Here's My Story

The chap fan shop, Restoran Butterworth, is currently our favourite place to go for chap fan in Butterworth. It has a wide variety of suitable food and comfortable environment. Two small complaints though: no seats at certain hours (and so we try to be there early) and once a while the pricing is inconsistent. There was that one time where it made no sense: I asked for a small portion of porridge. If this is small, what is big? Fyi this is the only bowl size they use for porridge.

(Emphasis is mine, to show the mistakes) 1. AP news article "France's election ends up with no clear majority. This is what could happen next". Sentence: "The results means Macron's centrist allies almost certainly won't be able to implement their pro-business proposals such a promise to overhaul unemployment benefits." 2. Free Malaysia Today article "CrowdStrike update likely skipped checks, say experts". Sentence: "The latest version of its Falcon Sensor software was meant make CrowdStrike clients’ systems more secure against hacking by updating the threats it defends against." 3. Malaymail article "Biden bows out, Kamala Harris to lead Democrats in historic presidential bid". Sentence: "Biden swiftly announced he was backing Harris, 59, who is who is the first Black and South Asian woman to be vice president in US history and..."

Usually when I ask for less ice for drinks, it makes no difference to the price. I vaguely remember there were the occassional odd shops that charged more for less ice but I can't remember when was the last time it happened. In any case, those were for premium drinks and definitely not for....Chinese tea: Actually, they indirectly charged more by giving less tea but one could argue that there was no difference in volume of tea and that the difference was that there was more ice in the normal ice tea. Could be. My point, though, was that no other coffeeshop does this and so this puts this one in a bad light although economically they're not doing anything wrong. The additional tea would marginally cost next to nothing and so it would have been better if they just followed the norm, or they can hope that others follow. We'll see.

I experience a peculiar side effect from taking pseudoephedrine: restless leg syndrome (RLS). Usually doctors prescribe the medicine to be taken at night before bed and consistently I wakes up 2-3 hours after going to bed with RLS. For context, " Pseudoephedrine is used for the temporary relief of stuffy nose and sinus pain/pressure caused by infection (such as the common cold, flu) or other breathing illnesses (such as hay fever, allergies, bronchitis). Pseudoephedrine is a decongestant (sympathomimetic). " - WebMD " Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a condition that causes a very strong urge to move the legs. The urge to move usually is caused by an uncomfortable feeling in the legs. " - Mayo Clinic RLS is not listed as one of the side effects of pseudoephedrine as far as I can tell from searching the internet. There is one documented case that''s highligted by researchers in the Journal of General and Family Medicine .  So whenever doctors ask me about my a...

  Saw this  at Village Grocer outlet at Megah Rise Mall: buy 1 bottle of lactose-free milk, get 1 bottle of flavoured normal (i.e. has lactose) milk for free. Marketing team didn't think this through 😅

Spotted this resataurant at Butterworth, serving Western food. What initially attracted me was this: Intrigued, I ordered one: Rather good amount of everything, especially the vegetable. Love the sauce and the fried garlic. The only downside was that the chicken was a little dry, which I told the staff later. Unfortunately, when I brought my mum to try this, the sauce was nearly tasteless. They offered to give more sauce but my mum declined since it was no point pouring more tastely sauce, correct? However, Ban ordered something that I ordered in the next trip: salad with choice of meat. The salad had a good mix of vegetables, including ice lettuce. No other place we've been had such vegetable in their salad. It was crunchy and refreshing. Worth having.

I had been eyeing this stall at Hakka Legend @Taman Megah for a while. Its price was a deterrent. One day, I was feeling a little generous and so ordered a plate: The chicken was quite nice...and that's about it. Portion was too small to justify the price. Even with that amount of rice, I was barely full. The most unforgivable part was that the rice didn't taste like chicken rice. Yes, I never have it again.

Seems like they have bucked up: I hadn't come across shoddy writing in months. (Emphasis is mine, to show the mistakes) 1. Free Malaysia Today article "In Sabah, Umno’s options limited, say insiders". Sentence "The term of the current Sabah government will expire in October 2025 , but Hajiji has hinted at the possibility of the next state election being held as early as next year ." This was reported on 25th Jan 2024 and so "next year" is 2025. So, what's so "early" about "next year" then, since the expiry is in 2025 anyway? 2. Free Malaysia Today article "Analysts see Zahid’s support in Umno waning". Sentence "On Fehttps://youtu.be/AYmjqWY9kK8b 2 , the Federal Territories Pardons Board announced that Najib’s prison sentence in the SRC International case ..." The huge mistake is still there when this post is published haha.

Much had happened during the 6-weeks+ period after the last appointment with Dr Annuar , the orthopedic at SJMC: I finished the prescribed Arcoxia. I took it at night after supper so that I wouldn't be lulled by its painkiller effect and thereby doing stuff that would aggravate the injury, and yet I would benefit from its anti-inflammatory property. I stopped taking it like 3-4 days before appointment with physiotherapist so that I could provide a more accurate feedback to her. I missed 3 out of 6 physio sessions: 2 due to illness and 1 was because I was away in Butterworth. Therapist said I could resume swimming, and doing assisted push-ups i.e. with knees on the mat. Both didn't cause any issue (yay!). In fact, I now could do some full push-ups. I injured my left wrist, highly likely by overdoing the physio exercises. I probably didn't recognise the limit of my strength and therefore agreed to use heavier weights.  Fortunately, it's much better now, after diligently ...

I've been having this long running phlegm + irritated throat + cough for weeks already. As at now, it's almost gone. It was at this stage previously after a first course of Amoxycillin but it inexplicably worsened when I was in Butterworth, a few days before Ban and I were going to bring my mum to two hospital appointments (morning and afternoon). Doctor there gave me a short course of Azithromycin but didn't seem to help much.  Two days before the the hospital appointments, I had fever. At this point, doctor was convinced it was a viral infection instead of bacterial. He asked me to return to him if fever worsens, paracetamol isn't effective in reducing it i.e. the relief doesn't last as long as it should, or it persists for more than 2 days. Fortunately, none of these happen. I was well enough to go through with the appointments but needed Ban to drive all the way. The day before we went home, my niece was diagnosed with Inluenza B, after having fever for nearly 2...