escapades of the elusive kat

I did not realise it was Easter weekend last week, so I got a pleasant surprise of a long weekend. In Macau we get Good Friday off, but of course my Mom's brain is still in her civil servant and Portuguese rule era and kept asking me why I'm not off on Easter Monday. Because it's not a mandated public holiday.

"But banks are closed!" she counters.

"And I do not work in a bank."

For the record, banks in Macau are closed because it's a public holiday in Hong Kong, and Macau banks are reliant on Hong Kong banks.

Did I get much done over the long weekend? Not much. Sorted out some ebooks into my Kobo, got some running done, and of course worked over the holidays from home when needed. Such is life, and I'm happy with it.

It's mid-April already so that means my upcoming trip to Tokyo is fast approaching. I forgot to book the Pokemon cafe thing in Tokyo. I mean, I remembered to try the day before (they have a book 30 days in advance thing) and I tried their system just to see how it works, and in 6 minutes, it was fully. booked. No problem, that was trial day only. The next day (the day I really meant to book), ... I forgot about it LOL.

I've read that people would go there on-day and try their luck for ad hoc cancellations, but I don't really do that. If it's a walk in type of restaurant, I'd walk in. If it's a reservation only type of place, I'd only go if I had a reservation. I won't ever try my luck with on day cancellations.

That said, that would make my schedule more flexible. I might move things around as I planned.

Then end of May I'm going to Singapore again. It's about time someone goes check the condition of that office we have. It's all above board and proper, I've done all my paperwork already, besides, I'm cheap when I travel, even when it's a work travel, I guess no one complains when I'm the one doing the traveling.

No trip in June anymore, then July and August... the parents are flying to Europe again. So, FINALLY, I can cook for myself, set my own schedule, and do whatever I want. The only thing is I will have to do the same thing I always do when they're traveling: Take Fridays off so someone is home to check on the maid.

September will probably be no trip, there's a possibility my Sis will be accompanying my aunt and cousin to Portugal because of reasons. October I have my Taiwan half marathon thing, and December I have my Tokyo Kawaguchi Lake run (a 17km segment under the Fuji Marathon). There's some not-yet serious planning on a November trip to Qingdao China.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Amazon Product Link

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings—asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass—offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.


Listened as an audiobook.

There were quite a bit of scientific names that I don’t remember now, but those were just given for reference.

I liked hearing about the ways of the Indian Tribes, how there’s this ritual of thanks. Glad to say I do something similar.

This was a pretty long listen (17 hours), and I will definitely admit my attention did slip in parts but I think I’ve listened to the main bits.

Oh boy, time indeed flies. April's coming up!

Lookie! It's flowering! It's been a year and it's the first time this African Violet is flowering, so I had no idea this would be such a pretty pink. I also decided to get this acrylic stand thing for all my stones. The light won't always be on (it'll discolor the stones)
A colleague of mine went to a chinese medicine doctor and she said she got the worst most horrible herbal tea ever, so I decided to challenge. I got this very cinnamon-y herbal tea and when I compared my "herb list recipe" with hers, apparently we got different concoctions, so I still couldn't try that worst tea she had.
Was going to an Andrea Bocelli show and so had to accessorize for a night. These are stick-ons and I can feel they are coming off already... it's been... 1 night only. I probably have the wrong glue, but I also don't want to use a too-strong glue.
Went to have lunch with a friend and the Burmese Coconut Chicken noodles was highly recommended. It was damn good indeed! But the coconut milk messed with me. I had an almost-accident going home, then actually had an accident when I was walking the dog. Toilet-related accident, enough said!
So at the concert venue, while we were waiting for the show to start, a friend sent me this photo. I knew she was going, and we bought same-price tickets, but I managed to get a middle section. She said "you're being supervised!"
Jokes' on her, I caught her back LOL.
Amazing show, I liked the Pavarotti duet (sang with a recording of Pavarotti singing)
I personally found it amusing they left "Time to Say Goodbye" as the encore LOL.
And here are the cats being cats!
How chummy!

Ah… I can’t shake this headache. But overall, I’m feeling heaps better today than yesterday. I had pain in my bones yesterday, shaking as if I had a seizure. Today I only have a slight headache, some achy joints, but overall feeling better.

I’d like to talk about… Pingduoduo! (I think the western equivalent is “Temu”).

I used to say Taobao (AlieExpress) had weird and crazy inventions. Well, Pingduoduo is the same, but at a crazy cheap price that I’m actually afraid of the actual product.

For the sake of research and curiosity, I got a couple things:

Note: this is… 8 bucks my money. 8 bucks my money would make it roughly USD $1. This got me to thinking, assuming man-hours are free, how much are the freaking materials costing?

I can see the knit is actually a machine knit, and the materials a bit on the flimsy side, but, USD $1? It’s crazy.

I wonder if I got covid from this monstrosity.

The next thing I got was this keychain pouch for an RFID door chip thingamajig. How nice, the presentation on the photos, all embossed, nicely stitched.

In reality, it was just a basic print all. (The embossing is fake, they printed a shadow to make it look embossed). The stitching also leaves a lot to be desired.

But then again, for 6 bucks my money, I can’t complain. But I did go to Taobao and look for a more decently priced, $40 one to see if it will look better.

Goes to show you should expect poorer quality when stuff are inexplicably cheap. There are some things though, that I would be looking to get from there. For example, the pet pee sheets for Sai Lup (because he's always lying down, we put a pet sheet around his wee wee part, in case he drips and if he poopoos), they haven't arrived yet, so I'm not sure of the quality, but we'll see.

Assistant to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Amazon Product Link

Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Maehrer’s laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain…and their unexpected romance.

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.

The Assistant and the Villain series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Assistant to the Villain
Book #2 Apprentice to the Villain
Book #3 Accomplice to the Villain


Alrighty, this was a cute read. The title of the book sort of called to me as I’m a working EA (though it does feel more like a PA sometimes). Here’s me choosing a random book by title only, I didn’t even read the Synopsis.

I originally thought this would be a modern world thing, but then apparently, it’s a… medieval timeline thing. And then it started to stump me, because it was a medieval thing but with so much modern world references. So in the end I figured it was a fantasy thing.

Anyway, it was a cute read. A bit corny on the romance part. The dialogue’s sometimes crazy, but certainly similar to how my brain would jump topics.

Looking forward to reading the second book, and the next as well.

One day in February, my friend came across a really decent promotion with Air Macau, so we got flight tickets to Taipei. The tickets were like, less than USD $100. And the timing was a bit crazy-but-useful.

I had to depart around 5.30am, and since everyone else was sleeping, wrote down instructions on which Lai See (hongbao) to give to who and how to feed the cats (I've got new wild cats - there are two cats in my car park, I've started feeding them, and they wait for me to get home now LOL)

Got to the airport before 6am, got checked in, got pleasantly surprised that Starbucks was open this early, got some breakfast. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 7:30am, but we were all boarded and taxi-ing off the park area at 7:10am, and actually took off earlier than scheduled. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Landed, dropped bags in the the hotel, then off we went for our first meal in Taipei: Brunch. I promised my friends I would be taking it easy on this trip, so I wasn't pushing for any itinerary or where to go, and squeezing. Brunch was at a place called Nook. Interesting, but nothing to write home about.

After brunch, we walked all the way to Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Xinyi because my friend's target was to get new glasses. I wasn't really looking to replace my glasses, but they had something interesting. J!NS has a crossover with Dragonball (the anime) and they've got some really cool colors. I immediately fell for the Piccolo green-and-purple combination which I decided to get. But instead of blue-light lens, I got those that turn dark in the sun. My other two friends? Both got 2 pairs of some frames they chose each.

One of my friends was dejected that she was going to miss out on a lunch at a certain restaurant, because it had "break hours" between lunch and dinner. I got distracted by a Pokemon sign on a lower floor (I saw through the escalator gap) and went down there to look. Friends followed me then the dejected one screamed OMG. Apparently, the restaurant she wanted to go to had a branch restaurant in the mall's food court. So she was happy again. Thank ME for chasing shinies LOL.

Then we went to another building (Shinkong Mitsukoshi Xinyi has a couple buildings next to each other) and we saw another glasses shop, OWNDAYS. They also had their own line of Dragon Ball crossover, and that I found weird for Dragon Ball... would a brand crossover with two same industry at the same time? IT was weird. But this set of crossover did not catch my eyes.

So while one of my friends went about getting another 2 pair of glasses, my other friend accompanied me to go upstairs to the POKEMON CENTER TAIPEI!

You bet I got something LOL. I got something functional though. I knew my Sis was looking to replace her thermos bottle, so I sent her a photo and she wanted a black bottle with a Pikachu silhouette on it. I got an outright Pikachu yellow bottle one LOL. I have to sort out my bottles... i have too many, and some are actually too old and should be replaced.

We next went to a place called Ronjing Gorgeous Time. It's just a street and some buildings are being converted/adapted for new businesses. The area was actually a Japanese prison.
Dinner was at Uncle Shawn, it's BBQ and the staff cook it for you. The food was good, and some really, really, really good items. But overall it felt a bit pricey for the little food we ordered.

One of the actually good items that wasn't BBQ-ed. A scallop burger (scallop for "buns" and Uni and Crab... gunk? for the insides)
That dinner wasn't filling enough, so we went to Shida Night Market...

More crap to see but i didn't buy any!
And we had "Lo-mei" (soy sauce braised food?), this was sooooooooo satisfying, yum yum!
The hotel wasn't anything to write home about either. Breakfast was abyssmal! We first went to the Taiwan National Science Education Center because there was an AI Art exhibit thing going on. But geez, it was a total rookie move to go on a Sunday, because, KIDS. To be fair, when I did the research, it did say the last day was on 9 March Sunday, and so we went there on the last day, but then found out it's actually extended up to April.

The science center itself was pretty cool though.
Where there's a dangerous-looking bridge but obviously it's safe to walk on, I'd go LOL.
There was also an AI Sports exhibit but we didn't go. Hippos showing you how to exercise LOL.

AI Art Exhibition.
First we've got some trick-eye trickery.
Here you become the conductor and wave the baton around. Apparently, the imagery does follow your lead.
Here you pull the ship and the line also follows your pull, I think.
Moses dividing the sea at a wave of a stick also.
We were famished after that, so went to have lunch. We were in Dongmen area and walked along that hip shopping street.
Green bean milk ice fleecy thingamajig.
Next we went to Huashan Cultural... something 1914. It's a whole park area and they put artsy exhibits year round. We went first because of the Ghibli exhibit (but it felt more like an Animage magazine exhibit)
Nostalgia galore LOL
I always thought the mask in Naussica made them look like they were pretending to be dogs.
Apparently one of my friends is deathly afraid of the... giant bug thing in Naussica.
Oh boy, I haven't really watched the whole Graveyard of Fireflies but I know the gist of it and know what happens in the end.
Hey, the Ghibli museum thing in Tokyo has a Cat Bus that you can't go in (age limit, over 6years old not allowed) but this one here I GOT IN!
Almost the end of it.
Yeah I heard about the new park, so I should check it out for my next trip in May!
There was also a Peanuts exhibit hall.
So cute and sweet!
Still, some plushie crossover(ish) designs are still... questionable... such as this Snake Snoopy LOL. I didn't buy anything but did pay to play 2 gachapons. I got a reusable bag (by the size it looks like a bento bag, which I may give my Sis) and last year's Bunny Snoopy crossover LOL.
A friend really wanted a certain Omakase, but I guess the good ones are hard to book. This one was... totally underwhelming... or have I turned into a snob?
I'm not going to post everything.
And another friend wanted to try cocktails (I think it's sort of part of her job?)
Interesting menu, but the boy (waiter) failed at first meet.
We were 4 people. Only 2 of us ordered on the first round. Guy doesn't have a pen and paper, and just "remembers" the order. We wait a really long time (too long for a cocktail, but I didn't time it either) and he brought us 2 totally wrong drinks. He knew he made a mistake because as he brought the two drinks (one of them was wrong), he asked, "You did order something else, right?" And I really don't know what to comment on.
oh, and they relied on photo trickery... these two below are the same drink...
Anyway, next day, we go to Ximending for some final shopping (and breakfast, because hotel breakfast sucks)
Roamed Eslite bookstore as well. Found a hilarious book where they replaced main imagery of famous paintings with... Chihuahuas haha!
We had a quick final lunch at another BBQ place, this time grill it yourself, and stopped by a couple more stores for souvenirs.
oh, I forgot to say, those new glasses felt so good that on the second day, late at night, I decided to get another pair, this time the Supreme Kai color (it's a turqoise and pink I think) but this time with blue-light glasses, so now I have a proper pair of glasses for weekend and driving, and a pair for the office.

And then, we made our way back home.

My recent entertainment has been watching live sales on Taobao. I think I've held myself pretty well. Yes, I've bought a bit of stuff, but not mountainous stuff as I would have liked had I not had self-restraint.

There's this one Taobao store that says they are a "tea utensils workshop", and they do a live sales session every morning. They have a weird kiln-in-kiln set up, and their live sales is a show of "opening a kiln" and seeing the piece "for the first time". I've watched this live sales for around a week and I think I've figured out that their kiln is a fake kiln LOL.

Also, out of curiosity, I "snatched" (since their set up is there's only 1 of each item) a piece and I have it in hand, and I can all the more confidently say, their live sales is all a set up LOL.


For one, the bottom part of a piece usually is not so "clean" (no run-over? no drag? No cracks?) and the inside is a piece of... metal or alum or something not clay, it looks stuck on instead of part of the entire piece, so I don't know.

I'm also following 2 other shops that do live slaes of jewelry. They're pretty entertaining, and what's more, it's not just entertainment for me, I also get to train my ear to listen to Mandarin. I have bought a couple of items, but they are selling stuff so cheap during the live sales, it's a bit unbelievable.

ADHD is Awesome: A Guide to (Mostly) Thriving with ADHD
Penn Holderness, Kim Holderness
Amazon Product Link

Hi, friend! Welcome to the ADHD club.

You're here because, like me, you've been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder—which, by the way, just might be the worst name for a condition ever—and you're trying to figure out how to make your life a little more manageable. Or because, like my wife, Kim, you love, teach, or work with someone who has ADHD, and you're trying to figure out how to best support them.

The world isn't built for ADHDers, and navigating it can wear us down. But we'll let you in on a little secret: having ADHD doesn't have to be a burden. It can actually be a superpower that propels you to creative heights and allows you to achieve more than you ever thought possible.

We want to give you a new perspective on ADHD, whether it's your own brain or a friend or family member's that you're trying to understand. We hope you come away with strategies you can employ to make things a little easier. (We also hope you laugh out loud, at least once or twice.)

Most of all, we want you to silence that voice that whispers that you're broken or a mess or a failure. None of that is true. You have ADHD—and that makes you awesome.

—Penn Holderness

= + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = + = +

Audiobook listen (random "available now" loan)

It was mid-way through this book that I realise I had watched some reels from this family.

Being all my life in Asia, I've got a rather "Asian" mentality that... "there are no 'mental illnesses'". Yes, I get to read about different instances (ADHD/Autism/Depression/etc) and while I know they are very much true, "thanks" to my upbringing, many times my first gut reaction is like, "they just don't have enough willpower." I am trying to rectify my thoughts.

In many parts, wherein they explain the traits of ADHD, I'll be like "huh, that's me too, but that's no excuse," or "that sounds like me before but I've worked to change that!" etc. I can only say, different culture, different tolerances.

And what I'm slightly annoyed with is, they keep saying "you need to be patient or give chances to ADHD-ers", but the fact is, you need to patient or give chances to everyone. But it's a tricky line to go over, I'm sure. It's a long road to unlearn something I've been taught all my life... I'm trying....

... or, I do like to meet people, but I'm not big on initiating or hosting stuff.

This "mostly foreigners group chat" that I'm in had this... plan about donig a karaoke night. Well, people had voted on a date, but the "real" planners couldn't do it on that day, and then asked me what to do. I was like... "I'm no party planner..." it's not that I don't want to do the work (I do that plenty of family), I just don't know where to start when it's with a group of strangers.

Don't know why in the end it came to me to call in regrets and to start checking out local karaoke places. I don't even go clubbing and karaoke-ing in town (I mostly go karaoke in Zhuhai). I've since posted some information of a basic karaoke place. I hope the usual singers will handle that again.

The week is finally over, and tomorrow starts a new pottery throwing class. So I'll have a good 8 weeks without doing my usual doggy and kitty planters. I figured I need to practice throwing pottery... so... that's what I'll be doing. I am so very tempted to stay in the afternoon to work on my doggies, but there's this new meeting for the shelter I volunteer at... and I also don't really want to attend because, people.

I don't know why I give off the energy and impression that people think "I will do stuff for them". Well, I do when asked, coz I'm a sucker that don't know how to say no, so I don't really want to go to these meetings. But I'm also curious because the president has said she's gonna call it quits and going back to her home country. If that's the case, what will happen to the shelter and the doggies?

That reminds me, back in... was it June? April? of last year, I came across a dog that was walking alone in the streets, getting in traffic, and all that. I called a few shelters and only one of them came to help. It wasn't the shelter I volunteer at because "they have no volunteers, can you handle it yourself?" wtf.

When the other shelter I called agreed to help, they sent the municipal kennel people (government shelter) to catch the dog. The president of the shelter that I volunteer at then asked me (sarcastically? condesendingly?) that that was irresponsible to call the kennel because they will kill the dog. Well. this other shelter actually took the dog after the 2-week quarantine placed, just before they killed the dog. I decided to sponsor for that dog. It's pretty old so they had to charge the geriatric dog fee (costs a pretty penny).

They sent me an update today, the dog looks HEAPS better. It's been neutered, got teeth scaled, showered and trimmed. I'm glad I called this other shelter instead of the shelter I volunteer at. People have asked why I keep volunteering there, and yes, I do think other shelters are doing a better job, but then I think I'm just doing this for the dogs. But then again, it's not like I'm the lifeline, so..... I am seriously considering resigning.

We got hit by a pretty cold front the last 2 weeks, so I dug out our age-old heating blankets that we can't use as heating blankets; the plastic's sort of turned a little hard so can't really use as "blanket". Intead I've put it under the mattress protector, and it works more like a bed warmer. Can't leave it on for long periods, because, fire harzard, but I do switch it one for 30 minutes when I'm in the room because the cats seem to like a warm bed.

Today it's a little warmer, but yesterday, it was pretty cold. I could withstand the cold pretty well but even so, I find, sitting on something warm is pretty comfy LOL. I finally understand our cat that likes to sit on the modem/router. Butt-warming is nice haha.

I've received a couple more travel requests/reasons for travel. Oh boy, what to plan, how to plan, woooo!