itchy, again

i love the tropical weather.
i love spending time in the great outdoors. walks, jogs, blades, picnics... you name it.
i also belong to the minority of eczema sufferers who do NOT outgrow it.

Put the three together, and it means very frequent eczema flare-ups each time i happily engage in sports in the sun, which i love!

Sigh.

Then again, I can see at least one good thing out of this. I have used my eczema condition as an analogy with my patients quite a few time. E.g. in the topics of short-term shiokness (feeding the itch) vs long-term benefits (like unscarred skin), being able to identify triggers, and basically acknowledging that it is a lifelong condition that probably won't get cured, but can be managed.

oh well... guess it has its uses. Now I just need to do all the CBT and MET techniques on myself.

toilet notes

The past two weeks have been spent on the other side of the world. It's my first time to the States and it has been mostly fun since it's travelling after all, and i do like to travel and see the world.

I'm gonna talk about toilets! Funny how when i travel, one of the things that strike me first would be noting (subconsciously): 'what does a typical toilet in this country constitute?'

In CA (and i don't mean california), many toilets were pit toilet types. There's no such thing as flushing down the used paper. There's a bin for that. And btw, did i mention that it's like sandpaperish?

In USA, nice toilet paper is in abundance, the flush is powerful - hurray, and there's always toilet seat liners, which are really great! But my gripe is.... can't the doors be fitted better such that there are no holes between the door and the frame??

In Oz, the doors and door frames also have gaps! I don't understand, seriously.........

So maybe in Sg, we have a nice balance. Maybe toilet seat liners are a rarity, but at least we don't have to throw the paper into a bin (realise that this means flies were constant business companions in the CA countries), and at the same time, privacy is assured because doors fit their frames in Sg.

After all these notes about the toilets across the world, my point is, I really think we have it pretty good in Sg. And that applies to the healthcare system too. This trip isn't primarily a learning-about-toilet trip, but a learning-about-healthcare trip. And while there are pros and cons of various systems... i must say that these wks have made me relook at how i appreciate Sg's healthcare system more now. Not perfect of course, but tell me, which system can be perfect?