Cleopatra

(written from the perspective of a fictional six year old)

I have a cat. Her name is Cleo.

I don't know where she come from. One day, Shawn gor gor bring back this white cat. He call this cat Cleopatra because he says she acts like a queen. Daddy said Cleo cannot come into the house because she is not our cat. But Cleo love our house very much. She likes to come and sleep and lie down on the floor. I like to rub her stomach and Cleo love it too! She will turn here turn there and rub her face on my leg.

Cleo is special. She cannot meow meow much like other cats. She will only meow a lot when we want to give her food. We will usually give her the food we do not eat, like chicken skin and extra rice. Sometimes I only eat little bit so that Cleo will have rice to eat.

Many many months ago, Cleo's stomach start to become bigger. Shawn gor gor says it is because she is pregnant and will have babies! We are so happy to see when Cleo make 2 baby cats. The baby cat is very cute and I hold them in my hands. But we cannot keep them inside so I don't know where Cleo take them.

A few weeks later we see a baby cat following Cleo. I only see 1 baby cat. This baby cat is very shy! I try to touch her but she always run away and hide behind Cleo. At first she only drink milk from Cleo but after a few months she eat together with her mummy. She keep growing bigger and bigger and one day she is not shy with us anymore.

Cleo (white) with her main offspring

Then a few months ago, Cleo's tummy start becoming bigger again. I can see gor gor and daddy are not happy with this. Daddy also stop feeding them because he said they are not our cats. But the cats still come to our house when there is no food. Last Saturday, Cleo give us 3 more baby cats again. Gor gor and daddy decide to phone SPCA to take them away. I was sad because I don't know what will happen to them.

SPCA come in big metal lorry. The uncle ask me to bring the cat to the lorry. Daddy carry Cleo and I carry the 3 baby cats. We put them in a metal box. Cleo was relaxed and didn't fight back. Maybe that is why Shawn think she is a queen and call her Cleopatra. I also catch the other baby cat (now quite a big cat) and put her in another cage. But this cat very angry and try to run away. Lucky the uncle is fast enough to close the door.

Daddy gave some money as donation to SPCA, then the lorry go away.

I wonder how is Cleo doing. =(

When you need to rest, just lay your head down

Birthday Roundup

I did not get as many presents this year compared to 2007, but it was certainly more memorable. A quick roundup:

Last Thursday I celebrated my birthday with other December-born colleagues at El Mondo Italian restaurant, Krystal Point. A noisy affair, but the service was slow and food was very average. Well, at least I got a free scoop of ice-cream from the restaurant, so thanks!

The next day (Friday) we had our annual office Xmas gift exchange. I received two plush pillows featuring Ratatouille on the cover. They're now in my back seat!

That very same evening I received a pleasant surprise from my Cardio Fit members after class. They 'secretly' planned a cake and mini celebration and it was mighty fun! Though only about 20 people turned up, it was really touching. Equally touching is the generous ang pow they threw in. How did they know I prefer cash over some awkward gift I'll never use?

Last Saturday I had a set lunch with Dad at Bistro Hardwicke. Food quality and taste is great, and the cozy atmosphere is suitable for couples and parties. But the uncomfortable silences and forced conversation kinda dulled the experience... Not to mention having to teach BodyJam after that made it a very difficult class to finish. I also received a red packet from Dad in lieu of a real present. I let him off easy because he's paying for a Thailand trip we're taking in January!

On Sunday night I had dinner with a few close friends at TGIF. For the fourth time in a few days, I had rich cakes for dessert! But that was easily offset by the interesting way the wait staff at TGIF conduct birthdays. I had to sing a song, give a speech, and endure weird stares... all while standing on a chair! Totally fun and cheeky! (However, the uniqueness of the TGIF treatment was nullified when I heard them doing the exact same thing at two other tables.)

Ironically, I hadn't planned any celebrations on my actual birthday. But that night as I was grocery shopping (what an apt thing to do on birthdays!) I got a call from Pauline. She was planning a birthday bash for YP, another gym member. I was surprised when I found out that YP shares my birthday! And not only YP, but Rachel, another Jam instructor. In my 23 years of existence this is the first time I personally know other people who was born on 22nd December.

So I revealed that it was my birthday too, and she asked me out to Coffee Bean for a drink. I went over and was joined by Chris (the male) and Chris (the female). Chris (the female) took plenty of pictures and we had a hilarious chat about -censored- (what happens in Coffee Bean stays in Coffee Bean). We stayed till about 11.45pm even though the next day was a working day! So it was totally memorable :)

(I will upload photos once I get them from Chris, the female)

And then today after lunch I got another slice of cheesecake (I'm assuming Lemon Cheesecake, coz I haven't tasted it) from the colleague who sits next to me. She has started her leave today, so I was even more surprised to see a gift from her. Thanks HY!

Later tonight I'll be having dinner with Mum, so I expect another present. Who knows what other surprises await me? It's never too late to repack a useless gift and send it my way k? *hint* *hint*

The Great Penang Flood

Instead of any Great Merdeka Sale, we're celebrating a damn big island-wide flood instead:



This is the scene that would welcome me if I stepped out of the house now - almost 2 feet of brown, murky water floating with wooden debris. How do I know? Coz I waded through 2 feet or brown, murky water while returning home. But that's not the best part! The real kick in the balls is that my car died 500 meters away!

I'm surprisingly upbeat about this, I know. But we always see pictures of poor people's car half-submerged in floods and we go, "Ouch!" Now I know how that feels. Yes, it sucked but the adrenaline rush kinda toned down the suckiness factor.

To the car's credit, Dad and I both think it cut itself off before permanent damage was done. We didn't suspect it would be so deep in that area where we passed (a shortcut we usually took) but we just kept going down and down until a big red STOP appeared on the information panel and the car rolled into a frightening halt in the middle of the lonely road.

Dad didn't dare restart the car and we sat for a minute processing the situation. I was very clear on what we had to do - we had to push the car to higher ground and hope for the best.

I rolled up my jeans (it got wet anyway) and stepped out onto the brown, murky water I'd get so accustomed to. The water didn't get into the exhaust, so there must be a sensor in the engine to cut the vital parts off. From there, we pushed the car about 50 meters (it was a long 50 meters, trust me). Talk about a late night workout!

We put the car under a lone street lamp, locked the car, and walked home in the rain. Now all we can do is hope that the car killed the engine, and not the water. Tomorrow morning we will go check on the car again and hope for the best. There are only 2 ways this could go - we drive it home or we call a tow truck. Hmmm....

Counting My Prezzies

Meant to do this last week, but at least I get to it before the end of the year! This year's birthday has been a blast! I got the most presents ever! Here's a quick run-through. I'm including some Xmas presents just to make the list longer :P

Have a Happy New Year, guys...!

A nice mug from my office Xmas gift exchange party. Well, at least it was better than last year's pure decorative item.

A pure decorative item. But at least it's hand-made!!

A present for me, from... me! It's a little reward for myself - a facial care set from Origins.

My favourite Xmas present! It includes an Aussiebum brief, a "Snap Me" button tag from NewUrbanMale, and two bandannas.

A simple birthday gift from a colleague. She got this last minute so I appreciated the gesture all the more so! But the packaging is deceiving: it's padded at the sides with cardboard!

Birthday gift from a group of friends: A Parker pen with 2 year warranty! I've never heard of pens that come with warranties...

Another Xmas gift exchange. If I went for one more gift exchange party I'd explode with mugs!

Other birthday gifts that I did not photograph include:

• Free lunch with colleagues
• Red Box celebration dinner
• A health drink package that I wanted
• Dinner with Dad, and a traditional ang pow thrown in
• Dinner with Mum, and a Philips electric shaver! (my very first)

The downside is, I gained 1kg from all the celebratory food! I spent the entire year maintaining my weight and all it took was 1 week of unbridled eating to make me "festively plump". Sigh...

I Found My Priceless Moment

I finally found my Priceless moment:
(Warning: Major camwhoring)






For dinner we went to this mamak place Murni SS2. Some pretty interesting combination of dishes. But the Roti Bacon I ordered is overrated. Gary joined us there but I forgot to take another group picture. Also missing from the photos is Jay, who joined us for lunch at Itallianes and then took off.

The day went almost as planned, except I forgot to factor in travelling time. I'm too used to Penang, where going anywhere takes 15-20 minutes max. But it took us almost 45 minutes to get from Pudu to 1U. Lesson learned.

P.S. I tagged this under "Family", cause that's what they are to me. :)

070707 - Part 1

Saturday was a pretty eventful day for me, and I'm going to break it up into 3 posts. I need stuff to fill up for 3 days, and you wouldn't wanna read such a long post anyway.

On Friday night, Mum called me to mention that she's going down to Kulim
tomorrow to commemorate the 1 year anniversary of my great-grandmother's passing. I never wrote about it, but she died soon after my Mum's visit last year (which I wrote about in an oh-so-emo post). I agreed to go along with the condition that I needed to be back home by 4pm (find out why in Part 2!). The last time I visited my maternal side was during Chinese New Year, and hey, I can't let them think I only visit them for the red packets can I?

So we headed out at 8.30am, and the heavy rain slowed our journey as we zig-zagged through surprisingly heavy traffic for a Saturday morning. She had to run some errands first, so by the time we reached the columborium at 10am I was hobbling out of the car.

A priest was hired and while we were sitting down waiting for him to finish his chant, guess what I saw my cousin holding?

Don't be fooled! Look closer, it even has a colour screen! It's actually a Motorola phone modified into a (very, very) retro housing. It's not just an empty shell because the battery is as big as a brick. Extremely nostalgic of the good old days. Nevermind that I never had such a phone before.

I took the opportunity to take some snapshots of Mum, and here's one of the two of us:

I told her, "This angle makes your head look so small compared to mine!". And she said, "That's the point!" -_-"

I also did not miss the chance to take loads of photos of Ivan, my cute great-cousin (twice removed or something). He doesn't know me very well, but I think he has potential to be a camwhore in the future...

And how could a post about family gatherings not be complete with pictures of food? We were already halfway through before I remembered to take a snap:

To most of you that is food, but to me it's 3.5 hours of cardio. Sad.... :'(

The ride home was uncomfortable as Mum's car air-cond broke down. That retro feeling came up again as we drove through highways with the dry wind lashing across my fragile face. We were all exhausted by the time we reached Penang, but luckily I got home before 4pm coz it gave me plenty of time to rest and prepare for my aerobics class at a children's camp at 5pm.

Yup! Tomorrow you will finally be able to watch some clips of me in "Instructor" Mode! Don't bother searching YouTube now, I'm keeping it secret till tomorrow :P