New Kid On The Blog

31-AUG-2008:

It didn't occur to me that today is Merdeka day, until I read my aunt's blog (that's Cattypants' mum). So much for patriotism on my part. In 2007, I wasn't around on this day either. Neither was I around in 2006. I was around in 2005 but can't remember anything significant about that day - except perhaps I didn't have to work. :-) Something interesting that my aunt wrote - "Instead of improving the situation since the 1950s, the children of Malaysia are more concious of their race than before. Because if you are not a Malay (or a Bumi) you will be treated differently (acceptance into local U or into civil services or promotions in civil service). It is not something that people are not aware of. Don't you find that disgusting? We are actually OPENLY discriminated and we accepted that. I actually didn't feel it until I came to live in a country that treats me as an equal.

My aunt also put up photos of her neighbourhood. To get to the road where her house is, there are guards at each side of the road and two barriers at each guard post. This means that if you are to drive through, you need the guard to open a manual barrier and then use your remote control to open the second one. And then when you get to your house, you use another remote control to open your gate. And then you use your key to open the grill (which I assume every house has), and another key to open the main door? Does that tickle you? But I completely believe that it's necessary. Oh, oh ... I forgot. You need to turn of the alarm once you're in the house too!

# posted by Skye @ 12:44 pm 1 comments

28-AUG-2008:

Two nights ago I was reading to Dominic.

Duck and friends are on their way to the park to the play.

I'll bat first, says Duck. I'm so excited I could burst.

Dominic: What's burst?

Me: Burst. When the baloon gets too big, it pops.

Dominic: (Looks intently at my face. Quiet.)

Me: And it bursts. (I make a "burst" gesture with my hands)

Dominic: (Still no reaction from him. He looks like he's trying to think.)

Me: Never mind. (And return my attention to the book)

Dominic: Where's the baloon?

Me: No, there's no baloon in this book. Duck is saying he's so excited he feels like he could burst.

Dominic: (Keeps quiet)

Me: (Turn to the next page and continue reading)

Dominic: Duck no burst? (pointing at Duck)

At this point, I was both amused and a little impatient. It was a good thing he didn't press the "issue" further.

# posted by Skye @ 8:31 am 0 comments

28-AUG-2008:

Amsterdam is called Amsterdam because it really is a dam on the river Amstel. We boarded a cruise ship from Harwich International on Friday and spent a night on board the Stena Hollandica. We arrived at the Hook of Holland at 7:30am on Saturday and from there we had to take a train to Amsterdam.

Dominic and mummy slept on the double bed while daddy slept on the opposite side.

After about 15 minutes in the country we realized that the credit card is not a very popular or useful thing in Netherlands. Daddy spent about 10 minutes at the ticket machine which rejected both his credit and debit cards and there was not a single person around to help. What's worse, the machine accepts coins only and our tickets cost EUR29.xx. Fortunately, thanks to Maestro I was able to purchase the tickets using my debit card. Later when we tried to get breakfast, we noticed the "We do not accept credit cards" signs in restaurants and supermarkets. We were in danger of running out of cash but fortunately the more fancy restaurants in the city centre do accept credit cards. For contingency purposes, I withdrew some cash from "The World's Local Bank". You see, daddy wasn't able to do it with his Citibank because it's not the world's local bank. :-D

We walked around the city. We went for a boat ride on the canals - the kind which was powered by our legs. Extremely good exercise.

Amsterdam is famous for its museums but this time, we didn't visit any museums or art galleries at all. Firstly, we're not big fans of history. I personally have no interest at all in history. Secondly, we had to take into account Dominic's interest as well. So, with nothing much to do in Amsterdam, we decided to indulge in food! :-D

Fast food and snacks that you can buy from a vending machine:

One of the days, we had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. We ordered only starters because we thought we were not that hungry, but you know HRC is famous for its large portion - even for appetizers. The restaurant overlooks a canal - it was simply fabulous.

Who would have thought that Amsterdam is famous for Indonesian cuisine? It didn't even occur to me that Netherlands = Belanda = the country that "menjajah-ed" us (and Indonesia) during the 1510s. I suppose that was the reason for the Indonesian influence in Amsterdam. The Indonesian dinner we had was simply delicious. The flavour was a bit mild - suited for the ang moh's - but we were served extra sambal chilli by request. The man who served us was an Indonesian whose daughter is married to a Swedish.

We ordered room service one night and the food was "hotel standard", which translates to "not good".

When you are in Holland, you have to see at least one Windmill. As it turned out, it wasn't easy to find one in Amsterdam itself but you probably have to travel outside of Amsterdam. It was by luck that we saw this in a magazine and we tracked it down. It wasn't even listed in our travel guide book.

We took a tour inside the windmill and learnt the history and mechanics behind it. During the old days, windmills were used to pump water from one side of the dike to the other when the water level got too low or too high. Other than that, windmills were also used for logging - cutting timber - or any other uses you can think of that can make use of the wind energy. Today, they are used to generate electricity. (See photo album later for more information).

The Anne Frank House is another famous attraction but goodness me, the queue was soooo long - so we didn't get in. Besides, there are stairs and stuffs which are not buggy friendly - my excuse. I wish I could've gone in there to look at the little apartment hidden behind the bookcase. Instead we went shopping at the floating market.

What else is unique about Amsterdam? I would say the bicycles. Nicely pathed bicycle lanes are everywhere and it will be very safe and easy to cycle around the city - if you don't have a phobia for bicycles like me.

What else? Oh yeah ... sex toys are easily available and openly displayed in the windows. I would like to get a vibrator but was too embarrassed to do so. I told daddy that he should go in and get one for me but his response was "I'm not the one who's going to use it". Never mind - if I really want one, I can always order it from the Internet. :-)

We boarded the ship early on Monday evening and spent some time relaxing on board the Stena Britanica. Dominic said he had fun but both daddy and mummy think that going for a holiday is extremely tiring.

# posted by Skye @ 4:31 am 0 comments

20-AUG-2008:

Sigh ... it is one of those days again where I have very little to do at the office and I'm pulling my hair out trying to think of things to occupy myself with. It's hard to think properly these days since I've probably been using only 3% of my brain power since I started working here. Heh! My brains will actually hurt now if I have a complicated use case issue. How horrible is that?

Contrary to my boring life, I think Dominic has been having a great time at the nursery. There had a pyjama party on Monday and I'm sure he had a lot of fun. I packed him his Thomas & Friends pyjamas and Barney slippers and I've not seen that pair of slippers since. I hope it is still somewhere in the nursery.

Yesterday, the nursery manager told me that Dominic is very popular with all the female teachers. Not that there are any male teachers but what she meant was Dominic is so chatty and so extremely cute that he often gets a lot of attention from the ladies. That's my boy. Haha! I could see that myself. When I dropped him off in the morning, he was often scooped up by somebody for a huge hug - doesn't happen to every kid there. :-D

Ever since he picked up the new skill recently (i.e. singing), he has been really noisy at home. I would catch him talking to himself and asking himself questions too. Such has when he was singing the following in the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Start": Mo-nash, Mo-nash, na-na-na. Pi-kush, Pa-kash, ba-ba-ba. And then he stopped and asked "What is Mo-nash? What is Pi-kush?". I find it hilarious everytime he does this and he keeps on inventing new lyrics for the songs. However, he never actually sang the original songs completely. Perhaps he has problems memorizing the lyrics.

At the nursery, I can see that Dominic has turned sociable compared to the loner he used to be. He actually has "friends" now - friends that he addresses by name. Friends that he actually play with - not just play alongside each other. YL was asking me if Dominic tells tales of his friends. The answer was no before but I think he is now starting too. He is now telling me that "Eugene play the pencil" or "Kemi throw Thomas (the train, not the person)".

Overall, Dominic has been a good boy - no fuss at dinner, goes to bed on his own on time and obedient too (although we had to repeat every instruction several times). Alright, alright ... so today is brag-about-Dominic day. :-)

# posted by Skye @ 9:34 am 0 comments

20-AUG-2008:

The good news is daddy got promoted today! Congratulations, daddy. Looks like Dominic (and mummy) will be getting a treat this weekend. :-)

The bad news is he has to fly off to Chicago again next month.

The good news is we could go to Chicago together.

The bad news is we're not flying to Chicago together because Dominic hasn't got a U.S. visa and it's too late to get one for him because we need his passport for our Amsterdam trip this weekend.

The good news is we're sailing to Amsterdam this Friday.

The bad news is ... well, actually I can't think of any more bad news at the moment, except maybe some things that I'd rather not mention.

# posted by Skye @ 7:55 am 0 comments

18-AUG-2008:

My piu zheh Catty said today that she know now what she wants to be when she grows up (now that she has grown up) and it got me thinking about what exactly I want to do if I really do have a choice. I'm not particularly thrilled with what I do now and I definitely don't excel in what I do either? I could be doing something more, but why do I even think that I don't have a choice? I think the bigger issue is that I don't know what I want to do ... what my passion is. I've thought about being an artist - you know maybe an interior designer or something, but an elephant might be more creative than me. I've dreamt of running an online business but I'm too comfortable with my boring day job to even put any effort into it. I wished I could be a musician and play music for a living but I really sucked at my piano lessons and failed my exams twice. Really, there isn't anything that I'm talented at.

I envy people whose role are so well-defined. When you're a doctor, you know that your role is to diagnose illness and save lives. When you're an accountant, you know you need file the taxes or balance the accounts or maintain the ledgers. When you're a teacher, you know your role is to teach. But what exactly is your role if you're an IT professional. The IT world is wide beyond words and I've still not found my niche yet. I started off in Web development, and then moved on to networking and infrastructure. I then worked on billing and CRM systems, and then back to software and Web. And now, I'm dealing with set-top-boxes.

Basically, I had quite a hard time looking for a job because of this diversity. I got my first job because of my excellent academic results. My second job was through pulling strings with people I know - otherwise I don't think I even stood a chance. I have to admit I was quite good at pulling strings - since I even managed to bring my brother with me wherever I went. Heh! My third job (which is the current one) was through fabricating my CV. Well, all of what I said was true but I kinda made it sound like I specialized in that one thing that the recruiter was interested in. I imagine I will have a hard time looking for another job if I were to move back to KL.

Growing up, I prided myself for my very good academic results, but I guess that didn't get me very far. I wonder if I hadn't been pressured to focus all my attention towards academic excellence, would I excel in other areas? Would I have been a really good dancer? Or a scientist who invents stuffs? Or maybe I'm just not cut out to be outstanding.

On the other hand, Saimun passed all of his exams but he didn't exactly get straight A's. He didn't even know the words to the nursery rhymes that Dominic sings. He didn't read Enid Blyton. He hasn't heard of Punch & Judy. And yet, I don't doubt that he can find a job in any place he wants in the world, not to mention he's getting paid a lot more than me.

Oh ... and to quote something that his father once mentioned. When I was a kid, my parents fed me the most expensive milk powder with DHA, AA or whatever you name it but Saimun drank only Dumex. Haha! Come to think of it, I've never come across all those DHA/AA milk powder in the UK and I've never seen a single advertisement telling me that my kid will be more intelligent if he drinks this milk powder. Makes me wonder if all those commercials you see on Malaysian TV are actually scams.

I imagine it would be tough for both parents and kids to be studying in Malaysia or Singapore. You have to be one of the best, otherwise you'll be labelled as "stupid". I imagine kids will need to know how to spell apple, ambulance and spaghetti by the time they enter primary 1. I suppose some may say that it is "kiasu" behaviour but I think I'll be quite pressured as well if I live there, because it is expected by the society. I guess that's why my dad sent me to various tuition classes. Worse - I think he did it to "compete" with his friends and cousins. "Hey, my daughter got 5A's in the UPSR, how about your son?".

I hope I won't do that to my kids. No ... more like, I hope I DON'T HAVE TO do that to my kids.

# posted by Skye @ 8:22 am 0 comments

15-AUG-2008:

I have just finished reading this book by Stephenie Meyer, and someone finds a good book she shares it with her friends. :-)

The human world was a brutal world of deception, war, abuse and suffering. The Souls (i.e. the aliens) invaded earth with the mission to "make the world a better place". The Souls were always gentle, kind, polite and helpful. All of them. Violence, anger, irritation and cruelty were foreign to the Souls. And they could not lie, except if they were Seekers. The Seekers job was to hunt down humans so that the body could be used as hosts to the Souls. The Souls were also parasites, you see. They could not live without a host body. Soon the entire human population was wiped out and the Souls ruled the earth. Well, almost the entire population since some of them did manage to go into hiding.

The narrator is Wanderer and she was a Soul put into the body of Melanie Stryder. Melanie wasn't dead. She was still in her head. Her memories became Wanderer's. Her feelings became Wanderer's. To cut the story short, the two soon became friends and they set out to find Melanie's boyfriend (Jared) and brother (Jamie) who they believed were still human.

They found Jared and Jamie, together with 30 over other humans living hidden in a cave in Arizona. Although Melanie still looked like Melanie but her soul was not her. The humans hated her so much, particularly Jared, they hit her and kept her as a prisoner. So my question is, can you bring yourself to slap the person you love even though inside he/she is not the same person anymore. After all, that is still his/her body. Wouldn't you feel bad leaving a bleeding wound on the face of the body you love? Or does the body not have anything to do with who you love? I guess that's more than one question. :-)

So anyway, among the 30 odd humans was Ian who subsequently fell in love with Wanderer (not Melanie's body). It came the day when Wanderer had grown to love Melanie so much that she decided to separate herself from her host and give Melanie back her body. Ian was devastated. He held on to the cryotank that held Wanderer's soul (a silvery, glittery ribbon - or a worm depending on how you see it), while Melanie, Jared and Jamie went in search of another suitable body for her. Ian said he didn't care what Wanderer's body looked like, he loved her. So again, my question is, can you really love someone for who he/she is on the inside ONLY without any consideration of the physical appearance? What if Wanderer had come in an old woman's body? Would Ian still love her. He said to Wanderer "It's not your eyes, but your expressions on them. It's not your mouth but what you say with it. It's not your body but what you do with it." Touching huh? Isn't physical attraction part of the built-up of love?

The story ended with Wanderer leaving her comfortable society of kind, helpful Souls to join the brutish human community that she had become to love so much. The reason? The Souls were kind to everyone and they love everyone the same way. Without the concept of hate, how much meaning does love actually hold? The humans can hate but they can also love so much more. Their love is ... I forgot what's the word the author used ... was it selective? Individualized? I'll find out when I get home, but the point is we give our love to only selective people, which makes them so special. Which makes them feel so special. And which makes the love so intense. It is how I can never love another person's kid the way I love Dom. :-)

This book was a good read. Although it didn't touch me as much as the Twilight Saga but nevertheless I couldn't put it down.

# posted by Skye @ 9:58 am 0 comments

12-Aug-2008:

Okay, here are some baby names that I picked up randomly (or not so randomly - some of them are names that I like, some names of friends' kids and I've also thrown in a few bizarre ones as well as some very common ones, just for comparison). The two lists below show the popularity of each name, as a baby name in the US. The information is based on the US Census in 2005.

Oh yeah ... before I begin, I would like to clarify that in no way am I hinting that I'm expecting because I'm not, but I plan to be in the near future, God willing.

For Girls:

1. Isabelle - 96th most popular
2. Amber - 102nd most popular
3. Valerie - 167th most popular
4. Caitlin - 193rd most popular
5. Rose - 333rd most popular
6. Sunny - doesn't rank in top 1000. It used to rank 976th in the 1980s.
7. Caelyn - doesn't rank in top 1000 and was never within the top 1000 in the past century.
8. Apple - doesn't rank in top 1000 and was never in the past century.
9. Sunday - this doesn't exist in the name database at all.

For Boys:

1. David - 14th most popular
2. Lucas - 58th most popular
3. Kyle - 66th most popular
4. Dominic - 85th most popular
5. Jeremy - 115th most popular
6. Marcus - 117th most popular
7. Tony - 320th most popular

Interesting facts:

For the name Dominic: Popularity for this name is rising, from 258th in the 1970s to 146th in the 1990s and since 1990, the popularity has been rising steadily until it reached 85th in 2005.

For the name David: It has always been very popular, never going beyond the 30th place since 1900. Interesting.

For the name Jeremy: Since 1991, popularity of this name has been decreasing steadily from 44th until it hit 115th in 2005.

For the name Marcus: It became popular in the 1970s, jumping from 201st to 75th, and after that it has always remained in the range of 70th to 100th.

For the name Kyle: Kyle ranked 18th in 1990 but has become unpopular now.

Too bad there is no census information for Asian countries.

# posted by Skye @ 9:11 am 0 comments

11-Aug-2008:

What do you think of Sunny as a name for a baby girl? If your parents named you Sunny, would you grow up hating that name?

# posted by Skye @ 9:20 am 1 comments

8-AUG-2008:

Hey, this question sort of cropped up in my other post. If I am completely honest, I will have to answer 'no' to the question. There are certain things that I love about the country. My country. But I can't say aloud that I am a Malaysian, and be proud of it, especially when the ignorant always assume that being a Malaysian means being a Malay. I totally detest that. I guess I'm more proud to be a Chinese than to be a Malaysian. I hope I can say that I'm not being racist here. But I think I am. Everybody is a little bit racist - if you're to be honest with yourself. Of course, I have some great Malay friends but I think they are the exception rather than the norm.

Saimun and I was planning a trip to the US recently when we realized that Dominic does not have a US visa. Both Saimun and I have a 10-year multiple entry visa which will expire in 2 years time. A visit to the US Embassy website revealed that citizens from 27 countries will not require a visa when visiting the US as tourists under the Visa Waiver Programme (VWP). I did not even have to go through the list to even know that Malaysia is not one of the 27 countries. I was even more pissed off to find out that Singapore is one of them.

If I was a Singapore citizen with a Singaporean driving license, I won't even need to take a driving test here. A Singapore driving license is recognized in the UK but not a Malaysian one. I think I can understand why, since a Malaysian driving license can be bought with cash.

When I went to check out the currency exchange rate on Yahoo finance yesterday, the Malaysian currency was not even listed in the shortcut portlet, but Singapore Dollar was. Malaysian Ringgit only appears when you request for the full list.

How can I convince others that I'm proud of my country when I can't even convince myself of the reasons I should be proud of it? How can I convince a British that KLIA is just as big and nice as Changi Airport (if not better) when he insisted that Changi was the best airport he had ever seen (even though he was only there for transit) and had no intention to land on Malaysian land in the near future? How can I call it MY country when I am more discriminated in that muslim bumiputera land than I am in the UK? Apart from family and friends (and the food of course), is there anything else that I miss about Malaysia? Is there anything else worth going back for? Is Malaysia even proud to have me?

# posted by Skye @ 5:54 am 0 comments

7-Aug-2008:

The recipe is Irene's and you can find it here. I have finally decided to get myself a bottle of the all-famous "fish sauce" and try this recipe out and you know what ... I think it tastes delicious!

The recipe doesn't come with measurements - as in how much curry paste to use, how many tablespoons of fish sauce, but just use your own common sense. :-)

Alright, the photo doesn't look very nice but it tastes good. The next time I make this dish again, I will try the following modifications:

1. Instead of making them into "cakes", pat them down really flat so that they are like patties instead of cakes (which I've done this time).
2. Coat it with breadcrumbs.

Let's see how it turns out. :-)

I now have a whole bottle of fish sauce which I may only use for this one dish. So I hope Irene will post more great recipes that will make use of the fish sauce.

# posted by Skye @ 4:34 am 0 comments

5-AUG-2008:

I've had numerous people questioned me on why we chose to speak to Dominic in English at home instead of our own mother tongue, and "adviced" us to speak to him in Chinese instead. Principally, I agree with them that I should give Dominic the gift of another language besides English. Every time someone asked, my "excuse" would be the following:

Dominic was born in Malaysia where Cantonese can be picked up easily from everyday conversation with relatives, the guy selling ice-cream or even Astro WLT. When he starts school (and there is an intention to send him to a Chinese school), he will pick up Mandarin. We didn't know before hand that we were going to come to the UK. Hence, English was the right choice then, and it became a habit.

When we got the UK, we had no plans for settling down here and foresee ourselves going back to Malaysia and sending our kid to a Chinese school. So we continued speaking to him in English.

Last Friday, the question cropped up again at Dominic's nursery and I decided to give it a try - speaking to him in Mandarin, that is. Of course, he couldn't understand anything I said but if I threw in an English word here and there, he understood my meaning. He had no problem understanding "Go to your room and get your pillow" (in Mandarin with italicised words spoken in English). He understood a question that ended with "ma" even though the entire question was spoken in Mandarin. "Do you want to wee-wee ma?" Oh ... but then he has always understood the meaning of "wee-wee". So no, I take that statement back. :-D

A few times he immitated my speech and it sounded exactly like how a gwailo would speak Mandarin. It was hilarious.

Speaking in Mandarin is difficult for me as I tend to forget that I was supposed to speak in Mandarin. Sometimes I struggled to find the words, such as "tractor", "laptop" and "juice". The books are all in English and during reading time, I switch back to English fully. Other times, I just mixed Mandarin with English and I wonder if that is a good idea. A child can maybe differentiate if two person are speaking two different languages but now I'm a one person mixing both languages up - will I screw up his speech development? It has only been 3 days and I feel like giving up already.

Once or twice, he got frustrated with me and he said "Mummy, so loud. So noisy". And I wasn't even raising my voice okay - I was just repeating what I just said several times. Once I told him to put on his pants (in Mandarin) and he said "Don't want ku zi". I said "Ku zi means pants". And he replied "Don't want ku zi means pants". Me: "Sigh ... Ok ok ... put on your pants!" and he obediently did so. Sigh ...

# posted by Skye @ 8:50 am 0 comments

4-AUG-2008:

Last Saturday was the first time I ever stepped into Mango (or MNG as you might call it). Even though the chain existed for years (in Malaysia itself), I've never bought anything from MNG before. The fashion just didn't go with my ... style. Surprisingly, this weekend I actually found that I like their range of summer clothings and more surprisingly they are very much cheaper than the Zara and French Connection that I usually buy from.

When daddy just asked me if I would like to go shopping (out of the blue) while he cared for Dominic, I grabbed the opportunity even though there was really nothing I had wanted to buy. As with shopping, "window shopping" can also be a good therapy for the mind and soul, and I landed myself on Regent Street.

I think many of you would agree with me that window shopping is never much fun unless you go home with at least one item, otherwise the "therapy" fails. So therefore, I had pampered myself with a pretty dress and cardigan from no other than Mango.

However, my most priced purchase for the day was a Burberry leather purse. I'm happy that I couldn't find the same purse on the Internet! :-) I initially wanted buy a Gucci purse to match my Gucci handbag but I guess this is just as good. I am never a fashion fanatic and I only just found out that Burberry originates from England. I should get more of it while I'm still here. The service was excellent. There was actually a guy designated to just open doors for customers.

# posted by Skye @ 4:53 am 0 comments