New Hopes!

Uish, gile lama tak menjengah sini.
Okay, I've been busy these past few weeks menguruskan anak-anak bersekolah,.
Plus, menguruskan one major project that's TBA in a few months ( saspen saspen).

Anyway, what date is it today? 9th?
Is it too late for me to list out the cliche? ie my resolutions.
Orang kata, why wait for the new year to start something new or to dream big or to plan on something?
Why wait for the perfect moment?
Aku kata, alah diamlah.
Sukatila.

I plan to go back to racing. When? Well, I'm trying to find the perfect one to start with. Not too long of a distance since I've been taking a break for about a year. You know, just the perfect race to get the gear and momentum going.

I or we plan to get our boy in shape. For you guys who haven't seen my boy, well , he's a bit on the chubby side. Walaupun sedap dipeluk, but it's high time we do something about it.
Sometimes people like to take a jab at us using him, saying things like, " Kenapa mak bapak kurus, tapi anak chubby?"
And they say it right in front of him.
Not cool, guys.
Anyway, we got him to exercise 4-5 times weekly and fingers crossed, things will work out right.

Straighten out the house. Pronto.
No procrastinating. No dilly dallying.
This is serious.(hoho)

There will be some major changes jobwise and I plan to exit gracefully.
And I do hope that the grass is greener on the other side.
Wah, misterius.

There's still a lot.
But pelan pelan la kan
We better ourselves in increments.

Please Put It Down

Parents, please pay attention to your kids and take away whatever electronic gadgets  they have in their hands.

The irony is we want our children to catch up with technology but we revert them to their own little caves totally ignorant of their surroundings.

Children are supposed to explore, run, be curious, enjoy the outdoors.
Children should open up books and let imagination take hold.
Children should socialize with other kids, play and muck about like children they are.
Children should be able to tell you about their day and how awesome everything went.

Not sit around, engrossed with whatever it is on the iPad. For hours on end.
Be it, at a restaurant.
Near a beautiful beach or pool.
At their kampungs.
In a family function.
When people come over.
At a mall.
During a vacation.
In a family roadtrip.
Or even at home.

Don't let a gadget raise your children.
Your kid runs a tantrum and you hand him an iPad.
Your kid behaves and you hand him a tablet
Your kid is fidgety and you hand him your smartphone
Your kid can't socialize and you hand him his PSP.

A gadget is not a pacifier.
It is not a babysitter.
It can not, should not substitute you.

Whatever you teach your kid, would be more valuable that what you claim your tablet is able to teach your child.

Please don't say my kids can't survive a day without their electronic thingamajigs.
Not in a proud tone.
Not even in an apolegetic tone.

We grew up fine without.

Kids are getting angrier.
Impatient.
Spoiled.
Stuck up.

Parents, get a grip.
Look at what you've turned your child into.
Take away the electronics.
Demand more respect.
Give them books.
Encourage them to look up and explore the world.
Help them make friends.
Teach them.
Play with them.
Talk to them.

I'm not being houlier than thou.
I'm not saying my children are better off.
But let's do this together.

Our children deserve more from us. From themselves.

We talk about making the world a better place for our children.
Why not make our children better people for the world.

Another Story

*Phone rings

We have an assault case for you. The patient was hit several times by 5 other men with helmets on the head and on the face. There's some swelling at the mouth area and we suspect there's a large laceration wound intraorally. We also suspect some sort of fracture to the mandible.

Adoi mak. Dari banyak-banyak kes yang dapat, the least I'd like to face at 1 in the morning is an assault case.

15 minutes later, at the ER I tried my damndest best to smile back and respond to a houseman's unusually chirpy attitude di malam-malam bute.

"Your patient awaits" she grinned.

The guy was bashed up pretty bad. Worser was, that he had his posse of about 6-7 people waiting by his side. One had a permanent scowl on his face.

My junior officer and I were outnumbered. Macamana la nak buat treatment alone with them waiting in the ORal Surgery room so far away from other people.

I put on my garang-est face.
" Only one person can accompany, ok."
" I repeat, sorang saje"

I walked away not waiting for a response. I would't know how gang members would react to my arahan.

When I turned, expecting them to disobey, surprisingly only the wounded guy was following ( he can walk just fine, only his face was messed up)

We brought him into our dental surgery.
Tetibe.
A mild knock on the door.
Two men in leather jackets stood there looking back at me, smiling sheepishly.

"Er, you said only one person can accompany this guy"
" EXACTLY" ( pasang muka garang)
" Well can we escort him? We're the police"


Alamak.
Muka garang terlebih bajet.




Sekianlah.

I'm Still Alive !

So the last time I baliked kampung, I noticed a spanking new toy in my sister's room.
Sometimes, she's got some pretty interesting stuff, my sister.

This time it came in a form of a body composition scale.
Gila jakun.

Switced it on, or rather touch screened it on.
Entered my age and height.
Next step was to just step on the metal sensors.
And wait for a few seconds for a reading.

Aaaand the results.

bone density

total fat

muscle mass

 

 recommended daily calorie intake

BMI

Which dalam layman terms, means I'm doing ok.

After all that hard work for 7 months.

I was so elated, I had to call WW to tell him.

" What body composition scale, now?"

" My sister just got it. Online."

" Ha. Those things are never accurate"

Bah.

Party pooper.

This is just about as anticlimax as getting a friend request at FB and finding out later that it's just one of your cousin's pre-adolescent children.

Exude Awesomeness

WW shared this on FB last week and  I feel that I absolutely have to share this here.
This guy, dear friends , is a brilliant example of someone who excels in not immersing himself in absolute self pity.

This guy exudes awesomeness. CP or not.

Watching him takes me back to my final year community project at SK Jln Batu a few eras ago..We had to spend a whole day with the special needs students in one of the classes. The kids were mostly blind, so our goal was to teach dental awareness among these little darlings.

We thought we were pretty smart coming up with big blow up models of teeth and food items so they can 'feel' them with their fingers as we babbled about oral hygiene.
I remember asking one of the kids, while holding one model of a molar :

" Can you tell me what that is by feel?"
" A big fat flower?"
" No it's a molar"
" Tipu la , my tooth isn't that big"

Epic fail.

Anyway, during their talent show, most of my friends bawled their eyes out watching these kids perform, thinking of what they missed being blind and all.
But what changed me that day was what happened during recess.

We assisted the teachers to line them up. One kid somehow got into a quarrel with another kid in front.
Tetiba je,
Swing!
Dia kasi hayun kaki dia kasi penyepak kat mamat kat depan.

And naturally, as kids will be kids, mamat depan in retaliation, swung back his tiny feet in all different directions to get a hit at his mate.
And one kick made direct contact to my shin.

Gile sakit.

But I laughed so hard.

And it was like some sort of enlightenment.
I absolutely knew that these boys would be fine.
 They won't wallow in despair but they will push through.
They don't need our pity or tears, they just need our support.

They will prevail.
And so will we.

And we are all superheroes in our own little way.

 

Genius At Work

Genius excuses on not excercising this week ( and the week before)

1. I was oncall ( last week)
2. The baby spiked up a fever ( also last week)
3. A rat somehow got into the house.
4. The rat died somewhere in the house.
5. The house reeks the smell of dead rat, and inhaling whatever gas the carcass emanates might be harmful to one's health.
6. I'm at my parents's house most days this week to avoid the stench.
7. I now have the sniffles.

Boleh pass tak?

Ok, next week, everyday must run.

Fuyoooo (sarcastically)

The first of 'The How To' series

How to prep a baby for your run ( on the treadmill)

If you have a weekend spouse / have no maid and you're pretty much juggling things on the weekdays by yourself :

1. Make sure baby is well fed.

2. Make sure baby is wide awake.  (It's really hard to resume your workout if you have to stop and console your crying baby who tends to wake up every 10 minutes.)

3. Make sure baby is comfortably seated in her carry cot/ baby seater and is facing you.

4. Make sure her siblings are around to amuse her if she gets fussy.

5. Into the run, make sure you turn to her and flash a smile or call out her name every 30 seconds to show that you're still paying her some attention. ( Do this even when she's not watching so that your neck muscles are used to the frequent turning )

6. If she starts to fuss and her siblings are not cooperating, do some funny moves or weird sounds while you're running for her amusement.  Clapping like nobody's business in also acceptable.

7. Once you are done with the run, don't forget to thank God for blessing you with the nicest baby in the world.

** footnote : as baby's tolerance is forever changing, the how to's applies when it can be applied.



If your spouse is with you at all times / If you have a maid :

1. Give the baby to your spouse/ maid.

2. Run


Have fun!