Three days it is, before I start checking the Married box on forms instead of the one that says Single.
People keep asking me if I'm excited. Not really; I'm very calm. After that turning point when we sign the official documents, we're still going to be the same two people who're as committed to each other as before. We don't need a silly legal status to make it real or official. In fact, our getting married has nothing much to do with casting our commitment in stone, but it has everything to do with getting our flat, haha...
Marriage.. is just a tradition that has lived on and on, like Christmas. It's become so commercial, from the diamond ring to the white gown.. and it's not even sacred anymore. People get divorced all the time now - and I'd say that there are probably pretty good reasons to get divorced, such as if your partner became an abusive f***tard. So, what's the point of getting married? If you're going to be with each other through thick and thin anyway, you don't need a marriage certificate. If you're going to be unfaithful anyway, you sure as hell don't need a marriage certificate.
I'm doing all the commercial stuff because I love pretty flowers, romantic songs, and the whole shebang ;) But when it comes right down to the vows, it doesn't matter what I say during that moment. It's just nice sounding empty talk that can be forgotten in a few days, months or years. The important thing is whether or not we are going to be good to each other, to be loving and faithful to each other.
I'm holding my love, faith, and commitment in my heart, and had long ago decided to give it to him and only him, marriage or no marriage (unless he becomes an abusive f***tard of course, which touch wood choy choy choy will never happen lol). The solemnisation is just a party where we get to dress up and be merry. That's why I'm not like super excited about it, or feel like it will be forever life changing.
I'll simply get to be prettier, with flowers in my hair and all *winkz*
P/S: I'm also going vegetarian on that day! Yay me.
My parents are home! After four days in Malaysia :)
They left me with a list of instructions, Post-it notes stuck everywhere, and asked polarbear to come over to help me, coz they knew that I wouldn't have been able to manage on my own :P
Day One ~ Monday
polarbear passed his advanced theory of driving test, yippee! Went to Pepper Lunch to celebrate, because it was the only nice place in IMM where we could have a decent amount of veggies. Do you realise that when you eat out, a lot of the places serve mainly carbo and meat, and very little greens?
Went home. Mummy had come up with a detailed drawing of her usual cat feeding route. We took it downstairs along with three red cans of wet food and one big CNY container of dry food. Red cans are seafood and green cans are mackerel. We were supposed to bring 3 reds and 1 green, but mummy had already fed some of the cats so we didn't need to.
It was a successful feeding trip, except that I spilled half the dry food onto a grass mound >< We managed to salvage some kibbles but the rest were too deep in the grass/soil to retrieve.
Met a new cat who I called BellBell, someone's cat that had a collar with a very loud bell. I felt sorry for him. I read in a book before, that putting loud bells on cats can traumatise them, because they hear the ringing all the time, and they also can't stalk or anything like that because of the sound.
We decided to sleep with the air-con on for once. Air was too dry.
Day Two ~ Tuesday
Couldn't decide what to eat for dinner. Finally decided on the yong tau foo in the IMM Kopitiam, because we could get lots of veggies. Ate a mostly vegetarian meal, the only meat was from the one meatball stuffed with mushrooms, which was nice. Also, no tofu, because tofu makes me nauseous. Happy because I'm trying to eat as little meat as I can nowadays.
I thought my yong tau foo with kuay tiao soup was delicious. Told polarbear that I was going to eat this every day from now on. Received a skeptical grin in return.
Forgot to mention that I needed to give my tortoise fresh veggies every morning, which I did; and feed the fish one spoon of food three times a night. On Day One, I fed the fish three spoons of food one time a night. Oops.
My two cats at home didn't need anything as they had enough dry food and water. They don't like wet food, which is strange as the cats downstairs always prefer wet food.
After bathing, we dyed polarbear's hair. Gatsby Mocha Brown, after years and years of black hair :)
Had a bright idea to take a large, shallow baking tray and fill it with water so that the air wouldn't be so dry. I did exactly that, and we were about to fall asleep when we heard some lapping noises. One of my cats was drinking from it -_-'' We heard the lapping sounds many times throughout the night.
Day Three ~ Wednesday
Air was better, though still too dry for comfort. Spilled quite a lot of water on the parquet floor while cleaning up the baking tray >< So much for my bright idea.
Ate yong tau foo at the IMM Kopitiam again. It didn't taste as good as before, maybe coz I was slightly sick of eating the same thing two days in a row.
We saw Sassel, this pedigree cat with a fluffy tail who's usually very handsome. He now had dirty, matted fur and an injured right front paw. Probably from fighting. Fed him and he ate gingerly.
Feeding cats is nice. The night breeze is cool, and walking relaxes me and makes me feel more energetic. The cats are so wonderful. I've known some of them since I moved in 12 years ago. They all have different personalities.
Decided that we would never get used to sleeping in an air-con room, unlike my parents, and had a nice sleep after playing Scribblenauts for a while on my DS.
Day Four ~ Thursday
As usual, couldn't decide what to have for dinner. Made a last minute impulse decision to get nasi padang. The taugay didn't smell too good, but the rest of it was fine. The chilli kept our tummies comfortably warm :)
Happened to chance upon the owners of this husky who gets excited every time he sees a cat. He usually gets walked by the maid. The cats are terrified of him; we saw Seahorse running away from him today. I followed the commotion to find the husky barking up the stairs, with the guy barely able to hold on to him. I asked the girl if the cat ran upstairs, she said yes, sorry. I was quite paiseh after she said sorry, can't remember if I said thanks or sorry to her too.
Met another nice dog owner. There was also this grandma we met on one of the previous days. We were feeding Silliu and she came up and told us xie xie ni, and did this really low bow. She did it at least twice, and I was again so paiseh that I didn't know how to respond.
Today, I couldn't take it anymore and removed the bell from BellBell's collar. He is now a normal cat, who can stalk and run without sounding like an ice-cream truck.
Went home to find the gate unlocked, and my parents back :) Mummy thanked polarbear and gave him some goodies from Malaysia to bring home. I told her all my findings, like Twistiu is now so skinny and hides in an air-con compartment all the time because she's terrified of Wolfie. Mummy said that it's coz Wolfie bullies Twistiu like nobody's business :( We traded cat stories for a bit.
~
Daddy asked if I was okay and if I was tired. I told him I'm fine. His face is sunburned! They both got themselves Genting membership cards, and want to go back there in November, lol.
polarbear is so nice and sweet to accompany and help me these few days. Thank you, polarbear :)
Reader's Digest has this special on jokes. This is from their website:
In January, we set out to find the funniest joke in the world by asking our readers to send in their American favorites. Our judges, led by comedy legend Sid Caesar, trimmed the thousands of gags you sent in to ten. Then readers voted for the best. Meanwhile, Reader's Digest editions from around the globe did the same. Some of their jokes will make you guffaw, some will leave you confounded (that's the culture divide for you), and others will look familiar (that's the Internet for you). Now it's up to you. Read the jokes and then vote for your favorite.
I voted for the one from Switzerland, it was the only one that made me LoL, haha..
Wife: Honey, did you notice? I bought a new toilet brush.
Husband: Yes, I did. But I still prefer the paper.
Vote for your favourite joke here ;) What's your favourite?
So I've been ordered by a GP and an ophthalmologist to stay off contact lenses temporarily. Apparently, my eyes are inflamed due to some allergic reaction. This whole sensitivity issue actually started during the recent hectic period at work, which prompted me to wear my glasses to work every day and also seriously ponder doing LASIK.
It's quite a long story actually, one that I've thought of telling many times, but I simply haven't had the mood to do a proper entry about it. To summarize, I signed up with two different clinics for two different procedures - LASIK and Epi-LASIK, and ended up cancelling both appointments. I spent long hours researching laser eye surgery on the Net (which probably contributed to the eye inflammation, meh), and decided that it was not for me. Honestly, I was sorely disappointed with my decision since I'd been really looking forward to saying bye bye to spectacles, but I think that it's a good, solid decision that I made, considering everything ~ not just the good or the bad.
I've come to the conclusion that you should not trust wholesale the words of the doctor who's invested in laser eye surgery. If you're considering LASIK / Epi-LASIK / PRK or any similar surgeries, please do your research first. Know what you're going into, what you can realistically expect, etc. To set the record straight, I am not anti-laser eye surgery. I personally know five people who've done LASIK, and none of them have debilitating side-effects. I've heard grumbles about night vision problems like halos, but like I said, nothing debilitating.
I went to a LASIK talk held by one of the popular local clinics. The doctor who gave the talk was very polished and well-spoken, well, maybe a bit too polished. You could tell that it was a very rehearsed speech, with the "Oh! And.." portions practised to perfection and unnaturalness ;) Anyhow, that's beside the point. It was a good talk, but one thing left me with a gnawing, uneasy feeling...
When LASIK first came out, all procedures were done using the microkeratome (blade). There was a lot of marketing then that the procedure was very safe, with few side-effects and a low complication rate. The talk by this clinic promoted IntraLase (bladeless / all-laser) LASIK, and the doctor kept talking about the pros of IntraLase compared to the traditional blade LASIK. I was sitting there and thinking.. they used to tell us that blade LASIK was so great, now they tell us that actually it's not that safe or foolproof and IntraLase is so superior. What are they not telling me about IntraLase?
So that's when I started scouring the Net for articles, medical journals, personal experiences, anything I could find. And I realised that they really don't tell you a lot of stuff.
I need to rest my eyes now. Basically the point that I want to get across is ~ there have been lots of successful laser eye surgery cases, but for your own sake, please do your research before committing to it. It's an elective, non-reversible surgery, and you owe it to yourself to be well-informed.
From FRONTLINE/World:
For the past seven years, Bart Weetjens has been running a unique lab in Tanzania, where he trains rats to sniff out deadly unexploded land mines -- the legacy of countless bloody conflicts. Although dogs have traditionally been used to help humans detect mines, Weetjens realized that rats are lighter, cheaper to maintain and less susceptible to tropical disease. "I've always felt a very strong bonding with rodents," he says. In Hero Rats, FRONTLINE/World reporter Alexis Bloom accompanies Weetjens to work in Mozambique to watch his trained rodents in action. She also visits a school there that was cleared of land mines with the help of the rats, allowing the children to resume their education and play without fear of stepping on a mine. "They save human lives," Weetjens says of the rats, "and, yes, they are heroes, actually."
From the HeroRAT.org F.A.Q.s:
Are rats likely to get killed in the detection process?
The rats are trained to detect and pinpoint the location of the landmine. Their small weight makes it highly unlikely they would set of a pressure-activated mine by scratching or pointing. It is a misunderstanding that the rats are trained as Kamikaze to destroy the mines in the field. Trained animals are far too precious to loose to landmines.
On the contrary, the rats used by APOPO are treated with great care and attention, in order to optimize their physical and mental condition.
Do they need a lot of care and attention?
Captive born rats like to be petted a lot. They enjoy a daily walk, like dogs do. APOPO has several outside pens where the rats can play and get used to an outside environment. Other rats walk around freely in the kennel during clean up of their cages; they don’t attempt to escape, they just enjoy wandering around and exploring new environments.
From the FRONTLINE/World interview with Bart Weetjens:
Q: Couldn't that be a problem, though? They could just scratch randomly to get the food reward instead of indicating the presence of explosives.
A: They don't, though. Animals are far more honest than humans. These rats, they're just ... they're nice creatures. There's a lot of misperception about rats. And that originates from the Middle Ages, when rats were accused of transmitting plague -- which is, by the way, not true. It was the fleas on the rats that transmitted the plague, not the rats. The rats were just victims. Of course, they do destroy crops and do transmit diseases. But if you treat them well and give them the proper housing and the proper care, they are actually very organized, neat animals. They're very kind also, and they have very complex social structures.
Click here to watch the FRONTLINE/World video about the little hero rats :) They don't just sniff for explosives, but for tuberculosis too (they're not susceptible to TB).
A lab technician can only test around 20 samples a day; one rat can test up to 2000.
How's that for rat pwnage?
It's time to show these little guys some love and respect!
To find out more or help the HeroRAT project, visit APOPO and HeroRAT.org.
We are currently in a solemnisation prep flurry. Even though it's more than four months to the date, we're starting early because we have completely no idea what/where/who/how/what time. It's very easy to get overwhelmed by all these things, and lose perspective of what's really important.
I met polarbear for lunch today, and we were walking to Subway when we saw a little dog. Short yellow-brown fur, soft brown eyes, complete skin and bones. He was scavenging for food on a grassy mound overlaid with concrete. You know the type which is punched with holes, where the grass emerges in little puffs. There was probably no food to be found there, but he was trying anyway.
Cheers didn't have any dog food, so we bought some pork from the mixed rice stall (the fish had small bones, and the chicken was black pepper :P) and went to look for him. He was thankfully still around, but quite high up on the hill, and he ran away when polarbear went near. In the end, we set the food in a corner.. hopefully his nose has led him to it by now. We'll know if it's eaten when we go over later to clear up any leftovers.
A full stomach doesn't stay full for very long though.
Princess dresses, pretty hair and make up, beautifully decorated venues. They all seem so inconsequential next to the little dog with the soft brown eyes, rib cage showing through yellow-brown fur.
yt was lamenting at lunchtime on Friday that he wasn't getting any younger. The years had just passed by, and what had he accomplished? He's 33 this year, and he decided that from now on, he's going to do something meaningful with his life. Maybe one small meaningful thing each day, and a big meaningful thing each month.
His wise words faded off and were carried away by the warm afternoon breeze, leaving behind a certain wistfulness in the air as p and I contemplated our own lives. We weren't getting any younger ourselves - both of us would be hitting the big 3-0 soon enough.
me: So what meaningful things are are you intending to do?
yt: Play more games.
... diaoz ...
Lol!
~
Seriously speaking, time really flies. I took an afternoon nap today and dreamt that I was in my old room in Tampines, going through the familiar pink & white striped drawers, which in my dream were filled with my old photos. The times when I was fat, the times when I was skinny, the times spent with friends who I couldn't even remember anymore..
I was watching some video a few days back, and a memory suddenly struck me. Back in my teenage years, I liked this boy. I knew he liked me too because in his wallet, I'd chanced upon a bus ticket folded up into a heart, with my name written on it. Silly kiddy stuff :D We had a lot of happy and fun dates, and I just knew he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend. Then, the O-Level results got released. I had a single digit score, and his was in the twenties. After that phone call where we exchanged the news of our results, he started ignoring me. I'd never judged him negatively because of his results, and I still don't understand why he'd think it was a deal breaker. Ego, maybe?
Anyway, after recalling all that jazz, I realised that it happened slightly over 10 years ago. That long! A whole decade had passed without me realising it, and like yt said, all that time is going to pass by again really really fast.
~
I haven't been blogging because since late March, I've been doing something I've wanted to do for a long time :) I don't want to talk about it yet because I'm afraid that if I start yabbering about it, I may just lose enthusiasm.. and I really want to be good at it. It's nothing that would give me much practical value, but I want to do it anyway ^_^
One more thing I wanna do: speak less Singlish!
My big thing for this month will be with polarbear, to decide on what we want to do for our wedding. At the moment, I have totally no idea. Actually, the wedding doesn't mean much because it's just a party. What really matters is that after all those years of lousy BGRs, I've found a relationship which is so wonderful. I don't need to doll up and dress myself in fancy clothes to celebrate it, because every day is a celebration. I feel truly blessed.
