of photos and photos...

Sometimes hor, when I when i get bored at the offise or after a tough meeting, I will come to my blog and see photos.

of another pyramid scheme and four things...

I have been what you would essentially called tagged by ponytails. I guess it’s something like the pyramid scheme that I talked about last time with the exception that there is no money involved. For this tag I am supposed to answer questions about four things about me.
Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Picking cloves – that was wayyyyy back in primary school. One of our neighbor’s relative own a plantation at the hills somewhere in Balik Pulau. During school holidays they would ask us if we want to go up to the hills to pick cloves. The job is relatively easy. Cloves are plucked from the trees when they are about to ripe and people will go up the trees to pluck them. Somewhere along the line, there will be other cloves that fall onto the ground and our job is to go and pick them. Doesn’t earn much though (~20 sens for every milk canful)
2. General worker at jeans factory – During the long break after SPM my mom got me a job in the jeans factory that she was working in. My job is basically as a general worker in the stone wash department and it ranges from flipping the pants outside in to counting and sorting pants. Pays by the day and I guess that’s the first taste of financial freedom that I really felt, but wasted them all on Tamiya.
3. Programmer – During my Third year in varsity I had to do an internship at the factory as part of my curriculum. Mine was spent in one of the hardisk factory and my job/project was to write a program for collecting the data from factory performance and plotting them out. Mind you, this was prior to the magic that you can do with microsoft exel and everything were done in dBase and C programming.
4. Current job- Actually at this point I am not too sure of what is my current job. For the past 2 years I was on a project in the fastory and now that this project is coming into a completion , I will need to look for a new job within the factory. In any case I have been in the same company for 11 years and I have done roles from equipment,process engineering, technical training, e-learning development, subcontractor management. So now, with the closing of the current project I might be going for another role soon.
Four of my favourite foods:
1. Laksa – My current fav is the one in BB café near sunshine square, the coffee shop near bukit jambul kompleks (with optional fishballs) is not bad too.
2. Chicken rice – esp the one opposite of komtar
3. ikea karipaps – everytime I go down to ikea I will definitely get their karipaps
4. anything that is dipped or garnished with kg koh chili sauce
Four Countries I have been to on vacation:
1. Southwest Thailand – During the CNY break in 2006 Wifey and I drove up to Thailand for 9 days as part of a tour group. We used our known car and drove as part of a larger group of cars. Went to the death railway, bridge over river kwai, we even spent 2 nights in chalets on (yes ON) the river kwai, drove all the way to the Myanmar border etc. But the best of all is the food, being olk folks that we are, we are beginning to forget the places that we have visited, but the thing is we still remember the food. Really cool trip but I guess we’ll be grounded for a while now
2. New Zealand – in 2005 wifey and I took a 2 weeks driving tour around the north and south island of New Zealand. Hands down, it is one of the best trip we have taken.
3. Hong Kong – Wifey, my parents and I went for a free and easy trip to Hong Kong a few years ago. Pretty interesting trip but it was kinda rush as it’s only a 4day 3 night thing.
4. US- went on a westcoast trip of cali, vegas and grand canyon with my parents, brother and his wife (at that time his gf). My brother organized the whole trip. We rented a van and drove.
Four places I would rather be right now:
Not I am in the factory waiting for the next meeting to start and the places that I’d rather be are:
1. In bed and watch Sophie as she wakes up.
2. with wifey in that cabin overlooking mt.cook in new Zealand
3. eating authentic thai food somewhere in the Mon village
4. of course anywhere Wifey and Sophie is at right now.
now that I am done, I think I am supposed to name four people to tag. Actually I don’t know who to tag but I kinda like to see what the loctormayat, geekchic and maybe tutiger have to say about those four things. Oops that’s only 3 people right. So if you have an itch to talk about those 4 things why don’t you consider yourself tagged and write.

of struggles and random sounds...

We had the first hand experience at feeding Sue Yi solids this weekend. Apparently all the good news from the babysitter on how easy it is to feed her solids were all just an elaborate propaganda did not hold true for us. Sue Yi struggled when we tried to feed her and we on the other hand struggled to feed her. Anyway, our babysitter's tip was to lie her down so so that the food can flow down easily, but I told wifey that i prefer not to use that method lest Sue Yi gets used to eating lying down. I mean since we have not really see any restaurant that serve you food for you to eat lying down, i figured that we'd better not get Sue Yi used to eating lying down.

Wifey have also been brainwashing teaching Sue Yi to say the word Dada (as in Daddy). I guess she is preparing Sue Yi to call me when she reach her teenage years and wants money to go out. Anyway, i guess i was rewarded today. I was lying on the bet with Sue Yi talking cock and bull sh*tting like we always do when she suddenly turned to me, smiled and said 'Da da' then went back to her high pitch squealing. I was dumbfounded, (like that scene in forrest gump when he saw his girlfriend's boobs for the first time) and tried toget her to say it again. But like they say, the 8 o'clock news comes only once a day and she did not say it anymore...

Ya ya i know, i know, it is just a random sound that she blurted out from nowhere, she is still too young to start to talk. But who cares, it's the sweetest sound and it is my memory to cherish.

Oh ya. If you are a penangite or you happen to be in Penang, please please go to eat at Swensen's. No i don't have any stocks nor gain if more people go there to eat. My reason of asking you good folks to go there is this. I took Wifey and Sue Yi to the one in Queensbay on Sunday (someone celebrated her birthday). We loved the food there and also the price were reasonable, but we noticed that there are not that many people eating there (Lunchtime on Sunday and only 4 tables). Looks like it might not survive. Which is a sad thing because we really loved the food. So do go and eat there so that it survives and me and wifey can go there again. ;)

I know, I know, the fashion police are sounding the alarm on how i can match the blue sweatter thingy with a pink dress. But don't you think she lookes so cute in blue?

of solids and good mood...

We started Sue Yi on solids yesterday. Well actually not us, but our baby sitter. Our babysitter mentioned to us sometime ago that probably now is a good time to start her on solids. So, last weekend we went out and got a small can of rice cereals and past it to our babysitter yesterday. According to the babysitter, Sue Yi really liked it and ate every bit of the cereal. Our babysitter was mentioning that Sue Yi even looked at her sadly when she finished and walked away with the empty bowl. So it's a good start I guess.

We took Sue Yi to the clinic for her jabs today and it turned out to be quite a pleasant experience. There were the usual "OOOh! Eric sudah datang!" squeals from the nurses. Sue Yi also made a new friend. There was another lady who was there for her son's jabs and she got to talking with wifey. Then they do the normal mummies with their kids thing. You know, the "Sophie, say Hi to your friend la" and vice versa. (As if lah Sophie will suddenly say "Hey Wassup Dude!") I think probably must be a new experience for Sue Yi as she started to get excited and talk to the other baby. I guess it's a good thing too as that got her into a cheerful mood (and unknowing of the impending jab)
The jab itself was pretty uneventful, wifey asked me to hold her this time and i held her down. She complained a bit about being held down and cried a bit when the needle went in. but less than 30 seconds later she was back in her good mood. Silly girl must have a veruy short memory for pain...

of letters and five months...

Dear Sue Yi,
You turned 5 months old last Saturday. I am still amazed by to rate that you are growing up and I suppose will continue to be so. We are also seeing more and more of your character as you grow. You are turning out to be quite an expressive girl. You like to laugh and laugh easily. It doesn’t take much to make you laugh, just a little bit of teasing here and a teasing there and that will set you off. Provided of course, after you had your beauty sleep la. But the part I like most is when you flash your toothless dopey faced smile when you see me in the morning.
We have also been training you to sleep on the bed instead of the cradle and so far it seems to be working for nights, but I guess we will be taking it slowly so that it will not be too much of a drastic change to you. Besides you are also able to roll around on your own now.
Anyway, as much as you can laugh easily, you are also easily agitated will cry at the slightest discomfort. This can be quite testy at times but I guess probably it’s your training to us for your teenage rebellious years…

You are also able to reach out and grab things (to put into your mouth) with your hands. But I guess you still need more training before you can hold them firmly as you always seem to drop them.
You are also able to hold up your head when you lie on your stomach and everytime you looked up, you seem to have that puzzeled look on your face, I guess it takes some time to get used to seeing things from a different view. But one thing that kinda worries me is that when your neck gets tired from lifting your head, you will let go and let your head slam onto the bed. You are not planning to grow up to be one of those head banging musician groupies, are you?

Mommy mentioned that our babysitter asked if we are planning to start you on solids soon. So Off we went to get you a can of cereal. Mommy said to let the babysitter try feeding you, so I guess we’ll just see.

I guess alter all that, the one thing that I want to tell you in this letter is that I got the best gift from you last Saturday. You were just about to wake up and was doing your stretching thingy like you normally do when you wake up. Then you turned to me, I wished you ”Good Morning!” and you gave me the sweetest,most adorable dopey faced smile!

Love
Daddy

of bye bye and missing you...

Sue Yi and Wifey were still sleeping when i left for work this morning and i did not get a chance to say 'bye bye' like i normally do. Now i miss them so much....