Who uses them anymore?

DVD Killed the VHS Star.

Each can hold a stunning 1.4 megs of disk space!

You will be missed...

Operating Systems were small back in those days...

The Hard Drives were HUGE though.

This game was on the Playstation 1. ONE!

I will be keeping the Tekken 2 manual, who knows, some collector might want it one day. But the rest goes into the trash. Other things thrown away included: some telephone directory books from 2003, notes from my Masters and early PhD days, as well as a couple of caps that were too small for me to wear.

So, two updates regarding Mum this time round, both again with words from Dad. The first email is dated Oct. 1st, which seems like ages ago now:

“Mum made her scheduled visit to the oncologist’s office yesterday. However, no chemo was given because she had developed a deep-seated dental abscess which requires surgical drainage. Her oncologist, after consultation with the oral surgeon, has therefore decided to suspend her chemo until the dental abscess has healed. Her surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday. Incidentally, her latest CXR showed no significant change as compared to the previous one (taken about 6 weeks ago). Specifically, the opacity at the left upper lobe remained at 3cm. and no new lesions were seen. For the moment we can only console ourselves by saying that at least she is not getting worse.”

So it looked like things were looking better. Mum’s cancer certainly wasn’t getting worse, and stopping chemo temporarily would be a relief for family finances for a while, at least.

Then, this email came up a few days back…

“things seem to take a turn for the worse for mum. We have just been dealt another blow, because what was supposedly to be a routine surgical procedure for a dental abscess turned out to be something more sinister. Firstly, mum told me that the oral surgeon informed her that she was having a dental cyst and not an abscess. Anyway, the surgeon removed the cyst, but at the same time sent a sample of the tissue scrapping for histology (i.e. to study under the microscope). We were totally shocked when the histopathology report  stated that the tissue sample contained undifferentiated cancer cells. Now even the oncologist is confounded as he is not sure whether this is a new entity or a metastasis (as the cancer cells are different from those from the breast and the jaw-bone is an unlikely site of metastasis for breast cancer). Mum says that the oncologist will only resume her chemo when her gum has completely healed.  In the meantime, he has recommended that mum should  go for a PET scan (which can only be done at a private hospital in P.J) to determine whether other parts of the skeletal system are involved, as his next course of action would depend on the result of the scan. Again, we are keeping our fingers crossed.”

So it looks like hope was premature.

Somehow, there’s now cancer in her jaw-bone.

The latest update from Dad has good and bad news. I’ll reproduce what Dad has written (in quotes) since I really can’t phrase it any better than him. Chest X-Rays have “shown no change in size for the opacity in left upper lobe, but the opacity in the right side of lung is  now not seen.” and “Clinically she has not shown any serious side-effects from her chemo.”

That’s the good news. The bad news?

“Mum’s mood can be summarized in one sentence. The long-face spells are more and more frequent and prolonged whilst the smiley moments are few and far between. This, off course, runs contrary to the psychological reaction expected of one who is recovering from a physical ailment. But what worries me more is the fact that she is getting back her paranoia, and this time she is directing her delusion of persecution (people eavesdropping, slandering and bad-mouthing her again) at the only clinic-assistant that we have. The poor girl have been enduring her accusations and rebukes for quite a while now. Today, she has hinted to me that she might quit her job after Hari Raya. I used to tell her to ignore mum’s grouching and ranting, but I guess the pressure finally got to her. Honestly, I think mum has lost touch with reality. Should she resign, we would be left with no one to assist us at the clinic.You may say we can get a replacement, but the fact is no one has called the clinic to enquire about job vacancies despite the downturn in economy ( quite unlike the previous downturns). Mum, I am afraid, has got herself quite a “reputation” as far as her relationship with clinic-assistants is concerned. Basically, what I am trying to say is: if mum keeps up her pressure on her you may soon see the end of Malacca Clinic.”

I might have said this before. But you know those life-threatening situations that make people into someone better? Well, Mum isn’t one of them, as nasty as it sounds. But it’s the unfortunate truth. And for the past few visits, I already feel that I make the trips home more for Dad than Mum. Her cancer can be cured one day, but Dad has been going through his own mental and emotional turmoil for years.

The least I can do is check up on him and give him my support as best as I can.

Looks like January is a really popular month to start making babies!

Breakfast consisted of burgers and benjos for all, which is  a first for me since I’ve never seen a burger stall open in the morning until today.

Danial eats a burger first...

...and smokes sugar cane later.

There was quite a bit of photo-taking later on at the beach one final time. Then it was back to the penthouse to pack up, check out and get back to the jetty for the ride back home.

Even when packing up, there will always be photos!

It's really a kite, not an umbrella.

The long waiting doesn't deter fun. I think.

As it started, so it ends.

Actually, that lunch in KFC really wasn’t the last since we did have dinner at a rest stop along the highway about 8 HOURS LATER. Yeah. Somehow, the trip back ended up way longer than it should. No thanks to traffic jams. Probably half the nation was backed up on the trunk roads, though the North-South Highway itself was fine.

Overall, it was great. Didn’t really do a lot, but what we did managed to do turned out to be good clean, and occasionally drunken, fun.

And I still have sand in my shorts.

Someone doesn't seem pleased...

Checking out the town after that was a really quick affair. We didn’t really see much more than a couple of other coffee shops, a sundry shop, a lottery shop and a liquor shop. Surprisingly enough, no one actually bought anything from the last one.  I suppose having the fridge still being more than half full of beer might have something to do with that.

A bit of island hopping was in order after that. Though, I believe we did more rock-seeing compared to island hopping. There was quite a bit of interesting pieces of granite that doesn’t require much imagination to enjoy, such as…

The Whale

and The Alligator.

Following that, a bit of snorkeling was next on the agenda. Apparently, the group really didn’t enjoy it too well because of the murky water, though I was too busy getting comfortable with drowning yet again.  The addition of a life vest helps a lot, though I still have a long way to go before I sprout my own fins.

The rest of the evening was spent back at the beach again, with a spot of kite flying and a ton of mucking around with Frisbee we acquired during our post-lunch adventure in town. No photos from my trusty camera phone on these activities since it was left back in the penthouse to charge up, so you’ll have to take my word on that one.

Highest point of the trip was probably the grilled fish and squid dinner that we had in a little stall right next to the Coral Bay Resort. 8 Squids and 7 fish cost us about 12 Ringgit per person for 9 of us, which was a pretty great deal. Plus, I’ve developed an affinity for 3-spotted fish. Many thanks for Danial for that one.

More drinking games were on the agenda later that night. More thanks go to the whole group whole understand that I can’t drink. Ever. So I played along with them with the help of some Coca-Cola instead.

What's on my head?

Weaving a spell.

Bang!

Free mouthwash!

I’m not sure what’s up with the mouthwash, though. But as the rest arrived in customary Malaysian timing, we ended up with a few bottles of them. I’m not sure what happened to them since I never saw them again after we left McDs.

Departure time from KL was at about 8am. Roughly 7 hours and 2 more food stops later, we hit the jetty at Lumut.

Spectacle swapping at Bidor.

At the jetty. Finally.

After checking into the Coral Bay Resort, the first order of business is to fill the fridge with booze.

Chee Hong starts on the first important task of the trip...

...and Adeline takes over once he's out.

And yes, the entire inside of the fridge was colored green inside of 10 minutes we got inside the penthouse. We spend a short while getting acquainted with the rest of the place, and then it’s beach time.

On The Beach. Nevil Shute style.

For those who are light enough...

Everyone took to taking a dip in the sea, while I took to drowning in the sea. Twice. There’s no photos of THAT happening, but if there were, I’d probably be telling my grandkids about it and having a good laugh. Dinner afterwards was at a local Chinese restaurant, which apparently wasn’t that good, but since I’m actually capable of eating cafeteria food on a daily basis, I didn’t really hear about that on the following day…

There were some drinking games at our penthouse after that, but since I am incapable of drinking and haven’t slept for 48 hours, I had to pass and had first dips trying out the bedroom that is right next to the living room.

I count my blessing for still being alive before darkness takes me.

Total drowns today: 2

Total drowns in my lifetime: 3

Planted my seeds next to my restaurant.

Accepted all my Untraceable Cell Phones from my mafia friends.

I am ready for my trip to Pangkor now.

Ah, the days when I was just 75 kilos…how did I manage to get that light?