Archive for the 'Stories' Category

Malay Food and Skin Medication

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on July 17, 2007
in Food and Stories
. 2 Comments

I love eating Malay food. They are cheap, spicy, and delicious.

Almost every meal during recess daily in secondary school was Nasi Brani.

Living at my old home, “Mee Goreng” and “Nasi Goreng” seemed my only vocab at the Indian store at the coffee shop below my flat.

However since I moved house till I entered NS, I seldom eat Muslim food, until

Thursday 12 July

Mee Goreng at the hawker centre next to Enos MRT Station.

Friday 13 July

$1.90 Nasi Lemak Set Meal at shophouses next to..


United Square.

Mentioning why I was at Novena, it was my last trip to National Skin Center due to my well suppressed outbreak of Eczema(, a kind of Dermatology disease, which I had likely received via my genetics and habitat).

Not very noteworthy, but for the record purpose here’s a list of different medication I have tried on my skin in the last 18 months.

  • Fobancort cream (which happens to work the best for me, is a strong steroid)
  • Dermasone 0.1%
  • Xepacycline
  • Dosanac Emulsion Gel (opps, not for my rash but for muscle relief)
  • Chlortralim (Another chlortertracycline cream, but seemed issue wrongly to me, as it usually for the eyes)
  • Aquarea (moisturising cream with urea (urine?) 10%)
  • Beprosone ointment
  • PP Wash(Potassium permanganate KMnO4 solution)
  • Mycoban

And some others I might not have recorded. Now for oral medication

  • Choloramine
  • Loratadine Tablet

These are usually flu/rash + drowsiness pills as a temp fix for itch.

As I recall, there are even more methods some I have tried, and others hearsay.

  • 青草油 Herbal Oil which was said to be good for open wounds. It was good for causing burns and pain when applying, followed by some relief (perhaps of the initial burn first). My friend suggested another strong chinese herb but I never tried that powder before.
  • Just leave it- (wasnt such a good idea).
  • Wearing bandage on affect areas- so won’t cause a wound when scratching at night in sleep
  • Wearing gloves
  • Apply salt water
  • Soak in sea water
  • Don’t apply soap
  • Let the dog lick
  • Apply Cow dang on affected areas
  • Avoid Seafood completely
  • Bath in Cold water

Anyway when my situation was quite bad everyone comes out with a version of remedy advice. Maybe some helped, and others worsen, I’m glad I wouldn’t need to think so much about it now.

累的一天

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on July 14, 2007
in Family, School and Stories
. 0 Comments

二〇〇七年七月十一日、星期四、晴朗

就如当我读工艺学院，有时会疯狂通宵赶作业，在今天凌晨就像疯子班帮助朋友专电脑。

中午，约了朋友一起回中学。之前就有人说：“学校变了，校长换了，好多老师不在了，即使见到他们，都七年了，老师认不了你，回去干吗？”

AISS

不错，学校建筑改了很多，好多老师都不在（新来的老师们都很年轻）。但是，真开心（又惊讶）能见到几位教过我的老师，更动心他们都能记得我！也许我以前太坏了。。。 ：$ 见到的老师们包括教我英语的、华语的、数学的、科学的。

Lunch

吃了午餐后,就配“珥尼”到SLS买电脑.

Dinner

旁晚，照常的到姨妈家练琴，这次她准备绿豆汤、炒米粉和炸鸡膀给我吃，又分享那天她如何做绿豆汤。

骑车到家了，发现眼镜留在姨妈家。但累了一天，想躺下睡觉的滋味太强了！

Last Guard Duty

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 24, 2007
in Memories, NS, Stories and Thoughts
. 0 Comments

“How are you feeling now that you competed your duties?”

“Should be feeling good”

“I would be flying if it were my last duty”

A little talk between a superior of mine and I after my last night duty. Though I don’t really know him well, the previous occasion we had duty together, we talked about life, and past and future of our camp. The past was a little of history lessons, as we recall the people and culture way before I came. The future as we foresee how the people and system were like, and he mentioned I would be missed like a couple of NSFs who served their time well with him.

Frankly, I wasn’t feeling much, yet- there seemed to be a little vacuum, not much excited happiness nor sadness. Perhaps I had been numbed.

I recall vividly the commotion and consequences my “upper study” had after getting into trouble on his last duty. I myself wanted some simple routine stuff, perhaps “slow and steady”, perhaps a “just get over and done with” attitude. No steamboats, no celebrations, no sabotage, just plain routine stuff with a handful of less exciting personnel. At least it ended with a round of applause for me as we fall out.

Now I recall, a year and a half: 18 months with take 6 duties each would sum up over 100 duties. Through the duties I rose through ranks and appointments, from simply carrying out orders to carrying responsibilities.

Imagine 24 hours 100 days, but just take 10 hours, I would be 1000 hours. Actually as the days past, you wouldn’t feel the huge amount of time, but now 1000 hours is not too little either.

In no particular order, during the “spare time”, I..
Slept - Probably huge amount of time
Played games - Chinese chess, Sudoku, Risk, Uno, and other “team games”
Read - Newspapers, Magazines, Browse the Intranet, Novels, Books
Talk - Share some jokes and quizzes, getting to know each other better and stuff
Watch - TV, some CDs and DVDs occasionally

When I started out, I was perhaps more “garang” or ambitious.. did exercise when I had the time, brought a couple of books (esp. non-nonfictional war books).. and did some planning and learning for work related stuff and others.. over time the drive seemed to vanish, and there are certainly things I thought I could have do better - finish a couple of uncompleted books, getting to know others better and sort of stuff, pass down more of my skill and so on…

Anyway that’s for looking back, time pass quickly. I mark the end of my duties, finishing reading the war(ww1) story “Four Weeks in the Trenches”, by Fritz Kreisler (a composer and violinist) and writing this.

Photos from Pengerang Trip

Published
by
Zz85-nds
on June 5, 2007
in Biking, Food, Hobbies, NS, Photos and Stories
. 5 Comments

Some photos about my trip.

Early in the morning, 30km, 2 and a half hours later, I reached the Chang Jetty Point.

Reached Changi Jetty

I enjoyed the tugboat ride, which lasted about 45mins to an hour.

Tugboat to Pengerang

Ashore Malaysia’s Jetty, was a 16km bicycle ride on a almost straight, easy and low traffic road along the coastal line to the Pengerang Town. The sights are almost kampong style, kids stick their heads out of the passing cars, or stand outside their huts and wave to you excitedly. I happen to see certain dead animals on the road.

Pengerang Town Street

At an easy cycling pace, you would hit the town in about an hour’s time. Here’s an impression of the town. Had some chee chiong fun waiting for the rest to gather at a coffee shop near taxi station. Money changing was done at inn nearby.

Lobster King
A huge lobster for lunch. We went to this restaurant call “Jade Garden” which Channel U visited before.

Dishes
More dishes.. with sharkfin soup and drinks, we payed only RM$50 per pax. The disappointment our group had was that the mantis prawns were not going to arrive until evening.

Baber

I went to get a nice RM$7 haircut at the barber while my friends bought Ipoh coffee, huge mangos.. 45 minutes to the Jetty, the return boat ride, and the most challenging part, cycling the long distance from changi home.

Was delayed a little by the rain, slip and fell as a road bike slip traveling across a wet drain cover, as we took a shortcut through hougang back to seletar road. I got changed in time to celebrate dinner for Mother’s day.

Spent no more than $50, tired, yet satisfied, and a comfort for not joining the City Dualthon or the Paya Laba’s 45km Runway Challenge.

Gastric

Published
by
Zz85
on April 27, 2007
in Stories
. 0 Comments

After feeling nausea for weeks, I thought if men could get morning sickness too. At least I thought it was motion sickness.

So I went to the doctor, and my surprise was I had gastric. The doctors said many patients didn’t know too, claim they just had “wind” and the next thing was they vomited blood.

I then heard the longest list of “do not eat” I have heard in my life. No spicy, no chilli, no curry (only porridge), no fruits- no orange, no kiwi, no … (only apples), no tea, no coffee, .. (only milo)

After medicine, I went home and concussed in bed.