The lump in the scrotum has been bothering me again of late. Prior to the discovery of the lump, I stopped driving for a while because my legs were spasmodic. When the spasms struck, my legs would get in the way of the hand controls and steering wheel. The spasms went away about one week after I finished the antibiotics.

Its size has not reduced much after the two-week course of antibiotics. The spasms have returned. I believe there is a relation between the spasms and the lump. I was at the UMMC Rehabilitation Medicine Clinic for my scheduled three-month check-up yesterday. The doctor examined the lump and advised me to get a biopsy done. I am going back to SJMC soon to have the lump checked again by the urologist.

When I went to collect my supply of medication, the pharmacist changed my dosage of Detrusitol from the 2mg twice a day to one 4mg once daily prolonged-release capsule. I told him that I have had problems with the 4mg capsule as it caused problems with urination. He told me that was the only dosage the pharmacy has now and if I prefer the 2mg tablet I have to get it elsewhere. I decided to give the 4mg capsules a try again.

I cannot understand why the pharmacy prefers to dispense the 4mg capsules instead of the 2mg tablets. A one-month supply of Detrusitol SR 4mg capsules costs RM249 while the Detrusitol 2mg tablets costs only RM170 when I last bought them myself. Anyway, the instruction was that I should take one capsule at night. Based on my previous experience with Detrusitol SR, I decided to take the capsule in the morning instead. I had my first dose this morning and will be monitoring my bladder’s reaction in the coming days.

Cats are such carefree creatures. They have nary a worry where their next meal will come from. This is true of Fei Por and Patches. Both of them live for the moment. They seem so contented. Their daily routine consists of eating, a little roaming and a lot of sleeping. I envy their easy-going nature. Sometimes I wish I am a cat.

Little Penang Kafe Acar Fish Set - (from top clockwise) Acar fish, jiu hoo char, sambal belacan, sliced cucumber, lor bak and white rice.

Whenever I have a pining for home-cooked food Penang style, there are only a few eateries in the Klang Valley that can satiate my appetite. Little Penang Kafé, which has several outlets here, is the one Wuan and I usually head to. The outlet we frequent often is at Mid Valley Megamall as we hang out there a lot on weekends. Each time we ate there, I resolved to try something different but invariably settled for the Acar Fish Set consisting of white rice, acar fish, jiu hoo char and lor bak. The other two outlets we pop in whenever we are in the vicinity are at Suria KLCC and The Curve.

Acar fish is fish slices that are deep-fried and then pickled in rice vinegar, turmeric, julienned ginger, sliced garlic and red chilli. Jiu hoo char is dried cuttle fish yam bean (sengkuang) and carrots that are julienned and stir fried together with belly pork, sliced shiitake mushrooms, onions and chopped garlic. Lor bak is chopped belly pork marinated with five spice powder, soya sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and shallots and made into rolls with bean curd sheets.

Little Penang Kafe serves halal food. The belly pork in jiu hoo char and lor bak are replaced with chicken. Both dishes without belly pork just do not feel as authentic as they should be in the mouth. The lor bak still maintains the aroma and flavour and is delicious nonetheless. The jiu hoo char has prawns added and is garnished with spring onions and deep fried shallots. The jiu hoo char that I like neither comes with prawns nor have garnishing. Perhaps it was added more for presentation purposes than anything else. I would have loved it more had it been stir fried longer to bring out its flavour. I usually eat the jiu hoo char with sambal belacan.

I grew up eating a hodgepodge of Peranakan (Nyonya) cuisine. These are usually served on weekends when the family got together for more scrumptious meals. It included nasi lemak, laksa, popiah, lam mee, lor bak, jiu hoo char, otak-otak and perut ikan, among others. Different cooks would use different amount of ingredients or even use slightly different ingredients that may make the taste varied and unique. The tastes that I like are more mainstreamed. That is what one would get from hawkers and eateries proffering such cuisines.

How can one make space to fit the belongings from an apartment into a house that is equally full of similar items? That is the predicament that I am facing now as I prepare to uproot from Penang. I have been mulling over this for a while already. There are simply too many cherished mementos to be discarded or given way in this process of moving.

The apartment has been left vacant for two years already except for the occasional weekend trips that Wuan and I make up north. It is fully furnished for comfort. Little did I expect that Mum would leave so soon. She lived there for four years only. Nevertheless, I believe it was one of the happiest moments of her life. The environment was pleasant. We had great neighbours who were always ready to lend a hand.

The kitchen is full of Mum’s cooking utensils and appliances. There are kualis, pans, stainless steel, enamelled and aluminium pots that Mum used to cook perut ikan and other mouth-watering local cuisines. The kitchen cabinets are chock-full of plates, bowls and drinking glasses that are from a time before I was born. Those are the least of my problems.

It would truly break my heart if I am unable to take with me the items that are currently sitting in the living room which is lined with bric-a-brac that is of sentimental value more than anything else. There are several figurines of the Laughing Buddha and the auspicious Chinese mythological trio of Fu Lu Shou, a tea set from the post World War II era, a ceramic peach tree that Wuan gave to Mum on her birthday in 2002, and knickknacks that hold special meaning in my memory and heart.

Each has a story to tell. They are the little bits and pieces that make up the jigsaw puzzle that is the family history which I am a part of. They are all that is left of the material possessions that Dad and Mum left to me. Given a choice, I would want to preserve these keepsakes in remembrance of the legacy of my parents.

It is going to be difficult to decide which of those items to keep and which to give up. I had to leave behind many cherish items when I moved to the apartment. Looks like each time that I move, I invariably have to leave fragments of myself past behind. Hopefully, this will be the last uprooting that I will ever need to do. And then I read about the camel and the eye of the needle in Matthew 19:24.

With the acquisition of the Nikon D60 DSLR exactly two months ago, I have come one full circle in my photographic journey. Back in the early 1980s, I started with Dad’s fixed-lense Yashica. The camera had basic functions but it fulfilled its purpose. I saved enough in 1995 to get the Canon EOS 500 SLR. This camera had more functions but its dial was mostly set to Auto mode. With it, I took some very memorable images of Mum, Wuan and I.

I got the 80-200mm lens to supplement the 35-80mm kit lens. Unfortunately, I did not store the camera body and lenses properly. Both lenses had fungus growing inside the lens elements that cost a bomb to clean. I have never heard of a dry cabinet then. Moreover, the oily shutter which is common with EOS cameras hastened my decision to switch to a digital camera.

My first digital camera was the Nikon Coolpix 3100. It was one of the more popular models in 2003 and also one that was within my budget. I traded in the EOS 500 for RM400 and topped up another RM700 for the Coolpix 3100. The downside of the Coolpix 3100 was that it used two AA-sized batteries which provided sufficient power for 50 or so shots only on two 1800mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries. Despite its limitations, it too captured some memorable images, many of which I used for this blog.

Before I went to Japan in early-2006, I thought it would be a good idea to get a camera that guzzled less power to make sure that I do not miss any interesting shots. The Canon Powershot A610 was one of the newer models then. It is a robust camera although it hanged several times at sub-zero temperature. Other than that, I had no problems with it whatsoever. It also went to Thailand and Korea with me.

While in Korea, in a moment of carelessness, it dropped from my lap onto the road in a back alley in Itaewon - a popular shopping district in Seoul. I though that was the end of the camera as it hit the road with such a loud thud. The lens casing was dented but it worked fine otherwise. I went on to take all the memorable shots of my time in Korea with it.

William and Cynthia got themselves the Nikon D60 to photograph Emily two months ago. When I saw the clarity of the images they took, there was not a doubt in my mind that I wanted one too. In the two months that Wuan and I had the camera, we have not had the opportunity to put the camera through its paces yet. We have been busy with one thing or another. The few times that we used it, we were more than pleased with the results.