I'm in men's pyjamas and surfing the interwebz. The boy is sitting on the floor and working on the macbook with only his boxer briefs to retain his modesty. And Sushicat? She's keeping him company and being helpful by soaking up the warm air from the back of the laptop.

I'm glad it's Friday. Time to relax and maybe finish the Enchantress of Florence.

Am I expecting too much?

I mean, it's been a week since my birthday and I've yet to receive a birthday gift from the bf. He says he's been busy with work, money is tight, he's not been feeling well, and the store ran out of the gift he wanted to get for me. I'm so geram and sien lah. For the sakes of non-Malaysians, geram and sien more or less translates to angry/pissed and fed-up.

All those sound like valid reasons but, honestly? I still feel upset about it. I won't deny it.

Maybe it's partly due to hormones because I have pimples sprouting on my back dammit. Maybe it's because I don't expect gifts from friends but I sure as hell expect it from HIM. Maybe it's because I purposely leave my Sundays free so I can spend some quality time in a leisurely manner with him but he says yes to a friend inviting him out for a drink. UGH.

We may live in the same 1325 square foot of space but we sure don't spend the time together! I'm at work the whole day while he works at home. When I get back from work, I'll fix dinner and we'll watch an episode of Dexter or something while eating. After that he goes back to work on the PC and I do my own stuff till it's bedtime. From Wednesday to Saturday, he'll be out attending or shooting events till god knows what time. So when is the ONLY DAY of the week we'll have time to spend together? SUNDAY LAH. ARGH.

Please, am I expecting too much?

I missed home and hearth mightily and it was so good to chill in a laid back town. All I did was eat kolo mee and laksa, sleep, make my brother drive me around, go for a pedicure for the first time ever, and caught up with old, good friends.

I know Andy and I have made a home of our own in this part of the Klang Valley but nothing beats going HOME lah. It was a much-needed whiff of fresh air and the simple life. But actually hor it wasn't so simple cos I did some shopping so there ya go.

A lot more commercial shoplots have mushroomed since my March trip and it's sad to see because it takes a couple of years for a lot of these shoplots to reach at least 50% occupation rate. The Spring (a newish local shopping mall which brought in brands like Guess, Charles & Keith, Padini etc) is barely full on weekends and I don't see a lot of people toting shopping bags. They just hang out, have a meal, do grocery shopping, and window-shop.

One thing though, I walk so fast now that I get annoyed when I'm stuck behind a Kuchingite and can't pass. Seriously.

Can't wait for my next trip in December!

How could I have reached the age of 29 and not know the wonders and delight of a PEDICURE.

The kitten we kept. She was the smallest kitten in the litter and we adore her socks :) Andy wanted a Japanese sounding name and rattled off some which I didn't like, so I said,"How about Sushi?" It stuck and it does fit her because she was small enough to be a bite of sushi.

We could have named her Whiny cos she whines when we pick her up. Maybe Snaky or Twisty since she always wriggles out of our hands. She just didn't like to be carried :)

The sole male of the litter. Boasts a beautiful long tail that just begs to be grabbed. Name coined by Jude or Rozzy (can't remember now!), inspired by his wideset eyes.

They play together, eat together, and sleep together.

Boy cat on the left and Baby on the right.

i've fallen for sushi the cat. i'm such a pushover with her. she can do no wrong. the only reason she's not in bed with me is because andy sleeps there too.

wait, let me start from the very beginning.

sushi is one out of a litter of three. mama cat, a stray whom i call baby (yes, not very imaginative), lives in the back alley of my old Bandar Utama place. she has a few names...tua pui (hokkien for fatty/chubby) and fatty being a couple of them. i think we first saw baby when she was about four or five months old. i looked out the window one evening and saw her sitting on the ledge opposite. we left food for her and her a playmate, an older adolescent male. after a couple of weeks, both cats felt comfortable enough to let us pat and play with them. one day, an older male came around and marked our back alley as his. he chased away the boy cat, whom we only saw once or twice after that, but baby stayed on.

we continued feeding her and allowed her to explore the ground floor of the house. our routine was the same every day. get home after work, open the back door to let baby in, give her some milk or leftover food, play with her, and put her out when it's time for bed. sometimes all we have to do is peek out the window and she'll come running. she became the favourite part of my evenings after work.

earlier this year, around january, we noticed that her tummy was rounder and fuller. we didn't think much of it till Rozzy found a bite mark on baby's neck and commented that she might be preggers. sure enough, baby gave birth to three kittens. when we came back to KL after the March 8 elections, she brought them into the kitchen and never left until we moved house.

for three months the kitchen was a mess. a full litter tray in the adjacent toilet, pails and stools turned upside down, plastic bags in shreds, boxes doubling as hiding place and scratching posts, kitchen and toilet door as scratching posts, stovetop as sleeping place...

when we moved we could only afford to bring and keep one cat. we chose the quiet and sweet-tempered kitty. baby grew up in the back alley and we thought it best to leave her there with the other two kittens. we didn't have money to spare to spay/neuter the three of them. i really wish we did :(

just before we brought sushi over the the condo, we separated her from her littermates and she started meowing non-stop for them. a meow like that just tugs at your heartstrings. in the following days after the move, she continued searching for them. after four weeks, i think she's adapted to her new home and to us. she seeks us out, meows when she wants food/water/play/pats/cuddles, and has been a good girl so far. she likes plastic bags tied up in a knot, string, her hammie (hamster from ikea), and our lap sessions before i go to bed.

we've gone back to the old neighbourhood a couple of times and took a peek at the ones left behind. when we have some money to spare in the next couple of months we'll try our best to get the cats spayed and adopted, hopefully before the kittens reach sexual maturity. we've kept in touch with a couple of neighbours and i'm glad a few of them continue to feed the cats.

i do miss watching them play. i know sushi would probably be a happier cat with one littermate around.

well, we're still very much beginners in the lolcat and hooman business so i hope sushi will tolerate us till we've reached an akseptuhbul layvul ov lolcat an hooman relashions.

i'm back online! it took us four weeks to get the broadband up after moving house. i missed reading my flist!

moving house was hectic, stressful, and super tiring.

we now have a cat. sushi is a four month old female kitty. very sweet face and with the cutest wee socks on her paws.

the apartment has a great view that sweeps from the eye of malaysia to genting highlands. on a clear day it is nearly beautiful :p at night, though it isn't an awesome city lights view, the ones from the flats and streetlights suffice :)

i've been cooking dinner nearly every day. we've been eating our meals on the coffee table. i'll be glad when we can afford to buy some dining chairs and have a proper sit down dinner.

we haven't bought and installed some ceiling lights. something to do this weekend.

the tv died last weekend so we also need to buy one. we'll probably get a secondhand one because that's all we can afford.

the best thing about it is that this is our very own place :D

I found this video via this post.

Lovely voice, wonderfully old-fashioned feel to the song, and I would love to watch her perform live one day :)

I'm going in to Optimax TTDI for the LASIK procedure this afternoon. Am feeling a bit nervous about it so might just have to ask for a oral sedative. After 21 years of wearing specs, it feels quite over-whelming. I must admit I made up my mind pretty quickly about it but it's been sitting at the back of my mind for the past 5 years. The optometrist who did my eye exam told me that my left eye will definitely have 20/20 vision but my right eye may not. Will update once I return from the procedure.

These are photos Andy took of Seri Maya condo when we went to pick up the keys to our unit on the 23rd. It was exciting to finally see the unit but I must admit it wasn't a wholly happy occasion with recent developments. Anyway, thought it'd be nice to put up some photos of the place :)


More photos here.

OMG, I just jogged six times around the neighbourhood playground and I nearly died lah. Based on my rough calculation that's about 2km. Fourth time jogging since last Monday and that's not too shabby, considering that the last time I jogged consistently was 4 years ago!

About Andy and I, we're on a timeout. We're still working out what needs to get done. Believe it or not but I've bought three books on marriage counselling! Timing pretty much sucks because our Seri Maya condo unit is ready, we've picked up the keys, and family and friends expects us to move in soon. Sigh. We haven't told our parents that we're on a timeout.

I can tell you this lah...after my last entry I cried nearly every day for about two weeks.

Talking to the sweeties A and J helped loads. Talking to that hawt beb Munira and the smiley Jun also helped. Thank you for the comments left at my last entry. I received e-mails and SMSes from concerned friends and I really appreciate the hands reaching out to me, the ears and shoulders offered, and, also most memorable, an offer to pig out at delicious @ Bangsar Village!

I alternate between anger, sadness, frustration, longing, desire, pain, and every manner of emotions one experiences during this kind of situation. It's so freaking hard to try and detach myself from this when we're still staying in the same house but I really have no heart to force him out too. He plans to see through his contract and go full-time into photography by next March. He's got events and weddings every weekend till end of the year. He's on the computer every night editing photos and working on photo albums.

Our condo unit was supposed to be our home and his studio. We talked about travelling to Bali some time next year. Our families expects us to get married soon. He says he's been holding on for the past three years and doesn't know if he can do that anymore. I've been holding on too but I thought we were OK. I thought we would eventually work certain issues out. I know I've been stubborn like a mule before and, of course, now I want to do every single damn thing to make US work, or at least get us back on that track, you know?

I've stopped crying but it hurts inside. Hah! As if I'm the only person in the world to experience this. It always seems that way, doesn't it? It's funny how self-absorbed we are when it comes to matters of the heart.

I guess I'll have to take this one day at a time, huh?

Anyway, I've just had a good sweat and I'm entitled to a pat on the back! Hehehe. Man, I sweat like a babi (pig in Malay) lah! Now I'm all cooled down so off I go for a shower.

I don't know what to do anymore. I've had the rug pulled out from under my feet. I'm all the cliches you've ever heard about broken hearts. I've hurt him, he's hurt me, and we don't know how to move forward. Everyone says time will tell but the process to get there will be agonizing.

RWMF 07 gets 6/10 from me. IMHO the best act was Huun Huur Tu, the throat-singing fellas and the Russian DJs. The moment they started their act I was so excited. Not fan-girly but all WHOA, AWE, and PHWOAAAAAR. Yes, only caps does them JUSTICE. Second best act was Aseana Percussion Unit. DEWD, 'Rasa Sayang' and 'Burung Kakak Tua' are the best songs ever k!!! Third best act was Shannon, the Celtic music playing band from Poland of all places hehehehe. The most weird act has got to go to Fady, the Lebanese one that played on the first night. They profess to play Arabic music with a touch of English music. Their first couple of songs sounded appropriately Arabic but after that their DJ played 'Hips Don't Lie' -.- and continued with other club hits while playing Arabic tunes in between. I guess that's what they meant by Arabic music mixed with English music.

I got sucked into the HP hype and bought a copy for myself. I'm up to page 257. Yes, I'm not a marathon reader and I also know what happens at the end thanks to a certain psychoticbunny. But I don't mind. I've been supercurious about how it all ends anyway and I'm not so particular about spoilers like some friends heeheh

On the shopping front I must say that I've done pretty well for myself. This month I bought 4 pairs of shoes, 4 t-shirts, a pair of shorts, and 2 sleeveless tops from Zara sale. Last month's shopping damages resulted in a black and white hibiscus pattern dress from Peddlers, a white dress with red polka dots from Forever21, a pair of SUPERCUTE blackshorts with adorable trimming from Forever21, and a pink floral smock tube top from the XOXO sale. teeheehee.

Brekkie for this sunny Saturday morning is week-old kolo mee that Andy brought back from Kuching just for me. And he bought the kind with leftover char siu drippings. And he bought them from AH PING at Tabuan Jaya. Yumyumyum.

Andy just bought a new steering wheel. He was happily installing it and quite literally tooting his horn when he discovered only one side is working. I tried really hard not to snort when he told me this in his disappointed little boy voice. This coming from a grown man of 30 years!

He is still tooting away. Long blasts and short ones. I think our neighbours hate us now. I bet they will have a celebration when we move out next year because they've had to endure seeing his car in various states of repair and modding. Hee hee hee :D