Ultimate Benefits Of Barley

I have been drinking barley all my life, not knowing the other hidden benefits and real facts. Again, my wifey had studied the Chinese Medicine from the Beijing's professors in earlier years and pointed out to me that Barley is more than just a mere cooling drink for our body. It has medicinal properties that could even treat various lesser known ailments.

My recently widowed father is suffering from prostate cancer which seems to be showing signs of recovery. Other than this, he is healthy with good appetite. He has swollen feet which is better known as Edema or the feet that contains water retention. This Edema has slowed down his walking as he feels unstable with his soles which wobbles like plastic bags full of water!

The doctor in the hospital could not offer me the right prescriptions to treat his feet. My wife was quick to share with me that the big & small grained barley is the right supplementary drink to get rid of Edema. I went to the largest Chinese Medicine Store inside One-Utama to buy several packets.

The above left bigger grain is suitable to cool or treat the lower bottom of our human bodies. The right smaller grain is suitable to cool or treat the upper part of our bodies. The above package costs RM2.20 and comes in a combination of both big and smaller grains which will nourish the whole entire body at one go.

Take a closer look on the extra bottle I bought. It clearly says "Reduces water retention and cures edema". I believe that it would help to drain away all the trapped water around your face, tummy and legs!

Photo stolen from HERE

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Extreme Sins To Waste Food

I met up with a long lost blogger friend Bananaz yesterday and we chatted everything under the sun and out of this world for some 5 hours! Do you guys remember Bananaz?? Tell that pisang man to stop hibernating in his cocoon and get back to blogging! We both could have rambled till the moon came out but I had to hurry home for some errand matters. I was sharing with him on my family's high praises for the very professional services provided by the team at Nirvana Memorial Centre during my mother's funeral recently.

Look around everywhere and there are many homeless & hungry beggars! 

I stumbled into this young beggar just 2 streets away from SK's office.

I wonder whether Thambee has ever fed him?

We came to the topic about the culture in China where eating and feasting lavishly is a normal practice now. They have this trend to order a minimum of 10 to 12 big plates of gourmet dishes during the luncheon or dinners to commemorate any happy occasions! However, I noticed that there were often too much food unfinished and wasted. The waiters there or our country would often collect all our used plates and bowls to dump into the unfinished food. That's a sinful waste of our merits! On some occasions, the smart waiters would casually ask if anyone would like to pack the dishes home. Big merits go to that waiter!

Please do not allow such wastes to happen as some merits would be drastically deducted from those at the table and I am not kidding. Just estimate and order enough to be enjoyed by all without wasting. If there is some left overs, please do not be shy to ask the waiters to ta-pao or pack them into Doggie Bags (Americans call it that way). Better still, bring your own plastic bags or tupperwares to cart them home.

I saw this female homeless beggar who always slept in the car park 

of the post office in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. She often made me ponder 

why she left home. I was too timid to approach her as she might 

claw my eyes out instead for being a bloody busy body!!!!

During my late mother's funeral wake for 2 nights, the funeral parlour provided us very delicious buffet of vegetarian meals, yummy nyonya kuehs and complete with coffee/tea being served by their attentive team of uniformed waitresses! All our visitors highly praised the delicious dinner provided and ate so much but we still had some left overs as expected. My wife wasted no time and got the waitress to pack up all the leftovers into 30 equal boxes. After midnight, she drove alone by herself to hunt for the homeless hungry people in the city, who often huddled together in certain areas.

What would have happened if all the funeral wake's food was thrown away? The bad karma would probably be channeled to my late Mother and that was not even her own doing! The cause & effects are natural and would spill to her since it was "Her Funeral". So my wife collected the food and fed the homeless people who all woke up and started eating happily & hungrily! This way, the good merits would be channeled to my mother's soul instead.

The homeless grandmother who slept along Petaling Street.
My wife and student brought food and ang pows for this granny
a few years ago.

I have blogged few times about homeless beggars everywhere and the above old photo showed my wife who often educated all her students to have charitable hearts. This group of 4 students were very disturbed by the sight of the old grandmother sleeping on cardboxes along Petaling Street while cockroaches ran over her blanket and passing dogs stopped to smell her. It was so pitiful and the wealthy parents of one student texted to thank me for waking up his son's eyes to reality. The father felt so bad as he could not provide answers to all the son's questions about why so many homeless people still exists in our city. Is the givernment doing enough?

You can read up this old posts HERE and HERE.

Happy Weekend Friends!

Do Some Charity!

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My Wife & 3 Birthday Surprises

I have an interesting wifey who is very tough minded, strong willed and unpredictable at times like our weather. I cannot ask for more spices and excitement into my life with her around me. She always pointed out that we should swap our souls so that she would be my husband instead! LOL

Just a brief summary of this gal who once joined the Century Rides cycling from Round Penang Island to Perak and Kedah back to Penang, clocking 180km! She has dragged the very lazy me to scale the mountains of Mount Kinabalu, Mount Jiuhua in Anhui, Mount Hua in Xian and Mount Emei in Sichuan. I have delayed the remaining with mental fatigue excuses to scale the Mount Putuo and Mount Wutai in China. It is very tough to climb when your age and physical have passed the sweet 30s.

Mount Hua is the most dangerous mountain in all China. 

Nothing above will stop my wifey who wore a red hat during winter in Xian.

To read my old post of Xian, click HERE.

   

She has bravely cut up real dead bodies on the operating table during her anatomy studies at University Malaya while her course mates either threw up or fainted with rubber knees. She went on to help the morgue of the N's funeral parlour to bathe the female corpses before applying make ups from her skills obtained during her certified bridal make up studies. She would have signed up if they conducted courses for Dead Body Make Up instead. This year will mark the end of her Masters in Education Psychology before continuing on with her Phd in Education. Her ultimate aim is to someday change the way of our deteriorating education system.

I always found her thinking very unique, out of this world, far sighted and scary at times. Look at how she threw me 3 surprise birthdays that shocked me twice instead beyond words!

Photo stolen from HERE

2005

One early morning in the wee hours, I was still sound asleep inside our condo. Suddenly, my wife shook me up and screamed that there was a daring robber trying to break into our condo unit through the window. I was so blurr and drowsy but sprang out of my bed very angrily like Incredible Hulk. I grabbed a big stick at my bed side and ran out of my bed room's door with messy hair in just my sexy boxer shorts!!! I was ready to clobber the robber's head!

To my great HORRORS, I was very shocked to see the panicked faces of my working colleagues who were equally shocked to see me almost naked holding a stick charging at them inside the living room! Oh My God! They almost threw the lighted birthday cake at me and ran for their lives! Muahahahaha....

**My Verdict: It was so well planned to round them up at wee hours!

Photo stolen from HERE

2009

My best friend took me out to Mid Valley all day, on my wifey's insistence that this gay friend needs my fullest attention and caring advice. I gave in to his whims and nonsense craps before forcing him to drive me home as I had to get dressed for my candle light birthday dinner with my wife that night. 

My friend dropped me at the gate of my terrace house and I hurried myself to the door but turned to look at my friend who trailed me! I asked why he followed me and he grinned cheekily. I opened the main door and almost fainted with my jaws dropped to the floor!

My wifey had invited almost 50 guests who screamed out "Happy Birthday!!!". They were all my school mates with their wives and kids. Best of all, she even rounded up those guys who never spoke to me a single word in school but still turned up. Phew!!! I was shocked, numbed and happy of course but wondered how she could locate them!!! I knew that Facebook was the culprit.

**My Verdict: I could not sense anything outside my house as all the shoes and cars of the guests were hidden out of sight!

2015

I thought the saying goes - "Once Bitten Twice Shy" but I never learnt my lessons because I trust my wifey very much. That night in January, we were supposed to head to my favourite Red Box Karaoke to have buffet and sing the night away with just 2 Of Us! We have done that before where she slept on the karaoke sofa after dinner while I sang alone till closing at 3:00am!! Yes, I was crazy to sing alone and it bored her to sleep.

So fast forward on, my wifey drove me through a very massive traffic jam to collect my birthday cake which was specially ordered by my best friend. We were worried that we would be late for the booked Karaoke Room as we had wasted over an hour on the road jams. Finally, we reached the hotel and I walked into the coffee house to collect my cake. I was speechless to see a table of closest friends smiling and grinning away. It was a very nice and mild birthday surprise to enjoy the company of my friends while tucking into the buffet spread. The most unexpected guest was course our dearie Blogger SK Thambee!!

**My Verdict: I had slight suspicion a bit due to one guest not replying my watsap about the CCTV camera I wanted to monitor my ailing mother on bed. 2nd suspicion was the birthday cake being ordered from that hotel which was not known for baking cakes! Either my friend was a moron or a trick was in store. The real happy surprise was gathering the finest buddies from different walks of life.

Oh well, do you have more shocking birthday surprises than mine?

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An Eulogy

In Memory Of My Dearest Mother

My dearest mother has breathed her last at dawn on Monday. 

She has finally been called to the land of eternity, 

away from the sufferings of our human realms. 

It has been four months since she returned home to rest after getting discharged from Sime Darby Medical Centre (SDMC). We have been nursing and caring for her with the best available care with the special home visit & check-ups by the nurses and doctors of Hospice, which gave her much hope that she could recover someday. My mother was not aware that she had lung cancer which collapsed one side of her lung. I am thankful to the heavens for blessing her with no pain until the end.

I am always very proud of my mother for her kindness and intelligence. She was enrolled into the prestigious Chulalongkorn University at the mere age of 15 which was a rare honour as she passed all the entrance exams. She met my father in Penang while pursuing her studies in LCCI and they had a whirlwind romance with many happy memories. They finally married 11 years later when my grandfather had to give in after his stern objections that she was going to marry a poorer man. Both my parents had a good married life and they never quarreled even once! I know it is unbelievable but true. They had faced many life's problems along the way and my mother had a quick temper but my dad has no temper. Yes, he has ZERO temper! How to fight with him when he has NO TEMPER?? 

I believe I inherited 50%+ of his calmness.

  

I clearly knew my mother's days were numbered as she faded gradually and braved myself to be mentally prepared. I often shared advice with my older siblings who were a bit afraid & paranoid to hear anything about death. My years helping the terminally ill patients at Hospice Care has greatly helped to toughen me about our journey of Life & Death which everyone has to face someday. My dear wifey is the toughest and supported me along to prepare ahead all the funeral preparations for months, days and hours before the reality set in. It has been written in Buddhism texts on the way and prayers to be conducted on one's demise which I had always remembered by hard.

My wife cleansed my mother, changed her clothes and applied serene make ups on her. She sat down calmly beside my mother and softly recited the whole thick sutra book of Di Zang Wang Boddhisatva to calm & guide my mother's emerging soul which would normally take 6 to 9 hours for the departed ones.

 

We had decided to give my mother a good and beautiful send off where the wake was held at the Nirvana Memorial Centre. It was a short notice sent out that the wake would be held for just 2 nights. I highly applaud and compliment the whole team of Managers and staff of the Nirvana Memorial Centre for providing their best professional service to assist the bereaved families with utmost respect to our loved ones who have passed on.

Their team put in great efforts to ensure that every meticulous details have been well taken care besides going all out to help us to invite Thai and Sri Lankan monks to conduct the final rites. It was very tough for us to seek the blessing & availability of these few monks in KL but the Nirvana team solved our worries! My late mother's wish was fulfilled eventually.

 Most of my generation of Thai relatives had flown in from Thailand to pay their last respects. They had very busy schedules of lifestyle and came for just a day trip. It really moved our hearts to tears to see their love and respect for my late mother. She has been a great aunt and often showered her love & concern for all of them. I was not wearing a coat above as my old father was alseep and shivering from the freezing air cond. I had to cover him with my jacket.

It is the funeral traditions of Thailand where all the Thai males have to wear suits and ladies in full black dress with make ups and jewelery to pay their respects and honour the departed. You will see this practice in Bangkok and other bigger cities.

Whatever we requested, the team at Nirvana would oblige wholeheartedly! We wanted to accord my mother the funeral rites of her native Thailand. Many unexpected friends showed up and that touched me a lot. All our close friends and relatives were well taken care of by their Nirvana's team of ushers, F&B servers and administration office, throughout the 3 days and 2 nights.

Their team really engaged Burmese florists to decorate the flowers in accordance with the Thai funerals. I could not ask for more and really could not thank them enough!!

I may be sad today but I am eternally grateful to my mother for giving me all her time and unconditional love. She has shown me the way to live this life in a meaningful way.

Yesterday was the 7th day of my mother's departure. My good friends flew to Taipei with my mother's particulars to attend this huge praying and deliverance ceremony at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial, which was presided by The Living Buddha Lian-Sheng who conducted the deliverance and chantings with hundreds of monks and few thousand devotees from worldwide. They united together in prayers to deliver all the departed souls to the Western Paradise.


Rest In Peace Mother

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