Full Moon

Yamaha Junior Music Course (JMC) - Book 3

Gold Digging Session

Introduction to Mandarin Classes For Std 1/2010 Pupils

The PTA of the primary school Ian goes to next year has organized a pre-Mandarin class to expose the students to Mandarin classes before the school starts. From the school's previous record, majority of their standard 1 students are of English speaking family background. Therefore, to enable the students to have a better grasp and understanding of Mandarin, they have decided to introduce these classes for the benefits of these pupils.

It will be for a duration of 15 days from 9am to 12noon, Monday to Friday, starting from 21 November until 10 December 2009. I quickly registered Ian in the hope that he will gain something that benefits him from attending these classes.

What Is He So Engrossed With?

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JC's Sports Day

Prizes for the winners

Ian'a class teacher tagging wristbands according to their individual team colour

6 yr olds' Marching Procession

Yeah, I won a medal!!

Ian with his teammate, Jonathan

Victory!!

Lastly, some don't know what "kung fu" act to wrap up the event.

We were hesitant to let Ian to participate in his kindy's Sports Day initially because from what we read from the newspaper, the confirmed cases of H1N1 was escalating and seemed running wild as the day drew nearer. He insisted of going as he was determined to get a medal (O.o.) and having had practised at kindy daily for the past 2 weeks that we finally gave in.

The sports day was held at SJK(C) Yuk Chai in Taman Mayang Jaya last Saturday. Upon reaching there, we were directed to a booth near the entrance to submit the portion of bookmark printed with chronicles of event given earlier to qualify us for the lucky draw and 3 guessing games. Despite not winning any prizes, it was fun guessing the total numbers of candies, chocolates and peanuts kept in individual jars.

I then walked Ian to the kids' tent to get ready for the event and I then snapped some photos before walking to the parents' tent. The attendance was unexpectedly good and not slightly hindered by the H1N1 pandemic with families seen tagging along the grandparents as well.

Hubby joined me not long before "Clig Clog Farmers" games played by Ian and his classmates started. Prior to that, there was speeches given by JC's principal, the director and the Chief Pastor before the marching procession performed by individual classes from 3 yr to 6 yr olds. The 6 yr olds then performed the Cheer performance.

Ian, who was in green team came up 2nd runner up in the game and everyone in the team brought home a bronze medal. Look at those happy faces in the photos, lol..

Hubby participated in the rope pulling game and eventhough his team lost, both the winning and losing team took home a small gift each. haha... Everyone is a winner and going home full handed.

It downpoured towards the last game and the event has to be delayed until the sky has cleared up but it still drizzled after a while and a decision was soon made to have the the prize presentation inside the tent instead.

To wrap up the event, each of the kids was presented with a goodie bag to take home and that put a big smile on everyone's face.

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My Cuppa Coffee @Old Town

Pardon me for the empty bowl supposedly filled with 2 kampung eggs but went into my tummy too soon before this photo was snapped. Hehehe...


Old Town is one the places I patron besides McD and KFC during Ian's school day and I usually have 3 hours to kill before he finishes school. This time, I ordered their set breakfast 1, added RM1 for a glass of cold white coffee and paid RM6.05 with tax included, not bad with 3 hrs complimentary wifi thrown in, lol.

Daddy, Don't Eat Too Much

Fei Lou, this is a message brought to you by your dear 6 yr old son with no single editing or influence by the mommy.

It really touched my heart after reading his note to hubby. At this young age, he is capable of putting what he has seen and observed into words, seeing and feeling the pain of poh poh after having been diagnosed with colon cancer, underwent a major surgery and now undergoing cycles after cycles of chemotherapy.

I know he would not want to see any of our family members falling sick anymore and having to make endless trips in and out of the hospital.

My dear boy, Daddy & Mommy love you....

Chemotherapy Induced Constipation

Mama experienced constipation right after her 1st chemo cycle's drug infusion and from taking of pre and post chemo anti-nausea drugs such as Granisetron (Kytril), Ondansetron (Zofran) and Dexamethasone (Decadron). The first two anti-nausea drugs could well be the culprit for the constipation as this was one of the common side effects.

Mama did not have bowel movement until the next day when she noticed bright red blood in her stool. That scared the hell out of us as she told us that the toilet bowl was actually all red when she looked into it.

I have added a lot of high fibre food in mom's daily diet and kept reminding her to take lots of fluids as constipation was anticipated in patients undergoing chemotherapy but blood in the stool was not common though.

I quickly looked up on the internet and found some useful information:

1. 
   
   Hemorrhoids (also called piles) - Enlarged veins in the lower part of the rectum or anus
2. 
   
   Anal fissures - Small cracks or tears around the anus which can be caused by forceful or large bowel movements
3. 
   
   Infection or disease in the GI (gastrointestinal tract) - Bacterial infections, stomach ulcers, or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
4. 
   
   Tumors or cancer of the GI tract - Polyps or colon cancer. Cramps in relation to bright red rectal bleeding are suggestive of a partial colonic obstruction and especially suggest cancer.

Passing bright red blood usually suggests that the blood is coming from the large bowel or the rectum.

Hemorrhoids can be internal or external and are often caused by struggling when trying to defecate. You can't always feel them, and they don't always hurt when you sit. Mom felt straining around the anus during bowel movement and this suggested hemorrhoid.
Point 3 was ruled out because mom did not have any pain or dizziness from the bleeding.

I took mom back to the oncology clinic and Dr Lim, the MO on duty, performed a anoscopy on her. During the anoscopy, the doctor used a short, rigid, hollow tube (anoscope) and a nurse assisting him holding a torch light to look at the last 2" of mom's colon (anal canal). According to the dr, anoscopy can be done at any time because it does not require any special preparation (enemas or laxatives) to empty the colon.

The doctor told me that he noticed some enlarged veins in the lower part of mom's rectum and it could be due to internal hemorrhoid where the patient herself could not feel and did not even realise its presence. He wanted me to mention this during the follow-up appointment with mom's surgeon in two weeks' time to perform another anoscope to confirm his findings.

I asked for some stool softeners to help mom in bowel movements and the doctor prescibed Lactulose. Lactulose works by increasing the water content and volume of the stools in the bowel, making them softer and easier to pass. It is made up of sugar molecules and is broken down by the bacteria that live in the lower part of the gut. This leads to the contents of the gut becoming more acidic, which reduces the absorption of a chemical called ammonia. The presence of ammonia in the gut causes water to be drawn into the lower bowel. This increases the amount of water in the stools, softening them and making them easier to pass, thus relieving constipation. It can take up to 48 hours for the lactulose to have an effect.

I bought a bottle of Del Monte prune juice just before mom started her 2nd chemo cycle. She has been taking half a cup of prune juice together with 1 teaspoonful of L-Glutamine powder (known for prevention of neuropathy which I intend to blog about it later) twice a day on empty stomach since a day prior to her 2nd cycle and it has been a week now and the result was fantastic. She has not missed her daily bowel movement and has not have blood in her stool till now (knock on wood). She also took two teaspoonfuls of psyllium husk with her whey protein powder twice daily to prevent constipation even before the start of the 1st chemo cycle but it did not help as much.

We now swear by prune juice for mom's constipation and she now takes it obediently without much grumbles despite initially complaint of its nasty taste.

Bagan Lalang Beach, Sepang

Chill-Out Time: Papa and Mama enjoying the sea breeze..

Different design of kites dominating the sky

Golden Palm Villas under construction which I had blogged earlier

I wanted to get a colourful shell larr, mommy

Mommy... I finally found one!

Dang Dang... With just a slurpee cup from 7-11, we had our sand fort built.. not bad eh...

Our cheeky boy

Mother and son

Father and son

The foam bubbles produced by broken waves washing up the shorelines

Good bye Beach... When will I see you again...

After months of tension and stress, hubby suggested that we go unwind : a picnic on the beach. This seemed like a good idea to all of us as we would try to avoid crowded places due to the H1N1 outbreak and the escalating death cases. Mom just had her 1st chemo cycle two weeks ago and her immune system was still low but she appeared energetic and strong at least for now (touch wood) with only one side effect that bothered her a little.

After having our breakfast at home last Sunday, we packed bread and buns, oranges, water, cakes and some tid-bits and off we went to our picnic destination: Bagan Lalang Beach in Sepang district. It took around 1 1/2 hours to get there from Puchong. Along the way, we stopped by Hotel Seri Malaysia to use their toilet and snapped photos. We initially planned to have our lunch there. The price for their buffect lunch are quite reasonable, at RM20++ for adults and half price for kids. Upon checking with the restaurant staff, the dishes are mostly hot and spicy to cater to the Proton Group that was having a seminar there. Papa and Mama cannot eat even a slightest taste of hot and spicy. We therefore dropped our plan of dining there.

The beach is just right behind Hotel Seri Malaysia and as soon as we sighted the beach there were already many people on the beach that stretches very long. Some of them looked like they were on company outing while the other was seen with their family members and friends.

My last visit here was two years ago and it was a secluded small village then. Now that I could see the once secluded beach beeming with people from all walks of life though they are scattered along the beach as it stretches kilometres long. This small village had been made popular by the on-going mega resort project there. There were roadside stalls lined up along the beach selling swimming gears, grilled seafood, fish balls, sotong balls, fish, fried cempedak, drinks such as coconut juice etc. Hubby being a food lover, brought back all sorts of snacks from the stalls across the road from the beach. Two grilled prawns on stick are sold quite reasonably at RM1.50 and a cup of coconut juice costs only RM1 each.

Some of them set up tents and hammocks and were seen napping in them while enjoying the fresh sea breeze. We found a shaded spot and laid the yoga mat that we brought from home. We sat on the mat while enjoying our simple early lunch

Hubby was flying our faithful owl designed kite and successfully flied up in the sky after few attempts. Ian later took over and he was extremely excited seeing his kite waving to him proudly in the sky.. Hahaha..

Papa took over the kite while Ian went to the the shallow water to collect sea shells. He collected a lot of white sea shells and kept pestering me for colourful ones until he finally found one. It was a lot of fun for him as it had been a while since we last took him to the beach, the last trip being to Pangkor Island which was in December last year.

Mama was doing some light exercise at our shaded spot while biting and sipping on her bread and milo drinks. She said she has a soft spot for oceans since young as most of her life was surrounded by oceans. Papa too, enjoyed our day trip to the beach as he has not seen oceans since coming here to KL to be with Mama two month ago. They are so used to be surrounded by oceans back home in Sabah.

Hubby says we shall make more trip to the beach sensing the old folks love it so much. We left the beach at around 1.15pm and headed for our late lunch in Sg Pelek.

We dined at Sg. Pelek Seafood Restaurant and the bill came to only RM50 for 5 of us which was quite reasonable, I would say. Everyone except hubby commented that the food was good while hubby said the meat texture of the "sweet and sour pork" dish was not cooked to his taste. Haha...

This little boy of ours

The owner of this owl goes to......

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My Morning Dose of Coffee

After dropping off Ian at the kindy, I am now enjoying my ME time having breakfast @McD. I paid RM4.20, inclusive of taxes for a set of breakfast special which consists of a McMuffin burger and free flow of hot coffee, my MUST HAVE morning dose to keep me awake throughout the day.

This is the only time when I have the luxury of time to update my blog. I have not updated my blog for 3 weeks already and I would better start updating now or my flame of passion in blogging would die off completely. Hahaha....

Sepang Gold Coast, Bagan Lalang, Sepang

Entrance

Aerial View Shot

Artist Impression Layout Plan

Travellers Palm Villa at the main trunk of palm tree

Sepang Gold Coast is a huge resort development going on in Bagan Lalang. It is indeed one very attractive proposition by Permodalan Negeri Selangor Berhad (PNSB) and Sepang Bay Sdn Bhd.

The Golden Palm Tree Villas in Sepang Gold Coast are primarily a retreat and residential area for living, relaxation and leisure. It will contain four types of water villa which is Royale Palm Villa, Ivory Palm Villa, Canary Palm Villa and Travellers Palm Villa equipped with a clubhouse and swimming pool. Their Royale Palm Villa, being the highest priced among the four types at RM2.5mil, even the smallest 520 sq ft Travelers Palm Villa built at the main trunk was quoted a cool RM600K... true to its slogan that says... Many will admire, few will own.

The sales agent told us that the development will progress in stages, and one of their future plans will include four boutique resort hotels, three traditional/ethnic resorts, a waterside township, a marina, an aquarium, open zoo, theme park, ecotourism areas and an institute of Oceanography.

Their official website says this development is destined to become a tropical showcase of choice 22 km of beach frontage of Malaysia’s easily accessible western coastline, facing the sheltered water of the Straits of Malacca.

Buyers of the resort homes are mainly from UK, Dubai, Korea and it has been marketed in these countries and claimed that Malaysia soon be home to the only palm tree shape sea home enclave in the world besides Dubai.

The concept of Sepang Gold Coast is very identical to that of The Palm Islands in Dubai which has also been named "The Eighth Wonder Of The World".

Hopefully this development will not be a failure like some other Mega projects in Malaysia and that we Malaysians will have another good domestic holiday destination added to the list of "Cuti-Cuti Malaysia".

L-Glutamine Powder For Neuropathy

Ice Age 3 - Dawn Of The Dinosaurs

We went for a movie at GSC Mid Valley last Sunday and Ian chose to watch Ice Age 3 even though daddy had been trying to change his mind to watching Transformer. He was very excited throughout the show and would even popped up from his seat whenever there were scenes that excited him. Haha....

Honestly, the 3D effect could not get any better when the film is already an animation. It's like paper dolls, the animation pops up just a little but that's it. Ian was amused over the idea of wearing the 3D glasses while watching a movie and kept putting his glasses on and off to compare and feel the different viewing effects.

Below is the full story of Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaur:

Ellie and Manny are expecting their first child, and Manny is obsessed with making life perfect and safe for the family, since his first experiences as a husband and father went bad when his family were killed by hunters. At the same time, Diego finds himself unable to catch a cocky gazelle he has been stalking and decides to leave the herd, believing that he is losing his predatory nature as a tiger. Sid grows jealous of Manny and Ellie and “adopts” three apparently abandoned eggs that he finds in an icy underground cavern and call them Eggbert, Shelly, and Yoko. Manny tells him to put them back, but Sid instead looks after the eggs, which hatch into baby Tyrannosaurus the next morning.

Although Sid tries his best to raise the three dinosaurs, their rambunctious behavior scares away all the other animals’ young and ruins a playground Manny built for Ellie’s baby. A female Tyrannosaurus, Momma, whose eggs Sid stole, soon returns and carries both Sid and her young underground, with Diego in pursuit. Manny, Ellie, Crash, and Eddie follow as well and discover that the icy cavern leads to a vast jungle populated by dinosaurs thought to be extinct. Here, an Ankylosaurus threatens the herd despite Diego’s efforts to fend it off; they are saved from a further crowd of angry reptiles by a one-eyed, insane weasel named Buckminster, or Buck..

Buck has been living in this jungle for some time and is chasing Rudy (a huge albino Suchomimus, intending to avenge the eye he lost to it. He agrees to lead the herd through the jungle’s perils to Lava Falls, where Momma has taken Sid and her babies. In the meantime, Sid and Momma try to outdo each other in feeding the offspring; he loses this contest, but is soon welcomed into the family regardless. The next day, however, Sid is separated from the family and attacked by Rudy. Sid is knocked onto a loose rock slab that is floating on a river of lava and about to plummet over the falls.

As the herd moves toward Lava Falls, Ellie goes into labor and a Guanlong pack strikes, causing a rock slide that separates her from Manny and Diego. Manny doubles back to protect her and Diego fends off further attacks, while Buck takes Crash and Eddie ahead to rescue Sid. Just as the sloth goes over the falls, the trio swoops in on a commandeered Pteranodon and saves his life. Manny reaches Ellie, and there is suddenly a reaction, the cry of a newborn baby, then he sees that it is a girl. He wants to name her Ellie, or Little Ellie, but Ellie instead names her Peaches after the fruit (the codeword they had chosen for Ellie to use if she went into labor during the trip). Sid is saddened at the fact that he never had a chance to say goodbye to "his" children as he returns to the herd and learns of Peaches' birth.

Before they can exit the jungle, Rudy attacks at full force; Buck lures Rudy away from the group and is nearly eaten himself, before Diego saves him at the last second. They then ensnare him briefly, but he escapes and resumes his onslaught. The herd is saved by the timely arrival of Momma, who charges at Rudy and knocks him off a cliff. As she and her children wish Sid well, Buck – now without a purpose in life since Rudy is gone – decides to join the herd and live on the surface. However, a distant roar tells him that Rudy is still alive; he changes his mind and sends the herd home, blocking off the path to the underground jungle at the same time so that no one else can go down there. Manny and Ellie welcome Peaches into their frozen world and admit that Sid did a good job looking after Momma's children (though Manny tells Diego that he will never let Sid babysit Peaches). Diego decides to remain with the herd, while Buck stays where he wants to be: underground, battling it out with Rudy.
Ian loved one of the role characters, the weasel, Buck for his courageus and undying battling spirit with Rudy to avenge the eye he lost to it.

Overall, it's a great family movie to make sure everyone is smiling and goofing around during family time.

Ambit Continuous Infusion Pump

We went back to the Oncology clinic on the 3rd day of mom's 1st chemotherapy to take the pump off and the process was a breeze! We reached there slightly before 2pm and paid RM10 for the service. Mom was called into the chemotherapy room soon after and by 2.30pm we were ready to go. The Ambit pump was the hospital's property and would be kept by them until the next cycle where it would be attached to mom again.

The operation of the pump is simple. There are only two buttons, the Run/Pause button and On/Off buttons. 2 AA batteries are used and they can usually last throughout the 46 hours of 5FU infusion. To replace batteries or upon infusion completion, press run/pause button to pause position before turning off the pump and removing batteries.

The pump is about the size of a TV remote controller and designed to accurately deliver a patient's drug therapy in the comfort of their own home. Mom would have had to get admitted to the hospital for 2 nights on every fortnightly chemo cycle should the pump and chemoport had not become available. It is meant to complement the patient's quality of life and support the oncologists / physicians in prescribing the best and most affordable care.