The lil’ dude and his family…

Like I have said in my earlier post, Irfan’s body felt a bit warm, so we decided to bring him see a doctor or GP to prescribe him something for the flu and fever. There is a hospital nearby my in-laws’ apartment, but when we went there, they said that since it is a private hospital, they don’t have any doctors on call (since no appointment was made). The receptionist then asked us to visit a local GP nearby instead. So, she gave us directions and after walking for 20 minutes, I was wondering if the receptionist knew we were walking (instead of driving) when she mentioned nearby because we still did not see any clinics around! My brother in-law then asked someone else for directions and was told to walk another block or so. I think we walked for another 15 minutes before we saw a pharmacy and decided to go in and consult a pharmacist instead. He suggested Demazin and Panadol syrup for Irfan. When we enquired about the local GP, he showed us the building opposite and said that the clinic is always full, and that it would be a better idea if we took the train and take the next stop to I-forgot-where and see the local GP there instead. Irwan and I decided not to see any GPs at the moment, and if and only if Irfan’s condition worsens should we go.

To go back to my in-laws’ apartment was a loooooong walk back and since the train station is only 3 minutes’ walk away, we decided to meet my in-laws in the same train and visit Izwan’s college in Clairesbrook. We bought tickets to Perth city and no one and I mean no one would check if the passengers actually bought a valid ticket! With our LRT in Malaysia, we have to insert the ticket to go in and out, but there is no such thing in Australia. I think if Malaysian government were to implement the same system, it would wreak havoc! Seriously, don’t you think so??? But then again, I’d think twice about taking the LRT now ever since the dangling LRT incident. *shake head*

After Clairesbrook, we headed for the city and by that time with fasting and all, I was feeling a bit tired. But going to the city means shopping, so have to be gung-ho lah. Haha! Met a few friends from KL who were there for Raya as well and then we parted ways and started looking out for cheap shops to shop! By 5 p.m. (that’s when most of the shops close), Irfan’s stroller was full of stuff! Hahahaha! I was going crazy looking at the baby clothes at Pumpkin Patch. Anyway, I was in such haste that morning to bring Irfan to see a GP that I forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures of us in the city.

Later on, I met my school friend who stays in Perth and we decided to break fast together. In-laws’ wanted to eat at an Indonesian restaurant, but unfortunately, since it was the eve of Raya, the restaurant was closed. My friend then suggested that we try a Malaysian restaurant nearby, and so we did.

Upon seeing a fellow Malaysian, I thought that I could speak malay to her. (I’m always like this whenever I travel. I’d get all excited and speak our mother tongue and most times, they’d reply back.) But with this one lady, when I asked, “Sup ekor tu ada nasi tak?” (Does the oxtail soup come with rice?) she just stared at me blankly, like as though I was speaking Greek! So, fine, since you think that you’re too good to speak your own language, so be it! While speaking with the heavy Australian accent, she took all our orders. When it came to my mom in-law’s turn, she wanted mee hoon siam instead of mee siam, and since the lady taking our orders does not (or pretends not to) understand malay, my mom in-law asked if she could replace the mee with vermicelli (mee hoon). AGAIN, she stared at us blankly. And I was like, what the….????? So sarcastically, I said, “Vermicelli tu mee hoon lah.” (Vermicelli is mee hoon). In my heart I was like, “tsk tsk tsk, you are pathetic!” Haha! I know, I know, I should not be mean, but come on, the moment we left the counter, she was happily chatting with the rest in Malay! Aiyooooo…. And get this, the total for the 8 of us was AUD 98.00 (RM 270 – RM 280) or something ridiculous like that! Crazziiiieeeeeeeeeee!!!! To top that off, nothing and I mean absolutely NOTHING that we ordered, with the exception of the oxtail soup, was good. They were all tasteless and a waste of money. Sigh.

So, after the disappointed dinner, we headed home, but Izwan had to make a detour to the arcade first, to jump up and down to sweat out, because it was getting chilly outside and he did not bring a jacket with him. Haha!

Upon arriving home, my mom in-law prepared some rendang and nasi himpit for our Raya breakfast the next day. Yummy! Hehe.

Goofing around on the bed with Papa.

On Papa’s tummy.

Me and my droolie saliva! =P

I took this video on the day we were to leave for Perth. I call this pose the leaning tower of Irfan. Haha!

We arrived at Perth International Airport around 7+ a.m on Sunday, 22nd October 2006. Thankfully, Irfan behaved well during both flights (KL-Changi, Changi-Perth). Our flight to Changi was about 9.45 p.m on Saturday and we had to transit for a bit there as our flight out to Perth was scheduled at 1.20 a.m. I was quite nervous as to how Irfan would behave since it is his first time on a plane and of course, with the transit, his sleep would inevitably be disturbed. But phew, he was not cranky and slept almost immediately after take-off.

I think the Malaysian Immigration is too laid-back compared to Singapore and Australia. I mean, they let us pass through the security gate without even checking if we had anything dangerous in the stroller. Although Singapore Immigration did not ask us to fold the stroller and put it on the x-ray machine, they had the sensor thing going round checking if there is anything dangerous being brought onto the plane. Such a loophole, man! I am not saying that we did bring anything dangerous, but what if someone else did? They really should check baggages and whatever not more thoroughly. Australian Immigration no need to say lah. Everything also must pass through the x-ray machine. Hehe!

Anyway, some friends advised us to not bring in Irfan’s milk as it might be confiscated, but since the tins were unopened, the custom officers let us pass through. We did not even have to have our bags checked. (I did declare the food stuff since I had milk and raya cookies, but while queuing at the red lane, the officer asked us to proceed to the green lane, and we did, happily!) And oh, they even led us to a special passport counter (which had a shorter line) as we have a baby with us. While on the plane, I had to ask the stewardess to prepare Irfan some milk and they prepared him a bottle of warm fresh milk and he actually liked it. So hooray! I was not worried in case his supply of milk depleted.

The weather in Perth was quite warm, but the wind was a bit strong, so it was good that we bought Irfan a jacket.

By the time we got to my in-laws’ apartment, we were all so exhausted and slept through the morning. I woke up at noon, chit chat a bit and went back to sleep and woke up again about 2-ish. We then headed for the lake nearby and went for a stroll. Irfan was quite happy, but he was already showing signs of contracting the flu from me as he was sneezing a lot. And true enough, later in the evening, he had runny nose. Nyeh! But the view from the lake was just magnificent! We wanted to walk until East Perth, but since everyone was fasting and tired from the trip, we decided not to.

That night, after our buka puasa, we went to bed early as we were going to visit my brother in-law’s college and stroll around the city the next day.

I look like a Japanese baby, don’t I? =P

The whole family except for the two daughter in-laws.

Irfan & Papa looking at the great view.

Irfan (the hankie is Uncle Ike’s bright idea!) & Grandma.

Alie & baby Adam

Yannie & baby Adam

Happy 27th birthday to the two (out of three) of my bestest friends! They are also Irfan’s godmas. I hope you guys will have a blast! Lia, hopefully we can meet on Saturday before our flight to Perth, and Yan, I hope you’re having a great time in Sydney with Amez! I so don’t like you both.. nyeh! Haha! Anyway, we should all go for crabs after raya, k? YUM!!!! And tell Amez to come back here ASAP! She’d better come back in December before she leaves for Italy, or else I shall never speak to her again. =P

This video was taken last Saturday and Irfan seemed sooooooo happy being in his walker. But he’s still standing on his toes lah. Hopefully in time he’ll know how to stand on his feet. =)

I tell you, our weekends are just so darn busy! Sigh. We were out the whole day of yesterday buying stuff for Irfan and getting cabinet quotes for our new house. But Irfan behaved very well, so thank god for that! *grin*

Irfan sitting on Irwan’s tummy before we headed out.

Our hectic day started with me seeing my orthodontist at Mont Kiara and Irfan as usual, was asleep in the car and was still asleep after we left Mont Kiara! Next stop was OU because after checking the weather forecast for Perth, then wind might be blowing a little too strong and the weather would mostly be too chilly for Irfan if we didn’t get him a jacket. So after looking through a few shops from Mothercare to Osh Kosh to Baby Guess, finally we settled on one we saw at Zara Kids. It’s a hooded jacket with a detachable vest (in case it gets a bit warm) and the price was quite okay (although Irwan said otherwise! =P).

Our next stop was IKEA and although the traffic was quite mad, it was still bearable lah. I had to change Irfan’s diapers while Irwan was driving and I tell you, it was quite a task! My back was aching like mad after that. Haha. So, when we got to IKEA, I put Irfan in the baby sling as it was easier to manoeuvre. He was already quite sleepy and while discussing our kitchen plan with the IKEA kitchen planner, I managed to rock him to sleep.

Irfan was so happy in the trolley and he was clowning around, as usual! =P

By the time we were done with the IKEA planner guy, it was only 430pm and by gawd! The queue for the IKEA buffet line was already 200 metres long! Sheeeeeeeeesssshh! I wasn’t in the mood the queue in line for another 2 hours, so we decided to get some stuff first, hoping that the line wouldn’t be too bad when we get back later. Irfan was up by then and we put him in the trolley since he liked being in it the last time we were at IKEA. He was so happy and was doing all sorts of acrobatic moves in there!

After getting some stuff for my mom and lil’ Irfan (I got him a giraffe the size of him!), we headed for checkout. Good gawd! The queue was quite mad too. Sigh. So, here we are, queuing and queuing for like almost 20 minutes and came our turn, this dude thought he could get away without queuing and wanted to just pay. Just because he has ONE item to pay, it gives him the right to just barge through to the start of the line. The cashier of course asked him to ask me if it was okay and since there was a heavily pregnant lady behind us and the fella didn’t look like he could collapse from queuing, I said no, he has got to queue as well because we have been queuing like forever! Sheeeesssshhhh!

After that, we headed for Ikano and while Irwan tended to lil’ Irfan, I was running around buying more stuff. Haiyaaa.. not good not good. Haha! When I was done, it was almost 6pm, and Irwan wanted to check out the queue for the buka puasa. Hoooo boy! It was just waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy toooooooooooo long for us to queue and so we decided to buka puasa at Absolute Thai instead.

The restaurant was almost packed by the time we got there, but we were lucky to get the last table inside. I put Irfan in the baby chair and he was so happy yapping and laughing around to us. Hehe. It was very cute! Irwan ordered pineapple fried rice and I ordered the beef noodles. It was a bad decision on my side as the beef noodles were just crap! Since I was so used to the Vietnamese beef noodles, the Thai beef noodles were just not up to my expectationslah. Sigh.

I was still hungry after buka puasa and headed on to IKEA to buy a cone of ice-cream and some hotdogs! Yummy!!!!! =)

Irfan resting after a tired day. Poor boy…

Hahaha! I’m not sure how clear this video is, but I enjoy watching him jump like a kangoo and trying his best to “talk”! I should record another clearer video another day. Basically, this is what he does when you put him on his feet. But he’s still standing on his toes, though. Why ah?

This is quite a blur photo, but if you look properly, you can see his 2 bottom teeth growing. Notice also his long scratch on the face. Sigh.

That’s what I’m talking about! Index finger in his mouth. Haha! That’s his new hobby (I guess to soothe his gums? Yes? No?) now. It’s not that I want to stop him from doing so, but because his saliva is everywhere, his rashes on his face are getting from bad to worse. Sigh. Any solutions anyone?

He can also sit on his own unaided. But sometimes, he tend to sway to one side and fall flat on his face! Ouch! So, most of the time, I let him sit on the bed instead, at least the mattress is soft. =)

We had crabs at King Crab @ Taman Megah the other night for buka puasa and their crabs are YUM!!!! There were 6 of us, and we ordered 2 kgs of crabs (1kg butter crabs, 1 kg chilli crabs), salted egg prawns (their specialty - although the waitress keeps saying specialist *roll eyes*), steamed fish, some vegetable and of course, the not to be missed “mantau” (however u spell it lah) and we only paid about RM 33 per person! Not bad, ey? It’s highly recommended for anyone who wants to give this place a try to order their butter crabs and salted egg prawns. =)

Irfan was asleep even before we left home. And we left at about 7 pm and the traffic was just so good! Future reference: leave at 7 pm or during the break fasting time to avoid wonky traffic! =P When we reached at the restaurant, Irfan was still asleep and he didn’t wake up until about almost 9 pm! Irwan was carrying him, which meant I had to peel the prawns and the crabs for him! (I think I ate his portion too.. muahahahaha!)

Okay, so I’ve started giving him blended porridge with spinach but I’m thinking of adding some chicken in the porridge. Is that a good idea? Does anyone have any recipes to share? Thanks!