Alfie

Preparing for the baby, that is the reason for the long absence of posting. Yes, Anna and I have been occupied by the welcoming of our first baby, Alfie. Our doctors predicted August 15 as Alfie’s birth day, but he chose to come out 3 days later.

Friends and families, please meet Alfie Shan Patunru, the little being who carries our genes. "Alfie" is a variant of alpha or of alif – both indicate “first”. "Shan" is a Mandarin of "mountain". Alfie was born 3.77 kilograms and 51 centimeters with normal delivery. His mother was well, despite the extra pain from vacuum pump. Thank you, God for the added joy to the family.

And there the new life has begun. We have done things to home to welcome the new comer. The bedroom now looks even more compact with a new colorful cabinet for Alfie’s stuff – our home decorator might be disappointed to know that his design had to be significantly altered, but Alfie can explain.

Anna has prepared a stack of music for Alfie. Of course she’s biased toward classics, and me jazz. But we believe Alfie has the right to his own bias. So we play him everything. From Bach to Chopin, from Ella to Diana Krall, from Titik Puspa to Tina Toon -- everything. As it turns out, Alfie seems to like ... ABBA and Fleetwood Mac! Whatever you say, Alfie...