My Last 3 Trips

This post is really meant for memory sake for it is so outdated- the last 3 trips my company sent me to.

Nantes, France (14-20 September 2009)
Went there to attend a conference. The journey was boring as usual but not too tiring as there was only 1 transit (KL-Amsterdam-Nantes). Nantes is a very small town but there is a nice old castle there, which reminds me of the fairy tales. There is nothing much to do there except walking around town, do some (window) shopping and simply enjoy the cool weather. I was trying to buy some souvenirs but couldn't find any souvenir shops there. Strange huh? But I bought a bag for myself.

Me and my colleague stopped by Amsterdam and visited the city for a few hours as we had a 10-hour transit time on the way back to KL. If you ever transit in Amsterdam, I recommend you to take a look at the city. You can store your luggage at the airport. The big locker can fit two big luggage and the train ticket to city centre cost less than 5 euros (if I remember it correctly). The best part is, there is a toilet with shower inside the airport. I have used it twice. It's free but they just provide the shower with hot water. You need to bring your own toiletries and towel.

Walking back to the hotel.

Told you I did a lot of window shopping.

The town centre. We hang out there eating ice-cream.

Picnic.

The entrance to the castle.

Inside a Cathedral.

River cruise at Amsterdam.

A typical building in Amsterdam.

Multi-storey parking for bicycle.

Tourists at the infamous red light district.
I saw the ladies waiting for customers. Some pretty, some not
and some are frightening.

Bordeaux, France (3-11 October 2009)
I went back to KL from Nantes on a Sunday, spent a weekend in KL and off to France again the next Saturday. So I crammed myself again in the tiny seat for 10+ hours. This time, I transited in Paris. It's crazy to walk at The Charles De Gaulle Airport. I had to walk for around 30 minutes from one terminal to the other to take a domestic flight.

Bordeaux is bigger than Nantes and there are more things to see and buy. I thought as we get closer to the year end, the weather will be colder so I brought along my thick jackets and sweater and boots. The weather forecast said the temperature would be around 15C. I was wrong and so was the forecast. It was so so hot. It's even hotter because I wore sweater and boots. The mat salleh walked around in shorts and t-shirts. I felt so stupid but it's ok coz I got myself another bag.

The street is closed every Sunday for pedestrian and some bazaar.

The Sunday market.


Spices and sauces.


Funfare and fountain.


The city train.


A hot and sunny day.


Don't know what building is this but I love the stone wall.


The Cathedral at night. We were having dinner nearby.


The place where the meeting was held.

Busy Friday afternoon at the shopping street.


The same shopping street at night.

Skelleftea, Sweden (17-23 January 2010)
This is the best trip among the three. In fact, I would say that it is the top 2 places that I will remember for a long long time to come. First will be Milan, not because of the shopping but the buildings. I just love to see the architecture and people walking around, hanging out at the sidewalk cafes, walking their dogs, etc. etc. It's just so Italian. I will remember Skelleftea for it's snow. It was my first time seeing snow and so much snow. The river was frozen and everywhere you see is white. When you are walking outside, you can just smell the snow. To me, it was really cold but to the locals, -5C is very mild weather. The third day we were there, temperature dip to -17C. I just got to know that Skelleftea has 6 months of winter!!! Wow wow wow!! I did so many new things there like walking in the snow, wearing 4 layers of clothes, riding on a snowmobile and tasted the best salmon ever. It was really a great trip.

Preview of the snow.

A view outside the conference hall. It was snowing at that time.


Another view on a brighter day. We only saw the sun for
one day throughout the 5-day stay. One thing
I learnt-the brighter the day the colder it is.


The bridge we have to cross (i.e. walk) to go back to the hotel.


It was pitch dark at 3 p.m.


On the way to the Svansele Wilderness Centre and saw
these lovely red houses. Almost all of their houses are red
and they look really nice surrounded by ice.


Moose on the loose!!


Dinner being cooked.


Dinner is ready-It's difficult to balance the potatoes on the
curved plate that is made of wood. The cutleries and
mug are made of wood too.


Moose and reindeer meat.


Great coffee and ginger bread.

Ben 10

3 years, 6 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old.....

After the previous unhappy incident, daddy voluntarily bought 3 tickets for the Ben 10 show. I was really surprised that he is willing to spent RM49/ticket on a kid's show. The last time I got a surprise like this was more than 2 years ago when he brought us to a Valentine's dinner at a hotel. We were the only couple who brought a child along. Back to Ben 10. Well, it is not really one of Ethan's favourite show but when daddy told him that we are going to watch Ben 10, he kept asking for it non stop. He knows what is tomorrow but can't really understand that today is Wednesday and the show will be on Friday. So, we had to bear with "Daddy, I want to watch Ben 10" like 20 times a day for 3 days.

He got really excited that Friday (27 November 2009) morning. We got up at around 9 a.m., had breakfast and headed to KLCC. We reached there around 11 a.m. and walked around. Too bad the christmas deco was not up yet that time. Otherwise we can snap a few more photos. There was nothing much to do so we went for lunch and went to the convention centre around 1p.m., took some photos and waited for the show to start at 2p.m.

Ethan complaint of stomach ache right after lunch and I bought 'yu yee' oil for him at the Guardian pharmacy and gave him some chinese medicine. He was ok after that but the stomach ache bothered him until Wednesday, when we finally decided to take him to the paed. He has no diarrhoea though. Everyday when he complaint of discomfort, I gave him some chinese medicine and applied oil. He will be ok after that but the next day, the discomfort returned. His paed. said it was wind and prescribed some medicine for him. After two days, he has fully recovered.

Back to Ben 10 again. The show didn't start at 2 sharp (biasalah....we are talking about Malaysian time here) and ended at around 4.45p.m. Ethan really enjoyed the show. He paid full attention to the show especially during the fighting scenes while I was busy taking photos and videos most of the time. Hubby was enjoying looking at Ethan's expression most of the time. He must be very satisfied thinking that his money was well spent. All in all, we were all happy at the end of the day.

We went for a bite at the Burger King after that. Boy, I haven't been there for a long long time and I don't even know when did they stop the free refill for soft drink but I noticed that we can pay with Touch & Go card there. After snacking, we went for some shopping at Isetan but left empty handed. Ethan refused to sleep in his pram even it was way past his nap time. We decided to leave KLCC at 6.30p.m. and wanted to stop for dinner on our way home. Ethan was still wide awake then.

So, off we went to the car park and when hubby tried to turn on the engine, it couldn't start. Gosh, I was panicked a little. He tried a few times but still the engine refused to cooperate. Then, I saw the car park management office tel no. on the pillars and asked hubby to call them. A guard was doing his round on a bicycle and hubby asked him something. I couldn't hear what he said coz I was at the lift area with Ethan.Then he said he's going to walk to the management office. So we waited for him there for like 15 minutes before he returned on a motorbike with a management staff. They jump-start the engine and we quickly drove away. Ethan fell asleep even before we reached the car park exit. That's how exhausted he was. It was already 7p.m. by then but we decided to check out some shops to get the battery replaced. As it was a public holiday, most of the shops were closed. Luckily we found one that was still opened. We got the battery changed, went for dinner and 'sempat' stopped by a warehouse sales on the way back. I have never been to so many places before in one day. We went out at 10.30 a.m. and reached home at 9 p.m. It's a record!

Posing time


His very own silly pose


Another one.


There...he saw something..


....and dragged daddy to buy for him


The stage.


His very own seat but it is too big for him.


One of the scenes.


The show ended but he refused to leave.

Frustrated Frustrated!!!!!

WARNING!: BEE, THIS IS NOT FOR YOU TO READ.



I'm so gonna explode!! I do not know what he thinks and how he manages things even after knowing him for more than a decade. Let's get to the details.

WHO?: My 'lou kong'

WHY?:
He said he might need to go to Jakarta like few weeks ago. So, I kept on telling him go to apply passport earlier coz he is not born in P.M'sia. No, he did not do anything about it. In the meantime, he kept on saying he might need to go..he might need to go.

On Tuesday, he said "I might need to go this Friday". Still refused to apply passport and he even told me that his colleague said can get within one day. I told him a MILLION TIMES that he's not born here, so need longer time to get a passport.

Then the day after, which was yesterday, I saw the tickets so I asked him have you got your passport. Guess what......NO!! Who on earth (other than this man) will issue flight tickets without a passport. You tell me. He said he will apply tomorrow (which is today). I don't want to comment already. What else can I say right? From the beginning I told him that he needs to get his passport first. The best thing is his boss doesn't know that he doesn't have a passport! Great or not? I also asked if he knows what documents he needs to bring. I got a stern reply that he already went to get the forms and everything. Fine. I keep quiet after that. I expect he has asked everything since it's already so urgent.

This morning I got a call from him. Surprise surprise....He said he needs to fly back to his hometown this afternoon to get it. If he applies here, it takes 5 days. How will you react? Why on earth this question was not asked when he was there to collect the form??? Didn't I SAY it takes longer for him? DIDN'T I?? WAS I TALKING TO THE WALL OR WHAT?? I was totally speechless. I was VERY MAD but there is nothing I can do about it. Do you know that kind of feeling? When you are so mad but you don't want to let it out so you just keep it inside until you feel like exploding? You can't talk, you can't shout and you definitely do not want to cry. I didn't talk much, just asked when is he coming back and told him I don't want to talk already.

My phone rang again not long after. Once I saw who is the caller I took a deep breath before I answer it just to keep cool. He asked me where is his birth certificate. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! Now only you're asking me that?? I managed to tell the location of the document without raising my voice and end the conversation qucikly before I lose it.

My phone rang again. I took another deep breath. He asked me if I can pick him up from the airport on Saturday evening. I said I don't know. What else am I suppose to say??? I'm fuming inside and cannot think straight.

WHY? WHY? WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYY????

Diaperless At Night

3 years, 4 months, 4 weeks & 1 day old.....

What happen when you run out of diapers at home? Normally, we will rush out to buy a packet, no matter what. But not this time. We ran out of diapers on Sunday night but were tooooo lazy to go out. Also, I was having migrain since Friday night. So, I really didn't feel like going out. I told hubby that we might try and train Ethan to sleep without diaper. I noticed that sometimes he did not wet his diaper throughout the night and I thought that maybe we can give it a try.

We have taken some precautions. First of all, get him to clear his bladder after milk, before bed time. Secondly, I put a cloth napkin inside his brief, just in case. Thirdly, put the changing mat covered by another layer of cloth on the bed, again, just in case.

The first two nights went by without a hitch. No soiled napkin. Third night...well.....we were not as lucky. I woke up at 5a.m. (which is this morning) and found that he has wet his pants. So, I got to get up and change him. When he woke up, I told him that he shh shh (pee) in his pants, he angrily replied me with a "No!". Ok, I got it. He doesn't like it so I just cut it and changed the topic.

I think (women think a lot and always do the thinking, don't you agree?) he didn't wet his pants on the first two nights because he slept late and woke up early. We slept around 10p.m. last night, which was slightly earlier and maybe he couldn't hold it that long. Hmmmmm......what to do tonight? Perhaps get him to drink his milk half an hour before bedtime and clear his bladder just before bedtime. By that, hopefully all his milk will be cleared from his bladder.

Painting

3 years, 4 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old.....

As mentioned in my previous post, we have bought a set of water colour for Ethan. He likes that a lot but I don't know how long it will last. The set we bought him (a book with a colour palette and a brush) at MPH cost around RM30. He has finished the colour on the palette so hubby bought him another set of water colour in tubes. I don't know how much it costs as I was away at that time. In the beginning, he doesn't know how to control the amount of colour and put way too much colour on the book and after it dries off, the pages just stick together. I wanted to take photo of what he has painted but when I tried to separate them, I ended up peeling the pages. So, what you see here are the photos I took recently (11 October 2009) and he can paint better now.

The book, palette and brush come in a set.

Ethan at 40 months old

3 years, 4 months & 2 days old.....

Oh dear. I have abandoned the blog for almost 2 months. I just lost the momentum to write.

Ethan is behaving quite well lately. Nothing much has changed or have I lost track about his development? I don't know. The routine is the same, his food intake is still the same. His taste bud changed a little though. He began to take some vege especially beans. He likes mushrooms very much and also lotus root. He can eat rice without soup now but he eats more rice with soup.

He can go to toilet unaided now. He knows how to pee on his own, flush the toilet, wash his hands afterward and wipe them with a towel. When he poops, we need to put him on the toilet seat and he will asks us to go out until he is done. I don't know why. He is diaperless on afternoon naps now. He was like on and off the diapers but now I'm quite sure he will not wet his pants in the 1 hour plus during his nap. When we are out, he will always tell us he wants to pee or poo during meal time. It's annoying sometimes. I will get hubby to bring him to the toilet most of the time...hehe. There were a couple of times when he needed to pee so badly in the car I gave him a plastic bag to relieve himself. My friend put a potty in the car for incidents like this but I hate to clean potty. Plastic bags work just as good (for boys only). For poo-poo, he can hold himself until we got home. Thank goodness.

He talks like a parrot and likes to imitates me on the phone. When watching tv, he asks so many questions that you can hardly concentrate. I doubt we can bring him to the cinema again. We brought him to watch Terminator few months back (his first time) and taught him how to whisper. He sat through the movie but it was uncomfortable for us as he was sitting on our lap. Need to buy him a ticket next time.

His latest craze is Power Rangers. To date, he has 3CDs and 3-4 figurines. It's adding up very fast coz everytime we go out, he will asks for toys. We managed to buy him two sets at Jusco with 70% off. Phew!! We also bought him a water colour set after he painted with a set at my sister's house on Monday (21 Sep) night. After we left for home that night, he asked for a set non-stop. Seriously, he asked for it every minute or so. Even after we said yes, he will still ask for it. We couldn't stand it so we brought him to MPH at Midvalley the next day and immediately bought him a set. Then, he started to tell us he wanted to go home coz I told him we can't open it until we get home. He started to ask us to go home non-stop for the next 2 hours. No explanation will satisfy him. In the end, I couldn't take it anymore and I told him if he wouldn't stop it, I will throw his water colour away. He stopped for a while after that. He painted some pictures that night and sat quietly on his table for quite some time. I forgot to take pictures but will try to do it later.

About his previous obsession, Ultraman, he can recognise the different Ultramen and can tell me their names by looking at the pictures. Amazing. I intend to start something more educational with him since he can memorise things so well. Perhaps I will print out the multiplication table and stick it on the wall for him to memorise.

Playing with his stroller. We kept it away for a few months
and now he likes it as if it's something new.

Pretend to sleep.

What's Up

That day while I was chit-chatting with my colleague, we mentioned that how time flies this year. It's already end of July now. I realise I have been blogging less and less mainly due to work commitment. When I'm at home, needless to say, I hardly touch the laptop as Ethan will ask me to switch on Ultraman (from Youtube) for him. Once he starts watching, he refuses to stop and always ends up crying when we switch it off. I've been telling hubby that he is watching too much Ultraman already. We try to limit it and he is watching like 4-5 days a week, every day limit to 1 hour.

Talking about my work, well, I have not been anywhere this year except for Port Dickson in June and will be going to Penang, next week. I'm not looking forward to any travelling actually. Don't know why. Just don't feel like going anywhere. At the same time, work in the office has been...errr...how should I say.........manageable but a lot of ad-hoc stuff, which I don't like. A Deputy Director has left our division in April, so we have to pick up part and pieces of his work. I hate to pick up people's work. I rather handle everything from the beginning.

I have made a very big decision for myself this year. Well, I'm going back to study and is taking Master of Science now. Actually, the planning started sometime mid last year. I first started thinking about taking up a Master degree because I feel that's the only way for me to get out of this company. Not that I have decided to leave but I have a strong feeling that I should have a back-up plan. What if the company cease operation one day? or what if I get a nasty boss in the future and I couldn't stand him/her and cannot find another job? I was very very bored with my job at one point and I have tried to look for another one. After sending out many many applications, I only received some calls for jobs with lower pay and lower prospect for career advancement. I'm not a very ambituous person but if I do not get better offer, I might as well stay put. At the same time, I felt that I need to do something about it. Hopefully, after I got my Master, I would have better chances in the job market. For all we know, I might stay in the same company until I retire..heheh.

Classes for the semester started in July and I need to attend only 1 class per week on Tuesday from 6-9 pm. I will go to class after work and hubby will fetch Ethan. So far, things are working out well with the study and with my two boys. I have yet to start anything on my thesis, which is the hardest part but I just want to take things one step at a time. Before I register, I have been thinking seriously should I proceed with the plan. I even thought of giving up, many many times but felt that it's not a right thing to do. Even now, I'm not sure if I could complete my study. I know it would be such a waste to drop it especially after planning it for more than a year. Hubby is supportive about it too. But it is really tough, especially mentally, to go back to study after 9 long years. Furthermore, I have a family and job to juggle now, unlike last time when I was doing my bachelor degree where everything is taken care of. I really miss those carefree years. Things are very different now. I need to be very determined in order to complete my Master degree. Hopefully, I can complete it in 3 semesters (1.5 years).