Fishing in Perth, WA

My husband and I shares the same interest in almost everything and one of those which people often finds it a bizarre is my hobby in fishing. Ironically, I really do enjoy this sport. Most would find it a bore but it isn't to die hard fans of fishing.


Unfortunately, fishing in Malaysia is not as enjoyable as that that we had in Perth. Whenever, we travel to Perth, we would make it a point to go fishing and we will always return to our favourite spot to fish. Awesome fishing spots in Perth and South of Perth are found in Fremantle, Rottnest Island, Busselton Jetty, Margaret River, Augusta and Hamlin Bay, just to name a few. And my husband for one, is an avid lover of this sport. He misses fishing so much and is planning to make our next fishing trip to WA when Jacob is bigger, or at least when he can walk on his own. Which will probably happen only next year.

Fishing in Perth has its perks such as

1. Cool weather (sometimes chilling, especially during Winter when you're 1km into Busselton jetty or just fishing by the rocks on Fremantle)
2. Interesting catch: You don't know what you might get when fishing from the sea. We have caught a variety of edible fishes like flat head, skippy, grouper, bream, leather back jacket (as locals call them), and a whole lot of other funny looking fishes.
3. Sans mosquito
4. Friendly people who are not just men but women as well
5. Meet people of different nationals apart from the Aussies. On our trips, we have met Singaporeans, Thai, Chinese fr mainland China and Viets. All fishing for dinner.
6. Because we are on holiday, we can fish all day long.
7. Easy access to baits (frozen prawns and squids, mulies, small fishes) and a whole lot of other fishing stuff

Fishing for me is fun but as for hubby, he has to do everything for me like untangle my lines whenever it gets stuck remove any puffer fishes (or any fishes for that matter) I caught. As for some of you who don't know, puffer fish is like a weed in your garden, it is a type of fish you hate catching cause it is tough to get them off your hooks.

Just when he is about to enjoy his fishing, I get my weight stuck in between the rocks so he has to put his rod down to come to my aid which I think sometimes irate him. And since my fingers are sensitive to frozen prawns, he has un-shell the prawns for me and hook them for me. Obviously I was taking in all the fun while he has to do all the shit job (mind my language). I think any man would have hated to take me fishing as I can be quite a hand full and I spoil all the fun for them. Well, credits go to hubby cos every time I cast, I get fishes: medium size fishes.

On one of our trips to Fremantle, I observed a petit China man fishing. He was the only one who caught fishes while others had none. Everyone had heavy duty rods but he only carried a light, thin rod. We have been fishing since 6.30am but caught nothing. Noticing that he had not used any weights but only prawns as bait on a gang of hooks, I decided to follow his method. Guess what? I caught some really nice fishes and the last fish I caught was a medium size bream which probably weight about 1kg. Best part was I did not have to worry about getting my weight stuck and got to enjoy fishing. Good catch and hubby was proud of me. Hubby was after bigger fishes so he did not get any but he almost caught a shark though.

Sweet fishing memories.

Vaccination against Pneumococcal Disease

Next week, I'll be bringing my son for his 2nd vaccination against pneumococcal disease. He has just completed the 2 doses of Rotavirus vaccination and one dose of the Pneumococcal vaccination 2 months back. Both vaccine was administered via injection on both cheek of his buttock, one jab on each side. Poor him. We paid RM455 in total for one dose of each vaccine. Expensive hor? But it saves life.

I heard from a friend who just got back from the UK that this jab is a compulsory vaccine in the UK. You may ask why it is so important? I too asked the same question, not so much to get an answer behind the "why" but more so to justify our need to fork out a lot for each jab. Mind you, there are numerous doses for this vaccine but worry not, these vaccination is spread across a span of 2 years. Your child will receive 1 - 4 doses depending on his or her age, beginning 4 months old. Your doctor will advise you accordingly. Each vaccine cost approx RM280 so I'll let you do the math. But read on...

Pneumococcal Disease (PnD):
PnD is not a new thing, in fact it has been in existence for quite a while except that not much awareness was brought about this form of disease. The vaccination can prevent infant against fatal infection caused by pneumococcal bacteria. This bacteria can cause serious infections such as pneumonia, middle ear infection, infection of the blood (bacteraemia) and meningitis. You can read more about PnD at http://www.nfid.org/factsheets/pneumofacts.shtml

In my recent reading, I found this article on Bernama website http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=327516 and thought you should know:

Pneumococcal disease (PnD) is estimated to kill one million children below
the age of five annually throughout the world.PnD is a highly contagious
disease that easily spreads among children in droplets released into the air
through sneezing or coughing.Infants from birth to 24 months faced the highest
risk to catch this deadly disease due to their low levels of circulating
pneumococcal antibodies, said Dr Zulkifli Ismail at a health science writers
workshop here Thursday.

Jacob had fever the first time he got the PnD jab but it subsided after two days. If your child has got fever after the jab, try to bring his/her fever down with the following:

1. Sponging him/her with a small wet towel or
2. Feed him/her 2.5ml of panadol syrup every 6 hourly or
3. Insert suppository paracetamol. To be inserted via anus (the dose is 15mg per kg and each supp is 125mg and can be given one every 6 hourly)

*But do not give 2 & 3 together.

This was prescribed by my son's paeds and my girlfriend who is a doctor. Please seek your doctor's advice before administering or feeding your child anything.

He Scare Us Out of Our Wits

Time really flies when you're pre-occupied with so many things to do and caring for a child is a lot of work. Jacob is now 6 months old, third week. For the past two weeks, Jacob has learnt to move around a lot and I cannot place him on the bed unattended any longer.

Last Saturday, he gave us a scare of our lives when he pushed himself out of the bed with the upper-half of his body dangling from one corner of the bed. Prior to that, I had suggested to my husband to let Jacob sleep on the inner side of the bed, next to the bed head. Reason being is that a few nights earlier, he has been occupying so much of my space that I found it hard to sleep. Thinking that if I put him by the side of the bed head, he would move towards the corner and not in my direction. We agreed that it would also be safer for him since he's moving so much.

At 4am that morning, I was startled by hubby's wake-up call. I woke up to see hubby's hands sprawled over my body and Jacob was motionless. Hubby was reaching out to grab Jacob before he falls. Surprisingly, Jacob did not cry but merely gave out a small cooing sound and my husband who slept furthest from him could hear his cry. I slept like a dead lock oblivious his cry. The first thing that came to mind was "Is Jacob dead?" I was terrified. Then, I saw him move his hands and I heaved a sigh of relief, a great sigh indeed.

After that little stunt Jacob pulled there, we spoke about what had just happened and I remember telling hubby that "Angels were watching over him and was holding him while we were asleep". He agreed too.

Some advice for 6 months old baby extracted from http://www.babycentre.com.uk/ :

"As your baby starts becoming more active, he'll appreciate wearing comfy clothes. Opt for soft fabrics that won't chafe him as he's moving around. Loose, stretchy and breathable clothing is also a good idea as it provides your energetic little one plenty of wiggle room. Avoid clothes with rough or scratchy seams; long ties, buttons or bows (which could be a choking hazard); and anything else that gets in the way of your baby's sleeping, crawling, playing or other regular activities."

MJ & Farrah Fawcett

I was just reading about Michael Jackson's and Farrah Fawcett's demise on CNN and couldn't help but feel sad over their early departure. As I ponder hard on the circumstances and events leading to their demise, I began to wonder where will they go from here. Are they in heaven or in hell? This we will never know. But again, to relish on the thought that they will be in the latter is even more sad and I really hope they have ascended to be with the Lord, where there is peace, love and joy.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be suddenly dead and not knowing where you'll end up? I know that in Christianity, if you believe and accept Jesus Christ into your life and walk in his ways, you are assured that your name is in the Book of Life. In other words, when you die, you'll meet your Maker in heaven. I trust and believe that God is always with me wherever I am because I have the faith but still, death does have a way of giving you the creeps.

Everytime I hear about a friend's or relative's untimely demise, I feel nostalgic as if a dark cloud has overwhelmed me. I feel sad that they have to leave so suddenly when they have so much ahead of them. One incident that is clearly etched in my memory was the death of a high school classmate who was also my friend for a very brief moment. It happended one afternoon while I was in college preparing to sit for a semester exam when I got the news of her passing from one of my girlfriends. I had goose bumps when the news first hit me and felt very sad for her father. Karen Louis and her family was involved in a road accident which also killed her mother and young sister. She was only 20 and her sister 12. I got news that she had wanted so badly to enrol into a private college to study medicine but was denied of that opportunity for some reasons. I remember her as a bright and hard-working student in school and would have made a fine doctor if she was alive today. 8 years have passed and I've known many friends and relatives who had their lives taken from them at such a young age.

Friends aside, I have a little brother who was only with us for a very brief moment. He was 7 months old when he died and I was 10. Due to one doctor's negligence, one live was taken away from us and I believe that his death has a great impact in my life: particularly in my views towards life & death. Reminiscing that fateful afternoon on Saturday, November 29,1991, brings back sad memories. I was young but not ignorant. I understand grief and sorrow. They are not our friends. I cannot begin to imagine the grief my parents felt at the time of his passing.

Life is short and I always remind myself this: Live everyday like it is your last and treasure those close to your heart for it is their life that you want to leave a legacy with. I am not Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett but I am somebody to my loved ones.

Obsession of Baby Bottles & Night Feeds

Recently I've just added another baby bottle to my son's collection of MAM baby bottles which is BPA free and anti-colic. He now has 9 bottles in total. Thanks to my obsession for feeding bottles. Well, it's not entirely an obsession but more to meet the need for it especialy when we are always on the go and having only 3 bottles won't suffice. With more feeding bottles, it saves me the trouble of having to wash them right after use during night feeds.

Night feeds is really tiring, more so when you retire to bed at 2am and have to drag yourself out of bed at 3am for his next feed. I particularly detest this routine as I find it extremely difficult to prop myself up after a long day. He rarely cries for his feed which is very good and this has been his habit since birth. So on most ocassions, my boy will flap his two arms on our bed in an attempt to wake me up for his feed. He will continue to flap them until I wake up, usually about 15 to 30 mins (although I can't be certain). And if that fails, he'll give out a short cry so I'll immediately spring out of bed and set myself into motion. Mothers out there will understand what I'm trying relay here. It's no joke having to wake up every 2-3 hours in the wee hours of the morning to make milk. Waking up is one thing, washing bottles is another. I'm a hygience freak when it comes to bottle cleaning so every time I make it a habit to wash feeding bottles with a mild detergent and thereafter, sterillize it in the Phillips Avent express sterillizer. Thank God for technology. Can you imagine the traditional sterillizing method of having to boil feeding bottles? And to do it at wee hours of the morning?

Oh well, back to my baby bottles. Now, that I have 9 feeding bottles, I can travel with ease and not worry about having inadequate bottles for a one-day feed. Sometimes, we can be out of the house from 10am to midnight so with the excess bottles, my boy will have enough to drink. Back in April when we travelled to Hong Kong for a short trip, I recalled only having 5 feeding bottles and it wasn't enough to last us for a day's trip. Experience does help us to be better parent and better equipt.

Speaking of feeding bottles, my hubby was the one who introduced the MAM range of bottles. He was very concern about harmful chemical emission of plastics into baby's milk so he switched all our Avent & Baby's First bottles to MAM. MAM bottles are made from 100% polypropylene so it is BPA free and the bottles comes in 3 standard colours of Blue, Green and Pink. One of the main feature of MAM bottles is that you can dismantle the bottle parts, from the lid to the base, to clean with great ease. Unlike other brand of bottles, you need a long brush to clean the insides and sometimes the brush cannot reach certain areas so it is unhygienic and I don't want to bore you with my hygience regime.

Being a perfectionist doesn't help when I'm a parent. It only makes it tougher. With hubby's help with child caring, I'm more relaxed and sane. Hubby always tries his best to make things easy for me and I thank God for him. The little things he does helps a great deal. Sometimes, when I see so many feeding bottles lying around, unwashed, hubby will pick them up and clean them for me. I can honestly say that these little things makes me happy especially when I'm so drained after a full days work of caring for my son.

Something to Ponder

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens;but often we look so long at the closed door that we donot see the one which has been opened for us."

-Helen Keller (1880-1968)

My Shopping Therapy

Last evening I was out shopping with mom, dad and Joyce at One-U. My plan was to get Jacob some nice baby GAP t-shirts and just that, nothing else. First, we headed to Oriental Cravings to get myself lunch cos everyone has eaten except me. I drop hubby off in Subang and was supposed to meet my parents at 2pm but only arrived at 3.40pm. Knowing me so well, they couldn't wait they ate without me. Anyway, back to lunch. I had a bowl of claypot loh shee fun and a bowl of tong sui while mom looks after Jacob.

After lunch, we were supposed to go straight to Baby GAP on the 2nd Floor and get his stuff but as usual, I detoured. I found myself in ZARA instead, supposedly looking for clothes meant Jacob. Again, I was side tracked. I found myself looking for summer dresses and only after while I remembered my initial intention of going into ZARA.

I scanned through the ZARA kids clothes and decided that the quality of their clothes is bad; the collar of the t-shirt is small and the material too thin. Price range between RM29 to RM59, affordable. Didn't find anything suitable so we left. And guess where I was headed to? Not Baby GAP. I ended up in Dorothy Perkins next, followed by TOP Shop and PROMOD, looking for a nice casual dress. I finaly found not only one but two casual dresses from PROMOD and my intention was to only get one piece. Being the indecisive ol me, I asked mom and sis for their opinion and both suggested on the black dress. They liked the blue dress as well but thought the black was nicer. I was in the store for about 45 minutes trying to decide on the two. Alas, unable to decide, I paid for two. I really suck at deciding in the area of shopping.

Happy and guilty at same time, I gingerly walked towards the escalator leading to 2nd Floor. Before I came out of the store, I told mom that Jacob's stuff will have to wait. My guilt was setting in and I felt so bad for spluring on two dresses instead of one. Anyway, we drop by Baby GAP and looked at some boys' clothes but left empty handed. Again, I was stroke by guilt for not getting Jacob anything.

Jacob is officially 6 months old

Today, Jacob is 6 months old and I'm so proud of it. It is a milestone in my journey as a mommy and every day is a learning process. I must admit that the past 6 months has been trying but most of it fun. We do a lot of things together and everything centres around Jacob. Just this morning at breakfast, hubby was talking about going for a vacation cum fishing in Redang but brushes the thought aside as it is near impossible to bring a baby to the beach at this age. The last we went to Hong Kong to attend a wedding, we had to lugged a huge luggage weighing 27kg and guess what was in the bag?...Bottles of mineral water, an electric kettle and Jacob's bottles of boiled water. Coupled with a baby stroller and a small hand luggage, our hands are full. So, the beach and fishing vacation have to hold for now. See Jacob, what mommy and daddy have to sacrifice?...Oh well, we love you so much so these little fun can wait.

I thank God for the position I'm in today: running a business with my husband and being a stay home mom. I get to spend so much quality time with both my son and husband that most working moms are deprived of. And since I'm on the subject of being stay home mommy, I'd like to point out some of the upsides of it:

1. I don't have to wake wee hours of the morning to get dress for work. I get to wake up at 9 am instead of 6 am.
2. Less complain of having to wake up for feeds. (Jacob still wakes up for his feed every 3 hours and very punctual)
3. I get to catch up on my sleep after each feed.
4. Concentrate on my business.
5. My son gets all the attention he needs.
6. To be able to watch my son grow day to day i.e. the first time he smile, the first time he lifts his head, the first time he chuckles and much much more.
7. The luxury to travel as and when I want without the need to apply for leave.
8. The luxury of going shopping anytime I want although I rarely do this.
9. Save money on nanny.
10. Relieved of the worry of having placed my child under the hands of a baby sitter.
11. Return to my pre-pregnancy weight quicker with the luxury of breastfeeding at my convenience (I've stopped breastfeeding just a couple of days back though) and working round the clock.
12. You'll never get bored cos your child will rpovide you endless entertainment.
13. Blogging (Need I say more?)

Jacob has learnt how to sit on his own and is still in need of some polishing in that area. He can turn on his side but stops just there and gets cranky when he stays too long in the same position. I thrilled for him to get his first tooth. I don't see signs of it yet but hope he will have them by the end of this month.

Hair loss - I'm getting very very worried

I've been experiencing hair loss for the past couple of months and I'm still losing strands (strands is an understatement) of it every day. My bathroom floor, bed and room floor are shrouded with it and no matter how often I clear them, it can never be hair-free. Of late, I'm getting very worried about this massive hair loss. Shared my concerns to a friend who is a mother to a 9.5 months old baby boy. She too, had experienced the same problem and adviced me to go for hair treatment. She even pointed out to the spots on her head where baby has sprouted. Can you imagine my fear?

I've heard from other mothers that hair loss after delivery is a common thing but didn't realize that it can be pretty serious. I have thick fine hair but if this problem cotinues, I'll be in the same shoes as my friend. And even as I type, I'm beginning to feel that I will not be spared from this post delivery 'downfall'.

The old Chinese myths says that post delivery, if your baby does not lose his or her hair, the mother will. I'm not a believer in old tales though but this myth seems to hold true in my case.

5 months 3 weeks - Jacob's First Cereal

Jacob had his first taste of rice yesterday afternoon. I scooped a teaspoon of the Heinz Rice cereal and mixed it with some warm water and stirred it into a watery paste before feeding him. I didn't expect him to like it but to my surprised he finished everything. He didn't quite like the Heinz banana puree cos it's a bit sour and not sweet. I read from somewhere that babies need to wean after they are over 6 months due to tha lack of iron in their body so rice cereals or any other form of baby cereals will supplement them with some iron.

All these while I thought Jacob was pretty slow with turning as he has not been showing signs of it even after he's 4 months old. I was getting worried to be honest. Then just a couple of days back, I placed him on a firm latex mattress on the floor next to me while I work, he turned over and chuckles. Boy, I was so elated. He knows how to turn but we never gave him the chance to as I tend to put him on our bed most of the time while I work or if the bed wasn't his usual spot,our arms are. When he turns, his head is held upright and he is all so bubbly and happy with his newfound ability. Hubby and I are so amazed and proud with him.

Took him to Isetan supermarket yesterday evening because I wanted to buy some Korean instant noodles. While waiting to taste the noodles, a few older women came to look at him. He was all smiles when they played with him and one lady commented "He has a smiling face" and the other said he was cute. Which parent would deny such compliments and a proud mommy I was. Then , came another lady, she's probably in her late 30's who spoke only Cantonese dialect propped herself towards Jacob who was at that time lying in the stroller. The moment she came close to him, he started wincing and grimaced. He was about to cry but halted after the lasy pulled herself away from him. She tried in vain to be-friend and make him smile but our little friend showed no interest at all. He didn't even want to look at her and I find this peculiar cos this was something new to me. He did not leave his gaze from me even when the lady was the only one talking to him. She commented about his behaviour to the noodles sales promoter who also agreed with her. Jacob has a tendency of rubbing one feet on the other and this same lady highlighted it to me in her Cantonese dialect. Her concerns was that he will bruise his feet if he continued rubbing but my Jacob does this all the time.

The lady is pleasant looking, tall and large framed but just don't understand why Jacob was hostile towards her. It's funny how baby can also judge people. I still wonder if they can really jugde from the looks at such a tender age.