Update On Cass' UTI - 30 January 2016

Today, things are looking up a wee bit.  Cass has been telling me that  she does not feel anymore pain in her bladder when she pees, Praise The Lord!!

You see, my happiness for the past several weeks has been maneuvered by Cass' well-being.  When she had a 2nd bout of UTI attack two Sundays ago, my world came crashing down like the world markets. When there was some improvement, i.e. pain eased a little, my happiness went up too. When the pain came back, my mood slid down in tandem.   Though her pain level has been down to 0.1 / 10 since a week ago, I could still not let my guard down and rejoice just yet.  As long as there is still a pain level of 0.0001 / 10 (yes she tells me that from time to time), something is still not right in the bladder.

I told the hubs and Cass that should she still have an iota of pain in her bladder  by Monday next week, off we'll  march to the pediatrician to check things out... which means that there will be a string of tedious tests from urine tests to ultrasound scan to even more invasive tests and most likely - the dreaded and much-avoided antibiotics.

I have been dutifully forcing my arse off the bed at 2am for the past 2 weeks to nurse Cass -- to carry her like a big sack of rice from the bedroom to the toilet  for her to pee, feed her with some anti-UTI potion and to shower her with lots of TLC.   My life has been on hold automatically. I had not much energy left to do anything else during the day as I would be in school several hours to check on Cass. When I'm home, I would be sleepy all the time from the lack of sleep and agonizing worry for Cass.

Quoted from my Facebook friend, Jac Sun Yoga's blog post today, which I find it to be so profound:

Caring is an art of the highest form because it is through caring for another human being that we express pure love.


It's exactly a week away from Chinese New Year.  We will be traveling by ETS back to Ipoh to celebrate CNY with my beloved family members on the 2nd day of CNY.  I pray that Cass will never have another bout of UTI attack.  I never want to spend my CNY with Cass in the hospital again.  We spent our CNY in the hospital 7 years ago before Cass had her surgery.  She was barely one year old that year.

Here's a picture of the MIL's Water Narcissus.  She brought it back from Hong Kong and has been showering it with lots of TLC.  Tending to her pot of Water Narcissus is a yearly pre-CNY affair.   From just 3 bulbs that resemble an arrow root tuber, stems are now growing. By Chinese New Year, flowers will be blooming too :)

Our Saturday - 25 January 2016

Sorry dearies for the long silence.  I lost my mojo to blog :(  

I have been too busy with too many issues, especially with Cass' latest bout of UTI attack.  Read on  here.  

As of today, Cass tells me that she still has a pain level of 0.05/10 at her bladder region caused by a Urinary Tract Infection. People are telling me that Cass does not know what 0.05 is but  she knows. She's a smart girl and pretty matured in her thoughts. As long as she still has an infinitesimal amount of pain, I think there are still a few stubborn and strong pesky bacteria  lurking inside her urinary tract, which means that I have to continue with my home remedies and waking her up at an ungodly hour of 2am to pee. Sigh, I am so fagged. My eyes are burning with weariness but my gray matter is still working rapidly from all the worries and deep thinking that I have to grapple with. Though I am severely sleep deprived, I was insomniac last night, DANG IT!

Alright, I shall stop ranting and rattling.  Let me post some pictures taken last Saturday, at our friend's house-warming party.  Their new house is at least 10 times the size of our unit of condo. Decor is very zen and very tastefully done.

Below - Our girls with their friends, whom they have known all their lives.





Below - Garden is still sans grass and I like it that way.  It gives us a feeling that we are at a Balinese beach resort.





Below - The kids playing with their friends' new pet hamsters...









And BBQ was executed by the kids!  There were some burnt chickie wings and sausages but the kids had a great time. They have learnt some BBQ tips and tricks now.




There was also a whole roast pig, which was really huge. Everyone had packs of 'siew yoke'  as door gift to bring home :D





Below - the kids played with fire crackers. It's been a while since our girls last had their hands on fire crackers.





While the adults chit chatted and drank wine, the kids watched a 3D movie at the home theater, while munching on nachos and sipping on soda. Pretty unhealthy but I have Izumio hydrogen water for them to wash away all the nasties :D




It was almost midnight when I had to drag the girls away. Our girls were reluctant to leave but all good things have to come to an end.  But it won't be long before they meet again, during Chinese New Year :)

'Surfing' In The MTR In Hong Kong

When we were in Hong Kong for a holiday last December, we relied on public transportation quite a bit to bring us around.    My sil stays at a very strategic location where the bus stop is right outside her apartment. We call the bus driver our 'private driver'.  With just 1 bus ride and a walk to the MTR station, we would be in Disneyland already.   We walked a lot and it helped that the weather was very conducive.  When it's cold, you won't feel tired walking miles. I didn't feel tired at all though we walked A LOT.   Despite me eating like a pig and not exercising throughout our 1-week holiday in Hong Kong, I did not gain an ounce of weight, thanks to all the walking! :D    Bliss!!

Inside the moving MTR, the kids would pretend to be 'surfing' to balance themselves from falling.  Of course they were the only ones doing it and we got stares!

But who cares, right?  :P

Grilled Chicken Curry Drumsticks And Pan-Fried Prawns

Our home-cooked dinner a few nights ago...

Grilled chicken drumsticks with curry paste, pan-fried soy sauce prawns and blanched broccoli with oil and salt.






This pan-fried soy sauce prawns is the MIL's specialty. It's pretty easy to cook, provided you don't mind the splish splash of oil everywhere.

Directions for Aromatic Pan-Fried Prawns
1) Heat oil in wok
2) Gently slide the prawns into the wok of hot oil (use kitchen towels to dab dry the prawns to prevent major splash of oil)
3) When prawns turn orangy in color, add some soy sauce and sugar.  I used palm sugar syrup.
4) Add some Chinese cooking wine
5) Lastly, throw in some scallions and toss for about 1 minute
6) Plate up





Directions for Grilled Chicken With Curry Paste
1) Marinate chicken with instant curry paste and soy sauce. You can use any part of the chicken you fancy.  Keep marinated chicken in ziplock bag and refrigerate for at least half a day.  You can freeze the marinated chicken for future use.

2) Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line oven tray with aluminum foil or baking paper  and grease it with some cooking oil.  Wrap chicken on greased foil / baking paper.  Grill for 20 minutes

3)  Unwrap aluminum foil and grill for another 10-15 minutes or until you get a nice glossy golden brown color on the chicken.

4)  While chicken is grilling in the oven, heat up non-stick pan with oil. Brown some chopped garlic and onions.

5).  Add cubed potatoes and lightly fry for about 5 minutes.

6)  Add in the leftover curry sauce used to marinate the chicken into the pan.  If you prefer your sauce to be spicier, add more curry paste. Add some water.

7)  Remove chicken from oven and transfer onto a nice plate.

8)  Pour potato curry sauce over chicken and decorate.

9) Whip up camera, snap pix and quickly share picture via Whatsapp, Instagram or Facebook to boast about your new creation

Our Monday - 11 January 2016

Today has been a fruitful day for us. Despite leaving the house only at 10:30am, the hubby managed to chauffeur me around the most congested roads in KL to get a few very important and urgent matters accomplished.

I told the hubby that we had to be back home before 1:30 pm as that's when the transporter drops off Sherilyn and Cass after school.

With the perpetual horrendous traffic jam in KL, what more on a Monday morning, it was quite a feat to do all these in under 3 hours..

1) Went to UTC @ Pudu Sentral to have my driving license renewed.
I had thought that my driving license was only expiring in February but when I took out my license to have a look at it again, I was shocked that it had expired on 6 January 2016. How could I have seen the wrong date??!

2) Went to Menara Multi Purpose @ Capital Square to collect my customers' Fukubukuro sets (Izumio and Super Lutein set) from Naturally Plus

3) Had lunch of beef noodles at the famous Shin Kee Beef Noodles at Petaling Street














4) Went to KL Sentral station to buy train tickets to Ipoh during CNY.  There were 72 people waiting ahead of me. So, forget it, we left KL Sentral hurriedly.  Hubby weaved in and out of the horrendous traffic jam to bring me home just in the nick of time to receive Sherilyn and Cass.


For the first half of the morning yesterday, I made several calls to JPJ and JPN to enquire about the process of renewing my driving license and My Kad. My main concern was my My Kad (IC) which is over 11 years old.    I was worried that the chip is not readable, thus my driving license could not be renewed at the post office.

I had my My Kad done when I was pregnant with Sherilyn!  And I am glad that I still look almost identical to the picture on my My Kad :D

How And Where To Renew Driving License In Kuala Lumpur

1) You can renew it at the post office but the chip on your My Kad must be readable.

2) If the chip is damaged, thus not readable, you have to go to a JPJ branch to have your driving license renewed.  We chose UTC @ Pudu Sentral as it's the nearest to us.

3) Documents needed are your old driving license, your My Kad and cash. I renewed for 5 years and paid RM150 + RM15 (RM15 is pro rated payment according to my date of birth)

4)  Renew it online at MyEG.  I think you can pay for courier fees to have your renewed license, insurance or road tax couriered to you.


The queue at JPJ @ UTC, Pudu Sentral was long. I had to wait for 25 people ahead of me but know what?  The process was unbelievably fast and in under an hour, I had my driving license renewed.  The photo on my renewed driving license now is the same  as the one on my 11-year old My Kad, taken when I was 32 years old :)

I wanted to walk a few steps away to JPN to have my My Kad renewed (with address updated and new card issued) but the crowd was intimidating!  Plus we had not much time left as we still had a few more errands to run. First things first. We had to collect my Izumio and Super Lutein for my customers and purchase train tix and that's more urgent.

Our Sunday - 10 January 2016

This morning, I was greeted by a beautiful skyline of sunrise. The KL Tower was illuminated in blue (but turned out purplish in the photo). Such a beautiful scene on a Sunday morning.  I love the color tone of the sky.






We had lunch at Han Room @ Gardens Mall, simply because hubs had a RM80 birthday voucher from the Oriental Group and he had to utilize the voucher before it expires next month.





After tucking into a lovely spread of dim sum, I had my dose of retail therapy while hubs waited for us at Alexis Bistro. He's not someone who would follow me shopping. He has zero patience for that! After retail therapy, we joined him for cakes and tea at Alexis.

Our dinner was famous Ipoh 'kai see hor fun' (shredded chicken with flat noodles) from the world renowned Kong Heng restaurant, brought to us all the way from Ipoh, courtesy of our dear friend - celebrity Alan Yun who was in Ipoh today.





'Kai Si Hor Fun' from Kong Heng coffee shop, Ipoh - best in the world!

And err..... I've got a confession to make.  I whacked the entire bowl of carbs myself without sharing it with anyone :S

And I am corroded with guilt now!!

Never mind, I will have my 24 laps in the pool tomorrow morning to burn it all away! :D





After kai si hor fun, the girls loaded themselves with more carbs! They tempted me with Haagen Dazs but I quickly busied myself with chores and tried my best to steer clear from the tub of macadamia nuts Haagen Dazs!

Then I saw Cass eating her ice-cream from the ice-cream scoop.

Her reason?   "so that I don't have to wash any extra spoon!"

You've learnt well baby girl.  Today is maid-free day. So the girls had to think twice and thrice before they grab a cutlery or plate from the kitchen, coz they will have to wash it themselves!

Snake Meal In Hong Kong

On our 3rd night in Hong Kong, on 8 December 2015, we adults went to an eatery for a snake meal.  The eatery is an Association for members. I am not sure what association it is. Everything was written in Chinese. And every table had the same dishes in their course dinner.  The place was packed to the brim with fans of snake and I saw a lot of elderly people.  No children were present at the eatery.

While we indulged in the snake meal, my 2nd SIL brought all the kids to eat pizza.





The first dish that arrived was 'seh kang' or snake soup. This is similar to sharks fins but the snake meat in the soup had a strange taste. I added lots of vinegar to mask the snake taste.








Next was stir-fried snake meat.




This snake dish was particularly delish. The finely shredded kafir lime leaves sprinkled on the dish imparted a very refreshing and aromatic flavor to the snake meat.

Lamb in claypot...




Crispy roast chicken. Aha, my favorite dish of all! And everyone else's too.




Herbal soup with black chicken and the embryo of an animal (I can't recall). If you can read Chinese, scroll up to read the menu ;)




Braised mushrooms with fish stomach and dried oysters.





Every single dish was wiped clean.







It was my very first experience with snake meat and certainly an eye-opener for the hubby and me.

Izumio And Super Lutein - Testimonial On Psoriasis and Gout

If you or anyone you know of has Psoriasis and Gout, do share with them that they can have these conditions treated with hydrogen water.

With just  2 packets of Izumio hydrogen water a day (15 days), the patient's (picture below) head and face area became better.  The 2nd box improved his back, chest and stomach region.  The 3rd box improved his hands and legs region.

Unknowingly, it even helped his Gout condition. He does not feel pain in his legs even when he consumes red meat or beans-related food.







For January 2016, Naturally Plus is having a promotion.








Package price is RM5,330.
This is inclusive of your Registration Fees and you are automatically a member.
Being a member has no benefit except that you have the opportunity to earn back cash rebates so you can eventually eat for free, or help others to eat for free.

If you are interested in the business, you can attend free training held periodically at the Naturally Plus office.  I have a very dedicated and knowledgeable upline who gives me all the assistance I need.  My upline is earning a 5-figure income from this business. I am not aiming to be like her as my plate is already full.   I will be very happy if I can earn just half or a quarter of her income!  Imagine getting a few thousand Ringgit in your bank account every month and you don't have to do much apart from sharing the goodness of the products!   This is still the best 'job' you can ever find, which does not require you to work at fixed hours. You can choose to 'work' an hour a day or a few hours a week. It's flexible and there is no restriction.  

1 package is defined as 12 products.
1 product is defined as 1 box of Izumio (30 packets x 200ml) or 1 bottle of Super Lutein (100 capsules)


RM 5,330 can be paid by:-
1. CREDIT CARD (VISA or MASTERCARD only. No Amex or Diners, etc.

2. CREDIT CARD INSTALMENTS (either 6 months or 12 months) and card holder's IC copy must be produced together with credit card copy too - Alliance Bank, Citibank, Public Bank, RHB Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Standard Chartered Bank are the only options for paying with an instalment plan. MAYBANK can be used for instalments BUT the card holder MUST be present at the office for the card to be swiped. Too much hassle but if necessary, then no choice.

3. CHEQUE - cheques can be made payable to the office but they will only start processing your order AFTER your cheque clears.

4. ONLINE TRANSFER - you can do an online transfer to the office direct too but again they will only process your order after tracking and tracing your payment. Another option is to transfer online to   me or my upline. We will then use our own credit card to pay on your behalf assuming you do not have a credit card.

5. CASH - Yes, you can pay by cash if you are willing to carry RM5,330 to the office :D


If taking a full package is too costly for you, no worries. You can opt to take half package, consisting of  7 products.

For new member, it is RM2,726 for half package.

If half a package is still too costly for you, you can opt to try out a box or two or Izumio or a bottle of two of Super Lutein at retail price.


For more reading on Izumio and Super Lutein, please click on the following links:

Hydrogen (H2) as a potent antioxidant and exhibits anti-inflammatory and potentially anticancer-like activities (from US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health)

Izumio Hydrogen Water and Super Lutein

Izumio and Incontinence

 Super Lutein

Day 18 On Izumio For Incontinence

Symptoms of A Body Detox

Day 20 On Izumio Hydrogen Water For Incontinence

IZUMIO – Antioxidant Hydrogen Water

Hydrogen Water Facts

Super Lutein Goodness

 Dangers of Eczema Steroid Creams

Super Lutein and Izumio Hydrogen Water For Glaucoma

Effects of Hydrogen Rich Water On Metabolic Syndrome (Diabetes and Obesity) - from US National Library of Medicine

Izumio and Super Lutein - Testimonials From High Blood Pressure and Diabetes Patients

Izumio and Super Lutein - Testimonial On Diabetes And High Cholestrol

Super Lutein For Osteoarthritis - Testimonial

Your Body On Anxiety

Hydrogen Water And Asthma  

Super Lutein and Izumio Hydrogen Water - Testimonial From Kidney Dialysis Patient

Izumio And Super Lutein - Testimonials From Diabetics Patients

Earning Passive Income

Izumio And Super Lutein - Testimonial On SLE (Systematic Lupus Erithematosus)


Izumio And Super Lutein - Asthma and overall immunity

You can buzz me at my email at shireenyong@gmail.com to find out more! 

Rare Gem Of A Teacher

On the first day of school, Sherilyn's class teacher gave this inexpensive but meaningful and utterly thoughtful gift to all the students in the class.





I suppose this personalized note with words of encouragement is the teacher's welcome gift.  It's printed on a piece of thick Disney paper.  I think it's printed with love from the heart, with a burning passion in teaching. If you were a teacher, would you care to print over 40 copies of such  notes and spend over RM40?

This is the first time I see a teacher giving a welcome gift to her students on the first day of school and I am very impressed.

In addition, I was told by Sherilyn that her teacher would encourage her  students to drink at least 1 liter of water in school. She would check the students' water tumblers each day. She also told the students to mark their lunch boxes and water tumblers with names. Such a caring teacher is indeed a rare gem, what more one from a military style stringent Chinese  school. Bless the teacher's heart indeed!

Our First Saturday In 2016 (2 January 2016)

The first Saturday in the year 2016 is also the last Saturday of the 6-week long school holidays.  On Monday, 4 January 2016, it's back to school for the girls. It's finally back to routine and reality for us. Time really flew past us SO SO fast, it's unbelievable that  6 weeks just ended at the blink of an eye.

I had initially planned to bring our 2 older girls to see the dentist to get their braces done, get myself an appointment to have my teeth checked for the year 2015 and fix an appointment for myself to do my bi-yearly medical check-up but know what, none of these were done.  You'll say that I have 6 weeks of holiday but you know what, I find that I am even busier during the school holidays.  We had something to do almost everyday and was away for a couple of weeks for our vacation.

Anyway, I am so excited that the girls will be back to school. I miss my early morning swim in the pool and the quiet morning ME TIME!

After breakfast on our Saturday yesterday, it's back to a little serious work for the girls at home.  I made them write and stamp their names on all their exercise books and work books.

School bags were cleaned much earlier, uniforms checked, school shoes checked, hair cut checked, calls to old and new transporters checked,  fees for transporters checked, cutting of finger nails  - to be done by today and most importantly, getting the girls to go to bed by latest 9:30pm tonight. Now this is the hardest!  For the past 6 weeks, we have all been night owls and have been going to bed way past 1am and sleeping in till 9-10am every morning.  I hope I don't get insomnia tonight. But darn, I forgot about the caffeine in the tea and drank several cups of green tea today! o_O








Dinner on our Saturday night was at our favorite bakery-restaurant, Red Kettle - a boiling-hot fairly new hangout at our neighborhood.  The food at Red Kettle is fantabulous. I love every single dish and dessert at Red Kettle. Every single item is so carefully and perfectly executed.

This time, we tried their Chicken Bakar And Rice, which is a very flavorful marinated chicken thigh roasted and bolstered by 2 different piquant taste homemade dips,





Below - Kettle Salad and Carbonara...






Below - Fregola Seafood Soup and Pork Burger.

It's the first time we tried the tangy and full of flavors Fregola Seafood Soup and I loved it very much.





Below : Porkie Rice Bowl.  Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Cake and Gula Melaka Banana Walnut Cake

Red Kettle's Porkie Rice Bowl composed of char-grilled marinated pork shoulder and topped with an onsen egg that spurts luscious yolk better than your ordinary poached egg. The pork shoulder is marinated for 12 hours. Accompaniments such as sautéed mushrooms, buttered sweet peas, sesame seeds and spring onion add some savoury sweetness to this rice dish.






For the foodie hubs, each of his meal must have a sweet ending. This time, he ordered a slice of dark chocolate salted caramel cake and a slice of gula melaka banana walnut cake. The salted caramel is homemade and available for sale at RM16 a bottle.

What I love about Red Kettle is that their team makes almost everything from scratch. Even the slice of lightly toasted sour dough bread that comes with your soup tastes oh so yummy! You'll get hooked on Red Kettle's food once you have tried them!


Red Kettle
37, Jalan Bukit Desa 5,
Taman Bukit Desa,
58100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-7988 0801
Open Mon-Sat 12pm-10pm;
Sun closed