23 weeks

Today I am 23 weeks into the pregnancy.. and I thought it would be fun to share with you some baby bump photos. I will try to put up a few photos every couple of weeks. That way, I myself can see how ginormous I become!

Currently at my second trimester, I have been feeling quite good. My energy levels are back, my morning sickness has gradually disappeared and I don't feel so tired anymore. Colleagues have warned me though.. hehe it doesn't last for long.. because once I go into my third trimester, I will definitely be feeling it more! Ah well, I will enjoy it for the moment! 

The baby kicks a lot more now, and it is really such a funny and wonderful feeling. 

I have also started attending an exercise program designed specifically for pregnant women called Preggi Bellies. I have attended two classes and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We do a mix of Body Attack, Body Combat and Body Pump, while sitting (or what I call a 'balancing act') on a Medi Ball. Apparently people attend these classes up until they reach full term..

Okay, bed time for me, good night!

Sydney - weddings and babies

It is already Sunday night, which means the end of my lovely weekend and soon, the start of another working week! :(

On Friday, I left work at about 3pm to get to the airport for my flight to Sydney. I decided to take it easy and not rush, and so I was very early at the airport for my 6pm flight. Unfortunately, my flight was delayed by more than 3 hours.. which meant I have been sitting in the airport, alone, for nearly 6 hours for the day. Oh jeyysus... surprisingly, I was quite patient and instead of being angry or anything like that, I was just so tired. It was also during this time, while resting on a sofa at the airport, I felt my baby kick for the first time! Hehehe it was really an amazing feeling and I was giggling by myself for most of the time!

My darling BFF Little-Miss-Drink-A-Lot (which has not been drinking much these days...) greeted me at the airport, and it is tradition, that we go to Mamak for supper as soon as I arrive in Sydney! Grumpy did not travel with me this time round, which meant that I had to order two meals for myself. A roti canai and a nasi lemak! Greedy, yes! Guilty, no!

The next day, we did wedding stuff, which is something I have always enjoyed. We picked up her wedding gown (which is absolutely stunning!).. we also went past the church (where she will be married), we looked at a town house she was thinking of renting out for her family during the wedding... and we talked and talked.. about weddings and babies! Hehe

Dinner at Guzman! I love Mexican!

This morning, I met up with my lovely friend Sydney Boy. I did not take any photos, but it was nice to have brunch together and catch up on old times! I keep telling him that I am now officially a beach whale, and he assures me that he likes whales... we went for a nice stroll along Darling Harbour. And the weather was just perfect! I have always preferred the weather in Sydney because its warmer compared to Melbourne.

Finally, before I took my flight home to Sydney, I had a quick lunch with my BFF at Manly beach..

She insists we take a side view of me with my baby bump... and so here it is!

21.5 weeks
Ignore Aboriginal man having fish & chips behind me - haha!

Was he pointing at the macarons? Or the belly?

At Manly beach, I made a quick stop at Adriano Zumbo to bring home some macarons. I just had 3 macarons now while blogging, and so far, my favourite is the lychee macaron! So GOOD! While eating the lychee macaron, the thought of naming my child 'Lychee' did spring up in my head. Haha After all, Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple...

Malaysian holiday - Part I

Our holiday to Pangkor Laut Resort was booked a few months ago, and we were very fortunate that Grumpy's sister found us a package that includes accommodation and all meals at such a reasonable price.  Another bonus was when my dad offered to drive us all the way up to Pangkor on Tuesday (and then he drove back home), and on Thursday, he drove up again to pick us up and take us home.

We stopped by at Bidor, which is our usual place for wantan mee. It was Grumpy's first time, and he ordered all his meals in the largest portion available.

Three hours after leaving from KL, we arrive at the private jetty exclusively for Pangkor Laut Resort guests. It was very posh and we had people greet us and help carry our luggage! 

My husband resting with my floppy hat.. there were hardly any guests, so we felt like we had the entire jetty to ourselves.

We got on a 15 minute boat ride from the jetty to the actual resort, and then it was straight to lunch by the beach.

Here are pictures of our room. I loved everything about the room, it was clean and so comfortable! I loved the Malay traditional theme as well.

The bath!

The view from our very spacious balcony.

Not long after we settled into our rooms, I rushed Grumpy to get changed and immediately we jumped into the main pool! This is the view from the pool. How amazing is this view?! We took naps by the pool, while sipping on drinks.. Couldn't possibly ask for more.

Soon it was time for dinner, and so we left the pool to go back to our room to take a shower. On our way back, we bumped into a hornbill. My first encounter with this tropical bird! A tiny version compared to the hornbills I normally see in the Sarawak tourism ads, but still good enough for me!

This resort is actually very old (Grumpy has been here before as a kid), but considering this resort is YTL owned, the place is still kept in excellent condition and has everything you would expect out of a 5-star resort.

Our first night, we chose to have a Malay dinner.

It was quite good, we had a bit of everything - veggie curry, fish curry, sambal prawns, curry chicken and beef rendang with pilau rice.

After dinner, we got back to our room, and room service has prepared our beds for the night, cleaned up and even lit this incense, which has a very soothing feeling, and also keeps away the mozzies.

Okay, it is really bed time for me! Good night!

No need to hide

Okay so third day at work since returning from holidays, and my boss thought she was doing me a favour this morning by announcing to my team in our morning meetings that she had some news for the group, then she said I would probably kill her, then she told everyone I was pregnant! While I wished that she shared the news in a more subtle way, another part of me is relieved because at least it is out in the open, and I do not need to hide my baby bump anymore. I am just going to wear my big clothes if I have to, instead of trying to fit in to my old work clothes and then feel miserable when I can't zip things up. 

On a lighter note, Sydney Boy requested that my baby arrive on the 19th of June, because that is his birthday, and one day before my due date. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, Sydney Boy and Belgian Chocolates were requesting that I name my baby after them if it was a boy. If my baby is a girl, then I am to name her after Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch. They were also very concerned about the welfare of my dog, especially once the baby arrives. I assured them that the dog will not be neglected. The hospital did give me a little booklet which says "how to introduce your baby to pets". They said maybe I should get a book called "how to introduce my dog to the baby". I said, maybe there should be a book on "how to introduce Sydney Boy, Belgian Chocolates and Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch to the baby"and we kept going back and forth of further book titles. These guys really do keep me smiling during the days and I can't imagine my life without friends like them! :)

When my ex-boss from Dublin told my stepdad I was pregnant (he is English, Cockney in fact), first thing he said was "SILLY GIRL!" hehehe..

20 weeks

It has been such a longggg time since I last updated this blog. There is no real explanation for the lack of post, except for being plain lazy and.. pregnant! Yes tomorrow, I will be 20 weeks into my pregnancy, which means I am half way there..!

So far things have been progressing well with the pregnancy. I have not really experienced any serious morning sickness, except feeling a bit nauseous in the mornings during the 10-12 week mark. Apart from that, the changes with my body.. is something I have mixed feelings about. Some days I like it, other days I don't. I have been trying to hide my baby bump in the office, and today was the first day I returned to work after our holiday back to Malaysia, and still no one noticed under my loose top. My friends kept asking if I have told my colleagues yet, and the answer is No. I just do not know how to break the news. I can't possibly tell people in our daily morning meetings, could I?

Being pregnant also puts me on an emotional roller coaster... small things that upsets me such as a bit of stress at work, makes me run into the toilets and I cry.. Can you imagine when I have fights with Grumpy? I really do burst into tears, and I kid you not, I seriously cry.. and cry and cry and cry.. oh dear! I sometimes think that because I have had a fairly easy pregnancy so far, he often forgets that I really am pregnant.

We got back from KL on Sunday at midnight. We had Monday to rest. I also went for my 20-week ultrasound, a blood test and a hospital appointment. The baby is tracking along well, and I am very pleased! Sometimes I stop and think, ohmigawd, I am going to be a mother! OMG OMG OMG! The thought of it still makes me extremely nervous. Nervous about the unexpected.

Okay just a short post today. More pictures to come, especially pictures from our beach holiday at Pangkor Laut Resort.

Good night!

Cold and chilly

Happy Sunday morning! The weather has been playing up a bit over here in Melbourne. Yesterday it practically poured all day, which kind of dampened my weekend spirits! Grumpy and I have already planned a beach getaway here in January while we are in Malaysia, and this is the only thing I am looking forward to. I just want some warm weather! I have been feeling so cold and chilly lately, I might develop SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) soon enough! Okay okay maybe that is being a bit ridiculous considering SAD mainly affects people in very cold countries with very little daylight.

Work has been very busy for me. I just get thrown the crappiest projects in the world, it is just not funny. Why? Why? Why is it always me taking bites of shitburgers? Hoping that with Christmas approaching, things will be less hectic with people being away. I am working through out Christmas, instead saving my holidays for Chinese New Year.

The reason I am up so bright and early on a Sunday morning is because I have a once a month Skype sessions with my friends from Dublin. It is Saturday night for them, but its fine. The good news is that I just found out that this friend will be in Malaysia in January for work... which is perfect because I will be back home at that time too. I have not seen them since I left Ireland, but we still keep in touch over the years. Another thing to look forward to now, apart from my beach holiday!

To end the note, I want to share with you this video. My friend Sydney Boy (he is so dear to me) is gay and he posted this on Facebook. Being close friends with him has made me realised how I want him to be happy, and to be able to share a life with someone he loves, even if that means it is with another man. Enjoy!

Christmas Toy Store

On Friday, Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch and I took part in a volunteer opportunity as part of work. We picked Anglicare Victoria and our task involved working in the Christmas Toy Store. It was kind of a day off work, but for a good cause. Back in June, I took part in tree planting for the areas affected by the bush fires. But this time round, I wanted to try something slightly different, and anything Christmas sounded fun!

We arrived at Fitzroy by 9am and were immediately greeted by two Aboriginal women, looking a bit drunk at the tram stop. We noticed how the area was surrounded with many government housing blocks. Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch, already a bit nervous, looks around and says to me "Jules, I'm so glad you are doing this with me, and I'm not here alone" hehe

Finally, we walked to the Anglicare office, and a nice man, who manages the site, gives us a tour around the building, and explained to us what they do, how they do it, and why. He was very grateful that we have offered our help for the day, and soon enough, we headed upstairs to the Toy Store to start work.

There are four rooms at the Toy Store. We started off at the boys section:

Hehe as you can see, the room was a bit of a mess.

And this is what it looked like after we tidied things up.

We were shown an itinerary, and starting from 10am, there were social workers from different places, foster homes etc dropping by at the Toy Store to collect the toys. Our job was to sort the toys, stack them up neatly on shelves and help these people pick out toys. They had a list of the different age groups, boys/girls and unique requirements.

The second group that came in, I had a strong feeling... were picking up toys for children from war-torn countries like Afghanistan, or even countries from Africa. As I was helping them pick toys, the lady says to me, "strictly no guns or war toys for the children".

As each group dropped by, collected toys and left, the shelves were empty again and needed to be re-stocked before the next group arrived. In between all that, we had random people stopping by, dropping off boxes of donations - toys, basic amenities, food and coffee. 90% of the donated items are all brand new. Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch and I would have to quickly unpack the boxes, sort them around the different places and tidy up the Toy Store.

The last group that came by, around 2pm, was a foster home for Aboriginal children. So they wanted more 'Australian' toys, sporting goods like cricket bats, boomerangs, books about Australia, etc.

Here are some photos of the various rooms in the Toy Store:

Little-Miss-Whats-For-Lunch at the book room. There were plenty of books for different age groups, craft packs and jigsaw puzzles.

This is the nursery room. Lots of stuffed toys for babies.

The girls room. We started off with plenty of Barbie dolls, but by the end of the day, they were all gone. The boys room had a much bigger supply of toys than the girls room.

Finally, before heading home, I could not resist taking a picture with a Teletubby! haha I used to like Teletubbies back in high school (weird, I know) 

Overall, it was a very fulfilling day, and definitely an eye-opening experience. We get so caught up with Christmas festivities, buying expensive presents for our loved ones, that we forget how the less fortunate, or the homeless are coping. I will be supporting Anglicare Victoria from now, and doing my part to give back to the community.