Good Friday

After the Good Friday service, I brought Ma, bro and Jenny to a buffet at Novotel. It's a public holiday in KK, everyone's freer and I thought it's a good time to just go out and eat.

There was only another family of four beside our table and we practically had the whole place to ourselves. I guess it's a day for fasting for many hence the emptiness.

 Barren

April 2: Novotel, 1B

It was just a simple spread that cost RM25 nett.

TG for Friends

Choo flew over from Tawau for work and was bunking in at my place for two nights. Since the makan gang is freer on Monday night, Lily decided that we should eat seafood at one of the shops at SEDCO which was offering RM8.80 per dish.

It has been many years since I was last here. Personally, I do not really like going to this area though it's well-known for its fresh seafood because I thought that the shops here have over-priced their food and I have heard that sometimes they really go for an overkill especially on those hapless, unsuspecting tourists / out-of-towners. I'd much prefer another establishment that's cheaper yet offers really fresh and tasty seafood.

RM8.80 per kg

The whole area has been spruced up with extended roofing from one block to the other and homogeneous tiles on the floor. It definitely looks clean and spacious.

My eating buddies:

Jenny & Choo

She's the reason why we're here.

Lily & Cat

We They may be petite but when it comes to eating, don't underestimate them! ;)

Sophie can gobble up much too though it shows, physically :(

Fried oyster with eggs

Sweet & sour crabs

Claypot beancurd and vegetables

Shells / "Tung Fung Lo"

The portions were large and great-tasting although I find that the crabs were too much on the sour side. Another gripe of mine is that the waiter mixed-up our order and delivered our shells to the next table although we had placed our order first. By the time the shells reached our table, it was more than one hour since our placement of order and we had lost the eating momentum.

Yes, there's such momentum - we want our orders to be continuous and not disrupted coz that will interrupt the joy of eating.

This is how much Jenny can eat

vs

Choo's miserable four pieces (after waiting for too long)

We only had to fork out RM15.70 each. Cheap!

And that sums up my third joy of the day!

TGI Raining!!!

After getting my supply of skin cream, I left the specialist centre and saw that it was raining.

The first thought that crossed my mind was: "Oh no! I didn't bring an umbrella!" Only then did it dawn upon me that it's raining after more than two months of the oppressing and depressing drought!!! And my car was parked just next to the covered car park joined to the specialist centre and I wouldn't get wet at all! *silly me*

I was so overjoyed to see and smell the rain that I just had to snap a pic of the gloomy weather and wet ground.

Raindrops on my windscreen!

And the best thing that got me excited was - I got to switch on the windscreen wipers!

Using the wipers!!

March 29: Car

So the falling rain is my second joy today!

TGI Mushrooms!

After a 2-hour wait and only a 5-minute consultation at the skin specialist today, it has been confirmed that I have fungal infection and not some dreadful life-sapping diseases.

I can, therefore, safely conclude that it's some sort of 'panau' or 'hon pan' in layman's term or as what my best friend during uni days, Elaine, once said jokingly to me upon seeing those patches on my forearms: "Sophie, get those treated or you'll start growing mushrooms!"

 Pharmacy

After waiting for another 20 minutes at the pharmacy for my turn, I was given three tubes of Mecandin Cream to treat my fungal infection, enough to last until my next appointment on May 10.

Fungus killer

It's good news and the first joy of the day!

Updated on Oct 17, 2010:

I've noticed that this post has been viewed by random visitors. My guess is that you've googled "Mecandin" and it has led you here. Hi!

Actually when I was given the cream, I asked my pharmacist friend about it but she has never heard of it. Neither does my doc who had referred me to the skin specialist at QE. Hmm... that's quite disturbing, but whatever it is, it got rid of my fungal infection. Only used 2/3 of a tube when the patches disappeared from my arms. 

Here's more info which is stated on the tube for you all since the photo above is unclear.

MECANDIN CREAM 2%W/W 
15 g

Each gram contains:
Miconazole Nitrate ............... 20 mg
Preservative: Banzoic acid ..... 0.15%w/w

Storage:
Store below 30*C.
Protect from light, heat, moisture and freezing.
Keep out of reach of children.

Please refer enclosed leaflet for indications, usage (dosage), precautions/warning, contraindications and other information.
[I don't have any leaflet since the pharmacist gave me only the 3 tubes prescribed by the doc with the instruction to apply it on my skin twice a day after shower.]

Manufactured by:
MALAYSIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES SDN. BHD. (101323-U)
Plot 14, Lebuhraya Kg. Jawa, 11900 Penang, Malaysia.

Hope that helps! :)

Sunday's Food

As usual, after classes on Sundays, Theresa and I would go food-hunting. We'd both be famished as always. 

Studying is mentally and physically exhausting - serious!

Hence, it's also a good or sorry excuse (depending on how you view food) to stuff our faces!

We went to 1B - no prizes for guessing - and ended up in Secret Recipe, which we also went to the previous week. Before that we went and bought the tickets for a movie - Under the Mountain (Verdict: Unbearably boring, predictable and stiff-acting).

It's my choice because I love its Chicken Cordon Bleu! We shared these two:

Chicken Cordon Bleu (minus the fries & replaced by greens)

Dory fish with cream... (couldn't recall the exact name)

The chicken was good but the same couldn't be said about the fish. Something's funny but I couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly. Theresa said it was too salty.

We normally don't do this but alas, the temptation was too great while waiting for our movie's screening time. We I kept seeing the waiters / waitresses delivering those orders of tiny goodness to the tables around us.

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Choc Moist Cake

March 28: Secret Recipe, 1B

We both SHARED one.

Moral of the story?

Do not linger for too long at a diner after the main meal or else be prepared to eat more fattening food.

Okay, I shall put the blame on the poor timing between meals and movie.

Dumplings

While rushing for my assignment on Friday night, last minute work as usual, I took a break and cooked 'dinner' for myself.

It's an instant dinner which consisted of instant noodles and 'instant' dumplings (sui jiao).

The dumplings were bought by Unc Tom all the way from Sandakan since he was there for work. According to him, it's the best and most well-known and slightly more expensive because one of the ingredients used is century egg - my favourite!

 Instant dinner

March 26: Home

Couldn't finish the noodles but I devoured the eight pieces of dumplings.

Verdict? It's overrated. I'd much prefer those from Hong Kee in Damai, anytime.

'Mummified'

Went for my facial appointment today. It was my second one this year after I'd stopped for nearly one year.

Sophie - as much as she hates to admit it - is aging and needs all the help she can get! :)

All the skin scrubbing, cleansing, pampering, moisturizing, massaging, tightening to save and preserve what's left. ^ ^

I've always wondered how I looked like whenever the beautician has applied the layer of tightening mask over my face so I just 'blindly' clicked away.

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Would love to smile, if I could, but I can't!

March 24: Beauty Parlour :P

And no, it's not a ghost!

Chilli

Went out to buy some stationery and decided to grab a meal at Rafflesia. It is not so much of its servings of chicken that I was there.

Roasted chicken rice

It is the chilli sauce that attracts me! I can't seem to get enough of it!

With chilli!

March 23: Rafflesia Chicken Hut

I think they serve the best chilli for a franchise. Yums!!!

Hazy

It has been many weeks since it had last rained. Everything is turning brown; the grass, bushes, trees.

Since I have been staying indoor all the time, I've been spared from the arid weather.

However, today I had to pick up my bro from town and when I drove out at noon, I saw the hazy and smoky sky. The haze has reached street level and it was smoky all the way to town. The grass along the streets have all turned a sad shade of yellow and brown! Such a depressing sight!

I could even 'smell' the haze! How sad!

 

 Hazy

March 22: Home

Positivity

This principle was put to good use today.

For the past one month, one of our assignments is to produce a teaching video. The four of us, the 'older' less computer savvy students, relied heavily on our youngest member, Emmanuel, on the technical part. He was just so good that he used another newer version of the movie editing software to create our video. The final product in terms of the technical aspect was beyond the 'older' member's our expectation.

For the presentation this morning, Emmanuel, our technical man, was not able to join us as he was involved in a Taekwondo competition.

Alas, the group presentation did not go well as planned. Halfway into the video, the video lagged and did not run smoothly. My heart broke when I saw that because I knew it shouldn't have been the case as we had tested it many times just earlier on.

It was just such an awful feeling to see our baby - the video - lagging and being distorted. I had really wanted to cry because it just did not do justice to the hard work put in, especially our techie's. Because of the distortion, the impact that I had hoped our video would showcase was, to a degree, lessened.

It was beauty distorted!

Fortunately, our lecturer insisted that we run the video again after every group had presented. This time, we played it on our laptop - and it was smooth!

True beauty was revealed!

This unexpected technical error is the 10%. Being such an emo femme, I would have been overly affected by what had happened. I was, however, quick to remind myself to be positive and not let my emotion run too wild.

Yes, I was disappointed. The presentation did not go as planned. The first viewing of the video was painful to watch. The impact was lessened. I didn't feel good about it.

But it was unexpected and beyond our control then. We've done our part but the unexpected just had to happen.

Reflection:

• Expect the unexpected.
• When the 10% strikes, just let it go - snap out of it, quick!

Sophie still has a long way to go but she's very consciously working on it!

I love my group!
L - R: Emmanuel, Theresa, Nazri & HaleeB

March 20: Room 3