Family is More Important Than Employer

I read before in an email that you should not work too hard for your employer. Yes work ... but don't kill yourself for the company. Instead work hard to nurture relationships with family members.

Reason is because your company is not going to be around after you retire and they certainly won't give two hoots about you after you've left the company.

Instead, family members will be around no matter what age or stage you are in your life. Family members will stick by you through thick and thin, no matter what happens.

I couldn't agree more with that email, especially after going through 4 days of high fever and home quarantine alone in my apartment.

Throughout my ordeal, a few of my colleagues sent me messages asking how am I doing and that I'd get well soon. My boss? Well ... I didn't even get a single message from her. I would like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was busy during that time.

When my family and friends found out about my condition, they sent text messages everyday asking how I'm doing. I even got calls and messages from as far as Norway and Ireland.

Since I could not leave the apartment, some of my friends offered to buy food for me or anything I needed. One friend offered to give me a sponge bath, hahaha.

And mother's being mothers, my mum was even prepared to take 2 trains and 1 cab to get from her place to mine just to drop off barley water to cool my raging fever. But I didn't let her.

When fruits ran out at the apartment, I rang my housemate and gave her a list of items to buy. The sweet girl immediately bought apples, grapes and fruit juices after work and she even bought dinner. I owe you one, Wendy!

What can I say but a big thank you to all of you who helped me pull through the 4 days of misery. A huge hug and a wet kiss to you! God bless you all always!

And remember ... invest in the things that matter in life - family & friends. Don't work too hard and kill yourself for your employer. It's not worth it.

Home Quarantine (Part 2)

Here I am typing this entry on a stormy Friday evening. Nope, I've not kicked the bucket yet although there were many times it felt like the end.

My fever went down slightly on Wednesday. And when I was looking forward towards a full recovery, something else happened.

I fell asleep on the couch and woke up with a start at 2.30am because I had forgotten to take my medicine.

My last meal was about 5.00pm and by 2.30am I was a bit hungry. I know doctor's orders is to take medicine after meals, but because I was too sleepy and wanted to hit the sack, I just had 3 pieces of cheese and then consumed cough mixture, antihistamines and Panadol.

The next morning I woke up with an excruciating tummy ache, an arsehole that was waiting to expel it's contents and a face full of red spots.

Taking medicine on an empty stomach really screwed up my tummy. And the red spots on my face were caused by an allergic reaction to the medicine.

I immediately made myself a sandwich and tea, and went back to sleep.

When I woke up, the tummy ache had gone and the red spots on my face had lessen.

And then the fever came back.

I became a bit panic because one of the H1N1 symptoms is a returning fever. I called the doctor and asked if I should get myself admitted to a hospital. He said I shouldn't worry as long as I don't have breathing difficulties. Moreover it's pointless to get admitted cause there are not enough beds in the hospitals - government or private.

The doctor advised to continue sponging myself and to drink plenty of fluids.

Food was running out at the apartment. I called my housemate to buy some apples, grapes, fruit juice and dinner of rice and chicken curry. I was sick of soup and instant noodles.

It took me 2 hours to finish eating dinner. By the time I finished I was very weak and I thought I might not wake up if I had gone to sleep. But sleep I did - for a good 10 hours.

When I woke up this morning the fever was completely gone.

It's been about 12-hours since I woke up and there are still no signs of a returning fever, although I still have a slight cough. Dave said my body must have fully rested and built up its immunity in that 10-hours of sleep; and I think he's right.

I look forward to a full recovery soon as I am sick of being sick. It sucks.

Home Quarantine

I got home quarantined today.

I felt sick yesterday evening but the clinic near my office was already closed. So I went home and had some herbal medicine.

This morning I had a fever and went to see the doctor. I was surprised when my temperature hit 38 degrees because I felt fine.

The doctor asked if I wanted to do a H1N1 test, which is the patient's choice - something about patient's charter or something like that.

Of course I agreed to the test, which is by far the worst medical test I've ever done.

I asked the doctor how is the test done but without saying anything, he took a swab that looked like a cotton bud, grabbed my head and shoved the swab into my left nostril. And he shoved it deep into my nose and turned it around till my eyes went teary. Now I know how these CSI fellas take swabs.

He then told me to go have coffee and come back in 15 minutes when the test would ready.

During that 15 minutes I was thinking what if the test was positive?

Am I ready to die?

Have I written a will?

Have I named a beneficiary in all my whatnots?

But one thing's for sure - my dad would be waiting for me.

When I came back to the clinic, the doctor informed that I'm H1N1 negative. He showed me this:

Eventhough I'm H1N1 free, the doctor cautioned that the test is only 60% - 70% accurate. Therefore I would need to be home quarantined just to make sure.

He gave me a list of 8 items to do to get my fever down and to call him if it doesn't.

The best part about all this is the 4 days MC which means I'll be away from the office this entire week!

Good Friends + Good Food = A Pleasant Sunday

Dave was in town last week and he was pining for Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding.

Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding.

So I made a few calls to find out which restaurant in KL served this traditional English dish.

On Sunday we met up and took a cab to The Green Man in Changkat Bukit Bintang for lunch.

At The Green Man they call it the Sunday Roast. It comes in a three-course meal which consists of Country Vegetable Soup, Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding and Ice-Cream. But you can opt to have the Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding on its own.

Dave giving a sexy stare as he digs into his meal. He calls it Yorkie Pudding.

I guess Dave must either be hungry or the food was good because he wiped his plate clean and then had a slice of my roast beef and finished all my Yorkie pudding! Anyway, I'm glad he had a chance to fill his tummy with his fav food before the 12-hour flight to London.

After seeing Dave off to the airport, Sue and Nik picked me up and we headed to Pavilion to look for a birthday present for Sue's daughter.

On the way there, Nik's car broke down but luckily we were already beside Pavilion. So Nik SOS-ed the mechanic while Sue and I walked to Pavilion.

After looking around, Sue decided on a green notebook for her daughter and got it wrapped in pretty green wrapper with a pretty green bow.

Then we went to The Loaf for drinks and pastries. I didn't take any pics of what we ate at The Loaf cause I completely forgotten I had a camera with me.

After stuffing our tummies, we went grocery shopping at Mercato before taking the cab to Sue's place to crash for a while.

Sue prepared dinner for us and we watched CSI: Miami and CSI: New York while enjoying the fruits of her hard work.

Chef Sue proudly showing off an onion whilst preparing dinner ;-)

Rice with egg sambal and soup makes a smashing meal!

Good Friends + Good Food = A Pleasant Sunday

Expectation & Acceptance

I stumbled upon this poem from a blog:

Expectation is the Mother of Frustration,
Acceptance is the Mother of Peace and Joy,
Never Expect, Always Accept.

I think this poem does not encapsulate most situations in life.

Let's discuss line one of the poem - Expectation is the Mother of Frustration.

For example, let's say your career goal is to become the CEO of a public-listed company. With the neccessary qualifications, hard work and the right connections you finally reach the pool of top management in a company.

Unfortunately the road to become CEO is nowhere in sight due to various circumstances. After all, it's not in everybody's destiny to become a CEO and it ain't easy to become one either.

Would you feel frustrated and disappointed because your high career expectations were not met? Maybe ...

Now let's discuss line two of the poem - Acceptance is the Mother of Peace and Joy.

Let's say you're married to a terrific guy. After 5 years into the marriage you find out he's having an affair. Your whole world shatters because the love of your life has disappointed you terribly. Would you just accept the situation and let the bloody bugger carry on with his unfaithful ways?

I think line 2 is a whole lot of crap.

What do you think?

I Ask Questions To Know Someone Better

I was having dinner with DM, GS and L at Maredo's Argentina Steakhouse on Jalan P Ramlee. Service was slow and there was this waitress who got our drink orders wrong. Food was also nothing to shout about, but that's not the point of this entry.

While waiting for the food to arrive, I asked DM why did he and GS go to Rum Jungle the night before? DM accused me of being like a 'detective', always wanting to find out things, and GS supported him.

Now ... the day had been long and tiring. I had to walk the whole of Pavilion in my court shoes to look for a digital clock for a function on Tuesday, and my feet were already killing me.

And when somebody accuses me of being a 'detective' when my innocent question was merely to know more about my friends, I got pretty pissed.

I told DM I must shut my f*cking mouth. And I kept silent throughout the entire dinner. I just nodded my head and agreed with whatever they said, and interspersed the conversation every now and then with general questions.

From this experience, I realised one thing - I'm uncomfortable keeping silent during social events when all I wanna do is scream out questions to get to know the other person better.

I value every encounter with someone - be it a friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, sibling, parent, colleague, etc. as an opportunity to get to know the person better. And how am I supposed to do this if I don't ask questions?

Crystal Clear Water in Bunaken Island

I was looking through my travel blog entries and realised I didn't show you the crystal clear water in Bunaken Island in North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

So here it is:

The dark blue part of the water is a 90-degree wall that goes deep down into the unknown. That area is also where I saw the most beautiful sea life and corals in my entire snorkelling experience.