Back To Square One!

Took my dad to University Hospital this afternoon. His appointment was at 2:00pm but that's what they tell everyone else! We reached the surgical clinics at 1:30pm and it seemed like a whole village's residents were there! By the time I wheeled my dad in (I borrowed a wheelchair since he was feeling a little giddy probably due to being anemic as a result of the tumor bleeding) it was almost 4:00pm.

The biopsy report was out. Finally! But it showed negative. According to the doctor, it could mean a few things (too long for me to write). So they now need to re-do the endoscopy! Can you believe that?! This means we have to wait for another 1-2 weeks for the 2nd biopsy report. Arghhh!

So dad got admitted and is scheduled for endoscopy tomorrow... Oh, and they made dad wait until 8pm only did he get admitted! Can't blame them I suppose... there wasn't any empty beds.

I don't know what to think anymore. My wish is for dad not to suffer so much... Am brain tired. Am exhausted. Need sleep...

To The Hospital Again

Will be bringing my dad to the hospital later this afternoon for his appointment with the surgeon. Hopefully the biopsy report will be out by then. Now that the cancer is confirmed, we need to know how serious it is so that the oncology could determine which treatment to use. Apparently the reason why the biopsy report took so long (almost 2 weeks) was because they "have to culture the cells" that they took through the endoscopy... hmmm...

It's going to be a long day...

Friendship Tag

Got this lovely friendship tag from Martini... great to have you as a friend too (^-^)

Tagging it along to Nadlique, Healthfreakmommy, Dora

Dining Buffet Cabinet

I noticed I didn't update much about baby zen recently... mainly because I was bit tied up taking care of my dad. He (my dad) is still quite weak and can only take frequent soft diet (wished the biopsy report is out real soon! sigh...) so you can imagine that most of my time will be taken up with cooking for my dad and baby zen! Nowadays, I have easy-to-cook meals for myself. Most of the times, I find myself making the next meal just as I had finished washing up the previous meal!

Anyway, baby zen's more mobile now and has been getting himself in tight spot especially around furniture. This is one of them. See his two feet dangling there... *shake head*. Don't ask me why he needs to take the more difficult way (he went under the chair) to get to the "toy"! Oh, don't worry the cable's unplugged.

Can't imagine what he'll do to the dining room buffets if we get one. He'll probably be the happiest since he's got another plaything! Oh, in case you were like me and was wondering, a dining room buffet cabinet is a sideboard. It's a cabinet where it can provide you storage space as well as doubling up as extra table top. And not a long table where you place all the buffet dishes! Hehe.. that's what I thought it was!

The reason why we wanted to get one is so that we get some extra storage space for our dishes, cutleries and glasses especially when we have guests over. Currently, we had to make frequent trips to the kitchen to get all these, which is quite a hassle. Since there's a sales going on, maybe we can get ourselves a good discount dining room buffet.

A Dog Came Visiting

Almost forgot to write about this cute visitor we had the other day. I was all ready to take baby zen out for a drive... actually to run some errands. When I opened the gate, this little doggie came running into our car porch and refused to leave! It doesn't have any collar so didn't know if anyone owns it but I never saw it after that.

Am not sure which bred it was but it has short curly fur making it looked like a little sheep and it sure was cute... and extremely active! It was so full of energy and was jumping up and down, shaking his head and wagging his tail, trying to play with us! Of course baby zen was struggling to get out of my arms to look / play with it.

In the end, I took out some biscuits (no dog food at home lah) and lured it out of our house so that I could drive out and close the door. (^-^)

Anyone knows which type of dog is this?
sorry about the blurred image, it just won't stay still long enough for me to take its picture

Trauma and Emergency

Had to send my dad back to the hospital yesterday. He wasn't feeling very well after having his lunch. I suspect it was that "small" piece of meat that he took though it had been cooked till soft. He complained that his abdomen was feeling extremely uncomfortable. Packed his stuff for re-admittance and took him to University Hospital's emergency entrance. The nurses there were very helpful.

They immediately put him on drips, took some blood for test and the doctor gave him some injections to relieve the pain and ease the discomfort. He slept for awhile and was feeling much better after that. The blood test came out and they told him that he need not be admitted since they can't start treatment until the biopsy report comes out (we were told it would take 2 weeks!). So, we came home..

the drips that my dad was given... Was walking around when my dad was resting and I saw a "real" emergency case...
The ambulance stopped at the Emergency entrance and they wheeled a teenager out. He was still in football jersey and had neck braces on and was in great pain... poor thing

Yippee! It's The Durian Season!

Note: Needed some posts to brighten up my blog... found this post sitting in my draft before the "bad luck" striked..

After not having durian for ages (since I was pregnant with baby zen), we finally had some durian the other day. Yummyyyyy... Pity we only spotted the durian van after our lunch so we could only shared 1 medium size durian between the 2 of us...

Usually, we would go for 2... a bitter one for hubby and a sweeter one for me! I know, most durian lovers would say it's the bitter one that taste great but I just never gotten to like the bitter ones very much. Oh, the one we had here was the sweet type... *flashes victory sign*

uncle opening the durian for us...

yup... we had it by the road side...
sitting on the pavement...
under the afternoon's sun and trying to get into the lorry's shade...
with loads of passers by staring at us!"hmmm... you mean you are gonna eat this, mummy?
gee, I've got really "weird" parents!"

What's Next?

I mentioned in my previous post that bad things come in 3s right? Well, I take my words back... they come in full force!

Remember my car's battery that went flat. Found out today that that was not the problem! Drove my car to town today to run some errands but it gave the same problem so I immediately abandoned all errands and returned home and called AAM breakdown service. 3 hours later, the mechanic arrived and took a 5 minutes check and told me that the other part (can't recall name) was not functioning and thus, my battery could not be charged. So the change of a new battery the other day was not necessary?!? Sigh... what a waste of $$! And this part that needed changing is going to cost RM300! Arghhhhhhhhh!!

And my doorbell decided to join the list of things-that-are-not-working. Turned out the wiring is not working and we need to have a separate wiring and casing fixed and the contractor quoted RM280! Daylight robbery! Hmmm, am planning to go doorbell-less.

Oh, and baby zen was being naughty and managed to knock down and broke a photo frame... one of our wedding photo too!

All these happened in one day.... can I sleep in till this bad luck runs ?

I'm Jinxed!

They always said bad things comes in 3s... hmmm...

On Friday morning, the surgeon and a group of medical students (or maybe they were doing their housemanship?) came to visit my dad in the hospital. They had seen the CT scan report and informed my dad that the cancer cells had indeed spread to his liver... what they do not know is how serious is it and we are waiting for the biopsy report now, before deciding on what action to take. Praying hard...

On Friday morning too, my brother's car was badly hit. The security guard at where he stayed called him up at around 5am to tell him that someone had crashed into his car! His car was parked further down the road outside his apartment so the guard did not manage to get the details of the culprit (who drove off). Apparently this car knocked into my brother's car of which the impact was so great that my brother's car hit the car parked in front of his which in turn knocked into the car in front of that! So, 3 cars were damaged of which 2 had to be towed... was that bad. Bro's car was so badly damaged that the workshop told him they needed 1 month to fix it!

Was driving back from visiting my dad in hospital when I noticed my car's battery was very weak. Worse still I was stuck in a bad jam (due to a minor accident) and was trying so hard to coax my car to move. Reached a petrol station and found that they don't sell car batteries but they did give me a car workshop number to call. The guy agreed to come as soon as possible. So what does a blogger do while waiting? Take picture (^-^) of course. Managed to got it fixed after an hour.

*************************************************************************************
On the upside (borrowed this term from Kellan):
Dad was feeling quite energetic that they discharged him on Friday evening and is now staying at my place. Must have been the drips and injections that they gave him while in hospital. Since he came home, he's feeling tired and do not have much appetite... but did improve bit by bit.

Good thing also that my brother was not in the car when the accident happened and he was not hurt.... phew! And I did not get stranded in the middle of the road in a bad jam!

Do Be Cautious

I had always been forwarded emails about certain incidents that happened to their friends or families. But I have never expected this to happen to my friend. I know this lady and her husband as well as her son, who is only about 3 months older than baby zen... This is her email..

Dear all

Hope you are well. Would just like to share with you something that happened yesterday afternoon in hope that the knowledge will help parents prepare against such a happening.

There was an attempt to kidnap my baby from my parents’ house yesterday late afternoon (6.45p.m.). A black coloured car (make unknown) with a young Chinese couple (well dressed, polite and well spoken) came by my parents house. When my mom answered the door bell and went to the front gate they claimed to be relatives of my husband (said my husband’s surname) and that they had been asked the grandmother to come pick up my baby to bring my baby back. My mom told them that she is the grandmother and they responded by saying its my husband’s mom. Luckily my mom told them to wait and that she was going in to call my husband. When she went back into the house (locked both the grill and wooden door after her) and called my husband, they left.

We confirmed with my mother-in-law that she hadn’t send anyone over. Nor did most of his relatives know our house. Have made a police report.

Please take the following precautions (please tell your kids/maids/moms/babysitters):

-Don’t go near the gate – make sure you stand a distance away when you speak with any visitors so that they cant reach and grab you or spray things into your face

- Keep the phone number of the security guard or local police beat in a prominent place both upstairs and downstairs for emergencies.

-Brief (and repeat on and off) your kids/maid/moms/babysitters to never let your children go with anyone other than yourself or to first call and verify and confirm with you.

Dear Santa

You know, I had a funny dream last night. Well, funny not in a hilarious way though. I dreamed that it was Christmas already! I'm serious! I'm not one who can remember dreams when I wake up so I can't recall much about the dream... all I could remember was that there was a Christmas party and it was on a plane (!) and there were lots and lots of food! Must have been feeling hungry! Wished there were letters from Santa though! Hmmm, I wonder what it all means... anyone interprets dreams?

Maybe it's because with all the stress lately (will write more on this later) that I felt like I wanted to return to my childhood. I remember I loved celebrations when I was young. The fact that I may or may not be celebrating the festival didn't bother me at all, as long as there were food and fun, I'm looking forward to it! LOL! I had lots of friends from different religions when I was young so I kinda got caught up with all their preparations. I enjoyed eating ketupats and rendang during Hari Raya with my Malay friends as well as joining my Christian friends writing Dear Santa letters and receiving Letter from Santa. Well, at least for them, they did... but I never did receive any... nor did I get the presents that I requested. Perhaps asking for a rock from the moon and to travel to the future was a little beyond good old Santa! I know Christmas is not all about Santa but I was a kid then... Santa Letters was something that you could show and boast about in school! *grin*

Anyway, for the time being, this is my little package from Santa! His diarrhea has reduced somewhat, which is some great news. He still has loose stools off and on which the doctor asked to just monitor. Really hope he recovers fully soon... Till today, I'm not sure what is the major cause of his diarrhea.

Things Are Not Looking Good

Thanks for all the well wishes. Received a call early this morning from the hospital dad was admitted, informing me that dad wanted to have his CT scan done in a private hospital. Oh, don't think I mentioned this before but dad was admitted to University Hospital (UH) earlier. Anyway, told the doctor who called that I'll make the necessary arrangements.

Turned out that some of the CT Scan machines were out of order at UH and they are relying on 1 or 2 machines at the moment (I think) so it'll take days before it's dad's turn. So I took dad to SJMC for the scan. Have just gotten the report and is supposed to return to UH with it. But we came home instead as I needed to let baby zen have his nap and feeding and dad wants to freshen up. Will be bringing dad back after dinner. Meanwhile I was searching the internet for those medical jargons found in the report.

And it's not looking good. It sounds like the liver is indeed infected. Haven't told dad about it yet. Not sure how to break it to him. Guess will wait for the doctor's explanation tomorrow.

I have lost one parent to cancer... am just so not ready to lose another to it yet...

Dad's Hospitalised

My dad was hospitalised early this morning. It started with indigestion and throwing up a couple of days ago and followed by dark stools (indicating internal bleeding). He couldn't really eat after that indigestion incident and had lost 2-3 kgs. He had indigestions before but not as bad as this (except for the one time when they found he had stones in his gall bladder... but this was removed successfully).

He had undergone an endoscopy examination and they found that he has a tumor in his stomach... They do not know if it's malignant or benign yet, will have to wait for the lab report in a weeks time. Tomorrow he's scheduled to go for a CT Scan to see if his liver is affected. According to my dad, if the liver is not affected, then the chances of him being cured is high ie they can "just remove his stomach and the cancer is removed together"!! But if the tumor has spread to his liver, then.... well, we hope it won't.... Praying that the scan results tomorrow will be negative... sigh...

Tribute To Dads And Moms

This lovely tribute invitation tag comes from Jo-N. Though it was daddy's day recently.... I think I'll write about my mum... There were so many things that I would like to tell her but I can't anymore so I guess paying a tribute to her here is the least I could do.

My mum was a special person. Okay, I know most people think so too... (^o^) but to me, my mum was the best mum I could ever ask for. True, we had our differences and many a times, our personalities clashed big time!

Back when I was young, she was my hero. She was so talented. You see, she wore a lot of hats. On top of holding a full time job, she was also my teacher, counselor, disciplinarian, barber, dentist, fix-it-all, fashion consultant, the list goes on... She would fix my toys, help me with my homework, tell me alien stories (not those scary types but the non-fiction types), build my brother's bed (yes, from scratch!)... you get the idea. She was the one I ran to when I was happy / sad / upset / excited. One thing she wasn't good at was cooking... I can't remember her slaving in the kitchen to present a 8 course dinner in an hour's time! Meals were simple get-your-nutrients-and-get-out-of-the-kitchen affair! hahahaha!

When I was in my early adulthood, I started to debate with her more. I guess the ability to earn my own income sort of gave me the passport to freedom or so I thought. I could see that it pained her sometimes to see her once "good" girl has changed... I started to have my own ideas how I want to live my life and she didn't agree with some of these ideas. It wasn't like I was doing anything against the law, but more like different opinions. And we spent a few years almost not speaking to each other. Ya... that bad...

After that few rough years, we gotten back on speaking terms but were not as close as we used to until something happened. She was diagnosed with cancer. The doctor called me in (and asked her to wait outside!) and told me that it has reached the "no cure" level and asked me if I wanted my mum to know. I told him my mum was a strong woman and that I do not want to hide anything from her. We cried and hug and held hands. That day was the worst day of my life. She spent the last few months of her life staying with me since it was easier for me to send her to the hospital when she had to. During this time, we spent time talking about the good old days and I took care of her needs when she was bed ridden. Guess things had come a circle now. I do miss her...

Tribute to dad and mom badge (Get code here)

*START COPY*

Parents are God's precious gifts that have an important role in our life. Give your Tribute to your parents when they are still alive is greater as they can read them as well!

Rule:

1. Write and post something about your Mom or Dad, it can be a picture, poem, lesson from your dad, anything... be creative! You can thank them, express your love or share the greatest memory you have with your Mom or Dad.

2. Copy from 'Start Copy' through 'End Copy' and paste it in your post. Add your site on the list.

3. It would be appreciated if you can help to spread this meme by tagging others, but it is optional.

4. Leave me message with the link to your post or email me your link to beloved.dad [at] gmail.com

5. I will add your post to Tribute to Moms or Tribute to Dads with a link back and add your site to the main list.

6. I suggest keeping your list current so that everyone who participates gets maximum benefit.

Contributors to Tribute to Moms: 1. Trinity 2. Sandy at Momisodes 3. JO-N 4. Sting 5.You're next!

Contributors to Tribute to Dads: 1. Trinity 2. Michelle Dawn at Rusin Roundup 3. Max at Maxcouti 4. Eric Speedcathollydale 5. Joe Fleming 6. JO-N 7. You're next!

*END COPY*

Tagging Mott, Adeline, Tot's Mom

Happy Father's Day

Wishing Hubby
a Happy Father's Day!
... and to all the daddies out there too...

from baby zen & mummy (^-^)v

Switching To A More Frugal Lifestyle

One of my favorite blogger Mumsgather tagged me on this lifestyle (or rather the change of it) tag. Basically, she shared about how she would change her lifestyle with the rising prices, and would like me to add on to it. Sigh... almost everything is getting more expensive by the day, soon the only thing that seemed to be falling is the rain! Anyway, here are some steps that I think should be taken...

1. Reduce eating overpriced hawker food at fancy restaurants... RM30 (approx USD9) for a plate of glass noodles compared to RM5 (USD1.50) in a less fanciful kopitiam (coffee shop)...

2. Cut down expensive holidays... there goes my wish to visit Japan, anyone wants to sponsor me? *putting up an adorable face*

3. Save for rainy days... and sunny / windy / snowing days too

4. Plant some vegetables in your garden / balcony... am trying to plant those veges that we use more often but in little amount eg spring onion, ginger, onion since supermarkets usually sells them in large amount and it always goes to waste when we can't finish them

5. Buy what we need and less of what we want... do we really need an extra pair of shoes or that handbag?

6. Try not to take unnecessary loans... those interest charges can add up to quite a fair bit... talking about interest charges, do you know that if you plan to pay off the last few installments of your loan in one shot so that you can reduce the interest portion, it may end up that you would pay more than if you continue paying the installments? This is because there's an "administration charge" (for the trouble of "getting someone to go and retrieve your file from the warehouse earlier") if you choose to settle the loan earlier. And this "administration charge" is usually higher than the interest portion.

So what about you gals? How would you change your lifestyle? Andrewjune, Ratu Syura, Angeline

What Makes A Good Peadiatrician

Something got me thinking about the criteria that I look for in a pead. Well, we went to see a pead since baby zen's condition was though improving but not as much as I hoped for. Was getting worried about him since he was losing some weight with the diarrhea and flu. Already he's skinny... now losing weight some more!

Anyway, we decided to visit another pead since I didn't have very good experiences with his current pead whose clinic is within walking distance (baby zen also has the wonderful Dr Koe whom I like very much but her clinic's bit far). I had blogged about the current pead but sorry, didn't have the time to link it again here. In summary, she (the current pead) charges a lot for less than 5 minutes of consultation and do not seem to have the patient to answer my questions. Hey, not that I asked a lot, maybe just a few hundreds! (^-^) v

But seriously, I seldom come out of her clinic satisfied. Most of the time she would say "yes, it's like this" without explaining further why it's like this (even when I kept asking her)... There was also that time when baby zen's forehead was swollen, I was not sure if it's because he fell down or was it due to insect bite so I went to her (still new mummy then... thus easily worried about everything) and she told me she can't tell if it's a bump from a fall or insect bite... Okay, maybe it was a bit difficult to tell but I did a post on it and some blogger friends commented that it was an insect bite from their experiences, which I think it was after the swell subsided... hmmm...

A friend also told us that this pead diagnosed his son as having bronchitis when the son was 1 month old and referred them to a specialist. At the specialist center, they were told that it was just a normal cold! They didn't know whether to get upset or be glad! hahaha!

Anyway, we went to a new pead and I like him so far. He took the time to get to know baby zen first before he checks baby zen. That earns him some points from mummy and daddy :-) and he answered all my questions... \(^-^) /

The pead gave baby zen prebiotic tablets to build up his immune system...
came with ice pack and a cool bag too!

Help Make June Survivor Month

This is my first community service tag and it comes from Ratu Syura. How it works is if they receive 8 million clicks in June, the sponsor will donate $10,000 for free mammograms. As of now, it's 38.7% of the goal and has only 18 days left... I'm clicking away and I hope you will too. All you need to do is click on this banner and it will bring you to the site.

Tagging Angeleyes, Dora, Jansey, Slavemom.

Near Misses

We have a couple of near misses recently..

The first one happened on the Saturday when we went for our short trip. We were traveling on the KL-Seremban highway, heading towards Port Dickson. The traffic was quite smooth until suddenly the cars in front of us stopped suddenly. Hubby immediately stepped onto the brake. Good thing he was not following too close, so he could stop the car with some space to spare. The car right behind us too managed to stop in time, but he had to swirl to the side a little to avoid hitting us.

Unfortunately the car behind this car didn't manage to stop in time and hit the car behind us. We heard a muffled crash (don't think it was a major accident) and saw the driver behind us got down and inspect his car. He then signaled to the driver behind him to drive to the side... to negotiate repair payments I suppose.

The second time was bit more scary. This happened last Saturday. We were at a traffic lights cross junction waiting to turn right. Oh, for those unfamiliar with Malaysia's driving rules, ours is a right hand drive on the left side of the road. Anyway, there were 2 lanes turning right, ours being on the left lane. When the light turned green, we started to turn. Just then, hubby saw a motorcycle zooming straight towards us from the opposite lane. Luckily hubby saw them (there was a pillion rider too) from the corner of his eyes and slammed onto the brake.

But the car on our right who was also turning at the same time didn't notice it and the motorcycle smashed into that car! The pillion rider was thrown in the air (really Fear Factor!) and I saw him land and then stood up and limped to the side of the road! I have no idea what the motorcyclist was thinking but I'm sure it will be a long time before they try to do something so "daring"! I'm glad no one was hurt!

Have MERCY

Got anything interesting planned for this Saturday morning? Here's a program that would be well worth yours and your family's time.

Heard of MERCY Malaysia? Wonder who they are and what they do? Wished you could help those victims of Cyclone Nargis and Sichuan earthquake but didn't thought you would be able to make any difference? Well, this is a joint program by Mercy Malaysia and IATSS Forum Malaysia to help the public understand more about Mercy Malaysia. Don't worry, you will not be forced to donate or volunteer! (but if you insist, we'll accept... hehe)

Some of you may remember that IATSS Forum is a scholarship program for working adults to Japan, which I've blogged earlier. If you (or anyone that you know) would like to know more, you are most welcome to drop by as well since there will be some slides on IATSS Forum and also former IATSS Forum participants to answer your queries.

The program details as follows:
Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008
Time: 10:30am (probably till 12 noon)
Venue: Tanjung Golden Village, KLCC
Fee: FREE (with light refreshments)

Baby Zen's Still Sick

Poor baby zen... he's still having diarrhea and flu. His diarrhea actually went off for 2 days when his flu was at its worst. Thought I had seen the last of that but it came back yesterday. Sigh... And his flu doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon. Called his pead again and she was very nice to advise over the phone. Dr Koe is a wonderful pead. And extremely patient with me too! If only her clinic is not that far away from where I stayed.

Meanwhile, have gotten loads of other friendly advices regarding baby zen's condition from family, friends and even their maids! Here are some of their interesting comments....

(1) Baby zen's canine teeth are coming out soon. hmm, will see if it's true

(2) Baby zen's will be walking / running soon so it's a way the body "lightens" itself to prepare for these activities. not so sure about this... but this lady claims that all 3 of her children had diarrhea just before they started walking!

As for me, I think it's something that he ate (or put into his mouth) that didn't agree with him... really hope he gets well soon... Am getting bit paranoid and had been disinfecting the house! *sticking tongue out and showing tired look*

Fantastic Blogger

Award from good buddy Jo-N! Thanks :-)
Sending to all my blogger friends out there!

In Plain Sight

These days, crime dramas seemed to be what viewers are looking for. And to cater to these crime drama fans out there, there's a cool new television series, the USA Network's new original series In Plain Sight. So, what's so special about this drama? Well, ever wonder how witnesses are relocated...?

The drama is about this US Marshal, Mary Shannon, who with her partner, is attached to the Federal Witness Protection Program. And not all her witnesses are innocent citizens who so happened to be there during the crime. She has her share of criminals, liars, thieves and murderers whom she needs to protect!

And so, with such variety of witnesses, a normal day's work would see her taking the roles of being a mother, therapist, maid of honor, marriage counselor, employment agent, bodyguard, and occasionally, homicide detective to her witnesses!

Think your bosses and colleagues are bad enough? Thank your lucky stars that you don't have Mary's job! It certainly is no easy task dealing with all these witnesses!. And at the end of the day, you can't talk about it to your family and boyfriend... or even blog about it!! But she's taking it one step at a time which makes this a great drama to watch.

He Poo-ed, I'm Poop!

Oh, I'm so pooped! This is an exhausting week and it hasn't ended yet. So many things happened to baby zen. It started with his insect bite. Was itchy but he was alright... the red mark is still there but not that intense now. I wonder what monster insect did that!

During the same time too, baby zen had diarrhea. It's been 5 days already and it was a shower-and-diaper changing marathon for me. It's getting lessor now... *fingers crossed* Had been giving him ORS as per doctor's suggestion. Really hope he recovers from diarrhea soon coz now he's gotten the flu bug!

Not sure whom he got it from since none of us is having flu... sigh... it was just a couple of weeks ago that he had flu. And he so hate to have his face cleaned! Meanwhile, he's still as active as ever... well, almost...

don't look! don't look! and mummy will not know I'm here!

hmmm... I wonder if I can hide inside here?!

Do You Speak Engrish?

As promised in the previous post, this will be a humour post. Have a good laugh at some of these signs courtesy of engrish.com...

...every breath you take... I'll be watching you...

don't ask us which type...

OUCH!!

but if children from other parts of the world want to play with it, it's okay...

well, can't blame them since they have all those screw jobs!

How do you do?

ermmm... anyone?

wipe that smile off!

you mean someone did that?!

Life's Short

Was talking to Mrs Neighbor yesterday and just found out that her mum is suffering from liver cancer. Her mum has been in coma for a few days now and the doctors said "she'll leave anytime". I feel sad for her. On the other hand, her mum is 80+ years old and had a good life, according to her. For that, I'm glad.

This reminded me of when my mum was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago. It had been a difficult period for all of us. I still find it a little hard to talk about it in detail. I was very close to my mum and it was really hard to see her suffered so much. There were so many things that I had wanted to say and do for her... but time did not permit. I suppose I should be glad that she didn't suffer for too long...

My motto in life had always been "No Regrets, Just Experiences" and I tried very hard not to have any regrets about not spending enough time with my mum. It's not easy, there are just so many things that I wished I had done and said...

Oh dear, this post is getting to be a little too serious. Guess I had better stop here... right, next post will be a humor post, I promise...

Insect Bite

Arghhh! Look what happened to baby zen's shoulders! I think some insect bite him on that spot... He was wearing his long-selves pajamas when we took a walk outside in the morning. When we came back, I got him ready for his shower and got this shock when I took off his clothes. It was quite red and a bit swollen, probably an insect bite. Sigh... Am not sure if he was bitten when we went for a walk or when he was asleep.

I don't recall him crying in pain though. But it was definitely itchy because I help him scratch! Have applied the Lucas Papaw Ointment that I got as a sample when I delivered baby zen. The redness had reduced only slightly so far. Hoping it will be gone by tomorrow...

Bleach The Movie: Memories of Nobody

Calling out to all anime fans in North America. Here's some great news, if you have not heard. Bleach the Movie: Memories of Nobody is coming to a theater near you! Find out how and where you can get those tickets here. Though it was released in 2006 in Japan, the dubbed version has finally arrived in North America's theaters for 2 nights ie June 11 - 12, 2008. Better late than never... And what's more, they have also included an interview with the director Noriyuki Abe and a special message from the creator Tite Kubo. Cool!

How hubby and I wish we are able to watch it in the theater there now. Watching the DVD version is just not the same. Anime fans would understand. And Bleach is one of the best anime around these days. You know what, if I were to create my own manga character, she (yes, it will be a heroine) would be called Sakura Blade... Why? Because it sounds mysterious yet dangerous (^-^)/

So What Did Baby Zen Do On The Trip?

Playing with TongTong's toys!
He wanted to play with all of Tongtong's toys! (- _-)

Fooling around...
"Hey, where's the sand? I thought we were going to the beach?!?"

"I wanna take that Pooh mattress home! It's cuter than mine!"

What To Wear?!

During this recent trip of ours, I was (as usual) having a headache thinking of what to wear / bring to the beach. Not that I have a lot of clothes but some of my pre-pregnancy clothes seemed to have... ahem... shrunk! And I didn't want to buy a lot of bigger size new clothes yet... (read: am still in denial!). And also because some of my old clothes were still good.

There was this particular denim that I love. It has some frills at the bottom of the pants so it looks quite girly and is as comfortable as a Dockers. I had this for some years already and still loves wearing it. What's more, it look good on me... hehe (vain old me!). Since it fits just nice with a little extra space for the occasional huge lunches or dinners, I couldn't wear it during my pregnancy and after.... till now. Yup, I wore it to the beach! Should have taped it for the Dockers contest.

May not be that appropriate but I'm so happy! And I think all mummies can relate to my feelings. It's not as "loose" as previously so I have to do away with those huge lunches and dinners when I'm wearing it.

Hmmm, do you have any clothes that you couldn't fit but not want to throw away, hoping that you could one day wear them? I do... hehe.. Doubt if I could still fit in some of the other clothes like my favorite denim. Guess there'll be a day when I will wake up to reality and donate those old clothes away... Meanwhile, I'll check out the Dockers contest again and see if there are any new videos...

Our Short Short Trip

We just got back from our very short trip! From the time we left home to the time we returned, it took us.... 23 hours! We left at 1:30pm on Saturday and got home by 12:30pm on Sunday. Talk about quick getaways.. hehe..

But if you had seen the things that we took with us, you would have thought we were staying for a week. We took almost everything in the house except the kitchen sink! Okay, I exaggerated (^o^) But we did bring along quite a few "additional" items other than the necessary travel stuff ie sleeping bags, blankets, pillows. Reason for the extra sleeping accessories was because there was going to be 26 people staying overnight at a double storey house... or so we thought. It turned out that more than half of them decided to drive back on Saturday itself thus, leaving more enough beds for everyone. Wished they could have stayed but I'm happy that we all had lots of fun..

So, where did we go?
Here's where... Port Dickson
The trip was a farewell surprise for one of hubby's colleague

Beauty and the Mischievous...

Baby zen playing with TongTong (ain't she adorable? love her eyes..)
Food preparation for BBQ... yummyyyy

Style Sense

Recently, I had been asked to name my favorite fashion icon. Most people would not be able to guess who's it but at the same time she's being admired by most women.... and men! Well, it's Audrey Hepburn (*-*) and I must say that I absolutely love her fashion sense. I think she's a very beautiful woman despite her being quoted as saying that she never considered herself to be very attractive. Well, I guess her great fashion sense help too...

I have also read that Audrey Hepburn had preferred casual and comfortable clothes. Me too, me too! I suppose I would choose so too if I were a UNICEF ambassador... it sure makes a difference especially with all those walkings and visits that she had to make.

Here's something else about her. Did you know that she' still being featured in advertising campaigns... across the world? Well, not in a Dockers contest advertisement yet but clips of her old movies had appeared in tea advertisement in Japan to clothes advertisement in the US! Talk about star power! Maybe I could create an advertisement with her for the Dockers contest.... (^-^)

As for hubby and I, we are casual people too. I guess you have read how even at work, hubby chooses comfort by wearing Dockers pants and none other. He sure is loyal! For me, I used to wear those above-knee tight skirts when I started working but now, I prefer more comfortable pants. Well, I suppose the change in body shape also contributed to the change in fashion sense...