I Love You. Pillow

A Sponsored Post. And a Comfortable One at that.

Someone spotted my blog, contacted me, sent me a pillow to test and here I am writing about it.

"Gentle in my face. Fragrant on my breath." 

You'd want that from your partner in bed. 

Good news. You don't have to have a partner to have that. 

Just a pillow. But not just any pillow. 

An Origin pillow.

 

Apart from the usual spiel about how good the technical details about the product or the company or the founders- which makes compelling stories as well. I won't go into advertising speak. God knows we've heard enough of that.

Just allow me to share my personal experience in using this pillow.

At first reluctantly. 

Because I prefer soft goose down pillows or soft cotton filled pillows that allow my entire head to sink into them and go into deep slumber. All is well and good until...

I wake up in the morning or noon to find both my throat and neck almost always sore.

The throat is from my thunderous snoring my partners tell me and the neck is from the lack of neck support during my sleep.

So, enter the Origin Superior Coolmax Pillow. 

Featured as one of the *Best 8 Pillows in Singapore.  For more details do checkout their website.

The thickness factor was the most daunting for me. After years of sleeping on thinner soft pillows, I had to switch to a thicker version. It's like sleeping with a fat lady after years of slims ones, I have nothing against fat ladies, it's just that I've not had the pleasure before. 

It took me awhile to adapt but after a long while, I finally got comfortable with it. 

I must say it's been quite a change for me as well as my sleep quality. 

- For me, I now wake up feeling well rested with less neck discomfort as I frequently have. This is due to my preference for softer pillows. Firmer pillows provide neck support, hence the happy neck.

- My sleep quality has definitely improved not only for me but for my partners as well. They noticed that I snore less thunderously and sleep more soundly. I certainly feel it in the morning.

I suffer from a potentially serious condition called sleep apnea. The muscles in the back of my throat collapses on my air passageway causing an obstruction to breathing. Technically I stopped breathing in my sleep. This causes my brain to rouse me by causing me to choke or cough to gasp for air. People with sleep apnea tend to do this frequently.

There are many causes for this condition but somehow the Origin pillow has somewhat reduced my strange (some call it bizarre) condition of 'breathing difficulties.'

I think the contour of the pillow design plays a big part in cradling my head such that it rests in optimum position. They say it's German technology coupled with local expertise. I say it's a load off my neck.

Credit to express photography

The founders, Shaun and Gee knew buying a mattress is bank busting business. They understood  that buying a mattress were a long term investment and that shopping for one brought endless unfamiliar terminologies and pushy salesmen.

You can visit them for all the details here > 

Origin Mattress

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Best in Singapore

Website | Facebook | Instagram

Stay tuned. Stay safe. I wish you good sleep.

I love you. Wherever I live.

 Where I live now at the farm. Our ancestral home.

I have the pleasure of spending my resting days and nights in a pair of a 100-year old concrete shophouses with wooden floorboards, staircases, partitions and ceilings. This is our ancestral home, built by grandfather Mr. Gan Swee in 1919 by Chettiar craftsmen from India. 

The two adjoining shophouses have broad concrete five-foot ways supported by large pillars that are as old as the building.

We walk into the main one through the wooden door frame holding the tall heavy wooden doors at the main entrance , one of which is about to come apart, to the main reception hall. This space houses the antique mother of pearl furniture that line the walls of the main hall fronted by the family altar of solid dark rosewood carvings sitting high on the front wall separating the inner living ground floor quarters from the immediate courtyard. The wall is dominated by a large scrolled paper painting of Guan Kong, the god of war. At the far end of the wall, there's even a small window that opens out to the inner courtyard which has been neglected. Apart from this and the leaks everything else in the house stands solid. 

The unusually high ceiling, mosaic tiled flooring, wooden door frames, inner courtyard and outer kitchen fresh water well accentuates this century old building. 

Upstairs is reached by very steep stairs situated in the middle of the house just after the courtyard. The upstairs landing area is the living area which is a vast hall as broad and wide as the width of the shop lot. The dining/work table occupies a quarter of the room at the far end from the staircase, lined by a 3-step-case of glass fronted shelves housing the alcohol, books, tobacco and work paraphernalia. The back extension of the living area leads to an ample kitchen that looks out through a window to the farm at the back of the house. It's a good vantage point for viewing people coming and going to/from the farm.

Back at the living area, a large window opens out to the inner courtyard below revealing a patch of sky that floods our living room with light- sunlight by day and moonlight at night. Here is where I spend most of my time working on my mac or resting & reflecting staring out the window at night. 

We now cross-over to the lot next door which we also own, through an arched doorway purpose built to connect the two lots upstairs and downstairs. Both doorways are identical. This brings us to the inner living quarters, the TV area, the cupboards space, the ante-bedroom for  the bedroom of the lady of the house- my step mother. She's the undisputed queen of the roost. She keeps house to very high standards. A seasoned veteran of 80 years she has told me stories of her life to make mine pale in comparison. The inner living quarters lead via a walkway over the open courtyard to the main sleeping area at the front of the shop house. There are three partitioned rooms on this upstairs on the front of the shop house next door. 

I occupy the right partitioned room with two french windows fronting the main road of the small town of Johol. Which means I get to hear the goings-on the main thoroughfare below. The modified motorcycles are most incessant, occasionally overwhelmed by huge tanker trucks that grind by like a storm.

A large queen sized wooden bed greets you at the entrance from the flimsy wooden door that cuts short the wooden walkway to the front window. Apart from the largish bed there's a low side table for my smokes & crystal glass, another low table front adjacent to the foot of the bed sits the table fan that works hard all night to air my testicles under my sarong. A white plastic permanent recliner is parked close to my bed. I lounge in it smoking and drinking while listening to music from my beautiful bluetooth speakers made in China, positioned at the foot of my bed. At the corner near the right french window, the ceiling had somewhat partly collapsed revealing a damp and dark attic that drips water from leaking tiles at the century old roof, down to a large basin laid on the floor near the front right corner of the shop lot. 

With the frequent rains this time of year, my room will receive drips and drops of raindrops to the basin and the floor boards. Drip, drop, drib, drab....! All day and all night. And I love it. Sometimes.

This is where I live. For now. 

Come sit with me or roll around the bed with me. I'm here most of the time if not, I'm probably with you. Giving you pleasures you never thought possible. 

Not necessary physically but emotionally and spiritually for sure. 

See you soon? Meanwhile...

Be happy wherever you are.

Stay tuned. Literally.

I love you. Better still. Meditate #2.

Silence. Stillness. Space.

Photo by Sam 🐷 on Unsplash

I commune with my self in the Silent Stillness of Inner Space in Consciousness.

It's perhaps that I have been so far gone that I find this experience to be so painfully difficult. 

In all honesty, I have tried, maybe too hard, to be still and silent. I must say I have succeeded physically. But mentally, I am still flitting in and out of mind and the very few moments that I manage to control my mind, I am rewarded by the few glimpses of nothingness. Pure stillness. Bliss. 

I am about to attempt what science has failed to do; describe feelings. 

All I can say is, just today when meditating, I got to be alone with myself. Really alone to be beside myself and simply observe. Me. 

It's a very intimate feeling that we owe ourselves, to be acquainted with the self. 

To be silent. To be still and connect with your inner space, fully conscious being with the self. Am I making any sense? 

Of course not! Feelings are not supposed to make sense. They're supposed to be felt. 

So feel it with no thought. No judgement. Feel silence, stillness. Nothingness. 

This is the space of endless possibilities. The source of creation. Consciousness.

If you have come as far as this, then maybe you're woke.

Stay woke.

 Stay tuned. Literally.