Friends come in many shapes, sizes and colour. Some would appear almost daily for a period of time, only to disappear after a while. Others would not appear friendly in the beginning but over time, they stick by through thick and thin, and remain closeby — not too close to be ’stalking’ you and yet not too far not that they forget you.
We had a visit from one such friend today. She was my former MD (Managing Director). When I first met her, she came off as someone who is very cold and unfriendly. After all, when she was about to join the company as the new MD, I had ‘heard’ a lot of things about her. Her tenure as the company MD was quite short — I think it was only for about two years.
We kept in touch after she left the company and over the years, she is one of the few that still remains in contact (yes, my first impression of her was not accurate). There would be the occasional calls or greetings. She would also pop by this site just to see what’s new in my life.
And today, she dropped by our place to see how we’ve settled in as well as to see Gabriel. There was the usual story exchange (she likes to travel) and consultation — she’s seen a lot and knows a lot more than us! As always, Mrs Tai and I were happy to see her.
Thinking back to the days when I first met her, I realise what I had ‘heard’ was not an accurate picture of her. No doubt she had to make some not-so-popular decisions, but I guess she had her reasons. I was glad our paths crossed as I have learnt a lot from her (and every now and then, there are still new things that she is sharing with us).
Well, you know who you are… And yes, I still remember we’re supposed to try out that Thai vegetarian place in Centrepoint, Bandar Utama.
I have to apologise for not updating my blog (though I prefer to call it my website). I’ve been tied up with a few things and a lot has happened over the past two weeks or so…
On a sad note, a classmate passed away last week. Ya… Someone my age passed away. I would think that many people my age would think of themselves as being invincible — nothing can harm us. This classmate just fainted and then passed away — I don’t have any additional details besides what was told to us by his girlfriend, Yenny.
I suggested to Yenny to write to Facebook so we could have Lawrence’s page memorialised. I think she’s done that already because I noticed the link has changed.
Anyway, his death just jolts a few of us into thinking… Are we ‘prepared’?
At the home front, my garden wall is now complete and work has started on the grass… Photos will come (hopefully) over the weekend.
Gabriel… He is now starting to ‘talk’… OK, not really talk but vocalise (I think that’s the word, if there is such a word). He would happily go about making sounds as though he’s talking. One can tell the mood he’s in by ‘listening’ to him. When he’s happy, it sounds very soft and pleasant. But when he’s upset, it’s curt and loud as though he’s scolding someone! But he absolutely loves to smile! When he sees me walking over to his bed early in the morning (he wakes up before me), he would smile at me. When Mrs Tai picks him up from the babysitter’s place, first thing he would do is smile at Mrs Tai. Even the babysitter’s relatives nicknamed him ‘the baby who just loves to smile”. Mrs Tai and I tease Gabriel by saying he’s very good at sucking up… But seriously, we tell him that it’s a good thing to have — a smile on the face all the time.
Together with a few residents, we also met the developer to discuss some security concerns that we have… That was like yesterday and I’m very pleasantly surprised that changes were already made today itself!
Speaking of today, Gabriel had his 3rd month jab today — he’s a few days shy of being three months old!
Over at the office… We will be going office expansion — yeah, just less than 3 months since moving to the new location and we’re now going to expand and take up the empty office next door.
What else? Chinese New Year is just around the corner! So many things to do — wash curtains, tidy up the house, do up my Ikea cabinets (hmmm… Why does that line sound so familiar… heh heh…)
“Your mission (with no option to reject) is to buy the Huggies diapers on promotion and also the Jacob’s cream crackers, also on promotion.”
Mrs Tai waived the Tesco promotional flyers in front of me and to show me the items that I need to buy. Without looking at the flyers, I told her I should be able to find it. After all, Tesco usually have the promotional items marked with BIG posters, etc… Worst case, I could always refer to the flyers which they usually have on the way in…
Arrived at Tesco… Walked over to the baby’s section and then…
Huh…? So many different type of Huggies diapers?!?
I didn’t expect to see soooOOoooo many different types of Huggies diapers. I expected the racks to have different brands… Aiyoh… How to find out which is the correct one?
After staring at the racks and moving up and down the aisle trying to figure out which one is on sale, I gave up and walked back to the entrance to get the flyers… #$%&!
Finally found the correct diapers which is on promotion and took 2 packs of it…
Thought I’d take a look at the flyers and confirm what type of biscuits. But I was sure Mrs Tai mentioned she wanted the one with ‘Hi-Iron’…
Weird… I could not find the biscuit in the flyers… But maybe coz I was just flipping through and didn’t really look at it. After all, I’m very confident of the biscuits… Found them and took 1 can with me.
Reached home and proudly showed Mrs Tai the things I had just bought. She took a look at the diapers and said they are not the one she wanted… Huh? I told her its the one in the flyers… She took out her flyers and I took out mine…
Aiyah… Different flyers!!! No wonder I could not find that Jacob’s cream crackers on my flyers… Grrrr….
That was what went through my mind over the weekend when I realised the confinement lady (similar to a postpartum doula) will be leaving next weekend. Her contract is for about a month (28 days to be exact).
That also means Gabriel will be one month old come this weekend! No wonder our parents and relatives have been bugging us about Gabriel’s full moon party plans…
So… We have decided that we are not going to hold any elaborate party this time around. First of all, it’s because my eyes are not fully recovered yet and we don’t want to risk infecting any guests. Secondly, the construction works (for our side wall) has just started. Our garden looks really messy! Don’t wanna risk having our guest injure themselves with all the equipments lying around in the garden right now…
We were originally planning on doing a baby full moon & house warming party but I guess we will have to do the house warming some other time… So much for ‘house warming’ actually, since we would already have moved into Setia Alam for one year come this December. But still, we just wanna have an excuse to have our family and friends come over to our place… So, I guess we’ll have a party sometime during the coming Chinese New Year!
From wikipedia: Zee Avi (born Izyan Alirahman, also known as KokoKaina; b. 1986) is a Malaysian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and ukulele player. She was born in Miri, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. She moved to Kuala Lumpur when she was 12. She studied fashion design at American InterContinental University in London.
Avi posted a video of her first song on YouTube for one of her friends who had missed her first performance in Kuala Lumpur. The friend convinced Avi to leave the video online even after he had seen it, and soon she received positive feedback. This inspired her to put more videos on YouTube. After being featured on the main page of YouTube, she was discovered by Patrick Keeler of The Raconteurs, who passed the link to Ian Montone, the manager of The White Stripes, The Shins, The Raconteurs, and others. Montone passed her music on to Emmett Malloy, who signed her to Brushfire Records, a record company which is partly owned by Jack Johnson. Her song “No Christmas For Me” is featured on Brushfire Records’s 2008 Christmas album This Warm December: A Brushfire Holiday. Her single “Bitter Heart” was first to become available on the US iTunes store, and her full self-titled debut album was released on May 19, 2009, co-produced by Brushfire Records and Ian Montone’s Monotone Records. On the day of her album’s release, YouTube featured her on the front page in Spotlight: Music Tuesday. From June–August 2009, she toured the United States with Pete Yorn. The final concert on her first U.S. tour was at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood, California on August 27, 2009.
Thought I’d try to be more helpful around the house, especially now that Mrs Tai is late into the pregnancy. After all, it is the place I call home… So, here’s me attempting to help out in the kitchen… (more…)
Mrs Tai showed me this photo she took this afternoon…
The curious visitor…
She said this visitor has been walking around our compound every day. Today, it wanted to try and come into the house. It did not realise Mrs Tai was inside… Until Mrs Tai took the photo. I guess that explains the BIG eyes…
And yes, I still remember we’re supposed to try out that Thai vegetarian place in Centrepoint, Bandar Utama.
