Remedy for Dengue 治疗骨痛热症的方式

A couple of weeks back, a friend I know from blogsphere passed away due to Dengue. A shock to most of us who knew him, as he was still joking away when he was admitted to the hospital, most of us didn't take his hospital stay seriously, thinking he would come out in no time. 

2 weeks ago, a teacher Zara likes and admires tremendously from school contracted Dengue and was admitted into a hospital with a platelet count of less than 50, we thought we'll help out as she was from outstation with no family to care for her here. After asking around and googling, we found 2 remedies which will help to increase platelet count. 

The 1st one Papaya Leave Juice and the other Double Boiled Frogs with Small Bitter Gourd. 

There's nothing the doctor can administer for Dengue besides putting the patient on drip and feeding Paracetamol to the patient for fever, hence most people depended on this natural cure. Here is how it's prepared. 

♥Papaya Leaf Juice♥ Ingredients 

5, 6 papaya leaves from young papaya trees, best if it's from trees that never borne fruits. 

Method 

Wash, clean and cut the leaves up and then juice them a slow juicer to extract out the juice. Or use a mortar and pestle to pound the leave till a pulp and squeeze out the juice. 

5~6 papaya leaves will only extract out half a cup of juice. 

As the juice is extremely bitter, mix the juice with 1 or 2 tsp of honey. Take 2 tbs of juice 3 times a day.

♥Double Boiled Frog Legs with Small Bitter Gourd♥ 

Ingredients 

5 frogs (the people selling the frogs will skin the frogs) 

5 small bitter gourd Method 

1. Clean the frogs 

2. Slice the small bitter gourds into half, remove the seeds, and slice the bitter gourd 

3. Place frogs and bitter gourd into the double boiler (do not add any water) 

4. Double boil for 4hrs 

5. Remove the frogs and bitter gourd, and you'll get about 1 bowl of soup. 

6. Serve warm 

This is another extremely bitter soup, but as the popular Chinese phrase 苦口良药 says, a bitter medicine cures the disease. We made this and sent to Zara's teacher for the first few days she's in the hospital, we are glad that her teacher is well after a few days and now fully recovered.

Escape From Locked Toilet

When I picked Zaria up from her enrichment class, she told me she went to the toilet middle of her class and locked herself in the cubicle. 

Not able to open the door, she shouted for help and no one came, guess what this survivor did? She climbed over to the next cubicle (stepping on the toilet bowl, water tank) and got out! 

This is her own account of the incident. What a cool calm girl she is at times like this.

Houston 2015 - January

In January, I went to Houston for a work trip for a week (10th Jan to 18th Jan). Making this my 3rd trip to Houston, the 1st was in 2008, the 2nd in 2013. It was a pretty last minute trip, so I didn't have much planning done. 

Flying to East of USA is a pain. The flight time is looong, 13hrs from KL to Amsterdam, transit for 4hrs, and then another 10.5hrs from Amsterdam to Houston, worse still if you go with an airline like KLM, which I did, where the seats are smaller, and the space between rows of seats are narrower. It was quite torturous in my opinion. Luckily the food served was pretty decent, and they have quite good in flight entertainment. 

These are just some photos captured during the trip for memory keep sake. 

♥Amsterdam Airport Schiphol♥ 

(photos are all taken from mobile, hence the quality is not as good) 

 It's a nice airport, with lots of cafes, but I like the Dutch Kitchen the best. The Gevulde Koeken, which is an Almond Paste filled Cookie was so delicious, I had it again on my transit to go back home. The are quite a number of shops there to keep me occupied; and of course, most of the souvenir shops sell cheeses. I didn't buy any, didn't know what was good.

I was attracted to the Meditation Centre, and went there to check out, I think it was meant to be a surau (Muslim prayer room), so I saw some people praying there, but also a few taking a nap in the quiet room. 4hours transit isn't that bad. 

♥Houston Shopping♥ 

 When in the US, of course, we have to do some shopping. I really really love the variety of items available there. At Sports Authority.

At REI. Of course, can't miss a visit to the Outlets. I was so tempted to get the Samsonite Cosmolite (check out the price!), but buying it would mean incurring additional baggage charge on the KLM flight, which only allows 1x23kg checked suitcase. Sigh. I always love to visit supermarkets wherever I am. And I just realised on this trip, there's a Wholefoods Market just near the office. The variety of organic and natural product is just amazing. This is where I purchased my very first set of natural skin care product from, many many years ago, in the Wholefoods Market in California. Hilton Garden Inn 

This is the hotel we always stay in when we're in Houston. Nice room, but electrical appliances in my room were noisy, so I had to turn off the air-condition (heater actually since it was winter), pull out the plug for the fridge before I could have a good sleep. Breakfast was included, and they were pretty delicious although not many choices to choose from.

For dinner, usually we went out in a group, only a couple of times I had to eat on my own. At PF Changs near the hotel, having a romantic dinner all by myself. At BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. I managed to meet up with my Texas BFF Jerry, who drove 45mins to meet up with me at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Mekong Grill. Food wasn't great, and we joked about how authentic a Pho can be if it's served with crab sticks, but it was nice to just have a catch up with him. The best dinner I'd had on this trip is at Mia Bella. This is another restaurant that our colleagues like to frequent, as the food is always so delicious. I had a Pan Seared Sesame Crusted Salmon, it was heavenly. The sesame gave the salmon a nice flavourful crunch. Oh boy, if I were to go to Houston again, I have to go back to this restaurant for another of this heavenly dish. It really really tasted nicer than it looked. 

My favourite meal of the day is lunch, as I love the variety of delicious food served in the company's cafe. Check out the Asian section - pot stickers, sushi, Vietnamese rice rolls. The Italian Station have super delicious looking pizzas, and flat bread pizzas. The salad bar has such nice raw vegetable and delicious toppings that I actually have salad for lunch for a couple of days. My lunches. Salad with over the top toppings. Chicken Pot Stickers, so yummy. Turkey Burger, which was so juicy and well grilled. After a week in Houston, I put on weight, of course. 

 I drove in Houston to get to the office and to go to the shops. Actually, you rarely see people walking. I did walk to restaurants a couple of times with my colleagues, and we can see that Houston roads are not meant for pedestrians. There is no pavement for one. And the roads were so wide you have to do a hundred meters dash every time you cross a road. 

While driving, I have to remind myself to keep the right all the time, just so I don't make any mistakes, since in Malaysia we drive on the left.

Unfortunately, this trip was so last minute and short for any sight seeing. This was the scenery I saw daily, while walking to the car to get to the office. This one was on a day when it got really foggy.

Temper Cancer

The little one has been extremely difficult, even though she gave us her promise, she still has tantrums and fit of anger triggered by the smallest thing. 

Me: You know, you really should control your temper. 

Zaria : I try to ma, but sometimes I cannot control it 

Me: What you have is like a temper cancer you know. We try to help you but if it doesn't work, we'll have to send you to Monfort Boy School, they are like a hospital for all the temper cancer patient 

Zaria : Then when can I come back? 

Me: Until you are fully healed from temper cancer, and you can control your temper so you don't get angry so easily 

Zaria : But cancer cannot be cured right? o.O" 

Anyone has any suggestion on how to cure Temper Cancer? 

We try to speak to her nicely, it doesn't work. 

Taking away privileges, it doesn't work. Punishing her, it doesn't work. 

We kept telling her we all love her, she knows it, and starts feeling sorry and sobs, but then it's easily forgotten, and next day, the cycle repeats. 

She's only like this at home, at school, she's always conceding, no teachers have ever complained about her except that she day dreams sometimes. 

I just hope this is a phase she's going through, and it'll be over soon.