hype

for some unknown reason, today seems to be a good day to get married. other than being an easy date to remember the anniversaries, i fail to realise the significance of the number 10. i doubt if that will guarantee happiness for the couples or success for the marriages.

i wonder, if these so-called auspicious dates were more common, would they eventually be accorded the same hype of the current valentine day & mothers' day celebrations, where the people who really benefit are the florists, gift shop owners & restauranteurs?

anyway, what i will remember today for, is the good news that the trapped miners in Chile will be rescued in a few days and the PM finally proclaimed that the malaysian chinese should not be described as "kaum pendatang."

lets see which will come true.

a car workshop analogy

i've owned several cars, some 2nd-hand, since i started working 25 year ago. each time i sent the car to the workshop, parts were changed with minimal hassle & i have very few grouses with the workshops. that, perhaps, is because i make it a point to send to the dealers' workshop.

how would you react if you sent your car for a part replacement in the morning & sometime at noon, the service guy phoned you & told you they didn't have that particular part? remember, they made that appointment with you on the premise that they will get the car fixed.

how would you respond, considering that they've literally taken your car apart & then found out that the spare part was not in stock? & to rub salt into the wound, they enquired if you'd settle for an inferior part?


so, you are wondering - where's the analogy here?

well, how about this.....

you go for an operation in a private hospital. the surgeon opens you up. the assisting nurse tells the surgeon they don't have an essential piece of equipment in stock. then she asks the surgeon, would he mind modifying his procedure to accomodate an alternative but inferior device?


this, of course, is only an analogy of a hypothetical event.

everything in moderation

just as we were ranting about 3-in-1 coffee, today's papers came out with a report, with an advocate for healthy living no less than the CAP. (read here)

they offered good advice except that i disagreed with the part about soya milk & fruit juices being healthier alternatives. these drinks that come in packets actually contain a lot of sugar as well. 3 brands of soya milk have between 20-22g (= 5 teaspoons) of sugar per 250ml packet while a popular brand of fruit juice has 18g of sugar per 250ml serving, all of which i have at home.

however, i don't drink these everyday - at most, probably twice a week. but that's the issue - no matter how sweet or salty, everything in moderation is fine, including alcohol. even that super-sweet ice-kacang or cendol with gula melaka is ok, if consumed in moderation, which i would arbitrarily put as about once a week at most. even better is soya milk or freshly squeezed fruit juices without added sugar.

however, i thought CAP's suggestion to the health ministry to take action on this matter was ridiculous. the govt can't even stop people from cheating & killing each other, how are they going to stop people from consuming heaps of sugar?

i can only think of self-discipline.

PS. i also wonder how effective are the gory pictures on the cigarette packets in deterring people from smoking?

just one bag

last week, this 48-yr-old man was admitted to hospital with a bleed in the brain. he had been referred from another private hospital in another state that didn't have neurosurgical services. the nearest govt hospital with that service is 150km away. 

when he came, he was already unconscious & had a tube inserted into his windpipe to assist breathing. he was wheeled into the OT after the initial CT scan & the blot clot removed. however, the brain damage initially sustained from the bleed will be permanent. previously, he had hypertension that was not well-controlled.

when he was sent to ICU after surgery, the wife accompanied him. it was already 4 am. what touched me most was that, all she had with her was just one bag.

presumably, that's all she could pack in the short time between transfer from one hospital to another. can you imagine what it's like to live on just one bag? presumably, she would have to go back home after a few days for change of clothing & see to her kids. maybe also to draw more cash.

it does sadden me a bit when the govt couldn't provide essential medical services in the big towns & patients have to be shunted from hospital to hospital for treatment. especially when billions are spent on submarines (that will unlikely see combat) & a controversial hydro-electric dam (that is currently being treated like an orphan).

today, we just certified this man brain-dead. that means, even though his heart is still beating & blood is flowing through his body, his brain has permanently ceased to function. his wife will take him home this evening.

on another sad note, my son's piano teacher just passed away last week after suffering from a similar bleed in the brain. she also had uncontrolled hypertension. (read here)

may their souls rest in peace.

well, we can't change govt policies but what we can do is to better take care of our health before it deteriorates. go for that medical check-up, esp if you're over 50. include an endoscope, ECG  & (for women) a pap smear.

you don't really want your spouse to accompany you to hospital with just one bag.

over-rated?

we had to make a day trip to mersing & so took the opportunity to have breakfast at the famed kluang station coffee shop.

yes, the same one that spawned many other kopi-tiams throughout the country.

the same one where a couple had their breakfast before saying their matrimonial vows.

we had the works - nasi lemak, half-boiled eggs, toast buns & the trade-mark coffee, the latter being smooth & very "kaw."

but seriously, i probably won't be able to tell the difference between this & other brands of kopi-tiam coffee.

like the moon-cake, could this also be over-rated? don't know if it's over-priced because my friend paid the bill.

had a brief chat with Chang, the proprietor whose grandfather started the business. he's really a hands-on guy - making sure the coffee is prepared the way his father taught him. perhaps that's why business is flourishing.

overpriced

i strongly feel that mooncakes are overpriced.

i bought some recently because my daughter loves the snow-skin types, & since she's hardly home these days, i "manja" her a bit la. they averaged RM12 apiece.

now that the mid-autumn festival is over, maybe i'll pop into tesco or jusco to see if they are pushing out their stock at discount prices.

but i still won't take any for less than 30% off.

that's just the way i am. never pay for more than it's worth.

unless, it's to pamper the girl.

still paranoid?

i posted recently about owning special vehicle number plates.

"Car registration plates bearing ‘MCA’ can’t be reserved", says today's Star.

i can't imagine that it's really true - people actually want to have a MCA plate because they are a member.

i mean, it's not like you've done overall great service to the community.

it's not like you've greatly improved the general living conditions of the people. 

it's not like you've gotten to the bottom of possibly the biggest scandal the country ever faced, with some of your senior members allegedly implicated.

& it's not like your president has a squeaky clean image.

so, if i were a malaccan, & i want a new vehicle now, i would:

1) retain my old number plate, or
2) register the vehicle in another state.

is it not a possibility, however remote, that in a moment of anger & madness, people would scratch or hurl stones at such vehicles?

or, again, am i just paranoid?

am i paranoid?

a lot of things that happen around us are really no big deal, unless perhaps when we try to think too much into it.

like at the pizza joint. we were for dinner the other evening during the fasting month. it was about 7.15pm when we ordered. the other patrons were mainly muslims. what i noticed was that they were also served dried dates in little packets to break fast with. we didn't get any.

like at the petrol station. i usually self-serve & that's fine with me. but i noticed many times that the attendants will clean the windscreens of the other cars. but not mine, unless i asked them to.

is this preferential treatment on the small scale? a result, perhaps, of a spill-over effect from the affirmative action on a national platform?

or, maybe i'm just paranoid?

maybe that's why malaysia day & 1malaysia just doesn't ring a bell with me.

presumably, another one less datuk?

seriously, i don't really know the true function of the council of datuks. presumably, one role is that they vet through possible candidates for the next round of awards, which they don't seemed to be doing a good job of, given the current spew of events where datuks have been deemed to have screwed up not carried themselves with decorum.

after the PKFZ fiasco, where 2 selangor datuks have been instructed not to use their respective honorifics, presumably the council will now be very busy recommending the revoking of these awards, since one of them has been implicated in the brutal murder of a millionaire.

presumably, the bar council will have to do likewise.

another one bites the dust.

but life goes on much the same for most of us, even as another one is alleged to have tried to bribe a sultan with hari raya goodies.

school break

like most parents, i always look forward to the school holidays because that's when the girl is back home. unlike the last school break in june when i had been quite busy, this time, maybe because of the combined effect of the chinese ghost month & the muslim fasting month, i had more free time with her. she has done quite well in her chemistry paper &, over another ice-blended coffee, she confessed that she may want to take up chemical engineering now, a far cry from her previous career choice. read here

but i don't think it was the chemistry result that prompted her towards this new ambition. her friend who lives in the neighbourhood scored straight As in the recent A-level exams & has gone to the univ of california in berkeley to do chemical engineering. & my daughter has made it her life ambition to study in an overseas varsity. (i tried to reason with her that singapore can be considered "overseas" but she's not buying that - too stressful, she says)

ah...kids, what do they know???

the new school term starts today & i shall miss her much.

*she doesn't read my blog, so i can safely reveal here one of her many weaknesses -  she often shares her deepest secrets over ice-blended coffee, which means CB & SB will be assured of my patronage for many years to come!!**

taboo?

melaka just issued the MBY motor vehicle registration plate.

i can imagine members & leaders of a certain political party queueing to register their new vehicles in a public display of loyalty when the next set of registration numbers are opened in a few months' time. come to think of it, they probably don't need to queue because the road transport dept which issues the numbers comes under the ministry of transport.

& guess who's the tai-kor in the ministry? i suppose one call to him will kau-tim everything.

i also wonder if the party president would bid for the #1 plate? he'll probably be the sole bidder because i doubt if anyone else would want that number, in case the vehicle be mistaken as belonging to someone who was made notorious through an illegally produced DVD & whose private life was dragged into public scrutiny.

talk about taboo number plates.

what if....?

this young lady was seen by a GP a month ago for some psychiatric disorder, possibly schizophrenia. however, she developed a febrile illness after that & was admitted to general hospital for a week without getting better, probably because the diagnosis couldn't be established. her mother took her out of hospital to seek treatment from a sinseh (traditional chinese medicine man) but she became unconscious at home that evening.

she was rushed to this private hospital & resuscitated.  my physician colleague did some blood tests & accurately made a diagnosis, which could explain why she had prolonged fever & why she fell unconscious at home. she was put on life-support machine in the ICU but failed to regain consciousness after a week. a CT scan of the brain revealed early brain damage.

a young lady will be bedridden for the rest of her life but a lot of questions remained unanswered.

what if......the GP had explained the side-effects of the anti-psychotic medication?

what if......the doctors at GH had made the right diagnosis & instituted the appropriate treatment early?

what if......she had remained at GH & had been immediately resuscitated when she fell unconscious? would that have prevented the brain damage?

given the current public uproar over our healthcare system, this post in NOT about whether govt hospitals or private hospitals are giving superior service. the former have received criticisms over substandard care, poorly trained doctors, long queues, etc. while the latter, escalating & hidden charges, unnecessary tests & procedures,  etc. (there's a private hospital in perak affectionately known among local circles as The Great White Shark for obvious reasons)

some time back, the Min of Health suggested co-operation between the public & private hospitals for the benefit of the people, but like all else, it's No Action, Talk Only. perhaps too much politicking during the recent party elections.

in the meantime, we await our uncertain fate.

chewing gum

we keep chewing gum in the car for days when we need to drive long-distance. the boy saw the last piece & asked if he could have it. i allowed him & instinctively told him not to swallow it.

instinctive because i remember when i was his age, i was told the same thing, & also that if i swallowed chewing gum, it would get stuck in the bowels & an operation was needed to remove it. it was all the more horrifying because i actually swallowed one accidentally.

it wasn't until i was in med school that i realised the chewing gum story was just an old wives' tale. the gum is just too small & the inside of the bowel too slippery for it to get stuck. it would just be passed out after a day.

but because i didn't know it then, i waited many anxious years for my fate, an agony i certain the boy will never go through.

ah, ignorance is such bliss!!

why is there bullying in school?

i've alway thought that kids will be kids & that bullying is a phase they go through while growing up. a black eye is like having a vaccination - you get it & you move on. but it didn't occur to me to figure out WHY the need to exert violence to get what you want.

until i read today's star. (read here)

claiming to have been falsely accused of embezzlement, this brainless moron guy is challenging the CM of penang to a fist-fight to settle the issue - in the holy month, at that! seriously, how would a brawl resolve the issue?

and because kids eagerly imitate their parents' behaviour, good AND bad, this is my theory of the origins of bullying in school.

**image from the Star**

2 moons?

apparently tonite is special. the earth & mars will come so close that mars can be seen almost as big next to the moon, even though there's a distance of over 34 million miles in between. & this won't happen again till the year 2287.

the email that has been circulating proclaiming this event is actually a HOAX. read here.

the "bright star" seen near the moon is actually jupiter & it'll only appear as a bright spot.

i took this picture myself & it's just convinced me of one thing........

.......i need that dSLR!!

cello

the boy & the girl are both like chalk & cheese. she is focussed in her studies, hardworking & determined. a science student through & through.

he, on the other hard, is playful, likes to explore gadgets & work with his hands. very likely an artsy or technical sort of student.

& unlike his sister, he plays the piano because he actually enjoys it. so that's why we decide to give him exposure to a second musical instrument when the opportunity came round. my colleague has a cello teacher who comes over to teach cello to his 2 kids. he asked me if i was keen for the boy to take it up as well. since the teacher allowed a couple of trial lessons, we agreed.

we are happy that he has been looking forward to the lessons. hopefully the enthusiasm persists...

the tooth, the whole tooth....

one of the boy's front tooth fell off this morning. he asked me to check his gums, then calmly washed the tooth & put it in a container where he kept all the previous dropped teeth.

i asked him if he was going to keep it under his pillow tonite & maybe the tooth fairy will reward him. he gave me a puzzled look & asked, "the tooth fairy doesn't exist, right?"

that's when i had to come clean with him & admitted to the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth about the tooth fairy & how the tooth under the pillow is replaced by cash in the morning. while at it, i also debunked the myth about santa.

in church later, while the offering bag was being passed around, i asked him if he had brought any money as offering. he blew me off when he replied, "no, but i brought something else. myself !"

he's just a kid but he's definitely growing up nicely.

PS. he's never kept a tooth beneath the pillow, he's never brought any money from his coin-box for offering & i don't think he understands the significance of offering himself to the Lord.

can 2 wrongs make a right??

this piece of research just came off the press...

doctors at imperial college london have discovered that if you live with an unhealthy diet, in this case a QuarterPounder with milkshake, you can actually reduce the cardiovascular risks by taking a statin tablet (which reduces cholesterol), even to the extent of providing these tablets to go with the meals, & further justifying this by stating that it doesn't costs much more to supply these tablets!! read here.

they even defended this proposal by quoting other examples of dangerous lifestyles, like wearing seatbelts while driving & using filters in cigarettes, to minimise the associated risks.

this is like saying, drinks manufacturers should include diabetic tablets with their 6-pack sodas, or cigarette firms include chemotherapy pills in their packs.

does this sound like logical reasoning?

what this study doesn't highlight is that statins have their own side effects on the liver, muscles & kidneys. so now, instead of just destroying your heart by wolfing down fast food, you're also threatening your liver and kidneys with a chemical drug.

i think the simple (??) solution is just to abstain from fast-food/sodas/cigarettes, etc etc., or more conventionally to take in moderation & eventually to stop altogether.

because, in this scenario, 2 wrongs certainly don't make a right!!

trees

how often do you stand or walk under a coconut tree? not often, considering there can't be many coconut trees in town.

and how often have you actually witnessed a falling coconut? even less, i'd think.


so it's utterly unfortunate to have a coconut fall on your head, like this 60-yr-old lady in ICU now. she's recuperating from surgery for a big bleed into her brain but her recovery will not be complete for she will not fully gain control over some parts of her body.


trees are useful - they provide shade, bear fruits & make up part of a green lung in cities. heck, you can't have a tree house without a tree & where would tarzan be without one?


but the downside is that they sometimes topple on you, your car or house. & you really don't want to take shelter from one in a thunderstorm.


so watch out for the coconuts.

or durians.

talk about the wrong place & the wrong time.

attitude

this cannister is part of an elaborate anaesthetic machine used to provide anaesthesia for surgery. it contains soda lime granules which absorb carbon dioxide from the patient's breath & then return that breath back to the patient minus the carbon dioxide. a recycling of gases, if you will.

soda lime contains a colour indicator which tells the user when it is already saturated with carbon dioxide (in this case, from WHITE to PURPLE) & therefore needs to be changed. so when it turns purple, the whole cannister is emptied & fresh white-coloured ones refilled. something akin to changing your domestic water filter when it turns brown.

another manufacturer makes RED-coloured soda lime which turns WHITE when saturated with carbon dioxide. it really doesn't matter which manufacturer you source the soda lime from, as long as you are aware of the colour change.

so what happens when you decide to change from one manufacturer to another? surely, you'd completely exhaust your existing stock before using the new supply, or else the colour change will be confusing, and dangerously so.

this is what happens when people get careless & therefore set the stage for a medical catastrophe.....

.....twice!!

this lackadaisical attitude happens everywhere though :

in school, when wrongs facts are taught;
in construction, when wrong angles are calculated;
on the roads, when overtaking on double-lines;
& even at home, leaving the gas stove burning with a curious child on the loose.

i seriously think a lot more things didn't get a lot more worse because of divine intervention.

btw, it's friday 13th today but do have a good and SAFE weekend!