Unofficial SPCA

I was at a friend's house last week and came upon the above sign OPPOSITE his house. It's common to have a "Dilarang membuang SAMPAH di sini" and this is the first time I'm seeing a "do not throw dogs here" sign board.

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Also on LiteFM, there was this slot which makes us sound inhumane, throwing our pets away, which in other words, kicking them out of the house when we are fed up with them or when they are sick and old. Do we treat our children the same manner? I hope not.

And the reason for that sign up there is because this person loves dogs. He had, at one stage, 14 dogs to care for. He'd pick up strays from all over, bring them back, nurture them and make sure they have the comfort of a home. Yes, the dogs have the privilege to go in and out of the air-conditioned house at anytime they like. Some of them sleep in the rooms, going up and down the stairs like they owned the whole house. Indeed, they are treated so well, like a human. They were given good food and cod liver oil pills!! Imagine that!

Truly, this is one dog lover who treat his dogs well. No wonder people place their unwanted dogs at his gate all the time.

The Silent Guitar

I was at the Yamaha Music School (err... I am not sure what the correct name is) last Friday, attending a charity piano concert to raise funds for the renovations of the Tamil Methodist Church.

After the concert, I strolled toward the showroom where pianos and organs and guitars lined up in rows for parents or music enthusiasts to moon over and eventually cave in to get that particular instrument.

Anyway, I came across this guitar which is so unique.... The Silent Guitar. I don't think it makes any noise except through the ear plugs.

The Son

a forwarded e-mail .............

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A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.

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When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.

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About a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.

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He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.' The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.'

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The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'

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The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.

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The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.

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On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?'

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There was silence.

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Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.'

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But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'

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Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the Real bids!'

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But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?'

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Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting..' Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
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'We have $10, who will bid $20?'
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'Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters.'

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The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.

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The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'

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A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!'

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The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.'

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'What about the paintings?'

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'I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.

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The man who took the son gets everything!'

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God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'

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Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.

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FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE

MJ Died?

I was on leave yesterday and was on the computer at 7.30am when I heard over the radio that Michael Jackson died. My initial reaction? Shock! "What? MJ Died? I don't believe it."

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I thought it was some sort of a prank but it wasn't even April 1st. After countless mention of the King of Pop's death on LiteFM, I realised that it is indeed true.

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I raked my memories in the deep recesses of my brains, trying to remember when I first heard about him. I remembered the "We are the World, We are the children" quote which my aunty Terry wrote at the back of a picture which had 4 of us cousins when we were in primary school. I asked her where she got the words from and she told me that it was a popular song sung by Michael Jackson.

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I practically grew up with his songs. His dances were awesome. He was the icon of the 80's and carried forward to the 90's.

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Much later, he was involved with other matters which caused so many legal actions taken against him. He became somewhat of a recluse. He got fairer and fairer with each passing year.

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Altough what he did was very wrong, the announcement of his death brought about sadness in my heart.

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You know, with the radio blasting MJ's songs throughout the day and as internet browsers plastered his face on their homepages and everyone talking about him and saying all sorts of nice things about him, I wonder why when he was alive, only horrible stuff was said of him? Does his death immediately promotes him to be a saint practically overnight?

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From this I learned that while your loved one is alive, say those love words. What good is it if nice words are voiced out after one's heart stops beating, eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear any longer?

Simple, But Delicious

I had a fabulous dinner a few days ago.

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Last weekend, 8 of my family members went to Kuching for a vacation. I didn't go because I was there only last year.

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One of my aunties went with her grandson, leaving her poor husband home alone. Sunday happened to be Father's Day and we invited my Uncle Norman out for dinner. He suggested one chinese restaurant called Do You (or something like that). I ate very little rice because we ordered a lot of dishes. It was a delicious meal but I ended up having to drink an entire 500ml water bottle in the middle of the night because of the huge amount of Ajinomoto (MSG) in the food.

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The next day, Uncle Norman called me and asked if we would like to go over for dinner. We agreed even though we had a lot to get done that night.

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We finished our never ending chores and arrived at Uncle Norman's place at 9.25pm.

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Dinner was simple, yet delicious.

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I had a little rice with sardine sambal (super yummy), long beans, and omelet. Rajen had fried rice, fried luncheon meat and omelet.

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It was really thoughtful of Uncle Norman to cook us dinner. :-)

Wanted : Winter in Malaysia

The weather's been so hot and humid these days. The Star online predicts that Malaysians can expect hotter and drier days till September because an El Nino phenomenon is forming. Gulp!!!

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I did what I had to do. I needed cool air to survive.

First of all, the OLD air-cond in our room has to go. We "inherited" it from Bro Chow when he sold us the house 10 years ago. And this unit is more than 20 years old!!! It's still functioning but it takes like forever to cool the room down plus, I had to be at a strategic place to feel the air-cond. Believe it or not, on a really humid day (or even night), I could even sweat while the noisy air-cond blows out inadequate cool air.

Another air-conditioning unit was installed at the dining area. Yeah ... the casings for the wiring and pipes looked terrible but it was the best they could do in 3 hours.

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I don't think the house would be cold enough for me because the new units are only 1hp each. Given a choice, I would've installed 2hps each but I don't think my ELCB could take it because it's only 1 phase. Sigh!! Yeah ... we actually thought of changing it to 3 phase but I don't think I can handle more "operation scars" done to my house.

Chicken Chop

I was at Tesco one day at the frozen section when I saw an easy way to make a western meal. Chicken chop coated with all the right seasoning and bread crumbs. All I had to do was to fry it. And it was so cheap. Three pieces for RM10.50. And those are huge pieces, too.

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I also bought fries to go along with it.

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I was quite excited and thought we could have this meal on a day or two but after THREE weeks, I finally got the meat out of my freezer. Even that, the first time around, I had to shove everything back into the freezer because dear hubby wanted to visit his friend who just recovered from dengue and after that, we went out for dinner.

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The next day, I made sure that nothing could stop my mission. I even got a simple recipe from my mum on how to make the sauce.

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The frying took a long time. I waited patiently until it turned golden brown before I fished it out of the frying pan. But to my great dismay, one small part of it wasn't fully cooked. Apart from that, dear hubby loved it!!!

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That's all that matters, right?

Writing Implements

I was not aware of this particular addiction until recently. I opened my work drawer to serch for something and I saw sooo many pens and pencils at the end of it.

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It was then that I realised that I buy writing implements all the time. I guess I am addicted to it. Gosh!

Here are some pictures of my collection:-

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The above picture shows what I have at work. Don't even for a moment think that the company I work for is so generous with their stationery. In fact, once I got so frustrated because I was told that I had to return a non-functioning pen in exchange for a new pen just to proof that I needed another pen.

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So what I did from that time onward was to buy "good" pens all the time.

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Pens at home. Some of these pens are imported from Singapore and the US. Maybe from Australia and Canada too. I'd use most of these pens for my scrapbooking hobby.

Pens for Cell Meeting - We are forever needing pens for the people at cell. Being youths, they almost always never bring writing material ... and that includes the note book (not laptop, but proper books with white, lined pages) which Esther gave them for free but if anyone forgets to bring his/hers, RM5 would be the penalty.

Err.... because the usage level is pretty low (once a week) the ink tends to dry up pretty quick. Moreoever, those are cheap pens.

Pens in my bag - I'd normally use either one of the blank-inked pens for sermon notes. The other two blue ones are just in case someone needs to borrow them.

Kidz Safari 2

Last year, we had Kidz Safari end of May and the kids had a blast. So we decided to do it again this year.

On June 6th, 2009, 120 children turned up for this Kidz Safari 2 event. Registration was at 9am where a hand tag and Bingo card was given to each child.

Last year, we noticed that the children only played the games that they liked. As a result, some of the game stalls were not popular while others were so popular, there was a string of children patiently waiting for their turns.

This year, we put on our thinking caps and came up with the Bingo card system. After playing each game, their Bingo cards would be stamped by the person who is manning that particular game stall. The card must be filled up with the rubber stamps before anyone could exchange their gift at the gift counter.

At the registration table, there was a cake (made by Aunty Chris). The children had to guess the weight of the cake. Three of them guessed it correctly. The answer is 3kgs.

THE GAMES

Water Shed - Basically, they have to lift the bottle up using the stick with a hook at the end of the string. This game required steady hands and a lot of concentration.

Safari Droppings - Each child was given 3 ping pong balls to throw at the egg tray. Looks easy but the ball has to be in a coloured hole in order for them to get a coin.

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Spider's Web - The children are given three huge toy spiders to throw at the web. If the spider gets stuck at the web, or falls onto the ground, no coins would be given out. The spiders must go into the baskets provided.

Tin Cans - What's with kids wanting to play this game all the time? Maybe it's their way of expressing their anger ... All I can say is, the person manning this stall had a tough time picking up the cans and stacking them up for every game.

Tarzan Swing - The original game was for the children to swing from one rope to another but we needed a firm pole hanging vertically from the top for ropes to be hung from it .... We couldn't get that to work. In the end, we (err... actually it was Mr Loo's worker who helped us secure the ropes to the trees) had two ropes running parallel and the children are to walk from one end to the other.
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Ring Toss - The children were given hoops to throw at the water bottle. Looks easy but most of the hoops land in between the bottles.

Necktie For Mr Giraffe - The height of the giraffes meant that the children had to use more of their strength to throw the hoop to give the long-necked animals a "necktie"

Munchy Monkey - This is pretty easy. An unriped banana was hooked onto end of the stick. all that needed to be done was to transfer the banana onto the nail, which was on the board where the painted banana was.

Leap Frong - Anything involving water proved to be a popular stall. Each child would be given three frogs. Any frog which lands on the lily pads would be given a coin.

Hungry Lion - Throwing the tennis ball into the hole where the lion's face would've been. Easy game.

Hit It In - I laughed at the ingenuity of this game. It's like ping pong cum golf. And Mae-Z's toilet bowl was used as the end destination for the ping pong ball.

High Voltage Area - Another game that needs FULL concentration and steady hands. The moment metal hit on metal, the alarm would sound. I wonder how many children gained coins for this.

Feed the Tiger - Believe it or not, Jian excitedly volunteered to be behind the tiger. And those are WET sponges. The children had a gala time throwing the sponges at Ah Jian. I heard that NO ONE wanted to take over Jian's place after he got hit at for more than 60 times.

Dunk the Animals - This game is waaaay too easy because the targets were too near (due to space constraints). All they had to do is throw the tennis balls at three targets.

Dumbo Needs a Tail - It's the same as the popular Pin the Donkey's Tail game. The children were blind folded and they had to pin the elephant's tail.

Darts - I tried this game .... and failed miserably.


Coin Throw Game - Oops!! It was supposed to be coins but it turned out to be key rings. Three tries and the rings must get onto the slippery plates. Tough!



Crocodile Alert - In under 2 minutes, the children had to hook at as many crocodiles (err.. maximum 3 crocs)

Balloon Walk - It's like the musical chair game. The winner doesn't get a coin but a twisted balloon made by Kenny Yap.

Mini Me Show - Most of the children would've played all the other games before seeing this show because it stars at 10.45am. Azriel played Mini Me (err I think the person at the back is Arthur) and also told a little story using a puppet.

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Upon registration, each child would be given a set amount (I'm thinking it must be about 20-30 playcards) of playcards. To gain more playcards, they had to memorise Bible verses or the order of the books of the Bible.


Now, children, being children always think of gifts as rewards for their coin earnings. To get the prize that they want, they had to win a certain amount of coins (the minimum being 3 coins). The MP3 player was the most sought after and that was worth 200 coins. Two MP3 players were given out. The rest of the gifts were things like thumb drives, chocolates, Children's Bible, Gold Mining, colouring books, ... can't remember them all.
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Er... no pictures for this but light snacks and a bottle of water were given to each child. For each helper, we were given solid food like Nasi Lemak with fried chicken. Yummy!

Well, all good things must come to an end. At 1pm, we started clearing up the place. The youths helped out A LOT.

So did all the uncles and aunties. :)

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It was indeed a FUN time for both the children and the adults. Lots of effort went into this event and I personally think it was worth it. About 20-30 children came from an orphanage and I am pretty sure they had fun.

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I didn't really do a lot for this event, mainly because I was recovering from my sickness and I was so afraid of gong out into the sun because I didn't want the fever to pay me a visit again. I did whatever I could without overstraining myself. I managed to take more than 200 pictures, though. :-)

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Bravo to Eunice and Aunty Chris, who helped out with the games........ Aunty Yeow, Ai Ling, Pat Wong, EstherTC and others who were involved in making this event a successful one. Err.. there were so many others who played an important role ... but sigh! I can't remember them all.

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Whatever it is, the kids had fun and more importantly, the seeds were planted. Let the watering and growing begin!

Tenjewberrymuds

You will understand what 'tenjewberrymuds' means by the end of the conversation. This piece of conversation has been nominated for the best email of 2007.

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The following is a telephone conversation between a hotel guest and room-service, at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review:

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Room Service (RS): "Morrin. - Roon sirbees."
Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service."
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RS: " Rye ..Roon sirbees..morrin! Jewish to oddor sunteen??"
G: "Uh..yes.I'd like some bacon and eggs."
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RS: "Ow July den?"
G: "What??"
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RS: "Ow July den?...pryed, boyud, poochd?"
G : "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please."
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RS: "Ow July dee baykem? Crease?"
G: "Crisp will be fine."
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RS : "Hokay. An Sahn toes?"
G: "What?"
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RS:"An toes. July Sahn toes?"
G: "I don't think so."
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RS: "No? Judo wan sahn toes??"
G: "I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo wan sahn toes' means."
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RS: "Toes! toes!...Why jew don juan toes? Ow bow Anglish moppin we bodder?"
G: "English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'Toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine."

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RS: "We bodder?"
G: "No...just put the bodder on the side."
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RS: "Wad! ?"
G: "I mean butter...just put it on the side."
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RS: "Copy?"
G: "Excuse me?"
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RS: "Copy...tea...meel?"
G: "Yes. Coffee, please, and that's all."
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RS: "One Minnie. Scramah egg, crease baykem, Anglish moppin w bodder on sigh and copy....rye??"
G: "Whatever you say."
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RS: "Tenjewberrymuds."
G : "You're very welcome."

Taipei

Many people's idea of unwinding after a hard day at work is to veg out in front of the one-eyed monster. And I can understand it because after many hours of pouring out their energy, using their brains to tackle problems at the office, being a couch potato at the end of the day simply means not doing anything productive, taking in, instead of pouring out.

For me, unwinding means either reading a book or playing games on the computer. And you must understand that MY version of computer games is so obsolete, yet it's as mind boggling as the latest online war-like games.

Among games like Free Cell (I think that Free Cell is better than Solitaire because it makes me think and strategise a lot) and Bejeweled, I like this game called Taipei.

It's basically eliminating the tiles pair by pair and believe it or not, I don't normally win this game. It has something to do with strategy PLUS predicting what's below the other tiles.

Games like the above makes me frustrated. I can't win because the other matching tile is BELOW that tile.

And at the end of it, a small window with the words "Congratulations" pops out - and that's it! No fancy patterns like Free Cell after the game is won.

So far, my record for winning and completing one game stands at 4 minutes and 39 seconds.

Okay ... I'd better stop blogging and play one more game ...... :)

Doggie's Gone

I just noticed that Doggie is not around anymore. I don't see her at my neighbour's compound, neither is she anywhere near my house.

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I asked my neighbour what happened to Doggie and she didn't know either. Doggie disappeared, just like that. I do hope that she has found her owners and that she's well fed and cared for.

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Meanwhile, the sausages and ham that I bought specially for her will be kept in my freezer until she appears again ...... I hope.

Someone's Been Reading My Blog

A few weeks ago, dear hubby went out for dinner with his cousin Kumar, who flew in from Australia. Both of them share the same birthday, though dear hubby is two years older.

I was busy climbing Gunung Ledang and didn't join their celebration dinner.

Dear hubby came back, carrying a bag of gifts. In it were a book, 3 packs of "Extra" Wriggley's Chewing Gum and two bars of chocolate.

Naturally dear hubby was surprised that his cousin knew his gum chewing habit, and what more, the exact brand that he likes. Kumar simply explained that he read in one of my blog postings that dear hubby loves this particular chewing gum brand which is not sold in Malaysia.

Both bars of chocolates were for me. He explained again that he reading another of my posting that I love chocolate. And if you were to see one of the bars close-up, you would notice that it is chilli flavoured. What a peculiar flavour. I haven't eaten this before. I STILL haven't eaten it yet (it's in my fridge), mainly because I was feeling lousy for the past few weeks.

Well, I've made up my mind of try it out by this weekend. Anyone wants to try it?

p.s. Thanks, Kumar, for being so thoughtful.

Thank God It's Monday

I haven't been blogging for the past 2 weeks or so, mainly because I've been sick and extermely busy for the past one week. Indeed, my already hectic lifestyle has never experienced such heavy schedule like what I had last week.

It all started when I got sick on May 21st. I didn't really recover from that but was stubborn enough to climb a mean mountain. A few days later, I developed a headache and my concentration at work was terrible. Next came fever and that lasted for 7-8 days. I was worried, of course and had even gone for several blood tests. My platelet count went from 179 to 185 to 298, ruling out the possibility of my having dengue.

And doctors, being doctors, normally prescribe paracetamol (pcm) at the mention of fever. So there I was, being forced to gulp down 8 pcm a day. I'm prety much anti-pills and even bargained with the doctor about this pill intake. One doctor told me that if I don't have any more fever, I don't have to take the pills. I talked to another doctor and reasoned with him that if I were to continue taking the pills, how would I know if my fever is gone for good? And he advised me to stop taking the pills after the 3rd day.

My fever was quite temperamental. In the morning, I would be free from it and later in the day, I would first develop a headache before my fever would start. Still, being a stubborn person, I would still show up at work and try to get as much work done as I possibly could. Unfortunately, I had to put my already-late reports aside as I couldn't really concentrate on the figures.

I felt a lot better one day and was pleased that I was able to concentrate on work. But alas, it was short lived. The very next day, my fever and headache came back and what was worse, I had diarrhoea and vomitted once. I remember feeling so weak and helpless, I wanted to die.

Surprisingly, after emptying my stomach in two different gross ways, I felt a lot better. Still, I didn't go for my Thursday class because I was still feeling weak.

That night, I paid a visit to the doctor for the third time in one week. This time, we decided to have other tests done. They tried to extract more blood from me but alas, they could only fill up a quarter from each little container of the two syringes.

I was forced to take the PCM on a regular basis. No more bargaining with the doctor. I was to finish all 32 pills and dear hubby checked on me regularly. Again, I played smart and did not eat as per instructions. Instead of two pills, I only eat one at a time. And instead of 4 times daily, I only eat three times a day.

A few days after that test, the doctor came up to me, looking concerned and asked if I took pills on a regular basis. Puzzled, I gave him a negative answer before asking the reason for his question. He said that my liver reading is 90, which is a little higher than the normal 40. I gasped and he asked me not to worry because it was still not a life threatening reading. 500 is considered very high.

He then asked if I took any traditional medication and again my answer was negative. As I have mentioned before, pills and I do not see eye to eye. I avoid it like the plague.

I guess the only logical answer to that was the fact that I have taken so many PCMs in the last few days and my liver just couldn't take the sudden surge of medication.

After that third blood test, I began to feel much better but didn't dare push myself too much for the next few days.

Kids Safari was on that Saturday and I avoided the sun a much as possible. Still, I was given a few chores and did my best in helping out. I actually felt so helpless for this event. Err.. I'm usually one of the main persons running around like there's fire everywhere.

Kids Safari was only the begining of a very hectic week ahead.

You see, my sister-in-law was going on a vacation and that would mean ME taking time to take care of my mother-in-law whenever I have time (usually at night). On top of that, I had a road show in Shah Alam and that was really tiring. My feet will be aching by the end of the day and I still had to go visit my mother in law. My house had become a like a hotel for me. Each night, I'd go back in time to sleep.

On top of that, I had to come up with a promo poster or other forms of advertisement for the coming church camp. I really had no idea how to do it. And I couldn't find any time to do it until Saturday night, after I got back from Shah Alam and a birthday dinner in Seremban. I remember finishing the posters at 12.40am and I was dead tired.

On Sunday, I woke up early, got to church about 1.5 hours early just to set up the camping tent and the posters. After church, dear hubby and I went to Malacca to visit with Aunty Timah, but specifically to see Pushpa and Wahid, her Egyptian husband whom I have never met. We were there for a very late lunch (3pm)

After that, we went to Rotunda, the Malacca Club for tea and went back via the coastal road to avoid the heavy traffic on the highway due to end of school holidays. It took us slightly more than two hours to get back.

That night, I slept at 10.30pm, which was really rare but I was sooooo tired. I must've slept like a log for at least 6 hours before I woke up and realised that it was only 4.30am. I went back to sleep.

And when I woke up at 7.20am, I realised it was MONDAY - the day I had been waiting for, for about a week. Today is the day when my schedule would get back to normal. And today, I would start blogging again..... :)

Viral Fever

When the Ablaze programme first began, I told myself that it would not be a problem to me. I don't mind skipping a meal and being a vegetarian for 10 days meant 10 healthy days. I guess I spoke it too soon because ever since the 1st day of the fast, I was sick.

For days 1-5, read here.

In the 6th day, my head felt heavy.

On the 7th day, I had a terrible headache - for those who know me, I don't get headaches easily.

On the 8th day, my whole body started aching. I left work an hour early, went back home and took my body temperature. It was 38.1C. Gulp! Fever! Oh no! That meant "No going for classes that night" What a drag.

I took one soluble Panadol (upon dear hubby's strict instructions) and went to bed.

That night, sleep was rudely interupted either by water intake or outflow.

On the 9th day, I was at home - ALL DAY. Sick as sick can be. Fever and migraine and a grumpy me.

I took the day off specifically to prepare for the coming Kidz Safari 2 event but ended up not doing a single thing about it. Of course I felt like it was a wasted day.

By evening, my body temperature shot up to 39C. I panicked a little and wanted to go to the hospital but told dear hubby to go to church first before taking me to the hospital.

I didn't go to the hospital because when dear hubby came back with the food, he looked so tired. Also, I specifically asked for vegetarian and non-spicy but I got just the opposite. Dear hubby was really mad at a certain person who took his orders. The food went to waste because dear hubby just can't take spicy food. As for me, as much as I love spicy food, I didn't dare take the risk of my fever shooting through the roof.

It was a good thing I had a butter bun from the day before and some bananas. That was dinner for me.

My temperature went down to 38.2C after dinner at 11pm. And yet, dear hubby not only demanded, he had a cup of 2 dissolved panadol made for me to drink.

On the 10th day, I felt so much better in the morning. My temperature showed 35.6C.

I filled up a trunk-load of newspapers and sold them off in town. Then, feeling weak, I walked around the area, wanting to pack Horlicks for my empty stomach. It took me 15 minutes to get my drink because all the Chinese coffeeshop said they don't sell Horlicks and I finally got what I wanted in a Mamak shop.

Church was my next destination. I had to sort out something concerning the coming Kidz Safari 2. By that time, I was exhausted.

When I got back home, I knew that I was gonna get sick again. I could feel the internal heat plus the migraine got worse. I took two soluble Panadols and went to bed.

In the evening, I felt well enough to go to my parents' place for dinner. After eating one banana, one slice of fried terung and one piece of fried pumpkin, I felt hot again. And the migraine came back.

I slept, out in the living room of my parents' place, where some Chinese show was on TV. Much later, I went to the guest room to sleep.

The moment dear hubby walked in to the house, my mum started nagging at him, asking him why he has not brought me to see the doctor, blah, blah, blah.

Finally, a little irritated by her nagging, the three of us went to Columbia Hospital.

Blood test result came out negative. It was a viral fever. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief.

My medication turned out to be paracetamol and Diclofenac Sodium BP (pain killer).

Now I'm more worried about how my liver is gonna take all these medication. gulp!

I guess this has taught me not to take anything lightly. What I thought was easy, turned out to be very challenging for me. Especially when I lost my taste buds and had to continue to be on a vegetarian diet for at least 7 days.