20% of #100happydays

If the start of the new year was anything to go by as a sample of what 2015 will be for me, I forsee Late nights and lazy morning starts with plenty of craft, choir, and conversation in between.

DAY 11
 I started my new year by meeting Joleen's furry sisters: Randy, an European purebred Rottweiler and Ruby, an abandoned aging Golden Retriever.

Photo by Joleen 

 Yea, I was rubbing eye goop off Ruby's eyes. Ruby's story was a heart-breaking one, heard by many dog-lovers anywhere and everywhere.

Joleen used to have a male GT called Rudolf/Rudolph. Rudy, went missing one day and when Joleen's dad went around the neighbourhood to look for him, he chanced upon poor Ruby instead..

"When Ruby was found she was weak, aggressive and traumatized. It took a while for her to gain faith in human around her again. Initially she was timid, and reluctant to show her loving part to human.

After 3 years, Ruby is now the most gentle and beautiful soul dog ever. Tho she is getting older and suffering from rheumatism, but she never fail to spark a smile on her face."

An excerpt from Joleen's Jiffy Journal

It was a magnificent evening spent, learning about proper dog ownership and care, especially those who are attentive to proper dog breeding procedures. I also met another of my species, Edmund, and the three of us commiserated over the job scope/pay of our chosen field.

DAY 12
Luncheon with my girls!

Photo by Arvin where Edwina is missing

To my bestie's encouragement, I joined the Herbalife-promoted Fit Challenge and was reunited with Arvin from school, and met Kathireen.

Lunch at The Little Cottage near New World Park was a quick catch up since I stopped the Challenge for a couple of seasons due to a combination of reasons. The Fit Club grew in membership exponentially until there wasn't enough space to accommodate everyone and I was basically fed up of the crowd, over-enthusiasm and pushy Herbalife promoters.

However, the happy part about the luncheon was about a certain life phase that we were all going through: marriage. Or lack thereof.

Friends left right and centre were getting hitched or hitched or getting knocked up or knocking up...and we were wondering if we want the same thing or just not ready for it.


DAY 13
I saw a full moon.

You read right.

I just like shiny stuff ok?! A full moon that bright on that particular night was the best part...besides re-watching Big Hero 6 and laughing so hard until I nearly fell off my chair.


DAY 14
I love being in a choir and have only been in one during primary school and Form 6. Stuff like Vocal Point gives me such a nice buzz up my spine and makes me wanna cry.

That Sunday, a fellow parishioner came up to us and told us how touched she was by one of the songs (hymns?) we had sung. Hopefully, we'll be able to sing in tagalog, bahasa, mandarin (gasp!), tamil (double gasp!!) since we have migrants from the nearby industrial zones being part of our church.


DAY 15
My new phone is finally activated and cased in a Tiffany blue casing - time for a change since I'm sick of having red and black shizz for my gadgets.

Also, I feel extra grown up now after my sister finally transferred the ownership of my mobile number to me. Been having problems changing plans, sim cards, etc since she registered that number for me to use during my trips back during Oz's summer holidays.

I haz new toy!

DAY 16
Embarking on another frustrating and physically exhausting charitable project may not be anyone's happy thing but I've come to realise I do appreciate and 'enjoy' it to some extent.

This time it's for the catastrophic flooding in the East coast of Peninsula and at the time of writing, the danna and I have gone through a few hitches in this ride and expecting more. For a small, budget and time-restricted group, plenty of effort is needed but unfortunately not everyone is a 100% committed to such an idea of reaching out personally to disaster victims.

I'm skeptical myself, TBH, but as they say, 'with the grace of God..."

DAY 17

Painted bronzeback

Joleen and I were 'complaining' about the lack of animals spotted in the Garden due to the heat of the midday tropics and I was pitying the bats roasting under the palm leaves. Later on in the day, she found the painted bronzeback, hanging around the palms at the water garden.

I'm totally against handling snakes at shows or fair because they get handled too often by so many people. This disturbs their natural behaviour and increases their risk and exposure to zoonotic diseases. Hardly, you may think, due to the reptile-mammal relations but do you know, that they can get 'dried out' due to the constant contact?


DAY 18
I had a little impromptu meeting with my boss...by passing her my signed contract and the conversation led to what may be future planning which I've never done in my entire life.

So far, ideas and hopes are the norm for me but in terms of putting it effort to make it a commitment is something new for me.

Subconsciously, I've been doing that in other areas of my life as well, no matter how slow the efforts or how small the gestures - bit and pieces in the garden, at home... I find myself settling down and liking it.

Fuck. I'm old. Yay.

DAY 19
So I can be happy with a rainy day, a full moon, and now, a nighttime thunderstorm.

Home alone with the rains lashing down, skies lighting up, and I'm snug in my jammies doing some craftwork

A little personal project for the gift shop...will reveal later on when finished.


DAY 20

Was supposed to wake up at 7am and head to Youth Park for a little workout session with the girls but none of us were obviously enthusiastic enough to leave a comfy bed due to the cool weather from a night of rain.

So I went back to sleep and woke half hour to noon (gasp!) and had a rare brunch with dad alone.

The happy part? An awkward moment where the danna met dad later on at night...in a semi-official capacity. The both of them watched Johnny English 2 on TV while I was having a shower. Nobody kill anybone, no threats were made (as far as I know) by either party, no interrogations were done...

all good ^_^