Anthony's Pics...

Ok, I do apologize to all of you for not updating my blog. I have been transferred to a subsidiary and have been busy assisting the COO in business planning. I don't want to go into details, but it has been crazy... late nights and not seeing Anthony for days on end...anyway things are settling down (hopefully)...

Laughing Buddha...

With my brother in law...

With my parents...

Trying to "scale" my stomach...

He can now sit by himself...

He can now hold his own bottle...

Father & Son...

Anthony's Baptism 18th June 2006 Sacred Heart Church KK, Sabah

In total there were 61 babies to be baptized. I was praying very hard for Fong Fong not to cry...imagine the noise...61 babies crying at the same time...


Anthony was fast asleep when the priest blessed him with oil. The cute little girl in the picture is Joanne our god daughter...


Changing his clothes after being baptized. He cried for a short while as he was startled when some of the holy water got into his eyes.


Incidentally, Joanne's parents (Cleo's Sister Carol and Husband Roland) are Anthony's godparents.


Newly baptized babies...do they look alike?


Clifford, Joanne's brother wants a piece of the action as well...

Golfing in Kota Kinabalu

While in KK I had the opportunity to play some golf. Cleo's cousing took me to Sutera Harbour which is rated as the best golf course in Sabah. The course is very well managed and rather friendly to the average golfer with its wide fairways, however having said that fairway bunkers are everywhere.


I reckon this is the best hole of the Sutera Harbour course...this is hole 5 on the Lake Course which plays as a par 4. From the tee box you get a fantastic view of the ocean, if I am not mistaken the island in the background is Manukan Island. I find this hole quite challenging as you will be teeing off against the wind. I can't wait till December to get back to KK and reacquaint myself with this fantastic hole.


I also had the opportunity to play at Kinabalu Golf Club which is regarded as the oldest golf club in Sabah. It was established in 1933. The pic shows the view from the club house which is overlooking the first hole.

It is a walking but short course. Although the first hole has a rather generous fairway, the rest of the holes places a premium on accuracy. This is a course where you definately do not want to get into the rough. The rough is very "rough", I used a 7 iron with the intention to "whack" my ball out of the rough but only managed to get 10 feet of distance....

I am now counting down the number of days left before I set foot in KK again...

Poring Hot Spring, Kinabalu Park
While in KK we decided to take a drive to the Kinabalu National Park which is roughly two and a half hours drive from Kota Kinabalu city.


Visitors are greeted by a sign indicating that Poring Hot Spring comes under the management of the World Heritage Site.


Initially I wanted to visit the bat cave and the waterfall, but a look at the board made me think twice. Walking more than 3KM while carrying a one year old todler is definately not practical!


After paying the entrance fee of RM3 per-person (foreigners pay RM20), we headed towards the hot spring entrance.


After the main entrance we had to cross a bridge...


After crossing the bridge, we headed towards the open air bath...


Basically, we had to choose an empty bath...wash it and fill it up with hot water.


While waiting for the bath to fill, I visited the hot spring pool. Notice that there is a sign behind me indicating that one should not soak in the pool as it is really hot. The pool is so hot that one can actually cook eggs in it!


Clifford seems to enjoy the water...I certainly did, I have to admit that the water has done wonders to my eczema infested skin...the redness and itchiness has disappeared!


Cleo insisted that I take a dip in the rock pool...the water was soooo cold...imagine jumping into an ice cold pool directly from a hot tub!!! I don't ever want to do it again, I was hyperventilating like mad!!

Anyway we spent about 3 hours at the hot spring before driving back to KK. The drive back was not really pleasant as it was raining heavily, further visibility was bad due to the mist.

Updates...

To you readers out there...sorry, have been too busy lately to blog. Don't even have time to go to the range to practice, I guess the showdown in KK will be a walk-over. I am not conceding defeat but just being practical...so I will just play and enjoy my game.

Well I have been home alone for one week plus now, Cleo and Anthony went back to KK and I am due to join them on the 15th. Did I enjoy being alone?

To tell you the truth, initially the first 2 days were ok...no crying...good sleep...drinking beer and smoking cigars...

But after 2 days of "freedom" I got tired of it!!! I miss my family!!!

Gosh I must be fully domesticated now...

Thoughts...

Well its been a pretty busy couple of weeks, I still have lots of work regarding the planning and establishment within the new set up. I am now responsible to develop and kick start some business initiatives. I am now in the phase of "decision tree" drawing in my business planning process.

Anyway, family wise it has also been challenging, Anthony really demands attention!!! Somehow must figure a way on how to "not carry him so much"... he likes to be carried...when we put him down he starts to cry...any advise?

Cleo and me watched the Da Vinci Code a couple of days ago...verdict? the film follows the book exactly in terms of storeyline as well as some of the actual conversation. I don't really get it...why are people so hyped up about it? yes I know its central theme is that Jesus maaried Mary Magdelene and they had a child...but hello?? its a work of fiction laaaa...

I mean I actually laughed/sniggered during the movie where Robert Langdon proclaimed to Spohie that "your actual surname is Plantard...which means you a descendant of the Merovingians...you are the sole living direct descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdelene..."

The movie/book has not shaken my faith in the Catholic Church/belief.

But what has really shaken my belief in humans is the senseless murder of a 7 year old boy...sigh what has our society come to?

What a day...

Sigh...its been an interesting day, finally I know what my boss's business direction is as well as what he wants me to do. Basically I am supposed to lead in business development and innovation, job function? To basically develop new products for our target industry....

The other interesting occurence in office is basically I had a disagreement with a co-worker over something that I cannot really remember now, anyway I got myself really worked up and just stormed out of his office fuming.

Anyway I went back later to apologize but he did not want to accept the appology...don't really blame him actually...

Not too professional on my part, but I stormed out as I did not want to say something that I would regret later...I just needed to calm myself down.

The damage has been done, I feel bad about it...actually I feel very bad...very very bad as I consider him a friend as well. In retrospect I should not have stormed out of the room.

If you are reading this blog...I know you sometimes read it...I humbly apologize.

Yong Tau Foo

Decided to try cooking yong tau foo by myself today, my mother-in-law taught me how to do it a couple of weeks ago.

Mince up roughly 200gm of meat. Season with some salt, pepper and corn flour.

Basically stuff various types of bean-crud, vege with the meat. Make sure that the meat is tightly lodged into the bean curd or vege, otherwise it will fall out during cooking. I bought the fried wan tan from the market...as I could not find fresh wan tan skin.


Deep fry the stuffed bean curd etc on a low flame so as to ensure that the meat stuffing is cooked.


For the gravy, I use salted soya beans(?? not too sure what type of beans it is). Mash the beans up and add half a cup of water plus half a tea spoon of corn flour.


Fry the gravy...do not add salt as the beans are already very salty...add water to decrease the saltiness...

Pour the gravy onto the stuffed bean curd and vege...serve piping hot...The roasted chicken in the picture is from ayamas given to us by Cleo's cousin for their daughter's full moon.

Baby Pics: 48 days old

Our first family photo...it took us roughly 20 mins to get the right picture...still not perfect as Anthony keeps on getting distracted...he is so curious now, everything is interesting to him!

Consultation = Peace of Mind

When bathing Anthony yesterday we noticed that his navel was bulging!! At first we were not worried but when Anthony started to cry the bulging navel was quite hard to the touch. I started to do some research on the net and concluded that it must be a condition known as umbilical hernia from the literature, this condition is apparently not harmful and will improve from age 5 onwards or towards puberty.

Quite statisfied that it is a not a harmful condition we never thought much about it until Anthony started to cry, whine, scream etc... thingking that it must be due to the bulging navel we took him to the pediatrician today.

The doctor took one look at the navel and said "oh, he has umbilical hernia...it is not harmful etc etc..."

Cost of consultation?? 50 bucks, oh well I am not complaining. I mean I am not a pediatrician, no matter what I read online there is still the niggling doubt..."what if I misintepreted the information...what if it is not umbilical hernia...what if etc"

So I guess paying the 50 bucks is worth it...at least it gives us peace of mind

I am not going to post a picture of what a Umbilical Hernia looks like neither am I going to describe it in detail...

You have to pay me 50 bucks consultation for me to do that!

More Pics of Anthony

He does not smile that often, but loves it when you play with him...


Stretching while undressing him for his bath...


Applying shampoo...


Just "dried" him after this bath...


Pictured with his new cap(or whatever you want to call it)...


Crying when we put him in his pram...


He looks pretty unhappy after he stopped crying...I guess he needs to get used to sitting in a pram haha


He loves to lie on our pillow...

more pics to come...

Golf is not a hobby, it is work

Gosh, I went to the driving range today after about a week being a busy bee.  I am still trying to regain my form in time for the show-down with Cleo's cousin in KK in June when we bring Anthony back for his baptism.  Most likely we will be playing at Sutera Harbour

Anyway back to the issue at hand, I find that no matter how hard you work on your swing, ball strike, stance etc, one week later its all gone!!!  I have to re-work on whatever I was trying so hard to practice the week before...sigh...

I feel that golf is like work, I mean a hobby is where you can pick up after one week of rest and still be good at it.  As for Golf you need to constantly work on your game...arghhh...

But having said that, there is no better stress reliever than wacking 150 balls at the range.  Anyway I can't wait for the day when Anthony is big enough to hold a childs golf club so that he can practice with me at the range...future Malaysian Harimau Kayu in the making.

Office Relocation

Finally after weeks of planning, we finally relocated the office. Its on the same floor but on the "other side" of the building...the scenic side. Instead of overlooking the industrial area we now get a nice view of the collage and shopping center next door.


The new place has a small water fountain or whatever you want to call it...left over by the previous tenant. My new added responsibility is to feed the fishes...


My new cubicle...gosh I am going to fill so claustrophobic, my old cubile has a hugh window where I can just stare out whenever I feel stressed...

I am going to get one of Anthony's pic enlarged so that I can paste is as a poster in front of me...his cute face will relieve me of any stress.

Pictorial Description: How IT Projects Really Work

The picture describes perfectly what I have experienced many times in an IT project. I am sure this does not only apply to IT projects but to other projects as well expecially does where the Government is the customer... Malaysia Boleh...

More Baby Pictures

"why are you taking my picture??"


Lately he has taken a liking to frowning...


He cries whenever he wakes to alert us that he wants to feed...


He does not cry as much now after his shower...


Trying to stand up...


With is first toy...


Cheeky...