Skincare : 101

Ok, it's ridiculous that I am posting this update, since I am the laziest person when it comes to skin care or a beauty regimen. However, my breakouts were going from bad to worse. Nothing seemed to work, none of the wonderful products that are claimed to do wonders for your skin in the TV ads. Anyway, so recently bought some King Coconuts for Daughter who was quite ill one day recently with a stomach bug. Then it dawned on me to try using the water for the ugly marks the constant attack of acne was leaving behind. And touch wood, it seems to be working. Not only have the marks been reducing, but the acne has as well. It's not totally gone, thanks to me being lazy (see beginning of post), and not doing the regimen religiously, however quite surprised at whatever results I've got. Here's an article that explains why coconut water is apparently good for skin. If like me, you live in a tropical country where this great fruit is abundant, you have no excuse to not use it (unless ofcourse you're lazy like me).

Learning from Past Mistakes

Just came across this headline today.

'At least 31 people killed' in Bangladesh ferry sinking.

As I read on, images flashed to my mind of my own experience with a ferry (near) disaster. I was 14. Had gone to the southern part of my country to visit my ailing Grandmother with my parents and siblings. On the way back, in the middle of the night, the ferry got stuck on some "islands" formed by silt in the middle of the river. We spent the night like that, waiting for some form of rescue, pretty terrified as the area was supposed to be sometimes attacked by "river pirates". My parents were carrying foreign currency (we were visiting from abroad), so there was much to be lost, even if we managed to escape with our lives. Luckily, with the arrival of dawn, another passenger ferry turned up and we managed to change ferries mid river. Quite exciting stuff for a teenager!

Anyway, back to the current headline, it is feared more than 200 people may have lost their lives. It seems people in Bangladesh have learnt absolutely nothing about personal safety over the years. Every year brings new news of ferry disasters and no one, neither the authorities nor individual passengers nor the owners of the vessels that ply the waterways do anything differently. It seems no one cares for these lives that are lost and will do nothing to change their ways.

Modern Times, Modern Problems

I often feel that we are going crazy with technology. We don't know how to live naturally at all. And we overshare everything. If you think facebook is bad, look at the people who go on reality shows. Then there's blogging and podcasting.

Who hasn't met or heard of someone having an online fling? And rare is the family who are not hooked totally to electronic gadgets. In fact, this is the typical modern family today, with children whose sole entertainment during their free time is computer games and playstations. Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking the higher ground here. I feel almost everyone I know (including my own family) is way too much into technology for their day to day affairs. I listen to podcasts while waiting for Daughter to go to sleep. H is hooked to the TV and Angry Birds. Daughter listens to audiobooks relentlessly. We cannot seem to go for a walk without something to listen to. Sounds of nature are just not bearable.

With all this reliance on unnatural things, it's no wonder unnatural and previously unheard of problems like ADD, ADHD, SID etc are so common nowadays. Sad and very worrying.

I try to fight the trends, unsuccessfully I might add. I try to remind H not to spring to the blackberry, TV and ipod every free second he gets. I try to limit Daughter's time listening to audiobooks. I try to not get hooked to day time TV.

Ofcourse, technology is not all bad. I live abroad, don't do conventional work and have few friends. This technology has kept me sane to a large extent. Countless times I have turned to google and babycentre to look up something that was wrong with my baby. So, on the whole I'm happy it's there. I just wish we didn't let technology consume us and change us into machines who spend little time communicating with each other in more natural ways.