escapades of the elusive kat

So much has happened that... while I don't recall the exact sequence of what happened first, I'm grouping them together by topic.

I went on another 10km run! I was like a couple seconds slower than my last 10km run. I don't plan to run a half marathon (21km) but I do plan to do a training plan towards a half marathon. But I think if I decide to do that I actually have to incorporate some kind of strength training, which would mean a gym, which would mean I'd be too lazy to follow through.

The Line Friends Hotel and the Cafe have finally opened! At least that's one more thing in the DONE part of the task list.

I've been having fun at the ceramics workshop. The timing is a little inconvenient but I've been managing so far. I have 2 planters ready to be final burnt, and 2 more for the first burn then coloring again. Actually one of the dogs has a shaky leg LOL. It actually came off as I was drying it out. Well. Hopefully... it stays!

Sooo.... Mom was recently talking about really missing Nutmeg (our orange cat). At the shelter that I volunteer in, they had a sudden influx of orange cats. I asked how strict they are about the selection process and they said since I'm a volunteer and I'm a "trusted individual", they practically just let me have the cat.

But after staying for a week, the cat isn't really too human-friendly. Probably needs some more time to get used to us.

I spent an afternoon playing with the long feather thing with the cat and the cat now basically sticks to me.

The little rascal is indeed causing quite a bit of trouble (pushed one of my orchid plants down, broke a stem, broke a few pots from my Sis, it's basically a nuisance.

Mom had half a mind to ask me to return the cat (what comes in doesn't go out, sorry) and yesterday, in jest, she told her sister (my aunt), "I can have even more cats if I want!"

And look what happened today!

My Sis was walking Max and another dog-parent-friend said there's a cat at the entrance to the flower shop (but flower shop still closed)

It's tiny! It's the size of my palm! It's Frankenstein Cat! Look at the markings! Orange and brown tiger stripes! And we already have a babysitter in line for that. But no, it's not going to be called FrankenCat because we already have a Frankie (the Frenchie) at home. Don't want so many Franks there.

I don't know, are shoulders warmer? Nutmeg had quit that habit of sitting on shoulders last year, but she's done that at least 3 times just this week.


I'm not much of a Gudetama fan, but, 1. I was in need of a keychain, 2. This was a special Gudetama x Macau edition, 3. This actually works like a top up cash card? But it's not a card, but a chip or something? So, I figured... also, the key ring itself is slightly thinner, so it fit one of my keys better. My previous keychain had a thick ring so one of the keys was constantly stuck if swiveled in the wrong direction.


I'm getting ready for the Chinese New Year. I got a new red dress for my first day of work LOL. Got my red nails done. I misjudged the shiney finger though. I didn't like how the sparkles looked without a base color, so did the same red, but the red was too dark. I probably should have done a white base for that.


Two more days of work and then it's a 5-day weekend and then an easygoing rest of the week because nobody's going to be back to work just yet. Most people are just going to take the next Thursday and Friday off to make it an entire week off. I'm saving my PTO for later travels. I need to see if I can score cheap London tickets.

So in the family March Birthday Lunch yesterday, the restaurant we went to had an expresso machine and a soft ice cream machine. It's a buffet, and as a self-proclaimed Asian, an Asian doesn't eat at a Buffet to get full, an Asian eats at a Buffet to recover the cost! The amount of cheese I had was unimaginable, probably unhealthy! But proper Gouda cheese, Brie cheese and Blue cheese are like... really expensive here. And then shrimps! Or are they prawns? Whatever. What I call shrimps! A whole plateful. I didn't get any sashimi, because, the sashimi station only serves Salmon. Cherry picked a couple of desserts. They cheated me out of a sacher cake. The SIGN said Sacher cake. But it was the same cake as the Chocolate coffee cake on the other side.

Anyway, back to the expresso machine and soft ice cream machine, I made myself an Affogato type of deal. It was delicious.

Well. I also learned that at my age, I should quit the coffee. I. COULDN'T. SLEEP! Last night. The whole household had lights off at 11.30ish pm. I was in my bed rolling around until 2am. No sleep. Then. The Devil's Reincarnate started messing around my room. Oh, and who is the Devil's Reincarnate? NUTMEG THE CAT! I may just skin that cat alive one day. Slept on my chest. Came up to my face. Licked me with her sandpaper tongue. Then she bit me! So I pushed her away. Then she jumped to my desk and started throwing everything off. I decided to ignore and tried to sleep. She left for a bit. Then she had a case of zoomies and was just running to and from my room to somewhere (maybe my Sis' room).

After much struggling with the cat, I think I kind of managed a short nap at around 4 or 5am, when I heard my Dad taking the 20-year-old dog out to the verandah for pee-pee. At least I had some 3 hours of sleep. I was so tired at work. But I did not touch any coffee.

My friend got me another translation job. So if she passes the tender, I get a little side gig again. She wanted me to do the Portuguese as well, so I said no. She's now found a lady who would wait for my English translation, then use that to translate to Portuguese.

Exciting times.

I had plans to bring the dogs to the vet yesterday for their cartophren shots, and also for Nutmeg for her actual shots (erm, I have no idea what shot that is, only know we must get it for a cat). But then Mom got a call from the home owner's group/association thing that they are sending some guys to fix something on our verandah (because that thing serves as the entire building's drainage system, so it's the group responsibility and not just ours). Mid-way through the afternoon the guys didn't come, so Mom called them again and they said we misunderstood, that they were coming the following day. It was too late to make the appointment at the vet already, and since now they confirm it's the next day, we can't book for the next day either... so it's next week.

Kitty being Kitty. She'd snuggle and rub and be all happy that you are petting her but she will turn around and scratch you if you pet her just a nano-mili-second more than she wants.


Since the sun was already on its way to setting (so it was hardly sunny at all), I decided to work on a couple of my plants.


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It's still early-ish afternoon but I can't go anywhere because those guys are here fixing the verandah, so Mom wants us around to help keep an eye on the and keep an eye on the dogs. A little later when the guys are gone (I assume after 4 or 5pm) I might go for a 5km run, but we'll see. It IS almost 4pm now and it doesn't look like they are anywhere near done.

Life over here has been pretty stable. I also know that I am very lucky to still have my job, not required to take any unpaid leave time (only having to clear out my overabundant leave balance, but still allowed to keep a small balance). Our company is also the first (and so far the only) of the 6 concessionaires to still get our "bonus" payment, though they will not call that a "bonus" payment becaus by the word "bonus" it means they will have to give it. Instead they've termed it a "Living Subsidy".

I was getting sick of wearing heels so I brought my pair of white boots out. They look super casual, and I definitely shouldn't be wearing them to work, but since it seems nobody gives a shit if I don't have to meet with people for meetings, then.... I'll go ahead and wear it, no matter how it mismatches my attire LOL


Nutmeg is still a shoulder cat. I think I've mentioned Nutmeg found a Dad in Harley. Well, Dad has to check out the kiddo when she goes out on dates, you know, especially inter-species dates LOL


I've been trying to keep down frivolous expenses (ha bloody ha, what a joke, I've still been buying crap) so while my skincare things have been running low, I haven't replenished much. I've dug out all the freebie samples or travel size stuff that were given out before, and I've started to use them as well. Those 4 bottles of travel size Shu Uemura cleansing oil does fill up a little more than a quarter of the actual bottled product. I've also used up a lot of my serums, day/night creams, essence, etc.. etc... I now only have a single serum oil thing, which if I go by the book, I shouldn't only rely on it. However, my skin has actually cleared out better than before. I'm theorizing that before, I had too many products, and they actually clogged my pores, and thus I had constant breakouts. Now, using only the cleansing oil, an eye cream, and an oil serum thing (that I don't even remember the brand), my skin has cleared out. It could also probably because I'm getting old and my hormones are stabilizing, but whatever. After clearing out all these existing skincare items, I will strictly only use an eye cream, a moisturizer for skincare and that's it. Sunblock, a tiny bit of concealer for under the eyes, and minimal eye make up (just eyeliner and mascara to define the eyes) and that's it.


kurikuribebi had once posted about this LUSH mask. Since I am the type of person who hardly does my own research, or read magazines or whatnot, simply because seeing someone on my F-list write about it, I went ahead and got it to try. The sales lady tried to dissuade me to buy this though, saying it's very drying and that their newer mask is better. Me being me, insisted. And I LOVE THIS MASK for all the WRONG reasons LOL. This Magnaminty mask... it smells like mint chocolate ice cream! Or those After-8 chocolate thins! Every time I open it, this nice mint chocolate ice cream just fills my nostrils and then I'm happy.... LOL. Though, seriously, if you ask me about masks, one that I like is a Body Shop Himalayan charcoal something something mask... I've used that up so I don't have a photo of it and can't recall the proper name.


Still trying to Yoga daily (or, according to the schedule an app gave me) and of course the dog has to stay in the way hahaha!

Dad is going full throttle with his Christmas cookies baking, and the apartment is now smelling of pastry dough, sugar, and just... CHRISTMAS!

Or the Witch's Hut from Hansel and Gretel.

Together with the sudden drop in temperatures, I'm really enjoying my life right this moment. Soon it's gonna warm up and get all humid and then it's no fun again. But! Enjoy it while it lasts! I've already taken out my scarf! New friends may not know, but I spent like, 12+ years knitting this Slytherin scarf LOL. I started just before I graduated University (the height of the Harry Potter craze I think), then as you know, knitting is not really my thing, so the eagerness tapered off. Then every winter I'd take it out and knit a few rows. I finally finished it yesterday. Had to make some fringes because I don't have enough wool and since it took me so long to get to this point, I wasn't able to find the same wool I had used.


Nutmeg will be a travel cat. She likes to sit on shoulders. Whoever's shoulders. She just likes to sit there. I guess it's warm? I was cleaning up the table after dinner and up she plops herself up on my shoulders, and I have to move around like the Hunchback, lest she slips and falls.

We know now that when Frankie is calm, he can get on with Nutmeg. But there are times when he gets crazy, then that's a no-no. Hopefully Frankie learns to always keep the calm!


Mom will kill me for showing this photo to the world, LOL (because of the messy living room), but yeah, Frankie and Harley can co-exist in harmony... for 2 seconds maybe.

Yes, the Wordless Wednesday was basically a cheat. I just posted the new cat Nutmeg's photo. And I'm shamelessly posting more LOL.

We're calling her Nutmeg.

I guess me being the one to physically pick her up and bring her home (the person that instructed me to do so is Mom, don't put the blame on me) has made her only sticking to me. Whenever I'm in the room she's in, she has to sit ON me somewhere. I don't put her there.


Anyway, we've kind of encountered some problems with her. She ate the first day, and then she also ate the following day, breakfast. After that breakfast (Sunday), she didn't eat anymore. It's now Wednesday night.


It's a bit worrying as cats not eating is more serious than dogs not eating. She is still lively and likes to chase people around, but otherwise, she's just sleeping all day and when I'm around she has to sleep on me.


Taking some time to get to know the other cats and the dogs. I think she can now tolerate having a dog sniffing her, or near her. But outright being crazy and the dog-kind of enthusiastic greetings are still a no-go for her.


Loves to go unde the sun, even if it's just my bedroom. Also got this nifty pouch-bag thing from the dollar store (though the actually item did it cost a dollar... it was waaaaayyyy more than a dollar)


The vet is stumped as well. He told us to try to get his "McDonald's for cats!" Food, he was so sure the cat will eat it, but no. Nutmeg refuses to be swayed. She still pees, so I have no idea where she gets her liquid from. She needs to revisit the vet another 3 days (already visited 2 times) for injections. You can imagine this may have been a street pick up but I've already spent a mini-fortune on this cat *rolls eyes*

It's still Mom's fault.

Of course, with the novelty of a new cat, it's always gonna be about the cat! and he's like the friendliest cat ever. The greediest cat ever, the worst food-stealer ever, and whatever you can say about a cat. He climbs up our backs and looks over our shoulders sometimes, it's really funny.


I do make a point to greet the dogs and the other cat first before I have any interaction with Harley. But that other cat is really prickly. We got Harley in hopes of Kitty having a comrade, but Harley has in turn befriended the dogs, even Menina who is really wary of cats in general doesn't mind him now...

This is a crazy household.

There's some issue thingy going on at work and well... in a way it's funny, but in another way it's not. Oh yeah, and tomorrow is the group gathering. Should be interesting. We'll see.

I've been meaning to play on the piano for a few nights already but haven't actually gotten the drive. hm... and I'm contemplating... should I buy the Sherlock 4 DVD or just wait it out for Netflix? I don't want to have a physical DVD lying around, I don't want to watch or download any illegal source, but I wanna watch it. Though from the trailers I think I won't like season 4.

Early day for me. Night!

We have a boarder tonight. Mom saw a cat by the parked cars just by our apartment building, so we went down to give it a feed... and practically just carried the cat home.


Cute little white male cat. Or kitten. Not sure. Really a cutesy! Yes. We vehemently do have a "NO MORE EXTRA PETS" policy at home. 4 dogs and 1 cat in an apartment is really stretching our capacity.

The thing is, this little male cat... seems more like a house cat than this terror we currently have. The white little kitty... you can touch, play, carry, you can do all that you want with him!!