FeistyCat

It wasn’t entirely my cat’s fault. We were all sitting on the couch watching TV, with the cat in the middle sitting next to Aliya. My hubby, Wari tried to reach over to get my attention and the cat got a fright when his hand suddenly brushed against its head. It jumped and leapt on me. I was shocked and yelled loudly at the poor cat that tried to run away leaving two scratches on my right hand. All that happened so quickly, but it’s really not as bad as it looks.

I bought the balloon for Aliya six days ago and I’m surprised that it’s still floating around in our bedroom. Normally, a helium-filled balloon would have lasted a day before all the helium escaped from it. Anyway, I think the balloon is pretty expensive because I forked out seven bucks for it. I bought the balloon because she behaved pretty well while I was at the dentist. Aliya sat quietly and watched me from the corner of the room while Dr Chan attended to my tooth implant.

After my dental appointment, we walked down from Lucky Plaza to catch the Sesame Street show at Takashimaya. We had some junk food at KFC before the show. I couldn’t really eat as the right side of my mouth was still numb. We managed to get a good view of the stage and Aliya enjoyed the show. I took some pictures of her favourite Sesame Street characters and Aliya had a group photo with them too. I wondered why Elmo was so huge. I thought he should be smaller than Cookie. Oh, well.

After the show, I met my classmate, Eliz who was happy to celebrate her last exam paper. She wanted to have lunch and buy some presents for her friend’s children. We sat for half an hour at McDonald’s to chat before she left for Plaza Singapura. A neighbour and his family were sitting just opposite us and he waved in our direction. I waved and smiled back at them. Later, Aliya and I went shopping and I bought her some new clothes. I didn’t really get anything for myself except a nice leather belt for my jeans.

As we were walking around the mall, someone called out to me. I turned around and it was my ex-colleague, Simon Goh. We chatted for a few minutes and he gave me a table calendar. By then, Aliya was tired and requested to go home. It was raining quite heavily when we walked to the Orchard MRT station. On the way to the station, I bumped into Derrick, one of my team members who was with his expecting wife and they were out celebrating his birthday and wedding anniversary. What a small world.

My father-in-law is in the hospital with some kind of infection. The old man panicked when he saw blood in his urine. At first, the doctor at SGH told him to go home and rest, but on the way home in the taxi, the nurse called him up to be warded immediately for observation. It’s been about six days and his condition is improving. He’s at least not going to the bathroom as often now. Hopefully, the infection will clear up and he’ll get to go home soon.

My cat, Lucy will be six years old in December. I still remember the day we brought her home from the SPCA when she was just a scrawny little cat. She’s a full grown cat now and never fail to demand for our attention. She was just pretending to be shy and hiding behind my curtain.

I saw this signage in the ladies’ restroom at Woodlands Civic Centre quite some time ago. I wonder if anyone had taken it down by now. If you happen to visit that restroom, please ensure that you “keep cleaning” the toilets. Hehe…

Wari bought the Coach bag for me when he was in the US a couple of weeks ago. It’s my belated birthday present. I love it!

At a glance, I thought it was just a freckle that suddenly appeared on my left cheek. It didn’t worry me until I realized that the brown spot was growing. Fortunately, it was still a small light brown spot that I could still cover with some foundation and powder. However, I got a bit panicky because I don’t want to end up with a dark patch of skin pigmentation on my face. I quickly rummaged through my drawer for a small bottle of Elizabeth Arden skin whitening serum. After applying the serum on the wretched spot for several days, I could see an improvement in its appearance. The spot stopped growing and became a lighter shade of brown. Now, I can only hope that it will disappear for good in the next few days.

Thanks to Luzian for the lovely photo of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

I took a cab to school today and it cost me exactly $10 inclusive of the $2 peak hour surcharge to travel from my office in Jurong East to NTU. I didn’t mind paying for it because I hate taking the feeder bus service number 179 to campus. It’s always crowded especially in the evening when most people are going home.

My tired mind drifted away as the professor went on and on with her lesson. At times, I had to snap out of it as she went around the class asking questions. Every now and then, I’d look at my watch wishing that I could speed up time so that I could go home and get on with my Scrabulous game, check my emails and watch TV.

Aliya was already asleep when we picked her up from my mother’s place. I need a nice, long shower now.

Yay, the sofa set that we ordered a month ago was finally delivered to our home yesterday. I paid a price for the sofa but it’s definitely worth the money. It’s big and cosy that I almost fell asleep while watching House. I’ve been watching a lot of TV lately and neglecting my books. I’m bad but I’ve got plans to hit the books later today. Really, it’s true. Now I need to get some sleep.

Update: Aliya loves the new sofa too.

Mr D was a hardworking man who managed to meet his sales target despite suffering from stage three nose cancer. He went through chemotherapy and because the cancer was spreading to his bones, he had difficulty moving around. It was painful watching him drag his feet when he came to meet me to submit some cases he had closed. His condition worsened two weeks after the chemo treatment. By then, he was no longer able to work.

I went down to visit Mr D, who was at that time living with his mother and elder brother. What I saw shocked me because he was obviously in great pain, but yet he was propped up on a wooden chair with a pillow behind his back. His medicine bottles were lying around all over the kitchen table. His brother didn’t seem too happy to have visitors in his home. Later that day, I learned from one of my staff that his marriage was on the rocks. His wife and two kids were living separately.

Two weeks later, Mr D succumbed to his illness and passed away in the hospital. His wife called me almost everyday to talk about the dispute between Mr D’s brother and her. According to the wife, she wanted to put him in the hospice where he would get proper medical care rather than being stuck in his brother’s home where he had to remember to take his own medicine. His brother objected violently despite the fact that Mr D had breathing difficulty and needed an oxygen tank. They only took him to the hospital when his condition became critical. During the funeral, the brother approached me to complain about the wife. I simply nodded my head and walked away.

It was very sad for Mr D to leave the world with family members bickering around him. Over the next few weeks after the funeral, I settled all the insurance claims and outstanding commission to be given to his wife. His wife had the habit of coming to my office without prior appointment to check on outstanding claims. Just about a month ago, I cleared the last commission cheque and told the wife that her lawyer has to write officially to the company if he needs more information about Mr D’s insurance coverage. On my part, I had done my job to settle the insurance claims and commission.

As you can see, I’ve changed the design template and also updated my About page. I just realized that it’s sort of therapeutic to mess around with the blog. Kind of strange but it does help to relieve some stress after a long, hard day at work.

Note: Need to change the header image.

I was sitting in the favourite corner of my room doing the usual stuff on my laptop like reading emails and blogs, playing Scrabulous and at the same time contemplating whether I should post an entry on FeistyCat. Then, I thought it was kind of weird that all was so peaceful and quiet in the living room. I opened the bedroom door only to find Aliya dancing in front of the TV to her favourite Hi 5 show. Standing behind her, I was quite amused because she was doing her best to imitate their dance steps and sing the Hi 5 songs. When she caught me watching her, she gave me a broad smile and “shooed” me away. “Mum, can you please do your work in the room?” That was the first time she didn’t want me to be around her. Hmm…do all four-year-old kids love to dance?

Half the day was spent on and off the phone tackling a sticky issue with one of my colleagues. It didn’t help that I was having a bad cramp due to you-know-what time of the month. The phone almost didn’t stop ringing and every now and then I received work related SMS from my team members. At the same time, my boss was bugging me about some sales figures. A colleague from another department claimed that one of my staff, Ms Y was rude and hung the phone up on her. I tried to contact Ms Y but she refused to answer my call. I’m just glad that the day is over and I think that’s my TV calling me. Here’s to another episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

I’ve got two good excuses to skip class this week. It’s fasting month plus the professor is so BORING. Last semester, I did three modules yet I managed to turn up for class quite regularly. This semester, I’m only doing one module plus my dissertation but it seems like such a drag to attend the class on Monday evenings. I don’t seem to learn much because she takes everything from the textbook. It’s as good as self-study.