Grubbs n Critters

October 19, 2011

Flood situation update

Category: Thaism

It has now been almost a week since my last post on the flood which has inundated some parts of Thailand in the recent weeks.

Central Bangkok is still okay for now and from where I am, it does seem like the situation on the outskirts of Bangkok is getting a little bit out of control.

One of my colleagues who has been locked away at home in the past week, finally made a decision to abandon her home with her husband, her 2 year old boy and 5 dogs in tow and turned up at the office today. She told me her story on how they decided to leave their home at 4 am in the morning, and after packing the essentials, they finally made it out to safe grounds after more than an hour of battling through a waist-level flood in their 4WD onto the main road which was only about 2 km away from their home. She said the water all around was just black! And that it was a matter of making it out alive or die trying.

I cannot imagine how scary that must have felt, yet my heart swelled at how brave she has been to go through the ordeal. I could see the sadness and the defeat she must have felt in her eyes, and after telling me her story, she broke into tears…and all I could do was just tell her that what matters is that her whole family is now safe. With a lump in my throat, whether she needed it or not and at the risk of invading her personal space, I could only offer her a comfort hug.

How my heart ached…

As of this afternoon, Silver Bullet’s office which is currently located in the outskirts of Bangkok has been officially closed till further notice. He was literally being kicked out of his office at about 2pm today as the warning of water level rising rapidly became more urgent. Still, it took him more than 2 and half hours to get home as cars jammed-pack the roads.

I still do not have a sense as to how bad it will affect our area, given the confusion of information circulated by the government. From what I heard, the flood in Central Bangkok is no longer a matter of “if”, but ‘”when”. I cannot imagine the predicament of those who have been stuck at home for weeks on end with nowhere to go, and seeing the water level rising day after day right in front of their eyes. Below are some images from Silver Bullet’s colleague home surrounded by insane amount of water…

It is a very heart-breaking sight…

As I am writing this blog post, the expressway next to our apartment building is actually rather quiet. The silence is eerie.

Baby and Cats

Category: Baby Milestones

When I became pregnant, a lot of people asked us a very rhetorical question: “What are you going to do about the cats?”

And we go, “What do you mean what we are we going to do with the cats? They are going to stay, of course!”

And then they go: “Are you _______ or ________ or _________?” (Fill in the blanks with crazy, stupid or whatever else you can think of). “Maybe not a good idea. Cats are dirty and it is not good/safe for your baby. You should think of the baby.”

OK. We heard you.

This is the part where we knowingly smile our broadest smiles and telling them our plans that if health is not going to be a big issue, we intend to make the cats very much a part of Spud’s life, and Spud will just have to live with it.

After giving our reply, I like to watch the reaction from their face, and when they are not looking, I will roll my eyes to the back of my head.

And to be honest, I cannot believe the number of people who asked us such questions, expecting us to get rid of the cats just like that, because there is a baby in the house.

Now. I know and I have read about all the allergies that a small baby can get from cats (and both Silver Bullet and me are also both allergic to cats too, by the way!), but I don’t think that it is in the best interest of the baby to keep the cats away from her. Besides, I share Silver Bullet’s sentiments that, to a certain extent, because a baby co-exists with cats, chances are the baby’s immune system will be better than babies who are not exposed to cats.

Perhaps that theory is flawed logic, but unless Spud is severely allergic to our feline friends, there is absolutely no way we are going to give up our 3 feline friends. The thought of having to give up one, let alone all 3 cats makes me sick to my stomach. There is no reason to alienate the cats just because we have a baby. No reason whatsoever. And I know of a few people who would not come and visit us with their precious child in tow when they found out we have cats.

Luckily for us, so far, (knock on wood!), there has been no signs of the cats affecting Spud’s health.

While the cats had seemed quite wary of her in the first few days when she came home from the hospital, they soon lose interest on her. There were occasions where the cats did try to get cosy with her, but none of those occasions were unsupervised. Even up till now, we keep the cats away from Spud’s bedroom when she goes to bed.

And by now, the cats, especially Andy and Donut, prefer to get out of her way whenever they see her bumbling around the house. They will watch her from afar or high places, and will quickly run away the moment they see Spud coming towards them.

The dodo-head Fudge, on the other hand, loves to be near Spud, but can get quite angsty if Spud pushes it. I hope it will be just a matter of time before they become best friends. From the onset, I can tell that Spud loves the cats, but she is just trying to figure things out at the moment. She likes stroking, patting and kissing Fudge when she gets the chance to…except she is a little rough with the strokes and pats, which annoys Fudge to no end.

I count my blessings that Spud is not allergic to cats, and so far, there has been no mayhem between baby and cats. Sure the cats got a little disorientated at first, and probably upset they did not get as much attention as they used to, but they adapt. And thankfully, they adapt well enough to tolerate having Spud messing with their territory without them giving us too much grief.

Despite some frustrating moments with the cats, they are very much a part of the family as Spud is, and it will break my heart if we ever have to let them go. For Spud, the cats are pretty much a part of her life too.

Looking at the pictures below, I, for one, would not have the heart to take away that bond she will have with the pets. The unconditional affection a baby can offer the cats and vice versa, is just too valuable a lesson to let it slip by.

And, excuse me if I find the allergy or health argument, unless life threatening, is completely exaggerated and taken out of context. The cats, tend to usually make themselves scarce, and sometimes, we found ourselves wondering if the cats are actually still around!

Wax on, wax off

Category: Random

Since living in Bangkok more than six years ago, I have been on a quest to find a proper waxing establishment. The months I spent scouring the Internet turned to years, and when I did find something, there usually was not a lot of information about it.

The few places which I randomly tried, I did not like, and swore that I will never go to those places again. And so, I can only do my waxing when I go back to Singapore…which essentially only once in a while.

So, when one of the Strip outlets in Singapore told me that they were going to open a branch in Bangkok, I was thrilled. In the meantime, while waiting for the friggin’ branch to open, I had managed to find an acceptable place for an OK waxing service. Still not IT, but decent.

It took me only more than 3 years of waiting time since Strip first told me about their plans, and only recently did I discover that Strip Bangkok has been in business for more than a year now. (Duh!)

But, it doesn’t matter. I was over the moon when I stumbled upon them as we walked idly in Central World on one of the weekends. The place was so quiet that I did not need to make any appointment.

So far, the services are on par to what I get in Singapore, and the therapist is quite professional. They followed all hygiene procedures to a T…and even the rooms are a replica of what you will find in Singapore. Price wise, perhaps a tad lower than what you would pay in Singapore.

All in all, it will certainly be a place I need to go to every once in a while. They also have Browhouse next to it…which further stamps my needs to get my ass there when there the need for some eye-brow treading arises; although I am not sure how well these people are trained to do proper eye-brow treading.

It was quiet there in Siam Discovery Centre, (which is good for me), but I hope their business will pick up and that they will be able to stay in business for a while longer!
So if you are looking for a proper waxing place in Bangkok, try popping by on the 3rd Floor of Siam Discovery Centre.

I would hate having to look for another place for a decent waxing services, especially if this branch here in Bangkok ever decided to discontinue their business here, given the lack of customers.I have only been there once so far, but I certainly have got no major complains!