Grannie’s 2nd Day and Night at Rafflesia Medical Centre

This morning grannie looked tired because she did not sleep much last night. The maid also did not manage to sleep much.

When I was visiting her this morning, she kept on saying words like the following.



Malay - English translation
1. Sakit - pain
2. Jahat - bad
3. Mati - die
4. Ubat - medicine

She also told me to bring her to the toilet. I told her she does not have to go to the toilet because she has diapers on. But she kept on moving her hands and legs to signal me to bring her. She only started doing these movements lately. I guess she’s too frustrated for not being able to do what she wants.

Tonight she is on her 4th packet of drip since admission. She finally fell asleep before we arrived so we let her to continue with her sleep and came home. Now she solely depends on the drip.

Grannie at Rafflesia Medical Centre

This afternoon grannie was admitted into Rafflesia Medical Centre .

Dr. Kiew confirmed what Dr. Joseph Ninan diagnosed last night. She is having pneumonia and there are a lot of mucus in her lungs.

Tonight most of us went to visit her and she looks better. She kept on telling us to go home and sleep. She thought that it was late because the light in her room was quite dim.

When the Chong family had gone home, she told us to take slices of ginger from the kitchen (she thought that she is still at home) to put on her forehead. My sis-in-law took some ointment and rubbed it on her forehead. After a while, grannie felt asleep and we came home.

We will see how she respond tonight and tomorrow to the medicine given today.

Doctor in the House

Dr. Joseph Ninan used to work in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu. But now he has his own private practice in Putatan.

Since last night grannie said she wanted to see the doctor, Dr. Joseph made a house call to see grannie tonight at 7p.m.

He said that grannie is very weak and has lung infection/pneumonia. She can only take fluid. Right now she does not have fever anymore which means the antibiotic is doing its work. The fever cannot come back. Otherwise grannie’s life will be in danger. :(

When he was still here, Uncle Ho called from London. Dr. Joseph was able to explain grannie’s situation to him.

Family Dinner at Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant

My brother and family spent the last few days of 2007 in Brunei Darussalam and New Year in Federal Territory of Labuan.

So we only had New Year dinner as a family last night. Mum was given a choice of my favourite restaurant ie. Gaya Sports Seafood Restaurant or Hong Kong Restaurant. She chose the latter simply because she hasn’t eaten there for a long time and for me, it is like maybe a decade.

Hong Kong Seafood Restaurant in located in Lintas Square and one of the shareholders is my ex primary school classmate Tony Chu. Actually he was more than an ex primary school classmate. We sat on the same bench and shared the same table in Primary Six. Just imagine the shortest girl (that’s me) and the tallest boy who also happened to be the Head Boy sitting together.

Tony was happy to see me last night and told my family that I used to be his girlfriend. (I didn’t want to embarrass him but I only told my family after we left the restaurant that I slapped him once on his right cheek for provoking me. Well, being the shortest in class and being bullied by the Head Boy was not fun at all. It was a matter of survival instinct, so to speak)

We had two sweet and sour crabs (flown in all the way from Sandakan), stir-fried beef, wet buttered prawns, stir-fried ostrich with ginger, ‘ku lou’ chicken (since the restaurant does not serve pork) and veges (kai lan).

All the dishes tasted good as compared to a decade ago. Well, it took them ten years to improve. Haha! So better be better than before.

The bill came to RM117.00 which was considered reasonable (must be the fact that I was his ex girlfriend (haha), with some discount thrown in) for six dishes of medium size.

New Printer at Work

For a couple of months now, I had been having problems with my work printer. The paper would somehow get folded after printing. As a result, I had wasted a lot of papers and I am sure the people from Greenpeace would not be happy with me. But rest assured I do not throw the papers away. I would use the unused side for draft printing.

When the computer technician Mr. Ang came to my office last week, he finally took it away for diagnosis. He said that there was no point in repairing the Epson AL-C900 printer because a new printer (like for instance the OKI C3300) only costs RM999. I do not mind either to get a new printer or to repair the old one. All I want is a printer to print my work.

Mr. Ang managed to convince my lady boss to get the new one and so he delivered it to me yesterday. Until then, I haven't even heard of the brand. He told me it is a Japanese brand and the name is often hung in UK football fields (sponsor I guess). I told him I do not watch UK football so I would not know. OK? And he answered OKI. haha

After testing some printings yesterday and today, I came to these conclusions.

1. For greyscale printing, the OKI printer looks more professional.

2. For colour printing, the Epson printer looks more professional.

Well, looks like I cannot have it both ways. But at least I have a printer again and do not have to waste time in printing anymore.

Thank you Lord for the new printer.

New Year’s Resolution (Improvement)

I like New Year because it is time to look back over the past year and reflect upon what I had been doing in my life.

What was not done in the past year can be done in the New Year. There are also rooms for improvement for things that were done.

Firstly, I really want to improve on my relationship with God. I endeavour to spend more time reading and meditating on God’s words; and praying before I go to sleep. In the past few years I have been using the daily allocated passages printed in the Daily Bread in order to finish reading the whole Bible in one year. But sad to say I gave up this pursuit two-thirds through last year. I hope I will fare better in 2008.

Secondly, I want to improve on my relationship with people, be it with family, friends, colleagues or strangers. As I get older, I find that I need more of God’s grace and strength in dealing with people. I tend to lose my cool just like that *snap finger* esp. with my mum. I should have more patience like her in the way she relates to her mum (grannie). Help me Lord.

Thirdly, I hope I can be more discipline in sleeping and can sleep early. I love to sleep and I know how important sleep is to my whole well being. But towards the second half of last year, I was in the state of sleep deprivation. My sleeping time can range from five to seven and a half hours each night, which was not good news at all. As much as I longed for my ideal eight hours sleep each night, I did not have that. My mind can still be so alert at midnight eventhough I would have to wake up in six hours’ time during working days. Dreamland here I come in 2008! Haha!

Fourthly, I hope I can cut down on my internet time at night. Maybe I had been having information overload the last half of 2007 which contributed to my insomnia. When I was online, I can be multi-tasking to the extent that I was chatting with a few people, writing on this blog, uploading my photos, reading the news, checking on other blogs and websites, etc, etc at the same time. I think definitely a case of information overload now that I am analysing this!

Fifthly, exercise, something I used to do but gave up totally in 2008. I used to go to the gym at least once a week on Sundays after church. The only exercise I do now is when I go out for lunch at Giant Kolombong Foodcourt I would walk there from my office instead of driving my car.

Sixthly, to have a constant weight. In the past 12 months, I decreased my rice intake for dinner and as a result, I had lost about six kg. A lot of my clothes are too loose for me now.

I am sure I have lots of other things to improve on but that’s all I can think of right now.

2008 - a year of betterment for myself spiritually, emotionally and physically!

Pay Day

Today is supposed to be pay day. But as usual I am the one who ‘get stoned’ by those who do not know what is going on because the payroll is not ready for the bosses to sign. Company policy and stated in our letter of appointment is that timesheet and OT claim (if applicable) have to be submitted by end or beginning of the month in order for me to process the salary.

By lunchtime today, there were still two outstanding timesheets. After lunch, I reminded these two persons. Only then they panicked and started to fill in the timesheet. I cannot even remember what I did last week, how are they supposed to remember what they did for the whole month?

Sometimes I just cannot understand them. What I mean is one of them has been working in the company for more than ten years. She should know what the company policy is in this matter but yet each time she needs to be kicked in the rear in order for the timesheet to be filled. If she does not get fed up by my constant reminder, I myself get fed up in reminding her. Afterall we are all adults, but they make it as if they are playing with sand.

Moreover if I process the salary without any attached timesheet, I would be the one who would be queried by the boss and not the they who did not submit to me their timesheet. *sigh*

Oh Lord, I need more of your grace and patience in dealing with this kind of people.

As a result of not getting the payroll done today, two colleagues will only get their salary next Monday. One will be on leave the next two days while the other one only works Monday to Wednesday.

Grannie is home

Grannie was in Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency ward from after 4p.m. until 9p.m. today. The MO said she is having sore throat and dehydration. When I arrived to see her, she was on a drip. She looked better than this morning.

The MO gave her a lot of medicines and among them antibiotic, multivitamins, vitamin C, anti-itch, cough syrup, etc, etc.

After she came home, we gave her antibiotic before she had some porridge. She took some more medicines after her meal.

I hope she can get some rest and sleep well tonight.

Start of 2008

Mixed emotions to start off the New Year …

Extremely happy to receive a surprise phone call from Paul Lok all the way from Hong Kong around lunchtime. Paul and I knew each other since our time in Wollongong. The last we spoke on the phone was more than a year ago. Thanks for remembering me on this day. Really appreciate it my friend. And thanks to Facebook, we are in contact again and I have also added in a few more friends which I consider as ‘Wollongong-HongKong gang’.

Sad to see that grannie has not been eating much since yesterday. Aunty Brenda (who is a nurse) called all the way from California, USA and advised mum to admit grannie into Queen Elizabeth Hospital so that she can be on the drip. My cousin Christopher Chong and mum along with grannie’s maid are on the way to the hospital now.

Things I am Thankful for in 2007

There are so many things I am thankful for in 2007. This list is by no means an exhaustive one.

1. God
a. To be a child of God and to serve Him.
b. To give financially to His Kingdom.
c. For His protection everywhere I go esp. when I drive. There are so many times
I could not have been in an accident.
d. To be able to spend time with Him early morning and to have Him speaking to
me even in the early hours when I woke up.

2. Family
a. To have 102 y.o. grannie staying with us since the end of 2006.
b. To have a mum who always cooks for me.
c. To have my niece Chloe Chong staying with us since the beginning of the year.

3. Work
a. To be able to have a job that gives me a lot of satisfaction even after more
than nine years.
b. To be able to learn new things.

4. Friends
a. Church friends – to be able to serve the Lord together.
b. Dining buddies and good friends – to be able to have fellowship and enjoy
good food at the same time.
c. Old friends - to be able to gel together even after so many years.
d. Newly made friends through work. If you are willing to take one step to be a
friend, people will take one step to welcome you into their life.
e. Newly made friends through leisure. Take time to get to know people and to
touch lives.

5. Relatives
a. To meet up those who came for grannie’s birthday esp. those from overseas and
to have them staying with us.
b. To meet up relatives and cousins & their respective spouse during cousin
Tung’s wedding.
c. To meet up some long distance relatives in the supermarket.

6. Leisure
a. Holiday – to be able to go to Kuala Lumpur for a short and relaxing trip with
heaps of good food thrown in. And a big thank you to my great host.
b. Music – to be able to listen to Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Jesselton
Philharmonic Orchestra, KK Jazz Festival and Christmas Concert.
c. Blog – to be able to start writing in a blog. I should have asked friends who
have been blogging for a long time earlier. I did not know it is so easy to
start a blog until one fine day I just clicked here and there. Only then did
I discover how easy it was.
d. Facebook – to be able to meet up with new friends, old friends and not so old
friends.

A Blessed New Year 2008 to everyone! Spend more time with God, it is worth doing it more than anything else in this world…