It’s hard to describe my experience, so I’ve found the intro video of MaiDreamin on Youtube.

The video shows the same things that I experienced. The candle, the drink, photo-taking and performance.

Here’s an explanation for the uninitiated:

The Candle and Seating Charges
The Candle is actually a timer. Pretty cool, huh?! In most maid cafes, you pay a seating charge for a set duration, usually an hour. For MaiDreaming, we paid 800 yen for an hour. After an hour, the light on the candle will go off, signifying the end of your session. At this point of time, you can opt to stop and pay your bill or continue for another hour with the same seating charge.

Food and Drinks get a Moe Power Up!
Most maid cafe sell food like omelet rice and desserts like cakes and parfait. They sell a wide variety of drinks, alcholic to italian soda, as well as hot drinks like tea or coffee. In most cases, the maids will do a chant or a Moe Power Up over your food and drinks. I later found out on the internet it is a Power Up to make your drinks taste better.

During my visit to MaiDreamin, I ordered a cup of hot tea, Almond Chocolate (yes, I thought it was hot chocolate when I ordered but it turned out to be tea!) and received the Moe Power Up. First, the Maid asked me to follow her actions. She then demonstrated her actions and words once first, and then the second time I will follow her actions and say the words with her. To be honest, I felt extremely embarrassed and silly doing the Moe Power Up but at the same time, it was also extremely fun!!

What the maids say in the Moe Power Up also depends on your food. For example, if you ordered a Bunny Parfait, the Moe Power Up will include “Pyon Pyon!” in it.

Here’s a list of words/sounds you’ll here in a maid cafe or during the Moe Power Up:

1) Pyon – the sound a rabbit makes

2) Nyah – the sound a cat makes

3) Kyun -a cute sound (This is tricky…I don’t know if this the correct explanation)

Photo-taking
You can pay for a decorated Polaroid photo with a maid of your choice. For MaiDreaming, the photo fee was 500 yen. I now regret not taking a photo with the maids. It would have made a fantastic memento!! Also, please note that apart from their Polaroid photo service, photography of the maid cafe or maid is NOT ALLOWED. You can however, take photographs of the delicious food that they service you.

Song and Dance Performance
MaiDreamin is a very different maid cafe as it has dance and song performances. The performances were great. The maids can dance really well! I was not expecting performances in a maid cafe, let alone fantastic dance performances by the maids! WOW!

Conclusion
In all, I enjoyed my first maid cafe experience, or more specifically, the MaiDreamin experience. It was really fun and I truly admire the maids’  energy and enthusiasm. It was a pity that I fell sick after that, as I wanted to visit a different maid cafe. Perhaps, next time when I visit Japan again…

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli, 1781.

I have done a presentation on Sleep Paralysis sometime back in school for my public sleeping class, inspired by own my occasional episodes of this sleeping disorder. However, my previous experience and knowledge of it still couldn’t prevent me from panicking and being paralyzed with fear last night.

Last night, I was having trouble sleeping. I was really tired but my mind seemed to be awake and I couldn’t relax. My pillow and bed was uncomfortable, both having lost their firmness to support my sleeping posture properly. To top it off, it was a hot, noisy, humid night with people walking about, burning joss paper, and praying to the Sky God as well as a continuous string of noisy vehicles going “Vroooom! Vroooom!” one after another. I tried to clear my mind and count sheep. After a while, I just decided to count numbers, because I didn’t like my visualizations of sheep and somehow felt that I was starting to drift off to sleep.

It was then, as I was drifting off to sleep that I felt a tingling in my limbs.

I thought to myself ,”That’s odd…why the tingling? Pins and needles?”

And then I realised it was Sleep Paralysis kicking in.

I immediately tried to turn to my side to counter it, but it was TOO LATE.

My whole body started tingling and vibrating all over and suddenly, there was this huge pressure on my chest and stomach.

SOMETHING WAS CRUSHING ME.

I started to panic a little and started shaking more. The pressure got worse.

“Calm down, calm down. Deep breaths…This is just another irritating sleep paralysis episode,” I told myself. My body started relaxing a bit and the shaking ease slightly, although the pressure was still there, crushing my chest and stomach.

“It’s just another sleep paralysis episode, not like it’s some sleep demon sitting down on you,” I joked to myself.

Bad move.

Upon thinking “sleep demon”, my mind called out a visual of a ugly goblin-like creature and fear kicked in. I The tingling, vibrating and shaking all intensified and the pressure got worst.

Then I lost it. I went into full-mode panicking and felt terrified.

My mind just went “SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!” but somehow I managed to blocked out the full visual of the ugly goblin- like creature. It was just an outline or an imprint of it, in the dark (my eyes were closed).

“WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO?! THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE! THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE” I screamed to myself as fear filled my body.

Then a thought popped into my mind – Albert.

Yes, I’ll think of Albert. Albert kicks around in his sleep so much and I shall do the same, I thought.

Muttering Albert’s name to distract myself from the intense fear, I started fighting the sleep paralysis. I try to move but I was shaking too much and the awful pressure pinned me down. I tried to kick and fling about, but I was frozen to where I was.

And then, I remembered what I learnt about getting out of the paralysis. Start by wriggling your fingers and toes.

Yes. WRIGGLE!!!

Somehow after that, I managed to jerk myself awake. The tingling still continued on a bit and I was still freaked out.

Wow. What a Sleep Paralysis episode. Freaky is the only word to describe it.

I then went downstairs to get some water to drink and calm myself down. Oddly enough, my lower abdominal started to hurt. My stomach also started to hurt a little, like I had gastric.

Is that why I felt that horrible pressure on me?

Now that I’m wide awake and less freaked out, I’m going to examine the factors that cause the sleep paralysis.

Factors I think contributed to sleep paralysis

1) Noisy background – It was hard to sleep with all that noise!

2) Insomnia, disrupted sleep schedule – I was having a hard time getting to sleep.

3) Stomachache and gastric – I ate some bread and drank some milk after that. And puked all of it out together with the meat buns I had for dinner. I guess I’m having some heartburn/acid reflux again. Need to eat smaller, more frequent meals and stock up on my anti-acids

4) Warm, humid and feeling dry – I felt so hot, dry and dehydrated last night.

5) Uncomfortable in bed – I need to change my pillow and mattress soon.

6) Stress – Unable to relax maybe a factor

7) PMS – Hormones imbalance? Maybe I need more vitamins.

Going back to sleep

It was hard getting back to sleep again. A few other times when I was drifting off to sleep, even on my side, I felt the tingling feeling and had to jerk myself awake before the whole thing started again. Later on, I did have another episode of sleep paralysis. There was something choking my neck! Help! And then I wake up, and everyone is awake. I went downstairs and started to tell my mom about it. We went back up to my room, to find my dad flopped on my bed, relaxing and my brother sitting in my chair. My brother? No wait, isn’t he supposed to be back only on Friday?? Why is he-No wait. It was a dream.

I dreamed of sleep paralysis in my dream and waking up. Gosh. My neck muscles hurt. Bad pillow causing bad sleep posture. That explains the choking in the dream, I suppose.

Eventually, I managed to drift off to sleep (slightly half-awake), and dreamed about other things like trying to sleep and something happening with my friends.

This is one of the worst, perhaps the worst bout of sleep paralysis so far. I never had the crushing feeling previously and neither was I so freaked out with fear. I’m so freaked out that I can’t stop thinking about it when I’m awake, in the day.

Hopefully, it won’t happen again tonight.

I miss my good quality SLEEP that I haven’t really had the past week.

Note to self:

- Stock up on vitamins to counter PMS and insomina

- Get better mattress and pillow

- Try to exercise more

- And get a night light so it will be easier to sleep after another $%^#! freaking sleep paralysis

Check out the Best 2011 Super Bowl Commercials complied by College Humor.

My favourites are Best Buy: Bieber and Ozzy and Bud Light: Product Placement.

Which are yours?

Vacation in Japan – The weather and catching a cold

Growing up in a tropical part of the world, I was unprepared for the weather in Japan. I bought my winter coat, Vaseline, thermal socks and sweaters to keep warm, however the dryness of winter and wind chill was a shock to my body.

I caught a bad cold there and starting having a bit of chills and fever. I didn’t know at first, as I was irritated by a rash on my body, and found it hard to sleep as I kept feeling a cold draft on my chest. I just thought it was my sensitive nose at work and me being unused to the weather. However, later on, things got worse.  I couldn’t sleep and started shivering and shivering and shivering.  Albert woke up and felt my forehead. He exclaimed that I had a fever I should use cold compress to bring the fever down.

But by that time I was feeling terrible and frustrated by many nights of poor sleep, I just broke down and cried.  It was a horrible. I just kept shivering and felt so sick and AWFUL. Thankfully, Albert took charge and said he’ll bring me to the doctor. He called the Singapore embassy there and managed to get a name of a 24 hours clinic. We then went down to the lobby to prepare to leave. Bryan later came down and suggested  asking the hotel personnel for help. We rang the emergency bell and luckily the hotel manager was around . He knew the address of a  hospital nearby and helped us flagged a cab to get there.

We got to the hospital pretty fast and after registration, I could see the doctor within 15-20  minutes of waiting time.  We  spoke with the doctor and tried to describe my symptoms the best we could to her. After that, her diagnosis was that…I caught a cold. I was flummoxed. All this rush and fuss  for a simple cold? Albert then reminded me that a cold or flu that goes untreated will result in complications. Furthermore, it was in winter. Catching a colds in winter can be dangerous.

I felt better after eating the cold medicine from the doctor. She also gave me some cream for my rash, which is actually Keratosis Pilar. Albert and I stayed in the next day and mainly slept. With better sleep (the cold medicine made me very drowsy),

I felt very guilty and silly for making Albert so worried about me and also needing to be rushed to the hospital over a cold. But, I’m extremely thankfully to him, for taking care of me when I’m ill and feeling crappy because of it.

Albert is a great person and I’m very lucky to have him as my love.

P.S.

The hospital we went to was the Tokyo Kyosai Hospital in Naga Meguro. Here is a picture of it (taken from Wikipedia).

I had bad sleep again last night. Woke up a few times for toilet, water, felt slightly hungry or cold.

And then I started dreaming, which also made me feel very tired when I woke up.

I did get a new pillow…which is a slight improvement from my previous very flat pillow. However, I find it too soft my taste.It’s one of those synthetic fiber, anti-dust mite/allergy types.

I’m not sure if I want to buy a memory foam pillow (they are so expensive), or should I go back to my cotton pillows?

Whatever it is, I want a good night sleep!!!! Argh.

It’s a few days before Chinese New Year, and I haven’t got the time or energy to look for new clothes or a new bag that I really do need. My mother remarked that there clothes, e.g. nice dresses that I could get, just that I didn’t want to.

Truthfully, I agree with my mother. I’m now considering not buying more dresses, unless I do wear them often. Right now, I’m not a dresses/skirts person. Also, I find it hard to find clothes with the cutting that suits me.

Most of the clothes is either too big or too small at the stomach the shoulder or the bust.

Apart from no-new-clothes problem, I’ve been having no-good-sleep problem again. I’m still finding it hard to sleep even though I have cut down a lot on coffee and tea, and also I’ve been dreaming a lot in my sleep. Hopefully, I can regain good sleep soon…

I still haven’t wrote my Part 2 of my Japan trip Hope to do so, during CNY.

I also watch Solomon Kane on over the weekend on Saturday. Perhaps I will be writing about it later.

A bout of better news is that I have managed to continue my rogue playthrough for DragonAge over the weekend. Hope to finish it during the CNY too.

The past week get increasingly busy and tiring as the week passed.

Hopefully, I will have more energy and time this week to write about what happened in Japan.

I’ve been thinking a lot about it, but haven’t the time nor energy to sit down and write the post down proper.

Feeling really overstretched due to the lack of time and energy…partly it’s due to PMS (fatigue, bloatedness, feeling moody, insomia), partly I don’t know..Sigh.

Not feeling good today.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the backlog of work and unreal to be back in Singapore.

Or perhaps, now that I’m back, the time I spent in Japan seemed unreal, like a fleeting dream, if not for all the photos and souvenirs I got from there.

It’s been a pretty “complete” trip, like what Albert said. “Complete” in the sense that apart from sightseeing and experiencing the culture there, we also took the taxi there to the A&E in the middle of the night. No worries, I’m fine now.

Will write more about my trip and what happened to me to be rushed to the A&E.

Health

Health-wise,  I had problems, always getting sore throat, blocked nose, and itchy rash/eczema. The haze affected my sensitive nose a lot and having sensitive skin is no fun in a hot and humid climate (sometimes it seems to get hotter and more humid than usual). Here are some things that I would like to improve on.

1. Sleep

Yes, I’ve been naughty in this aspect. Sleeping late at night, playing games, watching youtube videos, staying out late with friends after dinner. The past two weeks have been pretty much like that and it is baaad for me. My eyes are extremely tired (I think my myopia got worse )  and I feel crappy in the morning. >.< Time for me to go to bed at 9.30pm – 10pm, at least 3 times a week on week days, and I think I’ll allocate weekends for sleeping early/catching up sleep too.

2. Diet

I’m not going to dieting or go on a new, trendy diet. But I’m going to change what I eat. I need more vegetables in my diet and I would like more frequent meals to prevent my gastric from acting up again. I’ve been having sandwiches for lunch, but sometimes it isn’t enough and the amount of fibre isn’t enough for me. Yes, I’ll admit it, my daily dump have been somewhat constipated.

Thus, I plan to cook some food, freeze it, and bring it to work for lunch and maybe also dinner. If I do eat dinner in the office, it will free up more time for some light exercise after I reach home, I can go to bed earlier (I usually have my dinner at 8pm – 8.30pm due to commuting and silly train disruptions at times), and I still feel too full to sleep at 9.30pm -10pm. This will also reduce my likelihood of overeating for dinner as I am usually too hungry at that time. Home-cooked frozen lunches/dinners will be healthier and cheaper, and more delicious.

3. Exercise

I’ve been feeling sluggish and crappy, and especially since I have been sleeping too late and not eating right. No exercise makes things worse. >.< I will be purchasing a new yoga mat and some other exercise equipment that can be easily used in the comfort of my house.

Work

Career-wise, things are fine. My job allows me to have many learning opportunities and I’m thankful for it. I get to see a different side of how business is done, and being in a small company is different. My first job was a medium company that grew quite big rapidly. Later on, I took on a part-time job and worked at a somewhat medium-sized company for a while. Now, I am working in a small company.

I’m glad I get to have experience what it is like working with different sized companies and in different industries. I must admit there are times I miss my old librarian job, but right now, I think it is good for me to see what other things I can do and what are the other industries are like.

Family, Friends and Love

1. Friends

Some friends grew a little closer and some friends became less close. Nothing out of the ordinary, for people go in and out of your life pretty much. People change in different environments and the change can be bad or good. Friends also grow apart as they move into different directions. I do put distance between me and some people when I find I need a break from them due to the above reasons. I wonder if this is good or bad?

2. Family

I attended two weddings: one in mid ’09 and one at the end of this year when my two female cousins got married. And now, everyone is asking me, “When is your turn (to get married)?” This question irritates me, even though I was already expecting it.I got interrogated by one of my other cousins who sudden got worried about me after attending the tea ceremony for one of the brides and during the dinner, especially the second one, I was being asked “When is your turn?! I’m waiting for it!” quite a few times. Sigh. Irritating. (I suppose being tired and hungry also played a part of that irritated feeling)

This question puts a lot pressure on people. I felt like I was being forced into marriage with that question! There is an expectation there and you feel like you have to live up to it or you are abnormal, or weird or something. Although I understand the well-intentions of my relatives, I dislike this question mainly because it is a leading question with bias. It automatically assumes that you want to get married or you will get married.

To me, it is a most uncomfortable question for people who are single without a bf/gf, people who have a bf/gf but not planning marriage so soon, and people who are extremely private like me. Besides that, I do not like to talk about serious issues like these until they are confirmed and set in stone. Argh. I will have to prepare myself for more of this question during Chinese New Year when the relatives meet again. >.<

Apart from that, my younger brother went into NS. My parents and I all miss him and are looking forward to seeing him again on Christmas Eve.

3. Love

In terms of love, I’m really happy right now. =)

Other things

This past year have seen my intuition at work…it can be pretty accurate. Perhaps the clues were already there, and I just put two and two together. Sometimes, I wish I was wrong though.

I’ve learned to appreciate social gatherings and the company of others more, although I still can be critical and harsh on others, especially those whom I do not know well or know well and dislike. This might be something for me to work on and improve. Despite all the drama that comes with my social circle , it is no longer just plain “Familarity breeds contempt” for me. The phrase is more complete with the second part to it like this: “Familarity  breeds contempt, but it can also foster comfort”.

Lastly, I’ll be flying off to Japan next week and I’m really looking forward to it. It will be my first trip going overseas via plane, and I have no doubt it will be FUN!

Overall, 2010 has been a pretty good year for me and I hope that next year will be just as good, if not even better. =D

It will be my experimental platform of sorts. This current blog will still remain, as my blog with a more personal focus.

Apart from that, I have purchased my winter jacket! I also got a wool hat and gloves. I got them at Gidel Winter Wear (http://gidelsg.wordpress.com), since it is nearest to Albert’s and my house. I bought the grey trench coat (see picture below).

Grey Trench Coat from Gidel Winter Wear

I’m really excited about going to Japan!!

The other stuff I need are shoes and also perhaps, thermal underwear. My brother advises me not to get them, while my mother insists on me getting them. I am now pretty confused. >.<

There is still some time before we fly off, so let’s hope I do manage to get everything ready by then.