Happy 2012!

Hello people! It’s been a while.

Life has been treating me pretty good. They say time flies when you are having fun, indeed! There has been so much happenings in the past months I do not even know where to start. It’s just really hard to keep up with a blog when social media never stop mushrooming new ways (mostly simpler and easier) of sharing life’s tit bits with your network. 

I don't have any grand plans for 2012. i just want to continue staying healthy and happy and hopefully with God's blessing I can give more . It's a wake up call after dad succumbed to cancer, a good friend who's barely recovering from a freak accident and a classmate who recently lost his wife to depression. I've come to realize life is no longer just about bonus and how skinny you can be...

Back from Hiatus…

Of late, I’ve been looking up on vacation deals for the upcoming Hari Raya and National Day public holiday break in Aug - Sept. I’m sure everyone else in the city must be doing the same leveraging on the precious long break of the year to get away from the hustle and bustle of KL. Then I realized, oversea tickets are now already rocketed at a ripped off rate while local touristic spots would be jam packed with citizens. How? I can’t seem to find a win win situation either way… guess best bet would be to stay put and enjoy the emptiness of the city when everyone else is busy flocking out to somewhere. Travel demand is probably outweighing supply now, sigh…

Anyway, feels good to be back to the blogging scene again after a short break. In weeks to come I’ll be updating more posts of food events and trips happened in the past month or so. Stay tuned!

Blasts in April

it was an eventful month.

 

  Usually I would take my birthday off work and visit the spa or something but this year I decided to go to work and pray no-one will boss me around. :P In order to do this, I bribed my colleagues with 2 dozens of these the next day.

:D

If you can’t be slim… then make all your friends fat! *evil grin*

Family and I had a little celebration at Ben’s Restaurant. A new food chain from the ex-owner of Delicious Group, they have newly opened outlets at Pavilion and KLCC.

   

We ordered spicy crabmeat linguine, fish and chips and pandan chicken. I felt safe and adventurous enough to order my very first lamb chop. I REGRETTED.

 

N O T     G R E A T   A T    A L L.

The pungent lamb smell was so overwhelming that I couldn’t continue eating anymore. It was so different from during the numerous times where I nicked a few bites from my friends’ main dish… this is probably gonna be my last attempt at eating lamb.

Besides, do you know that all these lamb dishes that you chompchomp and nomnom are made from infant lambs killed when they were less than 12 months old? 

The berry sundae was the only highlight of the night.

Then I was sent off to Penang for work immediately… didn’t even have time to nurse a jetlag. 

my boss said, let’s go Hard Rock Cafe and celebrate Stephannie’s Birthday. How sweet of him. 

Chicken Fajitas

 

birthday bouquet

and 10 days later… my father bid farewell to us. This was sis and I writing thank you notes to our relatives after everything was settled. I miss my dad so so dearly… 

As I reflect…

Sometimes things may not happen as planned, while at times some things may go awfully wrong. We often complain life is hard on us... but when you look at the apocalypse of Japan’s tsunami on Friday, won’t you agree how lucky we actually are?

Imagine your house disappears, your car floats away like a toy, your family members missing... and everything you've worked for for the past 30 years of your life is swept away in just minutes. When I watched the CNN clip on repeat, it was surreal. I just couldn’t imagine myself being able to cope with the fear and lost of such a scale… 

Despite the awful weekend which I hope will never happen again in my lifetime, I feel really so lucky that I’m safe in the comfort of home and still have a chance to argue with loved ones. Life isn’t so bad afterall is it.

My heart achingly goes to Japan.  

Palliative Care

Had my father not been diagnosed with cancer recently, the term “Palliative Care” wouldn’t come this close to me, like… ever.  Later on I realize it wasn’t just me, it’s actually an unfamiliar term to many people as well. So I decided to write about it.

Definition of Palliative Care by World Health Organization (WHO)

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. Palliative care:

provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;

affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;

intends neither to hasten or postpone death;

integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;

offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;

offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;

uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;

is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.  

Before my father’s incident, I’ve always thought illnesses can and will always be cured by medicines. If you are unwell, drink more water, rest more and you’ll feel better in a few days time.  If the condition gets serious, consult a doctor, take some antibiotics and you’ll feel better in a few days time. And of course, life is not always a bed of sweet roses. You may have came across articles and stories about cancer and stuff, or, even freak accidents that lead to deaths. But those are just other people stories, right? In real life, this is the first time I’m learning to face the harsh reality of an illness that will possibly take a life away; and the person happens to be someone in my family.

Palliative Care members involves in the process of helping patients and their families to cope with and alleviate the physical and psychological implications as such. Patients are usually given stronger dose of morphine and unrestricted diets to make them feel comfortable.

Throughout this sudden twist of fate, it struck me real hard about what really matters in life. Would it really be money and career? or family ties? Pride and egoism? love? impermanence?

In regards to this matter and on behalf of my family, I would like to thank our dear friends and relatives who have given us the moral support during this time. Your warm thoughts are deeply and truly appreciated.

Lemon Garden, Shangri-la

Family lunch at The Lemon Garden Cafe

Food was great, it’s a buffet lunch and needless to say, we all ended up stuffing ourselves silly. I skipped all things carb to make rooms for desserts.

I love their dessert, everything is so pretty and sinfully delicious 

 

Fondue anyone? They have two flavours: Dark Chocolate & Chocolate Orange

 

Took a snapshot before leaving the hotel – the place where memories flashed back to the happy old times during one of my best friend’s wedding last year. I haven’t been back to Shangri-la since then… but everything is still so vivid as if it was only yesterday’s affair. I could see shadows of the event running in the background like the rehearsals, the touching matrimony ceremony, the hotel lift I never used oh so frequently and how I rummaged of the bridal suite with the bestman to search for a Gstring and etc. Ah.. memories...

Happy birthday to me

This morning I woke up to receiving tons of fb greetings, smses and a few long distance phonecalls from my friends and family. I'm so lucky. Love you guys. 

.

What if my nose gets blown off?

  :(

Wish You Well

her amazing voice makes me tremble

you will be sorely missed

Sempurna

I am so hooked to this song and the irony is I don’t even understand the lyrics. Whatever it means… this is one of the very few rare Malay songs that I like very much.