My best!

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  8. Hmanah ka beng hi a ngawng titih deuh a.. Doctor in i ear wax something something a nih hi a tia.. a tih fai zawh hnu kha chuan thil zawng zawng kha a ring over ta sia ka ban te hi han chul ta ila mi pangai hriat theih loh tur ka ban hmul ka chul ri sur sur te kha ka hre thei ta a. A hrehawm duh phian. I hear your pain :D

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  9. I beng chu a zialo hle mai, lo dam rawh se. Hmanah naupanlai in sava kan veh a, saphihrik hi ka bengah a lut a, doctor in min lakchhuah sak a, a nat zia kha aw.... Hna thar chu tlin em em khan lo thawk phawt mai la :)

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  10. I know most people thought my ear problems are over but any surgery seems to take ages to heal and I guess that's the case here. Thanks for your well wishes, good people.

    diary, I don't do public power-walks too well. Just hate it when I meet people and they give those knowing little smirks or come right out and say, "Va trang ve a!" in typical Mizo busybody style. So I guess it's the treadmill for me, tedious as it is.

    virgo, haha, typical virgo advice. Is that how you stay so slim? :p

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  11. kuku, I'm keeping all fingers crossed that a combination of walking the treadmill every morning and tearing my hair out over synecdoche/paronomasia/chiasmus/syllepsis et al will get me back into all my clothes. *sigh*

    mossy, i ban chu a hmul nasa hrim hrim a ni lo maw? :D

    vana, nia hna thar chu hei ka'n ti chho mek chu nia, engemaw kan an dawn ni :-|

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  12. GAC a Rhetoric and prosody paper la tur chu an vannei dawn a nih chu.zitirtu fel tak an nei dawn si a. Kumin WC kha kei pawh kei leh kei lovin ka en nasa ve khawp mai, WC hmasa te kha chuan Epis leh Strider te nen khan final match meuh pawh kan ngaipawimawh ve em em lo kha a nia. I beng chu a va zialo ve mawle,lo dam tha vat la kan va duh em!

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  13. Mazar, ka post i chhiar uluk a ka lawm hle mai, tiang hi en liam puat hi awl riau a. An vanduai zawk alom kidte hi. An hotunu ho in thim thamah kawng kan dap phei dan dan hi a la ni rih sia hehe. Ni lo lo ah te ka hruai chiam lo ang tih te poh a soi theih loh :D

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