Movie/Games Day

We had some friends come over to our house yesterday for a day of movies, games, and (of course) junk food. By dint of pushing all the furniture to the edges of the room, we managed to squeeze an extra 2 small single sofas plus 2 foldable armchairs into our family room. (The lounge would have been bigger, but alas, it has no TV.)

We watched Kindergarten Cop and Flubber (which is not as funny as I remembered) while pigging out on popcorn and chips. Then, in a fit of repentance over our slothful and greedy afternoon, the entire lot of us (8 in total) went out for a long walk around the neighbourhood. Which didn't do much good because it was time for dinner once we came back - potluck of hotdogs, chicken wings, and pizza, with salad being our one concession to a balanced diet. Somehow I ended up being the one assigned to make salad, even though I don't eat salad.

Having had enough of movies, we decided to play games after dinner - guys against girls, Pictionary and Taboo. Pictionary was more fun - I think you have to know the other players really well for Taboo to be as fun. It was quite funny when people started (jokingly lah) accusing other people of being "insider traitors" so that they wouldn't end up "sleeping on the couch tonight"!

I don't think we've ever done something quite like this in Singapore before, at least not since we started work. The most was like an evening of watching one movie, or playing games for a couple of hours, but this time it was the whole afternoon and evening until nearly midnight! Hopefully it won't be the last time - although I think we should try to go home earlier in the future, because some people couldn't wake up for church the next day!

just for fun ...

Abolish the perk!

Huge outcry in cyberspace during the past week, after it was reported that Rodney Hide took his girlfriend on a $25k taxpayer funded trip.

Rodney Hide has used his MP's travel privileges to take his girlfriend on an overseas tour, leaving the taxpayer with a $25,163 bill for her flights.

Mr Hide paid for Louise Crome's trip from the public purse, despite Prime Minister John Key telling globe-trotting ministers to leave their partners behind or pay for the trip themselves.

The Act leader and Minister for Local Government sidestepped Mr Key's directive by keeping Ms Crome's business-class flights off his ministerial tab, instead claiming them as part of his MP's perk of 90 per cent subsidised international travel for partners.

Honestly, if I were him, I think I'd probably do the same thing - come on, if your company is willing to pay 90% of the costs for your spouse to follow you on your business trip, would you really say no?

The way I see it, the problem lies not with him, but with the existence of this "perk". Why should a perk exist if the MPs aren't meant to use it? If they aren't meant to use it, then shouldn't it be abolished?

Pregnancy Sotong-ness

Some people say that women become more absent-minded during pregnancy - at first I was complacently thinking that this must be one of those symptoms I was fortunate enough to be spared (like throwing up) because I haven't feel more forgetful in the past few months (at least not more than usual!)

But then yesterday in the shower, I squeezed the liquid soap into my hand, and then, without thinking, put it onto my hair instead of onto my body! After I had already shampooed and conditioned my hair, I might add. So I guess "baby brain" isn't something that I successfully escaped after all!

New Blog Skin

I've sort of had the vague intention to change my blog skin for a while but never got around to it, but then last week Jessie changed hers, and then yesterday FX changed his, which finally spurred me past my procrastination - what can I say, I'm susceptible to peer pressure!

The Geeks are having a baby!

You know you're living in the 21st century when you spend ages wondering how to announce your pregnancy on FaceBook.

Seriously, trying to figure out the best way to tell people you're pregnant is no piece of cake. I mean, imagine you're out with a group of friends, how do you bring up this topic? I had visions of myself suddenly blurting out, "By the way, I'm pregnant," into one of the gaps in the conversation, with everyone exhibiting stunned silence for a while, before recovering and awkwardly offering belated congratulations. And being overseas makes it even weirder - do you email people to say, "Hi, I'm pregnant!" or just announce it to all and sundry on FaceBook?

And if you decide to go with the FaceBook method, surely there must be a better way than just updating your status to say "is expecting" or "is pregnant". Some people upload ultrasound pics, pregnant photos of themselves, or photos of them wearing pregnancy novelty tees. At first I wanted to buy the shirt with the intel logo saying "baby inside" but it was just too expensive!

I saw one cute FaceBook status update that said "XXX has a bun in the oven but it needs to cook for 6 more months". Another one (a geeky guy) wrote something like "baby system compiling 33% complete". Maybe I should copy and modify that, like, "next generation model, development 33% complete, project delivery date 1st May 2010".

Telling my colleagues was easier than I'd expected because it just so happened that my colleague's brother recently had a baby, and she bought cakes for everyone, so the conversation over the cakes was quite baby-centric. Into one of the gaps I managed to inject quite naturally, "I suppose this would be a good time to let you guys know that we're expecting our first child!" And telling our cell group was easy as well because you have "sharing" time, so we just shared our good news during our turn. News spreads really fast - less than 24 hours after we told the cell group, another church member messaged me on FaceBook: "I KNOW ALREADY!!!" with about ten smileys behind!

I suppose that, weird as it may feel, I should probably email some of my friends to let them know, especially the ones who don't read my blog, because if I don't, one of them will surely come back and complain, "tai guo fen, why you never tell me!"

But anyway, for all you patient people who do read my blog, you get to know before them! I've listed the posts I wrote previously (but saved as draft until now) in chronological order, so you can go back and read them if you feel so inclined.

Positive!
All is well, praise the Lord!
Surreality
Yeah, it's not twins
Scare
Baby secrets
Trials of finding a midwife
Maternity clothes
First midwife appointment
12th week scan and NT test

Baby Geek is well and truly on the way, development 33% complete!

Trip to Melbourne

Day One - Melbourne CBD

Getting there

After picking up the rental car, we had a horrible time trying to navigate our way to the hotel. Firstly, we aren't used to driving on the same roads as trams, so it was difficult to know when to give way and when to go. And FX was following behind this tram and inadvertently drove into the tram-only lane by mistake! Luckily there were no trams except the one in front of us, and he managed to quickly u-turn out. Then, we had to drive through the CBD which was even more crowded than Singapore, if that's possible, and our hotel was south of the river, but we couldn't find any way to right-turn over any of the the bridges! We ended up making one big round to get to the other side of the road, before being able to get across one of the bridges. And then we discovered that our hotel had no carpark! I went down to ask while FX waited in the car at another hotel opposite, but he got chased away by the guard, so when I came out he'd had to move the car away and wasn't there! But finally we got all that sorted, and managed to check into the hotel with our luggage.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the nearby foodcourt, we spent the afternoon exploring the CBD on foot. This is the Yarra River which is just next to our hotel.


Just over the river is Flinders Street train station, it's really as busy as Orchard Road MRT in Singapore!


Giant Christmas tree, and they have horse carriages all along Swanston Street, which you can hire to take a drive around town.


Melbourne 360 - Rialto Towers

This is the equivalent of SkyTower in Auckland, or Eiffel Tower in Paris - a tall tower where you can go up to the top and look down at the city.



Yarra River at night

We had dinner nearby and took a nice walk along the riverside, it's much prettier at night when you can't see how muddy the water is!


Day Two - Great Ocean Road & Visiting Friends

It was a relief to get away from the CBD and drive towards the Coast, exploring the famous Great Ocean Road. Although we didn't make it to the 12 Apostles, we greatly enjoyed the fabulous scenery (quite like NZ, really!)

Scenery along the Great Ocean Road





Lunch

We had lunch at this seaside town called Lorne - fish & chips & fried chicken, eaten al fresco in a cafe overlooking the beach.


And stopped for ice-cream on the way back at another beach.


Visiting Friends

Then we visited our friends from Singapore, Cheng Ann and Serena, who migrated to Melbourne a few years ago. We haven't seen them since then, so it was really good to meet up for a chat and see their lovely home. We also had dinner with Zhao'en, whom I also haven't seen in ages, and he brought us to this Italian place which serves absolutely ginormous pizzas and pastas, not to mention desserts!



Day Three - Phillip Island

A Maze N Things

A really cool place with illusions and all that, but very similar to Wanaka's Puzzling World - I think it's probably run by the same company!

Sit on the chair and it carries you uphill!

Stand at an angle that defies gravity!

Mirror Maze - which wall is real and which isn't?

Look what's served up for dinner!

Koala Conservation Centre

This is not a fantastic place, we just went there coz we had to kill time until the penguin parade that night. Basically you go into this sort of forest enclosure and walk around on the broadwalks, where you can see some koalas and other animals. Most of the koalas are high up in the trees so you really only see a ball of fur.

A couple were down right next to the railing, I'm not sure if they intentionally put them there so that people can't complain they "saw no koalas"!!! This cuddly guy was sleeping soundly, oblivious to all the tourists taking photos of him!


We also went on the nature walk, and managed to see a few wallabies, but none of the bats, possums or echidnas which were supposed to be in that area.


Nobbies Centre

This one is free entry so we decided to just pop in anyway (still killing time). It's this mega cafe set right at the end of Phillip Island, looking out onto the sea below the cliff, with some educational exhibitions about the marine life. There are tons and tons of seagulls nesting along the hillside, we saw some unfledged ones which were still brown and spotted. The scenery was beautiful but the wind was so strong that we didn't do more than a quick round of the broadwalk!



Penguin Parade

Finally, that evening, we visited the main attraction - the Penguin Parade. We booked our tickets early in the morning, and noted the estimated timing for that day (it varies with the seasons).


Luckily we got there early, because the seats we booked (called Penguin Plus) filled up really fast - we started walking once the doors opened but only managed to get second row seats. Of course, the price you pay is that you have to sit there in the freezing cold for about an hour waiting for the penguins to arrive. We had been duly warned about this, though, so we were well prepared with our winter jackets!


They don't allow you to take photos so I don't have any of the penguins, but it looks something like this (with a much darker sky!)


Day Four - Melbourne CBD again

We were quite tired after the trip out to Phillip Island the previous day (arrived back quite late at night) so we decided to be lazy and just wander around the CBD for our last day.


Craving chinese food after having chips for the past 3 days, we managed to find our way to Chinatown for lunch! It's quite sad, though, basically 2 rows of chinese restaurants lining a sort of back alley. Nothing like the Chinatown in London!


We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in a cafe by the river reading a book - I know it sounds like quite a time waster when you're in a foreign country, but it was a good and relaxing break!

Day Five - Going Home

We kiasu-ly left the hotel four hours before our flight was due to leave, anticipating accurately that we would have to waste time getting lost before managing to find our way back to the car rental place. Which we did, a little, mostly because we were trying to avoid the toll roads and hence ended up going through all the little roads. But we still reached the airport really early and so had plenty of time to eat breakfast and wander around duty free (not that we bought anything!)

I was trying to watch the UP movie on the plane but only got through about 3/4 before they cut the system off for landing. Still, FX managed to watch the whole thing coz he started earlier, and he told me the ending, which is sort of typical for Disney I guess!

Anyway, we're now back in Auckland again. I always enjoy returning home after a trip - to slake your internet cravings, have a shower with decent water pressure, and sleep in a big bed with pocketed springs!

12th week scan and NT test

I went for the 12th week ultrasound today, which is where they measure the thickness of the fluid behind the baby's neck, which will tell you if your child is at high risk for Down Syndrome. It's only used to calculate the probability, though, more invasive tests (which I wouldn't do anyway) are needed to know for sure, but this one is just an ultrasound so I have no qualms. And besides, I really wanted to see the baby's heart beating again!

The lady started out with an external scan, but the baby was lying in the wrong position for her to get the measurements. So she did an internal one, but the baby still wouldn't cooperate, although she had me cough, turn from side to side, and jiggle my stomach in hopes that the baby would turn around. Without any success, I might add - it took simply ages, although I was secretly glad, because it just gave me more time to watch the baby on the screen! I could make out the shape of the head and the silhouette of the nose, and the spine was very clearly outlined. The lady also said, "See, there's two arms, and two legs!" but I couldn't see those, because her "there" wasn't accompanied by any pointing.

After a long time of waiting for the baby to turn, she said, "I think I can even tell you what kind it is!"

"Really?" I asked eagerly. "Tell me tell me!"

"Which do you want?" she teased, with a grin.

"I don't care!" I replied impatiently.

"I think, although I can't be really sure because it's really early to say, but I think it's a ... boy," she smiled indulgently at me.

A boy! I never thought they'd be able to tell at 12 weeks, but according to her, the internal scan is able to pick up much more than the external one that they usually do, so I'm really glad the baby was uncooperative and forced her to do the internal one! I guess we'll now be referring to the baby as "him", at least until or unless the next scan at 20 weeks says otherwise.

Unfortunately, after about half an hour (by my approximation, at least) of trying, the baby still wouldn't turn to the correct position, despite her coaxing, "Come on baby, good baby, just turn so I can get a nice picture for your mommy!" She gave up and removed the scanner, saying that I'd just have to come back another day to try again, but then changed her mind and said, "How about we give the external one just one more try." And lo and behold, the baby suddenly decided to cooperate and she was able to get the measurement in under a minute.

"Perfect, everything looks perfect," she told me happily. "So everything's good with the measurement?" I asked anxiously. "Yes, it's all wonderful," she said, smiling reassuringly. "We'll send the results to your doctor and midwife by tomorrow afternoon."

I love going for ultrasounds - seeing your baby moving and turning on the screen has got to be one of the most awesome things ever. Especially when it's all happening inside of you, this is the only chance to actually see what's going on.

This is a sort of milestone in the pregnancy, for 12 weeks (some people say 13, but I'm half way in between, anyway) marks the end of the first trimester, which means you're sort of past the "danger" zone, and the risk of miscarriage lessens considerably. And also, you get to finally share your good news with everyone!

math joke

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer, the second orders half a beer the third asks for a quarter of a beer. Before the next one can speak, the bartender says "You're all idiots," and pours two beers.

First Midwife Appointment

The first appointment with a midwife is called the "booking-in" appointment, which is longer than the usual ones because they need to take down all your medical history and all that. The midwife, a very motherly sort of woman, proved to be even nicer in person than she sounded on the phone, making me quite glad that I'd ended up with her.

She asked me lots of questions about my medical history and also explained lots of things to me, like what I shouldn't eat, when to call her (if anything goes wrong), etc. Then she had me lie down on the bed and applied the doppler to my abdomen - at first all I could hear were stomach-grumbly sort of static sounds, and then suddenly she turned and smiled at me and I realised that the sounds had morphed into a regular rhythm, rather like a galloping horse - the baby's heartbeat!

She showed me around the maternity unit on the way out, it looks a little like a tiny single-floor hospital, but each room has only one bed, and they have water tubs and everything. She said she would prefer to have me deliver there instead of in the hospital - apparently, if you deliver in the maternity unit, you risk being transferred to the hospital if anything goes wrong, but if you deliver in the hospital, you will definitely have to be transferred to the maternity unit once the baby is born. And they have no hot tubs in the hospital! At first I thought that it's better to be in the hospital because it feels safer (nearer to medical help), but I may reconsider ...