In the office early

My Dad had to be sent for his quarterly checkup at UH and he usually wants to reach there early. So early it was. Left the house at 6:30 a.m....Yawn.

Was out last nite with some plants friends & dropped by a house to visit. It was still early then at 9:30 p.m. but the chatting dragged on until almost midnite. My constant yawns did nothing to speed up the exit. Alas, I had no time to do my own stuff at home. It was just a quickie supper of yoghurt & fresh fruits and then to bed.

This plant hobby thingy is becoming a time consuming money-wasting passion. I was invited by a friend to assist him in a new nursery he was setting up. He was going to bring in a tissue culture expert from Taiwan & build a plant/nursery in Bkt Tinggi area. I was to help in the international trade, promotions & relationships matters. He figured that since pitcher plants were a native to Malaysia ( and the Asia region) , why should foreigners like those folks in Sri Lanka, Australia, USA be selling it worldwide ? He has a point....

But that`s gonna be my post retirement job. Not now. Not yet.

I made it..........

Made it through a whole week without feeling too sad about Chico. I miss him lots but life has to go on. Luckily I have taken some very good photos of him before he left. Cherish them I shall.

Had quite a busy weekend. Met up with Adrian on Sat, who is a pitcher plant kaki & lives nearby my house. We took turns to visit each other. When he came over, he was kinda gawking at my plants. Him being the novice & me being a more experienced grower. He went home with 2 pots of plants. $$$.

Then Khairi & his friend came over to buy some plants. $$$. Also 1st time meeting up with him. A long chat ensued of plants, diff genre` etc as he is quite good at non-CP plants. He is a lecturer as a local college and knows quite a bit.

Then Sunday I went to visit 2 other plant kaki`s. One had grown pitchers for 30 years but we were so disappointed with his collection. Evidently, years of know-how & head knowledge amounted to zero for him. All his plants were pathetic, wrong conditions etc etc. The 2nd home was Lau`s, a good friend. I`ve been there before so I`m used to his plants. Huge, impressive. It was more for the others who tagged along.

It was an eventful weeekend.

Good free gift

When I took a day off to unwind & relax on Monday, I initially wanted to watch a movie. Scanning thru the STAR, i noticed that Harry Porter was showing at TGV at 11 a.m. 1 Utama. It was 10:08 a.m. when I read it. A quick shower plus quicker b`fast ensued.

I reached 1 Utama at 10:51 a.m. then didn`t feel like watching that kiddie show so I just walked around. Saw this DC Comics shop which sells original T shirts from the comics. The Superman t`s look might good but for rm79 a pop, well, I thot thrice.

Next was a shop which sold hermit crabs. They have different sizes & the price range was rm5, rm8 & rm12. Cute little fellas but I didn`t buy any. Then it was off to FOS. Thank god there wasn`t anything nice to buy coz I was on a tight budget as gaji belum masuk. I walked over to the Old wing and as I passed Guardian, a shop assistant called out to me. They were giving away free Blackmore`s Billberry pills worth rm78.90. The trick ? You gotta exchange it with an empty vitamin bottle. I went into Guardian, got a bottle of Blackmore`s vitamin C time release ( it was buy 1 get 1 free ), emptied the bottle and got my Billberry. Heheh. That was 3 days ago. I swear my eyesight has improved since then.

I also picked up a pot of African violets coz I needed some cheering up.

Obituary March 1997 - July 2007

The love of my life is gone. After a 10 year `romance`, he left me. Cradling him in my arms at the vet`s and seeing so much pain in his little eyes, I decided to put him to sleep.

I got a call from my Dad on friday afternoon that Chico was in pain. He was vomitting blood and also had blood drips from his penis. His back legs was also paralysed. I rushed back thru the lunch crowd & as I drove up to my house, I could see him trying to drag himself using his front legs to greet me. He was howling in pain. It was a sound I never heard from him before. I picked him up. He didn`t look good.

Took him to the vet`s at B`fields after the sembahyang crowd had cleared. Dr Lim cleared the whole clinic to attend to him. 3 Doctors and 2 nurses immediately took blood, did scans etc. He had a sharp bladder stone which was bruising his insides and causing the bleeds. They also guessed that he might have had a stroke which paralysed his back legs. Sigh.

I left him there for the night and came back on Sat a`noon after his blood test resuilts came out. His liver was almost 90% damaged. And his condition was the same as yesterday. The vet counselled me and told me that even if they could flush out the toxins in the liver and regenerate it, it would take time and also cause him pain. Also there was the issue of his bladder stone. And paralysis....he said that even if we could extend his life via surgeries etc , the quality of it would be suspect. I knew what he trying to tell me...

I called up some friends to tell them. Had dinner with a good friend then went back. And thot real hard.

Sunday morn at 8 a.m. I was there at the vet`s. I asked to go in early to see him. As soon as he heard me calling him, he started whinning. I picked him up and cradled him for almost 2 hours. In between sobs and talking to him, I decided. He was in too much pain. I told him we were going to bury him in the garden and plant a strawberry shrub on top as that was his favorite fruit.

At exactly 10:16 a.m., he was put to sleep in my arms. It was fast, less than 10 seconds. He stopped whinning in pain.

I took him home and started digging. And digging. Then it started raining. Really hard and heavy. The hole I dug was now a small pond. So we dug further. My Mum and I cried as we dug. We buried him after saying our goodbyes. He was placed in a small box with a cushion for support and his fav bone.

Adios my good friend. Will remember you for life.