Damn it!!! It was a night of great loss last night. After an unsatisfactory dinner with Desmond's friends that cost approximately 47 bucks per person after a 10% discount with for Amex cardholders at Carnivore Brazilian Churrascaria (it was unsatisfactory due to what I think is the lack of good red wine and the presence of a baby who wouldn't stop crying unless I carry her and walk around), we went on to Andrew's place for mahjong. Now, we are talking about hard core gamblers here. Desmond told me they love going for big stakes when playing mahjong, otherwise they find it a waste of their time (big stakes = 1 tai = 2 bucks, 2 tai = 4, 3 tai = 8, you know the arithmetic progression goes on, cat and mouse = 5 bucks etc. There are too many things in mahjong for me to list them out). Can you imagine? Mahjong is a waste of their time if stakes are too small (small means anything smaller than the big stakes.) -_-"
For the first round, Desmond was the representative for the both of us and since then, luck hadn't been with us. A loss of approximately 50 bucks had already been reported after the first 2 ports. It got even worse after I took over him (it wasn't because I was a lousy player, I swear! Read on to find out.) It was because his dear friend Gilbert did a SEVEN tai, zi mo (how friendly was that). Can you imagine??!! SEVEN tai! I sat down, barely played a game and had to hand him 80 bucks. I think everyone at the table nearly fainted when he gamed (I for one nearly fainted, luckily I had a heart slightly stronger than weak and managed to escape a heart attack). After that I had a few games but that wasn't even enough to cover any loss. At the end of the first round we had lost about 160 bucks. Then little Alyssa starting crying and in a bid to be a caring mother, I handed over to Desmond and the loss continued to escalate to 300 bucks at the end of the night. That is so sad. :( Needless to say, the big winner of the night was Gilbert.
Speaking of Alyssa crying. I wish she can start talking so she would tell me what's wrong instead of crying. What makes her think I'll understand what she's trying to convey simply by crying? That's not even an internationally recognised language. Unfortunately, she's not going to be talking to me anytime soon. According to Nicholas (my ex-colleague) and his wife who visited yesterday, Alyssa most probably wouldn't start talking until she is about 1 year old. Damn, that means another 10 more months of her crying. No fret though, I shall try out the guide at www.greatdad.com to help her develop her speech ability (don't ask me what I'm doing at a site meant for dads). Maybe I could get her talking sooner than 1 yr old. Or maybe I could teach her some sign-language (babyspeaking.com) but that may not be a good idea since Alyssa moves excessively and may be hard to actually attribute any intentions to her movement. Part of me is hopeful that she will start speaking soon because she has already started cooing a bit. According to a speech therapist-to-be (who is my brother's girlfriend's friend), blabbering leads to language formation, so that is some good sign for me, right? Anyway, before all that happens, I need to cope with her crying first.
Coping with a baby's crying isn't an easy task because you don't know what they really want. First things first, you try to feed her when she cries which is a dangerous thing to do if baby is formula fed. Desmond's colleague's baby became obese because her mum feeds her everytime she cries and now the baby looks like a mini sumo wrestler. Then you try to change her diapers (terrible if you find nothing on her diaper). Next is followed by carrying but even that doesn't happen sometimes. And we have the rocking chair, pacifier and the list goes on. So what happens if she still doesn't stop crying? I would really love to try let her cry it off. According to my friend Patrick, you'll need to let the baby cry it off one time. This is to let the baby learn that crying doesn't really get her anything so she wouldn't use crying as a means to get whatever she wants. Unfortunately, I'm unable to try that out because I live with my parents-in-law and trust me, there's a queue of people willing to carry Alyssa when she cries. So now I can only watch her turn into an incorrigible spoilt brat who cries to get whatever she wants. This is a real problem when I bring Alyssa out because it will mean I have to deal with her unstoppable cries when we are out as well. Sigh.
Luckily babies sleep but it will be better if I have slightly more luck than that.
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