b3 b0rn.. c0nf0rm, b3 si|3nt .. di3

i’ve promised to get mama some baskin-robbins ice-cream since before ramadhan. then it was ramadhan and she said she can wait til after raya.

earlier last week i headed up to the 3rd floor of suria klcc – where i was a regular customer (only during the 31st of the months anyhow ) and was disappointed to see that the outlet is GONE!!! in its place is an additional store which didn’t interest me (which pretty much sums up most of the stores in klcc)

blurdy ‘ell.

there goes one outlet that’s close enough for me. the one in carrefour wangsa maju closed up a few months before – rarely went to that one.

but WARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

why did they close the outlet in suria? not generating the target revenue? that’s just bollocks. everytime i pass by there’d be people hanging out.

even the one in sg wang plaza is no longer.

don’t they want business from ppl in kl? most of their outlets listed are in selangor.

darned it.

now.. to persuade amir to head for either uptown or 1 utama. (bangsar or midvalley has outlets. but i am negatively predisposed of both spots)

it’s 7:23 am and i am in no hurry to get ready for work!

because it is not a work day for me!!

kya is supposed to be having her final baby jab (she’s already 18 mths old) today. but i’ve already made the visit on saturday. just in case she develops a fever, i should be able to care for her at least til monday. instead of having to take more leave.

but so far so good. apart from a short cry after being administered the jab and some soreness on the cheeks of her left butt, kya’s as precocious as ever!

so here i am, awake at 6 am due to weekday conditioning. i could’ve just cancelled my leave but as it would be much more of a hassle plus amir is also on leave, i decided to just enjoy the long weekend.

was checking my mails – not work mail of course *gasp* – i wouldn’t want to be riddled with those until tomorrow. and ended up surfing the net. which actually translates to me blog-hopping.

and came across this entry on cord blood.

which takes me back to when i first delivered kya. at that point of time, both amir and i did not have maternity in our health insurance coverage so we opted to deliver at the maternity ward of KL General Hospital.

on a sidenote:
i could not believe the amount of horror stories and/or cautions that i received upon me responding to queries on where i plan to deliver. apparently the nurses there are supposed to be reincarnations of atilla the hun or at least like genghis khan when it comes to interaction with patients. all of which i blithely ignored and discarded as poppycock.

i have an aversion to private hospitals – not just their fees but also some of their own horror stories on medical practise and also the fact that if anything does go wrong at a private hospital, they would always rush the patient to the GH anyways. so i’d rather already be here than being ferried about in an ambulance in traffic-crazy KL if god-forbid i face complications

back to the actual story, after being wheeled back into my room in the 1st class ward (by the way, which fees totalled up to only 660 myr for a 3 day 2 nights bunking) with my bundle of joy, a doctor dropped by. thinking this was just your normal MO visit, i was surprised when she proceeded to ask me for authorisation to carry out cord blood extraction. she explained in detail what is was for – basically to allow possibly a new lease on life for those with life threatening diseases – and asked a few simple questions to check whether i was a suitable donor. unlike in this entry where the blood banking is exclusively for your family’s use, the request was for me to donate it for the international cord blood bank.

apparently not just anybody can donate. the hospital went through my medical records and also checked the state of the placenta before requesting for a donation. upon further checking and more clarification, however, i was ruled out from being a suitable donor due to the fact that i lived (and consumed beef) in the UK circa 1982-1985 when there was an outbreak of mad cow disease. this poses some risk of the cord blood carrying the strains of disease somewhat – bummer

well, actually nearly robbed.

all due to my negligence. took the lrt home and called amir to pick me up. instead of our usual route home from the station, amir made a u-turn in the middle of jelatek rd. we were to shop for kya’s supplies – diapers, formula etc.

first stop was the neighborhood singseh – our usual stockist for isomil formula – but was disappointed to discover that they’re clean out of inventory.

next stop – carrefour – for the other necessary stuff. in the rush to leave the car, i unwittingly left my notebook bag in semi-plain view. it was just shoved between the driver and backseat.

did our normal rounds of the hypermart. with kya tagging along, i will always head for the bakery at the farther end of the floor first. this was to be the quickest shopping trip for the 3 of us. but then mama called to ask us to get ourselves dinner since she didn’t prepare any for the night. so off to your convenient – albeit calorie & sugar-rich – fast food joint it is. for take-aways.

we headed for our parking spot and everything was fine and dandy until the point amir was to unlock the car. it was then that he noticed the broken window of the backseat.

thank god i ditched the idea of lugging back my notebook!

it was the notebook case that attracted the culprit’s attention. so this fiend knocked down the window and attempted to run off with the bag. upon further examination, the bag had been opened but probably due to disappointment of finding nothing of value – apart from some pieces of paper and a few junk (lip balm, a brooch, some coins) or he/she/they noticed somebody coming that way, every other item in the car seemed to be in place.

i was rendered speechless for a few moments. prior to leaving the car earlier, i had toyed with the idea of just leaving my wallet in the bag. he/she/they would’ve been able to run off with quite a sum as i was supposed to be depositing my loan repayments but didn’t get round to it and not to forget, the credit cards that i had.

silly careless absent-minded me.

i’m no longer bringing back that notebook bag.