While recuperating from my illness, many colleagues, friends and students brought me beautiful flowers. I am so thankful for their thoughtfulness. I love to decorate my home with flowers but every time I get a bouquet of fresh flowers, it becomes a major hard task to untie the flowers that are bound with tape with much cruelty and it is a so difficult to separate each twig. Sometimes the flowers are placed on sticks and rapped in green branches! This is the the cheat that florists do. I wonder why the florists do not give separate twigs of flowers by just tying with a ribbon in transparent sheet. We should insist to pick the twigs to tie them rather then buying pre packed bouquets! I think we have no culture to gift flowers as hardly anyone feels the worth of flowers. We do not feel how precious they are! We appreciate flowers superficially. I remember when I was RMO at OMI Hospital, I used to have my duty at VIP ward and mostly very rich and affluent patients used to get admitted in those five VIP rooms. Mostly, MNAs MPAs, industrialists, CEO used to be there and they used to receive many bouquets tied in plastic sheets from many guests visiting them every now and then. Although OMI Hospital staff used to provide vases to those patients who ask for them to put flowers in water. But only few elegant patients used to ask for vases otherwise most patients let these flowers wither inside plastic sheets while lying on side tables ruthlessly, killing the buds before blooming. I think neither the giver felt any value of flowers nor the patient! When such patients used to be discharged, a pile of withered flowers used to be thrown in dustbins by the cleaning staff!
When I get beautiful flowers from anyone, I become so happy. I cut the tapes and separate each twig and put them in vases filled with water. Mostly roses and lilies remain fresh for three days and if water is changed daily then a bit longer. When I see them about to wither, I cut the flowers from stems and put them in large bowl to float. They remain fresh and even the buds start blooming in water that they never did in vase previously! I change water in bowl daily and separate withering petals carefully and keep them in bowl of water again. Two to three days they remain fresh again. So a week is easily spent with blooming flowers. Finally when they are withering, I separate the petals of roses and place them in a plastic container and keep in my refrigerator. What you can do with petals of roses? You can boil a handful of rose petals with a few twigs of mint. Then take steam of these petals in boiling water by keeping your face near it after removing from stove and covering with light cloth over it!
Yesterday I cleansed my face first, then I had this amazing aroma steam then I sprinkled cool rose water spray right from my refrigerator, on my face and if you do it you will yourself know how clean, soft and radiant your skin will become!
The other activity that I did today is I made my own anti-wrinkle lotion! I am bogged down by the claims and promises of the cosmetic world! I used to apply Loreal anti wrinkle cream on my neck wrinkles that I started to have since one year. I used it for whole one year but nothing happened. I think it only gives us a psychological boost and nothing else! It’s so expensive too so I thought why not to get back to basics. Every beauty problem has a natural solution. I have a very nice and beautiful book “Natural Beauty” by an author Pat Baikie and I did a little effort to get knowledge from her advice to make anti-wrinkle lotion myself! So I made two bottles of it today, one for myself and other for my elder sister and it made a lovely gift for her. I enjoyed so much doing this while listening to Thai relaxation music this morning! I want to share it with my friends and colleagues (who are old enough to need it)! Take 1 table spoon of glycerine plus 1 table spoon of rose water and 3 table spoon of clear honey. Blend all the ingredients to a smooth lotion with a hand whisk for a minute. Shake before applying. When I made it and filled in a glass bottle, it’s fragrance was amazing. I applied it on my neck and face and felt so good. I will continue using it and find out the result! So next time you happen to receive a bouquet from someone, don’t ignore the flowers…..just adore the flowers and enjoy a whole week with them and later enhance your beauty with them and be confident and more attractive! Dr. Zeba Hisam 9th October, 2016