Ramblings.. on Death, Memories and Bed Bugs..

You know, one of the first things I felt I wanted to write about when I decided to start blogging again was about my mom and my grandma. Definitely so, because they were the most important women in my life and I wanted to honor them in some kind of way. Also because I figured my mom is actually almost always at the back of my mind. Somehow I miss her almost all the time. You know the saying about how we only realise how important this person or thing is to us only when they're gone? Trust me, whoever came up with this saying has to be a prophet.

Anyways, though I wanna write and blog all about my mom and my grandma, the fact of the matter is.. somewhere there is a part of me that is kinda refusing to go back there and dig up everything clearly enough for me to put them into words. I tried yesterday but it was really kinda hard.. a part of me relished the memories that were evoked.. yet another part just felt so tired and drained and painful. The end result: yet another draft sitting in the draft folder. Looking at my draft folder, I actually have about half a dozen drafts in there. That's me for you.. sigh.

So right now, I definitely find it much easier sharing another incident currently happening in my life.. and that's my current battle with bed bugs. Yes, the horrible and tiny, stinking bed bugs.

No one in the family is really sure when these disgusting creatures actually appeared in my house, but their presence was made known to me about 6 months ago when the maid suddenly complained of bites all over her body and decided to turn her room upside down to dig out the cause. That was when these horrible bugs were found happily nesting the underside of the bed frame of her bed. It was an utterly disgusting sight and though thank goodness I was no witness to it, the photos taken by my partner who was at home then were something I'd rather not see.

The bed frame was immediately discarded and the room was cleaned and disinfected with whatever resources available we had at home then. That maid was sent away shortly, not because of the bed bugs of course, but due to unsatisfactory performance. The next maid who arrived did not complain of bites and slowly the incident was forgotten.

3 months ago, however, the bed bugs reared their ugly heads again, and this time they came back with a such a vengeance that soon after, my partner started complaining of bites as well. Funny enough, even though we were sharing the same bed, I was spared from the agony. We also never sighted any bed bugs in my room, until about a month later when we saw a big fat bed bug crawling on the floor of our bedroom. We squashed it literally and blood spurted out. Gross.. and boy, did it stink!

We went on high alert after that.. me and my partner constantly on the lookout for the horrible creatures who had uninvitingly invaded our room. Even though my partner was still constantly getting bites that resulted in swells nearly every night, we couldn't find the culprits. It was frustrating.

At the insistence of my partner, about 3 weeks ago, we called for the professional bed bug exterminators. They came and sprayed the 2 affected rooms - my maid's and mine. And we had to soak the suspected affected clothings and fabric in both rooms in hot water. Boy, it was really troublesome but we didn't have much of a choice. Were our troubles over? I definitely hoped so, but the reality was pretty far from it.

Over the course of the next couple of days, my maid literally swept up the dead carcasses of a couple of dozen baby bed bugs that crawled out from the skirtings, under the cupboard, etc in her room. It was a sickening sight but good. At least they were dead.

On our end, we still did not see any bed bugs but the itchings continued. By this time, I was also being bitten by the invaders that remained invisible to my partner and myself. Finally, about a week ago, I spotted them. The first one was a very small one, nearly white in color and barely a-tenth of a centimeter. The second one was slightly bigger, about two-tenths of a centimeter, black and fat. When I crushed it, blood oozed out. The third was black, small but flat and bloodless. That day, I probably killed about 8-10 of them, and for the first time, I realised they didn't have to be all black. Sometimes they came in white as well. And when they haven't fed on our blood, they are flat.

The professionals came again a few days ago, this time the focus was on my room. They found a small cluster of eggs in the underlining of my fabric box cover that kinda doubled up as a storage box as well. I can still feel the chills across my arm just recalling the scene. We found 2 big bugs and 2 small bugs a day after the professionals cleaned out the room.

Anyways, one good thing that came out of this bed bug incident is that my room is now much cleaner. The bed bugs kinda forced me to do some spring cleaning to my room. Over the past 2 weeks, I cleaned out quite a fair bit of junk.. my partner was very pleased, to say the least.

Meanwhile, we are still on the lookout for the blood-sucking little creatures. Keeping our fingers crossed..


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