when idiots come a running

What do you do when a highly illogical, nonsensical person comes and assumes the worst about your life and blasts away?

If it was any other person at the street, I would probably just tell them to bugger off and walk away.

But when it's family. You don't.

You reply, you explain, you try to make them understand that it is not right, not right to keep attacking and making completely baseless, idiotic accusations.

...

But how much? How much of these do I tolerate?

We are both happy. Happy with each other, happy with our lives. We don't need to hear otherwise.

We don't need her assumptions that we are torturing our pets, that we're making them do things against their will just because we're attached to them.

WHAT AN IDIOT.

My patience is running low. Very very low. When it runs OUT, that's when you have to be very careful.

The perfect tree

What makes the perfect christmas tree?

The perfect christmas tree is not only beautiful and well proportioned.

It represents the joy and excitement we felt when we found it tree hunting a forthnight (on Sunday evening mind!) before Christmas when all the other nice trees were already gone.

It represents the gratitute we received when we paid £30 to the keen, helpful and friendly old man sat out in the cold who sold us the tree.

It represents the smile on a little boy's face when he spotted the perfect tree. His first perfect christmas tree.

It represents friendship, as Michael attempts to decorate and light up the tree.

Most importantly, it represents a young family snug and happy in their very first home celebrating Christmas in it for the very first time.

Tube drivers can be so much fun

In another run-and-gun post, here's what I heard on my train this morning:

"It would be nice ladies and gentlemen if we could mind the closing does. Contrary to popular belief, beep-beep-beep does not mean 'Quick, get on the train it's about to leave'; beep-beep-beep in fact means 'You've missed it'"

and, on the same train 10 minutes later

"Ladies and gents, I'm afraid the train has developed a slight fault, I'm going to have to turn it off and on again much like you would a computer. Back on the move again in a minute or two"

Bunny Three Quarters

We drove up to Darlington last Friday to collect the newest addition to our family. Yes, there was snow in Darlington, 3 inches thick to be exact, but we made it there and back safely.

We named her Bunny Three Quarters and if you have a look at her picture, you'll understand why

Bunny (previously Hannah) was found as a stray and brought into a kennel. They later found her previous owners but they refused to pay the kennel fee to get her back. I'm guessing they weren't too keen on having her home or perhaps they really couldn't afford the fee.

She was then handed into Dogs Trust where we adopted her.

She is not a very big dog, just slightly larger than Bronx and unfortunately that intimidates him a little bit. They are not enemies and they do like each other, but are still sorting out hierarchical issues..

We have no idea how she lost her leg but the vet's notes from Dogs Trust said that she is an amputee.. considering she has a tendency to run out into traffic when we take her out, I'm guessing she must have had an accident with a vehicle.

My parents are officially baffled as to why we keep bringing old, disabled pets home. They figured after Jake passed on that we would probably go and adopt a proper, blemish free puppy.

The thing is.. we don't see Bronx, Bunny or Wibble as imperfect. Sure, they have a disability. In Bronx's case, he's just old. But that doesn't make him any less of a good dog.

Bunny hops around when she walks but when she runs in the fields she's as normal as any other German Sheppard.

Wibble is 3/4 blind, but he's as naughty as his brother. He goes places he's not supposed to. He reaches for things he isn't supposed to be able to reach. He eats the door, the door frame, boxes, books, cables.. anything he isn't supposed to eat. The only difference is that he's a lot more paranoid but he finds comfort in long sessions of chin rubbing.

We take them in because we know we are willing to deal with these issues. We are willing to sit with Wibble for hours to give him a chin massage to reassure him that everything is okay and Chicken Pie was just being bossy boots. We took the dogs home to be part of our family, not to have them as guard dogs.

It is miles away from the Malaysian mentality where German Sheppards and other bigger dogs are prized and encouraged to be aggresive to ward off potential thieves or robbers.

Our pets are part of the family, they are loved, cared for and they give back, not by guarding our house, but by loving us the same.

Oldy Poldy

Sainsbury's is having a 25% sale on all nintendo consoles at the moment and the husband very 'casually' hinted about wanting to get a DS. :P

Heh... Apparently 'it's so cheap.. the best deal on the market'..

So we went along and got one last week. You could see the husband and brother's eyes grow bigger as the cashier bagged the brand new toy.

These boys are strange, fat, smelly creatures.

Anyway.. we were playing with the DS's camera and the husband took this:-

I didn't realise how much older we both look now..

Time goes by quite quickly these days with all the work piling up, and I cannot ask for anything better but to have him with me.

We have been growing up together since we were 18.. what could be better than to grow up with your best friend?

Like sand on my feet

Took some time off my assignment this evening to play the guitar..

Played this song and it made me think of Jake..

Like sand on my feet
The smell of sweet perfume
You stick to me forever baby
I wish you didn't go,
I wish you didn't go,
I wish you didn't go away
To touch you again,
With life in your hands.
It couldn't be any harder..

We miss you Jakey boy..

Smelly Boy

Smelly boy is back in London! Well.. he's been here for about a month now but we've been so busy we have no time to write or take a photo of him.

His UPSR results came out today and the smart boy got all 7A's.. as expected.. you don't get 6A's during the trials and not get full A's during the real exam..

He is a lot smarter than his sister.. luckily for him.

I used to get some A's B's C's D's?? Haha.. for trials that is.. the real exam though.. I do reasonably well.

He couldn't get the results himself being so far away from Ipoh so the parents went to school and got it for him. They are obviously very proud..

Anyway.. the lucky boy is in for a truck load of presents and prizes..

We are enjoying having him around.. bossing him.. rubbing his smelly head while he's still 12 and smelly and not a grumpy teenager YET..

And Bronx is especially delighted as he has a new butt scratcher.. Haha!

The matter of most importance..

Unfortunately we can't tell you why or where this photo was taken but suffice to say, it was a good day and it reminded me of the promises we made to each other..

It is a great blessing to find someone you love who loves you back the same, someone to wake up to every morning and someone to share your day stories with as you fall asleep at night.

To have and to hold..

Numbed finger and strained thumb

One belongs to the husband, the other to me..

What caused it? The bloody kitchen tiles we removed last week.

No.. I never imagined it would be that hard to remove kitchen tiles when floor boards can just be yanked off (okay.. they are laminates.. but still...)

Hummmmmmmmm...

The lucky man has gone off to work and as I do not have classes today................

I'll be painting the kitchen and cutting underfloor heating boards to fit the floor.

...............

The job itself it actually not that bad once you get started and going but after a whole week of full time building, it really isn't something you jump up for anymore..

Even poor Bronxie is miserable.. he's probably wondering what happened to his home and why mummy haven't had time to sit with him for hours just stroking his head.

On a brighter note.. we are half way there.. just some more painting, second coats, sanding, connecting the underfloor heating, flooring, tiling, assembling the kitchen..

I make it sound so easy.

The dad have been pretty impressed with what we've done and the amount of work we've taken on ourselves and stuck to.

We haven't really given in to much hiring. The electricals had to be done by an electrician, the rooflights we were scared of falling off the roof, the outside tap... hmm.. we met a very nice plumber who is very fatherly.

Everything else have been done by us.

We are now considering getting someone to do the flooring but that's mainly because we don't have the right equipment and it's too much hassle to rent it for a small floor surface.

So all in all, we are mighty proud :) Yeap, doing all these and learning them while we are young and able.

I know some people don't believe in it but we have learnt so much through this build it is all worth it.

Personally I don't understand how people who don't understand building work can hire someone else and just leave them to the job without trying to understand it beforehand or doing it themselves!

It is expensive and if they were to do a botched job you will never even know!

Anyway.. it is almost 9... so I'll have to start my day

Little things that make me laugh

In the interests of maintaining a small claim on authorship of this blog, here's a sign I saw in Boots today that made me laugh:

Carpenter boy

Our house has very strange designs mainly the open tread staircase (which apparently allows light through so that the hall is brighter).. and some really strange swirly ugly old fashioned ceiling plaster.

Apparently it was the trend during the 80's (which was when our house was built).

Actually, thinking about it, the stairs in my home in Ipoh were also open tread and I remember my mum telling me about my dad laying carpet over it so I wouldn't fall through the holes while I was young.

The man was very proud of what he did for his daughter.. what I didn't get though was his choice of carpet colour! It was dark red :P Bleah...

Thankfully the husband had a better idea and instead of just putting carpet over the open treads we filled it up with a plank of wood supported by some wooden sticks on the back of it.

Almost done!

 

Handsome carperter boy..

Obviously, a proper carpenter might have been able to stick those sticky things in a straight line.. hehe.. unfortunately I was doing them and as long as they stay where they are.. I'm not fussed.

Plus.. we are eventually going to put in an understairs storage area so all that ugly work is going to be covered up.

Another job we've done with the help of Mike and Juan is this

Mike and his favourite tool.. that man is destructive!

We also put in solar lights upstairs in the corridor and bathroom as it was very dark. Will put the pictures up someday.. we paid to have them put up instead of doing it ourselves though.. It involved climbing up to the roof and cutting holes so we figured 2 clumsy fat people up there wouldn't be the smartest thing to do!

Haha..

Bossy boss

10.36 on a Saturday night and guess what's the husband doing?

He's sorting out the plumbing/boiler upstairs.

And has been since last Saturday......

We've had to live without hot water the entire week because the boiler stuff is taking a LOT longer than we anticipated.

The poor thing have probably spent almost 25 hours or more on it by now.

It's taking so long because of inexperience.

When it's all done, he says he will write about it because it is his 'grand design'.

I, on the other hand.. can't really do much except to get out of his way and be bossy every now and again.

Well.. all that and also learning about HTML, CSS, XML and a host of others which are all as good as aliens to me but will have to be learnt if I want to get good grades for the digital document management course..

At least I only need to know what they are capable of doing and how everything sorts of ties in.

All that so that I can go boss developers in the future.. bwahhahahahahaah....

Happy Babby boy

The husband was at Bury yesterday for a training session and they had him do one of the 'tell one false and true fact about yourself' exercise and everyone else is supposed to guess which one is true.

His first 'fact' was : I'm from Singapore, I have been here since 2004 where I did my undergraduate degree.

His second fact was : I'm 24 and I have been married for a year and a bit.

I thought he pulled quite a good bluff and without his wedding ring (he doesn't wear it because it became too loose after he lost weight) it's probably quite hard to tell that he's married.

Apparently though.. they all guessed correctly.

They said that he looked really happy and contented when he revealed that he was married.. so they guessed it to be true.

Hmmm...

= )

It makes me really happy to know that he's.. well.... happy..

And to know that other people can actually see and tell that he's happy to be married is priceless.

It makes everything that's already good so much better.

Gary the snail

Some weekends ago we went to Southside for some fishfood and bones for Bronx and there we found

Gary the snail! He's really rather interesting and very brave.. circling the tank again and again.. ignoring the fat goldfishes and gangster minnows.

And here's mummy's boy looking for a pat on his head for being a good boy while she was at work.

Work work work

We always wondered what would happen when we both found permanent work in the City and have to travel in everyday 9 – 5.30.

Well.....

Now we know.. It is hard.

We have to be up by 6.30am to get things done and take Bronx out for a short walk before packing up and leaving the house by 8.

Also, bed time is now 10 with preparing dinner, washing up and preparing tomorrow’s lunch all packed in that little time we have at home.

Fortunately for us, this is all temporary.

The husband has been working from home a bit the past weeks as we’ve got tradesmen coming to deal with the electrics among other things.

The wall in between the living room and kitchen is now down.

The house is literally a building site..

We hope to be done by the end of next month and next week, I’m going back to school!

Teehee!

Oh.. and we have a new addition to the family, but that's a story for another day.

Big giant bone

We went to Staines this afternoon for some chinese buffet and got this from the petshop


He loves it, it is huge, it is £5.99!!! and it was already half gone by dinner time....

The boys have been getting along very well these days. We usually spend about an hour with the rabbits upstairs before nap time and Bronx comes along following them around like a security guard.

He's slowly learning to let go and calm down when the rabbits are around.



Here's the rabbits feeling rather chilled out and contented.. They do look rather fat don't they?

Hmmmmm......

Michael's big erection

At the moment, we are both busy doing works to our house, mainly redecorating and bringing it up to date.

We started in the garden about a month ago, clearing the garden off the spider (they were LARGE and aplenty!) infested plants, shrubs, trees.... basically.. everything.

The previous owner of this house planted really strange, ugly, crawley, thorny plants and they were all stubborn and a pain to remove.

However.. we managed.

Then.... we decided it was time for the rotting old shed to go and also the fence between us and our neighbour also, as it was quite badly damaged by the crawling plants.

Thankfully, we had help from some friends with the fence and the digging.

Taking down the shed took a few hours, but taking down and putting up the fence took a good 3 - 4 days work!


That's Mike celebrating after successfully putting up the new second fence panel. 2 down, 2 more to go!


That's the mess that was our garden......


Here's the fence completed! Hurray!!

We also dug a 6 inch deep hole for the concrete base of our shed.

It took us 2 days to dig, put in the wooden frame, lay the sub-base, waterproof membrane, mix the concrete and level it out.

I did the concrete mix and leveling while the husband was at work last Thursday. It took me almost 5 hours!!!! and I don't think my arms have forgiven me..

It isn't perfect, but for a first timer and working alone, the husband thinks it's pretty good.


We sanded down the fence next to the concrete yesterday and painted it. We also painted over the concrete. This is how it looks like as of now.


Not bad huh?

The garden is still messy, but compared to a month ago, it is quite acceptable. Once the shed is up and the tools are in, we will have a garden again!

Of course there're still lots to do - the other side of the fence needs sanding and painting, the flower beds need to be built and then we will lay the garden with nice green grass, make a pathway to the door and decorate it with a nice homely bench and a fountain???? (the husband says MAYBE) :P

Hehe.. for the moment we are all dancing happy and busy bees!

Hi Pigeon

At 2 years and 10 months L's favourite question has to be 'What's your name?'

The funny thing is that it actually took him a while of asking before he actually understood at all what it means.

Yesterday in the garden there was a particularly tame pigeon looking for worms and berries.. L went right up to it and said, 'Hi Pigeon. What's your name?'

When he got no reply he pressed on and repeatedly asked for the pigeon's name. It was really really cute!

He did give up eventually and went back to his scooter.

Later when the pigeon got in his way he bent down from his scooter and said very politely to it - Mind Pigeon, mind!

Isn't he just adorable?

The missing beansprouts...

Living in London introduces you to a whole new world of gastronomy. Walking down a typical high street, it is unlikely you will find anything less than 5 - 8 different ethnic food shops.

I was just wondering how living in London have changed the way we eat.

In Malaysia with my family, it used to be Chinese day in, day out. A good day eating for me will probably be Wan Tan Mee in the morning, Chicken Rice in the afternoon (if I can manage the portion) and a home cooked Chinese meal for dinner. The most 'un-Chinese' thing we eat at home is probably peanut butter bread, we don't even do cereal.

The husband in Penang was a lot more diverse and he had a lot more choice and budget. His choice breakfast would probably be Roti Canai with curry for breakfast, Duck Rice in the afternoon (he could probably do 2 portions) and a large Thai or Japanese set meal for dinner.

When we started living together, he had problems seperating me from my Chinese food and I had problems making myself try weird odd foreign foodstuff.

These days it is a lot better and we both eat a wide variety of 'world food'.

I was looking through an old photo album and found some of our dinner photos.

This was obviously when I was missing my Ipoh Beansprout Chicken (which is missing the Beansprouts because the husband won't eat them) and decided to just replicate it at home rather than wait my heart out to get it in Ipoh.

See how messy everything is? Just like in the hawkers! Haha..


Here's when we decided to have a Japanese pig out session. We usually only eat sashimi when we go to Billingsgate Market to buy whole salmons. They do very well in the freezer. It is just a big job de-scaling, chopping and slicing.


This is the middle portion of the salmon that will become sashimi.


Another meal we were addicted to cooking for a while (because it is fast, easy and clean!) is toad in a hole. It is basically sausages in yorkshire pudding. It looks pretty when they are fresh from the oven. No these are not burnt, they are meant to be quite brown.


We had them for Christmas together with veges and onion gravy. The chinese roast pork was there because we were feeling naughty.

And here's what I miss MOST from Malaysia. It just does not taste the same over here. They make the noodles like RUBBER BAND! Bleah :P

Oh Danny boy..

I grew up living with a person who was perpetually about to go bankrupt.

I love him to bits but when it comes to managing his finances, I don't buy any of his ideas and to a certain extent, I know he is irresponsible but I will never tell that to his face because it will be a knife cutting through his heart.

It has not made me a spendthrift, it has not make me careless with my money, neither has it made me a kiam siap kui (stingy ghost).

I learnt how to manage my own finances when I was 12, building my own secret bank in a pretty Pocahontas notebook which was a present from a family friend.

Of course I had a proper bank account managed by my parents but I soon learnt never to trust or rely on money that I cannot see.

You might think that a 12 year old only saves to get fancy stuff their parents won't buy for them because it is a waste of money but I was saving to get myself proper things like my school uniform and books.

It wasn't that they were denying me basic rights to go to school, I did it because I wanted to feel independent, that I was capable enough to survive on my own without having to rely on my parents and without having to live to fulfil their expectations instead of my own.

Today, I know to keep a close eye on our finances and make sure it does not go running into trouble.

I do not dislike or look down on people who have gone bankrupt because I can understand why and how easy it would be for someone who blindly chases after money.

I DO keep away from the stock markets like I would do a bad egg because I have seen more than enough damage it has on reckless, often over-ambitious and frequently unlucky sods looking for fast and big money.

But what I am NOT, is paranoid about being bankrupt!

I don't go scanning around reading articles about how not to go bankrupt although sound financial advice is always welcomed.

I do not want to be a bankrupt BUT I also do not fear being bankrupt because I know I have lived through it and although it was not pleasant, it is certainly nothing you cannot recover from if you are determined to.

Also, if you take it positively, it is an experience to learn from and it should hopefully make you wiser ;)

The dream

This Sunday I turn 24.

It is a strange feeling because the last time I thought about being 24 I was 12. That's because it was a Tiger year and I was thinking.. hmm.. next Tiger year I would be 24!

I used to wonder what I would be doing when I was 24..

Married? Not married?

Would I still be in Malaysia or would I have achieved my dream to be a doctor in some African country with deadly scorpions (no idea how I would ever cope with that considering I scream at the sight of the tiniest spiders!)

Now that I will be 24, it seems I have ditched a few of my 12 year old ideas, achieved some of what I wanted to do and adopted some new ideas along the way (some of which the 12 year old me would probably not be very happy about - like kissing a boy, yucks!).

What would I want for myself when I turn 36?

Well....

I want to be as madly in love as I am now with that fat boy who is super demanding about his lunch!

I want to be a mother and hopefully have children that DO NOT whine too much!!

I want to be self employed (yes I know it's everybody's dream) and have the husband at home running our own business.

I want to move to a place away from London where we can buy a bigger house with a much larger garden where we can then adopt a young collie who will run around like a mad dog.

The saddest thing about all these are that Bronx, Chicken Pie and Wibble will probably not be around when I turn 36.

At the moment I don't know if I can live with that. Talking and thinking about Jake still brings tears to my eyes and we still miss him very very much.

Of course that is life, if I don't ever lose them I will never get to know another dog or rabbit but it is always so hard when you miss something you know you won't see for a very long time.

Anyway..........

That's 12 years to wait and 12 years to enjoy everything we have at the moment and whatever comes in between.

Popiah

A few Saturdays ago we invited Uncle Mike and Justina for a popiah experiment.

Popiah being the delicious wet vege rolls you get in Malaysia, not the fried version.

We decided to try making popiah because we (well, mostly I) have been craving it for ages and also because we finally found turnip (the Chinese variety not the English one) in a chinese supermarket.

The turnip itself cost us about £3.50!!!!!!!!!!!!

But that is a small price to pay when you have been craving something you can't get easily..

Here's what was in our popiah.

Hoi Sin sauce, Popiah skin wrapper, cooked french beans,
pan fried tau kuah (hard beancurd?), fried onions
and stewed turnip. Oh and there was lettuce leaves and
chilli powder added later as well.

We made the popiah skin ourselves partly because I don't know anyone who sells them and partly because nothing but good old homemade popiah skin will do.

It was rather tricky to make the skin but nothing 2 smart ladies can't do. The finished product came out good but a bit too thick (next time I'll remember to leave the batter overnight) :P



Have you ever seen popiah skin being made? If you haven't I recommend looking it up on youtube, it is highly fascinating stuff.

Anyway, here's the finished product

Looks good, yes? Popiah + World Cup = extra yummy!

Look what Uncle Mike did to my poor soldier when I was in the bathroom getting ready to leave.

All that just because I tried to throw a grenade at one of his soldiers! Humph! No more popiah for you Uncle Mike!

Bonx

Bronx the big goofy dog is a big chicken.

Strangely he gets quite scared of other animals even those who are just the size of his head!

He lost to a pig who snorted real loud at him when he went to sniff it...

A duck who quacked furiously and chased him out when he stuck his nose into its nesting bush...

A plastic bag that flew in his direction out of no where...

Every single time he would jump back and hide behind me or the husband.

A few days ago.. Bronx was in the rabbit's room and Chicken Pie was out running about. As usual Bronx will follow CP until CP finds his spot, stops and Bronx will just stay there staring at CP's face, nose almost touching.

That day he must have got his nose a weeeeee bit too close to CP's comfort and CP decided he wasn't going to take any nonsense from that silly dog so he jumped up and gave Bronx a big smack on his face!

Bronx was startled and quickly ran away.. he didn't go near CP for the rest of the evening... poor dog.. they're back to being friends now though.

Haha...

The only 'thing' we know that Bronx is in command of is Uncle Mike who is terrified of dogs and will scream like a girl if Bronx sticks his nose to close..

Haha! So much for being a man Uncle Mike! And don't forget my Vuvu please!

A song like this..

Makes me wish I paid more attention during Mandarin lessons back in primary school. Sad I'll never appreciate fully the beauty of this song, even with english translation.

The Mandarin speakers a.k.a Wee Chin and my cousin sister keep telling me.. aiya.. you don't understand one la.. how to translate to english???? The language is so cold..

........................?

Ap ap...

The husband did something he was immensely proud of yesterday night.

He managed to order duck from a Cantonese restaurant in Cantonese without me being there.

Apparently this is how it went:-

Husband :Mm goi tar pau yat chek siew ap (Please can I have a whole duck to take away)
Seller : Sai mm sai hei guat ah siew pang yau? (Do you need me to debone it, friend?)
Husband : Mm goi hei guat (Please debone it)
Seller : Hei guat ah? (Debone ah?)
Husband : Hai, mm goi (Yes, please)


The fact that he still spells 'ngap' (duck) as 'ap' kind of tells that he's not incredibly proficient but given that he's only had a partially cantonese wife for 6 years I think he's doing okay..

I think I've trained him pretty well no? Plus I get nice four season's duck for dinner tonight!

Popster

This Sunday marks our 1st anniversary as husband and wife (well... it is the anniversary of the celebratory picnic.. the actual registration was done in May)

There's not going to be a big celebration.. just a quiet weekend with the rabbits and Bronx. Also, a little trip to Horsham to spend time with our favourite children and family in the UK. = )

Bronx will also be coming with us to Horsham so he'll probably need a bath on Friday. :P

J is going to be very excited to see Bronx.. I'm just hoping he will not run L and M down with them being shorter than him.

It is nice to have people who are like family when you are in another land.. it makes us feel complete.

I used to think it is weird to be married so early on in life but now we have both gotten so used to it it feels like we've been married forever.

It is nice to be able to plan for the future.. how we want our garden to look.. what we want to do with our careers.. when we want to have our children.

Talking about children.. it feels so strange to hear news about friends getting pregnant.

I mean.. 24 and a mother?

My mum had me when she was 24 and to be very honest.. I think she was quite overwhelmed. She certainly seemed to enjoy my brother more as she was a lot more confident about being a mother.

With me she was always like an older sister. We both learnt how to sew together (today I can sew, she still can't) and when we got a free durian from a neighbour we both figured how to open it together

I really enjoyed those times with her, the simple life.

I just don't know if I want to be a mother at 24.

Afterall I am going back to school soon.. I want to have a career.. I want to drive around Europe with the husband and the dog..

Well then.. what's the problem you ask?

The problem is.. sometimes.. we get a little bit broody..

We think.. oh.. wouldn't it be nice to see little Poppy running around the house.. playing with Bronx and teasing the rabbits.

Wouldn't it be sweet to see her tiny pair of shoes amongst ours on the shoe rack..

Hmm..

We love children.. We love M and L.. T and J and my brother.. I guess we just don't know if we want one in our house full time..

The husband being a man has more other problems to dwell about.

Whenever we think about it he'll say.. oh.. we don't have the finances to take care of her.. oh.. we don't have the space to have her..

Which is all obviously true.

It is just particularly hard when it is that time of the month and your hormones are telling you you DO want to be a mother but your head says NO! Not now!

Haha.. maybe in 5 years.. maybe we'll be able to fit her into our busy schedule and everything we want to do.. At least I'm only thinking of 5, the adult M have suggested 10!

The week after..

When I was 15 a friend's dog passed away. She was crying a lot, literally inconsolable. I never understood her pain. I thought it was silly how she was mourning for a dog.

Afterall.. it was just a dog. An animal...

I was never allowed to have pets as a child, my dad didn't think our house was big enough and my mum just doesn't have much of a thing for pets.

I learnt to communicate and love animals as I got older through Daphne whose house is full of pets. I remember the first time I met Sheba her hyper excited Dalmation cross dog, I was so scared I ran for my life! Of course that didn't help... Sheba thought I was playing and chased me even more.

Daphne also had a cat called Baby who strangely liked me very much. It was Baby who stole my heart and helped me discover my love for animals. Sadly, Baby passed away a few years ago and I never got to say goodbye.

I was very sad but nothing would have prepared me for last Thursday.

Two Thursdays ago we took Jake to the vet for a full x-ray because the vet was not too happy with his health in an initial consultation.

We took him in early in the morning and left him there for the day. I remember how sad he looked when he saw us leave.

Later in the afternoon the vet called to say that he was done with the x-ray and the results were not good. Jake had numerous giant nodules in his chest and the vet suspects it is lung cancer.

We took Jake home with some antibiotics and steroids to help with the cancer and also with the knowledge that he will not be with us for much longer.

We were obviously devastated by that but we decided to hold strong for Jake and make him happy whatever time he had left. Maybe.. we still had a month or if we were very lucky, two..

As the week passed Jake began to deteriorate. At first he was constantly panting and couldn't get up as easily.. later on his back legs started failing him but what kept us on was his consistant appetite and cheeky ways.

We went to the Billingsgate Market early Saturday morning and bought a whole salmon so that he could have them for his meals (he loved salmon).. occasionally he got chicken.. anything he liked eating he got. We even bought the cranberry oat yoghurt clusters from M & S that he loved so much.

We figured as long as he kept eating properly he would have the energy to hopefully repel the cancer and get better.

He continued to stay with us until last Thursday when his front legs also failed him.

He couldn't get up despite persistantly trying and even with our help his legs were just too weak to carry on.

I knew deep inside that we would have to let him go soon.

As Jake couldn't get up, he couldn't go outside to relieve himself and had to pee wherever he was laying down. It broke my heart to see him feel so guilty and sorry for dirtying the floor. He kept looking at me as if to say I'm sorry mummy I couldn't help it.

As the afternoon progressed, Jake got worse. He started bleeding from the nose. I gave the husband a call and asked if he could take the rest of the day off and come home to spend his last few hours with Jakey.

He came home and got some time with Jakey before we had to drive him to the vet and let him go.

Our vet, Tim was very understanding of our pain and did the best to make it as easy for us as possible.

Jake laid down at the back seat of our car with his head on my lap throughout the whole journey. It was going to be our last car ride together.

Tim was kind and offered to put Jake down in the car where he was comfortable with me. I got to hold our baby as he drifted off to sleep. The husband was next to us comforting Jake. As he died he left us a smile as if to say thank you.

We are still grieving for Jake of course but we are learning to cope with life without him. At least there are still the bunnies and Bronx with us.

Bronx is also missing Jake but he is adapting to life as the only dog. We are hoping he will get used to the bunnies and find company in them.

Jakey, it's been a week since you left and we haven't stopped missing you. We will always love and remember you and your beautiful eyes and your smile. We hope you are now able to run and do everything you couldn't while you were ill.

Though.. please don't steal God's slippers when he's not looking or give him your puppy dog eyes when he eats KFC. :)

We love you baby boy.

Bronx and Jake smiling in their sleep

Painting the town purple

We had a visitor from Toronto last week! Guess who?


No! Not the squirrel! It's Purply Daph! (Purply because she likes and will buy anything purple.. I wonder if she'll buy a purpleeee strawberry?)

It has been a good 3? 4? years since we last saw each other and it was nice to have her over and catch up.

The only problem was that PD (Purply Daph)'s idea of a good holiday consists of visiting all kinds of old buildings and monuments.... whereas we are the kind of people who just don't get old buildings or paintings.

Anyway.. we did do some touring together. We drove to Dover with Dodgy Mike (DM) and PD to take the ferry over to Calais for a day trip.


Calais has 2 local markets open on Saturdays and they're both rich in local produce and food! (just the things we like).. PD wanted to go to Calais to sample French KFC (strange, yes?) but unfortunately with our limited French and without sounding too rude we manage to figure out that there is NO KFC in Calais.. haha..poor PD


We did however manage to find a superb local spit roast chicken van at the corner of the market. This is no ordinary Waitrose/Sainsbury's roast chicken. This is roast chicken with a large metal container strewn with sliced sweet onions cooked from the heat of the yummy juices dripping off the roasting chickens!

The best thing is that they actually give you scoups of that yummy gravy and onions with your chicken when you buy them!

Unfortunately we didn't take a picture of the chicken cooking but I have got these!

You know it's good when you see the big baby hogging his chicken!

Even better is the bread stall beside the roast chicken van.. good crusty on the outside soft on the inside bread dipped in the yummy chicken gravy with onions............................... blissssss!

We wouldn't find a place to eat outside and as the day was quite cold decided to go back to the car to enjoy our chicken.. a few french people passing the street actually looked in to see what we were doing.

A French lady who walked by asked the chicken hogging baby to roll down our car window to give us the thumbs up and said Bon Appetit!

That was a super good trip!


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PD also wanted to go to the theatre.. her show of choice was Wicked.

Wicked sells their front row seats for the day's show at 10am so we were there early and managed to grab 3!

The husband and I didn't really know what to expect but the show was great! It was really worth the £25 and I personally thought it was the best theatre show we've been to.



Spamalot was good as well.. Stomp was a little bit boring and Macbeth almost had me tearing my hair out..

Obviously they're all different kinds of shows and it is worth the experience but maybe next time we'll go for a lighter Shakespeare play..

Us at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre

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The funniest thing we did while PD was here had to be our Paddington Statue hunt.

Now, the husband and I have been to Paddington station many many times but NEVER have we come across the Paddington bear statue. The souvenir shop yes, the statue no.

Heck we didn't even know about its existence until PD the Paddington Bear fan told us about it.

So we made our trip to Paddington from High Street Ken by foot because the district line to Edgware decided not to run that weekend. By the time we reached Paddington my feet were already starting to complain.


PD bought her bear from the souvenir shop and asked for directions to the statue. For some reason or other we just couldn't find it!!!

1000000 circles around the station, directions from 4 other people and with my feet screaming!!! we finally found this


We walked past it at least 8 times but just didn't notice it! Yes.. it looks a little bit like oddly shaped poop.. PD doesn't agree..



We took PD to many other places but I am too lazy to write everything in detail.

Nai.. thank you for taking the effort to come visit us and we both had a good time spending time with you!!! Hugs!

Happy Birthday Bunnies!

Today Chicken Pie and Wibble turns 2.

Unfortunately they don't eat cake but we are probably going to get a key lime pie and eat it on their behalf.. hehe..

Bronx the dog met the rabbits out of their cage for the very first time today. He's been allowed to look at them from the safety gate and also while the rabbits are in the run.

The responce was good and hopefully they'll be good friends soon.

Jake the other dog is too old to climb up the stairs so he does not know yet that rabbits exist in his home.

We're both really thankful to have such wonderful pets to love and company. We give them a good home and in return they give us a full life.

Happy Birthday boys!

Last Saturday we made a 3 and a half hour trip up to Roden to collect 2 new members of our family. Meet Jake and Bronx.

Jake

Bronx

We got them both from Dogs Trust. Their previous owners are seperated and are going to sell their house and can not afford to keep them anymore.

It is quite obvious from the photos that Jake and Bronx are not young dogs. Jake is 12 with a breathing problem and is on pills daily and Bronx is 10. They had to find a new home together as they have been friends all their life and cannot live seperately.

I know that when most people decide to adopt a dog they usually look for a little puppy but because we already have the rabbits, we need a mellow dog who wouldn't go chasing them around. J and B fits the bill perfectly and we get the bonus of giving 2 old dogs a home.

Initially I was a little worried that it might be difficult to bond with them because they had lived with someone else for so many years but we didn't have any problems at all. When we brought them home they settled down really quickly and easily. After a few hours it seemed as though they had been here from the very start.

We would both really like to thank Dogs Trust for being so helpful and professional. You really get a sense that they care very much for their dogs and I think we can now really appreciate what they have done with the financial support we have given them through our university years (we used to sponsor a dog called Monica).

If you are considering supporting Dog's Trust, please do. I will write someday in another post how they are helping Jake and us cope with the medical costs for Jake's condition so that he can find a good retirement home.