Musings of Bubbles in Bubble-dom

I'm baaaaccckkk!!

2011-12-31T19:19:00.003+08:00

Ola! Greetings from your Queen of Bubbledom. It has been a long time...a very long time...I'm kinda stumped into speechlessness (much like the movie - The King's Speech)

It has been a busy time between this blog and the last. Too much to write about and no time to blog...

In any case - I AM BACK!!

This coming year I will not be wowing you with my endless resolution making and breaking. I intend this year to be a year of travelling. At the moment - I have lined up the following:

1) Trip to Penang
2) Trip to Ho Chih Ming
3) Trip to Cambodia
4) Trip to Shanghai
5) Trip to Prague

I plan to have many more trips lined up as i think it is about bloody time that I saw a little bit more of the world outside my Palace walls...

Myopia is the curse of all fallen Monarchs! As such I refuse to be a victim of my workaholic nature and being a servant to the demands of the people and my King.

I will go where no other Queen such as I have gone before... lol...I am going over to the fun side!
Wish me luck in my coming travels - that they are all successful and not met with lost luggage and the like.

*Damnit!!* just got bitten by another mosquito!! Another reason to get away!!
Your Queen

My World

2010-11-27T17:20:00.002+08:00

I thought about how I would blog after abandoning my blogspot for almost 2 years. There are alot of days during these two years that I have thought about blogging - mostly about things that are a real source of constant angst, anger, frustration...Anyway.....

I will start my blog with my dream that I had last night...quite reflective of the state of my life...The funny thing about my dreams is that I always dream of the same places...

For example my home in la-la land (when I'm there for a couple of hours each night) is very similar to my home in reality. It is on a hill. It is a massive home (about 3 storeys) It has a simple but strange architecture with stairs going in every which way. But I like my la la land home. It has an open concept on the ground floor opening up to the green hillside where I like to go - especailly on rainy days where you can smell the sweet wet grass - I kid you not...you should come by sometime. I have been around to discover the lands around my la la land home and we are surrounded by rolling hills where I can walk for miles and miles. Usually there is some kind of silly intrigue going on in my la la land home, sometimes the intrigues see me wandering the rolling green hills.

Last night the intrigues brought me something totally different. In my la la state last night I dreamt that my mom and dad were visiting me in my la la home and there was a party or get together happening. It was all going well when suddenly there was an explosion at the base of the hill that my home was located. It was a massive boom and the mushroom cloud was so massive that it blacked out the sky. There was a lot of heat and lava (I think) and I remember that I was not feeling any panic.

I calmly turned to my parents and asked them if they could take one of my dogs on their way out to escape whatever was happening. They agreed but somewhere in the confusion or as it usually is in dreams when time just disappears - they left without me or my doggies.

Again no panic - I turned when up the stairs to look for my doggies...On the landing I found magzter but he was in some kind of state of paralysis. My heart broke to think that my baby magzter may have passed on. I picked him up and held him close to me stroking him and then he whimpered. I was so happy that he was alive and thought that maybe he was stunned or something must have happened to make him temporarily paralyzed. The more I massaged him the better he became.

I carried him and proceeded further up the stairs. I came to a room that was totally devasted - barren and burnt and almost gave up hope but called out to Wolfie and out of no where - he came bounding in his usual energetic self towards me. His lead appeared out of no where and I put it on him and all three of us walked downstairs away from the devastation.

We made it to the basement and i thought that Poppet was a lost cause. The basement was a similar state to the top floors...total devastation, deserted, barren, hot...and in the middle of the room was a river of lava. Out of the corner of my eye I was a movement across the river of lava and saw that it was poppet running about on the other side. I shouted to him and he saw us and started to look for a way to cross the lava flow.

Somehow he did and the funny thing was I could only think...I don't have his lead!!! How am I going to walk all three of them (especially since Wolfie and Poppet don't get along!!!) Dreams being dreams - they didn't fight and all four of us left our la la land home.

As we moved we came across this building with an open space courtyard in the middle of it. When the four of us got there - we saw other people that had been made homeless by this event. All of them were accompanied by their pets. There was an exchange in the courtyard but I cannot recall what happened but we decided to leave. As we walked away from the building i remember turning around to look again and there was a boy with his dog in the doorway. All four of us walked on and came to a township. We were outside a shopping mall and there was a lady trying to sell me something...All I can remember thinking was why wasn't the lady upset or affected by the event? It seemed in that town that nothing has happened. Life went on as usual.

Then I woke up. With a jolt I might add. What a funny dream huh? You interpret it and let me know what you think. :)
Your Queen

2009 New New Year Resolution

2009-01-13T23:01:00.002+08:00

Man...what a day... It all started off well and it ended well but everything in between was crap.
I have already made my new year's resolutions for 2009. It's all a big secret - i think that if i tell people about it then i probably won't stick to it and of course it would be less embarrassing if i didn't manage to stick to it....

I added one more after today's events...in between the good start and the good end. It was just after lunch and i usually have a bit of a walkabout after consuming any meal to facilitate bowel movements...I'm quite a good regular pooher. I could pooh for our country at the pooh olympics and probably take home gold in many different categories...anyway...i digress.

As with most walkabouts...it usually ends with an urgent need to fulfil the purpose of the walkabout. Did you understand that? hahaha...

I proceeded to my spanking new office - renovation just completed. Now only left to furnish the lounging area at the back and set up a training lab. So simple right...one sentence equates to many many very tedious tasks. Anyway, i digress again...back to the story. So i made it back there and wanted to go to the pooh throne for some much needed release when i realized that there wasn't any toilet paper. As i started to walk out to the store to sort out this dreadful toilet paperless situation in my time of urgent need (I literally had a turtle's head sticking out of my ....) I heard sounds of a leak...so i tested the flush mechanism on the toilet to see if it had been caught (this is a common occurence in this particular toilet).

Anyone who knows anything about toilets and flushing mechanism - it would be me - can tell when the sistern is empty or full by the pressure needed to deploy a flush. As I tested the flush, i knew instantly that it was empty...So it I thought...the bloody tap must be off...the bloody contractors forgot to turn the main tap back on. SO i proceeded to turn the tap on, planning on multitasking like a good woman should - fill the sistern while i go get toilet paper so that sistern is full by the time i need a flush....

Stepping out of the toilet, I heard running water in my lounge...my spanking new lounge...so i rushed in and found a wave coming from the pantry sink (apparently not water tight) flowing onto my spanky new carpet...making it a soggy new carpet...

Crying out an expletive.. i rushed back into the toilet and turned off the main tap...went back to my soggy new lounge and looked on in despair as the water just kept pouring onto the carpet and eventually slowing to a drip...

Running for the paper towels i started to soak up as much water as i could...silently cursing the moronic contractor who did not think to mention to us as we are working at setting up the office (that we might use the toilet) to not turn the tap on. Crazy! Crazy Crazy!

So i worked for almost 3 hours to dry my soggy new carpet and i'm proud to say that after 3 hours of back breaking work my soggy new carpet has become an almost dry spanking new carpet again. I can only pray that the mold stays away. So my new New Year's resolution is "NOT TO FLOOD ANYWHERE OR ANYTHING FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR - THAT INCLUDES NICE SPANKING NEW LOUNGES, OFFICES, CAMERAS ETC..."

Think this might be the first resolution that i might just be able to keep! ;)

Tow Truck Service - Entertainment in Sepakat

2009-01-06T21:37:00.003+08:00

There was laughter, snickering, sniggering, finger pointing and i was not among the crowd that partook of the spectacle that amused them so. You see...it all started when the King's horse got lame (his bike) on his way back from work. I got a call when i was almost home (i was driving my chariot) and it was his royal highness...sounding all pitchy (no pun intended) ordering me to stop my chariot in the middle of the road coz he needed a lift back to the palace.

Usually, when he is on his trusty steed - he makes it back to the palace in no time at all and i'm usually at least 30 minutes behind him. So i was surprised by this turn of events. So i stopped ...making a lot of the other chariot drivers behind me so irate that they started honking.

I see him through the rear mirror (yes i know...it's pretty posh to have rear view mirrors installed in chariots...;)) and watch him as he makes his progress toward me. He hops into the chariot and is all sullen...oh no...here we go....i wait patiently for him to relate his story...i wait and i wait and i wait...till i could wait no more then i burst with the question...what's wrong with your italian horse (his bike is a ducati)? He grunts that it's sick and refuses to move. I asked what kind of illness has beset the poor beast? He grunts again in reply that it's something or rather...(you know all the manly terms for horsey business...

Anyway...i accept the fact that his trusty steed has become an invalid and so i asked him if he was going to leave his horse down where all the commoners were - hinting that his steed might get stolen....

"Of course not!" he barked. So i wait and wait for an explanation and eventually he mutters...we're gonna tow it. I asked how the horse should be towed? Perhaps we can get a tow truck to move the thing....or we can push it up the hill....at this he laughs cynically and says nothing else...

I continue to let him brood...all the way to the arrival at the palace...through the walking of the knights and the rest time after the walkies. Finally he says..."I'm hungry. Let's go eat..." so we do. I will not go through the hassles we go through everyday on what to eat for dinner. The palace larder is sorely lacking and the royal cooks (me) has usually packed up for the day by that time of the night.

Anyway, we visit the local grub place and had some bak kut teh. Before leaving he asks me to bring along the knights' leads...i have a funny feeling about this but do not question my lord and does as he says...mabbe after dinner he can handle a couple more questions....hmmmm.....

After dinner, in a much better but not much better mood, his lordship tells me his devious plans on how to get his trusty steed back to the palace. As i listen to it...i groan inwardly. He plans to hook the leads to the back of the chariot (there is a tow hook there) and he will sit astride his steed and hold onto the leads that are attached to my chariot. he then wants me to drive my chariot slowly towing his poor sick steed home. (face grimaces)

HOW??? WHAT??? HUH??? All questions going through my mind...i'm thinking my lordship has lost his marbles....all they while i'm thinking this he's muttering to himself about how all things italian are useless (he recently lost his coffee making machine - also italian).

I voice my doubts..."Erm....I think the leads might break...?" "Nonsense" he replies. "These leads are meant to for heavy duty stuff...." I thought i'd give him the benefit of the doubt and shut my trap. he continues "If they break, i would be very surprised!" With that we paid the bill and made our way back to his invalid steed.

When we arrived, there were lots of commoners still milling about, getting their last minute shopping done. So he coaxes his steed closer to my chariot and begins tying the leads and arranging them - according to his plan. I merely sit quietly in the chariot, waiting for the geedeeup!

The command comes and i set of slowly...less than 10 secs into the tow...the leads break. The people around have stopped to witness this spectacle of my towing service. I turn back to find out what's wrong and he says nothing at first. So we try again and off we go...less than 10 secs later..we have to stop again. I mean...I feel sorry for him at this point but not as sorry as i would feel for him in the next half hour.

Eventually we managed to get the steed back to the palace, stopping and starting like a dozen times, dealing with him falling down with his steed and ultimately the humiliating need for some commoners to help push the damn heavy monster of a horse up the frigging hill. My lordship was a steaming wet mess of sweat and dark thoughts by the time he returned to the palace. He thanked the commoners who aided him out of the goodness of their hearts. And subsequently collapse on the royal sofa, panting with his mouth open and tongue hanging out (he did look a little bit like his knights then)

I waited (as you can tell i have perfected the art of waiting) and waited till he caught his breath and then asked...."so?...let's hear it?" He looks at me, grins a sloppy sort of tongue hanging out kinda smile and says "You were right...the leads broke!" With that i smiled triumphantly and gestured in my queenly fashion that all was forgiven.... (sniggers...i really enjoyed that part) until he finished his sentence off with "I would have been right except that i forgot about the ends of the lead where it is not tied properly...."

At that...i thought...i should have left you and your trusty steed to rot with the commoners! HA!
At least i can say my life ain't boring.... ;)

The end of Violent Hay Fever Season...I hope

2008-12-01T20:06:00.002+08:00

So after all this...you would think...this season is awfully long...it must have finished with the last violent episode. Well...think again....

Every morning we go for walkies with the doggies. we usually look left and right before we open our gate to begin our walkies. This is because our neighbours have a habit of letting their dogs roam freely which causes quite a fair bit of problems for responsible doggie walkers like ourselves (always on a lead)

A couple of days ago, we went about our usual routine and began our walkies with our excited pooches. Over the last couple of days we have noticed a couple of bitches roaming our estates. And these bitches usually are in the company of our free roaming neighbour's dogs (which are all make btw) So on this very bright and cheerful morning as we made our way out - we spotted this bitch with our neighbour's brute in tow coming up our way. So i asked hubby to come back into the safety of our front porch to let the pair past before we moved out...

he agreed...so i opened the auto gate and ushered PSP (Partially Sighted Poppet) and STM (Severely Traumatized Mags) back into our property. Hubby made his way slowly back into the compound. Stopping at the gate so that i he blocked the entrance with Wolfie out front.

If you have ever had a dog and seen how it behaves when there is a stranger at your door...multiply that by 10 tens to get the same effect when it's another dog and then multiply that reaction by ohhh...let's just say 10 times more when there's a bitch involved....

So i called to hubby..."i do not want to be feeding my dogs antibiotics for life...please move Wolfie inside so that i can close the gate to avoid any trouble..."

He moves in but by this time...Wolfie is in a frenzy (please do the maths above to have an idea of what kind of a frenzy he is in)...as they move in.....i move forward to block the opening of the gate as it closes...and suddenly i feel shock...then pain...then ANGER!

My dog had just taken a chunk out of my leg. Hubby was caught off guard and stood there surprised for a couple of minutes before reacting by slapping wolfie...who by this time had realised what he had done and was cowering at hubby's feet.

Man...did it hurt......as with alll dog bites. Needless to say, if i was half asleep when i started the walk i wasn't anymore....I saw stars...little silver things around my peripheral vision...twinkling in time to the throb of the bite....great...i thought...and we had a busy couple of weeks ahead at work as well...just what i needed.

Not pointing fingers at whose fault it is...partially my neighbours for having their dogs run loose and freely, partially hubby's for not bringing the dog in when he could (before the frenzy started), partly my fault for moving infront of a frenzied dog....well....i hope violent hay fever season is over....I have had enough for 2008....

Give me a peaceful 2009....Nice doggies....nice doggies......

size makes no difference

2008-12-01T19:49:00.003+08:00

Size makes no difference....in my last post, you read about how Magster was attacked at the doggie event and that he was covered in blood but had no wounds to show for it...well this is where i get my title from.
My shih-tzu, Magster small as he is (a little ruffian to boot) managed somehow to bite the big dog in the throat whilst he was incarcerated in the jaws of hell. He also managed to chew the finger of the attacking dog's owner and two of my fingers that were wokring against the jaws of hell.

All the blood came from everyone else but him. So in my last post you also read that Magster has become more wary of the bigger dogs. he doesn't seem afraid of the attacking dog (we still see them around when we walk in the evenings and the mornings) and he barks at them and strains at the lead. Size is a state of mind - my friends...please learn a thing or two from my doggies. Maybe i should have named Mags....David. the only problem is David probably did not survive the next Goliath.

anyway...remember violent hay fever season? So it's not the end of this dreadful season...we're only half way through. So one night, we were all sat on the floor after a hard day's work...me at the office with hubby and the doggies keeping strangers at bay. I was feeding them snacks. And Magster has this habit of hoarding his snacks infront of him between his paws. He keeps them for after the big doggies have gulped theirs down only to eat his leisurely giving them smirk expressions as he enjoys his snack stash.

This night...my partially sighted dog decided that he would try for some of Magster's stash. As i have mentioned. Magster is very wary of big dogs and does not take kindly to one encroaching his personal space and snack stash. the first time Poppet try to have a go at the stacked stash he was growled away by Magster with complete eye balling effect.

the second time Poppet tried, Magster lost it and began a full attack. so Poppet retaliated and since it was not really a fair fight ( i know, i know what i said in my earlier posts but look at the size difference...) so i interfered. Not before Wolfie jumped into the scrimage and all hell literally broke loose coz their dad came tumbling into the fray as well...and somewhere in between - Wolfie got his ear torn up pretty badly. Magster had a near eye popping incident and Poppet escaped with the stash and without a blemish...

needless to say - it was off to the vet's again the next day for a full course of antibiotics...It has been 10 days since this occurred and i'm glad to report that Wolfie is doing fine....
Wait for it....the finale to Violent hay fever....coming up next

Violence like hay Fever

2008-12-01T19:21:00.002+08:00

Well...what can i say...bubble-dom is undergoing violent hay fever season. So you read about the Wolfie-Poppet incident. And i thought is was all over...being the end of the year...there can't be anything more violence related to doggies incidents happening to me...

Boy was i wrong. See remember in my earlier post there was this nice neighbour that helped me out with the Poppet incident by driving me to the vet hospital. Well she managed to organize a dog-a-thon...you read it right...a DOG-A-THON. I helped her out a bit with the logistics of it...not a lot but i promised to support her cause - "SAVE A STRAY" but bringing along my doggies to participate in this very public event. It was to be held in Merdeka Square (imagine...MERDEKA SQUARE with Doggies everywhere)

Essentially it was a charity event for the handicap in Malaysia and she was given the opportunity to make public her cause. this was meant to happen a week after the eye popping incident. I even tried to make Poppet an eye patch - we did try one one and he looked so dashing - like errol flynn only better and furrier!

So anyway...on the day of this event, both hubby and myself packed up with tidbits for the doggies, water bowls, water, leads, towels for my drooling wolfie(only in the car - i think he gets a bit car sick) packed all five of us in the car and drove to the designated venue for this unprecedented event.

upon arrival we noticed that there was a big crowd of people between where we were and the registration booths for the doggies wanting to participate in the Dog-a-thon. Sensibly, hubby decided to wait kerb side away from the crowds (did not want any biting incidents to happen as dogs can get very frightened of large crowds and may lash out) whilst i brought my baby Mags with me to do the necessary.

I noticed my neighbour was there with his dog and went over to wave a hello. But i did mentioned to him that since our dogs did not get along that we should keep away from each other during the walk. he agreed. i proceeded to register at the table and left mags (on a lead) but under the table. Suddenly i felt the lead snatched... i looked under the table and My neighbour's dog had Mags in his jaws and was walking away with him as if he was a light snack.

I immediately fought to get my doggy back...and trust me...it was tough. the dog that attacked mine (mine is a shih-tzu) was a mongrel about 6 times the size of my Magster. He refused to yield my dog to me even though i had my fingers in his mouth and was tugging with all my might. All the time i refused to let my Magster go and kept a firm pulling motion on the big dog's jaw. Someone came over to hit the attacking dog on the head and his owner just kept telling his dog to let my dog go ( i can tell you it didn't help) and eventually someone poured water over the whole scrimage. I guess some water must have gotten into the big dog's nose and he loosened his grip enough for me to pull my dog out of his mouth. Throughout all of this...my Magster was literally screaming in pain...whilst the terrified crowd watched on, afraid or unable to approach.

when Magster was free, i noticed his doggie T-shirt was covered in blood. I was terribly upset and left immediately to bring my baby to a vet. I did not dare to remove his t-shirt as i was afraid of what i would find. As i walked away from the scene of the attack and approached hubby - he could see i was upset and i told him about the attack and asked him frantically to bring us to a vet...so we took off....

whilst walking to the car i pulled up the courage to take off Magster's T-shirt. I was totally in tears...wondering how bad the injury was going to be...when i found nothing but abrasions. nothing that could have bled as much as his t-shirt told me he would have bled. We went to the car anyway and as we drove home, alll Magster could do was sit quietly in a daze. Unable to believe that he had been attacked and with such viciousness.

We went home, monitored the poor baby and clean him up (he was covered with saliva from the big dog). I think my other doggies know that lil Magster was attacked and i honestly think that doggies have primal urges to finish off unfinished business - so they sort of irritated him by pushing him around. Mags of course was in no mood for rough play with big dogs...so he went into hiding. now he is recovered (physical wounds) and to this day, he is more cautious and defensive when around the big boys...which is the story of my next post..... stay tuned....

Partially sighted is PC

2008-12-01T18:58:00.002+08:00

So we continue the saga...in speed fashion. We have decided to split both doggies. One in each corner of the front porch. The King wanted to chain only Wolfie up but i argued that it's not fair that only one gets chained up for this. The thing is, i believe dog fights are like bar brawls...someone had to start it and maybe somebody else has to finish it. All parties in a bar brawl are guilty. My sympathy to the brawler that lost an eye but he should know better than to start a fight that he cannot finish in victory. I don't know what Sun Tzu says about it in his art of war books but in my book that has yet to be published (if ever) entitled the alternative to Sun Tzu - the art of life will state that you gotta pick your fights...more of this in another post. So the decision is both will be punished.

To split the doggies successfully, we have decided to build two doggie houses - one for each of them. Both houses will be in full sight of the other and both doggies will be "linked" to their houses by sturdy chains that allow them space to themselves and reach of one bike tyre each (they like peeing on hubby's motorcycle). Poppet will have the front tyre and Wolfie the back.

I have designed the doggie houses and have asked a carpenter to quote me. In the interim, Wolfie remains chained whilst partially sighted Poppet gets to roam during the day. Eventually, we will build a stairway down to the garden, have the garden fence mended and the area landscaped and one of the doggies will be placed there with access to bark at passing traffic and weird strangers that come round.

At night, Poppet gets to sleep in peace by himself on the front porch and Wolfie sleeps with us in the bedroom. He is my furry alarm clock. Always whining away at 0700 hours... I'm never late for work these days....

Partially sighted is now the "in-term" used by hubby to describe my one eyed pooch. He's not terribly traumatised and seems happy with the current sleeping arrangement. I have never seen my one eyed poppet...opps...partially sighted baby so happy in the mornings. He gets a bit nervous when we leave for work...but that's all i can do for him right now...He just has to be a big boy about it...

If you didn't want to hang around a pissed off half breed siberian husky then you should not have picked the fight...Live and learn....in Poppet's case - NEVER! I pray that my Poppet learns to be more PC around Wolfie just like i'm learning to use the phrase "Partially sighted"

My One eyed Poppet

2008-11-07T18:56:00.002+08:00

It was the morning of Deepavali when my dog lost his left eye in a fight. I was alseep in bed when i was woken uo by sounds of things breaking upstairs. I had had a bad and hard week and was cathcing up with sleep when all this happened.
I left Magster in bed and went to investigate...as i got closer to the sounds - it became clear that my knights were at it again...trying to kill each other. From experience i knew that i should not open my front door coz then they would bring the fight into the house...and I DID NOT WANT BLOOD EVERYWHERE!!
So i crept out the back door to see how bad it was. Usually they would tire out and just bleed through all their cuts and gashes sitting where they were too tired to continue. I considered going back inside to let them tire out...before breaking it up as it could be really bad news for me...
I walked towards my garden hose...still unsure (BTW their daddy isn't around that morning...he had taken the car to go hiking) of what to do...then i just grabbed the hose and made my way back into the fight...As i approached the twisting dogs i realised that something was not right with Poppet...it was his eye...it had popped out of his eye socket.
I panicked...ran into the fight...pulled at wolfie, screaming for him to let go of Poppet...turned the hose on full blast...AND HE STILL WOULD NOT LET GO.
I cried out in anguish...knowing deep down that the damage was too severe and that my Poppet, my first dog, my darling love bug would be blind in one eye...(my crying and screaming attracted the neighbours but not a lot that they could do...)
Eventually Wolfie let go and Poppet skittered away to the corner of the Porch...I stood between them - both bloody, both tired and both hurt. I opened the back door and ordered Poppet inside whilst keeping an eye on Wolfie to make sure that he did not move in for the kill.
I followed my Poppet into the kitchen where he sat one eye dazed and the other protruding out...i checked for dilation of his iris and there was none...I never understood what anguish meant till that day...I never want to feel it again.
I scrambled for the phone and tried to contact their daddy so that he could come back with the car to bring Poppet to the hospital. I called and called and called...no answer...desperation....lots of it...frustration...lots of it...and then anger! I was angry that he decided to go hiking (part of his reason is for business as one of the participants of the hike was a malay cfemale client) . I was angry that his business was more important than us...pissed off but still frantic...
my mind searched for people who could help me in the shortest time possible (it's funny sometimes how clear the mind can become) and then it occured to me that my neighbour who does animal rescues will be able to help...she had a car so i called her.
She responded in doubletime (thank god for good people like her) and took me to the nearest animal hospital (and the best...she knows them all) but it was closed or not open yet. She then tried calling another hospital to try to get the surgeon to be ready when we arrived...and we suffered a lot of angst with the way the emergency service numbers were handled...all the while she was comforting me that we might still be able to save Poppet's eye.
I had Magster with me...somewhere in between the chaos i had gone down to get dressed and retrieve my baby Mags. I took him along coz i did not know if Wolfie would go bananas on him since Poppet is not around.
Eventually we arrived at the hospital - their Daddy had eventually called back and was given the terrible news and was making his way back into KL. I went in to see the surgeon with Poppet whose protruding eye ball had now been flooded with blood. If there was a way to save his eye half an hour again...it was gone now. The vet advised that the eye cannot be saved and must be taken out completely. That was when i broke down...my poppet with his beautiful brown eyes hurt so terribly. I consented and left to wait outside while the procedure was being performed.
Daddy eventually found the hospital and was all angry. So was I. But we weren't angry with each other - we were angry with the situation. My neighbour had since returned home to deal with her own domestic doggie squabbles.
Finally, the vet announces that the surgery is over and was a success. We go up to see him in recovery room and he is still groggy from the drugs but he recognises us...his left eye is swollen and stitched shut. Because of the swelling you would still think he had his eye. But the vet assures us that it is no longer there. all his other wounds and gashes have been stitched up neatly - i could not help but admire the tidy work of this doctor compared to other vets that i've seen.
So we took the boy home and put his bed in the living room to rest with a bowl of water at the side. We had a lot of decisions to make and they were tough ones...i was not looking forward to them or to being Wolfie....
Even

Ugly Betty Addiction

2008-10-24T00:36:00.002+08:00

New addition to my list of addictions...Pity that it's only up to Season Two. Ugly Betty is so farnee! I'm sort of glad that i'm at the last disc of Season 2...I can finally get some sleep! It's great company when the King is out hunting for out next meal...but i think the withdrawal symptoms from the series is gonna be really bad...I'm not looking forward to tomorrow when there is no more Ugly Betty for me to watch.

The addiction is so bad that my knight Mags has to urged me to go to sleep....He also has the very difficult job of waking me "Zombie addicted to Ugly Betty" up in the morning...This morning - he gave up...after repeated lickings and walking all over me. Tomorrow night and the following morning all should be back to normal - fingers crossed.

I plan to go look for another series to get addicted to...hmmm..the letter L? Lipstick Jungle? Will keep you updated...

Morons of the World Unite

2008-10-20T23:55:00.002+08:00

Have you heard Britney's Spear's latest song out? It's called womanzier or something like that ( i know...i know... thrashy title and trashier sound) but it did something really amazing - it united the Morons of the World.

It was early this morning when i was driving to work together with my King and we were caught in the usual carriage crawl to reach the royal court. As per our routine, we would be tuned in to the radio listening the whatever the morning news (Madonna divorcing Guy Ritchie is news - can you believe the world we live in?!?!) and reports of morning traffic carnage. Somewhere in between we actually get a couple of tunes. The DJs are fairly entertaining and sometimes have information that cracks us up. This morning we received shocking news that Britney Spears upon her come back and release of song Womanizer entered the Pop Charts at 96 position and in ONE DAY went up to NO. 1 or something frivolous like that. That isn't the most shocking part. The most shocking part is the song completely sucks! the only lyric the song has is "Womanizer"...That's right...all Britney Spears has done is repeat the word over and over again.
MORONS of the world stand united in their bid to place properly displaced white trash Britney Spears back on her trashy pop throne where she can sit with her legs open knickerless!

When we heard the "news" we both instanteously turned to each other with horror etched in our face...I mean the King could hardly close his trap from the shock he suffered. God Save us from the Morons of the World and their white trash queen - Britney Spears! I will pray for all you misguided souls that went out and bought her CD and danced to that horrible tune.

Death of an Innocent - by an innocent

2008-09-11T22:35:00.005+08:00

On one of the endlessly long days that make up my life of leaving an office full of unfinished work to returning to a home that is filled with more unfinished work, i witnessed the death of an innocent. It all started one evening whilst we were chilling out in the palace's main hall. I heard a distinct cry coming from the trees on my hillside. It was what i identified as a typical baby's cry for its mommy. It wasn't human but i could not see what was crying in the dark shrouds of the tree's branches. So i got out the maglite (extremely bright torch) and lit up the source of the crying and saw a baby musang (civet cat) mewing piteously. There was nothing i could do for it except let it cry on and it did all through the night.

The next day went as usual...office drudge then home. Just like every other day when i arrive home, i will be greeted by excited yapping from the knights, jumping, pawing and generally making me colourful as the ram into me giving me bruises all over - i have to say my language is usually as colourful as the rest of my body after the usual meet and greet.Today was no different. I was met with the usual enthusiasm from the dogs and my tired tots of laundry, dish washing etc. So i quietly padded downstairs to go to my laundry area, followed closely but Sir Wolfie and Sir Mags and they dutifully followed me out to do my chores out back. The knights bored with watching me work (they are really very good at this task) started playing in the garden. Occassionally i would scream for them just so that they would come bounding round the corner all smiles to reassure me that they haven't fallen down the hillside.

This day, before i could do my usually well timed scream for reassurance, i heard frantic barking from somewhere around my study. Wondering what triggered off this persistent barking i went to investigate. I found both Mags and Wolfie at the little patio near my study where all my orchid plants are. Wolfie was barking at something in the corner...as my eyes searched around my potted orchids it finally settled on a baby musang terrified beyond belief at the loudly yelping brute, huddled in the corner with no escape.

I told Wolfie in stern tones to stay before heading back in to get a towel to catch the musang. The idea was to release it nearer the tree i saw it in the night before so that it could escape to the safety of the branches. I returned with a towel but as i approached it hissed at me which set off a whole string of barking from both Mags and Wolfie. I figured i still would need my fingers to work with tomorrow so i went round to the back to get a box to trap the terrified baby.

As i came back to the scene of excitement, i heard a scuffle. i returned to find the musang and my knights gone. So i ran round to the far side of the garden only to see Wolfie with the musang in his mouth in a death grip shaking it violently. I screamed for him to drop it and dropped it he did. As i approached i could see that it did not survive the thrashing that Wolfie gave it. He thought it was a toy was my first guess (he usually shakes his toys in just the same way). My second guess is that my Wolfie is a hunter, was a hunter when i saved him from the pound and still is one.

I was very distressed with him. I love my knights as if they were my children and i would never think them capable of murder...but this incident changed it all for me. I did not know how to react. The loss of life, any life - innocent or otherwise is always sad. I cried as i lifted the carcass of this baby civet cat and placed it into a box. It was not a pretty sight. I then proceeded to dig a hole in the ground to bury the poor soul. Wolfie has not seen the garden in almost a month, partly as a punishment and partly i was afraid that he would dig up the shallow grave. I still love Wolfie but i guess I NEED TO BE MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIM AND HIS REACTIONS!

Just a couple of nights ago, i heard something banging against my balcony railings and wondered if there was an intruder. I went up to check and in the darkness without turning on the lights i could see nothing move. i decided to flick the balcony light switch on anyway - better to know what is trying to attack you then to be attacked whilst asleep is what i say.

What i saw was two adult musangs playing on my balcony, jumping on the railings, bouncing off the swings, running across the length of the balcony. They played for a good 10 minutes before heading up to the roof to do god knows what. I think these were the parents of the baby musang buried in my garden. I guess they came back for their child afterall except that their child is no more because of mine. My knight, for whatever reason - caused the death of an innocent, i believe innocently.

Choose Freely, Choose Wisely with no regrets (almost)

2008-09-09T19:27:00.003+08:00

Today's advice for the battle weary who want to throw in the towel the the sake of a minute's respite against the ground they have fought to win losing tooth and nail and copious amounts of bloody spraying vomitus (old chinese and malay proverb of vomiting blood means to be so damn irritated or frustrated that one pukes blood out in a dramatic fashion)

I mean this in this life we face many decisions and many choices. We have more freedom now than that of our parent's generation. We have more options, choices, pathways even religions than they had. AND what do we do with this endless variety of life? We screw it up because we think we can do it all in one life time. That's right folks...you only have a lifetime to do what you want to do to make it count in some small way or another if not for someone else than at least for yourself.

ONE LIFETIME

So yes, you will have to decide on things like these:

1) Single or Attached
2) Children or no children
3) Love or money
4) Work or Leisure
5) and so on and so forth

the list is endless. Some comparisons are more important in one person's life than another. And yet with all the endless access to endless opportunities, and all the freedom to choose we still have so much difficulty choosing what we want. We make a mountain out of a molehill over decisions like these.

I guess i have had enough of stupid people in the last week. These are people who have made decisions in their lives, selected choices that resulted in certain pathways being travelled and the consequence both good and bad have suddenly developed hindsight. this is an amazing gift. Pity it comes too late.

it's like they made these decision blinded...(some claim they did not have 100% of the information or was not 100% sure - these days 100% is a ficticious figure that doesn't count for much)

They ask for reassurances for the future when none can be provided. They have been kept so safe and shielded either by society or family that they can no longer deal with risk. Calculated risk is highly misunderstood in this day and age.

The generic key to anyone's happiness is the have the ability to choose freely without any external pressures. choices are made by the heart or by the mind - both elements are internal and yet many people allow external factors to influence their decision making. External factors can be situational. These external situational factors create internal influences like fear and shame. I guess i'm trying to say that we must decide what makes us happy, what constitutes a deal breaker for any decision to pass and not subvert our happiness by allowing any external influence. I believe strongly that only a happy person can make another happy. It isn't easy but it's not impossible to choose freely.

And if you cannot bring yourself to choose freely, then you can at least do yourself a favour by choosing wisely. Gut instincts are seldom wrong unless your name is Mr or Miss Unfortunate For Life. When you come to a cross road in your life and it is necessary for you to decide the pathway and this scenario is usually brought about because of some inbalance in your life that you feel perhaps some change would be necessary in order for you to be happy. You probably already know what needs to change or which is the right path. You decide that you will act on this and by doing this you have chosen freely. Then situational factors began to descend upon your senses and suddenly you are no longer as sure as you were when you first made the decision to change.

this will likely see the revoke of the initial decision (freely chosen) due to fear of non results and readiness to revert back into your comfort zone. Then you must learn to choose wisely. Choosing wisely allows for external influences in your decision making to help you justify your decision to revert. If you have chosen wisely then you have admitted that the time is not right for the change or the extent of change is too big. This will of course mean that you give up on the opportunity/possiblity of the happier life you initally envisioned for yourself. Whether you choose freely or wisely, life will still have it's up and downs. The trick is to not have regrets. One lifetime, do your best with it, choose freely, choose wisely and have no regrets...almost.

And one last thing...everything you want in life - you will need to earn! There are no shortcuts, no quick results. It's hard work despite what everything around you screams "convenience, easy and fast" in your face on a daily basis.

If you still didn't understand this blog...call me! ;)

Of Creaky Bones, White Hair and Contentment

2008-08-31T00:20:00.005+08:00

It seemed like just yesterday that I was sleeping peacefully in my sarong swing crib as a babe. The years between then and now have fallen from my memory, leaving only a handful of vivid memories of my life in between. The inevitable aging process that begins from the time of our birth seems more apparent to me these days...It is most telling in my physical makeup when bits of me displays obvious obedience to gravity where previously there was definite rebellion and i make more noise just walking than actually being in conversation. These days i also sport highlights of white in my previously ebony locks...where i used to be limber i am now an aching mass of creaky bones, white hair and contentment
This is no complaint. I am actually very happy at this stage in my life despite all the trials and tribulations - they only made me stronger in mind and heart. Where i only used to have physical balance and strength, I now have balance in my intangible self - i'd like to think it's Soul Balance.
It wasn't so long ago that i was deep in discussion with my King about Happiness vs unhappiness. I was trying to articulate that the difference between these two phrases:
1) the opposite of Happiness is Unhappiness (as i understand from whatever sub standard english i have)
2) Being "Not Happy" does not equate to "Unhappiness"

Think about it for a second...read those two lines again and see if it makes sense to you. The reason for the need to articulate the above was to argue if the middle ground (being contentment) keeps us from fulfilling or chasing after dreams that truly makes us happy. I think most people will settle for contentment - it isn't happiness nor is it unhappiness but "hey! I'm alright so why rock the boat?" When we were discussing this topic, I was essentially accused of waxing philosophical. Many asked what's the point of knowing the difference. I find that it is important to know the difference and to acknowledge where you are in your life as then and only then will you know where you want to go or what you want to do.

It takes a lot of courage to face our blindness to our own position in life and a lot of effort to focus on what makes it worthwhile when our sensors are numbed by so many modern and external distractions. It's always a good time to turn inward and ask if things need to change. It's always a good time for some soul balancing.

Many of us work for a living, have children (well i have fur kids), we are all busy with activities day in and out and for the most part we are content. Giving thanks for our healthy and happy families, our job, our friends etc. But there are days that we wonder about another kind of life (usually the kind that is beyond what we have, the kind that if we were to pursue would result in opportunity cost of the present lifestyle).

So then begs the questions: Can the word contentment be used interchangeable with the word fear? Is it the contentment that keeps us in the routine or fear or both? If it is fear, then what is it we fear?

I have an accquaintance who travels around a fair bit, never stays in one country for longer than 2 years. She is very proud of her achievements and her worldliness as i am of her. But one day she mentioned proudly that the reason she moves about so much is that she is not afraid of changes. Of course put like that most people would view it as an attribute to be proud of as most homosapiens would have been tagged as afraid of change. So i thought i'd offer her another point of view...would it be possible that she was afraid of contentment...afraid that roots would not return the desired results and that this affected her decision to move on and along every couple of years? Could it be the contentment of moving and never growing roots at any one place keep her from finding true happiness? Or is it fear? Will she have the courage to look inside?

Soul Balance is hard to achieve and maintain. Change is necessary for the pursuit of happiness. No recommendation for anything major. Little changes in attitudes, small pushes for progress in a different direction will produce some hardships along the way but the road to any kind of balance has never been flat, straight or easy. I ask for the courage to turn my eyes inside every once in a while and the strength to fight creaky bones, white hair and contentment - all in a bid for happiness.

Bubble-dom going pretty in green

2008-08-20T23:52:00.006+08:00

I have quite a large garden in my Kingdom. Since moving in years ago, i have failed to do any kind of landscaping - partly coz of the cost and partly coz of being too involved in the business of ruling the Kingdom. About a year ago, i started to take an interest in plants...I thought they made the Kingdom look warm and alive - for as long as they lived. Which wasn't very long if the Royal Gardener was yours truly.

The local nusery is now my second home...I have to pick up new plants almost every fortnight to replace the ones that have gone to green heaven. It's really not my fault...let me explain the various ways a plant can go to Green Heaven:

1) Death by Thirst (this is when the King and I forget to water them over a couple of days)
2) Death by Pee (This is when the royal knights decide to empty their little bladders on the plants to help them grow big and strong - the plants usually die from too much goodness)
3) Death by Fertilizer (The myth is fertilizer is good for the plants - they should advertise that artifical fertilizers are much much much much stronger than the au naturel ones)
4) Death by Drowning (No one told me it was possible to drown a plant)
5) Death by Attendance - of a dog fight (The knights can't help it if they hurl themselves around in their fight for alpha male domination - the plants should know better than to stay potted there)
6) Death by Bugs (Ever seen an infestation? No? Come round for a cuppa - and i will show you the royal grounds...)

There...those are the most common death patterns of the plants around the royal grounds. But now i have a new project (i can hear my king groaning at this). That is to plant a border hedge just outside my bedroom so that i can wake up to beautiful ixora (yellow ones) every morning...of course provided they survive long enough to "grow up".

So it was with this project in mind that we went to purchase the little bush packs of yellow ixora (all from the local nusery of course - the queen must support local industry - and if i do say so myself - i do a grand job at the local nusery). We got 15 in all, carted them home, brought out the hoe and made myself a nice ice lemon tea to sit in the shade whilst my king worked on getting himself a blister on his soft royal hands. Have to say...he was kinda cute....sweating buckets and constantly looking at his little blister and breathing really hard. In the end all good shows must come to an end...so we managed to dig 7 holes. The good news is that some shows have sequels and my fun will begin once the weekend starts again - he has another eight holes to do.

If i viewed my life as a garden then i would have planted many plants (attempted many things) some lived and flourished whilst other passed on (sometimes i succeed and other times i dun), and i keep going back to the nusery for more (i try try and try again).

To date i have about 9 fir trees (the kinds that scare the ghoulies away), 15 yellow ixoras and counting, 8 Orchids, 3 Jasmines, 2 good luck plants (they are flourishing - i take it as a good sign), 1 cutting from an unknown shrub (also flourishing), 1 wild grass flower, 5 roses, 2 Elegant plants, 1 money plant (also fourishing), 2 baby ferns, 1 giant fern, 3 bonsai, and possibly 9 snake plants (fingers crossed) and finally a herb garden consisting of coriander, chili, chili padi, daun limou perut, mint plus a couple of others. I have consulted a landscaper and i am planning to have frangipani trees and more jasmines in the main part of the garden. I'm also planning to go round my estate to get bougainvilla cuttings...so i have to say my garden and life is looking good.

4 Elements of Self

2008-08-06T00:09:00.003+08:00

There are 4 Elements of Self. There include the physical element, the psychological element, the emotional element and the spiritual element. In order to achieve balance, it is my belief that there needs to be a balance in all elements. this balance or imbalance can be influenced by yourself and of course external forces (we do not live in a vacuum).

My Physical Element
Ok Ok...i know that signing up for gym membership is different from actually utilising the gym facilities. I know i have weight to lose but i reason that all the stress from work is losing me pounds...i should be super model thin by now...To redeem myself just a little bit, i do walk my knights up and down the royal hillside twice a day sometimes having to fight off giant stray mongrel dogs and sometimes i ski in an effort to hold my knight back from a willing maiden bitch! So i figured...i'm ok...not a total loser...yet....Right need to sort out my schedule to go gyming soon! Just need to run past the mamak to grab nasi lemak for breakfast before gyming...

My Psychological Element
Man this area is a right mess! This beats the Pepsi Max in blackpool and i'm on it at least 50 times a day in my head. My defense? I'm a woman...we tend to over think things...you know...will he call? does he love me? why is he so mean? Is he a jackass? When can i whoop his butt? But i think (here i go again) that overall...i'm quite sane (who am i kidding) and a well balanced person (right...where do i sign up for the mental ward?)
I know it's weird (my hubby thinks so) but i have multiple personalities - i believe all of us have multiple personalities but the only difference is that i talk to mine before they manifest. Kewl huh? Well...mabbe not!

My Emotional Element
Now this is one tangled wed of #$^% Even i can't get through it...i guess for your sake we better keep out of this area....

My Spiritual Element
Ahh...this has been lacking! For a very long time. you know the saying the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak...well...that's me and you and millions of others...But that just doesn't cut as justification for being weak though...I mean - can you imagine...upon death...you meet St Peter at the Pearly gates and your only reason for being a flop in maintaining your spiritual element is that no one else you know does (and that's probably a lie as well...hmmmm...not going to get very far with St Peter)

I do pray though...for the people i love and care for the most...for the people i don't know but will need help...there was a time that i was really frustrated with hubby and my mother would ask me to say a prayer that went something like " Lord, give use the patience to change what we can and the wisdom to know the difference...." And it goes on and it's a lovely prayer. I have added on to the prayer to pray for strength...to kick hubby's a$$ into shape when he iritates the crap out of me....Amen!

How in touch are you with your 4 Elements of Self? ;)

My Popo

2008-08-05T23:29:00.002+08:00

My earliest memories of my PoPo (my maternal grandma) is that of jet black hair, fierce looking face, horn-rimmed glasses, one hand on hip and the other wielding a rotan (cane). I cried a lot when i was young giving new definition at that time to the term cry baby. It wasn't that she'd beat me or scold me....i was just a very fretful child. These days i dun cry as much, even though i want to or feel the deepest sadness that comes with the loss of my PoPo.

My PoPo co-brought me up with my parents. We were not wealthy when i was a child. I almost always got hand me down clothes from my sister and treats came in the form of 10cents being placed in my hand sneakily by my grandpa (God bless his soul - he left us quite some years ago) to go play "Tikam" (a gambling game of chance for kids - prizes usually were toys etc) whilst my Popo would nag about wasting money. She would cook up a storm - true nyonya dishes. She would "tepok" (pet) me to sleep and whilst i slept she would fan me with a folded newspaper. She has the best collection of kebayas i ever had seen in my life and she used to love playing mahjong and "ciki"

As usual when you are a child you hardly know the adults that are bringing you up to be a responsible adult. When you are a teenager you refuse to listen to their wisdom and wise advice. When you are a young adult you are too busy building your life to pay much attention to those who spent their lives giving you yours. The dawning of the characters of the people who bring you up through this world comes slowly and sometimes to late. When i say dawning...i mean the slow growth of awareness...and that's how it is for me and probably most of you as well.

At the place that i am now - more or less stable, more or less happy, more or less fulfilled i see things differently. I can see now that when i was growing things were really tough and my parents and grandparent really had to work very hard for themselves and us - especially us. The attitudes and mentality of then and now are vastly different. Choices that were limited then built stronger characters and endurance. Unlimited choices in this day and age have made the younger generations weak. I am glad to say that i am not so far from that ole generation that i have benefited from that attitudes and mental and mettle building that was so strong during that period.

My Popo who recently passed away reached iconic status in my mind probably over the last 10 years where it dawned on me all her sacrifices, her strong will, her fight till the end mentality (that usually drove her kids mad!) her softness, her need for love throughout her life and her love and tenderness (despite appearances) for us all. Undoubtedly she has touched and taught everyone who has ever had the opportunity to meet her. through her i have learnt to see the flip side of every coin, through her, i learnt to see the silver lining in every dark cloud, through her i learnt respect, tolerance, negotiation, will power and many other skills that will be with me till i die.

I miss my Popo. I feel sad that she is gone but i am glad that she is in a better place (possibly harrassing all the angels in heaven as we speak) She is the last TRUE Matriach of the Nyonya line in my family. She is a character like no other. I miss kissing her and having her hug me as i promise to return from KL to visit with her soon. she has lived 86 years and suffered, enjoyed, endured more life than most people i know. Nothing i can write her will ever describe her as she sits in my mind and in my heart. She used to call me cry baby...well her "Bibian" doesn't cry as much as she did and could not cry when she left us...i guess her lessons have sank in more deeply than i thought. She will always be a part of me. I can see bits of her floating around in me and i feel proud that she was my POPO and that pride of being part of her, her pride in life will stay with me forever.

Who Let the Dogs Out?

2008-07-09T22:27:00.002+08:00

Remember this song? Well, not a lot of a song since most of its lyrics revolves around those five words and a lot of barking! So it has a catchy tune and most people would remember it. I definitely do...and it isn't because the song is good or i really like the beat.

This song has stuck in memory as it reminds me of the first time hubby lost our dog - Poppet (he has since been found, put back all the weight he lost and become as obnoxious as he used to be) That was the theme song that i sang to hubby everynight for as long as it took us to locate Poppet!
Man, that was real punishment - having to listen to that crap song and feel guilty about our then missing pooch at the same time. Poor Hubby! Poorer Me - I had to sing the damn thing!

After we found Poppet though, i stopped singing that song and tot to myself: "Thank God! It is a terrible song and it's definitely not my cup of tea!" So i tot Me and hubby would be safe from ever having to listen to that beat again (unless some clueless DJ puts the tune on!)

Wishful thinking...tonight i found our gate wide open and both Poppet and Wolfie had disappeared. Heart Attack Alert! Screaming at hubby (it would probably be him seeing as i was no where near the autogate keys) I caught sight of Poppet loitering around our car outside. So i called for him and he wagged his curly pig tail and sauntered over - seems he still remembers what it was like to be lost! So at least i had found one of them. Walking him back to the house the autogate starts to close and hubby is stumbling out of the house with three leads over his shoulder and the little dog (Mags) under his arm. If he had hair...it would look tousled and that would have completed his look of shock and guilt.

When he saw that i had Poppet - he opened the gate and got Poppet safely inside. Then we both took off looking for Wolfie. he drove, i walked. I walked all the usual paths we take for walkies but i could not find Wolfie...When i came to the end of the street and the end of my hope of finding Wolfie...Hubby pulls up in the car and the joy i experienced when i spotted Wolfie in the seat next to him was like "woo hoo!!!". Needless to say...the joy of finding my dog was great but not greater than the fact that i would not have had to sing that **** song again!

Who says there aren't miracles? i experienced two this evening!

Annual Dream

2008-06-29T12:24:00.008+08:00

I have an annual dream...believe you me. It happens once a year and it's always the same dream. For 2008 - it has not happened yet. It goes something like this:

There is this square patch of grass. around the perimeter of this grassy patch is a short fence - the kind you can just step over to avoid tripping. this setting is in a space devoid of anything else apart from the characters. There are 3. They are pipes. A Momma Pipe, A Daddy Pipe and a Baby Pipe.

They are walking around the perimeter of this fenced of patch. They seem to live there. They never go into the patch. Just round and round they go... Somewhere in my dream and during their pipe life, the Baby Pipe comes across a pretty sun flower growing at the perimeter of the fenced up patch. Happy to find the flower ( i guess the baby pipe must be pretty bored - i mean i could not walk around a patch of fenced up turf for more than a minute...), she plucks it (dun ask me how i know it's a "she" - i just do), runs over to the Daddy Pipe and presents him with it!

This gets weird now...The Daddy Pipe is terribly angry with the Baby Pipe for plucking the sunflower from the patch and proceeds to chase the Baby Pipe around the fenced up patch. Trust me...at this stage of the dream the Daddy Pipe is enamting strong anger vibes. So the chase goes on for a bit and I can sense that the Baby Pipe is really scared - she might have turned into a sewerage pipe if Mommy Pipe did not interfered.

Interfered Mommy Pipe did. She stop the chase by standing between the Daddy Pipe and the Baby Pipe and spoke calming words to the Daddy Pipe. Soon Daddy Pipe calms down and the three pipes continuing walking around the patch of fenced up turf. On and On ... walking round and round...until the Baby Pipe finds a sunflower and plucks it to present to Daddy Pipe...and the dream goes on and on in a loop!

If i wake up from this dream and return to sleep the dream will continue for the rest of the night. Eeeeriiieeee....

Tell me i am not loony! But honestly, this is an annual dream. I do not go a year without this dream happening at least once. I am awaiting for it to happen.....annnn-tiiii-ciiiii-paaaa-tiooooon!

Doggie Bag Dispenser

2008-06-15T00:51:00.003+08:00

Been a long time with much happening in between my last blog and this one. Though you wonder may wonder on the title of this blog...well...read on and wonder no more.

See...recently my knight in shiny fur - this would be Sir Wolfie that i'm referring to - took a fancy to plastic bags. Mind you he's proven to be the salt of the earth by only taking interest in the cheap coloured plastic bags used by almost all hawkers in this part of the world. None of that fancy pancy plastic bags that more sophisticated retailers give out in their quest for world wide domination through brainwashing.

Back to the story. So Sir Wolfie almost always accompanies hubby wubby on their regular morning walks. And on their regular morning walks they come across really irregular garbage strewn along the sidewalks...you'd be amazed at what you could find...empty wallet/handbags, discarded food (most interestingly usually macdonald's wrappers), used tissue paper, keys, and of course plastic bags. This last item has been a hot favourite for Sir Wolfie to find, pick up, thrash around and cheekily dare his "daddy" to get it from him.

Of course when i'm about with them, i will always get flustered and ask the "daddy" to quickly get it out of Sir Wolfie's gaping black hole - fearing that he might swallow the bag. Most days my flustering is laughed off and hubby wubby will unsuccessfully chase down Wolfie in circles before my cheeky knight decides that his "daddy" is too slow for this game and ends it by spitting the plastic bag out and moving onto something that poor daddy can actually get at...like his shorts.

Up until a couple of days ago, Wolfie's antics and fascination with plastic bags were thought to be a "funny thing that he did" - UNTIL HE SWALLOWED THE DAMN BAG!!
That's right! There was no more laughing my flustering away now...to be honest i felt a teeny bit worried about my Wolfie but could not help but feel smug when hubby wubby's face took on a shade of pale when the possiblities of dog swallowing plastic bag complications arose in his head. I had to bite my tongue or spouted something along the lines of "I TOLD YOU SO!!"

Over the course of the day, we monitored his breathing and watched him closely for signs of suffocation, indigestion and when we went for walkies...we checked his poo to see if he had successfully purged himself of the foreigh object! We ARE talking about Wolfie here although hubby wubby did display signs of breathing distress at the possibility of Wolfie not surviving his latest craving - plastic bags.

It was not until a full 24 hour day had passed that Wolfie pooped out his plastic bag! It was during the evening walkie and i urged hubby wubby to bring along a torch light to check out Wolfie's poop in the dark. We walked and we walked and we walked somemore and eventually the little tyke decided to have a poop. At first we couldn't see any thing similar to a plastic bag, in texture or colour and we were worried that Wolfie would have a plastic bag stuck somewhere between his gaping black hole and his ...hole for the rest of his life. Then i caught sight of a bit of colour in his poo and upon closer examination and the aid of a small rock to move Wolfie's smelly contents around we would see that my knight had successfully purge the peach coloured plastic bag out! It was complete wrapped in shite...of course!

I think all of us breathed a sigh of relief at this momumentous event! We all stood there marvelling his crappy work (pun intended) for a full 5 minute period and smiled at each other...i know...i know...we're weird! You could imagine the back slapping going around the royal family as our knight was finally successful in his mission! I have been giving some thought to patenting the idea of a doggie bag dispenser....what do you think? Hmm....

Nightmare in Boss Street

2008-02-12T19:36:00.000+08:00

What's this all about you might ask? Such an interesting heading....hmmm.....well..it is kinda kewl if you asked me...and you are asking me if you're reading my blog! IT'S ALL ABOUT NIGHTMARE BOSSES!! Be warned - if you read this and feel embarrassed/upset (lightbulb moment) then maybe there's some truth in it and it's probably time for you to re-evaluate - do you really want to kick me or give yourself a good kicking?

Well...to just clarify these nightmare bosses do not occur in your dreams whilst you sleep at night...well not always...for most (*wink* *wink* at my boss). These creatures called bosses are not all bad...well not always...but on most days and for some - at nights; and for others - always...i.e. me

These creatures are only cruel and unusual when they put their boss personalities on...well true for some of these boss. I have seen these cruel creatures unable to take off the boss personalities...It's fatal! This is how it all begins.....

One day...you are walking down the employee street... going about your business, doing your requisite work and pushing for new initiatives like any good employee would do. Your colleagues (whom you get along swell with) walk along side you in the quest to move up the corporate ladder....then one day...BAM!! you get promoted. And you become boss... (BTW Boss diseases can hit you in other scenarios ...i.e. you start you own business etc)

Bit by bit the Boss disease will take over the nice employee that everyone used to like... and you become this horrible creature that everyone lurves to hate that it until you take off your boss personality (if that is ever possible?). Boss disease syndromes are fairly obvious:

1) they think everyone is their slave
2) they think they are brighter and smarter than anyone
3) they think they have the best ideas in the house and anyone who tries to get any other ideas in should be shot
4) they cannot even make their own calls i.e. they need someone to dial the phone number for them
5) they don't really like making decisions and usually subtly "encourage" others to decide
6) Any decision that is fatal is a subordinate made decision
7) any decision that is successful is a Boss made decision (and they call this team work)
8) they like to "steal" ideas and pass it off as a modification of your original idea so essentially it becomes theirs
9) they shout at you and then turn their heels and walk away
10) they don't listen they just grunt (like some animals i know!)

Once you are infected...it's a long way to recover..some never do!!

i had this female boss once (and the legends are true about bitch female bosses) and she was the ultimate bitch boss anyone could have had...it didn't help that she was overweight and constantly on some fab diet that make her grumpy coz she was hungry. It was made worse by the fact that she was single and her boyfriend of eons would not pop the "WYMM" question. Further escalating the situation was that she worked for a beauty spa thingy where you could see all the ultra sexy clients coming in for various treatments. I probably made it bad for myself by eating cha kuey teoh every day for lunch with her and her salad in tow...I would never know what kind of a mood i would find her in in the mornings (btw. she was not a morning person and neither was I - which was what probably got her goat about me as well). I would usually just assume the following about my bitch boss if she was found in a foul mood in the morning:
1) Hungry
2) No Sex last night
3) Another failed marriage proposal to the old git she calls her guy - whom we all tot was gay anyway
4) Deadlines
She used to scream abuse and accusations in my face and would stalk off the minute she was done. that caused me a lot of frustration as i could never answer to any of her accusations or justify my decisions or anything. It was a lack of respect that really infuriated me and i was sure that she knew the effects of her being completely ball-less when confronting an employee/colleague in this manner.

I used to dread going to work and would purposefully be late coming in. Well actually it was not purposefully. It was really not on purpose that i really like sleeping in and that the bitch boss actually made it easier for me to not be pressured into coming in on time...eventually I left...

I got through employment with really nice bosses (see not all of them are bad - just them Damn Little Napoleans!!) Then i got to the really nice boss and that was a nightmare in itself...He was so nice, much nicer than the doormats that Ikea sells...and he's unique - he's a harvard doormat. though he wasn't bad - he was damn strange! He had really weird habits and it freaked me and all my fellow colleagues out. Usually you get the staff divided into two camps or more...this was a united front. Now who said all nightmares had to be scary...some are just plain weird. Like this one.

My current bosses (I have two) are the epitome of Yin and Yang. If you would like to find out more about what i mean then just meetup with me and i'll let you buy me a tea or three and i can yak till pigs can fly and it would be highly therapeutic for my soul...any takers? Didn't think so...guess you all have your own bosses to deal with in Nightmare street huh...

Welcome 2008

2008-01-17T13:51:00.000+08:00

I know it's a bit late in the year for this...and so many people have already published their new year greetings...but i'm a firm believer of better late than never, so here i go......

Ahhh.....The new year! Fresh starts! Lots of new resolutions! And Another 357 days (leap year) in which to break them all! New challenges, new trials, new products, new wars, new casualties, new deaths, new births, new pregnancies, new tragedies, new miracles, new saints etc....a whole year promising loads of excitement and emotional roller coaster rides!

I won't bother going into the resolution making exercise. I'm sure there's more than enough people out there that are making and as we speak breaking resolutions all over the world. The world could do with one less resolution making and breaking mad woman! So I'm out!

Queen Bubbles has had quite a dramatic couple of months. So since i'm not making any resolutions for 2008, I am allowed wishes. One of them is that my emotional roller coaster rides concerning matter out of my control will remain on the positive end of the spectrum. For matters within my control i wish for the same thing.

I wish peace for people who are overly excited or overtly excitable. I wish contentment for the greedy and mischevious. I wish good health to the sick. For those flapping about in confusion in life - i wish direction and courage. I wish all the frustrated and angry - enlightenment and new perspective.

I hope all the people who i know or remembers me will have a great year filled with laughter, happiness and health. May each and everyone of you live each day to the fullest, to the bestest (new word...just coined by me...:D) of your abilities. All are welcome into Bubble-dom to escape from life's trials and read about wacky wonky me!

Addiction & Rehab

2007-12-10T23:46:00.000+08:00

Victim of my own posting...I have become addicted to shopping. i like it tremendously....the walking around, the seeing, touching, trying, the rejections and finally the purchase! It is fan-tas-tic! I recommend people to get their butts into shopping gear and head to the nearest mall....wooo hooo - I'm on a high!

"Hallo Everybody! My name is Bubbles and I'm an Shopaholic!" (Your cue to say "Hallo Bubbles")

See... this is different from Retail Therapy and this (my friends) is a true addiction! It does not help that i work in the vicinity of a mall (one of the larger ones in KL) and that i'm sufficiently comfortable with my monthly takehome to splurge and indulge. Sometimes when i sit quietly in my room fighting the urge to hit the prettily lit stores just a couple of yards away and flash my beautiful golden card at the cash register - I think...This is a real sin! Something must be done! And I tried to go for rehab but I said No No NO (Hooray! Amy Winehouse! Although i really think she should go to Rehab!)

So i think this is a phase for me and i am planning to quit this nasty habit soon! Well...maybe after Christmas! There's afterall nothing wrong with shopping for others...It's only a true shopaholic sin if I shopped for myself! So it's a pact...after Christmas and I'm definitely in Rehab!! Go Go GO

Sometimes i just crack myself up! muahahahaha!

Retail Therapy

2007-12-10T23:03:00.000+08:00

This term "Retail Therapy" was coined probably less than a decade ago. I guess people suffered symptomatic signs of this disease since the beginning of time...cave woman buying a new rock to sit on...caveman buying the latest club to swing at the closest dinosaur...etc...you get my point. Everyone since the beginning of time has purchased/bartered something. The point is anytime we get anything new - it made us happy. For example if (during the time of barter trade) I planted and harvested enough bananas to barter for a basket of mangoes and successfully managed the barter - i would be happy, proud of my achievement... So the same goes with today's modern society that if i work hard and used my hard earned dosh to get something (doesn't have to be practical and can be totally frivolous i.e. woman buying her hundreth pair of shoes or men collecting vintage cars...esp men that are in their forties...ooopss! I think this falls into the mid life crisis area) i would be happy and proud of my achievement (The definition of achievement here is highly suspect!)

Retail Therapy as far as I can tell or from what society seems to think it means - suggests that people who are upset with life or rather "NOT HAPPY" with the state of things will go out and purchase something to make them feel in control. So when we shop - do we indulge in Retail Therapy? Does it mean i have to be upset to shop? Does it mean I shop only to feel good?

I think the coining of such a yuppified (it's never retail therapy for the aunties in my neighbourhood...) term has officially made shopping a true disease of sorts. And in this chronic hyperchondriac television drama fed society - it has made shopping more attractive then ever - I would say that this term was invented by someone in the retail world to boost sales...coz the term "retail therapy"has been bandied about with such abandon by friends, family and strangers. It is used loosely and it encourages people to shop in ways that fit this profile. Suddenly "therapy" is no longer restricted to open to all that fancy themselves hip enough to be sick - it is free for all, open season for shopping.

I may come across as highly cynical and definitely suspicious of what may seem simple to the masses but i really believe this is one big marketing ploy created by the retailers (there must be some secret retailer society since the time of Da Vinci...maybe his girlfriend was one of the pioneer members) defined, refined and deployed by the psychologist/psychiatrist who were involved in the creation of this concept. I think they sold us the sale! They planted the concept/idea of retail therapy into our heads...in the process suggested that people spend money to feel in control (read as: you are in control only when you have money and can spend it! NOOOOT....SO the total opposite - if you keep spending/indulging your disease you will have no money and definitely no power) and then just let nature takes its course...AND TAKEN ITS COURSE IT HAS!! Funny how reverse psychology can work wonders....

anyway...I'm rambling...something that i have been doing for a while...hope i snap out of it...coz i know i sound totally incoherent!

An Unforgetable November

2007-11-28T15:51:00.000+08:00

My golly! I am pooped out and it isn't even the end of the month. I don't know about you but i think most people go through a whole range of emotions during a year but this month - my emotional thermometer just broke both ends of the scale! I have used up all emotions for the rest of this year and at lest half of next year!

So many things happening...just to name a significant few in chronological sequence

1) Friends got married in Kuching
2) Father suffered heart attack
3) Father suffered second heart attack
4) Father gone for emergency by pass surgery
5) Friend gives birth to baby boy (not same friend that got married earlier in the month)
6) Landlord for rented apartment tries to backtrack on agreed apt works
7) Grandma suffers a heart attack
8) Father showing signs of not recovering well
9) Friend that got married earlier this month is having another dinner in KL

Lots of other things in between as well as the small logistical issues that come with every problem!! Have you ever felt either too angry or too sad or too tired that you are unable to express yourself in any other way than to laugh? I feel like that almost this month. The thing is laughing does not make me happy...it just provides a temporary relief from the pressures building up inside

anyway...dun be surprised if somewhere...somehow....when you least expect it...I POP!

Heart of Hearts

2007-11-25T02:46:00.001+08:00

My father recently suffered a heart attack! TO be precise he had two, all within days of each other. The funny thing is (it's not really that funny!) that there were no symptoms as portrayed on TV and the movies (you know - the clutching of the left arm, stumbling forward endlessly, moaning and eventually dropping unconcious to the floor) which is what you would expect. My dad's heart attack created symptoms of breathlessness, discomfort/pain in the chest and tummy area, bloatedness everywhere. As the symptoms were very similar to his previous attack of gall stones falling into his pancreas - we naturally thought of the usual suspect as described above or a case of terrible food poisoning. So did he.

My father has a bit (that's a major understatement) of distrust and fear of western doctors and their medicine. He would rather seek eastern cures or pursue a course of endurance for pain. This is what we call STUBBORNESS in my family. Refusal to listen to anybody's reason till it gets nearly too late. And nearly too late it was.

When all this occurred, my sweet mom and myself were out of the country. We were alerted to the initial symptoms by my bro. He kindly informed us via sms of dad's condition. As mentioned we tot of the usual suspects. My mom was highly concerned at this point in time that it might be the more serious suspect of gall stones and wanted to return posthaste. I reasoned with her that it might just be a tummy ache and that my sister and bro who was in town would be able to handle the situation if any was to arise. Both were immediately commissioned into dad patrol duties till my mom's return. In the interim, my dad had gone to visit a Chinese Sinseh who prescibe a drugs for tummy gas (hmmm.....i shall refrain from any sarcasm here!)

Upon her return home, she found my dad in a worse state than he reported. Within two days of her return and upon the consistent urging and nagging of all family members (as well as insurmountable pain) - my dad agreed to finally go to the hospital! There, he was diagnosed as having suffered a heart attack and was asked to go for an angiogram to determine how bad the condition was. I guess the stress of going for any invasion procedure will give most people heart palpitations...it was (i believe) due to this that he suffered his second heart attack just prior to the procedure. All this time, i was in KL anxiously awaiting news of the situation and deciding when to go down. Due to the second attack the procedure was postponed till a later time (the next day)

SO tomorrow rolls round faster than i care for it and the results are not good! It appeared that his heart is only functioning at 35% capacity (that's really bad) and that his three major arteries are clogged up to 90%. The doctors advise an emergency by pass surgery to be done stating that the failure to do so would see my father alive for a very very short period of time.

At this point - there was a lot of hassle with the hospitals. He was diagnosed in one and would need to be sent to a different one for the said surgery however my mother would prefer if his surgery could be done at the hospital of her previous employment. This lead to the doctor in the first hospital being difficult (they would lose the income if the surgery was done elsewhere) in his report which created issues with my dad's transfer from their hospital to the hospital of our choice...eventually with pressure from above all was sorted out (but not without first stressing all my family with this utter nonsense! I'm absolutely fuming!!)

Even during the transfer, the first hospital managed to get it all wrong and sent my dad to a different hospital other than the one already specified. When they finally did manage to get him to the right hospital they sent him to the wrong department! Eventually they got him right where we wanted him - where all the surgeons were waiting for him! We did not find out about this till my dad came out of his drug induced state after the bypass!! Will horrors never cease? Throughout their transporting blunder they had forgotten to hook my dad up to the necessary monitors/equipment during the transportation!! All within our family has promised a swift and debiltating recourse for the first hospital!

Once he got in - the prepped him for the surgery and wheeled him in...at this time i am already on my way down in a bus (as luck would have it - there were no flights available and the buses were all full and i almost did not make my bus due to heavy traffic in town! BUT I DID! AND I PRAYED THAT MY GOOD LUCK WOULD MAKE ITS WAY TO MY DAD!) when my sister call me and she is in tears and unable to speak...she passes the phone to my bro who is also in tears...please remember that i am updated when they call me...and i tot this call with the tears was all bad news....till they told me that they were just worried, sad that it may be the last time they see him...What a RELIEF!! He had gone into surgery and they were upset that they would never see him alive again! By the time i arrived, my dad was still in surgery and we waited for him to come out each deeply in our own private prayers for his life and health.

when he did come out of surgery, he was pale but the doctors said that his surgery went well and we will know exactly how well in the days and weeks to follow.It has know been almost eight months since this event and he is breathing easier, walking better (although still much slower than before), his appetite has returned even his strange sense of humour and obscure point of views (that usually really confuses me whenever i am in any kind of discussion with him). Everyday that he lives to breathe, nag, scold, muse aimlessly, confuse me plenty... i am grateful and happy. He is my dad, my only dad - unique, larger than life and i will love him forever and ever in my heart of hearts - patched up heart and all.

Right Play Wrong Actor

2007-11-06T23:01:00.000+08:00

I always wondered what it would be like to get caught in a speedtrap...always wondered how it would play out. And recently on a trip down to Singapore with my parents, speeding down the North-South highway. It's an excellent drive by the way...green foliage on either side of the winding road with mountains in the background with mists swirling around - we got caught! Finally!!

The excitement of what will happen...the thrill of being in the front seat of this excellent play that i have been wanting to experience fully. So it goes...we pull to the side of the highway and wait anxiously as the copper strides towards us with the usual suspect of a notepad or summons pad in his hand. He fits the character perfectly - a young malay chap with dark sun glasses, smart uniform. He reaches the side of the car and that's the end of Act 1.

Act 2 begins with us rolling down our window and staring expectantly at this copper. I can imagine if the reality of bribery had a scent it would be the only smell coming from our Singapore car. All four occupants had the same anticipation. The copper says his lines as he is supposed to..."ahh....where you coming from? where you going to? you were speeding....speed trap located at so and so..."

To all these questions, my father (the driver) dutifully answered. To the accusation of speeding...my father merely nodded... End of Act 2

Act 3 - The copper calmly asks for my dad's NRIC (at this point - i'm thinking he's got this all wrong!) This is where the play starts to suck... The copper then flips open his note/summons pad and without waiting for my dad's identification begins to ask if we want to settle this summons...
End of Act 3

Intermission and Comments
Ok freeze frame! Aside - I am really pissed off with the copper by this time...firstly he's got all his lines wrong...and then the sequence of his actions are way off script! Completely ruining the experience of the much anticipated play.

Firstly, he's supposed to ask for the driver's license not the bloody NRIC! Then he's supposed to wait till my dad's handed over the identification and then flip open the summons pad to pretend to write the summons (this is meant to stress the driver to the point where WE ask for a settlement!! HE's NOT supposed to ask for the bribe!! Geez...do they not teach the rookie cops how to do this right?)

Act 4 - We agree that this is quite a shitty play with a crappy actor who has not learned his part enough and decide to end the charade with the official payoff of RM$50.00...This copper then decides to really spoil the play by refusing to bargain for more... (what is this? They are supposed to go...RM$100 coz the fine is about RM$300 but he didn't - that really took the cake!) End of Act 4

Final Act
He flips open his book and we place the substitute for a fine in it! He closes the book and withdraws his bad acting from the ambience of our car! The only saving grace was a laugh that my hubby created for me by asking cheekily where the speed camera was - was it in the center divider or was it on the left or on a bridge - and this embarrassed the bad actor/copper!

Well! What an experience - Nothing like what i have been told -so disappointing! At some point in time I was about to scream in the bad actor/copper's face - that's not what you were supposed to say! That's not what you're supposed to do! Cut! Cut!

Mommy in Malacca

2007-10-19T12:54:00.000+08:00

The Sea and sand, the salty breeze rustling through the coconut trees, the sounds of a rooster in the mornings whose duty is to wake the entire Kampung! Fresh seafood that comes from the local fisherman who go out in their small light boats and return in ladened vessels with fish to sell. A slow windy coastal road drive will lead to the city centre where one will find the usual suspects - shopping malls and cinemas! This city though is different in that it is really rich in history indicative by all the conservation ole style shop houses that are narrow but long. Also these long houses are filled with old trades, kebaya making, traditional handicraft work. One can find the most unusual and beautiful pieces of crafts (big and small) to decorate one's humble abode!

There's also places of worship that truly reflect the olden architectural influences from our european masters from the past! You would think that all this would be enough to make your visit there worthwhile. There's more! Food and the activity of consuming it (one of most Asians favourite past time) takes this obessession to a whole new level. Cultural richness intoned in everything you can put into your mouth. If you aren't so adventurous a gourmet there's always modern fast food joints or your usual mamak food that you can get round the corner of any street. But i say - try it...even looking for the good stuff takes you to obscure places with strange new things to see! Like once when we went for famous prawn mee. It was this hole in the wall with only about 5 tables max. There's usually a queue just for a table and an even longer wait for the food to arrive! They are very fast at collecting money though! anyway, it's near this monsoon drain and whilst waiting for your food, you might spy monitor lizards swimming from bank to bank!

The highlight of my visits there is always the night market (Pasar Malam) at Jonker Street. This happens only on Friday & Saturday nights! It a great place to see all things unique about Malacca gather in one place. An event that ties old trade businesses to new world economics and emerging tourism! Such a fascination! You just stroll through...checking out wares on sale. You can find the old school games or gaming items that you thought lost in our modern society! Along the pasar malam you will also see different clan associations - i.e. Hokkien Clan. This type of association appears in most part of asia where people from the same dialect group/province etc can meet and catch up (i have even heard of them tracingyour family tree route back to China). During the pasar malam these clan halls are filled with members and non members (public) partaking of "making society" through karaoking, line dancing etc...

The result is a colourful, bright, noisy environment at the pasar malam that only a chilled beer to live music can cure! So find a table at the one of the many pubs for a R&R session. Kick back and listen to the live band (usually one guy) belting out hits from all eras!

If this is too busy for you then head down to the seaside for some seafood and cool night air..watch the stars and drift quietly into a state of contented bliss! hmmm...just the thing to get away from the hustle and bustle of our regular lives!

Try it! My mommy's there now!

2007-10-14T01:20:00.000+08:00

Left: Skeletor and his two henchgobies

Left: Skeletor with two henchgobies!

Left: Skeletor!!

2007-10-14T01:10:00.000+08:00

Left: Seahorse

Left: Seahorse

Left: Seahorse

Left: Shrimps

Left: Turtle with remoras

2007-10-14T01:01:00.000+08:00

Left: Pink Squat Lobster

Left: Procupine Puffer

Left: Soft coral crab

Left: Me on Monday Mornings!!

Left: Me on Monday Afternoons!

2007-10-14T00:52:00.000+08:00

Left: Nudi

Left: Nudi

Left: Nudi

Left: Nudi Eggs - Pale Rose Pink

2007-10-14T00:44:00.000+08:00

Left: Nudi - Menage a Trois

Left: Nudi - Pikachu

Left: Nudi - Longnose

Left: Pufferfish with Nudi - Tambja

Left: Nudi -"Lookie me! I'm so flexible!"

2007-10-14T00:36:00.000+08:00

Left: Nudi - Halgerda with Egg

Left: Nudi - El Toro

Left: Nudi - Cliff hanger

Left: Nudi - Romance

Left: Nudi

2007-10-14T00:27:00.001+08:00

Left: Devil Scorpion

Left: Frogfish

Left: Nudi - Melibe

Left: Feather Star - Squat Lobster

Left: Nudi - Unknown

Angels at Rest

2007-10-13T22:53:00.000+08:00

Heaven comes in small occurrences! Like in a flower blooming or when you see the smallest life form in the vast ocean or when my dogs are asleep. When they sleep, quiet rules. No growling! No jumping! No gnawing! Just quiet! Now that's heaven! Not that i don't lurve their high energy bounding - but i think balance is great and these naptimes are a different sort of heaven!

It is a bonus to watch them sleep or rest. They look peaceful, breathing easy in whatever dreamland they are in. Sometimes i think they have either have really bad or really great dreams coz every once in a while you see them twitch in their sleep! They are acting out the scenes in dreamland...who knows...they could be dreaming of open fields chasing a rabbit or in a fight scene with another pooch! A bit like what Poppet is doing right this minute! Sometimes when they awake after such a high activity dream they can either be in a great mood or a terrible bad one! The resultant mood always points to the kind of dream they had!

At this moment - all my pooches are asleep! Each in their own corner or nook! And it's quiet! Great for blogging (i dun have to worry about wolfie typing as he walks over my laptop!)
Watching my angels at rest (coz that's the only time that they are really angelic like) makes me happy! It means they had a full day and are going for a full night's rest! This also means that they will be full of pent up energy in the morning to jump! gnaw! growl! Not so great....but we lurve our poochies anyway! So for now i will continue to enjoy watching My Angels at Rest and deal with tomorrow tomorrow!

Nusery Madness!

2007-10-13T18:30:00.000+08:00

The last couple of months have seen me go a little nuts in the nusery department. Before we go any further, the nusery in which i am referring to is that belonging to the safe keeping of green babies not human babies. That's right the plant nusery!

Anyway, this weekend is no exception. I have been down to visit my local nusery and have returned with arm loads of stuff! I have to date (a collection in three weekends) 3 rose plants, 2 little bushy things (i tot they were too cute to not get), 2 other flowering plant (the ones with the raised roots), 2 small ferns and 4 daisy looking plants (all in a bed row), and my mostest favouritest to date is a lily like plant - i got them in a pair. Oops...I forgot about Moni - my money plant (she's doing well!...sigh...if only i could say the say about the reality of my Moni situation!)

Now the rose plants - my mother and the nusery resident gardener had warned me off - saying that they require a lot of work and that with my track record (usually a plant dies off on me within a month! No exception to the hardiest ferns) or rather the lack of (of not having any green thumb tendencies) - it might be better to get hardier plants...

After two weeks i have to say the roses had bloomed and are now bloomless. I am patiently waiting for the next buds. I am hoping with fingers crossed that against the odds of my not so green twisted fingers i can get them to bloom again. My two root above ground plants are in the same bloomless state. (silent mantra in my head ...patience...patience...)

After 3 weekends of this nusery itch that cannot seemed to be scratched - i have spades, shovels, bags of soil, bags of shredded coconut husks, bags of fertilizers, bottles of fertilizer, spray cannisters and loads of plastic pots!

In half a year of slowly gathering my forest...i have managed to kill 2 citronellas, a bonsai and half of three pine trees (these are hardy fellows - they keeping coming back alive!) My dead plants have gone through a verbal post mortem. The findings were conclusive - MURDER by OVER FERTILIZATION for the Citronellas and underwatering my bonsai!

There is one other plant that i have that i have not spoken about...they were the hardest to locate and the tastiest to Wolfie. It took me about a month to locate it and transplant it. I had four pots of these wonderful butterfly leaf plants. Two of them had their leaves eaten by Wolfie anf promptly died. The third drowned in Mags' pee - it died too...the funny thing is ...all its leaves are still there and it's been preserved (sort of) by Mags' pee. The leaves are all there just that they are all yellow now! SO i have one remaining butterfly leaf plant left alive and I intend for it to stay that way!

I have also taken to walking along the street and plucking a branch of creepers and plants that i like and will try to grow them at home - it's a very strange phase that i'm going through but a very pleasant one!

2007-10-13T16:28:00.000+08:00

As requested by
Lady Hawk - some of the pics from Dumaguete, Cebu PHP

Above: Soft coral crab (dunno name)
Below: Frogfish

Above: A pair of harlequin ghost pipefish
Below: Common Lionfish, banded cleaner shrimp

The Singing Emperor

2007-10-04T22:59:00.000+08:00

I confess publicly - I lurve my man! But and this isn't a big but...but it's still a but! Where was I? But he's tone deaf! As i write this he is belting out Take me home country road! Not two feet from me!

The urge to knock him unconcious is subdued by the cuteness of him singing out with all his heart, staring with such fierce concentration into the lyric book! He has just put on the next song "Sunshine on my Shoulders" and asks me if i know it! I said yes and he says he's never heard of it! Makes me think my hubby is a bit of a commercial music nut stuck in the 70s era. In summary this means that he likes music that was very commercial in the 70s and has not changed his tastes since then.

He seems to like country music (provided its not been mangled by any new boy bands on the new millenium scene). He has however picked upsome new millenium habits like channel surfing at warp speed and he does the same with any new CDs given to him. This can be fairly annoying since I am usually enjoying the song privately in my head only to have the tune change suddenly and before 15 minutes are up you've gone through the whole CD. Then he gets bored and picks up something else.

Now's it's Annie's Song...oh you know the one..."you fill up my senses....like a night in the forest" and he's going at it with his squeaky voice...it's cute but definitely not american idol...he probably wouldn't make the heats! he's got this nasally effect on the songs....and the funniest thingy is that he usually has trouble with the words even though his eyes are glued to the lyrics in his hand...so it sort of ends in some kind of mumble....

The high notes are the ones you never forget when he loses wind and goes all over the place...man! I could have Simon Cowell's job...i could be his sistah! I know just the person that could be Paula Abdul as well but i'm not telling! Hopefully i survive this night of tone deafness and will return to thrill you about my happening life!!

Bite, Biting & Bitten

2007-10-04T15:51:00.000+08:00

Mercy! Will the foolishness of mankind never end? I mean i dun expect peace time throughout my life with no wars ever happening in this world! But is it too much to ask for people to have a little common sense on the small details in life?

In just two instances in which i am about to relate - you be the judge! The first is WHY OH WHY DO PEOPLE LET THEIR PETS RUN AROUND UNATTENDED? The main point here is if you are too lazy to walk your pets then don't have one! The people in my estate (not all but a fair number) allows their dogs to roam free to take the daily walkabout and pissabout and poohabout. Sometimes they are walking a distance from their pet, most times they are not present and simply let the little gringos roam loose! You might think that
1) they have excellent control over their doggies BUT they don't
2) they feel bad putting a leash and restricting their doggies movements
3) they cannot be bothered to be pulled around
Well, these little gringos cause a lot of problems for people like myself. If my doggies gets antsy when it sees another dog - I still have some control over its behaviour - THE LEAD! The gringos that run free have no one in control of its behaviour and act aggressively towards me and my dogs. These owners that walk a distance behind or ahead of their loose pooches feel that they have excellent control over their pets. Yes they do - in the house. Not outside and especially when they cross paths with other poochies! Scream at them, call them back...none of them will heed you or your commands! PEOPLE!!! Please remember "PRIMAL INSTINCT"!! So since you as a homosapien is supposed to be superior in intelligence (NOT THE CASE FOR SOME!) you would be expected to exercise common sense and PUT YOUR BLOODY DOGS ON A LEASH!

The humanitarian excuse - "oh i feel bad about treating my dog like a dog by putting a leash on it" IT TOTAL AND UTTER BOLLOCKS! It is a dog...yes you love it and you care for it - SO bloody show it! What do you think a lead is for? It's to educate your doggies and to keep them from harm (read not get into fights)...SO get off your moral high horse and put the lead on the dog!

That's only one of the idiotic instances of the lack of common sense in people! The next point arises from the scenario where your dogs are agitated by other loose roaming dogs - what to do?
Personally - i would have reined in my dogs and walked away - NO CONFRONTATION! Even if the doggies are rushing me - I will stand my ground and protect my pooches from the loose roaming pooch as well as from themselves.

What i don't get is how SOME people can let the leads go slack and allow the agitated doggies full rein of the situation? I mean - is it not easier to control your dogs if they had less rope to hang themselves and you with? In situations like these...tighten the lead and lead your dogs away.

The reason for this rant is because i got bit again! and it all happened because of these two idiotic instances where the human mind lets slip and shit happens...so now i have holes in my left leg (that's right the earlier bites were in my right leg and hand - soo i'm just waiting for my left hand to get chewed off! All in the space of a year!)

RULERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM TAKE HEED! They are your pets therefore your responsibility. If they do hurt anyone or anything - YOU WILL BE AT FAULT (though the poor doggies will probably be put to sleep and the irresponsible owner just goes on to get another dog!! My thoughts? The owners should be the ones to be put to sleep!!)

Butter: Golden Glob

2007-09-24T20:16:00.000+08:00

When we first got our house, the designer recommended a dry and wet kitchen with a door separating them. I thought why? why? why? it would only add to the expense of the renovation. But he said it would be an entire theme...glass windows within and without. So we agreed seeing as neither hubby nor myself have an artistic flair (that's right! not one iota anywhere in our bodies)

In the early years of our move in, way before we had any of our "babies", i never understood the need for two different types of kitchens. Now i think i could lurve my designer to death!! Thanks to his foresight or need to earn more of my moolah - the door between the two kitchens have been a godsend.

Since the arrival of Sir wolfie - we have to be on our guard with food left on the table. The cheeky git has a tendency to stand on his hind legs and reach for the food using whatever means necessary to achieve his mission. you have to give him credit for creative thought. He once pull the cloth upon which a plate with chicken liver sat on till it was near the edge of the counter and promptly gobbled everything up except the plate. Thus far (touchwood) he has not broken anything yet.

Another time, we were all watching TV in the living room when i realised that it had gone absolutely too quiet for comfort! then counting my pooches .... one...two...where was number three? So i went round the house to investigate the missing pooch (feeling as though i have a real mystery to solve) moving around stealthy like, turning slowly into corners. When i rounded the last corner to my kitchen, i peeked and spied my third pooch rummaging through a ripped garbage bag (nose deep in its contents and completely oblivious to my stealth approach - which isn't too stealthy considering that every bone in my body creaks as i move)

I was more than a little annoyed at his behaviour as i have reminded them all the time (that they've been caught) by gentle persuasion or tough discipline or ingeniuos bribery NOT to eat from the bin!! So i thought i'd drive the lesson home for poochie no. 3.

He was really content and totally absorbed in his mission to find snacks - so i snuck up behind him with my little water cannister (the same one i usually use to diffuse any high tension situation) and when within distance i shot a spray up his bum and screamed "Gotcha!"

I have never seen a dog jump so high - for a moment i thought i might have caused the first doggie heart attack in the world! he totally freaked with the wet spray on his bum and the loud shriek! he huddled into the corner of the kitchen cabinets and looked on - still a bit dazed from the shock - That's when i told him in my very calm voice "No eating from the Bin" and walked away. I went back to the living room and wait for the guilty to arrive and eventually he did. And boy! I have never seen remorse done better by anything or anyone! He came over, head low and eyes looking up to lick my hand. That's when i took his head in my hands, looked him straight in the eye and laughed!!

So you would have thought that it would driven the lesson home! It did for a couple of weeks and then he was back at his old tricks. So now i have to keep that godsend of a door closed whenever there is food about! Sometimes i forget and he gets some munchies from the bin or the countertop. Which brings me to the point of this particular post. After the walk this morning, hubby took the butter out of the fridge intending to defrost it a bit to have toast and in the interim he was going to have his morning shower. So off he went to get ready for work and i remember that i needed something from the rooms below so off i went to retrieve it.

On my way back up, i could hear rustling and the tot that one of the pooches was up to no good did cross my mind...so i hurried up the stairs to find Wolfie had torn into the garbage bag yet again and was furious so i slapped him on the rump for good measure and gave him a good yelling to and then proceeded to clean up the mess.

Just when i was about the get the toast ready for hubby i looked for the butter that he had laid out to soften and it was gone. Half a slab of butter disappeared! It would only have been wolfie! I didn't know to be angry or worried! half a slab of butter!! What would it do to his insides?! Anyway worry i did but eventually i tot the following:

1) if he got the runs from it then that'll teach him never to eat half a slab of butter or whatever
2) butter is supposed to be good for the doggies' coat of fur...so he'll be pretty shiny for the rest of the year
3) On account of him being shiny for the rest of the year - we could rent him out to the solar people so electricity is generated in an environmentally friendly way!

So this is the official announcement that Wolfie is my environmentally friendly dog who still likes rummaging through bins and garbage bags and enjoys a true adventure/mission of stealing food from the hand that feeds him!

Dumaguete Diving Delight

2007-09-10T17:50:00.000+08:00

Well...to be honest! I expected more! I expected to go diving off Dumaguete and watch their black sandy bottoms crawling with critters. Unfortunately that was not the case....it was long swims till we found something to "play with" or "blind" in my case (coz of my strobes with my underwater camera) Expectations tend to get more of a reality splash when you are actually diving and then you remember that most dive trips are like that! Long swims....critter.....long swim....critter!!

Overall it was a good trip. The resort was nice...will be posting some nice little pictures...
There were things that i have never seen (a different type of seaslug). If you dun know me by now then i will have to inform you that i'm a sea slug nut case. I luuurrrvvveee them. They're soft, bright and colourful and looks soooooooo huggable. Sure as hell beat the pillows back at the resort!

By ranking with best dive site at first place isssss.......

Dumaguete Island (The Pier)
This is a commercial pier (fairly large) with large columns going into the seabed at odd angles to support the weight of the concrete pier and all it's loadings. The first meter and a half at the surface has a yellowish tinge to the water....but once down it's blue and these great pillars are covered in soft coral growth. With the sunlight it looks like some kinda of underwater cathedral! It's fantastic. Loads of seaslugs - and i mean loads...you have to be careful not to land on any. But it is fairly mucky down below and in certain areas it gets realy dark (best to bring a torch)

Balicasag Island (Blackforest)
Hmmm...just like my favourite cake this comes in second place. It's a slope off to a wall dive. Excellent visibility - loads of sunlight and seaslugs. There is a slight current and i was told that if the currents were strong then we would catch the majestic sight of barracudas hanging out. Good thing current wasn't strong so i could rest easy in taking my pictures of all God's smaller and much slower creatures!!

Dumaguete Island (Banca Wreck)
There's a wreck (literally) around 26m. It's almost completely disintegrated leaving half a hull on its side. Nice dive site...marine life in abundance with pregnant mantis shrimps, all sorts of cleaner shrimps, giant moray eels, leaf fish etc...
On one of my dives here i got molested by a remoras. It found me whilst i was taking pot shots of the preggie shrimp then it started sucking on my wetsuit near you know where!! and it followed me all the way to the shallows where it was reluctantly relieved of it's position by a swoop of my charlie stick! Cheeky little bugger!

Dumaguete Island (Sarah's Place)
Another great place to dive. The coral life is healthy and marine life abundant! It's great to just drift along and see it all happening around you! Fishes feeding, pooping, getting cleaned, protecting their home making babies...etc This is where i saw my not seen before nudi! Fab place and just between the Pier and the resort.

Dumaguete Island (Dauin and Luca Sanctuary) & Balicasag Island (Diver's Heaven)
Both on either side of the resort. can be reached ia shore or boat! I prefer boat! It's a santuary so the coral growth is extremely healthy and marine life is definitely exploding like in any city in any part of the world! Ain't great for macro photography - would suit anyone with a wide angle lens with big ass guns for strobes! Nice site anyway!

Diver's Heaven is a wall dive with a great variety of soft coral hanging off the wall...they have lots of grooves in the wall and appears very canyon like - nice easy dive!

Apo Island (Chapel, Rock Point West & Cogon)
This is a little stump of an island about 30 minutes from Dumaguete! The diving is nice and again more suited for people with wide angle lens...loads of jacks/trevally/barracuda cruising and hanging out. At one point we saw a lone barracuda! Massive boyo! Scary indeed! Some turtles but all very shy! It's alright but i probably would not venture there again especially since my interest in is the small critters.

Dumaguete Island (CarCar Wreck & House Reef)
Not my favourites but good to be underwater...nice place to get reaqquainted with diving after a long break. Easy to dive except in the house reef where you have to battle current to get back to the shallows near the resort.

All in all - i would say a fairly good trip. I would probably come back but not so soon as there are many other places that i want to visit. Balicasag Island is very near Bohol and the sand is white unlike Dumaguete where the sand is black. I think Bohol may be more for a critter hunter like myself. All experiences count for something!

The travel to get to dumaguete is a long and fairly butt aching one (in a car for ard 3-4.5 hours depending on traffic conditions from Mactan Airport, Cebu to Santander, Liloan)
Along the way you see a lot of doggies running free and this makes me miss my babies at home. We get to see loads of goats, cows, pigs, chickens and one snake! The coastal road back (I was alseep on the way in and it was the wee hours of the morning when i was going in so i could not see JACK!) reminded me why Cebu is a place to dive with crystal clear blue waters as far as the eyes can see.

anyway - this got me thinking that i should start a separate blog for my dive trips instead of lumping everything into one blog! hmmmm.....
~Queen Bubbles~

High Cholesterol

2007-08-23T13:57:00.000+08:00

What a pain in the bottom this diagnosis is! I mean it literally. I first got the diagnosis that my cholesterol is extremely high a couple of weeks ago and I have been advised that I should make consistent and concentrated effort to watch my diet and/or exercise more to reduce the chances of me dying in the near future from anything like a heart attack to a stroke.

The King's cholesterol is also high but not as high as mine. My nice doc explained that this is mostly hereditary and watching my diet will help but not in the long run - ultimately i will probably go on pills to control this cholesterol thingy.

Upon the diagnosis of my certain death (maybe in the near future...but then again maybe NOT) I began to check on what i could and could not eat. And as i suspected...i would be better off mowing the lawn of my garden for every meal. I mean - all the foods they stated as being good for my health do not appeal to me. Someone said to me - all good tasting food in Asia is a sin in cholestrol and i agree. It' gonna be a tough fight - what with me born and bred in Asia with Asian food i think it's a definite TOK on the diet side.

So i got to thinking about my own mortality - knowing that i may drop dead within the next ten years was sombering. I wondered to what age would be a good age to die? 50s? 60s? 70s? 80s?
If you had asked me this question 5 years ago - i would've said 60s. But then i was young and brash and felt totally invincible (living life to the max - according to my standards) and so would die with no regrets. Also i thought if one died earlier, you would have never been presented with an opportunity to decline offers of different experiences had you live longer - adds to the dying without regret as IGNORANCE IS BLISS!

Now...I would probably say 70s would be a good time to go...by then you would be sicken by what the world has become, how the younger generation have changed to keep up (not necessarily for the better) and how you probably will not be able to do most simple bodily functions with some aid. So yeah...I think 70s....

5 years down the road i may want my mortality extended - who bloody knows? I can't predict nor demand my longevity. But i can certainly command my future and everything in between.
So back to the issue on food. I figured - if you need to eat well you usually have to pay quite a fair amount for good healthy food which of course will aid in lowering my cholesterol and ultimately enabling me to live a longer but not necessarily happier (no more tasty food!!) and definitely poorer (spent all my money on "good" food!!) whilst the people that do not concern themselves with cholesterols levels etc will eat yummy food and a great time, save lots of money to go on holidays and die young but happy?! Twisted isn't it? The solution from Queen Mother - everything in moderation!! Balance!!

So in an effort to balance my diet without any drastic changes to food choices (only drastic in food consumption frequency - cannot eat my nasi lemak as often as i want:() I have been incorporating more greenies in my diet. This increases the amount of roughage going into my sytem (one way) which will generally lead to more frequent visits to the little girls' room for big business aka doing the A-bomb aka baking a mud cake aka growing a tail. But whatever pet name you have for this process there is only one for sure on my mind that that this is LITERALLY A PAIN in my BOTTOM!!
~Queen Bubbles~

Sleepless in Sepakat

2007-08-23T00:51:00.000+08:00

I currently look like an owl. When i say this i mean tat there are similarities between your average owl and me - most striking are the big black eyes. Yup that's right i have serious dark circles not as bad as a panda's but close enough to an owl.

This is partly due to my sleepless state most nights since King Bubbles went away. I miss him but it isn't that that makes me an nocturnal creature. I essentially live in fear of being robbed/assaulted etc in my own home so i sleep lightly and listen for sounds. I end up awake for most part of the night wondering if intruders will kill my loyal subject to get to the loot in the palace. Why am i so paranoid?

Well...it all started with my neighbour claiming that his maid saw an indian fellow on my premise. He claims that she saw him climb over my fence. That's one. Another issue is that my alarm system is broken and has been totally removed for repairs. So now i cannot even see the sensors on the upper floors and will not be able to tell if there is an intruder. Not that i can do much except hide and that makes me worry about my pooches upstairs and this constant worry and paranoia makes me sleepless in Sepakat. Now that my King is climbing some godforsaken hill in tibet with his mates - i have lost my only protector.

My only solution to a good nights' sleep (this is epitomized by my snoring deeply, gurgling saliva or sucking it back in during my down time) is for hubby to return as soon as he can.

So what do i do in my sleepless state? I blog, I read, I sudoku...and eventually my eyelids become heavy and i pray that the fatigue will give me what i desperately need - SLEEP!
Like it is now.So i'm gonna bid my blog adieu till later tonight!!
~Queen Bubbles~

My Third Quarter Resolution

2007-08-22T00:57:00.000+08:00

I think resolutions should not only be made at the new year - that's just silly...I mean what if you felt that your life needed a change...do you have to wait till 31st December of every year before you resolve to make the change? GILA! I think any day or time is good for a resolution and so i make resolutions throughout the year. And though the old saying goes that resolutions are meant to be broken (and i have broken quite a few of my own) - I hope I can stay the course with these Third Quarter ones.

This is what i resolve to do before the year turns into 2008. I wanna get three coffee table books ready. Two will be of my family ( i am considering combining it into one) and the other is of my marine life shots.

I have to decide on a theme for all of them and this will take some time. This particular resolution is important to me as it will be indicative of whether i should go ahead with certain plans. You see, I have had dreams of my own accomplishments for some years now but have never had the courage to get things done or some other priorities would always pop up (at least that's what the coward in me always says to comfort my fears).

SO i resolve to get my ass moving on some smaller projects first - starting with these coffee table books. I plan to take candid as well as planned shots of my family and of my diving travels so that i can get enough pictures to sort through. And the best thing is that it will be completely homemade.

I feel that if i can accomplish my little projects on top of everything else on my plate then i might be ready for going after my dreams on top of everything else on my plate...it may well be wishful thinking but it gives me hope and hope gives me the strength to go through my daily trials.

I am excited by this idea....(to be honest, i am easily excitable) anyway, it's time to call it a day. My big doggies are all asleep outside and my baby Magz is sleeping at my feet snoring away. Ciao till next time...
~Queen Bubbles~

Hailings from My Tibetan King

2007-08-22T00:40:00.000+08:00

Today i got a call from His Majesty from the Tibetan Hills. Was a bit worried that i had not heard from him for a while...so the call was timely! :)

Anyway - all is well with the troops. They had some logistical problems like trucks getting stuck in the middle of the river. It all sounds quite horrific! Sleeping in abandoned government building in their sleeping bags...not stopping for food...no water to clean up with...bad food...altitude sickness...
Kinda makes one wonder who in the world would pay money to be put through such a torturous "holiday"

I was inclined to snap a photo of my beautiful king sized bed and send it to them (Nah! I'm not that evil) In all honesty - it sounds like a good adventure and i'm sure that he is having a good although tough time and that by the time he comes home he will be so overjoyed to spend a whole week with his evil pooches that are currently driving me slightly mental! :P

The best news is that he "MIGHT" be back a couple of days earlier. Seems like they will be setting off for KunMing tomorrow and some part of their party went ahead to wait for them in relatively more comfortable settings.

I'm glad that he is doing ok. He says he's lost weight (i'll bet he's lost his cholesterol levels as well!!) but is otherwise fine. As much as i worry i guess i have no option except to take his word that he is alright and will be coming home in one piece, alive but probably a tad thinner...more than enough time to fatten my king up for the slaugther!!

I do miss my King - all of him, the good, the bad, the high cholesterol him - all of him! In the mean time, my loyal but highly mischevious doggies do keep me on my toes and shower me with unconditional love and affection and saliva!!

~Queen Bubbles~

Dumaguete, Cebu - My solution to a nervous breakdown

2007-08-19T22:33:00.000+08:00

Hooray! Hooray! I'm going on holiday! Like all my other holidays - I'll be underwater! Calm, Quiet, Weightless, checking out little critters...

I am in terrible want for a holiday. My last holiday was 4 months ago. And the last holiday ended with the trauma of losing my Sir Poppet for a whole 20 days. So I did not have such good memories! whilst i did plan on going for another break sooner than now, a lot of things sort of cropped up...read my last blogs and of course work did not let up.

anyway, even planning this holiday was a bit of an uncertainty for me. I mean - I've got approval from His Royal highnesses' sage to go but there was the uncertainty of when His Royal highness would return so that my loyal subjects (Sir Poppet, Sir Wolfie and Sir Magz) would have been properly ruled over. This business with royalty - you can't leave your kingdom unless one of us is around is just crazy but necessary.

Since his royal highness says he may be late returning from his venture into Tibet and his plans are all uncertain - it makes it difficult for me to plan my ventures. So after queen mother took her leave of Bubble-dom, i did the boldest thing- I booked my flights. Then i proceeded to book my break with the necessary agents. I figured that His Royal highness should be back by then. If he were to be late in his arrival, I would make arrangements for my knights to be well taken care of till his return. Risky i know - but it was either this or my nervous breakdown (which I'm pretty close to)

After doing the necessary deeds to secure my ventures - i felt bad for leaving my knights as they are always there affectionate, protecting, loving. Then i imagined my venture into the blue waters of Dumaguete, Cebu (Philippines), the taste of salt in my mouth, the feel of sun on my face, the quietness of the ocean, the beauty of its inhabitants and the tropical breeze and sand between my toes.....you get the picture? I did. And i promptly stopped feeling bad.

It may sound like justification but i do believe that if i am stressed out i will not be able to care for my loyal subjects as well as if i was calm and happy. Therefore, in the name of more TLC for my loyal subjects - I am taking a holiday!!! YAY!!!
~Queen Bubbles~

Gone to Tibet

2007-08-19T21:42:00.000+08:00

It's been 10 days since King Bubbles went off to Tibet and what a long time that is...considering the second day of his leaving saw me bit by one of my precious doggies. I was more than a little apprehensive of my lord and master leaving me for 3 weeks. Usually i am as calm as early morning's sea but i had a premonition that all was not going to go according to plan at bubble-dom after he goes.

And I was right...there are times when i like being right and there are times when i hate it...THIS TIME IT WAS HATE. It didn't help matters that my rag was on the way and my hormones were bouncing off my skin. So it went like this...

First day
All went ok. Doggies were fairly good on their walkies and didn't kill me along the way. NO WE DID NOT MEET ANY STRAYS - so that was a good start to a 3 seek jail term. Dun get me wrong - I lurve walking my loyal subjects, it's stressful because I worry about meeting other not so loyal canines and that can be very detrimental to my health. The worry alone makes me break out in unstoppable sweat and i'm usually drenched by the time we get back to bubble-dom.

Second day
Seeing as the first day went ok for walkies. I foolishly tot it would be ok today as well. Unfortunately, my loyal subjects decided to squabble over something in the carpark with turned into full fledged war within 30 seconds. In every other kingdom if royalty decreed something it would be set in stone. Not so in my kingdom. Essentially all hell broke loose. Two of my doggies going for the other's jagular and me stunned beyond belief that they defied me and in such a violent manner. I proceeded (very unceremoniuosly) to carry Magz by his harness to the nearest tree and tie him there to keep him safe. Then i waded back into the war of the pooches. Here i was waving the white flag (remind me that dogs are colour blind!!) and got bit in thanks by Sir Poppet! Now bleeding through a deep puncture wound in the hand and still trying to get both subjects under control. Seemed like forever but evenutally they calmed down enough for me to take control again. They still wanted to battle all the way back to my palace. So I blew my royal top - at them, at the King (who was terribly sorry but could not return to "sayang" me). Then the pain set in and i only saw red for the rest of this day.

Saving grace for the day was when my King's sage came round to get Magz for a day of entertainment. Two reasons: I did not have to worry about my little one and he was nice to me! :P

Third day
The boys were still at it. the usual growling, stalking. But this time - Sir Wolfie is no longer so amiable as before. Now he is also pissed off with Sir Poppet that he growls unders his breath everytime Sir Poppet walks past. Palace politics can be so violent. :(

Fourth - Eight day
Hurray! Queen Mother is around. my boys are behaving MOSTLY. I get home cooked food and mummy dearest helps by walking Magz so that i have control over my two knights.

during this period, the plumber meant to better the state of the royal toilets - broke them. Enraging me to heights comparable to the the mountain my King is climbing. Ultimately sorted by banishing him from my kingdom. The royal gardens have been pruned. The royal kitchen broke down and will need fixing by middle of next week. The royal home alarm is also to be sorted by next weekend. The royal gate is still cranky and will need sorting out sometime soon (though it has to be said that it is not as cranky as when His Royal Highness was around - maybe he's taken most of the crankiness with him to Tibet .... wonder how the Dalai Lama looks like when he's cranky?!)

With Queen Mother I have explored my Village markets - very wet and dirty but the yields under her magic wok are fantastic.

Ninth - Tenth Day (To date)
Queen Mother has to returned to her own Kingdom as it needs a firm hand to govern the strategies that run it. Woe be me - alone again! My agenda for visiting international courtiers (2 GFs) were postponed as their carriage left without them. Walkies to date have been fine! A bit tiring as Sir wolfie has a tendency to stampede the entire time. I have decreed that all knights have to have a shower at least once a week. This week - like all other weeks - saw me Queen Bubbles getting down, wet and dirty with the boys. At least i can rub my nose into their furry necks and breathe in fresh scents of tea tree (for about half a day)

My strategy for combatting this irrational fear of walking all three doggies at the same time is this - It only takes 15 - 20 minutes of each morning and evening and if i time it right, I will never bump into a stray. hooray!! Now let's hope i can keep this optimism up for another 11 days!!
~Queen Bubbles~

Unexpected Expectations

2007-07-29T23:24:00.000+08:00

The funny thing about life is that it can abruptly turn around and either go really well or go really of the charts. Over the last few days, a friend of mine has seen her father well on the road to recovery and then lose him suddenly.

It all started a couple of months ago, when her dad had to go through angioplasty - i understand this procedure is to clear the bloodclots in the heart. He had three and during the procedure, he stroked out. This caused complications and his left brain swelled so the doctors had to remove part of his skull so that the pressure in the cranium did not build to a level where it would harm the right side of the brain. The family and all those around it were stunned that before he went in he was happy and living well. And in a couple of days he had lost the use of the right side of his body. When all this was happening and i heard about it - i was looking for someone to blame - mostly i looked to the doctors. After a while i calmed down enough to realise that these things do happen. And although there is a possibility that the doctors screwed up - we can't determine this for sure. It was such a sad day when life went terribly wrong for her dad and herself and her family. Still they were a strong family and together they pulled through.

In the few months following - her dad seemed to be recovering well. My friend seemed also to be coping well. And then we were all informed that her dad was to go through another procedure to replace the skull piece. It seemed the procedure went well but then he stroked out again - this time in the right brain. At this point when i received this information - it all seemed so unfair. He had overcome great odds through his first bad surgical experience and now this has to happen. Again i speculate if the doctors were at fault...? But stress can induce a stroke.

anyway counter measures to keep infection at bay and to prolong his life were again put in place. The doctors advised the family to let him go as he was unlikely to recover from this and would likely remain in a vegetative state. The family together decided that they did not want their beloved father who loved life with a passion to live in this manner. They decided to take him off the counter measures and he passed away yesterday morning at 840am. He was cremated today. It is a great loss to lose one's father and husband. I can only try to imagine the grief. I try to put myself in my friend's position and i feel intense grief. I know it will take time to come to terms with a death within the family. And while i expect to die sometime in the future - i guess everyone would have thought this way at sometime in their life - i know it can come unexpectedly. I guess i have to come to terms with unexpected expectation with life, death and all that comes in between.

My friend - Asther, i'm sorry that you have had to go through this earlier than expected. I know you are strong for yourself and your family. You have always been a good person with a big heart and strong faith and i truly believe that you have always made your father proud and will continue to do so. I will pray for you and your family and i hope you find peace soon and can bring yourself to look forward to seeing him when you do - as we all must travel that road. Love life like he has and he will be best remembered that way.

Introvert or Extrovert?

2007-07-24T21:46:00.000+08:00

I like

1) Reading (lotsa lotsa - but i tend to lose interest if the description goes into too much details)
2) Knitting (though i cannot find in KL a shop that instructs on this skill)
3) Cross - stitching (it just damn addictive and i do like the colours of the thread - soo yummy!!)
4) Sleeping - one of the best past times with no buts
5) Hugging my doggies - most therapeutic method of destressing
6) Talking to my doggies - second most therapeutic method of destressing
7) Swimming - peace and quiet...no conversations with people
8) Scuba diving - peace and quiet...no conversations with people
9) Yoga - breathing, focusing and calm...back to basics of life
10) Shopping Alone - best done on weekdays (no crowds)
11) Travelling Alone - less hassle as no one to drive the itinerary but ME!
12) Playing and singing along to my fav tunes while driving ALONE

I Don't like

1) unnecessary interactions with people as they do a lot of the following:

Whine/moan
Lie
Manipulate
Create problems for themselves and then blame others
turn into anally retentive characters
smallminded
like minded - like sheep (why couldn't they be goats - i hear goat were a lot smarter)

2) parties as it requires me to mingle with the above
3) society norms/stereotypes
4) crowds (masses of point 1)

Definitely Introvert! What do you think?!

The Kingdom of Damned if you do, Damned if you don't

2007-07-17T15:10:00.000+08:00

This Kingdom really sucks! It sort of blows into town (MY TOWN!!) and we dun likes it much!!

The sucky thing about this is like it's name - damned if you do and damned if you don't. Either way - when this kingdom and it's monarch rolls into town - it's hell on earth with eggshells all over the place and bulls (actually only one - ME!) running around like ants on a hot roof.

The Kingdom of damned if you do and damned if you don't doesn't care what you do, don't do, say and don't say - it will all be wrong! nothing will be right! No matter which way you look at it...you will still pay for everything that goes wrong or right in this monarch's life!

A couple of "cheerful" examples

FLIGHT OR FIGHT
When there are arguments/diagreements/misunderstanding that ended up fairly heated - one can either fly or fight. It's a 50/50 rule isn't it? A chance that if you picked the right strategy you may avoid a complete nuclear meltdown - Let me say this - IT IS COMPLETE AND UTTER BOLLOCKS?!?!
In the Kingdom of Damned if you do and Damned if you don't - either flying or fighting will end one in hot soup. It's a no win. The monarch is extremely strict about no fly or fight laws and the usual sentencing is into the hot soup the perpetuator goes until he/she admits mistake - whether the mistake is factual reality or or the best fictional story that was ever created in the mind of the monarch.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
usually when one is asked an opinion on a subject - Most Regular people will take this invitation to present their opinions as an honor. This is because the person asking for your opinion values it enough to want to hear it to see if it can solve the problem at hand. So in an obscure way the person asking for your opinion is seeking "help" - YOUR HELP.

So you provide this help (doing a good deed) and i guess you can tell from which kingdom did the phrase "no good deed goes unpunished" originate from - that's right folks...the Kingdom of Damned if you do and Damned if you Don't. If you provide this opinion (help) - you are going to be a great deal of trouble with the Monarch if the result of your opinion and eventually his decsion leads to problems of any kind. Even if your opinion does not result in tremendous loss (the Monarch is a great spinner - one that can make even a mouse think its a goat!) you will be blamed for not considering all the facts (not all available to you at the moment of opinion giving).
If you think not providing an opinion will definitely ensure safety in the Kingdom of Damned if you do and Damned if you don't - you have another thing coming!! NO CHANCE! If you fail to provide the royally requested opinion you are seen as a traitor in the eyes of the Monarch as you fail to show your support for his "conquering plans for the universe!"

PROVIDING SOLACE TO THE MONARCH
this Kingdom seethes with danger with every corner you turn, every side street you take and every building you enter....so on and so forth. It is covered in egg shells that scream for punishment when you step on them accidentally - enraging the Monarch.

In your defence - you would advise the Monarch to not place so many egg shells around as the population is finding it difficult to get by without getting sentenced to soup. It might be better to keep his eggshells somewhere safe. There are times when the Monarch will step on eggshells deployed under his rule and when that happens - you see the Monarch all depressed and sad and pissed off at the same time. You try to comfort the sole Monarch of the Kingdom that it's only an eggshell that's been crushed and that there's many more eggshells around...no point crying over cracked eggshells...there are other eggshells to look after. In this situation - you will hear the MONARCH SCREAM - I WANNA WEAR MY PINK DRESS!!!! (Private Joke..... :P)

For now the Kingdom of Damned if you do and Damned if you don't has moved on. Phew! It will come round again but at least bubble-dom will have some time to recover its bouncy-ness and elasticity to take the constant screaming and stretching that comes from the reigning Monarch of that terrible kingdom.

Mags and his homecoming

2007-07-09T18:29:00.000+08:00

I am excited to announce the homecoming of Mags. As you know Mags got his name from Maggots which aptly suits him as that was the way i found him (with maggots). he is maggot free and doing very well. I will be fetching him to come back and continue his recovery journey at our home (of course away from poppet and wolfie)

His previous owner has not called back to ask for his return even though she has my number. So i will keep him in my custody till he is better to be rehomed. There are people who are interested in taking him in even though he will probably have only one good eye to see through. This touches my heart and makes my sad days seem dimmer and further away.

Having said that - i am still concerned that they might use him for breeding or other evil purposes (EVIL EXISTS IN GREAT QUANTITIES IN THIS WORLD). SO to decrease the possbility of using him as a stud (i know...i know...it's a tiring job but someone's got to do the studding work...BUT it ain't gonna be Magsy Boy!) i have decided to cut his nuts off.

His case is slightly different from that of Poppet's and Wolfie. Why have i not castrated them and will castrate Mags. Well...first off...nobody wants Poppets' or Wolfies' puppies but they will want a purebred like Mags'. So to avoid abuse better to cut nuts off.

Secondly, both Poppets' and Wolfies' testes have descended properly (i.e. they hangin loose as they should) whereas Mags' testes have not descended at all. And in my research - doggies with undescended testes have a higher chance of getting testicular cancer so in this case we will have to remove them to safeguard his health. This does mean that he is probably gonna be in a high risk group for prostate cancer. A animal activist friend of mine is checking out the stats for this likelihood and we have time to decide later on the fate of Magsy's balls. If at all, he will only be sent for this surgery after he recovers from his existing ailments.

Mags will be returning to a hyperactive wolfie (dunno what's up with that dog these days?!?!) and a head shaking poppet (no...he has not taken up head banging as a preference!!! nor is he on E!) Poppet's got this headshaking thang going on. We went to see MrVet who promptly checked him for ear mites (thankfully he had none!!), cleaned out the poor dog's ears with such vigour that reminded me of when i was a toddler and my grandpa used to scrub behind my ears!! In order to do all this - we had to sedate Poppet and he took the longest time comng out of this sedation and when he did manage to groggily walk to the car and afterwards into the house he was like a drunk...Swaying when he was standng still...getting all his four legs tangled and his style of walking was sooooo terbantuk leh!!! (a.k.a. spastic)

Way....going back now to check on my babies and prepare for the arrival of another in a couple of days time. I will be bringing Mags to Port Dickson with me and hubby on Saturday so that we can go visit a possible home for Mags in Malacca later that day. Ciao! See you soon.

Good News, Good News, Good News, Bad News

2007-07-08T10:19:00.000+08:00

And in that order we will begin this post.

Good News
Mags is recovering well. The hole in his head is healing properly. We will know about the eye in a week's time. He is more playful now and barks a lot.

Good News
I have a couple of people that are interested in taking him in - will need to check their backgrounds etc before i pass him over.

Good News
I found a microchip on him and managed to trace the owner through the breeder.

Bad News
The owner is some chinese educated low life that bought the dog and left it with her mother. This lady sounds like she is in her late 30s and when i did speak with her - sounded very drunk and hung over. She claims that she lost the dog a couple of months ago but doesn't know exactly when as she does not live with her mother. Her mother leaves the gate open for the dog to "run in and out". And one day it just disappeared - little wonder!

I dun really want to return Mags to her seeing as it will happen all over again. I told her to call me back when she's awake. She hasn't to date.

I think it is such a waste when you spend time and money to get the dog back to health only to have its irresponsible owner let the same horrible thing happen again. So i have decided the following:

1) If the owner wants Mags back then she will have to pay for his medical bills in full.
2) if the owner does not call back in a week's time - i will bring Mags back for a couple of days and then rehome him for free.

We'll see and keep this situation updated and posted.

A tear in the corner of my eye

2007-07-06T14:03:00.000+08:00

There are good days and then there are bad days and there are also days when it is neither. There are a couple of days in a year that i have sad days. Sad days are when i feel that all things are not right in the world especially in mine.

Sad days for me come about when i see bad things happening to people/animals (like whenever i visit Mags - it makes me sad that things like that can happen). This makes me feel like there is no hope for human kind. That they are vicious and terribly self centered beyond belief that that really believe the world revolves around them and that they are owed a living and anything they get in life.

I see this everyday in life and the thing that makes these sad days sad is that no matter how hard you try - it's not going to change. People will still be mean to people. People will still put their self interest and needs first. If you sacrificed something for someone else...dun expect to get thank yous. Expect that the person you helped out will feel that it is their right to be treated nicely regardless of cost to anyone else.

So when I'm having these sad days - i prefer to keep quiet, be by myself - to find my balance again. I have considered that my sad days come about because i'm so angry but cannot do anything about it - cannot change the situation and cannot express frustration to the level that it is felt. On these days - i have a constant tear in the corner of my eye that will not go away till my balance is found (read as when i can filter out the mean-ness of this life and make a concentrated effort to find only the good)

I find that i can see and feel but not articulate accurately these things that make my days sad. I was angry and now just sad (similar to a feeling of hopelessness). And that leaves a constant tear in the corner of my eye.

Betsy

2007-07-03T22:31:00.000+08:00

Betsy. She's my cow. My sistah gave her to me (actually she's the second betsy as i had to give up my first to Isaac - my nephew). She travels with me everywhere and i mean everywhere, sleeps with me every night and watches TV with me every evening. She's the most huggable cow i have and the reason why i treasure her the most is because my sistah gave her to me.

Betsy is like an extension of my sistah (i know my cheh cheh is probably grossing out right this moment as she reads this as Betsy is in a right state) I can't bear to wash her in case she falls to pieces. And i dun trust those dry cleaners with her. So i'm sticking with her the way she is. Just like i love my sistah forever. Even though we have our fights, disagreements, sibling rivalry (Betsy has an edge over my sistah in this respect - WE NEVER FIGHT!)

I talk to Betsy when i'm happy, sad, depressed and angry. She comforts me by just listening, hugging and absorbing my tears (and fears) till i sleep. She dreams with me (let's me drool happiness and contentment all over her), has nightmares with me (I have flung her from the bed - without knowing). She exacts revenge for me (smacks hubby on his bald head for being mean to me), protects me (people dun try to approach you when they think you're mad for traveling with a stuff cow named betsy whom you giggle to each and every night that you have to share accommodation with...) and lurves me right back with the blank cow stare that she has.

She has her own particular smell (ME! ME! ME!) and i lurve my Betsy to bits (still together or fallen off) Her snout is tilted in a particular direction (probably due to me sniffing her in only one direction); her tail is a furry mess of furry stuff; she's got holes in her back; her horns are falling off and her ears are worn thin (from my constant nervous habit of pushing the cotton into the corners of her stitching). She's also a lot thinner now then when i first got her. I sometimes think about the future and what it holds. And sometimes i imagine Betsy no more with me and i stop right there! I don't like the thought - so i fiddle with her soft terry cloth (used to be) belly a little gentler when we sleep at night; i swaddle her with soft pashmina when i pack her to go abroad with me. All in the effort to keep her with me till i die.

Betsy also has a special relationship with hubby. He always remembers to bring her to bed if she's been watching TV with him. He talks to her and almost always gives her a good night kiss. And i know it's strange but he arranges her in a sleeping position in the mornings after we have all gotten up.

there was only one other fellow that "communicated" with Betsy as hubby does. And he was affectionately known as "my holiday hubby". Long story how this boyo got this title but nothing raunchy - just had to share accommodation. Anyway, this dude was putting granola bars in Betsy's lap, flowers in her ear...man i thought Betsy was going to get a proposal.

Betsy has shared a large part of my life for over 8 years. I hope she will stay around (especially with me taking sepcial care to be gentler with her) for at least another 10 years! I cannot imagine a day without Betsy to go home to or snuggle up to or to talk to. I will always remember Betsy my cow! Betsy my best friend! Betsy - my sistah's gift to me that is more than a soft toy!

My Bit(e) - Against Cruelty to Animals

2007-07-02T15:18:00.000+08:00

I want to help my furry pet friends out as much as i can. And as the saying goes - you can only save (help) so many. But i dun plan to save the world of furry pet friends- i believe that each and everyone plays a part.

About a week ago - my parents came to visit me for a couple of days. At the end of their trip I was supposed to send them to the bus stop to catch their bus home. Just leaving my house - I spotted a shihtzu sat quietly by the roadside. I stopped the car and went to take a look. He had a hole in its head, and his right eye was sealed shut with infection and for a while i thought that he had been involved in an accident and was waiting to die. I had to decide what to do as i was cutting it waaayyyy too close for my parents to catch their bus. So i found a towel in the boot, caught the little fellow and put him in the back seat of the car. I thought if he was going to die - i would like him to have a shorter and painless death where i could being him to a vet and have him put to sleep.

I managed to make it to the bus stop with minutes to spare and said my goodbyes in the car. The little pooch was quiet all this time just licking his paws. I moved off and due to traffic was off to a slow start. Eventually i got to the vets - carried the little pooch in and informed the front desk that the doggy was involved in some kind of accident. Mr Vet took a look and told me something that shook me to my roots with anger, indignation and fear. It was a MAGGOT wound - apparrently the dog had an ulcer in his right eye and it started tearing terribly and his then owner obviously did not take care of him. With so much tearing - the flies were attracted to lay their eggs which hatched into maggots that eventually ate the doggy's face away (big hole in the head).

How can anyone treat their pet this way? What was going through the imbecile's mind? this was a shihtzu - you would have to buy this dog at more than RM$1,000.00. It makes me mad to think that people can be so careless with life and money. If one dog died we would just have to go get another from the shop. Not that this lack of attention to a dog's need would have been justified if it was a local pariah dog. My GOSH!! when i heard what the vet had to tell me - i was literally shaking mostly with anger.

the vet gave me a choice - put him to sleep or help him heal? Will i be able to afford his medical costs? I said yes...heal the little bugger up and i will find him a home. I will bear the cost of this journey of healing. So i left the doggy in their capable hands.

Over the next week and a half i would go visit the doggy to see how he was doing. I was asked to name him and chose the name Mags (short for Maggots - i know...GROSS). I'm glad to report that Mags is doing well. The hole in his head is healing well. his right eye is still in the process of healing but no one can be sure if he will ever be able to see through it. At least he has got one good eye. He is barking and although shaven (they had to shave him coz he had matted hair which would have caused more skin problems later - it'll grow back - in about 2 months) is eating well and putting back on the weight he has lost since being abandoned.

In the interim i have been searching for a new home for Mags. And i'm appalled by some of the questions that i have been asked - is he cute? Does he have any scars? Will he look normal?
Does it matter? I mean really - does it matter? By adopting Mags - you would have gained a friend for life. Always there for you. And all it asks is for that bit of TLC, food and attention.

And i had one case of this girlie feeling really sad that she had lost her dog to the ultimate end. She said - i would never take another dog again. It hurts too much. I feel sad for her for the loss of her best friend. I feel even more sad for her as i know she is missing out on something (big in her life enough to cause her so much grief) in life that would make her happy. We all know we lose big time at the end when we have lived big time when we are alive. And what matters most - the end or the journey? Our greatest memories are sometimes also our saddest. I digress.

Your pet is not your accessory. He/She is your friend, family, confidante, cheerleader, causer of muntah darah scenarios (i.e. peeing in the house). Please treat all animals with the care and respect you would give to a fellow human being. You should NOT get a pet for fun, for the kids, for whatever insane reason society has deemed as normal for a person to walk into a pet shop, flash the plastic and bring a pet home.

Your PET is LIKE your CHILD (for people with children), your BMW/MERC (for yuppies without children), your aging parents (for people who do not have a BMW or children). No one would like to have a festering wound in the eye that cost you your sight when it could all have been avoided. Dumping the pet indicates the owners are complete and utter morons than probably will not have any respect for any living thing even though related i.e. family

whilst i cannot do anything against the consumerism of today's sociey i can help by lobbying against the government appointed animal catchers that do not treat the strays they catch with any humanity. I am involved in getting signatures to lobby for a ban on the shooting of dogs and the implementation of other humane practices. I can only hope that the individuals that read this do their bit against the cruelty to animals

Boils....Pus...Pain and Pain in the Butt and Cringes in Unmentionable Places

2007-07-02T12:09:00.000+08:00

Been a long time...so i would like to commence by giving my much missed blog a big fat wet kiss to say hello!!

The heading says it all for what my hubby had to go through this weekend jus past. Over the last week he had this swelling on the outer right thigh. We tot it's only a huge pimple (you know la - men can be soo dirty la ;)) Anyway - it grew and grew and grew. In my religion - God created the world in 7 days. My hubby created this monster of a boil in 7 days.

We decided when it turned ugly red with a yellowish center that it's a boil and that it needed to be lanced but not just yet as it wasn't "ripe"! Fancy using a term we use on fruits. eeeee....

Anyway - on the day we felt was the the day to get it lanced - we went down to this lady doctor just down the road from us. She appeared maternal but could talk an MRT to shame, she could also have represented Malaysia in the nagging olympics. anyway - she did not take much of a shine to my poor hubby - he had to put up with her going on and on about the importance of antibiotics (approx - 15 minutes) with me regularly interjecting that hubby feels very strongly AGAINST antibiotics .... chuckle with me for a moment please - it's not often i get to "get" him back for being "atrocious" to me.

So she told him after much verbal slapping that his boil is not "boiled" enough and that it's not pus-sy (no porn intended) enough - and that he had to return the next day to get it lanced. but in the meantime - he has to have an antibiotic jab on his bottom. Aiyoh to see the butt cheek flinch gave me a cringe in unmentionable places but also a feeling of sadistic satisfaction. I pitied the poor old boy and yet i didn't.....how evil am I? Muahahahaha

SO the poor boy slept on his left side all night or on his back - right butt cheek and thigh not the most comfortable. The next day we decided to go in early to lance the boil (see - the thing is we both thought that it was nothing serious and that it was all going to come oozing out from a small pinprick that she would be making into his "ripe fruit"). Little did we know what he was in for......

He lay on the table docilely after being sternly instructed by the doc. She got all the sterile equipment ready, sprayed him with some cold anastethic and cut straight into him. I can imagine the pain he must be experiencing (afterall i did have to endure extreme cringes in unmentionable places for a very long time when he was in the land of pain) In hindsight - it all appeared a bit farnee - with him on his left side and right arm in the air with the arrrrggggghhhhh sound effects coming from him. Aiyoh...what is happening la - isn't it supposed to be a small pinprick? Why is he in sooooo much pain? Is my hubby a big girls blouse?

Then bravery took a hold of my hands and legs and moved me forward to see the cause of such unimaginable pain. My eyes popped out...she had cut the diameter of the boil and was squeezing the icky stuff out....AND MAN WAS IT ICKY!!!!!!!! Yellow with blood and with soft cheese consistency....eeeeeeeeeeeeee....and it stank!!!!

SO she continued to push and probe at the "ripe fruit" with hubby in almost silent agony (the silence punctuated by small eerrggghhh and arrrgggghhhs). At one point i thought he was going to pass out as he screamed (jus a little scream) out. He was covered in cold sweat. The doctor came across as immune to his pain and i felt had no bedside manners at all.

I checked out the cut she had made with her scapel and it was pretty deep from where i was standing. Fortunately for hubby the icky stuff is out of his leg. Unfortunately for hubby - the ordeal is not over. Apparently the nurse is preparing a magnesium sulfate gauze strip to stuff into the gaping hole of my hubby's leg. So the torture goes on...she stuffs...he screams mutely....she stuff....he screams...and this goes on for quite a while. It was over...we had lost track of time between the screams and more screams...

We went home for the rest of the day and hubby was like..."get me this..." "get me that...." "my leg hurts...." "why do I have to do everything around here...?". So I pandered to this pain in the backside (pun intended) whilst my saturday slipped away...I napped to get away from the whining noise coming from hubby and whilst i napped a dream of torture came to me so that when i woke i made a call to my fabulous mum. She has been a nurse for the longest time and is now retired...well semi retired if you count the fact that she has still to look after my dad.....to ask about this painful procedure. She assures me that all men (well - mostly men) scream when this procedure takes place as it is a very painful experience (being dirty..leading to boils and their extraction...nah nah nah...that'll teach you to be clean - ya filthy animals!!! muahahahaha)

I assured my hubby that he was not being a big girl's blouse and that he will have to be brave the next day...(oooppss...did i not mention that my fab mum also told me whats in store for him at the doc's tomorrow) then i tell him all the little painful details and secrets that my fab mum has just told me....i finally understood what the books mean when they say "the colour fell from his cheeks" or "he turned a ghastly shade of ash" or "the blood drained from his face"

The sadist in me takes gleeful joy in creating distress and then the maternal part of me that loves him to bits suffers cringes in unmentionable places. We go to bed that night...possibly a frightful bug eye hubby lying awake in anticipation of tomorrow's visit to the docs while i lie asleep like a baby snoring in contentment with Betsy.

So yesterday was the first day after his "surgery". He went into the doctor's with a heavy heart...knowing what is to come but unable to escape...PAIN!! then he see's the cute receptionist and he thinks...hey..it won't be that bad if she's inflicting the pain...and once again i transform from the love of his life that will do anything to protect him to the evil mother of the mantra "Let pain be your middle name". This transition takes place quietly and smoothly so no one is the wiser.

We enter the room for the dressing change and guess the joys of joys....the person changing his dressing is the.....wait for it.....THE DOCTOR. muahahahaha! hubby looks like he wants to run out of the room....but he stands his ground bravely. The battle between my good and evil alterego was a mighty one, like the war of the titans - only bigger and better and definitely more entertaining....eventually good won out and i decided to be nice. So i hold his hand and tell him it's all going to be ok....and it was...the doc was actually nicer this time round, his wound needed only plain gauze stuffing without the magnesium sulfate and it was reported that he was healing nicely and he got another shot of antibiotics on the bum.

He seems to be recovering well. Today he is teaching all day so we hope he's not in too bad a mood by the day's end. Wish us luck!!

2007-06-14T21:26:00.000+08:00

Pink Squat Lobster - found on barrell sponges. Hairy lil buggers and in this particular case - kinda on the fat side...one of my favourite finds. This little bugger is about the size of my pinky nail like most of the stuff i like to photograph underwater....

Bon Apetit! A plate of my own words

2007-06-14T20:08:00.000+08:00

My earlier post reeks of lots of things - dread, fear and optimism. Optimism especially towards the end....reads like..." every morning...without a fight...happy family...blah blah"

Now i would like to order a plate filled with my optimistic thoughts for supper - oh! and by the way have a dentist standby to fix all my teeth after i get thru this tough meal.

It was a long day but a good one. Both hubby and myself got loads done, we were fed and happy to be coming home. We arrived greeted by a happy wolfie and a not so happy poppet (in the garden). As is the practice - hubby will change into his shorts and let in whichever doggy that was in the garden into the house. This time was no different.

Not long after we were all upstairs the doggies commenced their war in the middle of the living room. I sprayed and sprayed them with my water cannister (all accurately hitting them in the face - i've been practising ;)) to no avail so i jus gave up and stood there looking at them. Hubby valiently steps forward ready to control this chaotic jumble of legs, fur, teeth and tail amidst violent dog like noises. When suddenly i hear the loudest yowl from the party of three - my precious hubby has been bit!!!

Man that made me see red!!! While hubby retreated to clean the wound (fairly deep gash - compliments of Wolfie) i went over to both dogs and pulled them off each other screaming in their faces to stop! Do men ever listen? I mean seriously - in any species - have you ever witnessed any dude that listens? Eventually they do stop. Both wet (compliments of me!) both still pissed off but not as pissed off as i was (should have seen me - my face was a combination of blue and red)

Seconds after this chaotic violent episode - hubby's wound has been cleaned and dressed. Both dogs have been thrown outside to sort it out themselves. And we agreed that both dogs will sleep outside from now onwards. None of that "Poppet sleeps inside".

The eeriest part of all of this was - last night i did not sleep well...i had dreams of doggie violence as well as that my hubby kept nudging me awake (i snore pretty badly) and towards the end i associated the violent doggie dream with hubby. Tot nuttin of it all day till all this happened at the end of day. Talk about Dejavu...

another eerie thing was that the Dog Whisperer called this evening to find out how the doggies were doing and all was a positive report at the time of the call.....hmmmm are both of us psychic? That would make me a psychic without any more teeth....

Early Days Yet

2007-06-14T14:35:00.000+08:00

After the Dog Whisperers' visit...we were filled with renew vigour to combat this anti-social behaviour from both our doggies. As is the practice - the morning yard shift for these furry criminals fall to me whilst the late night yard shift falls to hubby.

Descriptions of our furry inmates:
Poppet - Tall, Long, furry, furrows on his forehead (especially when he looks at wolfie). convicted of grievous bodily harm to wolfie, aggression towards other dogs and general feelings of jealousy.

Wolfie - short, stout, furry (with a penchant to produce adorable squeaky noises at anyone other than poppet). Convicted of grievous bodily harm to Poppet and me and hubby, general manja-ness and displays symptoms of been bitten by the tsetse fly.

Both inmates are kept separate from each other unless there is supervision by the house wardens - me and hubby. Most stressful times for the warden are in the mornings and evenings - as this is when they are allowed yard priviledges

(dun ask me why i'm relating my experiences as if we really did run a prison for doggies - must be the stupid documentary hubby was watching last night - gave me inspiration!! I mean if you had seen how the prisoners fight - the violence is similar to that of a dog squabble!)

Anyway.......every morning when i wake up - my heart is filled with dread (the vigour left me an hour after the Dog Whisperer went home). But i pull myself outta bed and haul ass up the stairs with much trepidation. Upon reaching the landing - i see my first inmate - Poppet. He is happy to see me and wags his tail. I give him a brief pat on the head and go to open all my gorgeous windows to let fresh air into the house - he tags along - secretly i think all male species like watching women work!

I go to pick up both his and wolfie leads to get ready for the morning yard exercise (walkies), arm myself with a spray cannister filled with water. I open the door slightly. both dogs have their noses in the small gap and immediately the growling starts. I squirt water on both inmates and tell them firmly NO and then i close the door. Remembering what the Dog Whisperer told me to do - if they start to look like they are about to start any fight just spray water on them and tell them NO in as firm a voice as one could muster! Yeah right! That's gonna work! :(

whilst regaining my composure i remembered him saying that if a fight did break out - i was to remove myself from the scene, let all hell break loose on the other side of the door. His reasoning is that they are fighting over me (awwwww....that's way too sweet!)and if i'm not there to witness their bravery/sutpidity - they will stop. So i try again - i open the door just a tinnie weenie bit but this time poppet gets past....i hear them growling and the sounds that accompany the beginnings of a fight....I spray water all over the place except where it should have been sprayed...and the dogs are off - fighting that is...I close the door rest my forehead against it and pray for my car!

I dunno how long i was in that position but i suddenly realised that it was quiet. Not sure if either or both doggies were dead...I bravely put my crocs on and stepped out. My my....maybe the Dog Whisperer was right....they were not fighting just walking around and looking tough.

I put the lead on Poppet and then on Wolfie. And we started towards the gate. And we almost had a fight on our hands but no CIGARS! (Not that i want the bloody CIGAR!!!)Thank GOD for the spray cannister and a deep sort of panic induced high pitched voice (mine of course)!! we continued on our walk without any incident and returned both inmates safely into the compound

In summary, YARD duty is toughest in the mornings i think. But over the last couple of days, hubby has made a very concentrated effort in helping me out in that department (I'm so proud of him)and every morning that goes by without a fight amongst the inmates makes me believe that we will be a happy family one day!

The Dog Whisperer

2007-06-10T19:51:00.000+08:00

This morning we were visited by a dog whisperer. He is a Spanish trainer that operates a kennel in Shah Alam. He is said to have the ability to deal with the most impossible dogs. He was invited to a home visit to assess both poppet and wolfie. All this time we thought poppet was the alpha (the leader of both these dogs) - it turns out (according to the expert) that wolfie is the alpha.

The dog whisperer also thinks that wolfie is older when we always thought poppet was the senior dog in chronological terms. He told us not to tie either of the doggies up but to let them roam. We have to set the rules and essentially try to stop any anticipated or ongoing fight with water and a firm NO!

Fat Chance - I thought to myself as he uttered this advice. This has been ongoing even before he arrived and it hasn't worked. But i guess he has reinforced that we are doing mostly the right stuff with a little adjustment needed and the rest was up to time and the dogs.

I felt more reassured that it would pan out - given time, patience and possibly a lot more bite marks on me and hubby. I remain optimistic. If my optimism proved wrong and worn after another month - we may have to send them off to boarding school to learn to behave better. Boarding school for kids and dogs were equally exorbitant! A full 20 day camp (full board) for the doggies would amount to RM$3,000.00.. Makes me think i am in the wrong line...;)

The dog whisperer did say it would be better to try to work things out at home (better but takes a longer time as each dog assumes ownership of something or some space) rather than to send them to camp as the camp is considered neutral territory and both doggies will not have claims to anything there - making socialization easier but returning to the same problem when they come home.

I need to believe that our efforts and patience will see results we want. Some people may ask - why go through this? Why not just give one dog up? I considered some of these well meaning questions and i appreciate the concern. Both hubby and myself know that it will be a fairly long drawn out process and that we will need each other more than ever to see this through. But i think with each other, strong unfailing belief (bolstered by one another) we will achieve this goal. Afterall - we have overcome the many curveballs that life has already thrown us and we will continue to do so. I think this will bring us closer as a family.

I thank all my friends and family for their concern and I hope they will have unending support for our decision to keep these pooches and to be our shoulder to hold onto if we ever lose our stability or sight of our goal (for a doggie's fairy tale ending where they live happily ever after).

Saving the Doggies with Wolfie

2007-06-09T16:46:00.000+08:00

Today i brought Wolfie with me to a charity carnival where i was supposed to help manage the adoption booth for rescued doggies. I was a bit apprehensive as i did not know how he would react to being around so many doggies but nevertheless i was determined to get wolfie out of the house so that hubby and poppet and enjoy a stress free morning - so off we went together to save some doggies.

He was marvelous! He behaved himself beautifully - non of the aggressive behaviour that he shows when poppet is around. Only the occassional bark to tell me to hurry back from my journey to fight some serious attack of the thirsty monsters.

He let children pet him and walk him and he even made friends with Billy another male dog that was there for PR purposes. There was also a guard dog show where I volunteered to be a "victim" of a snatch theft incident. I was supposed to be walking when a guy comes from behind, steals my newspaper, pushes me and runs off. I was instructed to scream "HELP! HELP!" And a trained German Sheperd named Rocky would be chasing after my assailant, biting him on the arm to wrestle him to the ground until the command was given to release.

I say - my performance demands an oscar la! Wolfie on the side was barking when he saw the guy push me - aaawwwwww.....he luves me that dog. It was a nice morning out doing some good but seriously hot! The best news is we will probably see most of the puppies adopted into good homes. We had lots of inquiries and we will have to screen the homes before the adoption can take place...more doggie saving duties...

We are home now in the comfort of our aircon living room. I am as usual sprawled on the floor, writing this blog with wolfie beside me asleep. He had a busy morning saving doggies as have I. I'm gonna catch a couple of winks with my dog wolfie (a short respite for the heros) and then when we wake in about an hour - he's gonna get a bath! I'm sure he's thrilled...NOT! (Even super dog Wolfie needs to smell nice!)

Shoeprints.....on my toilet seat

2007-06-08T17:54:00.001+08:00

What can possibly be going thru a person's mind when they stand/squat on a toilet seat (to do their "business" i presume - otherwise why would they be in a toilet ....hmmmm....that one probably deserves more thought...)

Which century or era do they belong to? Have they just come out of hibernation from the deepest, darkest recesses of some underground cave that went deep into the annals of this planet EARTH?

The Discovery
Our office is similar to the Ally McBeal's office in that our toilet is also unisex. We have people coming in for training sessions and of course during the course of their training they will need to use the loos. As we are training adults - professionals i might add - we expected a certain level of publicly accepted behaviour.

Malaysians are used to the fact that their toilets are always wet. This is because the majority of the population of Malaysia are Muslims and they do not use toilet paper only water to clean up. So we were prepared for the wet toilets (and constant mopping) but i did not expect to find ... SHOEPRINTS ON MY TOILET SEAT!

Having said that i have heard that in the universities in Australia - a special orientation program for Malaysian and Chinese nationals have been prepared. In it they are told repeatedly - NOT TO STAND/SQUAT ON THE TOILET SEAT!

Anyway, there they were! I felt so violated...so dirty...i mean this was the seat i would have to sit on and there they were - black footprints where my precious bum bum would be. Thoughts of eek and eew filled my head. Once the shock had worn off then the anger set in. I wanted to grab the guilty stepper of toilet seats and slap him as hard as possible and call him (it's definitely a him as the shoeprints were too big for a woman and i did check out all the ladies feet size - discretely of course) horrible names and send him to an etiquette school!

Soon after i calmed down i went online to search for cute pics to illustrate the "No standing/squatting" policy in our office toilets. But could find none. So i settled on just large bold print text with loads of exclamation marks for better effectiveness! I prepared 2 for each of my small cubicles. All my posters were placed in plain sight - regardless if you just entered the toilet or were standing up to take a leak or sitting down (eeeeeewww) to do bigger business.

And two days later - there they were again! Not a lot you can do - short of installing a camera and violating someone's privacy. But thing is whilst we are so careful not to violate their rights to use the toilet privately, they are violating our rights to use the toilet by their inability or careless attitude towards other people's consideration. Honestly when i saw shoeprints on my toilet seat - i felt really really violated (about the same feeling i had when i was molested)

Profile of A Stepper
The suspects were all "professionals" in their field of work (pun intended). They looked normal, well dressed (well not all). Some looked a bit dodgy. Mostly Males. Big Dirty Shoes.

Another disgusting habit - The men's inability to lift the toilet seat to pee. Leaving spray marks all over the seat! That's just gross!! I mean - do they not learn anything in school? Are they so arrogant to think that there's always someone to clean up the mess?

Profile of a Toilet Seat Sprayer
Definitely Male
short sighted
Bad with guns or projectiles
High probablity of a short dick(too small to manouvre)
Arrogant or ignornant
High probability a Stepper

To Castrate or Not to Castrate

2007-06-06T18:08:00.000+08:00

See...after i was bitten Hubby also got a taste of it...though not as bad as mine. So we decided that maybe both dogs should be castrated to ease the socialization process (which is already difficult with both dogs being male, around the same age and around the same size)

Hubby by this time has already had enough is more ready to give in to "the castrate them all" mentality - to be honest so was I. Having two dogs behaving as if they owned us like toys and fighting over these "toys" was enough. Bloody hell...the toys (being us) were sick of it.

So we went over the reasons why people castrate their dogs or at least the reasons given by the society in which they lived in gave for the need for castration.

1) it reduces agressive behaviour
2) they are more homebound, less territorial, less likely to hump
3) reduces unwanted puppies being conceived and born
4) reduces the risk of the dogs getting cancer

See...all these reasons were backed by an image that's being promoted society:

1) if you do castrate your pet - you are a responsible pet owner to the society in which you and the dog lives in
2) if you do castrate your pet - you are prolonging their life and reducing their risk of cancer
3) if you do castrate your pet - it is likely that your pet will stay more homebound and less likely to roam in search of the fairer sex - which makes looking after them easier.

Even with these solid reasons and the image of conformity and social consciousness that comes with castration - I HAD A PROBLEM CUTTING MY DOGS BOLLOCKS OFF!

I guess it's a fundamental thing. A living thing is born the way it is born (with nuts and all) WHO AM I TO TAKE THEIR BALLS AWAY? I mean i asked myself this question - if I knew now that in 20 years i might have breast cancer and that this could be avoided by cutting my boobies off right this minute - would i do it? Probably not.

So then people that have heard me whinge about this will tell me to stop being sentimental and to be practical about this. They urge me to make the practical and much adopted decision for an animal that cannot make it's own decisions. So let me tackle this practical side of castration.

The REASONS AND WHY NOT?!
1) Aggressive behaviour - there has been no studies localising aggressive behaviour to the removal of the testes. All vets for domestic animals will tell you that it's a possibility (50-50 chance). Some dogs do become less aggressive whilst other maintain their level of aggressiveness or increase their aggressiveness (who wouldn't? if you cut their balls off?!)
2) Aggressiveness is mostly a personality trait - this needs to be corrected but not through castration.
3) In response to being less territorial, less likely to hump, less tendency to stray away - the key word here is LESS. It is not an absolute. People with castrated pets will be witnesses to the fact that their ball-less pets still hump, fight and protect their territory.
4) In response to conception of unwanted puppies...well...that will happen if you let your un-castrated pet roam freely around the neighbour or beyond without your supervision (SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!)
5) Reduces the risk of cancer - well...it's not a myth. It's TRUE! It does reduce the risk of testicular cancer where a small minority of dogs are susceptible to. BUT CASTRATION INCREASES THE RISK of your pet getting prostatic cancer compared to a dog that is NOT CASTRATED. From what i understand - PROSTATE CANCER is far worse than TESTICULAR CANCER.

See...these arguments have essentially put reasonable doubt in my head as to the necessity of castrating the dogs. I find that mot people are ignorant of why they castrate their dogs. Of course there are situations why you would need to castrate them, medical reasons, safety reasons etc.

I find that most people want to conform to the image of being a RESPONSIBLE pet owner. Also the reason we castrate dogs without giving it much thought (our own versus that planted by society) is because it is conveniently lumped to the convenience of living with the dogs. Also it is a cheaper option and marketed as a less strenuous effort than training/trying to socialize the dogs

Dogs were historically wild animals, domesticated for various purposes to live and work with humans. We have come to love them and care for them. They are loyal to our needs and (i would like to believe) go the extra mile to keeps us safe, happy etc. Whilst we claim to treat our pets as part of the family - do we really?

Would i cut my sons nuts off if there was a danger of cancer in the future? Let's see - NO! It's life - people and animals will live and die various kinds of deaths. If you said yes - you have just denied your son quality of life for the REST OF HIS PROLONGED LIFE.

Would i cut my sons nuts off if they were not obedient, got into fights? I don't think so. Just like you would treat your family - education and training maybe the answer.

Call me silly, sentimentalist, ignorant...whatever comes to mind. I have decided to exhaust the non invasive method of dog socialization before going under the knife. Thanks to my local vet who explained how a castration was performed (Man - it was grim!!)! He spurred my efforts to trudge on bravely in the field of non invasive dog meets dog world of poppet and wolfie - hopefully with hubby walking bravely beside me!

Another episode that proves with all the convenience modern society provides the road of LIFE ain't easy and if you choose to LIVE LIFE - then we endure anything it throws at us - GOOD AND BAD - Nothing comes easy nor free! It has also made me want to think about what is actually being offered in our superficial modern sophisticated society....

Off With Their Nuts

2007-06-03T12:37:00.000+08:00

The Ruler of Bubble-dom is pissed off beyond belief. I always believed in a peaceful (though sometime sarcastic) settlement of disagreements in Bubbledom. I believe that i'm never the one to start (most days) a confrontation and usuallythe one that ends all forced confrontations. But today is a whole new ball game!

Most days my dogs settle their greivances amongst each otherby tiring themselves out snarling, circling, snapping and biting each other. We provide some help in settling these petty issues (i.e. that's my mommy hand stroking you - Notallowed!! or that's my part of the floor you sleeping on - Not allowed!! or I dun like your face - Notallowed!!) by pulling them apart with brute force (believe me you that you really need arms of steel and that no weight training program in the market can get your arms in shape like holding back two actively aggressive trying to kill each other)

So the morning started not so good with the boys going at it at the gate even before we are out the door. Usually they are pretty well behaved once out walking but not this day. Not this morning. This morning both dicks (literally) went for it in the middle of the road. In summary, why i am so pissed off is because:

1) they hurt each other again
2) i lost my stick (actually i lost Hubby's stick - bet he'll be pissed off...)
3) I got bit in the leg
4) My leg got bitten
5) the bloody dicks got my leg....
6) oooowwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Essentially that's it! Is there anything to be said in their defence before sentencing is passed? NO! ZIP! ZERO! NADA! TAK ADA!

Therefore as a highly pissed off Ruler of Bubbledom with a sore leg - I now pass Sentence

"Off With their Nuts!!"

I will save my justification for this sentence in another post.

Early Morning Muse

2007-06-03T01:12:00.000+08:00

My body's clock is all over the place! Slept on Friday night at around 1am. Woke up at 3am and then at 4am and then again at 5.30am. At 5.30am I decided that i might as well not bother going back to sleep as I needed to get hubby's things ready for his hike up some mountain (in preparation of his tibetan trip later this year).

Stretched out...yawn...and flipped outta bed and proceeded to get his stuff ready. I planned to get back into bed and catch a couple more winks after hubby goes off to do his boy thing and before i walk the doggies.

After hubby goes - i crawl back into bed, wrapping myself up like a big cotton popiah (spring roll) and sigh with contentment feeling all cozy ..... drifting off to sleep.....when... BAM!! - The electricity goes and i can feel the heat creeping up on me. Still i comforted myself that the room would remain cool enough to sleep for at least half an hour....when BAM! All hell breaks loose when the dogs go completely barking mad! (LITERALLY)

so then i dragged my sleepy self back upstairs - too tired to do anything. I decide against walking two possibly agressive doggies in my state and drag them one at a time out into the garden to make sure they pee and pooh there instead of in the house. This is followed by feeding and medicating (both dogs are a bit sick at the moment)

I contemplate my day - plan lots of stuff to do...*yawn*...the process of doing the plan...*yawn* *stretch*....snoooreeeee...........

But sleep is not peaceful....what with my dogs walking around and over me...sticking their nose in my ear...chewing my toes....growling at each other....

i wake up from my fitful rest at around 4.30pm. "Oh Fish! I have not done anything i planned...but wait i didn't get to plan...sleep took over! ahahahaha!"

Hope tomorrow will be a better day! I'm calling it an early night this Sunday morning! *Yawn* Good morning and good night!

My Doggies

2007-06-01T23:45:00.000+08:00

My dogs - Poppet & Wolfie are both precious to me! Poppet has been with me for over a year and recently (due to no fault of my hubby...;)) he went missing. A simple case of "oooppsss...i accidentally opened the auto gate!" I believe my Poppet went in search of softer"company" and after finding it - found himself LOST!

We searched for him for 16 days and on Mother's day - we found him (how apt - seeing as i treat him like my baby!) 5kgs lighter and one sore toe. During his "holiday" away from home - our search took us to the Dog Pounds of Kuala Lumpur and there we found Wolfie and gave him a home!

When Poppet finally came home - he was of course not pleased to see another doggie in his home. We were in for a rough ride and i seriously doubted that they would ever get along. It's been 3 weeks since they first met each other and though they still get their respective furry knickers in a twist on occassion- they are able to walk together without incident (most days).

They are still a handful to walk especially when they try to tangle me up in a web of leads and legs and tails. But they are still my darlings and i hope one day (SOON) that they will get used to each other or at least tolerate each other better than they do now.

All I can say is that I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO HUBBY GOING TO TIBET FOR 3 WEEKS!!!!

The Newbie Agro

2007-06-01T15:57:00.000+08:00

Blogging has been on my mind for a long time...well actually not (it kinda pops in and out of my mind...). My great sistah made me read hers and she makes writing a blog look sooo easy - can't say the same about most other blogs (yes...it's like having to eat poison or like vomiting blood...aka as muntah darah!)

Some friends of mine encouraged me to take up blogging (they felt i have repressed anger/childhood/adulthood issues and this would be a safe outlet for a nutter like myself!) - Actually they wanted to be able to view some of my underwater shots!

So i tot i might skive off work today and try my hand at this blogging thingy! I tot it might take away the stress that comes with work. BOY! WAS I WRONG!!!!!!!

The agro of it all....first you had to register, then you had to make a whole bunch of decisions on names, titles, colours, themes, templates, content, etc. I mean, this process required me to make more decisions than if i had to make when i was getting hitched (aka married, partners till either of us become food for worms)....

Then i had to post something - if not the blog looked really sad. As i'm writing this a throbbing headache has taken up residence in my left temple (throb throb throb)...actually this is turning out to be quite a headache (no pun intended on the posting of a blog) - i think my chronic migraine has returned. I'm gonna go now...get some chill pills for "The Throb"

Catch you all later with more news from Bubble-dom!