The problem with monopolies

I ordered a few sets of cute Fred and Friends food face over amazon sometime ago. Paid extra for Amazon to deliver it to vpostUSA in 2 days so i could receive it when i got back to Singapore.

I waited and waited.... The package was late, it only arrived in Singapore after i came back to Beijing. Given the CNY holidays and weekends, i think it's understandable that the package MAY have been held up at the customs.

But 18 days later still no package. Why?

This was what happened in chronological order...

• 24 Feb morning- I got an email saying that they delivered to my old address which was the address in my vpost PROFILE but nobody answered the door. They were going to arrange for re-delivery on 26 Feb.
• 24 Feb late morning- I called Speedpost from Beijing to tell them to deliver item to DELIVERY address (which was the whole point of me filling in the delivery address right?)
• Speedpost tells me that they don't know, must call Vpost.
• Vpost apologised and said they will deliver to DELIVERY address.
• Just in case, i emailed and filled in the feedback on vpost website to inform them that the item is to be delivered to DELIVERY address, not PROFILE address.
• 25 Feb- I received email from Vpost acknowledging that they will arrange delivery to DELIVERY address.
• 26 Feb- I received an sms from my mom who received an sms from the tennant (currently living in my PROFILE address) that she received an item from amazon.
• Now i'm trying to call and leave message on webpage but they are closed for the weekend.

Pardon my language but WHAT FUCKERY IS THIS!? Funny thing is they've gotten it right the last 10 times i used vpost. Is someone in Vpost is out to get me? In this case i think the theory of screw-ups is more probable than the theory of conspiracy.

I tell you the problem with Singapore, too many monopolies. Lack of competition breeds stupid SOPs that don't make sense, and they hire customer service officers who obviously never shopped online before because they don't know the difference between DELIVERY and PROFILE addresses!!!!

I AM FUMING. What would u have me do? Threaten to not use their service? Wait i can't cos i have no options.

Complain? Cannot also cos on their web page there is only an option for "compliment", no option for "complaints", such audacity. Singapore is a service oriented city MY BIG-FAT-GIGANTIC-BIRTH-GIVING ASS.

SIL: If u're reading, now u know why the plates never arrived. there's no resolution yet.

14 carats

This is Hilary Duff's new engagement ring. Freakin 14 carats radiant cut, reportedly 1 million dollars (not RMB). A lady on TPF actually said if the Hunchback of Notre Dame proposed with this ring she'd say yes. I hope she's joking.

Tamagotchi sits!

He's been sitting assisted for the last 1 month, but today he managed to stay upright for quite long, can even lift his hands...

Ring envy

When Jennifer Aniston was married to Brad Pitt, he designed her engagement ring and it looks something like this.

I won't say i really like it but i never really forgot what it looked like because it's so different from the blinding rocks other celebrities have.

Anyway, I needed a setting idea for a lose piece of diamond i have so this piece of memory came in useful. Of course i cannot afford as many diamond loops as Brad Pitt but i think it turned out perfect.

Me likey...

(PS: the rock looks super big but actually my hands are really skinny, unlike the other parts of my body!!!!!)

Gong xi gong xi

Happy Lunar New Year! Hope everyone's getting all plumped up with new year goodies!

We just got back after an 11 day trip to SG. It wasn't as hectic as the trip at the start of this year because we spent most of our time at home. We didn't want to screw up T's sleeping schedule, and also because Mountain Man got diagnosed with gout! It's not life threatening, just really really really painful when the attack comes. I know cos i witnessed the agony on his face when i stepped unto his foot by accident TWICE (Sorry i really didn't mean to!).

The plane ride back was rather exciting. Upon checking in we realised that we weren't seated together, someone somewhere screwed up the booking system. Good thing the staff of Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport were kind enough and took the trouble to shuffle the passengers just so we could sit together. It meant that we had to give up the bassinet, but there was no way either one of us could have handled T alone on the plane.

Anyway, here's T's first lion dance peformance. He got so excited/scared when he heard the dong dong ciang he kept kicking. But it got too loud so we had to move away. More pictures coming right up!

Crazy Celebrity: The one with Gisele

Not only is Gisele Bundchen crazy, i am also convinced that she is an alien.

I've always suspected that she's not from here. She has a perfect body that appeals to all men. Breasts, butt, long legs, gorgeous hair, flat tummy, pretty face... Too good to be human. Her physique points to the fact that she was meticulously engineered in outerspace.

Recently she gave birth to a baby boy via water birth, and she claims that it wasn't painful at all! Did u know that painless birth is an extraterrestrial power only aliens possess so they can multiply abundantly and take over earth?

I know what's coming next. In 2 weeks she'll be walking down the Victoria Secrets Runway in lacy lingerie looking all fabulous, like it all never happened. Damn u aliens!

Ahya, You dunno la

Remember the year when brit rock ruled? Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Suede all came out at almost the same time. The younger me was happily bopping to 98.7 fm and i 'wooed' when "What's the story morning glory" came on the radio. My brother who is 7 yrs older asked me wht the deal was with the whiney buggers. I was like, ' ahya, you dunno la!".

Then i turned 18, my mother asked me why i had 10 different coloured hairclips pinned to my short crop hair. My answer was straight and simple, "ahya, you dunno la".

"Ahya, you dunno la" was my favourite angsty youth catch phrase. My badge of honour for being young and appreciative of wht's in and hawt (see, paris taught me new spelling).

However, i always knew that one day age will catch up . At some point in the near future i will fail to reinvent myself and resent the way things have become. I will hold on to my youth the same way my mother only listens to Teresa Teng songs.

I didn't know the day would come so soon. So pls pardon me if you're a teenager reading this and u think "ahya, you dunno la" cos nobody "ahya, you dunno la" me you understand?

You know whts worse than chinese new year carols?

It goes something like this:
过新年，umps umps umps 过新年, umps umps 咚咚唱, diu diu diu diu. (a rendition of techno infused chinese new yr carol i heard earlier at the shopping mall).

What the #*%&...

Happy monday!

I love mondays cos tts when my part time ayi comes in. Haha!

Here's one of T enjoying/devouring his new telephone. He goes 'kekeke' when he hears the engaged 'dududu' tone.

Bye Conan

I know this is old news, but can i just lament again that NBC has cut The Tonight's Show with Conan O'Brien, and reinstated Jay Leno. Oh what fuckery is this!! There goes our favourite pastime. Read his statement here.

Let's Seafood!

Finally a post not related to babies, much to the relief of non-mother readers whom i'm sure are dwindling by now. If u're not a mom n u're still reading, thks for hanging around.

Anyway Let's Seafood is a new restaurant at sanlitun, opened by the owners of Let's Burger. Surprise surprise, their menu has a pretty wide selection of seafood including seawater fish, which are hard to find in Beijing.

To get an idea of how good they are, i had to try the boringest thing on the menu, fish n chips. I much prefer crumbs to batter anyday so this was a fail for me. I'm also actually not a fan of fish and chips so i don't know why i ordered it, must be the residual pregnancy cravings.

Mountain man ordered fried mullet (whole fish) which was actually pretty yummy! And I also did like the free selection of pestos on the side.

I won't rule out this resto yet. I'll be back for more soon!

Note to self: Don't order the fish and chips ever again.

Routine training: day 4

Last night the repeated wakings didnt happen. Suspect that his blocked nose was the culprit the day before.
In fact he was so angelic, we put him in his cot at bedtime, he aaah aaah cooo cooo and slept on his own.

today's nap 1 didnt go as well because i was complacent. I didnt care about his rousings as much and he woke up after 40min. Spent the next hr trying to put him back to sleep.

Lesson learnt: never let ur guard down during routine training! The sleeping cadet is not ready to sleep through war yet!

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Routine training: nap 1 day 3

The going down for nap involved abit of crying, but the last 90minutes were relatively peaceful. Had to pat a couple of times at the 40th minute so he could go into the next sleep cycle, but no need to pick up. I am cutting short his naps to 1,5 hrs, if not night time cannot sleep!

Routine training: fix one problem, create another

So the daytime naps yesterday were a success. He took 3 naps- 2.5 hr, 1.5 hr and 30min, as planned. But the night sleep was affected! He kept waking which hardly happened before this. I hope its not becoz i carried out the self-sleeping method wrongly.

I need to sleep now, its nap 1 day 3.

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Routine Training day 2 part 2

Nap 1 is 2 hr 15 min and counting! My baby is super. Thank you lord for answering my prayers! Let's hope this keeps up!

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Routine Training: day 2

Nap 1 is in progress, so far ok. He hasnt woken up in 50minutes cos i have been patting him the moment i see him stir. I hope he is well into the next sleep cycle already. My aim is for him to sleep through war and storm like the kid in the picture. I took it on the way to the wet market 2 weeks ago. This chinese boy was sound asleep on his pseudo pram ( he was fastened to a shopping trolley by a leopard print scarf) whilst his mother navigates through the crowded open air market. Power!

Sitting up

On a lighter note, T has lost interest in flipping. He doesn't like being put on his back anymore. The big boy now wants to sit! In this tripod position, his chest is supported by a huge ball so he doesn't topple forward.

Routine Training in Progress: Day One

Since the day T was born, I've kinda sat back and let the nannies dictate/control T's life. Actually i THOUGHT they did a pretty good job at caring for him, if one day i had to do it myself i never doubted that i couldn't. I've never questioned the way things were done, and I never insisted on anything I initially wanted (like the pacifier or the swaddling). I always felt that T was an "easy" child.


4.5 months passed really quickly, throughout this period I knew that T was never able to take naps longer than 1 hr. But I've always thought that it's because he's a natural catnapper (ie takes short naps). And I must admit that because i didn't put him to sleep often enough during the day, i didn't think it was a big deal.



It's only after the nanny left that reality really hit me. T doesn't sleep not because he wants to stay awake, but because he can't stay asleep. For the past 8 days, he always took multiple short naps and he was always kind of tired and sleepy during playtime. The flu of course made his moods even worse.





So today, i began day one of Routine Training, all in the hope of creating some predictability and improve upon T's sleep. I've been warned that all my efforts will go to waste once i go back to Singapore and screw up his schedule again. But i'm hoping that after this round of Routine training, round 2 will be a "breeze".



I am using the Baby Whisperer's recommended schedule, and a light version of Pick Up/ Put Down (Pick up when he cries, Put him down when he stops crying. But i cheat by carrying him for abit longer cos it really pains me to see him cry).

Here's his schedule for the day:



7am- Rise and Feed.
It went pretty well. T was happy that i didn't "ignore" him till 8 like i normally do. He didn't eat much cos he had just ate at 5.


730am- Play.
This went well. His spirits were high and he went boink boink on his jumperoo.


9am- Nap 1.
This is where the challenge began. He fell asleep quite quickly at 9am, but woke up soon after at 930am. He spent the next half and hour crying while going back to sleep, it was horrible!! But he managed to go back to sleep and slept till 1030am. First big hurdle over, PHEW!


1030am- Play.

Just before his feed at 11.


11am- Feed.


1130am- Play.
I brought him out for a cuppa coffee at starbucks. He likes going out. And surprisingly, he didn't fall asleep on the pram like he normally would!!


1250pm- Nap 2.

I am supposed to set the stage for 20 minutes before his 1pm nap time but he fell asleep even before 1pm. He slept well for half an hour, woke up crying and i spent the next 45 minutes pacifying him and putting him back to sleep. He finally woke up at 245pm. Not bad.


3pm- Feed.


330pm- Play.
At this point i wanted to die already so i handed him over to the part time ayi while i snoozed for a bit. And i instructed her not to let him sleep till 5pm.


5pm- Sleep (this is a catnap).

He woke up 40 minutes later, on the dot. I was so glad tht i didn't have to put him back to sleep.


540pm- Play.

Keeping him happy during this time was a bit more challenging. He was crying and refused to be put down. I pretty much carried him round the house. I was sooo happy when mountain man came home because the part time ayi had gone off. I just feel alot calmer (less crazy) when mountain man is around.


630pm- Bath.

It's T's favourite activity so it kept him happy for a while.


645pm- Feed.

it's 15 minutes ahead of schedule but he looked really hungry.


715pm- Prepare for bedtime.

I told him a story, he fussed abit and finally went to bed at 730pm.





I hope i can go through with this again tomorrow. And i REALLY hope this routine thing will give him better napping habits. Mothers if u've been through Routine Training, give me some tips/encouragement pls...

Here's a picture of T for corsage: he has the same links as bubbles and he loves chomping on them!