Archive for the 'Life Observation' Category

Photo Source: Andresr / Dreamtime.com

My gynae’s clinic opens at 9am. Patients go at 8.30am to queue outside the clinic. Why? Because the clinic operates on a first come first serve basis. So if you go at 9am, you may find yourself No. 10 on the list which may mean a 2 hour wait. Each patient may take about 15-20 minutes.

On the day of my visit, I wait outside the door along with some others. There is a young well-dressed girl in front of me. The queue gets longer and longer. There were a few pregnant couples behind me. Well, what do you know… suddenly another young well-dressed girl comes shasaying along, walks past the queue and stands with her friend.

The door opens, everyone goes in and writes their name on the list one at a time. The young girl writes two names, that of hers AND her friend. Hey! That adds another 20 minutes to everyone’s waiting time you know. Now, everyone including all those heavily pregnant women have to wait longer because of her.

It is all very well to have your friend queue up for you to buy lets say tickets or food because these don’t take very long. It is bad but at least it does not take very long. However in this case, it is a doctor’s visit which takes up some time.

Hmm…. young, well-dressed, pretty but with no proper etiquette at all. Didn’t your mother teach you to give up your seat for a pregnant woman? Now you make all the pregnant women who came earlier to queue up before you wait longer because of your selfish attitude.

I have a very young voice over the phone. That is not a compliment because I sound really young over the phone. Young as in like a little girl young and not young as in a sexy young lady young.

My good friend Serene, says that I sound like Daisy Duck. Quack! Quack!

Once, I called up my credit card company with an enquiry and the gentleman on the other end asked me “Are you calling on your own behalf?” When I said yes, he told me “I have to check because you sound very young. I have to make sure that it is not a child making a prank call.” A child!!!

The other day I was lamenting in FB about being called “Silai”, then I was happy for a moment because the gas delivery man had called me “Amoy”. As it turned out, he only called me “Amoy” because I was speaking to him over the phone and not face to face. Hmm…… not happy about that.

Tell me my friends, how do you sound like over the phone? Do you bark, growl, whine or quack like Daisy Duck or Minnie Mouse like me? Do you have a low sexy purr, a large growl of a voice or a tiny weeny soft one like me when you speak over the phone? Do you think your telephone voice matches your real one or  your looks and personality?

We got a new toy recently. A GPS. With this toy, as you can imagine, we’ve been doing a lot of driving to faraway places recently. Haha. Just to test it out.

It asked us to turn right at a no right turn. It wanted to make us make a U-turn when we know roughly that the way to go is forward. It refused to take us to our destination. It kept on wanting us to turn back!

It took us to Jalan Hulu Kelang in Shah Alam when we really wanted to go to Ulu Kelang in Ampang. It wanted to take us to some other place called Taipan in Klang when we really wanted to go to Taipan in USJ Subang Jaya.

It led us round and round and round on a wild goose chase. Still, its really interesting and we like it. The verdict is… it helps some but you should still have a general idea of the place you want to go. You should also make sure that the map is taking you to right place as there are many similar street names.

Last night I was stirring a glass of honey and suddenly I was small again, in my mother’s kitchen, drinking the same smelling honey which I had drunk often as a child. Its funny how certain smells can invoke childhood memories almost instantaneously transporting us back through time.

I know many smells remind me of my mother. Smells of peeling or chopping onion reminds me of helping her in the kitchen. Smells of cakes being baked reminds me of mum too. Smells of half boiled eggs reminds me of my dad who took it daily when we were young. Smells of Fish Oil reminds me of, well of Fish Oil taken as a child. Smells of plain white porridge or plain bread dipped in Milo reminds me of being sick as a child etc etc.

Most of my olfactory memories relate to childhood events. So I guess, if I want my children to remember me when they are older, I better go and whip up some good regular cooking of the same foods they love often. A pity, I don’t bake. That would make some good childhood memories.

I realise this year that our many parenting firsts do not end after baby’s first turning over, first crawl, first tooth, first walk etc. After that, we had first walk, first swim, first fall, etc etc. Along the way, we had first smile, first words, and many other firsts. We also had first holidays, first day in kindy, first concert, first test, first school trip without us, first …..

However, this year, we as parents had our many firsts instead. We went to the primary school to register our kid for the first time. We got to know other equally anxious parents doing their first registration too. We had our first school orientation… all in Mandarin as we sat there in awe not understanding a word.

Then we collected our kid’s first report card in primary school. We were nervous when she sat for her first school test, performed at her first piano concert and sat for her first piano exam recently. We were probably more nervous than her worrying that she would be nervous.

At first the firsts we truly enjoyable, the first smile, the first toddler, the first words… But as they grow, the firsts become more and more nerve racking for us. Time flies too and before we know it, we’ll be experiencing their first love, first boyfriend/girl friend, first job, first kid! Help!

Nevertheless, however nerve racking, we love them all. We love all the firsts and we don’t want to miss any firsts at all. We want to be the first to watch and experience the firsts with all our kids because we love them dearly. We wouldn’t miss any firsts, not for anything in the world.