Day +604 : Pray for a friend (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

“Why don’t you persuade him to do bone marrow transplant?” questioned doctor.

He was trying some alternative therapy which seemed to work at one time. I believe he put his hope in the therapy and thus delayed the bone marrow transplant. I wrote about this on the following blog entries:

Day +164
Day +165
Day +166
Day +167

Apart from his disease, there is also a description about his experience of a car hijack on my blog Day +371: Another car hijack.

“We have been persuading him for 5 years to do bone marrow transplant, but the stage has passed,” the doctor told me. This means that it might be too late for him to do bone marrow transplant.

In fact he has a bone marrow match from one of his siblings. “Anyway, we will try our best,” the doctor said. This gave me hope that he will recover to a stage where bone marrow transplant is possible.

Please pray for him.

See you next post :-)

Day +603 : Pray for a friend (1)

I am fine today.

I received an urgent message yesterday morning.

“Teh admitted situ serious, pls pray for him.”

Immediately I returned call and his sobbing wife told me that her husband was having high fever for the past few days and his blood counts - haemoglobin, platelet and white blood - were extremely low. It seemed that his body’s blood manufacturing mechanism had failed to produce blood. The very low white blood count rendered him immune-less and thus the infection and fever.

I met Teh in the haematology day care unit in UH early 2006. He was one of the most faithful readers of my blog. He once told me that he was addicted to reading this blog; he would felt something was missing if he didn’t read my blog in a day.

Teh was having a blood disease called Myeloproliferative Disorder (MDP) which is non-cancerous but with a potential of transforming to Leukaemia. The symptoms of the disease include elevated white blood count and low Haemoglobin count (anaemia). As a result, he needed to do follow-up and to have blood transfusion regularly in the day care unit.

I went to visit him yesterday afternoon. He had difficulty controlling his mind and became very emotional sometimes. He would keep saying the same words. For instance when he met me, he would said, “David Ting, David Ting, David Ting…”

I read Bible verses for him and prayed for him. When I asked him say “Hallelujah!” which means “praise the Lord,” he said, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! ...”

I called him this morning and I was so delighted to hear him answering the phone. He could talk normally today! He said he would like to consult me how to make Yogurt and he would need a lot of advice from me when he does his bone marrow transplant later :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +602 : Dinner with three great mothers

I am fine today.

I am very glad to have dinner with three great mothers today.

The two aunties came to visit me on the 13th of September last year. I met them in the hematology ward when I was doing my 2nd cycle of chemotherapy in UH.

The one on the left most lost her daughter to lymphoma. She was always very excited to meet us and value so much the friendship established in the ward about two years ago. I blogged about her here.

The auntie on the right has a son diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia who experienced two relapses after chemotherapies. Finally, he managed to do a non-sibling bone marrow transplant in Singapore. We are very glad that he is fine now :-)

And the one standing beside me is the third great mother – a mother to four children. She is my beloved and brave wife :-)

Let us give them a big clap!

See you next post :-)

Day +601 : Finally, he found suitable bone marrow for transplant (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

It is comprehendible to have his sister listened to Ah Mu, Ah So in the kampong because her sister might not know much about stem cells donation.

But you will be surprised when government listened to Ah Mu, Ah So on the AirAsia’s stewardesses dressing code.

“The uniform is too revealing. We don’t want to look at their thigh and knee,” said Zaleha Hussin, an elderly woman delegate from the northeastern state of Kelantan.

“Malaysia is an Islamic nation and we are ashamed of the AirAsia uniform,” she told the meeting.

Some ministers in the government listened to her and issued “warning” to AirAsia on its stewardesses dressing code :-(

Ops! Out of topic :-(

Now back to my friend again, the outcome of the HLA matching is positive. At last he found a match in his sister after so much trouble.

His bone marrow transplant procedure is scheduled to start on 24 March. I will be visiting him during his bone marrow transplant.

His name is Mr. Lim. Let us all pray that Mr. Lim will have a successful bone marrow transplant and will be cured from the disease.

See you next post :-)

Day +600 : Finally, he found suitable bone marrow for transplant (1)

I am fine today.

I wrote about an interesting friend who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) much earlier than me. He went through chemotherapies but experienced relapses twice. In the end he opted for bone marrow transplant.

He found a matching Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) in his brother who was working in Canada for many years, but unfortunately this brother didn’t want to donate his stem cells to him :-( You can read his story here.

Knowing this, my friend asked the doctors to search for matching third party (one other than the siblings) bone marrow, but again, could not find a suitable one. Since the non-sibling bone marrow transplant is very costly, he also raised fund through newspapers.

When I was having my holiday in Sarawak December last year, he called me to inform me that his elder sister was willing to go for HLA matching test. This surprised me as I thought that all his siblings had already been tested.

“My sister listened to aunties (Ah Mu, Ah So) in the kampong who warned her of all sort of risks in donating stem cells to me,” he explained.

I advised my friend to ask his sister to talk to my third sister who donated her stem cells to me.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +599 : I dream to have election every year (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

As it seems that people never understand and learn lesson from this as they still support the monkeys. The only way to have us better treated is to have election every year, but unfortunately this remains as a dream only :-(

In fact this phenomenon is not limited to election only, it might be happening within the company as well where those who are useful and important are treated extraordinary well compared to those who are not so useful. This type of practice is not really good for the company.

In order to enjoy the benefit of usefulness, those who are useful have to find ways to maintain their usefulness, at the expenses of the wellbeing of the company. For example, the useful staff might be reluctant to transfer technology or knowledge to new staff in order to maintain his/her usefulness.

Those who are not so useful could only envy how the useful are treated and find ways to leave the company. In the end, the greatest loser is the company :-(

Those who are not so useful but could not leave will have no choice but sigh, “I dream to be useful all the time.” :-(

See you next post :-)

Day +598 : I dream to have election every year (1)

I am fine today.

Election is coming!

The government is giving all sorts of goodies which we could only dream of previously.

All the time the governing political parties are thinking that they are the masters, the people are the servants, and they could do anything they like without considering the welfare of the people. And now suddenly they realize that they need the support of people, so they are repeating the trick again – distributing goodies to people.

Now almost any demand from us can be fulfilled because we are useful. The politicians need our vote to make themselves masters over us later. In order to achieve their mastership later, they would humble temporarily to treat us like their masters. Once they are elected, the situation reverses instantly; we become pitiful servants and every request has to be on their mercy.

We might be lucky if they are good masters, but most likely we would be greatly disappointed to see our masters acting like monkey; spelling uneducated words and acting barbarically. Poor us have to wait for another five years to enjoy a brief treat of mastership, and again when the time arrives, we are too happy enjoying the goodies and vote them again. The cycle repeats every five years. In the end, most of the time we are pitiful servants governed by “clever and tricky monkeys.”

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +597 : We were campaigning yesterday, today you voted

I am fine today.

My friend sent me a great joke which is extremely correct politically :-)

While walking down the street one day a Malaysian Boleh Minister is tragically hit by a truck and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the man.

"Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."

"Really, I have made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the YangBerhormat.

"I'm sorry, but we have our rules," says St. Peter.

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down,down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle ofa green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and dressed in the finest batik there is. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then indulge themselves on lobsters, caviar and the mostexpensive food there is.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a goodtime dancing and telling jokes.

They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.

"Now it' s time to visit heaven."

So, 24 hours pass with the Yang Berhormat joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They havea good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St.Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now chooseyour eternity."

The Yang Berhormat reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think Aiyam better off in hell."

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.

He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and puttingit in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.

"I don't understand," stammers the Yang Berhormat. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning just like you during an election...... Today you voted."

VOTE WISELY IN THE COMING ELECTION!

See you next post :-)

Day +596 : Motivation talk (3/3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

在做骨髓移植的四十天里，血液病房(Haematology ward)里的第一号房间就是我的天地。这是一个隔离病房，专为作骨髓移植程序的病人而设。除了医生、护士和清洁工人外，没有人可以进去，就是我最亲爱的太太也不准进去。探访我的人只能隔着玻璃跟我交谈。我称这个病房为『贵宾房』(VIP Room)。为什么呢？因为有六个受过专门训练的护士(BMT Nurses),廿四小时轮流看顾里面的病人，也就是说任何一个时刻都有两个护士在照顾里面的病人。这跟在普通病房里做化疗时的待遇有如天渊之别。所以我说一号房是『贵宾房』，我要在里面『享受』一番。我喜欢古典吉他，我带了吉他去做骨髓移植，虽然胸膛及手都被接上多条管子和一些机器，日夜不停的输入药物，行动不是很方便。但我差不多每天都练习吉他，还学了几首新的曲子。也许这是第一回第一号病房常常传出古典吉他音乐。

那个时候我也有机会玩数独，或SUDOKU数学游戏及做了许多其它的事。其中一项最有意义事就是我设立了一个部落格(Blog)或网志，在病房里没有间断的把我每天作骨髓移植的情况及我的一些感受、思想写下来，发布在网际网络上(Internet)。还有几会跟读者开开玩笑。出院之后，我还是每天不停的写；关于我的生活、家庭、我的信仰、对一些事情的看法、骨髓移植的副作用等等，总共写了590多天了。我感到很欣慰的是，许多读者来信跟我说他们看到这个部落格后，受到很大的鼓励。

我所写的每一篇日记总是以『我很好』(I am fine)开始，就是在病房里做骨髓移植的时候，喉咙溃烂非常疼痛，甚至需要靠『吗啡』(morphine)来减轻痛楚，我还是报告说『我很好』。有人说，你这样的情况，根本不好，怎么可以说好呢？我却有另外的一种看法。我看到的是我身上有无数的器官还是正常的操作，现在有问题的只不过是无数正常器官中的一两个，把不正常的与正常的相比之下，不正常的太少了，正常的太多太多了。当我把我的焦点放在多数正常的部分时，我不得不觉得『我很好』，我还有无限的潜能，还可以做许许多多的事情。

我还有许多的故事要与大家分享，但因为时间的缘故，只能到此为止。若你要知道多一点，欢迎你来找我或拜访我的部落格。谢谢主办当局给我这个机会与大家见面。谢谢！

See you next post :-)

Day +595 : Motivation talk (2/3)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

回想起来，那时的情况真的很糟糕。我的太太正在怀孕五个月，还有三个幼小的孩子，最大只有八岁，最小的还不到一岁半，我想万一我有何不测的话，谁来照顾他们？除了顾虑没有人照顾家人之外，我也顾虑到我的收入，长时间不能工作，我们如何生活呢？除此之外，每一轮的化疗，都有生命的危险。更不幸的是，医生说我需要做骨髓移植(bone marrow transplant)。这是因为我血液的染色体(chromosome)出了重大的问题，以致我的血癌是属于最危险的那一种。骨髓移植的风险很高，死亡率差不多在20到25巴仙之间，也就是说每四个进行骨髓移植的病人之中，平均就有一个遭遇死亡。坦白说，我真的没有把握自己是否经得起这样激烈的治疗。

我如何面对这样严峻的考验呢？当我抬起头来仰望上帝时，我所有的顾虑一扫而空。我从上帝那里看到盼望，一个超越黑暗和死亡的永恒盼望。这个盼望就是主耶稣在圣经上所应许的，信他的人有永生。我对我自己说，我若离开这个世界，美丽的天堂就是我永恒的家园，在那里“没有眼泪，也不再有死亡，悲哀、哭号、疼痛”。有了这个思想之后，我心就安定了。

我在九个月之中，接受了四轮的化疗及一次的骨髓移植，总共在医院里住了150天。我看过许多生死别离，也失去了许多在病房中认识的朋友。每一次所面对的疗程也都犹如经过死荫幽谷。若我没有这个永生的盼望，就算我病不死，大概也会怕死掉。有一位病人的母亲跟我说，他的女儿在治疗的过程中，因为被安排到与一些严重病患同房，看到这些病患的恐怖状态而怕死掉。比我前一位作骨髓移植的病人很不幸在移植的过程中在那个专门为骨髓移植病人所设的隔离病房里去世。那时我在隔壁的一个病房作骨髓移植前准备的工作，虽然护士拉下我病房的窗帘，不要让我知道发生什么事，但我还是知道发生了什么事情，也看到那个去世的女病人被推出去。几个小时之后，我就进入那个房间作同样的骨髓移植程序。怕不怕？

另外，我的病房的厕所在冲水后会发出咯哆！咯哆！的声音。有一位护士怕我会怀疑那是鬼魂作怪所发出的声音，特地的向我解释那是厕所出了问题而不是有鬼魂在作怪。就是那个护士没有向我解释，我也不会害怕，因为我有永生的盼望，我的生命在我的上帝手里，不论是生是死，耶稣都与我同在。鬼魂无法伤害我一根毫毛。

当我知道我患上了血癌之后，我很快的就接受事实，接受治疗。同时努力的去明白这个疾病。我觉得『天生我才必有用』，就是有病还是有用的。只要我还活着，不论环境如何的艰难，我还可以做许多的事。所以在我接受治疗的一百五十天住院的日子里，我在医院里也作了许多的事。

我在做化疗的时候，看了几部金庸小说；天龙八部、碧血剑、笑傲江湖。非常精彩！有时看到三更半夜，没有人理我，可真痛快。如果不是在医院里，我肯定没有这个『福分』好好的看小说。

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +594 : Motivation talk (1/3)

I am fine.

I would like to publish the script of the motivation talk on the Sunday night. It was delivered in Chinese.

各位朋友们，大家好！今天晚上我感到非常的高兴能够在这里与大家分享一个我生命中一个非常重要的经历。

我在2005年十一月被医生诊断出患上了血癌。那时我正在与我的家人在沙劳越的古晋度假。就要度完假回来西马的前一天，我进了古晋的中央医院。那时的情况非常危急，喉咙受到严重的感染，红肿流血，身体出现红色的斑点，许多器官都在流血，排出来得尿液满尽是红色的，满是血，相当吓人。医生说我的情况不容许我回来西马治疗。所以我只好无奈的延长我在古晋的假期，进行了第一轮的化疗，单单这一轮的化疗，就在医院里呆了廿十多天。

我要感谢上帝，因为我是在假期的最后一天被诊断出患上血癌，而不是第一天。若是第一天，那我们的假期就要泡汤了。虽然累了一点，在没有进院之前，我还是跟太太及三个孩子们度过了一个愉快的假期。这是我要感恩的。

当医生宣布我患上血癌时，我的心里浮现出许多的问题。其中一道每一个病人都会问的问题就是：为何是我，不是他？我是一个相当注重健康的人。在我还没有患上血癌之前的两年里，我每天清晨五点半就起床晨跑3.5公里，非常有纪律的跑，除了下雨之外，我从来没有间断过我的晨运。所以在两年里单单在晨运中就跑了超过两千多公里的路。我每个早晨都吃一粒苹果，有人说，“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”，也就是说，若我们每天都吃一粒苹果，我们就不会生病，也因此就不用去看医生了。但事实并不是我们想象的那么简单。除了这些之外，我差不多每天喝绿茶、吃燕麦、绿藻、鱼油和其他健康食品。每个星期几乎都吃自制的酸乳酪(Yogurt)，而且上班的日子，每天中午从公司回家吃午餐及小睡，很少吃外面又油腻，口味又重的食物。不但如此，我喜爱古典音乐，个性也乐观，时常保持开朗的心情。所以我从来没有想到我的健康会出现这样大的问题。

我为我的健康付出了这么多的努力，为什么疾病还是偏偏找上我呢？而且不是小毛病，乃是人人闻之变色的癌症。老天似乎对我太不公平了。好彩我没有怨天尤人，埋怨上天为何如此的对我不公平，不然我不但要面对治疗的痛苦，还要承担因埋怨所产生的心灵上的苦楚。

我相信耶稣爱我，不论这个疾病的结果如何，是生是死，他都会陪伴着我。我也相信一切事情的发生，都在我所相信的上帝掌控之中，在他没有意外。他容许这件事情发生在我的身上，肯定有他美好的安排。

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +593 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today: - Readings in square bracket [] are result from previous test.
Red Blood Count (HB) = 148[150] (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 171[208] (Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.0[7.5] (Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 3.18[4.05] (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
ALT = 44[38] (Normal 30 – 65)
AST = 29[19] (Normal 15-37)
GGT = 48[70] (Normal 15-85)

I am fine today.

The blood test today showed excellent result, so the doctor decided to cut down my daily Prednisolon (steroid) dosage from 10mg(2 tablets) to 5mg(1 tablet).

The liver function reading maintains within the normal range, and doctor also said that my mouth and throat show no trace of GVHD now. Apart from this, my mouth and throat is no longer as dry as before.

The main problem now is the eyes; they are getting drier than before. Doctor said the artificial tears (Refresh Tears) that I used to apply might not be good enough to ease the situation. Some form of eyes ointment could have a more lasting effect. With this comment, I replaced the Refresh Tears with Vidisic Gel.

The Gel

In order to make sure that my eyes are properly taken care of, the doctor referred me to the eyes clinic for further examination. But the earliest appointment that the clinic could accommodate is two months later :-(

Doctor also alerted me on my lipids studies result – almost all readings were beyond the normal range :-(

Total Cholesterol : 5.8 (< 5.2)
Triglycerides : 2.1 (< 1.7)
HDL Cholesterol (good): 1.36 (> 1.0)
LDL Cholesterol (bad) : 3.49 (< 2.6)

I have to control my diet and work hard to bring the reading back to normal for the next few months.

My next appointment was scheduled two months later. This is the longest follow-up interval that doctor gives after bone marrow transplant, so I consider it a breakthrough :-) Hopefully, the Prednisolon dosage can be reduced further during the follow-up.

See you next post :-)

Day +592 : Giving a motivational talk

I am fine today.

I was invited to give a motivational talk in a Chinese New Year celebration for the disabled in Kepong. The event was called “让爱飞扬”(Let’s love flies) and was organized by Beautiful Gate Foundation for The Disabled(美门残障关怀基金会). More than two hundreds disabled turned up for the event.

One interesting thing that I noted was there were so many politicians attended the event – UMNO, MCA and Parti Gerakan. As this is also a fund raising event, I believe the participation of politicians should bring benefit to the foundation, at least financially :-) I just hope that they will support the event next year, even after they have won the election.

The organizer gave me ten minutes to share my Leukaemia treatment experience, but I have so much to tell. So in order to share as much as possible within the given time, I have to practice to talk as fast as “machine gun(机关枪)” :-)

I was sharing
Attendees
See you next post :-)

Day +591 : A Chinese New Year Potluck Dinner

I am fine today.

Our church organized a potluck dinner today. I cooked Ku Low Yok(咕噜肉) for the potluck.

Without much talking, I would like to share with you what we have for the dinner - more than 20 dishes! I advise you not to look at the pictures below if you are hungry; else you will be starving :-)

Ku Low Yok(咕噜肉)
Ku Low Yok(咕噜肉) - zoom in
Sushi
Konnyaku jelly (果冻)
I don't know how to call this dish, but it is delicous
Mixed vegetable
Mixed vegetable with fried Wantan on top
Rendang chicken

Roasted chicken

Salted chicken (盐炬鸡)
Barbecued fish
Bean curd with preserved egg
Bean curd with fish

Braised pork

Brinjal
Cabbage
Curry chicken
Another curry chicken

Fried egg

Another fried egg
Fried Mee Hoon
Sweet dumplings in syrup(汤圆)
Grabbing for food
See you next post :-)

Day +590 : A Valentine’s gift for my princess

I am fine today.

My wife said her watch was spoilt and it was very difficult for her to manage her time teaching in the class. So I brought her to City Chain in IOI mall to buy a watch last night.

We finally settled on a Titus lady watch. It cost RM729 but after a great 70% discount, it cost RM218 only.
As my wife doesn’t read my blog, I printed the love poem that I posted yesterday for her. As the poem was written by some else, I would commit plagiarism if I sign it with my name. In the end, I manage to find a way to sign the poem with my name without committing plagiarism.

How? Just sign it this way – “Not by David Ting, but Joanna Fuchs” :-) Just hope that my wife will be so delighted to see the love poem until she forgets to see anything other than “David Ting” :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +589 : Happy Valentine's Day!

I am fine today.

Don't know how to write love poem for your prince or princess in this special occasion? You can borrow the following one that I borrowed from somewhere else :-)

Valentine Love Poem

On Valentine’s Day

I reaffirm my deep and abiding love for you.

I continually pray to love you

like Jesus loves:

wholly, selflessly, completely.

I continually pray

to be the person

God wants me to be for you.

I appreciate you

for your heart full of love for me,

for your dependably fine character

and for the special gifts God has given you,

that I notice and admire and treasure.

I am abundantly blessed

that you are mine eternally.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweetheart;

My heart and my love are yours forever.

By Joanna Fuchs

Happy Valentine's Day to all and may God bless your relationship with your special one!

See you next post :-)

Day +588 : A Valentine Day’s dinner with my princess :-)

I am fine today.

Yesterday, I brought my wife for a Valentine’s dinner at Station One. This is my first ever Valentine’s dinner with my cute and lovely wife after bone marrow transplant :-) We had it earlier to avoid crowd.

The main reason that I brought my wife for dinner was not because of food but to show her that I care about her. I believe I could prepare better food than Station One :-)

Though the food was not our main focus, I would still like to share with you what we had for the dinner.

Wulong Tea (乌龙茶)
Fish fingers
Mixed grill with salak sauce
A photo with my wife :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +587 : Finally, he married his princess :-)

I am fine today.

My neighbor in the kampong, Ting Kuok Dai (Ah Dai), is getting married today. We were very close - up to the point that we treated each other brothers. His sister is the one that I blogged about on Day +357 and Day +358 : A very cheap Tokyo trip, interested?

He hosted his wedding lunch in Sibu, Sarawak and my brother Richard managed to go back to Sibu to attend his wedding lunch. Unlike here, people in my hometown used to have wedding lunch rather than wedding dinner.

Another common practice nowadays is the one who host the wedding do not accept any monetary gift (贺仪). If I remember correctly, such practice is normally specified in the wedding invitation card as 礼仪尽辞(No gift will be accepted). In return of attending the wedding feast for free, the attendees would normally advertise the marriage in the local newspaper. So it is very common to see “marriage advertisement” in the newspapers there :-)

We wish him to have a blessed and successful marriage life.

A photo with Ah Dai (middle one) July last year.
See you next post :-)

Day +586 : Need a Pizza urgently? Order online!

I am fine today.

I promised to buy Daniel Domino Pizzas today but forgot to fulfill the promise. He was enraged when he found out that I didn’t bring back Pizzas after work.

There is no Domino Pizza shop at Puchong and the nearest one is at Sunway. I was lazy to go out again.

Suddenly, I thought of ordering Pizza online. I found a promotion on Pizza Hut website whereby two large Pizzas cost RM34 only.

So I registered an account on http://www.pizzahut.com.my/ and made an order. The Pizzas arrived in 25 minutes :-)

We all think that the Domino Pizza is better than Pizza Hut’s. One of the main differences that we notice was Domino Pizzas come with more cheese and topping.

With this, I believe we will get our next Pizza from Domino again :-)

The promotion
The order. I paid RM37.70 after tax and delivery charge
See you next post :-)

Day +585 : A family Chinese New Year presentation

I am fine today.

We attended the church service this morning. As many members were still celebrating Chinese New Year at their respective home town, we had about 50% turnout rate.

Pastor didn’t preach this morning, but he guided us to read through Psalm 65 – a chapter that describes the abundant grace of God. I present here the last three verses.

11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.

11 你 以 恩 典 为 年 岁 的 冠 冕 ； 你 的 路 径 都 滴 下 脂 油 ，
12 滴 在 旷 野 的 草 场 上 。 小 山 以 欢 乐 束 腰 ；
13 草 场 以 羊 群 为 衣 ； 谷 中 也 长 满 了 五 谷 。 这 一 切 都 欢 呼 歌 唱 。

Good is good :-)

We presented the song “Jesus loves me” during the sharing session.

The English lyric:
Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong.
Chorus:
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so.

The Chinese lyric:
稣爱我我知道，因有圣书告诉我；
凡小孩子主牧养，我虽软弱主刚强。
主耶稣爱我！主耶稣爱我！
主耶稣爱我！有圣书告诉我。

A family presentation.
Adriel was dancing - no practice, just dance as she likes.
My wife played piano
A group photo after the service
See you next post :-)

Day +584 : Chinese New Year Day 2 and 3

I am fine today.

I cooked a big pot of Bakuh Teh yesterday. My niece Nga Ming said it tasted better than the one that we had at the restaurant a few days ago. Daniel also said that it was the best one that he ever had :-)

It is very easy to cook Bakuh Teh; just buy the ready-made Bakuh Teh herb and follow the instruction printed on the package. However, we might need to adjust the seasoning such as the amount of black soy sauce and light soy sauce to suite our taste.

I brought my family to Taman Bakit Jalil (Bukit Jalil Garden) in the evening.

Today, I spent a few hours to help my wife to prepare her year 6 English paper. A lot of scanning and typing work to do. It was a great relief to get the job done :-)

Aaron playing at the garden
Adriel, Daniel and Joseph
See you next post :-)

Day +583 : What I did the first day of Chinese New Year?

I am fine today.

Like last year, the very first group of people that I visited was the patients in the heamatology ward in University Hospital (UH). Before I went to the ward, I dropped by the hypermarket, Tesco, to purchase a few boxes of Chinese oranges for the nurses and patients.

I managed to visit all the twenty over patients in the ward, giving each patient an orange. I also managed to talk to some of the patients.

One of the patients that I talked to was a woman in her 60s. She was treated for lymphoma 3 years ago but unfortunately she experienced a relapse while she was visiting her daughter in London.

After “suffering” a month of treatment in a hospital in London, her daughter transferred her back to continue the treatment in UH. The reason that she suffered there was because of food; she was not used to the western food.

“I eat curry – Indian food, but comparing to the western food, I rather have Chinese food,” she said.

“What? Indian food?”

“My husband is an Indian,” she explained.

“Do you speak Indian language?”

“I speak Tamil,” she replied.

She is a Hokkien. She speaks English quite well. Because her husband is an Indian, she managed to master Tamil. Not only this, she used to travel regularly to Bangkok and London, visiting her son and daughter.

“With this disease comes back again, I could not travel anymore,” he said helplessly.

I sincerely hope that she will have a successful treatment so that she could travel freely again.

In the afternoon, I brought my mother-in-law, my wife, Adriel and Aaron to Sunway Pyramid for a walk. Daniel and Joseph wanted to play computer games at home.

My brother Richard treated us a steamboat dinner in the evening.

A photo outside Sunyway Pyramid
Happy Aaron and Adriel
My wife and me
My mother-in-law with the giant Yuan Bao(元宝)
Steam boat
Enjoying the steam boat dinner
A group photo with Richard, the one that I grip is Richard's son Dennis
The "illegal" rocket show after the meal. If we run into trouble with the police, we would engage V.K. Lingam and I believe in defending our case, he would say, "Looks like Rocket, Sounds like Rocket." and then throw the ball to the police. Now is the police job to "reverse" the time to catch us on the spot :-)
Ignited, just before take-off
See you next post :-)