Manado - The Exotics

N finally posted up his photos on FB, so I went to steal them. I have accepted that there is a different culture beyond our lands and the definition of cruelty is also different.

So presenting a grotesque sight we saw in the butchery scene of Tamahon Market in Manado. We actually went there for the very same reason.  

dog meat

dog awaiting slaughter

bat meat

Curiousity didnt pull back those tears.

I swear I will never eat a dog this lifetime because Murphy will stop befriending me...

He will look sad like that the whole day...

And worse, I cannot go and kiss kiss hug hug him when he look uberly cute like that.

:(

But most importantly, I think it is plain cruel because dogs have feelings. They understand human and bond with human.

When I left Murphy with The Pet Nanny for 3 days last year, he refused food for that 3 days because he was sad. Sad that I had left him alone in a foreign place; sad because he thought I don't want him anymore. For the 3 days, he just grabbed on to my worn T-shirt that I left for him (so he could still smell me) and looked sad every day.

When I left him with N downstairs last week and went back home to grab something I forgot to take for our little family outing, his stare followed me while I walked away. N could neither get him to budge, nor succeed in feeding his favorite cheese stick snack. He was sad because I walked away without him.

Those dogs in the cage were expressing helplessness to and whining at us when we were near. On a more thankful note, they were totally unlike the nonchalent pecking chickens!  So, *Whew!* lucky I dont have to go vegetarian yet!

It's TGIF!

And I got tickets to the 933 awards later! :D

Sunny obsessions

The beauty of nature, when seen from a different perspective.

Sunrise at 530am on Saturday morning, 11 Sep 2010

Sunset and ripples of the calming ocean on our ride back to mainland :)

Take time off your busy schedules and BREATHE! (like when you do a brazillian ;p)

B.R.E.A.T.H.E!!!!

It's FRIDAY!!!!

Since we always thank GOD it's Friday.... Here's a very apt picture from my trip :)

TGIF - Hanging Out

Amendment to this POST, I realised this was actually the FIRST stick of bamboo pole I hung out of the windows!!!! :p:p

HEH. Must have looked quite retarded to the neighbours across us :)

Taken on 21 June 2008.

I decided to wash his well-salivated teddy bear O.o

The bear's obsolete now, and been replaced by a similar brown one which too, became obsolete.

O_O"

Dad says he couldnt understand why we need to buy soooo mannnny toys for our baby a dog, only to have him bite, fling and ruin them.

It is because of LOVE!

Because he is the baby of the family.

Because he is so cuddly cute, he gets toy donations ;p

A closer look..the tinier toys are hidden by the big ones above. ALL has a name! And Murphy brings you the correct one everytime you call for them! Well, most of the time anyway, if his tiny brain isnt overwhelmed by the sexcitement over his latest toy. 

Most are squeakies! Cos he has a fetish for anything squeaky.

Just yesterday morning, he heard the squeaks from a little girl's shoes and ran frantically just to find the source of the squeak! He must have thought it was a toy! I swear he was going to pounce on those shoes (and the poor girl's feet) if I hadnt pulled him back! ;p

TGIF - Lose some weight

The body is throwing out every single drip from that oil-soaked platter I had with N last night. It's working!!!! :)

A tip to losing weight which I agree with - Attend social dinners. You tend to eat less with someone you are less familiar with.

Sadly, N&I are each other's frequent food dates and we are no longer in that stage of our lives. We eat like pigs cookie monsters (I think it's a better illustration. You ever seen cookie monster down his cookies??) in front of each other most of the time! No need to be shy. Just grab that last piece of calamari on the platter!

We are atoning for our sins now. It is no easy peasy task. But at least we have each other. Company makes discipline - I always believe.  

We were window dog-shopping after dinner last night. NONE of the cutsie furballs gave me that connection I had with Murphy the first day I saw him..

This was the same pair of puppy eyes that stared at me back then...

The CUTEST cuddly furball I held against my chest was staring up at me. with. those. eyes. How to resist??!! Murphy was, and still is, the correct impulsive purchase. And now I know I am never wrong with my feelings. Gutso. Act! If you feel right about something! :D Hence comes all the impromptu-ness :D

He was waiting for me to finish my TV. Always like to stick his butt around me when I m home. You know he loves you. Makes leaving the house a difficult task for me sometimes..*sighs dreamily*

But, being a boy, he still resists HUGSSS and SMOOOCHES (which are the oooh-sooo-girlie and disgusting things that mothers do) and tries to stay out of your grasp whenever possible. Here, he found a good corner away from my grasp :) So near yet so far..

However, he is still like a baby and still yearns for some lovey-dovey attention from you every day. His designated time slots for you to swoon over him is:

1. Early in the morning when you just wake up from slumber

2. When you first step into the house (from market, from work, from anywhere, as long as you were out of the house for a decent while)

Apart from the above 2 slots, he will scramble for his dear life if he suspects any potential hugs and kisses coming his way. It's really funny to watch him scurry into the nearest tiny corners in the house! Recently, he added in an extra slot for me, no special timing though, but it's only limited to ONCE per day! Exclusive! YAY!

Over time, he also learned the tricks that we use to make him come out. Now he stays put in hiding whenever he hears the bell or his favorite squeeky toy! Sometimes, he forgets to come out of his hiding spot and falls asleep. I have to try and pull him out to put him back to his doggie bed.

The happiness of being a mummy.. :)

Skipping a social dinner with N's colleagues tonight and going home to my baby! :)

TGIF! Im spending it at home! :D

TGIF - Babiess!

The momsie and the dadsie been back for almost 2 weeks now! ALL is well! I dont go to work with that nagging feeling of leaving Murphy alone at home..

This brat has been spoilt by all of us...most adult dogs only take ONE meal a day. Puppies TWO meals (max). But given his greedy nature, and with my mom at home most of the time, he makes use of his cutsie puppy tactics that no one can resist and earn himself a fruit/vege lunch every day. :D

He would follow my mom up and down the house whenever she is about to make lunch. If the kitchen door is closed, he would sit patiently outside to wait. Sometimes, my mom slides the door open a little for him and he would poke his tiny face near the gap to sniff the air and watch her cook. ^_^

So mom would coooooo and baby talk him, and then proceed to make mummum for him despite my initial protest against feeding him lunch o_O i also caved in eventually la...So there! we have a spoilt little brat to feed at home!

For a 2+ year dog, Murphy sure has the stomach of a puppy. He would puke when we feed him 1/2 hour late from his normal meal times. I have cleaned up his greenish bile pukes at least 10 times! Sometimes, from that tiny lapse (of about 5 min) from my decision to put on my makeup first or even getting the hair washed first, I would walk out to find him lying flat among his surrounding puke.

So I serve him FIRST before self every morning.... z.z

Thus when the parents decided to leave town for 12 days, I almost freaked out!!! :(

The youngest sis was having attachment in Jurong Island. The younger sis was doing some parttime work at the airport (shift work). And I was based in the far west that 2 weeks. The bad PIE/CTE jams were a major hindrance preventing us from getting home on time.

So the idea of having an automatic pet feeder suddenly popped up in mind.

BUT I tell u, Singapore has the worst collection of pet feeders! And the lousiest pet welfare society ever!

Not only was a pet feeder extremely difficult to find, I scouted from the big brand centre to the WHOLE farmway stretch (BOTH 1 and 2) and I only found TWO kinds of pet feeder on the market, the available feeder brought in by the suppliers were mechanically disappointing.

Let's look at one below:

The Automatic 4 Feeds

Cost around S$80.

This feeder operates by a non-digital timer. You set an interval of 8, 12 or 24 hours and a mechanism in the feeder will be triggered to rotate the cover till it exposes a section with food. I eyed the box suspiciously. That means if I want to feed Murphy at 7pm, I had to set it at either 7am, 11am or 7pm the night before?!

The food portion also looked tooooo tiny for my growing boy's HUGEASS appetite!

To further market his (one of the two) triumphant product, the sales person went on to elaborate how after a certain time lapse, the cover will rotate again to automatically close up the exposed portion (so the dog wouldnt linger around it or so it wouldnt attract flies).

I was shocked beyond disbelief! What an unintelligent invention!! What if my Murphy was feeding halfway and the time's up, the cover rotates and KIAP his nose????!!!!!

WTF?!

My other alternative was a product that cost slightly more, around S$130. There is no picture from the net cos the huge brand centre's website is down at the moment. But this one's better. It operates on a digital timer, meaning u can set the feed time like an alarm clock at any time of the day and not restricted to the 8/12/24 hour interval O_o" YAY!

The feeding style was better cos the drum holding the food up will rotate and the food dispenses downwards into a detachable tray. So I dont risk KIAPPING my Murphy's tiny nose. YAY YAY!

There was even a voice recorder for me to record a few seconds of words to attract Murphy's attention to the food tray! YAY YAY YAY!

Even though the make of the whole thing was very koyak (flimsy, lousy), I was all ready to buy this mini investment for my most beloved in the name of feeding him ON TIME!

But then, I was still very disturbed by the make....seriously... even though I knew it was my ONLY option. Because the whole damn thing looked like the kind of prototype that school children would make for their science project. If you are thinking a Philip electronic blender, please discount your visualisations by 100 times! It IS THAT SUCKY. 

So I had a deciding question. If this was an electronic product, there would at least be a warranty on the motor right?! There WASN'T!! The best he could manage was a feeble answer of how he would do his best to talk to the supplier if I return with a flaw within 7 days!!! Ok! I absolutely hate sales talks like these! Could absolutely tell how UN-genuine it sounded lor! Bet another S$130 bucks he wouldnt even bother about my broken down feeder if I return lor!

So in the end, I DID not buy.

And I also couldnt ship one in from Amazon.com in time.

When I went to the Farmway for intense shopping over the weekend, I was lucky enough to meet a kind girl who spoke to me for 15 mins. She owns/works in a pet shop but has never seen anyone using a pet feeder. The ONLY one she has ever seen is a DIY using the old school video recorder!!!

My hopes fell 11 stories down to the floor. I thanked her profusely and told her I was no engineer. :( The only decent scientific invention I ever made was a shabbily made light bulb game in secondary school. And it was made by twisting some metal wires in a roller coaster way with one end soldered/wired scotchtaped to a battery that was hidden inside a masking-taped styrofoam box. A metallic hoop was made for running through the roller coaster wire. This hoop was soldered/wired scotchtaped to the other end of the battery. So the aim was to run the hoop through the end without touching the roller coaster (and thus creating a closed circuit) and lighting up the lightbulb.

...

I guess that's predominantly why I didnt go into an engineering school ;p

BUT! Triumphant is I! We survived the TWELVE days without the parents!!! :D Managed to feed Murphy on time everyday! :D

So now that they are back, we are starting to get a life after work!!! :) YIPPEEE YAY!!! I got a date tonight to meet V and her chubbily CUTE baby!!! The last time I saw her baby was...when she was still inside the mother's womb! :D Blame it all on laziness, fateless, school, work, commitments....

BUT how do I resist making an attempt to meet a baby who looks like this:

Super CUTE to the max right?!

How to resist meeting the most adorable baby whose mother dress up in the MOST RIDICULOUS way:

Or how to resist meeting a baby whose idea of SMILE is this:

Smile Hazel!

SMILE!!!

SIBEI cute lor!!! SIBEI is a hokkien word to show the intensity of the adjective after it. On a scale of 1 to 10, SIBEI is on the highest end after very, super, super duper, extremely etc...

BUT! I realised that I am actually carrying a bit of flu germs on me :( I mean, I do sneeze and blow my nose on a day to day basis due to my rhinitis. So most people wouldnt be able to tell if I am actually sick. The signs are almost the same. But this time round, I really AM down with flu. So although I feel perfectly 'normal' blowing my nose half the time...I suddenly realised that I am actually SICK and shouldnt attempt to pass my germs to the baby..

:(:(:(

So hazel, yiyi will visit you another day ok?! Maybe by then, you are not a baby anymore! :(

Somehow to cheer me up...I still have my beloved Murphy to kiss, hug and cuddle when I get home tonight :D

So happy is I again!

Tonight can go pak tor cos daddy can help me feed Murphy!!!

TGIF!!!

TGIF - Left my heart at home...

This happy little baby is not so happy this afternoon...

Because there's no one to feed him light lunch and treats this midday.

Guess he miss my mummy much as I do when I did the full load of laundry last night o_O

I totally forgot about the laundry till late and was hence even later for my kopi session with some good mates :)

I am glad I made it in the end. Almost had to pry myself away from the sofa to get the butt out of the house

z_z

How did I ever think of missing a good catchup (and some slight bitching) with some good mates??!!

It's TGIF!! And we have a DATE NIGHT tonight! Role swop. I am going to FETCH MY BOY!! o_O

Merry Making May (TGIF)

Crystal Jade's Kitchen! Before the man left HOT Singaporeland to another HOTTERland :) We compared our pictures with the point and shoot and the DSLR... ;p Fried toufu with salt and pepper is major loves **v**

The barren blinged fingernails, before and after :) Coincidentally, the Iphone casing gift from YS flown in from down under matches the tones of the nails! I likey! :)

A photo moment with the baby. Still remarkably cute in his teenage years now :) They say a dog year is = 7 human years. That makes him 14 year old secondary two teenager :) Still the baby of the house! And a major kissable furball!

Goodbye for now till Sunday morning, thereafter is my turn to take a lil trip till next Saturday. Touching down on the same day as the Japs besties. We will go back to merry making old times beering and eating all local foods, and have a photoshoot if possible :)

THUS marks the end of May and welcome the month of June :)

May is simply too perfect!

Cha Cha Cha for Dang Dang Dang Dang

It's been 15 months since the last full force. Not quite yet this time round though. Still short of the other Ms Lee who aptly forgot she was flying to Phuket last night o_O

Been sucha long break we couldnt really recall when was the actual LAST one. There was a TCC/clarke quay/waruku/pan pac/office bar memory but WHICH was the last?? we stopped trying to prove how old we are getting :)

The baby's a good gauge. Cos we have no impression of her growing up months. So yeah. 15 months that is. And we concluded there :)

The almost full honeybunch of peepos who roughed out those years with me :) These.BEAUTIFUL.people. They got even more beautiful after leaving the sacred stepping stone :) And life's treating them well! How's life been treating you so far??

We thought they were a good match then :) height, looks, personality et all. But they all found true love! :) Congrats on getting hitched babe! :) Oh yeah, those hoegardens were going for 1-for-1!!!! Quick go HAPPY HOUR! (after 9pm even!!)

the babe and I, after a nan kan pic earlier. Chris: " Shwu!! y u laugh until so nan kan??!!!" o_O

She joined for bites and drinks after her long day at work :)

The early birds. That's how well our current rice bowl treats us :)

Mexican food for the night. All dishes taste about the same.. we stopped eating after a while, cos dou mei she me how chi de!!" heehee

Joke of the night: Why are people getting hitched on 101010???

Answer: Because dang dang dang dang (wedding music) :p

Have a great weekend peeps! N&I are going for some taitaihood training laters! whahahaa!

Starglazed <^>^<^>

Boring black office attire? (pardon the dirty mirror! I suspect Murphy licked it! Got it cleaned thereafter..)


Spruce it up with a starglazed drape! :):):) Got it with Dia's nod of approval.. :)


It's warm and fuzzy and good for substituting some furball hugs in the cold :):) Not for the sunny singapore now though. So I thought I might bring it to Palaceland for its virgin use! :) Gona spruce up those photos! heh! Besides, it also hides those fatass hips soo WELL! :) *loves*

And now, counting down to the end of the day where I ll be meeting some of my favoritest people for wine and dine :) cant hang out too late tho... cos I think daddy C gotta go home to look after baby V! haha! Of course I also wana go home hug my baby M before the busy weekend comes and engulfs my life away!! :) :) Mahjong! BBQ! Lady gaga! Facial! Packing! Dog farm daddy N?

Countdown to post work!

Countdown 5 Days!!

TGIF!

Happy Dog V and TGIF!!!

Friday casuals :) Navy rossette pumps from FES! :)

Some travel lusts for May... Notre Dame!! I thought the name only exists in Europe?! :D

Some palace lusts for April :) *princessy thoughts make one jubilant*

It'll clash with my work schedule tho....:( so hopefully we can work something out...

AND see what caught Murphy's attention?!

A NOUGAT!
You see how the 2 shots look the same? Cos with triumph card in my hand, he didnt move AT ALL!

Baby boy lying on my lap for a good ear cleanse :) He gets a treat for behaving like that ok?! Dogs are after all, still dogs. No matter how humanise you have made them out to be... You still have to reward them for being good :)
We spent about half an hour at niu niu's house last night. The 2 are very good play mates (although the only thing they do is just to chase each other around the butt to smell each other) :D And Murphy got alooooot of treats from them. So obviously he didnt want to leave and I had to drag him home. He had 2 chunks of salmon from the mummy, some guava juice from the bottle cap tt the dady was drinking from AND apple slices from the grandmother.. o_O on top of the bitterguord that he snitched off me when I had my dinner...

And yeah. Cos I was late this morning, he din get his bone treat from the random aunty from around the neighbourhood :(

Anyways, here's a Friday casual! :)

Kimono flutter wing top! *loves* NOT new. It's actually my youngest sister's.. :)

A thin ribbon at the back :)

And did I tell you i LOVE my nails?! :) *purple-opolis* looks soooo good with black clothes!