On nom nom nom in Dotonburi

Dotonburi, one should never leave the place hungry. Or I should say, it's impossible to starve in this place because you're more likely to have your stomach burst from eating too much. And the only thing you can, or should do is go shop at those drug stores and let them take all your money!

While walking to Dotonburi, first thing we spotted was the famous Glico man sign
(View from Donki, another must visit place because they sell everything!)

Our flight landed at 2 something pm, took a shuttle ride to the terminal, went through immigration check, took our baggage, got the Kansai Thru Pass from the airport, it was already an hour later. We then bought bus tickets to go to OCAT (Osaka City Air Terminal) because our bnb was right across it.

The Kansai Tourist Information Center where we bought our Kansai Thru Pass

Our bus tickets and baggage claim tags

One thing I really admire Japanese is their passion in doing their job. Whether it's the staffs from the tourist center, the bus conductors or salespersons, once they're in their uniforms, they just give a 100% to their job.

See how our luggage were assembled so neatly.

Not only when we're waiting for our bus to the OCAT, even when we're waiting for our luggage in the airport, our bags were all arranged in such orderly fashion that the handles are all placed in the most convenient way for people to grab it. Sorry no photo because there was a sign saying no photos allowed.

After checking in and refreshed ourselves up, it's dinner time!

Doing the cliche, taking pic with the Glico man

First impression of Dotonburi of course was of course the crowd, the neon lamps and oversized illuminated signboards everywhere! I was thinking to myself, "Wu... I wanna eat this... and this.. probably this too... Ah that! I need to get that! That Lion brand foot patch! Is 4 boxes enough? One for cousin, one for PSL and two for me! Just take all my money already!!!!"

Our first order was.... 

Gyozas from Osaka Osho

 Erm.... Bobby and I both agreed that it tasted just like Excapade's one. Meaning to say, we Bruneians are pretty lucky to have all these delicious and affordable Japanese food because honestly, some of the food we had in Japan and here in Brunei weren't that much of a difference. Maybe just ramen, I have yet to taste a delicious bowl of ramen in Brunei with that creamy smooth classic tonkotsu soup because of obvious reason... *cough* not halal *cough*

Anyways, feeling not so satisfied from the gyozas, we decided to have our very first decent meal in Osaka in Ichiran because everyone raves about it saying it's the best ramen ever, it wasn't exactly dinner time yet so the queue was still manageable and also, I need something hot and filling after a long day.

We thought we're really lucky since we didn't see any line outside but upon going in, then we saw a long line of people waiting. Fortunately for us, we didn't need a private room since there's only the two of us and the booth will do so. We probably just waited about 15 minutes from queuing, buying our meal tickets and to our seats.

Since it was our first time, we followed the recommendation that says pick half, medium and regular for each item.

 I love the design of the booth!

It's private yet you can fold up the panel in between so you can still interact with the person sitting next to you. There's a water dispenser on the left too and it's just so great for a aquaholic like me! (I always feel paiseh to ask for water refill). Then there's window blind right in front and you can only see the server's hands and hear voices talking to you. Once your order is complete, the window blind will be lowered and you will have your private me-time with your heavenly bowl of tonkotsu ramen.

With an extra egg and also extra charsiu because we're greedy and hungry like that!

O.M.G! Seriously super awesome man this bowl of ramen!!!

The broth, the noodles texture, the charsiu.... PERFECT!

However, the regular red sauce was a little too spicy for me therefore with my second order, I only picked half.

But still, one of the best ramen ever!

Our verdicts~

Next, we were still a little full from the ramen. We decided to roam around the busy street before we have something heavy again.

Makes me wonder what is the FIRST delicious melonpan ice cream in the world... Anyone knows the answer?
Or, it's just their way of being humble.

As you can see, food in Japan isn't really that cheap (please don't compare with food in konbini like onigiri, we're speaking in general). That melonpan icecream costs 400 yen which is about BND5.00 (depending on the exchange rate but I'm just going to use BND1=80 yen for this trip), so ya... considering a polo bun kiap ice cream... $5.00. You get the idea.

 

Sorry for the blurry photo

I like it quite a lot because the warmness from the toasty bun with the cold icecream, superb!
(But Bobby didn't really enjoy it. -_-")

Next, we walked back to the alley where Ichiran Ramen was located but this time, not for the ramen but for Sekai No Yamachan!

Sekai No Yamachan, with 75 shops in Japan

Love the vibe of this restaurant

The main reason I went inside this shop is of course.....

Their famous chicken wings!

.... which... honestly... was a huge disappointment to me..... :(

It tasted by like some ordinary chicken wings that I can just make using my air fryer and marinate it just with salt. Sorry if any of you fans out there disagree with me but I think Lee Loi Fatt's chicken wings win hands down.

But then on the other hand...

This was so so good!

This Kani Douraku (Grilled crab paste) was absolutely to die for!

Grilled scallop

As for grilled scallop, we thought the one we had in Tsukiji market was better.

So ya, that's the fourth place we ate in Dotonburi (gyoza, ramen, melonpan with icecream and yamachan) and if you think that's it... you're so so wrong.

Dotonburi Kukuru Konamon-Museum

I bet you all can guess right away what we had here..

Yeap, takoyaki!

Flavor-wise it was really great but texture... I prefer Gindaco's, crispy outside and mushy inside. This takoyaki that we had was a little too gooey for our liking.


Next.
As the finale for the day, we picked.....

The main branch

Hello, we're in Osaka. Of course we had to have it here because that's where Pablo cheese tart started! Their "rare/medium" cheese tart is so famous that most of my friends were excited over the cheesecakes review over other Japanese food. This revolutionary cheese tart is one of the must-try I must say.

We picked dine-in because we just wanna have it right away! And also, Pablo only has two premium cafes in Japan, one is in Dotonburi and the other one in Omotesando. Since we're in Dotonburi, we will just eat there.

My plain cheese tart

You can picked either rare or medium and the difference is, the rare one is the gooey one that flows right out after you cut it and the medium is slightly firmer and we didn't specify which one we wanted and just order the plain set and Bobby the cinnaple set.

You can view the video of me cutting the cheese tart here.


It was pretty good but we're already quite full from all the eating and to be honest, we were both struggling to finish it. So tips for you all out there, don't be so greedy and want to eat everything in one go because you may not enjoy it fully. Hehehehhehehe.


Dotonburi is such a wonderful place that Bobby was disappointed there's no such eating street in Tokyo, so meriah and ceria. We stayed in Osaka for 5 nights and we went there 3 times! Oh well, for Shinsaibashi the shopping street as well but that's another story for another day.


If any of you are interested in visiting, I had marked all the places in the map here.

My favorite meal of all, Kaiseki Cuisine in Kyoto

Kyoto, formerly the Imperial City of Japan, a city less than an hour train ride from Osaka with a reputation for its abundance of Japanese food and cuisine and also a handful of UNESCO sites. It is definitely one of my must-visit city!

When I was planning my trip to Kyoto, there was just a few things that I simply couldn't miss in my to-do, to-visit, and to-eat list!
 
Such as...

Wearing kimono, Japanese traditional garment.

(Well hello, I'm in Kyoto - Land of wooden temples, colorful shrines and geisha. Furthermore I'm going to have traditional food, what more reasons do I need? If I don't wear it that day, wait till go Odaiba those futuristic area baru wear meh...)

*banyak alasan*

I wanted to visit a lot of temples! One day not enough!!! Seriously, if you're planning to go to Kyoto, spend a couple of days there. Super regret making it a day trip lah!




And for my to-eat, I really wanted to try Kaiseki cuisine because I'd heard so much about it and I was really really curious!

來京都就是要體驗穿和服,逛特色小店, 看很多寺廟神社和吃懐石料理啊.
啊不然要干嘛?

So what is "Kaiseki cuisine"?



Kaiseki (懐石) or kaiseki-ryōri (懐石料理) is a traditional multi-course Japanese dinner. The term also refers to the collection of skills and techniques that allow the preparation of such meals, and is analogous to Western haute cuisine.Kaiseki meals have a prescribed order to their dishes, most of which are prepared by using one of the common techniques of Japanese cooking. However, kaiseki chefs have considerable freedom to add, omit or substitute courses in order to highlight regional and seasonal delicacies and personal style. 

Kaiseki is often very expensive – kaiseki dinners at top traditional restaurants generally cost from 15,000 yen to upwards of 40,000 per person (about US $125 to $340 at 2015 exchange rates), without drinks. Cheaper options are available, notably lunch (from around 4,000 to 8,000 yen, (US $34 to $68)), and in some circumstances bento (around 2,000 to 4,000 yen (US $17 to $34)). 

(From Wikipedia and Japan Guide)


After a lot of research and comparing, I locked down my choice to Gion Nanba ,a traditional kaiseki restaurant awarded with one Michelin star, and chose special value lunch course, a Mini-Kaiseki with 7 courses, because of the friendlier price at 5,000 yen (excluding tax, service charge and drinks) and also of the restaurant's convenient location.



*Tips: If you really wish to try a certain cuisine without burning a big hole in your pocket, I suggest you go during lunch time as most restaurants usually offer a lunch menu at a friendlier price.


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The place is so hidden that you just can't see it from the main road as it's tuck inside an alley with no signs. The easiest way to find it is to look for Starbucks on the right hand side, and turn in the alley on your left.

最喜歡找暗巷裡的美食了!

The restaurant is pretty small to be honest, the bar counter only offers 7 or 8 seats if I'm not wrong but always choose the bar counter seats because you will get to see the chefs preparing your food right in front of you.

Table setting

Mr. Nanba, the chef owner preparing food.

Appetizers - Asparagus mousse, beans and octopus.

I know it doesn't found very fancy but trust me, when we put the food inside our mouth and savour it, it's totally mind-blown! It's the same feeling course after course and we were still so amazed by the flavors, textures inside our mouth and it's like we had never have anything like that before when.... honestly, most of the ingredients are familiar to us. Especially the tofu! which I will raved about it later.

To the main courses!

Suimono - Tofu and fish soup

This is so so so so so so good that I really felt teary and all those Japanese food manga was not exaggerating when the character burst out in tears when they had something so good! How can this fish and tofu soup be so delicious! The tofu, seriously, it's more like pudding or panna cotta. So silky smooth, rich in flavor and perfect! What lousy tofu had I been having all these years ah??? 

Otsukuri - Snapper, squid and bonito sashimi

  

I super love the snapper

Prawn, Octopus egg, egg plant, tomato, mackerel sushi and shell fish in mayo

The tomato.... *must cry again* so juicy and fresh that it made Bobby and I went to market just to have a box of cherry tomatoes just to see whether it's the ingredients freshness or the chef's skill. 

Potato stem, onion and sea eel

Really wanna cry with every bite of it. Why is it so good!!!!!

Shokuji - Cucumber, konbu, eggplant, sticky rice and miso soup 

 My least favorite of all.... because the pickled vegetable was too sour and the soup was too salty. Love the sticky rice though.

 

And lastly, the dessert!

 

 Our super duper favorite of all!

Guess what is inside! Go guess!!!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Kyoho Grape (Also another fruit that made us go market buy and realized the grapes we been eating is nothing compare to this. It's not cheap, we paid B$20.00 for a small box but it's well worth every single bite!)

Green bean ice cream! (You guessed matcha ice cream or pistachio lehh.... nyek hehehehe. Where got so predictable)

Orange Mousse 

 Cherry

And.... the transparent thing... Go guess!

WHITE WINE JELLY!!!!

I was in heaven!!!!!!!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 To end it perfectly, Japanese sweet with a cup of hot green tea (extra kao / thick), letting out a loud satisfying "Aaaahhhhhh~~~~" with a huge smile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chef Nanba seeing us off the restaurant. We couldn't really communicate with him and with really simple English and body language, we told him that the food was so good and we're now doomed because we can never have this kind of food when we go back home and we're surely going to miss it.

*bawling like a baby*

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The whole lunch took more about 1.5 hours to complete and if I ever go to Kyoto again, I wouldn't mind splurging on a 10 course dinner because I now have confidence in Kaiseki cuisine! It is definitely one of a kind dining experience and I highly recommend everyone to give it a try if it's within your budget.

 

Gion Nanba

Opening hours: 11:30 am - 2:00 pm for Lunch, 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm for Dinner
Closed: The 1st and 3rd Thursdays in every month
Address: Higashiyama-ku, Hanami-koji Higashi-Hairu
(In front of APA Kyoto Gion Hotel, near Yasaka Shrine)
Contact number: (075) 525-0768
Website: http://kyotonanba.com/ 

 

 

 

How much did I spend on my 13 Days Taiwan + Japan Trip

Hi guys! I'm finally back from my trip and it is one of the blog's tradition that I jot down how much I spent on my trip. Not sure if anyone is interested but I'm just going to do it.

Before I start listing out the expenses, there's a few things I need to say first:

1) Initially, Taiwan is not part of  the plan. But when the news of Power Station having their first ever concert in Taipei Arena in 19 years and somemore during my semester break, I just had to go!

2) Flying  to Japan from Taiwan is a terrific idea! (If you don't mind adding an extra leg from Brunei to KK first). There's A LOT of airlines (a handful of budget one as well) and flights flying to KIX (Kansai Internation Airport) daily and I checked, 21 direct flights!!!!!! Jetstar, China Airlines, Peach Aviation, Tigerair, JAL, EVA Air, V Air, TransAsia, Cathay Pacific and Vanilla Air. And the duration is only 2 hours plus. Perfect for those who can't take long haul.

3) Instead of the popular JR Pass, I picked 3 days Kansai Thru Pass, one trip of Shinkanshen from Osaka to Tokyo and the rest, maybe One Day metro pass or just by trip. I actually did a lot of comparison and for the destinations I was going, it's not worth for me to get the JR Pass. So yeah, before you choose what pass is best for you, you need to decide where you are going first. That makes thing a lot easier.

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Air Fares (All One Way)

Brunei to KK (RB) - BND 90.00
KK to Taipei (AirAsia) ~ BND 140.00
Taipei to Osaka (TigerAir) ~ BND 217.00
Tokyo Haneda to KL (AirAsia) ~ BND360.00
KL to Brunei (AirAsia) ~ BND 78.00

(All with insurance and also baggage 20 - 25kg)

BND 885.00 per pax


Accomodation

KK Times Square Hotel (1 Night) ~ BND 52.00
Ximending BNB (2 Nights) ~ BND 126.00
Osaka BNB in Namba (5 Nights) ~ BND 555.00
Tokyo BNB in Shinjuku (4 Nights) ~ BND 497.00

Divided by 2 pax ~ BND 615.00 per person

Note: All the bnb I picked comes with washing machine because I'm auntie like that. And also, both bnbs in Japan provides free mobile wifi too.


Transportation

KK Airport to city - RM 30.00
City to Airport - RM 45.00 (Because it's 4am in the morning...)
Bus from Taoyuan Airport to Taipei Main Station (Return) - NTD 125.00 x 2 = NTD 250.00
Bus from KIX to OCAT Namba - 1,050 Yen
One day Metro Pass in Osaka - 800 Yen
Kansai Thru Pass (3 days) - 5,200 Yen
Shinkanshen from Osaka  to Shinjuku - 14,450 Yen
One day Tokyo Metro ticket - 600 Yen
Hakone Free Pass - 5140 Yen

Roughly BND 378.00

(Of course there's other metro trips but I just couldn't remember exactly how many trips I took so I'm not going to list in it)


Note: I really love Kansai Thru Pass because not only there's discount coupon that comes with that, it's super duper convenient because you only need one pass to go everywhere! Hanshin, Hankyu, Kintetsu, Subway. For the three days (Kyoto, Kobe and Nara), that's really the only pass that took us everywhere we went.



Admission Tickets

Osaka Castle -600 Yen
Kiyomizu-Dera - 400 Yen
Kin-no-yu Onsen - 650 Yen
Todai-ji Temple - 500 Yen

Roughly BND 27.00



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BND 1,905.00
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Where did I go?

Day 1 - Brunei to KK
Day 2 - KK to Taipei (Ximending,Eslite bookstore, Ling Jiang Night Market, Raohe Night Market)
Day 3 - Longshan Temple, Xiao Nan Men (for Formosa Zhang's Ru Rou Fan), Taipei Arena
Day 4 - Fly to KIX, Namba, Dotonburi, Shinsaibashi
Day 5 - Kuromon Market, Osaka Castle,Harukoma Sushi, Shinsaibashi and Dotonburi again
Day 6 - Kyoto Day Trip. Nishiki Market, Kimono Rental, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kaiseki Lunch at Gion Nanba, Yasaka Shrine, Kiyomizu Dera, Gion Tsujiri for green tea parfait
Day 7 - Kobe Day Trip. Meriken Park, Harbourland, Chinatown, Kitano-cho, Arima Onsen
Day 8 - Nara Day Trip. Kofuku-ji, Nara Park, Izasa Todaiji for lunch, Todai-ji, Nakatanidou Moji
Day 9 - Yasaka Namba shrine, Nagai Park, Shinjuku, Akihabara
Day 10 - Hakone Day Trip
Day 11 - Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku
Day 12 - Tsukiji Market, Asakusa, Odaiba
Day 13 - Jalan-jalan here and there before flying to KL
Day 14 - KL - Brunei



I have to be honest with you all that it's not a budget trip because we didn't sacrifice comfort over money. And we splurged on food, like a lot. It was my first visit to Kansai area and second time  to Tokyo. Honestly, I prefer the Kansai area but since Mr. Lim had never been to Japan, so I thought of maximizing the trip for him.

So here it is. I hope this post gives those interested to go Japan a slight idea on what to expect and plan.

Ciao~

Dress shortening the lazy way

I have this long dress that's probably fit a 6 feet tall woman and I had been wanting to shorten it.

Took out the scissors, chalk pencil and drew a line where I'm going to cut. Sekali, when I tried it on.. it was still a little too long (or.. I'm just too short).

And my genius mom came over and said, why don't you follow the pattern? You will get a really like bottom for the dress. Super smart eh my mom!

So I took out the scissors and cut according to the pattern and being lazy, I just use candle to burn the edge in order to prevent fraying. It's synthetic fabric, I wouldn't recommend you doing to cotton OK. After several times that I nearly burn the whole dress or make holes in it, it's finally done!

There you go, lazy way of shortening your dress without any sewing needed. Not recommended for perfectionist though. Hehehehehhee

Air fried "Cheat One" KFC Chicken

Received quite a number of messages to share my recipe after posting this photo in my IG and FB, and I thought, I might as well blog about it and get some page views! Hehehheehhe

I got the original recipe from here and here but if you're really lazy to click and read, here's a simplified version.

 

1. Marinate your chicken with salt and pepper for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

2. In a large bowl, mix in

- 1/2 cup of Panko bread crumbs
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of Paprika powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of Curry Powder (Because I don't have Cayenne Pepper and I love the aroma of Curry Powder)
- 1/4 teaspoon of Pepper
- Pinch of salt 

Actually.... I always simply antam / agak-agak / eyeballed the quantity but for some of you who prefer to cook with the precise quantity, you better check other recipes. Hehe. 

Also, I think you can simply add any herbs you like.. Trial and error mah. Who knows you create an even better fried chicken leh.

3. Preheat the airfryer to 200°C

4. Pour milk or buttermilk in a shallow bowl.

5. Dip chicken in milk and then roll it in the flour mixture. Repeat if you can a thicker coat and crispier bite.

6. Put your chicken in to the air fryer and fry for 10 minutes at 200°C.

7. Check for white spots of flour and brush oil over it. Well, you can brush the whole chicken thigh or drumstick if you want but if you choose airfrying it, of course you prefer using less oil right?

8. Another 10 minutes at 150°C to make sure the chicken cook through
(Because I kiasi, I used 15 minutes instead)

 

I tell you, my kitchen smells so so so so good even air frying these chicken and it's so much easier to clean the air fryer than to wash the wok, clean the stove and the wall after deep frying. Somemore no need jaga api.







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Actually it wasn't my first time trying these air fried chicken. 

The first batch kinda failed because:

1. Instead of milk, I used egg wash and langsung tak crispy lahhhhhhhhhh......

2. I didn't have any panko too, not that it matters much but still..... 

 

So how about you guys try and let me know what modification you made and the result you get!

And also, anyone has Jollibee's gravy recipe to complete the whole thing?

Hehehehehehehehehehehehe

Kaling me softly

So, Bobby and I were doing some grocery shopping in SupaSave yesterday and for the very first time, we saw kale available on the shelf. We were like, "GET! Sibeh famous this veggie must try eh! Damn laku also."

Then I proceeded to choose and silly me thought of something stupid...

  

I turned around and smiled gleefully to Bobby and said,

"Will you marry me?"

 Sekali.... there was another couple who stood behind us and witnessed everything, looking at me like this ->     o.O?! 

Siao chabo on the loose yo~

But, wouldn't it be great if Bobby replied me "Oh Kale Yes!!!"

Perfecto!

kthxbai 

 

My Supermom VS Stevens-Johnson Syndrome

It all started from her bad cough.

My mom had been coughing for months and nothing seemed to help. And one day, heard from my pharmacist friend that there's a pretty well-known traditional Chinese doctor (you know, the tongue and pulse examination) in Miri who had helped her friend and also her family members in various type of disease. Therefore I brought my mom to this Chinese doctor along with Bobby.

The three of us all had a pleasant visit to the doctor as she could straightaway state our physical conditions and later prescribed with different batches of medicinals (decoction of several substances). And so we all went home and everything seemed fine until one day...

The rashes began... 

Around two weeks after the visit, my mom had fever and she felt better after taking medicine. Just when we thought she's recovering, the fever came back again. The rashes first developed on her tummy, we all thought it was winter rash because she just came back from Hong Kong that time and she said it was very cold to her. But the rashes spread real quickly. Not only her tummy, her limbs, her face and all over her body.

We went to the KB hospital and the doctor thought it wasn't anything serious and only prescribed Aqueous cream and medicines to treat itching. The doctor said "give some time" and if it's still there, come back NEXT WEEK. That was on Monday,4th of January.

But rashes didn't get any better. Instead... it got worse and turned into widespread purplish skin rash with blisters. We knew we had to go for another doctor for another diagnosis.


 

Can you see the big blister on her ankle? It was about 6cm in diameter, almost like a hanging water balloon.
And that was not the only blister.

My mom had always preferred Seria clinic because the doctors and nurses there are much nicer and patient. Not to mention, less crowd too.We didn't wait for a week (siao meh! like this wait pi ah) and went to Seria clinic on Wednesday, also to take her annual blood test result.

When the nurse checked my mom's blood pressure and temperature, she saw the rash and blisters and said, "Auntie... I think you drug allergy. Sakit kah? Kasian auntie.."

I had a light-bulb moment after hearing that and thought.. could it be the Chinese medicines?

The nurse was really kind and took as many information as she could and wrote it in my mom's file and quickly sent to the doctor.

The doctor read what the nurse wrote, asked some questions and I also tried to feed him as much info as I can to find the possible causes and examined my mom's rash. He heaved a deep sigh and I knew it's not going to be something I wanted to hear.

"This is a very bad reaction and I suspect she has Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. I'm going to give her some steroids and see how it goes. If the rashes don't subside, we will have to hospitalize her."

"Steroids? So does it mean after taking steroids she will recover very soon? Does she need to take another blood test?"

"Blood test won't help her for now. We need to make sure this rash doesn't get any worse. This is not a small issue. Come back on Saturday and we will decide if she needs to be hospitalized." , the doctor said with a low stern voice. 

I had to translate what the doctor said to my mom, at the same time, I left out some part because I didn't want to scare her.

While waiting for the prescription (Prednisone, 40mg a day *cries* and antibiotic cream), I took out my phone and did a quick search on Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, the more I read, the more I freaked out. Life-threatening complications, blindness, damage to internal organs and permanent skin damage.

It was like the longest three days of my life to wait till Saturday. I slept in my mom's room to take care of her and there was few times I found myself just sitting on the mattress on the floor, looked at my mom just to ensure that she's breathing, then cried uncontrollably to sleep. That's how paranoid I became. I asked her a lot of questions everyday like, do you have sorethroat? Where else pain?! Please don't lie to me and pretend you're fine. Quick tell me where else pain? Can you see clearly? Got blurred vision? Got ulcers inside your mouth or not? And examined her face, her ears, her scalp, her hands and legs, and everywhere else to check for if there's any new rash or blister, or the rash subsiding.

She didn't quite get why was I so in such distress.

Despite of not being able to walk properly due to the blisters around both her ankles, she still remained very very active and had no intention of reducing her workload. I knew I couldn't stop her so I came up with a better idea, I followed her everywhere. I was her driver, her assistant (funny how a cleaner also can have an assistant), her nanny, her cook, her everything. It was the busiest week ever. She coughed, I woke up and checked on her. She went to the toilet, I waited. If we're at home, she would be lying on the couch watching television whereas I would be the one doing all the chores, cooking, sweeping, mopping, laundry, making sure she drank enough water and took all her meds.

And by 8.00 to 8.30am, I would drive her out for breakfast, tapao-ed for this old granny (I also don't understand why this granny only wants bazhang and kopi-c from Wing Soon) and sent the breakfast to her EVERYDAY except Sunday, picked up her other ladyboss from home and sent her to work, went to her work place and I did most of  the heavy job and she did the lighter chores). Cooked lunch, sometimes we need to go to Seria to pick up dirty laundry and a lot lah.... I had no idea how busy my mom was until I was in her shoes for almost the entire month. I told her that being with her these few weeks reminded me of the days when I was young and followed her to her workplace and do the easier job. Just that now tabalik, I'm the one driving her around and doing the heavier job.

Helping her with her work was not the hardest part of this whole SJS saga, what I hated most was the reaction of some people upon seeing her "rotten skin".

We encountered:

- stupid people who thought it was a contagious skin disease and refused my mom to enter the house.

- keh kiang aunties who think they are better than doctor, with conversations like this,

Aiyoo! What happened to you? I know lah, you chicken pox / measles / hives

I tell you what, you must take the xxx plant and shower /  eat xxx medicine / sleep on the magical mattress that can cures everything *roll eyes*

Basically, it's pointless to explain to these type of people because they chose to believe what they want to. My mom told them it was drug allergy and they still insisted on their "analysis". Most of the time I will keep quiet and roll my eyes 1000 rpm in my heart, but when I was in a bad mood or I really disliked that particular person, I will talk back and said, "Wah auntie/uncle, I didn't know you are a doctor! Stupid also those doctors study for so many years while you one glance already know what happened."

- The "You eat crabs / prawns / sotong is it? Last time I also like that you know, then I blah blah blah blah" - Er, no, my mom is a vegetarian you idiot.

-  Worst of all, "Eh, I think you kana "dirty thing", go see bomoh better ok". We explained again it's drug allergy and guess what, another random auntie came along and asked what happened to my mom, the si-pandai, in front of us, told the auntie "She kana dirty thing". Someone please hand me my gun.

安娣s 的耳朵做么酱硬的哈？


 Sorry, I had digressed a little.

Her skin clearing up. No more purple toes!

 After few days of taking the Prednisone, the rash and blisters subsided and my mom's skin was finally clearing up. The big blisters around her ankles looked like a deflated water balloon, wrinkly yet still with fluid inside. We went back to Seria clinic for review on 09/01/2016 and the doctor told us since the blisters were drying up, rash subsided, she won't need to be hospitalized, but she need to go to the skin clinic in KB to consult to taper down the steroid dose and set us up an appointment 10 days later (19/01/2016) .Just when we thought everything will be fine, came another issue. Fluid leaked out from the blisters and didn't quite heal up. Because both her ankles hurt so badly when the skin was stretched around that area, she couldn't even stand up straight not to mention walking properly.

Back to Seria clinic for dressing a week later (16/01/2016)

The nurse told us that the wounds need to be cleaned and dressed daily until it dried up to avoid infection. And so, I had to bring my mom to clinic everyday and at the same time, learned how to do it myself so I can do it at home for her when needed. It was heartbreaking to see my mom in so much pain when the nurse removed the bandage and cleaned it with antiseptic solution. I could see her shaking while anticipating the pain. Yet she still tried her best to smile and kasian the nurse if she knew they were so busy that they had not eaten their breakfast.

When my mom wore the above shirt to KB hospital (because Seria clinic is closed on Sunday, we need to go to the women ward for dressing), the nurse asked if my mom is hospitalized because she was wearing the patient clothing. And then we noticed, ya hor, Brunei government hospitals' patient clothing for women is red and white mini checkered shirt with a red sarong. Hhahhahahahaa.

Soiled bandage = Extreme pain later....

Woke up one morning only to find her watering her beloved plants downstairs. 就是不可以乖乖休息的

She insisted in preparing dinner and took the chair into the kitchen. Don't worry, she only washed the vegetables and I did all the cooking.

The stuffs I got from the clinic to do dressing at home.

Yay, almost back to the original state.

Except for the "world map" at the back of the ankle. Can you imagine how bad it was before?

I'm glad that my mom has always been a very positive person and she strongly believe that she will be fine even when she was in pain.She tried her best to avoid negative people because nothing good comes out from their mouths, such as, "This time ok, who knows when will this happens again?" *CHOI!* and only surrounded herself with the positive people who tells her that she is recovering well. She assured everyone that she's getting better and better day by day and joked that she has new skin for new year. Beh tahan her really. And the good news is, not only her blood test and urine test come back with everything ok (no damage to the liver and kidney), her bad cough is gone and also she hears better now!

My supermom in her "baju hospital"

Huge thanks to all the kind doctors and nurses who helped us on this. I heard so many bad comments about government hospital staffs but really, those we encountered were so patient and nice! (With one or two exception) My mom and I believe that if you treat people with respects and kindness, they will be good to you too.

什么都不重要，健康最重要！