A few weeks ago our nephews (and eldest nephew's fiancee) came over and they brought a cat with them and the cat reminds me of my one and only cat when I still lived at home in Indo as they're both ginger cats. You see, my mom never allowed us to have any pets (with the exception of fish) because she sold food for a living and she was afraid that the food would be contaminated/stolen/ruined. One day, though, an old female cat (our neighbour's cat) came to our doormat with a baby ginger cat and she was breastfeeding him. My mom allowed them to stay outside as long as they didn't get inside. I actually don't think she was the baby cat's mother, as it was rare for a cat mother to have only one baby (I know this because she had had some babies beforehand and I'd seen her try to move them around).
This tiny little ball of ginger cat was so cute that I just had to try to pet him. He was pretty unique because his tail was a short swirl, so he could only move it a little bit (tick-tock movement) instead of swishing it about the way other cats could. He was so full of love and trust that I just fell in love with him just like that. However, knowing that my mom didn't like pets, I usually just pet him near the doormat and then let him go. One time, though, I picked him up and started petting him on my lap on the sofa and then he fell asleep! That was the moment that did it for me. :-D
So since then we started feeding him (as he got bigger already) outside the house, though we wouldn't let him stay inside until we finally got my mom's approval. Yep, the ginger furball melted my mom's heart, so we took him in and he became our cat. He picked the corner sofa as his sleeping place. He could do his business already as the surrogate mom had taught him how to do it and he never jumped to our dining table, either. As he was an outdoor cat, he'd go out and play a lot, but whenever he was home and we were eating something, he'd beg us to give him some (very politely and gently, never clawing or stealing). I think, though, he was deformed or something because he never grew big. He did grow to perhaps 2/3 of a size of an adult cat, so he always looked so cute because of his smaller size.
One time he went out to play and didn't come back for weeks and when he finally came back, he had probably gotten stuck somewhere because he was so dirty and my mom had to bathe him (yep, the mom that usually didn't want anything to do with a cat!). I have plenty of fond memories feeding him and scratching and petting him. He'd even let me pet him in his sleep. He never really liked it if his tail was touched, though. I suspected that he knew his tail was different, so he was self-conscious about it, but whenever he was purring happily as he was being petted, his swirly tail would go tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock. So cute! :-D
Our only regret was that we never took pictures of him. At the end of his days, though, he got really sick and despite the fact that we took him to a vet and gave him medication, he kept on becoming more and more frail. He couldn't even jump to the sofa anymore, so I picked him up and set him on the sofa (thinking he wanted to rest), but he looked at me and meowed, begging me to put him back to the floor. I put him back gently to the floor and he left. That was the last time we had ever seen him. I think he didn't want us to see his last breath. We all shed some tears that day.
Anyway, I took some photos of my nephew's cat, so here goes...unfortunately she didn't really like being petted, so my consolation was to take her photos ha ha ha...So imagine a smaller version of this cat with a swirly tail. That was our cat!
1. Meeting MC and having fun at her place.
2. Having a chance to play with her pets.
3. Receiving a BEAUTIFUL card from Crystal. THANK YOUUUUUUUUUU, Buddy!!!!
4. Purplish sky. I've never seen purplish sky before, but I went out just now to buy some milk at Lidl and the sky was SO lovely.
5. Hubby coming to Lidl to pick me up and drop me off at home, but then he had to go somewhere still to work. I called him from Lidl since I realized that I was going to buy heavy stuff and it was snowing pretty heavily outside (it was rather tough to see).
6. The joy of living in a small village. It only took a few minutes for hubby to pick me up, drop me off, and go somewhere, so it wasn't really a hassle after all. But I still APPRECIATE what he did VERY much. :-))))
7. Splurging on a frozen duck. MC told me about this and since I LOVE ducks, I couldn't resist. So I splurge on 1.5 kg of frozen duck, costing me €9.99. Well, I won't die just because I overspend my grocery budget once in a blue moon, right? HE HE HE HE HE...I can't wait until I get to bake the duck, but I'm going to wait a while. We still have plenty of food to eat right now. *drool*
8. Not having a nose that's too sensitive, yet it still works well enough to make me a foodie HE HE HE HE HE...It's just that my hubby has a very sensitive nose, so he can smell bad things SO easily. I'm glad I'm not THAT sensitive!!!!
Additional beautiful things I've forgotten to write down:
*** Vi complimented me. Twice. She said that I looked younger than my age and she thought I was smart HE HE HE HE HE HE...
1. Finding frozen salmon on sale. It was only about €8.55 per kilogram (normally it would be around €10 and frozen fish is usually around €15-17). I baked it in the oven and it tasted GOOD!!! ;-D This is the FIRST time I could afford buying fish HUE HE HE HE HE HE...so I'm SO HAPPY!!!!!
2. A few seconds ago I received payment already from BuyBlogReviews. What a PLEASANT surprise!!! I wrote my first assignment for them on January 1st, but I got paid already today! I was thinking that I'd only get paid on 15th. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BuyBlogReviews!!!!
3. Making my own risoles - it took me 3 hours. Yes, I'm a slow cook. It took me an hour to make the wrappers - just like regular thin pancakes (flour, baking power, eggs, milk, a pinch of salt). Then it took me another hour to make the filling hi hi hi hi...and to add this and that so that it tasted delicious!!! Then it took another hour to roll them on eggs and bread crumbs and then deep-frying them. But they were SO VERY DELICIOUS!!! This is my first attempt, so I'm SO happy I could make them EXACTLY like I liked them!!! (I'm gonna post the pic later on, OK?)
4. The anticipation rising inside me 'coz I'm going to bring some risoles for my Brit friend tomorrow. I hope she likes it. After all, she likes spicy food and I added some hot chili imported from Holland to the filling HE HE HE HE HE...
5. Being able to play with my Brit friend's pets tomorrow. She has 2 cats, 2 kittens, one puppy, and one dog HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...YAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!
I was going to post a link to my wedding pics as those of you who've known me later in this blogosphere probably haven't seen them yet. Karen has asked me to show my wedding pics, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait 'coz photobucket's undergoing maintenance right now. But I promise you, Karen, that I'll show you my wedding pics, OK? HE HE HE HE HE...Now let me talk about my killer Math teacher in High School. Since Trin also went to the same High School (a couple of years my senior, though), I bet she knew the guy, as well he he he...He's been VERY famous in my school.
I've never been too good at Math, though I've never really been bad at it, either. My High School was considered one of the best in Bandung. Every year on our senior year, we have to go through a National Exam. The national exam comprises of several subjects, one of which is Math. My High School had held the highest mean score in this national Math exam, so my killer teacher wanted us to get good scores for the exam.
The year before I became a senior at that school, the mean score was 79, so that killer teacher wanted us to get at least 80 for EVERY test that he gave us. If we got a lower score than that, then we would have to stay at school after everybody went home to do some exercises. He would appoint his star kids to help us do the exercises after school. Sometimes the punishment was to write down our test 5 times to make sure that we'd remember the right answers. I managed to get good grades most of the time, but there were a few times when I had to do the punishment. YIKES!!!!
He was always single and skinny. He had perfect teeth 'coz he brought a toothbrush to school. He'd brush his teeth after lunch (I caught him do that once). He also demanded the kids to sit up straight during his classes and not to slouch on our chairs. He also demanded us to be quiet, otherwise he might throw the eraser or anything toward the student who talked a lot. He also demanded enough supply of chalk of different colours 'coz he loved writing notes on the blackboard with different colours of chalk. Though skinny, his voice was SO booming. Whenever he got angry and yelled at us, his voice could be heard over three classrooms!!!!!
Back in those days, the class organizers would appoint which kids had duties on which days (the girls had to prepare the chalk for the teachers and get the table cloth for the teacher's desk and the flowers, whereas the boys would have to take turns cleaning up the blackboard right after the teacher finished writing something all over it). So whoever had duties on the days he had his lessons would have to be PREPARED!!! If one of the boys in charge to clean the blackboard didn't come up right away to clean it, he would get mad. He'd also get mad if the girls in charge didn't prepare enough chalk of different colours for him.
The girls had to go to this office to get the chalk. The problem was that the guy in charge of giving the chalk was VERY stingy. He wouldn't allow us to bring as many chalks as we wanted to, so we always had to fight with him to get more chalk he he he he...Crazy indeed!!! ;-D
Anyway, our fave day was on his birthday. We knew he was single and he LOVED pets, so on his birthday, the students would always bought him rabbits or turtles or cute yellow chicks and we'd throw a little party. Why? Because only on that day he'd loosen up and joke with us and forget about lessons and exams. Only on that day we could all HAVE FUN with him without feeling any pressure. We'd bring balloons and a cake, as well he he he he...Yeah, so festive!!!
One bad thing about him was that back then, usually he would ask the boys to go to his place after school as punishment for getting bad grades. However, sometimes he'd ask the students to post something for him or escort him somewhere instead of making them do exercises. This made the male students upset and angry. Thus during my last year in High School, the boys finally couldn't take it anymore and they reported him to our headmaster. So for the last few weeks before our national exam, the teacher was suspended from teaching us. What happened during his lessons, then? We all had fun playing games with one another ha ha ha ha ha...
Then right before national exam started, our killer Math teacher came into our classroom along with our headmaster and apologized formally in front of us. He shook all our hands and it was such a touching moment. I saw some of the male students' eyes got wet because of that. All's well that ends well, I guess.
I remember one funny incident, though. When he was still teaching, the girl that sat next to me (who became one of my closest friends) was VERY GOOD at Math. My Math teacher appointed her to be one of the kids who helped other students do exercises after school as punishment for getting bad grades in his tests. One time my Math teacher told me to solve something on the blackboard. You see, in our school, we had to go up two steps (on a kind of stairs) in order to write something on the blackboard 'coz the blackboard was hung high on the wall. I knew I couldn't solve that particular Math problem, so I was SO afraid when I stepped on the stairs. Before I knew it, I thought there was some kind of small earthquake 'coz the stairs kept on moving. But then I realized that my legs were SHAKING so badly and since the stairs weren't too level on the ground, then it shook along with my legs, can you believe it? Funnily, the teacher didn't scold me like he used to do when he realized I couldn't solve it. Maybe he understood how scared I was by seeing my legs so that he just let me go that one time he he he he...
Ahhhh...memoriessss...I'm SO glad I only had one killer teacher in my entire life. No more, please he he he he...
Post Note: I got a VERY good Math score on my national exam that year. I think that year we managed to beat the previous year's mean Math score. ;-D
