A couple of cute kitties

Well, I had a pretty good weekend. Gerald came to visit me on Saturday and went back today (Sunday) and we went to visit KLCC's Aquaria, which was a really nice place. I'm impressed coz' it seems as good or even better than Singapore's Underwater World. What a miracle! Of course, we took a ton of pics, and as usual, I dunno which century I will put them up coz'I'm not done editing them yet, and posting a ton of pics is always a hassle. Posting a few pics, on the other hand, isn't such a problem. And I'm posting some pics of a couple of super cute kitties I found just outside my apartment tonight after Gerald left. I was about to go out to wash my car and Sassy was sniffing around a garbage bag at the grill when I saw her looking at something inside our shoe rack. And since it was low, I couldn't see what was there at first, and I thought there was something in the garbage bag that caught her interest. Then I heard something hissing, and I looked at the shoe rack and saw a kitten hiding there. And then I saw another kitty hiding under the stools next to the shoe rack! The one in the shoe rack was grey and white in colour and was hissing at Sassy a lot, so I took her away just in case the cat decided to scratch her. The other kitty was orange and white in colour, and a lot less hissy. I guess the grey one is the big sister or something! Anyway, my mum shooed both of them out the door, so they both hid in my neighbour's shoe rack instead! And the neighbours weren't too happy either, and they shooed them out too. The poor little kitties ended up in the stairway next to my apartment, and I felt so sorry for them, I gave them some cooked fish to eat. And they were quite wary of me, especially the 'big sister' who kept hissing at me. But I moved slowly towards them and eventually, even hissy big sister kitty let me pet her and give her a nice scratch. So I decided to grab my camera and snap some pics of the two cuties!



Here's the hissy big sister kitty....not so hissy now, fortunately!


And here's the more good natured 'little' sis. :P


The two of them about to go to sleep...


And here's a cute pic of them sleeping!


Eventually I wanted to try and get them a home, so I called up some friends to see if anyone wanted them, but no one could keep them. But I know a girl staying at my apartment area who's so fond of cats, she keeps about 6 of them! So I called her and she offered to send them to PAWS for me as she is heading there tomorrow to send another cat for adoption. She asked if I was willing to donate RM40 per cat to them though, coz' they need the money to care for the animals. And I got my parents to sponsor one kitty each. :P So I took the kitties home for a while to watch them while I waited for my friend to come back from work, and here's a pic of them invading my territory a.k.a. my room!



It took me quite a while to coax the grey big sister out from under my desk, coz' she was hissing at me again and I didn't want to get scratched. But eventually I managed to grab her, and now they're both safe and sound and my friend's place. She says they're really pretty kittens and will most likely get adopted. I sure hope so. Would be such a waste if they had to be put down! Oh well, I did my bit for the animals today. :P

What happens to Carol's brain during long holidays...

Aaah! It's Wednesday morning already! I only have one more day of holiday left! NOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Oh well, all good things must come to an end. No more can I spend my whole afternoon playing Neopets games trying to earn as many neopoints as I can in a day. Right now I have over 1,310,000 neopoints, which gives me a yearly interest of 10.5%, so I can collect 377 neopoints a day. I'm hoping to get 10,000,000 neopoints one day so I get the highest interest level possible and become a Neopets Multi-Millionaire! Bwahahaha! Yes people, don't start playing on this website, coz' it will have you so hooked, it must be from the DEVIL, Devil, devil....!!! Hmmm, maybe it's a good thing I'll be going back to work soon....

Well, one thing I'll really miss is the luxury of waking up anytime I want, which is usually around 11am or noon. And the luxury of lazing around in bed for as long as I want. *Sigh* I recently read some interesting news about losing weight in your sleep. Apparently, sleeping less than 8 hours boosts our levels of ghrelin, a hormone thats makes us feel hungry, and suppresses the hormone leptin, which makes us feel full. So the more you sleep, the less hungry you will feel when you wake up and the less you will eat, thus you lose weight. It actually makes sense to me, coz' these past few days I've been sleeping like a pig and throughout the day, I'm not really that hungry. Whereas on a normal working day, where I get less than 8 hours sleep, I usually have quite hearthy appetite. Hmm...I wonder if I could ask my boss to let us come in later to work based on this new info. The conversation would probably go something like this:

Carol: Hi boss! Can we start coming into office after noon? Recent research shows that people can actually lose weight by sleeping more. As such, if everyone at office was allowed to sleep later, we would lose more weight and become healthier. And everyone knows a healthy worker is a more productive worker! So what say you?

Boss: Hmm....can't you just sleep earlier at night??

Carol: But all the good tv shows are on at night! Surely after a long day at work, the hard workers at the office need some time to enjoy some entertainment! Besides, the new season of Desperate Housewives is coming on soon and if I need to know what happened after poor Mike got run down by a car, or else I wouldn't be able to concentrate at work!

Boss: ....Ok, you come into office at 12pm and leave at 9pm. How's that?

Carol: But...but... it would be sooo dark out by the time I leave, and knowing how many sadistic rapists and murderers there are lurking around in lonely parking lots at night, it would be sooo dangerous for us to go back so late. It would be so much safer if we could go back by 6pm!

Boss: Fine. Work from 12pm to 6pm everyday, including Sundays.

Carol: But...but... God declared Sunday as a day of rest! You can't go against God's decree! That's blasphemous!

Boss: Alright, you fired! NEXT!

Carol: ........

Happy last day of holidays, people!

Disclaimer: Information in this post with regards to my interest in Neopets is merely an exaggeration for amusement purposes only, and not to be taken as sign of severe Neopets addiction. Also, while the information pertaining to the news on losing weight while sleeping is true, my intent to request my boss for longer sleeping hours is not (though I can't say the desire is not there). No Naeems were hurt in the posting of this post.

IT'S HOLIDAY TIME!!!! WOO HOOO!!!

My toothache was gone for the past three days. Yay! But today it's sort of starting to ache again. Boo! But I'm on leave tomorrow. Yay! But I'd have to go see a dentist tomorrow to see get my tooth fixed. Boo! But then it's two days holiday for Hari Raya. Yay! But then I still have work to do at home. Boo! But knowing what I lazy bum I am, I won't do it all til Wednesday so I'll spend Monday and Tuesday enjoying my holidays. Yay! Or boo?

Ah well, hopefully I can get all of what I need to do done within the next few days. My company is going to be having a tonne of fun science camps for kids during the school holidays and I need to read up on what I need to teach during the camps as well as come up with timetables for each day. I also need to prepare for my church's upcoming Discovery Days, which is a two day event for kids as well being held on the 24th and 25th of November. I'm in charge of the Carnival Games on the 24th. And I have to choose some songs for them to sing along to, and also song-lead them on both the days. I just had to do the Hokey Pokey dance for the primary school students of Sri Bestari last Monday, in a demonstration to promote my company's school holiday camps... and it was NOT fun doing that silly dance while a bunch of middle-aged teachers are also looking on and probably thinking I'm really mad. I don't mind doing the funky science experiments, but dancing the Hokey Pokey just to get the kids all excited.... bleeaaaahhhh.... I tell you, if anyone else I knew was there, I'm sure they would've died laughing. And I would've died from embarassment. Oh well, such is the nature of my job as a Mad Scientist. And at least the kids there has fun (except the older primary 5 and 6, who were also too embarassed to even join in with the younger kiddies. I can't blame them!). So I hope I can find some less embarassing songs to song-lead for the kids at Discovery Days.... I don't mind doing hand actions.... but not anything that involves me sticking my butt in, sticking my butt out, sticking my butt in and shaking it all about. 'Nuff said.

Anyway, I'm glad I can finally get a good rest after quite a few weeks running around like a rabid chicken at work, preparing for our camps as well as teaching our normal classes. I still enjoy the challenge, but it does get tiring. Like last week, I had to go to so many different places with one of my colleagues to send camp registration forms and posters and bunting stands. One of the places is Sunway Lagoon, where we'll be having holiday camps on the 20th and 21st of November as well as the 7th and 8th of December. I'll be teaching the first camp there on the 20th... and the best part is that the press will be there for the event, to promote Sunway Lagoon, and of course, promote Mad Science at the same time. So don't be surprised to see Mad Scientist Carol's picture in the news sometime end of next month. Thank God I'm experience in performances, so I don't think I'll go blank in front of the press people. And if I do, I'll probably somehow or another think of something seemingly intelligent to say when in actual fact I won't have any idea what I'm talking about. :P I just really hope that the experiments and activities all go well, or else the publicity might not be such a good thing after all.

Anyway, my colleague and I had to go there on Tuesday, and he's the one who was always corresponding with the people there while I didn't know anyone he had talked to so it was my first time meeting them. We first met this guy named Gary, who's a really big-sized fella. Of course, my colleague and him said hi to each another, then when my colleague introduced me and Gary shook my hand, he looked at me for a while like he was totally smittened with me or something. AND he shook my hand so tightly, I thought it was going to fall off. Of course, I just grinned at him and said nothing. It was so obvious, even my colleague noticed the way that guy reacted towards me, and said it was as if he was zapped by something when he saw me! I dunno whether to be creeped out or flattered. I'm think I was both at the same time! And then, my colleague and I had to go back the next day again, and in the office I saw that guy again, but he was far off so, I turned away just before I think he waved at me. Dunno coz' I saw it out of the corner of my eye. But I didn't wave back and just continued doing what I was doing. Heh, I'm so mean! Oh well, it IS nice to get a little extra attention every now and then. LOL!

Anyway, me thinks I shall go enjoy my holidays my playing computer games all night until I'm bleary eyed and wake up at noon or later tomorrow. Good night!

Of big burps, sneezes and toothaches

Ok, life is much less dramatic these days, which is just the way I like it. On Sunday, me and my dad treated my eldest bro and his wife (and my mum too) to a buffet lunch to celebrate my bro's birthday. When we were almost done eating, my bro let out a superbly loud burp, which got my mum and his wife chiding him for being so disgusting, while he and I were both laughing. Yes I know it was gross, but gross in a funny sort of way, to me anyway! :P And then my mum said it wasn't as bad as when my dad once sneezed on a woman's head while we were watching a show at Mines Wonderland. I remember she and I were sooo embarassed about it coz' the woman turned around and scolded my dad, and he also dunno where to hide his face. But that was a long time ago, and now we all found it so funny, everyone including my dad was laughing over it for a full 5 minutes. And that was after we had all eaten our fill, so I think our tummies were ready to burst from all the laughing. :P Well, it was great to enjoy a light moment with family again, even though it WAS at my dad's expense, but he was laughing over it too. :D

The lack of drama still doesn't mean everything is all hunky dory in my world. I've been having a toothache these past few days and I just went to see a dentist today who told me that there is something like a cavity within my tooth and bacteria is in it, which is causing the pain. And she said I need to do a root canal, which for the uninformed, means that my tooth will be completed clean out and all the nerves removed as well, leaving behind a dead tooth, which is then filled. And then, to protect the tooth, I can opt to do a crowning. The root canal alone costs RM450 and the crowning is even worse at RM600! However, my mum tells me that all dentists these days suggest doing root canals for the slightest problems, when all they really need to do is to clean the tooth (not removing the nerves, but just cleaning the bacteria) and then fill it up, which costs much less. *Sigh* So sad that in the name of making money, people like dentists (who are meant to HELP other people) suggest doing the most expensive procedures even though it is not necessary. Anyway, I'll be getting some second opinions and hopefully, by the end of this week, I would've gotten a dentist to fix up my tooth, coz' I'm going to Malacca and I wanna enjoy my chicken rice balls!

Oh well, it's time for bed again. Catcha all later!

Yet another Bold and Beautiful dramatic episode...

Man, I dunno what has been going these past few weeks, but I've been getting into so many conflicts with people around me, I think I if I had another one soon I might end up admitting myself into tanjung rambutan to prevent a nervous breakdown. Some time ago, it with my colleagues but now that's ok. Then it was with my bf, and now that's ok. Then just a few days ago, it was my mum, and now it seems ok but can't really be sure. Then a couple of nights ago, an online discussion about our faith with my bro turned into another great big misunderstanding and now he's mad at me. I've never experienced so much emotional drama in such a short time, and I'm really getting sick of it.

I don't even know what the problem was this time coz' from how I see it, he was pointing out one extreme that Christians shouldn't follow, but many unfortunately do, which is the self-righteous "I-think-I'm-better-than-non-Christians" attitude. And I agreed with him that Christians shouldn't do that, but I pointed out that some Christians also go the other extreme of feeling so guilty all the time about all the bad stuff they've done, that they cannot accept that God can possibly forgive them, which is also the wrong attitude. And for some strange reason, he assumed I was disagreeing with his view and putting words in his mouth, which I wasn't. And one thing led to another... he kept asking me if I was implying things that I wasn't, and when I thought we had finally reached an agreement and I said let's move onto another topic, he thought I wanted to talk about something else because it's sooo hard for me to accept what he was saying... when all the time I kept saying I already agreed with him. Aaaargh! Good grief, it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

Of course, at that point, I'm so bugged that I said I would whack him if he was here, at which he promptly went offline. And then later on I find out that he thinks there is so much animosity between us that he doesn't feel he can talk to me. And he thinks I think he's such a terrible brother... which shocks me coz' I've never thought of him that way. For goodness sake, brothers and sisters argue all the time and say or do things they don't mean in the heat of the moment. And yeah, I have whacked him quite a lot before when he bugs me, but not to the point where I injure him so badly he can't use his limbs or anything like that. But it never meant that I actually hated him. After every argument, I'd cool down and just forgive and forget, and I thought things were ok between us. But now suddenly I hear all these funny things coming out, and I'm left wondering again if I really behave so badly that my own family can think that I hate them, or it's them who is overly sensitive and interpreting my actions the wrong way. My mum has said it. Now my bro says it. Right now, the only person who hasn't misunderstood me or thinks that I hate him is my dad, and he's the one I think I usually pick on the most. I know it was really bad of me, but I have gotten annoyed with him plenty of times and even misunderstood his actions too, but he takes it all in his stride and I don't think he believes I hate him or anything, which of course I don't. For me, I always thought it's quite normal for family members to argue, disagree and say dumb things every now and then... and I also always that the normal thing to do is just let it slide, forgive and forget and not hold grudges against each other. I dunno why some of my family people interpret the things I do to mean I hate them, when I've never said anything of the sort to them. *Sigh*

Obviously I haven't been the model daughter or sister all my life and I know it. I've made mistakes and hurt my family, sometimes not even realising that I hurt them that bad. And I really am sorry for it. At this point I'm thinking I must be seriously screwed up in some way that I keep on doing things that make the people around me think I hate them when I don't. I dunno why I keep doing it, but I do. And I'm so frustrated with myself that I think I understand why my mum acts the way she does now coz' I kinda feel like walling myself from everyone as well, just so I don't say or do things to hurt people anymore. But I haven't reached that extreme just yet, coz' the fact is that such conflicts with the people I care about are all part of life and as much as I hate having to deal with it, I can't just pack up and live on an island somewhere all alone. I have to deal with it and try to change for the better. Right now though, after so much drama going on in my life, I think throwing myself on an island somewhere for a few weeks so I can rest my brains for a while might not be such a bad idea. All this emotional drama can really zap my energy and make me a zombie at work. Anyone can sponsor me bus 3D 2n to Redang or Tioman? :P

Skies not clear yet....(not referring to the haze!)

Ok everyone, you can all come out from hiding now. The drama between me and Gerald is over, or at least, I hope it is. We took time out from talking to each other for one week, and during that time, he talked to other people to try and understand why I was so upset about certain things he said to me. I still don't understand why people even have to explain such things to him coz' far as I know, anybody can understand how I felt. *Sigh* Anyway, at the end of it, he did understand a bit more and apologized to me, and the fact that he made the effort to try and understand why I was so mad, even when it probably was embarassing for him to tell other people, it does speak for itself. I shall not go into the details here, but I'll just say now that we are ok and still together, and see how things go from here.

Anyway, I seem to be getting more than my fair share of conflicts these past few weeks. My mum just recently got into one of her fits on Saturday night while we were out for dinner at a nice restaurant with some relatives. Her brother had decided to give a treat to my parents and I, as well as another uncle's family, my brother and my sis-in-law. And my mum and her siblings all have, what my dad would call, 'strong' characters, such that every time we have two or more of them are in the same room, a heated and high volume discussion always breaks out between them. It's like a tradition during family gatherings with her three brothers and sister. It's bad enough if just two of them are together. Should all five of them be in the same room, everybody else will have little or no chance to say anything to them or to anyone else coz' the sound of their nonstop arguing will drown out any other conversation. Trust me, this is not an exaggeration.

Anyway, Saturday night, my mum's eldest bro and her sister wasn't around to join in the frays, but my mum and her other brothers were at it again as usual. This time, my uncle who was giving the treat (I call him 'Yee Kau Fu' or 2nd uncle) was saying that he might be going to Dubai to work coz' he's an engineer and there are more opportunities there compared to locally. Then my mum went on to say that it would be dangerous to go there coz' it is a Middle Eastern country and their neighbours are full of terrorists so the risk of terrorist attacks are high. But my uncle disagreed with her, saying that it would be like foreigners refusing to come to Malaysia because Thailand was hit by bombs. To him, Dubai is an advanced country, and even though he can't definitely guarantee that they won't be hit by terrorist attacks, it is relatively safe and mum does not need to be scared. And even though I didn't say anything, I actually agreed with my uncle coz' I don't see the point in refusing to go somewhere or doing certain things when the chances of something awful happening are actually quite slim. But my mum didn't seem to want to accept his logic and still said she would still never go to Dubai, just to be 'safe'. Anyway, to cut a long heated discussion short, both my uncles agreed with each other and was trying to convince my mum of to see their point of view, and when she still didn't, they said that she is so stubborn she refuses to accept knowledge from other people coz' she thinks she's always right. And they also said things like she is living under a coconut shell and she is stupid to think the way she does. The whole time, nobody else at the table said anything, we all just listened. But from the expression on everyone's face, I could see that most of my other relatives didn't agree with my mum either. And the discussion got so heated that I actually found it amusing at how they can blow up at each other over a small matter like this. But at one point, my other uncle (the one not giving the treat) called her selfish (which was the only thing I didn't agree with, coz' my mum is a lot of things, but I don't think it was fair to call her selfish) and that was the breaking point for my mum. She started crying and asking why they were 'attacking' her character instead of discussing the issue. She banged the table and almost wanted to walk off. Soon after that, we all went home, and she was still crying all the way home and didn't say a word.

The next day, I woke up to find her on the couch in the living room, and obviously still crying. And when I got her a cup of water, she suddenly said that I was the one who hurt her the most coz' I not only didn't support her last night, but I was also laughing to myself at some points. Which is true, I was laughing, because of the silliness of the whole argument, of my mum's reactions and because of some of the rather illogical things I thought she was saying. It's not that I am purposely disagreeing with my mum for the fun of it... I just don't agree with her and therefore how can I support her in such a situation? Especially whn everyone else sitting there also seemed to think she was being illogical. But to her, it was my job as her daughter to support her, but I didn't. I just don't get it. Even when I don't say anything, I can get scolded by my mum. I try to respect my elders and keep the peace by not taking part in their silly argument, but she expects me to openly tell my uncles off for saying such things to my mum. And then, after she was done scolding me and I had to go out to church, she went on to scold my dad for all sorts of other things. Basically, she ends up making it out like everyone did something wrong to her while she herself didn't say or do anything wrong at all. Good grief.

It's hard to explain the exact situation here, but this problem with my mum's behaviour has been going on for so long. She has a problem where if anybody tells her she is wrong, she won't even stop to think if they might be right and she needs to change. She will straight away get angry and fire the other person. And if it seems that the other person is actually talking sense and she might be 'losing' the discussion, she does extreme things like refusing to talk to them and cutting herself off from them. She's done that to my dad before, and after Saturday's dinner, she told him that she didn't want to go for dinner with her brother anymore ever again. That's not the worst of it. I've seen her get so miserable after a 'lost' argument, that she drank half a bottle of brandy at one shot, which is extremely bad for health. And according to my dad, once after an argument, she said she wanted to die and threatened to jump out the window. There's just so many abnormal things about her behaviour that hurts her and everyone around her, and now I think she reacts so extremely coz' of some psychological disorder. My dad has always tried to advise her, and I've tried to talk sense to her, but she refuses to listen, and she refuses to get counselling. Right now, all she wants to do is withdraw into her own little world and minimise her contact with the people around her, which includes her own family, just to avoid getting into conflict. My dad and I are at our wits end, and I think the only thing that can possibly help her now is divine intervention.

*Sigh*, sorry my blog entries have been so sad lately. I must try and blog a but more happy stuff now. But then I'm so busy at work, not much time to blog too, and that's another story. But through all the negative stuff, I'm glad I have lotsa people I can talk to and are willing to listen (or read) my sad crap and give me advice, and I'm so grateful for that. Seriously, if not for you guys, I think I might have gone bonkers long time ago. :P Oh well, tomorrow is a holiday, and as I have been superbly busy for so long, going out everyday... I think I will use tomorrow to try and do absolutely nothing... just so I can recharge. The only thing I might do is go to church and practice my drumming, since I'm starting to play drums at church, and so far I play 'ok' but not 'excellent' and my drumming skills still need a plenty of fine tuning. Plus, there's no better way to destress than to hit stuff, so yeah, it's a good plan. :D Happy holiday, all you people in Selangor. And for everyone who's not in Selangor and has to work, well, Hari raya and Deepavali holidays are coming soon, so don't be too sad. :D