Pre CNY Snacking, CNY Movie and Rose Gold Pieces

It's about 3 weeks to Chinese New Year. I've bought a couple of bottles of snackeroos. They're not gonna last till then but anticipation eating is a major part of the festivities!

I'm munching on this now - salted egg yolk powder dusted on fish crackers!

Seaweed + wanton skin crackers - not something BIKSS is a fan of I'm afraid. 

More for me then. I went through half the bottle at school yesterday.

In other CNY-related activities, I caught a Chinese film recently. When I was a wee lass I remember getting hauled down to the nearby cinema with my aunts, uncles and cousins to catch the latest Chinese film every Chinese New Year. For the rest of the year we'd watch the Hollywood movies in English, but once a year, at CNY we'd have to suffer a Chinese 'show'. That's what the adults called it. "Let's all go see Chinese show this Saturday," someone would announce, and that was that. We didn't get a choice. I guess it was an effort to do something Chinese-y altogether. Who knows. (Mind you we're Chinese Peranakan, but we all spoke Peranakan Malay and almost NO Chinese. So this tradition made ZERO sense to me.)

Anyway, last Friday BIKSS and I went to watch an Andy Lau / Tony Leung movie. They're veteran Hong Kong singers and actors... old school stars whom I watch even though I'm primarily English speaking, and while I can speak Chinese it's probably not enough to understand a whole film without reading the subtitles. 

We splurged on some "premier" seats, which included adjustable leather seats in twos, small panels on the side so you don't have to deal with other people to the side of you, a call button if you wanna get food or drinks, and a blanket! 

Looks something like that - 

The movie itself wasn't awesome... but I wasn't there for the plot. (Altho' I do prefer an action flick.)

My jewellery kick is still alive and, um, kicking... I'm afraid. A few more pieces landed in my mailbox yesterday. 

2 piece set - Zirconia & Rose Gold (which is my preferred metal colour these days)

A Van Cleef inspired bracelet (left) and an infinity design ring (right) 

All for the low low price of under $10. Sure, they're worthless in terms of resale / trade-in value, but for everyday mucking around, they're pretty enough to get the job done! Besides, I'm not a fan of the diamond industry. I have a few pieces from when I was young and clueless and would only wear real diamonds and gold, the kind you can sell (and I have sold some pieces I never wear anymore for a decent profit) but these days they make such high-quality-looking pieces that it doesn't bother me one bit to be seen with 'fake' jewellery. Besides, half the time my friends can't tell - especially if you wear them alongside the real ones. If Jackie Kennedy could do it, so can we! (That's your fashion tip for the day!)

That's it for this week's round up. I'm off to shower and get ready to take the mama out to the grocery store for a quick walkabout. The weather finally seems to be sunny enough for her to leave the house (it's been raining all week!) so we're going to take advantage of the clear skies!

Enjoy this close up of the salted egg yolk chips!

Recap, Rx, Restart

Twas the Friday After Christmas...

- I got my very first floaters in my right eye. "Ageing" my boss says. Pfft. Apparently in my case, it's an event. Posterior vitreous detachment or PVD. My vitreous gel is condensing and detaching itself from my retina. It takes about 3 mths for this to sort itself out, by which time clear vitreous fluid will have filled up the space vacated by the vitreous gel and all will be right again. Only time will tell.

- BIKSS went to see my boss to get his health screen report looked at. The centre where he had it done isn't very good with follow ups. And I don't trust them to explain the results anyway. All they told him to do was lose some weight. Tell us something we DON'T know.  My boss was reassuring. The lumps in the thyroid - don't worry about them. The kidney cyst that was there is now no longer there so it's all good. The fatty liver isn't fat enough that it shows up in the liver function tests so just ... well, lose some weight. To be specific, lose some fat. Muscle weight is fine. His blood sugar is trending upwards despite dietary changes. So the boss things after a 6 mth trial of going to the gym more regularly he should recheck his veinous sugar, A1c and potassium. Yeah, kidney function is perfect. But potassium is elevated. The boss thinks its spurious, most likely caused by lysis (the rupturing of red blood cells and the release of their contents into surrounding fluid eg blood plasma). Since potassium is stored in the cells, if they weren't careful with the blood draw or while inverting the tubes, it could very easily cause all the stored potassium to leak out and give an inaccurately elevated reading. 

Also he did all his Hep A and Hep B jabs but still doesn't seem to have developed any Hep B antibodies. Boss thinks it might have been because there wasn't enough time between the final dose and the serology test. 

So that was SOME good news. As for the blood sugar, well, if the next test doesn't show improvement, then it's likely he'll be put on Metformin. Apparently it's pretty good for managing pre-diabetes. 

- I did my blood test in the clinic too. I'll have results next week some time. The lab called today to say they needed more blood. My boss thinks they fucked up cos they said they had enough to run half the tests but needed more for the remainder. He is convinced he gave them more than enough. Besides, my colleague did her labs too and he's adamant he got more blood out of me than her. (She's a tiny thing with tiny veins and not a lot of blood.) I'll just let him draw more blood on Tuesday. No biggie. 

- We sprung for a last hotpot buffet of the year. At an old Thai-Chinese restaurant that had been around since before I was born. It's not popular with the hip crowd, but older folk still bring their families there for big feasts. 

Tom Yum Soup / Chicken Soup with Rice Wine

Chicken tossed in rice wine and fired up! Look at the flames (the bottom right pic has orange licks flying right off the edge of the photo)!  Once it's semi cooked it gets tossed into the hotpot.

This isn't part of the buffet - it's a one-platter complimentary 

seafood combination of lobster, abalone and scallop.

Fish, prawns, beef, clams, salmon, mushrooms, veggies, crayfish, quail eggs, fishballs filled with roe, bamboo clams, sotong balls, scallop-in-shell, and (below) fish paste and prawn paste.

If you've never seen this done before, it can be quite exciting. 

The guy grabs some hot soup and pours it over the 'plastered' fish paste, cooking it bit by bit till it's ready to be scraped off the plate.  The prawn paste (bottom right) gets 'chopped' and pushed into the pot with a spatula.

I believe the last time I saw this being done was probably 30 years ago. It's not a popular sight. Only a handful of restaurants still do it this way today. 

- We went shopping and both of us had a lovely time roaming around Marks and Spencer. Of course I bought more chips. And a black tee.

- We also went to an art exhibition by a local painter. BIKSS wasn't jumping for joy but I enjoyed looking at the art. 

- Caught Aquaman in the evening. Skipped dinner and settled for just popcorn instead. 

- Came home to find that these had been delivered. They're gorgeous!

- Sex that night was great fun. Fingers. Vibe. Squirt. More like dribble. It was strange. But we were listening to "sexy" music on Youtube and I did have a lovely day. Plus there was no more worry about BIKSS's potassium scare and thyroid lumps so maybe I was in a really good headspace. Whatever it is, as we were talking about the bed-wetting event later he referred to it as a 1ce-every-4-years event by my count. I remember two instances in the past, he, one. We said we'd check the blog. I did. I win. Well, one was intermittent leaks, not a squirt. This one was a flow. Warm, wet, and requiring a heap of towels afterward. So far they've all been very different from each other. 

Maybe it's my body getting ready to end this year and start a new one. Going out with a gush, as it were.

Happy New Year everyone. May 2024 be full of fun sex, clear skies, and full pockets. Plus whatever alcohol rocks your boat! 

Tuesday Toons and Food Updates - The International Edition

Wow I totally forgot that I had a Tuesday Toon tag. So here's me doing a mini revival with these toons... and a pic. 

Now that we're clear on how things work on earth, let's have a look at what's going on in space, the final frontier... 

I giggled. We call it a lift here too. Thank the British occupation.

But seriously folks, if everyone was a little more honest, we'd all get along better. This two sure seem to have figured out the secret of a long and happy coupling!

If he actually has a farm and she, an animal shelter, then well, that would be a hilarious story!

In personal pics, here's a set of socks we saw at Marks & Spencer when we went roaming last Friday - 

We had a quick "business lunch" at a restaurant in the mall where we were going to watch Mission Impossible. They have these specials here, it's called an Executive Set Lunch, meant to be quick and easy, comes in a set, is cheaper than what's on the ala carte menu, and features limited options presumably so the chef can prep the standard soups and salads ahead of time for you to fit a full 3 course meal in the span of an hour's lunch break - do you have this where you live?

Minestrone soup and salad

A seafood plate for me and some oven baked seabass for BIKSS

After our movie we went walking about a nearby mall and were headed to a Vietnamese casual bistro thing when BIKSS got distracted by a Korean hotpot restaurant. So we landed up there instead. It was our first time in this chain and probably won't be our last. He wanted some Korean fried chicken. I must have bungled up the order cos we waited and waited but no chicken came. Halfway thru our pot I said to BIKSS that if they forgot the chicken let's just skip it and not remind them. Cos we were both already pretty full by then. Turns out my chicken order didn't go thru - those online order apps can be a bit of a challenge LOL - so no harm no foul. We'll just come back another day for chicken!

Beef hotpot with tofu, mushrooms, veggies and sweet potato noodles, and a Korean veggie pancake

(As luck would have it, when I went to the supermarket the following day they had frozen K-pancakes in 3 different flavours on 50% off for members of their loyalty programme, so I picked up a bunch of packets! I told my colleague about it at work today and she was quite keen on getting some - so I went back again this afrernoon to pick up another batch for her. I took the opportunity to take mum out for a quick bus ride to the mall and back, and I think she was happy for the little excursion! The hallucinations she used to experience from what we suspected was over-stimulation seems to be gone now, thankfully, so maybe we'll be able to take her on outings a little more often. This month we took her out twice, besides her daily park visits I mean. I'm hoping to make it a regular event. We'll see. She'd have to be home within 3 hours or so cos we want to keep to her potty schedule, and public restrooms are gross as fuck!)

I digress. Where was I?

Right. More food. We went to catch Indiana Jones last week, and thanks to the movie I had a hankering for some Mediterranean food. So we went back to our little Turkish (?) place for some baba ganoush and a grilled chicken something something. I forget the name. 

It was delish. But I think my tummy's not used to having rice no more. Cos I had me a belly-ache all the way home. And it's not the first time it's happened after a rice-containing meal either. Bleugh.

And speaking of eggplant, we walked into a random pizza place last Tuesday. We had intended to try out a place that I found online, but when we got there we didn't really like the scene (and BIKSS was NOT impressed by the waitress who came out to seat us) so we wandered about a little bit and noticed another Italian place. They're really good. I mean, really good. I think we've found our new go-to Pizza and Tiramisu place. Since our last Italian place closed down, we haven't found a new favourite. Until now. Yup. I daresay the Tiramisu here is even better than the other one!

But I am jumping the gun. We had pizza before dessert, of course, and we almost didn't have dessert. But I'm glad we did. 

We noticed that one of the pizzas on their menu featured a honey glaze. Oh, could I have a 4 cheese with honey instead, you think? BIKSS said no harm asking. So we called the guy over and asked if he would give us honey with any random pizza (not just the one stated on the menu), Pizza 4Ps style (see Vietnam trip post). He didn't bat an eyelid. Sure, he said, no problem. On the side, or dribbled over, whatever you prefer! That was good enough for me. (It's only a thing cos I've actually tried asking for honey at another establishment and they said no. Pfft.)

4 cheese pizza with a side of honey (left) & eggplant parmigiana (right). Both were so, so good!

PHEW! And now I'm done with my food-foto dump. I've been carrying all those pics around for longer than I usually do! 

But that sure was some variety huh! I'm glad I live in a place where it's relatively easy to find decent food from around the world! 

As for today's chip pic - I recently discovered this on an online snack shop! That's Lay's hot pot flavoured chips for you. I can NOT imagine what it would taste like, and I'm not itching to try any either! I prefer my hotpot to be made of actual soup, TYVM.

Labyrinthitis, Syncope, and Coping with Frequent Fainty Feelings

That first one is what I'm dealing with according to my boss. 

I had a facial yesterday at one of those in-and-out Korean facial places at the mall near me. It's got all the different attachments on a fancy machine operated by a therapist / beautician (I don't know what they're actually called) - one for scrubbing, one's an ultrasonic vibration thing, one blasts oxygen at you (I quite enjoyed that!) and one is a two headed ball massager with radio frequency waves to stimulate collagen production or something like that. 

How spacey is THAT!

It was zero trauma to the skin, and I walked out of it happy as a lark. 

I will still need to do a traditional facial if I wanna deal with whatever milia seeds pop up again, I currently don't have as many as when I went for the last facial at my aesthetic clinc. But perhaps this will do as a maintenance program cos I can't imagine have a week's downtime waiting for the spots to heal every month!

As I was in the queue waiting for my bus I began to feel faint. I waited a minute but it didn't go away and I remembered I had rushed out of the house without dinner.

So I got out of the queue, bought myself a sugary drink at a nearby stall and gulped it down. I wasn't sure if it was low BP or low glucose; in any case a sweetened beverage would sort both those problems out, at least in the short term. 

My bus came so I got on - I mean, I had to get home SOMEHOW right? - and I felt slightly better so I figured the quicker I got home, the better. 

But after a couple of stops I began to feel icky again so I started fidgeting. 

Why? To get the blood out of my legs and back into my head. This is something I'd been taught ages and ages ago. I could also do jumping jacks. But wrong time, wrong place. 

“Clench your gluteals, your quads and your calves to try and physically squeeze blood back up from your lower limbs.” ~Dr Boon Lim (from the article I linked below).

The other way, of course, is to lie down with my feet elevated. But I wasn't gonna do that in a public bus... and besides, I was getting off in 2 stops! 

Read this for more about vasovagal syncope - the reason I pass out so easily. Cutting out alcohol (yes, completely) has solved the problem where that trigger is concerned, but apparently "Hydration, heat, emotional state, infection and menstruation are all factors – and if several occur at the same time, there’s a higher likelihood of fainting." 

It HAS been hot, I haven't been drinking nearly enough fluids (as I would like to) and I haven't had chips in a few days (so, no salt there). Plus I generally don't use salt when I cook so I'm pretty sure my sodium intake is way lower than the average Jane. Increasing salt and water intake also keeps a person un-fainty. Another thing I'd been taught ages and ages ago. One increases blood pressure, the other increases blood volume - both useful things for keeping the blood in the brain. 

So anyway I get home and all is well. I check my glucose and it's normal for peak levels. I eat and get water down my hatch, shower and head for bed. 

This morning I was at breakfast with the godson - I made sure to eat something with carbs, protein and salt - a BBQ pork bun from the dim sum stand (Yes I know Gd Friday is a day of abstinence and all that but hello, fainty woman here...) - and had a Milo for added sugary measure. 

And after half an hour my head threatened to hit the floor again. So I walked home with the godson, took my BP and post-prandial glucose and everything was fine. Hmmm. Strange. 

I went to lie down and then the nausea hit. I texted the boss, told him briefly what was happening and he advised I pop a stemetil. So I did. I felt better after 10 mins. So I stuck a mask on (in case it was viral) and headed to his place to have class with his kids, after clearing it with him of course. He had them wear masks too, just in case it was viral LOL. 

When we were done he came to the piano room and after listening to all my symptoms at length pronounced - Viral Labyrinthitis. That's the first time I'd ever heard of it. Thank my sniffly nose he says. Googling brought this up - 

Labyrinthitis is an inner ear infection characterized by inflammation of the labyrinth. The labyrinth is the inner ear system responsible for your hearing and sense of balance. When your labyrinth or one of the nerves inside your labyrinth is inflamed or irritated, hearing and balance can be affected. This is because your brain tries to make sense of mismatched information between your healthy labyrinth or nerve and your infected one.

While labyrinthitis can affect people of all ages, the condition is most common in adults between the ages of 30 and 60. People assigned female at birth (AFAB) are twice as likely as people assigned male at birth (AMAB) to develop labyrinthitis. 

(Isn't that such a cute picture? For something that could potentially be very serious?!)

Also -  Having a cold or flu can trigger labyrinthitis. You also have a higher risk of developing labyrinthitis if you:

• Smoke.
• Are under a lot of stress.
• Drink a lot of alcohol.
• Are chronically tired.
• Have a history of allergies.

Labyrinthitis itself isn’t contagious. However, if you catch the common cold or a flu from someone else, it could trigger labyrinthitis.

He doesn't think my frequent ahems and other bugs is a post-Covid issue. He suspects everyone's immune system is compromised due to the lack of exposure to bad stuff while we were all masked up. He may have a point. I know [ I ] definitely feel LESS robust! 

Hopefully once my body has readjusted to all the germs it's taking in I'll be back to my usual self again.

Meanwhile, I've been having David Bowie on my mind all evening... 😄 (And if you didn't get that reference, you're too young!)

Enjoy today's chip pic - 

In a Rush - Tahini, Bananas, Wraps and John Wick

I went to the store to pick up some tahini after work cos this recipe :

3 Ingredient Tahini Bread

Or watch the video if that's more your thing - 

Since I was there I decided to pick up the ripest bananas I could find too, because - 

Almond Flour Banana Bread

(It takes longer to scroll thru the website to get to the recipe than to actually mix all the ingredients together, let me tell you! It's that easy!)

I've made 2 in the past, and one ended up in BIKSS' office for easy lunches when he doesn't have time (or is too lazy) to run out for actual lunch. But today's loaf was for the sister who said (at noon!) she was coming round this afternoon to visit the mama. I never know in advance when she's coming, so it's not like I can bake one for her a day before or anything. Since I had almond meal I decided today would be a good day to make her a loaf. Sigh... the things I do for the (pre-)diabetics in my life!

I don't have a pic of the almond banana loaf, but I do have one of the tahini bread :

I got back in time to start the mixes and chuck everything in the oven before my 330 class!

And why the rush to make the loaf? 

Excuse the bad English. When I'm rushing I fall into a local form of speech. It generally involves leaving out some of the pronouns, prepositions, and other joining words. 

Anyway, what happened was, BIKSS suggested we watch John Wick tonight... and I stupidly forgot that I promised someone I'd do a food-rescue at 645 today when I said yes. (And because I had class before that I couldn't do the rescue earlier on my own either.) So he booked tickets. Which I was glad for (until I remembered the rescue!) cos the man is notorious for preferring the "let's get tickets when we're there" option. Not something I'm keen on because some movies are impossible to get tickets to there-and-then.

But the thing that I was glad for also put a kink in our plans - we had time for dinner + movie or rescue + movie but not all 3. So in the end I suggested making wraps for eating along the way so that we could save on dinner time. He was so chill about it and even sounded enthusiastic about the wraps!

In this respect we're TOTAL opposites. Fondles plans. BIKSS goes with the flow. When the plan falls apart Fondles panics. BIKSS just shrugs and says... "what plan? we had a plan?" LOL.

And so, not only did I mess up his dinner plans, I had the cheek to ask him to ferry me to pick up some other stuff from another rescuer AFTER dinner too! Hahahha. The things Daddies do for little girls. 

But now that everything has been solved, I'm feeling excited about tonight! 

Class is done, the bread is packed, the wraps are made, (I wrote this post!) and I even managed to pick up some mild facial cleanser for him cos he's been having a bit of dermatitis around his temples and behind his ears.... I'm beginning to think his body doesn't like dealing with stress - so his blood sugar goes wonky, the pressure goes up and the skin decides to break out! 

Let's hope a movie will help :)

Today's chip pic - 

Snow Jelly or Hashima

Last night we went for dinner at a Tim Ho Wan dim sum restaurant. It's part of a chain that started out in Hongkong and the original Mongkok restaurant earned itself a Michelin Star within a year of opening.

It IS very good. And BIKSS enjoys their baked char siew buns.

He also likes the garlic pork chops and steamed dumplings in chilli oil 

I didn't have any of those dumplings cos I wasn't sure my tummy (or my sinuses) would be too happy. After Covid I found that the slightest hint of chilli heat would irritate my nose and throat and then I'd end up with a lot of phlegm and can be heard coughing from a mile away. 

The other thing, the tummy thing, is cos I'm trying out a dark plum concentrate detox programme that is supposed to help clear out the bowels. So far it's not bad. I mean, I go daily and didn't think there would be too much for it to excavate from my intestines. But on day 1 I had +2 poops aside from my usual one, and on day 2 I had +1 poop. It's quite a gentle stirring and not the crampy diarrhoea type of emergency toilet runs that a lot of detox teas seem to cause. 

Anyway since I was on the plum detox I didn't want the chilli to aggravate things. 

I ordered some steamed beancurd rolls and spinach dumplings and that was our surprisingly filling dinner. 

While chit chatting at the restaurant to kill some time before our movie (Black Adam!), I mentioned to BIKSS that I recently got a couple of bottles of ready-to-drink Hashima. What's that, he asked. I looked it up and read him the description I got off Wiki - 

Hashima, or Hasma, is a Chinese and widely Central Asian dessert ingredient made from the dried fatty tissue found near the fallopian tubes of true frogs, typically the Asiatic grass frog (Rana chensinensis). Because of its whitish appearance, hasma is often called "snow frog fat". Hasma is relatively expensive, so it is reserved for special occasions and in high-end restaurants. 

(It's also sometimes called Snow Jelly or Snow Frog Jelly, and the Western pharmaceutical term for it is Oviductus Ranae.)

He gave me a look of faux (or not so faux) shock and horror. 

Wanna try some? 

What here? Now?

Why not! I'm pretty certain we can find some at the traditional Chinese tonic shop we passed by earlier. I saw one on the ground floor innit?

Now the thing about our malls is that because we're smack in the middle of South East Asia, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) shops are all over the place. A long time ago they were mom-and-pop shops in residential estates, but in the last couple of decades we've seen brands go upmarket and open up branches in all the popular malls. 

They look like a Chinese herb version of Boots or GNC you know? Something like this - 

  

or this

Anyway he gave me a look and with a great deal of resignation said "You know you're probably one of, wait... no, you're the ONLY person who can get me to eat or drink weird things. Frog fallopian tubes? Ugh."

They're not fallopian tubes. It's the fatty tissue found NEAR the fallopian tubes. 

What does it taste like? 

Like bird's nest. You like bird's nest right? It's sweet and everything. Like jelly. 

Yeah, but only because by the time I found out what bird's nest was I had already decided I liked it. 

Great. Let's go. I'm pretty sure (shopname) sells them in ready-to-drink bottles. That's how I got mine at (differentshopname). Just pop the lid and drink!

They did indeed sell it there. So I bought a bottle (just under $10 for 230ml) which I shared with BIKSS. 

This one is red date flavoured.

Phew, that's the dates then, I thought it was the frog thing. 

Er, no. It's NOT the dates. The dates are what they use to make the syrup. That IS the frog thing. 

The lighting's not the best but I managed to get a light UNDER the bottle so it might be easier to see the jelly-type things. 

He was pretty calm about it. I took a sip, passed him the bottle, he took a sip and passed it back to me, then I took a gulp so that I would get some of the hashima, and he did the same. Surprisingly he wasn't too repulsed by the thought of frog fallopian tubes (as he calls it) in his mouth and managed to drink the thing. 

Not bad right? 

Actually if I didn't know what it was I'd probably be playing with it, like squishing the jelly through my teeth.. 

Haha, exactly! That's what I do!

I found THIS LINK for a hashima dessert recipe - there are some clearer pictures there of what it looks like and how it's cooked traditionally.

(from julieolive.co.uk)

And if you want to know why I got some for myself in the first place, well, Western medicine doesn't seem to be able to solve my post-Covid coughs, so I thought I'd try some Asian / Chinese remedies. 

According to this website -  Hasma is taken for medicinal purposes in Traditional Chinese medicine. Reported benefits of eating hasma include replenishing vital essence in the lungs, kidneys, and improving skin complexion. Hasma is also prescribed to treat respiratory symptoms such as coughing, hemoptysis and night sweats due to tuberculosis. Young children are however not recommended to take it, as the high contents of hormones might cause puberty to begin early.

As I'm way past puberty and could always do with better skin and lungs and kidneys, why not right? 

And if you're still not convinced, here's some science to back up its claims of immunomodulatory, antioxidant, antifatigue, antiaging, estrogen-like, hepatoprotective, hypolipidemic, antiosteoporotic, antidepressant, antitumor, antitussive, expectorant, anti-inflammatory, and antiasthmatic activities! 

That's a lot of stuff for one little frog's oviducts to do! What about you, would you ever give Snow Jelly a try... now that you know what it's made of?

LBD : A Rant and an Update + Food Mash Up

LBD. Not little black dress. I have a few of those. They're collecting dust. But I digress. 

LBD. Lewy Body Dementia. The thing that Robin Williams had. Which they discovered after they poked around in his brainstem post mortem. 

Characterised by - 

Fast progression.

✔️

✔️

Presents with Delirium, Delusion, Hallucinations and Paranoia.✔️✔️

Depression and Anxiety.✔️

Losing trust in family members / known loved ones.✔️

Forgetting / not recognising where 'home' is.✔️✔️

Believing that characters on TV or the reflection in a mirror are talking to them. ✔️✔️✔️

Doesn't respond well to typical antipsychotics in dementia/BPSD treatment.  ✔️✔️✔️

Sleep disorder. ✔️✔️✔️

Moving and talking with very distinct precise movements in their sleep.✔️✔️✔️

Daytime sleepiness (admittedly this happens not only in LBD but is usually more pronounced).✔️

Tremors aka Parkinsonism.✔️

Staring blankly, expressionless, seems to be asleep but eyes are wide open. ✔️✔️

Episodes of inability to move / rigid muscles. ✔️

.

.

.

.

And that's what my boss and I both think the mother has. 

Since I last updated, she's managed to leave the house then get stuck outside at the gate cos she ran out of furniture to hold on to for support. She was unable to tell the difference between wanting to pee and poop. But now it has deteriorated to the point that she doesn't even know she's done a poop in her diaper. Oh, yeah, we put her in diapers yesterday because for two mornings she's peed herself cos she couldn't make it to the commode in time. It was meant to be only for nights, as we are usually able to get her on the commode 2-3 hourly in the daytime. In the past she could say when she felt an urge to go potty - granted she mixes up the pee and poop bit, but she's managed to say she needs the loo. But since that's no longer the case, we're going to have to do the diaper thing 24/7. Up to 2 days ago she could stand up and "help" us help her by holding on to her frame whenever we needed to move her from seat to loo to bed etc. But by yesterday she was unable to lift herself OR maintain a standing position after being lifted off the chair. 

I'm looking for assistance for my carer on weekday mornings because it's gonna be tough for her to move the mother on her own, this has left me frustrated. I rang two well known agencies, they are sorry to inform me that due to a manpower shortage they can't schedule an eldercare sitter / assistant for me everyday. The most they can do is 2 days a week and for 1-2 hours each time. I could get two days  from one agency and another two days from the other. BUT the problem is that if I apply my subsidy to one, I am no longer eligible for subsidy from the other. BUT IT'S NOT LIKE I DON'T WANT TO ENGAGE SOMEONE FROM JUST ONE AGENCY RIGHT? THEY'RE THE ONES WHO CAN'T PROVIDE THE STAFF.  If I do this my cost is something like $800 a month. That's money I don't have. The brother suggested going to my council member to ask if I could get special permission (the subsidy is a government thing...) to apply said subsidy to both service providers. I'll have to find out how to do that. 

Oh, yes. I told the siblings. I'm desperate.

The brother has been (I say this while choking) remarkably helpful and understanding. He will try and look for someone who is willing to freelance in the mornings for a not-so-high-fee. Initially he said his wife would come by on alternate Thursdays when my carer is off in the afternoons to assist with transferring mum too. But later I learned that she's got a wonky arm and can't lift or put any weight on it. THEN WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT OF COMING OVER? I asked. With one of us on either side of mum that's 20kg of weight we each have to lift off a chair onto a bed or commode innit? Oh, he says. She thought it was just like giving her an arm (the not-injured one) to hold on to. TSK. Don't you think I could manage that on my own? 

The sister will pray for us. She's got 2 different prayer groups praying for the mother. Yippe kai yay. And she'll try and get a job. And give me money from whatever job she gets if she can get one. Part time of course. Cos she's not doing well sleep-wise what with the diabetes keeping her up and all. (Why she can't just come here and help us I don't know.) So THAT'S a dead end, as always. 

Meanwhile I don't have to solve the alternate Thursday afternoon problem for another week. What I DO need is help come Monday morning. 

Gah. 

The plus in this is that my carer doesn't think it's TOO urgent as she says she can still manage to get mum to hug her enough to transfer her. She puts her arm around mum's torso and supports her legs with one knee. Um. How? How do you do that, teach me. She did. We both decided it's not as easy for me even tho I'm bigger and stronger. BECAUSE I'm bigger. I would have to bend down really low (centre of gravity anyone?) to lift mum and I'm too wide for the mother to hug me tightly enough - she can't get a good grip. 

I've spent the day looking for other agencies and signing up for a bunch of apps. But it's all gonna end up looking like 70-80 bucks for 2 hours. That's like 1.5k a month or so. At that rate I may as well just quit work. Cos it's sure as hell more than what I make even. 

I'm tired now. Physically and mentally. I'm going to have dinner, shower and then run out at 10 to meet a couple of my girlfriends to unload this shit on them. 

Meanwhile in other news, I am now in love with Legurme's beans and mexican sauce. Got it on our overnight trip and now I have no way of getting more. 

But since there was a Guzman near my piano class on Wednesday BIKSS and I ended up having dinner there. 

Mini burrito chicken bowl, and 2 soft shell fish tacos. That's mine on the bowl. BIKSS was busy inhaling his. 

Last week we went to watch Top Gun too. I was 13 when the first movie came out. And I'd been so out of it the first I heard of a sequel was when we were on vacay 8 days ago. Suddenly I felt like I was really out of touch with the world. Talk about a reality check. 

Anyway it was fun. The music's still good. Tom Cruise is still very fuckable. (I was 13 when I first saw him, come on... you don't forget that kind of fan-ism.) I wonder how much CGI they did to touch up his wrinkles. Or maybe it's fillers. Good make up? Lighting? 

We had dinner at a foodcourt in the same mall as the movie theatre... popiah and herbal pork bone soup - Malaysia style!

One of the better ones I've had.

GASP. Is that.... Rice???

Yes that's half a portion for each of us, altho' I gave up after a couple of spoonfuls. 

These days 2-3 spoons of rice is about all I can handle. The soup was pretty good too.

And now I'm thinking about those Mexican beans again. Pfft. I want more!