escapades of the elusive kat

It's early morning right now (6:59 right this moment) and work is cancelled. Typhoon Ragasa has arrived! I get the feeling that since Hato in 2017, the general public has been better prepared.

The week has been eventful so far. My friend ditched me on Saturday and didn't go for our weekly ceramics meetup, so I did my thing and then went over to China for lunch and a manicure. When I got back to Macau, it was still early enough, so I went for a haircut as well.

Earlier in the morning while waiting for the elevator to the ceramics workshop, I saw this lady reading a phone-sized e-reader. So neat! But I am not going to buy another ereader anymore!

On Sunday, I again went for a double yoga class. Chair yoga and then followed by wall rope yoga. Wall rope yoga is like so tough and having to grab on the ropes and your hands are so painful and this and that. Really, it feels like torture WHILE you are practicing it, but after that, when it's all over, thinking back to it and it's all so much fun!

It was raining quite a bit on Sunday (pre-typhoon) and so my aunt didn't want to have the usual Sunday Family Lunch, so my nucleus family had our own outside lunch. Returned home pretty early so I put Sai Lup on the sofa for a bit of variation. He was happy while the Aircon was on. When the Aircon automatically switched off at 4pm (I set the Aircon to automatically switch on between 12noon to 4pm even when no humans are at home because it's too hot and stuffy at those times for the dogs.)

This was Monday night when I saw this naughty cat playing around again.

Tuesday morning, we are all a bit excited or worried about the imminent typhoon. It's said to be a big strong one, calling it a Super typhoon. Still managed to walk the dogs. Coming back home though, the cats want to go into the hallway, but no, not today.

The whole day was pretty calm. T8 was issued at 5pm, and so for non-essential workers, we got to leave at 3pm before public transport ceased. I got home and took the dogs out for a quick toilet break, in case later at night the typhoon hits badly.

But even after dinner, it felt like the typhoon hasn't arrived yet. So we made a last dog walk for the night.

I had planned to run today but since now I couldn't, stayed home for workout. A friend gifted me 14 days of Fitbod so I'm trying it out.

The wind still didn't seem too bad at night, but mine is an old building and the windows maybe have small space? So there was a lot of wooooo wooooo whoooooosh. And Sai Lup seemed to be afraid of that. He kept whining, groaning and even barking. So I put a diaper sheet on my bed and up he comes. Slept soundly after that.

For a moment, my friends were exchanging memes and reels and this is a classic. The old man is Hong Kong Business Mogul Li Ka-Shing (super rich guy). Basically it just says "See? It's T8, happy now?" "Be on time to work tomorrow." This meme refers to night time typhoons where people sort of take it for granted they get a holiday the next day, but the T8 signal gets taken down by the morning.

Anyway, woke up this morning to learn that T9 was hoisted over the night and just before 6am T10 got hoisted. It's also pouring outside and the winds are crazy (I can see the rain going vertically). We do not know if there will be power outages and flooding. I'm on a WhatsApp group with a lot of foreigners (exchange students, expats, etc) and many of them are now scared shitless because of what's going on with preparation. The Government has gone all out, shelter centers, stay-home announcements, expected power outage maps, and such. I think many of the locals have hyped up the event and giving a lot of advise of what to do and what to prepare, and so the exchange students in particular, have been saying they're afraid of what will happen. I guess it's because after typhoon Hato, people are taking these typhoons more seriously now.

Anyway, I'm feeling hungry, I'll leave my bed and get some breakfast. That is to say, all is well over here!

I don't know. I don't feel like coughing much now, but I keep feeling like I'm sweating (not exercise sweat, just sweating as if cold-sweating) and I feel this... heat between my eyes, that I always equate to having a fever when I feel this way. But, I'm not sick. So I dunno.

Double session of Yoga today was brutal. Stick Yoga first, then Wall Rope Yoga. I managed a new pose today! Basically, it's back against the wall, one foot in both the ropes hope, hands gripping on the high rope, then lift the other leg up and form a "V" in mid air (not really, back is agains the wall). I was never able to do that.

Wonder if the instructor takes me as a weird person, seems like I'm the only one that answers him LOL. When doing the right leg, he was like "come on, leg up" and I said "impossible" LOL. But after that sequence and we changed sides to do the other leg, I gave it my all and tried.

Another pose was leg up against the wall and pressing down, so it's like doing the splits on the wall? He kept saying, "come on, still have space, jump a bit and stretch your leg" and I was all like "are you sure?" Guy couldn't keep a straight face LOL.

Let it be known, I've always known I was stiff. Even as a kid, when people say "kids are more flexible", I was never able to do the split, I was never able to do the back bend. Even the thing where one arm reaches up-back and down, and the other down-back and up and then clasp your hands on your back? Never been able to do that, even as a kid. But I'm trying.

While the wall rope yoga was difficult was the poses and such, I sweated so much with Stick Yoga, it was tough. But I persevered!

Honestly, i kept thinking a day ahead. I didn't have a day off, I didn't have a particularly busy day, but kept thinking it was the day after. So yesterday (Wednesday) I kept thinking it was Thursday, despite knowing for a fact that Wednesday was class day and I had class that day. And today I kept thinking today is Friday, when in fact it is Thursday.

Maybe it's this cough that I tried to subdue late last week, but even with medicine, biology has won, and it's now developed into a full proper cough. I've given up on western medicine and been to a Chinese medicine doctor. I was expecting a terribly bitter tea but honestly, this concoction wasn't really that bad.

My habit for lunch nowadays is to go down to the staff canteen for lunch - grab some salad, grab an apple, and a bit of protein dish (be it beef/pork/chicken) of the day and that's a lunch. But. Chinese doctor says "no cold things" so salad and god forbid, fruits, not allowed. So I'm finally going to the actual restaurants for my privilege lunch. This is the ceiling of one such restaurant. Totally instagrammable. But honestly, way too pink LOL.

It would seem the people at HP either have an incredible sense of humor or a limited knowledge of English slang. It's a printing technology. Why? Why PaperCut? And I know you want to say MultiFunction, but I'm sorry, this PaperCut MF sh*t will just be PaperCut MotherF*cker for me.

Colleague-friend is too kind to bring a souvenir gift from her vacation.

So before my cough, I managed to go on a run on a nice sunset day. My car goes over this bridge every day going home from work.

I'm going to revisit the doctor tomorrow for more yucky tea and then mad dash to China for a long-needed manicure. My nails are too long for my pottery stuff. I plan to do something different this week too! Fingers-crossed I manage to make something useful!

There's this guy at work that has absolutely no shame. He likes the high life but that i can see he never actually paid for it.

Without divulging too much, the guy made it seem like he was inviting me for a group dinner (but paid by my Boss) and then later I found out it was actually there was an extra quota and it was the Boss actually said to bring me for the dinner. I later sent a message to the Boss saying "The guy invited me to this expensive dinner on your dime so thank you Boss."

The cheek of some people.

I did a.... dunno good or bad thing today LOL. So the pottery workshop has lost its last in-person supervisor. Last week when I was there the boss lady said they'd keep it open but only for old hands.

Well, I went today and it was not open. I went upstairs to another office of theirs and it was not opened.

I got a bit miffed. I always knew there's a spare key becaus the supervisor before the last told me there was one. So. I used the key to open the door. So maybe it was trespassing LOL. I kept the place clean though. And whoever was there before left the lights on, so switched those off too.

Since my friend was busy today i had the afternoon free, so i went for another yoga session which wiped me out. Didn't run much this past week because it was either raining or going to rain or something.

I also went for lunch on my own and on my way to lunch it poured so much... i was on a bridge and it felt like i was underwater too! By the time i took the video it had eased out a lot already. But it was so bad, everyone put on the hazard lights on.



I've been seeing this group Rokudenashi's ads about coming to town for a live concert. Kind of thinking to go for the heck of it.

A lot of people in Macau must be feeling somewhat annoyed LOL. Typhoon Wipha is a T8 and also just announced will go up to T10, so it's gonna be bad. But I also think we've learnt from Typhoon Hato, so the people should be better prepared. I was planning to lounge in bed, but this old man must have some Alzheimer's or Dementia thing where he just wants company, so here I am sitting with him outside in the living room with him. At least this way he's quiet and snoozing in peace, otherwise he'll just be non-stop barking. We woke up this morning early and luckily the weather wasn't too bad yet, so although there were road closures, we were still able to go somewhere and have them do their morning business. Which, mission accomplished!

My orange car is done and back! But now I'm worried because my parking spot is against an old wall with a hanging tree branch. And I am worried that the wall will fall over or the branch will fall off or something. We'll see later today or tomorrow.

I have been keeping diligent and running. Last week the vet asked if I went on holiday or something, apparently I've got a nice tan going on.

Yesterday I went to visit my friend's dog Kinako. No fun at all, this dog is so aloof. Haha but I managed to make the dog interact with me.

Got myself an airbrush for glazing. But I spent too much time finishing up last week's piece so didn't get to try it yet. Maybe next week I can try it.

Finished glazing up this piece that's supposed to be Menina. And then I checked on the other two I made last week, should be dry enough to go for bisque fire. Let's see if they get put in the kiln this week.

Dad's finally out of hospital. He's lost 20kg, I'm heavier than he is now. First thing after getting home? Of course, to greet the dogs, even the idiot that made him fall.

While he was in hospital, I made daily trips to the hospital over lunch and always was in a rush, so yesterday I finally had a proper sit-down lunch in one of the company restaurants. This is a roast suckling pig rice... if you're asking me if this "Roast Suckling Pig Rice" is any good, then it's a no, because it's hardly "roast suckling pig", but if you're asking me if this dish is good, then a resounding YES, because the rice is not oily at all and the flavor was just right, not too salty, not too heavy.

Mandarin class schedule coming up. It's the early session again (18:45). This time it's Mondays and Wednesdays, that should be good with my schedule for running and training. I'm seeing marked improvement in my runs and am feeling really good overall. I can see I will miss 2 classes, 1 in October when I'll be in Taipei for the Eva Air Half Marathon, and 1 in December for the Mt. Fuji Kawaguchi-Ko scenic loop. I can't wait for it to be October and December!

I was sending IG reels back and forth with my running buddy M and one of the reels was about a wine and food marathon in France, and M asked if I had read the marathon book by Naoko Takagi. I looked and I had one of her books (in Chinese), but apparently, there's another one, which I didn't have. Now I have the second running book ("Overseas Marathon") in my Kobo and I'll be reading this for a while... in Japanese.... I'm a little impressed by myself that I actually understood somewhat.

It's International Yoga Day today, and by my running friend M's pushing I joined the yoga event today. It's at 8.30am, so, I had to wake up extra early today, on a Saturday!

Waking up extra early because I need to walk the dog. Then the sky decided to POUR. Whereas you say raining cats and dogs in English, in Cantonese it's "Raining dog shit" LOL. I don't know why, so don't ask me why.

Made it to the Londoner Grand in Macau. The lady didn't wrap that bracelet tag on me, so I gave the tag to my friend. All those who participated today get to have free entry to the 2 Qube locations (a kids playground thing) and the Parisian Tower (copy Eiffel Tower) in the Sands China Group today, I wonder if my friend in the end did bring her kid there. My legs feel a little more loose now after this morning's exercise. I'm seriously considering joining a studio to take weekly yoga sessions. We'll see.

Then went to fetch my other friend J because she wanted to check out jade course thing. So it was more a workshop and introduction to the Jadeite group of jades. It just all felt weird when she talked about Jadeite then Nephrite because what I know of these names are... the Sailormoon (first season) bad guys LOL. So basically what I heard about jades was correct, there's no "real" jade or "fake" jade. Just how much work has been done to it. so whether it's all natural or with a ton of added works.

Jenny wanted to have lunch at a particular Japanese restaurant, so off we went. It's summer, it's hot, so I asked for a chirashi-donburi (basically diced or small piece sashimi over rice) instead of a hot udon or cooked something. It got a bit late so I had to go to the hospital quickly to visit dad.

After visiting dad (still complaining about wanting to leave tomorrow or next week), I made my way to Qingmao border to China. The Qingmao border car park was full, so I had to park at another HUGE car park, but despite the signage saying it had over a hundred available spots, I practically found none. I wonder if they didn't configure their display to separate electrical-car spots and regular-car spots.

My friend R had highly recommended me to go to one particular Taobao collection point in China side, and when I went today, it was soooooo... far....... away...... R said "it's not all that far!" well, I'm sorry, I'm a naturally born Macau person, anything more than 5 minutes away on foot is far away. But sometimes I need this China address as there are certain things Taobao can't send across border. This time it's knives. I bought some razor replacement heads on Taobao and they couldn't send that to Macau. Luckily there was a convenience store, am eternally amused it's an authentic-looking Lawson.

My main mission to China today was to get my manicure done. The "cat's eye" effect they did last time was pretty nice, the color light enough, and giving my nails a bit of a shine, so I decided on the same type, but this time I chose a green. I was so tired during the manicure, I normally don't take siestas or afternoon naps but I totally conked off today. I felt so, so, sooooooo tired.

I bought a... summer blazer? summer jacket? For work and it's so multi-matching, I can wear that with any combination of skirt or trousers or dress pants (so it's likely I'm going to wear it until it's threadbare)

I went to a bakery just before crossing the border back to macau and got some fancy China-style sweetbread. I did get something that looks like a wheat or multigrain bread but I'm pretty convinced it's just gonna be a soft bread that's pretty sweet. On my way back to the car park I got a little lost as I used that particular car park for the first time and wasn't sure how to get back to it. I did miss a footbridge and went one floor down and then had to go back up to the bridge to get across the street. There's this weird Sanrio Park thing going on in town. When I first heard about it, I thought it was some redundant investment from one of the Big 6 in town, but then I found out it's actually by the government. Huh. Surprising they actually got something done LOL sorry.

Can't let the bad things pull me down. A friend asked if I wanted to join a Yoga day event. I figured sure, even got to score a freebie yoga mat, which I was in the market for, because the bloody cat had scratched my TWO mats. Don't be fooled by the cute mug. It looks innocence but there is only mischief LOL.

I was expecting some standard yoga poses such as downward facing dog or warrior somethings, instead it was a very... anyhoo sequence LOL. I guess they either only did the event for PR exposure or there were many newbies? I know not. My friend then suggested I join the other event next week, held by another studio, probably no freebies but definitely with some more difficulty and substance than today's. Today's really just felt like a... money burner event. Is this some professional... tick (?)... I have? I'm just a "guest" but judging the event from a management angle.

The hospital Dad is at is atop a mountain, and one one side of the mountain is part of the local Grand Prix track, and the other side of the mountain is a more residential area. Lately due to a famous photo (National Geographic level famous I guess?) has brought NUMEROUS tourists to this street. Essentially it's the building of the Grand Lisboa, which is a very... modern out-of-the-world type building, and on two sides encased by slum-like buildings. Well today we went for lunch there and since my car was parked here, might as well shoot a hot photo.

Dad's doing better. It's father's day, so he got ice cream LOL. Doctor didn't specifically say no ice cream, and they serve him a thick milk-cream-porridge for tea anyway, so, should be something similar. Dad also asked for an eye mask because he's in a two-person room and his neighbour always has a light on.

Boss is out of town doing some other association stuff, so I told him, if he calls me I'd do work, but I'm going into work, I'm out of a car and although it drives, the exhaust sounds funny so I want to avoid driving it. Oh, my mechanic has quoted the price for repairs and the taxi has already paid off the amount. So the mechanic is only waiting for the parts to arrive. He's going to install a new pair of reverse proximity sensors, yay.

I can't imagine how it will be like in August... I am melting out here!

Stuff have just been happening over here and it just gets me more worried day by day.

Dad's basically pretty good now. I really think it was the hospital that fucked up his treatment previously. I don't know if I've written about it in details before or not, Under the cut, I've trimmed it really down so it's not too much of a TMI but enough to explain the situation:

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And so, I think it was the ward's fault the first time around. Of course they are not going to admit nor endorse my theory, but I'm convinced something similar to what I'm thinking is what happened and caused all that.

Today he was super talkative and chipper because they finally put him in a wheelchair so he was able to move around a bit.

This morning my godson Silvino had his Confirmation. Being his godmother, I had to go show up and do godmotherly stuff. Well, I don't know how many of you had known me since my high school years, but back then, I gave off a very religious air (despite I never was really religious, FWIW). I just happened to seem devout because, it was a catholic school, we had weekly catechism classes, then my Mom wanted me to get more exposed to Portuguese, so she put me in a separate catechism class held by the Parish. And then, because I was a rather quiet kid, the teachers and nuns thought I was a good kid and pushed for me to be the Vice Chairperson of the Religious Affairs Committee in the Student Union.

I tell you, I hated every moment of it. I especially hated the Portuguese catechism classes because there was a bully, and being the "new kid" and "suck at portuguese" I was the butt of many a joke there. Church kids are mean. There was once when the catechism teacher asked a question (something about how it's 3 in one or what other rot) and none of the kids could answer. The teacher asked me, and the mean kid was laughing and saying stuff like why ask the dumb kid. I got mad, looked at the teacher, and asked, "i know the answer but I can't say it in Portuguese, may I answer in English?" The parish priest of the time was sitting in as well, and he said sure. So. Guys. You know. Catholic school and regular weekly catechism with the nuns? That was just the elementary thing of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Bingo. Yeah. I'm not dumb, I just don't know the words in your language.

I really hated it when we had to write out by heart the prayers in Portuguese. Damn, I knew them all in English, why make me memorize more of the same thing in a different language?

So it's been probably 30 years since I've been properly religious (trust me when I got out of school I never touched anything Church related anymore) and today during Mass (Chinese mass at that, again, I don't know the prayers in Chinese), color me surprised when they were reciting the confession prayer (I forgot the actual name) that I was still able to recite that in English (I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned.....)

But I'm just doing all that for show. Yesterday the priest wanted a meeting with all the godparents? oh gods... all that preaching... I'm like, you want to preach, fine, just preach, don't... make so much small talk about not-it but fully intending for it.

And maybe I do have a thing for theatrics, because yesterday, that.... catechism teacher from my godson's catechism class was like, ad hoc asking "volunteers" to do work during mass. I knew my godson well enough that he doesn't do public speaking, so no scripture reading, no talking roles. They the lady asked for the offering people (take the basket around to collect offerings), and I told my godson "if you want to make a good impression. then volunteer for this. No need to talk, you'll be seen doing some work, and get bonus points for volunteering to do that". He wasn't totally eager for the idea, but I guess his mom understood the importance-not-importance of that and made him volunteer. Kid, it's for your own good. Trust me, I know the types of these people.

oh, and another thing, I don't get it. They say they "checked the ceremonies and confirmed there is no need for a candle in the ceremony for confirmation", and yet, they made the parents buy a personalised candle. WTF?

I think my Mom is at her breaking point. A couple days ago, I got home after work, and I had gone for a run too, and when I got back home, no one was home, Mom went again to visit Dad in the hospital, but... the stove was on. She managed to caramelize some vegetables (don't you need sugar for that?). And this morning, when I was moving my car away for her to drive her car to go visit Dad, she crashed her car over at a barrier thing that HAD ALWAYS BEEN THERE. She busted a wheel, and broke one water tank or another. I hope the water tank she broke was the water tank for the window wiper. Oh and a busted light. Called the mechanic, he's coming later to see if it's anything serious. I just hope it's not some... I don't know, coolent tank or whatnot or other critical part of the car.

I... need a cat nap... I'm drained.....

Yesterday after checking in to the hotel, I found out that apparently, the hotel I chose did have a swimming pool. Didn't bring my swimsuit, so not going up there.

Had a walk in Clarke Quay area in the evening, once the sun was down, it was pretty nice. But those bars are more for group drinks and dinner, I didn't feel like having dinner alone in those places.

First work day here, it's OK, managed to get a few things sorted out. Thank god my company IT did something about being able to remotely log into my work computer. It's a lifesaver as they don't allow for taking stuff out of the company (USB or cloud), but I'm over here in Singapore doing work stuff. Even got some boss things settled, so all is good.

Dad got transferred to another ward now, it's a lot more quiet. Mom sent us a photo of him playing on his phone, so yeah. Though out of nowhere his right knee is inflammed.

You know, my life is honestly so boring that the most "scandalous" thing I was thinking of doing last night, alone in my hotel room? LOL. Order food delivery for junk food (I couldn't decide crunchy chicken or what other snacks). Then I felt like McDonald's fries. Then I thought I had already showered so not going out. And after all my self-ruminating and all that, I saw many shops were closing for the night (on a food delivery app) LOL. I guess I"m just gonna get a couple bags of crisps or something to satisfy my "something scandalous" hahaha.

I'm sort of done for the day, so I'm not sure... should I... pack up and just go? (It's 4pm) Will have to drop off my laptop and ipad in the hotel first, then go out from there. Where to go, where to go?