Jane’s Random Musings on Life

The CNY has come to an end finally.  Despite the super hot weather, it was a very memorable one.

·         1^st day of CNY:  Went to the temple after a sumptuous vegetarian breakfast at my parents’ house, followed by a fun karaoke session with bro, sis and cousins at Green Box in the afternoon

·         2^nd day:  MIL’s open house (covered his father and mother side of relos) (lunch) à Visiting to my aunt’s house (mother side) (late lunch) à Visiting to my aunt’s house (father side) (dinner)

·         3^rd day:  Dim Sum breakfast with hubby à Joined bro and sis for a movie à dinner at parents’ house followed by mahjong session till late J

On the 4^th day, 5 of us (my parents, me, sis and bro) departed to Kuantan Cherating for a 3D2N trip. 

We stayed at Suria Cherating Beach Resort, which was our second choice after Holiday Villa was fully booked.  Nothing to shout about for the resort, it is a simple yet relaxing place… At least the rooms and pool are clean, that’s my bare minimum requirement.

The next day we woke up super early hoping to see the sunrise.  Unfortunately it’s too cloudy, couldn’t see how the first ray of sunlight beamed through the sealevel… L 

After breakfast, we drove out of Cherating to Sg. Lembing, a very quiet small town South of Kuantan town.  It was a mining town 100 years ago; we were simply amazed by the historical architectures of this old town.  

Petrol station :)

Saw D’s blog entry on “Things to do before I die” only to realize that I haven’t written mine. We were talking about this over MSN and promised to list the items down in our blogs. So here it is, my list:
1. Obtain a diving license
2. Climb Mt. Kinabalu
3. Travel to Japan and Greece (Santorini Island)
4. Start a business of my own (regardless of size)
5. Attend Buddhist Novitiate Program 短期出家
6. Take up a designing course (interior/ jewelry/ fashion)
7. Learn oil painting
8. Still thinking…

Our baby is fine.  Thank GOD.  This would be the most precious present for the New Year.

For those who do not know what we’d been through over the past 3 weeks, here is the story.  I did a blood test when I was 16-week pregnant called triple test, also called triple screen, which is an investigation performed during pregnancy in the second trimester to classify a patient as either high-risk or low-risk for chromosomal abnormalities (and neural tube defects). 

We were actually given a choice of to take or not to for this because I’m under the age of 35.  To be honest, we did not think through it carefully at the time of test because we had no idea what are the consequences then.  We just thought it’s a normal test like testing for HIV.  A week later, my husband received a call from the hospital early in the morning, telling him that I am on high-risk for carry a baby with chromosomal abnormalities, in other words, a baby with Down’s syndrome.

Can you imagine how I felt?  My heart sank.  All of a sudden, I lost the bond with my baby.  A Down’s!  It’s always been just a NOUN for me.  Who on earth would ever think that it can actually happen to themselves one day?  But before long, I packed my crying heart and searched the net for more info.  And I talked to some of my close friends whom are already a mother.  Apparently many mothers out there had experienced the same thing, and the good news is the false positive turned out to be very high.  So chances are my baby could be perfectly fine after all!

Without much delay we went to see the gynae the following day.  We were given a few options of what we should do next:
Option (1) Amniocentesis – an invasive test that removes a small amount of fluid from the sac around the baby to look for birth defects and chromosome problems

Option (2) Level 2 ultrasound scan – a more targeted examination which is performed to look for markers of fetal anomaly

Option (3) DO NOTHING

Amniocentesis has the highest accuracy but it also carries certain risks of miscarriage or hurting the baby if it wasn’t done properly.  Our gynae claimed that she has done it many times and the risk has been reduced to 0.02% now, although she also assured us that our baby should be fine judging from my past ultrasound results.  It was a difficult decision to make.  In the end, my husband and I decided to go for it, just to put our minds at ease.  How am I going to go through the remaining months of pregnancy if I constantly have to worry about it?  It won’t be good for the bonding with my baby too.

So there.  I did it, on the same day.  It was done on an outpatient basis so I did not need to stay in the hospital.  I lay on the examination bed as usual.  Then the gynae cleaned an area of skin on my belly followed by some anesthetic.  With the help of ultrasound, she found the exact location of the baby and then inserted a very long, thin needle through my abdomen and into the womb (just like how the blood is being withdrawn except the needle is MUCH thicker and longer).  When the needle entered the amniotic sac, I felt a sharp pain which lasted a few seconds.  I didn’t pay attention to the pain very much, I just hoped that my baby will move away from the needle so that it won’t hurt her.  And when the fluid was being pulled out, I felt some pressure in the lower abdomen area.  A small amount of fluid (16mg if I remember correctly) was finally taken from the fluid-filled sac that surrounds my baby.  According to the gynae, it is advisable to perform this test between 16-20 weeks because anytime before that the amount of amniotic fluid will not be sufficient and it might cause birth defects.

Here’s a picture to illustrate the procedure:

Source: www.sogi.net.au

I was given 2 full days of MC after that as I had to bed rest as much as possible and I was put on a one-week antibiotic to prevent infection to the baby.  Apart from some minor cramping later that afternoon, I did not experience any Leaking of amniotic fluid or vaginal bleeding, which was a good sign.  That was not the end of it.  Both of us couldn’t sleep well for the following weeks, we did not talk much about it also.  I don’t know how to put the feelings into words; it’s like losing the bonding with the baby.   This is not fair to the baby I thought, so after a few days, I managed to reorganize my thoughts and started to bond with my baby again. Like what I told my sis, I have faith in my baby.   True enough, everything turns out to be fine now.   And the test also confirmed that we are having a baby girl!  Can’t wait to meet you, our little princess.

p/s:  Hope you guys don’t mind the super long post this time.

It’s funny to see how all of us reacted when one of my colleagues said that it is advisable to do some transactions at bank today (first day of spring 立春), particularly depositing money or a cheque to your own account as it symbolizes good fortune and wealth for the rest of the year.  The whole office gone all energized and excited about it, so of us will go to the bank later at lunch to do that. :)  Later I saw a FB post by WSL telling us what auspicious colours to wear during CNY so I forwarded to my colleagues also.  They went to print it out and pasted it on the notice board to remind everybody! 

That is the thing I always like about Chinese New Year.  It symbolizes a fresh new start of a year, and that we are able to fix the problems and hope for the better.  It’s just like pressing the ‘RESTART’ button on your PC.  New Year = New hopes.  “I had a bad year, but it’s over now.  I will have a better year this year.”  The thought of able to start all over again with new fortune waiting ahead of us is always motivating and inspiring.

However not everybody gets to ‘restart’.  I received a shock and sad news yesterday that my friend’s mother passed away unexpectedly, very out of the blue.  Two more weeks to CNY but she couldn’t make it.  This happened to my grandma and one of my aunts also.  They left us just before CNY.  Life is so vulnerable isn’t it?  While we always hope for a better and wealthier year (reflected in most of our CNY greetings like Gong Hei Fatt Choy), we should also be appreciative of what we have, and be thankful of our ability to breathe and open our eyes everyday to see this beautiful world.  And we also should not take our loved ones for granted.  Tell them you love them when it is not too late.  So to my family and friends, I LOVE YOU, and here is to a healthier and happier Tiger year! ♥

This coming CNY we will be having our reunion dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It’s our second year of doing that in fact. I know it’s a trend now for families to have their reunion dinner at restaurant instead of home.  Many are starting to do that because:

• the family size is getting smaller and smaller, it’s easier to just go out to eat
• for big family, there are lesser people who want to “sacrifice” by cooking and messing up their own house while the others’ could maintain their clean and tidy and nicely decorated house
• for working adults, they don’t want their old folks to work so hard in preparing for the dinner anymore when they can enjoy being served by others

But for me, the most memorable reunion dinners remain those we had in my grandma’s house since young.  The feeling of REUNION was so strong then, and it had always been the only thing I looked forward to every CNY.  I felt so lost in my first year after getting married, that I almost cried when I thought of my family on the eve of CNY.  And I feel even more lost now that my grandma’s not here anymore.  >.< Those were the days…

Dirtiest Hotels - Asia

(based on TripAdvisor traveler reviews) - A guideline for you to choose your hotel

1. Phi Phi Don Chukit Resort, Ko Phi Phi Don, Thailand 
2. Raj Residency, Chennai (Madras), India
3. Goldkist Beach Resort, Singapore, Singapore
4. Mahkota Hotel Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia
5. Centaur Hotel, IGI Airport, New Delhi, India
6. Tatami Hampton Hotel, Hong Kong, China
7. Pearl of the Pacific Boracay Resort & Spa, Boracay, Philippines
8. First Hotel Bankok, Bangkok, Thailand
9. Seri Costa Hotel-Resort, Melaka, Malaysia
10. Royal Peacock Hotel, Singapore, Singapore

Source: http://www.tripadvisor.com/DirtyHotels-g2

Seems like hotels in Melaka need to work harder from now on…

I attended a secondary school guy classmate’s wedding yesterday and was surprised to find out how small the world really is.  I met my primary school classmate at the wedding, who is also the friend of the groom.  And my husband met his friend’s wife there who is the friend of the bride! 

There is an old theory orginated by Stanley Milgram in 1967 that everyone in the world is connected by just six degrees of separation - to show that everyone in the modern world was capable of connecting to another by linking people and interests.

But in today’s world of social networking, links between strangers are believed to be closer than in Milgram’s day.  A study from French mobile carrier O2 has found that strangers are more connected to each other than they ever have been.

According to the study, the average person is now connected by just three degrees within a shared “interest” or social group instead of six. In fact, it found that people are usually a part of three main networks: family, friendship, and work.

O2 asked adults across three different age groups — 18-25, 35-45, 55+ — to make contact with random strangers from areas all across the globe using only personal connections. By linking their shared interests, the participants were able to connect to that person in three person-to-person links.  [Read more from the source document]

How scary!  The connections are so close that people can easily gossip.  You can’t keep secrets anymore because out of a sudden your this side of the world is revealed to the other side.  So people, becareful of what you say and what you do, now you cannot afford to make any mistake hoping that you can get away by starting a new & clean network!

Started the new year with a new job.  Was suffering from insomnia the night before starting work, I even dreamt of getting to work late on my first day of work.  Think I’ve been resting for too long

Overall the office environment is good, warm and cozy, and the colleagues are nice and friendly.  This actually reminiscent of my good old days at the agencies, S & MB.  As the office is located in the campus itself, we will bump into groups of students most of the time, that makes me feel like I have gone back to the uni days :)  Feel young again haha

Work wise, as the role has changed from vendor to end users, there are a lot of things to learn and pick up in a short period of time.  Education might not be as fast-moving as the FMCG, the competition is as stiff and challenging.  Think I have to work harder to be up to speed and one of my new year resolutions would be getting back the momentum as soon as possible… Though I still refused to wake up this morning!!  ARGH

Our family is growing and so is our love… We’re expecting a bundle from above next June!

I always love Christmas Tree.

Although I am not a Christian, I always look forward to Christmas Day every year since I was young. I still remember when we were young, there was a pine tree in our garden which we would decorate it every Christmas. My mom would teach us to make those little decorations ourselves. We made small present decors using cardboards, wrapping papers and ribbons; we would also make pine nuts by sticking small paper cones together, and they all looked just as nice as those sold in the departmental store. Oh and we would put strands of cotton around the tree to give it a ’snowy’ finish. Then me and my sis would pray that it won’t rain the following days because the tree was not shaded!

There were a few years when my mom would organize a party on the eve of Christmas. All my cousin brothers and sisters would come with a present nicely wrapped and put them all under the Christmas Tree. Of course, the highlight of the night for us would be the gift exchange time! We would rush to the tree to grab a present that was most appealing to us (which always mean the bigger ones haha) and tore open the wrapper in no time. I can’t remember what I got, but they’re mostly toy sets or stationeries because these are the unisex presents.

As we grew, the tree was taller and taller each year. It had grown so tall that in the end my dad had to climb up a ladder to help us put up the decorations. It was the most beautiful Christmas Tree that I have ever seen.

Think I should start decorating Christmas Tree this year for my own house.