My Very First Blog

I went for a blood test today. It’s nothing unusual, just my routine annual check-up. This health check also included a urine test.

The nurse gave me a small bottle and asked me to collect my urine in it. Now I don’t know about you, but I always find it a little uncomfortable pissing into a tiny bottle. I am so used to pissing into a much bigger container, like a toilet bowl for instance.

I remembered the first time I did this many years ago. I was completely new to collecting my own urine then, so when the nurse gave me the bottle without any instructions, I asked her “Er, what is this for?”

“For the urine test.” she said, not looking at me.

“Er…urine? My…my urine?” I stuttered.

She looked at me and said, “No, MY urine. Of course it’s your urine! And I can’t do it for you.”

Smiling sheepishly, I took the bottle.

I was about to head for the washroom, but stopped myself short.

“Er...how much should I collect?” I asked her.

“Half the bottle will do.”

Then as if I did not understand her, she spoke in a firmer tone.

“NOT full, please.”

The trouble started when I was in the washroom. Carefully aiming into the bottle, I let go. But guess what? I must have drank a lot of water before that because I could not stop. Oh no! The bottle was filling up. I got to stop!

It was with some effort that I managed to do it.

Phew! That’s a relief!

But wait! How come I felt a little wet on my hands?

Oops! I must have accidentally spilled some on my hands. Then I realized the outer side of the bottle was wet too.

What a mess! So I quickly capped the bottle and washed my hands and the outer side of the bottle. I didn’t think my mom would be too proud of me that day if she knew how I messed up!

And then I noticed something. The bottle was more than three quarters full. I remembered the nurse said I only need to fill half the bottle.

So I uncapped the bottle and poured out the excess urine. But guess what? In my haste, I poured out a little too much! Now the bottle was less than half filled!

I was like, what the f.....!

Well, what was I to do but to make a second attempt at filling the bottle? I did it expertly the second time, with no spilling and right on the half way mark. Me pretty fast learner, no?

Somehow I don’t think I am the only person who is this clumsy. Just looking at how the nurses pick up those bottles of urine will tell you a lot!

Of course I learnt from my mistakes and have never messed up ever since.

Another problem I have to face every time I go for medical check-up is the blood test. I think it’s more a problem for the doctor than it is for me. Somehow, doctors have a hard time trying to find the vein in my arms where they could extract blood from.

I don’t think I am really fearful at the sight of blood, but when someone tries to extract blood from me, I do get all tensed up and even start feeling dizzy.

It's not a very nice feeling when the doctor takes a long time to locate my veins. It’s even worse when the doctor jabs you and discovers he had poked at the wrong place and then tells you he had to try again! At one time, I actually felt like I was going to black out!

So now, I am much wiser. Each time the doctor want to extract my blood, I will lie down first. By lying down, I feel more relaxed and even if I go dizzy, it’s not too much of a problem.

Well, do you have this problem like I do? I hope you will say yes because I think I am the only one in the world with this weird problem.

Anyway, one thing is for sure, I can never be a doctor or even a nurse for that matter!

Gosh! I think I'm eating too many buffets nowadays! I have to stop spending my hard earned money on all these lavish buffets. Not only are they not doing any good to my pocket, they are also not doing any good to my figure.

Last Saturday, I went with a group of friends to Eest at Westin Hotel, KL for dimsum buffet brunch. I normally don't go for dimsum buffet, prefer to have it ala carte. But my friend tempted me with a 50% discount offer, so off I went!

It was my first time eating at Eest, so I did not had any expectations of it. It was a sit down buffet, meaning we simply ordered as much as we want from the menu and the food would be brought to us.



That's the beef dumpling on top left, followed clockwise with dragon beard prawn ball, xiao loong bao or Shanghai dumpling, shrimp and chicken dumpling with fish roe and har kau or cyrstal prawn dumpling.

I have to say, they were pretty average. The xiao loong bao was not good at all - certainly not their specialty as there were no soup oozing out of it! Although I do not consider the xiao loong bao I ate at Dragon-I restaurant to be very good, they were certainly ten times better than the one I ate here!



These wu kok or taro dumpling were filled with scallop and chicken, but I did not like it either. Maybe the skin were too thick and the ingredients inside too little.



When I saw the mini egg tarts with caramel and banana on the menu, I was very eager to try it! I thought it was special as I have never eaten banana egg tart before. Unfortunately, my first bite of this mini egg tart disappointed me. Maybe I should not expect it to be as good as those from Canton-i or from Tong Kee, but still, I had expected better from an expensive restaurant like Eest!




OK, I have no idea what all the items here are called, except for the egg tart (same as the ones in the photo above) on the bottom left. They were pretty average tasting, no wonder I forgot the names!

Now I really don't know if it's just me, but I did not seem to have any praises for the food here so far! How could it be that bad? But all my friends agreed the food were just so so.

We called for a few more dishes like chicken feet with XO sauce, pan fried turnip cake also with XO sauce, Hong Kong styled chee cheong fun and bean curd skin rolls but I was already too lazy to take any photos as I didn't like any of them! I am not a fan of chicken feet so no comments there! The turnip cake was a bit too salty. The chee cheong fun tasted average, so were the bean curd skin rolls. Nothing was above average to me! What a disappointment!

Looking at the menu, I was hoping the dessert would turn out to be different. We called all the dessert items on the menu and hoped for the best.



There were 5 items. They were, clockwise from top left - mango pudding with white chocolate and black olive, mochi ice cream, bubur cha cha, double boiled fragrant pear with Vietnamese tea, and sticky rice with fresh mango and coconut ice cream.

Of all the 5, the sticky rice with mango and coconut ice cream was the worst! If I had hoped for this dessert to be as good as the popular ones I had in Bangkok, then my hopes just melted down the drain! I could not believe an expensive restaurant like this could come out with such a poor quality dessert! Look, I did not even bother to take an individual photo of the sticky rice!



The mango pudding was slightly better. Yes, only slightly. The top part was too creamy and sweet! I could not taste the mango in it, so much for calling it mango pudding!



This mochi looked good at first sight. But biting into it and tasting the green tea ice cream inside, I thought it would have been much better if they offered us just green tea ice cream instead!



The fragrant pear in tea dessert was quite good. It was cooling and refreshing and provided a good contrast to all those fried and baked dimsum.



The bubur cha cha turned out to be the saving grace for the desserts. It was one of the best bubur cha cha I have ever tasted! Delicious and not too sweet, with lots of yam and potato cubes and sago in it, I was really satisfied with it.

In fact, I dare say the bubur cha cha was the best food I tasted in the 3-hour brunch, which started at 11.30am and ended at 2.30pm. Even though with the 50% discount, the bill came up to RM50 per person which was not worth it considering the quality of food they served!