our Tubby boy

Let me introduce to you a new addition in our family since last Saturday night - our lil Tubby boy!

Tubby, a 3-month old American Shorthair, is a gift from my beloved honey... hee! From some of my friends' reaction, I think they are wondering why we spent so much on a kitten while we can always pick 1 on the street. Honestly before Sat night, it didn't occur to me too that we'd pay so much for a cat... never thought we'd get a pedigree kitty. So I can totally understand what my friends are thinking. But hey he's a good breed leh...

Not many pet shops sell cats. Was at another shop prior to our purchase & we saw some of the same breed but bigger. Very very cute! However their prices were even much more than what we paid.

When we 1st saw him in the pet shop, we're totally charmed by him. He's so playful, running around in the cage & the next second, pounced on 1 of his fellow kitties, an all-white Ragdoll, & started to help it lick its fur. He's very helpful ya? However when the salesgirl passed lil Tubby to me, he got real frightened & kept shivering.

The night we reached home, he's still seemed very stressed out & scared. He almost meowed for the whole night. Early next morning, we're awaken by his yelling & thus let him out for a while. He's so curious about everything in the house, happily exploring, running... no, not running but dashing in & out between the kitchen & living room, jam-braking when we got in his way, definitely having lotsa fun! But he'd a funny nasal sound which made us worried & were told by the vet that he's having a flu. Poor boy... maybe because we placed his cage in the backyard just below a window & there's no glass panel to the window... just the grill. Moreover our place can be very windy at night. According to the vet, he's so used to indoor environment & also due to stress. But later we observed... his persistant meowing was not so much about stress but more like he wanted to come out & play. He climbed up & down the cage, stretching out his limbs in-between the grills as if calling for help... trying to squeeze his cute face out of the cage.... But cannot... vet said strictly no running around for at least 1 week because of his flu.

Can't really see clearly from this pic as he's really active & most of the pix I'd taken were a blur. These 2 are the better ones. Only took with my mobile phone's camera as I dare not use flashlight yet. Will take more of him when he's more settled! Hehe...

He'd been meowing continuously for 2 days... it's quite a handful especially at night when he sounded extremely loud & sharp. Yesterday when I called mum from work, she said 2 neighbours started complaining to each other about the noise. During our conversation, I could still hear Tubby boy's piercing meow in the background! Oooopz....

Last night we moved him to the backyard's bomb shelter hoping to reduce the noise level but worried that he'd get even more upset for being trapped in a even smaller area. To our surprise, he's tamed the instant we put him inside though occasionally he'd still try to gain our attention when he heard us, but much less aggressive.

Our Tubby mao mi is so fun to play with... just watching his clumsy acts is entertaining enough. Whenever we go near his home, he'll stretch out & try touching us with his paw... very gently & his paws are so soft!

I can imagine if daddy still around, he'd definitely have lotsa fun by playing with him. We're a family of cat lovers & when we're very young, we ever had a few cats on a part-time basis (part-time = not domesticated & never bring them to the vet). Daddy always managed to amuse the cats, including those stray ones, with his self-made toys. But then, if daddy's still around, we'll not be able to keep a pet.

Loophole !!

Our less than 2-month old car is hospitalised. We felt terribly angry & unjust!

Hubby has been careful with his driving but apparently not all the drivers are so! Last Wed morning he sent me to my office as usual & was on his way to his. He's somewhere near his office when he stopped at a junction, in the right most lane, waiting to turn right. Then came this idiotic driver with his lorry next to hubby's. As the lane the stupid man was in didn't allow him to turn right, he cut into Vince's lane without checking how near our car was. And before my honey could react, his lorry had already hit our left front!!! What a blind & reckless man!

Our poor car's left eye dropped out, with some other injuries.... that driver admitted it's his fault & suggested to bring our car to his brother's garage & he'd pay for the damages. Initially we're not comfortable with this arrangement as it's a brand new car so we preferred to have it repaired by C&C. But when hubby brought the car to C&C to assess, our jaws nearly dropped upon hearing the total estimated costs 44 $4k+!! And the bad news was the guy who assessed our car said from the damages it could not be determined the fault entirely lied with that idiot. So if we were to claim insurance, we might not be able to get full compensation if the culprit denied being at fault. It could be 50-50 or 40-60 or even 30-70. It's definitely not good for us as the newly insured. And we'd been advised by our agent that if the other party's insurance was from a particular insurer (which I'm not going to say here), it's worse as they'd fight till the end to avoid compensation. Furthermore when that idiot knew we intended to bring it back to C&C, he said his lorry belonged to his company who had already told them to bear all accident compensation. Then he told us he'd no $$ to pay for $4k+ & said we would most probably not be able to get the claim. Whereas at his brother's, he would bear all repair costs. So he's indirectly threatening us that he'd not admit it's his fault if we bring it to our insurer!? But what can we do???

Many passed different comments - like taking photos (well... we may, touch wood!, do that next time round but how effective is the evidence?) / should go ahead & claim his insurance (but we don't dare to take the risk!) / bring to our own trustable garage (he already said he'd NO MONEY to pay other than his bro's as he could pay by instalments). We asked around & every1 said there's no way to guarantee that we'll win the case unless damages are obvious, like hitting the rear or perhaps somewhere near the rear, then chances would be high.

We're in such a fix.... wanted our car to be properly repaired but were also considering the consequences if we go ahead with the insurance claim.

Finally after much discussions in less than half an hour, we decided to endure the immense anger & brought our car to his brother's garage. It's not wise to fight with him at this point of time. What if he decides to shake off the responsibility? The following day when we admitted our car, the brother said that younger bro of his had no $$ so no choice he'd have to help him. So I told him since he'd no money, he would better drive carefully! Really irresponsible!

It's just so unfair!! Many around us shared their experiences... some being victims like us, some were the culprits. Apparently we're not the only 1 which made us feel a lil better.

So we've to tell ourselves to look on the bright side : (1)The biggest consolation is my hubby's safety. He's not hurt at all & I really thank God for that. (2)It's better than a hit-&-run case. (3)At least he provides us a car for the time being, though it's a 10 y.o+ Corolla.

Guess it's part & parcel of driving.... But as long as my honey's safe & sound.

lost & found

Have I ever mentioned I lost my wedding ring?

Well... about 3 weeks ago, 1 evening after shower I looked at my fingers & they're all bare. Nothing alarming as I'd been dropping the wedding ring everyday, more than once in a day. So you can imagine how loose it was. Almost each time I washed my hair, the ring would slip out of my finger & swing to 1 of the glass panels of our shower cubicle. I was so afraid that it'd break the glass. Then hubby would ask me straight away whether I could find my ring (not whether I dropped it!).

But this time it just disappeared quietly. We've searched all the possible places like the pockets of the pants I wore that day, my cosmetics pouches, the vanity cabinet, shower cubicle (though not likely), wardrobe, etc....

Eventually we gave up searching. You know... many times when you are looking for something high & low, you would never find it. But when you least expect, it would appear right in front of your eyes. So we waited for my dear ring to surface but it's been nearly a month & nope, it didn't reappear...

In the midst of the wait, we're considering getting another pair. Anyway hubby's ring was also loose, though not as bad as mine. Were wandering how our fingers could have shrunk so much after the purchase?!

Last Sat, decided to get ourselves a new pair of wedding rings. Paid a lil more than the previous ones but we like this new design.

Next evening, @home. Got all my stuff ready for a shower but suddenly I froze as vaguely recalled having a glimpse of something familiar in the drawer while taking some sundries just 1 second ago (yess.. was a bit retarded to only think about it after closing the drawer right?). So I pulled out that drawer again & there it was.................... My ring.

Pay back time

Gosh... must be honeymooning for too long, it's time to pay back! Just received a big work assignment, deadline is 5 weeks later! No way to defer as all of us die-die also have to leave for the mission on the stated date, to 3 countries in a week! Somemore this time round the delegation is led by the Exec Dir from the port. Stupid people... sat on it & last minute then throw the bomb to me!