#SAIDINA :D

Hi!

Last week was the Labour Day long weekend, so Dina and I took the opportunity for a short escape to Jaybee.

After quite a number of alternatives and trials, we ended up queuing for the yellow bus to bring us over to the other side.

There was quite the traffic jam heading towards the immigration and we had to stand the entire way through.

There were huge groups of humans, but we managed to get through Singapore immigration and waited for the second bus for a rather short amount of time.

Waiting to get our passports stamped took about 50 minutes of waiting.

Once we got through, the first things we went ahead to grab were some nomz.

Reached Kranji MRT; ~850am

Reached JB: ~12nn

Boost & Auntie Anne's.

Settled on a random bench to get our nom on.

Since we had a couple of hours till check-in, we walked around to survey possible purchases.

Ha!

We checked-in on time, but our rooms weren't ready.

Had .5 hour to spare, so we thought we'd rest at the lounge.

It was so lonely there, just the two of us and the guy in-charge.

We had drinks and did not want any food, although he offered us and we ended up agreeing to soda because we felt rather sorry for him. :')

He must be so dang bored alone up there for hours, with the same music playing over and over again!

& lol at our choice of drinks matching the sofa. :'D

Half an hour later, our rooms still weren't ready.

So we left our bags at the hotel and went back to the malls.

Here's our food choices for the day, because I did not take any shopping shots.

Seoul Garden in Malaysia is more practical for both of us, who do not usually eat the money's worth at buffets. :'D

Night #1 shenanigans.

Board games because Dina has been obsessed.

& also because we decided to return to the hotel before sundown as the path from the mall to the hotel was not very safe/friendly.

Hence that was what we did that night.

(We gave up on snake and ladders cos we figured we'd take forever to win.)

We watched Jarhead 3: The Siege, which was pretty good, and then I fell asleep.

Day 2.

Made it to the last half hour of breakfast.

Decent food.

Went back up to get ready for the rest of the day.

Matchy.

All new clothes purchased the day before. :'D

PS I really enjoyed these pants from Uniqlo!!

(Hella expensive though.)

Lunch was at...

Boat Noodle as suggested by Nina. :>

All our food came before our drinks.

& we waited for a really good amount of time.

So I took pictures of the food, after asking about our drinks and waiting some more.

Boat Noodles.

We bought 6 bowls, 4 with rice noodles and 2 with egg noodles, all in spicy beef broth.

RM2.01/bowl.

Kra-pow Chicken with Rice.

Warning: This dish is spicy.

It's basically the Thai Basil Chicken sorta deal.

I can take high levels of spice, so it was delicious.

If you can't take spice, you probably would not like this.

*v*

Finally, the drinks arrived.

Dina had the Thai Green Milk Tea while I had the Thai Milk Tea.

The Matcha in the GMT was pretty strong, you can taste a lot of the bitterness in that one.

The TMT was great, real yums.

Hence, I prefer the TMT.

The cups were legit plastic though, it's kinda a waste that they have to throw them away, but also disgusting if they were to reuse it.

I would've brought it home but it would take so much space. :'D

Yes, people were looking over at us while we waited for our drinks like "Why aren't they eating?"

& yes, people were looking over at us, as though thinking "Can they finish it?"

& when we ordered this delightful steamed bread with pandan custard kaya, they were like "Add-on oder?!"

& yes we finished it all. :>

The bill amounted to about RM50.20 or something, which is about $15/person.

We were joking about how in Singapore, for $15, we would only get 2 large cups of Thai Milk Tea. :')

Very happy meal right here, 10/10 would come back again ^

Shopping resumes.

There weren't much new/nice collections at H&M/Cotton On, so we spent our money on books, food and Uniqlo.

Mostly Uniqlo.

Last minute snack grabs before returning to our hideout.

Boost again, obviously.

What a combination of things to do.

Me after I poured hot water into the cup noodles: "....how are we going to eat them? We don't have forks, right?!"
So an extra toothbrush and stirrers were the answer. :'D

No good movies that night, but slept better than the night before. :>

Day 3.

Went down for breakfast a tad bit earlier, checked-out and did some last minute shopping.

We left for home at about 1145 and all that immigration and bus-ing took us about 40 minutes at most.

Thus we managed to reach home way before 2pm, means there was ample time for us to rest before work the day after.

Thanks for agreeing to this rather impulsive suggestion.

Needed the escape.

Eternally thankful to this babe.

Nice seeing you, every single day of the week. :'D

Looking forward to the next one!

May is going to be a hectic, crazy month but let's go all out and pull through!

Du vet jeg elsker deg.

Goodbye

24.4.17 // CIDP update, after 6 years. :)

Hello!

I'm working tomorrow but I really wanted to write a post because it felt like I hit a really huge milestone in my (health) life. :)

Backstory:

I was diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP) in 2011.

It's an autoimmune disease concerning the nerves.

Basically, it's similar to Guillian-Barre Syndrome, except that it is chronic hence the weakness and effects hit at a slower pace and over a longer a period of time until it hits its' peak.

I was 16 then.

Here & now:

I am 22 years of age now.

Completed my 'O' Levels, Diploma and currently a full-time working adult, a teacher to tiny humans. :)

Today, I had an appointment with my Neurologist.

A different doctor called me in and checked up on my muscle strength and reflexes.

My main doctor then came in and the doctor who checked me said that I've maxed up on all of it.

(They used their terms which I kinda already got a little hang of cause I've been hearing it a million times.)

So there it is.

From my understanding, I've hit 100% recovery.

I've regained everything I've lost.

The doctors also shared that not everyone with CIDP recovers fully, and that I'm the lucky few, and that it is rare.

//

It has been a long, long, long 6 years.

3 years with medication and 3 years without.

Bearing in mind that the side effects of the medication actually hindered the external physical recovery process.

It sorted out the issues inside, but brought the outside other issues as well.

And to be honest, it's rather funny how the medications and treatment process were an entire battle on its' own.

Really, it was.

Also, just the start of April this year, I had begun to work on my strength.

& I really think it affected the results today.

Just one month made all the difference?

Well then bring on the next month, and the next. :>

There had been days where I felt that this body, my body, was broken beyond repair.

That I just don't know what this vessel I had of a body was anymore.

Because 6 years ago I completely lost all control of it.

All of it.

& so that explains how huge of a milestone this is for me.

The feeling of being in (total) control of my body once again.

It's amazing.

Life is amazing.

I still have so many thoughts, but for now..

Alhamdulillah.

Thank you Allah swt.

Thank You.

In shaa Allah everything gets even better from here.

Du vet jeg elsker deg.

Goodbye

PS If you know anyone who has CIDP...hit me up? Maybe we can learn a thing or two from each other. :)

19-201116; Little escape.

Hello

Du vet jeg elsker deg.

Goodbye

-

To be completely honest,

You look exhausted.

Exhausted from endlessly trying, trying, trying to make things work.

If not for yourself, then for others.

Perhaps so that other people don't feel what you feel, or go through what you've gone through.

Perhaps to protect them from the evil that you know.

Or perhaps to protect you from anything worse that could possibly happen.

You look exhausted, almost bruised..

Yet,

You smile and keep the atmosphere so bright and lovely.

It radiates from you, everything bright.

But it takes one more than just seeing that.

Perhaps it's due to my own beliefs and views in life -

There are two sides of everything.

I would like to call it BALANCE but..

Sometimes it does not feel like the weights are equal.

Maybe it never is.

But then again, maybe it is.

And that,

I know that sometimes when you tell people that they'll be fine,

Or the littlest advice you tell others..

They are ways of you trying to tell yourself the same thing,

Just that..

It doesn't seem to work on yourself as well as it does on the ones you tell it to.

When I look at you,

I feel nothing but admiration.

How you're strong enough to think of leaving - yet still live.

I cant put into words what you've done to/for me.

Maybe,

It's cause of what you've done for yourself.