Grubbs n Critters

November 23, 2012

The bored one

Category: Cats

None of our cats at home are over-weight, but out of the 3 cats we have, Donut is the biggest of the lot. Perhaps it’s also because he is male.

I’ve mentioned before that he is a closet bully – still is, as no matter how meek his demeanor seems to be, he still struts around the house showing the other two cats who is boss. He can be a little destructive sometimes (he likes chewing on plastic and ziplock bags), and, not-so-recently-ago (if those words even make sense!), he developed a habit of peeing on our rugs! Every time we put a new rug in the bathrooms, he peed on them.

I don’t know what’s with him; I reckon it is probably a call for attention given that we hardly ever snuggle with him these days with the kids around.

Or that he is just bored shitless…like how I found him this morning – flat out on a chair in Squirt’s room and looking absolutely bored stiff:

He did not even bother looking up to me when I scratched him on his head, but I did hear him purr his turbo-engine purr. Hmmmm..time to get out that catnip and watch him go crazy…!

A colourful wedding

Category: Random

Wedding cards are usually a dime or a dozen, produced in mass production, looks almost similar and rarely ever stands out. But a colleague of mine who got married recently gave us quite a cool looking wedding invitation card which looked like this:

The interesting bit was that every one of us received a different picture of the couple – they were quite nicely done, in my opinion. Every card had a creative element in it, and every card was inserted into a hand-folded paper doily which was used as an envelope. It was simple yet pretty – not quite the typical Thai wedding invitation. And what I liked about it was that the invitation felt sincere and personal.

I’ve been to countless weddings, and several Thai weddings, but this was one of those invitation cards which stood out really well. The wedding was themed “colourful” – not a typical traditional Thai wedding reception either. It was cosy and intimate. Here is the bunch of us from the office:

The Bride & Groom are the ones with the arrows.

And did I mention that the bride is really gorgeous!

Whilst we are on the topic of Thai wedding, in the Thai culture, rather than giving a gift or enclosing money as gift inside a wedding card, it is customary to present monetary gifts in the envelope in which you receive your wedding invitation. The envelope bears your name on it, so the married couple knows who gave them the gift. The envelope is usually given at the evening reception and as guests, you usually receive a small memento or a wedding favour in return,

As I recently found out, wearing the colour purple to a Thai wedding reception is a complete no-no. According to one usually speculative source, purple apparently symbolises divorce. That being said, it definitely is not a colour one should wear to a Thai wedding reception at all cost.

I don’t know how true this is and how reliable the source is (given that it came out of a foreigner’s mouth and when I asked the Thais, they told me they don’t know of such things – and granted I spotted a few Thais wearing purple), my take is, if in doubt and when it comes to Thai weddings, don’t do it.

When kids don’t listen…

Category: Being Parents

How often do you find your toddler not listening, practically ignoring you, not responding to your request and you find yourself repeating what you said to him or her a hundred times more?

Often, I start off asking Spud to do something nicely, and if she doesn’t listen, I ask again a second time using a louder and firmer tone. And then I would raise my voice a little, and when it gets to the 5^thtime, I proceed with threat like, “if you are not getting out of the shower this very second, you are not watching TV and you are going straight to bed!”.And, on occasions, as much as I hate to do it, I lose my head (especially when I’m stressed out and exhausted) and I yell – which, I know, is not a very good thing to do.

Yelling is possibly the worst form of communication ever. I might get a brief attention from her, but that is usually because she got startled before she started wailing her guts out. I am no saint, but I try to be a good role model by not yelling too often (and I really, really try.). It isn’t a trait I particularly want to pass on to the kids.

It is frustrating to keep repeating myself over and over again, but a quote I saw recently puts me in perspective:

This gives me the creeps, only because there is so much truth in it. And I just need to constantly remind myself that sometimes, it really is OK if Spud doesn’t listen…it is about how I react that matters.

And sometimes, just sometimes, I just have to yell.