New Kid On The Blog

28-MAR-2008:

I have to admit that I am a bit of a paranoiac when it comes to safety in the streets, car parks or other public places - as in I am absolutely terrified of being robbed, kidnapped, rapped and the like. Back in Malaysia, I wouldn't walk in the streets if I could help it. If I had to, I would walk very quickly and be very wary of the people around me. I wouldn't walk next to or near another person - unless it was too crowded to avoid that. If someone approached within 3 feet of me, I would hurry up or try to turn towards another direction. If I was alone and I needed to get to my car, I would make sure that no one was around and hurry to my car. Once inside, the first thing I would do was lock all doors. Yes, I was that paranoid. I mean ... I still am that paranoid, but I generally feel safer here in the UK.

Yesterday, I was walking home with my groceries when I saw an old man with a walking stick heading towards the opposite direction. Towards me. Although I am paranoid, I didn't really expect anything bad to happen to me in London, in a rather safe neighbourhood like this and in broad daylight too. What with the man being at least 70 years old and on a walking stick. There was nothing to worry about. But what happened next and my reflexes shocked the hell out of me.

He said "Excuse me ...". I looked up. He was about 1 foot away from me. He raised his walking stick at 120 degrees, motioning it towards me. My first instinct was danger, he was a mad old man who was going to beat the hell out of me. I backed away and started to turn around. He saw my horrified expression. He quickly lowered his walking stick and apologised. As it turned out, he only wanted to ask for directions. But he has the habit of pointing using his walking stick! He meant to point straight ahead and ask "Is this Coronation Street?" I was so embarassed. I said I was sorry for my over-reaction but my heart was still beating at top speed.

# posted by Skye @ 6:12 pm 0 comments

26-MAR-2008:

We know from his second day in the nursery that Dominic would hold his poo with all his might until he gets home, so we let him "clear his system" every morning before sending him to the nursery. Last Thursday, a day before Good Friday, Dominic's nursery was closed for the 2nd half of the day for staff training. Daddy worked from home that day and picked him after lunch.

That evening, the moment I stepped through the door after work, Dominic came running to me with a pained expression on his face. I knew that expression. I asked him if he wanted to "mm-mm" and he said yes. Oh dear ... the moment I put him on the toilet seat, he did a huge one.

Daddy was reading a book in the living room when he heard the "plop!" of the poo falling into the toilet bowl and he laughed. I quickly questioned why daddy didn't let Dominic do his poo and daddy replied by saying "He didn't tell me he wanted to." Imagine the poor boy has been holding his poo for God knows how long until mummy got home!

# posted by Skye @ 9:33 am 0 comments

24-MAR-2008:

Exactly one more hour and my four-day long Easter weekend will end. We have been busy this weekend. Instead of travelling to another European country, we opted to stay in London instead (without knowing that the weather would be that bad).

We had plans to go to Legoland on Friday, the London Aquarium on Saturday, Stonehenge on Sunday and shopping on Monday. Friday went well as planned. We went to Legoland at Windsor. The weather forecast said that it would rain at 6pm and it rained at 6pm.

Saturday, the temperature dropped to 4 degrees and we decided it was best to stay indoors - at the London aquarium. We promised Dominic he could see some sharks. When we got there, there was a queue about 100 metres long outside the building. We didn't even attempt to join the queue. The rest of the day was a waste of time. We went to the library but it was closed (and it wasn't stated in the website). In the end, we bought two Nintendo games (one for the Wii and one for the DS) and spent the afternoon on video games instead.

Sunday morning, we woke up to heavy snow. Well, maybe not heavy but the wind blew wild causing the snow to fall fast. We spent the whole day at home making curry puffs. I'm personally quite satisfied with our first attempt. In the evening, we went to a friend's house for dinner. I was rather satisfied with Dominic's behaviour at dinner - being able to join us at the dinner table the entire time - although he didn't quite like the food, i.e. roast duck legs with potatoes and asparagus. He ate only the potatoes.

Monday, the snow fell fast again. Daddy offered to look after Dominic while I go out shopping and I jumped at the opportunity. As always, my shopping trips were never just for the sake of looking-around-see-what-I-stumble-upon. I always have an objective - except if I'm accompanying a friend. This time my objective was to get a handbag that is large enough for my lunch box, spacious enough for Dominic's water bottle, snacks, wet tissues, etc. So I hopped on a train to Selfridges and got this DKNY bag.

As always, I got distracted on the way and bought a dress from FCUK and a jacket for Dominic at Gap. I must say that spending money gives me a rather good feeling! Haha!

# posted by Skye @ 7:03 pm 0 comments

20-MAR-2008:

When we first moved in to this flat one year ago, Dominic's "book shelf" was just his Fisher Price Kick & Crawl Aquarium.

We tried not to buy him too many books but to borrow them from the library instead becasue it will add to the nightmare when we move again. But somehow, without realizing it, his collection of books have become this large pile.

I just love lining up books on my shelves (if I have any). Better still, if I can build my own library in my house, I will. Sigh ... so since we don't have any shelves and it's not a good idea to buy one, I lined up Dominic's books on the floor instead.

Our landlord has mentioned that he would like to sell off this flat that we're renting. Sigh ... which means we have to move again. Can anyone give me £350k to buy this place?

# posted by Skye @ 12:25 pm 0 comments

18-MAR-2008:

Daddy was watching the news yesterday and Dominic wanted to watch his Winnie the Pooh. He started crying when daddy refused to switch the channel. Not only did he cry, he ran to mummy. Daddy accused me of spoiling Dominic. Is that true? I don't know. I only know that Dominic follows my instructions obediently and does whatever I tell him to. Well, almost. Daddy challenged me to ask Dominic to stop crying. He challenged the wrong subject. It took only a little pat on the head and a soothing "Stop crying, be a good boy" to settle it. Haha! And a little "Get your handkerchief from the cupboard, let mummy wipe your face (tears, actually)" to send him off into his room to retrieve a handkerchief.

Daddy said that Dominic is manipulating me, because in order to get him to do something, he gets something in return - hugs, kisses, play time, sweets, juice, chocolates, etc. I'd like to call that a compromise instead, although daddy might be right that I'm raising a manipulative, spoilt child. I don't know. In the end, he didn't get his Winnie the Pooh after all but he was alright - because he knows that mummy is not a tyrant who says no all the time. Mummy is negotiable and he should be negotiable as well. Mummy said that daddy was watching the news, so instead of Winnie the Pooh, he got a whole lot of hugs and kisses from mummy. That's what I call compromise! I hope I'm right about this! :-D

# posted by Skye @ 10:38 am 0 comments

14-MAR-2008:

Dominic is almost 2 years and 3 months old now. He is changing constantly and yet so subtlly that most of the time I did not realize that he has changed until it was rather obvious. And then, he has changed so tremendously that I can hardly recall how he has grown over the past few months.

Dominic's typical day starts with mummy waking him up at 7:30 in the morning and giving him his bottle. Yes, he's still using the bottle - that is one thing that hasn't changed. I do not know how to stop that. When he drinks with his bottle, he finishes the whole thing. When he drinks in a cup, he "plays" with the milk. I want him to drink milk, so I gave in to the bottle. On a good day, he would just take the bottle and drink it while I got dressed. On a bad day, he would complain that the milk was too hot or too cold, or he wanted to drink it on the couch or on the floor or on mummy's bed.

After his milk, I would sit him on the toilet and give him a book. On a good day, he would read the book on his own and do his poop while I applied make-up. On a bad day, he would insist that I read to him. Regardless, he would always poop in the morning. Sometimes, he would ask to go "ng-ng" as soon as he woke up. After he had done his poop, I would then clean him up, he would ask for a tissue to wipe his own buttocks and insist to flush the toilet himself.

After that, I would brush his teeth. Regardless of whether it was a good or bad day, he would always refuse to have his teeth brushed. On a better day, he would give in after a bit of coaxing. On a bad day, it could only be done when his mouth was wide open crying.

I would then wash his back-side and dress him up. On a good day, he would let me dress him up in anything. On a bad day, he would insist that he didn't like this shirt or those pants. After that he would be all ready for daddy to take him to the nursery. On a good day, he would put on his shoes himself. He can now put on his shoes on his own. He can't yet tell the right shoe from the left but if we tell him that he has put on his shoes the wrong side, he will kick them off and put them on again the correct sides.

I would leave for work after that and daddy would handle whatever necessary to get him to the nursery. I would pick him up in the evening and regardless of whether it was a good or bad day, he would be delighted to see me - running towards me with arms wide open and a big grin on his face. Then, it was time to get him home. On a good day, he would put on his jacket and sit on his pushchair. On a not-so-bad day, he would say he didn't want the hat or the scarf. On a bad day, he would say he didn't want the jacket - which was an impossibility to me in this cold weather. On a really, really bad day, he would leave the nursery crying to tear his jacket off - but this doesn't happen very often.

When we got home, I would start to prepare dinner. On a very, very good day, he would play on his own - but this very rarely happens, it's only my wishful thinking. On a normal day, he would help me prepare dinner. On a bad day, he would cook up his own dinner by removing all the pots and pans from the kitchen cupboard and making a mess of the place.

At dinner time, he would always feed himself. On a good day, he would finish everything very quickly, I would praise him, he would ask for a sweet as a reward, I would give him one sweet and then he would eat his after-dinner fruits. On a bad day, he would refuse to eat, and I would find ways to get him to eat. Sometimes he would eventually finish his dinner anyway. Sometimes, he would eat only half of it.

Bathtime would always be pleasant. He would always complain that the water was hot and I would tell him that it was warm. Getting dressed for bedtime - he would insist on not wearing this shirt or those pants on a bad day. Otherwise, all would be well.

He would then have his milk and then off to brush his teeth. Brushing his teeth, as usual, is my least favourite task of the day. On a good day, daddy would do it for him. On a bad day, daddy would say he could skip brushing his teeth for one day and I would disagree and would have to do it myself.

After that it would be bedtime stories. Good or bad day, it would always be Dominic's favourite time of the day. We would read for about 20 minutes and Dominic would go to bed hugging one of his books. Dominic doesn't need his bolster for bedtime now. I'm not sure when that started to happen but he now takes naps at the nursery without his bolster and at night, he hugs a book to sleep instead.

# posted by Skye @ 5:07 am 0 comments

12-MAR-2008:

Last Saturday morning saw us braving the cold and rainy weather to go ... swimming! This is one of the things I absolutely love about this country - indoor heated swimming pools. Bless! Because of his chickenpox, Dominic had not swum in ages. Fortunately, he still remembered and enjoyed himself.

After swimming, we had Nando's for lunch and made our way to the National History Museum near Kensington. The museum was rather large, with various sections of exhibition, as you can see below, but we visited only the dinorsaurs and mammals sections.

The dinosaur section was so crowded with people, we could hardly walk - and all because everyone wanted to see the T-Rex. I've got a video of the moving T-Rex, which I'll upload shortly.

Dominic enjoyed himself although we was a bit nervous at first. The animal displays looked real and they were life-size. We explained to Dominic that those animals were not real as he was afraid of them. Strangely enough, he wasn't afraid of the same animal that was displayed behind a glass window. I never realized that elephants evolved much the same way humans evolved from Neanderthals.

At the end of the dinosaur exhibition, Dominic was already making dinosaur sounds. Since he loved them so much, we bought him a bucket of toy dinosaurs, much to his delight.

Apotosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops ... do you know your dinosaurs?

# posted by Skye @ 1:12 pm 0 comments

11-MAR-2008:

Yesterday's weather was fantastic. Not in a good way though. It was raining when I went to work in the morning and still raining when I got home. The wind was so strong that I now need a new umbrella. Dominic's scarf was blown away into a puddle on the way to the nursery in the morning and he was still talking about the "strong wind" and his "scarf!" when I picked him up in the evening. In fact, he was STILL talking about his scarf this morning. He had invented a sound for the strong wind, which sounded like "jooo-jooo-jooo-jooo-jooo", which he made everytime anybody mentioned the word "wind".

# posted by Skye @ 12:31 pm 0 comments

10-MAR-2008:

Since EVERYONE is talking about the election, I have to blog about it too. ;-)

DAP's Fong Po Kuan said in her "ceramah" in SS2 (or something to that effect) - "When I was a child, my mother told me that I am a Chinese, they are Malays and they are Indians. When I grew up and applied for a place in the local University, I found out that I am not only a Chinese. I am also a non-Bumiputera. When I ventured into business, I found out that I am not only a Chinese and a non-Bumiputera. I am also a non-Muslim. Why? After 50 years of independence, why are we still so segregated? Do you get 7% discount when you buy a house? Why not?"

This is one of the many speeches that you will never watch on national TV or read in the newspapers, but thanks to the Internet it is there for all to see. In fact, they are saying that Bloggers play a large part in the outcome of the recent general election.

When I heard the speech above, I thought "how true ...". And then I realized that I am not only a Chinese, a non-Bumiputera and a non-Muslim. I am also a pengkhianat. I have never voted before in the general election. Ten years ago, I was only 20 and too young to vote, but I registered as a voter anyway. Five years ago, I was 25 and had already moved out of my family home. It wasn't an excuse, I just didn't bother enough to drive back to my hometown to cast my vote. This year, needless to say, I've wasted my vote again.

Many consider the outcome of this election a victory - Chinese friends mainly. Some are impartial, but agree that it is a good change anyway. It is a gamble but at least there is a chance of succeeding. As our ex-PM Dr. Mahathir has put it - the people are voting against BN, they are not supporting the opposition. They have no choice. Some are fearful of the tension that it may cause. Fearful of the chaos. Some are accusing Mahathir of having a big hand in this election - in getting his supporters to throw out Badawi and bring in Najib - a sinister plot in reasserting his influence. Well, who knows what the truth is?

It will be an interesting term with a lot more arguments in the Parliament. It depends on whether you see argument as a good thing. At least it will be more democratic - I think.

Looks like Badawi will continue to be PM despite Mahathir hinting a thousand times for him to take 100% responsibility.

# posted by Skye @ 8:24 am 0 comments

8-MAR-2008:

For 3 weeks now, Dominic has been helping mummy prepare dinner on a daily basis. He pulls a chair to the kitchen counter and stands alongside mummy. His role at first included transfering raw ingredients from their packaging into plates. Then it progressed to transfering raw ingredients from the chopping board to the plates - after mummy had chopped them up. He now knows the names of various ingredients - garlic, onions, spring onions, ginger. Well, these are the standard ingredients that I often use. Things like tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes - he already knew before. If he was transfering large pieces of food, such as cucumber slices, he would count them as he moved each slice to the plate and line them up nicely - although his counting may not necessarily be accurate. Mummy taught him to separate the ingredients in the plate, e.g. divide the plate into 3 sections, one section for the ginger, one for the garlic and one for the spring onions, and DO NOT mix them up. He understood and would go "oops" when one piece of the spring onions fell into the ginger "section".

Dominic's role also includes plucking vegetables from their stems or - what do you call it - bouquet? The pieces of vegetables often turned out torn and ugly and too small but it was okay since it was only us who would be eating them.

When Dominic was having a running nose a couple of weeks ago, he would "handle" the food, and then rub his nose with the back of his hand and then touch the food again - argghhh! It actually took longer to prepare dinner.

When I was sure that Dominic was really capable of following instructions, I let him handle more complicated tasks, one of which was beating the eggs. He spilled the eggs once and got an earful from me and ever since then he had been extra careful. The cutest thing was when he accidentally dripped a tiny drop of egg mixture onto the counter he quickly pushed the bowl to cover the evidence.

Dominic has also helped mummy with frying, i.e. dipping the meat into the eggs and then into the breadcrumbs. It was plenty messy and mummy had to "re-do" every piece, but he had fun.

Recently, he developed the habit of asking me let him "try" the food while it was still cooking in the pan. Sigh ... he saw me tasting the food and he wanted to do the same. It's okay if he just wanted to "try", but once he liked the food he asked to "try" it again and again. I said "You've already tried it" but he insisted to "try again".

# posted by Skye @ 5:30 pm 0 comments

7-MAR-2008:

Recently, Dominic had taken a liking to garlic. He simply loves it ... just like mummy. :-) He would ask to "try" the raw garlic when we were preparing dinner together. It's such a wonderful thing to happen because now he has become much less picky with food. As long as there's garlic in it and as long as he sees the garlic in it, he'll eat it happily. This is great because I tend to use garlic in almost every dish.

He loves garlic but he can't say garlic properly - "garyik" - he still can't pronounced the 'L'. :p

Two things I'm happy about today:

1. I'm happy that Dominic has been very well-behaved during this week.
2. I'm happy that the sun is shining so brightly outside my window.

# posted by Skye @ 8:39 am 0 comments

6-MAR-2008:

Dominic's nursery does a show-and-tell every week and children are required to bring in a toy with a particular attribute - for example, a red toy, or a square toy - depending on the subject of the day. I doubt that Dominic is capable of showing an object and describing it but I guess when he sees other older children doing it, he might be able to imitate to a certain degree.

Although Dominic's collection of toys is quite massive, it was really nothing compared to Noah's. Therefore, I sometimes find it quite a challenge selecting a toy for his show-and-tell session. The show-and-tell criteria is pretty straight-forward so if you do not have a toy that fits the criteria, you can't help thinking that your toy collection is not complete. :-)

If you do not have a toy that features the heart shape, your collection is not complete.

If none of your toys features purple (which means a majority area of the toy has to be purple, not just a small patch), then your collection needs to be "updated".

If you don't have a toy that has the number "1" on it, you need to add that to your collection.

Well, I'm thinking some kids don't even bother to bring in their show-and-tell item but Dominic always does ... until such time when mummy isn't able to find a toy in Dominic's collection that matches the show-and-tell criteria.

# posted by Skye @ 11:10 am 0 comments

5-MAR-2008:

Yesterday, I received a TV and a HD box at work, which means I can now watch TV at work ... at my desk ... my own personal TV. Too bad I can't turn the volume up ... that will be going to far, but at least I can turn on the subtitles. Hahaha!

This project that I'm working on is really quite enjoyable. We have a Programme Manager here who reminds me of Michael J. Fox - small built, cute face with a little grey hair at the side burn. Somehow, I find that last part rather attractive. ;-) I have extended my tenure here until mid April, after which I MIGHT have the choice to stay or move on to another project - one which will probably be better for my career development but will require more of my presence. If I take up the new project, I might not be able to work from home anymore. I asked daddy the question yesterday - career advancement or continue to enjoy life? Daddy told me to go for the easy path, without even thinking twice.

Between family and work, I'd say that family is definitely more important. But being me, how can I resist an interesting role? Despite being the adventurous always-looking-for-more-work-and-challenge me, I have always landed in easy roles with too much time to spare in the office. It wasn't as if I shun away from responsibilities. I was literally shouting "Give me more work!", but I always ended up with ample time to blog. :-D I always tell daddy "It doesn't matter in which country you're working in, it's just your fate.". ;-)

# posted by Skye @ 8:50 am 0 comments

4-MAR-2008:

Last Sunday (2nd of March) was Mother's Day - in the UK, at least. When daddy called his mum on the phone, he found out that it wasn't Mother's Day in Malaysia.

Anyway, this Mother's Day, I didn't get any gifts or special treatment. In fact, I had to prepare three meals a day on Sunday, but it was the best Mother's Day I've ever had. Why? Here's why.

Firstly, Dominic's behaviour was excellento! He was soooo good over the weekend, as if he knew that he was supposed to treat mummy good. :-) In the morning, he woke up, had his milk, did his poo, brushed his teeth and got changed as usual. Then, he finished his breakfast, whereas normally he would half play half eat his breakfast.

And then we set off to visit daddy's colleague in St. Neots, which was like 30 minutes by Tube to King's Cross and then 1 hour by train to St. Neots (not including the time spent waiting for the train). Dominic didn't so much as utter an "eehh" all throughout the journey. He had ham and cheese baguette on the train. While usually, he would eat just the ham and cheese, today he ate the baguette as well - exactly like how a sandwich should be eaten, i.e. no taking apart the ingredients.

When we got to Dennis' (daddy's colleague) place ... boy, for the first time he didn't cling tightly to daddy or mummy. It was a surprise that Dennis' son Noah, who is the same age as Dominic was more timid than Dominic was at first.

And so Dominic spent the day playing with Noah's toys (cried a bit when Noah tried to reclaim his toys). He was simply wonderful during lunch - such a good boy. He was so good throughout the day, both Saturday and Sunday. He went to sleep when he was tired, played on his own when he was awake and ate his food without fuss. I wished that every day is Mother's Day so that Dominic can be this good everyday. But alas ... when Monday came, he was back to normal - not too bad but whiny and clingy.

Finally, I'm happy that Dominic made me this wonderful Mother's Day card. :-)

There was a tiny drawing stuffed in the pocket of the card. Behind the drawing, it says this.

And in front, the picture is just a scribble, but at least I know it was really drawn by Dominic.

And inside, it says this.

And behind the card, it says this.

# posted by Skye @ 10:43 am 0 comments

3-MAR-2008:

One evening, during bath:
Dominic looked up my nose and said "Dirty, dirty ... eeeee .... yucks!", complete with facial expression and hand gesture. I said "Where?". He said "Dirty ... nose ... yucks." I was ... speechless .

Early one morning, weekend:
Dominic just woke up, was still in bed and rubbing his eyes. He couldn't quite open his eyes fully yet, but the first words that came out of him was "Thomas train!".

Weekend, at the bus stop, watching cars go by:
Me (asking daddy): How many people do you know here in London who own two cars - one each for husband and wife?

Daddy (shaking his head): None that I know of.

Me: You see? In Malaysia, everybody we know has two cars. It will be unusual for husband and wife to share one car. So isn't life better in M'sia? (Trying to convince daddy to move back, buy a nice, big house, nice cars and possibly hire a maid).

Weekend, planning for something to do:
Daddy said we were going to visit his friend (the friend who moved from London to some small town near Cambridge). His friend had just moved into a 3-bedroom house with his wife and son. According to the friend, the house is nice and spacious with a garden and costs only £750 per month (we are paying £1200 per month for a 2-bedroom flat).

So we took a train on Saturday morning. I was expecting a big house with a big garden, like the ones you see at the country side. As it turned out, the house was double-storey. The ground floor had just enough space for a small kitchen and a 4-seater dining table. The first floor had 3 rooms, yes - the largest room was converted into a spacious living room (this was the best part of the house). Then there was the master bedroom which was pretty basic but nicely furnished. Finally, the baby's room, which was half the size of Dominic's room. Well, I guess in London (or around the perimeter), if you can get something like that for £750, it would be considered a huge bonus. Again ... Malaysia is still loads better in that sense.

Tuitions classes:
When I was a kid, I couldn't count how many tuition classes I attended. There was English tuition twice a week and then there was the "regular" tuition for all other subjects 3 times a week. And then there was piano classes once a week. And art classes once a week. There wasn't one day that I didn't have to attend any classes. And then when I was in secondary school, there were tuition classes for the normal Malaysian syllabus and there were also tuition classes for the S'pore O'Levels (because I was preparing for the ASEAN scholarship). I was awarded the scholarship in the end but turned it down because of some family issues. Boy, that was a terrible year!

Anyway, I've yet to meet a parent here who sends his/her kids to tuition classes or piano classes, etc. Again, what does this show? I'm not sure if all those classes that I attended were any good for my childhood (it wasn't very fun, for sure) but I believe it was a privilege.

At the end of it all, I realized that my "perfect" academic results didn't get me very further ahead than my other classmates. I realized that it is important to obtain good grades which will give you a good start but it's not necessary to be the best or to get 100% marks in every paper. Having a rich dad who can fund your tertiary education is more important than having straight A's.

# posted by Skye @ 4:26 am 0 comments