The Best Way To Break Your Daughter's Heart

We were shell-shocked last weekend when our maid told us that her father had arranged for her to marry someone that she barely knew.

It seems like our maid's father has lots of debts and he was believed to "sell off" his daughter through an arranged marriage with one of the persons who borrowed him money.

Our maid Aini was very depressed when the news was conveyed to her last week. She is dating some guy now but her father does not like her current boyfriend.

After several time-off sessions to go home to discuss with her dad, Aini's boyfriend finally managed to convince her dad to let Aini marry him instead.

Due to too much pride, Aini's dad wanted the wedding to go on at the same date as what was arranged earlier with the other party. Aini said all of her neighbors have known that she will be getting married, therefore her dad would "lose face" and feel embarrassed if the wedding was cancelled. So her dad agreed to swap the groom instead!

As a result, my maid will be getting married in another 2 week's time to her boyfriend. Aini told us that she was not quite ready and would not know what to do as a wife. She is only 18.

I know that I should not interfere with other people's lives but some parents are really so thick-skulled and old fashioned!

When Aini told her dad that she did not want to marry the guy that his dad arranged to marry, her dad threatened to disown her. In western countries I think the daughter would have run away. But in Indonesia, the kids are still very filial towards their parents (even though the parents make silly decisions like this!).

Who Does Your Son Look Like?

Many friends have been asking me, "who does your son look like?" and I will normally say my wife.

However, from one of the old photos that I've found of my wife and my brother in law, I have found that my son has the most similar facial features as my bro in law.

As you can see in the photos, they both have chubby cheeks and pointy chins (so does my wife). Their hair type are both soft. Hairstyles are similar (snipped above the eye brows and do not need much combing). They both have big ear lobes. I think personality wise they are similar too....both of them tending to be cheeky!! Their noses looked similar but my son's eyes are bigger and not as slanty as my bro in law.

I guess kids will change their looks as they grow up. Hopefully he has inherited my "tall" genes and will be close to a six footer when he grows up.

Photo Of The Week: Birthday Lunch

This photo was taken during lunch time on my birthday back in Jan'09.

As my wife knew that food is the way to my heart, she gave me this lunch surprise which consists of:

1. 1. Crabs cooked with salted eggs - a delight from "rumah makan Kalimantan".

2. Fried wanton (dumplings) that she made herself.

3. Dried noodles with soy-sauce(called Kon-Low-Meen in Cantonese).

It was a great treat! Don't need to spend millions of rupiahs eating out. I am feeling hungry already and can't wait to have my lunch!

The Wonders of Thomas & Friends

Thomas & Friends (also called Thomas & the Tank Engines) is an animated children series about trains and engines that worked on the Island of Sodor.

We found the show to be very educational for our 2 year old toddler. He likes to watch the show on DVDs and also Youtube downloads on a daily basis. It keeps him occupied while my wife tries to have some blogging / internet time. We try not to use it as a "babysitter", so sometimes I also watch the show together with him. Our son has learnt a lot of words and phrases from the show. He also tend to speak like the trains, engines and people there, which made life very entertaining. He learnt his numbers from the trains and equipment's numbers too!

For those who does not know who Thomas is?..... Thomas is a cheeky, fussy little engine who wears #1 on his side. Joining him in his adventures on the Island of Sodor are his engine friends:

1. The cheerful green train Percy,


2. The moody red train James,


3. The proud but boastful blue colored train Gordon,


4. The coaches Annie and Clarabel,


5. Bertie the Bus,


6. Terence the Tractor,


7. Harold the Helicopter,


8. Jack the Front Loader (Shovel),


9. Cranky the Crane,


10. and last but not least, Sir Topham Hatt, the Superintendent of the railroad, is the kindly boss who keeps everyone in order.

There are also many other construction machines and trains that I won't list out one by one. We bought our toddler some of the die cast metal trains. Would you imagine what a fortune we would have spent if we bought them all??!!

Here's a bit about Thomas & Friends' history: The Tank Engine and his friends are based on the Railway Series of books written by an Englishman, Reverend W. Awdry. The stories were created in 1942 to entertain the Reverend's son, Christopher, who was confined to bed with the measles. That Christmas, a simple wooden train named Thomas was made for Christopher. This led to the creation of even more stories about Thomas Train and his railway friends. Reverend Awdry published 26 books before retiring in 1973. In the early 1980s, Christopher continued in his father's footsteps. He began creating Railway stories for his own young son and published his first story in 1983. In all, 40 Railway Series books were published.

Mating Leave

Yesterday I was a bit shell-shocked when my driver, who just got married last weekend, asked for my permission to take a day off stating that he needs to "do it" with his newly wedded wife!

My driver lives in a very small house with his mother. I have not been to his house but my wife had and she told me that it is just 10m x 4m! His room is separated from his mom's room by a thin plywood partition. He claims that this was the first time for his wife...his exact words were "making love" (he can speak only very little broken English), and he was afraid that it might be too noisy. I almost could not contain my laughter after I heard what he said! He was suggesting to take a day off and rent a hotel room in order to "spread his seeds and legacy". He claims that his wife wanted to have a kid very soon.

What can I say except to agree for him to take a "mating leave". If you have other suggestions on the terminology kindly leave a comment.....LOL!

The Reds Roll On

Sorry for the long absence as I have been caught up in the CNY (Chinese New Year) mood.

Man. Utd is now top of the EPL table! After the morale boosting win over Chelsea, they strolled on to back to back wins and the defence also broke the record for not conceding over 1200 minutes without conceding a goal.

The table was pretty different 1 month ago where the reds were still trailing behind Liverpool and Chelsea.

But it is still a long way to go until May'09. Man. Utd is on their way to another EPL crown if they could continue the momentum.