From lad to dads

It is such a wonderful and scary feeling to know that I’ll soon be changing from a lad to a dad soon.

I still remember when Andrea brought a pregnancy test kit and woke up in early hours (yeah, you are suppose to do the test in the morning as your urine is the richest with pregnancy hormones at that moment) woke me up to tell me that she is pregnant. And with a half opened eye, I asked skeptically  ‘are you sure?’ and then fall back to sleep … Well, I wasn’t particularly excited at that moment – how can a simple device like a home testing kit do the task of a scanner and blood test as effectively as a hospital?

Anyway, we took a day off and visited Andrea’s gynae. She said it was kind of early and the ultrasound couldn’t pick up anything at all. So we ended up doing a blood test to confirm the pregnancy. A few hours later, we received a phone call … turns out that we’re going to be parents soon!

And that was what happened 3 months ago At about 12 weeks (during the last visit to the doctor) we are able to see the heart beat of the little fellow, tiny fingers – I was really amazed with what that scanner can pick up!

As for Andrea, her eating habits have changed: she gets more cravings and she has to eat frequently. So the weekly Sunday shopping is now very challenging to me as I need to constantly think of the what to feed her in the least amount of whinging time I know my life is about to change, I am prepared, can’t wait to meet the new addition to our lives.

Earth Hour 27 March 2010

2009 was the first year Malaysian participated in this major global event to turn their light off, this year, again on March 27, 8.30pm, we pledge you to do the same to show your support.

“Earth Hour is a symbol of working together, each of us can have a positive impact in the fight against climate change, protecting our future and that of future generations.”

Chinese New Year Lunch at Passion of Kerala

Every year, my friends and I like to have lunch together with spouses and kids during Chinese New Year. The biggest headache however is the venue. Last year it was Thai, this year as most of the Chinese restaurants were booked out in advance – we decided to opt for banana leaf rice at Passion of Kerala, New World Park. It has air-con (a must in this kind of weather!) and has baby chairs as well as a lot of space for strollers and nappy bags. More importantly, the food is really good and not too overly expensive.

This round’s lunch was made merrier with Adele and Alex bringing their 2 year old son, Matthew, and CP bring her 8 month old son, Nathan. Everyone kept making a fuss of the 2 kids.

Matt was super duper cute because he is really shy around adults that he’s not too familiar with. He refuses to make direct eye contact and kept pouting.

Nathan brings out the mothering instinct in Jo, he is really calm around strangers and don’t mind people carrying him.

Check out the rows and rows of food. Rice and side dishes are served literally on banana leaves and these are refillable. You can order a variety of side dishes to go with your banana leaf rice, we had: deep fried bitter gourd, chicken masala, fried squid, fried chicken …

Matt looks at Andrea suspiciously as he accepts an ang pow from her.

CNY Cultural & Heritage Celebration 20 feb

As part of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, Penang State government & the cooperation of numerous clan councils decided to throw a party at the inner city heritage enclave on the 20 Feb, starting from 3pm until midnight. Andrea & I were there to witness this mind blowing & inner city that has been turned into a giant stadium!!

CNY: The Gathering

Once a year, everyone returns back to their hometowns to celebrate the festival that is Chinese New Year. This is the time that you’ll find the roads of Penang jammed packed with cars bearing license plates from other states and houses decorated with everything red and bright. The reunion dinner is one of the key highlights of Chinese New Year’s eve. It’s one of the few times where everyone in my family gets to enjoy a meal together and this makes it all the more meaningful.

My dad loves having a good steamboat so this is a must for our family during the reunion dinner. For those unfamiliar with Chinese food, a steamboat is generally a pot of (usually chicken) stock cooked in an electric pot in the middle of the dining table surrounded with many plates of raw meats, seafood and vegetables. The idea is to take the items that you like and dump them into the pot so it cooks in the soup and when you eat it, it’s flavoured by the stock and as a result of all the assortment of food that gets cooked in the soup, it becomes a wonderfully sweet and tasty broth.

Although my nephew, Sean, didn’t get a chance to taste the food, nonetheless he was having fun playing in his bamboo chair. An interesting bit of trivia: the bamboo baby chair is more than 30 years old and according to my mum, both my brother and I used it too when we were babies!