The Household COO

I am happy and grateful:

• for another lunch date with the hubby - I love it when he can get some time away from work to meet with me and Gavin for lunch.
• that the stall selling those Lego tables we’ve been looking for Gavin is around - we thought they had closed down.
• that the traffic was really great in the evening since the hubby and I were heading to The Gardens at Midvalley where traffic is notoriously bad.
• that it was so easy to get parking - another thing that Midvalley is infamous for being very bad for.
• that I now know another way to get home from Midvalley in the event that I want to skip the traffic jam near Bangsar Village.

I am happy and grateful:

• that my SIL is back in town and had a safe trip back from the land down under.
• for a fun shopping trip with my SIL and Gavin - it is always nice to have someone so eager to carry Gavin so I can take a break for a change.
• for my SIL who is making Gavin’s birthday cake - we just started with the bumblebees and it is looking good.  She taught me how to make them, too!
• for all the presents my SIL brought back from Gav, hubby and me.
• that we were able to get Gavin’s rocking horse from ELC.  It’s his birthday present from his grandparents since Gavin loves rocking so much.

I am happy and grateful:

• that Gavin sat really well in the car seat today.  After the last couple of days, I wasn’t sure how he would take to the seat today.
• that Gavin sat patiently in the shopping trolley while I went shopping for his groceries.  Since he’s been eating rice cereal lately I figured it was time to start cooking proper food for him again.
• that Gavin ate the beef porridge I made for him today.  He took quite a number of decent-sized mouthfuls before deciding he had had enough.
• that Gavin ate the fish that Ah Mah cooked today - I’ll bet that made Ah Mah feel really good, too.
• that Gavin sat in his highchair without fussing at dinner time.  That was a nice surprise after the last two days of rebellion.

Evidence Post 11

When I first came, an event happened to me and some friends of mine.  At the time, I couldn’t understand why it had happened but I remained positive and told a lot of people that one day, I would learn why it happened to me.  Back then, I believed that everything happened for a reason, even if we couldn’t fathom what the reasons were at the time.  Well, I finally understand why it happened.

What happened on that fateful night?

A friend of mine was leaving for Australia so a few of us got together for one last supper at Dharoo’s in Damansara Utama.  If you know anything about Dharoo’s, you’ll know that it’s pretty busy all the way past midnight into the wee hours of the morning.  That night was no different from any other night.  As the four of us sat chatting, the topic of conversation fell to stories about how dangerous the world was becoming.  Each one of us was relating about how some relative or person we knew had been robbed, been a victim of snatch thieves, etc. 

As the night went on, the guys decided they wanted to play a couple of games at the cybercafe before heading home.  Being the only girl in the group, one of my friends asked if I wanted to go home first.  Since the cybercafe was just a few shops down from Dharoo’s, I didn’t want to interrupt the party, so I agreed to follow them.  The first cybercafe which was located on street level was full so we headed a few more shops down to a second cybercafe which was located up one flight of steps. 

When we were inside, J bumped into a few more friends and we stopped at the door to chat.  Suddenly J came crashing into me and I remembered thinking that another friend of his must have come through the door and given him a “friendly” shove.  I also thought he was rather rough until I realised that it was no friend of J’s but a short, squat man with a baton in his hand. 

It’s a police raid!  I thought next.

When I looked more closely, I realised two things.  The man was no policeman and the baton was actually a parang (a machete).  This was not a raid.  It was a hold up!

Being around Chinese New Year, a lot of us were carrying extra money from Ang Pows we had received.  They took all our money and tried to lock us in the bathroom.  There were five robbers, all armed - I think one guy even had an axe.  They meant us no harm because they said they only wanted our money.  Unfortunately, it was all in Indonesian so I didn’t know what was happening.  This was all translated to me after it happened. 

They were also obviousy inexperienced because they tried to lock us in the bathroom but because there were so many of us, they couldn’t close door.  They had also told half the guys to strip down to their underwear (probably because they didn’t want them to give chase after they left), but they made them get into the toilet first so all the people closest to the toilet door were fully dressed.

Now here’s the irony…  The cybercafe was just a few shops down from Dharoo’s which was packed full of people.  It was also just down the road from a police station! 

I remember someone making a comment how it was funny that we were just talking about snatch thieves and robberies and suddenly it happened to us.  It seemed so uncanny at the time but it really wasn’t because we had attracted the incident to ourselves.

I am happy and grateful:

• that Gavin allowed me to get through most of my Yoga session today while he entertained himself in his cot.
• for the call I received from the camera shop with the good news that my camera can be fixed.
• that Gavin sat in his highchair and the bouncer - although I had to entice him using the TV for a distraction.
• that Gavin ate a decent amount for breakfast and lunch, despite his teething symptoms that have been clearly upsetting him over the past couple of days.
• that hubby is still offering to get me a new camera even though my old camera can be fixed - how sweet of him…