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Kickin’, movin’, squirmin’ October 30, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Parenting & Motherhood, Thoughts & Scribblings , comments closed

 

Once we got Ethan settled into daycare, it was time for me to go for a long overdue checkup for my “bun in the oven”.  My last checkup back in Penang was at the end of September, and I was longing to see my little bub there on the ultrasound screen.  I never knew how hard it was to secure an appointment with an OB/GYN here in the Bay Area till last week.  Those 5 letters have been rolling off my tongue so many times when I tried making an appointment, that I have really lost count.

After surveying and talking to several friends and weighing the pros and cons, and taking into consideration their recommendations, we decided to have our baby in El Camino Hospital.  My main priority was to deliver the baby in a hospital that is fully supportive of breastfeeding, and I was extremely happy to note that in a recent review of breastfeeding practices, new mothers at El Camino Hospital achieved the highest breastfeeding rate of any hospital in the state, with 97 percent nursing their babies in the hospital, and 93 percent breastfeeding exclusively when they leave the hospital.  According to Vien though, all hospitals in the States are pro-breastfeeding.

So once we decided on a hospital and hubbs had our health and medical insurance cards ready, I searched the insurance company website for a list of doctors affiliated with our health plan with the hospital of our choice.  Here in the US, doctors would only accept patients who were with a health plan they were affiliated with.  Some of the doctors weren’t even accepting new patients, though.

Now, the doctors’ had their appointments in their own clinics, NOT in the hospital, so we only had to go to the hospital during the actual delivery.  Our initial agenda was to schedule a brief interview with a few doctors to see if he/she would be a good fit, however when I called up several doctors’ offices, the receptionist informed me that the doctors do not provide interviews, and besides most of the doctors I had shortlisted only had an available appointment date in December!

Now that was WAY too far away for me.  I could already feel the little one kicking me every day now, begging to be seen on the ultrasound.  So hubbs and I decided on ONE doctor, who is recommended by two friends.  I called his office up and the receptionist told me the earliest appointment was December 1st.  Well, I then went into a “sorta pleading mode” and asked if there was any way at all she could fit me in earlier.  I gave her the facts that I was already about 20 weeks along, and my last checkup was over a month ago.  Well, that was last Friday, and she told me she would pass the message on the receptionist who was in charge of the doc’s schedule, and that receptionist would try to work something out for me.

On Monday morning, I received a call from the doc’s office to let me know that they could fit me in for an appointment next Friday, November 7th.  Yippeee!  I was in jubilation!  That was great news indeed!  So I am eagerly waiting for that day now.

Meanwhile, I can only immerse myself in pregnancy literature…

Got wheels to go a-cruisin’ October 28, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Thoughts & Scribblings , comments closed

 

With a new environment, comes new experiences…and one of the inevitable ones is driving. Driving a left-hand drive car, rather. Everything is the total opposite of what it is in Malaysia, and I had to keep reminding myself that.

When I visited the States several years ago, I drove a little bit too, but this time round, I’m gonna take it a leap further and get my California state driver’s license as well.

Although I am authorized to take a total of 8 hours’ of driving lessons from an authorized driving school here, I drove around a couple of times prior to taking lessons, of course with my hubby offering tips and *advice* in the process. Well, last Friday was my first FORMAL driving lesson. My instructor, a nice lady by the name of Terry, sat by my side while I drove to goodness-knows-where, practising what needs to be done for the road test, including observing the various street speed limits, stopping a certain distance from the vehicle in front, and “backing up in a straight line”. The lesson was a whole 2 hours’ long, and we also had time to go on the freeway.

To get my driver’s license, I would need to first get my Social Security Card (application currently in progress), and then pass my written multiple-choice driver’s test, and THEN pass the road test.

I am definitely getting more confident on the roads now, and sometimes I would even be allowed to drive the car on my own. Hehe. Sometimes though, I still flick the wipers instead of the indicators, but that rarely happens now, I am happy to say.

Tomorrow morning I have my second driving lesson. My thoughts? I just wanna pass all the tests and get my driver’s license pronto!

In the crib where we live October 23, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home , comments closed

So….new place, new home huh?

Before we left Malaysia, we had already finalized where we were gonna be staying in San Jose.  But up till then, we had only seen the floor plan of the apartment and the most we could do was to imagine what the real thing would look like.

Upon arrival, us two tired, weary adults and a highly-active toddler were greeted by an extremely cosy apartment.  There are two rooms, each with a queen-sized bed, and most of the apartment, save for the kitchen and bathrooms, is carpeted.

 

This is our living room.  The longer couch faces the TV.  In the afternoons, we do get some warm sunlight streaming through the blinds in the living room.  Oh, and there’s a door leading to a patio/balcony too.

 

Here’s where I have been spending a good deal of time in: the kitchen.  It’s fully furnished with a 4-burner stove, microwave, oven, fridge, dishwasher (which I currently use to air-dry dishes), larder, pots, pans, cutlery and an Asian cooking set (i.e. wok, chopsticks, etc).  No complaints so far, especially since the kitchen overlooks the splendid view of the swimming pool.

 

Well, here’s the view from the second bedroom, i.e. Ethan’s room.  The view from the kitchen is similar to this one, and Ethan absolutely loves it!  It certainly beats the view from the master bedroom, which overlooks the road where the garbage carts are parked.

We have two bathtubs in the apartment, the one in the master bedroom being a Roman-style oval tub, and guess what?  Two bathroom sinks too!  But what thrills me is the Hollywood-style makeup lighting above the bathroom sinks.  Love, love, love it!

 

So in short, we are satisfied with our apartment.  The relocation people did manage to provide as many necessities as possible, such as a high chair for Ethan too.

 

And there was no excuse for me NOT to start utilizing my kitchen, because our FedEx food shipment arrived the very next day after we touched down.

 

We had shipped several important food items from Malaysia, the crucial one being several tins of Ethan’s favorite Pediasure milk.  And our prayers were answered when all three of the boxes of food we shipped from Malaysia arrived safely with everything accounted for.

So…what else have I been doing?  Oh, we forgot to bring any shower gel with us, so I bought a bottle of Aveeno body wash from Walmart.  I know my good girlfriend Audrey highly recommends it, and so did cc, and you know what?  I love it!  The weather here is kind of dry, but this body wash is really gentle and I love the smell of it.  I’m gonna get more when I run out.

 

Oh, and of course, the very rare few times that I did not cook, we go to our favorite burger joint for a quick meal.  In-N-Out, of course!  I’d been craving for it since like forever!  Nicely done cheeseburgers, with NO PICKLES. :razz:

And oh, check out what’s imprinted on the base of the cups they serve…

 

Where the disgruntled are October 23, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Rainmakers , comments closed

One thing that most people have in common is that they are disgruntled with their jobs.  For some reason, working professionals will definitely have a complaint or two about what they do for a living, and for those who have it bad, they would simply keep doing what they hate just so they can bring the moolah home.  It is a sad and unhealthy situation, but it is true.

But when push comes to shove, one will really need to determine if their personal interest is worth all that sacrifice of resigning their current jobs without a replacement job yet.  Or even if your current job is what you want to keep doing and keep suffering from.

Everybody would definitely like a job that is stress-free, where they are given the trust and responsibility to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities, without being micro-managed.  Unfortunately it is not a perfect world, and we find employees everywhere looking for better options to suit their interests.

I recently read that accounting professionals hold some of the most highly-stressful jobs, so I would not be surprised if the demand for highly-paid accounting jobs increases tremendously worldwide.  In Malaysia, in the US, and everywhere around the world, the internet is an excellent source for job hunters, and well, if you’re thinking of relocating to the States soon, and if you’re on the lookout for an accounting-related position, you might just find what you are looking for from this fantastic site with over five thousand jobs targeting Accounting Jobs in Boston.

Looking at the varied number of openings, I doubt a day would be sufficient to sift through all those job postings!

Well, I am certainly not on the lookout for an accounting job, so I think what I’ll do now is forward this website link to someone I know who is.

Giddy tigress is still alive October 19, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Thoughts & Scribblings , comments closed

 

Woohoo! Have I got tons to catch up on!

Firstly, thank you so much one and all for all your “Bon Voyage” wishes and prayers.  My sincerest apologies for the silence and for not (yet) replying to all your comments.  I promise to get to that as soon as I can.

It has been one very exciting adventure for my family and I, and of course, I will get to the nitty gritty soon, but for now, I just wanted to let everyone know that we have arrived in California, …well…. about 2 weeks ago actually.  Landed in SFO at about eightish pm, collected our car from the car rental and drove to San Jose, a good 45 minutes’ away…to what would be our home for the next 9-10 months or so.

We only got our home internet connection set up several days back, and even then, it has been difficult to find time to log in because I can only do so when Ethan is asleep (hah).  Also, we’ve been really busy getting everything settled, unpacking our stuff and also trying my best to put nutritious homecooked food on the table every day :)

But hopefully things will fall into place soon, and I will provide an update as best as I can, albeit it could be a tad backdated.

For now though, I just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciate your thoughts and keeping us all in your prayers, and I wanted to drop a note to say that, “YES!  I am still alive!”

Oh, by the way, the weather here is fantastic!  Lovin’ it to bits! :)

So do watch this space for more giddy happenings!!

 

I’m leaving on a jet plane… October 1, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Close to Heart & Home, Relax & Celebrate, Thoughts & Scribblings , comments closed

There really is no better way than to just say it as it is.  YES, my family and I will be relocating to The States.  And YES, the reason for my lack of blog presence these past few weeks is because we have been busy preparing for our trip.  Hubbs and I will be relocating to complete our short-term work assignment and of course, Ethan will be following us too.

In fact, we just got back from Kuala Lumpur a few days ago after attending the US Visa interview at the US Embassy, and will be leaving next week itself for California.  In fact, in an Amazing Race kinda style, we almost didn’t make it for our scheduled Visa interview, because we kinda lost our bearings that fateful morning.  But we made it to the embassy eventually, waited and waited for our turns (me with those butterflies in my tummy), and finally it was all over.

Well, I couldn’t contact most people I knew in KL too because it was a pretty hectic trip and to top it off, both my hubby’s and my cellphones’ batteries went dead on us.  And silly us, we neglected to bring our chargers along.

In spite of that, I am proud to say that we did cover a lot of ground this trip, literally, while in the Klang Valley.  Since it will be several months before we see the traffic-jammed roads in KL, we drove around visiting our siblings during this trip.  From Crowne Plaza Mutiara KL, we drove to Bangsar to visit hubb’s brother’s family. Then the next night, we drove from Damansara to Seri Kembangan to visit my brother and his family, taking a total of TWO hours to get there, and getting lost along the way as well, but nevertheless never giving up.

And may I just say that I am SHOCKED that there are so many cars on the roads in the Klang Valley at any given time of day.  At 3pm, we were stuck in a traffic jam along Jalan Ampang.  And even at 9:30ish pm, when most Penangites would be at home relaxing with a cuppa, and reading the papers, cars were thronging Jalan Sultan Ismail, Jalan Kuching and Lebuhraya Mahameru like ants!

Anyway, we are back home in Penang now, doing the last bit of packing and stressing before we head off for The States.  As we tick off the list of things-to-do before we say goodbye, we feel the stress and burdens slowly lifting off our shoulders.  The past few weeks have proven to be a rollercoaster of ups and downs for us: finalizing the location of our apartment in the US, filing and getting ready the petition for our L1 Visa, wondering whether the petition packet from US will arrive on time, gearing up for the all-important interview, getting the shipment ready, making sure all bills have been accounted for, cancelling whatever needs to be cancelled and in the past few nights, sleeping at odd hours in the night and becoming walking zombies in the day.

…but we are taking it one day at a time…we don’t know what to expect, what the future holds for us, but I am certain this will be one opportunity of our lives we will never ever forget….

The E, the O, the lover-lee October 1, 2008

Posted by The Giddy Tiger in : Relax & Celebrate , comments closed

Since the electricity tariff restructuring several months ago, my electricity bill has increased (obviously).  But what boggles me is that since then, we have experienced at least two power outages.  So can someone please tell me why we are paying more for this unreliability?

Anyway, a couple of weekends back, on a Sunday, my family and I were relaxing at home, watching TV, when suddenly POOF!  there was no electricity again!

So what were we to do, but to pack up, and head off to the E&O hotel for a night’s stay….

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No la…we are not THAT extravagant :P  

It just so happened that I had prebooked the one night’s stay because I had collected enough stamps on my E&O Heritage dining card to entitle us for a free room.  And it just so happened that there was a power outage on the day I had made the room reservation.

Usually when there is a power outage, the apartment elevators would still be working, but for some reason, both the elevators were also out, so we had to walk down the stairs…with our bags and all.  My hubby carried most of the bags, while I carried Ethan and one other bag.  It’s a wonder how we need to pack so much stuff for a night away.  And that being said, it was pretty good strength training and cardio exercise for us :)

The E&O was fantastic.  Although the room we were given was smaller than the one we had during our wedding, and it was slightly noisier, since it faced the streets instead of the sea, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Even the welcome drink tasted superb, not like dishwater like in some other hotels we’ve been to.  Oh, and a cold towel for our arrival too :)

 

Ethan probably had the most fun – enjoying himself in the bathtub and roaming all round the hotel room.  Check out the decor: ain’t it grand? 

 

I thought the inclusion of a rather antique-looking fan was so appropriate for that old world charm the hotel exudes.  Also, in the night, we experienced something like a tropical rainstorm, which made the weather quite cold, so having the fan on for circulation while we upped the airconditioning temperature was just perfect.

It was a one-day break that we all needed, to rejuvenate ourselves for the hectic days ahead…… but more on that later.