Mysterious Abdominal Pain

Cramping in my belly alarmed me. The pain came suddenly and left just as quickly. I felt totally fine was second and bent over in pain the next . 

This happened 3 times in my life and always in the O&G ward of a hospital. Twice in labour and once when I had a major infection near an ovary which could have cost me my life.

The next morning, I felt fine and went to work as usual. The pain hit once. I ignored it. It returned with a vengeance, so I gave in and called the hospital to fix an appointment . I was lucky. They had a slot that very afternoon .

The gynae examined me and ordered an ultrasound scan. The results were clear . The problem didn't reside in this department but as the area was clearly tender she referred me to the A&E department to see a general doctor . 

When I saw the price to go through A&E I balked. If I could bear the pain a little longer it might go away.

The next day, I saw my family doctor who also couldn't trace the problem without the proper tests. I needed endoscopy and x-ray.

Today,  as both doctors strongly advised, I went to A&E and had the full suite of tests done .

The X-ray showed my colon was too full if shit. So it's 2 days of laxatives and stuff to clean out the gunk , before another appointment for a scope to ensure there's no growth inside. 

In other words , once I'm home I'll take me media and camp in the loo.

Looking back in our traditional diet. We hardly eat any veggies. All our dishes are meat based, eaten with white rice and possibly a small dish of sambal kang kong hardly anyone touches . We have chap chye at best which is mainly vermicelli and a few slices if carrots and cabbage .

The nonya diet is a low fiber one .

So it's payback time.

 

I eat more veggies these days so I'll take this as cleaning out the past gunk for a healthier future.

Memories of a world of books

When I was a little girl, I loved reading. Mom and dad were teachers and dad was both the school and church librarian.



My early memories were of pure delight when dad got home with huge brown boxes packed with books, each telling a wonderful story which would transport me to a fantasy world.


Yes, there was lots of work to be done. Each book had to be processed for the library. Pockets were stuck on each book. Cards had to be prepared to go into the pockets. Slips of paper stuck to each book to record the due dates. All that was necessary so that the books could be loaned out. We all pitched in . The best part was we got first pick of the best books.

That was in the seventies.

In 1996, I married a fellow book lover. We lined our home with shelves to hold our combined book collections.



We have kids. Our favourite place for family hang outs was Borders. We'd park the kids at the children's books section where they can browse and read. If they're good, they get to choose a book each which we'd buy to add to their collection.


We grown ups pick our books and read near them.


Those were the days I worked from home. My Internet business paid our bills so both parents were always there for our kids.
I miss those good old days.

Yesterday, my hubby brought me out on a Friday night date. We went to Kenny Rogers at holland. I love their chicken .


It's a cosy place. What I liked best was the shelf of books, holding entire series with different series to satisfy various literary tastes. Especially for kids.


It felt like home.

Natures Home Spa: Fruit Facials / Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) Masks Recipes

I used to make my own skin care when my kids were little and I was paranoid about using anything artificial. Back then, I'd make my own face masks from fruits.

Lots of the hot beauty ingredients originated from nature. AHAs are naturally occuring acids found in fruits, sour milk while BHA can be extracted from sugarcane. These have been used for ages to slough off dead skin cells, unclogging pores, treating acne and revealing the soft young skin hidden underneath.

Found this blog by Anna which brings back fond old memories.

Natures Home Spa: Fruit Facials / Alpha Hydroxy Acid (AHA) Masks Recipes

Here's an article I wrote too on the different fruit facials for your skin type, be it oily with acne or dry and delicate.

Nonya chap chye recipe

I must confess. Mom made this dish , not me.

I remember how my late grandpa used to share his recipes with me. Though we spoke English , when it came to food, he'd explain it all in Malay . Typically the amounts were estimated , like a pinch of the, a handful of that , just enough of this etc.

The secret to great food was always stir frying pounded shallots and garlic or rempah in oil til brown then adding in the meat, then everything else.

Here's a simple way to prepare chap chye.

1. Soak dried black fungus , rice vermicelli and dried tau kee on water to hydrate these.


2. Dry with a paper towel.


3. Peel fresh prawn


4. Slice belly pork finely


5. Peel and slice a carrot or two


6. Slice a cabbage


7. Peel and Pound a clove of garlic and five shallots.


8. Stir fry the garlic and shallots til brown


9. Add the pork and prawns and let it cook


10. Add in the cabbage, carrots, black fungus, tau kee and vermicelli


11. Season with sea salt


12. Serve hot

Beard papa chocolate lava

Lava oozing out of a chocolate lava cake on chocoholics has the same effect as blood on sharks . It sends us chocoholics into a feeding frenzy.

I had a bummer of a morning and could use a little chocolate to cheer me up. Guess what, Beard Papa's first batch of chocolate lava cake had just come out of the oven.

Unlike some places which forbid you to take photos of the food, the ladies at beard papa, bugis mrt station, when they saw me trying to photograph my lava cake from the bag, took out a tray of fresh chocolate lava delights for an impromptu shoot.

Got my photos, got my cake and the morning's disappointment was quickly forgotten. An awesome breakfast was in store for me once I'd a chance to savor it.

I couldn't wait. The rich melted chocolate in soft pastry made my day.

Biz Success

Years ago, I went into affiliate marketing, not realising that it was impossible to earn a living that way. I had no idea the competition was that keen. E.g. 90% of the sales are made by 10% of the affiliates.. or is it 99% vs 1%? I didn't know, didn't care anyway. Nor was I aware that I wasn't business inclined. Hey, how can a blur blob like me ever do business? So in my pure stupidity, I went on and created one website after another. I had no idea you were supposed to have business associates and work with partners in order to be successful so I went solo. I didn't know it was impossible to get your website listed as #1 in Google Yahoo and MSN, so I went ahead and happily got sales that way, plus hefty bonuses from affiliate marketing SEO contests, not knowing what the heck was SEO. I was happily working from home building websites, watching them rank #1-#3 in the search engines, creating more websites and automating them and banking my cheques, spending afternoons with hubby watching movies, eating at all you can eat tea buffets and being there for my kids when they game home from nursery.. kindergarten.. lower primary school.. Then I realised.. hey, you can't make money that way. Where is the money coming from? etc etc.. and I realised.. it was impossible. So my business tanked and I and I got a job and rejoined the rat race. “Some of the world’s greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.” -Doug Larson

Flowers

Growing up in Katong, the ladies around me wore kebayas adorned with finely embroidered flowers, a testament to their patience and needlework skills

I love flowers. Though I prefer scented ones like tuberose or the tropical roses that flourished in grandpa's garden, this struck a chord with me.

Foggy memories of a kebaya with small pink flowers just like these come to mind, but I can't recall who wore it.

I don't own any kebayas. Never did. I preferred western clothes, jeans and tees when I was young and later married out of the peranakan community . I did wear cheongsam to fit into my husband's culture but now, I have a yearning for the world I was born into .. Decades ago.. When life was simpler. Happier