Belly gazing

Zane and I have developed a new hobby lately -- belly gazing!

It's just one of those mundane things Zane and I do to pass the time. Sometimes we just stare into each other's eyes. Other times, we count the number of flowers that have bloomed in our garden. And still other times, we just sit idly, dreaming of ways to evict our noisy neighbours from their current premise.

Belly gazing is something new we've been doing since I started getting kicks from the little bun. I would do it after washing up the dinner. I'd sit on our sofa and pull my shirt up to reveal the huge bump that I now have (Doctors have said that due to the multiple fibroids, my 5-month profile looks more like a 7-monther!).

And just like that, I could while away the hour...just gazing at my belly to catch Junior squirming or doing some acrobatics inside.

Then, of course, Zane just couldn't be left out! He dropped his paints and brushes to sit next to me and we'd have our eyes on my belly.

For something like an hour, our conversations would be:

"Oh, did you see that?"
"Nope, missed that one"
Silence.
Rub tummy.
Gaze some more.
"Oh look now!"
"Aww..."

That's bliss enough for us.

Bubbles and flutters

Something exciting happened to me las week. The baby bubbled and fluttered in my tummy and I could feel it!

I'm into my fifth month now and as expected, mommies-to-be would start feeling little baby movements.

The first time it happened, I wasn't quite sure if I had really felt it or if it was just my imagination. It didn't happen again until the next few days, and this time, I was sure. I didn't even tell Zane that time...only later.

But when he put his hand on my tummy, he couldn't feel anything because the movements weren't too strong.

Baby's been moving around mostly at night, after dinner and this weekend, it's been moving in the mornings when I wake up.

I don't usually "talk" to the baby, but I did last night, urging it to kick me from inside. Well, it didn't...probably it was already asleep that time.

Somehow, I have a feeling it's gonna be a boy.

Merdeka!

Happy birthday, Malaysia! 50 and still going on strong.

There's been a lot of hooha about this year's Merdeka celebration and so I decided to test myself to recite the Rukun Negara. I stumbled, but passed without too much embarassment.

I've been enjoying the long weekend. This time, Zane and I didn't go anywhere. We thought there might be a whole herd of people at the usual touristy spots. So we decided to stay home.

At least, I managed to finish reading Harry Potter No. 7...and cried shamelessly doing it in the final chapters...(warning: spoilers ahead)

I was glad that Harry met Dumbledore once again for some sage advice. I was glad that Snape turned out to be a good guy. I was touched that he loved Lily so much that he had her Patronus after she died. And the main tear-jerker was that Harry still had Ron and Hermione by his side after Voldemort died.

It was just fantastic how JK Rowling just planned everything from Harry Potter No. 1 to No. 7. The way Dumbledore died, who disarmed him, and who uttered the Killing curse, about Draco Malfoy's wand, Snape and Lily's love, about choosing Horcuxes over Hallows, etc.

She is just brilliant...I wonder what she'll come up with next to cap this!

Bukit Merah, Perak

Another weekend, another destination.

This time, Zane and I headed north towards Bukit Merah, Perak, for a little spot of corporate family day, rubbing shoulders, and basically cheap holiday subsidised by the company.

We just paid RM20 for a 3-day-2-night stay at Bukit Merah Laketown Resort, which sadly, isn't my thing la. I can see how it's like Disneyland for kids, but I was rather disaapointed by the whole place.

I'm really trying hard to think of a nice thing to say about the place...okay, I'll say this...the drive up the road to our apartment was scenic what with a nice lookout of the lake below...and I think we even chanced upon Hedgwig's cousin the night we arrives. Okay, so I'm still obsessed about Harry Potter, or Parry Hotter, as me and Zane like to joke around. (On an aside, Dumbledore's been renamed Dubblemore due to Zane's atrocious lack of memory skills when it comes to remembering names of people, movies, books, etc. It's a miracle he still remembers mine...err, maybe not...because he keeps referring to me as "Sayang"!)

While the rest of the staff were having what fun they could glean from the poorly-organised family day, Zane and I ditched the crowd like we always do and headed for Taiping. It was my first time there.

I was really looking forward to seeing the particular part of Taiping Lake Gardens that's been famously pictured in many a tourism brochure. Finally, rounding our last corner of the lake, we saw it...raintrees dipping their long-armed branches into the vast expanse of lake from the other side of the road.

It was just inspiring and we sat there underneath its canopy for a good few minutes, taking in the peacefulness of the whole place. Quite meditative.

And for lunch, we hopped over to the base of Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut) where an old pakcik operated a small stall by the little river selling Laksa Kedah...oooh, I have a weakness for such things...Laksa Kedah, I mean, not the pakcik! Simple fare to keep mommy and baby happy!

I like Taiping because of the huge trees, the shade, the old architecture, the feeling of back-in-time it gave me. I felt like I was a hundred years old there, but in a good, comforting way.

Wow, that's three weekends in a row that we've been traveling. I shouldn't get used to this...but I'll take it while it lasts!

Sungai Chongkak

For the second weekend in a row, Zane and I went on a picnic. This time, we made our way somewhere nearer. Less than hour's drive away from home, in fact, to Sungai Chongkak in Hulu Langat, Selangor.

The day didn't start out promising...and I thought we might not even make it for the picnic.

First of all, Zane slept really late the night before and only woke up at 10:30 am. So we pushed off quite late for all our ambitious plans to be there to catch the morning mist.

Secondly, the sky was heavy with clouds and we thought it might rain before the day was over.

But, with a positive prayer, we got in our car and headed out. Zane with his sketch book and watercolour set. Me with my Harry Potter book, fruits, Twisties, picnic blanket, change of clothes, wet tissues, and creature comforts.

Heheh...I am never one to travel light, I guess.

Along the way, we stopped to buy more fruits: pulasan, mangosteen, and a couple of varieties of the langsat family. My favourite was the pulasan. We bought it from this middle-aged man who sold the most fragrant pulasan I ever tasted. It was lovely, sucking on these rambutan sisters in the middle of the cold stream.

There are a few rivers and a waterfall in the Hulu Langat area we were heading for. There was Sungai Gabai and Sungai Chongkak, among others. We chose the latter because Zane had been there before.

After all these years, they've started charging visitors for entering the Sungai Chongkak recreational area. It's RM2 per car and RM1 per adult (aged 12 years and above).

The park had the main Sungai Chongkak running through it, and a smaller river next to it. We chose a nice spot at the smaller river because there wasn't anyone there. The other families, with their screaming kids, and lovebird couples chose the more popular main river to set up "camp."

Though our river wasn't as big or as deep as the main one, it was nice because of the privacy it afforded. All around, huge trees towered over us offering shelter. There were some nice pools upriver, and we even discovered a nice spot that was shielded from the main road.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday after a long week at work. I think the little baby in me was happy too that the mommy was at peace and contented.

This weekend, Bukit Merah Laketown Resort!

The little sylph and me

One of the hardest things I've had to handle since getting married was staying friends with the people I cared about.

I wanted it all. To go out with my girlfriends like I was single again. To leave home and go out on exciting work assignments for days. To come home late after a girls' night out.

And yet I wanted to spend every minute of every hour with my hubby. I felt like time was running out on us the minute we got married. I was afraid that I would never have this abundance of time with him.

It's like that quote I read in The Time Traveller's Wife. Our matrimonial union was the point toward which every action, every feeling, every moment was lived for, and from which the entire universe, sense of place and time just spinned past with no patience for us.

Of course, it was written more eloquently by the original author.

How does one choose between marriage and friendship? Well, maybe it's not about having to choose. Maybe it's about making time for all those things. And I haven't done that either.

In the past months, I seem to have lost some of the best people in my life. The loss of one person in particular has been very difficult for me to face.

Now, when I look at Sylph from afar, I am filled with this sense of loss...and yet it is only emptiness I feel. I long for the silly giggling sessions we shared. The tender caring moments of friendship. I often catch myself wondering, as I'm staring at her quietly, where did all that go? How did it get lost like that? How did it become a ghost of a memory?

There was a time when I thought this was my kindred spirit. My opposite twin. My buddy for life.

And yet, even as I struggle to hang on to the last shreds of our thinning friendship, I am resigned to the fact that what I've known all along is true. That there is no forever in friendship. Not in my book, at least.

There is change in friendship, though. And that's what's happening here, I guess.

Still, she will always have a permanently special place in my heart. I only wish that our new type of friendship will be something comfortable and one that both can cherish for what it's worth.

I miss you, little Sylph. Very much.

Picnic

There's just something about water that draws out the kid in all of us. Try jumping in a pool, or floating in the sea. Swimming in the river. Or heck, just be friends with the watery Pisces, and you'll get what I mean.

Yesterday, I was re-acquainted with the 6-year-old me at Sungai Kampar, Perak. Zane and I picnicked at this little spot where we could see dare-devil white water-rafters tackling the grades 1 to 3 of the rapids.

The water before us was like a calm pool with a sandy bottom. We had juicy yellow mangoes for dessert, and it just tasted so much better with us submerged in the water.

After the mangoes came the mangosteens. Oh, what bliss...thank God for tropical fruits.

It was the first picnic I had with my hubby and I was just so speechlessly happy all day.

The only thing is...I better practise the acrobatics needed to change clothes under a batik sarong! Some people just do it so effortlessly and there I was struggling to chuck my wet clothes while keeping my modesty!

Later, we had drinks at Gua Tempurung. The drive to the caves was awesome. We were on the road leading right up to the hill and it was just amazing to see this huge boulder rising up from the grounds...It was as if we were driving straight into it. The view was just breathtaking.

We drove back home that evening along the old trunk road down to Tanjung Malim where we had dinner and the famous Yik Mun pau.

In bed that night, I was totally exhausted, but happy.

Honey, when's our next picnic???