My reflections for the year 2017 :
1) We did not travel overseas other than my regular visits to Penang to see my Mum and elder sister.
Though I was keen to visit Bhutan but due to my blackouts in 2016 and also, my left knee playing up..... we did not plan for any travels in 2017.
All the children were home to have a family reunion with Mum in late Sep 2017 and also celebrated my 60th birthday too. The woman in green blouse ( standing on the extreme left ) is our cousin, Ling.
2) My left knee was hurting quite badly in the early part of the year and I almost wanted to go for my knee replacement surgery.
One last resort was to consult my trusted Physiotherapist before I go back to my Orthopaedic to have the surgery. Much to my surprise, the Physiotherapist found that my hamstring and calf muscles could be causing the knee pain and after massaging it and teaching me a few exercises to strengthen the muscles, it improved a lot and I did not have to use the walking stick anymore. Therefore, I will postpone the knee surgery as long as I can since I can only do it twice in my lifetime and its lifespan is about 10+ years only.
One of my 2017 goals was to go to the Tree Top Walk in MacRitchie Reservoir, by my 60th birthday in Oct but I did it in Nov instead, after I have strengthen my knees.
The Tree Top Walk itself was not a problem but hiking in MacRitchie Reservior track to get there was indeed a challenge. Not sure if I want to do it again...ha....ha.....
On hindsight, while I was diligent in exercising and kept my knees in good shape for the Sydney Bridge climb in Jul 2016 but I did not maintain the exercise regime upon returning home. I then climbed up part of the Great Wall of China in Sep 2016 during the Silk Road tour. These 2 climbs must have hurt my knees badly but I did not realise it and did not rest enough and resume the physio exercises........ sigh
I know it did not make sense esp when my knees are hurting but I was so caught up with my daily activities that I was not thinking straight and thought it was the same old problem and eventually, it would recover with time.
Lesson learned......!!!
Lesson learned......!!!
3) I did not have any blackouts or syncope episodes in 2017, Hurray......!!!
4) Surprisingly, I am still playing Pokémon Go as I thought I would stop when I reached level 30 in early 2017. The developer changed the game strategies and released more Pokemons and that kept my interest going.
I am at Level 38 now and also playing Jason's account and he is at Level 35. My wife is at Level 39.
This game gives a common interest to the family so it is a good bonding session for us though Jas hardly plays it. But HE got the 1st invitation to catch Mewtwo and he caught it with the first throw of the ball too......!!!
4) Using the Skills Future Credit Fund, I attended the Electrical & Plumbing - Home Maintenances short courses at ITE, in Aug and Nov 2017 respectively. I enjoyed them and learned something new besides reinforcing what I know already.
There was some hands-on lab work in the Electrical course, the set-up as shown in the background. My confidence level in doing some electrical maintenance work at home has increased; eg. replaced the old fluorescent light with LED tube in the store room under the stairs, consuming lesser electricity and not so hot too if I forgot to switch it off, which happened once while I was away in Penang for 3 days.
My instructor and classmates in the Plumbing course. This class was more fun and we have even more hands-on lab work. Very informative and I learned a lot.
I would definitely recommend that you go for it esp when you are entitled to claim from your Skills Future Credit Fund and if you are a senior citizen too. I did not have to pay for the 2 courses as they were fully subsidised.
5) It was most unfortunate that Jason broke his right knee ACL again during his soccer game in Nov 2017. Though statistically, the chances of it happening is very slim since he has fully recovered from this 1st ACL reconstruction surgery 6 years ago.
This revision ACL surgery was done using an ipsilateral patellar tendon graft and supplemented with an anterolateral ligament tenodesis using the tibial band, in medical terms.
I will be updating my other blog on his 1st ACL Reconstruction Surgery to share this 2nd ACL surgery experience.
He is no longer using his crutches now ( ie Jan 2018) and will continue to undergo physiotherapy for a year before he is considered fully recovered and back to sports again.....?
6) Jason graduated in James Cook University with a degree in Bachelor of Psychological Science, in Dec 2017.
A proud moment indeed and another major milestone achieved.
It looks like I have a very busy 2nd half year in 2017 indeed. I did not manage to find a Macro Photography class to attend and have not started scanning photos of Jason in his growing years and Jack, our beloved Beagle, to make a Photobook.
However, I managed to do some housekeeping and thrown away my collection of VCDs, music CDs ( after converting them to digital format into my PC ) and obsolete DVD movies too. I have yet to throw my LDs as I still have a player for it but I think they have to go in 2018 as they are occupying storage space......sob...sob....
I have also thrown away the negatives of all my hardcopy photos as they have disintegrated and gave a foul smell from the chemicals in it. I have to continue scanning the photos into digital format but it is going to be a very tedious task as I have already started on them and stopped after a short period....!!!
Improve and maintain my exercise regime for my overall health, esp for my bad knees as I am not ready for any knee replacement surgery yet.
It would be good to reduce weight by a few kg..... target 75Kg by year end.
It would be good to reduce weight by a few kg..... target 75Kg by year end.
Improve my cholesterol blood test results by having all the measurements within healthy range.
Resume scanning all the photo prints into digital format.
I have not planned any overseas trips other than my regular trips to Penang to visit my Mum. We were suppose to go to Kyushu with Jason after his graduation but he started his 4th Year or Postgraduate course immediately so play by ear .....
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