Masterpiece from meimei

The people in the illustrations are always so happy.




I love the eyelashes. So cute!

Memories in the hospital

Wonder why I can't sleep well these days, even when I feel really tired and sleepy. The other night, while I was staring at the ceiling of my bedroom,I recalled my experience staying in GH before I gave birth to my eldest son.

It was the first time I ever remembered going to hospital, being rushed to the A&E in the middle of the night. My heart seems to jump out from me while I left a trace of blood on the floor all the way to the emergency room. I can't bear to turn round to see the sight. Seeing my huge belly, the nurses naturally called a gynae on duty that night to attend to me. And that was the gynae I met and help to deliver didi 3 years later. I told her I wasn't supposed to deliver yet, that should be another 2 months' down the road.

To cut the long story short, I had placenta praevia type 2, and if the bleeding didn't stop, the baby had to be taken out from c-section or both of us, mother and child, would be in grave danger. Good thing she told me baby was fine, everything seems to be ok, and the bleeding stopped after a day. I was warded for 3 days in that private hospital and the bill came to Rm1k+.

I moved to GH and for the first few days, I was very tormented to stay in that "rundown" maternity ward. It was such a big contrast to the private one, but I couldn't wait to get out of it. The doctor advised me to stay in hospital till delivery and because of the huge fees involved, it would be better to move to GH. Furthermore, if in the case of premature birth, my baby would have a better chance of getting an incubator. The last point totally made me decide to move to GH, no second thoughts were necessary.

I still remember, that first night in GH, it was hot, the ceiling fan was in the middle of the room of 3 bunks and I was weeping feeling so lonely and scared. My hub was in Taiwan, and we kept talking on the phone that night. I asked him to treat me to a vacation, somewhere exotic and faraway after all this was over. He promised instantly without thinking, just like eating "sang-choi" only. Then again, I felt better after "manja"ing him and he just let me. I imagined I was already in a paradise island that night.

Very soon, I get used to life in there. No TV, no internet, no handphones (though I curi-curi kept mine in the cupboard). I took the chance to really relax myself and do some reading. And it felt good. I was reading papers and books everytime of the day when I wasn't sleeping, even squinting my eyes in the darkness in the middle of the nights when I can't sleep.

The order of the day was fairly routine. The nurses would switch on the lights at 7am sharp, even if you have just dozed off a minute ago. They don't tolerate anyone sleeping after 7am. Even if you are, they would push and shove you until you get your butts up. The cleaners would change the bedsheets, tuck the blankets in nicely and made the bed up, ready for the day's work.

So, everyone would be washing up, eating breakfasts, served at 8am, and wait for the doctors to go their morning rounds at 9am. When they do, the whole bunch of them, with 1 or 2 specialists of consultants, senior doctor(s), a few doing their housemanship and some nurses would be making a lot of noise, looking at records, discussing what to do with each of the case study. It was interesting to watch them work, then again, with no other entertainment in my condition at that time, anything would be interesting. That also includes kehpoh-ing on other patients, what their problem is lah, what they are going to do with them lah, how to read the records lah.. suddenly I was learning new things!

Most of the time, the "commotion" comes from the "head" of the pack, and then the nurses would be scrambling around or answering his queries or questions. He does talk to the patients too at times. The rest of the doctors would listen attentively, write notes (or draw turtles) on their notebook etc. When they come around to me, initially he was angry with no past record on on my gestation before I was admitted, and later, they would just came by, chat a little, and told me to just wait. Everything was just running along fine with me, and I would have to wait till the due date. The nurseswould go round to check our bp and baby's heartbeat about 4 to 5 times a day, round the clock, even if you are sleeping. That's their job.

After the rounds, soon the visitors were allowed in and my mom or mil would be dropping by, taking home cooked food for me, the morning's papers, birds' nest and hang around to keep me company for awhile. I was so pampered, as I was the only one who had home cooked food for lunch instead of the hospital's food, and since that was my first child, I need not worry about family at home. Life was getting good.

I get to know one woman in there, particularly, because there weren't many chinese there and we hails from the same hometown. She has 4 kids already and poor thing, she just worries about them endlessly. Lucky all of them are much older kids, like ranging from 4 to 12. And they can't visit her everyday, for the dad needs to work. So it was really happy and heartwarming to see her smiling during weekends when all of them came over and call "mammy, mammy....". For me, weekends were boring because my mom and mil would take a break. Some of the times, I had friends over for a visit instead.

The afternoons would be spent either sleeping or reading with no major events. Teatime served at about 3pm and dinner about 7pm. I guess when evening came, somehow, boredom would sweeps over me. You know? Those kind of time when you seemed to be stoned, not knowing what to do and the mind stares blankly into space. That hours between late afternoon and 10pm would drag like years. After supper was served, normally it would be just 1 or 2 biscuits, or fruits, (can't remember) and milo, then we would wash ourselves up and get ready to sleep. By 10, lights would be off and I would be tossing and turning around.

By the 33rd week of gestation or so, the time was coming nearer and I was becoming excited. Finally when the doctors came to my bed, I was summoned for a final check before deciding on the mode of delivery. I heard the story of someone pushed to the operation room and after a final scan, the doctor said the placenta moved upwards and she can go home to wait for normal delivery.

That day was very important to me (because I get to walk out of the ward). I was instructed to hold my bladder for 1 hour before the appointed time with the doctor on my scan. Not only that, I had to drink a few cups of water, to ensure the bladder is full for the scan to be of high accuracy. And that was the problem.

I think I never would quite forget that time. For I had down lots of water in and held my bladder like for 2 to 3 hours. I was left waiting outside of his clinic for the longest time, and that was made worse with a huge baby pressing down on my almost about to burst bladder. It was such agony that I was seen gritting my teeth and hanging on desperately to keep myself from "leakage embarassment". So much so that a nurse came over to my side and asked me if I had labor pain and if I'm going to deliver soon. I thought it was really funny that I answered her "oh, no!! liew kap jek". And I asked for her help to ask the doctor check me asap. She was my saviour and I was assisted to the "bed" very soon.

The doctor scanned, and said "well, seems like placenta is still there, downwards, and you need to be operated". I hastily replied him "Fine. Now can I go?" And I quickly rushed as fast as I possibly could to the nearest toilet and released myself. Aitelyiu hoh, that immense feeling relief I felt that time, made me not to take for granted of this thing called "small business" anymore. Appreciate that you can pass urine normally everyday now.

There was a time I had some friends over from KL for a visit, and I felt so happy to see them. They came all the way to visit me. Once, 3 friends from my high school came over and we sat outside on the pavement chatting. I worked out a plan to sneak out from the hospital where Hui Ling would just take some gaigai clothes for me to change and Patrick gets ready with the car to drive me away without anyone noticing and we would go out to eat all my favorite food like curry laifun with cham ping. Told them the plan and dammit, we talked as if I was a prisoner, just that the prison clothes are all in pink instead of the striped black and white.

Thank God everything went well and it's 9 years now, with my son healthy and fine.

Bored at the car salon

After having our brunch that day, we took the car to a car salon. It's a drive thru carwash, cheaply affordable at RM2 per normal saloon car. If you pump petrol minimum of RM20, you even get another 1 buck discount off from the carwash. Quite good bargain, don't you think? Alas, I don't earn any commission advertising for them, I just thought good things must be shared. Then again, if you live far away from that gas station, it would be plain stupid to drive over just for this, right?

The carwash has a few "stages". First, you drive through this shower...

Then, another high pressure shower, with 2 manglajai waiting to wipe the ... heck! I don't know!

Next, you drive to the right according to the sign and they paint your car white with all the buih sabun. 2 manglajais are there to clean each side of the car fast and efficiently.

And which brings you to the next stage..

I thought the kids would have some fun being inside the car during the whole carwash process. YOu bet they are! Kids are so easy to be thrilled.

And that was what you pay 2 bucks for. If you wish to clean and vacuum the inside of the car, then you are directed to another area and that's additional 4 bucks for that.

While we were there, papa was lured into giving our 2 years old car a nice polish. It took more than an hour for the whole work to be done, so we camwhore a bit, ngong-kui-kui look at those workers at work a bit, count the cars per hour a bit, shop at the gas station shoppe a bit, and don't know what else we did. It was so boring. Nevertheless, here are the boring pictures.

I just cut his hair a day ago. Nice hoh? Can be a hairstylist anot?

In the end, total damage at the car salon = RM150. The car jiao "song", we all bored till can die.

My favorite wanton mee...

... comes with tehping

.. and saitou yudan (fishballs west-knife)

... and crispy fishcakes. yum yum..

The mee has this delightful juyaujar taste mixed into it, thus making it so darn delicious and always making us returning for more.

No doubt the kids love it too. It's one of those meals they happily help themselves while papa and mommy enjoy the food quietly, without much fuss.

That makes a fulfilling weekend brunch. Then off we would go to somewhere else, and later some snacks for teatime, evening activity like swimming/ splashing or park, followed by dinner outside. Weekends are my off days, no home cooked food, no slaving in the kitchen. Sometimes it would be taipaithong, most days it would be the penglengjeng Yew Kee food stall, and once in a moon, fancy restaurants to pamper ourselves. Last week, I had taken the camera to snap pictures of the kids, and this blog would be full with pictures again.

Looking for an aquarium

During the school holidays, I sent the kids to the preschool for a "holiday camp" called "Kampung kids". The children spent the few hours in the morning for 2 days playing games we played before when we were young, instead of Wii, computers or toys. It's good for me since I would have the morning to go do my yoga.

They had a good time (I believe!) learning traditional games like congkak, hopscotch, 5 stones, kite-flying, gasing, guli-guli and catching tiny fishes. So, the 2nd day, they brought home some new pets and being new to it, we really have no idea what to do with them. I just provide a transparent "bikar" as the fishes' new home.

Came evening time, while I was cooking dinner, meimei told me that I need to feed the fishes already, they were feeling hungry lor. (And I went "Huh? I now have to cook for the fishes too?) Since we ran out of bread again, I didn't know what to feed them and go online to ask whoever's online for advice. Bad move, the only person online seems to know nuts about that either, suggesting me to feed them sai. We discussed if we should flush them into the toilet bowl, since Finding Nemo says all toilets lead to the big sea, no?

In any case, those little fishes lead us to embrace the idea to keep some fishes as pets. It gives quite a therapeutic feeling looking at those little fishes swimming around happily. Thus, over the weekend, we took the kids to Pet shop in the mall, and contemplating to buy the whole set of stuffs to get ready for some new pets. Alas, papa was a big letdown. He veto-ed our decision to keep a pet, saying we are not ready for it and there's not enough room in our home to keep them.

He gave a few criteria for the kids to fulfill before they are allowed to have any pets. First, they must touch them and hold them in their hands. Then, they must bathe them, then, they must clean their shits, then they must kiss them... eww....he's so desperate to avoid spending more money on this probably 1-min-hot-next-min-cold hobby.

We went home, discussing anyway if we should have turtles or iguana or birds or hamster or wabbits. I think fishes should be the easiest to handle for the moment. And it would look nice for our living room. And it would be good fengshui too (whaddaya know abt fengshui, I hear you ask?). I don't care, I want something to play with.

Papa took us to 2 other pet shops last afternoon to check out the tanks price for comparison. I suggested we have a small tank as a start, (just in case, it's really the case of 1-min-hot-next-min-cold punya kisah) but he hear not a word of that. He said a small tank would be meaningless, and whoa! I see him looking at BIG tanks instead. Err, mister, is that bit too ambitious? I haven't take care of any pets in my life before wor. But, what's so hard with a few fishes, right? (But, can I tolerate seeing fishes dying in my hands?) Anyway, I'm all game for this game. I can't wait to get our (my) fish tank home.

Do you think a coral theme aquarium would be nice? Or fake decors? Or plants? Can't decide timm.. I think I want to put everything in.. capalang aquarium. Cool!

School holidays almost kaotim

Children, your holidays almost over now, and mommy can go back to leisurely morning breakfasts and workout in the mornings again.

Yeah, that's what I missed most when the holidays are here. I am just so into yoga now. Then again, the week hadn't been too bad either. Most mornings, I would sleep in till about 9+ coming to 10, until korkor comes over and tell me he's hungry and want to eat something. Usually the bread will be on the table, but that morning, we ran out of bread. So I had to unwillingly drag myself up and took them out to buy a loaf of bread home.

The other time, we went out to market and then to have loeshuefun in pork soup for breakfast. After which we strolled over to my friend's home where their 3 kids just got up. When we got back, I made some sardine sandwich for lunch and cleaned up the house. And there went half of the day away. The rest was spent either on internet, cooking, or playing some games or toys together. Ain't I blessed to have such a good life? *aksi look*

I had intended to bake a cake, get a science project done, cut their hair and do some studying together. Seems like I managed to cut their hair only today. The rest have to wait till the next holidays *grin* But we managed to clear up some of their junks too in the afternoon. The whole bunch of toys in that corner, some which were absolutely untouched for weeks or months, were thrown away, some better quality ones are stored into the closet and some in the closet were taken out to be "revived". Seems like we had a good time together. I introduced UNO to the kids as well, and they are now bugging me to play with them... heiz..

All because of orange.

Oranges. You like them cut? Or peeled? or blended? How about squeezed?

All 3 of them had the special privilege to have freshly squeezed orange juice every morning when they were toddler, diluted twice, to encourage them them to drink lots of water.

Now that they are over that age, in the you-don't-drink-this-water-you-will-get-it-from-me stare age, I would just cut or peeled the oranges for them. But they still have orange+tomato juice as breakfast each morning.

Today, didi dunno fatt-meh-san-keng laukei for orange juice, and had to be squeezed and not blended. I just ignore him and said there aren't any oranges left in the fridge. So then he nagged whole day to go out to shopping mall and get them.

Eventually we did. When we came home, he held the orange squeezer and bugged me to make him orange juice. We had a good long debate on why he need to drink orange juice, squeezed, while he can eat them cut, or he is already drinking it blended every morning. He maintained that he wants to drink it, without any other fruits along, and that this year, he hadn't drink any squeezed orange juice.

Forkuan jor, I snatched that thing he was holding, and cut the orange into half for him, squeezed them hard, while complaining why he must give him so much things to do with him standing beside me. I told him "see? now I have to wash this, and this and the cup after you finished drinking it" and bang the cup on the table unwillingly for him.

While he enjoyed sipping the drink, and I was still furious on his sudden unreasonable demand for his craving, I continued cutting the rest of the oranges for the rest of us. Then I turned to him and barked "Have you finished?". He jumped up and looked at me in puppy eyes, nodded his head. Dang! At that moment, I just held myself from laughing. Why am I getting all worked up over it anyway? Do I want to be call a diktator like goolypop? NO!!! I'm not like her! I'm loving and caring and nice...

While we were eating our cut oranges, he came over and whispered softly "Can I have one?" with his puppy eyes..Heizzzzz... it's so hard to be angry with him for long. But I think he won't ask for squeezed orange juice for sometime.