Day +934 : Making new year cookies

I am fine today.

My wife would like to try making cookies this year. She identified a few types of cookies to make from the large collection of recipes that we possessed.

I brought her to a bakery and confectionery ingredients shop called Bake With Yen (KL) Sdn. Bhd. situated at Bandar Puteri Puchong, opposite Giant Hypermarket. This was our first time visiting such a big and complete (at least to us) bakery and confectionary ingredients shop. I believe one could find any ingredients related to baking and confectionery there :-)

We managed to make two types of cookies tonight; crispy chocolate cookies and almond biscuit. With the help of a Nga Ming's friend who is expert in making cookies, we manage to complete the tasks successfully. The children like the almond biscuit very much.

Children and adult busy at work
Crispy chocolate cookies in the making
The completed products
Almond biscuits in the making
Aaron wanted to help
The most hard working boy
Freshly baked almond biscuit
The last step - break it into smaller pieces 

See you next post :-)

Day +933 : Appointment at Skin Clinic

I am fine today.

Some areas of my body developed dry patches which I suspected of fungus infection initially. However, the hematologist said that they didn’t look like fungus infection and also didn’t seem to be caused by GVHD. In order to determine the nature of the problem, the hematologist referred me to skin specialist.

The appointment was at 10:00am this morning. I reached the clinic at 9:55am and then managed to see the doctor at about 10:30am. 

The doctor who saw me suspected the dry patches were symptom of eczema. In order to confirm this, she brought me to another skin specialist who looked more senior to confirm the case.

The dry patches beneath the ear.

“Eczema, give him some cream,” the skin specialist said.

The doctor asked me to come back 4 months later and she prescribed me two types of cream: Emulsifying Ointment for skin moisturization and Betnovate Cream, a topical steroid for treating skin inflammation.

I am now rich of creams :-)

This appointment ruled out GVHD as the cause of the skin problem, therefore it should be safe to continue reducing the dosage of Ciclosporin, a drug to prevent GVHD.

I reached home at 11:30am and this is the appointment that I completed in shortest time :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +932 : Company Chinese New Year Dinner

I am fine today.

Every staff except my nephew Soon Hui went for the company Chinese New Year dinner at Hee Lai Ton Restaurant Puchong.

We ordered two tables with a cost of RM568 per table.

The restaurant
The menu
Spring toss - 鱼生
Busy preparing the spring toss
Take a group photo before the dinner. Suppose to be 18 but Soon Hui went to attend his girl friend - surrender his right to attend the dinner with us :-( 
The spring toss
Happy tossing
Another table
Shark fin soup
Herbal chicken
Steam fish
Prawn
Seafood vegetable soup. Do you see the abalones?
Glutinous rice
Small buns as dessert

See you next post :-)

Day +931 : Follow-up at Ophthalmology Clinic

I am fine today.

I went to UH as early as 6:30am this morning for an appointment in the ophthalmology clinic. This appointment is a result of an unsuccessful appointment two days ago due to “flood” in the clinic.

The time of the appointment is 8:30am. I went there so early for two reasons: to avoid traffic jam and to finish the appointment early. I got a very good general queue number – 5. I registered successfully at 7:30am and get another queue number 1003.

The nurse called my name at 8:00am to perform an simple eyes sight test. After that, I waited for my turn to see a doctor which I expected to happen very soon. But when I saw the queue number rolling, I started to doubt my earlier expectation. Many queue numbers that were after me were served :-(

Worrying that I might miss the queue, I checked with the nurse. She told me that the doctor that supposed to see me was not in yet :-(

I waited and waited very patiently and was called to see the doctor 9:40am only. When I sat down in the consultation room, I found out that the doctor was not there. I waited another 15 minutes over there. The nurse who called me in signaled me to remain seated when she saw me moving.  She worried I might run out of patient.

Keeping me waiting for a long time did not upset me much, but one thing that upset me very much was that I noticed that there was only one sheet of paper on the table with my sight reading test result written on it.

The clinic supposed to bring in my medical file to let the doctor understand my medical history. Without the medical file, how can a doctor make a good judgment in treating the patient?

“What is your problem?” the doctor asked.

“Extremely dry eyes,” I answered.

“What did you applied?”

“Naturale Tears.”

“No, no, you must be applying something else,” he thought that I was not telling the truth when he saw the white oily precipitation formed around my eyes.

He didn’t understood my situation. I guess he hasn’t met a patient that needs to apply the artificial tears so often as me. When doctor prescripts eye drops to their patients, most of the time the frequency of application is in the order of hours, but in my case it is minutes. When I apply the eye drops, it overflows to the surrounding area and forming chemical precipitation. Since I apply a lot, the precipitation is a lot too. 

After a couple of tests, the doctor decided to dilate my eyes. I was asked to wait outside for the eyes to get dilated after applying some form of eye drops. 

When the doctor called me again, it was already 11:00am. He performed some more test and then prescribed me two types of medicine; an eye drops called Systane and an ointment called Fucithalmic. He also advised me to stop using Naturale Tears that I had been using for a long time.

The prescription said that I should apply Systane two hourly but I have to apply it in 15 to 30 minutes interval, else I can't see.

The doctor didn't say a word about the condition of my eyes. When I asked, "not bad" is the answer :-)

When I reached home, it was 12:30pm. Due to dilated eyes, I couldn't read. So I was unable to work in the afternoon, and God bless me with a good rest :-)

I have to see the eye specialist again in two weeks time.

See you next post :-)

Day +930 : Who owe who an explanation?

I am fine today.

Following the internet domain name scam that I blogged on Day +912 : I am a target of internet domain name scam and Day +917 : The game continues, I received an email from Anthony asking me to delete the blog posts that exposed their trick.

Dear David,

http://david-healed.blogspot.com/2009/01/day-912-i-am-target-of-internet-domain.html

You owe me an explanation. We had registered the domain names(www.esteemsoft.cn,www.esteemsoft.com.cn.) for your company of prevent the third party will register them from the other registrar. Considering your company's credit, hope you can cancel this information.

Kind Regards,

Anthony Chen
Tel: +86-21-62416070
Fax: +86-21-62597835
Email: anthony@chooke.com.cn
Shanghai Chooke Network Information Technology Co., Ltd
website: www.chooke.com.cn

A quick check using Whois service did reveal that they registered the two domain names on my behalf.

After they knew that we are interested at the domains, they quickly grabbed them (first come first serve), hoping that we would then purchase the domains from them.

Before I delete the posts as per their request, I need some explanation too. Therefore, I had the following reply to them:

Dear Anthony,

Sorry for that but you need to convince me that this is not a scam.

If you would like to secure the domain names for me – why would you only register www.esteemsoft.cn,www.esteemsoft.com.cn and not the other four that you have quoted?

Can you prove to me that a domain keyword “estemsoft” can be purchased? 

What about all these and many other comments on the internet?

http://successfulsoftware.net/2008/04/19/chinese-domain-scam/

http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/the-chinese-domain-name-scam/333/

http://kah-yoong.blog.friendster.com/2008/11/china-domain-scam/

http://www.rumblepup.com/chinese-domain-name-fraud/

http://www.firetrust.com/en/blog/chris/domain-name-scams 

Best Regards,

David

After this, I didn’t heard from them again.

See you next post :-)

Day +929 : The ophthalmology clinic was flooded

I am fine today.

I went to ophthalmology clinic in UH for eyes examination in the afternoon. I reached there just before 2:00pm and after I registered, I noticed that the floor of the clinic was full of water. This water gave very unpleasant smell.

When I sat there to wait for the ophthalmologist to come, the water kept rising :-( The nurses there said that a broken pipe in one of the rooms caused the flood. We were asked to move to gynecology clinic situated next to the ophthalmology clinic.

At about 3:00pm, the nurse announced that the ophthalmology clinic for today was cancelled and we were asked to come back again on Wednesday morning :-(

With this, I have to go to UH three times this week - the unsuccessful ophthalmology clinic today, the new appointment for ophthalmology clinic on Wednesday and skin clinic on Friday.

Don’t worry, I am still very happy.

See you next post :-)

Day +928 : They arrived finally

I am fine today.

My boss visited PIKOM PC Fair 2008(III) at KLCC on 14 December 2008. He saw an NEC VERSA S5600 notebook with the following specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8600
  
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
  
• 2GB DDR2 RAM
  
• 250GB SATA HDD
  
• Intel Graphic Media Accelerator 4500MHD
  
• 12.1” WXGA SSV TFT LCD
  
• Lightweight 1.8kg
  

The unit was selling at RM3,699 during the PC Fair and it came with bonus gifts including NEC mouse, NEC back-pack, carrying case, micro fibre cleaning cloth and 36 months onsite warranty.

I recommended him to upgrade the Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows Vista Business and also upgrade the RAM from 2GB to 4GB as he would be using the notebook for software development work.

The NEC reseller told him that it was not possible to have the upgrade.

I contacted NEC Malaysia directly after that and the sales person there said that it was possible to do the upgrade.  Because the promotion was over, we couldn’t get any bonus gifts that were offered during the PC Fair. However, I managed to get 2 years extension of warranty with a minimal charge of RM100 instead of the normal rate of RM419 :-)

I ordered two notebooks and it took NEC almost one month to produce them. Since NEC Malaysia doesn’t sell their products directly, I have to collect the two notebooks from City Information Sdn. Bhd. at Lowyat Plaza.

I went to Lowyat Plaza with my nephew Heng Chiek to collect the notebooks this afternoon. Even though today is Sunday, it took us 2 hours to reach there due to heavy traffic jam at Jalan Hang Tuah. The policemen blocked some roads, forcing us to make a big round in order to reach Lowyat Plaza.

The computer shop told me that I am the first customer that purchased a customized NEC notebook computer :-) Unlike Dell which provides online customization of their notebooks, purchasing a customized notebook from NEC is a very troublesome job. But because my boss loves the NEC notebooks so much that I have to get it for him by all means :-) Of course, it is also good for me as he also give one of the notebooks to me :-)

Together with a desktop computer and some other computer accessories, I spent more than RM12,000 at Lowyat Plaza today :-)

Two boxes of NEC notebooks
Setting up the notebook

See you next post :-)

Day +927 : Yummy Wantan Noodles at Puchong

I am fine today.

We went to Fong Lei restaurant (丰利茶餐室) for Wantan noodles (云吞面) after the prayer meeting this morning. The restaurant is directly opposite Tesco Puchong, across the LDP highway.

One church member had been mentioning the Wantan noodles stall in this restaurant for quite some time. At one time, she and her husband visited the stall to have Wantan noodles for breakfast almost every day. 

Al l the ingredients including the noodles are home made. The texture of the noodles is extraordinary good. Apart from this, the dumplings (水饺) , Wantan (云吞)and roasted pork(叉烧肉) are very delicious too.

This is the best Wantan noodles that I ever have so far and I strongly recommend it to you :-) 

The Wantan noodles is very popular. It is not uncommon for customers to wait for 30 minutes to one hour to get their order. You have to be there early to avoid long waiting time.

The restaurant

The Wantan noodles stall
The raw dumplings
Soup Wantan noodles with dumplings and roasted pork
Soup Wantan noodles with dumplings and Wantan
Dumplings
Dried Wantan noodles with roasted pork and soup Wantan - double portion. I skipped lunch after eating this.

See you next post :-)

Day +926 : An unsuccessful walk-in

I am fine today.

I went to UH as early as 6:30am to see skin specialist. Not many people were there when I reached there and the queue machine was not even operational yet.

A nurse came at 7:30am to start the queue machine and I got queue number 8. The skin clinic is one of the clinics operate at certain time of the week within the General Clinic 1. Apart from the skin clinic, there were other clinics such as asthma going on in the General Clinic 1. Every clinic is assigned a few rooms for doctors to see patients.

Everyone who comes to the General Clinic, no matter which specialist clinic he/she will go, needs to get a general queue number. He/she will then wait for his/her turn to register at the payment counter to see specific specialist in the relevant clinic. After the payment, the counter staff will issue another queue number which is specific to the particular specialist clinic.

When it was my turn to register, the counter staff told me that she needed to ask the doctor if he wanted to see me. It is because I didn’t make an appointment and was considered a walk-in patient.

After getting the referral letter from my haematologist last Monday, I went to make appointment to see skin specialist. The staff there advised me to walk in on Tuesday or Friday. The reason that she gave was that the earliest appointment she could arrange for me was May. So a better way is to walk in to see if the doctor would like to meet me.

I was notified at 10:00am that the skin specialist couldn’t see me today. However, he would like to see me next Friday and with the doctor’s note, I made an appointment successfully.

I am wondering why the staff who was in charge of the appointment that day told me that the earliest appointment that I could have was on May, but I was able to make it next Friday this morning.

With this, I have to go to hospital twice next week; seeing the eye specialist on Monday and skin specialist on Friday, and then immediately after the Chinese New Year, back to see the haematologist again :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +925 : Marriage Lesson (2)

I am fine today.

When we were sharing what we learned from the first few “Building Your Marriage” lessons, one couple said that they learned a lot. They used to quarrel. After the lessons, they still quarrel but only to discover that they could not complete it. They were reminded that they need to accept each other halfway and the quarrel stopped :-)

Apart from this, the wife said that his husband was very strict to their children which made them very afraid of him. However, the children showed no respect to him. The way the father treated the children was just like a commander training his soldiers. So these pitiful children were undergone national services all year round :-( That is why they called their father commander (总司令).

After the lessons, the father became much kind and gentle to the children.

My situation was quite a kind of reverse than this family. My wife and I have to serve four commanders (4 children) all year round. Whenever I tried to gain back my commandership, the children will say that I am a bad father :-(

“You see this bad Baba issuing command again!” they complained when I was a little bit strict.

In order to avoid being called bad Baba, I will have to twist a little bit when I wanted them to do something.

“Joseph and Daniel, please do your work! This is not a command but you have to follow.”

They were more willing to follow instruction after knowing that it was not a command :-)

Command pushes the children away from us. Kindness and gentleness draw them to us. However, when we are kind and gentle all the time, they might become indiscipline and that is when we need to seek help from Mr. Rotan :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +924 : “How are you, brother?”

I am fine today.

I had a dinner with a few church members tonight at Kee Tek Restaurant, the restaurant where we had the river fish feast last Sunday.

William and Mr. Loh went to Semenyih to buy a few Tilapias (非洲鱼) for the dinner.  We chatted until midnight. Mr. Loh told us a lot of his experience as an alcoholic which most of us never knows.

After he became a Christian, he stopped to mix with his alcoholic friends and stopped drinking. Before this, he spent RM1500 per month drinking. And this amount is considered to be small as William told us that one of his suppliers spent RM5000 per month in alchohol. One could spend even more than this if he/she is very generous.

It was very common that an alcoholic failed to find their way back home after getting drunk. Some of them simply turned off the car engine and sleep in the car on the road. A better one would park their car at petrol station and sleep there.

On one occasion, when he was walking toward the car park after getting drunk, a guy approached him.

 “How are you, brother?” said the guy.

“Very good,” answered Mr. Loh. He could hardly open his eyes at that time.

After that he “voluntarily” gave all his belongings to the guy. He learned that his hand phone and wallet that contains IC, Credit cards were all gone the next morning:-(

The alcohol made him felt “very good” to give away his belongings :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +923 : “Boss, any fish to eat tonight?”

I am fine today.

When we were having river fish dinner last Sunday night, William showed me a SMS in his hand phone that read “老板，今晚有鱼肉吃吗？” or “Boss, any fish to eat tonight?” 

The one who sent him the message was also a church member. Somehow he got the news that William went for fishing again. He likes to eat very much and has a huge eating capacity :-) Someone told me that he consumed 1kg of prawns while having buffet steamboat at Yuen Restaurant.

William gladly invited him after receiving the SMS. He got to enjoy a great fresh water fish dinner because he dared asking :-)

This incident reminded me of a Bible verse in James 4:2 that said, “You do not have, because you do not ask God.” This church member would like to eat fresh fish, he asked and he got it. William said he would certainly not invite him if he didn’t ask for it.

If we have any need, we should ask our heavenly father boldly. He is an abundant God and he won’t be stingy in giving what is good for us :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +922 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today: - Readings in square bracket [] are result from previous test.

Red Blood Count (HB) = 146[137] (Normal 130-180)

Platelet = 230[245] (Normal 150-450)

White Blood Count (WBC) = 6.9[6.5] (Normal 4 - 11)

Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 3.312[2.99] (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)

ALT = 79[38] (Normal 30 – 65)

AST = 57[24] (Normal 15-37)

GGT = 58[46] (Normal 15-85)

I am fine today.

I did my routine follow-up this afternoon. The blood count results were normal but there was a significant increase of liver function test readings; both ALT and AST were more than doubled compared to the last follow-up result.  The reason that caused this sharp elevation might due to the cutting off of Prednisolon (steroid) intake during last follow-up. However, the readings were not deviated too much off the optimal readings and thus there was no point of worry here :-)

The doctor reduced the daily Ciclosporin dosage from 50mg to 25mg. The drug, likes Prednisolon, is used to suppress the immune system to reduce the effect of GVHD. In order to monitor the effect of this adjustment, doctor fixed my next appoint 4 weeks from now instead of 6 weeks.

I also complained the joints stiffness as I blogged on Day +916 : Alamak! My bone, but doctor had no idea what happened to me :-( He said that Prednisolon could cause osteoporosis but it is unlikely that causes joints stiffening. He adopted wait and see approach to this problem. If the situation deteriorated, he will refer me to appropriate doctors.

In addition to the joints problem, I also discovered many round and dry spots on my body similar to fungus infection. In order to rule out that this is not a GVHD symptom, doctor referred me to skin specialist whom I will see on the coming Friday morning.

As the Chinese new year is approaching, I brought a few boxes of Mandarin oranges to the nurses and staff in the haematology ward early in the morning. When I was hospitalised June last year, the ward was shifted from level 6 to level 9 to allow for a major renovation. Now after 6 months of work, the ward was shifted back to level 6 again. It was very nicely renovated. Patients are no longer staying in open space like before. Three types of rooms are available now: single beds, twine beds and triple beds. And on top of this, there are now 5 isolated rooms for transplant patients. This means that the facility allows for 5 parallel bone marrow transplants. However, this is still not possible yet as the ward is lacking of transplant nurses.

As a patient who stayed in the ward over 130 days, I am so happy to see the improvement that had been made. It is just like my own house get renovated :-)

 

See you next post :-)

Day +921 : Another river fish feast

I am fine today.

Following an abundant river fish feast August last year as I blogged on Day +769 : A river fish feast, I was invited to have another one this evening. This time William asked me to bring along my whole family as the catch was abundant.

William and another church member, Mr. Lo, went to fish again after the church service this afternoon. They caught more than12 kg of fishes this time.

We had dinner at Kee Tek (记得) Restaurant located somewhere at 14 miles, Jalan Puchong. This is the restaurant William and his gangs visited most of times to have their catch steamed. In fact, they also visited the restaurant for meal during non-fishing days.  

Nineteen of us including the children finished about 11.5kg of fish :-) One of the fishes was not cooked.

The fishes were very fresh and delicious. Apart from the fishes, we ordered two side dishes – fern shoots and sweet potatoes leave.

The restaurant
Table 1
Table 2
6 of this 非洲鱼
Another type - Ikan Haruan
This one weighted 5kg - 松鱼
William with his catch
Three fishes in a plate
Ikan haruan soup
Another style - 松鱼
The head
Fern shoots
Sweet potatoes leaves
Free flow of rice 
See you next post :-)