Saturday, October 18, 2025

Tonsillitis

6th Oct (Mon) 

Messaged me she’ll return home early. Only one hour early. Grabbed home for $43. Peak timing! 

Got an idea on how she was sent home by Ms Lim. The CFO happened to walk by lil’ one’s desk and noticed she was flushed red and asked if she was alright. Ding ding dong dong and by then allowed her to leave office early, just an hour early.

Saw doctor. Measured and said have low grade fever. Strangely Dr Loh didn’t give any paracetamol so I gave her from our supplies at home. 

Medication given : 
1. COF-LESS (hexylresorcinol) lozenges 
2. Serraptase 10 - inflammation 
3. Atrizin (cetirizine) 10mg - runny nose non-drowsy

Medical charges : $55.92 ($55 by CDC) 

“Daddy! Stay away from me!” 


7th Oct (Tue) 

Hey! It’s supposed to be my declared off day. I asked her to help me mop the floor, only to be told off by hubby “she’s sick and still ask her to mop the floor.” “Make her perspire.” Hubby is so biased right? Cannot let his precious daughter take hardship then when the wife is sick he don’t say the same thing. Pfft! 

Che-che WFH today and likes to go to her room to get her laptop charged. AR meanwhile had to sleep outside on the sofa during the day time. Poor thing. After some time she asked to sleep in her sister’s bed as sleeping on sofa is rather uncomfortable. 


8th Oct (Wed)

On MC so rested at home. As she was feeling sniffly, she has been sleeping without the aircon for 2 nights. Pretty unsettling sleep coz so used to sleeping in aircon room. 


9th Oct (Thu)

In the morning, hubby can tell her to “take MC.” Ehh….words from a HR personnel? Here I am telling her to go to work and he’s the opposite, sending wrong message to her. I explained to her that she’s an intern, it wouldn’t look good on her records. 

Went to work by bus but after I came out from my class she messaged me that she’s tired n wants to go home. End up I had to go off immediately to pick her up, thus can’t pack lunch for mom. Called hubby to help me defrost the mince pork as I will cook porridge for her for lunch while I was driving. 



Dr Tan started giving her antibiotics this time round after I asked him if he should do it as it’s her second time seeing a doctor this week. 

Medication given : 
1. Soden (Naproxen) 275mg - inflammation 
2. SW Decondine (Triprolidine 2.5mg/pseudoephedrine 60mg) - runny nose n cause drowsiness 
3. Pulmoxyl (amoxicillin) 500mg - antibiotic

Medical charges : $54.50 ($54 by CDC) 

Ultimately I ended up cooking porridge for dinner coz she wanted to eat at foodcourt after the consultation. Since I was going to cook with pumpkin I cooked for che-che’s dinner as well. 





10th Oct (Fri) 
On MC. Still sniffing away, tired. Haiz! Everytime she gets this even on school days, it takes days to recover. 


11th Oct (Sat)
Said throat feels better so I suppose she should have been given antibiotic right from the start, but doctors often don’t do that. Thinking to self, if we had gone back to Dr Lee (PD) since the beginning when she had this problem a year or two back, would she be given a super strong antibiotic from first consultation? Would things turn out differently for her? 

Today we all only went out for lunch at Sushiro @ Waterway Point then packed dinner home. Time for her to rest again. 


12th Oct (Sun)
Nothing out of the ordinary happened today. Nuah, rest. Basically laying on bed not doing anything strenuous. Everyday also not doing anything strenuous. Her not exercising, not fit make her 一点点 so weak, worst than the weakling me. 


13th Oct (Mon) 

Messaged me she’s coming back early coz manager told her can go home if she’s not well, manager was going out for meeting then go back home to continue work. However when Ms Tan told her that she had already ordered Grab food. Ate then packed her work laptop back home at 12.46pm. 

Oh! This was the day when Miss pretend-to-want-to-save-money girl insisted on going out for lunch and use the money to Grab a ride home. But she’s already so tired didn’t want her to exhaust herself. Grabbed home, this time cheaper at $17++ 



She met me outside the main gate as I had to bring her see the doctor again. Runny nose got worst last night, couldn’t sleep so I have no idea whether her fatigue came from her illness or from lack of sleep. Wah…I tell you this girl ah … so weak!

Dr Loh asked if wants to do a test to check, anyway it’s free. She couldn’t take the discomfort after swabbing one side. He explained that test may not be accurate. 



She was left with last 2 or 3 amoxicillin and Dr Loh told her to stop, he gave her a stronger one - Enhancin 625mg (amoxicillin/clavulanate)

Gave her 2 days MC to cover today and tomorrow. But she didn’t use it and went to work. It wouldn’t look nice on her internship appraisal if she were to keep going on medical leave. 

Medication given : 
1. Enhancin (amoxicillin/clavulanate)
Medical charges : $44.15 ($44 by CDC) 
** this antibiotic may cause diarrhoea. N she really lao sai 😂


Cooked porridge for her to bring to work tomorrow



14th Oct (Tue)

Forgot to take pic of the packed porridge. Packed chrysanthemum in a thermos flask together with 板蓝梗 powder sachet for her to mix in the office later. 

Sent her to and fro work today so she won’t be exhausted. Only today I will do her this favor.




15th Oct


@ 1.03am - prepared rice in Ms Thermie before going to bed. Will save time 6hrs later. 

I’m just so good in being a lazy mom

Got up at 7.05 and cook rice and turn the knob to beat up oven while I prepared the satay chicken on a disposable liner. Pop into oven and prep the drinks - boiled chrysanthemum + 板蓝根


ART results - Dr Loh called back in the morning. Results showed negative for bacteria and virus but maybe coz it’s an inaccurate test coz only dig one side. Could be caused by the other bacteria that is not in the list of 20 they were testing. Other than that we all know it’s the same recurrent problem she has. 


Aiyoh! Smart to cook extra rice this morning for dinner but dumb to cook extra for tmrw’s lunch, gave her my dinner. I can count the grains in my bowl, I had to scrap the simmering basket

Took out pork n wanted to marinade so can steam next day. She couldn’t finish the teriyaki chicken so decided to pack that for her lunch tomorrow. 


16th Oct (Thur)


Steamed everything together. Did chawanmushi for her




17th Oct (Fri)

WFH


18th Oct (Sat) 

Last antibiotic taken in the morning. Dropped by clinic and Dr Loh is on duty. Throat doesn’t look inflammed anymore. 37.4 deg cel and asked does she have a higher temp baseline. I only remembered when she was very young she usually has higher temperature in the mornings but also cited that if us walking across plays a part (coz aunty me is feeling hot and leg pain 😀). She reminded me that during covid period when they had to measure temperature daily, 37.4 is her normal temperature once she hits 37.5 she has fever. Wah…. How can I forget this important details? 
He asked me if I measured her temperature daily since this whole thing started, nope I didn’t I only took when he said have fever so I took and monitored at home. After that no more. Hmm… I think this makes me an irresponsible mom 🤭. So I better have a chart at home ready and chart it down. 


Medication given : 
1. serraptase 10
Medical charges : $31.61 ($30 by CDC) 


Throughout I’ve been ensuring there’s a supply of chrysanthemum in the fridge. Coz I boil the drink with 2 other herbs, she says it’s better for her. So from now on until forever, I will try to boil it every time. 




The 板蓝梗 powder 


Other thing advised her was to maybe try gargling her tonsils with salt + warm water. Might help to kill any bacteria lingering in her mouth. 

Note to self is to check on TCM treatment. But tiring leh! TCM must keep going to consult, where got time to go every 5-6 days? 

Dr Chong’s recommendation is to do a tonsillectomy but she doesn’t want the surgery. We know that the pain will always come back if she don’t do this. TCM is also not a permanent solution. I also don’t have the energy to keep bringing her to see TCM doctor. 



to give her a better quality of life. Give me too! Why must make me worry for all the family members, all got dai ji one.  I don’t have the energy to keep bringing her to see the doctor. Had to remind her that this time alone she had 4 doctor visits, how much did we spend? $186.18. Count the past 2 years how many times this has occured over and over again and the number of doctor visits each time. 

New tulips over the days

 15th Oct (Wed)


Oops! I typed wrong date on this collage





16th Oct (Thu)



17th Oct (Fri)

Loving this. The acupuncture works! Wah……how many tulips have I disabled all these years!!! 

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

My “work” at home always must 等等

Thermomix has been washed, dried and pushed back to its original position even before lil’ one reached home. But when I do that it means lil’ one’s rice will be cold.  


@ 7.50pm : 
Another relaxing or in other words - tu xi gang (in dialect) before I can only finish washing all the dishes + clean kitchen after lil’ one finish her dinner. Reaching home only at 7.31pm this girl takes forever to eat her dinner. 
Really! If they all can do their fair share of washing, drying and putting their crockeries and cutleries, I would be able to finish everything faster and then 收工 and adjourn back to the room to relax. 


In the meantime, this music accompanied me while I’m editing my taking-forever-to-update blog



@ 9.09pm - this music kept me going when I was drying and keeping the crockeries / cutleries. As well as taking out the thermos flask and preparing other things for next day. 

Taking a short break …

It’s 5.13pm and taking a short break. The dinner dishes are in the convection oven to keep them hot for dinner. Will re-steam the rice to make it hot for 6mins later once che-che reaches home from work. 

I can only do this coz hubby packed the dishes for dinner from the economical stall 😂. I only ‘boiled’ the pre-pack teriyaki chicken as the girls don’t have much dishes they like for dinner. If it’s me doing the 3-4 dishes dinner cookout, I wouldn’t even have time to relax like this. 


Sitting with the tulips smacked right infront of me, music on Spotify and a book which I’ll flip and bookmark the recipes I want to use. When I’ll cook them is another story 🤣🤣 #懒惰的我# 



For the past dunno how many months I’ve bookmarked and subscribed to some Japanese content creators who do bulk cooking. Should I do that? Do a massive cookout for one week’s meals. But if the man only likes 3-4 dishes typical chinese meal, how the heck am I going to store the dishes in the freezer? My refrigerator is only 460L (Dimension: W700 x H1825 x D726 mm) the freezer is considered too small for bulk cooking storage! 

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Ah Soh goes shopping

I don’t like to go shopping walking from boutiques to boutiques but I enjoy walking down the aisles. Typical ah-soh 😊. Decided to go to the Jap and German mart today.


Meidiya @ Millenia Walk
I saw German sausage at the entrance for Oktoberfest (earlier on in DonQ bakery in Taka they had rolled out some German bakes. I bought the currywurst bread). Although I didn’t like what’s in the sausage (stabilizers, sodium citrate, sodium acetates etc..) I took it coz I wanted German food. German Market sells another brand sausage which I believe will run out by the time I get there. So I think this is a good ‘no-choice 没办法’  choice until I get hold of my top choice of sausage which is 100% natural but more expensive which I have to go to another part of Singapore to get them. Better still, maybe I should make my own sausage. Hee!  

The reason why I wanted to go Meidiya was to see what koikuchi, usukuchi and amakuchi sauce they have. Hopefully I can do my research slowly back at home after that. I won’t be writing a boring post on the bottled soy sauce and their long stories as what I did for the soba (only to lose the draft after that. Pfft!)
Couldn’t find a small bottle of usukuchi so didn’t buy that, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise coz back at home I read that there’s usu-shio (low salt) similar to the low sodium LKK soy sauce we use at home. Perhaps buying shoyu is a waste of money? Coz I used our LKK soy sauce and the girls didn’t complain. 

Back at home I scrolled through the pictures. Saw a bottle of marudaizu shoyu. Aiyoh why are there so many kinds of shoyu? Pantry 不是堆到满满? 



Read up on a guide to soy sauces varieties, click HERE


Some jpop girls song playing on speaker, I don’t think it’s AKB48. Aunty slowly stroll, look left look right 


Saw these really small and cute cans of sweet corn but it’s so expensive and won’t be enough for what I need so bought the cheaper SW brand instead.  


I didn’t know they were having a Nagano Fair 


Saw this, couldn’t take pictures coz there’s a staff replenishing stock. In the mart I notice now there are lots of signages on ‘No photos’. Haha! Must be talking to me. This looks interesting tho. This popular raichō (rock ptarmigan) biscuit from Nagano is a souvenir from the greater Japanese alps region. When I was doing the alpine route (was in the alps) I didn’t see if they sold this in the souvenir shop, I skipped the shop coz I wanted to see the sights.   


I spotted a few during my hike aka slow walk coz it’s snow on most of the grounds. This is the third one I saw which I’m able to take photo


I spotted this on the way back after I managed to retrace my steps. Two Japanese ah-peks were quietly taking photos, their DSLR were making more noise 🤣. We observed them in silence and then one of them whispered softly to me “utsukushii” I agreed with him. Tho shouldn’t he be saying handsome? 

I needed potatoes to make curry and my potato salad. The last time I bought Japanese potatoes was in July. Then, there was only one choice of potatoes. Now I have to tikam tikam MCQ 4 choices choose 1. All these potatoes are from Hokkaido


About danshaku and mayqueen potato, click HERE


Comparison between danshaku & mayqueen

I didn’t have the time to google search for best potato to buy given that I have two contrasting use for them. Thus chose danshaku based on their recommendation chart. Let’s see how the potatoes turn out when I use them for curry next time, if they’ll mashed up until I can’t see anything 😂. Maybe this danshaku can be used for the cartoon moulded potatoes? 

A note to self on substitute angmoh potatoes. 
Danshaku = russet potatoes
Mayqueen = Yukon gold









I was trying to recall what potatoes I last bought and traced back to my Sep 1st post on ‘Japanese cooking’ 



For the million $ question that you might wonder if one is better than the other


Enjoyed the time there that I forgot the time. Unknowingly I had spent almost a hour in there. German Market closes at 6pm! While driving I realised I forgot to buy the precut veggies. I love that! 


German Market

After my blog post in September, I FINALLY found the time found the energy to drop by German Market. Arrived with only less than 20mins to closing time. It’s a small mart, can finish walking in less than 10mins but I’m happy. I’m the only Chinese customer there, there were 3 other customers at that time but I think they really blend in with us - slippers, shorts, obiang tote bags 🤣 - so I no feel like I’m in Germany or Netherlands 


Got what I wanted + more things that I didn’t go there for 🤣 and left the place in less than 15mins. Happy to know that parking is free after 5pm 👍.

Notice I have lesser things to write about German Market



The purchases


Haul from Meidiya. 
Going to make bread soon, maybe this weekend. Not sure if the recipe can substitute the flour to wholewheat but will try. I saw this cookie mix, wanted to buy but it was so expensive at $9.89. After that I noticed in the clearance section this box is sold for $3.50 with expiry date in end November. I wonder why they tend to clear things out so fast, not the first time I picked things from the clearance bin. 


Only Meidiya I can find this small tetrapak of milk 
* edit 19/10 just saw that NTUC sells the same sausage for 2 for $15.80 🤨*


Haul from German Market. I went there solely just to get the powder and ketchup but came home with more rubbish. 
Oh! I do pick up stroopwafels most times I’m there. Haven’t had this peppermint sweet for quite some time so pampered me must buy/splurge on this instead of the cheaper Made in M’sia mentos 😉


Oh yah all the snacks


And this hazelnuss chocolaty puddings which is yummy. Haven’t had the Zott Monte since the last time I was in Frankfurt when still jetting around. Yah I have vague memory of picking this up in REWE.

Sunday, October 12, 2025

🎶 aux champs élysées 🎵

Love this upbeat melody, heard it quite some time back and totally forgot about it until I heard it again today. Makes me miss macarons, eclairs, profiteroles, french onion soup and my top of the list - gâteau opéra.