No, No... Just Water Please.

Since October 19th (Blair and Anna's Wedding - Hey guys! #blogshoutout) I have only drank water. And black tea with a little bit of sweetener.
That's right, no:
-Coffee
-Pop/Soda
-Milk
-Juice
-Alcohol
-Smoothies that pretend they are made from just fruit
-Delicious coffee/latte anything from Starbucks

Nothing. None of it. Just water and black tea.
For some reason this has blown people's minds... back home but especially here.

I guess for those of you who know me very well you would know that prior to October 19th my day would include at least 1 cup of coffee, followed by several diet cokes and usually finished off with a hot chocolate. Back then the most water I consumed was whatever I swallowed while brushing my teeth.

However, things really changed on October 19th/20th (I remember the dates because I've never been in so much pain in my life haha).
Leading up to that weekend I was living my normal life... drinking all sorts of bad drinks lol and of course eating all sorts of bad food (it was around thanksgiving!)

And I started getting reeeeally sick all the time. Excruciating stomach pains. Throwing up. It was insane and I couldn't figure out what was going on.

So the weekend of the 19th we went to our friend's wedding and had an ammmmmmmazing night filled with amazing food and drinks. Towards the end of the night I started feeling so sick that we had to leave a tiny bit earlier than we had planned on leaving.

We got home and I honestly thought I was going to die. I had consumed all sorts of meds that should fix a tummy ache. I had called my mom, mother in law and telehealth Ontario and no one had any solutions for me. I stayed up most of the night in complete agony until Irt finally convinced me to go to the walk in clinic when it opened at 9am.
We go to the clinic...the doctor presses as hard as he possibly can on my stomach and asks if it hurts. I AM DYING at this point. And he finally sends me to ...

the hospital.

I hate the hospital and I will avoid it all costs. But there I was sitting in emergency being poked, xrayed and tested. It was hell. I was there for close to 8 hours and they had no idea what was going on. REALLY!?

They sent me home with some painkillers and planned for some more tests later that week, which included an MRI (they couldn't perform it that day because the technicians had gone home. way to go milton hospital.)

After more tests later that week I was informed that my liver was fat.
uh hello, of course my liver was fat - look at the rest of me.
my doctor told me that it was unusual for someone my age to be experiencing such liver conditions that I really need to clean up my life style and essentially lose a bunch of weight in the process.

and that was that. All I needed was a legitimate health scare (and a couple of weeks of unforgettable pain) to get my butt moving (in as many ways as possible)

So. Thats why I've started losing weight -  for my liver.

And.

Thats why I only drink water.

Im sure there are people out there reading this right now listing off things that I could be drinking and still be healthy, but .... really whats better than water? the answer is nothing. its clean. its fresh. its pure. go ahead challenge me on this one you will not win.

And many of you are probably saying anything in moderation is fine. and you're right. but for me I needed a good solid cleanse.

Would I love a cool refreshing drink of ....anything other than water at this point? hell. yes. I crave things all the time. ALL. THE. TIME.
And being in Singapore doesn't help where delicious drinks are everywhere lol.

So while I appreciate everyone's effort to convince me to drink something other than water... (Especially my dearest husband... LOL #fail)
It ain't happening lol.
Because I am never going to be in that much pain ever again.

Scuba Jess.
Ps. its totally appropriate that scuba jess only drinks water. is like i'm one with the ocean ahahah
PPS. its weird that I just referred to myself in the third person. i promise to never do that again.

The Cleaning Lady

Where do I begin.

I am messy by nature (although its organized chaos to me) but I LOVE a clean house.
It poses quite a problem in my day to day life.
Back in the Milton house a solid cleaning took place at least once every two weeks.
And an extra cleaning/hiding of stuff when guests were coming over.
Since moving to Singapore cleaning has been much more frequent for two reasons.
1. Visitors.
2. Bugs. (not that we have bugs, but that I'm trying my hardest to prevent them from coming here lol. its to the point where ... if I open a bag of pretzels it must be sealed away in a zip lock after in order to prevent bugs sniffing anything out. wow im way off topic here. but seriously. bugs scare me. and now that i've talked so much about them. one is bound to show up. my god)

Anyways. Like I was saying much more cleaning here in Singapore. Which has been fine because I've just been supplying and I'm done my course for the term.

However, hired help seems to be quite the thing out here. Everyone seems to have a cleaning lady. Or a live in helper. Its 'cheap' (Singapore cheap). So I asked Irt if we could try one out. Slash. He offered in order to get out of helping me clean.

So today is the day that the cleaning lady is coming to clean.

And I already organized the entire house in anticipation of it.

Irt watched in disbelief as I tidied everything up and laid out all the cleaning materials we had (actually he sat and watched 24, but he seemed to be in disbelief about something) however, when he finally did look up from his laptop he was shocked.

Now let me clarify -  I didn't clean. Everything still needs to be cleaned. I simply did things like put laundry away because really, who wants to put our underwear away. (if you secretly do ... for the love of god keep that to yourself because that makes you crazier than me)

So anyways hiring a cleaning lady was a wonderful idea for a couple reasons. (Pros)

1. its a nice little break for me

2. it will help with the pre-cleaning stages before my dad (and mom and sister) arrive in july. (but really the emphasis here is on my dad, as we all know he will be inspecting, and informing me of how to clean better. lol)

And I'm sure this cleaning lady is wonderful and efficient (and oh my god shes here. and I just introduced myself. and she is lovely). but this still doesnt sit very well with me.

For two reasons (wow i love lists) (Cons)

1. Who am I that I can't clean for myself. Am I that busy.. or that important that I need someone to help with my cleaning!? I understand for people who are injured or unhealthy in some way ... but seriously im fully capable of cleaning. From a social justice perspective this is all wrong and the guilt i feel at this point is unbearable. but on the other hand...it is this woman's job? I don't know!? #conflicted.

2. I am crazy. full on crazy.
This wonderful woman is cleaning our dishes as I type. And Im having a minor anxiety attack. Perhaps I need to relax.
Or maybe I should just do my own dishes.

...or maybe I should get Irt to do the dishes ;)

Hahahaha.. well either way... this is one of those new experiences for me.
I can't say for certain that I'll never use a cleaning service again.
But I am enjoying the little break this Tuesday evening
And I also appreciate that phase one of Kingson Klean is under way exactly three weeks before my parents leave for Singapore.

Right. On. Schedule.

Scuba Jess.

Updates

I haven't blogged in a while.
Because we've been so busy its not even funny.
So I thought I'd share some updates :)

Visitors

I don't like using the term visitors for the people who have come to stay with us because they have all been family (including two best friends). But I must say. I think we've spent more time with visitors than we have without them while living here in Singapore lol. We initially moved out here to spend time with each other (we worked flipped hours back home) and I would say in the past four months we've had 4 weeks to ourselves LOL. With that being said ...I've loved having people over. It has made me less home sick. Our most recent 'visitors' were my inlaws.

REAL GROWN UPS.

Thank the high heavens that real adults showed up when they did because I couldn't keep up my act of pretending to be one. My mother and father in law swooped right in and started cooking....cleaning....parenting. I needed a good parenting. Irt needed a good parenting. Now that we've both been babied..clothed and fed... we're good for at least another month...

because in one month...

MY PARENTS!! arrive :) And my sister. But holy moly I'm excited to see my family!!

And then. Thankfully. The visiting stops. And regular life can begin...which is good because ...

Work

So as I've posted I got a job out here at one of the international schools. And... I signed a two year contract lol.. which means... we won't be home until September 2016. Mind you in that time we'll come home at least once a year... maybe more :)
I'm pretty excited and nervous for this job.
Mostly just nervous.
Actually I'm just nervous.
I hate being the new teacher and making new friends. It makes me miss my old teacher friends a lot! #sameena. I know you're reading this LOL.

Hair

Singapore has killed my hair. I moved here with nice long hair (long for me anyways haha ) and singapore killed it one shower at a time. So i've chopped it all off. And while its much healthier now...its also much more fizzy. Thanks Singapore :) Its greatly appreciated.

Friends
We have met so many cool people out here but I initially hesitated to call them all friends. Lots of people are just here to party... (Singapore's night life is awesome lol and I totally get it) But I was looking for more people to connect with outside of a club. In recent weeks it has gotten a lot better. We're slowly finding people like ourselves which I'm grateful for.

My Book Club

Failed. LOL. moving on. (seriously though... do any girls read in singapore? lol c'mon ladies.)

Travel 

We headed to Kuala Lumpur while my best friend Ange was here back in late April/ early May. And we had such a cool experience! However, KL was not nearly as clean as Singapore. When we flew back into Singapore I was so grateful and excited for Singaporean cleanliness I wanted to kiss the ground. And I could have because its that much cleaner than KL.

In late October ....we...are... heading...to..AUSTRALIA!! Which I find to be highly appropriate because I've put up with Australian working hours for almost 4 years lol. This is my pay off...and it was worth every hour.
I have every intention of hugging a koala bear and climbing into the pouch of a kangaroo.
And lets not forget. So. Much. Scuba.

Weightloss

I've stopped losing. Not by choice. Its just stopped.
Perhaps because I ate an entire small pizza to myself the other day LOL
Actually. this is a cry for fitness/food advice. What I was doing has stopped working and I think I need to change up my routine.


And that is my/our life update. I think the excitement of living abroad has slowly turned into some form of normalcy... which is good because we're here for 2 years and I wanted this place to start feeling like home instead of an endless vacation.

So if you're one of those people who reads the beginning and the end of stories...
In short, life is good.
Scuba Jess.