aiyah!

must spell out in black and white one is it!

G.I.R.L lah!

dah, enough guessing already. nampak sah malas nak cari answer sendiri eh. pffft…

* * * * *

anywaaaaaaay, i think i seriously need to plaster down my navel with a Handiplast. or one of those nipple tapes. or maybe in dire circumstances, some masking tape or scotch tape.

two ladies just asked me point-blank what the thing sticking out of my belly was.

!!!

i guess i could’ve answered that it was the baby giving them the finger (ha ha), but i just widened my eyes at them and replied with all the courtesy i could muster, “my belly button lah!”

of course they, single nyonyas nearing their 50s, couldn’t believe the extent of the obscenity caused by a mere navel, and one of them requested to see it.

i obliged and flashed accordingly. (coz i’m a closet britney like that.)

“you never see before ah??” i asked.
“always people wear loose loose mah,” she replied.
“why you wear so tight one?” the other asked.
“tight meh? aiyah, this is pregnant woman’s body mah, no need to be shy one lah, normal what…” and scampered away before they tried to prod my (admittedly gross-looking) belly button (which only aniq is fond of, actually).

sorry lah aunties, but if there’s one thing i don’t do, is frumpy. :p

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intrigued, i finally searched the net for that much-talked-about chinese baby gender prediction chart.

and ended up REALLY confused, coz there seemed to be different charts everywhere!

story has it that the ancient chinese used a so-called chart, drawn up by a scientist, to predict the gender of an unborn child. i guess it must have been a great hit back then, seeing how they all badly want boys to continue their lineage.

well, 700 years later, it somehow got ‘leaked’ out from the tomb where it was buried in beijing, and landed on the world wide web.

ok, you know we’re not supposed to believe in such predictions (and these charts sure look dodgy to me, heh), so let’s take this with a generous pinch of salt, shall we?

so what you’re supposed to do is to check the month of the baby’s conception (see top row) against the age of the mother at the time of conception (see left column).

let’s say aniq was conceived in march when i was technically 27 years old… what do you get?

and let’s say this new baby was conceived in july when i was technically 29 years old… what do you get?

come come, it’s all in the name of fun. with gender, it’s always 50-50, either one or the other, like what the doctors say. (unless of course, you’re having twins, etc – now THAT would have been tricky on the ancient chinese!)

and on that note, let’s continue with more of ChapII, shall we?

(well, i couldn’t possibly publish them without eventually revealing the gender of the baby, so enjoy ‘discovering’ it through the entries, ha ha.)

oh, and here’s another little trivia i found related to predicting baby genders. good luck trying out THIS method! :p

Did you know?

One of the earliest written records of a urine based pregnancy test can be found in an ancient Egyptian document. A papyrus described a test in which a woman who might be pregnant could urinate on wheat and barley seeds over the course of several days: If the barley grows, it means a male child. If the wheat grows, it means a female child. If both do not grow, she will not bear at all.

Testing of this theory in 1963 found that 70 percent of the time, the urine of pregnant women did promote growth, while the urine of non pregnant women and men did not.

Scholars have identified this as perhaps the first test to detect a unique substance in the urine of pregnant women, and have speculated that elevated levels of estrogens in pregnant women’s urine may have been the key to its success.

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Thanks to all that replied, my DSLR had been sold.

well, it had to happen. i’m selling my olympus dslr gear to finance a nikon. yep, i’m finally joining the dark side.hehe..

after a year of sticking to the olympus four thirds system, i’m going with the nikon system. anyway, my loss is your gain. check out my offer below!

selling a complete e-500 olympus digital slr camera package. check out the specs here. include all the manuals, cables and accessories. the package also includes the following

1. the e-500 camera body, screen protected (shutter count 13k)
2. 14-45mm f3.5/5.6 zuiko digital zoom lens (include hoya UV filter)
3. 40-150mm f3.5/4.5 zuiko digital zoom lens (include hoya UV filter)
4. 35mm f3.5 macro zuiko digital zoom lens (include hoya UV filter)
5. fl-36 flash (with sto-fen omni bounce)
6. remote control (RM-1)
7. 2GB compact flash
8. Additional 3rd party battery
9. 01 circular polariser filter
10. tripod

used for around 1 year. kept in dry cabinet when not in used. i took the extended 3 years warranty from courts, so there’s still 2 years left. also includes the accidental drop policy. the price? hopefully can sell for $1200. interested? email me at izadd77@gmail.com. let me hear your offers, price is of course negotiable.

on a personal note, this camera is ideal for those just starting out on photography and want to expand their creativity which could understandably be constrained by the normal point and shoot (pns) digital camera. my package covers almost all the range, from macro to telezoom. i can also give free personal tutorial for those not familiar with dslr camera.

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oops! sorry my little pot of hunny, we really meant, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

we totally understand your bewilderment. well, aniq does anyway, since he’d gone through it before, what with people singing and making you blow candles. don’t worry, you’ll get better at the whole birthday party thing. just wait till you’re 21…

or older (think 30)! see these deprived aunties??

ok ok, let’s get back to you, since it was YOUR day after all. we fell in lurve with you from the first time we met, remember that? err, no, of course not. you were asleep the whole time.

by the way, you and aniq, still on, right? ok? set?

can lah… see, even this uncle endorses and will vouch for his character. really! if you want, we can get people to sms their votes too. (send to the number: 1900-VoteAniq. each sms costs 60 cents.)

ahhh, and here’s where we got a bit sidetracked from the actual celebration, unfortunately, and went into starstruck-groupie aunties mode, lol!

we were actually SHY at first ok. betol tak bedek. BETOLLLL. the four of us went something like this:

“eh, bila nak amik gambar ni??”
“nanti ahh, kasi dia makan dulu! dah kena warning tadi…”
“cepat cepat, pakai lipstick…”
“bila dia nak abis makan ni??”
“eh, malu ah.”
“we MUST take pictures ok.”
“flickr, 2000 views, confirm!”

(ok lah, ada exaggerate sikit for dramatic purposes.)

but once the cameras started flashing – that was it. we were in full paparazzi swing, jakun to da max. malu? what’s that? we even told him we were sisters of the guys taking our pictures, like, you know, we were all very single and available. i think he heard that we were all sisters. ah, boleh lah jugak! :p

aaanyway, sharleez, you probably think we aunties are shameful and silly for not acting our age. well, listen to the wise old sages hags – you only live once. (and for some of us, you only get to meet the asian idol and act all gatal like esah-yang-kepala-terlentok-on-hady’s-shoulder once too, hehee!)

ps: we forgot to ask for autographs. on our chests. LOL!

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i was rummaging a cupboard for my birth cert, something i thought i’d misplaced but thankfully found, along with my other certs, and unwittingly came across our old engagement album.

we had a right laugh looking through them, especially at the quaint ‘barbie’ doll whose dress was made up of barley sweets, and a ‘house’ made up of red-wrappered wafer chocolates (you know those ol’ skool types?!) that were amongst the dulangs done by well-meaning aunts.

the little one squeezed through us to have a look too, all the time demanding where he was. “aniq? aniq?” hallo, you weren’t even thought of at the time lah, little boy!

anyway, way back then (well ok, just five years ago, really), the guy was not allowed in to meet the girl, so he had to sit downstairs, waiting for the rombongan, missing out on all the action and the food. the boy’s parent stayed at home, demuring from partaking in the event. (shy i think? hehe.) the boy’s ring was then sheathed on his finger at his own house later, in an ‘unofficial’ ceremony. poor fella.

well, times have changed!

the dulangs are now filled with beautiful high-end cakes and chocs, the ring comes from tiffany’s, daddy comes along with the rombongan, the guy happily joins in the merriment and photo-taking, and the girl’s daddy himself puts the ring on him in front of all the witnesses present.

i must say, i’m envious!

congrats, emi+hajar (who’ve been together for what seems like donkey years, even before izadnhana were engaged – we have the kental photos to prove it, hehe).

hmm, is it too late now to ask for a tiffany’s ring, ya think…?

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the tummy has been hanging too low too early, and putting a lot of pressure on the pelvic area the past few days. not only is it uncomfortable, but a lot of people have also commented on it looking like it’s in the late stages already. even my grandma thinks the doc has miscalculated and i’m about to give birth any time soon.

worrying? well, yeah.

thankfully kak maya came by on thursday, and i relayed my concerns. she had a look and went to work on it, basically puuuushing my womb up a little so it wouldn’t lie so low. gah, post-natal flashback! i couldn’t help but squirm around a bit and clench my butt. yikes. :S

but it worked, and it doesn’t hang as low as before, thus not placing as much pressure on my pelvis. now the weight i’m carrying feels more centered and balanced.

***

had another partnerless visit to the doc for the checkup yesterday since the partner had his own medical appointment at TTSH at the same time.

my aim for that day’s check up was to get YET another confirmation of the gender, you know… see if there’s any, erm, new ‘development’ since the last time. (i STILL can’t believe my luck lah!) the doc obliged, of course.

25+ weeks.
edd now stands at 14 april. (it just keeps getting earlier, gah!!)
weight of baby, 740gms.
total weight gain, a grand 6kg.

he pointed out the “p*p*k” (yes, HIS word, not mine), and assured me it’s 99.99% girl. of course, me being the pessimistic me, i asked him about the other 0.01%, which he said was up to God. ok lah!

then i made him print out the p*p*k picture.

the conversation then once again ‘derailed’ to him persuading me to make MORE babies in future, insisting that i had another good ten years more to go (preggers at 40??! you gotta be kidding me!).

“2005 and 2008 one batch, wait a while, then another batch. four lah, get baby bonus.” MACAM BUAT BISKUT EH!

actually, he wasn’t the only one i went into ‘discourse’, or rather, ‘debate’ with about this very same issue of producing more offsprings. my ex-tutor, who called me up the other day to talk about a totally different matter, started going on and on about how i MUST have more kids or, he ominously warned me, “you will regret it la, ana.”

this coming from a 52-year-old swinging bachelor who’s never been interested in the whole marriage institution or even a proper relationship himself. hehe.

his view is more of an, erm, ‘elitist’ one, which i don’t wish to subscribe to. he has this ingrained belief that graduates will beget graduates, which is just… ugh. he cited peers and past tutees who were graduates, worked hard in their careers, along the way only making time for one or at most two children, and later in life, confessed how they greatly regretted not spending more time and energy on having more children, because their kids were all bright and did well in school. “wasted, you know,” he said.

huh.

in any case, i don’t want to go into it here. i’m sure it’ll cause some VERY strong reactions… :S

(although, it DOES bring to mind that damn funny Mike Judge movie, ‘Idiocracy’, that got me thinking for weeks after watching it on dvd, on a similar issue.)

i think it takes a lot more than merely good genes – on paper – to produce bright children. there are so many other external factors involved, doncha think? for all you know, their kids probably did well because there were fewer of them to concentrate on, more resources to tap on, etc. and hey, who’s to say we even make good candidates as natural churners of future leaders or movers and shakers? that’s just too much pressure, on the kids AND ourselves…

anyway, about having more of them, i’ll cross the bridge when i reach it.

i’d like to reach the end of bridge number 2 safely for now, thankyewverymuchly.

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am going for my next checkup shortly, so i thought i’d publish the first few entries of ChapII, which only started in september last year, coz i found myself procrastinating this time round, not so on the ball as the first time, you know? :p

feel free to keep guessing ha ha…

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so we didn’t manage to catch the fireworks. well, we *almost* did, but the little one had a little spewing incident in the car just as we arrived (we’re starting to think he’s got motion sickness… or morning sickness ha ha), so we had to turn around and watch the terrifically terrible countdown at home on tv.

despite that tiny glitch in our plan, a bunch of people more than made up for it earlier that day.

the complete 77clan, finally!

the birthday girl and hostess made us dress up for the occasion, so we did. not that it took much persuasion, we’re always looking for excuses to dress up anyway, heh.

there wasn’t talk of new years’ resolutions, but everyone has something exciting to look forward to this year.

and well, i guess you can more or less tell what *i* have in store in 2008… :p

and no, that’s not from eating the entire high tea buffet that day, lol!

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