Daun Pisang, Haircut and Chinoz

I really needed the snooze last night. Felt much better after waking up his morning. First order of business is to visit my Dad-in-law. Make sure everything was going according to plan. Got there before 11 with Puan Anita and her mum. My Dad-in-law was pretty bored after 3 days in hospital. Hopefully after the colonoscopy tomorrow, he will be allowed home.

For lunch, we just went across to Raju's at Jalan Gasing for a spot of 'Nasi Daun Pisang'. I was quite surprised actually at much they charged. I had to pay RM90 for the three of us! That's pretty steep considering we did not really went overboard with our order. Looking at the receipt in the end, they charged quite a lot for the drinks and side orders. The mains were pretty OK. Better watch out next time!

Nope. We decided against getting the Stormtrooper cut for Idlan.Tried this 'Mango Fizz'. Too much lime!Irfan and his hot chocolateI do like some salad from time to time!After dropping my Mum-in-law, I took Idlan for his haircut. He will be back to school on Tuesday, with Irfan joining him this year. For the last couple of years, Idlan has always gone to the same shop for his haircut, and it is at KLCC. He won't go to the mamak like his Dad sadly. We then went to Chinoz for tea. The boys has always loved their pizza and they munch through them in record time today.

Looking forward for the FA Cup match tonight. It will be against Leeds, and we hate Leeds! Game on!

The Daytripper

Picked up some pau for the nurses on the way backMy Father-in-law was feeling much better from the transfusion and currently there was no sign of any ongoing bleed. Puan Anita and the rest of the group left for Kuala Kangsar yesterday for today's doa selamat. After checking up on my father-in-law, I decided to surprise everyone by making my way up there. I set off at around 9.45. Managed to catch the tail end of the kenduri at around 12.15. The road was clear and the weather was fine.

Spot where the kampong house was located - Sg Chempias, Kuala KangsarEveryone was surprised when I turned up unannounced, especially Idlan. The boys spent the night at the kampong house and really enjoyed it. They did not even visit the resort. We just checked in and out. Everything went well until Idlan got freaked out by the number of people turning up for the kenduri. It was certainly more than expected. Luckily we did prepare extra food. Some of Anita's cousin's came up from Kuala Lumpur for the kenduri, so was plenty of the neighbors. Got to meet and introduce myself to them. Idlan was calmer when I turned up. Anita did some shopping and decorating on the house the day before. She also bought a TV and DVD player so that the boys can watch their cartoon. They already started asking about their Wii. May be next time we bring it up as well. I din't have time to snap away though. One of our cousin brought his dSLR and was given the picture detail.

After clearing the place, we had to rush back to KL as my mum-in-law wanted to take some of the kenduri food to my dad-in-law. Luckily he was only due to fast from tomorrow afternoon. I left the kenduri at around 2.30 and reached UMMC by 5.30. It was starting to rain by then, but the traffic was still light. I had some dinner earlier on and is now pretty knackered. Might as well call it the night! 'The Last of the Mohicans' was playing on the TV this very minute.

Father-in-law, warfarin and supplements

I have not been updating my blog formally for the last couple of days since I was rather occupied. My father-in-law was admitted yesterday to UMMC with bleeding when he passed motion, and is awaiting colonoscopy on Monday, a test where a long thin tube with a camera at the end of it to ascertain which he was bleeding from. He has been having this black stool since last weekend. This is normally a sign that somebody was bleeding internally into their bowel. As blood reacted to gastric juices and other chemicals that the body secretes in the gut, it turns from red to black. This is called malaena. I suspected that he has developed ulcer in the stomach from his medications.

Plenty of people have ulcers from time to time. Some aggravated by spicy food, some due to infection in the lining of the stomach, and the symptom ranges from slight irritation when the stomach is empty - good excuse during Ramadhan - to downright severe pain akin to having a heart attack. My father-in-law denied any of that. Another thing about him was, he had one of his heart valve replaced back in 2004 and has since been taking a drug called warfarin. Warfarin thins the blood making it difficult to clot. The purpose was to prevent small blood clots forming at the rim of the artificial valve, causing it to jam, or worst, some of the clot may get dislodged into the blood stream resulting in a stroke.

People on warfarin needs regular monitoring to make sure the dosing just right. Imagine the damage it can do should one overdose on them. Spontaneous bleeding comes to mind. Warfarin is also a fussy drug. It interacts with almost anything we eat, be it food, fruits, vegetables or other medicine, prescriptions or supplements. This was where the story took a twist. Since taking warfarin - 5 years now - his blood level has been excellent. a few weeks back however, he started taking some supplemental medicine, called 'buah tunjuk langit'. It was apparently processed with modern methods into capsules and carries the emblem of 'Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia'. It apparently will improve diabetic control, reduce blood pressure and cholesterol to reduce risk of heart disease. It can also prevent cancer - allegedly. Taking the capsule however made his warfarin level shoot up four-fold. Hence the bleeding.

Ready for admissionHe dropped his blood count enough to need transfusion. His endoscopic examination of the stomach done yesterday was normal. We are just monitoring his  blood and warfarin level in the ward at the moment, while preparing his bowel for the colonoscopy Monday morning. The whole incident thought me three things.

Number one - don't take supplements without telling your doctor should you be on warfarin. Told my father-in-law many times, but still this incident happened, which brought me to point two - people still get sucked into the promises that supplements are just supplements. They are harmless ….. hmmmm! Go figure! Saying that all supplements to be banned is really painting with a broad brush. Some of them are good but the important thing is, find out a bit more about them and they might not be suitable for everybody. If your son-in-law happens to be a Haematologist, he might know a thing or two about warfarin. May be worth checking with him before taking supplements if you are on warfarin.

My last point is your parents won't tell you things until you ask them. My father-in-law has been having dark stools since he was in Kuala Kangsar last weekend, but thought nothing about it. Never occurred the him that I should be told. His excuse was, 'You are busy as it is, and I don't want to bother you', a typical answer from our parents really. From now on, better call on them often and ask they are OK. You never know what the answer will be!

Exploring Kuala Kangsar

The Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Bridge connecting the Kuala Kangsar town to the village of Sayong. Opened in 2002, it was located right across from our resort.After we finished settling the house, we decided to take the boys out for a bit of culture. Well, to the Istana at Bukit Chandan and while at it, across the bridge to Sayong to see some labu being made.

Kuala Kangsar used to be located on the main trunk road from Penang to Kuala Lumpur. Since PLUS highway was opened back in 1985, the town has suffered. There used to be thriving home enterprises making and selling pottery, and the most famous of them all was the 'labu sayong'. These are earthenwares that were quite tedious to make, needing to be baked in ovens after being shaped into a gourd. They have a distinctive shape and used to store drinking water at a cool temperature despite blazing heat. For this, we traveled across the modern Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah Bridge to the village of Sayong.

The look of a labu sayong. The traditional once were either painted black or coated to earthen shade.The vessel that Irfan picked up.Prior to PLUS highway being opened, plenty of traffic passed through these villages, and business was good. Nowadays, there were only a few shops left and many of the small works make the labu to be shipped to bigger towns for tourists to buy. We had the chance of visiting one such workshop that day and brought home a few jars. Irfan got himself a small little vessel for his plants. After lunch, we headed into Kuala Kangsar town.

We drove up the Bukit Chandan past the Ubudiyah Mosque towards Istana Iskandariah. The Istana was not opened for visitors. This is the official home of the Sultan of Perak. Around the main Istana, there were a couple smaller ones, the Istana Kenangan, now converted to the Royal Museum and Istana Ulu, now turned into Galeri Sultan Azlan Shah. The Royal Meseum was closed for renovation, so we went straight to the Gallery instead.

The main courtyard at the Gallery.Entering the main exhibition hall. Shoes off folks!

This gallery housed mainly the personal effects of Sultan Azlan Shah and his family. Entry cost RM4 for adults but free for my boys. The compound were divided into two main areas, the main building and the guardhouse which was converted into the Sultan's car exhibition room. In between was the main courtyard with series of fountains and water spreads. I was not allowed to take photographs inside the galleries. The main attraction for Puan Anita was Raja Nazrin's young family with the arrival of the heir, Raja Azlan Muzaffar. I was quite interested in the Sultan's career in the Judiciary before he was made King. I also noticed that there was a typo on one of the official picture. The current First Lady's name was misspelt …… Was it worth the RM4? If the gallery did not take any of government money for upkeep and was self-sustained, then it was. If it needed other source for maintenance, then they should consider lowering the prices. It may be too steep for local visitors, but for foreigners, RM4 is practically pocket change.

It does what it says on the wall. It exhibits cars!The boys were bored and started to burn sugar running in circles. Time to go!The car gallery came next before the boys got bored and started running in the courtyard. Unfortunately it started drizzling soon after, and we headed back to our hotel room for some well-earned rest.

Our Little Home in Kuala Kangsar

The rear facade. The stairs lead to the kitchen.Kuala Kangsar holds an almost legendary status amongst those who were from the place. They swear that everybody from there were descendent of kings and queens. This once-proud town still hold the title of Royal City for the Kingdom of Perak. The Sultan still have his Istana there. All the royal ceremony were still hosted at the town. I passed through the town on many occasions, but never actually spent a night there, until last weekend.

Close-up of the staircaseThe heir is in the house - quite literallyPuan Anita's mother, my mother-in-law was from Kuala Kangsar. She was born and raised there before marrying my father-in-law, who is from Kelantan. She only returned there occasionally since. She now stays here in Kuala Lumpur. She is the last of her siblings, the last one passing away last year. But even then, most of her relatives have moved away from the town. There were still some of her nephews and nieces who were still there. Some of them lived in Kuala Kangsar all their lives. Some returning to their hometown upon retirement, to build their home at their inherited lands.

Puan Anita speaking to one of the buildersWhile Idlan and Irfan looked on.For the last ten years or so, the house where my mother-in-law was brought up in was left to rot. The last of her nephew moved away after one of my wife's aunt died. The area was left in a mess. A version of the haunted house I supposed. Five years back, the land was bough over by our family and now in Puan Anita's name. We were contemplating what to do with the piece of land, and the house. Then came the idea of actually clearing the place and turn it into a fruit orchard. But my mother-in-law was not very keen. It happened that one of our cousin actually managed to salvage some of the woodwork from the original building and gave it back to us. Why not we just rebuild the house according to the original plan, but with better material and with mod cons while we were at it. Six months and a few thousand ringgits later, that was where we were last weekend.

The house was almost ready. Since we only paid the local people to build the place, it took longer than what was originally planned. Some of the workmanship was rather shoddy, but we employed the local builders for a reason. Puan Anita went over last month to pay for the wiring and tiles with my mother-in-law whose was understandably proud of what was done. We also had the acid test last weekend, to see what my two boys felt of the place. They were ecstatic and wanted to spend the night there. Unfortunately, as the water and electricity was yet to be installed, we had to give it a miss. Oh boy! They were running along the wooden flooring like there was no tomorrow. As for where we stayed, it's a lodge called Resort Sungai Perak, and I will write about it in a different entry.

Clearly a work in progressMy mother-in-law inspecting the windowsills. This is the front end of the house where the lounge will be.Paneling preserved from the original house.We were planning to return there next weekend as we will be holding a 'doa selamat' ceremony as a way of introducing ourselves to the local kampung folks. We will also be inviting our cousins and relatives back to Kuala Kangsar, and should they want to return in the future, they will have a place for them to stay for a night or two. We were not planning to rent the place out, but rather to keep it as an escapade. The problem is, it takes around two-and-a-half hours to drive there, plus we also have an apartment in Port Dickson. I am sure we will think of something.