Disfigured and Handicapped

These are the 2 words to describe my feeling now. I was like strucked by a series of mishap that left me 'disfigured' and 'handicapped'. First, the acne breakout on my right cheek which started more than a year ago and later a knee injury which happened about 3 months back.

The last acne breakout I had was when I was a teenager and now this is the 2nd breakout to hit me. Can't believe that it hit me now when before this, I was never even bothered with much skin problem except for some dark spots which appeared after I crossed 30 years old, and acne that easily subside and only pops up once in a blue moon. I wonder why acne is called 'youthful spots' in mandarin when it can hit anyone irregardless of their age...hmm. And thinking back, I suspected my hair had caused this breakout. It all started when I first had my hair cut short to below shoulder level (that was also my first time having a short hair). With this hair length, the end of the hair tends to brush on my cheek. It's either the friction of the hair on the cheek or my dirty hair brushing on my cheek, which started the breakout. It started with one pimple, and then later another one started nearby to it, and later another, and another....and more growing and started spreading. Or is the breakout caused by hormonal change in my body? I don't know, but I guess not, if it is, then why the acne only inflicting on only one side of my cheek, but not all over my face. But recently it had started to spread to another side of my cheek, gosh. For more than a year, I have been suffering from this continuous pop up of fresh pimples every few days on my right cheek. It seems to me more of a bacterial infection, those bacteria is like breeding underneath my skin and getting ready to infect my skin anytime....sigh. But I was very very lucky that it subsided a little before my wedding but that was because I control very very hard not to prick or touch them. I got very itchy fingers that tend to prick at them especially when it had dried up and hardened at the top....I need to control myself and not let the fingers touching my face anymore!!!. But now, it got worst and the only nightmare now is whether those scars will become permanent....... sigh. Why so many women out there have smooth and good skin one? I envy leh. Is it because of my diet? My sis said it's likely due to my diet. I don't deny I have bad eating habits... I like fried food and junk food. I used to be on junk food eating spree almost every weekend....the whole can of pringles or mister potato would be finished while watching tv, or the big packet of RM3 Twisties all gone within hours. I also tend to eat more meat than vegetables, and not taking enough fruits. But how come last time my diet also that bad mah, and yet no pimples one...sigh. Or is it because I don't go for facial? Or is it because when young that time I don't take care of my skin? Can anyone with good skin share with me your secret?

And little did I know that our knees can be so fragile until I injured myself 3 months ago when i hiked down a hill. I hopped and ran all the way down the steep tar road at the Tokun hill in Bukit Mertajam, when it started to rain heavily, until we reached the foot of the hill. It was quite a long journey down the hill because we tooked 45 minutes to hike up there. I still didn't realize I had injured my knee because all I thought was that it was a normal after-hiking pain. A few days later, I went to the gym and continued sprinting on the threadmill with the pain on my knee. I only realized that I might have injured my knee when the pain did not subside after a week, plus it was not the usual pain that I experienced after my usual exercise routine. I had pain when walking down the stairs or when walking too frequent or too fast. I found myself limping instead when I tried to walk fast. Gosh...i felt like handicapped! I went to see a orthopaedic in Gleneagles and the doctor diagnosed my injury as 'Chondromalacia'. It's an injury of the cartilage. Cartilage is the soft tissue that lines the bones in joints, which acts as 'shock absorbers' to absorb the impact of the upper leg on the lower leg and also help to improve smooth movement of the knee. I was given a daily dosage of 1500mg of glucosamine sulfate and some B12 vitamins. My injury has been almost 3 months and I have taken the supplements for a month already, and I still have this pain, although it had got better slightly. My worst fear would be whether the injury will become permanent or whether it will render my knee weaker and not sustainable anymore for my usual intense training in the gym. This will be my next worst nightmare. I felt so sad now that I cannot go exercise coz all this while, I never missed not going to the gym more than a week or two. I would always dragged myself to the gym at least once a week, no matter how busy or tired or hungry I am, or even if it is past 8 at night and haven't had my dinner. For almost 3 months now without exercising, I felt flabby all over, especially my butt which gets bigger and heavier...sigh. Also, I felt less energetic and I bet my cholestrol level is at its peak now with my current eating habit.

Harvest In Cafe

Looking for a nice and cosy air-conditioned ambient for lunch and dinner and yet not have to fork out too much money for a meal of western food? You can try Harvest In cafe. I went to this place once for dinner and found the food not bad and not too expensive considering it's nice ambient.

The facade

Outside of the cafe, view taken from inside the cafe.

Inside the cafe

I had mexican roasted chicken, RM14.90. It comes with mashed potatoes, some carrots,cauliflower and broccoli. The chicken tasted good and tender, and the skin is crispy.

Hubby had this set called Bombay chicken, RM13.90.


I love the food here, and its environment. However, I am quite disappointed with the serving portion. Look at the one little slice of carrot and 3 small cauliflowers/brocolli. It is as if those are so expensive. Hubby's bombay chicken meat is just one piece of the chicken thigh. Mine, the mexican chicken is slightly bigger in size. However, I was still hungry when leaving the cafe, and finished off half a can of mister potato at night for supper....keke.

This is the dinner menu. Only managed to take one photo because the waitress quickly came to me for order when she saw me taking photos of the menu. I guess they don't want the menu to be seen by their competitor outside.

This is the lunch menu. We realized that the menu for lunch and dinner quite different, and what is more different is the price. Yes, lunch is more cheaper than dinner.

Map to the cafe.

Definitely a better choice to go this place for lunch instead, coz the price at lunch is about the same as the outside hawker western food. Also the food here is without taxes and service charge.

Hawker Western Food

I found out of this hawker stall selling good western food during one of my frequent visits to the bridal shop before my wedding. Whenever we visited our bridal shop along Jalan Bagan Jermal, we never failed to stop by the food court opposite Phor Tay school for our favourite western food there for dinner. The food court is only opened at night, so we usually arranged our trip to the bridal shop in the evening so that we can have dinner there.

Why I loved this western food? Because it served spaghetti and fruit salad as the side dishes besides the mash potato. You don't get these side dishes for the same price that you pay at other western food hawker stall. And the usual salad served is usually made up of cabbages, but here they served pieces of apple.

Honey lamb - RM10. The lamb meat tasted good.

Morrocon chicken. There are many other varieties that we had tried like garlic chicken, honey chicken, black pepper chicken, all at RM7.60 each if I'm not mistaken, but sorry no photos coz the glutton me always forgot to take pics and only realized when the food already went into my stomach.

This is the western food stall.

Before we knew of this stall, whenever we thought of good and cheap western food to eat, we would thought of the famous western food stall near to the cemetery at Fettes Park. But now, this stall will be our prefered hawker western food. Served with spaghetti, this western food definitely is much more filling than the other hawker western food and worth the money paid.