Surviving.......

Well.....here i am in an unplug outdoor concert....at 1200m above see level,  16 degree C , with no wind nor rain , by the grace of LORD.... I praise you......

wrapping up...

3 days more to the countdown and it was a fascinating year for me and my family. For the kids, it is a whole new experience; Yun entering junior high and Xian stepping in to his senior years. Yun had finally realized the importance of study although she had a late start but yet I could see her effort lately. Xian got his first 100 in the examination yesterday, he was very excited for the score and I had a short discussion with him about his success; after all these year of studying he had finally knew the essence of getting a good grade – understanding all the content in the class is the key….as a late starter he had start his learning at 4 years of age, he had done far beyond my expectation.

My aim would be completing my masters and hopefully I could lead a cell group after CNY and gone for a medical missionary tour in the summer next year…

so many stupid events was noted and I tend to learn from it( holding back the installation of tpms ended up with a tiresome tyre replacement...)

Well so far so good and I would be encountering my final and possible the toughest challenge of the year (stranded in Peng hu was the toughest so far) -> leading a camping trip in the mountain area with the cold front sweeping (Forecast said it would be under 10)…we had similar experience during our summer trip 2 year ago, at 8 degree(summer at 8... not in russia of coz, we had camped at 2500m above sealevel..)  and we managed to survive it but yet leading a bunch of newbies would be another story...

trip down south....

It was a relaxing trip for me…for the past few years, I had been the “organizer”; planning the trip and executing it. However this trip down south had been organized by one of the local guide of the national park. All I need to do is to drive….

We had to wait for Yun(school off at 5) and our destination was 78km away. The drive was smooth and we managed to hit the restaurant at 6:30pm. The shop was owned by an ex-chef in one of the local 5 star hotel, a hong konger. We had found the shop months ago and after our lunch, we had a common feeling that it is must visit in the future.

Dim sum, fried rice and noodle is a must and the price is darn cheap compare to up north (RM7 for dim sum and RM 15 for rice and noodle…, non-comparable to the boleh land but yet it is at the lower end of the local price).

After the stuff till you vomit dinner which cost just slightly over RM100, we headed to the local bed and breakfast establishment. It was elected at the top B&B over the net last year. 

After the check-in, our guide had brought us further into the mountain area to have a peek at the local deer herd action in the night.

A great night hunting tour and we hit bed by 10pm preparing for the early activities next day

The room was hotel-like and not a single feeling of the average bed and breakfast. 

After the good night sleep, we had headed to “seven hole” waterfall. Under the lead with the guide, we had an adventurous and daring ascend to the second hole with the kids which I cursed along the climb. With the grace of Lord, we had a safe journey.

The breakfast was a satisfying one and we had a whole day touring in the wind around the national park.

me under the sun for a quick nap....

At 5pm, we cruised 100km up north for book shopping and we hit home at 10 after dinner.
well a tiring but relaxing trip for me....

art....

We had gotten a new hand phone for Yun. During our pre-purchase discussion, she had told me that she had felt embarrass using the old SE Zylo….she had been tolerating the pressure for quite sometimes. I could understand her agony, while most of the peers are using “flag ship” grade hand phone she had to live with what we left for her. She had tried to stay low but yet as a doctor’s daughter, peer would expect more from her.  She had talked about hand phone in the house as it was a pain for her but still she did not raise the topic nor asking for one. 

My policy is simple, not too high , not too low, just average…That means, there will not be any iphone, note3, nor S4…average product and I could see her struggle when choosing one, she opted for galaxy ace and I rejected her choice, entry level specs and definitely would regret months later….I offered her 2 choice -> premier or core and she had opted for premier. Cost more between the 2 but with a larger screen.

I need to be careful along the path but still nothing happier for a father when looking at their face with the satisfaction smile.

heat is on....

It is an exciting month…. oral test and presentation for my MMin course and follow by the BLSI course for the military camp nearby our hospital…. I had spent a few good night preparing the event. The upcoming event would be smoother, an escape trip to Kenting with the church’s youth group this week and a camping trip 1000m above sea level next week. An escape for everyone in the family and the kids are looking forward to the events.

Yun’s had downloaded a countdown app and she had entered all the major event for the count down lately... While looking at the countdown date, I can feelthe heats is on during this coolest period of the year…..

Daring and Boleh....

I had learnt that the price of electricity is taking its hike starting next year and it definitely causes worsening of inflation after the rise. Less than 1 year ago, In its manifesto, the scale had promised to “ease the cost of living” and now they had allowed Tenaga to raise the price just to increase their profit….raising of electricity fare would let every product in the market which use electricity to have an excuse to raise the price….

Well, if Tenaga is hitting red on its book, there is every reason to do so but yet the govt had ignored the majority public and tried its best to please the less share holders…

The implementation of the GST is also a real threat to the public due to its disproportionate taxing, unless you big bucks it should be a burden…

Another news was rebadging(yes, just change the badge) of Honda Accord 8^th gen(currently the 9^th gen is on the market) into Proton Perdana… A national automobile industry that couldn’t R&D a family sedan within 5 years….

Well, what can I say …..

"K"ollision

I had a good call until I was called at 5am ending my 3 hrs break. 4 casualties were sent in by the rescue service. 1 was reported to have a left thigh fracture and the rest were cuts and limbs pain.

The EMTs had told me that they had rammed onto the divider at the combat reserved road.

The combat reserved road is one of the temporary air force strip down south enabling air force to land their plane. The road is darn width( 12 lanes on each side), and it is definitely unbelievable to rammed onto the divider under normal driving condition. (during my sinner stage, I had a 180kmh record…)

The only female casualty was better than the rest, she was walking and look very pale. Her response was quite weird unlike those concussion patient who kept asking the same question over and over again. She had answered my question wrongly (ask east and she talk west instead)… No scent of alcohol and I deeply believed that she is under influence of substance, the rest of the guys were confused as well c no sign of alcohol consumption

My speculation was confirmed when the policemen stepped in. It was not the usual traffic policemen who came… those were police from the local station and they had brought a few packets of Ketamine and they tried to interrogate the 4 victims. The 3 guys were too confused and the lady was unable to response properly.

I had a houseman colleague back in the days with KKM, he is a UKM grad, a surgical freak who tried his best to laid his hand on any operating table. He had once told me that he had gone to a rave party and someone gave him a quarter of an ectasy pill and he had swung his head for the next 2 days. I had told this story to Yun and Xian and I had shown them the scene in the movie “Drug war” where the anti-narcotic chief inhale an overdose of cocaine.(non-realistic of course but good enough to scare them off).

hanging on....

The heat is still on as the dispute of 7-7 or 8-8 is still not settled. Personally I preferred the 10hr/14hr system… but yet I need to comply to the regulation. I had talked to the dept supt of admin regarding Lem’s preference. The roster for Jan and Feb is out and I keep my finger cross and hope that we can hold till new year.

I had booked the car rental and would book the water chalet of Avillion resort at the end of the month.

It would be root seeking tour for my family as I would bring the kids back to my grandparent’s house. A small town named Chuah where I spent some of my school holidays in a coffee shop enjoying a country life.

NT 760 for 22000

Yun and Xian had been a fan of Namewee after they viewed Nasi Lemak 2.0. They bought the DVD during one of our visit back to Malaysia. A truly blockbuster and we had seen it many times....
When his 3rd movie came out early this year, it was scheduled to aired in the local cinema here but later it was postponed due to some issue with FINAS. The wait was very long and from time to time Yun would asked me if we could buy the DVD when we go back next year and I agreed.
However 2 weeks ago, it had finally hit the local cinema and we had decided to visit the cinema for a quick glance of it.
It was a real pain for Xian to enter the cinema as he is afraid of the poster and the pre-show trailer(yeah, especially those creepy one..), but after negotiation he had agreed to exchange it with angry bird go telepod set....
We finally made it to the show and we were the only viewers around , the price of 4 tickets to chartered the whole cinema(the chartered is about rM2200)

however the show was not up to standard ->copy here and there and lacking the usual malaysian element....still, RM 19 per ticket is still well spent as Yun and I had a great discussion regarding the movie...

passing with stress...

It had been a stress for me preparing the presentation and oral test during the past 2 weeks. Well, it was a great experience and truly grace from god for passing the subject. 8 credits down and 4 more to go for this semester...

One stop crisis center - on demand....

I had this female trauma patient before I went off during my last shift. The patient was a middle aged female with traumatic head injury. She as comatose on arrival with a large hematoma over her right periorbital area.
She had undergone bil masectomy with sparse hair, a picture of obvious breast cancer s/p surgery with chemotherapy. But a force had pushed me to check her private part to comfirm that she is female rather than a transexual who undergone surgery. The private part was a she but it was swollen and a laceration wound was noted. The spot diagnosis was traumatic intracranial hemorrhage and with her current status, she would be mostly vegetative if she survive surgery.
The family arrived later and the neighbour who discovered her laying in front of her house told me that she was found with her pants down to her thigh. Well.... possible rape victim....and I am stuck with it...
The patient was later sent to OR... as our O&G is on visiting basis we are not officially stamped as OSCC for violence....., I had to do the evidence collecting and reporting routine.... darn , had never done here but with the training of MOH, and help of our senior nursing staff, I was able to complete the procedure. 
The first for me here in Taiwan and the first for our hospital...

standing...

The admin had maintained our shift of 8-6 this month and the battle is still on...
The dispute of 8 or 7 is still a matter. Lem wanted 8 and K insisted on 7 and the the new chap CY is ok with both...
The score is currently 1 vs 1 with 2 standing on the wall...

Solutions.....

It seems that the 12-12 would be implemented definitely and K had insisted that it should be 8-8 but Lem was reluctant  to accept the deal. He would reach home by 9+ and his wify had objected to the idea, it is true tgat if he taken up a clinic job, the salary  would much be the same as he had a 25% cut of working time with joinning of our new colleague. Not sure yet but it would be back to square minus one if we loss him.....

Just another trip up north.....

It was supposed to be a family camping trip up north, however 8 had to come up alone....well Yun is having her Saturday class and she has benn insisting of attending all of the class since her tripped over last summer....well good for her as she is now more concerned about her grades...
I have planned to spoke around whole day at the annual meeting of the internal medicine society and the rest of the family will have a good round at one the largest book store....kids come first and I am currently alone on the hsr touring back to south. A marvelous experience but yet tiresome....

new scheme of 14->12 and x24

It had been a disturbing week…Boss had found K and told him about his two wishes about our roster next months. As K wishes to earn extra by covering the ward; K had been responsible for our roster since months ago. Our roster would usually be settled before mid of the months. The 2 wishes were: 12 hrs shift and no back to back shift(12+12 = 24 hrs shift).

K had reshuffled the roster after the talk with boss. Lem and I were not satisfied with the roster and we had deep discussion later. Boss excuse was relatively weak – no more making up…but yet we are not the only unit that does so…

After some discussion and we had managed to persuade the admin that we kept the December roster….But yet the future roster would have to commit to the 2 requirements.

Pros – I got to eat my dinner in the house and look at both of the kiddo homework before I come to work...

Cons – 1 additional shift per months(14->15 shifts)

The acts did however pissed me off and I decided to plan a trip back to Malaysia during the CNY. I did express my concern and told that there would be no 24 hrs shift for me in the future no matter what is the situation...

There were so many speculations about the changes and I would not want to point any finger at the moment….

Farm....

 My favorite fruit.....pineapple... time to harvest ? unknown.....

 The banana and Jagung... mango is out as I don't use anything ending with "-cide"...

Pisang emas...

Sugar cane...
Chinese Toon(香椿)....
Dioscorea opposita (山藥)...

 Vege under the cover...

 Serai and Pandan...

Aloe vera...

Annual event...

Getting up earlier had not been a critical task for me, not due to my night shift work, but due to aging....But yet I enjoy the morning atmosphere, refreshing, and the mind is more sharp and free to accept new things, it was one of the good things which my dad taught us during my teens.
In the past attending meeting up north is a pain for a southerner like me, the high speed rail has however changed the scenario. The formation of one day life rim has eased the life of many...
FMA is holding its annual meeting today and I am on my way....I would joined one or two talks and took a trip back....but still the is a list to do for me on the way back.....

New kid on the block...

Our new guys had come to Lem for orientation 2 days ago. Luckily, he was not the guy who came earlier this year. According to Lem, he is a nice young chap. He was shown the roster (yeah yeah, didn’t even get my last month salary yet and our roster for next month is out, just to facilitate K to arrange his ward roster) and had no problem with it…

Well, so far so good… life should be better next months.

don't know what they are thinking....

I was managing Ving's FB album and came across this post by one of my friend's daughter....
I was shocked when I found that she was posted in a photo with a newborn. I did a thorough reading over her post and found that she had been pregnant and given birth to a baby few days ago....
I was surprised that she had hidden it so good; we had gone to a camping trips 4 months ago and I did not noticed that she was pregnant. 
I was more shock that when I found out (over the fb )that she had another friend who was also a 31 weeker...
OMG, they are only 18 and not married... it really give me a chill over my back, I had to pray very hard that it would never happened to Yun...

price of reluctant...

It was Friday morning, as I slowly taxied Fefe to the main gate to pick up Yun and Xian, I had noticed that Fefe had slant over the driver side with an unusual angle. A bad feeling had flashed over my mind and my heart sunk to the deepest trench of the manila sea when I saw the flat tyre, "Not again..." 

I glide Fefe aside allowing Ving to drive Yun and Xian to school. There was this tyre shop 300m from my house but there is no way I could drive to the shop with the flat tyre, the drive would definitely damage the tyre. I decided to replace the flat one with the spare one….

It was my second tyre change in 12 months. Not an easy task as the Fefe was LSUV(L = large)…. The last tyre change was a stressful event for me but I had no choice.

I struggled to jack the car up and completed the tyre change when Ving return. There was a few near fainting occasion when I tried to look under the car to locate the proper position of the jack, as I am still suffering from the not that Benign PPV....Thanks to the LORD, the spare tyre had 28 PSI left and I was able to drive to the nearby tyre shop for the repair.

I left house at 8:30am after spending RM20 for the tyre repair, I managed to reach the land of lion at 9:20am. During the drive, I told myself, "Enough is enough" and I had decided to dip myself back to the world of TPMS.

The Zs had come with an indirect TPMS and it had saves my ass a few times…however I was reluctant to get myself a TPMS as I thought a tyre pressure gauge and an electrical pump would do the job. But I was wrong as I am not that kind of person who is prompt to utilize the gauge from time to time.

I did a survey over the TPMS product prior to the change to the current Michelin tyres but later forget about the issue.

I had been there before, I remembered those day when I given up with mobile interneting and I had lived with it for almost 2 year before I hit the rock during our round the island trip...

With my painful finger, I had ordered a pair of TPMS (for both of the car) over the net during the consultation in the clinic.

I got the TPMS at 3pm today and I spent a good one hour with Xian installing the gadgets.

Out of my expectation, the newly install tyres of Ving’s Sisi are not properly inflated. They were not only over inflated but the difference of PSI over the tyre with the highest and lowest PSI was more than 5PSI. It took me sometime to deflate the tyre to the recommended figure.

The similar event was noted in Fefe as I had to deflate and inflate some of the tyres to make the figure look good. It looks like I had to rely on myself in the future...

I had read over the net and found that a most tyre vendor had recommended that the tyre pressure should followed the recommendation of the car factory but yet there are a lots of the forumer over the net that spread around opinions that the tyre pressure should be set at 80% of the maximum pressure set by the tyre vendor.  

I choose to believe the tyre vendor…..

I hope that I would not have to take out the spare tyre again in the near future….

graduate course - back to school...

I had been thinking of furthering my study since few years ago. So many thoughts and I had never materialized any of it…unstable roster, growing up problem to tackle and so and so and so…

Few months ago, our elder from the church had forward an email to me regarding an out of campus graduate course which is going to be held in our church. Unlike most of the weekend graduate course which run over Saturday and Sunday, it is held on Friday afternoon. I was reluctant to take it as I read it very late and had not time to discuss with anyone. The graduate course is a M.Min (Master of Ministry) course despite of the M.Theology course which I am more interested in as it is meant for pastor/Reverend rather than ordinary church member like me.

However 1 day before the closure of the registration, I met my church elder and he had asked me if I am interested and I had told him that if he would write me the recommendation letter than I would gladly enroll in the course. The elder told me that he would glad to do so, he thought that our church members should have the chance to upgrade ourselves. I grinned and told him that I had read Matthew 28:19 and thanked him for offering me the chance to learn.

I sent in the application on that day but was still very confuse about my decision. I had a very close conversation with the LORD and I am clear about the path set for me.

The course did not affect my work so far but yet there are lots of reading that should be done...

I had completed the first 3 credits (out of 45) and on the way of writing my 1st homework which is due 20 days later....

BPPV - aint benign at all....

The past 1 week was a real torment… It all started since my influenza immunization jab last Tuesday after my night shift….Everything was smooth until Wednesday morning 5am when I regained my conscious with my eyes set at closing mode. I had experienced this spinning sensation when I tried to lay on my right side. I had this sudden onset of spinning sensation. The sensation had become worsen within seconds and I had to adjust my position…. Minutes later, I started to realize that I am in deep sxxt of mud as the vertigo I was experiencing was posture-related. I had sat up and there was this mild nausea sensation and dizziness which persisted for a good 15mins. A short test of moving my head left and right with various tilting angle had confirmed my doubt - It was apparent that I had BPPV (Benign positional peripheral vertigo) which is not benign at all….
I had struggled to work on Wednesday - > took a careful drive ->keeping my head straight and not to turn left and right.
I managed to survived the call by trying my best to keep my head straight.
The challenge came when I tried to get some sleep after I hit home -> I was unable to lay flat and I had to sleep on the sofa in semi upright position (for the next few days).
I had to slow down my movement, action for the next few days. It was a long weekend off for me and I was able to take a good rest despite my imbalance problem.
Apart from taking some metoclopromade and cephadol on an irregular basis, I had tried Epley’s maneuver a few times and it did not improved my discomfort dramatically but I was lucky that I had not throw up at the worst moment.
I had gone back to work on Monday with residual symptom….over the days, my symptom had gradually improved and I still experienced spinning sensation on a certain angle of head tilting, I considered myself being healed.
But yet I had learnt to stop and think before I moved on ( I had tried to teach the kid similar event lately…), for the past few days, the LORD had wanted me to slow down, and also be a straight person – honest and compliance to the rules, correlating to what my professor of  bible expository had taught me lately……

old getting....

William had invited me to his house for a gathering last weekend. For the past 30+ years, William had been inviting Malaysian students to his house for a freshman gathering party annually. There were 30+ junior(all the year 1 and some of the year 2 students) had gathered in his house. William had supplied food, liquor and lodging...
I had a chat with some of the junior and found that the tuition fee was still one of the cheapest in the world.... well, paying < RM150k for  medical course is worth every penny as you could secure a resident job easily upon your graduation...
Looking at those young chaps who are 20+ years of age, I told myself - old getting, I am.....

Heart which is rotten....

The was this news regarding a major cooking oil supplier who mixed its product with non-purified cotton seed oil. The owner was so rich, but yet do whatever he could to gain profit....the bottom line, walk anyway you like and don't get caught is the WAY.....this  country too freee and corrupted. The ministry had gotten complaint letter indicating such fault 1 year ago but yet was unable to get any evidence....crap n crap n crapsssss
No wander there are so many bbser/forumer described this island as "ghost island"....

Good Choice 2

I had read the blog of Dr Paga lately and found out that most of the GP in Malaysia are making RM 7000-9000 per month, not a shocking news as I could see GP clinic flourishing around on each of my visit back to Malaysia. The down sloping of GP income would definitely made the Govt. Medical Officer post less and more difficult to enter the govt. service in the future.

When we were young, we used to see a general practitioner around downtown Klang. He owned a very huge bungalow (with a big swimming pool and garden) near our school. From time to time, I would cycle and pass by his big house. Doctor = big buck making was the equation which scorched in my mind during my childhood…

Doing medicine would changes one lifestyle is another way of saying making bucks being a doctor and honestly it was one of my reasons to pick medicine, I had never come across the great idea of saving lots of life but later as I cruised along the career path, I was reassured by the LORD that it is my destine to do so…

I had come across my Form J lately and saw that I make RM36k+ during my third years serving in the MOH, the bucks making myth was crushed during the service and I knew even working as a specialist in MOH the figure could only be double and unless I make my way up to JUSA(which was impossible…), I would still be stranded…

I made a choice than…

When I looked at the life Yun and Xian lead, I am glad that I make the right choice, I should be a specialist posted in a secluded area should I continued with my training with the MOH and Xian might not have stepped out from his condition and it would be a thorn in my back…

Good choice 1

There are some occasions when we had to make some crucial decision. Half of the time, I regret my choice – of coz that is house back canon ( it is not firing a canon behind a house – but is a scenario during a Chinese chess game)

 the general is unable to move and it is check-mate...

Recently, I had these 2 occasions where I made a good decision with the lead of the Holy one…

Well, Xian had this fever since Sunday afternoon after the church session. He had noted with loose stool 2 days ago. I was doing my sat –sun 24 hrs shift and I had told Ving to give him some syrup paracetamol… Both Xian and Yun was pampered and they are still reluctant to take any pills. Xian is almost as tall as Ving and he is 44kg when I asked him to weight for dosing, children grown fast and reminded me of getting older.

He was feverish and unable to settle with entry dosage of paracetamol… I had added syrup ibuprofen and the his body temperature hovered around 37.9C…

When I reached home by 7pm, his fever had spiked up to 39.3C… I had then given him paracetamol and ibuprofen alternately every 3hrs but yet his temperature was fluctuating at an uncomfortable level…

In the morning, I had decided to treat him as influenza and started him with Tamiflu and miraculously his fever subsided to an acceptable level the next day (just as expected..).
He had a good 2 days leave from school…

After all these years of struggling with influenza we had gained much experience withe "flu"….the introducing of Tamiflu and rapid test had allowed us to confirmed and treat patient according to guideline with more confident in ED.

I was reluctant to performed rapid test for Xian as the positive rate was only 60% and if the test came back negative it would be difficult for me to make any decision, and luckily I was right….I had some messed up episode in the past – Yun’s pneumonia was one of the worst and I took it as a very good lesson, I started to act more aggressively and most of the time I tends to overact...

Well, nothing happier than a good ending and I thank the Lord's guidance on this matter…

envy...

Yun had survived her examination (not with flying colors of coz, with c low attitude fly by….)… she had experienced pressure, both from her peers (very competitive in a private school…) and from us. She had misunderstood that I had wanted a good result despite of me repetitively telling her that I am not interested in her result….

She is a caring person….Whenever she need something, she would considered the pricing, trying her best to lessen our burden. She would try her best not to trouble us…

She is not perfect, a little bit sluggish when demanded, stubborn, net addiction…

Well, no matter what, she is still our beloved daughter…

Xian had improved greatly both in study and his personality development. I did a cycling tour with him last week and he is ready for another long distance ride...

As for me, I envy them…….

Price hike...

After my visit to Hong Kong, I began to think about the price hike matter…

The locals have protested, shouted and done a lot of activities to express their feeling regarding the increment of gasoline and electricity over the past 1 year. The increment had led a price hike throughout the market. The average salary and entry salary had however dropped and the local people had, under the influence of opposition party and media, expressed their disapproval and the govt. supporting number had fallen to a recorded low..

The rich become richer, the poor had a very slim chance to flip over. The rich by buying and selling real estate gained without labor but the middle class worked like cow and hardly could afford a house. A very sad situation.....

Well, I think the govt. is on the right track allowing everything to return to the grip of freedom market to guide. I am lucky that I am not affected by the current situation…..

Chinese in Malay restaurant....

I had a chat with William(Malaysian senior, local dentist) and he had told me that the local Chinese in his hometown Tawau seldom visit Malay stall…. An issue which never came across my mind, but yes indeed.

I recalled during my childhood; my parent had only brought us to Chinese shop and the only non Chinese shop we visit was a few Indian shop for roti canai(breakfast). My dad, working in the field(means out of the office) had the chance of trying out variety of shop during his working days. There were a few occasions, where my dad had brought me and my brother around and we had ate in Malay/Indian shop, a hell of an experience for me and one of the important reminder was not to drink from the teapot placed on the table in an Malay restaurant -> the water is meant for hand washing and not for drinking…

During my service with the MMOH, I had had the chance to try out Malay food. At first was the ward’s food (same with the patient’s food of coz minus the big chicken piece…) and later I tried out hospital’s canteen food and later Malay stall outside the hospital. My favorite are fried rice, Tomyam, and whatever cooked with curry powder…

During the process, I had noticed that I might be the only Chinese in the shop, later on, there would be some occasion where I am the only 3 Chinese in the shop ( the other were Ving and Yun).

Frankly, I had an odd sensation initially; I was afraid that the shop owner would chase me out. I had heard from my father that there were these hard core Muslims in the northern state that refuse to make contact with non-Muslim. Fortunately, I am over-worried and I was treated nicely… Ving is very fond of spicy food and most of the times, we ended up with a load of dishes on the table….

Well, looking forward for our trip back to Malaysia next year….

better than robbing...

I had gotten several calls from the local telcom company recently about upgrading my broadband. The promoter had tried to get my approval for the past few months for an upgrade of speed. The promotion package was simple; by adding a mere RM3/month, I could double the 50M/10M speed I am currently subscribing. I was reluctant to do so as I am afraid that I need to reset the whole system(password change, user name change, fixed IP change and so and so and so…)

After a few calls, I finally gave in and consented with the offer. It took another 2 weeks before the technician called me up for the replacement…..the replacement of the DSL unit took about 15mins.

As I expected, the router failed to connect the modem to the net. I had 2 set of username and password -> 1 for floating IP and 1 for fixed IP. The reason I applied for a fixed IP is to assess my CCTV over the net. Well, I tried switch to the floating IP set and it works….. took me another good 20 mins of reboot trial to found out that the telekom had relocated a new set of fixed IP to me….

Well, I am back online….

I did a glance later on over the net and found out that the TMnet is offering a 20M package for RM249…..5 times slower and twice expensive ….. a 10X difference…wow, just like the cantonese like to say, "hou guo hei qiong"( better than robbing)

Haven’t full throttle the speed yet but whatever is the result the RM3 is well spent…

blurred glasses and vertigo

I had this on and off attack of dizziness since our trip to Disney. The dizziness was associated with on and off attack of headache… it is disturbing as it is associated with postural change. The dizziness did not improve and it had recurred every now and then. Lately, I had some itchness and discomfort over my eyes and I finally noted that my spectacle’s lens was blurred like don’t know what. In the past, I had always advice my patient to check their eyesight during workup for their vertigo… and for the past few weeks, I had forgotten about this basic concept….

So I went to the local spec shop 4 days ago and ordered a pair of news lens (frame= my old sun glasses which I seldom use). The optometrist had recommended Zeiss and I took his offered. As my vision was bad but not worse enough (only -6.0 and -6.5), I could opt for the cheaper 1.56 aspheric lens. (owner = church’s member and he gave a 45% discount). The math was simple, lower refractive index = lower Abbe index = clearer vision = thicker lens. Of clarity and thickness, I opted for clarity….

I got my new glasses at noon prior to my shift(Lem had to go off early for presentation at the ER status review conference) , there was no dizziness nor vertigo noted for me since then…..I had escaped from another crisis and life goes on…

struck....

Yun had some little struggle regarding her study lately… She had scored a recorded low over a few subjects. She was reluctant to show her papers however the school requested that they write their result in the communication book.

She had defended her result initially with various excuses, but later she had given in and told me that she needs help over English and mathematics.

Well, I had encountered such obstacle during my junior middle 1. The transition period was a real impact for me as I had skipped standard 6. There were 6 “jumpers” in my class. I was struck off the top 5 list however during the process I had learnt to read and understand the textbook myself -> the classroom tutorial process had become not that important for me…

I had told Yun that she is allowed to make careless mistake during the examination ( to err is human) but yet you should understood and learnt most of the topic before you sit for it. I had seen some of the papers and concluded that she doesn’t know what she is writing and the feedback from her teacher confirmed my observation.

Well, at least she decided to ask for help and it is a good start…

vigilo confido....

I had not been a fan of action as I am not a muscle memory type of guy… since my gaming days 25+ years ago, tetris is the only action games that I played until the last level, I quit at early level of most of the action game I played.

DUNE and WARCRAFT was considered as action like strategic game for me and I had played it and completed them on the easy level only….I like something slower 

I had started my recent old dos game tour with SHADOW WATCH…

I had some struggle getting it to run on xp… the game flow was slow but yet entertaining with the Tom Clancy type of detail describing of situation. I managed to complete the game and before I started my second campaign, I had come across XCOM…another fav of mine in the old days….

While I played it on the xp in my call room, I had found out that there was this remake release in 2012 and with a xbox360 version….. while searching over the net, I had came across a 30% off offer and without hesitate I got one…

and it was indeed a great game...

medicine that cannot make the disease go away....

I had been following the news of a single mother trying to send her 17 y/o daughter who had MLD(Metachromatic Leukodystrophy) overseas for treatment. The mother had tried to raise fund for her daughter to seek treatment overseas. She had written a book and run several campaign to raise fund for her daughter and 3 other MLD patients. The govt. had however probed into her campaign and declared that the campaign was illegal. The reason was the govt. prohibit single targeted fund raising event; fund raising should be targeted to a group of people rather then one persons.

The mother had taken the child to china recently and consultation was done by America, China, Taiwan expert and decided to undergo a treatment module in phase I/II clinical trial hosted by a Italian Institute…. The trials utilized HIV vector to implant corrected gene and had proved effective in 6 patients in current phase of trial.( 6 cases is not enough to prove anything in medical trial...)

I had read her FB and felt sorry and pity about her daughter… well, however using public money to sent her child for a self paid clinical trial which had not passed the I/II phase regarding phase is unsuitable from my point of view…but I could understand a parent eagerness to grab any log during the drowning process…may GOD help them…

I had a friend with brain metastasis melanoma who had joined a clinical trial of targeted therapy. Even though with progression of system, the attending surgeon had however kept assure them there is someone who was cure by their drug, un-ethical thing to do,luring the patient to adhere to the treatment so they could collect their data…)

He had followed up a MRI in our setting recently and the result revealed progression of disease. I had told his wife that they would need to discuss about DNR and palliative care option as he could have seizure attack any moment….well, I was a little bit surprise that the attending surgeon did not advice them on such issue…. Well, blame who ? blame that system, the consultation fee is too low and the doctor could not spend more for their patients…

And there is much much more similar cases; patient and family had tried drugs which cannot cure and/or made them feel better hoping to make the disease go away….. and that is going on around us everyday….

petrol hike...

I had read from the news that Malaysia is increasing its RON95 to RM2.10 (20sen extra). Months ago, the 1st in the BN manifesto was :easing the cost of living.... <6 months of ruling, the decision was to increase the petrol price....
1+ years ago, the Taiwan govt. had decided to increase the petrol and electricity price to reflect the actual economic condition and the consequences was a near inflation like price increment leading to a deep slope of presidential support....
I had read this article over the net..
http://www.pecc.org/resources/doc_view/397-implications-of-oil-price-increase-on-the-malaysian-food-system
which concluded that it would not be any major impact to the food price...yeah, I had the same feeling indeed, the last petrol price increment was in 2005 and since then the food price had been going up like don't know what - > you can call it inflation or maybe an event reflecting the upgoing of Malaysia economy.... but still,the solid fact is you cannot get a wantan mee for RM 2.20 nowadays....
the hike in petrol price would however provide a good reason to the locals businessman to raise the price - > of everything of course...
My conclusion over this issue could be summarized by the quote of Ngai Kuan (played by John Cheung in Infernal affair 2) 
- one who come out and "walk"(means involved in gangster business), would need to pay back no matter what he had done.... 

Disneyland revisited....

We had a short trip to HK before the end of school holiday. Disneyland was not on my list but become our main site as demanded by the kids after discussion. There are 3 new lands added since our last visit 2 years ago. Worth for another visit and I had got room outside the Disneyland so that we could enjoy some local food.

We had walked around the street and found that although the electricity price is 50% more than Taiwan, the shop had tried their best to keep the shop cool. Unlike the Taiwan govt which demands shop to set their temperature at 26C, the local shop tried their best to cool their shop down; the cool breeze from the shop did provided some comfort while we shop in the steel city of heat… well, a short shopping trip to the Shang Shui Po toy street had brought some fun to the kid. We had had dinner and supper during our trip back to the hotel and this while having supper in a small shop near our hotel, I found that the distance of people can be so close to each other…. And the price of food was darn expensive…..

Although it is our 2^nd visit to the Disneyland, but yet it is still full of surprise and excitement. We were able to take our luxury time touring around as we could concentrate on the spot we wish instead of trying to visit all the spot. The new mystic garden and grey bear valley were great and we had taken the mystic manor ride 3 times….

Compare to the darn expensive food price outside, the food price here is darn darn darn expensive….basic meal such as noodle, rice with dishes cost about RM30, drinks per bottle RM8-10. There are a restaurant in every land and a great variety of food to choose from.

More than half of the tourist in Disneyland was mainlander and only a small amount of them exhibited ugly behaviors of jumping Q…

We had our dinner at the airport food court after the tiresome 3 days trip. The flight home was smooth and we were greeted by our 2 rabbits at midnight when we reached home.

When I sunk into my Tidafor the next day playing Aria of Sorrow through the wii gba emulator, I was so glad that I had the luxury to enjoy so many space here in Taiwan.    

HK had different culture compare to Taiwan. The distance between people is so close there. The cost of living is higher. The HK administration is more opened regarding foreign worker compare to Taiwan; there is no written limitation for foreign employment. One of the part that attract me is the car market; lots of model to choose from – defender 110 is about RM120k (not on sale in the Taiwan, should it be, there would be one in front of my house….) but still, living condition is not my cup of tea…

Back to the reality and during our breakfast the next day,  everyone of us have agreed that we should stripped Disneyland off our HK trip next time (just like what we had done 2 years ago after our 1st Disneyland trip), but I doubt it….