Here's My Story

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The first scare  more than 2.5 years ago resulted in us ordering an ultrasound for mum. Fatty liver was (probably) the cause of the elevated AFP. Fatty liver was further confirmed about 8 to 9 months later  but AFP was normal few months before this. It was again normal in late 2024 but a year after that it was elevated once again. As an aside, mum has been diligently exercising for about an hour everyday, when she's isn't unwell. She has also cut down on fatty and fried food. Hence, we'll be surprised if there's still fatty liver. Also, tests showed, for two consecutive years, that she's immune to hepatitis A and B and non-reactive to hep C and so we didn't order these tests for 2025. Both Pathlab and mum's GP advised us to get ultrasound done. Dr Yeoh was confident that it would show that there is nothing wrong, despite the elevated AFP. He suggested that mum consult doctor at her usual Klinik Kesihatan at Penaga so as to get free ulstrasound done. The doct...

During the two weeks after the previous session , I noticed something rather peculiar: there were more actions that triggered the pain shortly after I woke up each morning than during the rest of the day. For example, I drink a full glass of water shortly after I brush teeth. That triggers the pain. At other times, it's either no pain or so slight that I won't notice it if I don't pay attention to it. I reported this to the therapist. He proceeded to massage and prod different parts of the hand. The first several proddings didn't trigger any pain but later he found it: it was deep inside. So, as I understand it, something (a tendon?) inside was stiff and inflexible and so certain movements caused the bone to rub against it and thereby irritated it. He proceeded to explore ways to alleviate it. Took him four tries before I finally confirmed that there were no more pains when I it. The following exercises were added to the current routine: (1) Palm facing left, with finge...

Among the notable fast-food restaurants, A&W had the best fried chicken. However, it's food that I rarely have. Just not value-for-money and my money is better spent on, say, salmon sushi :D Late last year or earlier this year (I kept forgetting to blog about this), we decided to dine at the outlet at Paradigm Mall. It was a first for us. Years ago, I patronised the outlet at Seventeen Mall a few times. I ordered a meal set which included two pieces of chicken thigh. I was shocked to receive these:   Each of this was just slightly larger than a piece of cut chicken of a typical stir-fry chicken dish or braised chicken dish that can be found at many mixed rice shops but this meal cost close to RM 30! Ala carte price for these two pieces are currently RM 17.90. To add salt to wound, they didn't taste as good as previously either :( If I ever want to have A&W fried chicken again, it won't be at this outlet. 

(Emphasis is mine, to show the mistakes) 1. Malaymail article: " ‘Like a plane turbine’: Witness tells of raging gas fire near Puchong, Putra Heights ". Sentence: " "Since yesterday was the first day of Raya, most of us were asleep but we were women up abruptly because we wanted find out what was causing the scorching heat and noise from the shaking of the iron grilles," " 2. The Rakyat Post article: " Parents Order SPM Retakes Despite 4 As: Student’s Engineering Dreams Hit Family Roadblock ". Sentence: " Despite scoring straight As in four subjects including Mathematics and English, and earning a B in History , the student faces mandatory retakes of science subjects they passed with lower grades – all due to unyielding parental pressure. " "Straight As" means A for all subjects . 3. BBC article: " Trump's ceasefire pivot will have caused dismay in Kyiv and Europe ". Sentence: " Despite Europe's emerg...

During the 12 days after the last session , I took note of activities triggered the pain: Lifting the bottom of my t-shirt. Scooping up soup using huge ladle. Drinking soup with a spoon from a bowl held near me. Dicing chicken. When thumb was used to scoop up dental floss that dropped on floor. Holding phone horizontally and bringing it closer by bending elbow and wrist. 5th finger pressing Shift key while 2nd finger pressing the 8 key The good news was that when it occurred, the intensity was less. During this session, the therapist remarked that the tendon was no longer swollen. After further testing, he concluded that it was back to the original diagnosis i.e. De Quervain tenosynovitis 😔Possible repetitive actions that might cause this, that is specific to me, are using thumb to press space bar and the positioning of wrist when using keyboard. Lee massaged and used shockwave to treat the pain. As usual, the pain went away after that. I was to continue with the current exercises and...

Recently I remembered that I want to visit this cat cafe at Aman Suria and so Ban agreed with my suggestion to check it out. We quite like cats but not as much as dogs :) The only requirement at the cafe was that each customer had to order an item. They had a small selection of meals, cakes and a larger selection of drinks. We ordered their big breakfast. RM 36 each. Yes, it was pricey but we took it as fee to mingle with the cats. Fortunately, it was quite nice. There was a list of rules regarding interacting with cats. The ones that I can remember are Sanitise hands before and after touching cats. Respect the cats: don't carry them, let them come to you. No human food for them. As expected, there were treats (for sale, I would think) for them. No flash and loud click from using camera.  Most of them were napping. There was only a couple that came awfully close to human food :D I managed to pet only a couple of them.      Someone is 'guarding' the rodents :D  ...

(continuted from here ) ...it took me 2 hours 24 mins to get home 🤯The usual peak period traffic was worsen by the heavy rain. About 70 mins into the ride, I was informed (via phone call) that the motherboard had been repaired but it seems that my RAM was also damaged and they would show me later. Meanwhile, I texted Ban to ask his help to cook rice and boil a couple of eggs. He then had two near-accidents: One at the carpark of a mall: nearly hit a car. The other was at home: the lid of the pot that he used to cook the eggs exploded but fortunately none of the glass pieces hurt him. I was so relieved that he wasn't hurt in either case. Gave him a hug when I knew this. Didn't matter much that the rice was undercooked because he forgot to add enough water. Poor Ban. I prepared the salad first so that we both could start with that first while I prepare the salmon don and eggs. We then finished our dinner at our usual pace while regaling each other about our respective woes. As e...

When I purchased  ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14  slightly more than 3 years ago, I almost immediately paid for extended warranty with premium service. Thus the warranty was extended from 2 years to 3 years. Yet, my laptop needed repair about a month after the warranty expired 😑 I was playing Immortals of Aveum demo. I wanted to check something on the web and so I alt-tabbed. Then bam! Monitor went blank but keyboard lights were still on. There was no sound too. I just did what I usually do: tried force shutdown it by holding down the power button. It took longer than usual to shutdown i.e. about 15 counts but it immediate started back up. It didn't fix the issue though: monitor was still blank with no sound of Windows starting. Later I discovered that if I unplugged the power cable, I could stop the auto restart after force shutdown it. However, the issue remained. So I decided to bring it to the nearest ASUS service centre i.e. Serveall Low Yat at Plaza Low Yat. Took Grab because Ba...

 

SIA informed me that the KL-SG flight is retimed to take off later and arrive in Singapore 10 minutes later than original. That was a problem because transit time (to connect the flight to Melbourne) was reduced from 55 mins to 45 mins. It wouldn't be a problem if it was only Ban and I, based on our past experience. However, we got our mum this time and she would be using a wheelchair provided by SIA. SOP for passengers using wheelchair is that they will be the last to disembark. So, I tried phoning SIA office in KL but there didn't seem to be an option to speek to someone. I remember that I used a "live chat" i.e. messaging in real time with an actual customer service officer previously and luckily I checked the SIA app because it was there. CSO #1: Despite me asking explicitly whether 45 mins was sufficient or not for transit time given my mum's situation, they didn't answer directly but proceed to give me alternatives. All alternatives involved taking a nig...

About a week and half after the last session , there was hardly any difference 😞 After asking questions and testing the wrist, Lee concluded that it was still a tendon problem @@ One question that I couldn't answer then was what actions triggered the pain. Since then, I started observing and one action was when I lifted the bottom of my t-shirt. I messaged the therapist and he wasn't surprised: "Cause that is contracting and stretches it. So it put some pressure onto the tendon." Lee administered massage and shockwave therapy. Thereafter, he asked me to ice the tendon for 3 consecutive days after completing physio exercises. He also asked me to stop the following physio exercises: (1) The thumb mobility exercises as blogged previously i.e. (1), (2) and (3))  (2) Side mobility as blogged previously i.e.the new exercise then .  He also asked me to stop a couple of my daily exercises: bicep curl and crunches. The latter is just in case I used my hands (I placed them beh...

We've been dining at Menya Appare quite regularly. Maybe once every two weeks? Ban was adventurous and tried these two (on separate occassions of course): It was not bad but not as good as the one served at Ramen O in Canberra, Australia :D Also, evidently Ban preferred the restaurant's ramen because he never ordered this again. This turns out to be a gem! Unexpectedly good. Taste of ginger but not spicy. I've been alternating between this and the yuzu shio ramen . We also brought my mum there when she was here in PJ. She liked both ramen too.

Remember the trust issues I have with CPF? Reiterating point (2): " Any changes in CPF rules should have been grandfathered i.e.do not affect those are already CPF members and affect only new members " It seems that EPF is doing just that if the proposed changes are implemented: " Lim stressed that the proposed changes will not affect the existing withdrawal rights of current EPF members. The new structure will apply only to new members after the implementation date, while existing members may choose to opt in voluntarily. " Source: Malaymail news article " EPF mulling two-tier account system to support post-retirement income, says deputy finance minister "  I hope they will adopt this policy should the changes go ahead. A rare instance where Singapore has something to learn from Malaysia. 

After about 2.5 half months, I decided to consult Lee again because although there was further improvement, the pain didn't go away. In fact, I felt pain when I helped to lift mattress, with palm placed underneath it, and when I placed palm on the exercise mat, behind me, hand facing behind and lifted the wrist slightly. Curiously, when I pulled thumb back, the pain at the base of the thumb was lesser than previously but if I held it for 10 counts, the wrist pain vanished. Lee said that it was a distraction 😅 He asked me to try a few things and one of them produced a puzzling result: one of the two ways I reproduced the wrist pain was to extend my hand forward, palm faced towards me and used the other hand to gently push the back of the palm towards me. However, as requested by Lee, I tried this with hand extended sideway, the pain was much less. He surmised that the posture of the shoulder/back was incorrect. So unlike previous sessions, time was spent on massaging the muscles ar...

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  I've ever only seen one: it was at Megah Rise Mall's outlet.  On another note, this cracks me up :D   

Here's the latest results, compared to three months ago:                                      Apr 25                 Jul 25                  Ref Total cholesterol            6.3                       6.1                    <5.2  (<6)* Non-HDL                      4.6                       4.5                     <3.4    HDL ("good")             1.74                    1.61        ...

Recently, Ban and I went on a short trip to Singapore i.e. two nights. We flew Firefly from Subang Airport to Seletar Airport. The former is much closer to our home than KLIA T2. It was only later on that I discovered that Scoot also flies from Subang airpot but, as I just checked, it is more expensive. On our way back, at the autogate immigration clearance at Seletar Airport, I followed the instructions on the panels. After I cleared both barriers, I was confused because there was no instruction to have my passport scanned, whereas I heared an officer telling a senior citizen to do that when he was guiding the latter.  So I tried to flag that officer but he was already looking at the other passengers. Instead, an officer at a counter offered to help me. I informed her that I was not asked to scan my passport. She assured me that that was alright because the machine scanned my iris instead. What?! Wow, that's so advanced!  Later, I searched and found this: Automated Lanes at t...

 

Recently, I purchased flight tickets to Australia. As usual, Ban prefers seats with extra leg room for long flights and I of course will get the seat next to his. That usually means purchasing two seats at the emergency exits, which aren't many. After comparing fares over a few dates, I settled on a certain date for the SYD-SIN-KUL flight on SIA. The next step was filling in passengers' details, which took quite sometime because I had to make sure our details were correct. Also, this time, my mother is travelling with us and so there are three passengers. After submitting this, the next step was to choose seats. However, there weren't any suitable seats left! Gosh, here I thought I was early in buying tickets. So, I had to start all over again to select the next best date. It would had taken a longer time to repeat the process if SIA app hadn't allowed me to save passengers' details. I had the same problem when booking the KUL-SIN-MEL flight. I wish airlines allow u...

   I find this fascinating because it looks like a building shoved into three of them.

My mum's passport expired years ago. Few months ago, I was looking up on the internet on whether I could still apply for passport online. It seems that it was possible but additional steps were needed if current passport had already expired AND damaged or lost but, as you might have noticed, nothing about passport that's expired but not damaged or lost. Shockingly laughable. I then phoned the immigration department at Seberang Jaya. The officer said that mum could still apply online but he advised us to walk-in because there was a special lane for senior citizen. It would be fast and easy. Mum just needed to bring her old passport and her IC. Photograph would be taken there too and so no need to bring along passport photos. So, Ban and I brought mum there soon after her visa to Australia was granted. However, halfway there, we discovered that she forgot to bring her old passport. Panic set in. Ban, who was driving, asked me whether we should turn back home or not. I asked for s...

Recently, I went with my sister to Maybank to open a joint account. The first checkpoint was the counter at front. The officer noticed that our addresses aren't the same in our ICs (which shouldn't be a surprise for adults!) and, in response to her question, we didn't bring our birth certs (whoever had thought of that?) She was doubtful whethere we would be allowed to open a joint account (huh?) but nevertheless she let us try out luck. We were surprsied and I remarked that previously, I had no problem opening a joint account with my mum. She said (something like this), "Maybe previously it was possible but now maybe not. Still, I let you try". Now, that, to me, was already a reasonable response (regulations/SOPs do change overtime) and it put her in a good light because, instead of saying no, she was letting us try our luck. However, she ruined it by saying, "If you don't want to give to me (your business), I'm fine with it." and gave us a rathe...

 This stall, at Sunway Mas Commercial Centre, was so popular that the piegons were queueing up as well. 

In a previous post , I pointed out the absurd minimum amount of investment required to buy bonds compared to shares. I recently discovered that the minimum amount to purchase US government bonds and Singapore government bonds is just around USD 1,000 and SGD 1,000 respectively, the final amount dependent on the price and vested coupon. This is good news! US government bonds were rated AA+ while Singapore government bonds were rated AAA. Unsurprisingly, the yield of the former is higher than the latter. I bought some of the former.

This sounds so right: (may not be verbatim) Why I feel freedom of expression is so important, especially in our country, is because it underpins our rights, and access to all other rights, right? - Vilashini Chandran during the BBC World Service's World Questions podcast on "What do Malaysians think about freedom of speech?

😂   

Last decade or so, I've been having this recurring dream, in addition to the usual ones , where I was about to go France to study. I would be anxious because, well, I've never been to France and I don't speak French. Later, in the dream, I would realise that I didn't need to to further my study because I already have my bachelor degree and that's already good to get a job. I can't remember whether in the dream I realised that I already had jobs :D I'm curious as to why I have this recurring dream. I've never been to France. I have no desire to visit France. I don't speak French. I have never thought of doing post-graduate study anywhere, much less in France. Strange, right?

For the longest time, while asleep, I sometimes subconsciously stretched with my hands above my head and my feet pointing down. However, for the past year or so, three or four times when this happened, I had severe cramp in my right calf. So severe that I woke up screaming. It was scary. The first time it happened, Ban got a fright but quickly massaged the calf when he saw me gripping it. Subsequently, he was much quicker in doing so.  I consulted a doctor. If it's not frequent and/or affecting my daily routine e.g. can't walk properly, she isn't concerned.  I recently have a theory: for a couple of years or so, I switched the way I sit when I meditate before doing light stretches (in the morning and just before bed at night): from sitting cross-legged to sitting on my heels with the feet stretched flat on the ground. I have now reverted to cross-legged. Hopefully this helps. I'll continue stretching my calves before I sleep. On a slightly related topic, we were passing...

Oh my... 😅  

A while back in Butterworth, Ban, my mum and I went out for dinner with Ban driving my mum's car. We wanted to test the new RFID tag (the condo uses it for residence's car's exit/entry). It didn't work the night before and so I moved it to another part of the windscreen. It worked when we went out. Me: Do you know what this means? Mum: It means mum has to be in the car. Me: *laughed* Ban: Noooo. Me: That's a very good guess. Here's another: that means Daniel has to drive the car. Mum: *laughed* Ban: Nooo, it doesn't mean that either. 😂

Couple months ago, I bought Seremban beef noodle from KBN @Damansara Uptown for my mum and sister. I received detailed instruction from the bosses on how to transport them to Butterworth, which include the use of ice blocks. I was worried that I didn't have enough ice blocks and so I wanted to buy one on Lazada. I saw that buying two would be cheaper per block because of voucher. Well, an extra would be good and I bought them. Later, it arrived:   It's a pack of 50 of them and I ordered two packs @@ 

Pad See Ew at Thai Tai @Starling Mall. The flavour was good and I loved that there was plenty of vegetable. However, as even evidenced in the photo, it was quite oily, which is the reason why I haven't been back there. I might give it another try.     As previously blogged , I cut the blocks of compressed sushi rice into half and they were just right. I had it with my usual coral lettuce and tomato. I usually place strips of nori on to the rice but this time it was on the salad.     Promotional set at KBN King's Seremban Beef Noodle @Damansara Uptown, when they were promoting their then newly introduced dessert and drinks. It was quite nice but it was too much for me.   Aglio Olio with Seafood add-on (Hokkaido scallops, prawns, clams) at Red Kettle @Starling Mall. It was delicious and pleasing to the eyes. Its price, like everything else in that restaurant, was also 'delicious' :D That's why we rarely dine there.  Also, I just checked Google reviews: overal...

SpellRogue is a tactical turn-based roguelike deckbuilder game. It's like Slay the Spire ("StS") and Monster Train but with at most only 7 cards and use dice as energy. Cards are played by either using specific value of a die e.g. 2, or reduce its CD by the total value of a number of dice. It incorporates two key features of Montster Train i.e. enemies' intention (which StS has) and whether your character will die or not (which StS doesn't have). Yet, using dice makes the game distinctively different from the other two. I was at first apprehensive about how random this will cause but it turned out to be ok because there are cards to let you change the dice value. There is one such card in each starter deck that I played so far. I've eyed this game for quite a while, putting it on wishlist when it was still in beta (I think?) and later in early access. I didn't buy earlier because there were some problems as flagged out by bad reviews. It turned mostly (ver...

 At Taman Megah.

In a reent ttrpg session, our party was fighting a group of mummies. A teammate decided to use her whip to attack a mummy. I then suggested to her to say, "Who's your Mummy?" Some laughter ensued but immediately followed by... Me: Wait, I made a joke?! *lol* Another teammate: I thought you did it on purpose. Yes, I intended it to be a joke (the whipping bit) but the second joke (vs a mummy) was unintentional.  

You don’t need to buy at the perfect moment to build lasting wealth. What matters more is choosing strong companies, committing to a plan, and sticking with it, even when markets feel uncertain. Because over time, it’s not timing the market that makes the difference. It’s time in the market that does.  - Joanna Sng, Co-Founder, The Smart Investor 

 

Received email from CIMB, telling me about implementation of e-invoicing. It was much later on, after I spoke with a customer service officer, that I learned that the only thing they wanted customers to do was to update their NRIC to the new format if they had the old one in the database. That's it. However, instead of just saying that, they gave a whole nine paragraphs or so about e-invocing, including this part: "In the meantime, please refer to our FAQs via CIMB webpage for more information on e-Invoicing.", where "FAQ" is a clickable link. I clicked on that link and yes, it provided a lot of information, including this: "How can I provide my e-Invoicing information? For individual customers: You can submit the e-Invoicing Information Update Form via CIMB Clicks (web) and CIMB OCTO (app). For customers without digital channel access: You can download, fill up and print the e-Invoicing Information Update Form from CIMB website." So I went through hoo...

So, previously, when the toilet roll is in within the toilet cubicle itself, you can use exactly as needed but now, surely you would be on the safe side by taking more than needed? That's for people who do not want to waste. Imagine those who use it wantonly. They certainly would not take less. This will result in more wastage, not less. What are they thinking?

About 2 weeks after last session , I made appointment to consult Lee again because there was no improvement, there was slight pain when I woke up in the morning, and mixing salad using plastic utensils (at Stuff'd) triggered the pain. As uusual, he investigated by pressing and massaging certain parts of the hand and arm and asking for feedback. He concluded that I now have De Quervain's tenosynovitis for real 😮He went on to magically make the pain disappear. Added the following stretching and strengthening exercises, and massage: (1) Palm facing left, with fingers side-by-side. Move thumb to palm and back x30 (2) Palm facing left, with fingers side-by-side. Move thumb up and down x30 (3) Same as (2) but with rubber band providing resistance. Thumb moves up to the point just before pain sets in. (4) Hold 1 kg dumbbell facing down. Move it slowly down and back to neutral x15. (5) Use tennis ball to massage the forearm's muscle that's aligned with the thumb i.e. the brach...

Don't let the future steal your joy today. - (I don't know who said this) Morbid future, perhaps? If so, I agree with this quote.

Clearly, this is about the D&D 5e adventure book Curse of Strahd.  

Wolfberry in coconut juice at KBN King's Seremban Beef Noodle @Damansara Uptown. They served it only hot i.e. no cold version and rightly so: the infusion from the wolfberry works better when the drink is hot. Refreshing and I imagine it will be so soothing if you have sorethroat and the likes. Costs RM 8.90 though.   Lately Ban had been exploring new recipes for our homecooked dinner. This is one that we both like: stir-fry chicken with brocolli and carrot. It's similar to that served in Chinese restaurants :) There are two stages of stir-frying: first one is to partially cook the chicken; second one is to cook the vegetables before adding back the chicken thereafter.   My attempt of making salmon nigiri sushi by using a sushi rice maker. Had to try a few times: the trick is to compact as much rice as possible, otherwise the block falls apart. Subsequently, I cut the blocks in half (before placing sliced salmon on them) because it's a little large for me.   Customised me...