Lost day

Nothing like thinking you have a chronic condition under control only to have it rise up and smack you in the face. Or, rather, esophagus. I try not to whine about my GERD because it's pretty controllable. I know that certain things (e.g. anything spicy or acidic) will cause it to flare up so I either avoid those or treat myself knowing that I'll be up all night popping TUMS. That's why I've been caught so flatflooted by this recent outbreak. Sunday's lunch was cheese spaetzel, coffee, and a bit of tart. (How did you guess I was at Café Meinl?) Dinner was split-pea soup. Nothing there that should've caused me any problems. Yet there I was, sitting up at midnight with the Pepto pills. (My last resort after I've maxed out on TUMS.)

Monday's fare was even milder. And yet, the problems were if anything worse. I got so little sleep I called in, hoping to nap through the morning. But despite the fact that nothing had passed my lips, stomach acid would not leave me alone. I finally did sleep for a couple hours in the afternoon, but there went my hopes of getting anything done with the day. This time I ate and drank so little that I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache--and reflux. At this point, I'm really not sure what to do. I've wondered if it could be something else--the sensation is similar to what I've gotten from food poisoning in the past, but I don't have any other symptoms.

So it looks like toast, broth, and more bismuth for me until I get this figured out. Even herbal tea isn't beyond suspicion at this point. I guess it's high time I heeded Diego's advice and started drinking kefir on a regular basis.

ETA: Reading last year's entry for today, I find myself in exactly the same boat. Maybe it's seasonal?

Tak ada rotan, akar pun jadi

It's not true that I got nothing done yesterday. It's just that all things considered I'd thought I'd get more reading done than I did. Still, seventy-five pages of Ziauddin Sardar's The consumption of Kuala Lumpur is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you figure in a chapter or two of Colloquial Malay and a substantial portion of a book of Indonesian myths and legends.

What started this current kick is a history of Indonesia that I began reading on a whim last week (and whose title I'm in no hurry to reveal, since then richardthinks will spoil all my fun by telling me its author is a moron and I shouldn't trust a word in it). It's not a quick read. I remember back in those misty days when I was linguistic adviser to the LHNs they got a communiqué from SJG complaining that the chronology for Ezcalli (an alternative earth where the Aztecs "win") was all "and then Grand Kibo of Hooziwussit defeated the Gaekward of Blahbláhblahblah". Sorry, field specialists, but that's what the history of maritime Southeast Asia reads like to me. I know the names of the major islands, a few of the cities, and none of the leaders before Sukarno (unless we count interlopers like Koxingha and Raffles). A single chapter on Javanese history took me three tries to get through.

At least I'm much happier with the language-learning materials now that I've ditched TY Indonesian. Johns' book isn't so scary after all. I was put off by the masses of repetition drills in every chapter (bad memories of college Korean!), but the great thing about self-instruction is you can skip all these. Or do what I do, which is skim them to make sure you understand all the words and structures, and go back and look up the ones you don't. My problems with not getting enough reinforcement of new vocabulary are solved!

Speaking of which, I'm glad I picked up the text on Malay. For one, I'm more likely to get some practice with a Malay-speaker than an Indonesian one, so it's good to be aware of the differences (particularly in tricky areas like pronoun use). Further, the language in Colloquial Malay is--as the name suggests--a little less stuffy than what one finds in a book that opens with the quote "Pakailah Bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar!" ("Use proper and correct Indonesian!") I like the way they use common contractions, but not consistently, so you get accustomed to them without being taught to abuse them.