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!
I've been taking a long break from my PC because I've had trouble with my wrist/mouse hand/thumb. And it doesn't look like my wrist likes doing certain yoga poses, either, so I've been trying to avoid doing yoga poses that would put too much pressure on my wrists and I opt to do other types of exercises in the meantime (though other parts of my body enjoy some yoga stretches). Anyhow, this summer reminds me a bit of Indonesian rainy season because it's rained a lot. This is definitely the wettest summer that I've ever encountered ever since I moved to Finland (and the greyest/coldest too!). I've been forced to use my SAD lamp this week because my brain feels like hibernating already due to the lack of sunlight. Anyway, I was doing some house chores today when I was reminded of the term "anak bawang" or "onion kid". I used to play a lot with my cousins and neighbours when I was young (back then a computer was considered a luxury, only owned by rich people and even then the computer was still so basic LOL!!!) so kids played a lot outside with other kids. The term "anak bawang" was used a lot at that time. It means someone who's given some slack in joining any game due to their (young) age/lack of comprehension of the game rules. Being "anak bawang" also means that you're at the bottom of the ladder, so usually you don't get to decide what to play because the games you master are the simpler ones, so you're mostly merely tagging along with the older kids. It's definitely not a nice feeling to be called "anak bawang" or "onion kid" because it means you're not taken seriously, though at the very least the older kids do let you join in their games. Still, when you're called "anak bawang", you can't help but to wish to grow up quickly he he he he he... Do you have such a term when you were a child in your own country, I wonder? :-)
When I was in Elementary School and Junior High School (pre-internet/mobile phone days), on the last grade of both schools female students usually distributed a memory book (or "Buku Kenangan" in Indonesian) to her classmates to fill. The book was usually a hard-bound diary-like notebook (the size of which was usually more or like a paperback) with a cute cover and on the front page the owner of the book would write some introduction. The idea was that before the students graduated (sometimes this meant they went separate ways), they wrote down their details for the memory book owner to keep after graduation.
The classmates would then fill up the memory book with their names, address, phone numbers, hobbies, birth date, what they wanted to be when they grew up, their motto, their fave colour, etc. It could be as detailed, artistic, and colourful as they wanted it to be or it could be very plain and short (not too many details given). It was all up to the students themselves. The classmates could pick whichever page(s) they wanted to write down their details on, so one of the exciting things about getting the book back was to find out where he/she had written down their details on he he he...Another exciting thing was that if you had a crush on a boy, you could find out more about him after he filled in his details in your memory book HA HA HA HA HA...
So the book owner usually gave the book to her BFF(s) and seatmate first and then she'd hand it over to her other classmates. Ideally the classmates took it home with them and then return it to the owner within a day or two, though sometimes the boys would forget about it and the owner had to ask them to remember to bring it back. Some boys didn't even bother taking it home, so instead they fill it up during a break and returned it immediately to the owner.
I distributed this kind of memory book in Junior High and kept it for years, though my mom has burnt a lot of my stuff after I moved to Finland. I remember some of the more artistic classmates would doodle or draw some stuff on their page. I myself loved adding colours when I filled up someone else's memory book, so I'd usually use different pens to write down my details he he he he...I'm not sure who or how the whole thing started, but I kinda like the idea of having my classmates write their own details in a memory book. Different handwritings, different styles.
Have you ever had this kind of trend back in your days? For some reason, this trend stopped altogether in High School (nobody ever gave me any memory book by then).
Sometimes love is looking at someone's eyes - a deep and searching gaze - to make sure that the other person is okay. No words necessary. Just a loving, thoughtful gaze that lets you know that the other person cares about you that much. Drops of precious love pouring over you in those extra seconds, quenching your parched heart. And all you can say is: "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
The longer I stay in Finland, the more mixed-up my English becomes. Let me give you some example while they're still fresh in my mind. I realize that these days my past tense use in English has sometimes been mixed up with Finnish.
Here's a set of Finnish, Indonesian, and English sentences as comparison:
- Sinä nukuit hyvin. (You slept well). - Nukuitko sinä hyvin? (literal translation: Slept you well?)
- Kamu tidur nyenyak. (You slept well.) - Kamu tidur nyenyak? (You slept well?) - You slept well. - Did you sleep well?
Notice that in the Finnish language, in the question form, the verb doesn't change at all, though there's the additional "-ko" ending to denote that it's a question instead of a statement. So sometimes when talking to my husband, I'd blurt out, "Did you slept well?" instead of "Did you sleep well?" as the wires of my brain criss-cross between English and Finnish. And in Indonesian language nothing actually changes, only the intonation changes (going up at the end of the question).
Another example was my use of the word "psychologist". In Finnish, it's "psykologi" and in Indonesian language it's "psikolog". At that time I was writing in English and I wanted to write "psychologist", but instead I wrote "psykolog" (a weird combo of the Finnish and Indo version of the word) HA HA HA HA HA HA...
And don't mention the mix-ups I have with "him", "her", "his", "hers" because both in Finnish and Indonesian there's only one word for both genders. This has been happening since a long time ago. Ah, brain! :-D What an adventure you've had HA HA HA HA HA HA...
The other day I woke up very early due to some shoulder pain/strain that went up to my neck. As I thought I couldn't go back to sleep, I went downstairs to do some gentle neck stretches. However, soon after I got really sleepy again, so I decided to just sleep on the sofa. I closed the blinds and grabbed a blanket and slept with my clothes and socks on (like taking a nap). Hubby woke me up when he woke up to go to work. He walked round and round the house (from the living room to computer room to kitchen to the coat room back to the living room) while brushing his teeth with an electric brush. The noise from the electric brush was so loud that it woke me up. Unfortunately I had no energy to tell him to stop, so I went back to sleep after he stopped brushing. After he came back home from work, he confessed that he had not seen me AT ALL while he walked around the rooms like that (during his tooth-brushing session). He only realized I was sleeping there when my alarm beeped and I turned it off (he was in the toilet at that time). I couldn't believe my ears! I told him, "How can you have missed seeing me? I mean, I'm 50 kgs, not just a kilo of meat!" Anyway, he was so glad that I hadn't said a thing to him at all when he didn't realize I was there (about the loud toothbrush), because if I had said something to him, he may have had a heart attack.To make things worse, he
even went near the sofa at one point to open the blinds, so he could have seen me
then, but he said I was neatly wrapped under the blanket that he just
didn't realized! Goodness!!! It's still an impossible thing to
experience, don't you think? We both had a good laugh at this story, though he he he he he he...and now I know that when he's brushing his teeth in the morning, he goes round and round the connecting rooms HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
1. Hearing someone else I just met praise hubby (he got to know R2 through work). :-) He said, "You've got a great guy." Thank you for your genuine compliment! :-D 2. Spending quality time with family over Midsummer and having BBQ twice outside despite the cool weather. We had some chicken fajitas with tortilla wraps and then some sausages. Grilled sausages are the best! :-D
ARRRRRRGGHHHHH!!!! I just did something stupid! I've just added a new memory card to my mobile to make sure I have enough room for my photos. After the memory card was added, I transferred the photos I took with my mobile straight to that memory card. The problem is that it automatically started numbering my photos from zero again. I was transferring the photos to My Pictures and for some reason I must've clicked the wrong option, so the photos that had the same numbers as the older photos I had transferred to my HD were gone. And the stupid thing was that I didn't even check first, so right after the photos were transferred, I deleted the files from my mobile. Dohhhh!!!
They're not really such important photos (thankfully), but still it's a shame to lose those photos. Next time I will never delete before checking first. Here are some of the photos that didn't get lost. I made some more kaleidoscope photos the other week.
Here are two original photos:
And the kaleidoscope versions of those photos:
I actually had other versions of the kaleidoscope photos (in one of them, it showed that R2 with two heads), but unfortunately they got lost. Ugh! Oh well...
Anyhow, the beginning of summer here has been CCCCCOOOOOOLLLLDDDD. Yesterday was not such a bad day because the sun was partly shining and when the clouds weren't covering it, it was warm enough to sunbathe outside (with a jacket still 'coz the wind was cold). Back in May we had a day that was as warm as 20'C, but after that it just went downhill. The weather prediction for this week is so bad that we're still using our winter blanket (usually by this time we're already using our summer blanket). That said, I've planted some flowers in our flower bed outside.
Midnight Film Sun Festival has come and gone. I've seen lots of tourists wearing woolen hats and winter jackets as the nights were brrrrr he he he he he...The best thing about this year's Midnight Sun Film Festival was the sushi being sold in one of the stands (well, actually a car)! In a place where there's no Chinese or Asian restaurant, it's a treat! :-D
This is the delicious sushi portion that I had when I went out with my friends to check out the crowd. €11 per portion. I really hope they'll come back next year he he he he...
OK, I'll do some blog-hopping now, but before I leave, enjoy this music:
The other day I was getting ready to meet up with some friends and I hastily grabbed a pair of clean jeans and put them on as I had no time to waste. I didn't want to get up too early because I had slept late the night before, but I didn't want to be late, either. I rode my bike with some difficulty as it was such a windy day. The wind force caused the awning of a restaurant to be flailing up and down, threatening to fly away and hurt people. Thankfully the restaurant workers managed to take it down in time. I arrived earlier than my friends, so I went to the cafe and ordered a cake and a cup of tea. Halfway through my delicious chocolate roll, the first friend arrived. She ordered some food and then we started chit-chatting about various topics. About an hour later, another friend arrived, so the conversation became more dynamic. Until then, I didn't notice anything wrong. I ordered some sandwich and some more tea as I had skipped breakfast, but then my first friend had to go, so the two of us continued catching up on stuff. When my friend went to talk to the cafe worker about something, I finally noticed a soft bumpy area on the side of my right leg. Hmmm...what is this bump? I wondered. It feels soft and uneven, kinda like...fabric???? My right hand kept on running through the bump, trying to figure out what it was. A second later realization started sinking in. OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Could it be tissue paper? Did I accidentally drop some tissue paper onto the leg of my jeans instead of the toilet bowl at home? Ewwwww!!! So I rushed to the toilet and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw what was inside my jean leg.
A pair of clean, folded-up cotton panties. I have no idea how the panties ended up there, but I was laughing hysterically as I was telling hubby about this incident HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHHH...
I haven't been in the mood to blog, even though I do have lots of ideas and stories to tell still. The bad thing is that the travel journals are better off written when they're still fresh in my mind, but lethargy has overpowered me. Anyway, in order not to let this blog rot to silence, let me just post some flower photos in the time being.
I took these photos with my mobile and played with different features. There's a mirror effect, kaleidoscope effect, as well as a feature where I can simply tap on the screen to put colours on some parts of the scenery. Quite fun!
