100 Pages

I have a new assignment. We recently bought a voucher to buy a 100-page photobook at a 70 percent discount. I was hesitant at first, a 100-page photobook is a lot of pictures, but then Afi reminded me that we have so many pictures of Omar filling up our hard drives. So now I have a 100-page photobook to complete by 10 December.

View of Oxford City from the top of Carfax Tower.

This would be our fourth photobook. Our first two photobooks are of our wedding and 2010 yearbook. We love them so much that we tell everybody about them. So when Mak came to the UK last summer she asked me to make her a photobook of her pictures here. The cover of that photobook is the picture above.

When it arrived, I was not happy with the quality of the print. Many of the pages have a yellowish tinge and some photos are wrongly cropped or positioned. I wrote to PhotoBox to complain. A few days later I received a reply that they were reprinting the order at no extra charge. The biggest, most delightful, surprise was that they sent the new photobook directly to Malaysia. My parents told me that it is perfect.

Read: Safehold #5

I finished reading How Firm A Foundation (HFAF) last Monday, all 564 pages of it, excluding appendices. Wow, I cannot wait for the next book!

[SPOILER ALERT]

Unlike in previous books, there weren’t as many sea battles in HFAF. Having established its dominance at sea following the Battle of the Markovian Sea in A Mighty Fortress (AMF), there aren’t any fleet left on Safehold to challenge the Imperial Charisian Navy. Still, newly-appointed High Admiral Sir Domynyk Staynair, Baron of Rock Point, sends Admiral Dunkyn Yairley to destroy major Desnairian naval and shipbuilding facilities in the port city of Iythria.

That operation marks the introduction of another Charisian innovation, the high-angle gun or howitzer, used to pound the port’s heavily fortified fortresses. The evolution of weapons and technology in general is one element of the Safehold series I am very excited about. Apart from the high angle guns, other new technologies introduced in HFAF include the revolver and the upcoming steam engine. It remains to be seen how long the Empire of Charis can rely on technological superior to offset the Church of God Awaiting’s superior numbers, while the rest of Safehold will undoubtedly catch up.

When it has been handed humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat in open warfare against Charis it is perhaps not surprising to find the Church, particularly the Inquisition and Grand Inquisitor Zhaspahr Clyntahn, resorting to terrorism to hit back at the heretics. The death of Prince Nahrmahn and Earl of Gray Harbor deal a severe blow to the court of Emperor Cayleb and Empress Sharleyan Ahrmark, but the Inner Circle continues to grow. The most significant new addition is Father Paityr Wylsynn, the Intendant of Charis, who brings with him disturbing new clues about the defences of the Temple of God and the promised return of the Archangels.

Perhaps my favourite character in the series is now-Lieutenant Hektor Aplyn-Ahrmark, Duke of Darcos. The emperor’s adopted son has quite a few adventures in HFAF, including leading a covert mission behind enemy lines to extract Prince Daivyn and Princess Irys Daykyn of Corisande out of Delferahk.

As the title suggests, HFAF has both sides of the war consolidating their positions in preparation for the next stage (or book). Perhaps next the Empire of Charis will finally take the war to the mainland. Perhaps not. Again, I cannot wait to find out.

London Trip

After several aborted attempts, we finally managed to have Omar weighed last week. He was 6.58kg, at fifteen weeks. “Textbook,” commented the health visitor. Though we knew that he was gaining weight and growing well, we were very happy to actually see it ourselves on the scale.

Then on Sunday, all three of us hopped on a train to London. The objectives of the trip were to register Omar at the high commission and apply him a Malaysian passport. We decided that it would be best to settle the affairs now before Omar grows heavier, the weather gets colder, and Afi becomes more inundated with work. Since we expected a lot of jumping on and off different modes of public transport, we took Omar in a baby carrier instead of the Xplory.

The train to London was jam-packed. It was not an express, running from Hereford. We only managed to find seats at Reading. Once arriving at Paddington station, we sat down for a drink before finding a bus to our hotel at Euston. We tried to feed Omar at the station, thinking that he might be hungry, but he was more interested in checking out the new surrounding.

Next morning we went straight to the high commission at Belgrave Square. The service was quick, especially since we already had all the documents and copies and Omar’s photos ready. By 1100 we were all done. The pickup was at 1530, so with plenty of time to kill we went to MSD for some authentic Malaysian food. Afi had her favourite ikan patin dish while I chose the sambal ikan keli. We also had the beef rendang. The food was heavenly. We also bought fried noodles and nasi lemak to go.

It was a surprise to see a familiar name signing Omar’s birth registration. It was my old classmate Mahathir, whom I had not met for almost sixteen years! It was nice to meet him after all these years. Small world.

We went straight to Paddington station afterwards—mission accomplished—and then home to Oxford. Omar behaved really well throughout the trip, as always. Now he has his very own passport, YAY!

:D

Xplory

The first time we went to a mother and baby products shop, I was looking at prams and pushchairs—the only things I found immediately interesting—when Afi told me not to bother because she already had a specific make and model in mind she wanted that they didn’t have in the shop.

:(

That pushchair she had in mind was the Stokke Xplory. Stokke is a Norwegian company specialising in products for children, mainly nursery furniture. It is known for its convertible nursery bed and highchair that are designed to grow with the child. The Xplory pushchair was introduced in 2003.

At Heathrow Terminal 4, with iZiSleep car seat

As I started reading up about the pushchair, I started to like it too. A lot. It has a sleek, modern design and is fully adjustable. The Xplory is really a travel system with a removable seat that can be swapped with an infant car seat. The basic seat can be fixed either rear- or forward-facing, reclines, and is height-adjustable. Most other good pushchairs are also reversible and recline, but the height-adjustability feature really sets the Xplory apart. It allows the child to be sat higher and closer to the parent. The stroller also has adjustable handle and foot rest. We also like the design of the large rear wheels, which are positioned widely apart without a crossbar we could accidentally kick or step on.

Afternoon walk at Summertown House

We finally bought our purple Xplory during the last Christmas sale season when we found a great deal online, while also bearing in mind the impending VAT increase from 17.5 percent to 20 percent. The bundle included the Xplory pushchair, carry cot, and car seat. They arrived on 19 January.

The Xplory is in fact the very first thing we bought for Omar. It is also by far our most expensive purchase. We are very happy with it. It is very well made. The high seating position means Omar can sit on the same level as us at the dinner table at home as well as at restaurants without having to use a highchair. The only downside is the Xplory’s bulk and weight, about 10kg, which we can live with. Pushing it doesn’t feel heavy at all. We'll definitely have to bear it in mind when we want to buy a car later, though. In the near future, however, we are thinking of investing in the PramPack for when we fly home. There is a great review of it here.

;)

73

I saw our apartment on Street View. It’s no big deal, I know, but unlike the last time I looked I could really see our apartment in view, with us staying there.

Let’s start with the satellite view of the area (do click on the pictures for full size). Our place is on Apsley Road/Banbury Road in Summertown, which lies just to the north of the city of Oxford. It is a very nice and convenient place to live. Oxford city is less than 20 minutes away by bus. The Summertown shops are just a fifteen minutes’ walk away with banks and shops like Boots, Cargo, Co-op, Costa, MBE, M&S and Tesco. Afi is excited about a new bookshop that has just opened, Barefoot Books.

Summertown House is a University of Oxford graduate accommodation. There are three apartment blocks in the complex with one, the unrefurbished East Block, available to families with children. We love it especially during the warmer days in summer to hear children playing on the grounds. Recently, Summertown House has turned into a small Malay kampung. There are now seven units in the East Block alone occupied by Malaysian couples or families, including us.

The building on the left in the third picture above is North Block. The one of the right is East Block. As evident in the picture, the refurbished North Block is a better, more modern-looking building. It is also much nicer to live in. We used to stay in a studio on the first floor. Studios can be identified in the picture by the lack of a balcony. The best thing about living in a refurbished block was central gas heating. Heating and hot water were already included in the rent, so we could turn the heat up and stay comfortable all year long.

Last February, we moved into a two-bedroom apartment just on the other side in East Block. We would rather not move out of the studio, but it was meant for singles in the first place, and as her pregnancy progressed along (Omar was on the way!) Afi grew more and more uncomfortable on the tiny single bed. It is the first apartment from the left on the first floor in the picture. I know that it is our apartment from the white lace living room curtains, our clothes on the airer, and Afi’s University of Surrey sticker on the window.

Apartments in the unrefurbished East Block are cheaper than the refurbished ones in North and West Blocks. However, they are also very poorly insulated and fitted with ancient electric heaters. Since the heaters are electric, the more you use them, the more you have to pay in electricity bill. With ever rising energy prices, that could amount to a lot of money. Thankfully, our apartment is carpeted; some of the others are not. As the temperature drops our main concern is making sure Omar is as comfortable as possible.

Nappies

One consequence of being a parent is one gets very intimately acquainted with the nappy (or if you prefer, diaper).

Before Omar was born, we considered using reusable nappies. They are both cheaper in the long run while at the same time more environmentally friendly. The first problem with that, however, was we do not have our own washing machine we could use every day to clean the nappies. Then, even if we were to wash them by hand, drying them in time would be another problem. So, until we return home to Malaysia, disposables became the natural choice.

We tried several brands of nappies, from well-known major brands to cheaper store brands, before we finally settled on just4bums from Kiddicare.

A box of size 2 nappies contains 240 pieces

The nappies themselves are great. A box contains a month’s supply, which is wonderful because we rely on public transport. The list price is £50 per box, but so far we have been paying only £19.99. Orders are delivered by courier the next day. There is even a free reminder service in case you forget to re-order, but we don’t use it. Kiddicare also offers to refund the nappies we do not use.

Omar turned 3 months yesterday, and coincidentally last night too we graduated him from size 2 (for 3-6kg babies) to size 3 (4-9kg). We don’t know how much nappies cost in Malaysia (I heard it’s a lot) but we are considering buying a few months’ worth to bring home when we return.

:P