Gone in 90 minutes

Poor Uncle Cyril! Swana's father-in-law has had a most unlucky day today.

We were hanging out at Membina after work when a call came in from him saying he had forgotten his house keys. Locked out, he decided to come over to see his new grand-daughter.

But by some weird stroke of bad luck, the company truck he drove got stolen from the multi-storey carpark! All in a matter of 90 mins, for that's how long his visit lasted.

He and Kevin are down at Cantonment Police Complex now filing a report but talk about 'suay'! He wasn't supposed to come to Tiong Bahru in the first place, but when he did, he lost his car!

Nick thinks that it happened for a reason i.e. that he's being saved from a bigger catastrophe and his attentions being diverted elsewhere, I just think he had a really bad day. I feel sorry for the guy, he's such a sweet, unassuming and simple man.

Coincidentally when we were at Membina earlier this evening, Nick had commented that there was a suspicious middle-aged beng staring at our car intently. He had parked at the loading/unloading bay and this guy appeared to be sussing out the car from an opposite bench, which prompted Nick to keep peering out of the window to check on Pierre.

Little did we know then that someone else's car would be stolen! Wonder if the incidents are related?

Presenting GDG

Here are some pictures of my beautiful new niece Giselle, or Gigi for short.

Me, Ma and Nutty descended on KK Hospital yesterday afternoon to meet our niece / grandaughter / cousin, who was about 5 hrs old when we arrived.

She has a full head of hair, though the gunk was still in it and she's already sounding like a whiner, she protested at being handled too much but she makes the cutest sound, like a meek, squeaky mouse.

Well, she is a Rat baby and I've nicknamed her 'Tikus', along with Divvy...she will have more nicknames in the days to come! Divya actually means divine in Sanskrit, both Gigi and Nutty have such celestial-sounding middle names, one's a star, one's divine!

Poor little thing was squashed in the womb and lay too much on one side. Her right ear is thinner than her left, quite flat and delicate actually but hopefully they will even out as she grows.

Nutty has a new bestie, Gigi will be her BBFF i.e. baby best friend forever!

She's here! She's here!

Yay, I have a niece, I have a niece! Gigi made her appearance finally!

Swana just video-called me like 5 mins ago and I got to see the latest addition to our family! Gigi's a pie, a regular butterball, all chubby and wrinkled and pink. She's got thick hair and big eyes and looks very Chindian. I think she kind of resembles Kevin's mum actually!

I'm so excited! I have to get ready soon and head to the hospital. Took leave today and tomorrow in anticipation of this! Woo-hoo, I'm an aunt and Nutty has a cousin sister!

Congrats Swana and Kevin on the arrival of Giselle Divya Gomez, weighing in at 2.825 kg at 10.20 am today.

Hurry up Gigi!

Geez, Gigi is taking forever to arrive but I think my sister is in the throes of labour as I type. I last spoke to Kevin at about 8.30 am when she was 8 cm dilated and he said she was due to start pushing in a couple of hours...which would be around now. It's about time!

I've been pacing up and down at home like the anxious parent waiting for news. Friends and family have been sms-ing me to check on progress but the parents-to-be haven't been very forthcoming with updates.

It turns out anyway that though Swana's waterbag was leaking yesterday, it did not spark labour and throughout the rest of the day, she didn't really have any contractions. The pill they popped into her cervix to speed its dilation did not work and at 10 pm last night they gave her the necessary hormonal drugs to induce labour. By 1 am she couldn't take the cramps and had the epidural so it's been about 9 hours since.

When I was on the phone with Kevin I could hear her groaning and mumbling in the background...accusing me of lying that labour was a breeze. I don't quite recall ever saying that, but I did tell her the recovery was worse. She sounded like her usual grumpy self when she's in pain, good luck to Kevin! Methinks she's the kind who would scream and yell at the hubby and blame him for her predicament during the pushing.

Stay tuned for updates!

Come out, come out wherever you are!

Gigi is on her way but it sounds like it's going to be a sloooooow process.

Got a call at 8 am from Swana while I was still in bed, and she said she was bored. And I was like, 'Aren't you getting ready for work?'. When the reply was negative, I got all excited for I knew that bored meant she was stuck on a hospital bed!

Apparently, her waterbag started leaking at 2 am but she thought she had an uncontrollable bladder and only at 4 am did she and Kevin check in to the hospital. It's been 9 hours since and there hasn't been much action.

Her contractions are 15 mins apart but she's not dilated at all! They've popped a pill to get the cervix to dilate but if things don't progress fast enough, they might have to do a caesarean instead, hope it doesn't come down to that.

For now, she's resting while she can. I'm trying not to call so often for updates, but I can't wait to meet Giselle Divya Gomez! If she's born today, her birthday will be exactly one month after mine and be shared with Charlie Sheen and Gareth Southgate - whom Swana has had a crush on.

If she's born tomorrow, she will be exactly 7 months younger than Nutty and share a birthday with Beyonce. Tomorrow is also the 248th day of this leap year, AND Swana's birthday is 24 Aug (24/8)...must plan my 4-D numbers already!

Give peas a chance!

Nutty gave peas a chance last Sunday. Geddit? Give Peace a Chance? Corny, I know.

The peas tasted kind of yummy to me, and she screwed up her face when she first tried them but after a couple of spoons, she seemed to be enjoying them. So much so that she insisted on feeding herself.

We played tug-of-war with the spoon throughout the entire feed, everytime I wrestled the spoon from her, she would scream blue murder! And everytime she waved it around, I was worried that she would splatter my white walls! (Yes, I was more concerned about the addition of green abstract art to the walls than encouraging her independence!)

She is growing more independent by the day and displaying a lot of determination in getting what she wants, wonder if it has anything to do with being Aquarian?

Channeling my inner Sus-ilo

Played badminton on Saturday morning after a very long time...can't even remember how many years it has been, but Nick thinks it's at least 4! We have 4 indoor courts at the top of our multistorey carpark and we finally got round to booking them after Kevin and Kavi decided they wanted to play.

Last Thursday, I met with some of the SES alumni for dinner at Olive Tree but before that I was busy buying rackets at Bugis Junction. The World of Sports outlet only had HEAD rackets, I would have preferred Yonex but was desperate so spent $122 on 2 rackets.

I had booked 2 courts from 10am-12pm and was half expecting everyone to be late but they were all there before me. In fact Kavi called at 9.40am to say she had arrived and I was still in bed! Scrambled to get ready and met them at the carpark. Playing on Saturday was me, Nick, Kavi, Siva, Ajen and Kevin, while Swana hung out with Nat at home.

Having not played in a while, I did not want to overdo it so I didn't run around so much. But I channeled my inner Ronald Susilo and won both my singles and mixed doubles 'matches'! Ok, so it was only one set each, but still I won!

We are playing again this Saturday and I am hoping to make it a weekly affair. If any of you want to play, call me!