You Don't Want Your Life?

I am one who was not a daily user on Facebook. I'm now a daily user as the lady who sold me the Thermomix created a 'After-Sales-Service-Support-Group' to help us with all sorts of questions, tips and also ways to cook and eat healthily. And all of us who bought from her, post of our accomplishments and share whatever tips we've discovered. 

So here I am waiting for my car to be serviced when I saw in another group, a post, which states of a woman feeling suicidal because she suspects her husband is having an affair. 

To that woman, your husband is not worth it. Is your life is so worthless that you want to throw it away because he is no longer faithful? 

Of course it is easy to say the following: Be strong. Life is precious. Think of the kids. He doesn't deserve you. Blah blah blah and blah.

You might ask, 'What is life?'

Let me tell you what life is.

Life is when you wake up, feeling your heart beating strongly and steadily in your chest. Life is having the ability to breathe in and out the air that surrounds you. Life is the ability to shit and pee everyday with ease.

Life is having the ability to feel pain, joy, laughter, tears, disappointment, anger, frustration and every feeling that we can think of. Life is banging into walls which sometime cause nosebleeds or broken noses. Sometimes you even lose your good looks. The story of the Ugly Duckling turns into The Prince Frog. 

Life is when out of the 3999 friends you have on Facebook, only 5 called to ask how you are. Count your blessings as at least you have five. Some have none. Life is having your parents whack the shit out of you for no apparent reason and them loving your siblings to death. 

Life is also waking up one day and losing your once-upon-I-can-do-anything-and-eat-and-smell-anything. Life has become a Hunchback of Notre Dame attempting to manually straighten his spine. 

To some, life is restricted to a long list of 'Do's and Don't's'. Some stay alive with needles and medications and a long list of pills which look like they came out of the M&Ms factory. And there are some whose life is just fighting to stay alive in a cocoon.

And there are some whose life have a fast and furious approaching deadline. 

Of course there are some who equate life to 'having-a-Starbucks-in-the-morning-saved -my-life'. Or 'my-manicure-makes-me-happy/#life-is-awesome/#i-love-my-manicurist'. Also there are those who 'love-my-alcohol.'

So in the end what is life, you ask?

Life is 365 shades of grey, red, blue, yellow and every colour which does not exist in our world. There are many variants to it. We should emulate the chameleon. We must learn and adapt to whatever the situation requires us. 

At times, life is also when we are the dumpster truck where we seem to be collecting everyone's shit and smelling like hell as a result of it. 

Life is also having a rainbow with only black and white. 

That is what life is. (That's how I see it.)

I suggest you buy a blender (or a Thermomix - guaranteed to work) and grind his manly parts and give it to his girlfriend. That is way better than you killing yourself. 

14th Anniversary Dinner

Clockwise from top: Baked sea-salt fish, stir-fried choy sum, gluten & sugar-free love-shaped pancakes, scrambled big onion eggs and chicken/bone broth.

We had this dinner two nights ago. It was yummy!

Did You Know....

... That your belly button is dominated by six types of bacteria?

To read more about these rulers of the belly button world, click on LINK.

The Sickening, God-Awful Haze

It came back and schools have been closed for two days.

I'm down with a viral fever and have been knocked out flat since Friday night.

It's really depressing at this moment right now. Sick and no fresh air available.

The Garlic Peeler, Chopper and Fryer

Isn't it amazing that I no longer need to manually remove garlic from its skin anymore?????

Isn't it awesome that I no longer need to hunch over my kitchen counter-top to meticulously chop my garlic into fine pieces??????

Isn't it wonderful that I no longer need to watch while I fry the garlic pieces in oil (to make sure they don't burn!)???????

The Thermomix can do all the above!

I am one happy person!

1. First, just slice the tip of the bottom part of the garlic.

2. Put the garlic into the Thermomix jug and 5seconds and reverse/speed 5.

(See all skin are removed! No magic needed. Just the Thermomix.)

3. If you want the garlic to be more fine, set time 5 seconds and speed 4.

4. Using the spatula, scrape all the garlic from the top of the jug to the bottom.

5. Add some oil. (The quantity of oil is entirely up to you.)

6. Set 5 minutes/Varoma/Spoon/Reverse. (If the garlic isn't browned enough to your liking, repeat step 6 until you're satisfied.)

Happy Thermomix-ing and bon appetit!

Thermomix Steamed Fish

I am very fortunate to have bought the Thermomix from an agent who is very particular with after-sales-service. She and her team had gone dish-hunting for dishes that fit perfectly into the Varoma. Thus, the dish in the picture above is one of the two which I had bought from her.

Ingredients:

1. Approximately 500gm of fish (I used one whole pomfret fish)
2. Sea-salt
3. Tamari sauce
4. 2 garlic bulbs (finely chopped)
5. 1 stalk of chives (spring onion) (finely chopped)
6. Sunflower oil
7. 1/4 cup of plain chicken broth
8. 750gm of water

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1. Place the water in the mixing bowl. (As the Thermomix is a weighing machine, you can weigh the amount of water needed in the mixing bowl.)

2. Place the fish on the steaming dish. Season the fish with a dash of sea-salt, a teaspoon of Tamari sauce, some sunflower oil and 1/4 cup of plain chicken broth.

3. Place the steaming dish into the Varoma dish.

4. Garnish the fish with the chopped ginger and spring onions.

5. Close the lid and steam for 35min/Varoma/speed 1.

6. Once it is done, check whether the fish is throughly cooked. If it is not, add some time and continue to steam until throughly cooked.

7. Serve with hot rice once it is done.

Bon appétit!

The Awesome New Kitchen Helper!

If you're in Malaysia and you are keen in having a look at the new Thermomix, TM5, write me an email and I'll connect you to the lady whom I bought it from.

And no, I am not an agent.

The God-Awful Air

Clear skies.

This weekend.....

Schools are closed today and tomorrow.

We neeeeeeeeeeeed fresh air.

The Crippling Pain Again!

Sometime after the 19th of September, the crippling pain came back. It didn't just come back, it came back with vengeance. It was as though the talons from hell were strangling my bowels, bladder and womb.

I thought that it could be my voiding dysfunction had returned or I simply had caught a bad urine infection. Or something was wrong with my womb.

It was so bad that I went to the ER to find out what the cause of the pain was.

The doctor was worried about kidney stones. (Why do doctors keep on concluding that I have stones in my kidneys??? Are kidney stones really so rampant?)

And then she wanted to IV painkillers into me! NO WAY!

She insisted on giving me an IV for fluids.

They then did all the usual tests; blood, urine and ultrasound.

Everything came back normal but there were some cysts that were in my ovaries and cervix (which I had already known from the MRI two months ago). And they are harmless.

So the ER doctor called one of their gynecologists. She wanted to put me on a ten-days antibiotics course to cover base (just in case I had some pelvic inflammatory disease or STD)!

WHATEVER FOR??!!!!!!

She did not even see me. My results were perfect. And she wanted to give me antibiotics. No wonder the bacteria are mutants!

And I was supposed to see her on Friday (the next day, Thursday was a public holiday). I had to sign a consent form stating I rejected all medications.

Friday came and I made an appointment to see ANOTHER gynae.

Everything was fine. Cervix, ovaries, uterus. All were fine.

This gynae too was perplexed about the pain. He sent me for some blood tests to test my hormone levels. (I got the results yesterday and they are all fine too.)

I went to see another gynae the following week as the pain became worse. He was a very nice doctor but was as perplexed like the rest. He concluded that my pain could be psychosomatic and that I could be lacking of attention (hubby was there and said he overdoses me with attention! HAHA!). He also said that all the tests do not lie (MRI, blood tests, scope, ultrasounds). He suggested that I was so highly strung that all this stress caused this phantom pain to come about. He then suggested I seek help from psychiatrists with hypnotherapy expertise.

I did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

I haven't been highly strung ever since Joel moved to the new school. I no longer need to rush like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. I would have agreed with the gynae on his stress-theory if we were still at the old school. But my stress level has dropped so much that even my reflux and esophagitis are healed!

I know that I am not imagining this pain. Why anyone would imagine to be sick perplexes me. I have been fighting for six-an-a-half-years to be healthy. To be healthy and wanting to be so desperately sick is something I am not. I am the other way around.

He then suggested that I might consider returning to work part-time seeing Joel is such a big boy now. Maybe at the back of my mind, I am resentful at not being able to work......

He also said that if the pain was so crippling and debilitating, I would not have been able to go painkiller-free. (He definitely does not know what iron will I have. If you were me (being allergic to painkillers/NSAIDs), would you take the risk in ingesting something you're allergic to? And if an anaphylactic attack were to happen................

So the session ended with him not wanting to give my pain new names or be a groundbreaking doctor to discover an-undistinguishable-new-disease. He also told me to go to gym since the haze is so bad that I can't have my usual walks. Also told me to go for yoga!

But he was really sincere in his belief. He wasn't sarcastic or awful like the other doctors who belittle their patients. He spoke from his heart. He did not belittle me. He took my allergies and sensitivities seriously. A very meticulous doctor. He just couldn't give me an answer to the pain that I have.

-------------------------------------------------

Thursday was my appointment with my urologist whom I've not seen in 1 1/2 years.

Since it wasn't urine infection, kidney stones, STDs, prolapsed womb, twisted ovaries, IBS (colon spasms), there was only one answer.

The voiding dysfunction was back and it was back with vengeance.

So Mr. Urologist saw me and sent me for the uroflow test.

My flow was so very bad. In fact I had no flow.

He wanted to do a scope. And he wanted to do a surgery for my sphincter which has actually tightened. (This condition was actually triggered by giving birth to Joel.) Thus, the pain and the god-awful spasms. The sphincter and the bladder muscles have not being in sync with each other. But I would need to go under GA (general anesthetic) for this surgery. He would 'manually dilate' my sphincter.

(Fear actually shot up my spine when he said that!) At that point, I was really STRESSED! I had cold sweat.

I told Mr. Urologist that I wanted to back on Xatral (the prostate medication which he gave me the last time). He too said he wasn't keen on operating on me and agreed with me on this course of action.

So I am to be on Xatral for six weeks. It's not a nice medication to be on as it causes dizziness and postural hypotension. Mr. Urologist warned me that I can blackout if I get up too fast from a sitting or lying down position. I have taken this before. It will take me a week or so to adjust to the medication. Then I'll be fine.

The scary thing is that I'm his only female patient on prostate medication. And I'm also his youngest patient. Hmmmm.... Maybe the nice gynecologist was right in some of his deductions? Maybe I do NEED yoda yoga.


P.S: I'll be writing on my improvements where the salicylate/chemical sensitivity and food adventures in another post soon! Stay tuned.

A Kitchen Helper!

It has been months of searching.

So I finally got it!

Presenting the new Thermomix, TM5!

It cooks!

It stirs while it cooks!

It is a weighing machine!

It grinds!

It chops!

It mixes!

It whisks!

It kneads!

It steams!

It makes ice-cream!

It blends!

It boils!

It is HEAVENLY!

I was fed-up with constantly having to replace the inner rice pot which peeled after cooking in it for a few months. It wasn't cheap to having constantly buy a new pot. Besides, I had wanted to get a few other cooking gadgets but where would I store them?

So this was the answer.

The all-in-one-cooking-gadget.

I am still in the experimenting mode and will soon post up recipes using this. I think with this, my carpal tunnel will be able to heal after all.

Hip-hip-hooray!