thick hair

before i went to chapter 2 at marina square, none of the hair stylists that i've told me that i've got thick hair. i always feel that my hair was rather flat. thick hair for me is what doris has. something that every single hair stylist has told her all her life. :P

since nick was the first stylist to tell me so, i took his words with a pinch of salt and didn't really bother about his comment. i thought he was just trying to make me feel good since i might be at an age where hair thinning or receding hairlines maybe looming around the corner.

but another hair stylist saying the exact same thing? hmm... should i believe it? or is he making me feel good too?

well, i choose to have faith in their professionalism. :)

mj is dead

the king of pop passed away on 25th june and he's already the feature story for this week's issue of 8days. wow!

goes to show how iconic mj is and how hard the team at 8days must have worked to pull this off.

my first impression of him started with 'beat it' when i was still a wee lad. a very catchy pop jingle.

i'm not a fan but he does seem to be incredibly talented musically selling millions of albums. it's sad that his later years were characterised by his eccentric and sometimes bizarre behaviour.

as millions mourn his death, the circumstances surrounding his death is still shrouded in mystery while the custody of his children remains unclear.

it is sad that an extraordinary life has been cut short so abruptly. my sympathies and condolences to his young children.

吻别

this song is voted as one of the songs for 20年经典金曲at this year's 金曲奖today.

a real classic song by 张学友which i remember was the hottest song back in 1993. it was especially memorable with 周海媚putting in a sultry performance in the music video. 吻别could be heard on the radio several times a day and hogged the music charts then. you could also literally hear the song every where on the streets.

why do i remember the year so clearly?

because that was the year when i was posted to australia for an admin tour of duty of 4 months. sk commented if the song will still be 'in' while we were stranded in mandopop 'desert' for 4 months. 吻别not only survived those few months by becoming a monster hit that year, it has truly become a timeless mandopop classic of our times.

national cancer centre

didn't know that cgh actually makes appointment for its patients to visit the national cancer centre for consultations. they actually send my 二舅there accompanied by a nurse for his appointment. My mum and i went along to see what the oncologist have to say.

after evaluating 二舅's case. the oncologist decided against chemotherapy as he thinks that 二舅will not be able to withstand the toll the treatment will take on his body. he's concerned that chemo will hugely compromise 二舅's immunity system making him highly susceptible to infections.

next, we had to see the radio-oncologist who decided on a 7-week course of radiotherapy that has a 40% chance of eradicating the tumour in 二舅's throat. the treatment will only start next month after some prep work such as getting a face mask done. meanwhile 二舅will continue with his liquid diet since the therapy will also impair his swallowing ability in the short term.

and that's how we spent almost the entire day at the centre.

ndp preview

went to collect the ndp preview tickets with estee 'cos she wasn't sure where is the floating platform at marina.

i had helped her to submit her name for the ticket balloting and she was the only lucky one among the 4 of us to get it. joked that her luck is finally changing.

i caught a glimpse of the stage while waiting for her and it's really cool.

estee explained later that she took more than a while to collect the tickets because she had to fill out a survey and join the ndp facebook group. :P

looks like they're going all out in all these new media.

lunch @ tsubohachi

didn't know where to have lunch at bugis so tried out this new place at level 4 of the iluma. tsubohachi is part of a cluster of japanese restaurants at ebisboshi shotengai.

tsubohachi hails from sapporo, hokkaido and is one of the largest izakaya [japanese bar] chain in japan. an izakaya is a place where the working class gathers for drinks and snacks after work.

that explains the rather extensive alcoholic drinks selection. however, we were more interested with the set lunch menu. estee had the ikura set while my mum and i had the sashimi set. i think the sashimi lunch set is quite reasonable at $14. of course the usual service and gst charges apply.

the kitchen doesn't seem to have gotten its act together just yet. our sashimi sets took such a long time to be served that estee had almost finished her food when they arrived. and you thought they only need to slice the sashimi, right?

what reinforced my impression further was they forgot to include a saucer for my sashimi set. how to eat the sashimi without a dipping dish for the shoyu, right?

and to think that this happened at a restaurant with a japanese manager and server!

tsk, tsk, tsk...

orchard central

the latest mall in orchard this june. went for a look-see. it's a rather narrow, longish and tall mall across the road from centrepoint.

the ground floor has this spacious hotel lobby-like atrium with sofas and a cool water feature. i wonder why there is this generous yet uneconomical use of premium rental-yielding space.

many of the shops are still not open. some of the f & b outlets are already in operation at the higher levels.

my mum wonders if there're enough shoppers for all these new shops, cafes and restaurants. i wonder too.

journey to the east

another visit to cgh to see my 二舅. he has been warded for 2 weeks already and put in isolation in bed 1 at ward 36 'cos they suspect that he might be suffering from tuberculosis. his difficulty in swallowing has been attributed to malignant tumours in his throat.

we had to put on n95 masks to see him in his room. according to the instructions at the door, we even need to be gowned and gloved but we didn't bother with it except to sanitise our hands with care before and after visiting him.

the nurse came in after a while to feed him. i was asked to explain to 二舅 that she will change the feeding tube after the feed as the current one is meant for 2 weeks only. so my mum and i waited... and waited...

the nurse gave up and undrew the curtain seeking our help to tell 二舅 to swallow [in teochew] when she's inserting the feeding tube through his nostril. i think the gag reflex somehow interfered with the insertion and the tube kept looping out into his mouth instead of getting into his stomach. not a pretty sight.

then she got 二舅 to sit up after several failed attempts on the right nostril and decided to insert the new tube onto the same [left] nostril. with much retching and our promptings of "吞", sections of the tube were painstakingly inserted until the nurse estimated that it has reached the stomach. she confirmed that by aspirating some fluid with a syringe.

finally some relief for my 二舅.

you can see how it's done here.

surprise party

janet had planned this dinner gathering today to avoid any unplanned disruptions by her delivery. the last time when she was heavily pregnant with cayden, i think he wanted so much to join us for dinner that he chose that very day to come to this world. :P hehe...

even though janet had set up today's date weeks before, it ended up with single parents bringing the kids along. coincidently, one half of all the couples had something on tonight.

it was only in the afternoon that janet had sms-ed to say that it's going to be a surprise birthday party for cayden. caught me and doris by surprise too because we had not gotten a present for cayden. :(

prepared my usual salad for the gathering. jason likes the imitation king crab that i had bought for the salad. eric jested that we've upgraded from mere imitation crab sticks to imitation king crabs.

jason got the kids mad about musical chairs which later became musical chairs in the dark. this led to eric asking how much is the cover charge. haha... :)

五月二十七

my mum reminded me that it's my lunar birthday today by giving me a 红包.

besides wishing me good health [am still recovering from yesterday's ordeal], she also wishes that i'll get a job real soon. :P

painfully alive

sharp tummy-ache at 1:00 am... weren't awoken by the pain but had to disrupt my online activities. :P

it was the most excruciatingly painful ordeal that i've ever experienced. the pain was searingly acute that i broke out in cold sweat so profuse that my tee was soaked thoroughly. i thought i was going to faint even.

and i wonder how does this compare with labour pains? janet says that it's very painful. but how painful is that?

a taiwanese artiste described the pain level during labour as akin to cutting off one's fingertips so labour pains are like repeatedly cutting off one's fingertips. arrgghhh...

faint...

scratch

this uncle must have had a very bad itch that he couldn't help but scratch it more than a few times while i was on the train from clementi to simei.

acer aspire

my dad bought an acer aspire laptop today at the pc show. i think it looks cool. and i'm looking at hours of teaching him windows messenger, internet explorer and emailing. :(

then again, i ought to be more encouraging of his efforts to be IT-literate and stay connected at his age, right?

let's hope he'll be persistent and not let the laptop be a white elephant. ;) hehe...

masked

this is not the latest fashion. but it's the first time ever that i've donned a mask all thanks to the global pandemic of h1n1. so it's a momentous occasion worthy of some digital pixels. :P

had went to visit my 二舅 at cgh. i heard he was hospitalised 'cos he wasn't eating well and had trouble swallowing. as usual, since he was just warded today, they have to run tests on him before we know what's ailing him.

he looks fine except for the tube in his nostril meant for tube feeding. hope he gets well soon.

cheers!

jurong safra

went to swim at the latest safra clubhouse at jurong west. a convenient stone's throw away from boon lay mrt station. slightly disappointed that the deck chair areas were rather limited compared to the one at yishun.

wonder if the swimming pool was also scaled back in the cost-cutting measures implemented due to escalating costs during its construction which i had read about.

this clubhouse seems to be more family-oriented since the pool had a lot of water play features for the little ones. plus there were some learning centres and a rather large children's gym.

since i'm not a ktv fiend or a slot machine addict, i don't think this clubhouse holds much attraction for me unless i'm looking to swim for free in a big, lap pool.

lunch @ vienna

yup, we're having lunch again at the vienna international seafood and teppanyaki buffet restaurant at united square. no points for guessing that it's an early celebration of fathers' day since my dad likes the food there.

well, i thought it'll be another ho-hum lunch since we've been there so many times and truth be told, i would rather try some other place because the menu have largely remained the same over the years. but it was not meant to be...

estee after coming back from the restroom started to feel unwell and break out in cold sweat. my mum had to bring out her shawl for her and we let her rest at her seat while we continue to stuff ourselves with food.

then she started to feel nauseous and we had to scramble for a plastic carrier for her to umm... deposit her lunch. and she went on to put up a rather prolonged act of regurgitation.

although i couldn't smell anything, the sight of swirling brown fluids in the bag made me lose all my appetite. we ended our lunch abruptly since she doesn't seem to be feeling better.

you can see what i had gorged on earlier here.

repair

after carting the fan from the living room to my room every night for the past week, i'm just glad that the repairman for the air-conditioner is going to be here today.

can't imagine what's wrong with the compressor... according to the manual, when the 2 lights are on, some sensors somewhere is faulty. i just hope it's not major 'cos the temperatures this week sure is rising.

the repairman came promptly at 5:00 pm as scheduled. when he had to climb out of the window to inspect the compressor, i had to hold on to his safety harness. yes, his life depended on me while he straddled compressor 'cos there's no place for him to anchor it. hehe... :P

fortunately, the guy said it's just some gas been over-charged and all the units miraculously started working once he discharged the gas from the compressor unit.

oh well, i'm just glad that i can sleep in cool comfort again.

bliss...

heat

oh man... my home's air-conditioner is down. the run light and timer light comes on when i tried to switch it on. the same happens to the other 2 units in my parent's and sis's room.

and the service company says that they can only send someone to find out what's wrong on friday! gosh! why must this happen when the weather is heating up?

i'm melting...