Kangkong

It is about time to weed the grass at my backyard. I found kangkong at my backyard.

It is more than enough for one plate stir fry kangkong.

Harvested the kangkong for my dinner.

 

Washed. How nice, rest assured of organic vegetable as it grows at my backyard.

Stir fried with garlic.

Old Age Spot-Treatment with Tretinoin Cream 0.25 & 0.05

My dermatologist said my skin is fairer and does not allergic to Tretinoin 0.25% after using Tretinoin 0.25% for 3 months. He asked me to continue to use it on my whole face every night on clean, washed face, avoiding the eye area, both side of nostrils and around the lip area as the skin is sensitive on those areas. In addition, he asked me to apply Tretinoin 0.5% on the old age spots. As for the neck, he said most people find it sensitive to use on neck. Yes, I felt itchy on my necks when I tried on my neck. So, leave the neck out.

He has also asked me to use Tretinoin 0.5% on my hands. I must remember
1.  to wash off the cream on my face and hands the next morning as the sun will cause 'chemical' reaction on the cream, and make the skin more vulnerable to UV, causing more spots.
2.  to use sun block on my face and hands
Checking the information, I found out that the active ingredient in tretinoin is Retin A. It breaks down in sunlight. In KK, every day is hot. So hot that I can dry almost anything under the sun in a day. Just imagine how much sun I have exposed to over these 53 years.

Cosmetic Products with Tretinoin

The Malaysian Health Ministry bans cosmetic products containing Tretinoin and Hydroquinone because they could cause reddening of the skin, discomfort and skin hypersensitivity.

I have been using Tretinoin cream since Jun after seeing my dermatologist for my old age spot problem. The doctor asked me to apply the cream thinly on my face at night and wash off when I wake up in the morning. He reminds me to avoid sun after using, and to put on sun screen at all time. Otherwise the old age spots will get worse than not using Tretinoin.

I don't use it every night if I know I have to drive a lot the next day. About 70% of the time, I use it. After applying on my face, I feel tightening sensation of my skin. I don't have second opinion to observe the changes in my house as my husband and my sons don't seem to bother about my concern. Haha. Anyway, probably the very fine lines on my forehead has gone, and my face looks fairer. 

My bed is just next to the window. I usually draw open the curtain so that there is good ventilation in the room. The sun rises around 6am every morning. I always wake up to the sunlight,worrying about the chemical reaction it can have on the tretinoin on my face, I immediately get up to wash my face and to put on sun screen. Frankly speaking, I feel quite burden to get up as my natural intention is to continue sleeping.

Seeing the news about tretinoin, I have a good reason to discontinue for a while. Next Thursday is my next appointment with the doctor. I shall inquire him on this to decide on my next move. 爱美是女人的天性。爱美就失去很多的自由。

Looking forward

My younger son has gotten his driving license and driving my Persona around confidently. We are glad about that. This means that I have all the time to myself other than preparing lunch and dinner if anyone choose to eat at home.

I shall be 53 on my next birthday in November. If I were to live another 30 years, what should I do now to start a new life? In this era, to me, retiring is not the type of lifestyle that I shall applause. Living, is finding a means to move on. If I live in rural area, and do not require material things, I would just grow my own food, and raise my own poultry, and catch my own fish. Living in the city area, naturally, living is to find a means to earn money, and to exchange that for the food and material things that I require.

Thinking back 30 years ago, when I was 23 years old, I started my career as Software Engineer, and worked for 20 years, changing 5 jobs in that 20 years. Did I like my jobs? I wouldn't say 100%. Perhaps 30% of the time. Doing software engineering was really brain drained. And made me a machine thinking personality.

After that, in order to have more times for my 2 boys, I chose a flexible hour job as insurance agents, selling unit trust and do Will Writing for my customers. This allows me to have some income, though never worked hard enough to win incentive trips. Because it was not my priority.

Now, my two sons have grown up. I want to make a decision like when I finished my matriculation. What do I want to do for my next 10 or 20 or 30 years? I should know better than I was 18 years old.

At this age, I don't like to drive around, I don't like to approach new customers, I like doing things at home, I like baking, I like to do online shopping, ha2, perhaps I should try my hand on online business selling baked food like business.

Unit Trust With Dividend

The Bursa Malaysia is running high for a few years already. Most dividend funds are making money, distributing good dividend.  Before the dividend reaches the unit holders' hand, the taxable dividend already have its 20% taken off.

For those unit holders whose income has touched 20% tax bracket, it is really a loss, and rather have funds that don't distribute the dividend.

However, if you have large investment on dividend funds, it may be worth keeping track of the financial year for those funds. You can consider switching the funds to the money market fund that don't charge you initial charges to skip the day when the distribution is declared, and switch back the following day. This may save you from paying the 20% tax from the taxable dividend.

One thing is watch out is the terms and conditions for switching charges from equity fund to money market fund, and vice versa.

Sick Little Chick

This chick is another casualty. I found it sick and lying while the other chicks kept "accidentally" stepped on it.

I moved this poor chick away in a shoe box lined with newspaper. It didn't move much, trying to drink water and eating some feeds with great difficulty. Its head shaking. When I looked at it, it looked just like a baby, helpless. Several time I thought it was dead, but I could still see its body breathing. Poor little chick. It didn't even know who its mother was. Factory incubated chicks do not have the right to own their mother to take care of them from birth.

Another batch of chicken

We bought another 10 chicks on 24th June 2014. This species grow very fast. 30 o 45 days are big enough to slaughter. The chickens we raised have less fats in between the meat, and we can grow until they are mature enough to slaughter. As for those sold in the market, I think they are only slightly older than 30 days.

Day 1 on 24th June 2014

Day 2

Day 11

We lost 3 chicks. 2 chicks died because my husband didn't realize that there were 2 chicks covered by the newspaper while doing cleaning. LOL. While one disappeared into the long grasses as we have not asked people to lawn the backyard for quite sometime.

Hair Drop and Hair Relax

My hair has been frizzy since young. I started to do hair rebonding since 10 years ago. 3 years ago after I had my hair rebond done, my hair started to fall off. I suspected that the hair dresser must have not done it professionally. After that I did not dare to have my hair rebond anymore.

However, my hair has been frizzy. The only way to tidy my hair easily was to pull my hair back and tied it tightly. I felt that my scalp was hurting after a while. I think this must have contributed to hair loss. My hair was all over the floor. Where you saw hair on the floor, you know that I was there for a while. Sounds terrible.

My previous visit to a new saloon in Karamunsing Capital to do hair treatment led me to do hair relax. Rebond makes your hair flat on your scalp, while Relax has more natural look on the hair. The young stylist,Kit, encouraged me to do this, and I complied. He charged me RM180 including hair cut. The result came out well.

Kit examined my hair follicle and commented that there are 3 strand of hair in each follicle. He noticed that my hair follicle on the crown has short hair, meaning to say that my hair loss was severe on the crown, which I agreed because I can notice my hair is thinning on the crown. He went on to recommend me to use the hair growth lotion to improve my scalp and to stop hair fall. Since I think my problem was mainly due to pulling of my hair too tight, I did not buy the tonic, but to monitor on the situation. Of which, after a month, I noticed much lesser hair fall off.

Kit also recommended that I should only dye my hair once every 3 months instead of monthly. I don't quite agree as hair is dead. The only precaution is to avoid hair colour to touch the hair follicle. I always go to a home saloon where the lady only charges me RM5 if I bring my own hair colour. Perhaps I should come back to Kit as his helpers are much younger than my home saloon lady, and have steadier hands to work on my hair.

Using Retacnyl treatinoin 0.025% on Pigmentation

The Dermatologist prescribed me with Retacnyl Treatinoin 0.025% to apply on my face. I am to use it at night and to wash it off the next morning. This will lighten the facial color and to rebuild collagen to reduce fine lines. In order to ensure my skin can tolerate the cream, the doctor wants me to use it on alternate night for the first week. If that goes well, I shall use it every night and wash it off the next morning. After 2 weeks, I can request for another cream to dot on the age spot. My skin may become dry or flaky. I am reminded to put on sun block at least twice a day, or every 3 to 4 hourly. Should I go under the sun without sun block, the efforts of using Rectacnyl would be null. He told me that the age spots will be darker because the areas without spots will become fairer, thus cause the spots to look darker.

There are two noticeable spots on my right leg. Dr said he can burn them away but I want to see how my face react to the cream first.

I am so concerned with the sun exposure I am getting everyday as everyday has been so sunny and so hot. My sister doesn't seem to bother and she even purposely expose to the sun saying that it is good for strengthening bones.

Sweaty Exercise to Do At Home

This morning's exercise was really sweaty. Paul said we can do it at home or go out station in the hotel.

After warm up, do the below 2 sets:
1. Trinity squat 10 times
2. 8 counts body builder 3 times
3. Front lounge-left leg 10 times
4. 8 counts body builder 3 times
5. Front lounge-right leg 10 times
6. 8 counts body builder 3 times
7. Back lounge-left leg 10 times
8. 8 counts body builder 3 times
9. Back lounge-right leg 10 times
10. 8 counts body builder 3 times
11. Side lounge-left leg 10 times
12. 8 counts body builder 3 times
13. Side lounge-right leg 10 times
14. 8 counts body builder 3 times
 Cool down by doing up-dog, down dog an do on. 

Chicks

After 2 weeks, the chicks have grown bigger. I put the chicks under my mango tree during day time as the chicken coop is not ready yet. They enjoy the morning sun.

We made a chicken coop at the backyard. The chickens prefer to stay outside the coop during day time. They walk around, looking for sheds when the day is hot.

Having the chickens at the backyard adds life to the quiet backyard. I would say they are cute.

One of the chicken hen always run after us. I like to see the chickens around, but I dislike them dirtying my backyard.

Rearing Chicks

Some one gave us 4 chicks that he couldn't sell off in his shop.  My husband brought back these 4 cute chicks. They are on their 3rd day.





On 5th day. Eating and drinking and shitting everyday.

Knee Pain Reduced

No more knee pain when going downstairs!

The exercise class I have consistently followed for the past 4 months did strengthened my thigh to reduce my knee problem. I am glad about that. My core muscles are stronger and my back pain is less frequent. 

Now I want to give more attention to the rotator cuff problem before it gets worse. I feel the discomfort more when I wake up in the morning. The physiotherapist department schedules my appointments once every three weeks. I don't think this is enough. The reasons for me to go is to ensure that I can continue to see the orthopedist and to know what are the exercises the physiotherapist want me to do. 

Rotator Cuff

After taking the painkiller (meloxicam) for 7 days, the pain was gone for about a week. It slowly came back but it has improve a lot as compared to prior medication. The pain has reduced to only when I let down by right hand at a certain position after pulling my back zip. The orthopedist said the sound and the pain comes from the tendons sliding over the joints. I guessed the pain was more severe due to inflammation but recovered by the painkiller. What my doctor wants me to do is to strengthen the muscles supporting the joints. The same theory goes back to my knee pain when goes downstairs. The exercises which I am keeping up to has greatly reduce the occurrences of my knee pain. Now I need to do exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff. At my age of 52, every muscles that support all the joints need attention. More strength exercise. 

Ibuprofen

My son was on a school trip to Philippine last year. He had fever and the teacher gave him ibuprofen + ??. He was allergic to ibuprofen. His two eyes were swollen and he hardly open his eyes. This is the first medication that caused allergic.

Rotator Cuff

Was it a year ago when I started feeling left shoulder feeling painful when I read book lying on the floor facing down while using my two hands to support?  After that I have some difficulty putting my arm behind the back doing zippering.

The doctor prescribed me with Meloxicam 7.5mg for one week. The medicine does relief some pain. I hope I don't have to go for MRI. The inexperience nurse injected a colour dye on the vein of my sister's hand last year and my sister nearly fainted because it was so painful.

Morning Exercise

This morning after the usual warming up,  the trainer taught us to do back lunges, sit through leg extension (kara-oke), and other steps which I have no name to refer to.

It is good to have someone guide me through the exercises. This ensures that I have an hour of exercise thrice a week.

Last Session With Personal Trainer

I had my last session with the personal trainer.

We started with the usual warm up. 2 sets of 10 times each of Inchworm, swing legs, reach down and reach up, swing arms, push up, squatting, jumping jack.

Then 20 times of mountain climber, 30 times of jumping Jack, 20 times of lifting legs with 2 hands on hip lying down, 30 times of jumping jack, 20 times of squatting, 30 times of jumping jack.

After that 4 times of full plank for 20 seconds each.

We finished off with stretching. cobra, Hip Flexors stretch, arm stretch by stretching arm up,
 
that ends the session, about 30 min only.