Tomorrow will be the start of a brand new year in the Chinese Lunar calendar, and it’s time for another round of family reunions. It’s a time to observe traditions, to remember the past and to hope for a better future.

First of all, let us wish all our family, friends, and dear readers a very happy Chinese New Year.

I wish you all the best in health, family, love, career and wealth.

I don’t know what came over me. This year I’ve suddenly had the urge to decorate my home for CNY.

First we put up some wall decorations. A “fook” (good fortune) poster.

I think some people put the “fook” upside down, but this wasn’t pasted at our door so I don’t know what the rules are.

A fish, because the word for fish “yu” sounds like another word for having abundance.

Paper fans made from ang pows.

Poey Chin decorated our shoe cabinet outside our condo with a cute little arrangement.

We started putting up red stuff all over our house. Even Elmo got drafted into service.

Last night we packed gifts for our relatives, then we packed ang pow.

And here’s something I’m really proud of.

Poey Chin told me she wanted flowers, and at first she wanted to buy those artificial flowers. I didn’t want that because we didn’t have space to store the flowers after CNY.

So she said she wanted fresh flowers. I told her I could arrange the flowers because I watched my mother do floral arrangements when I was a boy.

So we got some fresh flowers, and here’s the result after half an hour. My first ever floral arrangement!

Here’s our dining table, transformed and decorated.

Everything is red, orange and golden.

The kids and ourselves are really excited to wait for Chinese New Year.

We’re starting to teach Rachel some of the traditions and customs.

Hope all of you have a good celebration and holiday!

The point of the article was:

1. There are too many public holidays in Malaysia
2. Public holiday misuse happens when you take leave to stretch the public holiday into the weekend
3. Public holiday misuse makes employers cry because employees are not productive

Take the example of the next couple of weeks. If you take 7 days of leave, you could have an 18-day stretch without work.

Anyway, I’m not the kind of person who marks out all the dates to maximise my leave.

Don’t get me wrong. I love public holidays as much as anyone else.

It’s just that I’m a little strange. I don’t like to have holidays when everyone else is on holiday.

If I had a day off when everyone else was also having the day off, it would just feel like a normal weekend wouldn’t it?

Restaurants and shopping malls would be packed. You can’t travel anywhere because highways and tourist destinations would be jammed with traffic.

But imagine if you opted to go to work when everyone else took the day off!

1. Smooth traffic to and from work
2. No work disruptions (from customers or colleagues)
3. High probability bosses not around

If you ask me, I wouldn’t know what to do if I had a stretch of 18 days at home. I think all the days would be wasted away.

3 or 4 days are nice. Anything more and I start to go mad.

I prefer to save my annual leave for those special treats:

1. To watch a movie on a weekday and there is no one else in the cinema
2. To travel during off-peak season and feel like I’m the hotel’s exclusive guest
3. No traffic jams when driving out of town
4. No crowds at tourist attractions

I guess, for me it’s a matter of quality versus quantity.

We had a wonderful family holiday last month at Port Dickson with my parents, sister and brother-in-law.

It was the first time we went on a long-distance drive since we had baby Caleb.

It was a nice to get a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves away from the stresses of daily life. I enjoyed the chance to spend time with my family, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

We stayed at Avillion Admiral Cove again. Daryl was not even born last time, so it was nice to go back.

This time we managed to stay in the new Vista wing, which was still under construction the last time we were there.

The rooms had a different theme compared to the old wing. It felt like some sort of garden / victorian theme.

I didn’t adjust the white balance on the previous photo so you could see the room in actual light.

There was a daybed in the room so we had extra space for the kids to sleep.

I always have this bad habit of taking photos of hotel bathrooms. I’ve been doing this since I was young. I guess I’m always fascinated by the luxury, something I could never afford to have in my own home.

I liked the experience of rain shower, but it was quite difficult to bathe the kids because they were terrified at first because we couldn’t prevent water dripping on their faces.

We also had to bring a basin to bathe Caleb.

We arrived in Port Dickson on the day after Christmas, and the traffic was horrible. We were stuck half-an-hour at a 5km stretch from PD hospital to Teluk Kemang.

We had our first lunch at Weng Yin seafood, which we tried last time. Last time I remember we ordered just some fried rice and a vegetable dish which was okay. This time we ordered a few Chinese dishes and we were quite disappointed at the taste and rather costly price.

After another round of traffic jam we checked in to the hotel and rested.

I saw this insect that looks like a stick. I had no idea what it’s called but I found it fascinating. Its feet could stick to a plastic sign!

Sadly I later found someone had smashed the insect.

For dinner we paid another visit to Kemang Seafood and it was much better compared to lunch, in terms of taste, portion size and pricing. We arrived around 7 but by 7:30 the place was packed.

We ordered crab, fried squid, prawns and there were people hovering around waiting for our table when I was eating my crab. I need to take my sweet time because it’s so hard to extract the crab meat.

My sister said those people drooled each time I dipped my fried mantou in the sweet and sour crab sauce hehe.

We went to bed early because we were tired from all the travelling and traffic jams.

This is a sunset photo I took with my phone.

The next morning we brought the kids to the beach after breakfast at the hotel. Just a quick note about the breakfast. It was the typical hotel buffet breakfast. Nothing too fancy. The normal Malaysian and Western choices, and we had to go eat before 8am to avoid the crowd.

It was Daryl’s first encounter with the sea, safe in yeh yeh‘s arms.

We borrowed a sand toys set from Rachel’s cousins and they proceeded to play with the sand. If you look back at the very first photo in this blog post, you will see Rachel found a coin.

I was so excited because she found it within seconds of digging. “Rachel! Rachel! You found money!”

Rachel: “No la, cannot take”. Then she threw the coin away.

I went to retrieve it, “No no, this is TREASURE!”

Rachel: “No, cannot simply take”. Throw away again.

Sigh.

Daryl concentrated really hard trying to scoop sand in the bucket.

Rachel was enjoying herself at the beach and at the swimming pool after that.

A nice family photo. Poor baby Caleb stayed indoors most of the time.

For our second dinner at Port Dickson, we hunted down the new McDonalds that just opened in PD.

There’s this whole new commercial area that opened on a piece of reclaimed land near the Store Oceanic Mall in PD. There’s a seafood restaurant already opened, and another Chinese restaurant being constructed.

It was predictably packed but we managed to find a table upstairs. It was nice because this McDonalds had a sea view and you could feel the sea breeze. There were a lot of flies too, so they should probably install some bug zappers.

We spent the night playing Risk. I last played the game when I was 14 and I’ve forgotten everything. It is such an interesting game!

On our last day, we spent some time taking photos. Rachel and Caleb.

Rachel and Daryl on some sampan display.

We visited the little petting zoo at the hotel. There was a rabbit, some tortoises and some hamsters.

Daryl kept touching the rabbits and called it a “cat meow”. Rachel kept screaming each time the rabbit came near.

A final photo before checking out.

We paid less than RM400 for two nights stay. Not bad considering it was super peak room rates (public holiday plus school holiday).

I hope we can go for another holiday at the end of this year, but definitely during off-peak season.

Some of the books do not have proper covers because the images were not available on GoodReads.

A total of 66 books, which is an increase of 8 books compared to last year. I just joined the library in 2009, which explains the low number for that year.

Goodreads.com even has a pages statistic: 19,120 pages read.

The books are in chronological order, so it’s interesting to see how I started the year with poker and baking.

Then I moved to vegetarian and environmental interests. I picked up a few biographies (which are my favourite) including Janet Jackson’s new book.

Finally I ended the year reading more about relationships and communication.

There were only a couple of books on fiction, compared to >10 in the previous year.

My favourite books were:

1. You Don’t Need Meat by Peter Cox – opened my eyes to what I was eating and dispelled vegetarian myths.
2. Becoming Holyfield – this biography is a great inspiration for having a positive attitude, forgiveness and good work ethic.
3. No One would Listen – how the SEC and media ignored warnings about the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme.
4. A Colossal Failure of Common Sense – an insider’s story about the Lehman Brothers collapse and how the 2008 global credit crunch happened.

I’m happy to report that my reading habit has influenced Rachel. She wants us to read to her all the time, and I’m teaching her to read her first words.

You would think that I would be the first to get an e-book reader, but unfortunately that would not be practical unless there is some electronic library system (or I join the dark side and read pirated books). I can’t possibly afford to buy over 60 books a year.

Who knows what books I will read next year? What books will I discover at the library in the coming days? It’s so exciting and I look forward to report my 2012 reading list.

Happy New Year! Some believe this is the final new year for humanity.

Anyway just want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year again. May all your wishes come true.

Toward the end of last year I was spending a lot of time thinking about my new years resolution.

At one of our company meetings, the HR Vice President shared this video, and it has some very useful reminders about achieving success and greatness:

This is the link if you can’t view the embedded video.

I have this list of life goals. I won’t share the details here, but I can tell you there are 15 things I wanted to achieve by the year 2015.

After viewing this video, I realize I need to narrow that list to just one thing.

I have a few choices and I haven’t decided what my “focus” will be.

Choosing just one thing is more difficult that you would imagine.

First of all, as a Christian you would be expected to choose God as your one thing.

As a husband and father you would be expected to choose your family as your one thing.

As a valuable employee, you are expected to choose your company, cost savings or profits as your one thing.

Choosing anything else would make me seem sinful, or selfish, or a bad “team player”.

But I’m going to choose something else anyway. Something I am passionate about.

Now, you ask me. What about all my other priorities in life? Do I abandon them?

Definitely not! I am still a husband, father, and employee. But in my spare time, this is what I will be pursuing.

And if you think about it, this goal of mine does not mean excluding everything else. Other areas of my life can be aligned along the same path.

My hope is I can do much more with the single focus. Then next year I can move on to other things.

I’m feeling really excited about this.

Hope you have a great year.

Photo by: Billy Alexander

What a year it has been. Where did all the time go?

At the end of last year, I announced the exciting news that we would be having our third baby.

Now Caleb is here, and it feels like it was years ago when I read my old blog post.

I guess now is the right time to review what I’ve done this year.

First of all, my new year resolutions for 2011 were hit-and-miss.

At the start of this year I was going through a minimalism phase, which prompted me to stop giving (and accepting) Christmas presents. That didn’t work, and it’s not something I want to try again.

Another resolution was establishing some form of routine and order. We managed to do that quite well after baby Caleb was born.

Our life has settled into a predictable routine. Stress levels are lower. We’re actually finding we can enjoy ‘family time’.

We made the decision that Caleb would be our last baby, and that decision really helped me to settle down.

No more keeping things around the house “just in case” another baby arrives. No more uncertainty. I can finally firm up on some financial plans.

Talking about finances, this year hasn’t been a good year. The expenses have just gone beyond what I am comfortable with.

We spent a lot of money on baby Caleb, and we started the two older kids at daycare. Things around the condo are starting to break down.

Honestly I am really stressed about this. It makes me go into moods of depression, self doubt and even desperation.

I don’t really want to cover the things that went on in our country, or the disasters that happened around the world. I’m sure you’ll get full coverage in the newspapers.

I would sum up this year with one word: “Caleb”. He is such a joy. As parents you always worry how a new baby would change your family dynamics, but it seems like he’s a perfect fit.

I end the year with a feeling of contentment and thanksgiving for all the blessings we enjoy.

Have a happy new year everyone.

Photo by: markovje

In these times of celebration and year-end festivities, I hope you all are blessed with happiness and health.

On the night before Christmas, Poey Chin and the kids spent some time making some party hats.

Here’s a close up on Daryl. He didn’t really know what was going on.

The kids got a lot of presents. Here are some of them.

We want to take this time to thank all my family and friends for thinking about our children. They really had a magical time opening all the presents.

The kids really loved all the toys you bought for them. Daryl holding an Angry Bird plush toy.

We parents really loved all the cute clothes you bought for them. It is very timely since Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Thank you!

Some of Rachel’s clothes:

For Daryl:

Clothes for Caleb (and some toys for the boys):

We got Daryl this Barney bag, and he was so happy and excited that he almost burst into tears.

There are a lot of other cool presents, and I didn’t have the energy to take so many photos (since the kids were running around).

Thanks again everyone for your gifts.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

A melancholic post for this Christmas season.

How exciting to be a child once again. I would have all the time in the world, and anything was possible.

I felt like I could have done anything if I had worked harder on it. It was just a matter of time.

But time slipped by and the hands of the clock didn’t stop their relentless march.

Here I am at the mid-point of my life looking back at missed opportunities.

I also realize with dismay that I’m running out of options as I grow older.

As I grew up I realized that I wasn’t the smartest. I wasn’t tall enough, strong enough or fast enough.

I could not be as creative or intelligent as I wanted.

I struggled to grasp the basics of things that seem to come naturally for others.

I am not a gifted, talented or natural at anything.

I am not good looking, charming or witty.

In recent years I realized that I did not have the resources, nor did I know how to gain more.

As time went on, I resigned myself to the fact that there were things I would never be able to do.

It hurts when dreams die.

Yes I look around and I learn to be thankful for the things I have and the people I’ve met. I’m so blessed with my wife and three kids, and for my family who’s always there.

I know I am more fortunate than a lot of people. I’m thankful for so many things.

But still, the dissatisfaction remains. A nagging thought and a stab to the heart at unexpected moments. The silent questions of why and what if.

I can make the feeling go away, but they always come back.

I can’t fully express what I feel. I’m not very good with words.

Opportunities missed are gone forever, and dreams have to be let go.

Younger people will surpass me in success and accomplishments. There will be others who are fortunate enough to receive piles of money while I have to struggle to save a few ringgit.

Maybe you tell me my priorities are not in the right place. What happened to following God’s plan? What happened to thinking about your children?

You’re right.

Maybe it’s time to give up all those selfish things. But I wonder what would be left?

I feel sad and a little scared because I don’t know where I am headed. I don’t dare to dream any more.

Don’t be alarmed or worried for me. I just needed to get these thoughts out of my head. I always feel better after writing about it.

I just hope it doesn’t blow up into some sort of crisis.

Photo By: Benjamin Earwicke

We were not planning to go, but at the last minute Rachel was blessed with two free tickets.

We decided that Rachel would go with Poey Chin, and I would be the driver.

We decided against bringing Daryl because he could get scared of the dimmed lights and the loud music.

So I took the day off and we made our way to KL city centre.

We arrived after a an hour’s drive and took some photos before the show started.

They had some Barney merchandise for sale.

Rachel was really excited though she didn’t show it in this photo.

Poey Chin went over to the box office to collect the complimentary tickets, and we were so surprised to find out they were the RM300 seats!

Here’s a photo of the show.

You can see some parents recording the entire show on their phones and iPads.

Rachel was quiet through the show, and she didn’t really participate in the dancing. After the show it was a different story.

Since we only had two tickets, I went off to KLCC during the show.

I wanted to find a place to sit down and read my book, but the place was so packed, even on a weekday!

The entire mall has changed so much, I was amazed as I hadn’t been there for over 5 years!

Some of you from outstation have probably been to Suria KLCC more times than me.

I couldn’t find a place to sit, even the restaurants were packed at 3pm. Well, the Japanese restaurant looked kind of vacant but I couldn’t afford to eat there. So I made my way back to the convention centre to have a snack at the food court.

Later Poey Chin told me that some parents were allowed to enter with only two tickets, with the idea that their child had to share seats with them. But in the end the hall was not filled and there were plenty of free seats to go around.

Some of them even moved up to the “expensive” seats.

The show was over in less than 2 hours, so we quickly rushed back to the car to make our exit from the city.

Unfortunately we were caught in the evening rush hour (and it rained!), so it took us another hour to make our way home.

I was tired from all the driving and walking, but Rachel really enjoyed herself and I think she will remember the special day.

It’s from the La Gourmet brand. It has 7 litre capacity and comes with a 3-year warranty.

The retail price was RM315 I think, but we didn’t pay for it because I used my Maybank card points to redeem this item for 70,000 points.

I feel pretty good getting something so useful from my credit card points. Last year I got a small toaster oven.

You may get the impression that I spent RM70,000 to get those points but I haven’t! My card offers 2X and 5X points for certain retailers.

Plus I used the card for major expenses such as the hospital bills for my two sons and all my insurance premiums.

Anyway, back on topic. Poey Chin has always wanted to get one of these cookers because she saw her friends using it.

We were thinking of getting them from Cosway at first, but kept putting it off until I saw this on the credit card rewards catalogue.

Here’s how the pot looks like.

There’s a small pan you can put on top of the main pot, so you can cook two things at once!

Everything looks so stainless-steely and makes you feel like cooking.

I assume most of you know how thermal cookers work. You heat up the contents of your pot over the stove for a while, then move the pot to an insulated cover which contains the heat so your food can continue cooking.

Poey Chin has been using it to cook soups, porridge and even red bean dessert.

In the past, we had to boil soups for over an hour, but with the thermal cooker she just has to heat up for 15 minutes so we’re saving about 75% of our energy.

We get to save on our gas bill, and it’s safer!

It’s really convenient and safe because we don’t have to leave an open flame. Definitely a good thing when we have kids at home distracting her all the time.

Don’t wait any longer. Call 1-800-1-800 now and place your order. Wait, there’s more! If you order today I’ll throw in a copy of:

• The DBP (Durian, Banana, Petai) Diet with Adino for only $9.95, and
• A free eBook Teach Your Baby Piano with Rachel

Okay jokes aside, Poey Chin mentioned that the food cooked with the thermal cooker tastes better. I’m not so sure because I don’t have the super-power taste for food that Ipoh people have. I mean, most of the time I can’t tell the difference between good and bad, and I’m not particularly picky.

My only complain about the pot is the metal handle can get quite hot, so it could be hard to pour out the contents of the pot. The 7 litre pot seems to be a little too big but that’s not a big deal.

Now Poey Chin is looking around for thermal cooker recipes. Do you have any suggestions?

As at November, Caleb is three months old.

To record down his physical development, he can flip over from his back and vice versa. He can raise his head up to look around.

His arms and legs are gaining strength. He doesn’t have the co-ordination to grasp items, but he can reflexively grasp our shirt.

He has grown much taller and heavier. In terms of body size, he’s wearing the same clothes Daryl used to wear when he was six months old. If Caleb continues growing at this rate, he will be bigger than Daryl!

Caleb doesn’t like to spend a lot of time on his back. Within seconds he will turn over, so we can’t leave him alone on the bed anymore. He might roll off the bed!

He smiles when he sees Rachel or Daryl around. I think Caleb enjoys being the centre of attention.

Caleb also likes to suck his thumb and all his fingers.

In terms of mental development, I don’t know how to describe it but I can see he is sentient. You know, like there’s an intelligent being looking back at you.

When babies are born, they don’t do much except cry and sleep. Even when looking at you, you can’t really tell if they know they are looking at you. It’s like looking at a puppy.

When they reach a certain age, they start observing the world. They have memory and remembrance. Now Caleb is at that stage. He’s starting to observe me when I look at him.

And I know that he knows who I am.

So our relationship as father and son moves to another level. Previously he may remember my voice or my scent, but now I am starting to register in his brain as daddy.

It’s the same with his brother and sister. They’re starting to play with him, and he can recognize who they are.

Photo of Caleb opening his eyes, observing.

He’s losing all his fine newborn hair.

In terms of personality, he seems to be quite cheerful. He can be quite talkative.

He is relatively easy to take care of. He’s happy if you keep him fed and changed.

Thank God his health is good. He hardly ever gets sick compared to Daryl.

His diet is still 100% breast milk. He’s putting on weight and getting chubby. And the chubbier he gets, the more he looks like Daryl.

In the next few weeks we’re just hoping for him to continue getting stronger and avoid getting sick.

Poey Chin keeps hoping he will stay a baby and I keep hoping he grows up a bit quicker haha.

Our failed attempt at a family photo, because Rachel was making funny faces.

Caleb always has this surprised look.

She’s three and-a-half years old, but she seems to behave older than that. Maybe she mixes with older kids at her daycare, but the way she speaks seems to be beyond her years.

She has grown taller now, and she’s lost her baby chubbiness.

She loves to dress up, do up her hair and put on perfume.

Rachel has mastered her ABCs. Now she’s learning phonic sounds and I’m teaching her to read.

She likes to do colouring and writing.

She’s too young to really know how to write. She can trace the words but take away the guide and she can’t remember how to write.

There are a lot of useful YouTube videos that are excellent resources to teach Rachel how to read.

Poey Chin is a huge influence on Rachel. Rachel follows everything she does, from the way she walks, to the way she moves and even the way she talks.

She always wants to play “mother” to Caleb, but we are still watchful.

Sometimes my mother will occupy Rachel’s attention with some computer games.

Rachel loves playing this memory game, which I think is useful for her mental development.

She loves doing jigsaw puzzles too.

I still have my frustrating moments with Rachel. You would expect her to grow out of her “baby” stage but sometimes she will be so unreasonable and be worse than her baby brothers.

She really upsets me sometimes… she can be so stubborn.

But I still love her so much, even if I’m strict with her. She can be so sweet and adorable.

She is starting to understand things if we take the time to explain to her the reasons.

I’m really happy that she stopped making a fuss before going to daycare. It’s a normal part of her daily routine now.

In the next few months I hope she can continue learning, and she will learn to be more understanding and obedient.

He’s one and-a-half years old, and has mastered walking and running. He is starting to climb up on our dining chairs.

He and Rachel run around the house screaming (driving me mad), but he’s still a bit clumsy on his feet.

Daryl is so active now that it’s tiring to keep up with him.

He insists on holding a spoon during mealtimes, with comical results.

In terms of speech, he can pretty much imitate the words we say, but in baby talk. He can communicate by pointing around and using some words.

He can sing along to his favourite songs, but he only knows the last word of each line (e.g. twinkle twinkle little STAR, how i wonder what you ARE).

Every time we go out, he will repeat the words Nut Nut and Ant Ants! Funny how he can still remember that.

He is starting to get a sense of humour. He can laugh at silly jokes, especially while playing with Rachel.

In terms of social development he’s quite shy, but he will gladly chat with any kakak he sees.

His teeth have all developed, with the exception of the molars beside his incisors.

We estimate he weighs the same as Rachel now.

We are starting to read books to him. He can recognize pictures like duck and cat but his attention span is pretty short, can’t sit more than 5 minutes.

He can sit longer when watching videos. We usually play him some Barney DVDs or some nursery rhymes on YouTube.

He is starting to become very demanding. One time we were at a quiet Japanese restaurant and we were so embarassed because he kept screaming.

He screamed because he wanted to drink my green tea and eat my rice. I was feeding him but he wouldn’t wait for me to cut the food in smaller portions.

A little preview of the coming terrible twos I suppose.

In the next few months I’m hoping that he can get more stable on his feet, then we won’t have to worry about him falling down.

I know he’s going to keep testing his boundaries but I hope we will be able to deal with it better.

Recently I asked myself some questions. What is my hobby? What are my passions?

I really could not come out with an answer. So I asked my wife.

And she replied, “playing games.”

I was contemplating her statement in my mind, thinking if gaming actually qualifies as a hobby.

I mean, normal hobbies are reading, sports, fishing and collecting stuff right?

Then she added, “you’re addicted to games.”

“Addicted?”, I denied. “I’m not addicted.”

“Yes, you are.” she said.

Then I started to think when this addiction started (feel free to skip to the end if you have no interest in my life history).

Childhood

Like any young boy, I loved video games. I still remember we would go to those shops where you can pay RM1 to play for half an hour.

I can’t recall any specific games, but I can still remember Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-A-B-A-B-Select-Start.

I wouldn’t say I was addicted, but I remember games could take up my interest and attention for a long time.

Teenager

I remember a few things related to video games. First of all, we were always obsessed over video game arcades. For some strange reason, our beloved government only allowed those above 18 years old to go into video game arcades.

This created a desperation to get my hands on Street Fighter 2. I convinced my parents to buy me a Super-NES so I “didn’t have to go to those game arcades with smoking gangsters”.

The second memory is the first time I installed a sound card on my computer. Some of you may remember the days when computers only played silly 8-bit music from the speakers, and you actually had to pay RM300 just for music and sound.

My friends and I messed around with our computers, trying to get games working (and sharing them on 1.2MB 5 1/2 inch diskettes).

I truly fell in love with computers when I was 14, and that decided my career.

There was a year when I stopped playing games , totally abstaining in 1997 when I was in Form 5.

College

College days were the days when the Internet was starting to become available.

My fondest memory was playing Diablo with a bunch of strangers on Battle.net. The game quickly became boring (due to cheaters and hackers), but I enjoyed the chat forum so much.

The Internet was a pretty boring place back then, so another platform took my attention: the Sony PlayStation.

Working

When I started working I resumed my gaming habits, purchasing a PlayStation 2.

Then Warcraft 3 and DotA came along.

I spent so much time playing games, often until 3 am in the morning.

Facebook

I remember when I first joined Facebook there wasn’t anything you could do except poke people.

Then they released their platform to developers and games started coming up. Companies started to develop better games and I was totally hooked.

Most of the games had an element of time, where you had to login every few hours to play the game or risk falling behind your competitors.

I would quit a game only to find another new game taking up my attention.

I even started a separate account just to play games!

It’s Not That Bad

I’ve just re-read everything I wrote and I think I should be checked in to some clinic immediately.

I know some of you feel like dragging your children to the screen to point to my blog and tell them, “see this uncle? See he play games all his life? See la, you play games some more la? See this addict? Don’t follow this uncle”

But I hope you take into consideration that I’m just sharing one of the things I did during all those years. It’s not like I played games non-stop for my entire life.

I did finish school, completed college, started a career and had a family at the same time.

I also want to point out that I learned a lot from games, because they force me to explore new worlds all the time.

I’ve Changed

If you ask me to stop totally, it would not be possible. Games are fun, and I admit I enjoy playing games.

I’ve come to a conclusion and realization that many games offer no real value. They suck you into their world and get you to do repetitive tasks like watering and harvesting crops.

So I’ve quit most of them.

I hardly login to Facebook any more. There are no video game consoles in my house. There are no computer games installed on my PC.

I only have a few games installed on my phone, though I admit I’ve been spending too much time on Defender in the past couple of weeks.

I’ve been playing Glitch, which is interesting because it’s funny, it’s a large world and you get to do a lot. But honestly I’m losing interest. Haven’t even logged in in the past week.

Conclusion

So back to my original question.

Is this my hobby? Definitely!

Is this an addiction? I think my wife is right.

I say observed because we did not celebrate or do anything special other than giving each other a hug and a kiss.

Then we went back to observing the kids.

I don’t know. I’m really bad at this. The first year we probably celebrated this special date (but honestly I can’t recall what we did). Now it’s the fifth year and I didn’t even buy flowers.

I guess I’m just a typical male.

Maybe by next year I won’t even remember the date anymore haha…

*cricket chirping*

Before Poey Chin thinks about asking me to sleep on the sofa, let me distract her with this photo!

Daryl: “Buji buji bear BEAR!”

I gave this bear to Poey Chin when I proposed.

One day we were at Lovely Lace and she said this bear was soooo cute.

A few days later I sneaked to the Lovely Lace store at the mall (which sounds like a lingerie shop but it’s NOT!!).

I walked in, approached the sales assistant and pointed at the bear, “I want that bear”.

She looked rather surprised and proceeded to take the longest time to pack the bear.

In the mean time, I was getting all sorts of allergies from the overpowering scents in the store.

In the end she rolled the bear into a ball and stuffed it in two large plastic bags, not managing to fit everything in the bag.

I walked out of the store holding this giant, red plastic bag. Everyone could see the bear’s hand sticking out.

I felt like a serial killer. Then I had to hide it in my car boot, hoping Poey Chin would not see it.

My plan was to use the bear as a distraction. I showed Poey Chin the bear, and she was so happy. All her attention was on the bear.

I went to get the flowers and engagement ring and knelt down behind her back, waiting for her to turn around.

The silly romantic things young people do.

Nowadays it has become Daryl’s “bear bear”. He drags it around by the head because it’s so big, and the head is starting to tear loose from the body.

Oh well.

I just want to end this blog post by saying how wonderful these years have been.

I had given up on love, deciding to live forever alone until Poey Chin came along.

She changed my life, made it better beyond my wildest expectations.

And it all started from the first words I heard from her lips, “I’m missing Klang seafood to meet your band…”

But that’s a story for another anniversary!

P/S: Poey Chin would never ask me to sleep on the sofa. I would enjoy that too much, watching TV till the late hours, and the luxury of sleeping without any of the kids disturbing me.

P/P/S: I want to highlight another anniversary. This blog is almost 5 years old! You can jump back and start reading my very first blog post about our engagement.

Life has settled down into a nice routine.

Thank God baby Caleb is pretty easy to handle (if you feed him on time). At this stage he’s content to lie down and observe his surroundings, but that will soon change when he starts to crawl.

Today I just want to share my new strategy for surviving as a daddy of three. I don’t even know if I am right or wrong, but I’ve been thinking and discovering some things along the way.

Multi-Skilled

People ask us, how do you handle three young kids who are 3.5 years apart?

Well, the answer is both parents need to multi-task and be skilled in everything.

I have to feed and bathe the kids. I have to know how to put them to bed. Both of us parents must be able to take over at any moment.

That would be the perfect scenario but I admit I’m tired sometimes. Sometimes I become the fourth baby and add to Poey Chin’s burden (which is why she’s a super mom).

Thankfully we’ve never come across any situation where all three kids need attention at the same time.

And we do have help from our parents and my aunty during the day.

So my first strategy is to take initiative to do everything, even things I can’t stand like washing milk bottles *gag*

Close One Eye

Recently I have tried to close one eye, not to worry so much or nag them so much.

I really dislike clutter and mess in my house. I’m seriously considering giving them a room or an area where they can mess up all they like.

Another thing is I used to worry a lot about the kids hurting themselves.

I will hover over them, following them around and making sure they are not about to fall or poke their eyes or something.

When they sleep I have to check if they’re still breathing.

Now… less paranoid.

Don’t Waste My Breath

Take a typical scenario where the kids play with toys and leave them all over the floor.

Before: “Pick up your toys” (repeat 10 times). “I will CONFISCATE YOUR TOYS!!” (and other threats). 1 hour later toys will be on the floor again.

Now: Just get them to clean up the toys at the end of their play time.

Sometimes I still fail. I get upset at them especially when I’m tired or busy or stressed. But I try to repeat to myself, “don’t waste your breath, don’t waste your breath”.

Toys

We have 3 or 4 boxes of toys in our living room, and countless soft toys.

I think my kids probably play with less than 20% of them.

I’m going to start slowly storing those toys they don’t play with, and see if they notice anything missing.

I bet they won’t.

Money

There will never be enough money for you to afford having kids (unless you’ve been really successful financially).

The list of expenses never end.

Say goodbye to the term ‘disposable income’ because it will all go to the kids. From disposable income to disposable diapers haha.

But I will try not to worry too much. I believe things always work out in the end.

Incidentally I discovered kids don’t have any concept of the value of money. They won’t understand when you keep asking them not to hit the TV screen with your mobile phone because they have no idea what it costs to repair or replace those things.

So I will try to stop nagging them about spoiling things, and needing money to repair. I mean, they just don’t understand. Maybe they will understand when the TV breaks and they can’t have their Barney / Hi-5 anymore.

Time

I’ve noticed the kids act up as a way to get my attention. No, they act up because I don’t give them enough attention.

So starting with this weekend, I’m going to put aside time to spend with each one of them individually.

I hope it will improve our understanding of each other, and to communicate better.

Not Easy

Most of the time on this blog you will never hear about the things going on ‘behind the scenes’. You only see the happy photos.

I’m still struggling to be a good father. I have so many weaknesses. They drive me up the wall.

On the flipside, they can be such sweet adorable darlings.

If I were to rate myself, I’d be a 3 out of 10.

I just hope this new strategy will help make life better for all of us.

Image By: Marko Malca

I don’t have many photos of myself as a baby, so you might have seen them before.

I’ve got this photo of my mom carrying me while I was a baby.

32 years later…

I could stare at those photos all day.

Mummy doesn’t look like she has aged at all.

I wonder if my digital photos can survive decades until the children have their own kids.

I imagine they would be comparing photos of themselves with their kids too.

Today I did something I have not  done in a long, long time. I didn’t have change to pay for my parking ticket, and I saw a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf store and decided to get a coffee.

Okay I know that sounded like a flimsy excuse to get a cup of gourmet coffee, but hear me out.

The store was empty (because it was dinner time) and I placed my order. I watched the barista and basically he mixed a shot espresso into a glass of heated milk.

Less than a minute later I had my cup of cafe latte.

Last week I finished reading Starbucked, one of the many books that tell the story of how Starbucks became the mega coffee chain.

I picked up the book expecting to learn their business model, but I learned a lot about coffee instead.

I was very, very curious to try a cup of coffee now that I knew a bit more.

It’s like when you want to try wines after you learn about wine.

I have to pause here to remind you that I’m not a regular coffee drinker. I have tried Coffee Bean and Starbucks before, and I always thought it was too strong. Now I know why.

Okay, back to my story of Coffee Bean.

Incidentally I learned that Coffee Bean was in business before Starbucks (hence their Established 1963 tag line), but I believe Starbucks came to Malaysia first.

I sipped my cup of Coffee Bean with trembling lips (partly because it was still hot).

The coffee swirled around my mouth for a while. I tasted the roasted coffee aroma. I tasted the milk. And nothing else really.

Then I waited to see what happened.

My stomach had a reaction immediately. A slight fluttering and discomfort.

I suppose there were two reasons for my stomach discomfort. First of all, my body was probably warning me that I had ingested some toxin. Second reason was probably the milk (I don’t like milk).

A few minutes later I felt a jolt of alertness.

I felt this rush, like I could do a hundred things at once. I think I found the cure for writer’s block. I couldn’t wait to get home to start writing. I just hope those ideas aren’t too bad.

When I got home, my mood seemed to be happier. Nothing could get me upset, not even when the kids started screaming.

It’s like I was drugged.

Anyway.

I won’t be consuming a lot of coffee any time soon.

RM12 (about 4 USD) for a cup of coffee is an expensive addiction to have.

But the next time I go for Starbucks (and Coffee Bean) coffee, I’ll understand why I’m paying so much money (it’s the experience and lifestyle). I’ll know why the coffee tastes the way it does.

Honestly, I’m still quite traditional.

I still prefer the flavour of my Aik Cheong Kopi-O.

P/S: I took that photo with manual setting and manual focus, one-handed, and nailed it on the first shot (according to my low standards la). I wonder if coffee had anything to do with it…

In my wife’s large (and complicated) family tree, Luther is her cousin’s grandson.

Caleb is also “uncle” to baby Christian, who was  born a few months before him.

Maybe next Chinese New Year we might have the 3 baby rabbits meeting.

Everyone, head over to baby Luther’s blog to say hello!

I seem to have lost my ability to generate blog post topics.

Every time I intend to write something, I get sidetracked with one of the following:

• Is anyone going to be interested in this topic?
• Will I offend anyone?
• Will anyone misunderstand what I’m going to write about?
• Will I breach my privacy?
• Has anyone else written about this same topic?
• Have they done it better?

Not to mention the ‘pressures’ and expectations that:

• I have to be entertaining and/or interesting
• There needs to be some search engine value

All of this means I’m contantly on post-new.php, writing, re-writing and deleting blog posts. Sometimes I can’t even start writing because my mind is going around in circles.

I’m sure many bloggers face the same problem. At least, I hope you do. Because it can’t be easy churning out blog post after blog post for years… and by the way Adino Online is almost 5 years old!

Maybe if I could just find the time to sit down and write without distractions. I wonder if I could have a day just sitting down in a cafe, just writing.

Then I start to doubt myself. What if that doesn’t solve the problem?

I hope I can get over this stage quickly.

Time to go search my brain and my heart for things to share with all of you.

Photo By: Fred Fokkelman