Here's My Story

Early morning after the appointment , mum had itchy rashes again. Despite not looking like the fungal infection rashes, she applied the fungal cream and took antihistamine. Apparently that worked and for a while it was fine until it happened again a few days thereafter. My sister brought mum to see Dr Ling again. Doctor said that they stopped the medication too early. She said that normally it takes at least 3 months to fully recover. In mum's case, it was just a month because she examined mum and concluded that it was likely that mum had fully recovered, thinking that perhaps she was one of the lucky ones who recovered faster. Oh well. Medicine was prescribed for a month and mum was advised to seek the doctor's consultation earlier if condition worsens.

This is a poke bowl (can't remember what!) served at H31 @Damansara Utama last year in 2025. I vaguely recall that it's pretty good. We should go back there again.   Saw this outside a Family Mart outlet. I'm curious on how well this would be.     IIRC this is coconut coffee latte. I tried twice and unfortunately it's not worth it: barely could tell there's coconut in it. So far, ZUS's gula melaka latter with coconut milk is the best. I loved Mixue's toffee hazelnut latte. Even though I always get it at 30% sugar, it still tasted distinctively.   A Seng Kee restaurant opened at Paradigm Mall last year, 2025. As a fan of steamed chicken rice, I had to try it but sadly I now cannot remember details of the food 😅 I just remember that overall, not worth it. I think the dish was not bad but just not worth the price.

Three weeks after the last appointment , we were back at Dr Ling's room. This time she voluntarily told us that the swab test confirmed the fungal infection diagnosis. She was also satisfied with mum's recovery after performing a physical examination. After we told her that despite mum having no prawn allergy for most of her life, the past 3 times she had prawns consistently caused itchy rashes. Mum showed her a photo of the rashes, which the Dr Ling said was bad. Hence, mum was advised to avoid prawns, regardless of the results of the 107 allergens test. I also signed up for the test. Dr Ling explained that the allergen test is testing for the presence of IgE. There are 5 types of antibodies i.e. IgG, IgM, IgA, IgE, and IgD. Allergic reaction that's caused by production of IgE to fight allergens is the most serious compared to other types of antibodies and hence allergy test focuses on IgE. So, even if the IgE allergy test is negative for prawns, mum's allergic reactio...

The cholesteroal results as compared to 4 months ago :                                   Nov 25                 Mar 26                 Ref Total cholesterol            6.1                       6.7                    < 5.2  (<6)* Non-HDL                      4.4                       5.0                    < 3.4    HDL ("good")              1.67                    1.73              ...

Passed by this restaurant many times. Prices are on the high side but looking at its menu on the wall, it might be worth trying it. So recently, we did just that.   I was intrigued by this: As my nephew exclaimed, "Can you even eat it?" after I've shared photo of the dish: Oh yes, it was edible :D In fact, the moment it was served, I smelled the distinctive smell of a typical fried chicken. I loved the plating. The sauce and coleslaw were placed in mini saucepans. Cute :) Salad was more than expected and was consist of a variety of vegetables. Great. Mased potato was good and had a slightly unique taste, probably affected by the chicken on top of it. Chicken had a sprinkle of herb on it that gave its taste a twist, otherwise it tasted like a normal fried chicken. Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of the sweet spicy sauce. Ban had the Miso Buttermilk Chicken. Unfortunately, the chicken was "very chicken-y" to him. The rest of the dish was "nice". I woul...

Here are the average dividend yields on cost for shares that have paid out dividends:   Red: Dividend yield on cost is at least 5.0% Yellow: Dividend yield on cost is below 5.0% Blue: Stocks not covered by Smart Investor. Bar with dividend yield label: Stocks classified as "Income" by Smart Investor.   Share counters (6 of them) with no dividend yields just means that I have yet to receive at least a year's worth of dividends from these companies. The overall dividend yield on cost weighted by invested amount is 4.9% (vs 5.0% in previous review), excluding the 6 share counters mentioned above.  The main concern is the Income stocks with dividend yield on cost lower than 5.0% (yellow bars with yield labels). These are (number of consecutive years of this low yield in bracket): 1.  CapLand IntCom T (1) 2. Frasers L&C Tr (1) 3. Mapletree Log Tr (4) 4. Mapletree Pan Asia Com Tr (1) 5. Parkway Life Reit (6) Parkways is still increasing DPU and so I will be pa...

I made a mistake in the past year. For past one and a half year, I have set aside some fund invested in shares that are recommended by my IFA. He mostly recommended growth stocks i.e. stocks of companies that pay little to no dividend and focus on growing the company and a few ETFs. So I thought I should dispose of the shares that I invested based on the Smart Investor's Dividend Portfolio which are classfied as "growth".  However, later on I realised that these are still dividend paying stocks but of companies that are still growing. Typically the current dividend yield is low (lower than the "income" stocks). The premise of the investment is that as the companies grow, they would pay out more dividend and so the dividend yield on cost would grow. iFAST is a prime example. Hence, I started repurchasing these shares as and when Smart Investor recommends. I still avoid those that are classified as "speculative". Alright, moving on: these are the shares ...

What's the connection with Muslim Chinese food? 

Previously I blogged about this campaign  (with 3 more posts subsequently) where I initially built my character to severely hinder enemies from moving away from me but changed because of party composition. I recently changed back to the initial idea. Here's why: The impetus was the GM's announcement that we would be encountering many more undead, including those who are resistant (or immune) to physical and sometimes resistant to everthing except for vitality damage, This means that I'll likely be using more Wood Elemental Blast rather than Earth, thereby rendering the level 5 pick of  Gate's Threshold: Expand the Portal -> Earth Gate Junction: Critical Blast less useful. After tinkering with the build, here are the changes to the build:   Level 4   Class feat: Tumbling Lumber changed to Safe Elements. This is critical to prevent my teammates from the adverse effects of my kinetic aura (shown later). Also, this also gives the one-action ability Pacifying Infusion ...

I had a taste of the soup and minced pork ball from my nephew's dinner and was motivated to drive nearly 30 mins to try it in situ :D The soup was tasty but a little salty. The amount of ingredient was disappointingly tiny: everything (vegetable and meat) fit into that spoon. Goodness. I ordered the dry version of the noodle. My sister cautioned me that it was "nothing to shout about" but it was even worse here: it was tasteless😢  The longan drink with black sugar was the best part of the meal. Lots of longan and flavourful.  Yeah, not going back there again :(

I came to know of allergy test, covering 52 allergens, from Pathlab sometime ago. I did one nearly 6 years ago , covering 35 allergens. The former cost RM 1,200. My usual doctor's clinic quoted a staggering RM 1,500! So when my sister highligted that Klinik Dr Yeoh, clinic that I go to if I am in Butterworth and I'm sick, charged RM 560, I took up that offer. While waiting for the results, Ban and I brought mum to her first follow-up appointment at Bagan Specialist Centre and we saw a poster for allergy test covering 107 allergens for RM 380 (it's now RM 416). Meh. Here's the result:   Nothing! Not even mild, unlike previously. Ban suggested that I go for the 107 allergens test. My sister agreed. So I would be doing that together with my mum .

A week after the first appointment , my sister brought my mum to see Dr Ling, the skin specialist, for a follow-up. During that week, her condition improved significantly: hardly any redness, still itchy but not as bad. In short, 1. Doctor is happy with the progress and think that we are on the right track. 2. She still diagnosed mum with fungal infection and not allergy. Normal recovery time is about 3 months. 3. Itchiness partly due to dry skin and so need to use moisturiser. 4. Follow-up in 3 weeks time. As discussed beforehand, my sister requested for test of 107 allergens. Privately, we still think that mum has developed allergy towards prawns. Coincidentally, later mum had Penang Hokkien Mee (which is prawn based and has prawns) and developed rashes. I would be bringing mum to the next appointment and hopefully I'll remember to ask the doctor for the result of the swab test. We're puzzled as to why the doctor didn't voluntarily tell us about it.  

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The appointment was a week after discharged from hospital. It involved blood test and then consultation with doctor. For no strong reason other than wanting to trim a little the time spent, I asked Ban to drive us, despite the hospital being a mere 20-min away (normally I wouldn't want to involve him for such short non-strenuous appointment). I am grateful that he agreed because it went on much longer than expected. What happened was that after "recovering" for a few days, unexpectedly mum developed the itchy rashes again two days before the appointment date and condition worsened (there was discharge) around her groin area the next day. The doctor was quite alarmed by this. His initial guess was that she was allergic to prawns (she had it prior to reappearance of the rashes) despite not being the case previously. The summary is that mum could be allergic to prawns all the while but it reaches critical mass only now. Anyway, he decided to defer to his skin sp...

During CNY, my sister's family spent time at her in-laws place in Penang island. They invited mum to join them and I was glad that mum decided to go. However, when she was there, she had an allergic reaction: rashes, redness and itches over her body. She suspected it was the bar of soap. Mum had a history of contact dermatitis, the most serious were her fingers turning nearly black. Sister brought her to a 24-hour clinic for treatment. Was given antihistamine and calomine lotion. The next morning, my sister was helping to apply the lotion on mum when she suddenly collapsed on her bed, with hands pointing up (elbows on bed) and shaking. Mum didn't respond to sister's calling until a minute later when this seizure-like moment was over. Scary. After some discussion, my sister brought her back to the clinic. They said although it's possible that this is a side effect of antihistamine, it's rare and even more so for the one they prescribed i.e. chlorphenamine. However, i...

After the trip to Peranakan Mansion , we didn't really want to dine at another peranakan restaurant the next day but  we were sort of clueless on what to have. Fortunately, later, I remember that Ban wanted pie ti and so we searched online for restaurants that served pie ti. After some discussion, we settled on Nancy's Kitchen.   Pie ti was beautifully plated. Visually attractive. It was delicious and crunchy. The unusual addition of a tiny bit of tomato puree enhanced its flavour. Highly recommended. I passed my commendation to the staff manning the cashier. Chap chai was good. Tasted similar Peranakan Mansion's but the latter was better plated. Chak Bek was quite nice. Salty sourish. We were surprised at its servicing size (there was only one size): it was about two third the size of the chap chai. Fyi the chap chai was of small serving too.   For one dinner outing, I wanted something that had substantial amount of vegetables. So, we asked for recommendation from the ho...

Huang Chang Chicken Rice Restaurant. Best chicken rice ball ever! Probably best chicken rice too. The ginger taste was a little more distinctive compared to normal chicken rice. Unfortunately, its chicken was a little dry but compensated somewhat with delicious sauce.  10 Kopitiam @ Melaka. Best chai tau kuay (fried radish/carrot cake) in decades. Slightly crispy on the outside. Dark coloured. Two big prawns and appropriate amount of beansprout and spring onion. Their pandan egg tart was pretty good too. When we were first there just before 7pm, it was already sold out. Upon enquiry, I was told that it's typically sold out by 5pm. We dropped by the next day, just before 12 noon and there were only 4 left!

Recently, Ban made a short trip to Melaka to attend a pre-CNY gathering organised by his ex-high schoolmates. I followed him mainly because I was a bit concerned about him driving by himself. I thought of where to have our meals and planned out accordingly a few spots. One of them was Peranakan Mansion. Chap chai was quite flavourful and the plating was pretty good. The ayam ponteh was quite disappointing: sauce was mild and the chicken meat didn't absorb any of it. The otak-otak was the best dish of the night: soft and deliciously flavourful. The bunga telang tea was quite light and refreshing. It had pandan and a slice of lime in it. Cendol was good but too much coconut milk for me. Food was pricey but appropriate if one considers the good service rendered by waiters and waitresses who were in elegant uniform, and the environment/decoration (some shown in the photos below). Definitely a worthwhile experience.  

For the past year, I received a few messages from GX Bank app to update my profile. I ignored it because I see no reason to give more than necessary. Certainly wouldn't want them to use it to spam me with marketing materials. Recently, however, I received this email:   I called GX Banka and obtained confirmation that this is a genuie email. Also, it is not compulsory to provide any information but I was advised to at least reply the email stating that I have nothing to update, so that they can stop asking me to do so. I'm not giving them anything. This list of information is intrusive. Also, how does this additional info help them to "maintain the security" of their platform? Sounds nonsensical. 

Chagee Tie Guan Yin cold brew tea. It was expensive and so I only decided to try it when I was given a voucher with hefty discount. Ummm it was wasted on me :D Maybe a tea  connoisseur might appreciate it.   Coconut ice-cream as a birthday gift by An Viet. Pretty good, especially with the crushed peanutes. Miles better than the previous one (something to do with jackfruit). Tiramisu souffle pancake at  Soufflé Dessert Cafe. Their yuzu lime version is better, maybe because the tartness of the yuzu lime complements the sweetness of the pancake better than tiramisu does.   When I blogged about Yamesushi , I forgot to mention a rather unique offering from them: Cute Cute Meal. I believed they have the normal version but they also regularly offer limited time ones like the above. I wonder how many children asked for it :)