Chet’s Chatter

A classic, remixed

Posted on 5 April 2009 @ 11:30 in Fun Stuff

It brought a smile to my face, followed by tears (of joy).

Thanks to Ochiya who shared it on the Janis Ian Message Board.

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Love your job? What a thought!

Posted on 5 April 2009 @ 11:09 in Rant, Stress Busters

I used to think (and I still do) that you should love the job you’re in. This may be naive, since sometimes you don’t have a choice about the job you’re in. Then again, if you can choose the job, you would choose something you love, right? Apparently not. Sometimes, a job is a job.

Recently, The Washington Post ran a story on the giant panda family at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. A couple of things that the Zoo’s director said made me wonder if it’s just a job to him.

I know he was just quoting someone in the first quote, but the second one seems to suggest that the giant pandas are just a species to him. But I’m amazed (no, appalled) that someone in such a senior position can be so irresponsible as to speak of the Zoo’s star attractions in such a disparaging manner. Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and especially Tai Shan have brought much joy to residents in DC and the surrounding areas, as well as people around the world. And he is after all, director of one of the few zoos with a giant panda family. Surely, there must be some pride in the fact that your Zoo is helping to make visitors happy.

You know, there are different ways a piece of information can be given out and the way you choose to give it is often an indication of your attitude to the situation. And the message I got from the choice of words in the above extract tells me it’s just business to Mr Berry. But that’s just my interpretation. Other people, of course, could see it differently.

In contrast, I think the staff at Wolong and Bifengxia in China truly love the giant pandas in their care. Even the office staff. I remember during my Bifengxia trip last year, I was talking to one of the Panda Club staff. I’d asked him for some pictures of some cubbies, and as he was going through the pictures on his computer, I could see a look of pure joy on his face as each picture came up on the screen. Then he lingered longer over one picture, and finally sighed and said, “Oh, so cute!”

This is the best thing in the world – to be in a job you love.

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Family Matters

Posted on 3 April 2009 @ 14:39 in Family, Health

Mother turned 83 on Monday. I’d promised her ice cream, but then remembered she was having quite a bad cough so I brought her a slice of White Chocolate Macadamia cake from Secret Recipe. I did tell her I would still get her ice cream when she has recovered from the cough.

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I was preparing to send Darren a text message when I noticed father’s number is still listed in the contact list. So is my niece WY’s. It’s been a few years since they left us, and I haven’t deleted their numbers from my handphone yet. It’s not like I expect to hear from them (!). Maybe it’s my way of remembering them? But a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think of them, especially WY. It’s interesting that I should think of them together today of all days – today, 3 April, is sandwiched between the two dates when they left us, WY on 31 March 2006 and father on 15 April 2005.

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The three of us (sister, brother and I) have just gone through some health scares. My brother was the last to get a review of his situation (I just received a text message from him about the results, and it’s good).

All three of us cleared our respective health hurdles. Mine has the most lingering effect. The latest set of bone density test results showed a deterioration in my hips, a loss of 8% over 2 years, which is more than what is allowed for someone my age.

My rheumatologist thinks it’s due to a combination of my use of prednisolone for my lupus and the fact that I just passed menopause. She said bone loss will be most noticeable between 3 to 5 years of menopause. To combat the deterioration, she’s put me on Fosamax, which has been proven to help build bone mass. It’s just one tablet a week, but must be taken on the same day every week, first thing in the morning, and no food or lying down for 30 minutes after that.

I also think the bone loss is due to my lack of mobility (read: exercise). To combat that, I have started (well, resumed, since I’ve done this before) a mild form of regular exercise, which I need to be regular about!

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