Being tired

I finally managed to find a way to get those kids entertained. Created word search puzzles, crossword puzzles and the like, and boy ... did I have peace after that. Oh, not so much really. The girls could finish them in five to ten minutes! So the next day, it was a 25x25 puzzle. That got them stumped. :) And I had lots of backups after that. Maze games, more crossword puzzles ... they seemed pretty pre-occupied with their work.

And that pretty much settled for revision. Yay me.

And yes, it's Friday again, and Monday is a holiday. Yay me.

:)

I must stop finding excuses and get my butt down for yoga, before I become fatter and more nua. Like a slug. I'm feeling like a slug nowadays, simply oozing around trying to stay out of the heat. heh. Speaking of slugs, there was a program on BBC about snails. Eating them I mean. They were pretty good, the producers. Hubby and I felt that we could really eat snails after listening to them expounding on the virtues of snail eating. And they were starting to listen delicious.

Then again, we were hungry. On our way to my parents' place for dinner. :P

What's wrong with eating snails anyway? They're just like clams, or oysters, or prawns or ... well. And probably cheaper too, since you can just pick them up from your garden. *bleah*

And so what do I really want for my birthday? It was definitely a straight forward question, and I did think about it.

And am still thinking about it. :P

I got a $50 voucher from my favourite clothes store. Shall go shopping soon! heh heh.

Perhaps I could want the set of four comic books from the anime Howl's Moving Castle. They're selling them at Kino. I had the series for The Cat Returns.

But I still prefer the original story by Diana Wynne Jones. Howl in the anime doesn't feel like Howl in the book. He's too fake, not charming or wicked enough. And too much is removed from the story. Oh well.

I'm suffering from a dearth of animes. Gakuen Alice is pretty good. But it seems to be coming out once a month. Torture!

Giving your hp number to your students can end up as a chore. Was spending quite a long time exchanging smses to a student's questions. Pretty dumb actually, especially since all those questions I had gone through before in class. Seems that some people just don't pay attention and expect private tuition at any time. I wouldn't have minded very much if the questions were something I've never touched upon. But they were the same ones again and again! Good grief!

Then again, I have not much of a life nowadays. To spend Friday night holed up at home with cooking, cleaning and washing ... and feeling tired and lazy. *sigh*

Lin is so very busy. It's very hard to meet up with her. She has turned into a workaholic. To think that we waited for her for one whole hour the last last time. And recently we didn't even managed to meet up because YS couldn't wait for her and wanted to start dinner first. When she did that, I knew somewhere in my heart that Lin wouldn't be turning up anymore. It can be quite tiring to be with YS. I ended up reading my book. :P She does whines quite a bit. All in all, it was quite disappointing, because I never liked Sakae Sushi. It was only bearable and even fun if eaten with someone who is tremondously enthusiastic about it. I certainly didn't enjoy myself and it wasn't cheap either.

meow

We saw a big fat lion cat sitting majestically outside a kopitham. Oh yes, extremely fat and cute and regal. Damn kewl!

mao!

another day

I had wanted to go somewhere and chill. Find a nice comfy place, lounge about and read a book, and drink ... pause ... that's the problem. I don't take coffee, and I don't really want to drink tea. So I didn't know where I could go, and ended up wandering like a meaningless ghost.

*sigh*

Just a little down.

Comfort food

Ahh, haggan daz tramisu and strawberries from Japan. For breakfast. The strawberries were very expensive, but very sweet ... and pretty. I wonder if the normal ones are just as good. Hmm. Four times more ex. :P

But such a nice breakfast would surely cheer anyone up. :) Quite.

I think it is my blurred eyesight that is irritating me to no end. And of course the dear thumb. Bad thumb. I don't feel 100% yet.

Oh well.

Update: 10.12am

Just checked my wound. It's about 12mm in length, and real deep at one end. One part of it is nicely healing, but the deep end, the meat from inside is still showing. You know like when you cut a raw fish, and the meat spills out, or when you cut a piece of your medium rare beef steak, and it budges out all red and bloody? Anyone grossed out yet? Well, I was quite. Better wrap it up and keep from sight.

:P

Called my mom yesterday to get sympahty. Didn't quite dare to tell her I cut my thumb on opening a can. Felt very stupid to open can with hand. That was one of those things mom drilled into me when young. She assumed that I cut myself with a knife. It helps somewhat to talk to mom.

She doesn't think it's a good idea to simply do the carpet. I'm somewhat two minds about it. Doing carpet seems to be letting them off too lightly. Now that they are so willing to redo the entire room for us. But both of us just can't bear to go through three months of that again.

What a headache.

The decision is between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I shall watch animes instead.

The most stupid thing ever!

Opening the can with my hand. And promptly cut my thumb. Of course. Damn deeply. Damn painful too.

Bled all over the kitchen sink. Can even see them meat peeking out of the wound. Gross me off lunch.

Had it glued. Stitches is so last generation. Thumb now good for nothing. *sniff*

And of course it had to happen on the day we invited hubby's family over for dinner. I still managed to cook, abiet slowly. We did: lotus shoot soup with pork ribs, egg with onions, prawns and squids with red bell pepper, chicken nuggets with seaweed, and stir fry bak choy with scallops. Hubby and I both agreed that we won't do this again.

I learned to peel prawns and cracked eggs with my left hand. What's that? Ambidextrous? :P

Still not worth it. :(

Today is sunday. I am so not looking forward to tomorrow. *sigh*

The big boss came down to look at the timber flooring. He was very obliging and extremely polite. Agreed that indeed they were sloppily done. Yes yes, nod nod, very sorry. This cannot be so. We'll redo the entire room. Both of them. We'll hack down part of the wall to repair. I think it had got to do with the letter. However, I'm not sure we want to live through the nightmare again. *sigh* Three more months of that, I'll go crazy. The curtains are up. Life is quite comfy now. *sigh sigh sigh*

So how now, brown cow?

:(

I should go for yoga today, but I don't feel up to it. I just feel like wallowing in depression at home. Besides my eyes are still a little dry, and my thumb is injured. Definitely excuses.

*sigh*

And I've made a miscalculation somewhere, and going to have to pay for it. Was winning earlier! What happened?

Cheers

My steamed pork-ribs in black bean sauce was a success! Hubby liked it. Even me, ever so critical, felt that it was pretty good. heh heh. Except perhaps it could do with less salt, not that I added salt in, just less of the black bean sauce to make it less salty. The bittergourd wasn't too happy init though. I was thinking of putting them in later, but the lazy half of me said,'what the heck' and dumped everything in together. The pork ribs were tender, and the bittergourd almost disappeared into the gravy. *bleah* Perhaps my subconscious was telling us that the bittergourd which had been kept for too long should not be eaten.

At least we finished that. Although I had to throw almost half of what was left away.

We also had snow peas with prawns and minced pork, stir fry. Snow peas weren't in a very good condition either. I think I ought to check the container more often to see what's in it. :P

I think I shall try Western dishes next time. I'm thinking of making couscous. I like the couscous at Esmarada, and the seafood soup. Hmm ... perhaps my birthday. :P Although it's so expensive, we're just waiting for any discounts.

Hubby's birthday is coming. I'm making beef steak. What else? :P It's special, because I don't cook beef steak very often, but otherwise I think making beef steak is one of the easiest thing to cook. The mash potato is a little troublesome. And I always cheated with the mushroom soup. heh heh. Hmm, what style should I cook this time?

And now the pile of dishes are sitting happily in the sink waiting to be noticed.

I'm not seeing them. But hubby is not moving from the tele either. I'll forgive him this time, but when he's on holiday, he'll do the washing. :P

I'm glad xena's back on writing her blog. It's different reading other people's blogs. Hers has a quiet charm, it make you want to read again. And again. And waiting for her to write more. The other fellow who writes just as intense and silent is re-mi. I guess perhaps they leave a lot of things unsaid, and perhaps a little in between the lines. That's charm.

Me? I just rumble along like a little cloud. Sometimes fluffy like a flying turtle, sometimes dark as an angry wombat. *bleah*

Did I say I also like Jo Sharp's knitting books? :P It might be a little too late to order them online to be in time for my birthday present though. *bleah*

Okie, right now the stuffs I still lack (or rather want) are ... [I'm greedy!]
1. slow cooker (they say toyami brand good)
2. small non-stick frying pan (wen says the german brand benados or something is good)
3. electric juicer for squeezing oranges (different from those apples one lah) ... [I'm also fussy!]
4. ...

Can't think of any right now. :P

Bumped into L the other day. Everyone's asking me what I want for my housewarming. I feel quite paiseh to tell them, because the stuffs I want are rather ex. Maybe I won't even throw a housewarming party. heh heh. I'm too lazy to prepare food for so many pple. Hmmm ....

Some idiot is playing the four knights again. How can I run from that? Arrgh.

Monday again

Yup, the horrid day again. I was feeling extremely hungry and sorry for myself by 3pm. Managed to find some biscuits to eat. It's just such a depressing and stressful day. I don't believe I've ever felt like that before in my previous workplace.

*sigh*

Anyway, it's good to be home.

Cooking can be very stressful, and destressing ... and it's fun. :)

Have finished preparations for dinner, going to cook soon.

I was shocked to find three quarters of a bittergourd in the tupperware. Dunno put how long! I guess we would be having bittergourd for the next couple of days. Today's menu: chicken with mushrooms and bamboo shoots, bittergourd with egg, and bittergourd soup. I was actually thinking of putting bittergourd in the chicken as well, but I think both of us need a break. :P

So tomorrow, I've decided it'll be bittergourd with pork-ribs in black bean sauce. Steamed. heh heh. And hopefully that'll be the end of the bittergourd. :)

I need more ideas for cooking. It's really very fun to cook. :) One of those days when I'm freer, I'll try to cook something interesting. :)

For lack of a better title

I wrote a blog on Monday, but it was eaten up by blogger. I saved it somewhere, but it didn't seem appropriate to post now, since I don't feel that way at the moment. Basically it was a rant of how I hated Mondays. No lunch break and extremely blued Monday. Then again, I was still sick on Monday, so that added to the misery.

But now I'm ok. Well, much better. My eyes had gone dry. I wondered if it was because of the antibiotic eyedrops. They're still red and a bit sore, because of the dryness, and especially bad in the mornings.

And hubby got sick too. With compliments from me. Exactly the same symptomes. Waking up in the middle of the night, feeling as if someone stick a knife down the throat. It's just as tiring if he gets sick.

I can't sleep a lot nowadays. By 6am, I had to jump out of bed. Anything but lying down. This is bad. Even when I was sick, I couldn't sleep much either. Oh dear.

*sigh*

I feel depressed at work. Did I mention I don't like the people here. I prefer my colleagues back at the previous place. Perhaps it was the familiarity. And sometimes now and then, I think about my ex students. I wonder if they are managing the chess club ok. One of my good boy smsed to ask for help. I hope he manages to continue playing more chess. I hope the CG club is doing well. Gee, I miss my former form class.

Perhaps I'm just tired.

I have to do other stuffs besides working and cleaning the house. I've checked out violin lessons at the not-so-near-or-far music centre. I hope they have good teachers there, and not someone who was just green behind the ears and didn't even know that G minor has an F#. I wish I could bring my piano over soon, so I can bang on it a while, and pick up all those pieces which I've tried to learn over the years. I wish those players at chessworld would hurry up and make their moves, since that's the only entertainment (well, besides reading), that I derive ... and there's a couple of games I'm winning, and I can't wait to get satisfaction out of them. Well, there were a few extremely unclear games as well. I've run out of moves in those. Closed games, that's why. Both of us were simply dancing around the position.

We went down to Park Mall again and drooled at the furniture there. They got beautiful chess sets too. I don't mind getting one for my birthday, you know. :P The cheapest one lah. Very cute pieces. heh. They don't come with the chessboards though. But the pieces were very unique. Very cute. Yeah, that's the word. Cute. cutsie chess pieces. You've just gotta see them. heh heh. It's the wood. I like wood stuffs. But then, why would I want so many chess sets for? hmm.

If you want to challenge me to a game of chess, go to www.chessworld.net.

Idle Saturday

Daa! Daa! Daa! is really sweet. heh

Just finished watching them all. Really really sweet.

I guess we're going to idle the whole day away. Gonna make dinner soon. Steamed chicken, steamed tofu, vege and maybe soup. :) But there's no substitute for the stuffs my parents cook! Dinner cooked by them is still the best!! yum yum!! Friday night's dinner especially tasted wonderful. I had not two but three helpings! yum yum yum! It's just taste different, the way they cook. No matter how awful the week had been, no matter how sick one had been, and how lack of appetite one was in ... that Friday's dinner was really heaven. Simple stuffs like bittergourd with eggs, prawns with mushroom and soup ... was enough to make me go for three helpings. I'd never tasted anything so superb.

I've not reached their stage yet. There's just something missing in my meals.

And that so wonderful dinner, I fell asleep immediately after. Wished hubby was there that night to have dinner with me. :P But he declared he loved my japanese noodles soup I made for him before we left ... so I guess that's fine too.

*beamz*

I'm glad to be well now. No more bad throat, no more fever, no more coughing, no more sore eyes ... and I suppose no more lazing at home. heh.

But that also means ... ice-cream later. *bleah*

Driving Terror

1) Singaporean Drivers are just plain allergic to their indicator lights.

2) They will never, even upon pain of death, ever indicate when they are about to change lane
Oh yes! Ohyesohyesohyes!! When they do that and nearly cause an accident, I really wish lightning would strike them twice and fry them quick. Or rather, just a hard tight slap would do. Didn't their mama ever teach them manners?

Just the other day, some bastard of a driver cut into our lane at the traffic junction. What? He thought he was a fast porsche huh? When the lights turned green, he drove straight cutting into our lane. Blarddy arsehole. Keep to your lane. And it was a straight road, mind you! And it was in the morning too. Some people have got no cow-sense. *fuming mad*

4) Taxi drivers always indicate before they change lanes, but don't give a rats ass whether you take notice or not, ergo (I watched the Matrix...) all drivers give way to Taxis.
I'm not sure if taxi drivers always indicate when changing lanes, but one thing which sure as hell pisses me off is that they always stop anywhere they want with very little notice. If you ever drive behind a taxi, for all you know, suddenly the hazard lights turn on, and they would almost stop one second after, anywhere from a slip road to a single lane road, and always just right in front of you. Stay away from them!

6) If non-Taxi changes lane anyhow (I'm a fast learner), The Singa Driver (tm) does make way but honks indignantly.
Actually ... from the point of the driver who honks, not that I ever honk, since I just can't multi-task with too many things when I'm driving, and honking requires a third hand and a third eye, which thankfully I'm just a normal girl ... well, what I mean to say is that there are people who indicate and expect the right of way to get into your lane, without considering that 1. they are driving rather slowly and they want to change into the fast lane, and 2. there is a car coming down on them fast and to CUT into that lane like that is damn rude as well as dangerous ... you can't expect one to brake so suddenly just because you think the road is clear. And no, I do not agree about the accelerating part, I think it's just that you have a bad judge on the speed of the incoming car. So it is indeed irritating, when there you are driving fast in the fast lane, conscienously leaving a good distance from the car in front of you, and there some idiot decides to CUT into your lane thinking he can just go as fast when there is actually no where faster to go, causing you to jam on your brakes. I would like a third hand to horn.

*bleah*

And just the other day I panicked and had to fumble with the silly cashcard when I went under the ERP gantry. I'm not sure if I managed to get it in in time ... one needed four hands for that, two set of eyes and an extra brain. Bloody erp, bloody cashcard slot. 9am and there's still erp?! I didn't know which way to insert the card. :P

I guess we'll be expecting a letter soon. *sigh*

On a good note, I guess I'm driving quite nicely now. No more panicking when changing lanes on an expressway, pretty good at the parking part, and definitely more relaxed on the whole. Still just a little misjudged when come to stopping along the curbs, usually ended up bumping a little. heh. :)

Daa!

I haven't been writing because I had been sick. It is already more than a week. My MC rate has shot sky-high, but you know ... they don't really give you much sympathy. Today I dragged myself to work, even though I was coughing away, and I pretty much lost my voice and had to go home early. But nooo ... no sympathy there either. *sigh*

It just makes one thinks how awful this world is huh.

Anyway, it's nice not to go to work, but it sucks to be sick. I can hardly eat any nice stuffs. I bought two tubs of Hazgan daz the other day when they were on offer, and I had not even touch any of them yet! *sob* I felt stress, but I could hardly indulge in that canister of potato chips back home. *sigh* It isn't that nice to be sick after all, especially when you get suspicious looks in that order.

:(

So I've been playing quite a bit of chess, watched quite a few animes ... latest craze is Daa! Daa! Daa! Very cute one. heh. Cooked and cleaned the place quite a bit too. I seemed to have problems sleeping lately, perhaps that kinda make me hard to get well, I guess.

Oh well ... it's kinda ... depressing ... in a way.

Butter Biscuit

Last night I moonlighted as a taxi-driver and drove Wen to pick up her puppy. We had to go all the way to some super far and ulu warehouse. Now, when I mean ulu I really mean it. We got lost a few times and went round the place twice, made a few illegal u-turns as well ... but good thing very little traffic.

Her puppy cried for ten hours. Tears caked onto her eyes. Poor little mutt. Oh .. I mean purebreed.

Eventually we got her to quieten down and she seemed quite happy ... after some snacks, lots of hugs, a walk and a pee, and dozz off on the long journey home. Wen said the Changi Nasi Lemak was very good. I just couldn't resist getting one for hubby. :P

And it was really good. Especially when we were fighting over one packet only. :P :P

Ack, my throat.

I took a few pics, but they didn't turn out quite well ... and I don't have any software to cut a few stuffs out. So here's only one.



So sweet eh?

Biscuit was very happy to have a playmate ... until she saw his toys. It became a tug of war, a shove and a push, and low menacing growls. We definitely saw him pushing her away, and she fell with tud. Ohh, and she hasn't learned how to brake yet, and hit the glass door extremely loudly on the head.

Bis is definitely much much bigger. heh heh

But she's prettier. At least her ears are in the proper alignment.

Wen wanted to call her Butter ... but one of her friends had Buttercup. Then perhaps Button might be nice. I prefer butter ... butter biscuit. heh. Then C went like ... ohh, Button .. Butt Butt ... Hey Butt ... ha haha. So I guess Holly she will be till her mom can come up with a better name.

Welcome to spore, little holly! :)

Life is a battle ...

against dust and clutter and contractors. And horrible people too. I don't have time or energy or the mood to do work when I bring it home. There's cooking, followed by washing and cleaning to do. And by the time one starts winding down, one can't do anything else except be stoned on bloging. *sigh*

We were informed by our friendly neighbour's mother that the whole building shook last night and terrified them went down to avoid building collapse. The mom rang our doorbell wildly ... but unfortunately we haven't installed one yet. And we certainly didn't feel any shakes whatsoever. Too soundly asleep. Too dead to the world. Slept the beauty peace of the baby. :P I suppose if there's ever a fire, we might sleep through it too, though the bloody fire-bell is just outside our door.

So we now know that if there're any disasters, people run out of the building to downstairs, and NOT into the bomb shelter. Excellent ideas someone had. We all know who. How really stupid. Now we see the three hundred and sixty round about turn. Ohh ... but who are we to complain? After all sheeps can only bleat huh.

baa

PM asked what I usually cook. I can't remember off-hand, so I shall keep a record of sorts here. Tonight's dinner, I truely thought, was great. heh heh. Self-praise is real praise. :P :P Okie okie, watercress soup with chicken-bone stock; steamed tofu with minced pork and prawn; asparagus with prawns and dried mushrooms and stir-fry squid with chilli. I would have taken photos of it, but that's going way to far self-patting on the back. heh heh. Actually the real reason was no digital camera lah. *bleah* Yesterday's dinner was pork rib soup with lotus shoot; chicken with ginger and needle mushrooms, egg with bittergourd and minced pork. Hmm, Sunday lunch was egg omelette with onions, stir-fry beef with celery; assorted mushrooms with minced pork and peas, and too lazy to make soup.

Boy, thinking of all these food still makes me hungry. :P

Cooking does get a bit boring sometimes. There's only a few dishes I know how to cook. Dunno how to make curry chicken (too troublesome actually) ... and dunno what other stuffs to cook. Only know chinese style of cooking. What should I do?

There's something wrong with me today. I'm still feeling rather hungry! Mustn't eat too much, must go yoga tomorrow. Repeat chant.

I feel like junk food. :X

Probably I'm falling sick ... been sneezing like crazy for a while. And throat does feel a bit sore.

And the walls are still cracked.

Overwhelming weekend!

I've never had such a wonderful weekend for such a long time now!

First of all, when did all those slopes appear at the East Coast Park?!?!?!! *mutter* I don't remember so many slopes. The usual humps, yes ... but slopes? And they were quite steep too! Ack.

Well, not that I fell when we went there on Friday. But the difficulty level sure went up. The slopes were not as bad as West Coast Park, but it's scary enough.

Min didn't take the hint in the beginning. She went zooming on her bic once she got her hands on it. There I was at the shop waving my arms at her to get her back to hold my hands. I needed time to get used to the sudden mobility what. I'll give PM marks for bravery though. She didn't wait for no one, and landed with a scraped elbow. :P We could manage humps this time, and as long as PM didn't panic and swerve into me, we were fine and went pretty fast. I guess I'm not too good a friend to her. Everytime when she panicked and cut into my lane, I let go of her hand and allow her to crash. *bleah* She fell flat onto her nose once, and crashed into some stupid bike stopping in the middle of a slope. Poor her ... but it sure was a fun time! :) :) And we had dim sum after that at my favourite dim sum place!! :) heh heh

Two hours in the hot sun sure gave me two different colours. I wonder if the other two had started to peel yet. :P

Okie, so Wen had shark fin's egg tart in HK, but I'm not missing anything! :P

I was running on lack of sleep on Friday, with only two hours of sleep. Yet I was so extremely high-strung. I guess it had to do with spending the whole night watching anime and looking forward to meeting my friends. Not very safe though, especially the driving part.

And speaking about driving on the roads, let me add on to Re-mi's declaration on road signs here. The road signs are all ridiculous. Many of them are hidden behind trees, some of them are extremely inaccurate. There was this road sign which showed ECP(Changi Airport) right on a slip road to the left, and I panicked, thinking that I've missed the exit. But nooo ... the sign was actually refering to an exit a few hundred metres down the road. You can't drive around in Spore with all these road signs. They confuse rather than help. You just have to memorise the entire street map before setting out in the car. And it certainly didn't help with PM and Min trying to help me navigate!

Here's another example, I knew that AYE leads to ECP, but CTE leads to AYE doesn't lead to ECP. And you wouldn't know that until it's too late (unless you memorise the map). Good thing I suspected that, and got PM to verify for me on the map! And many a times, the road signs are simply giving wrong information. *sigh* So you're forced to buy a street directory which cost like more than $10!

:P

Then we went to visit PM's new born niece. Err ... I think she's too small to be pretty or cute yet, but I'm sure she'll be extremely pretty and cute. :) Sleeps very soundly ... and no, it doesn't make me wanting to have kids yet. *bleah*

I spent the whole of yesterday cleaning up the house. With curtains in, the house is so much nicer ... and is now a home. I vacummed the whole place, and mop the living/dining room twice. Housework is tiring, my knees are red, I think I've done enough exercise for the whole year! My place is now beautiful! The furniture are also here. And it's now time to pack stuffs away, and to start moving our things in.

:) :)

Of course the wall is still cracked, after they patched again and painted over. But I'm beyond that now. Crack better .. haha. They seem quite worried now ... I wonder if the letter had gotten to them yet. :P

Current anime addicted to: Mai Hime. Last episode next week!

Overwhelming week

It had been a long week.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. When we go blading. I was so very surprised that you had agreed. So easily too, when I smsed you. heh. I guess that was because usually a negative reply would have resulted. I'm sure PM would try to convince you to blade, instead of cycle, but even if you do, I'm sure you could pull us along. *grins*

And so I was rather upset when I was told the contractors would be coming in in the morning. Sod them all. I'm not going to be around. I need my break. I'm looking forward to fresh air and exercise. Doing yoga once a week is just not enough. I want to fly down slopes and feel the wind in my hair. I want to throw away the worries and unhappiness and do something relaxing.

I'm just tired of the whole house. The floor is done, but not great. There are rough portions and it just didn't feel that nice. *sigh* I guess that we have to accept it, just that I feel vindictive. *sigh* The letter would still have to be sent, just that bloody M is taking a long time to do so. *sigh* And it's bloody not cheap.

It's easy to make enemies. The apology was at the tip of my tongue, but my head screeched 'stop!' and I held back the words. After all, you had scolded me before I knew what the hell had happened. It was just a misunderstanding, I didn't understand why you get so upset about it. It was so unprofessional, and so disagreeable. I know you were upset, and I knew it wouldn't take much for me to say it, but it wasn't done on purpose and I felt that you were simply over-reacting. Sod you all.

Shopping therapy is good.

Sod the whole bloody world.

As I walked down the moon-lit path in the middle of the huge open field, my thoughts flew back to the time, another night where the moon shined so brightly down onto the grassy plains. It was one of the camping trips I had when I was still in the uni. Where we went star-gazing in Malaysia - in the wild, cold night. The tent flap was open, and I was so amazed that the silver moon light could be so bright. There was a magical feel about it all, the green grass looked rather pale and washed out in the silvery sheen, it was a night where dimensions are close and mysterious little creatures are afoot. Just don't step on those huge cow-dung. That beautiful picture outside the tent flap remains craved in the back of my eyes, just a little in front of my brain. I missed that feeling, I missed star-gazing, I missed those astro field trips. But I doubt I can do such rough camping again.

Then again, that night was too bright to see much stars. It is still the first trip that held the wonder.

*sigh*

It's easy to get addicted to animes. And books. The Light Fantastic IS funny. And I'm only half-way through.

Sod Work. I refused to let you make me feel bad or down. Sod everyone there.

Must start learning violin again.
Must do more yoga.
Mustn't let my whole life be controlled by work.

Must live by my principle. What exactly is my principle?

*sigh*

Saturday night zombies

It's pretty boring actually. The house being as it is, one just doesn't feel like doing much. Nothing on TV either and everyone seems to be out enjoying themselves. We are two old foggies. :P

We didn't want to eat out because we just didn't feel like outside food. Oily, salty and unhealthy food. Nahhh ... besides I just had my massage. And boy, my neck and shoulder felt so much better now. And she stepped on me. My tummy had shrunk. :P So she said I seemed to have lost weight. Not sure if it's good or bad. It's the stress lah.

So here's a boring entry by old foggie me. I shall blog on one of my favourite topics. food. heh.

It was almost seven by the time we got home. So what's fast to cook, and okie to eat? Instant noodles lah. I decided to make minced balls, so had to thaw the pork. Then chop up the prawns. Hey, there's actually chicken meat in the fridge, all de-boned and ready to cook from previously! And there's de-meated chicken bones. I could make soup stock! Wah hahah. And why do I want to make instant noodles when I have soup stock? Change of plans. Number One Japanese Udon then! :P

And so an instant dinner became somewhat more elaborate. Soup with chicken and prawns and minced balls and tofu and fresh mushrooms and peas. That's a lot actually. The key word is multi-task. chop chop chop and throw into soup pot. Then raid the fridge for more stuffs. *pats self on back* heh heh heh.

Well, the best part of all this is that hubby appreciates it. :) It's all that matters.

:)

I wonder how YS is and her speed dating thingy. She let slip a name of a person which she told PM not to tell anyone. *sigh* That's YS for you. PM could have just told me, but she had promised not to. *shrug* Now, why is this person's name so interesting? heh heh. That's because we are hatching a plot between PM and me. And I must say I was surprised because it was PM's idea. Darn, I'm dropping so many hints here. heh heh heh.

I don't think this someone would have minded if I told the someone what we had in mind. But PM insisted that I shall not say anything to the someone. Then again, we might not be able to get things done so it could be rather disappointing if we couldn't even manage it. *sigh* PM's strategy is an extremely long subtle one, but I don't like to do things that way. It's too slow, I'm too impatient, and I always feel that one should be open with things. Unfortunately, the ball is not in my hands.

All I hope is that this someone would be cooperative so that PM can eventually put her plan in action. Hmm, I think I've been extremely transparent, perhaps the someone might have guessed something. *LOL* No questions, no questions. And certainly no comments. *bleah*

Chop chop

1. I can't believe that that bloody younger bro of mine actually had the audacity to auction MY beautiful Kasparov chess set. *mutter* I'm so angry I'm not going to talk to him ever.

2. I'm going to have to move all my things over soon. Bloody fucking house.

3. When one is so very tired, one can actually fall asleep on the kitchen floor.

4. Yes, we are now living in the kitchen and dining room only.

5. The cracks in the walls appear in the evening.

6. Funk + Jazz = Junk (funky jazz).

7. Xena's blog is down again. *sigh*

8. My hols is coming to an end and I've not done anything at all. Besides sleeping in the kitchen, baby sitting a bunch of kids and supervising over the repairs. *sigh*

9. I feel a need to kill someone. Stabbing above younger bro to death is too mild. I couldn't sleep the whole of last night, thoughts running in my head ways to be vindictive. Grr.

10. I'm bored bored bored. I need to go out. I'm depressed. Life is so gloomy and depressing. I need to do new things. :(

The diseased mind

I'm bored.

I'm depressed.

I've run out of books to read.

I'm starting my hols today, but I can't go anywhere.

It's not as if there isn't anywhere to go or anything to do, just that we are stuck in the house over-seeing those bloody contractors repairing the floor. We had wanted to go Japan, or Bali ... or maybe KL, but now we can only divide the time staring at each other, at the TV or at the computer.

We can't even sleep in peace.

It's just so damn upsetting.

*sigh*

*****
Good points:

1. Which is not to say that belief denies logic. For example, it's fairly obvious that the Sandman needs only a small sack.
On the Discworld, he doesn't bother to take the sand out first.

2. 'Er. Thank you for the porridge ...'
'You haven't eatedn any of it,' Ridcully pointed out mildly.
'No, but ... but I had a really good look at it.'

3. Sometimes the only thing you could do for people was to be there.

~Soul Music, TP

Ohhh ... WC got all the books! Bwahahah.

Bow-meow

Greebo the Cat

Greebo had spent an irritating two minutes in the box. Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or it may be dead. You never know until you look. In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.

'Pointy ears and hair you want to stroke,' she said, vaguely. 'And they can fascinate you. And when they're happy, they make a pleasing noise.'

~Lords and Ladies, Terry Pratchett

Damn funnie.

Oh, and that cutie JRT on the fourth, or was it third? floor stuck his head out of the rails on the balcony again, nose sniffing the air and lording over all creatures below his feet. I wonder what he is thinking about ... perhaps he's wishing he's a bit slimmer so that he can slip through those damn far apart railings and take a flying leap into the swimming pool, and show off how graceful a dog can dive, if he puts his mind to it ... that is, if he doesn't fall splat onto the ground below the balcony first. After all, it is hard concrete below where his nose is peeping out. :P

And there are some really loud dogs in the estate. And they do sing quite a bit ... out of tune too. Are dogs tone deaf?

*****
I need The Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic and Mort ... and err, Reaper Man. heh. It's so hard to find books in the library when you suddenly want to borrow them. *pout* I wonder if WC has got them, after all, he was the one to recommend them to me a long long time ago ... but dunno why the first book I picked up then wasn't very nice to read. Maybe my taste had changed. :P Will have to wait for Min to find out if he got those books. :P

That's just me, when I read something pretty good, I must read all the books from the same author. Now, is anyone kind enough to lend me those books? :P

But I'm definitely NOT like Min who will reserve a book and be on the 75th person on the list. *rolls eyes* ... heh heh heh.

Ohh .. maybe Sunny.

:)

tomorrow.

*****
I don't get along very well with my colleagues. Somehow, I find them artificial, condenscing, long-winded ... err ... and others. I dunno ... but somehow I just cannot talk to them properly. Except some of the rather older old ones going to retire soon. I think it's the competition. Dog eat dog, cat scratch cat. It's hard to really get along. They do backstab and sneak and put on invis cloak and stuffs. It's really ... different.

Or maybe it's just me.

PM said she was ... kinda ... 'shock' that I became one of them. She didn't have a very good impressive of such people too. And I must say ... I do agree somewhat with her. But she said I was different, and perhaps I am ... because I can't get along with them. I can't be 'friends' with them. I can't treat them the way I treat PM, YS, Lin and Min. I can't feel 'close' to them, the way they treat one another. I just prefer to keep to myself. And spent an hour talking to PM. :P Ouch, me ear.

They all seem to be a totally different species all together. :P

Post-thoughts

It was a total of three hours all together. The waiting, the visit, the x-rays, the scheduing of appointments, the waiting and the waiting and the waiting.

At the pharmacy, I observed. Technology has moved too fast for the older generation. When their number appeared on those small boxes above the counter, most of the time they were not aware of them. After several ding-dongs and finally name-callings, some of them finally shuffled up to collect their medcienes. Others were not so lucky. There was a list of numbers, very tiny numbers, of those who missed the queue. Most of the people there were old folks, and most of them were either alone, or with their friends, just as old.

It's a big hospital, not like those nice small family clinics which we used to have. It's a cold sterile and promises-to-be-efficient place. What do I know?

Spaced

I'm not so sure whose bright idea it was. But it was damn tiring and hot. All the running back and forth, climbing up stairs and slopes and running downhills ... and chasing after buses and trucks ... whew.

But Sentosa is nice. I've not been there for a long time now.

My feet hurt. No one told me that it was going to be so tough running after five kids. Besides my sports shoes were boarded up in the cupboard. The going wasn't too bad. Yoga truely helped. At least I didn't feel that tired or achy or breathless, just generally spaced out and rather bored.

Sometimes people tend to be too ambitious. Perhaps a better idea was to start early in the morning instead and have the day off.

Damn, my feet really hurts. :( All those stones and rocks ... there was a jungle trail which we ran around three times. And yes, I ran with them in the beginning.

And we managed to flag down a truck where the driver kindly gave us, poor tired and hot us, a lift to the next station. The air-con was bliss! Those stupid buses just refused to stop and bloody bus-stop was like never in sight.

Imagine them walking in the middle of the road and doing jumping jacks.

Completely crazy.

I just got a message telling me that we won ourselves a free chess course. Actually it was our better team who won it, they got first, see ... but, it's like, so duh isn't it? Why would those super players want a chess lesson for? Ha. ha ha. *fixed grin* I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it. So damn silly of those organisers. So captain is asking me if I want to go. Hmm ... should I? Wonder what's the standard like. heh.

Did I mention that my feet hurts?

The sharks are circling

We've called in the lawyer.

Suddenly, I have this feeling of some big silver fish drooling at all the cash he's going to make out of it. It is somewhat a relief actually, to know that action has been taken, but at the same time, you just kinda wonder if it's going to be for the better.

We couldn't stand all those defects anymore. And their silly excuses and stupid apologies. I wanted revenge. My friend chuckled. But he was fast to take up the case. Hmmm.

All lawyers only have one thing in their mind. Themselves. And money. Oh, was that two things?

The other lawyer friend I knew, slightly better a long time ago, was just as money-faced. heh heh. :P And he was blatent about it.

But then, everyone is only interested in money these few days. The best ever motivater.

And suddenly, there seem to be more intruders into my blog. Define yourself or be banish! bwahahaha. *choke* heh heh. It's all xena's fault. *looks pointedly at her down my sweet little nose* humf.

I'd better stay away from her.

Back to nice innocent topics, damn, I dunno how to play King's Gambit. :(

Sleepless

It's the yoga, methinks. Or perhaps I'm just trying to catch that anime I missed earlier. *bleah*

Perhaps the only checklist should go something like that:
me happy
me happy doing things me likes
me happy happy happy :)
me happy with chap
me makes chap happy which makes me happy
me and chap happy happy happy :)
happily ever after

heh heh heh

Okie, so I've been reading Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett. All those fairy tales stuffs. Really different, and funny. I think I like his witches best.

Seems that I've read some people saying that being single one can do lots of things, whereas once in a relationship, one has hardly any time to oneself. Hmm, I guess it all boils down to how you handle your own time. *shrug* ... I mean even if he spends his time on the computer and you just read a book, or something. One can just do one's own stuffs even when one is together right? Don't have to be doing the same thing or paying each other a zillion of the attention at all times. It's just having that someone to care about who cares about you that's the gist of it all. And to have that someone who simply appreciates who you are. :)

And the feeling of coming home to hubby is what makes life more meaningful.

And the feeling of coming home to a house spick and span because dearest hubby tidied up the place in his free time is priceless. :)

Yawning mushroom

We walked out after the first player ended. Definitely no Joshua Bell there. Xel decided she'd rather go for dinner. Mozart didn't sound Mozart at all. The simple charming tune lacked something. It's a bit hard to describe, but it's just not there. And the other piece was difficult. Much too difficult to handle. Perhaps one shouldn't be too ambitious, but put in the soul and heart into it.

Yawn.

I forgot what else I was going to blog about.

heh ... :P

zZz

Distractions

I ought to be doing something called 'work', but this is so much more relaxing. Work can only be done at the lastest minute, before the hour hand reaches the thirteen blip, before you decide you want to go to bed, which eventually translates to 'I'll do it early tomorrow morning.'. After all one shouldn't allow one's work to run one's life, right? :P

More funny stuffs:
Any water that had passed through so many kidneys, they reasoned, had to be very pure indeed.

Eventually Conina said, 'All right. How did you get the carpet to fly? Does it really do the opposite of what you command?'
'No, I just paid attention to certain fundamental details of laminar and spatial arrangements.'
'You've lost me there,' she admitted.
'You want it in non-wizard talk?'
'Yes.'
'You put it on the floor upside down,' said Rincewind.

~Sourcery, Terry Pratchett.

That was pretty hilarious. It made me chuckle. Which says a lot. After all, I try not to laugh too much when I'm reading. Now almost a book a day. Did I say I need to do 'work'? You didn't hear that, did you?

More household things to buy:
tupperware, freezer mates this time. sis-in-law just smsed me that they're on offer. *drool*
garlic cutter? They actually have something called a garlic cutter? Looks ... interesting. Wonder if it's useful. Pretty pretty too. All shiny and metallic. Got sale coming leh. *wipes drool*

Hey, at least I don't literally drool onto pillows. Not yet anyway. :P

Got sale, maybe can buy slow cooker too. *bleah*

I'm greedy. :)

Hardly many exciting blogs to read nowadays. Re-mi seems to have gone into hibernation. He isn't as poetic as he was back where he used to be. M.B. reads domesticated. Hammie isn't writing anymore either. *sigh* ... xena must entertain me a little okie? pleasie? heh heh heh. *siam her whack*

:P

Joking.

Violin music on anime. Makes me want to start learning again. *sigh* Funny how come shows woman playing violin got piano accompaniment. doh.

Am bored. Don't wanna do work. :X

More about nothing

To Xena: Would you like to go for my friend's speed dating thingy then? You could bring along any single interesting males and/or females. heh heh heh.

:P

I walked off the split level the other day back at my parent's place. One minute I was walking towards my old room which had been partially taken over by younger bro, the next minute I was stumbling and falling hard onto the ground. Hit my bloody knee. Must have been away for too long. duh.

Said knee is pretty bruised. A bit painful to do some yoga, but I'm whining, don't believe me.

Time flows in half hour blocks. Am hooked on the anime channel nowadays. There's always something quite interesting to watch. And boy, time sure flies. Was supposed to do those damn markings I brought back to complete during my sick leave, but ... ahem ahem ... *bleah*

*unrepentent*

Just gotta do them all by tonight at least. They're moving quite fast. Questions like 'How does a condom work?' and answers like 'By putting the erect penis into it' makes for very fast marking. Most of them gave me textbook answers, which is a relief actually. I don't hurt my tummy laughing too much.

I like this:
- and then there was a sound like wet laundry hitting a wall and, it turned out, the only thing that could survive the fall was a corpse.
Moving pictures, Terry Pratchett.

Was feeling rather sore on the lower back for the whole week, but after yoga today, the soreness disappeared. Hooray for yoga! :)

Now all I need to do is to finish up the work and start prepare dinner in a while. :) Stir fry beef with celery, stewed(?) mixed-mushrooms and brocoli on the menu tonight. I shall have to get a saucepan (to make better egg omelettes), a slow cooker (to cook food slowly, duh) and did you ever go and check out all those kitchen stuffs by WMF? They're damn cool ... and ingenious! And very pretty too! Bloody damn expensive as well.

Perhaps it's time to tell people what I would like for the housewarming party. heh heh heh. :P

I want to get this CD! And everything on Howl's Moving Castle!!! :P

Odds and Ends

1.There seems to be something wrong with the sms. Didn't seem to be receiving any and friends didn't seem to receive mine.

2. I shouldn't be so gullable and trust everything YS says. I think she tends to distort facts and exaggerate quite a bit. PM wasn't that keen when I spoke to her, unlike what YS told me. I wonder ... hmm.

3. I've become quite a TV addict.

4. Still feeling ill.

5. I should take the medcienes. :P

6. I have to keep tabs of the books which I've read, else I'll end up borrowing the same ones again.

7. Books which I've read so far:
Equal Rites
Wyrd Sisters
Pryamids
Guards! Guards!
Small Gods
Men at Arms (err, have I read it?)
Night Watch
Oh dear ... this is bad. I got to keep track NOW. Can't remember already.

8. Of course would like to read in order, but can't seem to find the first two books in the library.

9. It's nice to be able to lie in bed and see the swallows fly round and round outside the full length double height windows. Did not know birds fly so high. Maybe I'll throw some breadcrumbs next time.

10. Would like to put a small table and chairs outside at the balcony and sit there to have breakfast. Hubby's not too keen though. Says neighbour can look at us, from their yard. I say we put some potted plants on that side. :P

Ramble ... me.

What do people really mean when they say "give chance" or "try lah"?

I call it The Ten- Minute Second Chance of a Lifetime (as opposed to A Lifetime of Trying Again and Again). It goes something like this: one thousand... look at guy... two thousand three thousand four thousand... imagine kissing guy... five thousand six thousand seven thousand... and more... eight thousand... shrill alarm and sprinklers going off somewhere... nine thousand ten thousand... sound of door being slammed shut and boots pounding the hallway outside...

Xena, 03 March

Hmm, what did I mean exactly? Good question. haha.

I think the most important thing is to ask yourself what exactly do you want in a relationship with a guy.

If you and this guy get along very well, liking each other pretty much, being fond of and all that blah blah, you can trust him, and guy quite cute too etc (heh)... and are good friends, taking a try means like you know ... trying to get a little intimate, like getting to know him real well, under his skin, that kinda of thing.

Closing one's eyes and thinking of how it feels to kiss him is not a good gauge at all, isn't it? See, logically speaking, if one were to start off as good friends, thinking of kissing one's friends tends to shut down the brain somewhat. One has to do that sort of things slowly, a small step at a time, and one has to give one a chance to be open-minded about it, not like say nahh .. it isn't going to work at all. After all, one has to redefine the whole friendship thingy a little, like looking it from another facet after all.

Perhaps a better guage is to ask yourself how comfy you are with the person, how much do you care for each other, are you able to accept his ideas and flaws, is he able to let you be yourself, and do you listen to each other? Would it sadden you somewhat if you lose his company and friendship? Does he make you laugh? Does he appreciate you?

After all, in my own humble opinion, if one were to find a person sexually attractive at the first look ... it's kinda like lust, isn't it? *laughs* I mean if he doesn't do anything and just stand there and you just must have him ... hahaa. heh. Okie .. ahem. Just give him a chance to romantically seduce you then, and perhaps see if things work out eventually. *bleah*

Perhaps that was what I meant. :P

I wouldn't know. To each his/her own. :)

And I think that if one really likes a person very very much, and that if the liking is mutual, one would want to be with that person forever and ever.

:)

*****
I think when one is ill, one tends to be extremely hungry. :X

Gee, my friend YS just called me a while back to tell me that she's arranging a speed dating service on the 19th of this month. Err ... that's so ... heh. funny. So here I am, to help her get potential people who might be interested. After laughing for a while, no seriously, not that the idea is funny, but it just IS funny coming from her, I promised to help her advertise a little. Friends of friends of friends. A little intimate affaire. So if you are interested, let me know!

:)

She promises good looking and interesting guys and pretty girls.

heh.

*bleah*

Hell, if she gets this thing up, I might just pop in to see how it all works out! kpo. :P

Having enough

That's it. I've got enough. I'm going on medical leave tomorrow.

Stopping in the middle of a lesson, and coughing my lungs out is not a very nice thing to do, nor a very nice thing to watch. Although I felt really much better after that awful cough. heh heh.

Damn, even my throat don't feel so sore, as compared to this morning. Oh dear. damn damn and damn.

Empty Being

Before I forgot, I just like this phrase:

But I think you have a right to know what it is you're not being told.
Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

Dunno why. Thought it was darn funny at that time. :P

Oxymoron: closely apart.

*****
Was reading Her World mag the other time when I was getting my hair cut. Too long, too hot and for all kinds of reasons, I'm sure.

Came across this article about women friendships. Read halfway so what do I actually remember? Not much. haha.

No really, it was about the type of friends one has. The many different type of friends one can have. It's kinda interesting, because when I think about it, I don't really have one single best friend, but many best friends to do different things together. And perhaps it's just me, but I realised that when I really really need to talk to someone, there isn't any a best friend to talk to. I just can't get the words out. It's just not me to be able to feel sad when talking to another friend. Hmm. But it seems easier for me to write about it, or 'talk' about it over icq. Less emotions involved, I guess. I feel more dissociated then.

I wonder if any of my friends have ever seen me cry before. :P

I bet they might have been surprised. Not that I've ever seen them crying either. It's just not like us chess gals to show weakness I guess. Mustn't let your opponent know too much or something. *laughs*

But I had other friends who needed my shoulder to cry on. It felt strange actually. We were pretty close then and we drifted slightly, and she called me up a long time ago cos she wanted to see me. I remembered we sat by the rink, and I pass tissue after tissue to her while she let it all out. I never felt I could talk to her when I had a problem though.

An ex-classmate once sat with me while I cried when I couldn't do bloody thermodynamics. It was rather embarassing actually. But I was just so sad. I had to meet my group of friends later, and I wonder if any of them even suspected that I had been crying earlier. Perhaps someone might have, he was looking at me rather strangly, and I doubled up my efforts to cheer up and avoid the questioning glance.

And when I am sad, I would just locked myself up in my room and cry. It's not really so much of feeling sad, but feeling self-pity and pathetic and useless. And to have a rational voice in the head chiding non-stop for making a fool out of oneself. I guess sometimes it's just another way to let out all those pent-up frustrations and emotions, and probably have to do with them hormones too. Most of the times, I don't feel sad enough to cry. It must be those chemicals. :P

I guess when I do cry, I just want to indulge in it ... so it's kinda hard to be comforted, for me .. at least. heh.

Coming back to the article, damn I must get my hands on it again.

And I must try to write to/sms Lin more often. I'm just feeling too into myself to be able to 'talk' to her. *sigh*

Now all I want to do is to pull out my throat and give it a good scrub. It feels damn grummy and sore all over.

*****
There isn't anyone 'talkable' on icq for me to whine to about how bad my life is right now. *sniff* *sniff*

I should go and get some sleep actually.

It's rather awful to be feeling sick, but yet not too sick. It's like neither here nor there, like having your head removed from your body, and not being able to put it back, except to whack it hard. Well, I mean ... whatever.

The back of my throat is sore, it itches. But it's not red enough to impress anyone yet. I've been on mac extra since yesterday, and too much of that seems to make my tummy uneasy. I've been drowning water like a camel, whoops .. haha, I mean fish. hahaha ... but it doesn't seem to soothe the throat very much. One side of the nose is slightly block, but not too block nor leaking much to make me look pathetic. I've been blowing quite a bit, yet not enough to have a red and peeling nose.

Damnit, I'm just not sick enough. And it's damn awful to be like that.

It's definitely stale-mate in there!

A very whinny post. *sniff*

It's awful when one has been looking forward to an early day, but ended up having to waste much time doing nothing, because someone had a very bad idea about something and made everyone suffer for it.

*sigh*

And I thought I could go back early, rest a bit and do some housework. The floor needs vacumming, the clothes need ironing and many other things need to be put away.

I only had time to wash the clothes and prepare dinner. Dinner was slightly later at about 5.30pm. The food wasn't completely defrozed, but there wasn't time to wait. I'm not too sure if it's a good thing to defrost them in warm water, but I really have no choice. Will know if get stomachache tomorrow. :P

But I must say, dinner was great. heh. Steamed chicken (a bit too salty though), squid and prawns, and vege soup. All done without rest. I'm dead beat. No strength to clean the house or iron the clothes now. All I feel like doing is to stone some where, like here, and to read my book later.

And I'm still ill. My throat is still sore, and I dare not even eat biscuits for fear of making it worse. *sigh* Maybe I should take those cherry tomatoes instead. :P

I'm tired, but I can't seem to rest properly nowadays. Been sleeping late, like midnight almost everyday, and waking up very early. Even on weekends. No matter how late I sleep, I'll still wake up very early. Feeling very hyper-alert, but tired. Just can't seem to feel relax, just feeling drugged the whole time. I'm going to have to pay for that sooner or later.

Ought to do more yoga, but did not sign up for the intermediate course. Because of some reasons. *sigh* Did yoga on Sunday, but ended up yawning every other minute till Wen looked at me strangely. *sigh*

sigh sigh sigh sigh sigh

I feel ... sigh.

sigh
sigh
sigh
sigh
sigh

Thy sweeth thooth

First it was the blackforrest cake at Baker's Inn. It has been like a year since I've eaten it, can't even remember when was the last time. Delicious, mouthwatering. I love it. And extremely fattening.

Then it was chilli crabs of the sri-lankan kind. The meat wasn't that tasty but it was very well made. And the chilli gravy was excellent, especially just with plain rice. I'm a 'rice-container' after all. And I sat there contentedly and dig and ate and purred happily. The guys finished theirs very fast, and us two girls were still sitting there slowly scraping of each precious meat from the shell, and licking our fingers, not wanting to waste anything.

I shouldn't have taken the potato chips after that, espeically after such a huge meal, but it's not very nice not to keep the hostess company. And the show was quite funny after all.

And finally hazgan daz cookie & creme with hot chocolate brownie ... absolutely melting.

Just three days.

You will show me some sympathy for my sore throat right? Damn, it's sore all right. :( Hubby wasn't very impressed, he couldn't see anything. But it's sore. It hurts. It hurts when I swallow. *sniff* And I do have some running nose.

I'm going to lose my voice at this rate. Preferably by Friday. heh heh. *bleah* Thursday also can lah. *bleah bleah*

Woof!

I love dogs. Don't get me wrong. Just as long as I don't have to wash the dog's backside, clean up the poo and all that stuffs. A small dog is fun to have around, like Wen's dog, Bis, you can clamp your hand over his snout, play frisbee with him etc. But a big dog is definitely overwhelming.

Hubby's friends got a huskie. A huge young highly energeric young male who doesn't like to be caged in the toilet. He practically bowled me over. And those huge snapping jaws. No joke leh. I was trying to get my hands away from his large teeth, not that I was trying to clamp his mouth. Surely no, you wouldn't think I would do such a thing right? So dangerous. And I was trying to get out of his way when he went skidding from hubby to me. And yes, he was trying to jump on me too! Bis jumping on me is tolerable, you know, like a little pesky animal, annoying at best. But Max ... more than half my height, it's not funny at all. I ended up on the chair, right at the corner of the walls, pushing him away with my knees. Bis sniffing my bum is at worst, just laughable. But having Max pawing and sniffing me is not a pastime I would like to indulge in. But you know, it's really nice to pat him. :) That is if I manage to do so and not end up with my hands in his teeth. heh.

Handsome big brute. He's damn cute. heh heh. Eighteen kilos in all. And the toilet stinks. Real bad.

Their cat could not stay in the same room as Max. She has gotten thinner too, those loose fur, since we last saw her. Must be all that running around the house avoiding the enthusiastic pup. Poor kitty. Sometimes even got locked out of the house when she goes wandering out at night. Lost her status as big boss now, I guess. But she still gets her way. Definitely the most ~teh~ cat I've ever seen. Extremely vocal. No qualms in meowing her opinions and displeasure in an extremely loud and harmonious tone. heh.

Being Happy

... is watching Howl's Moving Castle and falling completely in love with the anime and music.

... is putting the theme song on repeat over and over again, and listening to it with a silly smile on one's face.

... is leaning against hubby's shoulder while watching said movie and laughing together at the funny stuffs.

I think I prefer the song being sung by Yumi Kimura, except that I only got that for 48 seconds. I think I'll just die to have a copy of the song sung by her. :P Leave me a message if you have a copy of it!

I am definitely going to watch the anime again. And I'm definitely going to get the vcd or dvd. Beautiful movie. :) Of course, I think the book is greater ... but ... movie is good too. :)

Being happy ... is meeting up with old friends and talk about music and life and philo. Had a wonderful time with Xel and YS tonight. Both are back for good. And it's so nice to be able to catch up with them, listening to Xel's ambitions and passion in the world of dance and music. I'll never be like that, I'm a stay-at-home type. Perhaps in another dimension, there's a me who is just as ambitious and passionate about something. :P

Damn, if I could only get the piano score for the soundtrack of Howl's Moving Castle.

Now that Xel is back, I shall find inspirations to learn the violin again and maybe even play the piano ... once I bring my old 20 year old piano over. :P But I shall learn the violin first! I shall! I will! And now that she's going to work at the E, I shall go for some concerts and stuffs. :P And I'm going to get her to bring me around the place ... and all the secret hiding places. heh heh heh.

YS is still as crazy as ever. She had to go back early so as not to miss her chinese serial. Err ... taiwanese show? Nah ... unfortunately we couldn't get her to hang around with us for a longer time. She got into a car accident recently, and had some hip problem. Xel told me that when she went to see the doc, she asked the young, wet between the ears doc if it's going to affect her a) sex life, b) childbearing abilities. Imagine her saying that with a total air of seriousness, with a total air of airheadedness. And she still said she felt embarrassed about it. I wonder who was more embarassed. hahaha. Felt more like she saboing the poor chap! *bleah* So damn funny!

YS was wearing a really ... errm cheesy pink dress tonight. hahaha. I could be evil and put the pic I took from my hp up here. :P Nah ... just a strapless pinky dress with a BIG flowery sorta design right in the middle of the non-existence bosom. It's very ... errr ... her. Must show Min at least. heh heh. But the impact is not there, you just have to see it with your own eyes. My eyes popped out, as a matter of fact. I had to lean against Xel to stop from falling over backwards.

The music from Howl's Moving Castle makes me feel like twirling around and dance. :)

And YS's favourite phrase tonight was ... kawai desu ne! *falls completely backwards*

And I love the main theme of the song. Gonna try to pick up the tune on the piano once I get my fingers on one ... and transpose it to the violin. :)

It was nice sitting out in the cool windy night, under the slow diminishing round moon, smelling the woody smell of a cigar, watching people walking on the sidewalk, listening to fire and lightning, and sipping a very interesting cocktail. Xel had two. She can really drink. I bet PM might finally find someone to drink with her! I'd have to agree with YS that PM can really drink too, although she always insist that she's just accompanying YS. heh.

I still think Diana Wynne Jones is a better writer than Terry Pratchett, although now finding some of TP's stuffs very funny, but still not as much as DWJ. :)

Life just sucks right now

I realised that there's no one I can crap about how much goddamn awful it is right now. I'm stressed, depressed and unhappy. Not a good combination at all. But don't take me too seriously. Gals always need to say a lot of things to get sympathy and pity. Hubby doesn't understand. He gets stressed out by me by what I say and all that. And he is just as stressed by the house too. Guys just want to have action and results, but sometimes things don't always work that way.

I just feel so sorry for myself. No one to talk to, except to my blog. I cried at work today, because I just felt so goddamn upset. I guess I need to do more yoga soon.

Yes, and I stepped on a nail the other day, and it hurts like hell, still. Floor cannot be done yet because it cracked again. Walls have cracked again. It's just so depressing, isn't it?

Work sucks as well. One cannot punish them, one cannot scold them, one cannot stalk off the class in anger. And one cannot be late for work. And just the other day, I read in the newspapers more articles demeaning the profession. I wonder what I am doing. It's simply too demoralising and depressing.

Bloody arsehole of a student dropped his heavy textbook on my feet and took off a piece of skin with it. Damn bloody painful too. And why did that happen? Because they were playing and swirling books around and all that crap. I wish to give him a good tight slap at the sight of his blothcy ugly ape of a face.

Idiots and morons and fucking rude selfish stupid monsters.

They can all fail and go to hell for all I care. Why do I bother to talk until I become hoarse? Why do I bother to even talk to them? Bah.

rant mode on

Conversation with a friend on ICQ: (somewhat edited)

I: oh ya .. my mom complaining her hip always painful ... should i send her to see ortho?
A: hip ah? yup... should come here.... get an x-ray.... or see polyclinic first and get x-ray first....
I: oh ya .. but the doc at poly says it's nothing, some nerve only.
A: got x-ray done ah? bring it along so i can see it loh....
I: the poly doc says if she wants her x ray must pay full price or something.
A: hmmm.... then get referral to come and see ttsh loh....
I: can ah .. ask them to refer her to ttsh ortho?
I: think my aunties recommending her to see some chinese physician.
I: they are disillusioned with the medical treatment in singapore.
A: up to her lah.... no point seeing us if she don't believe in us.... let her see whoever she wants.... really...
A: but she needs to believe in the meds and comply with treatment before it will work.... sigh....
I: it's not that she doesn't believe in u .. but the poly doc say : no cure one .. it's the nerves ... gave her some vitamin B ... tell her she can do nothing, dun give her her x rays .. ask her to come back in couple of months when he not around because he rotate to another clinic ... how u expect her to believe?
A: well, if that's what he says, it could be a back pain sort of problem.... like slip disc.... which needs physiotherapy.... physiotherapy works more than vitamin b
I: ya .. but he also never refer her anywhere .. ask her to go back when he not around ... and that's it. so how? see the poly doc again? i wonder who's the quack
A: sigh.... then go back and see another dr.....
I: and then what? same thing happen?
I: they all don't care one lah.

That's what life is like here in Spore.

Everything speaks of money. Even justice is expensive (quote from another friend).

And if I bring my mom to see my friend in ortho, she'll be charged private rates which is like sky high. Till now, I have not claimed a single cent for my hospitalisation that time. Life sure as hell sucks.

I hate this world. I hate the G. Legal corruption. bah.

Murder with intent.

I'm feeling murderous tonight.

The walls have cracked again. The floor is still damaged. It's very hard to have dinner without a proper dining table. The weather sucks, hot, smoky and goddamn awful. The kids are extremely tiring and horrible. I wish to strangle each and everyone of them and strike all others with lightning. Grrr.

Sometimes I just hate this place. This here and now. I hate everyone.

One minute miracle

I can't play with a time control of thirty minutes! Wasn't it supposed to be an hour each? DOH.

Anyway, I've told them to let me off in the morning so that I can go for yoga. At ten in the morning, the captain frantically called me and asked me to come down since they were short of one player.

I had to oblige since I did tell them to let me know if they need me. So off I went. I figured that the first game would have to be a walkover, and Captain said that at least can play the second game. So... okie.

I bumped into an old friend there who brought me to the playing room. He kindly showed me where I was playing, and when he saw my clock, he said, hey, there's still slightly more than a minute left on your clock, why don't you just start playing? I was surprised since I thought it was already a walkover, and in the muddle, I sat down, and started. To my surprise, the opponent played moves like e4, h2, g2 .... huh?! What the? Just pushing pawns and waiting for my time to run out? Ya right, in your dreams. Whack whack wham wham ... and I managed to checkmate him with 26 seconds left on my clock. heh heh heh.

I was playing extremely fast, and I left a queen hanging somewhere. But he didn't see it, and I sure as hell didn't see that either! My team called that the one minute miracle. hahaha. That was so freaky! *bleah*

The rest of the games didn't go so well. 30 minutes is too fast for me against players of my standard and better. And bloody captain put me on the first board and himself on the fourth. That's bullying as a matter of fact. My second opponent thought slower than me, so he lost on time. And for the rest, I lost on time. All the professors and whatnots. Oh well.

It was nice seeing some people again. Mr M is still as fat as ever, fatter actually. Isn't he going to lose some weight and stay healthy? Also saw a few of my juniors who have become sooo old, and some even balding. hahaha. And some people have gotten fat, and some still look the same. Time sure flies. :P

Swashbuckling

Ahh, the familiar feeling of butterflies in the tummy, fluttering against the walls trying hard to get out. It's an awful dread feeling, and the heart thumps wildly against the breast. Shoulders hunched, fingers frozed, but thoughts racing faster than one could think.

How I do miss those feelings NOT.

I forgot that the Malaysians liked playing French. And would it be considered unfair to pair me up with a guy? But then again, that wouldn't matter, would it? A gal could be just as good as kicking balls, or maybe better. heh heh. And why is the team captain on the last board, and me on the second? Gee.

To remember forever:
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nc6 4. Ngf3 Bc4 5. c3 Be7
6. Bb5 Bd7 7. 0-0 dxe4 8. Nxe4 a6 9. Bd3 Nf6 10. Ng3 Bd6
11. Qc2 Bxg3 12. fxg3 h6 13. Be3 Ng4 14. Rae1 Qe7 15. d5 Nce5
16. Nxe5 Nxe5 17. dxe6 Bxe6 18. Be4 c6 19. Bd4 f6 20. Bxe5 fxe5
21. Bg6+ Kd8 22. Rxe5 Rf8 23. Qd3+ Kc8 24. Rxf8+ Qxf8 25. Rxe6 Qc5+
26. Kf1 Kb8 27. Re8+ Ka7 28. Rxa8 Kxa8 29. Qd4 Qb5+ 30. c4 Qg5
31. Qxg7 Qc1+ 32. Kf2 Qc4 33. b3 Qc5+ 34. Kf3 Qc1 35. Qg8+ Ka7
36. Qc4 Qa3 37. Qc2 Qf8 38. Bf5 Qf6 39. Kg4 Qf5+ 40. Kf3 Qf6
41. Qc5 b6 42. Qc2 a5 ...

I was running out of time. Only 3 minutes left! Opponent had 20 minutes left. He sure can take it easy. Blitz ah. What was I thinking of? I was one whole bishop up and I failed to exchange the queen properly in move 29. *kicks myself hard* Trying to be too smart for my own good. Trying to grab more pawns so that it would be easier in end game. What have I done! What have I done! *clutches head* Opponent was playing on my time. In the final last minute, I rushed to queen my pawn, almost didn't make it ... and managed to checkmate him with a few seconds left.

And it was a relief. It felt good. It was a win, I would not have settled for a draw.

Boy, that really felt good. I was so lucky to have won, before the flag drops. I can only play properly when I'm super stressed. Some people will never change. That's why I should not be playing competitively any more. :P And it was just a friendly match.

The Malaysians weren't that great personally. I knew I could beat him pretty early in the game, but I took too long to think. He wasn't playing French very correctly, and I made mistakes in the beginning, and he made even more. Perhaps a female opponent might have been more serious in her attacks. I remembered the last time I played French against a Malaysian female. She appeared to know all her moves pretty well. Otherwise, it would be rather risky. Or perhaps I'm just not so silly now.

But the rest of my team weren't that great either. I wonder what happened to all those stronger players. It's quite disappointing to know that I'm the only one who got a point, and another player had a draw. After all that hard work one went through. *sigh* ... I missed my team in JC. And I missed most having YS as team captain, and people like PM and Min as team mates. *sigh* :P

Min, wanna play in the National Women's? heh heh heh.

Ya right ... and with all those kids who has very proper training. siao ah. I would have to go around with my head in a paper bag like Charlie Brown. :P

Little things

I always sms in perfect English, since the dictionary is extremely helpful. But that also means I have problems reading pple when they sms me with numbers and one letter to mean a word and all that. So crappy! Sheeesh.

I have got Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 as my ringtone. Very explosive and dramatic opening bars when the phone 'rings'. heh heh. Espcially so in a quiet waiting room. heh heh heh.

more

Getting smarter

One learns that ...

the kitchen cabinet doors have to be closed immediately after taking stuffs out, otherwise one's head will always get into contact with them bloody sharp corners.

spiders and moths have better get out of one's way whenever one is brandishing the vaccum cleaner, or be suck into oblivion. (I think my vaccum cleaner is somewhat stuck after that last moth!)

one is actually pretty obsessed with cleanliness and will go down on hands and knees and fingernails to clean and scrap paint off on the floor. Good yogic exercise though.

one has to be reminded how old one is by one's doctor ... I swear he is pro-G. Good grief. Everytime when I have to see him, I get 'lectured' to start planning for a baby. *rolls eyes* heh heh heh.

Terry Pratchett is actually quite funny and one actually likes his witches stories best. And he writes along the lines of famous stories, like Phantom of the Opera, Macbeth etc ... still reading, still reading. :)

one has totally no clue as to what one is going to play for tomorrow's game. Just hope one doesn't make embarassing bloopers like giving a free Queen on the fourth move. doh.

*****
Valentine's Day has come and gone. We don't celebrate actually, for I love him everyday and not just on that day. I cooked a special dinner, well ... a specially ordinary dinner really. :) He didn't have time for candle-lights and roses and soft background music and all that, but it really doesn't matter does it?

:P

Nevertheless, shopping today was rather eventful. I brought him a pair of bedroom slippers. Hardly romantic but I hope it'll be extremely comfy. And his favourite colour and his favourite animal. After all, he does need it, what with him ill-treating his left feet all the time by stepping on those land mines, causing blood and agony and swear words. He should be rather well-protected now, at least when he wears the slippers, he'll be watching where he steps right? For if he does step on those nails again and spoil the slippers, the wrath of a wife will descent on him. heh heh heh.

It'll be a surprise, and they are now by the door awaiting his warm feet. Shhh. :P

*****
Someone once told me a long time ago that if the husband is always busy with work and works late, and the wife is too free, such relationship will eventually not work out. What crap that all is. *laughs* That's just a silly excuse.

Hubby works long hours, but there are so many things for me to do while he is away. There's the house to clean, clothes to iron, food to cook, work to do, books to read, stuffs on the computer and even shopping. So busy! Time flies. I'm quite happy with all the time I have on my own, and it makes the time I have with hubby even more meaningful. :)

Like just watching him sleep and drool onto the pillow. :P

*****
Damnit missed watching Howl's Moving Castle over the weekend. When the bloody hell is it going to show again? *sob sob* Must get the dvd if it comes out. Grrr.

Blistering burning hot

It hasn't rain since December. It is so hot that I could fry an egg on the floor of my balcony. It was so hot till the park caught fire and is now a whole black mess of char. It is so hot that I could sun-tan just by lying on my bed. It is so hot that my brains are scrambled and my limbs vulcanized. It was so hot that the students finally climbed up the shelf to turn on the air-con. It's simply blistering burning hot!

I think our electric bills are going to be sky-rocketing high this month!

It is so hot that I can't even remember what I wanted to write!

Made sweet potato soup for dessert a while ago. Now waiting for dear hubby to come home to try it. I'll take a break after today. No more cooking for tomorrow and friday at least. heh. :) Going shopping instead. heh heh. On Friday. heh heh heh. :P

Playing chess OTB this weekend. It's actually not a very good idea at all, especially in this super hot weather. I guess I was just flattered that someone remembered that I still exist. haha. I was never very good at chess because I just could not remember openings. The only one which I know pretty well was the fried liver one which is only worth swindling little people, and it wasn't even foolproof, as M showed me once. And my favourite opening being the Gucco Piano, because it has musical connotation. Ya ... I'm that cheap. *bleah*

Little clumsy me.

I have not broke any dishes yet. But I've been hitting quite a few of them on hard surfaces. Good thing what I have are chip-proof. Not going to test if they are break-proof! Not yet, anyway.

So all I've done lately was to spill lots of stuffs onto the cabinets, onto the floor and onto myself. Uh huh ... got scalded by hot water last night. Put some aloe vera gel by banana boat, and it sure works! Too bad no fresh aloe vera though. Must get some from MIL soon.

Chinese New Year was a frenzy of cooking and eating. Been eating lots of good food mainly cooked by my parents ... and Wen's mother. Had prawns, abalone, crab, scallop etc etc. And I cooked lots too. On the eve, it was pot-luck, so I did abalone with prawns and mushrooms, and baby bak choy (I think) with three types of mushrooms. On the second day, we had crab meat balls for lunch. On the third day, I think I cooked lunch, after coming back early from work. On the fourth day, we had crab meat balls again. Parents-in-law came over for dinner, and I cooked vege and bittergourd with soup and another with chicken. On Sunday, I cooked fried Japanese Udon with prawns and lots of mushrooms. Today I cooked squid with bell pepper, and cai xin with lots of mushrooms and scallops. I think I should take a break from all these cooking soon. It's extremely hot in the kitchen.

Strangely enough, I'm feeling hungry right now. :P That's why thinking of all these food. :)

Tired, did lots of housework today. Can't think of what to write. Been reading Terry Pratchett. Not extremely funny as I had thought, but nice enough to want to read more. Hogging the books in the libraries. Can't seem to find the first couple in the series. Hmm.

I feel zombified.

Life goes on

On Saturday afternoon, I fell asleep holding kitty in my hands. He was sleeping peacefully on my tummy after his lunch. We brought him to see the vet in the evening, because he kept crying, and the assistant got him to shit. I guess it must be the milk we gave him. By night he was sick and restless. Hubby held him all night. I woke up at 2am, rubbed him with medicated oil, while he gasped for air. Half an hour later, he stopped breathing and was still.

It was just so heartbreaking. I guess we really didn't know how to take care of little kittens. I'm not going to put any more pics of him up here. It's just too sad.

But perhaps we would adopt a couple more cats - bigger kittens, when we've settled down.

I really miss GWC.

*****
Last night, we went to Wen's place for dinner. There was shark's fin and abalone ... but no bird nest soup. hahaha. Just kidding. Her mother was happy for us to come. More people means can cook more food, especially me and hubby eats a lot, and wipe their dishes clean. Gee, they eat so little! tsk tsk. But then, I am still lighter than Wen. We weighed ourselves after dinner, and she glared at me. *chuckle*

After dinner, we took Bis out for a walk. Happy dog. Had a delicious meal of raw chicken, after dinner dessert of cherries and oranges, and a nice long walk with four dog walkers. He gallop freely in the wild, froliking with the field mice, and chased cats away from their dinner.

I heard that he was a woozy when it comes to rats. He had killed one before, after Wen's friend hit the rat unconscious, that is. Before that, he was rather afraid to go too near the rat! The field rats in Wen's neighbourhood have a strange stategy when it comes to defending themselves against fast moving, cold nose sniffing greyhounds. At the sight or smell of an intruder, they drop onto all fours, rolled over and play dead. Kept their toe-claws crossed, and hoping that the big ugly doggy would get bored and go away. hahaha.

At the end of the long footpath, there was a couple feeding the neighbourhood cats. Bis ran up and said hi to the cats. The cats didn't like him though, even if Bis was trying to be friendly. Or perhaps Bis shouldn't be too enthusiastic with his greetings. Laughs. The people feeding the cats weren't too amused though. Two fat ugly people with a mind as small as a pea. Wen was 'scolded' for not keeping Bis on a leash. Some people are just awful.

The cats were extremely well-fed, read fat, and pretty. Not sprayed yet however. Hmmm.

I took some pics of Bis in my new hp. I'll put them up when I've figured out how to use the software.

We tricked Bis into getting into our car. After much entreats, he jumped into the backseat, and wham, hubby closed his side of the door, and I closed mine. haha. Dog napped. Bis had rode in our car before, so he wasn't too frightened. He must be thinking: are we going somewhere? Are we are we? Whee, so fun! But he was quite surprised that Wen has not gotten in yet. He looked around in puzzlement but was quite contented to enjoy the cool air-con. heh heh. Even after Wen said bye-bye and walked away, Bis still didn't want to get out. We had to practically pushed him off. He was quite sad there was no car-ride that day.

*****
Picture of beef steak I cooked for hubby. :)

:-(

Kitty has died.

I guess we should never have taken them in.

There is no god. Just cause and effect.

Driving Tales #5079

I think nowadays I can only go on and on about my little kitty. He's really very cute, soft and furry and smells like just a sweetie. Woohoo ... there I go again. :P

But seriously, I've been driving quite a bit again. Actually drove down to town all by myself and gave Min a lift home. Driving is sooo ... empowering. hahah ... I'm that kind of driver who can drive pretty fast. And curse people who gets into my path. Hey, that actually rhymes! :P I swear, you'd hear me muttering under my breath.

Damn idiot, keep to your bloody lane.

Do you actually know how to drive?

Bloody hell, I hate it when they don't signal before cutting into my lane!

Stay on your lane, bloody fool! Don't keep hogging two lanes.

Turn lah! Scared what!

Women driver. Bah!

Not that I'm a very good driver myself. hahahah.

It's actually very challenging and frightening to travel along the CTE. That's the most dreaded expressway. It's always jam, and there's always usually an accident. There are simply too many cars on the CTE. Just a couple of weeks back, when everyone was driving back to back on the CTE, a motorcycle rammed into the back of a car. The car was simply moving slowly, minding its own business. It was a terrible business. We didn't exactly see what happened, but there was a loud noise. And guess why everyone was moving so slowly? Ahead about a hundred meters or so away, there was a traffic police car. Stupid huh.

My favourite expressways would be AYE and ECP. Well, not when they are jam, of course. But there's a nice scenery on the expressway, and usually traffic is smooth flowing. Can drive fast too. A hundred and ten perhaps? :P

PIE can get quite slow. And PIE is curvy. I don't like it curvy. You can't drive too fast then. And PIE has changed a lot since my childhood days. There used to be many trees lining both sides of the expressway, now they simply feel like a concrete road, especially towards the central side.

And do you know that on the TPE, about every twenty bloody metres, there is a bloody camera on the bloody lamp-post. That is the most awful expressway to travel. Someone sees: There goes me driving on the TPE, going to Jln Kayu where they got the delicious roti prata. There goes me going to be late again and driving very fast. There goes me exiting at such and such. I tell you, big brother is definitely breathing down your back!

SLE can drive very very fast. Be careful of traffice police though. And it's way too long and round-about. KJE is boring. But it has a beautiful sunrise, where the sun shines straight into your eyes, effectively blinding you completely. Lovely. Sometimes there is a rainbow too, if you're really lucky. BKE is ... usually blocked by big buses and heavy lorries. They should be banned! Have I missed any else?

So I drive around the whole country like nothing. I've been to many places ... and it's actually nice to drive, with the air-con full blast on, accompanied by nice music or nice story-telling on the bbc. It's nice ... but I'm still a little frightened about driving. And I hate parking. period.

I'm always afraid that I'll simply drive bang straight into the car in front of me. Or when going around the curve, run into a tree. Or run down some pedestrains like ants. Actually it's nice to be able to run down pedestrains. And go over them a few times. back and fro. Hear the satisfying crunch. Like stepping on a dried leaf. Don't tempt me.

:P

My little Tom

The little bugger is now officially known as G.W.C ... which stands for Gangster Wild Cat. That's his name. My little Gangster Wild Cat. Cute name, don't you agree? heh.

Well, that's cos' the vet said that he's a mixed breed. Some wild handsome young punk cat must have rape his mommy. meow! So he's going to be a little wild one all right.

Take a look at his stripes. A beauty isn't he? Gonna break many hearts. The clinical assistant at the vet cooed and went goo goo ga ga over him. Even offered to kitty-sit for me. heh heh.



He's starting to open his eyes now. It was his right eye first, peeled open a tiny bit, shiny with a glazed look. Now both his eyes are partly open, but I think he's still blind. His ears were open on Wednesday, and nowadays when he suck his milk, he would twitch his ears wildly, to show all the effort he's putting in his feeding. Greedy little bugger!



Yep, those are my hands ... and yes, I know I've got pretty hands. heh heh heh. There's something about hands these few days. See Re-mi's hands. LOL


And that is GWC's claws. See how sharp they are! Scratches tough too. He's in the middle of screaming for his milk, see ... Cute isn't he? :)


And he certainly got a nice head pattern. Really an atypical gangster tattoo. I bet he's going to climb a lot when he grows up and probably enjoys jumping and parachuting too. As well as scratching on all our furniture. Perhaps it's still not too late to flush him down the toilet bowl?

:P

But I'm worried. He's not shitting much at all ... in fact, not yet today. Hubby is tickling his tummy patiently, and we've fed him with honey-water. But he's still not doing his business ... oh dear. Have to call the vet again tomorrow. I hope he'll be all right.

*sniff*

It's a boy!

Yep so it is. And a little wild one at that. Mix breed more likely, not totally the local tabby.

We finally brought the little bugger to the vet. Damn expensive. He was given a clean bill of health, got some expensive vitamins and a new tin of milk powder, which was supposed to be better and certainly more expensive than the current one. Damn expensive cat. Better stay alive. Also gave me so much problem, because the vet stayed in a very confusing place. I got lost many times, wandering round and round with a big red pail. Silly me. My feet ached. I'm tired.

At times we got rather tired of the feeding and the crying, and was thinking of disowning kitty. But he's really cute! Just ... oh, extremely tiring. Hubby sleeps soundly throughout the night even when kitty screams his lungs out. I lie in bed, awake but can't move my body. heh heh heh. No no ... eventually I do get up and do something. But it's just soooo tiring.

Oh well.

More pics of kitty coming soon. Just too tired to upload them. I am dead tired ... to the bones definitely!

*****
Someone called me up, and asked me to play chess again. Now that I'm home and feeling extremely tired, it doesn't exactly seem to be a good idea anymore. Besides I haven't played for donkey years. I'm not sure if I can handle that kind of stress.

One really can't run away at all. They found me eventually. :P

*****
Crossed thoughts:

Me: Dear ... they didn't move the sink back!
Him: Huh?
(I actually meant the washing machine)

...

Catnip

We picked up the kittens on a Saturday night, right after coming back from dinner. I remember I was watching Infernal Affairs 2 before that, which was supposed to be followed by IA and IA3, but we skipped IA because we were too hungry. Was supposed to go out for a quick bite, but ended up missing the whole movie, and half an hour into IA3. So the whole of IA3 catch no ball.

But I digress. IA2 was nice! Heard that IA was supposed to be best! Damnit. I like Tony Leung. heh heh.

I digress again ... :P

We heard the kittens mewing away on Friday ... and maybe even Thursday too. So we guessed that they were born maybe on Wednesday or so. The workers told us they had been feeding them since they found them without the mother cat. We took them in on Saturday. By tomorrow, perhaps my little pretty one would be a week's old. :)

The grey one was already quite bloated when we found them. Perhaps it was greedier than its sibling. And perhaps because of that, it was more constipated. I guess, at that time, I was still reading up on how to take care of orphan kittens, and we didn't manage to get it to shit enough. Or perhaps it had an infection in the tummy - its umbilical cord was still hanging and eventually dropped. I'd never know ... it cried and cried and suddenly went quiet and lathagic. We should have known better. *sigh* Next moment we knew, it was stiff. Poor little kitten. I hope it is peaceful wherever it is now, in a cat's heaven or something.

We took a walk down late at night and left it in the nicer part of our estate, just beside the fountain and the pretty lights. In a nice little box with lots of soft tissue. In the dustbin of course. Unfortunately, we can't dig a hole.

So it means we are more diligent in taking care of this little pretty one right now. We spend half an hour rubbing, feeding and cleaning almost every four hours. And make sure it shit and pee well enough. I don't want to lose this little pretty one. But perhaps it's dangerous to grow too attached to it now. It's still in the danger zone. When its eyes open, there will be more complications like infection and all that stuff. And it's quite scary actually. If it cries too much, we got worried; if it sleeps soundly, we also got worried and wondered if it's still breathing.

But just a little touch is enough to get it screaming. Boy, I wished I did not do that this morning! Had to spend a long time coaxing it back to sleep, after feeding and washing and all that! :P It seems more frisky nowadays, like doing all the scratching and crawling with enthusiasm, and at night, it seems to be able to sleep better. I hope that's a good sign. Must call up the vet tomorrow. :)

You know, the information given in all those webpages made it seems so simple to feed a kitten, but I tell you ... try holding a crawling little bugger in one hand who kept scratching at you (pain pain!) and squirming out of your hand, and holding the bloody dropper in the other hand and trying to aim the tip into the mouth, being careful not to poke in its nose or eyes ... I tell you ... it's harder than trying to break any Guiness Records!

Maybe keeping a puppy might be better.

This little kitty better stay alive and grow up to be a nice kitty! GROWL.

Hubby dropped kitty a few times ... and on its head as well. whoops. heh heh.

I did too, a couple of times. *bleah*

Eternal sleep

This is so depressing.

The bigger grey one has died. By the time I got home, it was already stiff. So peaceful ... but so stiff. :( :( :(

The little one cries a lot. Hang in there, little one.