The iPhone Family

It is official, the iMran Family is now iPhone Friendly!

All 3 of us now own an iPhone each after we re-contracted with our long-standing telco, Mobile One or M1 for short for a 2-year plan.

Another island's telco, Starhub also launched its iPhone plans the same time as M1, but alas, M1 plans are still superior to that of Starhub's. It is even far better than the major telco here, Singtel which had sole rights to sell iPhones when the 3G model was released many months back.

Which is why we stick to M1 because it leads the other players with far better and numerous innovative options in its offered plans. A very aggressive and competitive company... and we love it because it makes the other, cheaper options and plans available to the public.

Starhub is great too, I was considering "jumping ship" to sign its iPhone mobile plan if it offered some kind of bundle with its cable TV plans. We are already their customer since cable TV was available in Singapore.

Along with it, after several years later, we also signed up with its home broadband plan from Singtel's dial-up plan. And last year, its land-line VoIP phone. The only thing left was its mobile plan. I waited patiently for its iPhone plans but M1 takes the cake... still.


Since all 3 of us have completed our 2-year plan with M1 months back, we held back the many tempting offers M1 made to lure us to re-contract. We waited patiently for Apple's iPhone to be available and offered in its plan but it never materialised until now!

Wifey and Sonny took the older version 3G 8GB with a S$36 per month plan and paid S$398.00 each for the phone. Sonny gets an extra perk of unlimited free SMS and MMS for being a student.

A very well-received perk for me as teens tend to talk with their friends more with SMS and MMS than just talk like we adults normally talk to one another over the phone.

I took the iPhone 3GS 16GB with a S$56 per month plan and paid S$298.00 for the phone.

In all, I spent S$1,044.00 for all 3 phones for my family and will fork out about S$128.00 per month for the 3 mobile plans.

Several perks makes me happy to not reach too deep into my pocket...

The Multi-line Saver package makes all 3 lines we have into one consolidated plan which earns us a 25% monthly discount on our monthly bill. That will mean I will only need to fork out S$96.00 monthly for the plans, knowing that we will not exceed on the talk time and text messages.

Another good perk is the free-calls to 3 M1 mobile to M1-mobile persons. We just nominate 3 M1 mobile numbers to enjoy the perk. Wifey, Sonny and I nominated each other which leave each of us with another number.

I nominated my Elder Sis' since we talk to each other often, while Wifey nominated her sister. Sonny has yet to nominate a friend or cousin. He is still contemplating.

I am already an iPhone fan when I had my 2G 8GB I bought from a friend who got it from the US. I had been using it for many months now and have never been bored with it even once.

Along with its free-incoming-all-day perk, we can now check our e-mails, online utilities and internet on the go. We can do so much more now, yet each of us pays S$32 per month which is lesser than our previous plans combined.

As I had mentioned before, after experiencing iPhone, I do not care for any other newly launched phones anymore. So far, nothing ever beats the intutitive and ease of use of the iPhone. Software is everything, yet the iPhone is so classic with its stylish, clean-line design.

For this family, combining iPhone and M1 makes a better day, everyday!

Now Sonny and Wifey are enjoying the many free applications they each downloaded from their own PCs while mine is on iMac. iTunes is being used by this whole family now for song plays apart from syncing our iPhones.

Sonny is busy playing Tap-Tap Revolution while Wifey is navigating her 3D RollerCoaster game. Life gets a little more fun now

I'm Still Under

I was feeling much better a day after my medical leave off work on Wednesday. I was Under The Weather on Tuesday and stayed home nursing my "wounds."

Managed to complete my work and submitted a day ahead of the dateline, yet by late afternoon, I started to feel ill again, this time with a tender feeling whenever I touch the left side of my head.

It became worse at night as all illnesses seem to manifest or should I say magnified. I had trouble sleeping peacefully that night, waking up almost every hour and feeling the pain on my left head. I had to sleep on my right side for most of the rest of the night.

Came morning, I woke up to a nasty sore throat worse than the first time I visited the doctor the day before. The Trachisan lozenges that were given did some good to relief me of the pain every time I swallow but the Amoxycilin antibiotics has not worked its miracle for me yet, I guess.

The Fenfedrin tablets for my runny nose were a savior. It helped not to complicate my sickness as I had a clear airway and could breathe normally.

With guilt and a little embarrassment, I had to text my boss to inform her of my second MC of the week.

Like Tuesday, I was asleep for most of the morning, only to wake up by Wifey for lunch. Took my meds the second time for the day and fell asleep again for another 2 hours.

I had to call Mom when woke up in the afternoon to catch her before she left for the hospital to visit Dad. She has been visiting him daily since he was warded in the Isolation Ward for TB last Thursday. Dad has been feeling down being isolated and alone in the room all day.

I had to inform her that I was still not able to visit Dad to avoid exchange of infections – Dad getting my flu and I getting his TB with both of our immune system at a low. Dad’s the more critical one with lung cancer in his old age of 83.

“Dad was asking for you yesterday.” Mom just remembered, “I told him before earlier in the week but he has since forgotten.”

I know Dad is like that nowadays, always forgetting. It is sad to know that he feels soothed after his questions are answered but soon forget and start to feel sad again… as if we do not care for him enough to visit him.

Dad has to go through these 2 weeks minimum isolation before the doctor can safely say that he is no longer contagious and a threat to the other patients.

Hopefully he can return to the normal 6-bedded ward where he can talk and where there are people around… he may not talk to them because he is reserved but he likes to people-watch quietly from his bed as he would from his kitchen window at home.

The weekend is so near. I do hope that I can recover very soon to be able to visit him again. I miss him as much as he misses his children.

Under The Weather

Oh No!

I have the sniffles last night after feeling a little more uncomfortable in my throat since in the early afternoon at work.

I had to go to the doctor's this morning because by the time I work up about 4:50AM, the pain in my throat was intense. My joints were all aching and my nose was blocked.

I officially declared myself as sick and texted my boss that I was taking sick leave today. Told my colleague about the job I was doing to inform her that it was almost complete and should be more than ready for submission by Thursday.

The doctor came later to the clinic today. I was patient number 3. There were not many patients when I arrived at 8:30AM when the clinic opened but then the sick zombies like me came in one a time to fill up the clinic by the time my number was called at 9:15AM.

The usual prescription was given but I wanted the antibiotics so badly because I hate being sick. I do not get sick frequently but when I do I am the crybaby in the house... totally flat-out over-sized baby!

Today is such a beautiful day out, yet I will be at home and sleeping most of the time. Sigh.

Thanks to Wifey who have passed some germs to me. She has been having flu for the past week and still refused to see the doctor. She self medicate with the medicines that she has but without the antibiotics.

"After 3 days Mama, it is viral infection," says Sonny "not because of lethargy." He tried to convince his mother to see the doctor.

Wifey and I are total opposites when it comes to being sick. I will make the dash to the doctor's but Wifey will linger and suffer in silence while she still does her daily chores. I, the other hand, will be a moppy-bedridden sick zombie, rendered nonfunctional and useless for the day.

The doctor advised me to stay away from my father who is in the isolation ward in SGH when he was diagnosed as having Tuberculosis after 3 days of being warded for breathlessness and coughing fresh blood out.

Dad will be very disappointed to not see me for several days at the ward... only 4 nominated persons are allowed to see him in there.

I am one of them as I am the administrator, while the other 3 are Mom, 3rd Sis who Mom is staying with for the moment and Brother-in-law has a car as transport for my wheelchair-bound Mom.

Even with the TV and daily newspapers, Dad still felt all alone in the ward. For Mom to be there most days, his loneliness is soothed.

Fortunately, the Room 3 Isolation Ward has a telephone that everyone can call to talk to Dad. Though only for a few minutes of talking, it keeps him occupied and not miss the family that much hopefully.

Dad will be in the ward for a minimum of 2 weeks, then the rest of the symptoms can be treated. I hope to recover fast and can start visiting Dad after work again soon...

Always The Hero

We notice that Dad has frequent medical complications nowadays. The period between him being in and out of hospital is much closer together now.

While at home, his condition is stable most times but far from improving. We do not expect it to. Slowly, but most definitely, his condition is growing worse with time. Dad is holding up well, at least that is what he is trying hard to make everyone believe by hiding his pain very well. Seldom complaining and always putting a macho front for us. I think he does it for Mom.

He tries very hard to look well but at times, his facial expressions show that he is tolerating the pain. That makes a whole lot difficult to know when he really needs medical attention by the professionals. It makes it difficult for Mom to decipher it and in turn inform us.

Just last week, I had to urgently take 2 days off work to rush to my parents’ place. Mom called early in the morning while I was getting ready for work. With a little panicky tone, she informed me that Dad was feeling breathless and coughing fresh instead of stale blood for the first time.

I wanted to call the ambulance immediately but after hearing Dad’s voice in the background and after asking few critical questions through Mom, Dad was all better again after taking the Salbutamol inhaler that is reserved for emergencies like this.


Coincidentally that day, Nurse Chris called to inform he was coming to check on Dad. He came about half an hour later when I told him about the morning’s episode.

His prognosis was not good, but for the bleeding, he gave Dad Tranexamic Acid tablets in the hope to stop the bleeding after he consulted with the HCA doctor over the phone.

They urged that Dad go to the hospital if the medication did not arrest the bleeding and wrote a letter to the A&E for us to bring along too.

Dad stayed home. He was reluctant to go, almost fuming at Mom whenever she brought the matter up. He hates hospitals and he loves to be home with Mom.

A trip to Woodlands Polyclinic on Monday for an appointment to have his H1N1 or Swine Flu vaccine made the difference. It was a means to get the doctor to check on Dad’s condition and get Dad to go to the hospital if he found that Dad really needed to.

It was a swift instruction from the Polyclinic doctor that Dad was to go. He relented and agreed, so Elder Sis and I were there at SGH A&E the next moment.

Unknowingly, that early morning, Dad was already in such a pain that he told Mom he wanted to go to the hospital. The pain must have been excruciating for him to actually want to go. But by the time the pain subsided, he was back to his old self, adamant that everything was alright.

The A&E affair at SGH was a slow and trying one. There were just too many emergencies being attended to. It may sound sick but it was like the place had a year-end sale! Some kind of promotion going on.

Dad was warded into transit Ward 58 after a 3 hour marathon since his arrival at A&E... Resuscitation & Observation Ward and then the ER doctor who explained to us of Dad’s condition.

Dad was transferred to the Oncology Ward at Ward 48 after a class B2 bed was available. There, the doctors did some more tests headed by Dad’s Medical Oncologist, Dr. Lo SK from National Cancer Centre or NCC.

We are waiting for the results and what the doctors intend to do next…