Mid Week Rambles

It's one of those days when you thought things are going surprisingly smooth & that maybe... just maybe, you can go home early... and suddenly... WHAM... "disaster" strikes and you need to go on a frenzy to tie everything up before the day ends. Dateline is today (be it now / 12midnight, it doesn't matter - but today)

That day is today.

It's past 6pm and I'm still waiting for one person down the chain to get something completed before I can activate the next action to be completed by another person at the other end of the chain... At this rate, am not sure when I can get home! *sigh*

Strange that a few years back I wouldn't have complained & worked till midnight if I have to. The baby really changed me. Now I'm not sure if I can get back to my old self of putting all in for work & dateline...

But hey... I'm still doing it now, so I guess it's a given. The difference is the willingness (& the amount of grumbling at the background... :-p)

Shortest speech by CEO of Coca-Cola

I'm sure this has been circulated in the web quite extensively, but I though it's good to have a constant reminder - & what better way than to immortalize it in my blog... :-)

At the same time, I received another quote on value:

"An economist is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" - Oscar Wilde -

I'm an economist - so what does that make me?

Satire - When China's President visits USA

I received this really funny comic satire on US's debt situation. It's actually quite bad considering it could be us next! Malaysia's debt is so high that my son will be working till old age & yet will not be able to pay that debt the government seem to be putting us in. Why should it matter to them when their children are already PRs of other countries. Sigh...

There's more. Check out at : http://www.fropki.com/obama-vt43507.html

Wise words from the Dalai Lama

A question was posed to Dalai Lama:
"What is the thing about humanity that surprises you the most?"

His answer was as follows:
"Man" - Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't enjoy the present,
And as a result he doesn't live in the present or the future.
And he lives as if he's never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived.”

有人向达赖喇嘛提出问题：关于人性，最让您感到惊讶的是什么？他回答：人类，为了赚钱，他牺牲健康。为了修复身体，他牺牲钱财。然后，因担心未来，他无法享受现在。就这样，他无法活在当下。活着时，他忘了生命是短暂的。死时，他才发现他未曾好好地活着。

Ouch! He Bites!

For the last few weeks since Kun Sam turned 5-mths, he has been showing signs that he's teething. Lotsa saliva, biting anything & everything he got his hands on & poo a few times a day. However, whenever he bites my finger, I can only feel his hard gums "chomping" & gnawing. Until last night....

As usual I indulge by giving my pointer finger for him to gnaw on. What surprise when I feel something sharp biting into my flesh! I quickly removed my finger & pry open his mouth to look at the little teeth (much to his disagreement). Sure enough there's a teeny-weeny white surface of a tooth protuding out of his gums!

Excited I went for the camera. Alas it's impossible to get a shot of a moving baby who refuses to open his mouth without me prying it open. So unfortunately I can't take the photo shot of the historic moment. But managed to get many cute shots of him smiling & lauging cos' he thought it was a game when I tried prying his mouth open...

Kun Sam's Adventure With A Toothless Grin

Last weekend hubby, Kun Sam and I travelled down to Melaka to visit my brothers & my very pregnant sister-in-law. We arrived just in time for lunch & we had Klang Bak Kut Teh (yea, I know... what am I doing having Klang Bak Kut Teh in Melaka? It's like having Penang Char Kway Teow in KL). All went well & Kun Sam was being an angel sitting straddled on my lap with my arms around him while we eat (note: we were careful with the hot soup - so no child negligence there... hmmm.... am I the only one paranoid on child safety here?). At times he looked at me & moves his mouth as if he'd love to have a bite / sip too. :-)

Through out the whole meal there were quite a number of people who walk pass us & most if not all of them would "greet" / wave at him the way most adults do whenever they see a baby; be it young / old / fair / dark / Malaysian / Bangladeshi - he seem to take this in his stride with no problem. Towards the end of the meal, my youngest brother took over to carry him & at the same time a lady working there walked over to play with him as well. Suddenly he cried so loud that he scare the lady away & not to mention grabbing the attention of all the restaurant patrons. He refused to stop crying & screaming even after I took over to carrying him & soothe him - which was really strange. He even burrowed his tiny head on my chest while continuing his wailing. Looking up at the lady who tried to play with him, I thought she looked normal enough....

Until..... she smiled and I noticed her whole front teeth were missing! LOL...

I know it's bad to laugh, at the risk of looking as if I'm laughing at her missing "assets". But I'm actually laughing (much restained ahemming actually) because I suspect my little similarly-toothless Kun Sam might be crying his head off because of that toothless smile!

He finally stopped crying (with some residual hiccups) when we paid the bill & made our way to the car. Upon reaching the car everyone was laughing & hubby said "What's the big deal Kun Sam? You had no teeth too!" Bro was a bit more nasty saying that she must have looked really ugly in his baby's eyes ("ugly" in the eyes of the beholder?) and.... he must be right because babies - like children, don't lie. **roll eyes** Nasty isn't it? I wasn't going to comment, for I may very well be the old lady with a toothless grin as well in future. I hope when that day comes, Kun Sam Jr is not going to scream his head off looking at grandmas toothless smile.

Kun Sam Has a New Cousin!

Yup - My brother is now a father of a baby girl. Born on 28th Jul at 10+am, she weighs in at 3.55kg (even heavier than Kun Sam!). Despite the drama of a potential cesarean, she eventually arrived naturally. :-)

Well, not wanting to steal my brother's thunder - will give him the honours to share with us the "details".

I wonder how will Kun Sam react to another baby? Grab at her hands & gnaw it am sure... He's teething right now, so he tends to gnaw at anything that comes within reach now - especially his own fingers (his poor teddy is almost constantly wet! yet he strangely didn't like to use the proper teether).

Pix during my pregnancy

I was hideous during my pregnancy! (Not that I am beautiful to begin with, but I was uglier that time!) I had pimples exploding everywhere, my double-chin which I've managed to shed just before getting pregnant (with lotsa effort in controlling my diet & exercising I must add) made a huge come back and my nose! Can you see how bulbous it had become! Oh well... I wasn't aware of them until when I reviewed the pix... :-p I was in Cloud 9 at that time! I don't notice these things when I have greater things to look forward to...

I must say though that baby is very "co-operative" when he was snug in my womb. I've heard a lot about woman's cravings during pregnancy. I do have a number of them, but surprisingly despite the very strong cravings that can drive me crazy when I keep recalling the taste, smell and look of the stuff I crave, I managed to get around it. How? Well, one midnight, I had this strong crave for Chee Cheong Fun and it must be the Penang style with dark sweet sauce... not the KL Chee Cheong Fun which is normally in curry. I was salivating just picturing the plate of Chee Cheong Fun (and believe me, I wasn't even a Chee Cheong Fun fan to begin with, so I don't understand the craving) with no way of getting it. So I tried my luck by rubbing at my tummy and said "Baby... it's late and all the Chee Cheong Fun stalls are closed. Can we wait till tomorrow morning? Mummy promise, we'll get that Chee Cheong Fun first thing tomorrow morning! Deal?" After a while, my craving lessen and I can finally sleep peacefully without tossing and turning - craving after the CCF. Amazing isn't it? I negotiated with my baby even before he's out of the womb! Hehe...

So after that I've employed the same methods whenever I was hit with strong cravings. Craving for authentic thin crust pizza (not the fast food variety unfortunately... This baby has class... I tried Pizza Hut & Domino's... he's not sated). But I was in PD? Where do you get good pizza there? So again, I "negotiated" and it goes something like this - "Baby... Mummy is in PD with dede right now... There's no pizza like the ones you wanted... Can we wait till the weekend? I promise I'll get you that Pizza you wanted". So I was ok for a few days and even forgotten about it, but come weekend... The cravings came back! Then I remembered the promise. So hubby and I went to Marco's pizza in BV. That's the only pizzeria I can think of that's close to the ones we had in Rome and Milan during our honeymoon (cos' my cravings was really going for that very taste we had in Italy... but sorry... am not that cravy nor rich to fly all the way to Italy to soothe my cravings... pregnant or not...) - after that, I was satisfied and never wanted another pizza again!

Other than CCF and pizza, some of my other cravings are - Cempedak (and I want them fried... not raw... Boy that was tough... It was about nearly a month before I tracked down some cempedaks), Tau Fu Fah and... errr... can't remember... maybe that was it. I tell ya... All these cravings were postponed to a more convenient time thanks to a bit of negotiation with lil' un. Funny huh...