2010 in a nutshell - Part One

Oh my god, I've only realised that my last blog posting was way back in April 2010, so on behalf of me, myself and I....thousand apologies (said in a thick South Indian accent).

Now, where do I start?? Right...right, the girls got themselves admitted at Pantai for 1 week, so it was interesting for me to spend the night at Pantai, waking up at 6am, rushing back to Duta to take a shower, leaving Anggun Puri by 710am to send Azie to the office, then rush to Technology Park to get Restoran Cherita ready for breakfast by 8am.

After the breakfast rush, Chef Abu was already pumping out close to 30 dishes for lunch, and Clarence and Wani were busy getting them out and laying them out on the Bain Maries. I was left to get the centre island ready for the special daily items like Spaghetti Bolognese, Curry Noodle, Sup Tulang, Mee Sup, Laksa, Laksam, Chicken Rice, Beriani Rice with Lamb Curry, not forgetting the Cucur Udang or Cucur Bawang.

So, by 12pm everythings ready and we braced ourselves for the 1st wave. Since Chef Abu cooked a specially concocted beriani rice with no meat, he came up with a totally vegetarian dhall to complement it, and boy did it go down well with the expat Indian engineers at Stempeutics who always made a beeline for Restoran Cherita every day.

By 1pm, the 1st wave totally cleaned out the Bain Maries and now are attacking the island buffet so Chef abu and I are kept busy and sweating just keeping up with the orders. Every Tues and Thurs, the Quartet will perform during the lunch hour so I'm there chopping the cucur udang while dancing to the great music. Since they cover genres ranging from Santana, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Search, Zainal Abidin, etc etc Chef abu and me just pick up on each others vibe and keep the food flying out till 230pm.

By 3pm, its all over and I always get my favourite Sup Tulang, and something from the buffet. After helping Indra, Arman, Wani and Bad to clear up the buffet, I'll normally be on my way to Pick up Azie from the office to make our way to Pantai. After letting Azie spend some quality time with the girls, I'll send her back to Anggun Puri then come back to Pantai to cover the night shift again.

Phew, I can't believe I actually managed to pull through it but I did, the girls got better, and I dare say that Me and Azie got even closer after this whol ordeal. Watch this space for the next part.....

April 2010 - Girls Admitted into Pantai

After both girls spent a weeks in Pantai for a severe cough in mid-March 2010, I thought that will be that. Well, the cough came back with a vengeance, and after 1 week of listening to the girls coughing their little lungs out, we decided to go for one final appointment with Dr Eric Lim to find out once and for all what the girls are having.

The morning of the appointment, both girls started to show rashes on their faces. Dr Lim got them admitted straight away, but somehow Pantai was really busy, so I sent the girls back to Duta at 2pm, and at 5pm Azie got a call from Pantai that their room was ready.

They were given Room C512 and 513 in the lovely children's ward, complete with life sized clowns decorating the nurse's station. The girls didn't loose anytime re-acquainting themselves with their motorised bed controls, while I kept busy arranging their clothes in the cupboard, and setting up my bed for the night.

After the girls bravely went thru getting their drip installed on their left wrists, I copied the clown pictures on some art paper and got them busy colouring them, while I got to watch some National Geographic...kakaka.

Thank god the kid's ward has a cool chair that reclines all the way down, with a foot rest to go with it. Well, with my 6-foot frame, I joined both of them and boy did I sleep like a baby, totally oblivious to the cute nurses coming in the middle of the night to give the girls their nebuliser treatment.

Anyhow, the x-ray came back negative, so we waited with bated breath for the blood test results. Dr Lim mentioned that the girls are suffering from a viral fever caused by mycoplasma, which also causes rashes to grow on patients. Being the laymen that we are, we nodded in unison and promised ourselves to learn what the hell mycoplasma are on Wikipedia!!

On Friday, we we allowed to discharge, and by 1130am, we were home in Duta, and the girls squeeled with delight to see their Mummy and Bibik. All in all, it was a good stay, Pantai Medical has not let us down at all, and do I need to some real beauty sleep after a week sleeping on the blue reclining chair thingy!!

2 days later I received the first of many calls from Pejabat Kesihatan Petaling enquiring on the girls measels jabs...

13th Mar 2010 - Another weekend is upon us

Boy am I tired from a hectic week, and I'm looking forward to some down time this weekend. First off is both little girls who became poorly last week, Adriana with her never-ending cough, and Alyssa loosing 2 nights of sleep from a painful ear infection. I brought them to Dr Murali on Saturday morning for their supply of medicine, and alas, Sunday morning I found Alyssa melancholic and too quiet for my liking, while Adriana was still coughing her lungs out.

After getting a referral letter from the clinic, picked up Azie and went to Pantai to get them admitted. The entire process was pain-free, with all hospital staff at their most efficient. After a bland-tasting lunch at the Sodexho run cafe, we finally reached our room at 2pm and the girls immediately got their right wrists fixed up with the needel for the drips. Surprisingly, the doctor said that both girls acted like true ladies with no tantrums or tears, unlike some adult patients she's had to stick needles into!!

In no time, both girls got down to exploring their room, discovered their remote controlled bed, and simply absorbed their 24 hour Astro cartoon channel.... after they were served with cake and milo for tea, they simply got comfortable and dived into back-to-back cartoons that they missed like Spongebob Squarepants, Cat Dog, Dibo the Gift Dragon, Animal Mechanical etc etc.