Another Year Has Gone By

Well, another year is ending. 2014 is descending upon us and the whole cycle will begin again. I’m not sure if it’s wise to wish anyone Happy New Year when the future for us Malaysians looks bleak, what with rising prices and reduced subsidies. It doesn’t look like the future is something to look forward to, not when everything is going up, even the blinking electricity, assessment rates and toll charges on top of others. So really, to wish another Malaysian a Happy New Year sounds quite lame.

Anyway. Cik Abang Ollie, Cik Abang Ramsey, the furry LOL cats would like to take this opportunity to wish you a brilliant holiday season and a new year of peace, love, good health, wealth and happiness. Have a red-and-white Christmas, take care if you’re travelling and see you in 2014 insyaAllah.

Muar Day Trip

A friend got married last Saturday in Muar and ZS agreed to drive LL and I down to Muar to the wedding. Nizam had proposed we leave early so that we could have breakfast in Muar and try the local delicacies. So it was an early start for us; we left just after 8 and went in search of Salak Selatan LRT station to pick LL up. Despite the map, we still got lost but managed to reach the station 10 minutes after the agreed time. We drove on and joined the traffic heading south, LL and I busy catching up with each other.

We exited the highway at Jasin and drove on to join Lebuh Amj which leads to Muar town. You come across more traffic lights at Lebuh Amj so that slowed us down somewhat and we finally pulled into Muar just before 11 am. Nizam was already waiting for us at Jalan Salleh and we picked him up. After parking at Jalan Abdullah, we walked to a nearby restaurant for breakfast. It would seem that the locals eat satay for breakfast because many restaurants and stalls serve satay that early in the morning.

After breakfast, Nizam drove us around and showed us the sights. We then went back to pick up the car to Tanjung Emas and arrived just in time to board the boat for the Muar river cruise. Well, might as well act like tourists! (Which we were anyway!)

The boat ride took about 40 minutes I think. It was an enjoyable ride with the light river breeze giving us relief from the midday heat. The river was quite large and surprisingly clean. Alright, yes, the river wasn’t clear but there was no rubbish in it and we could even see some fishermen catching fish. We arrived back at the jetty at 1 pm and drove on to Nizam’s parents’ house to freshen up, perform prayers and wait for another colleague to arrive with her family.

We left for the wedding at 2 (apparently in Muar, guests don’t arrive early at weddings) and arrived just before the groom did. We went to meet our friend and after watching her and husband on the dais, we went to have lunch. It was a hot bright sunny scorching sweltering day and I helped myself to a few glasses of drinks. We left after an hour. I must say I was disappointed with the reception at the bride’s side. We only welcomed by only one member of her family and that was her brother-in-law. She has a lot of siblings and also an extensive number of nieces and nephews but hardly anyone else welcomed us. No one else came forward to acknowledge us, to accept our wedding presents and wedding money or to offer us door gifts of bunga telur. It’s not that I care much about getting bunga telur or door gifts (I don’t eat eggs anyway) but it’s the gesture that counts. I’m sure you agree that it’s the little things that count and that, to me, is one of those things. Plus I don’t want LL to think that Malay weddings are that impersonal or the hosts so thoughtless and inconsiderate.

We went back to Nizam’ parents’ and went to pick the rambutans and pulasans in their large garden. I already have a rambutan tree at home so was not too eager on the rambutans. I headed for the pulasan tree at the far end of the garden and LL joined me. We picked some – all looked red anyway – and was about to say ‘OK, that’s enough’ when I got stung by some insect. Ouch!!! It hurt like hell and I had quick tears forming in my eyes. LL took one look at me and said we should head in there and then and led me in. I applied some sea cucumber ointment on my hands and after a few minutes was able to offer a shaky smile at Nizam’s mother.

We left shortly after (the car boot was full of fruits!) and left to find the famed mee bandung Muar. As it turned out, the locals have it quite late in the day (say what? Why?) and we finally had to go to the food court at Tanjung Emas for our mee bandung Muar. Nizam then took us a for a drive along the sea and then showed us the way to the highway. It was a good 30-minute drive to the highway (!) and it started raining heavily not long after we left Muar.

I must have dozed off because when I woke up, we were nearing Seremban. We were caught in crawl all the way to Nilai and then again after Sungai Besi toll plaza. We dropped LL off and managed to find our way back to KL, thanks to her husband’s rough description.

It was a long day but an enjoyable one. Yes, despite getting stung by pesky insects!

The Good Die Young

My schoolmate passed early last Monday after less than a year of having cancer. I only found out after reaching office and was in shock and disbelief for the better part of the day. I mean, yes, I knew she had cancer and that the cancer made a comeback but I didn’t expect her to leave so soon. My late brothers hung on and fought against it for months before they finally lost to the evil C, so to find that she left only 16 days after doing her CT scan was shocking to say the least.

The prayer shared by another friend: In our sadness with the loss, let’s redha with her passing. She has met her Creator. May Allah accepts her and places her among the blessed ones. May He forgives her sins and accepts her ibadah. And may He grant the strength and patience to her family to accept the loss. Amin.

My late friend left behind a husband and four young kids, three boys and one girl. I grieve for them all. Rest in peace now, my friend. We will see each other again, just not on earth.

Al-Fatihah.

You Only Live Once

The firm had a two-day health fair early last month with participation from various health care centres and hospitals, SOCSO and health care administrator. I went to check it out and had my blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol levels checked. I also went to check my biological age (I did the same last year and my biological age then was 7 years younger than my actual age) and guess what? Despite gaining another year, my biological age is 10 years younger than my actual age. Move over, Benjamin Button! I observed a lot of people younger than me whose biological ages are more than their actual age. Why, a mate who’s 37 is biologically a pensioner. This is all sobering and I vow that I will continue to take care of myself and my health.

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At the same health fair, one of my direct reports found out that she has diabetes. She then went to a private hospital to find out more and was given some medicine supposedly to regulate her sugar level. Unfortunately, there’s some complication because her eyesight slowly deteriorated until she could hardly drive herself to the Komuter station to get the train to work. She suspects it’s the medicine but the doctor was adamant that it wasn’t. Instead, the doctor said the medicine worked as her sugar level reading had dropped from 16 to 8. So she went to the ophthalmologist but after a lengthy check, the ophthalmologist declared there’s nothing wrong with her eyesight. She’s currently on a four-day medical leave (on top of the nine days she’d already taken thus far this year). When she called me this morning, I advised her to get a second opinion. It could be the medicine is too strong for her or not compatible with her and has adverse effects on her. I also told her that this is a wake-up call and that she must take care of herself and her health henceforth. I get that no one wants to be sickly, no one likes to be sick but most of the time, I don’t see this being matched with their actions. This direct report recently told me she couldn’t stop herself from consuming something to which I asked, ‘Do you control your food or does your food control you?’ I’m sorry if that sounded blunt and direct but c’mon. Why do we continually neglect our health? Why do we continually punish ourselves? Why do we stop taking care of ourselves? What’s wrong with embracing a healthy lifestyle? We gain from it, not lose. Isn’t it better to be healthy than being ill and bed-ridden? So what’s stopping us from a healthy lifestyle? And more importantly, why don’t we want to choose a healthy lifestyle? Surely we are strong enough to rid our bodies of toxic, dangerous substances, evil sugared drinks and processed food.

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One of my schoolmates recently found that she had Stage 2-3 breast cancer. She had since then had mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Last Saturday, she went to the doctor for a CT scan and on Sunday morning, was informed that the cancer has spread. Some of my friends went to visit her yesterday (I have long since shied away from FB and hence only found out yesterday via email) and her prospects aren’t good. A doctor friend informed us that my cancer patient friend is in a very bad condition. Her cancer is now Stage IV, i.e., no longer curable. She has widespread metastases (cancer spread)

1. Lungs - fairly extensive cancer spread involving the lung tissue itself and the lymphatics

2. She has some fluid around her heart (pericardial effusion). This can cause her breathing and exercise tolerance to deteriorate fairly badly.

3. Liver - she has multifocal liver metastases (i.e., spots)....so it’s not good. Her liver function is already impaired. She will be very weak due to this and may get jaundice. And if you have liver impairment, you can also affect your renal function (so far her renal function is OK)

4. She has extensive bony metastases (spread too) and one of the vertebrae (bone in the spine) has fractured and collapsed...hence why she’s having back pain. She is at risk of further vertebral collapse/fracture or other fractures elsewhere and this can cause her a lot of pain

5. She has mets to her lymph nodes at her lungs and in the abdomen.

It saddens me to read that and I was quite upset. How dare this evil C disease do this? I have lost 3 of my older half-siblings to the same evil C. My sister was only 29 when she passed.

I know evil C can strike whenever and whomever. But we can minimise the risk somewhat by adopting a healthy lifestyle. We all have a choice, let’s choose the right one. After all, we only live once in this world. Let’s make it a good one.