Here's My Story

I used to buy drinks from Chagee once a week, utilising the member's Wednesday 15% discount voucher. Then Beutea came along with permanent discount on a number of drinks for members and the discount far exceeds 15%. These two have many similar drinks and their quality seems similar to me. Hence, it was a no-brainer that I abandoned the former for the latter whenever I wanted quality tea drink. The smell is heavenly! On the oher hand, I also indulge in cheap Mixue drinks. My favourite are Iced Latte (no sugar and only during the day) and Pearl Milk Tea (no sugar but their pearls are a little sweet). Currently, they also have Taro Milk Tea , which I also like (with no sugar as the taro itself is a little sweet already). One night, I went to Ban to get Mixue drinks. He almost always does this on the day he worked out at gym for over an hour. However, they ran out of the drink that I wanted. There was no Beutea nearby but there was a Chagee. Well, I just checked the app and was pleasan...

The cholesterol results as compared to 3 months ago :   Significant improvement! Total cholesterol and LDL are now below the personalised benchmarks. "What did you do differently?," my sister asked. None that can explain it. In fact, cholesterol should go up due to (1) and (2): (1)  Exercise regime not much different during the 3-month period. In fact, few days before test, I hardly exercise because of UTI. (2) Diet: no difference. Lack of HDL the week before test because didn't prepare salmon don (I do this once a week) due to illness. (3) Fast nearly 11 hours before test. I will try to repeat (3) for the next test as an experiment. 

I finished one playthrough recently, including its 3 DLC (Descent, Jaws of Hakkon and Tresspasser). One good thing it has over the previous two (DA:O and DA2) is that it doesn't need any mod to make it playable. Then again, the reason why the first two needed so many mods, afaik, is that they haven't been updated to be compatible to current hardware and software. Sadly, that's the only good thing about DAI, It has a litany of problems: (1) Way too long. I spent over 160 hours, not counting the numerous side quests that I skipped. There might be games that I played longer (Baldur's Gate 3, I think) but DAI's side quests are boring. They are like your typical MMORPG quests but that's not what I expect when playing DAI. Also, story-wise, it doesn't make sense that the leader of an army does these micro-level quests. (2) Combat tactic instructions are non-existence. I'm so puzzled why they progressively rolled back this unique game mechanic. That's what ...

This was at Bagan Specialist Centre. According to a nurse, this was put up because a patient had an accident while using these stairs. Hmmm why target these stairs? Patient can have accident anywhere. There were hospitals that encouraged usage of stairs e.g. Penang General Hospital and SJMC .

 

I remember when I first saw it on the concourse floor of Paradigm Mall, it was full with customers. Browse through its menu and spotted food that both Ban and I could try later. The first time we first tried to dine there was unsuccessful: again it was full. Few months later, we succeeded and subsequently dined two more times.   The first time I tried their char kway:   This was good! It had a unique taste that both Ban and I couldn't identify. The downside was that this wasn't enough for me, which means that definitely not enough for the average guy :D So, I ordered their steamed bread with kaya and butter: It was expectedly soft because it was steamed but the addition of butter on top of it, instead of in between the two slices of bread (where the kaya was) made the bread soggy as butter melted on it. I imagine that toasted version should work better.   The second time I tried their nasi lemak with fried chicken: This was good. The key component, the rice, has enough co...

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Mum always has rhinitis which I suspected is the same as mine i.e. vasomotor rhinitis. This is more or less confirmed by the result of the 107 allergen test . Normally, she would just need to use nasal steroid spray (Avamys) and take antihistamine (ceterizine) for a period of time. However, earlier this year, the symptoms didn't improve and it was debilitating: woke up in the morning feeling the stuffiness and pain, took medicine and needed to nap 4 hours before feeling good enough to be awake but couldn't do her usual exercise routine. So she consulted Dr Yeoh and was prescribed antibiotics and another anthistamine. She felt much better soon but relapsed shortly after finishing the medication. Consulted the doctor again and was prescribed another round of similar medication. Again, same results. As expected, Dr Yeoh recommended that she consult an ENT specialist.  In anticipation, I've asked mum to ask Dr Yeoh to recommend an ENT specialist based in mainland Penang. Going ...

So, when suitable, I made an appointment with 20dB. The audiologist, Ashley, kindly informed me of reserved parking bays for us to park in. She was patient and helpful throughout the consultation :) At the outset, I told her of mum's main problem with the previous hearing aids .   Previously, it was the RIC type. It was a little difficult for her to attach them to her ears and more importantly, one side dropped twice.  I thought the ITE type is suitable: it looks easier for mum to attach it because of its size. However, the audiologist said that its vulnerable to breakage if it drops. Also, its range of listening environments is at entry level, whereas for safety issue, we want greater range. (refer to this 20dB webpage ). Ashley recommended the BTE type where the transparent part that goes into the ear canal is customised to fit into the ear. Ashley demonstrated to mum how to attach it to her ear. Results of the hearing test: Bass = low-pitched sounds. Treble = high-pitched s...

Back in 2019 , we got mum a pair of hearing aids but unfortunately, she stopped using them after a few weeks. Firstly, it was a little difficult for her to put them on. Secondly, twice one of them dropped, which I witnessed. A pity that these weren't picked up during the trial period. Mum was contented to make do with impaired hearing and so I didn't pursue further. However, during the trip to Australia (Dec 25 - Jan 26), I was quite alarmed at the deterioration of her hearing. One incident stuck out: we were in a Qantas plane. She couldn't hear the air stewardess who was speaking to her. Even worse was that, she also couldn't hear me the first time I spoke to her even though I was sitting next to her. I also noticed that sometimes people stopped repeating their questions when mum repeatedly misheard and thus responded incorrectly. Most importantly, I was concerned about her safety: what if she's walking outside and can't hear someone shouting her warning to mov...

Dry noodle (dark sauce) at Go Noodle, with pork balls. I was pleasantly surprised at the plentiful vegetable that it naturally came with. If only their soup noodle has similar amount of vegetable. This dish was delicious and I had a couple more times thereafter.     Celebrated a friend's birthday at Daesam Restaurant at Subang Jaya. We were curious about the bias towards "female pork". We were told that female pork wasn't smelly like male pork. True?     Gosh! I miss Seremban lou shu fun konlo. Came across this stall at Hakka Legend (at Taman Megah). The noodle was delicious but unfortunately, all their meatballs were fried. In Seremban, non-fried fishballs were served in a small bowl of soup. Following my sister's suggestion, the second time I ordered this, I asked whether I could have non-fried version but alas, no :( That's the last time I had it.     I was hunkering for tang yuen again around Mid-Autumn Festival but unlike last year , Dao didn't have p...

After I first blogged about Sistars Kitchen, I did end up alternating between this and Kwong Wah for chendol but as pointed out in the blog, I now rarely travel there just to have chendol. After the disappointment about Kwong Wah's recent chendol , I went to Sistars: Unfortunately, there wasn't a suitable photo from 3 years ago to compare with. It seems to be of similar size to Kwong Wah's after taking into account of the size of the bowls...I guess? As before, it was less sweet (which I like) but less flavourful than Kwong Wah's However, the increased price of the latter to RM 7.40 makes it nearly a ringgit more expensive than Sistars's (RM 6.50). I'm inclined to dine more at Sistars.   

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  Sent the above video to my family. Me: Ban thought it's an actual cat because it's breathing. Sister: Then what it is??? It looks like it's breathing! Mum: *Agreed with my sister* Me: 😂 Me: It's a toy with mechanism inside that causes that part to rise and fall. Me: Well, apparently Ban is not in the only one (who thought it was real) 😅 

For years already, I've been counting down to age 50. No, not that I look forward to enter late-life crisis. It's a milestone for two additional medical actions to take: shingles vaccination and FOB test. Shingles vaccination is only for those aged 50+ because clinical trials were done only on those cohort, presumably it's the cohort most at risk of contracting shingles. Current vaccine requires two shots (2 to 4 months ago) and it lasts a liftime, thank goodness. Not cheap though: price is around RM 900 - 1000 per shot. Coincidentally, Ban's mother mentioned shingles vaccine but for a different reason: there is a study that shows "among the vaccinated, those who remained cognitively healthy were less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, and those who did develop dementia were nearly 30% less likely to die from it over the course of nine years." "More research is needed to confirm the findings—but the study is a particularly strong one......becau...

This was 3 years ago. If I'm not mistaken, it cost RM 5.50. This was recently. RM 7.40 (RM 7 before tax). I asked to replace red beans with corns. It may not look like but both Ban and I are convinced that the portion had shrunk: I didn't need to be careful in scooping up the first few spoonful of it. Previously, sometimes bits of it still dropped onto the saucer despite being careful.

Recently Ban and I went on a 4D 3N vacation in Singapore, just to relax and visit friends. This time, unlike previously, I restricted to only one social outing per day. Age catching up with me :D Ban naturally can't socialise much and so previous times he was just going along with my plans. I'm a member of IHG and I've been pleased with the stay at their various hotels so far and so usually I scout whether there's suitable hotel at our destination when we need one. My main criteria for Singapore trip is that it has to be within short walking distance of an MRT station so that I can arrange to meet friends anywhere near an MRT station. After checking locations and reviews, I settled on Hotel Indigo Katong Singapore. This time, I paid extra to include breakfast and the for free cancellation up to a few days (think it was two?) before the arrival date. These are the photos of the room: Clearly, they are going for the Peranakan theme. It really made this a unique experience...