Of age

In a blink of an eye, Jilliane is now 13 months. In case you have not noticed, I've changed her ticker on the left side of my blog to remind me her age as she grows. I've a tendency of not being able to remember ages in small fractions. Like when I was pregnant, I had to write the no. of weeks at the side of my calendar to remind myself at what stage of pregnancy I was. Somehow when the no. goes past 15, I lose track. When baby girl was just born, we were counting in weeks too and after a while I just couldn't remember how many weeks was she and I figured that I will just stick to months. Soon, I'll have to change months to years. I just hope that I can remember years. I do not know if it's being a mother that I sometimes can't even remember my own age or is it more a self denial issue. When people ask me how old I am, I will go.. er.. I'm born in 19xx, then I will do a quick mental sum to subtract my year of birth from the current year we are in, eg: 2009 - 19xx, and there... that's how young I am!

Since I'm on the topic of age, I'll share with you a conversation I overheard on my return flight from Perth between 2 mothers who were seated on the same row as me.

Mother A: Your son's really cute, how old is he?

Mother B: He's 17 months. How old's your daughter?

Mother A: She's 22 months.

Mother B: Oh, almost 2 years!

Mother A: No, 22 months.

Mother B: That's almost 2 years.

Mother A: No, she's 22 months.

Mother B: Er... ok, she's 22 months.

Highlights of our Perth trip

In her little bassinet which was exactly her length. She definitely won't be able to fit in for her next flight.

Cruise along the Swan River to Fremantle

The lovely but extremely crowded Ciao Italia which Matthew & Vanessa kindly brought us to. Great Pizza & Pasta & Heavenly Tiramisu which I suspected caused JD to KO all the way back home.

JD loved the colourful blooms that we came across all over Perth. Spring's a lovely time to go!

The elmo yoghurt that I mentioned in my previous post.

It was mutual excitement for JD & the Kangaroo to meet each other

I'm back from my trip!

I'm all refreshed & charged up! This was a great break, lovely weather in Perth, yummy food & most importantly, I've had my much needed holiday!

Overall the flights weren't too bad. Jilliane wasn't too difficult except that she slept way too short for the 5 hour flight, so much so that Mommy could only watch 1/2 a movie on each sector. And somehow she just refused most of the meals, she didn't take to the post weaning meals SQ served which I though looked rather tasty. She was just contented on drinking her milk and eating yoghurt and strawberries. It was fortunate that there was a huge range of kids' yoghurts that I could choose from and the packaging was really cute. There was Sesame Street, Barbie, Princess and many many more. I chose Elmo in the end, not that it made much of a difference.

Will post some pics up slightly later... am looking forward to my next vacation!

Ozzies are like mozzies

I'm sorry if this post offends any fans of Oz or any Ozzies for that matter. It's just that each encounter that I've had with them recently just further proves that they are not only stupid, they are lazy too. Now I know why Asians go there & excel. It's all because their own people are just too slack.

I tell you, never book any tours or hotels through Discover West.

They messed up my entire itinerary there and just 3 days short of my arrival, I will have to re-plan my meet up schedules, my car reservations, my shopping trips, basically everything! And when I actually made the effort to make an IDD call over just so I could sort things out with them, all I had is, "there's nothing I can do". So similar to that stupid Jetstar call centre staff which I had to deal with in July. And yes, never fly Jetstar, not because the airline sucks, but because the call centre is based in Australia and therefore any issues you need help with, you won't get it simply because they are stupid & lazy. They can only say "there's nothing I can do". Asians should just go there, kick them out of their jobs and let's see how much better that country will progress.

I'm so glad we're situated above the equator. Else down under is a cursed place.

Wives - a misunderstood bunch?

Angelina J told Brad P, either get off drugs or get out of the house. She made it very clear that she didn’t want drugs anywhere near their kids and she said that this was an issue where there weren’t any other options open to him if he wanted their relationship to continue.

It always seems that it's the women who wear the pants in the family now. She makes the decision on household issues, she makes the decision on finances, she makes the decision of her husband's life. As I said earlier, it SEEMS. This was the impression I had too. Afterall, there have been so many stories about daughter in law's run ins with mother in law.

Since I became a wife, I slowly learnt that all these are just fallacies. I have found myself caught in many situations where people misunderstand that I am the one behind each & every action that the man executes. Sadly enough, people never realise that husbands themselves are adults. They have the capacities and the capabilities to make up their own minds. Unfortunately, men being men, tend to be daft, complacent and bo chap. I never once wanted to interfere but somehow I tend to get myself entangled in situations like this:

Salesperson: Sir, would you like to buy our latest product?

Man: Wait ar, I must ask my wife.

Wife: You decide la

Man: I don't know, you help me decide.

Wife (exasperated): You know yourself best, you decide for yourself

Man (who still doesn't get the hint): No la, I can't decide. You help me.

Salesperson: Mdm, let Sir buy

.........................

Things have not gotten any better since I became a Mom. Not only does it SEEM that I run my husband's life, but I also run my kid's life. True, the kid can't make decisions on her own but the kid belongs to 2 people so decisions are co-shared.

At times like these, I empathize with Angelina J. I'm sure many people out there think she controls her husband but being in similar shoes, I know that more often than not, we are being coerced into corners which leave us with no other choices but to make the judgment call.

命中注定我愛你 ...

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a Taiwanese drama.

Anyhow I'm glad I chanced upon this drama one night. What probably struck a chord is me was the episode when 纪存希 came back home late one night and completed the wooden rocking horse that 陈欣怡 was putting together for her unborn baby. It was a simple gesture but yet so touching. Perhaps it's easier for me to relate to it, given that it was not too long ago that I was preparing items in anticipation of JD's arrival.

In this show, the baby never came. How it was lost, I don't know. I missed a couple of episodes and haven't had the time to visit Crunchy Roll.

2 years later, this horse was re-created by the mom, this time round, in the form of a sculpture. It was a belated gift which re-united the unborn baby's parents.

A simple theme and clever use of props, direct, straight to the point but yet so meaningful. I appreciate dramas like these.