endroog

The purchase of a lifetime just materialised and the documents are being exchanged. We’re getting a crib for Bubu. in a few months time, we gonna get the keys. Yay !

After seeing quite a number of houses in that township, I finally found a nice one and one that we liked. It’s walking distance to Mun Choon (B.S) as well as Hooi Hoon’s new crib (same taman). I like the area as it is a well planned township and there’s a lot of room for future development. The house designs are very modern and contemporary… very 2010s. With a Sime Darby property, I don’t think I will go wrong.

It’s a landed property. We just gotta get a landed house as the current house is way too small for Bubu. Furthermore, as my MIL would be helping us to look after Bubu, it is timely to get the house so that they can stay with us and we don’t need to take Bubu to and from SIL’s place everyday. Also we can have Bubu in our own home everyday and I can play with him every night before he goes to bed.

That sounds like fun.

But another Booklet is on the way. So, we gotta look into the arrangements.

Anyway, we gotta sort out the house first. Moving from an eagle’s nest (not pigeon hole), we gotta buy a lot of furnitures, electrical fittings and renovations before the house is liveable. There’ll be a hole in pockets but it’ll be money well spent.

DA, here we come.

I could not remember when was the last time I went to an Indian barber. Probably since I left school more than a decade ago…

I went for a haircut the other day and noted that these barber also evolved, now catching up with “quick-cut” trend – having vacuum machine and ultraviolet oven. The only thing that remains is of course the “shadowless finger” cut (one hand combing your hair the other hand playing with the scissor repetitively).

Even the hallmark back massage is now replaced with machine massage. They use a device that vibrates (not the vibrator in the shape of a dick) and rub it around your back and shoulder. Something like your polishing a car. No more of that old school back massage and head-twisting which we all loved.

The haircut is quite nice and I don’t look like an “ah beng”. These days, if you go to a quickcut shop which is mostly operated by Chinese, you tend to get ah beng haircut where long hair in front to cover your forehead and short hair behind. I always asked them to cut away the long hair and the hair stylist often obliged eventhough I know deep down in his heart he was reluctant to do so as I’m challenging his “artistic work”…

Maybe I’ll propose to the barber a loyalty program. Five haircuts free one haircut.

Btw, why these Indian haircutters are called barber while the Chinese ahbengs/lians haircutter are called hair stylist?

Some of the most beautiful classical music masterpieces….

Yundi Li – 14th International Chopin Competition (2000)

Nocturne Op.9 No.2 (Arthur Rubinstein)

Nocturne No.21 in C-Minor Op.Posth

Lento con gran espressione (Nocturne in C sharp minor Op. post.) – Gabriele Toia

Bubu was sent back to hospital to treat jaundice. Gosh, poor Bubu gotta go for phototherapy again. He’s doing good and the therapy made him drinks more milk. The more milk he drinks the better. Daddy will buy the best milk or him and mummy will produce he best milk for him.

Initially, the paediatrician Dr. Choy Yew Sing wanted to send him to the nursery again because he knew the service standard of the paediatrics ward is not that good. Furhermore, there are student nurses which Dr. Choy doesn’t want them to handle preemies like Bubu. The nurses at the nursery are more gentle and caring to babies and preemies need more care but too bad, there’s no more space in nursery.

Nurses at the Paediatrics A ward are not so gentle and caring to preemie babies. They just whack and do the work. They did not pick up Bubu’s mug and bottle used for feeding and though they are missing.. they even almost charge us for another mug cos they used bother mug.

Mug. The mug they used to put hot water to warm up milk in bottle is NOT FREE. The tissue box on the baby trolley is also NOT FREE. I was so mad when I found out that these are charged. The nurse even old me they almost going to bill for the mug and luckily we found it left at the breast feeding room the next day. WTF. I’ll make sure I’ll take back the mug.

I went and bought a new mug at Giant the other day. If I knew it was charged, I would’ve taken the one used at nursery too. Gotta get the itemsed breakdown for all these ancillary /consumable supplies and see what they charged.

Yesterday night when we went to hospital to feed Bubu, the nurse made milk more than 120ml (the scale is up to 120ml only). They don’t care if Bubu can finish it or not, so long it cut short their work. I screwed them and then they were willing to put 60ml each in two bottles. It’s not about the money, it’s about prudence and I don’t want milk to be wasted if Bubu can’t finish the 120++ ml.

Geez.. you can really see the disparity in terms of service standard between the nursery and Paediatrics A ward.

Anyway.. what to do? No choice.

There are two masters who I’d tried to refer to for Bubu’s Chinese name. One came back and told be that according to her teacher’s master, one bigtime monk from Taiwan, that since we as parents would be calling him his English name Lucas and we may not call him much using his Chinese name, it doesn’t make much sense to delve too much on the name… getting the correct suitable name and with correct penstrokes etc. she also said that the teacher’s master said a name is about frequency. The more we call him using a given name, the energy of the name will resonate into him. So, unless I gonna call him on his chinese name, its better we nurture the correct attitude when he is growing up than to delve too much on just the name and hoping he’d become something of his name. She also told me I should follow my “instinct” and go ahead and give him whatever name I want.

If a person is born into a good and lucky life, he is already blessed and the name does not make much difference. Is it Even if there’s ten people with the exact same name, not everyone’s life and fate are the same.

The other master is away overseas and I could not wait for him to come back as I’m free today and went to the very-little-people National Registration Department (JPN Seputeh) in Endah Parade (Carrefour), Sri Petaling.

His Chinese name is:

It’s common, simple and easy to write but its a very strong and powerful name to suit his dragonic fate and destiny.

According to an online dictionary:

yang : surname, poplar
wen : language; culture; writing; formal; literary; gentle
li : power; force; strength

Of course I was never fond of Mandarin sound and therefore his name is written and pronounced in Cantonese as Yeong Mun Lik. I’m a Hakka. If I were to called him in Hakka… Yarng Moon Likk ?? Oh no. Better not.

Now even his banana daddy and mummy can write his name blindfolded. Yay. My 7-starred son.

After a few days of UV therapy, doctor said Bubu is ok to go home. Yay. Everyone’s happy. Immediately, i went and settled all the paperworks and billings. Corporate customers are very well treated. Less than 30 minutes, we can go off with the baby already. Imagine private individual customers, if you’re using an insurance medical card, they’ll need to wait for confirmation from MCO and all that shit. Dilly-daly…. it’ll take at least 2 hours before the MCO send back the approval.

Many thanks to Shell the oil giant for the privilege. Bubu say thanks.

The house was ready and once back home, Bubu was brought around the house to show him his house. His home. He went to every corner of the house. Then he was finally placed in his cot.

Luckily MIL was around to help Szer to settle back home. Szer as usual, will make a lot of noise of things placed not according to her taste… the table coaster senget a bit also make noise. Thats OCD. Haha.

Later in the evening, the confinement lady arrived and that’s when Szer’s “house arrest” started. The aunty is a nice lady. She’s not so picky about her food and stuffs… very cincai. Anything also can but when it comes to work… she’ll demand Szer to follow all her instructions i.e. cannot have contact with raw water (tap water), cannot drink water that is not boiled, cannot this cannot that. Szer got no choice but to follow because thats the reason why she’s hired for apart from tending to Bubu at night relieving Szer of her feeding duty in order to get enough rest. Oh, the aunty is also a bit of an OCD. She’ll complain many things are not clean enough. Anyway, her OCD is beneficial to Bubu and everyone of us. She’ll mop the floor, clean this clean that. Ok what. She’s very good at what she does.

As a new daddy, I gotta sacrifice some comfortable sleeping time to accomodate Bubu. Midnight is when the aunty shows her craft. I don’t mind sleeping in the living room as long as Bubu is well taken care of.

First day at home, Bubu was ok and he slept well and sound.

Being a new father ain’t easy. I’ve been going up and down, to and fro hospital. Luckily MIL helped a lot in buying stuffs for Szer’s confinement period. And the stupid cough I’m experiencing is making it worse. I’ve put down some weight after a few days since Szer was admitted to hospital..

Bubu is a premature baby. He’s early by about 6-7 weeks….but he is the heaviest among the preemies in the nursery. I went and bought cap and mittens for Bubu and asked for the smallest size available for preemie. The lady asked me how much roughly the baby weighs. She was surprised when I told her 2.24kg. She was like “wow, so big ah ?!”.

Suddenly there’s a small baby in your care and responsibility, it feels like the shoulder is getting heavier regardless of whether he’s 2.24 kg or 2.24 ton. As a daddy, it has certainly enriched my life and there comes another new chapter of life. It is spiritually enriching. You will feel you want to give the best to the child, play with him, buy him toys, want him to be happy, see them grow up, spoil them… the list goes on.

The baby and mummy are not home yet and preparing for the homecoming is rather fun. You’ll feel very energetic to set up things for the baby… ie. setting up the cot, diaper table, clean up the house (thought still need help from MIL and Rota, SIL’s the domestic helper who is also a mom) and buying essential stuffs for the kid.

Suddenly I feel so energetic and then ended up overtiring myself. What to do? No choice.

Then came the inevitable task. Naming the child. This is the job of a father, not anyone else. I may have already chosen the name for the baby but, like all other kiasu parents, would like to cross-check with professional fengshui masters to calculate suitable name with suitable penstrokes against Bubu’s time and bazi. Chinese believe that giving the son a good suitable name will determine his future destiny. By the way, Szer’s friend Agnes, told us that her Taiwanese fengshui sifu said Bubu was born on he first day of the Tibetan New Year (Losar) and His Holiness The Dalai Lama and monks were chanting mantras that day. She said Bubu is so blessed. Maybe Bubu’s strong will can enable him to carry strong names like “lung” (dragon).

Bubu is very strong-willed that he is very active even in the incubator. He can scream and cry his lungs out. His fingers are somewhat long and perhaps someday he might be a prolific pianist like Arthur Rubinstein. Que sera sera. his legs are getting stronger and he can simulate cycling in the incubator. Once he is cuddled by mummy, he’ll stop all his antics and go straight into deep sleep.. poor boy been longing to sleep in mummy’s tender hand after few days alone in incubator. At least he peeked a daddy and mummy first before entering sleep mode.

He’s undergoing photo therapy for jaundice. Hope everything will be fine. Is there yet a vaccine that can cure mankind of jaundice ? I will donate to such research if one is ongoing. It’s just a bit heart wrenching to see a baby being subjected to UV light at such tender age.

Bubu is progressing rapidly. So far so good. Hopefully tomorrow we all can go home where there are toys that daddy bought, waiting for him to play. We are very grateful to all those who are supporting us especially MIL who cooks and bring food for us to eat at hospital and prepared the various confinement stuffs.