Of another mortality

Just after midnight earlier, I received another phone call. This time it was from Institut Jantung Negara where Anita's aunty has been admitted since Monday. she has a history of heart disease and has recently been ill. She was initially admitted into another hospital in Ipoh but due to complications, was transferred here.

She was doing fine until yesterday when her condition took a sudden sharp deterioration. The family gathered yesterday, but she was still fine. Apparently she suffered a stroke, details of which was rather sketchy, and something I would rather not dwell on. She drew her last breath after midnight, and I just returned from IJN where at this very moment, her body was being driven back to Ipoh. My in-laws would be traveling to Ipoh later today, but I don't think that either myself or Anita would. Therefore, in the space of 24 hours we had a couple of family members passing on. Alfatihah.

Of mortality

I just learned that a family member passed away earlier this afternoon. Alfatihah. He was diagnosed with liver cancer at the end of last year and by the time the diagnosis was established - in UMMC as he was originally from Kuala Terengganu, it was already too late and all that could be offered was steps to increase his quality of life. He was put on an expensive medication to help curtail the spread of the disease. He had a good 4 months period since taking the drug. He was able to return to Kuala Terengganu to spend the last few weeks of his life, to say his last goodbyes.

This took a turn for the worst a couple of weeks back. He turned jaundice and his children asked him to return to KL. He was admitted the day after and it was established then that the end was approaching. He was started on pain killer. Some fluids were taken off his lungs to ease his breathing. He did not suffer at all in the end.

How appropriate that I heard the news about his passing while I was attending a kenduri arwah, held 40 days after a death of another family member. This lash had relapse of her breath cancer. She was first diagnosed with it back in 1989 at the then University Hospital. She was operated on, following she had radiotherapy. She had almost 20 years of near-normal life. But time caught up with her.

Being an Oncologist, sometimes I disattached myself from the subject of mortality in order to function. But it still effects me if it were to happen on somebody I know personally. That was also the reason why I went to distance not to treat any of my family members - sometime they even accused me of not being helpful. But I guessed that was my coping mechanism .....

Le Passione, Plaza Damas

For lunch on our outing to Plaza Damas the other day, we had lunch at a French cafe, called Le Passione, on the top floor of the plaza, next to Toys'r'us. The menu looked appetizing especially the tuna melt. We ordered a couple of them, plus sone drinks. The boys had some pizza.

The setup was pretty laid back, with comfy sofas as well as proper dining table. We decided to plonk ourselves on the sofas for our lunch and we soon realized that the table was rather too small for our orders. The drinks came first, and my mocha was heavenly. The boys enjoyed their hot chocolate as well. It was no surprise as the dunks were prepared by a couple of Frenchmen behind the counter.

My mocha. It tasted as good as it looked.Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the food. My tuna melt were basically tuna on toasted bread with hardly any cheese, which was rather disappointing. They put too much tuna as well, making the toast rather soggy by the end of the meal. The pizza was a standard affair, nothing special, but the boys finished them. No complaints. We did not order dessert however.

The cafe was located right next to the exceedingly cute Moo Cow FroYo!.... with its cute decorI think the place was better suited for an afternoon tea rather than a heavy meal. The drinks were OK - my mocha was delightful, but a soggy toast was rather disappointing. I'd probably give the place another go before I pass my judgment.

Tea Republic, BSC

Naturally one has tea at Tea Republic, but I was reliably informed that they serve note than that. I had the chance to visit the outlet earlier in the week. We held the KLickr discussion for the upcoming Urbanscape there, and one of my friend actually worked there.

The outlet was located on the second floor of the newly refurbished Bangsar Shopping Center. it was part of the new wing, right at the back if you come through the main entrance. Of you were unfamiliar with the place, a quick glance at floor plan or ask one of the friendly staffs, and you would be pointed towards the back of the building. A couple of escalator rides up, and you're there.

If was certainly quiet corner, next to Tutti Frutti which tended to be heaving with children. The menu was rather complicated if you were not familiar with the variety of tea brew on offer. They also offer main courses and light snacks, as well as cookies and cakes. I was not sure if they do any coffee ....

My far-too-sweet Red Velvet cakeI ordered one of the ice tea - it was infused with mint and lemon, light to the taste and zesty from the lemon. It needed some sugar syrup to balance things out, but refreshing none the less. I also ordered a red velvet cake, hoping that the cake came from Gourmet downstairs. To cut a long story short, it wasn't. One of my fellow KLickr ordered nasi biryani. He said that it was OK. Mind you, he has not had lunch, and it was close to 5pm.

More discussionTo sum up, it was cosy little place to meet friends and had a quiet down time. Food was OK, staffs was friendly and the ambiance was relaxing. There was also wifi provided for free for those interested.

KLickrs for Urbanscape

Later on the Tuesday, after our outing to Plaza Damas, I went to join my fellow KLickrs to discuss our activities in the upcoming Urbanscape. It was scheduled for the 17th July - a Saturday of course. The
Sad news was, it would no longer be at KLPAC. Instead, ironically, the event, organised by KLUE, would be held outside KL. It would be at Padang Astaka, in PJ, on a rugby field.

Can't imagine what it would be like as as far as I can remember, it has always been at KLPAC. One wondered if over time, the event itself would fade away, which was a shame really. As a regular, KLickr would be taking part again this year. The event was only a couple of months away and we were still unclear as to the concept from the organiser, not even the layout of the area.

We had a few ideas being discussed. A themed photo walk or two of course, may be a photo critique session, some sort of competition. What I was keen to do, is a themed photo competition which the photos would be uploaded and tagged via twitter. Once uploaded, it would then be voted upon to select a winner. But that might exclude those dSLR slingers about. Therefore, we had to plan diverse range of activities for all, and for that, we would need numbers on the day.

It looked like I would need to invest on a twitter client which can read and parse hashtags with twitpics, and automatically download the attached photos. We may then reupload them onto another site for the competition. I'll work that one out eventually.