No more thumb sucking and Mama finally found some sleep

No, the blog is not dead.

Mama was incredibly busy at work over the last month and losing sleep because of numerous things going in all directions wildly in my brain, made worst by nightly wakes at the weirdest time to make sure the little man was not having the meal of his life feasting on his yummy thumb. For 2 weeks it became the most uncalled for routine

3.00. - Mama looked at the bb monitor and found the little man savoring on his right thumb. Mama pressed on the microphone function and went "No sucking. Remove your thumb", half asleep.
3.05 - Mama watched on and see no reaction by the boy then went "No sucking! Remove your thumb!"
3.06 - Watch on for another minute then go "NO SUCKING!!! THUMB OUT". "NO SUCKING!!!"

And then, the poor boy got awaken (and the Papa too). And so everyone in the house got interrupted sleep.

Thankfully, things got better this week as Papa found a solution to put a stop to the little man's unconscious nightly thumb sucking habit. Not something that tasted awful smeared on his thumb, but in the form of a pouch sewn around the wrist of his pj and... EUREKA! The magic pouch that puts everyone to sound sleep.

This is the little man and Mama, photo bombed by our four-legged buddy.

Parenting in a competitive world

This morning P and I went to the pediatrician with the little man for his MMR shot and 12-month review. To Mama's dismay, the pediatrician was in astonishment and was frowning throughout the session when she heard that the little man hasn't spoken his first word. Although he has been going gibberish for a while now, it has been done rather indiscriminately. He doesn't direct his "Mama mama" only to me and sometimes he goes "Baba baba" in Papa's absence. The pediatrician reacted like the little man is having some speech impediment and was talking about speech therapy for him if the first word doesn't come out. What came as an attack on our parenting skill was for her to judgementally say that we should stop using IT gadgets with the boy and how we should speak more to him if not he would be progressing slower than his peers. That was before asking us how we interact with the little man in a typical day.

 

Seriously? My boy is only 12 month old. And hello doctor, we don't own ipads. In fact tablets are so underused in our household that we gave it away to grandpa. Mama only let the little man watches Baby Einstein or listens to nursery rhymes from the Samsung in the car when he gets fussing on the way home after an evening out. Considering the distance, maybe he spend at most 10-15 minutes watching them. And little man watches TV like once per week, never more than half an hour. I am not judging parents who do use IT gadgets, but P and I have decided long before we had the boy that we would be subscribing to animated pedagogical agents, i.e. face-to-face interaction in interactive learning environments.

 

What annoyed me the most was the "your boy is progressing slower than his peers". Do I even have to tell a pediatrician that kids develop at different pace and mind you, this is not a competition. He is not getting a prize for walking at 9 month old or saying his first word at 11 month old. My son is only 12 months old, please give him a break. So what if he is picking up things slightly slower than others? He has a life time to walk and talk (and shitting into the potty).

So yes, we are changing pediatrician.

This whole incident at the pediatrician's reminded me of a chatty lad who was entertaining the little man while sharing his parenting knowledge with us (being a father of 3) on our way back from Singapore. We were chatting openingly and then came the "Where is he going to school?", "Singapore or Chiang Mai?"  question which we get quite alot since having the little man. Well, we were frank with him when we said we ain't that sure but Mama thinks that it is good to keep him by our side till at least he enters elementary school. And then he went "Oh, he will have a hard time coping with the syllabus in Singapore", "He will be asked to stay back for 1-2 years and will lose out to his peers". For one thing you know, I may have a genius son. Even not, what is the big fuss that he is 1-2 years behind? What exactly is wrong with us that we have to be driven by how our peers are progressing? Haven't we met enough people in our lives who were so motivated and topping their cohort but turning out to be people who were being slave driven and having not enough time to enjoy lives?

 

Right now, all I want for my son is to grow up healthy and happy. I will think about the rest later, thank you.

 

The thought of money behind every smile

Town planning law to be amended

P and I had constant talks about how badly imposed the restrictions are by the City Planning Authority (not just in Bangkok, but the rest of Thailand). City development in Thailand is characterised by commercial developments mushrooming in zones obviously meant only for residential purposes and massive road congestions at peak hours (and despite the bad traffic situation Prime Minister Yingluck insisted the government's tax privilege policies for first-car and first-home buyers should go ahead). Over a casual dinner, my friend convinced me that the problem is not with the lack of law, but the lack of enforcement which is very much link to corrupted officials.

In the recent budget debate, PM said the policies would stimulate the economy and do not cost much money. The policies were promised by her Pheu Thai Party to the people so they could establish themselves with a car and home more easily.

I am not talking about home ownership here because given the current political situation and lack of effective town planning, it is a pandora box. But establishing themselves with a car? I mean seriously, WTF is she talking about? And there is no mention of investing in support infrastructure. If you think that getting into a sardine-packed train is bad, think of getting stuck in traffic jams and then looking effortlessly for parking spaces and then getting stuck in traffic jams again. As least you are given a choice to opt for public transport. Here in Thailand, public transport does not exist.

Need a recharge

This week is a rare week that I am looking forward to Friday with extreme impatience, probably attributed by the lack of well-rested time off over the last weekend: missed my weekly massage, spent hours of my precious weekend in the salon, etc. This was made worse by the lost of sleep last night.

I need my weekend badly!

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Size

Colleague asked if I have slimmed down, just a day after nanny BM* asked if I am pregnant.

Just as beauty, size is subjective.

*BM is an acronym for Big Mouth

Brain dead

I am really tired.

累

很累。非常累。

Yawn.

#2 Things I hate about Thailand

Thais like to gossip, like ALOT. This coming from me, you know how bad they are.

39 Ways to Annoy Your Coworkers

Karen Burns, On Wednesday 1 September 2010, 23:55 SGT

Coworker relationships are like no other. You don't (usually) get to choose your coworkers. Yet you have to spend considerable amounts of time with them, and you have to get along with them well enough so that you as a team can produce whatever product or service it is that you produce.
All this, whether you like these people or not!
[See 21 secrets to getting a job offer now.]
Sometimes dealing with problem coworkers is your biggest job challenge. But mostly, coworker trauma arises out of the little annoying everyday stuff. No one (usually) sets out to drive coworkers crazy. But it happens, and it happens every day.
In fact, it's possible that maybe even you, wonderful you, are guilty of a few less-than-ideal behaviors. Not likely, mind you. Just possible.
[See the 10 best questions to ask at an interview.]
Therefore, in the interest of greater workplace sanity and happiness, not to mention productivity, here's a list of things not to do in the workplace. They're not illegal or immoral. They don't all apply to every kind of work. Some are even not that bad in small doses. But there's enough here to provide food for thought for pretty much everyone.
(Who knew there were so many ways to be a pain?)
1. Your workstation is a sty.
2. You brown nose.
3. You complain.
4. You gossip.
5. You carelessly "reply all."
6. You come to work sick.
7. You try to convert coworkers to your religion.
8. You try to convert coworkers to your political cause.
9. You tell dirty jokes.
10. You use bad language.
11. You loudly chew gum.
12. You conduct personal grooming, such as clipping fingernails, in the workplace.
13. You bring smelly food for lunch.
14. You over-share about your personal life.
15. You forward junk E-mail.
16. You smell of strong perfume or cologne.
17. You smell.
18. You brag about your successes.
19. You are a drama queen or king.
20. You borrow things and do not return them.
21. You steal people's lunches/snacks.
22. You leave long rambling voice mails.
23. You stand behind people and read over their shoulders.
24. You shout over cubicle walls to ask questions or make remarks.
25. You play music loud enough for others to hear.
26. You leave a mess in the workplace kitchen.
27. You burn popcorn in the workplace microwave.
28. You walk so noisily that others can hear you coming and going.
29. You make maddening little noises (tongue-clacking, knuckle-cracking, humming).
30. You click your pen, or tap it on your desk.
31. You set your cell phone to an annoying ring tone.
32. You talk on your cell phone in the restroom.
33. You make loud personal phone calls others can hear.
34. You share detailed descriptions of medical procedures.
35. You repeatedly use "amusing" expressions such as "Working hard or hardly working?" or "Are we having fun yet?"
36. You take credit for other people's work.
37. You are frequently late.
38. You are never around when you're needed.
39. You are dishonest, or unreliable, or just plain bad at your job.
[See more advice from Karen Burns at U.S.News Careers.]

#1 Things I hate about Thailand

QA team suppose to turn up at 1pm. But it's now 5pm and WHERE THE HELL ARE THEY????? They must have lost their watches AND phones. I know Thais are known for being laid-back, but this is wayyyyy too much.

Where is your sense of responsibility, dudes?

Zombified

P's dad is having his surgery today and P had been accompanying him since last night (meaning Mdm was all alone in our house, which suddenly seemed humongous!)

I was trying to enjoy the rare private time I was granted with but I ended up lying on the bed and stayed awake till wee hours of the morning. And this morning, I came to work totally zombified.

This, plus the breakout I am having and the new rather ridiculous haircut I had during lunch break, I look kinda disasterous.

When yr ex comes back in your nightmares

Met a friend's friend yesterday who is on a solo backpacking trip around Asia. He has been on this searching-for-the-meaning-of-my-life trip for 10 months now. His separation from his wife got him started on this trip. They dated for 10 years and were married for 1.5 years before calling it quits. Sitting right next to him was our friend, a Thai. He is in the exact same predicament. 10 years dating, 2 years married and then separation. Actually, I could have been in their boat.

At times when events trigger my memory-search function, I try to recall happy memories that I used to share with HY. It is not easy. Hard not because it is painful, hard because there are really not much. And I feel sorry for myself that I have been through that 7.5 years of my life without having much happy memories to reminise on. And you wonder how bad it is? Till this very day, I still have vivid nightmares. Once in a while, I go to sleep dreaming that I am going to marry him/ actually married to him. And in my dreams, I am always feeling horribly depressed. Every time I will try to run away, telling him that I already have somebody else. And when I finally get up, I will heave a mega big sigh of relief to find P by my side.

It is this bad.

About the whole Jack Neo saga

I don't understand why it bothered so many of us when he had consensual sex. He f*** a girl who wanted to be f***. The bottomline is, his wife forgave him. Case close.

Those swearing not to watch his production must have given The Pianist a miss (which by the way is a great movie which made 120 million and won Roman Polanski Academy Awards. All for his work regardless that he actually raped a minor).

I hope I can get my regular entertainment news on Omy and Xin.sg back.

Bitten by the sick bug

Landed on sat night, began developing a very bad cough and slight fever. Went to the doctor this morning and was diagnosed to be suffering from brochi infection.

I hate bad coughs.

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矛盾人生

静下来想动，动了却喊累。

是现实生活太平庸无奇， 还是想像中的理想生活与自己所能负荷的差距太大？


这一刻，我自觉是个被爸妈宠坏的小孩。

There goes Sunday

Hadn't been feeling well since last weekend but dragged myself to work every single day anyway. Was having bad cramps, then felt incredibly pukey (which got me up 2 consecutive nights). Felt better mid-week except that I have been losing my appetite and when (Sunday) morning came, I started having bad diaharrea. Been to the loo at least 10 times before deciding to visit the doc. Glad that after taking the pills, my condition stabilized. Infection it is.

So my Sunday was spent in and out of bed/ loo. Very unproductive but at least I had ample of rest and finally saw Bruno.

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The hierarchical and corrupted Thailand

I miss transparency. If you think that Singapore is hierarchical, think out of the island. Things here are always in my most hated shade of grey.

and

i

hate

it.

On a separate note, Mdm started wearing pants to work few days ago (flats and pants, ultimate pairing for an injured foot). And guess what, I actually received complains for WEARING PANTS TO WORK. I mean... HELLO? I never understand this ridiculous rule. Female workers should ALWAYS be in skirts. Just take a look at my foot, will you. So, I should pair skirts with sandals, or I should risk wearing heels just to look pleasing.

Why don't you just look at what the students are wearing first before nitpicking on unimportant matters? What is the objective in getting students to wear uniform when skirts go so short up their tighs. And come on, most are on motorbikes. How nonsensical things can be.

Random bits, Thursday Greys, yummy Thai food and CHIANGMAI!

I have been yawning for the umpteen times today. P and I were actually up till 1.30 am yesterday. He was all focused watching Man vs Wild (which was so not my cup of tea. I cannot and will never be able to understand his joy in watching Bear Grylls stranded in the wild, feeding on the insides of a camel and drinking pee to keep himself hydrated. I mean, hello??? Survivor skills are essential but these scenarios are wayyy too over) and I was busy plocking (plocking? yes, plocking. check this out if you are on FB: http://apps.facebook.com/theplock/. WARNING: very addictive!)

Anyway, Friday is arriving in less than 9 hours. In fact, my Friday will be here at 4.30 pm. I wonder if anyone has ever named Thursday (like say Thursday Greys or something). IMO, Thursdays are usually the longest and most unbearable day of the week. I actually hate getting up on Thursday mornings.

We went to make our monthly payment yesterday and were happy to see the piling machine on our plot, with some pre-cast concrete scattered in one corner. I suspect something's going to happen very soon. I actually have this crazy idea of burying something in the ground before the piling works begin. It will definitely bring back pleasant memories (say 10-20 years later, we decide to pull down the house to build a new one and uncover this piece from the past). Sounds like Knowing? Maybe I did get my inspiration from Nicholas Cage.

C's on leave till next Monday, so that leaves me in solitude. Martha was here in the morning and she asked if I felt lonely. In fact, I actually treasure this. I know this sounds kinda weird, but sometimes I crave for personal space (both at work and home).

Since moving here and living like a true blue Thai, I realized how under rated Thai food is. I know I know, tonnes of people out there actually lovvveee Thai food, but do you know that there is more to Thai food than Tom Yum Goong and Tod Man Pla (Thai Fish Cakes)? I was having the most delicious Tub Tim Krob (in Singapore we call it "Red Ruby", other parts of the world, probably just "Water Chestnuts in Coconut Milk") when I have a sudden urge to start a food (Thai food, especially Northern Thai food) blog. I am not sure how many people out there are actually familiar with Northern Thai food but I find it super duper yummy.

Chiangmai is definitely not a top tourist destination for most Singaporeans (in fact, I suspect 50% of Singaporeans have not heard of Chiangmai) but hey, Thailand is definitely not all about the cheap stuff you get in JJ market, Bangkok or the white sandy beaches in Krabi! It's always hard for me to describe what we have here in Chiangmai (and I never fail to presume that Singaporeans will never appreciate the slow pace, backward lifestyle here in the first place). Perhaps I should do a bit of marketing for my (unoffical) adopted country

Testing out Adobe Contribute

Testing out Adobe Contribute... Seems not to work. Why are things invented just so that they don't work???

Placelessness

Mdm havent taken the train for a while. While making my way to the hospital this noon, I was surprised to see that the train is now terminating at Joo Koon. I havent been downtown yet but I am sure it's looking less familiar now than ever.