My mom was transferred back to a regular room after 3 days in the ICU. She underwent rigid bronchoscopy on Tuesday night. The doctors took tissue samples for culturing and discovered many blood clots in her left lung and cleaned them out. A part of her left lung is damaged but wasn’t bleeding that time so they figured the antibiotics would take care of it. At that point, they concluded that my mom has pneumonia.

Her x-rays for the following days showed continuous improvement, but we early Friday morning, my mom had another attack. The doctors were alarmed and advised my mom to consider surgery to remove the damaged part of her lung. They recommended one of the best surgeons around and he came over that evening to discuss his view on my mom’s condition.

To everyone’s surprise, the surgeon ended up refusing to do the operation. He believes that the bleeding came from the scratches in the respiratory tract caused by the bronchoscopy. He advised her to wait and return if her another attack happens. This left us pretty confused and doesn’t really help everyone’s anxiety, but my mom was comfortable with the surgeon’s suggestion so we have to respect that.

My mom was released from the hospital last Saturday night, and her tissue culture tests came out negative for everything, but we’re still waiting for final results whether it’s positive for TB. To be honest, I am happy that my mom’s out of danger, but the fact that they haven’t found out the root cause of the infection, bothers me. The doctors say that the antibiotics probably killed whatever caused it, so for peace of mind, I certainly hope they’re right and that’s it.

Two weeks in hospital left my mom pretty weak on her first day back home. She spent Sunday resting and regaining her strength and appetite for ‘normal’ food. I rang her up a couple of hours ago and she sounded pretty good, much like her normal self. She’s due for another x-ray on Saturday, and I am praying hard (would like to ask again for your prayers) that it will show that she’s recovering nicely and that it only improves going forward.

Thanks to everyone who reached out and prayed for my mom and our family,  I really appreciate the support. To be honest, I have not been sleeping very well and found it difficult to concentrate at work and cried a few times in the office to relieve myself of the anxiety. I hope that my sleeps will be more restful now…

…I’d like to ask for your prayers. My mom has been in and out of the hospital since last week, coughing out blood. She was initially diagnosed with ulcer and lung infection and was given medication. The next doctor who checked said she has pneumonia and placed her on antibiotics. However, her attacks haven’t stopped.

The latest attack happened this afternoon. She filled 6 basins. She’s in ICU right now, being closely monitored for any attacks that may come in the next few hours. She had to be taken off anti-bleeding medication to prepare for her second bronchoscropy. The first one showed that there’s something up with her left lung but they could not get a closer look at the source of bleeding.

Requesting for your prayers that they find the root cause soon and treat her properly. I feel distressed and worried. I want to cry but I’d rather pray. Lord, I ask for your healing grace. Please be with my mom. Please be with my family, please keep us strong.

Quick update–

It has been a busy 2 months for me. Getting used to a new city, new work environment and people, finding a place to live and wrapping things up in Melbourne–I am exhausted, but thankful that everything fell into place. I am now in my new apartment, happy to have finished unpacking and finally did some cleaning. The place feels more like home now.

I have also started driving lessons–on my 4th session and I am actually enjoying it. It’s quite nice to drive in Perth–not too many cars and relatively good-sized roads. I noticed in my lesson this morning that I wasn’t so tense behind the wheel and less panicky.

Shout out: Happy birthday to my friends Britnie and Beth!

I spent the last few hours looking through my pictures from the last 3 years, picking out the best ones to be printed at Ted’s when I return to Australia. It was a walk through memory lane as well. I cannot believe how fast time flies and how much I’ve changed.

There are many things I am willing to work on in the new year. Primarily I want to learn to be at peace with my past and present and be gracious with whatever the future holds. I am choosing to be happy with what I have and don’t have. I am grateful for all the people, the breaks, twists and surprises that God set up for me to encounter. I am praying very hard that my move and settling into Perth will be smooth. I pray that I will always find a reason to strive to be a better, healthier person than who I was yesterday.

I have a few ‘concrete’ goals, and that involves driving in Perth so I can drive around friends who visit, take time off to visit Gwinganna Lifestyle Resort in Queensland and Anne in Adelaide.

That’s it for me in 2008. Friends, I wish you all the best in 2009—may it be your best year yet!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Cheers!

Each trip to Manila is a filter to sort out who values your limited time back home. I appreciate those who make the effort not to keep you hanging with invites or show up on time during gatherings. I think it’s basic courtesy and sign of respect and I make it a point to treat others’ time the same way.

I know especially with good friends, this act of consideration can be lost in time. While we can’t control all circumstances that affect promptness (especially in Manila!), at least make an effort to keep them informed where you are and if you’re still planning to show up?

I’m doing this post to tie up the many, many moments when I was thisclose to snapping at the person who does not respect your effort to be on time and for people who feel this is important. When you show up two hours later just because you wanted to and/or be unreachable when you shouldn’t and/or be nonchalant of other people’s schedules, bastos ka.

Valrhona chocolate cigar filled with smoked chocolate, rolled in puff pastry ‘cigar’ leaves

Vue de Monde is one of Melbourne’s top-rated restaurants.  Britnie joked that the dinner probably costs a leg and she was right. However, you can’t put a price on experience so I was all for it. I went with Beth and got a weeknight reservation (last Wednesday) as it was the only available spot until January. Can you believe it? !

We went early and everyone in the restaurant’s so friendly and courteous. They take your coat, your bags get special treatment (they have special hooks for them) and offer you a drink as soon as you sit down. The restaurant area has high ceilings and decor was less stuffy than Ezard.

We had a good view of the plating station, which was set up with a mirror atop of the table (similar to a cooking school set up). They don’t have menus and change dishes often, but explained that there are two options  for the dining experience. First option is the degustation menu, wherein you start with 5 courses and can choose to go further as far as 40. The second option (and the one that we chose) is the chef’s menu, which our host described as ‘balanced’ as far as the palate experience is concerned–with 6 savory courses + a cheese course + 2 desserts. They also offered to match each course with a specific wine meant to complement the flavors but we decided against it. We settled for a bottle of voignier wine as I loved the one that I bought from Swan Valley and Beth hasn’t tried it and was curious.

We had truffles and foie gras in the line up and it was my first time to try them. I loved both of them, but I reckon when it comes to these ‘premium’ ingredients, better not be a glutton and enjoy them in small quantities.

Would I come back? Yes….because the experience was so lovely and there’s promise of new food creations. They can tailor the line up according to your preferences on the spot and we did take note that no 2 tables were served the same set of dishes.

To our surprise, our host even gave us boxes of handmade chocolates at the end of the 4 hour dinner and today, they sent an email to ‘document’ the menu that we had that evening. It was a lovely touch; I do want to remember what we had and have the courses described properly!

Here’s the menu–

• AMUSE BOUCHE
  Petite Clair-de-Lune oyster served with seaweed consommé and grapefruit air
  ~
• TACO DE CRABE
  Spanner crab, sautéed with Calvados, set in a sweet corn taco, crispy pork belly, avocado purée
  and fresh nutmeg
  ~
• RISOTTO AUX TRUFFES D’ALBA       
  Classically inspired white truffle risotto
  ~
• TERRINE DE LANGUE DE BOEUF
  Terrine of ox tongue, foie gras and Puy lentils with Pedro Ximenez jelly and eight spice powder
  ~
• FILET DE MERLAN 
  King George whiting, seared with a sourdough skin, shimeji mushrooms, white asparagus
  and preserved lemon noodle
  ~
• JUS AU VERJUS
  Liquid verjus at – 8°C
  ~
• CANARD À LA CANNELLE      
  Roast duck breast and confit leg with cinnamon and baby turnips   
  ~
• ASSIETTE DE VEAU
  Veal assiette with black bean sauce, served with bread and almond purée
  ~
• FROMAGE   
  Goat’s curd with sugared rose petal and goat’s curd ice cream
  ~
• SALADE DE FRUITS     
  Fruit salad   
  ~
• ‘CHEESECAKE’ AUX FRUITS DE LA PASSION  
  Passionfruit cream with frangipane sand and passionfruit soufflé   
  ~
• CIGARE AU CHOCOLAT  
  Valrhona chocolate cigar filled with smoked chocolate, rolled in puff pastry ‘cigar’ leaves 
  ~
• NOTRE SÉLECTION DE CAFÉS, THÉS, INFUSIONS ET PETITS-FOURS
  A selection of coffee, teas, infusions and petits-fours
  ~
• CHOCOLATS POUR SAVOURER A LA MAISON   
  Handmade chocolates to take home
• WINE
  2007 Petaluma Viognier  Adelaide Hills, South Australia 
  

If my next apartment has a balcony or any outdoor space, I swear I will get one of these.

The Earthbox was featured in Better Homes and Gardens and it’s meant to be an option for gardening in compact spaces.

Check other products in the Green Demon website.  I love the Solar Backpack, the Obon Newspaper Colored Pencils and the Solar Multi-colored LED rope lights!

For those in Australia, keep this in your favorites list!

After (unintentionally) gorging on Thai food during my birthday weekend, I love it now. I want to try more Thai dishes and learn how to cook Thai-inspired dishes.

I saw this website….HEHEHHE.

Used my coffee plunger for the first time this morning. I decided on the organic coffee from Aldi for starters; I’m still learning what coffee experience I like best.

My verdict: Smelled the pot right after steeping and the aroma was not appealling to me. However, the taste is on the mild side and smooth (good thing I wasn’t entirely turned off by the smell) and I liked the aftertaste.

Just for the record….coffees i like so far:

“Proper” coffee–

• Ya-kun from Singapore
• Tim Hortons from Canada
• Power Cafe, in the lobby of our office
• Brother Baba Budan, on Little Bourke Street
• SMXL on Little Bourke Street

Instant coffee–

• Moccona Indulgence
• Moccona Espresso
• Cafe 21