Carl's Jr is back!

I had a major flu session yesterday and I felt miserable. And everytime I have a major flu, for some strange reason, I feel hungry all the time.

After having an early lunch yesterday round 12.30pm, I rested for about an hour before heading over to One Utama to curi tulang try and walk off the flu. And since I was there, I took the opportunity to check out some sports shops because I'm in desperate need for some football pants but couldn't find any that I like and most importantly, there weren't any SALE.

Sigh.

So as I was walking, I felt kinda hungry and had the sudden craving for Burger King's Whooper. On my way to BK, I remembered that Carl's Jr just opened an outlet in One Utama so I took a detour and headed over there instead to try it out. The last time they were here was ages ago. They didn't do too well and closed down eventually.

As I walked in, I was greeted politely by the staffs, bla bla bla.

They had quite an extensive list of burgers.

There's 11 types of charbroiled burger - their famous Famous Star and Super Star. Then they have the Portobello Mushroom, Chili Burger, Guacamole Bacon, Western Bacon varieties. Some of the varieties also come with double patties that will definitely fill you up. There's also charbroiled chicken sandwiches, crispy chicken, fish sandwich and fish and chips if you don't take beef. For sides, there's salad, onion rings, fried zucchini and criss cross fries. There's even desserts - cheesecake and choc fudge cake.

Since I was sooo hungry at that time and my craving for burger was so intense, I ordered the Super Star combo set which cost me RM17+!!! I could smell my wallet burning as I saw the amount. Well, as a consolation, the drinks are refillable.

Let's hope the price justifies the burger so I thought to myself. I was given a cup and a number tag for the burger to be delivered to me. The burger is supposedly prepared fresh when you order.

Order number 64 for the day?

After a couple of minutes, my combo set came.

Super Star with Cheese Combo set - RM17+!

I unwrapped the burger wrapping and I was greeted by this gigantic burger! Hands up, it's definitely bigger than McD's and Burger King's Whooper I tell you.

Checkout the size of this buggerburger!

It was warm and looks quite fresh to me. And in it has 2 slices of beef patties, a slice of cheese, fresh lettuce, tomatoes, onions, ketchup and mayonnaise. Recipe for high cholestoral and calories. But did I care? Not a bit at that time. But now...

Hungry not?

I had a hard time eating it as I have a small mouth (I think) and that bloody burger was so huge. Everytime I opened my mouth to have a bite, bits and pieces of beef, lettuce and tomatoes kept falling down. It took me quite a while to finish the burger as I was struggling to make sure everything were sandwiched in between the buns before putting into my mouth.

After approximately 10-15 minutes, it was all over. By that time, I was too stuffed to finish the fries and iced lemon tea.

The aftermath.

As I was resting, I saw this:

It's gonna get messy.

Now only you tell me. Stupid!

Overall, I find the burger quite good and fresh. Better than BK's I would say. On the downside, they're rather pricey as compared to what other burger outlets are offering at the moment.

Let's hope they're here to stay for much longer than before.

Nak Tak?

Note:

Should there be any authorities that comes across my blog and sees this, just for your information, I got all these images from Nak Tak?.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Well, the posters says a thousand words.

It's sad that after 50 years of independence, this is what we get.

I rest my case.

Nine lives, perhaps it's true?

Last evening, on the way home from work, I took the same route which I ran over the cat two nights back to see whether did the cat survived the accident.

My heart was racing as I approached the crime scene but to my surprise, there weren't any traces of evidence that a cat was killed there.

No blood stains on the road. And most importantly, no death corpse lying in the middle of the road.

Come to think of it, I don't think my car's tyres went over it. Guess it was just my imagination.

At the point of impact, the cat was actually right in the centre of the road, which means that most probably it was knocked off it's feet, tumbled around a few times and got dragged under the car for a few seconds hence the flying furs I saw when I looked back.

Perhaps the myth that cats have nine lives is true afterall. But I don't believe in myths. So I reckon that cat was just plain lucky that night.

I'm just so relieved that the cat is still alive. Thank God.

Anyways, want to know why people say cats have nine lives?

Read more here.

Stressed out = Bad day

Been really stressed out for the last couple of days due to work.

I think I've reached the point where I just want to drop and leave everything behind and go off for a long break to recharge myself.

I really do.

After that, hopefully I'll be able to come back afresh and do something which I like. Something which I'm still doing some soul searching.

It's tough. Really going through a rough patch now in my life.

To make matters worse, the stress is really getting into me. Causing problems for me.

This afternoon when picking up the female for lunch, I knocked another car while reversing, which caused a dent and some scratches. I've done that particular reversing manouver countless times but I just lost my concentration for a split second and it happened.

No one actually saw the incident, which includes the security guard who was sitting just right in front of the whole incident with his sunglasses on. I wonder WTF was he doing till he could miss the whole incident. *baffled*

Seeing no one saw, I acted like as if nothing had happened and drove off with her. But my conscience kicked in and I didn't feel good to just leave like that without being responsible for my mistake so I'd decided to bear the repair cost for the car. Since the owner was the female's colleague, I left it to her to speak to her colleague to sort things out after lunch.

Everything is pretty much settled and all is fine now.

Just when I thought that was bad enough to spoil my day...

As I was on my way home after work, I made the first road kill of my life, sigh. Not proud of it.

I wasn't driving very fast because there were people around as it was a housing area. Suddenly out of nowhere, a cat came running across the road. Couldn't brake in time and I went over it.

And it felt as if I'd drove over a speed bump without slowing down.

My heart was pumping damn bloody fast and I kept on driving. Looked at the rear view mirror to check on the poor cat and all I could see were furs flying around. Sigh :(

Wasn't a pleasant sight. But the poor cat wasn't to be seen around?!? I hope it's not stuck somewhere on my car's undercarriage! I'm pretty sure the cat couldn't have survived the accident as I felt, if not mistaken, my car went over it twice, both front and rear tyres.

So I really hope and pray that it did survive and ran off. And not death and stuck under my car!

God bless that poor cat's soul if it's death.

It was an unavoidable accident.

Now you tell me today wasn't one hell of a stressful day for me.

I really need a break desperately. Please.

Music Rising...but not Man Utd

Was at Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) last night for my cousin's birthday party and we had a blast. Food was great and the portions were HUGE!

And I got a double dose of my Vodka lime for the price of one because it was happy hour then. :)

Party was going on fine until I witness Man Utd's defense of English Premier League went from bad to worse. Drawing at home to Reading and then away to Portsmouth was bad enough but losing the Manchester derby to Man City?!?! Sigh.

3 games. 2 draws. 1 loss.

Equals to 2 points and 16th position out of 20 teams.

Bad, really bad.

Man Utd is well known for starting the season slow before picking up after the Christmas period so I hope they'll do just exactly that by thrashing Spurs this weekend at Old Trafford. Fingers crossed!

As a consolation, all of my cousins and I were blessed with an Original HRC T-shirt by my uncle. I wanted a particular polo shirt but they ran out of size so I'd to settle for this:

Music Rising T-shirt

This Music Rising benefit t-shirt was worn by The Edge during U2's Grammy® performance. It features the official Music Rising logo on the front of the t-shirt and sleeve with a Hard Rock logo on the back of the neck and was designed by William Cathcart.

U2's The Edge during the Grammy®

Music Rising is a campaign launched to aid musicians of the Gulf Region. Created by U2’s The Edge, Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and producer Bob Ezrin, it has become of symbol of rebuilding and renewal throughout the U.S. When the campaign was first launched in November 2005, the focus was to replace lost or destroyed instruments to professional musicians so that they could regain their livelihood. To date Music Rising has helped over 2,000 of those musicians and helped restore the spirit and musical heritage so important to this country.

Well, as a consolation to the frustrating and disappointing night seeing Man Utd dropped more points, I was blessed with an original HRC Music Rising t-shirt and knowing that proceeds from the purchase of this t-shirt will go to Music Rising.

At least this softens the blow.

Schmoozer, schnoozer

I got an award today. My first blog award. I don't know for what but I got the award today.



Apparently, I was awarded the Schmooze Award because I met the following criterias:

• natural ability to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection. (not sure about this)
• effortlessly weave your way in and out of the blogosphere. (quite true since I've been blogging on and off for God know's how many times)
• don’t limit your visits to only the rich and successful. (no comments)
• engage others in meaningful conversations. (my Chatbox and comments are pretty much death and empty I would say)

But nonetheless, thank you to whoever that created this Award and for believing in me.

Please do feel free to copy the Award and paste it onto your blog if you are thick faced enough believe that you deserve the Award too.

God bless.

All I want for Christmas...

I'm pretty sure a lot of you guys know that I've a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) on my left knee. Sigh.

Sad but true :(

Sometimes, I really wonder why did such an injury happen to me?!? It's frustrating knowing that my knee is not as strong as it used to be and could just give way at anytime when overworked and overstressed during high impact sports or activities.

It's not really giving me a lot of problem (at the moment at least) but some. My left knee gets tired very fast especially when I'm walking a lot. Besides that, other problems that I'm facing currently includes the hearing of popping sounds at times when I bend my knee, slight swelling, and instability of the knee (i.e., a "wobbly" feeling or a feeling that the knee is not solid).

There are 2 ways to go about it:

1) Non-surgical treatment:

A completely torn ACL has the slight potential of regrowth. The ACL primarily serves to stabilize the knee in an extended position and when surrounding muscles are relaxed, so if the muscles are strong, many people can function without it. The term for non-surgical treatment for ACL rupture is "conservative management", and it often includes physical therapy and use of a knee brace. Lack of an ACL generally increases the risk of other knee injuries such as torn meniscus, so sports with cutting and twisting motions are not recommended. For patients who frequently participate in such sports, surgery is often recommended.

2) Surgery

There are two main options for ACL graft selection, allograft and autograft. Autografts are the patients' own tissues, and options include the hamstring tendons or middle third of the patella tendon. Allograft is cadaveric tissue sourced from a tissue bank. Each method has its own pros and cons, hamstring and middle third of patella tendon having similar outcomes. Patellar grafts are often incorrectly cited as being stronger, but the site of the harvest is often extremely painful for weeks after surgery and some patients develop chronic patellar tendinitis. Replacement via a posthumous donor involves a slightly higher risk of infection. Additionally, donor grafts eliminate tendon harvesting which, due to improved arthroscopic methods, is responsible for most post-operative pain.

The surgery is typically undertaken arthroscopically, with tunnels drilled into the femur and tibia at approximately the original ACL attachments. The graft is then placed into position and held in place. There are a variety of fixation devices available, particularly for hamstring tendon fixation. These include screws, buttons and post fixation devices. The graft typically attaches to the bone within 6-8 weeks. The original collagen tissue in the graft acts as a scaffold and new collagen tissue is laid down in the graft with time. Hence the graft takes over 6 months to reach maximal strength.

After surgery, the knee joint loses flexibility, and the muscles around the knee and in the thigh tend to atrophy. All treatment options require extensive physical therapy to build up muscle strength around the knee and restore range of motion. For many active patients, the lengthy rehabilitation period is more difficult to deal with than the actual surgery. In general, a rehabilitation period of 6 months to a year is required to regain pre-surgery strength and use. This is very dependent on the rehabilitation assignment provided by the surgeon as well as the person who is receiving the surgery. External bracing is recommended for athletes in contact and collision sports for a period of time after reconstruction. It is important however to realize that this type of prevention is given by a 'surgeon to surgeon' basis; not all surgeons will prescribe a brace for post surgery recovery. Whether the ACL deficient knee is reconstructed or not, the patient is susceptible to early onset of chronic degenerative joint disease.

Soure: Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/)

After much discussions and considerations, I've decided the best thing for me to do is to opt for the surgery. It was tough weighing out the pros and cons but I'm now looking at the long term.

Yes, it may take a 6 months rehabilitation period to heal completely but that 6 months is nothing compared to the activities and sports that I'll be missing out for many, many more years to come.

Surgical treatment of the torn ACL usually involves an arthroscopic surgical reconstruction

Although a number of different types of tissue have been utilized to reconstruct the ACL, the most common type of ACL reconstruction involves harvesting the central third of the patellar tendon with a bone block at each end of the tendon graft. After performing a diagnostic arthroscopic examination of the knee, the central third of the patellar tendon is harvested.

Left knee graft harvest

The remaining tendon is then repaired. After harvesting the tissue, drill guides are used to place holes into the tibia (bone below the knee)...

Intraoperative photo of drill hole in femur for ACL

...and femur (bone above the knee). By placing the drill holes at the attachment sites of the original ligament, when the graft is pulled through the drill hole and into the knee, it will be placed in the same position as the original ACL.

After pulling the graft through the drill holes and into the joint to replace the torn ACL, the graft is then held in place with bioabsorbable screws or metallic screws.

Fastening the graft in this manner allows new blood vessels to grow into the transferred graft and for healing to occur. Typically, the procedure is performed on an outpatient basis.

X-Ray demonstrating Placement of Metallic Screw for ACL Graft Fixation in the Femur

The last time I checked, the cost for the 2 hours surgery will be approximately a cool whopping RM20,000!!!

-__-'

But thank God, I've got medical insurance to cover up for me, i.e. 90% of the total cost. And better still, the maximum amount that I need to pay for the 10% is only RM1,000 even though 10% of RM20,000 is RM2,000.

So the moral of the story, please invest in a medical insurance. You'll never know how important it is when you need it. Medical expenses nowadays are absurdly crazy.

No joke.

To say I'm not afraid and nervous about the surgery is bullshitting. Of course I'm worried.

Will there be any side effects? How long will it take before I can be active again? Is it painful?

Sigh, so many questions running through my head.

All I can do now is to pray for God's strength to get me through this period of worrying. And also I need all the support and encouragement that I can get from everyone around me.