Coffee and Tea

I like the nice aroma of the coffee. It makes me feel refreshing. My office used to have a coffee maker, where we can make cappucino, coffee latte and espresso. I love cappuccino as it is less strong. I like espresso too but I avoid taking it most of the time as it is very strong. When someone makes a cup of coffee from the coffee maker, the whole office will be filled with the nice smell of coffee aroma. During that time, almost everyday I have to resist myself from drinking coffee everyday. It is hard to resist the nice coffee aroma. However since about 1 year ago the coffee maker has spoilt and I heard the cost of repairing it is not cheap. So company did not proceed to fix it and since then no more cappuccino or coffee latte for me, back to the 3-in-1 coffee mix. I usually take only 2 cups per week, when I feel like it. I don't have the habit and I'm also not addict to the coffee. I'm a Milo person actually. I must have a cup of Milo every morning in the office. And I can only take coffee with stomach full, so I will only drink it after lunch.

Lately I noticed that, I have difficulty falling asleep after taking a cup of coffee in the afternoon. I can even stay up to 3-5am in the morning. Argh! Is it a sign of aging? Sigh. It happened few times already. So my sleeping time for the past 2 weeks was being messed up. I think I should stop taking coffee for the time being.

Since no coffee, I switch to drink tea! One of my colleague told me, he drinks tea to stay awake. Tea is stronger than coffee. Coffee has no effect on him (sometimes I even saw him drinking black coffee. o_O) A friend suggested to me to drink tea with honey instead of sugar. So I went to buy a bottle of honey and I like it! And instead of Lipton tea, I drink rose tea. 5 roses and 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey for making 2 cups of tea. Sometimes I take 2 cups in the morning and another 2 cups after lunch. Sometimes I add with a pinch of lavender flower too. But I still prefer just honey and rose tea. The aroma from the roses is so refreshing. :)

Back Pain

When I was young, I always heard my mom or grand mother complaining having back pain, especially after they had carried something heavy. I was still a teenager. At that time, having back ache seems like not something happen to me very frequently.

The last time I had terrible back ache, was when I was pregnant with H. I was around 8 months pregnant during that time. It was a Saturday and we were getting ready to travel to Malacca for a short trip with my parents and my brother family. L was 2 years old that time. She was much attached to me, and even more when I was pregnant. She always demanded me to carry her. So that morning, she asked to be carried again. It was my mistake actually. I thought just for a while, I did not squat down before carrying her. I just bend down and when I wanted to lift her up, *OUCH!!!* I felt a sharp burning sensation on my back! I shouted in pain, and put her down immediately. For a while, I couldn't move at all. Just stood there letting the pain go off. I could hardly walk. But I thought it would go off soon so I did not think much about it. Just continue to load the stuff into the car and then we set off to Malacca.

During the car ride, the pain did not go away. In fact, it was getting worse. When we stopped the car for toilet break, I had difficulty getting down from the car to bring Lynn to the toilet. I could hardly walk too. Every movement would cause me in great pain. I consider myself have very high tolerance on the pain, still could not take it. It was very very very painful. Much much more painful than giving birth. :(

After taking our lunch in Malacca, we decided to pay a visit to the doctor. We went to one of the hospital in the town. Seeing my big tummy, at first the nurses thought I'm going to deliver! LOL! The doctor checked my blood pressure and my back. He prescribed me panadol as pain killer. He mentioned that it is safe for me to take the panadol. He also gave me some patches to put on my back, to relief the pain. Could not remember the name now. I did not take the panadol but I did put on the patch. The patch did help a lot. Still painful, but at least I could move around. Night time sleeping was another night mare. I could not get up alone without help, to go to the toilet. I could not turn my body too. Every movement was a great pain. It was a restless night.

Could not remember how long I suffered from that back pain. But Lynn did not ask for carry anymore after that. She knew I was in pain. She would say "Mama pain pain".

Few months back, I experienced some back pain too. During that time, I had coffee almost every working day. So I tried to cut down the coffee intake, and the back pain would go away. Since then, I limit myself to maximum of 3 cups of coffee a week. Usually I only consume 2 cups per week.

For the past one month, consistently I'm having back pain almost everyday. At first I thought maybe due to coffee. However despite I stop taking coffee for the whole week, the pain did not go away. I also tried putting a small pillow under my back when I sleep at night, but it did not help much this time (this method used to work well for me before this). It is not very pain, still bearable, but VERY annoying. I can feel the pain most of the time, whether I am walking, sitting, or even sleeping. I'm not sure is it due to carrying Hao? He is getting heavier now. However I don't really carry him much nowadays. Not even more than 5 minutes. A short hug and carry when I pick up the kids at my parents house (H will sure ask for carry, except if he's sitting in the high chair having his dinner), carry him to the car seat and carry him to switch off the lights. I don't carry him when we are outside shopping etc. Usually hb is the one (only if H asks for carry). I don't really think carry H is the reason. Then what is the reason causing the back pain? Sigh. No idea. Maybe it is due to the stress from work? *Shrug* Going for a body check-up this weekend. Hope to find some clue there.

Wishing you all a great weekend!