*** I am going to put this in the travel section, but it's easier to put this up here first, so I am going to delete/modify this post once I get around to do the travel section ***
At first I didn't want to put this writing into the travel section, however it did involve a lot of 'travelling', so I might as well do. Besides, being in Melbourne is somewhat a 'travelling' anyway, since it's away from home. What I called home right now is Cambridge and Semarang. I still feel like a stranger here, not yet at home.
I will divide the writing into sections (wow, aren't I very organised now?) and in chronological order (I'm impressed with myself already). I will try to remember as much as I can from what happened the past 3-4 months, but those who know me would understand that my memory isn't that good so don't rely on it too much :p
A trip to YogyakartaEarly December (I couldn't remember for the life of me what date, I think it's the 1st), Nagi came to Indonesia. He travelled straight to Yogyakarta because my mom had booked 2 hotel rooms at Grand Hyatt since she was to attend a seminar (dentistry related subject, obviously, which I couldn't go in much detail. I would if I could :p). The decision to come was very sudden, since Nagi just found out that he doesn't need to get the visa stamp from London. He was waiting forever just for that. He got the ticket that morning and flew out of the country that night. I also had to make few phone calls to Yovita to book his ticket from Singapore to Yogyakarta, and his return ticket from Semarang to Singapore.
Me, Agastya, mom and dad travelled by car in the afternoon to Yogyakarta. After a few mishaps - (1. The traffic out of Semarang was unusually very busy so we detoured via the toll road which took us half an hour more than the normal way. 2. One hour after we left my mom realised she forgot the hotel vouchers at home - without them we can't get our rooms. Thanks to the detour, we weren't that far from home at that moment so we called home and asked the driver to go by motorbike through the normal way. 3. Agastya had not been feeling well that day, first time he actually had feverish temperature all his life.) we finally reached Yogyakarta. Agastya was behaving well in the car, considering he had temperature.
Nagi's flight landed that evening around 7, so off we went to the airport Adisucipto. The airport has a busy railway crossing at its entrance, which I found very stupid. There were queue to enter the airport because lack of parking space, so we were queuing at the entrance. When my dad's car was exactly half way in the railway crossing, we stopped again. Queue, you see. Jammed, actually. I was JUST ABOUT to say "Dad, it would be very funny if suddenly you hear the sirene for the crossing…" when I heard that bloody sirene. My heart must have skipped a lot of beats. I could see my dad went panicking as well, kept pressing the horn to ask the cars in front to move so he could squeeze in. We were still right in the middle of the track. I was holding Agastya and one of my hand were in the door handle, ready to get out of the car the second I see the train coming. Luckily somehow we kept moving forward inch by inch and away and by the time the crossing really closed, the bar was right on the car's rear. I didn't know how that happened, but I thought it was a miracle.
Aga bonded with Nagi very quickly. Aga is friendly to people, but he doesn't let anyone hold him. Even with people whom he regularly sees, he doesn't. However Aga got really friendly with Nagi very easily, holding and carrying and all. This is after more than 6 months of separation. I guess it's all in the baby's instinct.
While Aga was behaving well on the way to Yogyakarta, on the way back he was very cranky. We didn't know what went wrong until he threw up, about two hours later in the car. After throwing up he felt better and went to sleep.
Nagi took my laptop with him to Melbourne because I needed him to carry the laptop since I wouldn’t have been able to carry it and carry Agastya at the same time. Since then there has been no contact between me and the thing so-called Internet. Even now I'm writing without internet connection since things here are very slow. Seriously, I am not used to this speed. We requested the broadband connection last weekend, that was mid-January, and we can only get it installed on the 6th of Feb. More about the slowness later. I've already gone out of my 'chronological' track. So much about being in order, huh?
The journey from Semarang to MelbourneThe day we left, lots of tears. Obviously. Mine, Mbak Wiwik (the servant maid who took care of Agastya), mom's, dad's, grandma's, but not Agastya's. He was jolly happy, he knows he's going out on a trip. Me and Agastya left one day earlier than mom and dad, we spent one night in Singapore with Zita and Yovita, but me, agastya, mom and dad flew together to Melbourne from Singapore.
That night, Agastya hardly slept, and so I didn't either. During the time he slept, he slept on my arms. Everytime I tried to put him in the bassinet, he woke up and cried. I have the answer to the question: "Which one is easier, carrying 2 month old baby or 12 month old baby in airplane?". Definitely with 2 month old was waaaaay easier. Aga just couldn't sit still. He was cranky because it's his bedtime, but the lights were not turned off before 11pm and they were still serving dinner. He's sleepy but couldn't sleep. Poor fella. Poor my hands too. And my parents' too. I wouldn't know what I'd do had I travelled alone. Probably I'd ask those stewardesses to help. Well they gotta help if they don't want this little fella to keep crying hence annoying other passengers. At that point I really didn't care much about the comfort of other passengers around. If they couldn't understand then tough. I was in much greater discomfort than them.
The day we arrived in Melbourne
Saturday, 31st December 2005. It was hot. Too terribly hot. Apparently it was one of the hottest day. Lucky us, huh? 46 degrees it was. Was it? I can't remember exactly the temperature now, but I remember it was HOT HOT HOT.
Although the day was hot as hell, the night was cold. So I got a temperature shock and still wanting a quilt!
The curtains I brought from Indonesia were perfect size. Thanks to Joe who measured everything correctly. It was perfect down to the last milimetre.
Agastya's first birthday
Sunday, 1st January 2005. A new car, flashing red and blue! His first car from his grandpa and grandma. I think the grandparents were more into it than him, but nevertheless he was happy.
We went to Melbourne Zoo. Hmm… now I couldn't remember if it was Sunday or Monday that we went… but who's telling the story? I say Sunday, Sunday it is!
I think the entrance fee was too expensive considering what were in it. I couldn't remember how much it was. 20 dollars? Agastya didn't have to pay but he didn't get to see a lot of things anyway. The place was packed with people and prams. Almost ALL people we see have babies. Forgot to mention, I see more people with prams here than in UK. I guess here people are more sexually active? I couldn't see how, though, the weather doesn't help. Too hot to want to do anything. Oh, all the babies probably were conceive during winter :p
We'd like to say a belated happy new year to everyone. Also a belated happy chinese new year to those who celebrate.
Nappy crisisI found the quality of nappies here substandard to the ones in Indonesia or UK. I was surprised myself. I am used to how absorbent Mami Poko nappies are and how convenient they are, I couldn't find anything similar here. The best one here is Huggies, and even that, the quality of Huggies nappies here are not the same as Huggies in Indonesia/UK.
There are two main problems with nappies here:
1. No pants type of nappies.
There are Huggies pull-up pants but they are for bigger (older) kids. In UK/Indonesia, from about 8 kgs there is pants-type of nappies you can use other than the normal one with straps. The pants-type is very easy to use with babies who can stand and walk (ones like Agastya). That's why I prefer to use this type during the afternoon when he's active, and the normal type during the night time (more about the normal type on point number 2). Both me and Agastya don't like the strappy nappies. It's frustratingly difficult to wear while standing up, and he doesn't like wearing the nappy lying down. What could take less than 2 seconds to wear takes 1 minute now. But that's not my biggest problem.
2. No nappy which can survive the whole night testing.
In Indonesia, using Mami Poko nappy (normal type, not the pants-type), I didn't have to change nappy the whole night. I put the nappy on around 7, and until the next morning at 7 it will still hold very well. Here, none of the nappies could hold the entire night. I put it on at 8 and by 2 am it will start leaking. It's annoying both for me and him, because when that happens, he rarely goes back to sleep immediately. It will take him 2 hours to go back to sleep because he'll be awake completely. Usually he sleeps the entire night and only wake up for milk once or twice and would go back to sleep immediately. Hence nowadays I have to force him to accept nappy changes around 11pm - 1 am (just before his milk), which he finds a wee bit annoying but that doesn't wake him up completely, thus when followed by a feed, he'd doze off again easily. Still, doing that is just a compromise I have to get used to. It's not the ideal situation. I vow to stock Mami Poko nappies when I go back to Indonesia next time. That would make my life so much easier.
3. Huggies nappies leave white-sand like material on my son's bottom.
Probably this is due to Aquaphor (petroleum jelly kind of product) I use for every nappy change to prevent nappy rash. It works like magic since I've never encountered nappy rash problem with Agastya. Never seen it before, but using Huggies here, every nappy change I have to wash him because it's difficult to remove these white sand like material from his bottom. It doesn't come off easily using the baby wipes. Other nappies (non-Huggies) here don't leave those white-sand, however Huggies is the most absorbent amongst the others. That shows how crap the other nappies must be, since I'm still sticking to Huggies although experiencing loads of problems with it.
See how nappy change is a huge headache for me? This is OK if your baby only poo once a day. Yesterday Agastya pooed 5 times! Don't worry, it's not diarrhoea, because his poo was solid and normal. So, if you read this and you are my friend and heading this way, can you bring me a pack or two of Mami Poko (either type would ease my headache - pants or nappies)? It would be greatly appreciated.
You can't even find Pampers here. Probably if there's competition to Huggies, the quality of nappies would have been better. I'm hoping against hope that someone somewhere would read this and start doing something about it. For example, the marketing director of Pampers reads this and thinks, "Outrageous, the land down under has no pampers!" Oh please, pleaseeeeeeeee!
Life in Melbourne other than thatEnough ranting about the nappy crisis. The first few weeks here had been physically and emotionally difficult. Lots of things involved. New place, which needs getting used to all of us. New place also means lots of things to pack and unpack. I still have some unpacking left to do. It's difficult to juggle it with nursing Agastya. I couldn't do it while he's awake because he needs all my attention and gets upset if I ignore him for more than 1 minute. I couldn't do it while he's sleeping either because he'd wake up since he sleeps in my bedroom which where the stuff needs to go into. Help, anyone?
The first two weeks were horrible, especially after Mom and Dad left. I was nauseous the day they left for about a week. I would have thought I was pregnant if I didn't get my period that day the nausea started. I get it in the morning for the whole week. The first 2 hours every morning was unbearable. I still didn't know what caused it. Probably stress. It's stopped anyway.
On top of all that, Agastya was ill for 3 days. He had never been ill before and this is due to vaccination on Friday 13th Jan. He had Hepatitis B, MMR and Meningitis C shots all at the same time. One on his leg, and one on each arm. Imagine how painful it must have been for the little guy. Almost a week went by and he had no signs of problem from that immunisation, until Thursday night when he had temperature. That day was very hot, so we didn't notice it at first, we thought it was because of the weather, since we were also feeling hot. But until the night time which was cooler, he was still very hot. I checked his temperature, it was 38.8. I gasped and almost cried instantly. Gave him Calpol (baby paracetamol) and soaked two small towels with ice water and put it on his forehead, which was difficult to do. He didn't like the cold compress.
We took him to the doctor that morning itself. The doctor said there's nothing wrong, it was only due to the immunisations he had the week before. Late reaction, she said. She advised to keep giving him paracetamol, just as we did.
That same night, his temperature went up to 39.9. I just couldn't stop crying. It was so hot, I know Agastya felt it too, because he didn't complain for the cold compress this time. It must have been very uncomfortable for him to say the least. It took almost 1 hour after we gave him Calpol for his temperature to get back to normal.
Agastya's sleeping pattern is very good nowadays. He sleeps during the day once or twice. If once it'll be a two-hour nap, if twice then it'll be one hour each. He'll sleep again at around 8pm until 7am in the morning. He wakes up three times during the nights only for milk and goes back to sleep soon after he realises there's no more milk in the bottle. In the morning when he wakes up, he'll play all by himself next to me while I'm slowly getting up from slumber. :D He understands his mum is very lazy :p
Still on sleeping matter, Agastya doesn’t like to be cradled (carried in my arms) to be put to sleep. He still liked it until about a month ago. Now he hates the look of the carrying cloth :p All I have to do to put him to sleep is sleeping next to him. He'll be making all noises and playing with whatever is close by, until he's tired and goes to sleep just like that. Sweet!
I know other babies are cute, I trust that, but my son is the cutest :D I may have said this thousands times. He has this fascination with songs. He'll dance with it. So cute, you should all see it. Must be the Indian genes kicking off.
Those who had never seen Coles' kitchen towel, don't buy it. In UK, normally we didn't buy branded kitchen tissue paper, because they're only for clean-and-throw usage. We'd only buy the branded ones if they're on special offer. Similarly that's what we did when we first went for our grocery shopping. Coles (imagine like Tesco in UK) has its own kitchen tissue paper, so that's what we bought, thinking it must be like Tesco's one in UK. How wrong was I! I think paper is more absorbent than these kitchen towels! It's in between paper and sandpaper. It's that bad. Its only use is probably to get rid of the fat after you deep fry something. Not suitable for cleaning and wiping. Just won't do.
What's great here are the roads and the parking space. The roads are much bigger than they are in UK, and I hardly experience traffic jam. Well, if these guys here complain about traffic, they should go to A14 in Cambridge. They'll appreciate what they've got here.
The parking space is huge. It's a luxury compare to the ones in Cambridge. Also, outside the city centre, everywhere you park is free parking. Normally it has a 2 hour or 4 hour limit, but still, it's a luxury.
The houses here are also much bigger, which I love. I couldn't imagine how Agastya would react coming from my house in Semarang which is huge and with lots of people, to the house in Cambridge with only me during the day. This house in Glen Waverly (a suburb in Melbourne metropolitan area) is smaller than my house in Semarang, but definitely a lot bigger than the one in Cambridge. Plus it doesn't have stairs. Oh he loves stairs, which gives me headache. He'll keep pointing at it, asking me to take him to go upstairs, and after he gets on the top of the stairs, he'll immediately turn around and go down the stairs. Once he gets to the bottom of the stairs, guess what, he'll immediately turn around and go up again. So much energy, poor mommy! It's good though he knows his limit that he doesn't dare to go up and down the stairs alone.
Surprisingly, even salami Milano which I thought would have been standard everywhere, has a different taste here. Quite crap, actually. I have to find some other salami which I like here. They don't seem to have French sauccison either. Damn it.
Got my new phone (Nokia 6111 - I love it), and a mobile phone number. Those whom I know and still don't have my phone number, please contact me via email and I will give you my phone number. We're still yet to get house phone number. It's on the to-do list.
I've been trying to find out (with my limited knowledge on laptops) whether this laptop I have (Toshiba m60) supports bluetooth. It seems to have Bluetooth settings and Bluetooth port, but doesn't seem to work. Keep saying "Bluetooth device not ready" whenever I want to do anything. Anyone knows why? And where's the infrared port? Doesn't it have any? :( I miss internet. If I have internet connection, the first thing I do would be googling to try to find the answer.
I am going to end this section by saying thank you to Visali, Ram, Preeti and Anita, without your tremendous help and support, I will still feel very much a stranger in the middle of nowhere. I still don't feel homely yet in this country, but definitely a lot better. It's really nice to be around family and to know that I have a place to go to whenever I feel lonely. You guys deserve stars. ****
Others I need to mention:
Uncle Ben - you live on the other side of Melbourne, I wish you live nearby.
Sioe - thanks for cooking me lunch the other day, and the pho in Springvale was exactly what I needed.
Ho - still yet to meet your girlfriend, but we've got a lot of time for that, I hope.
Leo & fam - I do need to give you surprise visits :p Be very afraid.
Vasu & Jey - Hope we can see each other soon.
Others on the other side of the world
Evin and Cha2 got married, sorry none of my family member couldn't come, since mom and dad were still here and so was I, and both my sisters were in Singapore. I'm sure you both had a wonderful day and wish you both a lifetime of happiness.
Apparently Zita said Natalia Triani got married. Can someone confirm me on this one? Last time I saw her was around early November, and she didn't mention anything.
A baby named Vittorio Emanuelle was born on the same day as Agastya, only one year younger. Some freak coincidence, Reza is the proud father. Congratulations to Reza and Lanny. I want to see photos!!!!!
There's a probability that I won't be able to attend someone's wedding in mid-June, because I might be going home only end of June. Will keep everyone posted on my travel plan. I plan to go to Indonesia mid-year (around peak winter) and end of the year (around mid-summer).
Annie and Tony are getting married in June. Nagi is Tony's best man so he'll be attending the wedding.
Haven't heard anything from the guys in Brand. Will ask Annie or Will when I see them online, i.e. after I get this internet connection.
I haven't checked Indozone forum since early December. Undoubtedly I will have thousands of unread posts. Do you guys miss me, cause I really miss you guys a lot.
I lent my Choon Hyang dvds to Zita and Yovita since they had not seen it yet. I kept telling them that it's the best Korean drama I've ever seen in my entire life. The result is very satisfying. Now Zita is a Choon Hyang freak, just like me. :p Whenever we speak on the phone, we talk mainly about Choon Hyang. Heh heh..
My grandfather is still not well. He has myelo-dysplasia syndrome (sp?). Every 3 weeks or so his Hb will drop to 7 or even below that, thus time for another blood transfusion. Around 3-4 days in hospital, then off for another 3 weeks of jolly good time, then back to hospital for transfusion. He and my grandma have moved in to Argopuro (my house in Semarang) since early November. As far as I know, there's no cure to this disease, he could have had bone marrow transplant had he was a lot younger. At his age, there's no point going through all those risky procedures. He must rely on blood transfusions and those 3 times a week shots. The best thing to do for him is to rest well everyday and not to overtire himself, but he's not willing to give up all his activities.
