Images of my Kuala Lumpur trip in January have been uploaded to the Gallery.

• Flight from Penang - 14 images
• KLIA and KL Sentral - 32 images
• Berjaya Times Square - 15 images
• One Utama Bloggers Meet - 36 images
• Post-Bloggers Meet - 6 images
• Miscellaneous Photos - 8 images
• St. Francis Xavier Church - 13 images
• Kuala Lumpur to Penang - 74 images

I have lost count of the number of people who have asked me how I am going to spend my Chinese New Year. The answer invariably was that I would let it pass by quietly. That was exactly what I had planned. There were too many reasons why I would have preferred to be alone.

Many things have happened lately and not the way that I had anticipated. I do not celebrate the advent of spring anymore simply because I live alone. Decking the apartment in all shades of red for a few weeks is not my idea of merriment. I dread festivities because of the memories it would invoke. I would really have appreciated moments of solitude hoping that the days would zip by speedily and the festivities be over soon.

Man proposes, God disposes. Just two days ago, Uncle Paul called me to say that he was coming with his family and asked if there was any place for them to bunk in. They arrived from Melaka yesterday evening and my apartment has been a hive of activity since. Adel had also intimated to me that she and a few of the Secular Franciscans would love to come and celebrate the occasion together with me. My neighbour Soon Leong and his wife have also invited me to join his family in their reunion lunch tomorrow.

How am I going to spend my Chinese New Year? With all these good people of course! I will enjoy their company when they are here and appreciate my time alone when there is no one around. Nevertheless, the Chinese New Year will never be the same again without my parents. The atmosphere of those days had faded away a long time ago.

Change has come and has caught up with me without my realising it. Things may never be the same again but the seasons will continue to come and go. I will either have to adapt to the evolution of time or wither away with it. Choices like these are sometimes difficult to make when things do not look bright at the other end.

My dietary plan.

Before meeting Jinny at the appointed time yesterday, I went to see the dietician again. Miss Saw, the dietician at the Lam Wah Ee Hospital, explained to me in detail what my 5 daily meals should be like. My ration of three exchanges of protein for the day could be something like one portion for breakfast, one for lunch and one for breakfast or one and one half for lunch and dinner respectively. Meat protein is preferred over soy-based products as it is easier for the body to absorb. It may be difficult initially but I think I can manage eventually. It is just a matter of getting used to and adapting my daily routine around it.

I also decided to collect the Detrusitol SR since I was at the hospital. Mr. Wong, the pharmacist, had already packed them for me and I need not wait in queue to pay. It was all a breeze. The extreme side effects that I experienced could be due to many other factors and that day could be an exception. I have not felt that lousy since. My medication is getting more expensive - RM249 per month. Hopefully, the condition of my kidneys will stabilise at the current levels. It is going to be a drain on my finances should I need even more expensive drugs.

Jinny and me.
Photo courtesy of Jinny Wong.

Jinny and I had arranged to meet yesterday. I got back home just in time for the appointment. She is the niece of my good friend Meng Hoe � my Scout mate during school days. How Jinny and I crossed path is a story worthy of an entry all by itself actually.

She had blogged about it here. She had just started to follow my blog and I had checked her blog on and off. When I was in Kuala Lumpur last month, I got an email from her where she recounted her experience with paralysis a few years back. We exchanged emails and chatted over the ICQ. She told her mother that she had been in contact with a certain disabled guy in Penang and it eventually dawned on them that I used to go to her grandmother�s house to hang around with Meng Hoe.

Jinny came with her parents. I have not met her mother, Meng Hoe�s elder sister, in more than two decades. That meeting really deserve a wow-factor of the highest degree. I got to rekindle acquaintanceship with an old friend and meet a new one from the same family all at the same time. Serendipity? Definitely! It is all out there in the tangled web that we all call the Internet. Look hard enough and you too may find a treasure of your own, like what Jinny and I have discovered. She had blogged about this meeting here.

The extreme side effects of the Detrusitol SR are kicking in. My eyes are dry. I keep blinking and squinting. My mouth is dry too. There is discomfort in the abdomen. I am putting off getting the next three months’ supply from the hospital. No point spending RM747 for medicine that I cannot use nor return. Hopefully this discomfort is temporary; until my body gets used to the drug. I am so depressed now.