It was Mother’s Day 2004 when mymomsbest, the breastfeeding support group initiated by ChanLilian, first organized a trip to PICU, UMMC to visit those wonderful moms whose children had been warded for critically and terminally illness. I volunteered to help out in the distribution of the gift but was never prepared for the emotional scene at the ward. I wouldn’t want to detail out the scene at PICU ward, what I can say is that it is definitely not for the faint hearted. I remembered the first thing I did when I reached home after the trip was to hold my two boys very, very tight and in subsequent trips they organized, I contributed in gifts and couldn’t volunteer to distribute the gifts, because emotionally, I am just not strong enough.

This year, a group of moms are planning another visit to UMMC in conjunction with Mother’s Day. You can contribute in gifts or cash and if you live around Klang Valley, you may volunteer to distribute the gifts, limited to only 12 volunteers. I have pledged to contribute 5 gifts.

Check out Ros’s blog mama22beas and Chanel’s blog to find out how you can contribute.

God bless.

I have this sudden craze about colors. Colorful dresses, bright bags, shoes, accessories, and eye popping colorful makeup, hahaha.. guess it’s back to the future or in denial of aging.. or a pre-mature midlife crisis perhaps or just a re-invention of myself. Whatever it is, it’s a good sign, says a close friend.

I saw a strand of white eye brow while I was brushing my teeth this morning. It’s a new growth, sign of aging I guess… probably I may need to dye my eye brow sooner..

One lesson I learnt, from my prolonged red-eyes problems is to consult an eye specialist immediately whenever I have any discomfort in the eyes. Do not see a GP or do your own remedy, like what I did..hahaha.. thinking that I can save the money to pamper myself with a new pair of shoes!

I started having discomfort, ichiness in my eyes more than 3 weeks ago. I bought a sterile saline drop from a phamacy and applied the drops whenever necessary. My eyes were fine after 7 days and I started to wear back the contact lens. 2 days later, the eyes became red and itchy again and the saline drop not only didn’t help but worsened the condition. Then I went to see a GP, he said I had a bad infection, he prescribed an anti-bacterial/anti-imflammatory eye drops and told me to apply for a week. He prescribed some vitamins and anti-histamine but both prescription ended up in my dustbin. I never like to take medicine.

After 5 days, my eyes were ok. Then I stopped applying, but did not wear my contact lens because I wanted to let my eyes have a longer break from contact lens. Then 2 days later, the ichiness and redness came back. I applied back the eye drop and goodness, it stinged and the redness became worse.

The following day, I went to see an eye specialist Dr. Then at ISEC. He did a thorough check and diagnosed me as having Dry Eyes Syndrome. He didn’t find any infection, my corneas and eye pressure are perfect. What a relief! I was preparing for some serious diagnose and in fact, the receptionist at the ISEC told me that a lot of patients went through cornea transplant due to severe problems caused by contact lens. I was told by Dr. Then that as we age, our eyes tend to be less tolerance to contact lens. Cheh.. reminds me that I am not getting any younger. haha.. He advised me to use artificial eye drop and to make sure that I use preservative-free drops which can be applied with contact lens on. Those lubricants with preservative, which are cheaper, tend to irritate the eyes more. 

I did some research myself and found out that certain medication may aggravate the dry eyes. Anti-histamine is one of them. I can’t imagine if I had taken the anti-histamine prescribed by the GP I saw earlier. And the anti-inflammatory eye drop my GP prescribed content steroid! Another cause may be because of contact lens. Although Dr. Then said that all contact lens are basically the same, I somehow feel the difference when I use B & L compare to FreshLook. I feel so much comfortable with FreshLook. My next mission is to source for a good quality contact lens. I am so happy when Dr. Then said that I can wear my contact lens anytime provided I keep my eyes moisture with the eye drop and do not wear for more than 8 hours. I am too vain to do away without contact lens.

Find out more about Dry Eyes Syndrome here.

I blogged earlier about my eyes infection. My eyes were ok after I applied the eye drops after 5 days, then I stop the application but did not use contact lens. I was planning to use back the lens after a month.  The night before, my eyes became itchy and I immediately apply the anti-inflammatory eye drop which my GP prescribed earlier. And it became worse! My right eye was so red the following morning. I concluded that it’s time I see an eye specialist.

I remembered taking Big J to see one Dr. Chin in Sunway Medical Center. She was recommended to me by my sister-in-law who is a Paediatrician at KLGH. I wasn’t very satisfied with her because she wasn’t patient and when she concluded that Big J has minor astig, I asked her if he needed a pair of glasses to correct the astig.. and guess what she said! “Up to you, he can do with or without the glasses!” Come on lah, be professional and give concrete advice!

Not knowing any eye specialist, I did a google search and came across International Specialist Eye Center (ISEC), located at Mid Valley Boulevard. I called up the receptionist and told her my eyes condition and she recommended 2 doctors. I studied the profiles of both doctors at their website and decided to see a Dr. Then.

My appointment with Dr. Then was 3pm yesterday. I arrived 10 minutes early. Wow.. very impressive interior, nice and relaxed ambience, good for our eyes, I guess, haha. And they are paperless! In all private hospitals that I have been, I was required to fill in a form for first time visit, some hospitals ever required to fill in forms for each visit. But here, no forms required, the receptionist asked me a few questions and he keyed in the computer as he spoke to me. Then I was given an appointment card and Dr. Then’s card.

I was the only patient waiting to see Dr. Then and goodness! I waited for more than an hour for him! When he finally showed up, he apologised and asked me about my medical history and he keyed in the pc as he asked me. Paperless concept! And this is my first time seeing a Doctor keying in data on his own. The center saves a lot of overhead costs! But I guess if there are lots of patients, it literally means longer waiting time unless the doctor has excellent typing skills, haha..

He did a thorough check on my eyes and I must say that he is very professional. It was a painless check up and he answered and explained every question I asked patiently. He diagnosed me as having Dry Eyes Syndrome. I will blog more about Dry Eyes Syndrome in my next entry. Overall, I am very satisfied with the service at ISEC (except that I waited one hour to see the doc) and also..the fee charged is reasonable. If you are looking for an Eye Specialist, I would strongly recommend you to ISEC. They have all kinds of Eyes Specialists who are expertise in their respective field. Dr. Then is a Cornea and External Eye Diseases Specialist. Oh yes, I can never pronounce the word ophthalmologist correctly. Let’s just refer this group of species as Eye Doctor, haha..

Read more about ISEC and their panel of eyes specialists here.

I have always diversified my investment scheme, in insurance, unit trusts (both private firms and government), stocks, and of course FD and savings which has more liquidity but pathetic returns. Needless to say, I am interested in the issuance of Sukuk Simpanan Rakyat (SSR), the RM5 billion Islamic bonds in 2 series with a guarantee annual returns of 5% with a 3-year tenure. This is part of the goverment RM60 bil stimulus package. What I like about it is that it provides flexibility for early redemption before the maturity date, the convervative 5% returns. Low risk, average returns, not a bad investment considering how pathetic is the bank interest rate right now.

The first series is now open for subscription from today till May 13, minimum investment is RM1K while maximum investment is RM50K per investor. If you missed the first series, no worries, the second series will be launched, I believe in the 3rd quarter (there is no annoucement yet on the date of the second series). I queued 2 hours this morning to submit my subscription.

For more information, visit the Bank Negara website here.

I have been writing a lot about customer service lately. The past week, I have been through excellent service and services that make me puke! Watatime, located at Sunway Pyramid is a dealer for luxury time pieces, carrying brands like Rolex, Omega, Tag Huer, Mont Blanc, Patek Phillipe and many branded Swiss-made time pieces. I have full of praises for the customer service lady who patiently explained every question my hubby and I asked about Swiss made time pieces. We are two dungu who know nuts about Swiss watches but develop a sudden “hobby” of watch collection, especially the Limited Edition series. It’s a good investment. One day, when we are old and dying, we can pass down the watches to our children, and they can set up an Ebay account to sell those limited edition..hahaha.. That’s what hubby has always been saying, buy stuffs that appreciate in value, not depreciate over time.. that includes furnitures, jewellery, household accessories etc.. hmmm… my mouth drools as I looked at that piece of latest Dior Diamond saphire watch at Watatime… dreamy, dreamy..

One thing I like about Panasonic Customer Service is that the agent who answered my call will address me by my name the moment she picked up my call. The moment I said hello, she would say, Ms. Tan, how can I help you? I was told that they keep the details of customers who had previously called and names of customer will shown on their screen when we call them, you know, the Caller Identification thingy. This is of course provided that we use the same phone number to call them. Panasonic services had improved a hell lot, ahem.. since I left the group of companies. I am now a customer and can hentam them if they have poor services.. hahaha…

And yes, I must really laud the Customer Service Dept of LHDNM (Inland Revenue Board) for their excellent service and efficiency. I wrote them an email to ask some questions about the e-filing system and immediately there is an auto-reply to say that they have received my email and will response to me soonest. 2 hours later, I received an email from them, answering all my questions in surprisingly excellent English. Haha.. it makes me feel good to pay tax, of course it will make me feel so much better if they can increase more items for tax relief and rebate. Introduction of tax relief for spending on sports equipment is most welcome, probably the amount should increase to RM1000 instead of just RM300… Perhaps I should write to them to propose my idea..

And poor services? A leading local bank.. I really don’t understand why it took soooooo loonnnnggg for their customer service to pick up the line and more often than not they don’t pick up! The line went dead after so many repeated lines.. “thank you for holding the line.. our customer service agent are still busy, please hold the line and we will attend to you shortly…”.. The funny thing is that the services industry seem to have the lousiest customer service.. I have a similiar experience with a local insurance company.. Please do away with your answering machines! We need to talk to real people!

Eh.. I am not talking about post-mortems of some dead people. I am talking about this post-mortem. Eh..don’t they ever wake up or learnt any lesson from the GE12 8th March tsunami, Permatang Pauh & Kuala Trengganu by-election. Didn’t they have any post-mortem after the previous by-elections? If proper post-mortem have been done earlier, they would not have lost the two Bukits. I bet if there is another by-election in any seats in the West Malaysia, they will definitely lost.

Typical Malaysian politician, never learnt from past mistakes. Let’s see what happen in the next GE13.

Finally coach Fazli from Kota Permai Golf & Country Club calls me. We have been waiting for 2 available ”seats” to kick start the kids’ swimming lesson. The kids simply love water. Little J will dip his head in the water and learns how to hold his breath and both of them will complete with each other, the person who can hold his breath longer will buy the other an icecream. They have been having fun every Sunday at club pool. During our recent trip snorkeling trip to Pangkor Laut, the kids had wanted to snorkel, but being a paranoid mum, I didn’t let them because they don’t know how to swim. Big J argued that they had the life jacket on, so it shouldn’t be a problem. They were so disappointed to stay on the boat while the others snorkel..

Okok.. we decided to let the kids with their swimming lesson and this coming Sat will be their first lesson. And ha.. we are planning for the next snorneling trip, hopefully they will get to dip in the deep blue sea this time :)