Alex & Jesper's space

 

Folks,

 

It's been some time since I last wrote... Just a quick summary of events during the hiatus:

 

- we were vacationing in Malaysia and Indonesia

- we threw a birthday party for Lucas who turned one (yay!)

- we were visiting Jesper Johansen & family in Stockholm

- we caught the flu bug right after

- Lucas developed ear infection from that bought of flu

 

So we have been busy.. and sick. Let me first write a little bit about our vacation that started on 14.12.2008, which was actually my beloved husband's birthday, so we all had a family reunion dinner cum birthday dinner.. My lil' bro coincided his travel back from the US with ours, so it was really great to be together again after so long.. a day after we left for a diving vacation in Bunaken Island, Indonesia. Lucas was surprisingly versatile to his environment, yeah, he was travelling with us to Indonesia along with his "nannies", my sister and her then-boyfriend-now-fiance Arvin. (he proposed to her there!!) If you have me on facebook, you will see some pictures of that vacation! I don't know what it is with the food, but Lucas was devouring everything and he had no problems whatsoever! And there we were worrying about stomach problems etc! Must be because he's 50% Malaysian - we have very strong stomach..  Yeah ok so we did whatever we wanted to do, diving, play golf, meet up with friends, play mahjong, shopping, massage, and most importantly eating!! We both have a list of must-eat items and for Jesper that basically means nasi lemak, tandoori and roti canai... I cannot count how many days we had those for breakfast everyday! Scrumptious!

 

The Jesper sadly had to return to cold cold Riga on 03.01.09 while I got to stay a little while more with Lucas.. 10 days sure pass by quickly.. on the 10th day I thought to myself "Ah I still have plenty of time..", and by the 5th day I was panicking because it seemed like yesterday was the 10th day! So needless to say I was rushing like a mad dog trying to get everything I wanted... my baggage allowance was 20KG + 10KG for Lucas, so thankfully when I checked in 36KG of luggage the girls at the check-in counter let me through with no extra charge! Kisses to you ladies! Perhaps they saw I was travelling alone with a super cute baby... whatever it was I was very glad for it. Well we flew on KLM which was not as bad as I had thought, this time they let me use the cradle.. when we flew to Malaysia, they would not allow us to use the cradle unless we agree to put it on the floor.. funny.. I couldn't complain because that was so useful.. Lucas slept so well in the cradle.. so what if his feet were sticking out of it anyways??

 

OK then we threw a birtday party for Lucas that very weekend we got back.. we invited our friends and their kids so it was really a great birthday bash! Our apartment was swimming with toys when everybody left! Lucky boy got so many play things.. The day after we left for Stockholm because our dear dear friend Jesper & Cata just had a baby boy - Benjamin! So great to see them again! Erm I think we caught the flu bug there because Max was sick the day we arrived...

 

So yeah we then got back to Riga and Lucas and I first got ill... it's so sad to see our kids get sick.. they lose their appetite and energy and they become so clingy.. Oh my poor baby didn't wanna eat, didn't wanna play... sigh... Well thankfully it was the weekend as we got worse because Jesper was able to care for us, but then he was down too.... this flu bug is virulent and my Latvian friend said that there is a flu epidemic here in Latvia! Since we got sick, a few of our friends have been and are sick too!

 

Oh darn it.. Lucas is awake now.. he's walking a lot now so have to always watch him... signing out now but will find time to write more later!

 

Ciao!

 

 

 

 

Quick announcement ... we shall be back in Malaysia this Sunday!! WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOo!

 

Friends in Malaysia, see you all very soon!!

 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

 

XOXO!

 

It's been just slightly over 2 degrees outside for the past few days, at night the temperature drops below 0, autumn is giving way to winter all too soon... What I love about autumn is the myriad of colours - so very captivating.. I tried to capture it with our new toy - a rather expensive investment Nikon DSLR - but unfortunately I was a little too late, most leaves have fallen off by the time I remembered to take the camera with me... Maybe next time.. siggh..

 

Anyway if you are wondering why I dubbed winter the spitting season.. it's because it's THE season people here.. well, spit. A lot. On the road, off the road, on the pavement, off the pavement, from the car out the window, etc yuck. I was just walking in the park near where we live while Lucas was sleeping and a man who was walking towards me coughed out so loud "KHHUUUAARGGHHAAII!!" I thought he'd coughed up his lungs.. THEN (the nerve of him!) "PPPTTTUUUUUII!" - right there, smack in the middle of the pavement where I was going to walk.. EEEEWW Mister!!! AARGH! I can't stand all the spit on the road!! Drives me nuts!! I think my slight tendency towards obssessive-compulsive behaviour really made it a lot worse for me - like I look down where I walk ALL THE TIME so I don't step on the spit! Well you'd do it too if you see blobs of saliva with yellow-greenish phlegm on the path!!

 

Not to say that the spitting doesn't happen anywhere else lah especially in Malaysia (YEah Ed, I'm talking about you!!) but I swear it's just all too common here! I've been here enough winters to see that the disgusting act is relative to the season...

 

Been cooking a lot lately, don't know why I just felt like it.. I told my dad that I think it's probably because i've been thinking about all the glorious food I'd get to eat when we go back to Malaysia next month.. and because I think so much about it I had to eat something Malaysian.. hence my cooking frenzy.. haha.. Check out the new pictures, I made Chicken Rendang, Char Siew (chinese BBQ pork), nasi lemak, chicken rice, shepherd's pie, lasagna - all in the span of 3 weeks!

 

Oh yeah also in the new pics you will see us in a blonde wig.. we were over for a BBQ dinner over at our friends' house, Lars and Inese.. and Inese had this blonde wig (I really don't know why she had one in the first place, maybe it is a prop for some kinky stuff behind the bedroom door  hee hee) ar.. where was I.. anyways we decided it could be fun to see how we look like having it on, so do enjoy the pics ok.. haha

 

Lucas is teething, his top two teeth has just broken through and just yesterday he bit his own finger and cried out in pain! haha.. Well it will be exciting for him because that means he can eat more stuff now that he's got teeth to bite!

 

All rightey ..that's it from moi...

 

take care!

 

Peculiar..

 

I'm not sure if this is a norm anywhere else, but if you want to thank a fellow driver for letting you pass, etc.. two blinks of emergency lights say it all! Have any of you encountered this??

 

.....

 

Yesterday was my birthday and Jesper had arranged for some of our friends to come over for a delightful Indian dinner... How very sweet of my hubby.  Don't worry lah - I didn't have to slave away in the kitchen preparing the food.. haven't you heard of take-away food??

 

So I got what I wished for, a complete set of golf equipment!  Speaking of golf, I have to mention that I've been attending a "Mummy's Golf" session every Tuesdays at a local golf course called Viesturi together with Agnese (our friend Mikael's partner).. This arrangement is absolutely brilliant because I can bring Lucas along as they have nannies to carefor the kids while the mummies play (more like learn to play) golf.. I was told that this small group got together because there are a couple of mothers with small kids with husbands who want their wives to learn to play golf - I guess it's not just us who want to make golf a family activity, huh? As I have already gotten my green card (for non-golfers, READ: license to play on a golf course), I joined for the sake of being social and so that Lucas could be around other kids as well, and yeah not to mention, I got to practise golf too..

 

As autumn's cool weather is creeping in, today was unfortunately our last session for the season, and to end it we had a little tournament.. Well it was not a big tournament, 6 of us in a small match.. hehe and yours truly won and she has a trophy to prove it!! WOO HOO!

 

Lucas has been really cute lately, making adorable baby talk..  here take a look yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jb9lEDlVnI Do feel free to explore the rest of the videos! :) He's very busy crawling and loves to pull himself up.. I hope his balance will get better soon otherwise he'll have perpetual bumps and bruises on his head!

 

All right that's about it from me, just wanted to touch base.. :) over and out!