A Christmas feast

Yeshhh, this is a Christmas post. My Santa Clause brought me some ice-cream. Hohoho!

My family never celebrate Christmas. Most of my closest friends are Christians so they will be celebrating with their families.

How do i spent my Christmas eve? Spent it at home with my lecture notes :( Why does study week always have to fall during this festive season. We'll be counting down for finals rather than new year.

My attention always deviates when i am studying though. Woke up at 6:00am and finished my story book. At night, helped cousin sister to bake a Christmas log cake.

Dad asked me again, why didn't i go out with friends tonight. I answered, "Because i am waiting for you to date me out ma."

Reading novel about marriage life rather than puppy love now.

The cake :)

On Christmas day itself, bf planned and prepared a Christmas dinner for me and his siblings. Since his parents are away at Dubai, he has to take care of his siblings also, so cooking at home is more appropriate than having it outside i guess. He came up with a complete Western dinner including appetizer, entree and dessert. 

He was supposed to prepare everything and i was supposed to rest and nap while he was cooking. Of course you wouldn't feel good if you do nothing right. Ended up helping him. Chopping cabbage for coleslaw and so on. Skipped carrot cause we were too lazy.

Most of the foods ended up on the dogs' plates. Nevertheless, a great experience. Our very first time cooking together :) Thank you for the night :)

Chef at work.

Mashed potato, too salty!

Appetizer, mushroom soup.

Prepared for five.

Entree: grilled dory fish fillet with butter lemon sauce (too sour!!!), creamy cheese prawns (the prawns were not fresh, bought frozen ones cause fresh ones were out of stock), mashed potato with curry gravy (supposed to distract our tastebuds from the saltiness), coleslaw, grilled corn (or steamed?)

Had sparkling juice :D

I think he planned this for me. Heehee. Banana boat was what i used to have when i was little.

Last but not least, my Christmas gifts. Thank you!

Snowman necklace & :)

And my gifts for him, bought him a shirt and made a simple card for him cause this sem was pretty busy. A carved Christmas tree on the cover and did some colouring of Christmas ornaments inside.

Finally, i tried all of their ice-creams! This strawberry Dream was very nice too :D

Special and fascinating

All dietetics third year students paid a visit to the Pusat Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti last Monday. A visit allocated in our timetable. Since we learnt a topic on Nutritional Intervention for Children with Special Health Needs, we were supposed to go and pick a child at the PDK as our subject. Assessments were done based on anthropometry, clinical, demography, development and feeding skills, behaviour related to feeding and so on. 

My group chose a Down Syndrome girl. She is just lovely. It's interesting to just observe and get to know more about her. Everything about her fascinates me. 

Yes, it's one of our many assignments. It was fun playing around with the kids though. They were so energetic that they left me feeling exhausted at the end of our visit. Lol.

The front gate.

The child that we chose, Nur Dzafirah bt. Ahmad.

Look at her hand on my shoulder! So lovely.

Loves it when her picture is being taken.

Loves taking picture of others too. She knows where to press!

Getting excited.

She loves expanding her arms to hug us :D

She is able to self-feed pretty well. And she loves to keep her things tidy. 

One of the characteristics of Down Syndrome. There is a large gap between the second toe and the large toe.

Other children at the center; the one on the right experiences growth retardation with mild autism i guess and hyperactive. He is actually 16 already. The one on the left has tendency to be violent. He hit, smack, kick you HARD when you're not looking. That is why he is constantly being guarded and put behind the wooden thing in the picture.

This kid is hyperactive and mild autism. So cute and handsome but likes to throw tantrums. I got hit for no reason -.-

A cerebral palsy child. Pity :(

Last Saturday, i went to Big Bad Wolf book fair for the second time. This time with bf and his siblings. Still, i couldn't get the books i wanted. Grrr. Geram. Everyone is saying i bought enough to last them for more than a year already. But..:(

That Men's Health is not mine.

Also, last weekend, cousie brought home two Golden Retriever puppies. Ahhh so cute~ One named Happy and another named Healthy. I played with them, fed them, bathed and dried them. Hope grandma will allow us to at least keep one.

Lovely~

Bought dental sticks for them too! :D

Sleeping like a boss!

Mum loves them too. Well, she loves Happy more cause she said Healthy is so naughty and always bullies Happy.

Prosperity is so small now! I still remember how it used to be. BIGGGG. See now, bf had to add on another cheese burger. Miss Tai Lei Loi Kei's pork chop polo bun. Lol, don't know if i spelt the name correctly or not.

Serenity

I just love being with him on the journey home.
Sitting in the front passenger seat while he's driving.
My head on his left shoulder occasionally, for comfort.
It feels so serene, with him driving at a speed like an old man would.
I often wish for an endless road if it wasn't for my grumbling stomach.
How do i describe this feeling.
Joy comes from the simplest thing in life.
The best things in life aren't things.

Last lab

Last PDT lab before final. So nervous for finals cause we are going to cook and present our cases individually. *fingers crossed*

My patient was an elderly who is admitted to hospital due to chronic ulcer, with past history of UTI with superimposed delirium. Past surgery of hip replacement due to hip fracture resulting from fall and remains chairbound since, under medication for hypertension and gastritis. 

Cooked porridge again cause she can only tolerate minced food. Minced chicken porridge with diced potato and egg. Yummy only with natural flavourings. Heehee. Made honeydew pudding for snack and lecturer's comment was, "You pernah pergi mandi laut? Rasanya macam ubur-ubur kat laut." Ahhhh. Damnnn. Hahahaha. Luckily the porridge and spinach were nice!

Only yellow and green. So not appealing.

But they do look like jellyfish :O

Topped with shredded chicken breast for us!

Roti telur using leftover french bread.

Kak Fiza, the lab assistant made us red velvet cake for us cause it was our last lab with her :')

PLEASE DO NOT SAY THAT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK ANYMORE.

I didn't realise it's 6th of December.

Attended a class with the occupational therapist this morning. Made me think of just how lucky i am to be able to pick up things with my fingers. A simple action of moving your fingers can be as tough as climbing the Mount of Everest for some people. The picture above shows an adaptive equipment known as a handler opener. I thought it was a food masher initially. Haha.

Just another random picture of a yummy bread :D

Gratitude

He delivered the three things that have been in my mind to my doorstep. Kinda touched. Yea, i have a heart of steel when it comes to things like this.

I think i am really stressed up to crave all of those. I just want something sweet. Anything sweet.

People said when you're stress, you crave for sweet foods, you crave for salty foods when you're depressed. Does that mean i am free from depression, yet?

Something disturbing must have gotten into me.

Crying when i was studying, crying while eating and worst of all, crying when watching running man?! Thank goodness i am not feeling suicidal. 

Why did i become so sentimental all of the sudden, i asked myself.

Maybe because i realised nothing is gonna last forever.

A senior was recently diagnosed with spinal cord tumor and i just knew it yesterday. Just like what happened in the drama i watched. This is happening in reality. This is so unbelievable. 

I was shocked. I pitied her. I felt so sad for her. She has a bright future ahead of her. She is still so young. A senior who noticed and remembered me among so many people who never even know i existed. I seem to have the talent to appear as invisible as possible to people, naturally. Ha. I noticed her too though we are never close. I still remembered how she looked when i first saw her. And how she's became so tiny year by year. Yes, tiny. She shrank. 

I sincerely hope that she can be strong to endure all the pain she's going to face, physically and also mentally. Everything, please don't be too harsh on her.

This is corny but still i am going to say it. Never take anything for granted. Be grateful. Be happy.

30112013

Best described my feeling right now.

Ice-cream couldn't stop the tears anymore.

Renal lab

Lab for renal patient this week.

My group was assigned to prepare a low protein diet for a CKD stage 4 diabetic patient.

So many things to manage. Protein, carbohydrate, phosphate, potassium, sodium and so on.

Foods high in potassium might be high in phosphate too. 

Food high in protein is high in phosphate too.

It's tough to find the balance between them.

My head had gone bigger after the lab. Lol.

Tomato egg and stir-fried cabbage and carrot.

For the patient. Plain.

For us. With chicken bits. Haha.

Without yolk for the patient cause yolk is high in phosphate.

For us, lots of yolks of course. I just love yolk!

Overwhelmed.

I was haunted my nightmares almost every night.

Nightmares about PDT labs where not having ingredients to cook. I have made my orders clearly. Somehow the lab assistant just couldn't get them for me cause they were unavailable. 

I dreamt about pharmacology exam. I couldn't made it on time to the exam hall. I didn't have enough time to study. I was totally blank when i saw the exam paper. I had no idea how the hell i was supposed to answer the questions.

I was feeling so overwhelmed from the moment i woke up. Cried myself to sleep at night. The whole last week. I wanted to express myself here in hope of to find some comfort in writing, too bad i couldn't find the time. 

I tried to act normal in front of people. Yeah, i succeeded. Even my best unimate confessed that she saw a difference in me. How i used to be so quiet whenever exam is around the corner but not this semester. I said i've seen through everything. She said it's because i can manage my stress better now. Really?

One Tuesday night, i actually had the thought of giving up. I want to quit. I must have feel crazily stressed up cause i never ever in my wildest dream to have such a thought. Well, good thing that i've requested a friend, my best friend, to keep track of me if i am being suicidal. So, we are keeping track of each other now. Helping each other to de-stress but sparing some time to chat.

Back to basic: Inexpensive comfort food that never fail to cheer me up. Kaya butter bun.

Bf sensed my elevated stress level. He asked me out for a date. Normally, we will just have breakfast together. Cause he will only ask me out for breakfast. I am always the one who requests to catch a movie in the cinema or to shop in malls. Yes, he is an otaku. Worse than me. Haha.

Tried Mr. Bean's soy pancakes.

Chocolate, egg mayo, kaya, peanut butter, red bean and cream cheese.

As usual, he had to finish what's left behind by me. Kaya and red bean are my personal favourites. 

Look at these cute merchandises!

And him promoting the pancakes.

Searched the whole Daiso for this. We almost gave up.

Groceries shopping is just too awesome. 

Nacho is the shape of thunderbolts!

Expensive good eats. He wanted me to try cause his friend recommended it and he knows i love nacho.

Thank you for your companionship.

I chopped off inches of my hair already. Arghhh. Regretting now but hair grows right.