7.00 am on a Sunday morning

Hubs is taking part in the Army Half Marathon. Just dropped him off and made my way to the finish line. Race starts at 7.30am, so I'm sitting here on the steps of the old Supreme Court reading my book while waiting.

Good luck hubs! Jia you!!

The Dog Who Thought She Was A Cat - updates

X-ray's all clear! But will have to continue observing her for any symptoms that may rear its head in the next 48 hours - vomitting, blue tongue, lethargy...

Too bad the doc won't allow me to take the x-ray home. It was quite a funny picture of Mischy's insides. I'm surprised the usually squirmy girl stayed still long enough for a good shot! And she must have some super strong stomach juices there, to have digested all those bones in less than 24 hours...

*ruff.... thank you Inspira and Mini for your concern! i knew them fishie bones wun do me no harm. and they were yummy too! what a silly mommy i have. ruff-ruff*

The Dog Who Thought She Was A Cat

Our silly doggle has swallowed an entire skeleton of an 8inch fish. She's been eating and pooping ok, but just for peace of mind, we've decided to send her for an xray to make sure nothing's lodged in her stomach or intestines, and nothing's ruptured.

So here we are on a rainy afternoon, perfect for curling up at home, at the vet.

Waiting to be xrayed... Dooby doo...

"Lutte Fille"*

Hubs got me my very first pair of Onitsuka Tigers today! The velvet laces and satin bits remind me of ballet slippers rather than the wrestling shoes that were supposed to have inspired the design.

*translates to "wrestling girl"

And this is what we'll be having...

WE GOT IT!!!!

Picture from French Laundry

French Laundry here we come!!!

Many thanks to K and his lucky fingers. :)

Meetings ended early and I managed to find a flight home at the last minute. Can't wait to get home and hug our little rascalette, who turns One today!! :)

If

(Rudyard Kipling)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
...
...
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

VAMOS RAFA!!!

Staying up to wait through all the rain delays and sitting through the nail-biting 5th set was well worth it!! Although am definitely paying for it now... *zzzz......

Enjoying the aerial display outside my window

It's raining, it's pouring...

in Phuket. And I'm glad. :) Makes me feel just that little bit better that all ye holiday-makers will be almost as miserable as me! muahahahhhahaha....

Just arrived for 3 days of meetings and am putting up at the Sheraton Grande Laguna. Not very grand. Room smells like a seaside chalet - ok, so it is near the sea...., cold ceramic tiles for the floor, and bed is a little squeaky. I tried booking spa sessions for tomorrow morning before the 2pm meeting, and both angsana and banyan tree are full. how wretched! Opened the wardrobe and a little black lizard scuttles out. YIKES!!!! and to make things worse, there's hardly any hot water! so i shivered my way through one of the quickest showers in my life, and thought I could look forward to some room service. Turns out the fish flakes on the mediocre mango salad taste like shredded cupboard and the satay is tough beyond words. I'm miserable.

this must be the day for bad dining experiences.

earlier this evening, sakae sushi at the airport messed up our teppenyaki orders and after waiting more than half an hour, only hubs got served, and even then part of his order didn't arrive. i couldn't wait any longer cos i had to catch my flight. but it's certainly thumbs up for sakae's service recovery - they didn't charge us for our teppenyaki sets even though we'd consumed part of it and gave us a discount on the appetisers we had.

then the inflight food on silkair was rather bad too and i couldn't stomach more than the 2 slices of crusty garlic bread, a few morsels of the "black pepper chicken" and some tomato juice.

sigh... i can't wait to get home. and i've only just arrived. :(

Mischka and (not) her Krispy Kreme

the Cookie who could have been our Badgley

Last Friday afternoon, in the midst of my meetings, I received a message from the hubs that he’d made contact with an owner who was giving up her 5.5 month old male cocker spaniel. She was moving away and wasn’t taking him with her (very annoying - but that's another story), so R made an appointment to view the puppy and decided to bring Misch too, and see if they could get along. Sometime during the night, I received pictures of the sweet little puppy named Cookie – the golden ECS was a dead ringer for Mischka at the same age! A total doppelganger, right down to the white chest and the melty eyes!

Can you spot the difference? ;)

Sunday afternoon, we made arrangements to meet up with Cookie again, so that I could see him for myself. I was totally won over by his exuberance and affection, he licked me all over my face, and just wanted to play! Chasing Mischy all around the playground, and rolling over for tummy rubs – so adorable! Unfortunately, despite it being Misch’s 2nd encounter with Cookie, she couldn’t get over the psychological trauma from the bite she received from evil LeeLee*, and her first instincts whenever Cookie approached, was to bolt, and if we tried to hold her still, she’d let out the most pitiful, strangled whine. The closest we could get them to be to each other was one foot away, lying down. If Cookie so much as leaned over to sniff her, Misch would jump away.

It was a sad moment when we came to the realization that we could never adopt Cookie, but it was even more heartbreaking to see Mischy so tortured. Our main reason for getting a second dog was to give Misch a playmate, but now we know, it would only serve to upset her and cause her distress. So for as long as Misch doesn’t get over the LeeLee episode, we will never be able to get a second dog. Not that Misch doesn’t bring us enough joy. She absolutely does. She’s the perfect dog – in our eyes at least – sweet, intelligent, affectionate, fun loving, and she’s won so many hearts with her endearing ways. I’m just sometimes resentful that the act of an irresponsible owner has brought so much pain (physical and psychological) to Misch, and I can’t help but feel immensely sad that Misch can’t enjoy the company of another dog. All we can do is try to socialize her more at dog runs and let her meet with other dogs as much as possible, in the hope that one day, she will come to realize that they mean no harm, and she won’t feel the terror rising up in her when a furry friend approaches. Hopefully one day she will learn that most doggies just want to sniff and play. In the meantime, we’ll be patient and as loving as can be. And we’ll only have eyes for her.

[* At barely 3.5 months old, Misch was bitten by LeeLee, an adult cocker spaniel, at the pet shop round the corner. He snapped on Misch's snout and refused to let go, despite Misch's desperate cries. She was frightful and refused to come near us for the rest of the day, and it took a few days before she trusted us again. Since then, she's been afraid of other dogs. Even after 2 months of puppy classes with friendly dogs smaller in size than her, she is still wary and sometimes barks and backs away in fear.]

A Jolly Good Monday

I finally made it back to ballet class at 6.30pm for the first time in 7 weeks! And thankfully it was somehow slower and less strenuous than usual, which allowed me to ease slowly into the routines. We also did more jumps across the floor which is always fun.

After, Hubs came to pick me up and brought with him a big bunch of flowers - pink peonies!! - in celebration of Leirhnjukur Day and we wrapped up the evening with a leisurely dinner at Brasserie Wolf.

Lovely start to the week - unfortunately it will only go downhill from here. :(

colour me beautiful

I was seeking fashion advice from Mini during one of our regular morning chats on gtalk when she introduced me to this most amazing site! It allows you to put together sets of clothes, shoes accessories, etc... that look like pages out of a magazine, and you get to browse the sets created by other users, by keyword or colour.

After a few minutes of surfing, I've now got a better idea what to match my orange peeptoes with! Here are some of my favourite combos:

Watching the world go by...

Happy Feet

Arrived at airport with time to spare and found a foot massage place. Joy! Am getting my feet kneaded at this moment and am super pleased. Hehe...

The Westin Fails, Heavenly Bed Notwithstanding

Tried out the Westin Grande Sukhumvit this time around and the heavenly bed was indeed lovely. But I doubt I'll return. Here's why:

1. Too near to the BTS station and the main road, plus windows are probably not insulated enough - I hear the rumble of trains passing by, the vroomvroom of motorbikes and the sirens at night.
2. Dodgy/sleazy bits too nearby - I spied "The King & I Massage" (bet you're treated just like a king there.... bah...) on my way to client's office today, very special ladies loitering around a couple blocks away, and 2 men and their 2 "friends" entered the lift with me when I was checking in last night.
3. Bathroom is small and door to shower stall doesn't open fully, hardly any counter space at the sink for my toiletries, trashcan in the most obscure inconvenient corner - basically a poorly appointed bathroom.
4. They don't top up the amenities like cotton buds, tissue, toothpaste. TSK!
   
5. Limited breakfast choices at the executive lounge.
6. Lousy room service food.
7. People talking loudly outside my room late at night.
   

So yes. My vote still goes to the Conrad. Unless the Metropolitan proves me wrong next week?...

Here We Go Again...

So much for a breather. I'm being sent off at the last minute to Bangkok again. Rushed home to pack in the afternoon. Managed to spend some time with Mischy and caught a quick nap before the airport car arrived.

I'm hoping I get home by Thursday - I do miss the hubs so. Didn't get to spend much time with him the past week thanks to this transaction. And I hate to be away again so soon. Sigh.

But I've sent in my leave application for September! Hope it gets approved soon. Napa Valley, French Laundry, Gilroy... Here I come!! (Mini - can't wait to meet up with u and to give Mox a hug!)

P.S. I'm at the Westin this time. Mmm...mmm heavenly bed....

Boys' Night Out = Girl's Night In

Hubs is out for drinks with the boys tonight at St James', while I'm home recuperating from a particularly long week which finally ended with an all nighter before I managed to crawl into bed at 5.00am this morning. I'm certainly glad for the breather, having burnt last week's long weekend and the weekend before. And I shall not think about the coming week.

Too tired and brain too fried to be writing much so I'll just post the long overdue pics showing why I'd pick Conrad BKK over Grand Hyatt any day!


Cosy corner in soothing colours and comfy bed + plush pillows in crisp sheets

Cheery elephants who meet and greet in the bath and on the bed

...and most importantly... an amazing bathroom and a tub full of bubbles!