Day +870 : Pizza Hut is coming to town :-)

I am fine today.

I blogged about Domino’s Pizza is coming to town on my blog Day +610 : Domino is coming to town :-) That was on March this year and now, 8 months later, Pizza Hut is also coming to town, situated only about 100 meters away from Domino Pizza.

In fact, there is already a Pizza Hut in IOI mall but setting up another restaurant at the town area might be a good idea. Those who work in the office nearby do not need to cross the LDP highway to visit Pizza Hut anymore.

Of course, this is good for us too as we are presented with addition choice of pizza nearby :-)

The resturant that will be opening very soonSide view with a slogan - Eat, laugh and share. Not bad :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +869 : Crystal sugar chicken wings (冰糖鸡翼)

I am fine today.

My wife prepared crystal sugar chicken wings for dinner today. This is the most delicious chicken wings preparation that I ever tasted.

According to the recipe, the dish is very healthy as it uses crystal sugar which known to moisten the lung and to stop coughing (润肺止咳) :-) Since I am still having coughing now, I must benefit a lot from the dish :-)

The crystal sugar chicken wings
A zoom in view

Aaron is enjoying the chicken wings

See you next post :-)

Day +868 : Ipoh Road Yong Tow Foo

I am fine today.

The famous Ipoh Road Yong Tow Foo is here in Puchong now. Prior to Puchong branch, it had already established 12 branches at various locations, and so I guess its business should be good.

My wife and I went for dinner at the restaurant two Wednesday ago, just two days after I had my molar extracted :-) The restaurant is located at 7 Jalan Kenari, Bandar Puchong jaya, just two streets away from my office.

The Yong Tow Foo there tasted ordinary – nothing special to us.

The restaurant
Parts of the Yong Tow Foos that we had ordered
A zoom in view

Some more orders

Eat the Yong Tow Foo with rice

The Yong Tow Foo that we can order

The price - click to have a larger view

The branches

We spent RM13 for the dinner only.

See you next post :-)

Day +867 : “Air putus!”

I am fine today.

“Air putus!” complained our maid to my wife yesterday. “Air putus” means “the water is broken”.

“How can water be broken?” pondered my wife.

Only when the maid showed her the water tap in the kitchen, my wife realized what she meant. The upper arm of the tap was detached from the base, and the nut that secured the arm to the base was broken.

This was the third time we had similar problems with the tap. One week ago, the top part of the nut was cracked resulting water leaking heavily from the joints. And interestingly, the maid and my mother-in-law accused each other for damaging it; a situation which made me laugh.

I knew that the quality of the tap is very poor as when I first installed it, the nut was broken too. I brought the broken tap to the hardware shop, but the owner told me that it was my fault, because I mishandled it. Considering that I can still use other parts as spare as only the nut was broken, I purchased the same type of tap and fixed it successfully.

After using it for two weeks, same problem arose again; that was when my maid and mother-in-law blamed each other for the damage. For convenient sack, I purchased the same type of tap again from the same workshop and replaced the upper arm with the new nut without the need to replace the base; a lazy man's solution. And with this, I have plenty of spare parts :-)

The part that was broken
When the nut was broken again yesterday. I knew that there is no point to have the same type of tap again. The quality is too poor to sustain the water pressure. The nut will break again a short time later and I have to spend money and time to fix it again.

In the end, I replaced it with a better tap from another hardware shop, and threw away all spare parts that I collected earlier.

See you next post :-)

Day +866 : My wife’s annual eye follow-up

I am fine today.

I fetched my wife to do her annual eye examination follow-up in Optimax Headquarters at Wisma AHP, TDDI, Kuala Lumpur. I thought I knew the place but it took us quite some time to find it as I made many mistakes along the way. Fortunately, we managed to reach there on time despite the mistakes.

My wife did her LASIK operation for both eyes on December, 2002 with a discounted rate of RM3600. Even though she had short sightedness with a power as high as 900 degree, she didn’t have to wear spectacles after the treatment until now :-) I believe doing away with spectacles should be a tremendous relief to her.

Today’s follow-up revealed that the power of short sightedness of one her eyes increased quite rapidly, from 25 degree to 100 degree, while the power of short sightedness of the other eye remains 25 degree. However, no more further laser treatment can be done as her cornea is not thick enough for such correction procedure. Should her cornea is thick enough, Optimax will perform the treatment free of charge.

Coincidently, my brother, Richard did his laser correction treatment this afternoon in the same centre. So I fetched him home after the procedure. Richard did the LASIK operation on the same day with my wife in year 2002.

LASIK is an abbreviated term for "Laser Assisted In situ Keratomileusis". It is a safe and effective treatment that corrects vision by reshaping the cornea through laser beam.

If you find spectacles too disturbing to you, I would recommend you to go LASIK. It is definitely worth the money :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +865 : Catching the tide of free seats :-)

I am fine today.

AirAsia is offering free seats again and today is the last day of the offer. AirAsia says that the seats are absolutely free as it had done away with the fuel surcharge this time, but we still have to pay for airport taxes and admin fees. Therefore the term “Absolute FREE SEATS” as advertised on its website is very misleading.

Without the fuel surcharge, a return trip between Kuala Lumpur and Sibu costs RM60 NET only.

I purchased a return ticket between Kuala Lumpur and Sibu on 30/7/09 – 3/8/09. And I will be traveling with Richard again and thus I shall not need to pay the transportation fee between my house and the airport. It is not that I am stingy but he is on business trip :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +864 : Penang Fried Kuey Teow and Braised Duck with Yam

I am fine today.

I am still having some coughing and wheezing sound from left lung today, but my condition is well enough to introduce to you two dishes that I cooked last Saturday :-)

My eldest son, Daniel, likes to eat Penang Fried Kuey Teow very much. Quite often, he requested my wife to order the dish for him on the way back from school.

In order to satisfy his appetite for this dish, I prepared the dish for him :-)

Daniel said it tasted very nice and it would taste even better if I added Chinese sausage
A zoom in view
Apart from the fried Kuey Teow, I also cooked a dish called braised duck with yam (芋头焖鸭). It was prepared based on a recipe in a new cookbook that I purchased a day earlier.

The dish

The cookbook - Hawker Secret Recipie (杂饭档). It comes with over 70 recipies that are simple to prepare. See you next post :-)

Day +863 : Happy birthday, Dennis!

I am fine today.

My brother Richard’s eldest son, Dennis, is celebrating his 8 year old birthday tonight. All my family members attended the celebration except my mother-in-law who went back to Sarawak in the morning.

I am well enough to attend the party as well and for the first time since I was sick last Saturday, I have appetite to eat :-) I have very little cough now and the wheezing sound from the lung is reduced too.

The cake
Happy Dennis
Blowing candles

Cutting cake

Take a photo with friends

Fried Mee Hoon

A zoom in view

Satays

Zoom in view

Dominos Pizza

Delicious satay sauce, onion and cucumber

Birthday eggs

Jelly

Drink

Fruit

See you next post :-)

Day +862 : Clarithromycin is no friend to Ciclosporin

My Blood Count Yesterday: - Readings in square bracket [] are result from previous test.
Red Blood Count (HB) = 157[140] (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 189[196] (Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 7.9[5.7] (Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 4.108[2.394] (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)

I am fine today.

The blood test that was done yesterday shows normal result. This means that the body's “fundamental” is still strong :-) The infection will go after some times.

I discovered this morning that the antibiotic that the doctor prescribed to me yesterday may interact with Ciclosporin that I am taking, resulting:

1. Elevated level of Ciclosporin in blood
2. Ciclosporin toxicity

I printed the relevant information to the doctor when I went to collect my blood test result. After some discussion, and searching online for more information, the doctor said that since the Ciclosporin dosage that I take is small, I should not face the side effects as mentioned.

But when I just reached home from the clinic, the doctor called and told me that he would like to replace Clarithromycin with Curam 625mg tablet, twice a day. Each tablet is made up of 500mg Amoxycillin and 125mg Clavulanic Acid.

I went to the clinic to meet the doctor again. He said we better play safe, else he might run into trouble later :-) So the best way is to change Clarithromycin to Curam 625mg.

I already took one Clarithromycin tablet yesterday, so I returned the remaining 4 to him. And for the next 4 days, I will be taking Curam 625mg in addition to existing Penicillin and Bactrin.

Hopefully, this drug will help to fight off any infections in my body.

See you next post :-)

Day +861 : Back to work, half day only :-)

I am fine today.

I went back to work in the morning as I am feeling better today. Despite the improved feeling, I am still having quite heavy cough and in addition to this, the wheezing sound from the left lung can still be heard.

I was determined to see a doctor this morning to check the condition of my lung. However, I was quite undecided which doctor to see initially; the hematologist in UH or our family doctor nearby. Of course the best thing is to see the hematologists in UH as they know my condition best, but it would take me at least half a day to see them. In the end I went to see my family doctor on the way to office. Should my condition fails to improve after seeing the family doctor, I will see the hematologist.

The doctor prescribed me a stronger antibiotic – a 5 days course Clarithromycin 500mg – which is used to cure the lung infection, preventing it from transforming into pneumonia. Apart from this, I was also prescribed with cough syrup, flu and anti-phlegm tablets.

I did tell the doctor that I am already taking Penicillin and Bactrin. However, he advised me to continue taking them while taking Clarithromycin. It is because the Penicillin and Bactrin dosage that I am taking are minimal.

I also asked the doctor to do a full blood count for me to make sure that my blood is normal. The result of the blood test will only be known tomorrow.

See you next post :-)

Day +860 : Another day off

I am fine today.

My health condition is more or less the same as yesterday, so I took another day off from work.

James, my wife’s bother-in-law, called me early in the morning advising me to see a doctor. He also shared with me one of his tooth extraction experiences. After he got his tooth extracted, some bugs (虫) entered the wound and multiplied in the nasal cavity, resulting extreme bad smell which he himself couldn’t tolerate. The bugs were terminated only after he took a very strong antibiotic.

This showed that tooth extraction always possess certain risks. However, I am still not sure if my condition arises due to tooth extraction.

Anyway, I believe I will be well enough to go to work tomorrow :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +859 : Mild fever and coughing

I am fine today.

I was not feeling well since last Saturday; suffering from coughing and mild fever. I don’t know whether this is related to the dental extraction done on last Monday. I suspected there is an infection on the left lung since I heard wheezing sound there. Apart from the sound, I also feel itchiness over there and this feeling causes me cough so much :-(

Due to the unwellness, I didn’t attend the church service yesterday and also take a day off from work today. My two nephews who stayed with me performed a traditional massage for me using Vicks VapoRub last night and I felt much better after that.

But the mild fever and coughing persist today. Perhaps, I should order another free traditional massage tonight.

Hopefully, I will be strong enough to work tomorrow :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +858 : Richard won his case again (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

During the hearing, Richard cleverly pointed out that the deposit should only be withheld should the renovation works leave uncleared debris or resulting damage of public properties. He presented the relevant clause in the agreement to the judge.

After studying the agreement, the judge agreed that IOI Building Services is in fact abusing the terms governing the purpose of the deposit, and ordered the company to refund the deposit to Richard within 14 days :-)

Richard also asked for compensation in term of interest as the refund should be done in year 2005. However, the judge told him that it is beyond the tribunal court's jurisdiction to award any compensation beyond the basic claim. Compensation in term of interest, suffering, insult and tarnished image can only be awarded in higher court.

The success of this case is very significant especially to those residents whose deposits are withheld illegally by IOI Building Services. The company has now lost its ground for keeping the residents' deposit and I believe they will get their deposits back very soon :-)

This is the second time Richard filed consumer dispute to consumer tribunal. He won the first case as well :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +857 : Richard won his case again (1)

I am fine today.

As I mentioned earlier, Richard attended the consumer tribunal hearing on Thursday. His case was against the IOI Building Services, his condominium management company.

Residents staying in the condominium had to pay RM1000 as deposit before carrying out renovation. The company has to refund the deposit if the renovation works do not incurred cost to the management such as clearing debris and repairing damages of public properties due to the renovation.

The company was reluctant to return the deposit, giving the reason that Richard violated the house rule by installing a grill in an inappropriate place. Richard then took photos of 49 units of the condominiums that violated the house rules as well, and found out that owners of 44 units had already get back their deposit. It is very clear that the IOI Building Services is exercising double standard in handling the deposit refund.

The condominium residents have jointly established a management body than resume the role of IOI Building Services. That means IOI Building Services has to transfer all deposits that it hold to the new management. However, Richard told me the company kept quiet about the deposits, leaving doubt to people that whether they want to "swallow" the money.

Richard has been chasing after the company for refund since year 2005 until such a point that the building manager ignored all his telephone calls. Without much choice, Richard brought the case to consumer tribunal.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +856 : Honey, I lost the case (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

The judge explained that there are two probabilities that could cause the engine overheat; workshop negligence and driver’s driving behavior. But since I am the claimant, and the workshop is a defendant, the burden of proof lies with me. The workshop owner said that the engine was overheated due to over speeding, and my argument is that the car was driven by a young lady (in fact she is not the one who drive the car :-)) at a rainy night, and thus there should be no over speeding.

But the problem is how am I going to prove that over speeding didn’t happen? I told the judge that it is almost impossible to prove a driver’s driving behavior, which he agreed. With this burden of proof, the claim failed, and this mean I lost the case :-(

The hearing was done in a very relaxing atmosphere. In fact, the session was carried out like a discussion rather than those serious hearing as in the higher courts where you can see the lawyers grilling witnesses. No lawyers are allowed in consumer tribunal court. The claimants and defendants have to defend their cases themselves.

One interesting thing was that we can bring along somebody who can argue the case very well to help us. For example, in this morning hearing, Richard also came forward half way in the hearing, trying to put forward a point, and I was quite surprised that this act was allowed :-)

The judge that was presiding over the cases this morning is young. When he wanted to make the judgment, he always said, “Don’t angry with me ( for making this judgment) .”

“Don’t worry, we abide by your decision,” we responded.

Even though I lost the case, I learned and experienced a lot through the case, thanks to my brother Richard to act as my “legal consultant”. And this time, I really became a troublesome man to the workshop owner; an act that fulfill his prophesy. Remember? When I asked him for a formal quotation for major overhaul, he said that I am a troublesome man and thus he was not interested to service my car.

It is not troublesome for me at all because Richard filed the case for me together with his case. I just have to do some writing to describe the case and then follow Richard to the hearing this morning.

If you encounter a dispute with a value less than RM25,000, try to resolve it through customer tribunal, and I believe you can engage Richard as your consultant :-) Filing the case cost RM5 only.

Take a photo at the tribunal court after the hearing - a happy loser :-)

Sssh... Hearing is going on
See you next post :-)

Day +855 : Honey, I lost the case (1)

I am fine today.

I sent the above message to my wife this morning telling her that I lost a tribunal case :-(

I brought the car engine overheating incident that happened on 24 August, 2008 to the consumer tribunal and the hearing was fixed this morning.

The detail of the car engine overheat incident can be found in the following blog entries:

Day +782 : It happened again :-) (1)
Day +783 : It happened again :-( (2)
Day +784 : It happened again :-( (3)
Day +785 : It happened again :-( (4)
Day +786 : It happened again :-( (5)
Day +787 : It happened again :-( (6)
Day +806 : The bill = RM4299

In this case, I try to claim half of the cost that is attributed to the engine overheat repair from Twine Auto Services, the workshop that assured me the car cooling system was functioning properly. The total amount that I claim is RM1694.5.

I went to the tribunal court in the PKNS building, Shah Alam at 8:00am with my brother Richard, who is also attending a hearing session on a dispute of deposit refund from IOI Building Services, the condominium management company.

My ground of claim is based on contributory negligence – a term I learned from the judge today. The argument is that if the workshop didn’t assure me that the cooling system is functioning well, I would be more careful and thus the overheating incident might be avoided. It is no doubt that the driver has to bear the responsibility, however, the workshop owner should also be held responsible for the incident.

Secondly, the workshop didn’t perform a thorough examination of the cooling system before handing the car over to me because the car broke down within 45 minutes on the way from Puchong to Melaka. If it was thoroughly checked, the incident would be avoided.

With these valid arguments, I should win the case. But unfortunately, under such situation, the party who make the claim (claimant), has to prove something that is almost impossible to prove; the driving behavior of the driver :-(

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +854 : The cost of gluttony – losing a molar tooth :-( (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday…

The extraction of the damaged molar tooth was very smooth. Since the molar tooth is big, it leaves a very big socket behind. The doctor said that bleeding would stop within one hour time but in my case, the bleeding continues until 2:30am in the morning.

As the tooth was extracted at 5:30pm, so the bleeding only stopped after 9 hours after the extraction, and within this period of time, I couldn’t do anything; just lying on the bed, biting a gauge firmly against the empty tooth socket, hoping that the bleeding would stop the next hour. No dinner, didn’t take bath, and even missed the evening medication :-(

The dentist told me that the tooth was dead, else judging from the condition of the tooth, I should feel extreme pain :-) However, if the tooth was not extracted, it might come to a stage which I can feel the pain. And apart from pain, I might get infection as well.

To put it in positive way, this is the right time that the tooth has to be extracted to prevent complication later. Without eating the Dazha crab, I would not know that the tooth needs to be extracted. In other words, we can say that the Dazha crab helped me to know that it is the right time to extract the tooth. So I don’t have to be sorry to be gluttonous :-)

I thank God that the bleeding stopped eventually and also thank the church members who prayed for me.

See you next post :-)

Day +853 : The cost of gluttony – losing a molar tooth :-( (1)

I am fine today.

When I was eating the Dazha crabs in my friend’s house last Saturday, something happened which I haven’t shared with you.

I tried to crack the crab leg with my molar tooth in order to enjoy the tasty meat inside, and there was indeed a little “crack” sound heard, but when I examined the crack leg, it was still perfect :-( Based on logical deduction, you should show what had happened.

I bit the crack leg, something was cracked, and it was not the crab that cracked, what else could it be? My tooth :-( Due to that powerful bite, the dental filling of my upper left molar tooth was detached, leaving a “gigantic” hole on it.

I went to see a dentist yesterday afternoon and he gave me two choices; root canal treatment or extraction. Due to the fact that my gum is not so healthy and the hole on the tooth is too big, the doctor told me that the outcome of a root canal treatment might not maintain the tooth for too long and in addition to this, it could also cause infection. Considering that I am immune suppressed due to the anti-GVHD drugs I take every day, I decided to extract the tooth.

The dentist hesitated whether to do the extraction for me after hearing that I am a post bone marrow transplant Leukaemia patient. However, after some discussion, he was convinced that we could proceed with the extraction. And before that, I requested him to do a dental scaling for me first, so that I do not have to go back for this again later. The dentist found two decayed teeth that need dental filling while doing the dental scaling and he advised me to do the filling at a later stage.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +852 : I saw China’s Dazha crab (大闸蟹) here

I am fine today.

Of course, not in the drain somewhere :-)

When we had our company lunch at Imperial Palace Restaurant, Puchong this afternoon, I saw a banner portraying an attractive Dazha crab, just like the one that was posted on this blog last Saturday. It must be Dazha crab season now, and these crabs are exported from China to overseas’ market including Malaysia.

The restaurant attendant told me that a crab cost RM48. In order to answer my queries, she showed me the crabs which were still alive but black in colour, not the red colour that you saw earlier. Just like the prawn, it turns red only after cooking.

The one that I saw at the restaurant looks more or less like this one.

However, one thing I noted is that the crabs were much smaller, about half only, than the one that I ate and their abdomen is not white, but gray in colour. Later I found out that the crabs were from Jiangsu (江苏), not Yangcheng (阳澄湖)Lake. The Dazha crabs from YangCheng Lake fetches much higher price than that from Jiangsu.

Are you interested? Visit Imperial Palace Restaurant if you would like to spend RM48 for a 200g crab :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +851 : Three more home-cooked delicacies

I am fine today.

Daniel told my wife that he wanted to eat Wat Tan Hor (滑蛋河) at Grill King. Even though the dish there is very big but it is still a little bit too costly to visit the restaurant often. So I decided to cook it myself yesterday:-)

This is the second time I cooked Wat Tan Hor. I cooked this dish first time while I was having holiday with my family at my home village last year. It was sometimes quite a challenge to find all ingredients needed to prepare a dish over there. For instance, I failed to buy squid, an important ingredient for Wat Tan Hor, over there. So I had to do without it.

Fortunately, it is very easy to get all the necessary ingredients here. So this time I followed the recipe completely, and on top of that, I also added some fish cakes :-)

Daniel said that this was the best Wat Tan Hor that he ever eat, and not only him, my niece Nga Ming also said the same :-) Of course, I was also very satisfied with the dish :-)

Apart from Wat Tan Hor, my wife also cooked rendang lamb shoulder yesterday, a very delicious dish :-) And not only this, our maid also prepared the garlic bread as breakfast this morning.

Wat Tan Hor for lunch - 1.4kg Ipoh Hor Fen fully consumed by 11 adults and children
A zoom in view

Rendang lamb shoulder for dinner
A zoom in view

Garlic bread, very easy to prepare

A zoom in view, simple version without any spices. Just spread it with chopped garlic and margarine

See you next post :-)

Day +850 : A taste of China’s Yangcheng Lake – the famous Dazha crab (阳澄湖大闸蟹)

I am fine today.

A church member and close friend of mine came back from China today on a business trip. He brought back quite a lot of Dazha crabs. These crabs were still alive when they reached Malaysia, and thus their freshness, I think, is beyond dispute :-)

Dazha crab is also called Chinese mitten crab, or big binding crab, or Shanghai hairy crab. It cost RMB 100 per crab if one buys the them directly from the first hand supplier. That means RM50 per crab. However, considering the additional middlemen, and the cost of transportation, and also the profit by the restaurant, a Dazha crab could cost hundreds ringgit in Malaysia.

Knowing that I like to eat very much, my friend shared with me the crabs generously. The crab tastes extremely good; the best crab that I ever taste in my life :-)

"...the Chinese hairy crab's primary appeal is not the meat in its claws and legs, although they're to be savored as well. Every hairy crab lover knows the real treasure is buried beneath its body armor. The soup, the roe (eggs), the "mustard", the guts (just not the lungs) are to be sipped, sucked and licked to your mouth's content."

Described someone about the parts of the crab that attracts a crab lover most, which I concur completely :-)

I thank God that I am not only alive today but able to taste this king of crabs :-)

The steamed crab
A zoom in view
Another view
Do you see the black hairs, initially I thought that was mud :-)
The white abdomen, proof of real YangCheng Dazha crab
Open up the crab

Not much meat, but as I mentioned earlier, the real attraction is not the meat

Still dare to eat after seeing this :-)

My two nephews enjoying the crab

See you next post :-)