KLCC Park

KLCC Park
Originally uploaded by leechingshen

Kayrin and I had our girls' day out on Nov. 26, 2008, and she decided she wanted to go to the KLCC Park, her favourite in this city. The place was full of kids as it was the year-end school hols. This was taken via my Nokia N78, and posted via Flickr. Trying to get a bit tech-savvy here, as you can see. This isn't the original photo. It's been tinkered with, using Picnik.

Ogres

This morning, I started calling Kayrin 'ogre ogre.' What about mommy?, I asked. Mommy ogre, she replied. And daddy, I asked. 'Bad ogre.'

Tyres and Trains

It takes being on the other side of the pasture to realize that your side is often greener. Today, I had to take the train in to work after dropping the car at the workshop, following a tyre puncture last night, and boy, was I unhappy in the RapidKL two-carriage coaches. A lady kept coughing and snifling hard, right into my left ear. The snorting noise made by the young lady in her 20s was driving me crazy. I certainly didn't fancy catching a cold from her. What's worse, she was standing close to me and refusing to get the hint from my stares that she moves away because on the other side was a man. Now I appreciate my personal airspace in the A-class. And to think, I was grumbling each day about having to drive myself to and from work.
The car passenger side's back tyre took on a big gash last night. Must have been the pothole along the Bukit Jalil Highway. Damn DBKL. If I had more time, I'd be claiming the costs of the two 16-inch Continental 195/55 treads from them. Joe from Cycle & Carriage just rang. That would be 800 ringgit. Well, could have been worse. I could have been stranded, could have driven off the road.
Thank goodness there was Shaw Feng at home. I wouldn't fancy being the damsel in distress at the road side at 7:30 p.m., waiting for help on tyre change. I totally have no idea how to change a tyre. OK, I do. A bit. Jack the car up and remove the tyre and plug on a new one. I've never done it. May be there's a course I can go to. May be I should read the manual. Thankfully, Shaw Feng knows how. I know how to call for help. I rang the Mercedes breakdown service. But they couldn't come! Thank goodness for Shaw Feng. The poor fella, who had to work in the drizzle on the car porch last night, deserves a big hug. Or a big bowl of Hokkien mee.

HTC-Less But With Loads of Supplements

I lost my three-month-old HTC Diamond phone on Oct. 31, a nightmare. I inadvertently left it behind in my haste to get out of the gym. Realising my loss 3 minutes later didn't help. The phone had been switched off by the time I rushed back to the gym. But I didn't dare go on and on about it at home. It was, after all, a present from Shaw Feng. Normally, my way of getting through such stuff is to talk it to death. You know, where I berate myself, curse the thief, wonder how I could be so careless, thump my fist at the dishonesty of some people, then scold myself somemore, etc. You get the point. That's pretty cathartic. It exorcises the pain. This time, I kept quiet, telling myself that Paul the psychologist would ask me to ponder changing my actions. I thought it worked quite well. And then a weekend after the incident, Shaw Feng sarcastically remarked that my loss didn't seem to hurt me. Aha! He's so used to my nagging, talking self that a change like that seemed to indicate I wasn't upset with the loss.
Anyway, amidst the handphone loss, which happened in the gym, I won a prize for being one of the top three gym-goers for September and October. The prize -- loads of Blackmores supplements. Supplements are no replacement for a lost phone but at least it's some form of consolation. Now, time to get used to using a Nokia again.

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Kayrin caught HFMD over the long Deepavali weekend and what agony it was for the little girl. My heart breaks. Ulcers lined the inner sides of her cheeks, dotted her tongue and were on her upper and lower lips. She cried out in pain everytime water came in contact with her.
It all started with Kayrin telling me over the phone, as I was driving home, that she was feeling sick. She threw up as soon as I arrived home at about 8 p.m. We brought her to a pediatrician's clinic (not her regular one), and she threw up twice more at the clinic. Suspecting it was stomach flu, the doc noted that she has lots of ulcers in her mouth plus quite a high temperature of about 39 Celsius. But with no spots on her hands or feet, he said it wasn't HFMD.
On Saturday, when showering her, I cleaned her tongue. Kayrin screamed in pain. That was really awful. Her fever seems to have abated that day. But by Sunday morning, she was in such agony that we brought her into the A&E at Sunway Hospital. The doc gave OralAid, a lignocaine mouth drip, paracetamol and told us to give her warm salt gargle. Wrong thing when her ulcers were so huge. Poor Kayrin didn't want anymore of the rise after I forced it on her twice. By Sunday evening, she had refused all food and drink. Her grandmother made her way home to feed Kayrin. That night, reading on the Web about HFMD, I realized that dehydration was the biggest enemy.
To feed Kayrin water, which she refused to even sip, we used a plastic syringe and `pumped' water into her mouth throughout the night. Deepavali (a Monday) was spent at home, catching up on sleep. By then, Kayrin was scratching her toes a second night.
Come Tuesday morning, I drove Kayrin to her usual pediatrician, Dr. Wong May Foong, who immediately diagnosed Kayrin as having HFMD and pointed out the spots/vesicles on her fingers and toes.
At the clinic was also Kayrin's classmate, Law Yen Kay, who also complained of pain in the mouth. The two of them were among the three who have caught HFMD in the class of Sakura B at Tadika Prima Ceria.
I've gone really paranoid as a result of Kayrin catching HFMD. I asked Ida the maid to wipe all doorknobs with soap, constantly clean the fridge handle, especially after Shaw Feng showed me an article on dirty hands and door handles.
Yesterday, Wednesday, Kayrin started asking for food again. A good sign. And she was ordering me to scold her daddy for being a bad guy. I shouldn't have married a bad guy, she said.

Overcoming Cough

Very happy that I'm almost winning the battle with this cough in a short period. Two weeks. Short for me because I've often battled cough for months. And this round, what works? I can't quite tell, but here's a list of what I did, with much encouragement, or scolding ;), from Shaw Feng.
1) Gargle warm salt water, more than three times a day during the worst of the cough.
2) Use Sterimar nasal spray morning and night.
3) Eat no deepfried food, no pears and no chicken and eggs. All advice from the TCM doctor. And yes, eat no vegetables during dinner.
4) Take garlic pearls, on the advice of colleague Ryan.
5) Get lots of sleep.
6) Avoid travel to Singapore for crazy weekend party (best decision made for me by SF this round).
7) Continue with gym routine as per usual. Actually, I stepped up my exercise quota, going for a second yoga class in a week.

Thank God for this quick recovery. And I avoided Singulair too. whoo-hoo!

Blast From the Past

Bruce Springsteen's `Dancing in the Dark' came on air this morning and I resolved to look up the lyrics when I drove into the office. That means going onto Google, typing `Dancing in the Dark lyrics', and pop here they are.
But I remember the days when I wanted lyrics. It means playing the cassette on dad's Aiwa player, with pen and paper ready, and fingers quick enough to go on the stop/pause-rewind-play button! Stop to write, then replay for bits I've missed or couldn't catch, then play again.
And if I wanted to listen to a song, it means calling in to Double RB the Australian radio station broadcasting out of Telok Air Tawar in Butterworth, or writing to Janet Ambrose of Radio Four or Blue Channel before that.
These days, it's not even about buying the CDs. It's "Sweetheart, please download for me" or You-tubing it.
What a change two decades made.

To Exercise or Not

When a cold strikes, I lie low. No exercising. No hitting the gym. Just meander around in the office and feel miserable.
This round, I've decided to try otherwise. That means still crawling to the gym, sweating it out on the cardio machines for about 20 minutes, my usual. OK, may be I've cut back a bit on the weights. Let's see how I fare this round. A longer recovery? A shorter one?
What do you do when you catch a cold? Break from your usual routine?

Short Break

Melaka always seemed a boring place to me. Too commercialized. Recently, however, I've been wanting to see Melaka again. I haven't explored enough. We took the opportunity to do that on Oct. 1-2, the Raya weekend. It coincided with Heng Hou and Ai Wei being in Melaka too. Ai Wei, whom we met for the first time, is a Malaccan and gamely took us to Amy's for Nyonya food and to Min Sheng Hygienic Ice Cream.
Amy's served up wonderful chicken pong-teh, we were told but they'd run out by the time we got there for lunch at about 1 p.m. Only complaint was that food was slow in being served. Kayrin kept asking for the arrival of food, a rarity.
Min Sheng's cendol was a real nice one to tuck into on a hot day. I'd say it's the best cendol I'd gotten in the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia.
Being in Melaka when a quarter of Malaysia and half of Singapore descended on it could be quite taxing if you aren't from KL. well, KL-ites have seen worse. What's worse than being stuck in a 500 meter underground tunnel leading from the KLCC carpark for an hour?
Kayrin, after many hours of enduring me pointing out ancient buildings and monuments to her, had this to say about Melaka: Why is everything so old in Melaka?

Princess for a Day

Kayrin saw a temporary studio at the lobby of the Giant hypermarket one weekend last month, when we were out shopping. She was adamant she had her glamour shots taken! We had to make our way back to that studio as it was too long a queue that day. Heck, I wouldn't be dragged into such shots as a kid. Well, my one and only time doing such shots were for the wedding in 2001. I must say I had fun. Now, to figure out how to upload those shots into digital beings and get them up here.
In the meantime, here's Kayrin playing princess. Shaw Feng and I were thoroughly amused she was so game at sitting through the experience.

Crocs

Kayrin got her first pair of Crocs from Singapore in 2005, before they were launched in Malaysia. Her pair, in fuchsia pink, didn't last her very long as she outgrew them quite fast. But that was the start of her love affair with Crocs. We've bought her no other shoes since then. Getting her second pair, the turquoise ones in Penang's Komtar, and the subsequent red Mary Janes in Isetan, we've gone on to accumulate pairs and pairs from her from Hong Kong, when I travelled there for my team meeting in 2007 and discovered that they are at least 30% cheaper there.
Crocs are great for kids. They are washable, and seeing how quickly kids dirty their shoes, they are a wonder. And there's no need to wear socks too. As a parent, that's a jump in glee for me. No need to struggle with finding a pair of socks and making the kid stick her feet out calmly while I'm already running late.

Kayrin's Retort

Last night, after a tense evening of making Kayrin memorise the five words for her weekly spelling (moth, fish, ship, shop, thin), the little girl told me over the phone that there was no test today.
"Told you no need to practise," she said.

Headstand

I went onto my first headstand at yoga class today! Woo-hoooo. And to think, that after more than a year of practising yoga, I'd never be able to do that. I did it twice too. Very invigorating. Must try again tomorrow! Of course, it's not a pure headstand. I had to have the wall to lend me some support. ;)
Still. My achievement for the day, the week.
Now, if only I can go into the full-wheel pose.

Zimbabwe, Myanmar...Malaysia

The Southeast Asian nation of Malaysia has decided it has to be up there in the ranks witb Myanmar and Zimbabwe, stifling voices of dissent with draconian laws. Malaysians were dismayed when a journalist, a blogger and an opposition MP were arrested on Sept. 12 under the ISA, which allows for detention without trial for up to two years.
The anger from the ground comes from the government speak that this was done on the wishes of the majority, as the home minister attests to.
We're mere citizens, going about our lives, but we don't want to be treated as idiots. We don't want to be hoodwinked into thinking there is racial tension when it's cracks within the ruling political parties that the current government wants to mask. Let our voices be heard. Let the anger seethe. Let us not forget. Let us stand united.

Lying to a 5-Year-Old

I can no longer lie very much to Kayrin, who's all of 5 years and 7 months now. Snippets of our conversation in the past month:

In the car..
me: Kayrin, look over there..see those policemen and the guys they've stopped. Do you know why? It's because they won't put on their seat belts.
Kayrin: Motorbikes don't have seat belts.
(Great, those two mat rempits were on a kapchai)

In the bathroom, while I was brushing my teeth and Kayrin was standing on the covered toilet bowl.
me: Kayrin, please don't play with daddy's shaving foam. He'll be furious.
Kayrin: But what does it say here? How do we use it?
me: I don't know. I don't shave.
Kayrin: But you do. You shave your armpits.
(Next time I'd better do all that in the privacy of the office loo).

Awana Kijal

Awana Kijal in Terengganu was fun. The fine, pristine sandy beach a pleasure to be on in the evenings. (Too hot to even venture there after 10 a.m.). The turtle-release event that was part of turtle conservation was a real treat for Kayrin. It was done at about 8:30 p.m. the night we arrived, Aug. 20. In pitch dark, it was difficult to see much but what a mini-adventure it was for Kayrin to be traipsing on the beach without much lighting, except for daddy's cell phone light.
I'd say Awana Kijal is worth venturing out to, despite the almost five-hour journey which includes a lunch stop in Kuantan.
There were two Chinese restaurants and a KFC outlet within a 5-minute walk from the resort and that made mealtimes very easy. Our lunch and dinner ranges between 35 ringgit and 50 ringgit each. Not bad. The kind of price we pay in KL.
Great four-day break in Awana. Total cost, a bit below 1,000 ringgit for a room with a roll-away bed and buffet breakfasts for all three of us.
The point of holidays, as I re-discover, is how nice the home is. Nothing beats having..
1) Air-cond thermostat that needs no fiddling
2) Pillow with just the right firmness
3) Lighting that doesn't need you to wake up in total darkness
4) And knowing which side of the bed to roll out from.
Welcome home!

Terengganu

Ahh, the beach at Terengganu, here we come! We haven't had a beach holiday for so long. The last one must have been in Penang, and that was almost two years ago. Wow. We went to Cameron Highlands this time last year, went to Hong Kong in March. Finally, the seaside again. It will be the Awana Kijal. Looks pretty from its Web site. And it has the Taman Sari spa. Oooh..that's more important than any food outlets. It's a branch of the Taman Sari under Mustika Ratu in Jakarta. I'm a big fan of the Taman Sari in the Indonesian capital. Yes, I even memorised how to tell the cab driver to get there: Jalan Wahid Hasyim, menghala Tanah Abang.
That's how big a fan I am. Used to religiously go when I was travelling to Jakarta. These days, I can't even find time to go to Phillip Wain at Jalan Raja Chulan for a massage. Then again, these days I have a 5-year-old to keep me floored with her antics.

Weak in the Presence of Beauty

This Alison Moyet song makes me close my eyes, and right away I get transported into the 80s. It's not corny like Duran Duran's The Reflex (that's sure to get me blasted by fans of Simon LeBon, Andy Taylor, et al. Try listening to this Moyet song again if you haven't heard it awhile. Could even bring tears to your eyes. May be I'm just old and sentimental.

Three As and Three Es

I'm making this my mantra for now, where SF is concerned. It was given by Paul J, someone I go to to reflect on my doings, my behaviour, myself. Paul says:
Increase the 3 As:
Action
Attention
Affection
..and reduce the 3 Es:
Ego
Expectations
Emergency (or urgency).
These should make me a better partner. I crave attention but am I giving the same? The not-so-nice bit about me is that, I also have huge expectations when I give affection or attention. If I remember these 3 As and 3 Es, I'd be better to live with, I hope. So let me report back on this two or three months down the road. That's how long before I forget my resolve, based on the frequency of rows at home!

The Clever One at Home

When it comes to numbers, I win at home. So far, anyway. I know my mathematics. But when it gets to survival, SF wins handsdown.
Food: SF whips up lunches and dinners when he's home. When he's not, Kayrin has to eat tuna-in-rice for both meals.
Baby: SF kept Kayrin and I well fed, after my mom left for home following a six-week stay with us in Singapore following Kayrin's arrival. He single-handedly did the marketing, cooking and washing. All I could do then was profer my breasts to Kayrin. I always consider the 13-month breastfeeding part to be my biggest achievement.
Baby-food: SF cooked all of Kayrin's lunch as she was weaned off milk full time. All I could do was squeeze breastmilk into a cup of cereal the one time I was at home with her alone. Well, at least it was fresh and warm. I didn't have time to warm up the breastmilk from the fridge after having to bathe her that morning.
And yesterday, SF stunned me once more. I've been working on pairing my Bluetooth earpiece with the HTC Diamond phone he gave me for my birthday. I tried it at work, tried it at home. I really did try!
SF took over, and within 2 minutes, managed to make it happen. My hero! Ya, anyone reading this is going to think me a tech idiot. Don't think I am but my spouse just happens to be smarter, of course.
He ties knots really well too. Me, well, I couldn't even name the one I use to tie up shopping bags.