escapades of the elusive kat

oh boy, it's been awhile I am so sorry, but life has been so busy!

I've finally won a war!

I got the building management to fix our common-use exterior drainpipe. Long story short, an exterior drainpipe was blocked... if not 10 years ago then 8 years ago, or around so. At the time when we raised the issue, homeowners association had asked us to "cooperate and work with them and just not wash our varandah for a while, because scaffolding is expensive." But the thing is, it wasn't a private drainpipe, it was common use. The floors above us would have their drains flow through to this drainpipe. We were nice and complied, and never washed our dogs outside anymore, if we needed to wash the varandah then we actually MOPPED the verandah instead of the easy flush with power hose, and we watered the plants with a watering can, being very careful not to spill too much water.

One time another drainpipe had burst and they fixed it immediately, because it burst at a very low level where they could have accessed with just a ladder. Our drainpipe would have to be accessed with a scaffolding.

A few months ago, I noticed a posted notice saying the HOA was going to use X amount of money from the building repair funds to fix another drainpipe that was constantly gushing water out. I asked the management company "what gives?" and he said because someone complained. Huh. The HOA president that told us to "cooperate" 8 years ago has passed away earlier this year. So? I told the family, there's no need to keep that promise anymore, and we just washed the varandah every day, watered the plants with the hose directly. Let the water flow.

The thing is, that other drainpipe they are going to fix? The water flowed to a dead-end area of the building. The drainpipe that was on our side? it's right above the motorcycle parking. Yes. Bikes got wet. I don't know if they know that the water is possibly doggy pee water either, but, I'm past the point of caring.

TODAY they've changed the notice. They are going to erect scaffolding to fix 2 drainpipes. Ha! I win!

Random photo dump with some captions if I feel like it!

My Sai Lup 2.0 Planter is done! And there's an obvious improvedment since my first version. And the phone screen capture is for another announcement...

It was time to upgrade my phone, so, since the new iPhone had an Orange option and I just so happen to have an Orange theme going on (to be fair, I also have a Purple theme and a Blue theme going on in other parts of my life!)

I can't ruin the phone by having some other colored case, so... I just had to get a transparent case, and since recently there's this new fad with those hanging slips that go inside your case and stuff, that was a nice way to make a subtle customization without covering the orange.

Frankie has been visiting very a many different places now. I have to limit his walks to at the very most 1 hour (usually 30 mins or so) as he can't really walk too much. But it's winter right now, so stretching it to an hour is fine on most days as well. Worst case I can just carry him home. BUT HE JUST DOESN'T WANT TO TURN BACK AND HEAD HOME!

Ah, I made a plate thingy. Since my planters are all animals, I use most the browns and beiges and black and white colours. I wanted to make something that I could use the other colours, so I made the plate. ButI didn't expect it to get so bright and sharp after the transparent glaze.

It was the handicraft and art fair the other week. Went ahead and did some small shopping.

These are also shots from the Frankie walks but there be no Frankie here. The right side photo below is actually a flipped image. The lake happened to be quite calm, though you can still see the ripples.

My workplace lunch restaurant has a new menu and the Japanese style curry is great. I really love it, it's cheesy too! Dad also made bread dumplins the other day.

One of the cafes at my work place has made this amazing gingerbread house but why is the Santa so... contorted? And apparently it must be some ready-made bought sugar dolls because a colleague said another hotel has a same style Santa.

I had an artist from China do this needle felting doll thing of Sai-Lup and they said it's being sent. So I shall await its arrival.

The dog and cats are getting pretty comfortable with us LOL. I'm also terrified of Kitty, who now will explore the apartment since Sai Lup is gone. I still think she got a very very bad first impression of Sai Lup that caused her to never come out.

oh, and what have I been so busy with? Chinese class, running and workouts. Preparing for my Mt. Fuji run! I'm still not sure about my gear, but I tested a neck warmer thing and I think it's good to keep it. I should feel more excited about my upcoming trip but I still couldn't quite muster up the right excitement.

Woefully unprepared but gotta face it: Going to Taipei on Saturday for the half marathon on Sunday. Planned to squeeze in a last practice run today, but then it was raining. I could run tomorrow, but I want to be packing and make sure I have everything. The lock in my bag is a little wonky, so I need some time to go get another lock to use outside of the bag. Getting an outside lock would be easier than getting a whole new bag with the right size.

I've got some simple idea on places to go after the race, hopefully I'll get motivation (or willpower) to go lol. i've got very, very little cash. I'm going to try to survive with credit card. I do have some cash, but want to avoid exchanging more.

My Mom's friend asked for help to pay her lawyer, and she transmitted a good chuk of euros to me. I have no idea what to do with euros. But okay, I guess.

We're under a rare chilly spell this week. It's gonna warm up again over the weekend, I'm sure. But it does mean we're in the Autumn stretch

Yesterday was totally crazy. There's some concert going on and after settling all the tickets as the boss wanted, he found out he got 1 of the tickets of the wrong date. Luckily, my contact for the venue was willing to over time a bit and get the last ticket and so I had to go out early to find the girl (both of us were off that day) to pick up the ticket.

Early morning dog walk.

Got the ticket, made arrangement to pass it on to the boss' friend, went for my weekly pottery session, then decided to go to one of the big resorts for lunch.

Meanwhile, I received a message from one of the boss' friends that they wanted to make some arrangement for Sunday (the day after). I've now made an unspoken rule: Whenever the Boss or the drivers call/message, I'll take them. But when it's the Boss' friends, I don't answer calls, and for messages, I'll look at the preview. There was once when they wanted something done immediately. I ignored the message, lol. This time, they wanted something for the day after, and since I just so happened to be at that big resort that's next to my office, I thought, sure, and went over to the office to sort that out.

I sat for a while in the office then decided to go.The sun was setting at the time and so there was a really bad glare, and when I glanced down I noticed the red temperature light on the dashboard.

I know enough to not to try to open the cooler and water tank while the car was still hot. I did hear inside the car having some bubbly sound like when you're frying an egg? Anyway, i called the mechanic and he said "that's a problem!" And came to where I stopped my car. Warning me again to "NOT OPEN THE COOLER AND WATER TANK". Ok. But I put up the hood to help the car cool down.

Mechanic guy decides to drive my car back and told me to "just drive his car" LOL. Some bloody stupid guy that parks at the same car park did not give way to me. All car park users would maneuver the car to the side if an oncoming car comes. But this guy was just rushing to me and forcing me to drive in reverse. There's a pillar near the entrance to the car park, and I wasn't used to the mechanic's car and I grazed it lightly, but the car still got dented. Called him to apologize and say if he fixes it to put it in my tab. But the guy was like "come on, the car is old. You didn't break the glass. It's all fiiiiinnnnnneeeee!" But I feel so guilty. I haven't scrapped/hit/grazed a car since that ONE time with my first car... my record was clean for 17+ years!

Anyway, mechanic fixed my car and we switched cars again. He just said "huh, you need to check the car out more. I've fixed it, but if the light comes up again it's a problem!" No shit, Sherlock! That's why I called you the first time! And the mechanic has also graciously placed a whole bottle of water in my car LOL. "Next time if it happens again, you just fill those up with water..... NOT IMMEDIATELY!" Okay, okay,....

Went for a double session yoga today and it's totally destroyed me. Conked out in the afternoon, and I'm tired again now (just before midnight). So I might as well get to bed. I had some funny rant about yoga, but I'lol leave it for another post.

Oh, and I've just as suddenly moved offices again. Hope i don't need to move again, but for reasons, I purposefully did not unpack yet. Just the essentials (computer, some stationary), but I don't have a private room anymore, I'm again out in a cubicle now. Huh. So have to be more "on time" now lol.

So on Sunday, I went to Hong Kong on my own to attend a concert of a Japanese singer that I was a really big fan of when I was younger. I had just been to her concert in Guangzhou and saw some fans gifting gifts to her and then had the idea to make her something too - one of my flower pot cats, and of her cat!

All kitted out with her previous merchandise. The waters were pretty calm so I managed to get a good bit of reading done while on the ferry.

However, the organizer had a very weird schedule of 2pm opening the merch/goods counter, but the concert being 6.30pm. I had nothing better to do and wanted to drop off the gift so I didn't have to lug it around. In order to make time to 2pm, I first went on a hunt for my 2026 Hobonichi weeks. I did get it, but apparently international partner stores do not include the freebie pen. But... this thing cost me roughly HKD $300, and if I bought it online, the shipping is like... $150.... in the end I decided, $150 for the extra pen isn't worth it. I had also wanted to get another 2 empty "Day-Free" notebooks, but they didn't have it? But it was OK, I'm in the process of moving offices again and in my packing I found the 2 "Day-free"s I bought previously.

There wasn't any particular interesting and localized merch except for this little card, which I'll use as a bookmark. There's also an acrylic stand thing of the singer... but it's just something to collect dust, I'm not going to get it, despite me being a fan.

There was still A LOT of time until 6.30pm, so I hopped back out to Mongkok area and saw the HK Starbucks had a matcha mochi muffing thing that doesn't exist in Macau. So I got it. Also had a wander around Sino Center, which brought beck memories. This used to be the place for anime fans to lurk.

At around 4.30pm I figured I should start heading back to the concert place (Diamond Hill) and went to the tube station. I was near Langham Place, so went in too and saw their beautiful flower displays.

Back in the venue, we waited... long-ish, but the concert was punctual, all things considered. The set list was amazing, it was totally my cup of tea, because I mainly like her songs from way before (the anime songs) and this is what was included in the concert on this day. Oh yeah, fangirl me had received a letter from her and I've held onto it.

Official photo, I am right there (I had a better location in the Guangzhou concert)

And then she posted that she received these gifts, so I know she got my box. After the concert, I rushed back to the ferry terminal, but still missed the 9.30pm ferry. I thought there would be a 10pm ferry, but alas no, there was only the 11pm ferry after 9.30pm. Ooops.

Had to go to the Chinese doctor yesterday because I couldn't lift up my arm since Saturday. She did more guasha and also cupping. I have a particularly dark spot now. They say it's because that's the problem area. Well, believe it or not, after the night, I could totally move my arm the following day!

And my Sis was driving my first car (my baby!) and she had an accident today. A bus crashed into her. Person's fine, car a little dented now. Wonder if my mechanic will want to fix this, this IS a pretty old car (21 years). On the one hand, he might not be able to find spare parts and instead need to weld/hammer the thing by hand, but on the other hand, it's the bus' fault (traffic police confirmed) so we're not going to have to pay a dime for it, so might as well get it all fixed up.

Saturday, I took my bestie over to China to a karaoke parlor. It was pretty nice. We didn't really sing much, but we just lined up the play list and pressed the button so that the vocals would be played out as well. We ordered some food from the parlor, and ordered some... bubble tea type of drinks from a delivery app, and including all the food and the room booking (3 hours)? The price of a regular meal for 2 in Macau.

We had another typhoon on Monday, got the day off practically. So I spent the day mucking around with my ereader and got the page turner clicker thing working. I could pet Sai Lup and click to turn a page, how convenient LOL

Of course, the other dog got jealous and decided to glue itself to me when Sai Lup decided he's had enough and wanted to leave my bed.

My cough is like... 90% gone, but i would still have sporadic shortness of breath, feeling really weak around my chest area, and have spouts of coughing. I do feel like I've got phlegm in my throat that isn't moving up nor down. My doctor mentioned it's because my inner body is "cool" and declared my gut health isn't too well (true-ish). So my doctor said to try the gua sha and suction cups thing to "pull out the wind and cold" in you. Funnily enough, after the session, I felt the phlegm loosen up, though I still couldn't ahem ahem and spit it out. And around 2 hours later I urgently needed the toilet to get rid of, literally, bad sh*t. Though, now it's like i got run over by a car. But anyway, next week again!
( Just a photo )

My assistant went on holiday and brought back this bookmark/sticker/don't know what it is yet as it's not in my hands yet. This is actually absolutely delightful. It's so punny. It's funny and witty! Simply by meaning is "My Boss is at his wit's end (dealing with me)". It also looks like a Taoist talisman... thing.... (if you watched Sailor Moon before, it's what Sailor Mars uses sometimes) because the key word for "hopeless to deal with" sounds the same as the name for the talisman thingamajig.

So today is the last day of August, and the ceramics workshop place has... continued to not have someone open the door. The last 2 weeks there was another class going on so an instructor had the door opened. I was hoping the door would be opened today, but no dice.

Again I went to the office proper one level up, no one there. So I was like, what the heck, I'll use the hidden key. I know of the key but I try not to use it. But when I was cleaning up by the end of my session, one of the staff came in. She didn't ask how I got in, I didn't say much, just greeted her a hello. Wonder if they'll take the key away or not.

Here's me shaking a bottle of underglaze because it's a concentrate and I added water to it so that I can use it for the airbrush.

Since I've already amassed quite an army and I didn't feel like painting them, I've started on a new project, but I intend to only make 1 piece of it for now.

I saw on IG someone adding a teddy bear on a plate and then painting the comfortor colourfully, so I decided to do something similar. I think I made the dog too big, but... I dunno, we'll see how it comes out. I also plan to paint the comfortor as if it's a quilt? So I'll paint it all in squares... and use up my other glaze colours. Making all those cats and dogs, I'm low on black/brown/grey/white/orange, but am totally still full of blue/pink/purple/red

My bestie didn't come today, and I wasn't sure what to do for lunch and after, so I went ahead to Wynn Palace as I heard there's a Japanese Omakase place with a good deal on a lunch omakase set. And yes, this is the toilet. How grand LOL.

The set came with 8 piece sushi, dessert, miso, and some appetizer, but since stuff came piece by piece, I couldn't take a photo of the spread. Managed to finish that book during lunch... FINALLY!

My bestie was raving about this movie, but I think it's just because she's a fan of the main character. She's going to watch tomorrow, but I don't have time tomorrow, so figure I'd just watch it today. It was... very Japanese (LOL what am I saying). Basically, the guy got into a corridor loop and if he saw any anomaly then he should turn back, and if there's no anomaly then he can go on (looping again and again on a pre-set corridor). By the end i was like, "just turn back" when there was an obvious anomaly. It actually turned absurd in 2 of the loops.

And at the very end, it's again... very Japanese LOL. They showed the beginning of an action, but not the actual action, so you don't really know what the main character did at the very end.

I've been very diligently running and exercising and stuff. Apart from the rainy and typhoon days that I had to take a break, every other day I went running after work.

Friday afternoon I figured there wasn't really much going on at work so I took the afternoon off and headed off to China for a quick manicure. I also got this cat-shaped mold thing for baking bread (bought it before on Taobao already, just showing it now). Gotta find a bread recipe to try it out.

On Saturday morning, I went to the pottery workshop to work on my cats and dogs again. I saw on IG some new ideas and I probably would want to try them out. Meanwhile I tried out that airbrush thing I bought. It was fun, but I guess the color I used was a little to light, so I couldn't see exactly if there's enough color/glaze on it haha. Let's put it in the kiln first and see what comes of it. The Boss lady of the place also came by. Apparently, the "supervisor" or the "invigilator" of the workshop has quit (or retired, I dunno the details), and they are now trying to think of how to do with August. The Boss lady said they want to keep the workshop open but not publicize it, so we people who know what we are doing in there can go on and work there over August, but they are not taking new people. In away.... I'm not surprised. Everyone seems to want to have a summer holiday so no one's doing the supervisory work. For me, as long as the doors are open, I'm only here to do my own stuff, won't touch others' stuff. If you trust me enough for that, then thanks, I'll keep coming.

Ugh, I was using the heat gun to dry out the glaze more quickly, and when I was packing it away (re-coiling the power line) I accidentally burnt myself.

I should probably ask the running group I'm in, but I'm a tad curious why the speed detected on my watch is different than that of the phone (and watch and phone are synced)

The run on Saturday was a miss, because I ran a little too early and the sun was still strong in my face. I was going to run 13km (around 8 miles). No problem, try again on Sunday. Funny thing was, we had a big family lunch as it was an aunt's birthday, and I heard my cousin-in-law say she has a friend that wanted a new cat but the rescues in town are a bit strict with the cat-proofing their home (need to install nets on their windows and such). Well what do you know, during my run that night, I had to cut it short again, because I'm the king of cats LOL.

Quick checked with cousin in law, friend says yes she wants the cat, so I picked it up and took it to the vet for an initial check, and voila. Tonight I'm bringing the cat to the friend.

He was making a little too much noise overnight so I had to set him free and he came to sleep next to me. He's almost my cat LOL. Nooooo we cannot have 5 cats at home. Even I know that's too many cats. And it's too early for me to turn into crazy cat lady. Not yet. Give it time......

I've been very diligent and have kept on running... I'm now running almost daily! I will scale it back down as I know I wouldn't be able to run so frequently later. I did 2 sessions of Yoga yesterday: Chair Yoga was, okay? Guy had me do a headstand thing. I managed. Then I did a wall/rope yoga thing and there was a part where we were hanging upside down and he wanted us to use our hands to push us upwards? I couldn't do it. My arms had no strength for that. Yikes.

Jimmy O Yang. Wasn't bad. But, it feels like, the funniest clips were all seen online already (condensed). He had a Hong Kong Indian guy do the opening (forgot his name already) and he was all "foreigner speaking Canto" and my friend was like looking at me saying "yeah so what" LOL.

What did I say about the Prestigious Cars? The Mini Cooper (no, it was a Cooper S) was sold. The mechanic called me to say he sold the Cooper. I was like.... your buyer didn't have a chance to look over the car... your buyer doesn't know that the lights are wonky, the mirror is stuck and the sides a bit damaged (not by me), and you sold it off without a test drive or viewing? Told'ya Coopers (BMWs) were a prestigious brand. Mechanic has swapped for me his old Toyota Will Cypha. Hello my old friend. This is such a smoooooooth drive...... yes, a commoner will want a commoner car. Give me a Toyota/Honda/Nissan any day, many thanks. This was the car I wanted to buy from him but he said this car's not for sale, haha. I later found out it's a very limited edition model. He says my car still needs more time because apparently the spare bumper part he ordered doesn't fit, so he had to order another one. Everything's installed, he just needs to paint the new parts (My car is orange and he ordered blue spare parts)

I... actually got myself another e-reader, a large screen one for reading at home. I must say, I love the large screen (I can see EVERYTHING) but I don't quite like the UI of the Boox. It's Android base and it's not bad, but I couldn't figure out how to transfer books over. I'm now using dropbox function but it seems I couldn't rearrange the books using that function, and the books are still "in a separate library" when it's via these online storage.
Oh, talking about foreigners speaking Canto, I got played myself today LOL. My parking spot has 2 filipino staff, one does the car wash, and one does the car maintenance (mainly the upholstery, as I see it). I don't use either service, but since they are always at the parking lot, we've started to greet each other. So the maintenance guy always greets me with "Good Morning Ma'am" in that distinctly filipino accent.

Today he greets me again and just as I was turning away after greeting him, he asks, in perfect non-accented Cantonese, "so your car is not fixed yet?" and I had that feeling that I guess many Chinese people would have when they find out I speak Canto. My CPU went on overdrive but at least I got to react within the 0.1 nano-second and replied succinctly in also perfect non-accented Canto "yeah, mechanic hasn't fixed it yet."

But before about the car, this is an official photo of the yoga event thing I went on Saturday. I've made the decision, I am going to join their studio. I've booked a trial session for coming Sunday, and then I'll see which package I'm going to join after seeing what facilities they have in their studio.

Apparently, Boy-boy (orange cat) is now very good friends with Frankie. Boy-boy isn't very orange-cat-y. He's not boisterous as they say tabbies are, he's a scaredy cat really, so, it was surprising to see him now sticking to Frankie so much. I guess because the Baby cat sometimes bites Frankie so he doesn't always like the Baby lol. Serves her right.

So I picked up the Mini Cooper yesterday. Oh boy how I hate it already haha. It's so... low. Starting the car is so cumbersome. You place the key (that's more like a... totem figure) onto a slot, then you step on the brake, and press the start button. It's like switching on a computer. As I expected, the swiper and the indicator lever are swapped, the window button is not on the door of the window, but in the middle console, where the radio is, the handbrake is partially blocked by that middle container compartment thing which I tried to push it away but it doesn't budge. What else. He didn't tell me how to control the air-con, but he said "just leave it on, it's fine." Hey, I remember since when I was a kid, the rule was to "let the engine warm up first before switching on the air-con," maybe new cars now don't have this worry? If one thing is good, it's that this car's air-con is REALLY COLD. (Mine was a bit wonky, which I asked him to check out as well)

It is very fancy though, all race-car like and such. It's a 3-door, so backseat passengers will have a sucky time getting in and out. The aroma the mechanic is using is such a.... old Portuguese guy fragrance LOL (mechanic is not a Portuguese guy, but as I understood it, he bought this car second hand from a Portuguese guy.... still using the same fragrance?????)

Today when I drove over the bridge, I had a momentary panic because there's a speed limit on the bridge, but I couldn't see the speedometer. The dial there was just for the gear shift (it's an automatic transmission but the dial shows the gear the car's in) and I totally didn't see the speed figure right in the middle. Also, fancy car has a back camera when you put the car on reverse. But damn the camera is crooked LOL. The first time I tried parking I was like "why is my car not straight?" Then I decided to just park normally by looking at the mirrors instead of the screen and figured, oh yeah, it's crooked to start with.