England goes smoke free this 1st July. Smoking will be banned in all enclosed places in England. This is great news for non-smokers as well as the smokers as it would encourage them to give up the bad habit…hopefully. I wouldn’t need to worry to dine in restaurants then. Currently, most indoors still allow smoking and what happens is I like to frequent this cramp Malaysian restaurant which is absolutely smoky. I remember this guy was puffing away when I was only sitting 5 inches away from his table; and I was pregnant then. I was basically eating my nasi lemak + cigarette smoke. Revolting! It would be good if this law can be applied back home. I understand there are usually smoking and non-smoking sections in most retaurants but to me, they do not prove effective as everyone is still under the same roof and the smoke circulates within the same enclosed location. It is made worst by the air-conditioned situation. But I guess it’s not as bad as eating 5 inches away from a smoking chimney. My dad is also a chain smoker and I warned him not to smoke in front of Cameron when I get back this time. Hopefully, the love for his grandchild would help him to cut down on cigarettes.

We often bump into this adorable retriever in town. It’s so charming that we just can’t stop looking and adoring it every single time. It’s owner often feeds him with cabbage leaves as treat haha. It reminds us of our basset back home. Miss you lots, Lady. Can’t wait to give you a cuddle.

It’s a bank holiday today and we had guests over for dinner during the weekend. We prepared lots of  good food but didn’t have the time to snap all the pix. Only managed to capture these 2 in the cooking process (Eng was the chef) - Braised Pork Shank with Black Beans and Chinese Mushrooms & Spare Ribs in Black Vinegar Sauce. Sinful! And we tried to counter the oil intake with plenty of tea, fruits and vegetables. I also made tiramisu for the first time but the presentation wasn’t that good although the taste was alright. I will attempt to make it again soon and will post some pix if it’s successful.

Submitted Cameron’s visa application for processing 3 weeks ago and I’m rather surprised that it’s been approved so much earlier than expected. Fantastic! That means we will be in KL very soon! That also means Cameron can leave and enter the UK by himself but I doubt he will do it without his mummy *grin*.

Sometime ago, Cameron’s GP prescribed nasal drops for him to be applied during take-off and landing in order to reduce ear block in flights. I wanted to pay for the prescription and guess what? The chemist said I do not need to pay anything for Cameron until he reaches 18! *grin*

Btw, he is 16 weeks old, weighs 6.5 kg and his height is 62 cm. It’s also sunnier now and I nearly got burned by the scorching sun yesterday but still much nicer than the downpour. Eng says Cameron is too fair (of course lah, look at the mother *perasan*), so needs to get some tan.

What’s the best thing about spring/summer? The colours of the surrounding of course and that includes plants, trees, flowers and the humans who love dressing in rainbow colours :p Our maisonette is fortunately ‘infected’ with rose ‘plague’. Nothing gotta do with my green fingers, it’s just the perfect weather that encourages the bloom. See below from L to R :

1. This is what we see when we open our front door.

2. This is what we see when we look up the sky from our entrance.

3. This is what we see when we turn to look at our neighbour’s.

4. And finally, this is what we see at our doorstep. It’s roses left right and centre! p/s the unit above is not ours.

I came across a very interesting post on Malaysiakini which says the very common thing which Mel and I have been discussing.

It’s about the groceries price between UK and Malaysia.

How on earth can a nation that produces 47% of the world’s palm oil supply manage to come up with such a ridiculous price for its domestic use?

Certainly someone in the supply chain has been making a huge profit by sucking the public’s blood. Who could that be?

Refrained from consuming pork liver for the past 9 months, I finally get to ‘buka puasa’. Liver has high content of vitamin A and toxic and it is not advisable for preggies to intake too much as it might cause birth defect. Otherwise, try out this recipe:-

Firstly, marinate sliced pork and pork liver seperately with soy sauce to taste, dark soy sauce for colour, sesame oil, dash of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of corn flour. Then, sautee some garlic and sliced ginger with sesame oil. Add pork and stir fry until it’s half cooked. Finally, add liver. Easy eh?

This was what I had for lunch yesterday - Spaghetti with Hakka Char Yoke (Pork) n Sunny Side Up. Weird combination or you can call it fusion. The pork was leftover from Thursday’s dinner. Have been improving on the pork recipe as well as replace nam yee with Xaoshing wine and the result is just as good. The plus point is the preparation takes less than 15 minutes. Here’s the recipe:-

Firstly, slice pork into thick cubes. Then, marinate the pork with 1/2 tablespoon of corn flour, 1 tablespoon of Xaoshing wine or 2 cubes of nam yee, dark soy sauce for colour, light soy sauce to taste, dash of pepper, 3/4 teaspoon of 5 spice powder and 1 egg. After that, stir fry the pork with garlic until the pork turns golden brown. Later, add soaked black ear wood fungus and some water. Finally, leave it to simmer for an hour or until pork softens.

Last Tuesday, I was so glad that Cameron finally showed me that he could roll over. He did it thrice and that was it! He is not rolling over ever since and he just gives up every time we wanted him to try….We will be like cheerleaders trying to applaud when he tries to roll but somehow, I’m not sure if he has forgotten how he once did it or his butt is getting heavier that he can’t roll over now….hmmmphhh so much for the 1 day excitement.

Anyway, he has a new toy to play with these days…yep his hands…he discovered his hands and I guess he must be amazed on what they can do, such as grabbing my hair. Also, he has been pretty ‘talkative’…he makes so much noise when he is awake, thanks to the guardian angel that keeps him busy, so that I have some time to catch up with my personal stuff. But that moment doesn’t last very long when he needs mummy’s company again…He would usually address us as ‘Ai Ai’ whenever he wants our attention. Funny though.

Last Friday, I took Cameron to the GP to get his scalp checked as I was concern about his cradle cap. In the clinic, there was this labrador that belongs to a blind lady. It wore a tag which says ‘Please do not distract me. I’m working’…..ooohhhh that lab was such a cutie and so obedient. Over here, there are many working dogs that are being trained to help and guide the blind. This gives the disabled community the opportunity to be independent and the flexibility to be mobile. If only this can be achievable in Malaysia but I do not think it would be in a million years. A little exaggeration but hey, I was once being told off to keep my dog off the public park which did not have any notice that dogs aren’t allowed, so I wouldn’t think implementing the guide dog concept would ever happen, let alone permitting dogs in public places. It’s sickening the sort of reasons they relay sometimes….Anyway….

About an hour ago, I wanted to take Cameron to the child clinic to have him weighed (and then detour to the mall hehe) but the weather isn’t pleasant. It has been so gloomy with occasional showers since the beginning of last week. I was complaining when it was hot and sunny out here but now it’s even worse because I can’t get to anywhere in such weather thus end up blogging. Now I miss the sun…

I have been asked this similar question after telling people about my cleansing.
What is gallstone?
Everybody has gallstone?

I don’t have the book with me right now otherwise I will paste a few lines here. However I have found some answers from other Weblinks.

From http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gallstones/index.htm

Gallstones form when liquid stored in the gallbladder hardens into pieces of stone-like material. The liquid, called bile, is used to help the body digest fats. Bile is made in the liver, then stored in the gallbladder until the body needs to digest fat. At that time, the gallbladder contracts and pushes the bile into a tube—called the common bile duct—that carries it to the small intestine, where it helps with digestion.
Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, proteins, and bilirubin. Bile salts break up fat, and bilirubin gives bile and stool a yellowish color. If the liquid bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, under certain conditions it can harden into stones.
The two types of gallstones are cholesterol stones and pigment stones. Cholesterol stones are usually yellow-green and are made primarily of hardened cholesterol. They account for about 80 percent of gallstones. Pigment stones are small, dark stones made of bilirubin. Gallstones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball. The gallbladder can develop just one large stone, hundreds of tiny stones, or almost any combination.
Gallstones can block the normal flow of bile if they lodge in any of the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the small intestine. That includes the hepatic ducts, which carry bile out of the liver; the cystic duct, which takes bile to and from the gallbladder; and the common bile duct, which takes bile from the cystic and hepatic ducts to the small intestine. Bile trapped in these ducts can cause inflammation in the gallbladder, the ducts, or, rarely, the liver.

Also from another source
http://www.relfe.com/gall_stone_cleanse.html

Removing gall stones may also help CONSTIIPATION, because it improves the flow of bile which is a natural laxative. 

Removing gall stones may also help to improve a body that is generally "run down".

HEPATITIS is an inflammatory process in the liver.  It can be caused by gall stones, because of the back-log of impure products.’’

What I have learnt is that Gallstones is a by-products of stress, imbalanced diet- too much protein / carbohydrate/ sweet, coffee, alcohol, improper sleeping pattern, improper eating habit, too little fiber, low fat diet and many more. That’s why it is quite fair to say that almost everyone has gallstones because of our demanding lifestyle.

The problems of Gallstones as it gets cumulated in Liver, gall bladder and various ducts are that it restricts the flow of bile, prevent toxic being cleared from these organs efficiently and provide a breeding ground for parasites. As a result, it weakens the function of these organs. Impaired Liver will cause various health problems especially those relating to the digestion systems. It depends on the person’s tolerance level; some will experience eye problems, diabetes, gout, high cholesterol, gut problem, constipations, arthritis, overweight, skin problem, and many more.

Some people might think that removing the Gall bladder would be a solution if Gallstones are found, even some medical research back this idea. But it is unnatural and it shows how ignorant we are to our own body. Without Gall bladder, bile will have no where to be stored but will be released constantly onto intestine as and when it is produced. The mechanism of control the release of bile is not there anymore and that will screw up the control when having low fat meal and high fat meal.

Although I believe Gallstones cause all these diseases, branding it as the Mother of all disease (like most of the books or articles about Gallstone) is probably too strong of a word to be used. To me, it is just one of the ways to spring clean your body and to maintain health. I believe in Balance and I believe each and every part of human body has its role to play. Any of the organ gets blocked / stuffed will have cascading effect on the rest of the body.

I read the local news Woking Review the other day and this article ‘Letter removes stigma from Titanic Survivor’ caught my eyes.

A TITANIC survivor’s name has been exonerated after a letter clearing him of wrongdoing was put up for sale at the Christie’s in London.
Sir Cosmos Duff-Gordon, burried at Brookwood Cementery after his death in 1931, was tainted as a coward after escaping from the sinking ship in lifeboat number one with his wife and her secretary…

The article shows a picture of Sir Cosmos Duff-Gordon’s grave in Brookwood.

Brookwood is only 1 train station away from Woking and about 3 miles from where we live.

I am quite fascinated by the fact that the TITANIC event has such a close link to where we live.

Wonder what would the people in Melaka feel if some old time Melaka stories were to be made into blockbuster? ie … the Legendary Hang Tuah

Drum roll pls……..

I had ……………. approximately 90 stones!!!

If you think it’s enough and you would like to ‘jump ship’, click here…

Or, I will continue…

I started purging stones from Saturday morning 5.30am and altogether 7 times with the last time on Sunday morning. They looked like garden peas (colour and size) but a couple of them were as big as marbles. I can’t imagine all these have been living in my body for so long.  Till today I am still feeling slightly weak and ‘heaty’ though I am feeling better now compared to yesterday. ‘Heaty’ as in Chinese, i.e. painful tongue and stuff. But I am looking forward towards the benefit of the cleanse!

Here’s the ‘recipe’ that I’ve copied from the book ‘The Amazing Liver Cleanse’ by Andreas Mortiz

Compared to my first cleansing last year, this recipe uses a lot of Epsom Salt and to be honest it is horrible. The bitterness taste stayed in my mouth even after gurgling with water. Shamely, I gave up the 4th intake as I wasn’t feeling too great to do any of that without breakfast. But luckily, it didn’t fail to get the stones out.

The Grapefruits and Olive oil mixture was nothing better. The first 3 seconds was alright but the rest of it was pretty shite. Almost the whole Saturday, I could smell Olive oil from my breath… really can’t see myself eating any of that for at least a couple of days! Also, I couldn’t bear my own burp!

Will I do it again? Call me insane, I will! I will do it again when I am back from KL in July! I love the feeling of seeing these rubbish get purged from my system!

Taken from today’s news, this unfortunate mum (probably a Malaysian working in Singapore) was in a car with the husband and a 3 year old son early in the morning in JB. The husband stopped the car at a petrol station to ease himself while both mum and the son were in the car.
Then, a man armed with a knife knocked on the car’s window demanding her to open the door. Like any mum, she feared for the son’s safety, complied with the man’s demand. With both in the car, the man drove the car and the next few hours were a tragic incident to the family. The mum was gang-raped and robbed.
It was just another normal day for the family. I do not think the family had done anything wrong or any negligence to invite that. It would happen to any family who was using the petrol station at that point in time. They were on the road at 4am which I think is not abnormal to avoid the jam on the causeway. The husband used the toilet in the petrol station, which is normal too, I did that all the time in KL. He left them in the car with the engine running – I would too if it’s too warm and he obviously locked all the doors. Other than not stopping at the petrol station at all, there’s basically nothing else they could do to avoid that. Maybe the mum should press hard on the honk until the man leaves but how many mums will not first think about her son’s safety?
I am starting to worry as our June’s KL visit is getting closer. I am worried that I may have forgotten the basic precaution measures or habits that I picked up when living in KL. Things like locking car’s door etc. Like the other day, I noticed that Mel was comfortably walking by the main road with her handbag loosely hanging on her right shoulder. In KL, that would have cost an arm or leg if the victim is lucky to be alive. I am also worried that having to be away from home for 2 years leaving me (or us) ignorant of the extent of crime back home. One would be caution which makes him less likely to be the target when he is aware of the crime incidents/news around him. Furthermore, having a baby with us or in the car makes us more vulnerable.
I will just pray that everything will be OK. Hope KL is not as bad and try to remind ourselves to be careful when we are there. Since the police can’t control the crime, this is the least I could do as I am not big or with a face like a Rottweiler.

Yes, I am starting this disgusting cleansing again. The last time I tried was in May where I find it beneficial as it seems to ‘fix’ a few of my problems.
This time, I am trying a completely different ‘recipe’. from the book ‘The Amazing Liver Cleansing’ by Andreas Moritz and it is giving me this recipe with the use of Epsom Salt (loads). I think Epsom salt is equivalent to ENO we have in KL. So I will be expecting myself literally sleeping with the toilet on the actual day (which is TOMORROW!).
I will update this blog on the ‘outcome’ of my cleanse and if Mel is OK, maybe I will take couple of photos – yes the same camera that she uses to snap her fav dishes!

Since I was diagnosed with breast abscess, I have been seeking private consultation and charging the bills to my private insurance. I’ve got a cap of £500 on outpatient treatments, so I have to be cautious not to exceed that limit. I did not have a clue on how much private medical bills cost in this country and assumed that it would take a while before I hit that quota. I was wrong! I had to undergo a 10 minutes ultrasound and that itself cost a ridiculous £230!!! Subsequently, I checked on how much each consultation costs and it turns out to be £150 each!! What? For a simple Q&A and brief examinations? Gosh…So if you are planning to get a private insurance here, make sure you get one with a higher cap. GPs in this country earn an average of £110k per annum…and this is the estimation for a practitioner with the government.  I wonder how much the private docs earn…..no wonder Malaysian doctors do not relish returning home. Imagine how much it would cost for foreigners to seek medical treatment here…it would be the whole fortune! So what happens next? I’ve been given a third dose of antibiotics as my lump hasn’t settle and decided to seek consultation back with the NHS since my condition isn’t that acute (*touch wood*). Clinic has been my hang out place lately as it would either be me going through the check-up or Cameron’s immunization and health check.