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 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?

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

They said pregnant lady cannot carry someone else’s baby. The Saturday before Bubu’s arrival, we attended the full moon lunch of Szer’s friend. Szer carried that baby for a while. I too carried the baby.

The same Saturday afternoon, my generous BIL, Mr. BLG transported the baby cot to my house using the powerful Mitsubishi Fuso lorry that he sells. Again we defied superstition by moving in furnitures into the house. Superstition had it that during pregnancy, you should not move house and move furnitures in the house else the baby will be miscarried or come early.

After the cot was brought in, we went and bought mattress for Bubu. Prior to the baby cot, I bought a diaper changing table from Ikea and assembled it during CNY holidays. Could that have played a part in Bubu’s early arrival?

We have bought a lot of essential baby stuffs throughout the pregnancy period until that mattress, which was the last big item that Bubu really needs. We’ve got all other newborn essential stuffs earlier, ranging from bottles to stroller to car seat to clothes, playing mat, toys, diapers, bottle steriliser, breast pumps etc.

To look at another perspective of things, his arrival is somewhat timely. Perhaps this is fate and it is his destiny to arrive on the very first day of the 2nd month of the lunar Water Dragon year. In Gregory calendar, he arrived on 22-2-2012 at 2208 hrs. Such an auspicious arrival time I as a daddy would say of my son. Sze’s birthdate is 22-08, mine 08-02 and now my son 22-02. I guess 2 and 8 are our family’s lucky number. I then look at the photos I took on my phone, and guess what I found. Recently my wife bought me a Gshock watch for my birthday. I took a photo of the Mudman and the time was… 22:02 ! Is that a coincidence of Bubu’s arrival date??? I wonder.

Monday, 20/2/12, I stretched myself to a cross country drive for work for surveys at Cheras, Lukut and Sg. Pelek. Thats because I wanted to go see an opthalmologist on Tuesday morning at Sime Darby hospital… the same place Sze goes for checkups and see Bubu’s doctor. I had an appointment that morning. The very same morning, Sze alerted me of Bubu’s possible early arrival. We rushed to the hospital and Sze was admitted to the delivery ward right away and started the countdown and I went and see my doctor at another floor. After waiting for almost 2 days, after numerous contractions and lets be frank, jabs , my little Bubu finally arrived on that auspicious time. 2 hours short of 2 days.

Having stayed at the delivery ward for almost 2 days, I can say, you never seen life if you have not been to the delivery room. Walking around the ward alone is very scary when you hear women in labour screaming like _______. That’s scarier than being in the labour room, I’d guess, from a father’s perspective.

Fathers can never replace the position, noble deeds and sufferings of mothers. That’s why there’s only “Mama Hao” song and there will never be a “Papa Hao” song.

Both mom and son are in good condition. Hopefully Bubu’s jaundice will be cured.

And here I would like to finally announce his name, Lucas G aka Bubu G.

Daddy loves you and mummy.

Both mother and son are ok.

I’m very happy.

After waking up every morning, I’ll sit on the throne for big business before shower. After that, I would sit at the dining table for breakfast. Then I would sit in the car driving to work. Sitting in a traffic jam is very likely. When I reach office, I’ll be sitting in front of the computer tapping on the keyboard doing reports. If there’s no new assignment, I’ll be in the office, sitting at my desk.

Then when lunch time comes, I’ll be sitting in a restaurant with colleagues. After lunch, work continues at the desk. I’ll be sitting till 5-6pm. In between, maybe going to the toilet and coffee machine will have me walking for a while.

At about 6pm, when I leave the office, I’ll be sitting in a traffic jam. This will take at least 1 hour before reaching home. By the time I reach dinner place, it will be dinner time and straight I go and sit at the dining table. After dinner, I’ll spend sometime reading The Star newspaper. Again I’ll be sitting on the sofa. Then I’ll drive home (sitting in the car). Once home, I’ll be sitting on the throne for the evening business. Magazine or The Sun newspaper will be read while sitting on the throne.

After business and shower, I’ll sit on the sofa in front of the idiot box…or sometimes in front of the laptop computer surfing Internet. Sometimes, read something on the sofa.

Then off I go to bed. Maybe I should do some sit-ups before bedtime.

Maybe it’s time to read newspaper standing. Watch TV standing.