Back on home turf

I finally reached home after being away for two weeks. I boarded flight MH91 at Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday, 9.40pm US Eastern Time. The flight would stop over in Arlanda International Airport in Stockholm, a journey of seven hours. Dinner, or rather supper, was served shortly after take-off. I had the signature satay and lamb loin and shiitake mushroom as starters followed by shrimp skewer on lemon grass with rice as main course. The meal was nicely rounded up with chocolate timbale for dessert. Many passengers hit the sack right after dinner but it was just a short sleep as we were woken up for a simple Continental breakfast about two hours before arrival in Stockholm.

As I had some time after breakfast before arrival in Stockholm, I browsed through the inflight entertainment and found that the offerings were similar to those on the KL – LA flight. I managed to finish watching Madagascar, as well as one episode of Dharma & Greg. Shortly after, we descended into Stockholm and stopped there for about an hour.

Upon take-off, lunch was served and the starter was marinated skewered king prawns. I chose prawn and pineapple curry with rice as main course. Looks like shrimps has been a main feature of my meals for most of the flight! Dessert was by a fancy name of socher tarte, which looked and tasted like chocolate cake to me. After lunch, the plane crossed into a night time zone and I should catch some sleep as we would arrive in KL early in the morning. But since I wide awake, I caught up with some work on my laptop. As I glanced at the flight information and found that we were only six hours before arrival to KL, I quickly turned off my computer to get some rest.

My sleep was continually interrupted by the captain's announcement of fastening the seat belt every now and then as we hit turbulence, and before long, we were woken up for breakfast. I chose braised chicken with sweet chilli sauce with Chinese fried rice and stir fried mixed vegetables.


The plane touched down at KLIA on Monday, 12 March at 6.30am, 30 minutes ahead of schedule. After clearing immigration and collecting my luggage, I quickly boarded an airport limo home. Hubby was at the front door with Yiu Yiu to welcome me back but Yiu Yiu didn’t seem enthusiastic at all at seeing me. Not sure if it's because she's just woken up, or two weeks is just too long to be away from her. She seemed a little hesitant but when I extended my arms to carry her, thank goodness she was still willing. Hubby then asked to carry her too and she willingly switched side, which is not the case normally. After spending more time bathing and changing her, she kind of got used to me being around again and kicked up a fuss when hubby wanted to leave for work and send her to the babysitter. After they left, I took a quick shower before going off to work! (Sigh!) How I wished I could take a day off to recuperate but it was not meant to be as I've got two meetings scheduled for the day.

I had planned to blog of my trip while in US but the trip turned out to be so hectic, due in part to my eagerness to spend every possible moment exploring the cities. And I would be so tired out by the end of the day to write anything. I'll try to update details of my trip over the next few days.

16-month old

Yiu Yiu turned 16 months yesterday. Here's a snapshot of her development:
Physical: The last we weighed her was in early January when we were at the paed to give her the necessary jabs before leaving for Hanoi. She was only 7.6kg then. I'm not sure if she has gained any weight since then but she's still very petite for her age. She still only has four teeth, two upper and two lower. Another two on the upper and lower gums are clearly visible now. She's a bit slow in the teething department as her cousin, five months younger, already has eight teeth. Despite her petite frame, Yiu Yiu is quite strong. She could lift up a can of longan in syrup with just one hand. Here's a shot of her holding the can with both hands.


Mobility: Since taking her first few steps two months ago, she can now walk quite well, albeit still a little unsteady. She doesn't like us to hold her hands while she walks, and that poses a big problem especially when we are out shopping. Just the other day at Giant, there was such a big crowd as people were doing last minute shopping for Chinese New Year and this little champion walker refused to be held, and pushed away our hands each time we tried.
Comprehension: She can comprehend a lot more now, even long sentences such as when we asked her to sit down before giving her her biscuits or fruits. She also understands when we asks her to wear shoes, come here, stand up and walk walk, give to mummy, put back, shake hand and chong liang (bathe in Mandarin). She's also able to indicate if food offered to her is good, not by doing the thumbs up sign, but by sticking out her index finger. She recognizes familiar faces now and can point out people correctly such as ma ma, yeh yeh, po po, yi yi, ko ko, di di.
Language: Her vocabulary has increased a wee bit and among her repertoire of new words are (in Cantonese) po po (maternal grandmother) kai kai (going out), oi oi (sleep), tou tou (which is supposed to be kor tou, there) and cho cho (sit). And when she's asked, "Yiu Yiu mei bu mei (Is Yiu Yiu pretty in Mandarin), she'd answer softly "Mei". She has recently learnt to use "Oh oh" for exclamation whenever she drops anything. She can now say papa, mummy and bye bye clearly. She's also at a stage of learning new words rapidly. She will try to repeat after us simple words such as cat, dog, moon.
Feeding: She has yet to master self-feeding though she'd always demand to have her own set of bowl and spoon whenever we eat. And she's never contented just having an empty bowl; she just has to have something inside. Most time, we'll just scoop a little bit of rice of noodles and she'll be happily making a mess while we try to feed her. And she has developed this habit of just picking up pieces of food from her bowl with her hand whenever she can't scoop any with her spoon. Lately, it has been increasingly difficult to feed her, at least when she's with me. She'd take just a few mouthfuls and then clamp her mouth shut. Babysitter said she's OK while at her place. Maybe this little princess knows who she can bully. I get so frustrated and have thought of refusing to nurse her until 2 – 3 hours after a meal to teach her that if she skips a meal, she'll have to go hungry until her next meal, as some parenting books suggest. But I'm not sure if it's too early to use this method.
Social: She is getting a little more sociable, to the extent of waving bye-bye to strangers we passed by on the road. She now allows relatives whom she doesn't see often to carry her, unlike a couple of months ago where even my parents or parents-in-law were not able to come close. She's also an extremely generous child and will always offer a bite of her food to those around her. She has recently learnt how to plant a proper kiss by placing her lips against mine. When she was first asked to kiss kiss, she would extend her tongue out but later, she'd just extend her cheeks to be kissed. So I'm happy that I'll be receiving more kisses from my little darling.

Orlando, finally

The flight bound for LA left KL on Feb 27 at 3.15pm. Not long after take-off, late lunch was served on board and I had MAS signature satay, followed by prawn salad as appetizer. The main course was roast venison Italian style served with brown sauce and mashed potatoes and I must say that fine dining thousands of feet above ground was really not too bad. I then settled in to catch up on some work on my laptop before watching Happy Feet on the inflight movie on demand. It must have been my first full movie since Yiu Yiu was born. Not long after that, the plane touched down in Taipei for a 1.5 hours stopover for re-fuelling. I've never been to Taipei, though it's in my list of places to visit, so it's kind of funny that my first encounter with Taipei was only confined to the transit lounge.

The plane took off from Taipei at 9.40pm and soon, it was makan time again. This time, it was roast breast duck with mango as appetizer followed by spicy chicken breast on pasta as the main course. I knocked off at about 11.30pm and was awoken by the cabin crew who were up and about serving brunch. When I looked at my watch, I was surprised to find that I've slept for almost seven hours. The best (or perhaps the worst) thing about long-haul flight is they feed you non-stop. This time, I opted for something oriental in the form of shrimp wantan in noodles. After brunch, it was time for some movies again but before I could finish watching Madagascar, the plane started its descent into LA and the inflight entertainment was turned off. We arrived at Tom Bradley International Airport at about 4.50pm, local time.




(An aerial view of LA on the plane's descent)

Clearing immigation, to my relief, was quick and simple. The officer simply asked me some questions regarding my trip to the USA, and tada…I was through. After collecting our luggage, my two senior (in rank, not age!) colleagues and I took the free shuttle bus to Terminal 7 where our connecting flight to Orlando will depart. The bus driver, a young African American was shaking his head to the tune of his MP3 player all the while we were in the bus. We had to hang around the airport for close to five hours as our flight to Orlando wasn't scheduled to depart till 10.40pm.

The 4.5 hours United Airline flight departed on time. I had wanted to catch some sleep as by the time we reach Orlando, it would be 6.10am in the morning but I didn't managed to as the cabin was pretty noisy. So by the time we reached Orlando, I was feeling very tired. Luckily baggage claim was speedy and we were whisked into the waiting van to transfer us to our hotel at Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress. But the time I got into my room, I was so thankful that my 27-hours journey was finally over and I've never felt so happy taking an early morning shower!

US visa application

The process was quite simple and efficient. All I had to do was visit the embassy website, fill up the online form, make an appointment to the embassy online, make payment at any RHB bank, and get all my documentations ready.

My appointment was at 9.45am and by the time I got there, there was already a long queue. The guard admitted us into the embassy building in accordance to the appointment time, even though there were people ahead of me. Despite that, it still took me close to an hour in the queue before I was finally admitted into the building at 10.30am.

Visitors had to pass through a security scan and have their camera, mobile phone, keys, etc left at the entrance. I then walked over to the main consular building and waited for turn to be interviewed. The interview takes place over the counter and as most of the officers speak into the microphone, every conversation could actually be heard loud and clear. This, I thought, was rather intrusive and impersonal.

I waited for close to 45 minutes before my number was called and thankfully, the interview was painless enough. Having an official invitation letter from US headquarters and a confirmation of employment letter from HR no doubt made the process easier. My visa was approved but I was asked to apply for a new passport before the visa will be issued as there's a slight damage to the front page of my passport, where the cover has kind of separated into two pieces at the edge. The officer said this is to avoid me having any trouble while entering US as the immigration officers at US entry checkpoint may think that my passport is fraudulent.

I went to the Subang immigration office to apply for a new passport as advised, though I still have about three years validity with my current passport. The immigration however, refused to process my application as they do not deem my passport damaged! The officer suggested that I simply glue the cover back in place. I told them of the instruction given by the US embassy but the officer said that if I insist on applying for a new passport, they would have to lodge a case for investigation, as they deemed my passport as still valid. So there I was, caught in-between the requirement of the US embassy, and our local immigration regulations.

I then went back to the US embassy and related my experience at the immigration to them. The officer was understanding and proceeded to issue me a visa, but not before reiterating his warning that I should be prepared to face difficulties that may arise while entering US. My visa would be ready for collection the next day. I didn’t pick it up until just before the Chinese New Year holidays, as the counter is only open from 2 – 3 pm daily and I have been so bogged down with work. So I finally have my 10-year US visa and is now waiting to board my flight; I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that people at US immigration won't give me a hard time.

Mixed feelings about trip to US

I will be flying off to Orlando tomorrow for a meeting, followed by a visit to my company's headquarters in New Jersey. This will be my first trip to the USA and I should be very excited about it as I've always wanted to set foot in the land of plenty. And getting to Orlando on my first ever trip to the USA, with its many attractions such as Disneyworld and Universal Studio, is really something I should look forward to.

However, I just don't feel any excitement right now. Maybe because I have several major activities in March and there's loads to be done. I'm getting very anxious that I might not be able to meet a lot of deadlines to make those events a success.

I also feel very apprehensive as this will be the longest ever I'll be separated from Yiu Yiu. I will only return on March 10 so I'll be away for close to two weeks. Though I've traveled quite a bit on business since Yiu Yiu was born, those are mainly short 3 – 5 days trip. Even though hubby is quite adept at handling Yiu Yiu on his own and the babysitter, bless her, has also offered to take care of her day and night while I'm away, I am still not at peace.

I worry because she will have to take formula while I'm away as my stash of frozen expressed breast milk (EBM) is depleting and will not last her for the duration of my trip. I also worry because Yiu Yiu is getting increasingly difficult at mealtimes and during the Chinese New Year holidays, she never finished her normal portion of porridge or rice. But mainly, I worry about how I'll be able to handle being half-the-world away from her and whether she'll receive me with open arms when I come back. Seems like mummy is the one developing a severe bout of separation anxiety!

Valentine surprise

As we have just shifted house and not fully unpacked yet, things are still rather chaotic on the home front. I have also been working very late to try to meet several deadlines before the Chinese New Year holidays. Each night after work, I would reach home at about 10pm and after grabbing a quick dinner, shower and spend some time with Yiu Yiu before she sleeps, I'll again switch on my laptop to work.

I knew Valentine was just around the corner but didn't pay any attention to it as Valentine has never been a big deal for us. I don't subscribe to spending obscene amount of $$$ to have a romantic dinner which would only cost half as much on a normal day; neither will I expect hubby to buy me flowers on Valentine, again due to the much inflated prices. He knows that, and makes up for it by sending me flowers on my birthday; and he has never failed to do that since our courting days.

So when I walked into the bedroom and saw a little box wrapped with shiny blue paper and dressed with a silver ribbon, I was pleasantly surprised! Inside was a chic pair of diamond dress earrings, which I wore to work the very next day. Come to think of it, this may the first ever Valentine gift I received from hubby, though we do buy things for one another on and off. I must admit that this was a nice touch, but I hang my head in shame for not having thought about getting him something on this special occasion.

Get paid for blogging

I first learnt about this in MyMomsBest from 5xmom and I was intrigued. I started this blog with the sole intention of capturing Yiu Yiu's growing up moments but thought that jumping onto the bandwagon and signing up with PayPerPost won't do much harm. Nevertheless, when I first visited PayPerPost, I realized that I didn't meet their criteria of having at least 20 posts within the last 90 days as I had not been posting regularly then.

Last week, I realized that I've met their criteria and promptly signed up. I encountered some problems as I was informed that someone has registered using my email address, which is quite impossible as I am using my work email address which is unique to me. I'm not exactly sure what the problem was. Anyway, I wrote to PayPerPost and they were quick to resolve the issue. I could log in to PayPerPost within three days and registered my blog. I didn’t place much expectation as I read in MyMomsBest some members had difficulty getting their blog approved. To my surprise, I saw an email from them three days later informing me that my blog has been approved. So I can now start earning $$$ from my blog. The next big questions are, will I find time to capitalize on opportunities offered and will my posting be good enough to be accepted? And I've just read from Shopping Mum that most opportunites in PayPerPost now require our blog to have Alexa rating. I did some research and discovered that only blogs hosted on individual domain will have an Alexa rating whereas those hosted by Blogger and other free domain will not. So will I ever get paid for blogging? Only time will tell.

Pink nen-nen

As sis was away in Cambodia for a few days, mum and Yihao stayed with us over the last week. At 27 months, Yihao is well-versed at pointing out different colours. The other day while I was nursing Yiu Yiu in the bedroom, I played the usual "What colour is this?" game with him.

Me: What colour is this (pointing to the bedsheet)?
Yihao: It's grey.
Me: What colour is this (pointing to the cupboard)?
Yihao: It's white.
Me: What colour is this (pointing to the curtain)?
Yihao: It's yellow.
Yihao: (pointing to my pink t-shirt) This is pink, pink nen-nen

I couldn't stop laughing!

Monster in the shower?

We installed a water heater with build-in pump in the bathrooms on the first floor of our house. And pump being pump, when the heater is switched on, there is this monstrosity of a sound generated. As Yiu Yiu can now bathe standing up in the shower, we did the same after shifting over to the next house.

The first day, while she was in the shower, my nephew, Yihao stood outside and she busied herself paying peekaboo with him while I bathed her. However on the second day, to my utter dismay, when I switched on the water heater, she was terrified of the noise and started crying. She clung on to me for dear life and simply refused to let go despite reassurance from me and hubby. In the end, hubby had to hold a screaming toddler by the arms tightly while I gave her a quick shower.

We've since not had another chance to bathe her in the shower again as weekdays at babysitter, she'd be all ready by the time we fetch her. And we are now in Kuantan at my in-laws place for the Chinese New Year holidays. I hope that terrifying episode was simply a one-off thing and she'd be OK when we bathe her next.

Disintegrating plastic bag

As with most households, we kept a substantial amount of plastic bags of various makes and sizes in the house. I had two huge black garbage bags that are filled to the brim with plastic bags. As I was packing to move into our new house and needed some large plastic bags, I rummaged through the stock pile to look for one. To my surprise, I found some J*sc* plastic bags having disintegrated among the stock pile. They've became really brittle and turned into pieces at the slightest touch. I can't even lift a single piece of the plastic bags out and they literally became a mass of dust inside the black garbage bag. I dismissed the incidence and thought that they must have been produced among a poorly manufactured batch.

I experienced it the second time when packing a set of new bed sheet which hubby bought at J*sc* Card members' sale last year. We've kept the bed sheet aside in the original J*sc* plastic bag after purchasing it as we planned to use it only at the new house. When I lifted the bed sheet, the plastic bag crumbled into pieces. Two incidences within the same day don't make a co-incidence, does it?