New Kid On The Blog

31-OCT-2008:

Yesterday was Parents' Day at Dominic's nursery which means parents are invited to talk about their child's progress, development plan and concerns with the key worker. From the session, I found out:

That Dominic has two best friends - Eugene (the other Chinese boy) and Rebecca (who is sort of a tomboy, from the way the teacher described her)
His likes and dislikes, his favourite toys, songs, activities, books, etc.

Well, that was the summary. I was given 15 pages of scenario-based report on his behaviour and activities for the past 4 months. Daddy commented that it looked like his performance report at work. On each page of the report, there was:

The date of the observation
A couple of photos of the incident
A detailed description of the incident. One example would be: Dominic was walking past Rebecca who was in a box. Dominic asked "Rebecca can I come in the box?". Rebecca said "Yes, Dominic come in". They took turns to play in the box. Dominic said "I am going to get helmet". Rebecca said "Can I have one too?" He said "Yes". Dominic walked to the helmets basket and got two helmets and gave one to Rebecca.
A list of development points linked to this scenario, for example: Forms friendship, shows affection for others, problem solving and innumeracy - able to get two helmets, one for himself and one for Rebecca.
Next steps and development plan, i.e. how the adult can encourage further developments in the specified areas.

I think it was a pretty thorough report considering Dominic has been there for only 4 months.

The teacher then asked if there is anything that I would like her to focus on, such as how about training Dominic out of nappies during the night as well? I said it is still too early since Dominic is not even 3 yet. The teacher insisted that it is possible since Dominic has not wet the bed even once during his afternoon naps and she thinks he's ready, but I said no, I AM not ready. :p

Instead, I wrote her a list of 9 things that I would like Dominic to learn or improve on, such as how about doing more jigsaw puzzles for a start? - Haha ... just an example, but it was one of the things in my list. The teacher said that Dominic is a smart boy and he learns very quickly, but I wonder if she says the same about every kid. However, she kept saying it with such earnesty like she really meant it. I guess we'll see how soon he can achieve my list of 9 things. :-)

Today is Halloween's and I can't see if Dominic is wearing his costume because the web cam does not respond. :-(

# posted by Skye @ 10:00 am 0 comments

30-OCT-2008:

A couple of days ago, I finished reading my first ever Maeve Binchy book. To be honest, it took me quite some effort to get through the first couple of chapters before I even find the desire to finish the entire book. To say the least, it put me to sleep everytime I held the book. But once I got past the 3rd chapter or so, it got easier - it was like when you drive a car, you can feel the car move swiftly without much effort once you hit the 5th gear.

So ... what's the title of the book again? Oh ... it was "Nights of Rain and Stars". So generic and common it is that I had to refer back to the book to even remember the title - as with the story itself. The story line was so ordinary that it was even realistic - it could actually be a true story, if you know what I mean.

It was about 4 people from 4 different countries who went to Greece for a holiday and they became friends and they each had family or relationship problems - that was why they "ran away" from home. They became friends and they consulted each other about the problems and in then end each one realized "the right thing to do" and it was a very happy ending. The end. And that took 327 pages. Haha!

The author wrote conversations of people speaking in Greek and German (in English) and I think they sounded just like a German or Greek (or Polish for that matter) would speak English. No grammatical errors or misspronunciation but just the way they were expressed.

Conclusion? I will not be paying Maeve Binchy another visit in the near future, unless I have no choice. :-D

# posted by Skye @ 8:38 am 0 comments

29-OCT-2008:

When I left the office yesterday, the sky was already dark and it felt like 9pm by the time Dominic and I got home. I can't read in the bus on the way home anymore because there isn't enough light. The same time last year, I loaded my iPod with audio books instead.

The temperature has dipped so low since last week that we're now all in our winter clothes. I thought 15 degrees was cold but it is now only 8 degrees ... 4 or 5 degrees in the morning. I think it even snowed a bit last night. Living here means being cold the whole year round, even during the summer, and I'm liking it less and less.

We got Dominic a big boy bed from Ikea over the weekend and he's sleeping well in it. He watched Daddy assemble the bed and he said "Daddy do the best job ever!" And here, mummy cared for him morning and night and he didn't think I've done the best job. Not ever. (A bit hurt)

In the morning following the first night he slept in the bed, I heard him coughing and the sound came from right outside our bedroom door - too loud to sound like it came from the room next door. I got out and found Dominic lying on the floor outside our door, and God knows how long he has been there. He said he fell off the bed. The 2nd, 3rd night and etc were uneventful.

At work, there is a new project and I've been fairly busy. Occassionally, I check on Dominic via the webcam. At this very moment, he is watching the teacher craft out a pumpkin lantern for Halloween. He will be going trick or treating with his friends on Friday and Daddy has got him a vampire cloak, devil ears and monster mask. I doubt very much that he will put on any of those. Let's see how it goes on Friday.

I think it is good that Dominic is exposed to both English and Chinese culture. Although we don't do any Chinese celebrations here ourselves but his nursery celebrated Chinese New Year and Deepavali (they call it Diwali here). On Diwali recently, they wore Indian costumes, did Indian dancing and the nursery served Indian food. They even made tea-light holders - after all it is the festival of light. The one below was made by Dominic and I identified it straight away because it was the ugliest one. Haha!

Dominic has finally dumped the bottle. He is now drinking milk only from a cup (or his bottle without the teat and is used like a cup). Now that he has done it, I'm thinking why get rid of the bottle? It only gives me more work because now I have to keep nagging him to drink his milk and sometimes thrust the cup to his mouth, otherwise it really takes forever! He is still asking for his "nan-nan bottle" occassionally, which I told him I've thrown it away, but he's asking for it less now. I'm sure it's just a matter of time he forgets that he even had a "nan-nan bottle".

# posted by Skye @ 7:27 am 0 comments

22-OCT-2008:

Dominic's nursery is equipped with 3 web cams and parents are able to see their children via the website on the Internet. It's great isn't it? Unfortunately, the cameras weren't working when Dominic first started at the nursery 4 months ago. I don't know when it was fixed since I haven't tried logging in since that first time, but today when I tried again, it worked!

I could see my little boy - first doing some artwork, and then he crawled under the table. Then he gave Eugene a big hug! And now, all the children are gathered - probably for story telling or singing. I'm not sure if there is audio as well but I'm not about to turn up the volume in the office. :-)

The rendering of images is a bit slow. Dom moves so quickly that I keep losing him. Sometimes he goes into another room and I have to switch camera.

Later, I can see what he's having for lunch (although the menu is displayed on a board daily). Unfortunately, I won't be able to see when he goes into the garden since there isn't a camera there. Well, now you know what I'll be doing whenever I'm too free at work. :-)

# posted by Skye @ 6:54 am 0 comments

22-OCT-2008:

Apprently, Kuala Lumpur City Hall has nothing better to do too.

The Star: By Yip Yoke Teng

KUALA LUMPUR: Jalan Alor on Yahoo! returns more than 900,000 results. It is that famous.

Yet, Kuala Lumpur City Hall is adamant that changing the name to Jalan Kejora - a move that has sparked a public outcry - is the right thing to do.

Datuk Bandar Datuk Ab Hakim Borhan said the move, which was planned three years ago, would give the tourist destination of Bukit Bintang a new image.

# posted by Skye @ 6:45 am 0 comments

20-OCT-2008:

Seriously, I've been sitting here whole morning pretending to work but the truth is I have absolutely nothing to do. The project is coming to the end of the end and here I am waiting for the next project to kick off while I close up gaps here and there, which is totally boring. I have a bunch of documents to read - background information for the new project - which I really should read but they just totally put me to sleep. Yawnnn ...

Anyway, what have I been up to the whole morning? First, I did a little bit of online banking and then I checked my emails, and gave my brains some exercise through the Multiply debates (hehe!). Then I did some research on toddler beds and short-listed a couple for Dom, chatted with a few friends, and oh ... I also designed the template for my cool "digital recipe book" - Hehe! - you'll get to see this when it's finished. The recipe book I mean. The tempate is done, all I need to do now is type in my recipes and stick photos of my dishes in there.

Today, I also went online to look at the official Twilight movie trailer - what a disappointment, I spotted more variations from the book, they might as well modify the whole story. I took my own sweet time at lunch and then did some grocery shopping at Tesco, and now it's only 2:30pm!

By the way, Daddy recently gave me this cool sophisticated mobile phone - it's his company phone but for some reason he doesn't want to do it. It's been sitting at home doing nothing for a few days and Daddy has been begging me to take it, but I said I don't have anyone to call, which is totally true. I hardly use my phone and when it does ring it's usually bad news from the nursery, so I'd rather it not ring at all. So anyway, it's my phone now. It runs on Windows and has all the Microsoft Office applications. 2 Mega pix camera and it's wi-fi enabled and stuffs like that. So far, I've only used it as my alarm clock and I've made one trial call to Daddy's phone to prove that it's working. Honestly, I don't get why some people would need all those stuffs on their phone - as if they're going to do their Excel spreadsheets on a palm-sized phone.

# posted by Skye @ 9:54 am 0 comments

16-OCT-2008:

I asked for some reading materials suggestions some time back and someone recommended Sophie Kinsella - thank you. I picked up a couple of her books and honestly, I liked it. :-) I've picked up the other recommendations too - Mauve Binchy, Jeffrey Deaver, Steve Berry, etc - all lying at home waiting to be read.

Okay, back to Sophie Kinsella - I've read two of her books now - The Undomestic Goddess and one from her Shopaholic series. I have to say there isn't anything special or spectacular about both. The plot is simple and totally predictable. Saimun took all the fun out of reading by accurately predicting all the outcomes. The writing is simplistic and there isn't any rhetorical words that I don't understand, although I can't help noticing that she writes in the present tense (in both the books), which is a bit unusual. Although both the books are about very different personality, the author uses the same style of narrating and she keeps using the same words which makes me think that her vocabulary is actually quite limited.

Although I may make it sound like a boring book but I totally enjoyed it. I liked it because it was like watching a comedy on TV and I love comedies. I liked it because it was easy reading and very relaxing. Both the books didn't make me cry or laugh or dream or my heart beat faster - they were simply enjoyable and nothing more than that.

I will continue reading Sophie Kinsella until I find something better. :-)

# posted by Skye @ 8:14 am 0 comments

Sky HD box now available for employees' friends and family for only £49 (original price £149). Let me know if you're interested. With the HD box, you get 160GB of hard disk space for your recordings, more channels in high definition and a more funky looking box that will go well with your sophisticated LCD TV and home theatre system.

There are of course more advantages like an Ethernet port at the back of the box which will enable you to download on-demand movies (WHEN Sky eventually launches the service) and other hi-tech ports that connect to your speakers and what nots.

So, let me know. Offer ends 31st October 2008.

# posted by Skye @ 8:40 am 0 comments

14-OCT-2008:

Satay House is a Malaysian restaurant somewhere near Paddington in London. We went there for dinner with some friends last Saturday and I was reaaaallly looking forward to some good old Malay food - especially satay.

When we got there, friends (Ellen & family) were already there - I could see them through the glass window but the door was locked. There was a Malay waitress bustling about and I was pretty sure she saw me trying to get in but she seemed busy and there were only 2 occupied tables in there! Besides, there were people already standing outside the door trying to get in before we arrived. Finally, she walked forward and gestured to me to come in. I tried telling her that the door was locked but she didn't seem to understand. She was like only 1 1/2 steps away from the door - even if the door wasn't locked, it would have been reasonable to just open the damn door and welcome us in. Duh! It was just typical "true" Malaysian service, "true" as in excluding the "pendatangs".

So, we took our seats and ordered our food. I asked for a soya bean drink without ice. I said without ice not because I wanted more soya bean but because I really didn't want to drink anything cold (and not hot either) and I've just barely recovered from a heavy bleeding condition, for God's sake, if you know what I mean, but you know what, the glass came only 3/4 filled, because apparently if you do not want ice, they're not going to top up the extra space with more drink. I was rather gobsmacked but didn't say anything. Honestly, how much can 50ml of soya bean cost?

Despite everything else, the food was however delicious. We had rendang beef, chicken satay, sambal sotong, roti canai, mee goreng and fish curry (which I didn't notice until the dish was gone - I was quite busy picking vegetables out of Dom's mee goreng). And we had a good time catching up as well.

The verdict? Food was good, as I've mentioned. The bill came up to £87 for 5 adults and a 3-year-old - pretty expensive if you ask me - and we didn't even stuff ourselves. We pay about the same price whenever we eat out but the portion would normally be huge - not a half-filled glass of soya bean or things like that. Ellen told the waitress to keep the change. I would have taken every penny back, honestly, but I guess Ellen was in a hurry to catch the train and God knows how long it would take for the change to come back.

# posted by Skye @ 8:08 am 0 comments

SATURDAY, 21-SEP-2008:

My period was due yesterday and suddenly, I felt pregnant – frequent urination, a heavy feeling in the lower abdomen, tender breasts and most of all back pain. I told Saimun that I think I was pregnant. I had a HPT at home but I didn’t want to find out yet.

SUNDAY, 22-SEP-2008:

On Sunday, I finally took the HPT and it was positive.

According to my own calculation, my EDD is on the 29th of May 2009. I am now 4 weeks pregnant (gestational) and my current weight is 45kg.

I wanted to save this diary for myself only but with the wrong click of a button, the news leaked to at least two people.

TUESDAY, 7-OCT-2008:

This afternoon, I suddenly started spotting pink discharge. It was like my worst nightmare had started all over again. It was extremely worrying. I spoke to the doctor on the phone and will be seeing her tomorrow morning. By late evening, the discharge had turned to bleeding – like I’m having my period. There was no doubt that I’m on way to another miscarriage. I didn’t rush myself to A&E this time. I just waited for it to be over.

BADLY NEEDED SOMEONE TO TALK TO:

While feeling hopeless, I couldn’t stop worrying because I was also feeling hopeful. I wanted to talk to a friend (besides my husband) about it and thought about how nice it would be to have friends like Carrie in Sex & the City. There were several ‘candidates’ in my list – (1) Someone whom I’ve known since primary school, who sat next to me in class, who used to be my neighbour when I was in KL and someone who I used to hang out with the most. Used to. (2) Someone whom I’ve known since secondary school and whom I’ve been cyber-chatting with on a daily basis. She was just a click of a button away. (3) Someone who I met in Uni, we were never too “emotionally attached” but she is reliable and genuinely caring. (4) A few other primary ex-classmates I’ve been having “discussions” with regularly over the Internet. In the end, I chose the reliable and caring one. Thanks, SH. You were the one who called me all the way from the US to check if I’ve given birth to Dom. And you were the only one who called me (from anywhere in the world) the first time I miscarried. Just wanna let you know I appreciate that.

FRIDAY, 10-OCT-2008:

It was over. Saimun and I had been staying home since Wednesday and it was the best couple time we’ve had in a long time, with Dominic out of the way at the nursery. Today, I asked Saimun who his best friend is and if he was in my situation, who would be his buddy? He said he had none. He used to have a best friend but they probably talk to each other only once a year now.

MONDAY, 13-OCT-2008:

I wonder if I’ll ever give up trying.

# posted by Skye @ 8:19 am 7 comments

5-Oct-2008:

You know you need to do something when your husband has been nagging you about getting a haircut! So after weeks of procastination, that's what I did. But first, I went to the virtual hair makeover site introduced by Irene quite some time ago and the results are as follows. While it was fun and entertaining, most of the celebrity hair styles are not practical at all, and I reckon one will need to blow/style every morning to get that effect.

* Click on image to enlarge*

So anyway, I went to a Japanese hairdresser and ended up looking like this now:

# posted by Skye @ 11:19 am 0 comments