Photo Dump KL

Alright as promised here are some highlights from the recent KL trip. Also, we're likely going to be in Bangkok at the end of May. BIKSS just got the green light from work today. I've applied for days off and had a quick chat with my HR person today who basically said GO MORE! DO MORE! TRAVEL MORE! Heh. I mean, if the boss thinks I should go and HR thinks I should go, I'm not going to fight it. LOL

And now, in no particular order, pics, vids, and my thoughts... 

We had tapas at a restaurant that opened till late as I only arrived at the hotel closer to 10pm. The ride from the airport to town was an hour and a half. And to make things worse even tho my plane landed ahead of schedule, the bay wasn't ready so we sat in the plane for a half hour.  NOT FUN.

Tun Razak Exchange - it's a shopping mall with fancy stores. But this is also where the nearest Puras store to me was so I decided to check it out. It was my first time here. Met a friend here for lunch too. It was HER first time as well. And she LIVES in KL. I guess it's just too upmarket for us regular folk. 

We had afternoon tea at the coffeehouse at the Marriott. 

The sugar syrup came in what looks very much like a test tube! 

Not a bad spread. The cannoli was pretty good. Better than the ones I've tried before which had super hard pastry. This one was flaky and fluffy and had some pineapple filling!

The linkway from the hotel to the dining zone. Trippy!

Seen in one of the shops. I mean, what is the purpose of this thing?

We had dinner at Tarbush restaurant TWICE while we were there. And we were only there for 3 dinners. The baba ghanoush was delicious. Lime and pomegranate made it refreshing throughout the eating of it. Most of the ones I've tried tended to get 'jelak' after a while. I tried translating that.  

And this is what Google AI threw at me -

In English, "jelak" translates to feeling sick of eating something, particularly overly rich or greasy food. It's a Malay word that essentially means "bored" or "sick of," and in the context of food, it describes a feeling of being overwhelmed and repulsed by a dish, often due to its richness or overwhelming flavors.

That's the chicken and sauce and french fries from this lovely thing - SHISH WITH BECHAMEL POT

The menu reads "You can only find this dish in Tarboush restaurants, which is a harmonious mixture of bechamel sauce, grilled chicken pieces and the finest types of mushrooms covered with a layer of mozzarella cheese and prepared in the oven."

Top - goodies from Puras in Tun Razak Exchange 

Middle - slides and mules from an outlet store to replace the sandals that I left behind 

as the straps were giving way and they were ready to give up the ghost.

Bottom - Gardener's shower gel from Crabtree and Eveleyn / 

Coconut blossom sugar - lower GI apparently

Chocolate treats for the people at work /

An olive green quilted "dumpling" bag with a long crossbody strap that I can wear across my torso without having to fuss with it now that my right shoulder is pretty much out of commission. 

BIKSS got it for me from the Mr DIY store in Fahrenheit 88.

Dim sum and some Chinese dishes (brinjal in claypot / black chicken soup) at 

Luk Yu Tea House in the dining zone in the basement of Starhill KL.

Went to a Tamil - English bilingual Mass on Maundy Thursday while BIKSS was at work. 

It was a good walk there and back. I felt that I worked off all the awesome food I was eating.

More Tarbush. This time a salad and some Mandi lamb. The meat was tender and fell off the bone. The rice was adequately flavoured, and that red gravy (whatever it was...) with the rice was perfection! 

From the finest types of basmati rice with a chef’s touch, the original Arabic spices and ghee with fresh chicken or two pieces of lamb with bone, we offer this dish for Mandi lovers.

And this was dessert - Warbat Qeshta... 

... a delicious Arabic pastry dessert consisting of layers of crispy filo dough (warbat) filled with a rich, orange blossom-flavored clotted cream (qeshta), and drizzled with a rose-flavored simple syrup. It is often sprinkled with ground pistachios and rose petals. 

I went to the supermarket and caved. Bought a box of peppermint tea. There were so many different tisanes tho... sigh. Too much tea, too little time.

Some of the delicious offerings seen at Japanese bakery - Top left - tom yum garlic bread

The date and peanut sticks and oreo cream puffs have labels (shown); 

That round yellow thing is a yuzu orange danish, and the triangle is one of 2 cheese scones I got for us in case we got hungry on the way to the airport.

And that, is that. I've emptied my gallery and in a few hours I will be making my way to the sister's house to spend the night as we leave at 5 tomorrow morning. And it's way nearer to the pick up point from her place than from mine. 

Stay tuned for more pics when I return!

20 Seconds of Fame and Other Nonsense

So I've just concluded a video interview with a media channel that wants to interview me for their Youtube series on caregivers (to Alzheimer's and dementia patients in general), and I suspect the producer enjoyed our chat so much that she offered me a spot almost immediately on their in-person panel event. Woot! "I really like how you engage with your audience, you don't sound at all like you're giving a lecture, it's so enjoyable to listen to you talk, like I'm listening to a podcast!" she said.

I'm not sure what lke listening to a podcast  means... but since I ENJOY listening to podcasts I'm gonna take that as a good thing. 

And so that will be my 20 seconds of Youtube fame. LOL. 

In other news I've been setting up a new lappy cos my old one gave up the ghost (I'd only gotten it about a year ago but it WAS already 9 years old by then, just underutilised in its old home) and it's been a bit tedious trying to work out what's what. I really dislike setting up new tech. Sigh. 

And since I was lappy-less for a while, and couldn't finish watching Reacher before leaving for Kuala Lumpur with BIKSS last week, he set up his streaming account on my phone where I have been getting my fix of smash bang crash! It's not the greatest acting, but hey, I'm not watching it for talent. Just the action. I love me a good car chase and some fake blood! 

Meanwhile I'm off to Genting Highlands with the sister this Friday (click here for a very brief youtube video showing the highlights)... but I'll unload the fotos from said KL trip before I leave. That's the thing tho, about going on frequent trips (because I'm a declutter freak!) - I really don't like having mixed vacation photos on my phone LOL. So I think I'll clear up the gallery tomorrow and post those as I save them to my backup drive. 

Stay tuned!

(That crazy colourful hotel is where we'll be staying!)

Also, post-steroid jab, the shoulder has been good. I can manage taking BASIC care of myself, altho I still can't reach across to scrub my left shoulder (I bought a long handled bath brush for that) or wear a bra the regular way cos I can't get far enough behind myself. But for most other things (washing dishes, doing laundry, sweeping the floor) I'm killing it! 

Well, at least I have a washing machine and a dryer to help with the dirty clothes!

In HRT news - we switched me over to Livial. Tibolone. And despite it not being a cyclical direct estrogen/progesteron medication with expected withdrawal bleed, I got my period last weekend. The doctor says give it 3-6 months to settle down. Okay then. Let's see...

This means I need to start watching my dates and weeks all over again... and here I thought I was done with that. Well, at least the NEXT trip we're planning won't clash with the next cycle. If the cycle plays nice and sticks to the plan that is. 

One can hope.

Adhesive Capsulitis

aka frozen shoulder.

I went and got my H+L (steroid jab, cortisone jab) today. 

It cost me a whopping 400 bucks. But it's going to be worth it! 

And a waterproof dressing on the injection site. It's all good. Especially since I mentioned to BIKSS that I wished he could be there with me. He'd just recovered from a bout of Covid, and today was his first day back at work. He showed up for me. He really did. I'm really touched! He came to meet me for lunch and then drove me to the clinic. I went up on my own tho cos parking was a real bitch. I told him no point waiting, just head back to the office. 

Then I ran errands, and he picked me up after work and we drove home together. 

Add a quickie before he had to run off to do HIS errands and all in all it turned out to be a rather splendid day! 

Audiobooks, Anniversary, Au Revoir, Ailments

Hello beautiful people in Blogland. 

I have been away from here for so long. Not because there isn't anything to write about, but because I've been so busy. 

CG1 is going back to visit her family for a month next week, so I've been helping with organising the tickets, the admin stuff (like re-entry permits, insurance for renewing employment permits, etc etc) and I've also been the one in charge of planning the last two trips to Kuching and Malacca so I have found myself in a heap of admin recently. 

Also, and perhaps the bigger reason why I haven't written as much, is because I have been hooked to my raunchy audiobooks. The Uptown Girls series is what I'm listening to right now. And there are plenty more such *ahem* "romantic" novels. I AM fussy about the narrator tho and will only listen to the ones read by Justine Eyre. 

That aside, we celebrated our 13th year at the beginning of this month. I can't believe what started out as a sorta kinda flingy thing has ended up the longest relationship of my life. It's not been without its fair share of fights and stressors, he's the stressor, then we fight. LOL 

Most recently we had another long discussion about the difference in the flow of information between us. I tell him everything and he tells me nothing. Why? We've worked out that it's a psychological, childhood trauma thing (he doesn't think anything he has to say will be a thing I would want to know... clearly he's no stranger to self-deprecating thinking), and after hashing it out over and over in various different permutations over the years, and most recently because I refused to just let it go and sweep it under the carpet and leave things alone (do we NEED more cliches?), I said we need to deal with this and find a solution or else it's going to be hanging over me like a storm cloud and I'll resent him for it as we move through the months to come. 

If I wanna know stuff, I could keep asking. But I wouldn't know what I don't know. Most recent example, the boys' trip to HK for the rugby 7s I thought he was going on ended up being a bunch of people, some he didn't know, two he met once, and his best friend, going to HK separately and with various combos of family (wife, solo, wife+kids... etc) and the guys (and on the last day, also the wives, maybe one maybe two... who knew?) would meet up at the games on the 3 days. How is that a boys' trip?

I mean, if it's a boys' trip I assumed the 4 of them would travel there together and share rooms or at least room in the same hotel.  Not be a total bunch of upwards of 10 people, all travelling on their own, with no "together" involvement except for meeting up at the games and eating before and after - and in different combinations of who's eating and who's not at that. Cos not everyone had meals together. They just came and went as it suited each of them.

So in that case, how am I to know to ask "Are the wives going, are the kids going, are you travelling together, are you rooming with Joe..." ? There are some things that I'm allowed to assume when I hear "Boys' trip to HK for the Rugby 7s", no? Why would I ask if the wives are going, if it's a boys' trip? Cos I imagine MY response to such a question would be "I said it was a BOYS' TRIP... why would the wives be going?" Evidently this is not the case when a guy says "boys' trip". 

I COULD just ask a bunch of questions everyday. What you doing? Where you at? What plans for the day? Saw anything? Ate yet? Anything exciting happening at work? Any accidents on the road? Any medical issues I should know about that suddenly happened today? I mean, it's bluddy ridiculous. I would resent it. He would resent the questioning. And I would get tired and bored.

OR. I could just ignore everything and take an "I'll just accept what you wanna tell me when you wanna tell me" approach. In the meantime I would ask myself why I was being so stupid and needy and clingy and telling you everything that's going on in my day when you clearly do not share the same level of communication. I would resent it, and curtail the information flow. And then we would have the same relationship you have with your wife. Don't ask don't tell, yes? 

It would be the end of us. I'm certain. 

Anyway. After a frustrating evening of going round and round in circles (see conversation below) the man had an epiphany. And was also overcome with a stroke of brilliance - he said (before sharing said epiphany with me) "And with this I feel like I'm going to talk myself right into a spot". Which he really did. 

Me - Why do I tell you stuff? Why do I inform you of this and that? 

Him - Because it's exciting to you and you want me to know.

Me - Ok, how is it exciting to tell you my friend wants to borrow money. Plus, it doesn't concern you, it doesn't make a difference to your life, it doesn't affect you at all. And still I tell you. Do you want to know such things? Should I not bother to tell you this kind of stuff? 

Him - No, I like hearing this stuff. 

Me - And I like hearing YOUR stuff.

Him - But I don't have interesting stuff to tell you... my day is boring and mundane. 

Me - And my friend wanting to borrow money is interesting how? Saying "I'm on my way back from work" is interesting how? Telling you all the things I tell you .. isn't it mundane too? 

** this is the part where he had his epiphany and said what he said about talking himself into a spot**

Him - It's not mundane because it pertains to YOU and what is pertinent to YOU or affects YOU or bothers YOU or involves YOU matters to ME. Cos it's YOU. 

Me - Tada! Now do you get it? 

He says he did. He looked really uncomfortable lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling, and I could see the gears turning in his brain. 

Well then, let's see. 

At least we got that sorted somewhat... before moving ahead into the next year. I'm not saying it's going to be all hunky dory now, but at least he's figured THAT one out. I'm sure there will be other blocks. It's not going to be a fix all. But I'm nothing if not tenacious and if I have to chip away at his traumas one psychological barrier at a time, then so be it. 

Bring it on! 

Haven't invested 13 years only to give up now... 

And speaking of anniversary, he got me another silver coin - 

It's so pretty! I bought him a kazoo. LOL. It hasn't arrived. But I can't wait for him get his hands on it and make all sorts of noise! 

In personal medical news - I've changed my HRT to tibolone. It's a drug that when metabolised by the body produces the hormones I need. Don't ask me how it works. I can't fathom it myself. But it's supposed to be better than the previous one I was taking. Best of all - no withdrawal bleed. But it's early days yet... I've only started taking it this week. Hopefully the aches and pains I get during the 'low dose' week on the triphasic pills won't be as pronounced. 

Speaking of hormones, I've been to see my physiotherapist cos my shoulder pain is getting more annoying. And I'm freezing up. Apparently there is a term for it in Chinese he says - the 50s Shoulder. Seems the changes in hormone levels affects the shoulder (specifically the shoulder joint, he doesn't know why, but it does) in some women and a LOT of women in this age group end up with a frozen shoulder. Yup. It's an 18-mth curse on average, sometimes shorter in some people, consisting of 4 phases. We all suspect (by we I mean me, my boss-cum-GP and physiotherapist) that I'm in phase 2. It started presenting in November, so at an average of 3 months per phase, I'm in the Freezing stage. 

The good news is that once it's actually in the Frozen stage, there is less pain, just stiffness and limited mobility. I can't wait for this shit to be done with. 

In travel news, if all goes to plan, I'll be hopping into Kuala Lumpur with BIKSS on the 15th of April cos he has a worktrip coming up. Fingers are crossed.

And now I will sleep. Here are some pics from the last month.. 

Lunch at an unexpected Vietnamese restaurant while waiting for my physio appt

Tonight's Peranakan Dinner Buffet

Melaka / Malacca last weekend

A simple explanation of where my people come from - Melaka is the birthplace of my great great great Granddad. I think. I can't remember how many "greats" there are. And it's too late in the evening and I'm too lazy to dig out the books to check. But yeah, that's where we come from originally.

The Melaka River (and a hotel on the other side... Casa del rio I think it's called)

Enjoying a Peranakan Lunch

Clockwise from left :

Bak wan kepiting

Nangka lemak

Beef rendang

Cincaluk ulam

Babi tohay

Center : ngoh hiang with cili cuka

My own version of nangka lemak which BIKSS tried today - 

Young jackfruit in a coconut milk gravy, with prawns

on the river cruise

 

And that's all for now... I shall come back with MORE news!