We live in a world saturated with selection. Not only has the human race been inundated with so many specs, versions and variations; now, it also has assimilated the anxiety of making the wrong choices and thus postponing the decision-making process until a “better” deal comes along.

Which, by the by, renders the poor homo sapien sapiens unhappy, dissatisfied and disgruntled with his lot in life. The truth is that people who have worked hard for their keep and comfort–oppression and unfair class standards notwithstanding–live in a far better time than neanderthals and people in the dark ages. See this article.

I point you to two pieces worth reading: this article and Sonnet 29.

Life is short. Curb your enthusiasm for fire-and-brimstone doom.

Wo finden Sie Die Massage perfekte fur Frauen?

In Hong Kong, one can find a really good deal at the “SpaAsia Crystal Awardee for Best Small Day Spa” found at Central and Discovery Bay. Visit A Sense of Touch to get the most relaxing deep tissue massage in town. Now because I’m easily excitable, a massage that’s too relaxing tends to send my chakra focus from the heart to the base, if you know what I mean. I like keeping my energies purple and pink, not orange and brown. But the sudden take-over, if you will, of a person’s orange chakra facilitates in self-healing. (Oh, Wolverine! Lend me thy adamantium hands!) Unfortunately, the Discovery Bay branch of A Sense of Touch is closer to my place than my other favourite in nearby Citygate Tung Chung.

The Spa MTM was rated Hong Kong’s “Best Spa” from 2005 to 2007. Last year, I was able to get a discount for a 10-visit package which includes the following:

a. one massage of one’s choice: Tui Na and Shiatsu are its best massage types, and all done by women; the Swedish one makes me tense, so I don’t choose it.

b. hydrotherapy - which consists of a (pardon the Nazi reference) half-hour Vichy shower, four different defatiguing shower & stream types, and a hot water foot-bath. A word of caution: the water in the footbath is scalding hot, the way the Japanese like it. The funny thing is that the water is so hot that as soon as you sit still enough, it feels COLD! 

The best spa service I’ve received to date is at the Shangri-La Mactan in Cebu. My husband didn’t quite enjoy the hilot massage there, mainly because it wasn’t relaxing enough–the same reason why I don’t like Swedish massage, in general. But I really enjoyed having the whole place to myself at 10 am to indulge in an “Enchanted Journey” at the CHI Spa.

A miscarriage, or spontaneous abortion, happens during the first trimester of a woman’s pregnancy. Sometimes,  a woman can be so busy or preoccupied with so many things that it would be hard to spot the changes in her body. The way I failed to spot it…

So after one “wild night,” the next day went bloody all over. I was changing pads like an incontinent baby, perhaps, around 16 that day. The blood just kept going from the moment I woke up, having stained my bed linen and dripped all over.

Worst of all, and my own sister would confirm this, is that the pain is the sharpest, most excruciating pain a woman could feel in her abdomen. However, if the woman has a high threshold for pain, the symptom may be presumed dysmenorrhea, or menstrual cramps.

That was what I thought, for I had just stopped going to pilates and yoga classes a week before.

By the time I realised what was happening to me–chills, shivers, sweat and a slight fever included–it was far too late in the night to visit a doctor. Getting the chills and a slight fever is the body’s reaction to any foreign object that may cause an inflammation or infection in the body; the worst kind of infection in the uterus is sepsis. Sepsis occurs when a spontaneous abortion is incomplete; that is, when there are traces of the expended fetus remaining in the uterus.

To ensure that the uterus is free of any sepsis-causing organism, a woman needs to undergo what people call a “D&C,” the acronym of dilation and curettage. The procedure is similar to what women undergo when they have elected to abort a fetus.

It took me a while to realise that the chunk that was expended into the toilet bowl was “it”. It was no bigger than a human fist, just like the heart.

It would have been my second child. Right now, though, I find it hard to talk about it–even with my husband.

The Finicky Female

Welcome to my water sanctuary. This blog shall feature spas and spa destinations, massage, facial and body treatments, different modes of exercise and other wellness-related practices. Watch out for future posts.

Now it’s time to settle down, close your eyes, relax, breathe. . .sigh.

This link to why really smart men are lousy at dating women does not — I repeat, does NOT — come from an authoritative website. However, the points enumerates therein seem plausible. Have a look at the article here, and forget about the last part which contains an e-book for downloading.

Here’s an article about intelligent women and their bad choices: cruel men.

Finally, a page featuring the work of three sisters who wrote about (and loved) cruel men. You guessed it: Meet the Brontes!

Every person we meet in this world is accorded a number of hours, sometimes minutes, in which we can be happy with him or her. As the reminder goes, “What’s important is that we be happy during the time we’re together.”

But what if things go awry as the hours drag on? Or what if one cannot stand the other’s company for more than two hours?

The solution, then, is to time your company!

If you know you cannot, for the sake of good company and a cheerful time together, spend more than two hours together without getting into a row, then by all means, take your leave after two hours!

Take charge of your life, woman! Maximise happiness time!

You could not possibly have enough time for every single person you meet; therefore, the people whom you should spend the most time with are those with whom you hardly quarrel, precisely because you mesh well together.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a story about a young, beautiful East German boy whose mother castrated him in order to get him out of East Germany. How, do you ask? As a sudden “woman,” he was wed (again, arranged by his mother) to a homosexual, paedophilic American GI who happened to lurk around the Berlin wall in search for some “candy”. Abandoned by his GI husband, Hedwig starts a band, makes it big in the trucker-filled 24-hour diner circuit and eventually falls in love with a young folk guitarist named Tommy. The precocious and manipulative Tommy become famous through Hedwig’s compositions, and eventually eclipses Hedwig in the fame department. At the end of the film, we find Hedwig walking naked, androgynous, into a dark alley, neither homosexual nor heterosexual, but just as he is.

He ends his part on screen in search of someone who will love him just as he is.

In Breakfast on Pluto, young Irish actor Cillian Murphy plays a transvestite in search of his mother, who supposedly looks like a famous ’50s film star. In the end, he does find his mother (and father, too), but chooses not to reveal his identity to her. His karmic reward, however, for not “rocking the boat” so to speak, is suddenly acquiring a family.

The heterosexual transvestite finds two people who shall love him just as he is.

Any woman wants to be loved just as she is.

And Bridget Jones is a lucky britch.

Think you’re in the doldrums because you’re not dating anyone? Get a dopamine surge here.

Interesting quote: “A brand new person briefly raises your dopamine more than a familiar partner, however loving.” The operative word: briefly. 

No paper heart-strings attached, if an encounter be your recourse.

The same link describes the “coolidge effect,” a known behaviour in male rats. Rats, mind, not human beings.

1. I suggest bringing a somewhat fat handbag instead of a shoulder bag; that way, even if the handbag looks bulky, no one would wonder what's in there.

2. Your "tryst bag" should be one which no one else in the same city has seen you carry before; that way, if anyone you know happens to be around, he won't know it's you.

3. The following items are necessary: a small, small tube of toothpaste, a travel toothbrush, your favourite perfume sample sold cheap at department stores, tissue paper, pocket baby wipes (yes, baby wipes!), a compact make-up kit in small palettes and pencils maybe, disposable knickers, a small comb, a daytime mini-skirt and a singlet.

4. Your sandals should be suitable for both nighttime dinner-drinks and daytime travel.

5. Wear a little black dress for dinner-drinks. It'll be easy to tuck into the hidden compartment in your handbag.

6. Switch off your mobile phone.

7. Have an ample supply of contraception: maybe six condoms and the "morning after" pill.

8. You can always rush to the nearest 24-hour drug store for travel soap and shampoo. You don't have to carry them in your bag the whole time.

9. You must have enough money for your OWN ride home, just in case you won't have a ride home. Or to the train station. Or to the airport.

10. When all's said and done (whether something happens or not), give him a long kiss goodbye and walk on. Don't look back. Trust that he'll stare at you walking away from him. He won't turn away too soon.

10. Don't give him your number. You've agreed to part ways.

11. Don't carry too much with you on your way home.

12. Travel light; flee light; fly light; feel light. Life's too short for all that baggage.