Lego Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer

I've recently received my first Lego Star Wars set, in fact my first ever Lego set in my life. It's one of my farewell gift from my thoughtful colleagues. It was great, I love my Imperial Star Destroyer!

Dum dum dum dum da dum dum da dum!

Clear Instructions
According to the Brickpedia, this particular set has 1,359 pieces. I thought it will take me forever to complete this 16x53cm spaceship, but I was wrong, turned out, it wasn't that difficult actually. Thanks to the detailed instructions! Even instructions idiot like me get to do it at ease.

The bricks were divided into 10 packets. Each packet numbered, 1-10, so that the users could start building from packet no.1. This makes the whole experience really pleasant because imagine they're going to give you 1,359 pieces of grey bricks! It's just nightmare to be!

Besides, the instructions are as clear as it can be. Each and every step is clearly shown in pictures. Even the spaceship is in a perfect symmetry, they do not go by "Please repeat these steps in mirror image". With the number of bricks involved, mirror image can be confusing. Therefore, there are total 3 instruction manuals for one spaceship.

Good QC
If you ever work in manufacturing, you'll learn to appreciate Lego even more. Every brick is precisely made so that they can fit into each other. If the QC wasn't tight enough, you can imagine having bricks too loose that can't hold on together; or bricks too tight that can't fit in at all! It'll just ruin everything.

Besides, do take a close look of your Lego if you have. Colours of your bricks are even, no patches. Aesthetically, perfect! How great is that!

Great Details for the Geeks
All the very cool details are taken care of. The top of the spaceship can be removed and opened to reveal the internal of the spaceship.

Synchronised cannons and spring loaded shooter (hazard)

Control panels

Rotating Emperor Palpatine halogram

Cool screen

Rear view of the spaceship

Extra "bullets" can be stored at the rear of the ship

Darth Vader on his rotating chair

Imperial Officer on his rotating chair

Imperial Navy Trooper with Stormtrooper

Imperial Crew with Stormtrooper

I find your lack of faith disturbing *Throat Choking*

All the mini figurines in the set

Now that I've completed it, and really loving it, I need to find a place for it. Somewhere not reachable by my son when he's mobile. Now I love Lego Star Wars so much, I feel like buying myself my favourite Millennium Falcon :)

By the way, I used one of my farewell gift (50mm 1.8G Nikkor lens) to take all the detailed pictures of my Imperial Star Destroyer.

I just love it! It makes waiting for Star Wars Episode VII even better!

Progress 

Progress pictures taken with iPhone in my study room

40 Weeks and 3 Days

Pregnant for 40 weeks and 3 days vs. Baby age 40 weeks and 3 days

I've been waiting to take this photo for a long time, finally it's 40 weeks and 3 days on 10th July 2015.

I was wearing the exact same top and bottom, it's scary to see how huge I became when I was pregnant! 40 weeks and 3 days was 2 days before baby was born, it's one day before I was admitted to hospital to induce for labour. What a horror...

Anyway, it's all over now, the super heavy tummy grow up to be a heavy baby :)

And I Left

The Team, not all of them though :)

It was my belated farewell lunch with my colleagues in HP yesterday. It was like any other lunches we had, laughters, rubbish talks, teasing each other. But something different though, my son became the highlight of the lunch nowadays, stealing everybody's attention and got carried around the table, that makes him very happy. Can't sleep when he got home.

It's been quite a journey. I joined HP Failure Analysis team on 11th June 2007. My official last day was 2nd of June 2015. On the paper, I clocked 8 years working in the same environment, (sounded so sad but it's not, really). But technically, I've only clocked 7.5 years because I took 6 months off to take care of baby. And then, I took a step further, I left.

7.5 years is a long time.

They've seen me long curly hair, short curly hair, long straight hair, short straight hair, and long straight hair again.

They've seen me without braces, with braces, and took off the braces with nice tidy teeth.

They've seen me happily single (but not available) traveling around the world with sister every year, happily married and still traveling around the world, and got pregnant and still traveling!!!, and finally, the "balloon" popped, and I am still traveling!

7.5 years, we've seen people come and go. Some joined us as short as a few months. Some for a year and longer. But there were a few of us who stayed together long enough (we've got no choice but to stick together) to become very closed friends. These are the people I can't let go off. These are the people who make me think twice before I started writing my resignation letter. These are the people, I swear I want to keep in touch with. These are the people, I call them friends rather than just colleagues.

I felt so loved all these years with them. My bestie and I have difficulties eating crabs and prawns (actually she has difficulties because of her allergy, I am just plainly lazy. I've been pampered at home, and I'm also pampered at work!), our "English teacher" would peel for us. The "English teacher" also peels oranges for me. Some other guys would carry watermelons back from the supermarket nearby to office, and cut for us for tea breaks.

My lab friends would keep some cup noodles for me in their drawers so that I got something to eat when I'm hungry. Because everybody knows, I am ALWAYS HUNGRY! They would keep any unattended items in their drawers for me, because I'm the No.1 forgetful in the team, and whatever left behind, they always assume they belong to me. Hahaha... Well, 80% of the time, it's true.

And my boss, she'd seen the worst of me. Couldn't handle my emotion properly and opposing her on things that she asked me to do etc. Bad engineer... But as I grow, I started to understand her position, and I realized she's such an understanding boss, especially when it comes to work-life balance, and health of her team. I started to see nobody is perfect, I am a lousy engineer so why should I expect so much from everybody else. I should do my part first. I appreciate her more, and we became closer and we could even pull prank on her! Such fun :)

If I were to write everything about them, I'll needs days to do so. So I'm not gonna do that. I'm sure to whom it may concern, they know how I feel :)

To all of you, I miss you already :)

I'm Happy with My Choice

Last Sunday, we were at The Man's friend's house for a small gathering party. One of the friend is expecting and so we were chatting about labour, pregnancy and baby. Seems like once we entered the age of 30, this becomes the topic in gatherings. Oh well...

We were telling them our horrible labour and my depressing breastfeeding. Yes, my breastfeeding journey wasn't the best to start with.

I cried several times during the first month. Because it hurts like hell when the breasts are engorged. Because it hurts even more when you try to remove the blockage. Because I never had sleep for more than three hours. And I was considered lucky among exclusively pumping mothers for a start. Because baby didn't start with every two hourly feeding, he probably has a better stomach space, so he started with three hourly. Every night, after feeding, I put him to sleep, and I pumped, and I washed and sanitized. By the time I go to bed, I only have another 1-2hours before another feeding.

Most of all, I was suffering because I was torn, between being a wonderfully good mother that provides breast milk no matter what the hell it takes, or to be a functioning human again. And I chose the first one. And it didn't do me very well emotionally.

"Should I stop pumping?" was the most frequently discussed question I had with The Man during the first month. After the first month, I still occasionally thought of stopping. For example like when I got small bumps around the breasts that were caused by bacteria infection. I can't even understand where those infections come from. And worst? The treatment is to put a super hot towel on the bumps and then apply the anti bacterial cream. As if it didn't hurt enough.

I wanted to stop when I have sore nipples. I wanted to stop when the skin flaked off around my nipples and breasts! I wanted to stop when all the veins are coming out... I wanted to stop so many times, but I did what other mothers will do, I continued.

All these ups and downs carried out for 6 months, when I finally declared, TIME TO PACK MY PUMPS! I gradually decreased the frequency of pumping, and finally, the supply came to a stop. Just days before our Amsterdam trip, just in time!

When I was in Amsterdam, I have already put my pain behind. I had coffee and beer like nobody business throughout the trip. I eat whatever I want, I drink whatever I want. I do not worry about how my breasts feel. I do not think of how much I produce. I do not worry if there's any nursing room...

I'm FREE! And I like it!

When we were talking about all these during the party, I realized I was so much more happier now compared to then. Life was okay when my parents are around to help. But when I was alone, I barely had any moments to stop. I have to cook to take care of myself, I have to take care of baby, I have to nurse him, I have to pump, I have to wash, I have to sanitize... And these just go on and on and on.

Now that I've stopped. I feel more relaxed, and I put more attention on my baby.

I'm not writing these to discourage anybody to stop breastfeeding. I'm not arguing the benefits of breastfeeding. What I am trying to tell here, is that breastfeeding doesn't come easy for everybody. It didn't just happen. It takes a lot of effort. Some lucky ones get to do it at ease, but some of them, like me, just can't.

And most of all, please do not tell the breastfeeding mothers that they're producing so little milk! For goodness sake, do you know how hard they work to get those? JUST.NEVER.EVER. I've received this kind of comments before, and it hurts.

And, don't judge a mother when she decided to stop breastfeeding or pumping. It's hard enough to make the decision, so please don't ever judge.

I never regret I pumped for the first six months. And I never regret that I've switched to formula milk fully too.

It's just part of our life that we need to make choices and sometimes, the choice may be different from the rest.

Make your choice, stay with it, and be happy with it.

Oh by the way, my life got better about one and a half months ago, when he learned how to hold his bottle.

My good boy holding his milk bottle!

9 Months into The Journey

Few days ago, baby turned 9 months old.

Grin from ear to ear

Look at him, happy to be a big boy!

He has 7 teeth as of today, 4 on the top, 3 at the bottom. Why is it not 8? I do not understand. Apart from growing teeth much faster than other babies, my baby is a lazy little one. He wouldn't try doing anything because he knows we will do it for him. He will just lie there, and look at you with his innocent yet manipulative look.

He hasn't crawled. He tried to, move his tummy bit by bit forward a few times. To follow where the music from, but after a few trials, he stopped. Why? Again, I do not understand. Maybe he felt he has known how to do it, and it's not any fun anyway.

He doesn't like his solid food. He's tried banana, apples, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cereal, brown rice cereal, avocado, mango, and didn't fall in love in any of them. Except, durians! He ate durians last week and he was so happy he wanted more! OMG.

He loves music. He will dance and sway when we sing his favourite songs. He will dance to the music I turn on with my PC or mobile phone for him. He will calm down when I play "Whistle while you work" on my mobile for him. Music is my tool.

He's also a very loving baby. He has learned how to give us kisses since he was about 7 months. He will always pull our faces close to him to kiss. This morning, as usual he's a good boy lying in his cot playing in his own world before I discovered he's awake. I washed my hands and opened the curtains before I come around to carry him. The moment I lifted him, he shouted "wow" happily and give me a big kiss on the cheek. Isn't that lovely? I guess he's really happy I finally found out he's awake and decided to carry him. How adorable!

9 months into the journey, it's just a beginning.