翯和合鹤
霞顺十鸣
霓蔼礼一
虹祥拜声
万气佛冲
里薿如云
暄重来霄
。，，，

诗里的藏头为贺姓氏的藏音。大儿子和二儿子的名字再以藏音各自藏二、藏三于第一和第二行里。第三儿子藏六在第三行，暄就藏七在第四行。

鹤为中华文化里的吉祥之鸟。鹤响亮的鸣叫声冲上了云霄而得到了光明（阳光）。是以明白事理的先导，要冲破隔障（云霄）才能看清楚（阳光）一切事理的对与错。

第二行看似有点佛教的味道。它是以佛学（非宗教）里的哲学为基础。在佛学和这诗里，佛的意义博大精深，指的是有高等智慧而非一般凡夫之人类。如来是指大自然宇宙里头的一切知识和定律。这第二行意味深长。指的是以底姿态、诚恳地追寻大自然宇宙里头的一切知识和定律以增加本身和人类的智慧。

第三行则有和气、顺利、慈悲和吉祥之气薿薿。兄弟姐妹之间和周边人和蔼地相处。

当之前所有三大条件达成之后，三兄弟不只德高望重，人人敬仰，还让贺氏的声望气势如虹，名扬万里。

他们能不能做到，那就要看看他们长大后对这诗的领悟和造化了。或许他们做不来也无所谓，但愿他们努力为达成诗意，将之传承于后代。

献丑了。

Yesterday was the fourth day in school for both Dmitry and Dietrich. First, let’s talk about Dietrich. He has been adapting very well and not too difficult of sending him to school compare to Dmitry two years ago. He will walk straight into his class, put his bag down and then go to the playground to play with his friends. The only thing I notice is that he has been cool to everyone there. He is not having the same trait as Dmitry and Dominik.

Yesterday when I was there to pick up Dmitry after school, I saw him walked out with his good pal, Haiqal, who is in another class. I met his father on Wednesday. I noticed Haiqal was carrying a huge bag on his back so I told Dmitry about it. To my surprise, he asked Haiqal, “Mengapa bag awak besar?” (Why is you bag so big?). Dmitry is multilingual. He can speak English, Mandarin, bahasa and Chinese dialects Hokkien and Hakka. He can understand Cantonese but can’t speak because we don’t speak Cantonese at home.

I think I will start to pick up again some Polish at home with LA. She has been speaking some Polish words to the boys such as Dziękują (thank you), Mleko (milk), Dobry rano (Good morning), Dobre południe (good afternoon), and a few others. We can get some help from our Polish friend, Michał.

This morning after sending Dmitry to school, I spoke with other non-Malay parents who we met. Susan (Chinese) and Sharon (Eurasian-Indian) are worrying about their sons for not be able to catch up because they are weak in bahasa. I told Susan not to worry. It is only matter of time for her boy to learn.

I am glad to see Dmitry has such a good adaptation at school and fairly good command of languages.

Oh yeah. I spoke to some of the teachers there. Although they are Malay, they can speak very good English. Some of the Malay parents who I met can speak very good English as well. I find that the school has very good open policy. On the way back, I heard the headmistress talking to Susan and assuring her that her son would do well and he could speak English while learning bahasa.

We headed to Neway Karaoke Box in One Utama at 1700. The karaoke box was huge. The lounge was big enough to fit in all 20+ of us. It was a buffet dinner with free karaoke. The food was very nice and everyone was enjoying and had a full tummy.

As for our boys, this was their new experience, a new one. They had no idea what karaoke was about. Dmitry was really enjoying singing with his cousins. He sang Beauty and the Beast and Reflection (theme song in Mulan). I would say not bad at all at his age. He could recognize all the words in the lyrics. He was good comparing to his old daddy. Ha.. ha..

Dietrich joined him for a few kid’s songs. Dominik roaming around and having fun with all sort of food. He really enjoyed the food and the noises there.

We left for Melaka at 2245 and touched base at 0115. The kids were soundly asleep after a fun karaoke and tummy filling buffet session.

Today? Richie went to school for the first time to get him familiar with schooling life so that he can accustom easily when he starts his school officially next year. It was quiet at home with only LA, Nik and I. Nik was able to enjoy quiet moments without Richie bullying or disturbing him.

And today, guess what? Nik begins to show symptoms. His outbreak is slow with fewer blisters. We are supposed to meet up with LY tomorrow but it looks like impossible. They are so afraid that their daughter (same age as Nik) may get the chickenpox too.

Well, all three of them have gotten their chickenpox.

Dmitry and Dietrich were so excited. Especially Dietrich, he likes to blow off candles. So, Dmitry was trying to prevent that from happening. I was so afraid they might ruin the cake. Thank God the cake was safe.

Here’s our neighbor. They live across. Her husband is a lecturer in MMU. They are Indonesian expatriate.

There, the princes and princesses.

This is Gwen. She is 3 weeks older than Dominik.

Time for the present, the ultimate moment Dmitry has been waiting for…

After the party, having relax moment in our bedroom…

Dominik and Dietrich were excited about the bread. One thing for sure our children love bread very much.

We went to the town to see some CNY decoration. The decoration is not as beautiful as 20 years ago. Partly the reason is lack of sponsorship. Shops are not willing to sponsor as the local government does not care to participate in the CNY decoration.

I hope I will have some time this weekend to go downtown for photo shooting. I always wanted to do it but did not find time for it. I hope this year I can find some time for it.

After our drink, we went up to Jusco to see some electrical appliances. Umi called and told me to come to Coffee Bean and she had something for us. When I went there, she presented the card to me as a gift. Thanks Umi! It is a nice Christmas gift.

Today, I prepared the two dishes for the kids and LA. They loved it so much!

I am able to channel this feeling to traning but when I am not training and writing on my MacBook, I think of them so much.

I know what is my next birthday wish will be but this time, no one could ever make my wish comes through. I will have to work very hard to make this second wish come true and that can take me years to realize the wish. I hope LA and the three dinos can be patient.

Thanks grandma and uncle BS for coming to help.

It was about 4 years ago when the last flood came. D was still a baby. So this was the second time for D and first time for Rich and Nik.

We are all fine and in good health and at this moment as I am writing this post, the water has subsided and we have cleaned up all the mess. No losses of property.

This is the 5th time our area was flooded. Can you imagine how the hell can Bukit Beruang (our area is supposed on the high ground!) get flooded? This area has been heavily developed with more houses and high rise apartments. Tress have been chopped down. When the city council approved the plan for development, their oversight on irrigation systems has caused this inconveniences. What a GREAT! job they have done! Despite of previous floods, nothing has been done to improve the irrigation system. So incompetence and ignorant.

The two big boys were a little agitated by the loud drum noise. Dominik was really enjoying the drum rhythms and he was kind of dancing and getting excited in the whole event.
D and R enjoyed so much playing with the colorful papers from the party poppers.

Last August when my wife gave birth to Dominik, my mom sent her maid to our home to help. She helped to wash and cook. We did not want her to even lay a finger on our kids. But my 2nd son, Dietrich, liked her very much and liked to hug her. We left it to be but we tried to prevent him from doing so as much as we could.

Then I had retinal detachment in September. Had a surgery and needed for follow-up examination in KL. My wife would drive me to KL for the examination. One day in October, my wife sent me to the clinic in KL without taking any kids along (we left them at home together with my MIL and the maid), we discovered a small bruise on my eldest son left inner arm. We became suspicious about her and my wife asked Dmitry who did this. He told my wife that the maid “pinch” her! My wife asked him 5 times and he answered 5 times the same answers! Then my wife and I checked on Dietrich and found a bruise on his right waist. Dietrich did not know to express yet. Then we decided to file a police report and sent her to the police station for investigation. And we had to sent our kids to General Hospital for examination! After the police investigation, we deported her back to Indonesia.

Why did she pinch the kids? We trained our kids to do household chores. It appeared that Dmitry wanted to help her to clean the dining table. Apparently, the maid did not want him to do that so they were snatching the cleaning cloth. And the bitch pinched him. As for the case of Dietrich, we did not know what happened because he did not know how to express himself yet.

Of course not all Indonesian maids are bad. My mom had one maid earlier and she was very hardworking and quick in her work. We, particularly my sister Angie, really missed her. Angie missed her so much even until the last days before her departure. We tried to contact her in Indonesia but failed.

Before this happened, my wife and I had talked about installing CCTV at home. But before we could finalize the decision, this unpleasant thing had already happened. It was too late to install and we would never need to install one because my mom had decided not to employ any maid anymore.

If you want to install one, then do it! Don’t think about the cost or its worthiness. You never know what these fanatic Indonesian maids can do (but not all of them are like this).

Luckily, the incident did not leave any permanent psychological effect on our kids.

When we arrived at the park, it was noon time and there were some crowds at the tracks and some kite sellers and parents with kids were flying kites. So we went to Roger’s Kites stall and bought a kite for RM45! It was quite expensive for a small one but according to the man, it will last for 2 years because of the stitching. So we bought it.

I had not been flying kite for more than twenty years. I could not get the kite up. After many tries, the man who sold us the kite offered to help us. He slightly explained and I had recollection of the techniques in the younger days. With his help, we finally got our kite soaring high in the sky. Can you spot which kite is ours? The photo was taken using my cell phone the kites look small.

When we arrived home, it was an hour before midnight. We prepared then ate the crabs just before midnight. Nik was sleeping already. D and R were so eager to eat te crabs with toasted breads.

Just before the clock struck 12, I called Michal in Poland to wish him and his mother and girl friend a Happy New Year. Michal, if you are reading this, Happy New Year and we wish you were here to celebrate with us New Year 2007 and have crab party. Do you still remember the restaurant we had crabs party beside a temple?

We checked in to Mahkota Hotel at 9th floor in Jasmine block. This was the first time we stayed in Mahkota Hotel. The one-room apartment was not too bad except that D and I had to sleep on the floor. We bought some supper and ate in the hotel while watching TV until midnight.

We woke up at 0700 and had breakfast at 0800 and 0830 we were heading to the pool. The breakfast was quite a hectic one as both D and R were getting excited about the pool and could no longer sit still to eat their breakfast and Nik was starting to make noise. LA and I had to wash down our breakfast with juices.

When we were at the second pool, the water was cold and the morning breeze made us felt colder. But that did not stop the kids jumping into the water. R was shivering and I had to wrap him with two pool towels and to rubbed him to keep him warm. As soon as he had warmed up, he insisted to go into the pool again. We played until the sun came out and we began to feel warmer but we had to go fearing of getting sun burn.

We returned the pool towels and went back to our hotel room and took some hot drinks and hot bath/shower. After the hot shower, D laid down on the couch and fell asleep. Soon, Nik was asleep on my chest followed by me. LA and R took the luggage to the car. When they were back, LA took some candid shots of three of us sleeping.

R got his first mini waterfall bath.

Ooooo…. cold. An gu…. The water was cold. Nik only got his feet wet.

R was shivering.

Teaching R to swim, actually kicking his legs in the water.

D was soaking in the cold water and sneezing away.

R was wrapped in two pool towels and I rubbed his body to keep him warm.

Caught in candid camera having siesta after the swim.

Nik was sleeping on my chest.

R was helping mommy to pack.

R gave D a kiss. Smuck!

And a smuck to daddy.

Daddy woke up and kiss kiss!

LA, Nik with cousins Lilian, Vivien and Shane

LY with Nik and LA with Su-An

Strong grandma

Nik with cousins Sharlene, Vivien and Wendy

D and Rich got their Christmas presents from Santa Clause (daddy)

D got this dream Yoyo and R got some play stamps

LA suggested to go to Mahkota Parade and there we go. To our surprise, D said he wanted to stay with grandma. So we left both D and R with grandma. Poor grandma, she had to take care two musketeers.

It was Nik’s second visit to departmental store. He was excited to look at lights and people walking by. When he was tired, he would sleep in cuddles.

After taking many look at all the shops selling sports shoes, I decided to buy a pair of Addidas running shoe. It fits my large feet well. I really liked this Addidas UK 12 size and its design. I was hesitating because of the price, which was RM167.90 after 40% discount! LA said that was her Christmas gift to me. But I was still hesitating because of the price and it might not last long. Finally, I decided to take it. Honey, thanks for the early Birthday and Christmas gift!

Now, I’ve got the shoe but I feel a little pity to wear it for running. I hope this pair will last me for at least 2 to 3 years to spread even the cost.

When we arrived at grandma’s, we learned that R had stepped into the drain. Luckily, we had bought him and D a new pair of sandal earlier before we went to MP.

We arrived home around 2030 and three musketeers were soundly asleep in the car. It was a tiring day for all of us.

After LA’s massage at my parent’s, we passed by a restaurant beside a temple. I went down to buy her a crab in sweet and sour sauce. I bought a small bottle of Guiness Stout. It has been a long time since my last Stout in the mid 1990s! While I was waiting for the crab at the restaurant, I saw an old man ordering Stout. I did not know why I had the urge to drink Stout after so many years.

We came home and set in the dining room to eat the crab with toast breads. Umph… yummy! D and R like the crab and the sauce with toast breads too!

Michal, if you are reading this, can you remember we took you to this restaurant for seafood? You were so enjoying the crabs! We wish you will come visit us again and we can have crabs party. I can’t remember if I made you a picture eating crabs. I am going to go through my CD archives to find out.

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Last night when we returned from our parent’s, it was almost midnight. R was very sleepy and I took out the mattress and he laid on it. I gave him nice pat and he was sleeping soundly in no time. “Are you sure you want him to sleep with you? What happen if he wakes up crying looking for mama in the middle of night?”, said LA. “Don’t worry for that now. Let me take care of him if he wakes up crying.”, I replied.

I quickly washed and retired beside R at 0015. This little dino was really tired. He was sleeping motionlessly (except his little snoring). I woke up a number of times to check him and he was still sleeping in the same position. About 0300 (I think), R woke up suddenly without making any noise and he walked into the bedroom and climbed onto the bed. When LA woke up this morning, she was surprised that R walked in himself without waking up everyone.

We had dinner together awhile ago and I just finished washing dishes. When I was doing the dishes, R snatched the table cloth from D and he shouted and made a lot of noise, “Mum! Mum! Richie took the table cloth!” And R made some noise too, “nyum..nyum..nyum…Ah!” Then I heard LA said to D, “D, you stand at the table and don’t talk. Richie will return the cloth to you.” Interestingly, about a minute later, R return the cloth to D! I was amazed and I laughed.

I am going to take my bath and later will take LA to my parents to ask my uncle to give her a massage. She hurt her back on Monday night. We were at a temple watching “Fire Walking” ceremony. She was carrying R for too long. I was carrying D. I hope to acquire a good telephoto lens for my Canon so that I can make some pictures at the temple next year.

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Nik was sucking fingers with big bro look on.

Happy big bro!

Nik was getting fussy.

Don’t disturb, ok?

Rich followed Nik’s finger sucking in the background.

Yawn…

When we woke up in the morning, the house stirred into motion. We were busy preparing to go to the hospital to take mommy and Dominik home.

They were running and chasing each other but after a while, Dmitry was starting to teach his younger brother karate!

I really believe kids learn by playing. Their privilege should never been taken away from them.

The virus had cross-infected among us so rapidly.

Last night, Dietrich was not able to sleep the whole night and made lots of fuss and noises. He was awake almost whole of the night disturbing his mother.

I picked mom at her home and sent everyone to the clinic to see a doctor. We spent almost an hour there trying to get both dinosaurs to cooperate. After taking the prescription, we sent grandma back and home we went.

I asked the doctor to give some medicine that could sedate the dinos. Dietrich fell asleep soon after taking his medication.

At the time I write this post, both dinos are slumbering into their dreamlands. The entire house is once again return to its serenity. I wish them speedy recovery and want see them be active again.

It started Sunday night with some itching in my throat. I should have taken precaution measure but I did not. I could not sleep well on Monday night due to a power failure at night. The morning of Tuesday was when everything got worse. I thought it was just a sinus or nose allergy that I usually had. After taking Clarinase and a rest in mid day, I went to St David to coach. I felt better after coaching but things started to get worst at night.

I gave it to my second son, Dietrich, and we both went to see a doctor. He and I were recovering but he had a sudden on set on Thursday so we brought him to see another doctor. After taking some medicine, he was getting better.

On Thursday night, my eldest son, Dmitry had a sudden high fever of 39.5°C. He was shivering. Called the doctor and followed his instruction to sponge him with luke warm water. We managed to bring down his fever after 2 hours. It was midnight then.

When I was sick, I did a lot of thinking. The virus that attacked us was a very strong virus. The greatest enemy is ourselves. When our natural body immunity is low, we are so vulnerable. So weak we are. So fragile. Not even karate can defend against such attacks.