Boon Tong Kee

Boon Tong Kee now has take out set meals.  The set menu range from simple chicken and rice to complete meal for 5.  The set meal can be take out.  So we order a set meal.  There is a soup, sweet sour pork, braised cabbage with scallops, half a white chicken and 3 types of eggs steamed. 


It was a feast!  It is nice to have boys as they can eat a lot.  So I enjoyed have lots of different types of food on the table.  This is a traditional 3 dishes and a soup dinner.

Hillary Clinton

I just watched the debate online.  I did not watch the whole debate, only the last part.  Hillary is composed and carry herself well.  She is a great statesman and was not flustered by Donald's outburst.  It is amazing to see how the democratic system in America can put up a Presidential candidate like Donald Trump.  It is indeed scary for the rest of the world the wrong President is elected on Nov 8th.

Homecooked Dinner

My wife cooked up a storm this evening.  We were supposed to have spaghetti on Friday but ate out instead.  However, she had bought organic bell peppers, mushrooms, minced beef, minced pork and organic pasta sauce last Friday.   She cooked it all up and I added capers, sundried tomatoes and black olives.  Taste so much like eating in Modesto's.  Only missing the clams, squids and flower crab.  I loved it very much.  We can now reproduce restaurant quality homecooked spaghetti!!

Immediate Relief after Blasting

I was feeling the strains on my right back when I drive.  I did not know the kidney had swollen.  Today when I drive, the strain is no longer there.  There is still some pressure but mostly it is relieved.  So today's technology is so wonderful. 


My father had kidney stones.  His treatment was surgical removal of the kidney.  There were 16 stones in his kidney when it was removed.  Today, the non-invasive technique is so much more advanced.  The kidney is saved and the stones are blasted and then excreted out through urinary system.  My abdomen is still sore from the intense ultrasound bursts.  However, it is nothing compared to surgically removing the kidney.


Recovery is pretty quick compared to my left kidney.  I am still up in the middle of the night, but not in pain.  So far so good:)

In the Dead of Night

Everything is quiet and peaceful.  I am up and surfing the net.  This is the time I go to facebook to see what my friends had been up too.  It is so much easier to "catch up" and see what they want to share with everyone.  Many have gone for vacation.  One with wedding anniversary.  Some are active in sports.  It is a good way to past time.


It is Sunday morning, so the market will be open earlier than usual.  I can go to get some of the busy feel if I so like it.  Otherwise I can have tea at home.  The options are available for the sleepless.  Mustapha and a number of Fairprice are open 24/7.


In Hong Kong, the choice in the middle of the night is a lot more.  Plenty of food stalls are still open.  In Tokyo, there are many 7 Eleven and other chainshops open.  I enjoys exploring and do people watching in the middle of night and wonder why people are up and about.

Right Kidney

I have not been feeling well.  I thought it was my left kidney ESWL.  For two nights in a row that is last night and the night before I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep.  Last night, it was intense pain on my right abdomen.  So I keep cracking my head to think what I have eaten.


My wife insist I see my urologist right away.  I told her I have appointment tomorrow for followup.  She called and get an appointment this afternoon.  My urologist did an ultrasound and said some big words.  My right kidney had swollen and the kidney stone has shifted.  So I have to go for CT scan.  The kidney stone has dropped but not to the ureter.  It is 4.9mm, so it is quite big.


In plain words, my kidney is exploding.  He said I could not think straight anymore.  The good thing about private healthcare is I can be scheduled immediately.  So tomorrow morning I will go for my ESWL to blast the stone to pieces.  Thank Buddha, my wife bought insurance.  This has allowed me to be treated right away.

MidValley Mall

Usually, I loved to shop at MidValley Mall.  I arrived Mid Valley late afternoon and walk about as I usually do.  This time, I feel it is not so homecoming or exciting.  Maybe, I am not feeling good as I am recovering from the ESWL. 


The two bookshops, Borders and MPH have downsized.  Cold Storage has moved out.  Ace Hardware downsize slightly as well.  There are a number of new food outlets.  I walk about the mall for exercise and also to relax my mind.  It is nice brain dead activity for me.


I also noticed the mall is not as busy.  So retail in KL is affected.  The queue to exchange foreign currency is quite short unlike before. 


Robinson is practically empty.  The resturants seems to be busy but not as crowded.  I think the economy has slowed in Malaysia.

When Singapore was No. 1!

I started to travel for work in 1984.  Taxi drivers used to ask where I was from and when I replied Singapore, the comment from usually is it is a capable country, everything is No. 1.  Singapore Airlines no 1.  Changi Airport no 1, Port No 1...


I get a sense of pride being a Singaporean.  Today, the same question was asked and when I answered Singapore to the foreigners, no one ever mentioned it.  "Ah! I can hear it from your accent." or "You sound like Taiwanese."


There is not sense of belonging.  There are more foreigners than locally born citzens.  Many times, I feel like I am living in foreign land.  The economy is bigger due to the population growth.  At the same time, the sense of belonging has become smaller.  All I could think off is where can I retire comfortably instead of staying in now the No 1 most expensive city in the world.

Counting Down to My 1st Class Reunion

Looks like the date is set and we will have a class gathering.  I hope I am not travelling that week.  It is going to be in the evening and I am not an owl.  I am looking forward to seeing my classmates most will be first time in 28 years!!

It will be nice to see all of them since most of our kids are grown up now.  Several are living overseas.  One in Thailand, he is a pastor another in Melbourne, a doctor I believe.

In other bigger whatsapp group, my classmates through Sec 1 to Sec 4 are living in US, Canada, Netherlands, Australia and South Africa.  Indeed, many have flew the coop.

Evening at Plaza Sin

Mummy is having cabin fever and wants to go out.  She have urge for shopping at Spotlight.  So we go out at about 7pm.  As we drive out onto CTE, the radio reported closure of the roads in Raffles Boulevard and others due to F1.  So I was a little concerned but decide to try anyway since Plaza Sin is not affected by the road closure.  To my surprise the road condition is quite normal.  Traffic is heavy but not jam pack.  We ate at Dome Café and my wife does her shopping while I kill time at the event hall as Time Bookstore has stocks to clear.


I bought two books costing total of pleasant surprise $17.  One is on exercise and the other on Life Coach Questionaire.  I always wanted to get a book on Life Coach.  Life Coaching is supposed to help us discover meaningful and happier life or living.


I had a quick read on Exercise.  Seems like moderate intense exercise has positive effects.  20 mins a week is sufficient to effect change to reduce cancers and other debilitating disease. 

Betta Babies

B3 has been successful in getting eggs and hatching them in our pair of betta aka fighting fish.  Most of the fries died.  A few survived.  So I am hoping B3 can breed the bettas successfully.  He just has another clutch of eggs.  It is quite challenging to keep the fries alive.  He fed them with liquid food.  But the liquid food is also full of microbes and the water turns cloudy. 


I am waiting to see if any grows to adult size.

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy

I always had kidney stones.  My classmate who is an urologist told me it is ok to leave the stones there if they do not cause trouble.  I had low backache since army days.  Sometimes, I am not sure if it is backache or pain due to the stones.


So my urologist suggest I blast the stones as they can cause trouble if I am travelling or in the airplane.  He had that experience!  So knowing how intense the pain is, I decided to go for the ESWL   The shockwave will break up the stones. 


Yesterday, early in the morning I check in to Geneagles.  The procedure starts at 9am but I have to check in at 7am.  Geneagles is slow in processing paper work compared to ME Novena.  B1 just need to check in 1 hour before. 


The process is simple, I am sedated using Propofol and some painkillers.  Then a technician will use the soundwave machine and shoot the energy into my kidney.  Tat-tat-tat can be heard.  It is sharp pain in the kidney.  I have to breathe shallowly.  But due to the sedation, I drifted into unconsciousness.  The technician will wake me up to make sure I do not breathe too deeply as the kidney will move as I breathe.


Halfway, through I said pain and the technician call out loudly to the anesthetist to give me painkiller.  The zapping limit is 120 joules.  The urologist just give instruction to the technician on how much energy on each stone.  Middle pole is the biggest, so it get more energy.  I had a total of 3 poles which means 3 stones.on my left kidney.


By 2:30pm, I am allowed to check out.


After the ESWL, I pee out bloody urine.  It is dark red.  By evening time, it turned grey meaning my left kidney has started to clot up.

Good Day

B1 has been complaining about stomach for a few weeks now.  We had been asking him to see the doctor.  He was always reluctant and on Sunday went to NUH.  He was refer for colonoscopy and endoscopy.  We are quite concern especially mummy has a classmate whose younger sister died of cancer in her early twenties.  She always complains of stomachs and then she had a baby.  So she thought it is postpartum pains.  By the time she discovered that she had cancer, she was in the late stages. 


This morning B1 had the procedure done.  Other than some piles which the surgeon tied them off, there is no inflammation nor cancerous growth.  Only gastric ulcers.


We are very relief to get the diagnosis.

Cataract

My wife's uncle i.e. her father's younger brother was unable to see well for some time.  So he is going to SNEC or Singapore National Eye Center to get treatment.  We suspect it is cataract as both my father-in-law and mother-in-law had both their lenses changed.

Cataract is funny in a way.  The elders lose their sight so gradually that they did not noticed.  Most of the time they did not realised they are not seeing well at all.  I remember my mother-in-law used to give us fruits that are rotten and I have to throw them away.  When her eyesight is restored, the "rotten fruits" syndrome stopped as well.

At first, I thought she was playing tricks on us.  Now, I learn she is totally oblivious of her poor eyesight.

Amazing Classmate

I have been put in touch with a lot of old classmates.  Then there is a facebook page and on the facebook page some of my classmates.  One is just so amazing.  I would recognize if I walked past her on the streets.  However, I am sure she would not be able to recognize me!  She still looked totally the same as when we were in school!!  I on the other hand is twice the size, gray hair and totally middle age.  Sigh!  Some people of lucky or know to keep their youthful look.

Last Few Days

I just realized I have not blog for a few days.  On Thursday, I was busy at the exhibition and then go for dinner.  After that, I had an "emergency" at home.  Our stove keep tripping the ELCB or earth leakage circuit breaker.  My wife called and I have to troubleshoot using phone.  Finally, she managed to isolate the fault.  It was one of our bedroom's aircond.  I had to call my plumber as he left the conduit cover open when he install the piping.  He promised to go down Friday morning to fix up the conduit. 


My wife also called our aircond man and he spent two hours to troubleshoot and found the wiring faulty.  So we have to call our electrical contractor.  What a merry-go-round costing time and money.


Friday morning, I have to get up early to catch my flight from Haneda home.  There is a stewardess who look like Angmo.  I was intrigued and when to the flight deck when they are free to find out.  She is half English and half Thai.  She has good features and quite good looking.  All her family in England has left and living in France, Spain that has better weather than the depressing weather in England.


Yesterday, my brother had a wedding lunch for his 2nd daughter.  The restaurant is Jin Long in Bedok.  Originally, he book the tables in Punggol branch.  But Punggol branch closed down two weeks ago.  The food is average and price is $498 per table.  Good thing is we had black pepper crabs.  The crabs are quite good.


Today, we had birthday dinner with my mother-in-law in Punggol Waterpoint.  Since my in-laws are vegetarian, Din Tai Fung is a good choice as it has fried rice with eggs.  It can be a handful as my in-laws are pretty strict with their diet.  No garlic or onions.  After the meal, they are in much better mood.  So true is hungry man is an angry man and corollary hungry woman is an angry woman.


My weekend life now revolves around moving from one restaurant to another restaurant.

ANA

This is one of the rare time I took ANA to Tokyo.  I have to go from HK and ANA is a better deal.  I always take ANA for domestic flights if we are not taking bullet train.  The flight is ok.  There is no English magazines on board.  The entertainment system is a small subset of SQ.  It is interesting to see the stewardess changing their uniforms during the flight.  I kind of get confused.  I thought like SQ different colors mean the rank.  Then I realize after a while all the girls have the same colour.  Also interesting to note is I did not see any male crew.  So I guess there will be not juicy stories which my good friend Boh Tong blogs about. 


Oh, I just remember the flight deck are men.  So the pilots have no competition at all!!!

Stock Market Up

Stock market has been moving like a yo-yo.  I am afraid to buy anything.  It is very risky and I am not good at tracking the market.  I have made more losses than gain so far.  It is good to invest and all the financial write-ups say to invest with plenty of good advice.  But to execute correctly is extremely difficult as there is timing and right stock to invest in.

Good luck to everyone.  Yes, it is more luck than skills.

Outback and Milk Sock Tea

I just landed and walk around the mall.  Outback has teatime special.  So I went for the baby back ribs.  Unfortunately, I did not like the buffalo wings sauce.  Wished I specify the bbq sauce when I order.  I did not realise the waitress did not check with me on the 3 types of sauce available.  After the ribs, I walk about and stopped by a tea place for HK milk tea.  The egg tart was pretty good but their coconut tart has no standards.

There is a street that has plenty of aquarium fish shops.  The fishes are quite different from those at home.  So it is quite interesting to window shop.  I like the salt water fishes available.  The colours are brilliant and exotic.

After walking about for a while, it is more of the same.  Plenty of shops selling jewellery.  So I got bored and come back to the hotel.

iPhone Exchange - Wheelock Service Center

My wife had problems with her iPhone 6 Plus since she had it almost a year ago.  She went to the repair center in Plaza Singapura and they cannot find the fault and keep asking her to monitor.  Finally, when B3 dropped his phone in the water, she decided to go to Wheelock Place to seek repair and advice.   This time they take the phone to do diagnostic.  3 days later, they send a message to her that they will replace her phone.


So far, she has far better experience in the Wheelock Center.  They either solve her problem or change to a new phone.  This is the 2nd time they change a new phone for her.  Previously, it was iPhone 4.


The service center is also well run and very fast in clearing the queue.  So if you have an Apple device that need troubleshooting, go the Wheelock Place.

New Computer

I have a new computer from the office and it is so frustrating as there is admin rights.  So it is impossible to set up my desktop or change the homepage of my internet browser.  This is so incredible.  It is for the safety of the computer system but we are now handicap and every little thing need IT to do.  It is micro management to the highest degree.

Shami Banana Leaf Delight

After interviewing two candidates for a position in Singapore, we are done as two other candidates did not come.  So we go to Sembawang for bryani lunch as my colleague complained that the bryani in Tandoor, Holiday Inn did not taste like India. 

I told him I will bring him to my regular place.  He thought I said it is the best bryani in town.  I corrected him so that he know I do not use superlative words to describe my preferred stall.  There was a huge crowd as we arrived 12:30pm.  The owner told me it is like this on Fridays.  So now I know when to avoid this place.

We also ordered Fish head curry and tandoori chicken.  Both my colleagues said were good.

Tandoor Holiday Inn

My colleague come to town and stay in Holiday Inn in Orchard.  So we have dinner in Tandoor, Indian resturant in Basement.  I thought the food was not bad although it is not the best.  My colleague think the Bryiani rice is too soft and did not taste good.  I thought the tandoori chicken is not bad.  Overall the meal for two appetizers and two bryiani rice costs $200.  Hotel guest gets a 20% discount.  It is quite pricey.  The ambient is quite good.