Wanton night

Hi everyone!!

So sorry for the hiatus for the past two plus weeks.
Praise our Lord, for He had answered our prayers!!

What happened?
Well, since the start of our clinic, Eric and I had been praying for our clinic. Praying that the people with conditions we could helped will be lead to us, and that we will be faithful and ethical in our clinical practice.
So God answered our prayers by guiding us with a few patients, which we were able to focus and helped immensely, and till they were well. And when that ended, we will continued with another new lot of patients.

So one Sunday, our Pastor gave a sermon which talks about trusting in our God, in all we do. And if we pray boldly, God will answer boldly. If we pray small, he will answer small.

And so that night, I analysed with Eric that, I think God had been answering our prayers because we had only been praying small. So I suggest being bold in praying to God. How about praying that we will have 5 new patients in the coming week!

Eric was skeptical. But he got on board and we started praying to God for giving us 5 new patients in the following week. 

And that's the start of our busy week! Thank you God!

I'm happy that we could be of great help to many, especially amongst our church family. 

This is our latest craze for the past 2weeks. Making wontons! 

I think both Eric and his sis prefers wantons than dumplings. What's more, they were just like kids, happily wrap them up without me 'inviting' them for help, unlike when making dumplings. 

So here it is, Eric's handiwork.

I made some anchovies soup base, add in some choi sum and that's our dinner. 

Simple and yummy!

Have a good evening everyone!

Kcan

God's promise

Whenever I saw rainbows, it will reminds me of the promises made by God to Noah after the great flood. God promised that He will not destroy his creation. It is also the start of the greater promise of God, that one day, everything will be made right again. His son Jesus, whom came to earth, died on the cross for us, had defeated death, rised up from the dead, raised up to the heaven and will one day come back to judge. We look forward to the day, where there will be no more tears, no more sickness, no more hurt. Dear Lord Jesus, come Jesus come. Prayers to the many families and friends who had loss love ones in the many tragic disasters and wars. Let's put our hope on Jesus's return.

The rainbow outside my work place last Saturday. 

Kcan

Contageous

I'm now down with a cold. Been feeling phlegm build up and coughing since the weekend.

What happened? The GP passed it to me!!!!

I was all good till I enter his clinic. OMG, it was so stuffy in the clinic. Each time he came out to get another patient, he was coughing here n there, and at times you can hear him coughing in his consultation room. >_<

Then behold, it was my turn!
I was quite scared entering his room. During the consultation, he turned to the wall on his side of the room n cough. (fair enough, if he covers his hand, he will pass it to me when he write things down for me) BUT.... in that tiny room, where ever he cough, it will just pass all over the room. >_< And true enough, I was down with his cold 2 days later. *sad* And that was just to see him for getting the script for BLOOD Test.

To make things worse, I'm now not able to take my usual medication because I'm under observation. So I can only stare longingly at my cough medication, while Eric helped me with Moxibustion on the Acupuncture points. In the meantime, I am having ginger tea and warm Lime and honey all the time to stop the cough from worsening. (working so far, yay!)
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Fast forward to 5 days later....

I went back to get the blood test result. The doctor is STILL coughing around the clinic!

Omg. And behold, I'm now coughing like that doctor around the house. >_<

I hated coughing. Not just because it caused my rib to crack back in 2010, but that I will have difficulty sleeping from this cough. =( now, we had moved back to my MIL's place, sleeping in the living room on my reclining chair at night, so that I can sleep peaceful-er than on my flat bed. 

I hope whatever the virus the doctor got, will get defeated by my immune system soon.

Take care everyone!

Kcan

Pregnancy pains

At my clinic, I often come across women whom needed a little help. At times, it could be something small, nothing big and serious, but just plain annoying. Why? Because they were pregnant.

When women falls pregnant, things they do, food they eat, medication they take, will have to be very careful. Especially in the first trimester, where miscarriage risk were a lot higher, they had to be even more extra cautious. And that's when women started coming to my clinic. To seek help, so that they can be well again. Acupuncture is their saviour. 

Acupuncture is the only known medical treatment, that do not use any medication intervention. That greatly reduces the risk of drug interactions which may harm the unborn baby. When administrated correctly by a trained professional acupuncturist, the treatment can be safe for both mother and child. And the bonus was, they achieved the same, or even better result than taking any regular medication!

So what sorts of small and annoying issues do I often see in my clinic?

1: Aches and pain.

When someone had a nasty headache, they reach up for some painkillers. When you had a sore back, you reach out for some painkillers to help you relief it, so you can continue doing the chores or just to get a good night sleep. But a pregnant women cannot just simpily do that. 

As the baby gets bigger, it pinches the nerves, or it hurts the back. That is when acupuncture or even just gentle cupping, can provides great relief.

2: Panic attack, depression

Pregnancy is a joyful occasion, but often, it can also be a stressful one. Especially so if the couple had done countless cycles of IVF, or, had previous miscarriage(s), or even just stressful times at home. Their body were tense, energy low, and just feeling the blues. Acupuncture and help to lift up the spirits, calm the nerves. There are even points to help strengthen the body, which will greatly reduces the risk of miscarriage! I am glad to say that I had not have a miscarriages baby in my clinical career as yet, and actually saved a couple of them whom had threatened miscarriage. (Thanks be to God!)

3: Itchy rash

Sometimes often at the later trimester of the pregnancy, some women developed itchy rashes. They were often developed as a small patch, but then later it spreads and spreads through the whole body. And they are annoying!

The doctors often prescribed creams which contains steroid, or just ask you to go get moisturised wash/creams, which doesn't really help in any way. So what can they do?

Acupuncture can help to stop the itching, reduces the rash. And together with some minor adjustment in the diet, the problem can be easily resolved. Yay!

So that's a small glimpse of my life at the clinic. So if you do have any pregnancy issue, remember that acupuncture can help.

Make sure you find a qualified and properly trained acupuncturist, specialising in pregnancy health.

Have a good weekend everyone! 

Kcan

$10 off Myers voucher

I don't think I've written here on my Myers visit last month.

So, Myers is a big posh retail outlet here. They had this 25% off sale on luggage last month. Eric was quite excited as he had been eyeing this Samsonite mobile office luggage to replace my clinic box for a few months. 

We went there after work one day, and realised they had this $10 off when you spend more than $100 in store in one transactions for that day. They had this special broadcast all over the store's PA. Woohoo!

But, we were met with this super duper RUDE Chinese middle age salesman at the luggage department. Normally, Asian sales ppl are quite friendly, especially in big retail like Myers. But oh boy, he is such an exception.

1: Curious about the $10 off special broadcast, we asked if the luggage purchase will be counted, as they had quite a long list of exceptions. He said it is included. (Yay!)

2: We show him the floor stock item which we wanted, and brought it to him to bring us a new one. He did not even look up and see which one we were referring to, let along check it in the system, and just bluntly said: It's the last one. (Lazy man!)

3: Ok.... So if it is really the last one, we have to check properly first then, because it could be there for eons n abused donoe how by ppl already. So we checked inside n outside. I remembered from past experience, the last item usually have further discount. 

But... He did not give. =_=

4: Fine, so paid n all, hold on, where is the $10 discount?!

Man, still need us to 'remind' him of our entitlement. Even though it was blaring through the PA system every 2mins. ( think we stupid ah?)

5: looking at the 'voucher' it got us confused as it looked just like a Postcard! The $10 discount came as a 'postcard' size card, which says you can only use it from 2 weeks later till end of the month. Then at the back, there were a big whole list of exclusions. Already not happy with his service, we feel that he may be just randomly handed us a 'card' as a con. So we asked nicely, "how do we use it?" 

And you know what was his reply? 

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"Can't you read?" 

WTF!!

Seriously, I feel like throwing the whole suitcase in his face and tell him, I WANT A REFUND AND COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU. 

Just thinking about it still makes my blood boil. 

Anyhow, on Sunday the last day to use the voucher, we went into Myers again, thinking of what we can buy with the $10 voucher. It has a very small clause, saying that we can only use it with purchase of $10 n over. It can only be seen with a magnifying glass, together with a long list of exclusion items. We saw the same rude Chinese salesman, this time at another department. Not wanting to make our trip an angry one again, we avoided the area. 

So we browse around. Not wanting to spend more than a gold coin ($1/$2). 

And this is what we bought! 

Hope we can use it real soon! =D 

Kcan

Photo post: hot pot

Another lazy to cook night on Sunday. 

So we have Hot Pot!

Burp. So full. 

Kcan

Eric's cooking!

On Saturday, I was feeling really tired after working plus whale watching. Knock out on the coach the rest of  the day. 

And my dear Eric decided to work in the kitchen for once. 

Eric's special fried rice!

Yum!

Thank you dear!

Kcan

Whale watching

It is the whale migrating season from May through to September. The whales will migrate from the colder water of Antarctica to the warmer waters of the north. And east coast of Australia is right in the middle of their migrating route! And with mum n dad around, we decided to jump into the fun of whale watching, and head to the coast.

We drove up to Mooney Mooney, where the oysters farm were. We bought a dozen of unopened sydney rock oysters. Then further up north we drove along the pacific highway to Gosford, and through to Terrigal. There, we stopped by this high cliff face, where we spotted 3 groups of whales, swimming up north, blowing water as it surfaces. Yay! 

Sorry guys, no photos available as they were sooooooooooooooooooooo far away. We could only see the water fountain splashing around as they surfaces to breathe.

The day was so perfect for trip out. It had been so windy and cold the last week. So the no wind day was a good break for us to go out and enjoy some quality sun time.

This was Terrigal, where we saw the groups of whales.

After catching the whale, we rushed up to The Entrance, to catch the 3.30pm Pelican Feeding.

It started 20 years ago, where the local fish shops started throwing the scraps fish at the pelicans after work. And it became a daily routine, daily attraction, rain or shine, daylight savings and not. 

The pelicans will knock on the door at 3.30pm.

And few years ago, the council decided that it was unhygienic and unsafe for the pelicans waiting around the shop, so they purposely build this area next to the river for pelican feeding.

Look at how they catch the fish!

Don't they look identical?

After that, we head to the Norah light house.

Looking at the beautiful sunset.

That's a whale lot of travelling in a day!

Kcan

VIP visit!

On Tuesday, I had two very important visitors! They came all the way from Perth! They are none other than my mum n dad! 

Love having them around. Though it was a little stressful preparing for their arrival n getting used to having them around on the first two days. Haha. 

Their visit this time is aimed to get mum back in shape for their upcoming trip to China. She had developed this recurrent cough since last year, which always surface when there was a change in season. It tickles her throat, and makes her kept having the urge to cough. No matter how many different cough medication and even the asthma puffer, couldn't get rid of it. And it will last a few months before it disappear and then resurface again. Annoying. 

And being so far away from mum n dad is quite difficult for me, to diagnose and prescribe them with the right medication. So I suggest them to come over for some intense Chinese medicine treatment. To my understanding, mum is suffering from what we called a Lingering pathogen. Lingering pathogens are diseases which had not been properly treated, causing the pathogen to go deeper into the body and hide somewhere. And when your body's immune system is low, (such as the change in season for my mum), the pathogen will resurface n cause trouble. Conditions such as Chronic fatigue, unexplained illnesses, or something you can pin point to from when ever since you were unwell (eg: ever since I had the flu 2 years ago..., or ever since I had the medication....) , are a typical case of Lingering pathogen. 

So far, after three days of daily acupuncture and herbal medicine, she was showing remarkable changes. Even dad had his equal share of acupuncture as well for his frantic sneezing. His super duper loud n frequent sneeze (which will always gave me a fright, and ringing ear), was almost non existent after just one treatment! =D 

Mum made my favourite Hakka dish, Lui Cha, for dinner last night. The soup which goes over the rice and veges was sooooo yummy. Thank you mum for satisfying my Lui Cha cravings!

Yum yum. This dish is only good to make if there are going to be helpers to help cut n wash the veges. That's why I did not make this dish by myself. 

Have a good weekend everyone!

Kcan

Roasted capsicum

Have you tried eating capsicum, the burnt way? 

Let me show you. First, throw the capsicum, whole, onto the gas stove

Let the skin burnt.

Look at these beauty!

Now, the next step is to scrap off the burnt skin using a teaspoon. The skin will peels easily from the soft roasted flesh.

Give it a nice rinse. 

You will be rewarded with a nice juicy roasted capsicum.

Because it is roasted whole, the juice will be contained within the fruit. So don't waste the yummy juices!

Sliced it up n add it to your other roasted veges like eggplant, pumpkin sweet potatoes, and sprinkle with some roasted sunflower seeds. The roasted flavor will add a good depth to your salad.

Enjoy!

Kcan

Photo blog

Surprise visit from an Australian native:

A kookaburra!

Getting closer.

Saw us, and even turn to gave me a good shot!

It stayed on for quite a while. Eric even try offering it my barley seeds. But I don't think they are that tempting for Mr kookaburra. 

Kcan

Grieving

I am not very good with dealing with death. It was to me, and still am, a very scary, sad and very emotional thought. Eric and the church had been helpful to teach us about death, and how we should grief and how we should look forward to the Hope that Jesus has for us. 

The Hope, that Jesus is the one and only now who had defeated death, and is coming again to judge and crush Death for good. The Hope, is the coming of God's kingdom, where all things will be made right, and we will be perfect, without blemish, illness, pain and sadness. It will be the day, where we will be able to rejoice and praise God.

And while we wait patiently for God's will be done, and the return of Jesus, we are to call this world 'home', while looking forward to the real Home in heaven. However, if you look at it, Death is the only path, that leads us out of this world, closer to Jesus and God. 

This month had been particularly sad for me. The family friend, Aunty Anita, whom brought Eric n his siblings to church, had finally lost her battle with cancer. The amazing thing was that instead of grumbling and pitied her failing body, she was only more eager to continue focus on serving the young, teenager and the international students at her church. She cared for them, like a mum. Give them a guiding hand and showing them the love of Jesus. 

The funeral was a rainy day. The funeral was a day, where God's plan for her was all displayed before us. God used her, to comfort many international students whom are far from home. God used her to guide the younger people how to be a responsible citizen of God's kingdom. God used her, to bring many to him. And Eric was one of them. It was a celebration of life. Though we are sad of this short departure, we are full of the Hope in Jesus. That we will meet again.

Then last Thursday, Eric and I received the devastating news of brother Hiep passing. He had been a faithful brother in Christ from our church in Canberra. Despite his age (60s?), he will be there with us during the International Fellowship, welcoming every student, leaders, new and old. He will be there. Giving greeting you from the other end of the hallway (we all met at the hall way outside the lecture theaters) , coming up to you and give you a nice warm handshake. Yes, in his old age, he always had a nice warm hand to shake. Our church starts after the International fellowship. So you will see him, standing next to the door, welcoming and shaking hand again, greeting all who pass through the door. Rain or shine, he will be there. However, he will not stay for the service. 

I often wondered why he would wasted his time, doing such trivial things as 'welcoming'. But one day, he was not there. And man, it felt odd not seeing his face at the door, getting that nice warm handshake. He told us later that his wife was ill. So he could not leave her at home alone. When she had recovered, he's back at his usual spot in church. 

Hiep came to Australia, as a young government scholar from Vietnam. His future wife, was also part of the young scholar group from Vietnam. They were studying engineering. They became Christians through the uni church group, and got married. They were both very bright and hardworking students. However, during the final semester, his wife could not withstand the stress from studying, and became 'crazy'. And this mental illness stayed with her ever since. Hiep became her full time carer, only go out a few hours at a time. So every Sunday, he will travel by bus, takes about 1 hour each way, from his home to the uni (4pm), welcome the students, stayed till church starts (6.30pm), rush to the bus stop and catch the last bus home. He rush home so that he could cook for his wife. What a dedicated husband!

We were told of his illness late last year from our pastor. Even though we had already left Canberra, we felt the sadness, and prayed that he will pull through. Just like our other Pastor Dave, both of them had lung cancer, even though they were both non-smoker. Pastor Dave's Lung cancer miraculously disappeared after a few months of Chemo and Radiation. We prayed that Hiep's cancer will do the same too.

Our last updates on his health, was from our friend Jemma from Canberra, whom visited Sydney for 2 days. We manage a catch up dinner just the Friday before his passing. She gave us sad yet encouraging updates, of Hiep, now living in a nursing home, getting weaker and frail-er by each visits, but his spirit is still as strong as ever, praising and giving thanks to God for his life.

In light of the Hope in Jesus, even though it is sad to say good bye to our fellow brother and sister in Christ, it gave us strength to carry our Cross for the remainder of our lives, knowing that this IS just a temporary separation. We will see them again in full glory, without pain and suffering, in Heaven with Jesus.

kcan

Queen's Birthday.

Today is the Queen's birthday public holiday in NSW. Don't ask me why, but apparently there are two dates for her birthday, so therefore not all states around Australia are celebrating this holiday.

 I am now in the middle of a break from the annoying house cleaning. Thinking of cleaning the house will always makes my blood boil. So I'm here to vent my rambling for a while to clear my head before going back into it. Sorry if you are reading this today. >_<

So I have complete the top level of the house. Doing the whole level (minus two rooms) had already clogged up my vacuum cleaner. Now there's still the dirtier part of the house: middle level, which have yet to be completed. *rolled eyes* I wonder if two trips of emptying the vacuum cleaner will do the job at this level.

And then, there's still the dark side of the house, the basement level!  >_<

Sianz man....

Seriously, I don't know why I am always the one helping to clean up my MIL's home, when it is not even my house. And while both the owners of this place is away having fun and don't seems to care about the cleanliness of the place. Maybe I should just let the molds grow back to it's original state.

Ok, back to the cleaning.......

kcan

It is so cold!

The wintery weather has finally arrived in sydney after the abnormal long spell of hot summer weather. It's a record low of 10 degC today! Woohoo!

Man it was hard getting out of bed today to get to church in this freezing weather. But we did in the end (rushing through breakfast with a nice hot bowl of instant noodles) n so did many little kiddies in my 9am crèche. 

My puffy jacket is officially out for business this season. Now, where's my beanie....

Kcan

Bush walk

Two weeks ago, after work on Saturday, Eric and I decided to go bush walking together. It was one of the last remaining warm Autumn, before the setting in of cold winter. So we decided to take the opportunity to exercise and get some Vit D from the dear sun before it becomes 'history' during winter. 

Here is me, all geared up with my walking boots and walking sticks from my China trip. Oh how I missed using the walking sticks! These are the cheap imitations you can easily get in HK night markets. BUT oh boy, they were SOOO useful for us during our climb in China. They are much heavier and thicker than the professional branded ones, but oh well, it serves its purpose and had battle scars all over it. =D

Oh, and that's my Tomato behind me. ^_^

So, our bush walk trek is nothing far away. It's right 2 mins away from our door step!  

Our first descend onto the trek welcomes us with this view.

The steps where we descended from.

Us happily taking selfie, not knowing the route ahead. Apparently, Eric had only travelled on this trek once before (back in his younger days), and it was not even the full length of it.

The first detour from the trek, was a path down to the secluded beach!

I was here!

So we head back onto the main trek and continue the journey further. Excitement awaits.....

We heard water tickling down somewhere... and we saw a mini-water fall!
This place would look so much spectacular after a heavy rain. (not sure if it will be safe to walk on though)

The path was rocky with boulders bigger than us. >_<

One needed to climb onto the rocks on all fours.

At some parts of the trek, we can see nice water views and the suburbs across the river.

There's this weird looking rock.

Lots of Australian native plants.

At one stage, the narrow trek was right next to this bard wire fence, along a very steep descend >_<

We also saw a big tree which had collapsed and was floating on the river surface.

In total, it took us a whole 2 hours to complete the whole trek and get back home. It was such a relief as we reach the main roads as my feet were wobbly from trying not to slip n fall from all the loose rocks on the trek. The bush walk was indeed an intense exercise option which was both Cardio and Stamina workout, with all the uphills n downhills and climbing up n down rock faces.

Along the way home on the main road, we met a young boy who was playing outside his home driveway. We asked him for some directions and he was so polite and helpful. This was something we have not seen for quite a while in Australia. (Don't get me wrong, not that all Aussies are rowdy, but I found that kids these days lack the manners, like in the older generations) What a blessing he must be to his family. And I bet his parents would be proud to have such a well mannered son like him. Hope he grows up to be a find young man too.

We were dead tired after that walk. haha.

kcan