My colleague, who had recently got herself a pair of glasses, asked me about my degrees. I told her I had been wearing glasses since 12, and I had stopped worrying about it. She was surprised that I never bothered to find out from the optometrist whether my degrees had gone up or not, each time I got a new pair of glasses. She asked me what I do to reward myself. I told her I would go to Kinokuniya to buy books and read for the whole weekend. She asked how about if I go to Perth to visit my sister. I told her I would spend many afternoons reading in her backyard. The exasperated colleague deduced that I do not care about my health at all, as all the activities which I reward myself with will spoil my eyes even further. It is a reflection of my self-esteem.

I acknowledge that I am not obsessed with my own health, and I am not choosy about food. I eat 6 supplements a day, more to combat the tiredness, than to improve my health. I try to drink 2 litres of water per day but fail most days of the week. I have only started to cycle as an exercise recently.

In my line of job, I see many hypochondriac and pompous customers who get their information from relatives, magazines and internet, and think they themselves the expert. If I just give them one remedy, they will ask for other alternatives. When I offer them various alternatives, they can't even process the information I have provided, and make an informed choice. Most of the time, they don't even know the name of the tablets they are taking everyday, three times a day. I think subconsciously, I do not want to be like these people: harrasing their health-care providers, asking brainless questions and questioning each diagnosis, then getting the remedy which their neighbour ( or the local TV artiste ) had recommended, and which they wanted to get in the first place. If I am ill, I myself will have an idea what the treatment will be, and if it is something else being offered, I will discuss with the doctors or whoever, and we reach an agreement. In the mean time, I will read up about it.

Of course my colleague is right. She herself had suffered from depression, and has just come out from it through our support. I think it is good that she can make such observations, instead of being immersed in her own past bad experiences. I should take care of myself more from now on.

Come think of it, I only ask a lot of questions, when I bring one of the cats to the vet.