Photos of the week - poses and facial expressions

Before I leave for Brisbane this weekend, thought of sharing some of my toddler's poses and facial expression photos....

Greedy for some cold and creamy indulgence!

This is how he will look like sporting a Santa Beard.

Doing some yoga in his sleep...

Drooling on his sleeves


Sleeping beauty??

"Beauty mate?"... as what the Aussies would say in their broad Ozzie accent...;)

Getting On My Nerves

Me & my wife both came from "traditional" families where our parents used to spank or cane us when we were kids. It was believed to be the most effective disciplinary method according to old timers. However, after years of research and analyses, physcologists discovered that corporal punishment might lead to the development of "rebellious traits" when kids become teenagers. Spanking is believed to make children think that problems could be solves through violence.

We do not normally spank our toddler son but sometimes he just gets on our nerves. We read that warning them verbally "1-2-3" before spanking them like how our parents used to do to us in the past does not really help. Therefore, we had to resolve to a softer approach, which is coaxing. Sometimes he will listen. However, when he wears his "rebel hat", his cheekiness + refusal to follow orders + whining could drive us in sane!

I could still recall bending and hiding all my parent's canes when I was young so that I could get rid of the "pain punishments". We used to "run away" from the canes but they kept landed on our backsides no matter where we hid. My wife told me that she also did the same too and his brother even threatened her mom that he will report her to the authorities!

My parents never let us learn martial arts when we were young. They said we might mis-hit our kids but I think people who learn martial arts will be able to control their actions more?

We do not want to use the cane as a disciplinary tool, so we don't have any at home. We tend to give in to him often and not spank him (but not pamper him). We used to use our hands to spank him but thought it might land too hard on him. In the end we resorted to using a wooden spoon (used for stirring in a pot) in place of a cane. We want our son to treat us with respect and not fear. Whenever he acts mischeviously, I will warn him that it is not good to do so. If he still does not listen then I will try to use persuasion (sometimes a little bit of bribery & threats) & taking away his priviliges (keep his toys on top of the fridge or pretend to give them away).

If all necessary measures have been taken but he still refused to obey, I had to smack his backside with the wooden spoon (not too hard though). I know that it is not painful but he will always break into tears. Sometimes we hit him with the wooden spoon on his palm.

I hope he does not use this post againts us in the future as proof of receiving corporal punishment from his parents!

An Interesting Day In Court

This morning I had to attend a court session together with 3 other employees of my company at the SOUTHERN SUMATERA HIGH COURT in Palembang City. We had to testify as witnesses for last year's fertilizer adulteration case where one of our transporters had used our fertilizer bags to store "fake" fertilizers and sent them to our customers.

This was our first time going to court. After waiting for almost 1.5 hours, the judge came into the court room which was open aired (but they had a fan and an air-con which was not turned on).

I was surprised to see a Christian holy water container (without any holy water) attached on the left side of the room's wall. On the right side of the wall, they had 2 pictures of the Taoist Goddess of Mercy and a small joss-stick holder with 6 unlit joss-sticks inside!

Finally when the main judge came into the room, he took his "hammer" and banged on the table and said, "court started" in Indonesian. Then he looked around and asked whether all the witnesses and accused parties have arrived. One of the accused person was still not in the court room yet so we had to wait for another minute. After the guy came into the court room, the main judge had to repeat the "hammering" process all over again.

After my 3 Muslim colleagues took their oaths with someone holding the Quran above their heads, it was my turn. The judge took out a bible and asked me to put my left hand on it and raise my right hand. I was told to do a "V" (peace) sign with my right hand!

I was totally confused, so I looked around. The judge quickly consulted his assistants and corrected me saying, " Sorry, for Christians you have to put 3 fingers up, not 2!". Then he showed me how to do a scout's sign with my right hand!

I could not understand why we can't just do it like how the people do it on TV?? (See Obama's picture).

After that I had to follow his words in Indonesian to swear that I will tell only the truth (or something like that). The 4 of us had to squash ourselves into a 2m long wooden bench throughout the process.

Can you believe all of these happened at the HIGH COURT of Southern Sumatera??

Funny Maid Stories

Throughout my 2.5 years in Palembang, I have heard many stories (funny/sad/horror) about maids. Today I will blog about the selected few stories about the funny things that maids have done.

THE DEEP SLEEPER:
This incident happened to me. We have just started this new 16 year old maid for the 3rd day. She has never worked before, so her first job at our place is I would guess rather tiring. At noon she went into her room for a nap. After 1 hour I wanted to talk to her, so I knocked on her door. There was no answer after 5 mins of continuous knocking on her room door. We thought she might have fainted. Therefore, my driver and me both went out to her window outside the house to check. Luckily we heard snoring noises! Then we continued to shout and knock on her window but she was totally K.O'd! In the end we managed to wake her up after my driver climbed up the chair and called out to her via the air vents above the door. She said she did not hear a thing! I am not sure if she could survive a fire if she slept like a log? Anyway she quit after working for a week.

INSTANT NOODLES:
My company has a mess that has a 40 year old maid. She is a very experienced cook and supposedly have worked many years being a school cleaner. One day my colleagues wanted her to cook a pack of soup based instant noodles. After 10 mins, they found out that the maid had cooked the noodles but dumped away all the soup! They had to eat the dry tasteless noodles because the maid thought that it was supposed to be instant mi goreng (fried noodles)! I still could not believe a person that has lived so long in Indonesia and yet still does not know how to read instant noodles labels.

TOILET BOWL CLEANING:
One day my colleague went home for lunch. The bathrooom was occupied by his maid who was cleaning the toilet. After waiting for almost an hour, the maid came out and said, " Sir, I could not get the water from the toilet bowl out. I keep drying the inside of the toilet bowl but water keeps coming out!"

Photos Of The Week - 1st Week Of July'09

A shot of my son's face after he took a bite off a J.Co donut. When his mother knew that he had donuts from his dad, she said, " donuts are bad! It will make you die!" I think once in a blue moon is still alright though....;)













Broken grasshopper leg. I caught a grass hopper that was only 2" long but one of its legs broke off. I think it is one of its survival or "escape" mechanisms because everytime I catch a grass hopper, it only has 1 hind leg. Playing with grass hoppers helps my son learn how to handle with animal gently.

You must be perplexed after reading this sign?

SOFTEX = sanitary napkins

CLOSED = toilet bowl

"Do Not Throw Sanitary Napkins Into The Toilet Bowl"...got it?

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!