a new dawn

It started with Tun Dr Mahathir quitting UMNO in February 2017 and setting up his own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia. In the run up to GE14, Pakatan Harapan proposed that Tun Dr Mahathir will become the new Prime Minister should they win, thereby paving the way for Tun Dr Mahathir to lead the Pakatan Harapan coalition for GE14.

On Tuesday, 1 May 2018, former finance minister (1985-1991 and 1999-2001) Tun Daim Zainuddin openly supported Tun Dr Mahathir at a gathering in Kedah.

On the very same day, Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, former international trade and industry minister (1987-2008), had called out to Malaysians to reject UMNO and support Pakatan Harapan. A no nonsense lady, she resigned as the Chairman of Supermax Corporation Berhad two days after its Chairman Datuk Seri Stanley Thai held a special press conference to apologise to Datuk Seri Najib for campaigning for the opposition in GE13.

Having all these veterans coming out of retirement to speak out against the incumbent government and go on a grueling campaign trail, I take my hats off to them. It was a very exciting time, like watching a team of Avengers being put together. And the end... the end was more than what we could hope for.

Below is my post-GE14 thoughts, taken from Facebook:

Yes Tan Sri Rafidah, I too was hopeful but didn't actually believe Pakatan Harapan or any other party/coalition would ever wrestle control over the federal government. I mean, it has always been BN and with all the gerrymandering and mid-week polling day... Seriously, Wednesday?! That was really frustrating for me because we're not based in Malaysia at the moment.

But the rakyat has proven me wrong, and I'm so so so happy to be wrong! This shows and prove to everyone who has ever said "aiyah, I'm only one vote" that the power truly lies in our hands. That exercising your vote wisely is one of the the greatest responsibility you will ever have in this life.

EVERY VOTE COUNTS.

I'm very very proud of all my family and friends who travelled near and far to cast their votes. When we were watching the live results, my dad and I was pleasantly surprised that the voters turn out rate was more than 70% for almost all Parliamentary seats. That's bloody awesome for a Wednesday polling day.

I'm so excited for what lies ahead for Malaysia. PH better do a good job. I'm sure they won't do worse than BN, but I do hope they will see through what they have promised us. If we can vote out BN, we can vote out PH too. So please make the next 5 years count.

My husband and I discussed what our future plans would be like if PH wins GE14. Would we return to Malaysia? Most definitely, when the time is right. Malaysia is being reborned and she needs talent to help her grow again.

My dream now is that some day, we Malaysians do not have to work/live overseas for a better future. Not just for monetary reasons, but security, education, health care, etc. My dream is that overseas Malaysians would now have a reason to return. And my friends and I would be able to sit round a table and have teh tarik, not only when we "visit" but whenever we feel like it.

Congratulations, people of Malaysia! Let's make Malaysia great again!

so, it's been a while

It looks like I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon.

Well, I was never really consistent in the first place anyway. It's just like the time I joined a gym. First month I go there 3 times a week. By the second month, maybe twice a week coz things are getting busy at work/life. By the third month, once a week or lesser. After 6 months, I just go there for a shower when I work late nights. It's one of those personal projects that was meant to end in a natural death.

I started this blog as a platform for me to practice creative writing, for fear that all I could compose in the future are formal emails and boring words. But in order to write, I have to be inspired to write. There must be something that I feel passionate and strongly about. Rambling on without a point is not my style.

I don't know why inspiration has been hard to come by. And even when I do find inspiration, I get lazy. You see, writing a post takes up a lot of my time because my words are thoughtfully selected (see above point on creative writing) and I try to include pictures and colours to make the post interesting. That's a lot of hard work when one has a full-time job and is a full-time mother outside of working hours. Even my Facebook doesn't get much updates so you can understand why my blog has been abandoned since October 2015!

Anyway, I'm trying to hop on the bandwagon again 😊 I haven't really figured out what I'll share or how much. Maybe some cooking posts since I cook so much now. Some family stories and anecdotes, maybe.

Hmm... I think I'll get the ball rolling with some sights around Singapore since I'll have visitors this week and I'm playing tour guide. I'll also copy and paste a post I made on Facebook on the phenomenal tsunami rakyat, for memory's sake.

Wait for them!

nobody told me it would be this hard

I just read this in the news –

It's very sad to read something like this. I myself am a new mother, about 14 weeks, and I too have struggled with breastfeeding.

I was drafting up a post on breastfeeding before this, but in a slightly different vein. I wanted to document my breastfeeding journey, both the good and bad, the real experience so to speak, so that I could encourage others. But now, I'm not even sure if I should.

Every new mother would've been told or read about how breast milk is best for the baby. If you join a breastfeeding support group on Facebook or elsewhere, you would then get access to many many updates from mothers on (i) that they have successfully exclusively breastfed their child until a year old or older, (ii) posting a picture of milk bottles with a "modest" 15oz acquired through one pumping session on their 3rd day post-partum and then asking the group whether that will be enough for her baby, or (iii) posting a picture of a freezer filled with nothing else but breast milk. While I understand that they're trying to encourage mothers to breastfeed, I sometimes feel these updates are rubbing my failures into my face. It's hard not to take it personally, especially when it hits so close to home.

I don't have a freezer full of breast milk. Whatever I express today will be enough only for tomorrow's feeding.

My baby took mostly formula milk until she's about 4 weeks old and even now she still tops up with some formula milk, depending on how hungry she is.

When anyone asks me whether I'm breastfeeding, I felt I will be judged unfavourably if I told the truth. So I glossed over it.

The first time I tried to pump, I spent 10 minutes and yielded 5 drops of clear yellow liquid. In my humble opinion, that's hardly enough to feed a hungry baby mouse, and I'm not even sure if that baby mouse wants it.

I cried many many times, not because it hurts so much when my baby suckle, but because I felt like giving up and I would be less of a mother for failing to fulfill the most basic of my child's needs.

When the pediatrician asked whether I'm fully breastfeeding, I said no. He asked how much. I said about half half. He gave me a look, as if to say I should try harder. I wanted to hit him, but I said nothing and my little one has a kinder pediatrician now.

Finally, I spoke to friends who are mothers. Many of them struggled with breastfeeding the first time. They also top up with formula milk and has no or little spare supply of frozen breast milk. I realised that I'm not alone in this, that what I went through is more common than I think. But people don't talk about this, about struggles or failures, for fear of being judged. Had I known from the very beginning, I wouldn't have been so hard on myself.

Mothers are not told enough that breastfeeding is not the only way.
Mothers should not be made to feel ashamed or guilty for not breastfeeding.
Mothers should be honest and not only share success stories.
Mothers should not judge other mothers for the choices they make.

After all, the most important thing is our child is growing well and has a happy mother. Whose business is it that you breastfeed or you don't breastfeed? As long as you shower your child with lots of love and care for him/her in the best way possible, does it really matter that you can't or don't breastfeed?

You will still be the best, and only, mummy in your child's eyes.

life fact #1

musical x wings

I'm having so much fun with today's interactive google doodle which celebrates the 180th anniversary of the birth of John Venn. I was testing out all the combinations and made these:

My favourite has to be the soprano and the clown car!

John Venn introduced the Venn diagram, which is a diagram that demonstrates a logical test on a collection of sets. For example, what is a mammal and is tiny? In the google doodle, one of the possible (or logical) overlap between a set of "mammals" and a set of "tiny" is a mouse.

I don't quite remember learning about Venn diagram in primary school, but I'm pretty sure it was somewhat incorporated into secondary school math class where it's applied in probability theory.

A ∩ B
A ∪ B

Ring a bell?

Anyway, I'm thinking how amazing this Venn diagram would be in the development of logical thinking in small children, who would then have the potential of growing up to be logical adults. Just saying.

Read about the designing of the google doodle here.



Born in 1834 in Yorkshire, England, John Venn's first vocation is that of an Anglican priest as he was descended from a long line of church evangelicals. It was after his return to Cambridge University aged 28 years old to lecture, that he developed the diagram of his namesake.