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….

new school

I had been driving Yun to her new school(MH) recent few days. The school is about 5km away from our house. We had been adjusting our life style as she had to reached school by 7:20am and go off at 5pm. More time for me to chat with her during the drive.

She had been adapting well and suiting to her new life. After few months of resisting and rebelling, she had finally learnt that we choose the school for her for her sake. The tuition fee is darn expensive, summing up to RM1k/month, but yet I hope she had an easy, non pressurized school life for the next 3 years.

As the govt. is promoting 12 years of people education and most of the public school is scattered with student of various quality. The school is prohibited to class the student according to result and thence you would have bad and good student in one class( I am not referring to academic performance but attitude…). I had a church friend who is teaching in a public secondary school; he told me that sometimes he have to “settle” conflict among students with mob style of taking….well, kinda hard to believe but it is true as I had to deal with such student in my ED from time to time….

Well, as MH charge quite a sum thence the quality should be slightly better( I hope I am right…). Hopefully Yun would enjoy a happy junior high school life as I had in the past….