Contact lenses

I've been wanting to wear contact lenses again for quite awhile but was worried that my eyes are too dry for them. I used to wear monthly disposable contact lenses (B&L Softlens 38) but after working in a lab for some years, my eyes could not bear the dryness developed from wearing contact lenses for long hours. But wearing spectacles was uncomfortable and inconvenient too. Somehow, I couldn't find an optical shop who can adjust my glasses to my comfort. My glasses were pressing into the bridge of my nose and leaving almost permanent red marks everyday. Now, a pimple has developed on both sides of the nose bridge.

So I decided to give it a try again. I mean to wear contact lenses to work again. Was planning to get a pair of bi-weekly contact lenses for trial at my regular optical shop. But ended up visiting my uncle's optometrist instead. Well, mom and I were sending some muffins to him on the way to get my contact lenses, and he suggested why not try to get them from his optometrist (SL Chan Optometrist at Persiaran Greenhill, Ipoh). His whole family get theirs there. Ok..so i gave it a try.

Service was good. My eyes were tested with all sorts of high-tech equipments. My regular optician only have 2 types of equipments. Impressive! But.. they are overpricing the products! I usually get two boxes of 1-day Acuvue Moist for RM140 and 1-day Acuvue TrueEye for RM180. And the girl told me they are selling the "TrueEye" at RM260!!! My goodness! But what to do.. after consultation, the optometrist suggested me to get Acuvue OASYS. She said there's a promotion now, buy 3 get 1 free. So, 4 boxes are RM330. And she was so nice by saying that since my uncle recommended me here, she will give me a discount of RM30. Feeling a bit reluctant, I bought the 4 boxes of contact lenses including 2 bottles of multi-purpose solution which she recommended me to use since i have dry eyes.

Feeling that my regular optician may charge a lower price, i called to check. And they are selling 4 boxes for RM240!!! That's like RM90 cheaper than this shop if she charged me the original price without the RM30 discount. Wow... what big difference. Though better service.. i think I will get my contact lenses from my regular shop in the future.. which is Starlite Optical in Yik Foong Shopping Complex.

My choir attire - All white

My choir requires us to wear a white long skirt with white blouse and white shoes for the Christmas performance. I had a headache looking for white long skirt in Ipoh. I searched everywhere and most of the places only sell short white skirt. I was thinking, if i couldn't get a long skirt, i'll get a long white dress. But the requirements are strict. No sleeveless and skirt must be below knee level. Even shoes are restricted to covered shoes if you are planning to buy a pair. Difficult task for us...

Finally i found a long white skirt in a boutique at Ipoh Parade, called K2. It's like a Bohemian long skirt. Cost me RM49.90. Man..i hope i'll wear it more often other than the performance cuz i don't usually wear long skirt. Otherwise, it will be a waste of money. Anyway, I came home and tried it with some of my white blouses. None of them seem to match the skirt and i even looked shorter with the long skirt.. sigh..

In the evening, i went to check out Rozette boutique in Ipoh Garden south. I like to shop at this boutique as the clothes selling here suit me well. The owner recommended a blouse with lace which compliment well with my skirt though we both think that white with white is not very pretty. It's just TOO WHITE. Anyway, dress code has to be followed.. so I bought the blouse nevertheless. Purple belt and shawl will be provided. So i guess the attire will do alright? I hope... but what kind of white shoes should I wear?

Another headache..and more money to be spent....

Lemang with rendang

Hari Raya Haji is around the corner and lemang stalls are seen mushrooming along Jalan Ipoh/Chemor. You can only find lemang stalls near Malay kampung. Mom and I were scouting for lemang this morning for our guests who are visiting in the afternoon. We tried getting it at the stadium where the Malay community has their morning market. But we were a bit too late as the stall already closed. We were late because we went to Parkson for a brief shopping session. :p

Well..if you do not know what is lemang and have not try one, you should. :) A brief explanation of Lemang according to Wikipedia :Lemang is a traditional Malay food made of glutinous rice and coconut milk. It is cooked in a hollowed bamboo stick lined with banana leaves. This way, the rice won't stick to the bamboo. It is best eaten with chicken rendang.

Before and after the lemang is cooked.

Both photos from other blogs.

We found the lemang stalls along Jalan Ipoh/Chemor and we bought 2. Guess how much they charged us? RM12.00 per stick! Gosh...i think they overcharged us because we are Chinese? Anyway, we asked the lady if she knows anywhere we could get chicken rendang and hola! she's actually selling some. So, we happily bought 3 packets for RM9.00 and we paid RM30.00 for everything. :)

Here are the lemang after cutting into small pieces.

And the delicious chicken rendang to go with it. Slurrppp..

Stroopwafel

A colleague brought back Stroopwafels for us!! All the way from Amsterdam! :D Ever since I tried it in Amsterdam during my uni days, I missed the waffle so much! The aroma is so appetizing..emm....

The way to eat this right is to melt the caramel first..place it on top of a cup of hot tea, wait till the caramel melt, and savour it slowly... It may be a little bit too sweet to some but if you eat it together with tea, it's super yummy! :D

Look at the melted caramel... ! slurrrpp...

Dentist in Ipoh (2)

A follow-up to my previous post on "Dentist in Ipoh"...

I've found two reliable dentist in Ipoh. If you are interested to try out, you can check out Kuan Dental Surgery at Ipoh Garden South. They have different doctors on duty for normal tasks such as scaling, cleaning or filling. I'm doing orthodontic treatment with Dr Lee at the same clinic.

Address: No. 38, Lrg Taman Ipoh 1, 31400 Ipoh, Ipoh, Perak.

Tel No.:05-545 7033

Another recommendation is KLINIK PERGIGIAN LOKGA. 2-A Medan Kidd, Ipoh 30200, Perak
p: + 605- 2418103 f: 05-2418103

They offer the following treatments :-
Full Mouth Rehabilitation
Dental Implants
Dental Whitening
Dental Crown and Bridges
Root Canal Treatments
Dentures or Prosthetic Teeth
Gum Therapy and Scaling
Surgical Removal of Wisdom Tooth and other Impacted Teeth
Orthodontics

Opening hours
Mon - Friday 9:00 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 18:00
Saturday 9:00 - 13:00 and 14:00 - 17:00
Sunday 9:00 - 12:00

Jogging on early Sat morning - My First Experience

It's my first time today. lol. Been dragging it for ages cuz you know the reason.. ahem... i'm too lazy to get up on a Sat morning!! And missed my precious sleep! :p Nonetheless, i set my alarm to 7:15am as I made a date with mom to go jogging with her at the pologround at 7:30am. Mom actually woke me up at 6:30am when she woke up. I heard her going into the washroom..afterwards, i fell back to sleep. But this 45min sleep was so tiring. I was just dreaming of driving to the pologround. It was a frustrating dream cuz i took the wrong road, drove through some unknown places trying to find the way to pologround! Was i nervous for my first time ? haha.. i'm not sure..

At 7:30am, the place was already jammed up. So many people were already jogging and working out. The parking was totally full! I was lucky to get a parking but was taken by someone in the beginning. He said he didn't see my signal light. But everybody else did and just drove pass me. He was just making excuse! Anyway, thank God he's kind enough to move out from the parking and let me have it since i saw it first.

As it's my first time, i didn't jog. I just walk in a faster motion than normal walking. :p No sweating but both of my legs felt so itchy. I thought it must be because I didn't do stretching or warm-up before and i don't usually go for exercise after i wake up, that my blood circulation was slightly abnormal. Causing my legs to feel itchy. So i just ignored the itchy feeling and kept walking with mom. We walked one big round around the polo-ground. Then, another smaller round. After that, we joined the aerobic group and followed their steps. That was when i sweat slightly..;p Oh, and we met someone we know. She was just doing aerobics beside us but we didn't notice her. Oops... Btw, aerobics start at 7:30am and ends at 8:30am, taught by a group of Malay ladies.

When we stepped into our car on our way home, only then i realized i have a lot of insect bites!!! Now i know why i felt itchy earlier. It didn't look like mosquitoes bite cuz the bites were bigger, and in abnormal shape. Luckily, after taking shower and putting on "Burnol", an antiseptic cream, the bites start to 'fade off'. I guess i can just forget about it..cuz it doesn't feel itchy anymore.

Will I continue doing this every Sat? Hmm...let's see if I can commit.. ;D