Is it really OK to be honest ??

Hello again, my dears... It's been a hectic week :( My dear Boss is on Maternity leave, its a BABY GIRL !!! :)

Our Dept. is feeling the weight of the workload and lonelier now that our Boss will be away for 2 months!!

I really am soo soooo happy for her and I can't believe how overjoyed I am to see the pictures of the Baby! Although I'm really not sure if I will be that happy if I had my own ! I'd probably start yelling "Siii Qweeeiileeyyy" at the poor infant the minute it's out of the birth canal ! :-/  Yes, I'd make the most horrid Mum; Don't ask.

Gifts for BB... I wish these came in my size ....

Aha~ But I did manage to meet up with one of my dearest girlfriends over the weekend.... She was excited about something and lured me out for late lunch with the word "M-U-F-F-I-N-S"... :)

Soooo, there's a new guy in the cards... I could see her eyes glowing and she's got that "smile" going on... "Tell me more... " I prodded. She goes "Oh, I don't know Nic... What do you think ? Should I go for it ?"

The Hippie-Devil May Care side of me immediately said YES! ... But the Logic-Rationale side of me protested... How am I gonna tell her ?? These matters can be quite delicate...

I love her to bits; We've been so close these years, I'd kill to see her Happy. Last thing I want is a Jerk-A** playing her out. Of course, she'd been single for awhile now.. and the other last thing I want is her being stuck with a freako-psycho-Abusive Relationship she can't get out of!

My Hippie side told her go for it, have some fun. Give the dude a probation period, well look if performance is not satisfactory in 3 months, cut the cords. I thought it was a good idea to help get her groove/modjo back!

Of course there were a few red flags;

1) Religion; Let's just put it this way- It's Complicated.

2) Financial capability; I did ask her to check out if he has bad debts.
Men+Debts= No good

Unless of course, it's debt from a House Mortgage or Car loan (s).

3) Boy's a sweet talker. Usually spells danger. Even more dangerous than good looking men....

Is it really acceptable to point out the negative stuff to your love struck girlfriend? Will she hate me?

But then again, who am I to tell her who she can or cannot go out with ?? To be fair, I haven't even met the guy. How is it even possible to love your friends and stop them from making mistakes ?? I guess you can't ! Heck, even parents can't stop their children from making mistakes !!

Being a good friend is not about being judgemental nor too critical when your close friend makes a decision, whether good or bad, but to be there for her when the time calls for it and give her your full support.

Yet you ask why Adoption Rate is so low ? Look around you

If you read my previous Post about my Food review, you'd think I lived a fairly carefree Life with no troubles but Eat, Drink and Be Merry... Unfortunately, it is not. Reality is depressing of late, I've used this blog to be a channel to vent, and I know I shouldn't ...

I don't hate my job, it's just disheartening some days, to realize the amount of moronic imbeciles that ACTUALLY exists; and I'm talking bout so called Pet-Owner imbeciles, not the other imbecile Breeds on the roads !

We had a Busy Sunday. Good thing it wasn't one of those unGodly hours in the morning like Dogathon... We were invited to the Cats & Dogs 2 Movie Carnival at Tropicana organized by the Spotlite Magazine Team who did my Interview with Amber Chia in May.

The Event became sort of a Congregation of Poodles, Shih Tzus, Schnauzers, Huskies and Goldies... Toy dogs came fully clothed (with Booties no kidding) and some showed up in their personal chaffeured strollers! I wonder why people ask how come Adoption is so low in Animal Shelters... *Rolling eyes*

We met up with the CEO of a large Pet Store Chain here in town few days ago, and although my gut never trust Pet Shop people, but listening to he's point of view, he has a point. He did do he's homework, studying the Pet Shop market growth here and those in Overseas, he pointed out that the Malaysian Pet Industry has yet to reach it's peak and is still growing, pet shops in Malaysia does not have enough volume and simply cannot sustain without selling livestock! Oh Brother. CEO of X Pet Shop also mentioned if he cuts selling livestock now, he's entire business will go bust.

But will we ever see that day coming ? Malaysian consumers are hard to please. It's Demand and Supply people. How much worst can it get? Pet Shops are starting to offer 12months installment payments to purchase a dog! Why, if you can't afford a price tag, DON'T get a Dog. It's really that simple.

We're glad in some ways he's making some effort to Educate he's Customers to Spay and Neuter, we did point out some of he's livestock do end up at our Shelter and a lot of strays were contributed by he's irresponsible Customers.

Harsh reality folks.

I get horribly peeved when people taunt us for putting down animals and "not making the effort" to place them in Sanctuaries! When I ask them, but have You adopted one from a local Shelter or rescue even one from the street?  They hang their head from embarrassment. Some protest, "I don't have the time! I gotta work!"  "I have children, I can't cope with animals ! " Don't complain why is there so many stray dogs in your neighbourhood . Yes, it many not be you, but we wished people would take the trouble to Educate their inconsiderate neighbours who lets their female dog roam the streets while she's on heat.

I am sick and tired of answering people's questions about Euthanasia. Do people honestly think Animal Shelters have nothing better to do ? Well, no, there's tons of sick, injured, neglected Animals coming in everyday and Euthanasia is expensive! But it is a better way to go than leaving a dog with a crushed leg yelping for it's life till it's last breath.

I am even more sick and tired of Hypocrites ! So called "Animal Lovers" who parade around with their expensive Pet Store purchased Pooch with affection but offer nothing for their other poor Mongrel chained near their gate to "guard".  I don't even want to hear that "they" did such a noble job of Rescue-ing/picking the Mutt from the streets and gave it fantastic life "guarding" the gate in chains.

Why the Double Standards???

Pets are not toys; it's not something you can buy because you have nothing to do with some spare time and throw it away the next week when you are busy!

Ugghh. Groan. Bleeaahh.

The world was out to get me yesterday...

Day started with a call by the woman who adopted Penny. She told me her neighbours weren't pleased with her having a dog and their idiotic kids were taunting it with miny firecrackers. My heart sunk. I gave her a list of options to try and she gave me a list of excuses;

1) Talk to your neighbours
She said no way, they are not friendly and it's hard to talk to them. They had fought before. I asked if the neighbours have pets themselves and she said yes, they have several chickens. Why kind of hypocrites live in our society today ? The more I am not convinced there is a 1-freaking-Malaysia-BS !

2) Keep the puppy indoors
To this she exclaimed, "Oh, I have carpets... " I was like , You gotta be kidding me...
You're saying you'd rather give up the poor Puppy than roll up and put away a blimming Carpet ???

After 10mins of harsh lecture, I felt I really had myself to blame. When I first saw this middle aged woman toting four young children whom she claimed are not hers, my gut told me No. I let logic ruined my decision-making. Too little too late, little Penny is back in our office with a RM 1,000 sponsorship the lady gave out of guilt.

Then, in the afternoon my Blog Template crashed...
The cute Coffee cup and paper clip notes wouldn't load anymore and I was in despair ! This couldn't be happening!! Noooooo *Arms flailing*

Then I have to entertain idiotic e-mails of morons looking for a sexual partner for their Cat.

Our E-mail Correspondence went like this:

E-mail from irresponsible idiot:

Hi there,I'm looking for a female cat to be adopted and yet to be
spayed.But I understood that it is the SPCA policy to spay/neuter the
animal coming in.Really hope if you could find us female cat that yet to
be spayed for adoption.Currently having 3 male cat that just loose their
companion week ago..:(..
hope to hear from you soon.
MY REPLY:
Hi XXXXXXX,
Thank you for your e-mail.
We do not encourage Breeding / Mating and all animals up for adoption must be spayed/neutered.
We also advise you as a Responsible Pet Owner to spay/ neuter your cats if you do not want to be feeding and caring for 50 over kittens in the next 1 year. Female cats can produce 3 litters of kittens in a year. If you are unable to keep all of the kittens, you will need to rehome the kittens yourself and also ensuring they go to good homes.
Sadly, a lot of kittens are not cared for properly and are surrendered to SPCA when they cannot cope feeding the cats anymore financially and some do not hesitate to abandon the kittens on the streets. Unspayed and not Neutered, these cats will go on producing thousands in a year and many of them are sent to SPCA to be put to sleep when these stray cats contract viruses when living in the streets.
Hence, if you would like to adopt a companion for your cat; you can save a life by adopting one from our shelter and practice Spay/Neuter!
We hope you will do whats best as a Responsible Pet Owner.
Warm regards

Idiot’s reply:
Hi Nicole,

Does that mean,there still have cat that are not spayed/neutered in SPCA? If we are interested to adopt any of the cat, we just need to drop by at SPCA right?

If you're already complaining of money issues; don't even think you can afford This to happen!

************************************************

At this point I felt like bashing my head against the wall. Idiot definately didn't get the message.

These are the sort of e-mails I get every other day. Some genuinely did not know or thought of all this, some just plain foolish to try out letting their animals give birth to a dozen of offsprings then realizing they have not enough money to feed. How can these people be so freaking irresponsible !??! Wonder if that's how they would live their own life too.

Don't they realize what's going to happen with all those unwanted kittens?

When I thought the worst was over... My little bathroom plastic rack fell off the wall and my one and only miserable toothbrush and a few empty tubes of toothpaste fell right into the Toilet bowl. That's bcos we hung the rack right on top of the toilet... So it was Listerine for the night.

Definately NOT my day!!!

Oh wait a minute...

For the first time of my 28 years of life, I'm on my own.

This IS hanging on my front door ! :D

Growing up there were 7 of us squeezed in my grandmother's tiny flat. Talk about personal space! I never had my own until I finally moved in to my parent's house when I was 22; and out again 8 months later, back again and out again...

I told myself to not go through the same anguish of having housemates from Hell again and sharing bathrooms! I had the options to either rent a room or rent out the 2 vacant rooms in this house but I chose to have all the privacy I want.

If there's anything I learnt, is that....

1) Walls are thin, so keep it low

I won't even start to list the amount of noises I make! My dear consciously reminds me to tone the Telly down once it hits 11pm, I never really bothered much about what the neighbours think until I hear the noises that come from the wall then I think shit! Noise actually pass through these walls! Damn!

I actually used to live in a house so sparse that the sound of a spoon dropped in the sink gets so amplified it echoes through the house!

Some days I wonder if the neighbours are eavesdropping....

2) Trash Management

You do have to sort your own trash out.

I'm also proud to say I have gave life to the birth of thousands of maggots!

When I used to live with my folks, I confess I hardly took the trash out only when my Dad had thrown some rotten stuff and next day the whole lid has got little weevils crawling all over ...

Yes, now I do separate my trash, recycle stuff what I can and take the trash out...

3) Inventory
Coffee and sugar wont stock themselves... As much as I wish, things to seem to run out fast... toilet paper, garbage bags, detergent, etc etc and the list goes on...

I yearn for those days when I wake up and Hot Coffee is waiting and ready :) Bliss ...




4) Unmonitored freedom
Of course you can watch TV the whole day till you go blind, nobody's going to be concerned, really! Now that I have no curfew, I stay home most evenings, turning down offers for late night supper ...

5) There are actually People living next door! Yikes!

I have to consciously remind myself not to walk out of the front door half naked, here, people DO stare! My old school friend who happens to live across the street had actually given me the heads up when I just moved in to actually watch out for busybody neighbours who get absolutely fascinated with newbies and I was told to stay clear of the porch around 3 to 4pm as the mobile Grocery guy comes round and housewives gather like Vultures and gossip like Desperate Housewives!!

6) You learn interesting things about yourself....

I must have been living in denial all these years.

Deep inside I know what an unorganized person I really am yet I've blocked it out for as long as I could.... until the house gets so untolerably filthy... I also found out what a stingy person I can be, not having the heart to throw away leftovers (which I ended up cooking and eating again), collecting rain water in tubs, and keeping tabs on how many hours of Air-Con I use everyday  etc etc etc ...  

... and yes, you've finally lived Bachelor style once you've smelt what a week's worth of unsorted garbage smells like !

Pecking woes...

When I said on my Facebook I'm like an awkward teenager at Social Functions; I wasn't kidding....

I said remark right after attending a Press Conference with my boss at one of those Celebrity studded Charity Event organized by an ex-Beauty Pageant! Eeekkk ! I told myself "Ok, Let's do this! Let's slap some make up on and dress decently!" Who am I kidding right ??

To start with, my car battery died on me that moment I was all dressed and ready to go. So, I had to walk out to the main road to hitch a cab, which means, no heels! I actually went to the Event in my sandals!! Gaaahhh!!! 

My second Gaaahhh came when the Organizer, a stylish and good looking guy came out to greet me; I was happy to just shake hands saying "Hi!! How are you ?!" but he leaned and did the greeting peck thingy which I always had a problem with... I had read about kiss-greeting Etiquettes thingy and some say the lips never touch the face and although some peck on one side of the cheek, most people do both cheeks...  The left cheek went fine but my awkward movements made me slam my face to he's right cheek !! Argghhh!! I hope he's jaw didn't hurt !! 8-|  Oh Gawd....

A little red-faced, I sat there feeling so small, watching all the Beautiful, tall, graceful Models/ Actresses / Socialites giggle, greet each other with pecks on the cheek, take photos and flit about like little butterflies....

How Obama & Hillary does it....

... How Alicia Keys & whatshisface does it....

Sarkozy ?.....

Let's not do it the Doggie-way.... !

Working in an NGO, I realized I've developed, unconsciously, the habit of under-dressing for any occasion. Yes, I'm guilty of wearing tank tops and shorts to work and sometimes not even putting make-up for meetings! *sigh*

Years of low self esteem only made it worse for me. I grew up pretty much convinced I wouldn't excel in anything, and let's not even start about how I feel about my own looks! Although, friends keep telling me how everyone has some bit of insecurity in them, yeah maybe... Possibly in different scales...?

When it comes to contact, I maintain a healthy distance from people. I mean physical distance. Any people in their right mind would keep their hands to themselves right ? Funnily, I've also met some people with habits of making any form of physical contact while talking ie: touching hands, thighs or slapping some part of other person's body part etc which is ok if it is a close friend but there are people who have no qualms touching a stranger.

It could be the person is plain "Ham Sup" (pervert) or probably just lacks Social skills...

It could also be an act of invading a person's Personal Space. I remember reading the book Body Language by Allan Pease and he explained in this book that the distance of 46cm to 1.2m is your Personal Zone, which anything nearer than that is your Intimate Zone. Therefore anyone coming that close within that proximity is in fact, in an Intimate Zone with you! Which would be fine is it is somebody familiar, if it were not, it'd be sexual harassment...

Also interesting is the fact that Cultural factors do affect Zones Distance; A city dweller is said to have a smaller Intimate Zone as compared to a rural Country dweller! For example if you were to observe an American and a Japanese having a discussion, the American would tend to lean closer whereas the Japanese would take a step back and keep a distance.

Consciously or unconsciously, there are a lot of people who have not read of such things yet are aware of such knowledge by instinct. Which suprises me how some people can be so pushy and invade a persons' Intimate Zone.

So, if you do meet me one day and if I did not lean forward to give you a peck on the cheek, please don't think I'm uptight or being a Snob.. I simply just respect your Personal Zone !!

Bleeaahh

I'm ovulating.

That means I'm grumpier than ever.

Things add up when you come home everyday and find your dogs had trashed your kitchen with wee and poop. Foster cats scream their heads off for food at the sound of you opening the front door. Then you have the fur to sweep and plants to water. Bills to pay and work to think about.

Some days it's not so bad; some days it does get a bit too much.

I'm feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders....

It's been 5 months since I moved out on my own. Of course, I had it all thought out. Mentally I was prepared but what I didn't  know how to deal with is the loneliness.

I wished the dogs could understand how much have been sacrificed for them to have a good life. I wish Bailey would get over the fact that she has no more garden grass to pee on anymore. Things are different now. We're not going to have what we used to have. Still, the dogs' RM 300 food bill won't be compromised... It will still be ORIJEN and they will still get their chicken breast meat and premium canned food, occasional treats and snacks and toys...

I just wished there was someone to talk to at the end of the day ...

Sigh, I absolutely hate Emo Mode as I can't take Emo people as well. I swear if there was something like an Instant Mood Lifter I could eat or inject, I'd freaking kill to have it !

Absolutely, baby

Today is a gloomy day. Don't blame me if this post sounds sombre.

First of all, I'm not even a morning person. Having to wake up at 5.30 a.m. is not funny. Today is the Ancestral Cemetery Festival cum gathering Day aka Ching Ming. Day usually starts with packing and chaos in the mornings rushing to get to the market to buy Roast Pork and Red Kuihs then get in queue for the traffic jam going up to Jalan Bellamy.

With my Dad's driving skills (jerking and abrupt braking!) , I had wished i packed along a Doggie bag. I remember there was a year we sat in the old car and the water temperature kept going up and we were stuck for 2 hours with no air con in the afternoon heat... :( Well I guess this year ain't that bad ...

I cant say this is a type of Festival I look forward nor dread; just that after my grandmother passed away 6 years ago, only did it feel something for me. When we were all younger, we'd just tag along and just do whatever we're told to do. But it's for a beloved family member who meant so much to me that, going to visit once a year and cleaning the tomb is like the least you could do to make up for the things you probably didn't do enough for this person. The heat doesnt matter, the distance nor the whole trouble.

Now I'm just back at home, feeling a bit under the weather and a little blue. Also the fact that I've been told a bad news at work; so God help me, now I can only pray for patience, strength and for Justice.