Grubbs n Critters

March 29, 2014

Earth Hour 2014

Saturday, 29th March, 8.30 pm. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you can take the time to join millions of people around the world who will be switching off their light for an hour to raise the awareness for the planet.

It is a small gesture , this. In fact, why do it for only an hour? Do it for two, do it for 3, do it for several hours a day. Do it not just an hour today but everyday!

I’d really love to see the whole of Bangkok plunge into darkness, but Bangkok being Bangkok and just like the previous years, the lights stayed on. And, with the political unrest still on-going (rather peacefully assuming no rogue grenade explodes), it is likely that Bangkok will not participate in this cause this year, just like they did in 2010.

For us, our Earth Hour starts right about now and it usually is an excuse for a quiet candle-light dinner.

What Makes You Happy

Category: Life's Essentials

It started with an innocent question to Spud one evening during our nightly bedtime ritual when I decided to vary my usual question of “What do you want to chat about today” to something else when I put her to bed. I decided to ask my 3.5 year old this question instead: “Spud, tell me something. What makes you happy?”

After going uhmmm and ahmmm for a bit, she smiled and rattled off things which don’t always quite make sense but somehow, her own answers made her laugh heartily. For some answers that do actually make sense, things that make her happy by her own definition so far include:

Going to school
Having fun
Playing
Watching Tinkerbell

When she was done rattling off her list as she sprawled away in bed, she turned to me and went, “Mama, your turn. What makes you happy?”

Wow.

I really had not expected the question to be asked back to me the first time it happened, and so, I found myself scrambling for answers as I try to give Spud some coherent reply from my little muddle head. My replies, not surprisingly came with a little agenda which includes answers that are directly related to her in the hope that she “gets it”:

When you listen to me
When you don’t throw temper tantrums often
When you are nice to me
When you give me kisses and hugs
When you don’t cry so much
When you eat your meals by yourself
When you chew your food

To which, her reply was,”Oh.”

Oh. She says. Hmmmm.

As days go by, the question of “What makes you happy” has turned into a game which I have enjoyed indulging her with. Every once in a while, she would give some funny answers which make both of us laugh.

These days, I have also tried to loosen up and steer away from my very pointedly sarcastic answers, which I KNOW sounds very imposing and almost unfair to a 3 and half year old child. I have since replaced MOST with the following:

When you smile
When you laugh
When you talk to me about your day
When I get kisses and hugs
When I give kisses and hugs
When I get to spend time with you, your brother and your Papa
When I see her and her brother happy
When I am in the kitchen cooking
Being able to sleep
Being healthy and able
Helping people
Seeing people around me happy
And most importantly, having just about enough of everything

The bit of “When you listen” still makes it to my list just to emphasize to Spud the importance her of listening to us, but that is beside the point.

I didn’t realise it at that time when I was innocently asking Spud the question, but I am realizing it even more now how such simple question is able to provide me a perspective of what life should really be at the end of the day.

As it turned out, “When I’m at work” or “Having a lot of money” did not make it to my list. I have also make it a point to stay away from people who are always unhappy and brings about negative vibes to my aura.

At the end of the day, it really is about what really matters.

What about you? What makes you happy?

The bald one

Category: Cats

If there is ever a cat that:

a) refuses to groom itself

AND for some reason

b) does not even think that scratching its claws instinctively is canine-like and is a necessary survival skill, that cat has got to be one of ours.

Andy, our oldest and most grumpy cat in our household hardly ever grooms herself, let alone use the scratching posts for her claws. She has actually been that way since we got her years back from Chatuchak. We have always suspected that she is likely to be a reject from her brood and was born with a little defect. And, despite her very dainty look, she is actually quite a high maintenance cat when it comes to grooming.

Not only does she has recurring problems with ingrown claws that would sometimes grow into her paw pads when we forget to trim her claws every once in a while, she also always get horribly matted fur that we suspect has caused her a lot of discomfort and pain. There has been many a time when I toyed with the idea of shaving her fur off, but whenever I suggested that, Silver Bullet would quickly kill my idea and thought that I was being cruel.

Until recently.

Andy’s fur got so matted up that it was impossible to groom her. The only way to go about it was really to shave it all off…and this time, it was at the suggestion of Silver Bullet. 🙂 🙂 🙂

So off to the groomers we went on one weekend. I managed to snap a picture of Andy being prepped up..and boy! if looks could kill I think I would have been dead.

We picked her up an hour later and when we let the cat out of the bag when we got home, let’s just say that the kids were convinced that we brought the wrong cat home.