When I’m Feeling Low…Surprises Happen

I was feeling down.

I had to struggle with trying to assist my father with cognitive issues (pre dementia) to sort out his banking transactions through a phone call.

I could not drive self over for a face to face conversation and so it was via phone.

It was ulcerating and frustrating as my father is by nature lazy, depending on me to be at his beck and call to solve issues. He does not wish to apply himself or try to join self help groups.

It ended up with me trying to get my mum with hearing difficulties but good mental faculties to listen and help my father.

Shouting over the phone for 3 hours with a major wound is not fun. It was even more tortorous when I try to elicit help from the banks and I was verbally abused by the banking officer when I asked for help on account of my medical condition when he said to me rudely,” your health is of no concern of the bank”

I was stunned. He refused to help me over the phone to check 3 bank transactions of my father and insisted I had to get my human cadaver down to the bank with my father to speak to him. I pleaded and explained my recent cancer surgery, which resulted in his abusive reply to me. Not nice!

So I ended 4 hours of circus time with 4 bank officers and finally found one who assisted me to call and obtain consent from my father to let me ask for clarifications. This gentleman was an angel and helped me with heart and compassion. God bless him!

By now I had a massive headache. I was down and frustrated, but definitely tired out from all that screaming to get my father to even try and read his bills to me – it failed, which was why I had to search through his common vendors to establish if he was scammed or defrauded!

So when I had my door bell rung 3 times today, I was so surprised to receive 2 fruit hampers and a gift pack of Lunar New Goodies!

From Piglet – Piglet took the trouble to search for one with fruits and my fave sunflower. It had a lovely bunch of 6 bananas, pears, oranges, kiwi, chinese brown pear and oranges.

I shared some of the fruits with Mr Boy next door and Neighbor who cooks for me. They were very happy with the gift of fruits.

From Mr Nice who took the trouble to select unique fruits for me such as Ipoh Pomelo, Persimmons, Fuji Apples, 2 types of grapes, nectarines and a punnet of blueberries.

From Mr Marine was a lovely pack of My Mum’s Cookies (brand name) comprising pineapple tarts, almond cookies and peanut cookies.

Then I received a call from Ms Feisty who is on VTL travel to her hometown, Johor Bahru Malaysia. She called to say she was at a local cookie shop that sold traditional Malaysian cookies and asked if I had any special requests. Otherwise she will just select and send over to me this weekend. It was nice to see her in the photo she sent me. She is happier in her new job, lesser stress and putting on weight.

Meanwhile Ms Intern asked if she could visit me and bring me “Get Well Roast meats” – I told her I was too tired to be able to entertain her but thanked her for kindness. Perhaps when I am better I explained.

So, when the day sucks! Surprises happened and I am grateful to each of my dear friends for their care, concern and love for me.

I am taking my headache to bed. Perhaps hugging Garfield to sleep will relieve my pain. It is already brutal taking 1 gm of antibiotic a day for 2 weeks and I still have 4 days of meds left.

Good night….with thanks to all kind folks and oh….may karma bite that horrid abusive bank officer. I did not need his snide remark really!

Garfield hugs!!

Tonight’s Trivia For You To Replace The Written Paragraph Or Add On….

Hoo Boy!!

A girl is about to jump off a bridge when a Truck driver comes past and says, “Watta ya doin?”

She replies, “I’m committing suicide”

The driver then says “before you jump, can you gimme a Blow Job?”

The girl nods and does her thing. Afterward the driver says…

“Wow! You’ve got a talent there! Why are you committing suicide?”

“Because my parents don’t like me dressing up as a girl…”

How To Move In One Load

Ballerina?

A largish woman, wearing a sleeveless sundress, walked into a bar .

She raised her right arm, revealing a huge, hairy armpit as she pointed to all the people sitting at the bar and asked, “What man here will buy a woman drink?”

The bar went silent as the patrons tried to ignore her.

But down at the end of the bar, an owly-eyed drunk slammed his hand down on the counter and bellowed, “Give the ballerina a drink!”

The bartender poured the drink, and the woman chugged it down.

She turned to the patrons and again pointed around at all of them,
revealing the same hairy armpit, and asked, “What man here will buy a lady a drink?”

Once again, the same little drunk slapped his money down on the bar and said, “Give the ballerina another drink!”

The bartender approached the little drunk and said, “Tell me, George, it’s your business if you want to buy the lady a drink, but why do you keep calling her the ballerina?”

The drunk replied, “Any woman who can lift her leg that high has got to be a ballerina!”

Neighbour’s Cooking Week 17 Jan 22 To 19 Jan 22

17 Jan 22, I had my lunch at Bates Motel before returning home to Neighbor’s cooking.

17 Jan 22 dinner

18 Jan lunch was multigrain porridge with pumpkin and side comprising tomato fried with egg, blanched veggied and steamed pork with salted egg.

18 Jan 22 dinner was pan fried salmon with stir fried spinach.

19 Jan…Neighbor is doing spring cleaning for coming Chinese Lunar New Year on 31 Jan 22. So today’s meal will be simple and tomorrow her kitchen is closed. She also gave me a container filled with cornflakes for breakfast. Truly kind. Below is a repertoire of the dishes and following pix after that is a close up.

Left Is the salad bowl, cornflakes and corn on cob soup with pork, carrots and tomatoes.

Salad…below is purple cabbage, tomatoes, grapes and melon seeds

Thai chicken stir fried with basil and mushrooms with rice

19 Jan dinner was corn on cob soup with carrots and tomatoes. Neighbor’s helper was busy washing the curtains and spring cleaning so dinner was a simple affair with soup and rice.

Looks like tomorrow I will have to forage for food or I can get from Kentucky fried Chicken and live dangerously for the day. Haha!

Silly Billy

Mum Wins

Never Make Fun Of A Kid

Gratefulness Defined By My Standards

As I struggle through life’s challenges, I am also a recipient of good friendships (physical face to face ones but with Covid times, it is virtual; WordPress readers; medical fraternity, insurers and just about everyone)

Today I did an interview with the National Eye Center to talk about Sjorgren’s Syndrome and how dry eyes affect me and my life. I told the lovely lady that when compared to the other 30 surgeries, with the last one being Cancer, dry eyes is not as bad. I have a funny way of putting things in context. I always seem to have a bigger fish to fry, if you know what I mean.

The interviewer left off by saying, I ought to write a book about my medical experiences and share with others. Funnily enough, she is the second person to suggest this to me, the first being my trusty friend, Mr Ability To Earn.

I am happy to publish a book about it, was my response, but it must be connected with insurers, a prominent medical institution or the local newspapers.

I know it is crazy to have undergone 30 surgeries up to now.

I have kept my lunacy in check, sanity and gumption prevailing each time, without letting up and ensuring I do not go bonkers as my end.

Some call it courage.

Others call it bravery.

I call it stupidity. It is my stupid way of coping with the illogical numbers of surgeries I have had to undergo. It did not make sense.

I searched the medical fraternity for answers and learnt that if they ever put me through tests or scans, chances are I will have a new ailment!

I also searched the metaphysical aspects for a solution. Zen, Buddhism, Lord Krishna, God etc.

Meditation does not work as my monkey mind is not tamed and it fires on all pistons to stray.

But what I do know is the kindness of 2 doctors; Drs Lim Yi Jia and Boey Wah Keong.

Dr Lim has gone way and beyond his calling as a surgeon for me. When I had wound issues from recent surgery, he told me matter of factly, “a wound is a wound, no matter where it is” – when I questioned him on being an orthopaedic surgeon.

He is thorough and pops in to see me many times in the ward and spends time to pray for me. He encourages me and always worry about my well being. Yes, I may pay a medical fee for his services through my insurers, but he need not be kind, compassionate or caring. Instead, he can be clinical and not bother about about texting me asking me how I am.

When he does not hear from me, he calls. This is true doctoring with a heart and I am so grateful for his kindness towards a problematic patient.

Dr Boey visited me in the ward too as a friend. He sat, discussed my wound issues, advised me and even asked me to sit, calm self and find out what it is I am supposed to do and perhaps end this karmic cycle.

In his Zen mind, there is always cause and effect and I have asked him, that I must have been an evil scientist of sorts in past lives and dissected many animals for science and hence in this life, I need to be sliced and diced too.

MR EX conveniently told me he was also going for surgery, although he would not say what sort of surgery other than exploratory as his so called condition may be “cancer or not cancer” – this was after I shared with him that I had cancer.

MR EX is like that. In all honesty, I feel he lied and that actually he has gone away on vacation and wanted to elicit my sympathy, despite my own cancer situation. This is not nice. If he genuinely cared or loved me in the past, I would have mattered. Ah well, good to know I saw through his colors and dumped him like a hot potato.

Each of us have struggles. Some financial, others for health and or relationships.

I am worried too that Yul Brynner and Eunuch would give me the boot from work for falling ill. But instead this morning, I got a call from Eunuch to say that they have decided to support me with letting me max out the legal 60 days of hospital leave, exhaust my annual leave and this will lead me to the last 1.5 months at 1/2 salary. Then on 1 July 2022, I can be back at work, fresh and well again.

Meanwhile, they will hire a manager on contract for one year to help me tide over this time.

Decent of my Lords is what I would say!

I am grateful.