.: I am Irfan :.

Ayah took Abang Shahrin and me to Jurong Bird Park today.
Tok and Nenek came along too.

I saw so many different kinds of birds!!
I didn't even know there were so many in the first place!
In any case, I was happy just to see my best buddy, Penguin's, family . :)

Here are some of the pictures we took...








Here's one of a flock of ducks and what I initially thought was it's Mama, but, was in actual fact a swan. A black swan, at that. How cool!




















Abang Shahrin and me at the entrance of the penguin exhibit











Nenek, Abang Shahrin and me taking a breather on a swing chair











Abang Shahrin stuck to a pelican ... and me not really bothered that he is stuck to a pelican.
















How many people do you need to push a Harrod's bag on a stroller?
Apparently 3. And Tok to watch over us in case anything happens .... to the bag, that is. heh.

A big day next Tuesday is going to be.
No, no. Not just big.MOMENTOUS, more like.
Right up there with the likes of "Irfan's first step", "Irfan's first words", "Irfan's first girlfriend" ... (ignore that last one. I'm getting a little ahead of myself there. heh.)

Next Tuesday ... will be my first day at school!
Yup! I'm officially (chopped, sealed & signed) going to be a BIG BOY now! Yessirree!
Mama and Ayah have been prepping me up for school for a couple of weeks now, telling me about all the fun things I'll get to do there, the wonderful friends I'll meet, and the lovely teachers that'll be taking care of me.
And I must say, after all that brain-washing, I am all psyched about school!

... except for one ... teeny-weeny .... problem ...

I think I'm going to miss Mama dearly .... :(

!!GASP!! I have only got 3 more months to practise!!

Let's go, elmo!
I need to be ready to push adik/mei mei around come February!
*beep*beep*beep*

Ayah pointing the way to the elephant exhibit. He is hilarious, my Ayah. He chooses the most interesting of times to let me have my first driving lesson. I mean, how many toddlers have had their first driving lesson at the zoo? .... wait ... how many toddlers have had driving lessons at all??? AYAH!!
















Anyhow, I am apparently a fast learner. This is me teaching Mama how to use the stick-shift.
















We finally reached the elephant exhibit and they were HILARIOUS!! Could you tell from our expressions?

Here are some of the other animals that we saw at the zoo!






































































.... oh wait ... these are some of the animals that I DIDN'T get to see ...
i was just way too tired and fell asleep right after the elephant exhibit!






















Oh well, there's always next time!
See you again, my furry animal friends!!

Mama and Ayah wishes for me to grow up to be a gentleman; open doors for people, give up seats to those who need it more, say my thank you and please etc ...

So, today's lesson is brought to you by the letter ... P!

p/s: My 17-mth-old tongue is still grappling with consonant clusters, so if you thought you heard me say "peace" instead of "please", you heard right. Pardon me, yeah? peace ... hurhur

Mama and Ayah think I've got a chance to be the poster-boy for READ! Singapore '09. Ya think?



Riiiiiiight ... Let's wait till I figure out what THIS one says first, Mama, Ayah ...

Good luck, Tok! Good luck, Nenek!
Prepare to burn off some calories with us around! ;)



cute, innit?
I hope the 3 of us won't look back at this in years to come only to say ...
"where did it all go wrong??"

Ayah's note: Choy!Choy!Choy! Touch wood!

Gosh ... I am picking up so many words nowadays Mama and Ayah's heads are spinning just trying to catch up!

Mama says my Chinese pronunciation, in terms of tones, has been pretty zhun.
And that's apparently a big deal. Heh.
We'll see how zhun it is when it really matters, Ma. See also: PSLE, "O" Levels, "A" Levels

Anyways, here's a sample few additions to the original list:
Jiu Jiu - "Uncle" in Mandarin
Ah Cheem - "Ah Gim" is Hokkien for "Aunt"
Ahlong - Malay for "eldest". Here, it refers to Ayah's eldest brother, whose real name is .... errr .. Ahlong? I think ...
Moto - Motorbike
bù jiàn le - Mandarin for "can't see it already"
duduk - Malay for "sit"


... and Mama's favourites:
PoPOto
Mamana

Guess what those two are.
Here's a hint to help you: the first is what french fries are made of, and the second is a term commonly used to refer to an angmoh-cised chinese. fiiiiiiine, I'll make it simpler: the second is a long and yellow fruit.

Tokyo ...

savouring food that is to die for ...





in the company of the ones you love to death.

oh, and one last thing ...



Happy 1st Birthday to me! :)
Thanks for celebrating my birthday together with me Mama, Ayah and my bestest buddies in the world: Elmo, Tang-tang and Penguin!

We were hoping it wouldn't, but the day had to come.
It was our last full day in the Big Apple and there was still so much left to be done, sights to see and smells to be savoured!
*Sigh*
I DO *heart* NY!!!


Aboard the ferry to Staten Island to bid "Adieu" to Madame Liberty (She IS technically French, after all)


Pretty picture of Mama ... heee ... love ya, Mama!! *muacks*


Okay, you can open your eyes now, Mama?
Tada!! Behold ... the Brooklyn Bridge!


View from the Top of The Rock



Ayah HAD to, just HAD TO, savour NYC's chicken-and-rice for one last time. They are, to quote Ayah:"BRILLIANT!! Just ... BRILLIANT!!"



Watch out, Tokyo!
Irfan-san's coming your way!

Since it's been almost 3 months since we came back from New York/Tokyo, I figured it'll be appropriate for me to continue the travel journal that was abruptly stopped roughly around 2 months ago (don't blame me, I have an attention span of a 1-yr-old. Oh wait ... I AM a 1-yr-old!!)

...

First, for the shocking bit ....
Day 4 .... DID NOT .... involve any SHOPPING!!
I mean, I didn't travel halfway around the world just to watch Mama and Ayah shop, ya dig?.
So, armed with the trusty NYC Official City Guide ...






















Me, myself and I decided that we're gonna get us some CULTURE and abit 'o the SUN.

So, off we went to the American Museum of Natural History ...
































































... and Central Park!!


























































Day 4 ... I liiiiiiiiiiike

as of 17 July 2008

Mamma (spoken in various pitches. see video here) - Mom
Yaya - Dad (Ayah means "Dad" in Malay)
Ma' - Grandma (Ah Ma is Grandma in Hokkien)
Tok - Grandpa (Datok is Grandpa in Malay)
Nenek - Grandma (Nenek is Grandma in Malay)
Jatuh - "To fall down" in Malay
Pecah - "To break (into pieces)" in Malay
Ten - 10
Mom-mom - Food
Nen-nen - Milk
Mai - "(I) do not want" in Hokkien
Vroom-vroom/po'-po' - Motorcycle
Kah/ po - po (nasal. like the sound of a horn) - Car
Bur-bird - Bird
Mao-mao - Cat
Byeeee - Bye. See video here.

Mama's been away for the past few days. (Irfan and Ayah miss you, Mama!!*muacks*)
But she'll be back tomorrow!!!Woohoo!!

Anyway, since Mama's been away, Ayah thought that this would be the best time to , quote:"train' me.
I hate to admit it, but I have still been waking up in the middle of night asking for "nen nen" (that's "milk" for those unfamiliar to irfan-speak).
I can't help it.

Ayah's been pestering Mama to start weaning me off this need for the longest time, but to be honest, I haven't been the most cooperative.
Not that they haven't tried, but after a couple of minutes of my incessant wailing, Mama (my most-lovely-best-in-the-world Mama whose love for me is deeper than the deepest ocean) will relent and give me my nen nen anyways. :)

So, back to the story, I've spent the last 3 nights with Ayah.
And I THINK I AM getting better! :)
On the first night, I woke up twice but Ayah managed to put me back to sleep by giving me some water instead of nen nen.
I did better on the second night, when I slept through from 10 to 5 a.m. According to Ayah, I did wake up twice, but I fell back asleep all on my own seconds after. Double Woohoo!!
And last night, I slept from 10 to 6 a.m.!!!!
Haha. Mama, you'll be so proud of me. :)
Irfan is a big boy now! (or at least, on the way to be one. :) )

On a side note, Ayah and I played a snoring game last night which got both of us cracking up.
Basically, Ayah has this particular trick (which is not exactly a trick because it doesn't work. And you can't really call it a trick if it doesn't work, can you?), where he tries to trick me into thinking that he is sleeping by faking a snore.
Anyway, I decided to catch him out on it by faking a snore too.
So, there we were ... on the bed ... trading snores ... and waiting to see who gets tricked by who.
Sounds fun, doesn't it?
It sure was!
Ayah started cracking up as soon as my third snore, and from then on, we were both snoring and laughing in turns.
Maybe Ayah and I will try the game with Mama when she comes back.
Mama, we miss you!!!

Day 2

The torturous flight the day before was fresh in our minds when we woke up in Milton Plaza Hotel at 4 a.m NY time.

It was to be another 4 hours before we could catch the first bus to Woodbury Premium Outlets, where some serious catharsis was waiting to be exercised.
Nothing cures jet lag better than some hardcore shopping.

True to form, we took the first bus to Woodbury armed with an empty suitcase, which was bursting at the seams by the time we took the last bus back to Port Authority Terminal.
Apparently, the suitcase served more than its purpose, because sometime in the afternoon (which was my regular nap time), Mama said I actually fell asleep while sitting on it.















It was about an hour ride to Woodbury. More than enough time to get cheeky with the ladies. Here's a picture of me trying to impress two of them with the number of teeth I have. Count 'em ladies ... all SIX of 'em ..


















This was my ride at Woodbury's ... for about an hour or so in total. I still prefer Mama and Ayah, and sometimes, the white suitcase you see in the background.



Day 3

The marathon shopping on Day 2 took its toll on all of us and we were dead beat on Day 3.
We didn't do much that day.
We did a spot of shopping at Century 21 in the morning (yes, more shopping :)) ...

surveyed the surrounding areas ...















frolicked in the hotel "pool" ...






















posed for some pseudo Calvin Klein ads ...





















and pretty much slept the rest of the day away.















This is the stuff holidays are made of ... sweeeeeet ....

After weeks of deliberating and despite advice from well-meaning folks ("he'll be crying throughout the flight", "he'll find it hard to adjust to the time difference" and "why waste money. he won't remember anyway!"), Mama and Ayah decided to bring me along for a holiday to New York and Tokyo after all.

Anyway, just to set the record straight ...

(1) "he'll be crying throughout the flight"

Not true. You can ask Mama and Ayah. The flight, or at least, the first 15 hours or so of it, was actually quite bearable. It was only during the last few hours before we reached Detroit that I felt enough was enough (... and made sure the entire section of the plane was aware of it too. hehe)

(2) "he'll find it hard to adjust to the time difference"

Not true either. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.

(3) "why waste money. he won't remember anyway!"

Huh? What holiday? hehe.
But seriously, there's no denying this one.
In fact I have a sneaky feeling that it is for this very reason that Ayah is making me blog about the trip.
I can picture it already ...
... 12 years down ...
... all my other classmates are packing off their bags to Sydney, Florida, Tokyo etc as incentive for having done well in their PSLE ...
... and I'm stuck here in my room in Singapore because it's pouring outside, moaning, "How come I don't get to go anywhere?!! I did well for my PSLE too!" ...
... and Ayah will go, "Boy, believe it or not, you have probably travelled further than any of your classmates! Don't believe me? Let me show you ..."

Day 1






















We had a 6.00 a.m. flight to catch. Unfortunately, Ayah didn't manage to secure us a bulkhead seat online, which meant we had to be at the airport by 3.00 a.m. to be the lovely people at NWA to give us the seats.
Despite the ungodly hours, Ah Ma and Ah Gu came along to see us off!
I love you Ah Ma! (you too, Ah Gu :) )
We did get the seats by the way, thanks to a lovely auntie from NWA. :)

















It was 20 odd hours to get to New York. Might as well use the time to get an education, said Ayah.















"Awww ... what a sweet little boy" you might say.
Well, let's just say that it got *alittle* uglier after this. heh.
















After ... 7 hrs to Narita, 12 hrs to Detroit, 3 hrs in Detroit and another 2 hrs to Newark ... finally, New York, New York!!
This one is a alittle something to all those who did not believe I could make it ... bllllpppppphhtt!!!
Nah, I'm kidding.
Time to rest before we get down to some serious VACATIONING!! Woohoo!!