Alternative medicine.

One of my uncle had the misfortune of suffering from multiple maladies. His intestines is suspected of ulcerations and his gall bladder has stones. This after multiple heart operations which led to his aversion to be hospitalised. Went to a clinic, got a handful of pills and he just endured the pain.

Until someone mentioned that perhaps he should try alternative procedures instead. We went to a place in Sentul where his diagnostic is exactly as the doctor from the clinic said it was. Two operation is required, both will take only ten minutes at a cost of RM3,600.00 each. An appointment was made to have it done the following day. The consultation and some pain killers and laxatives (he hasn't gone for a couple days...) cost RM100.00.

Someone else suggested to go to Setapak for removal of the stone. We did, the stone was removed in a couple minutes at a cost of only RM600.00 plus some herbal medication. Now, I do not intend to be advocating this methodology but my uncle is now fine, regular and is no longer in pain. If it works....

Anyway, my uncle is fine, only thing is, the cost is not covered by his medical insurance nor is he able to claim on it.

By the way, the picture above is merely to add some colour to this post. Has nothing to do with alternative medicine or whatever...

Nelayan Langkawi - revisited

This was and in a certain way still is a place that I rave about. One of my favourite seafood place whenever I am in Langkawi. Had an opportunity to be there recently. It is still tasty, still cheap however the service level leaves a lot to be desired. Seems to have gone downhill in what I perceive as arrogance due to the increase in its patronage.

The only nice guy there was the young man who waited to take our orders on the seafood that we selected. For this trip, the five of us had two types of grilled fish, butter prawns, squid sambal, mussels/clams, sea snails, curried crabs, white rice and jugs of juice and cold water with a plate of FOC cut watermelon. The bill only came to RM160.00. Excellently cheap. The curry was a bit less tastier than before though. The rest is great.

The service is another matter altogether, for one, we were not allowed to order veggies at the table (unlike before) and were warned that it may be late if we insisted on ordering it at the table. The dishes arrived and we had to ask twice for plates, cutlery and rice. The server seems to be more interested in clearing tables than attending to waiting customers. Finally, the cashier really need to learn to smile and be a bit more courteous to customers. I wanted to pay for god's sake, not borrow money from her.

Guess whose satiated tummy is showing in the picture...

Come on OVER...

Nokia E90

Peer pressure and changing communication needs saw me succumbing to swiping the ever willing CC. The previous PDA phone that lasted quite a while was the Dopod 838pro. Used it for about a year perhaps a bit less or a bit more. Did not get nor make much calls then, so its more PDA centric functions suits me well. As the calls get more regular, I used the lowly Motorola 220 (if I am not mistaken) but its sorely lacking in PDA functionality. This made me get the HTC Touch Dual which has a sliding keypad which brought it closer to a phone than a PDA. However, its quite fiddly and though it has a nice iPhonesque touch-flo interface, it still does not suit my needs.

I have been eyeing the E90 for quite some time yet its bulk held me back. Since there are no other phones - oh, I did use the Sony Ericsson's P1i for a couple of days - gave it to my daughter, I'll just have to make do.

The best feature so far is its Internet capability. Sweet 800 pixel wide screen allowing browsing to almost any site including maybank2u. Excellent. Sadly, its FM radio is terrible. The lowly Motorola functions much better. Its only been a couple of days but I am really warming up to it unlike the P1i. Oh, synchronising with MS Outlook is painless and quick. Even firmware updates is smooth w/o any heart stopping moments.

The cheapest in Kuala Lumpur/PJ now is at RM2,890 with AP warranty but must be paid in cash. Otherwise its RM3,200 with basic accessory. Authorised retail is RM3,888.00.