carpediem

Her first snow bowl

2010-01-02T18:57:00.001Z

What a wonderful gift for her from autie Chin Lyn!

Movies that were made this year and that I watched

2009-12-14T19:34:00.005Z

Seven pounds--> I do not remember honestly
The wrestler
The reader
Slumdog millionaire
Revoluationary road
Valkyrie
Frozen river
The curious case of benjamin button-->WOW
He's just not that into you
My bloody valentine
Push
The international
Watchmen
Marley and Me
Let the right one in-->eerie but beautiful
Duplicity
Monsters Vs Aliens
Knowing
The Boat that rocked
Lost chance Harvey
Fast and furious
500 days of summer
Julia
I love you, Man
State of Play
Crank
X-Men origin:wolverine
Coraline-->very good animation with the fantastic story! one to keep
The great buck Howard
Star Trek -->really enjoyed it.
Angels and demons
Lesvian vampire killers
The Hangover
transformer 2
Blood: the last vampire
Sunshine cleaning
In the loop
Harry Potter and the half blood prince--> they should never cut the battle scene!
Land of the lost
The soloist
Dean Spanley
Ice Age 3 -->my kind of humour
Management
The proposal--> I love this romance
Julie and Julia
Good
Giantic
District 9
Away we go
Pandorum -->Holly ****!
The ugly truth
Tokyo
2012
My sister's keeper
Battlestart Galactica: The Plan
Mother--> WOW
Harry Brown
Up
Gamer
Cloudy with a chance with meatballs
Law abiding citizen
Where the wild things are-->yet to watch
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds

Considering I was pregnant the most part of this year and babysat the remaining time the movie card was well spent.

2009-11-27T14:36:00.011Z

Judging by the pictures above one would wonder what I am trying to show here.( appologies for poor quality pics )

I was amazed with the fact how manufacturers in Korea are now making products that are scientifically engineered and environmentally friendly. I found myself bewildered at the choices that were given whilst staying there. I just wanted to buy a playmat! I couldn't choose which one to go for! Have you heard of Endocrine disruptor? But you must have heard of plastic milk bottles oozing hazadous substance out when they are heated and what about johnson and johnson shampoo recall issue? we don't get informed of those things over here and now I can not buy a thing until what Korean companies have to say about their competitive products. I know this could be very cunning marketing strategy considering Koreans can not compete a product with Chinese any more based on price so they have to make the products smarter in order to survive. I guess what I am rambling on here is the lack of choice here in UK and brought down quality by cheap goods from china.

For instance baby cutips are the same size as adults over here in UK but in Japan they have sterilised baby cutips which is half the size so they actually can be used to unblock baby's nose without upsetting a little one. What about baby nail cutters? My sister sent one over to me for izzy which I use very gratefully. Having left it(the one with red plastic in the middle in the picture) behind in Korea I went and bought one in Tesco. By the look of them, they seemed fine but realistically IT DOES NOT WORK! they may have looked the same but the quality was simply poor I do not believe anybody has tried them on baby's nail before they started to manufacture them. The blades are so thick and blunt that baby's nails are simply folded backwards but not cut. I get so frustrated by those incidents I come across everyday with chinese cheap goods that I do not buy anything critical that was made in China. Yet they are the ones who pump all the goods nowadays everywhere you go in the world the products you are buying are more than likely made in china. Consumers can not have any options but to buy cheap goods with poor quality unless they have obscene amount of money to spend for what they like and this is very sad.

on 101th day

2009-11-16T16:58:00.002Z

We koreans do like pausing for pictures and like keeping them

for memory. I couldn't resist having izzy's picture taken during my stay in Korea. I hope she loves them when she see them in the future.

2009-10-03T19:44:00.003+01:00

Izzy has started to suck her thumb since week10. The strange thing is that she does not suck it when I hold her but when she is put down somewhere she sucks let alone her thumb, her fist. I am a bit distressed by it as she is my first child and I don't want her to do it if this is as others say, because she is stressed and tries to calm her down. I wonder what is going through my little one's mind when she feels like sucking it... -.-

2009-09-07T09:38:00.004+01:00

I do not know what to do when she stares at me like this

federer's match point shot against Djokovic

2009-09-14T10:29:00.002+01:00

http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/match_reports/2009-09-13/200909131252892412687.html

what trauma?

2009-09-04T08:09:00.004+01:00

2009-08-06T12:53:00.001+01:00

27.07.2009 Monday 11:32 am
Our baby girl has been with us for a full week and approx 14hrs now. I am not articulate enough to express what an amazing feeling it is to hold my own baby in my arms. Things that I worried and thought important in the past have been somewhat meaningless compared to this little one’s life that was made by half of me and half of matt. I could not have agreed more with mums about this special feeling that you go to hospital as a couple and come back as a family.

Last week has been tough but manageable thanks to matthew's support. I can not imagine women going through this dramatic experience without their men's support and love. To me without him I don't think I would have come out as one piece and write a blog like now.

Every woman who went through labour has something to tell just like men who went to army or a war. Their stories are almost like listening to the story of medieval knights going through series of perils to get the Holy Grail. Believe or not, what hesitated me the most about having a baby was facing the fear/pain of labour. I was putting that thought off as long as possible when the waters broke 3 weeks earlier. The next thing I know was that I had to go into labour within 24hrs one way or another. Oh **it! At this point my bookmark in the pregnancy guide book remained in the first page in labour chapter and there were 2 more weeks left to work in the company.

18.07.2009 8:30am
I thought to myself that my bladder has been weak but never been this bad. I should have been doing pelvic muscle exercises and etc etc…. After 30 minutes inconvenience in the bathroom I was nervous to find out if my suspicion of this incident is correct
For some reason I always thought I might be somewhat different slash unique from any other human beings. If something is going to happen to one person in millions good or bad, it will be me. What a self centered thought it was! To my disbelief, my pregnancy has been like a text book without painful side effects such as morning sickness, overwhelming tiredness, uncontrollable backache and etc
My body followed the pattern that the book predicted each week so it was a bit of shock to me when I found out this inconvenient event meant baby was expected to be delivered 3 weeks early! The following morning when I left for the hospital I had to say I felt slightly grumpy by watching matt getting all excited to have a baby in his arms. Man!

19.07.2009 12:00pm
One hour after the drug was induced I couldn’t sit down as my bum cheeks were,, well, I am sorry for the expression, just about to rip open and this also accompanied period pain in my belly. Matt and I timed it and it came about 20secs 3-minute interval. This went on for about 3hours. At this point, matt was heavily engaged in his new game on his Ipod and I was catching up with Saturday daily telegraph and we even went to canteen to get some lunch. Sunday in hospital was quiet and labour rooms were empty so we were able to check out a birth pool, balls, aroma therapy kit and so on.
For baby to get through the birth channel successfully women’s vagina has to be dilated up to 10cm and this happens when labour is in progress. I have not made up my mind on pain relief although I definitely didn’t want epidural due to the possible risk of permanent damage on spinal cord. My sister went without using any drug and a lot of women all over the world do that too. My thought on this was to find out how bad it can go before I rely on drug as using drugs can affect a baby one way or other. When one of midwives came in and told me she agreed on my birth plan showing I want to do everything naturally although this comment to me for some reason sounded like she was telling me she won’t redeem me from painful situation by giving me any pain relief. Later she came back to us and told us the examination will take place at 7:30pm instead of 4:30pm and also there was a discussion about change of the room for some reason but midwife told us to stay where we are as we might scare other people off. At around 7:00pm midwife announced that I am allowed to go to the birth pool as it was now 7cm dilated and I was somewhat excited by the encouragement came from the midwife and expectation of meeting our baby daughter.
Water was not as warm as I expected it to be but it was nevertheless soothing. Contraction was coming so regularly I did not have time to rest in between and cling on to matthew’s massage. I wanted him to rub my lower back hard enough in the hope that it counterbalanced contraction somehow and he managed to pull it off. Bless him. I would not be in doubt as its result if he told me that his finger prints have disappeared now.
At 8:30pm I was in agony in the pool when I felt finally I want to push. For the whole time my eyes were firmly shut with a grimace on my face but I was conscious enough to recognize it is nearly end of the journey. Matthew was saying he can see something so I put my finger in and I can feel her skin only 1cm away from coming out. I couldn’t believe how happy I felt at that moment. Midwife tilted the lamp towards water and told me to sit front so that she can see. I pushed and pushed. I felt something is just about to rip open if I push it any harder. I was scared then. But next thing I know was that Matthew was telling me to get out of the pool immediately. I heard the word “breech baby”. Feeling mild disappointment I climbed on the bed as soon as quickly before the next contraction wondering what would happen next. Within 5minutes approx 15 people with all different coloured gowns on flooded in the room. One familiar face told me to breathe through the nose when I felt like pushing again. I heard “we don’t have much time….” “otherwise we have to do general anesthetic…” “you have two choices…” After a few spinal block injections the lower part of my body was going numb and my pain became distant memory.

9:06pm Two things I remember
tiny moan from Isobel when she was pulled out of my opened body.
silent tears running through from Matthew’s eyes

Finally we created the first chapter of our family.

2009-08-06T10:16:00.002+01:00

This is the view from our bedroom window. As you can see there is well maintained green field along with footpath and benches where one can sit down and relax reading a book or listening to birds. I would say this adds quality to suburban life where you can find your breathing space after hectic work.
However somebody has to spoil this beautiful spot by abandoning supermarket trolley. To be honest, I am afraid to say this is not unusual in England. You can see people who do not have a car to fetch their shopping items push supermarket trolley all the way home for their comfort and then abandon it in public place. What a shame.

One fine morning of June

2009-06-27T00:12:00.006+01:00

Three of us were in wimbledon soaking up the atmosphere of Grand Slam 2009

And three of us now got the beach towels with wimbledon 2009 written on.

Venus Williams, Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez,, they are the big names who played in Court 1 which we fortunately had tickets for. It was somewhat different to watch them playing live as tennis ball was moving pretty faster to either side of the court than I thought it would be when I watched them on TV. I always thought women's games would not look as powerful but I guess I was wrong. Venus' ball was flying over the net just as fast as those of male players.

I could see lots of spectators from canada, australia and they came to see this tournament paying obscene amount of money or queueing from the night before the gate is open. It was very fortunate that I got the tickets through public ballot and casually drove down to town to watch matches.

Rules are still confusing, no idea what order players swap the side they play nevertheless it was a memorable day of our trip and we enjoyed ourselves very much.

2009-06-21T21:32:00.009+01:00

Thanks to our friends Evan and Marrion who live in Machester, we were able to go to the lake district and back within a day. Omnimous weatherforcast dampened matthew's spirit at first but soon enough he turned into a happy boy wondering in the countryside. It has been my and marrion's misson to drag two canadian men into joy of walking in English countryside and it seems that they made a histric move today.

Glasmere, small town which is famous for 19th century poet wordsworth and his poet circle. We visited his grave, dove cottage where he lived, the garden where he wrote the famous poem daffodils from, walked around the lake in front of the cottage and had good food before heading back to Manchester. The lake was surrounded by moutainous hills and made secluded settings at all angles. There were a few camps set up near pebble beach where we walked around and the water,,, wow it was so transparent that you could see your own reflection on it. There were also a few victorian houses at the foot of the hills looking over the lake and women in their 30s perhaps from the houses were walking their dogs through the woods. How serenic can it be?

As much as I envy their lifestyle, I wondered if I could live there. Born and bred in the bustling city I probably won't be able to do as a permanent resident but surely I would spend my summer time there reading and enjoying nature. oh yes..

2009-06-16T19:55:00.012+01:00

Despite my sister's plea, I went ahead and bought 70 odd pounds worth of real nappies. These real nappies are said to take our izzy through to potty training providing I have 3 day worth of reserved nappies ready at all times (they meant at least 24 nappies). One of valuable advices my sis gave me is to buy unbleached cotton for any baby fabric but again, being myself I had to buy fancy and colourful nappies like blueberry, butter yellow and lime colour. Matthew wanted to buy her Jack Skelton nappy but I thought that IS taking it too far.

One of real nappy websites was run by a mother of 5 and the stuff were all hand-made. And the concept was fascinating. I am telling you there is a niche market for this kind of stuff and I think it is something I can look into for future career. Matthew dampened my spirit right away by saying I wanted to run a tea and cake shop but didn't go any further with it so what this nappy business going to make any difference. Well, first of all, I had to admit I am pretty bad at baking therefore that ambitious concept was end of story right there. The bottom line is running business with something creative, unique and things I enjoy doing. I still think it is viable.

2009-05-21T22:37:00.003+01:00

Finally BSI informed that I have passed the exam I sat last month.
Thank goodness for that!
I couldn't resist asking what marks I had though.
62marks!
This answer lead me to ask another question which is..
What is the lowest mark that one can pass with?
57marks.
A few seconds of silence on both ends of telephone line..
Oh,, I wasn't that good then,,
Don't worry, we hardly ever give candidates over 70marks anyway..
Alright!
Last remark cheered me up a bit.

ISO 9001 IRCA registered auditor...

This sounds cool!

2009-05-15T21:25:00.003+01:00

7:10 am one busy morning there was one experiment going on inside our car that involves a chewing gum.

whose teeth mark is the first line and whose is second?

maybe matt is right, my front teeth might need fixing...

2009-05-11T21:11:00.002+01:00

One of my colleagues who made redundant not long ago lost her husband over the weekend. He was only 50 and he collapsed with heart attack at work on friday. She got himself checked out at local hospital and everything seemed ok then. They let him go on the day but walking out of the hospital in the carpark he collapsed again and died in her arms. He left 13 year old boy behind him. I was not that close to her during her employment but we shared the office together and I got to know her. She is normal middle class woman driving a red mini cooper who wanted to earn a bit of money to contribute to her household. I can not imagine what a change to her life all of a sudden this may be and how difficult it is going to be for her and her boy. That made matthew and I think what we are facing right now is not hardly classed as difficulty. We moan at each other for not putting things back in place, not cleaning the house enough yet there is not any fatal death involved in our problems we call. We often forget how lucky to have each other and our little one.

2009-05-06T21:19:00.002+01:00

During last long weekend I went shopping with a friend of mine to nottingham, did a bit of gardening, surfed internet, talked to family in korea, watched a lot of movies and had fun with matt but somehow I could not stop feeling bored. Matt reckons it is because I do not have hobbies as such and may be so. That's when it hit me that it is really going to be difficult for me to fill my days meaningfully while I am having 6mths off from work in 3mth's time....

bedroom transformation

2009-04-12T22:09:00.006+01:00

After 2 years bright yellow bedroom with mouldy window frame matt did not want to see any yellow bit left in our bedroom from today. But I did not know he meant my waterbottle too!

We were gonna go for natural wood with clear vanish but after lifting carpet we discovered the paint drop stains from labourers of olden days. When I managed to find walnut woodstain from cupboard I did not tell him it was for outdoors. He went barmy. In my defence, it would be more durable if any....

As for colour of the bedroom (mellow cocoa slightly brown with violet and silk touch) we couldn't be any apart from each other's taste. He was inclined to have bluey colour and I was keen on much warmer colour or neutral. Days went by witout any comprise. It was not until matt saw the curtains that my mother sent a year ago and liked it. In other words, we went for the room colour based on curtains. I am not quite sure in hindsight if this was an inexpensive way as we have to change furniture, beding, mirror, cushions and etc to match up the scheme.

At least the most problematic room has finished and now house looks half decent well, apart from living room sofas. This was a lot difficult than to do our study. Maybe because of the moulded windows, holes in the plastered walls, gaps between window frame and walls, not having enough money to get people to do things for us. Tomorrow is to plant flowers I bought as a quick fix from garden centre the other day. I am hoping my hanging basket has trailing geranium this summer and have some colours in the garden.

2009-03-22T18:51:00.003Z

Things are not going well in our company. Our company made people redundant three times since last August-September time. Sadly one of my staff had to go this time and it was a tough decision as I felt like we were playing with people's lives when we weighed up the options. The future of Manufacturing in UK is very glim yet the industry has been the backbone of the country. Where would this country find the breakthrough to this recession going on depression I don't know. Having a baby at this time might be disguised blessing as I will have time out at work and concentrate on training myself to upgrade my career as well as experience family life as a mum. Luckily my mortgage is going down every month according to base rate although gas bill and tax have gone up to match up to bill in total and reviewing my saving account showing zero is painful. But hope is that there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. surely.

2009-03-22T18:20:00.003Z

One of perks that I get to enjoy living in UK is that I get to see and experience things that I would have never dreamt such as,, buying my property and expecting it to be paid off within 12yrs, getting around europe when I feel like it, walking around where Samuel Coleridge would have walked a centry ago or going to see The Wimbeldon Championships 2009.

Yes 25th of June 2009 Matt and I will be sitting in court No 1 and watching a match live. I always thought I was not that lucky when it comes to lottery ever since I failed to get in the private school when my sister and my brother got in by lottery. But maybe things could change later in your life? In a few hours time from now, Andy Murray is playing against Nadal at indian wells final match. I so wished it was Federer playing against Nadal. Matt consoled me that we might see a glimpse of him training in the court or walking by in the vincinity when we get down there.

I will be buying my fair share of lottery tickets this year for the day such as I give a birth to our child, christmas and etc. Who knows somebody is winning every week so why shouldn't it be me?

www.formatfestival.com

2009-03-08T17:42:00.007Z

It is a worth while to buy a newspaper and read it every once in a while as they let us know where to quency your cultural thirst. My friend madalena is keen on getting into professional photography so we went to have a look around what magnum photographers can do in Derby this afternoon. Sunday afternoon the city was quiet apart from a few mid aged men trying to draw our attention by making unnecessary noises. not impressed to start with..

Leaving the exhibition hall, put it this way, there were some good photos although nothing made me "wow" but one photo which is an one wall size and focused every inch of the sections in that photo and we wanted to know how he managed that. maybe one day magdalena might be able to tell me how.

2009-01-24T18:53:00.004Z

I know one would say oh please, Ji Hee get a life! why are you watching the crap? but this is my guilty pleasure... reality TV show.. that is X factor/ american idol... It is interesting to see people making their ways to a different lifestyle from their ordinary lives. I agree sometimes people look desperate, delirious but when the talented people go for their dreams one can wonder if we ourselves have a dream to go after that desperately. It does not matter that is tennis, singing or academic pursuit. As long as it keeps you inspired and makes you want to be a better person I think every dream is worth it. Secretly I am addicted to watching simon commenting on people. 9 out of 10times his comment is fair and constructive. 10 out of 10 times he is damn sexy.

with precious friends we met in UK at our special night

2008-11-02T21:47:00.010Z

6 nights later from today we will be soaking up the sunshine on the beach at the backdrop of table mountains.

6 nights from then we will be announced as husband and wife.

Marion, Evan, Magdalena, Thomas, Chin Lyn, Matthew and little Oliver

Thanks so much for coming to our pre wedding dinner. we love you guys!

Dale Carnegie

2008-10-20T21:42:00.002+01:00

I needed not be told by my boss to be able to work well that my CV was top of the pile.

I was put out very much about the fact that my boss skirted around me instead of scolding me when I made mistakes.

No wonder why.

they all signed up for this course and were at it for mths and mths.

Yes I definitely saw eyes sparking and eager want rising when praises were lavishily given. but to a degree though man,, why would you patronise your workers? According to this book, being a good leader is never to criticise, never to give direct orders, help them to save face, making them happy about doing things you want... I would say a good leader should be able to pick the right one who has already got the qualities you are looking for at recruiment stage. why would you struggle with a bunch of rejects to make them feel better? or have I totally missed the point of reading this book?

US OPEN

2008-09-09T00:22:00.004+01:00

Roger Federer is such an elegant player gliding the clay court flawlessly as usual tonight.
Did you know Federer doesn't make any noise at all when he hits the ball?
I couldn't stop making noises over him sorry guys I had to mention it.