The rain has just stopped. It is a welcome relief to the humid and hazy days that has been plaguing the city for the past week. The pungent smell of ash is replaced by the fresh cool air. The rain did more than wash away the haze. It took away with it some of the restlessness that has been making me very unproductive. The unfinished business in Penang has been bugging me for a while already. Hopefully, all can be resolved by the end of June.

The haze season is upon us again. The visibility is still good but there is this unmistakable burnt smell lingering in the air. There is nothing much we can do except to drink lots of water and wait it out. The daily Air Pollutant Index (API) readings for the various cities and towns in Malaysia is available at the Department of Environment website - www.doe.gov.my.

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Malay Mail
Blogspot
May 13, 2008

I met my Wuan online!
Teoh El Sen

PETER GABRIEL TAN (www.petertan.com), who will be 42 soon, got married six months ago to someone hemet online nine years ago.
She is the most wonderful person who is supportive of the things that I do,” he says.

And he’s quick tomention that she has a photoblog (www.wuan.org). Peter’s weblog is called The Digital Awakening with the tagline Living One Day At A Ttime.

I became a tetraplegic at the age of 18 when I dived into a swimming pool and suffered spinal cord injury. I havebeenusingawheelchair since,” says Peter, born and bred in Penang but currently based in Kuala Lumpur.

SpinalCordInjury(http://sci.petertan.com/) was the first site he created, and that was in 1997. And since then, a fewmore.

But Peter aims to take a break, as “I have written all that needs to be written in more than 300 entries.

I have nothing new to say anymore….

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a peer counselor for the Independent Living Programme for People with Disabilities.(http://www.cilpenang.org) Essentially, I conduct programmes to empower severely disabled people to regain their selfrespect, understand their rights in society, evaluate their goals in life and work towards that.

I am also an advocate for an accessible and inclusive Malaysia. At the moment, disabled people face great difficulty because of attitudinal and environmental barriers. Many are unable to move around safely and conveniently due to the lack of accessible facilities and public transport. Infrastructure should be created to cater to the diverse needs of society, not only for people who can walk, but this is usually not the case. That is why there is a real need to advocate in the interest of disabled people who are still being marginalised and left behind in mainstream society.

How and when did you start to blog? I had several websites hosted at Geocities in the early 2000. Manually updating the links to existing pages each time I added new pages was tedious. It was also during that time that I began to read blogs and noticed that updating was done at the back-end effortlessly.

I posted my first entry at Blogspot on January 28, 2003, and have never looked back since.

Any reasons? I kept a diary before that.

Blogging is a natural extension to it. I had no idea how it would turn out. I just wanted a space to pen my thoughts and the story of my life. Being able to share it with other people was a bonus.

What have you achieved through blogging? The greatest gain from blogging is the many friendships that were forged with readers who live in places that I never imagined I would ever visit. We would not be able to get to know each other if not for my blog.

I’d like to believe that through my blog, I have given disability a face toMalaysian society that disabled people are just like everyone else. We have needs, emotions, ambitions and would love to lead fulfilling lives.

We are no different fromthe people that you meet everyday in the market, of!ce or shopping complexes.

Thewonderful thing about blogging is that it allows me to do what I do more effectively to a wider audience.

Through my blog, I disseminate information on disability.

Whenever the opportunity arises, I stress on the Social Model of Disability which states that people are disabled by attitude and the environment rather by their conditions. I am glad that they now have a better understanding of these issues and are supportive of the cause that I amadvocating.

Do you have any regrets through blogging? None whatsoever.

How has blogging changed your life? I have learnt a lot about myself at a deeper level.

Each time I put thoughts into words, I challenge myself on my understanding of the issues that I am writing on. Blogging has allowedme to bring out my inert emotions and ambitions. That has made me realise many things about myself and matters that are close to my heart.

I like writing and photography.

This blog has allowed me to do both in the same place. Apart from that, I like tosavourgoodfoodalthough that has been severely curtailed by the low-protein diet that I have to follow because ofmy kidney disease.

The ‘blogosphere’.What does itmean to you? It’s the place where we say the things that we do not usually say in real life.

Who is your absolute favourite blogger? To me, the integrity of a blogger is of utmost importance.

They must stand by what they write come hell or highwater. I do not have one favourite blogger but I have high regard for social- political bloggers who, knowing the risks, still openly reveal their identities and write critically on current issues.

The water pressure has gone back to normal today. Water supply was restored two days ago actually but the pressure was low. It was better yesterday. I emptied my bowel today because of that. Nothing cleans as well as water. I am a happy camper. I have never gotten used to cleaning with toilet paper. Somehow it just never felt clean even after I have exhausted one whole roll.

The cloudy urine has cleared somewhat. But I am still tired. I think I may have drank a little too rapidly. My urine is too clear to be urine. Turned on the air condition in the room and tried to sleep at around 2.30pm but could not. Called Jocelyn to confirm with her that Wuan and I will be attending her wedding. Congrats auntie! Looking forward to seeing you all decked up. Called up a few friends from Penang to chat after that.

I am still tired now. Dang. I believe the weather has a part in this lethargy. I am looking forward to the weekend. Wuan and I have planned a trip up to Ipoh. We are going to hit two birds with one stone. One of them is to get Patches neutered. He turned 6 months old on May 1. The thought of Ipoh food is making me salivate. No, ngah choi kai (bean sprout chicken noodles) is not one of them. The rest… yum yum.

Early Sunday morning, I woke up shivering. It was not the air conditioner. I knew what it was as I had sort of anticipated it. Chills are the first and unmistakable sign of a urinary tract infection (UTI). It was around 4.00am then. I know for sure because I turned on the television to watch the AXN channel.

I must have caught it during the urodynamics study. It is not an uncommon occurrence after this procedure. No matter how sterile the gears were, somehow somewhere during the process, something was bound to be contaminated and the contaminant introduced into my urinary tract.

In the afternoon, I took two Panadol Actifast tablets and the fever or chills has not recurred since. My urine has been cloudy for the past two mornings though. It clears up as the day progresses. I have been drinking water a lot to flush out whatever that is still inside. I have also been drinking cranberry juice.

I know I should be seeing a doctor for this. UTI in people with kidney disease is no small matter. The infection may just wipe out the little that is left of the renal function that I still have. Tomorrow. I will make it a point to see a doctor if the urine is still cloudy tomorrow. For now, all I want to do is to lie down and go back to sleep.