See this photo below. It’s a closeup of my mouse taken just now. Look at the part marked by the red arrow. What on earth happened? No … I didn’t chew on it! Some darn insect bit my fingers and I applied some medicated oil and then happily continued using my computer. Few minutes later … I realised my palm was a little sticky. I checked and went ‘Whoooa!!! Damn!!! Shit!!!’. Part of the paint/plastic on the mouse has ‘melted’ (sorry … that’s the only word I know to describe this) and my palm had a patch of grey paint on it! WTF!
I suddenly remembered I had a slightly similar ‘incident’ yesterday when I was handling my Diana Multi Pinhole Operator camera. There were two white-ish patches on my Instant Back that was attached to it. They did look like those ‘marks’ you get when you accidentally touch plastic parts with thinners or super glue. Damn! I used the same medicated oil yesterday! I almost killed my lovely camera!
The culprit is this oil called ‘Hoe Hin White Flower Embrocation’ which I bought in Hong Kong. It’s now in my rubbish bin on its way to the garbage truck tomorrow. I remember buying it in Hong Kong at the Ocean Park because I had some insect bites on my leg and it was told that it can be used. Don’t remember if there were any instructions on the box in English because I can only recognize perhaps 20 or less Chinese characters. Anyway … it did settle the itch I had back then and has been sitting on my desk for some time.
Worried that I might have bought some industrial paint stripping chemical by accident (with my crap command of Chinese), I checked online and some site has these details about it …
“A unique combination of essential oils derived from menthol, wintergreen, camphor, eucalyptus, lavender and peppermint which can temporarily alleviate the minor aches and pains of muscles and joints in association with arthritis, simple backache and strains. White Flower Analgesic Balm is not a drug, but a potent herbal mixture based on a very effective old Chinese Yin Yang herbal formula. White Flower Analgesic Balm in Red Label is the best quality in a series of White Flower balms and it is also the best and the most effective of all Chinese balms in that it is in yin yang balance, in a clear liquid form, not greasy, non-staining and it penetrates deeper, thus quickly relieving aches and pains.”
Oh damn! First it doesn’t claim to soothe itch or insect bites nor does it say it can ‘kill’ plastic stuffs. I am not sure if it can strip the paint off metal surfaces but I ain’t gonna try that. The details above does say ‘potent’ though. Hmm. Damn. Wait … it does say ‘penetrates deeper’!!!! Into plastics????!!!! Maybe I should keep it and if my boss pisses me off tomorrow, I’ll try emptying the bottle on his tyre and see if the tyre dissolves into gooey rubber.
Glad I did not handle my other plastic cameras after applying the oil … or else I’ll have to kill myself tonight. I’ll make sure I wash my hands everytime I use any of these weird oil/ointment from now on.
When my mouse was ‘injured’, I was editing this photo above. I took this with my Lensbaby Muse with the plastic optic earlier this evening and I love it lots. Anyone can guess what the subject is?
wine
@peter : Errm … are you guessing what the subject of the photo is … or are you telling me that the bottle of powerful thingie is wine? If it’s the latter … do you want me to keep it for you? 😀
Aiya, you shouldn’t throw it away~!!
That’s my favourite medicated oil!
Even right now as I’m typing this, I’ve just applied on my back!
@Autumn Candy : Oh!!! No wonder I noticed some burning smell the last time we met. Hehehe. So your back (ahem!) got melted? 😛 On a serious note … is the oil any good? Maybe I should keep it and use it for aching backs *giggle* after a weekend if running and playing with Fitzand.
maybe try a mod with it.. apply it on ur camera lens. some special effects.. 😀
@ymmij : U sponsor me a camera and I’ll do just that.