Because both my cats are thick furred, it goes to reason that I will have to deal with a massive shedding problem once every year. Mango isn’t shedding that much but Cookie… Cookie constantly looks like she has a halo of shedded fur hovering just above and around her probably held in place by just being close to her attached fur.

In fact, the above picture isn’t really the amount that she is shedding. That is just one day’s use of the furminator (which by the way is a must if you live with a short haired cat and it sheds regularly according to seasons). I don’t brush her extensively at one go just to keep the brushing experience bearable. I also use a rubber curry brush which she loves and that takes out a lot of her undercoat as well as give her a massage In fact if I leave it on the floor after brushing, she goes up to it and rubs her face on it giving herself a face massage.

I wouldn’t use the furminator brush on Mango though as I’ve read some horror stories about using it with long haired cats. Anyway Mango’s comb and brush routine works and she’s used to it – actually coming over to me when she sees me holding it. That’s what yummy treats does. She doesn’t love getting brushed but she doesn’t mind it and the treats just adds more incentive. Feline Greenies makes the yummiest cat treats!

So my summer days starts off with vacuuming the sofa because it’s black and my cats love to lounge there. Thank god for vacuum cleaners!

Here we have my cats trying out these hangout spots in my new Shanghai apartment. As it turns out, these spots were unsatisfactory because I haven’t seen them there since.

But anyway back to the original flow of this post, we have Cookie in the sink and Mango on top of their litter box. Now Cookie is not as great a jumper as Mango is. She also can’t come down from a higher than jumpable spot. So I wake up one morning and see them here. Cookie wants to get down to greet me and she walks around and around the sink. Poor thing can’t jump down. Mango looks up, sees her predicament and casually hops off her spot on the litter box so that Cookie can use it as a step to come down. Which Cookie does successfully and I have 2 cats greeting me good morning by way of circling my feet.

I swear Mango really is the sweetest cat on the planet.

I’ve spoken to a few custom furniture people and even one where I had to do everything in mandarin. That day was absolutely, and I’m totally not exaggerating, EXHAUSTING. After I left the shop I felt like my brain had shut down. I couldn’t think, I couldn’t speak. Even English. I think the linguistic part of my brain just went ‘Right, that’s it. If we don’t shut down now she’s going to lose it for life’.

After all that, I have a feeling we’re going to just have to get everything from Ikea. Some custom furniture can be cheap, but there’s a reason that it is. I can’t wait for a decision to be made so I can just go ahead and get it all done. I’m so ready to set up my new place!

And of course because I have been going around town trying to get things done myself armed only with an electronic chinese-english dictionary and my phone for emergencies, I need to balance it out with some good chi. Thus I present to you – Happy Fridge.

PS. I love that I now have a giant fridge. I’m not saying I will fill it up with good, healthy and useful stuff but it’s still awesome to have a huge ass fridge.

Shanghai has been a little easier to settle in to or maybe it’s because I’ve become more accustomed to living in China and speaking in my shoddy mandarin. People here seem to understand me better. I reckon they’re just more used to having foreigners around. Whatever it is, it makes my life a lot easier.

Another plus point is that it’s quite nice to walk around in certain areas (like where I live). That could be a reason why I feel more comfortable. It’s not the big expansive city that is Beijing – not that there’s anything wrong with that. But walking puts to my mind Melbourne. The air is not exactly as fresh but walking leads you to pass old colonial/french era buildings and I prefer that to skyscrapers.

And check this out. Would this be a giant scratching post for a lot of cats or a scratching post for a giant cat?

I’m sure there’s a very logical explanation for these rope wrapped trees on the streets of Shanghai but I’d rather go with thinking it’s a giant scratching post for any cat who happens to need something to scratch while out walking about. And yes, I resisted the urge to go right up to it to give it a try.

I never knew that a front loading washing machine could fascinate me this much. But yet it does.

I’ve never used one before. All the machines I’ve ever had were top loaders and I really never thought twice about the efficiency of either. The serviced apartment I’m currently staying at has a front loader so I was forced to use it – starting from trying to figure out where to put laundry detergent.

When all else fails Google will come to the rescue! So that is exactly what I did – ‘Where to put laundry detergent in a front loading washer’.

From there I read even more stuff about front loaders and realised that there’s more difference than just the position of the hatch. A front loader is more efficient and doesn’t use up as much water and detergent. Plus, looking at the way the clothes get washed, I reckon it actually cleans clothes better.

And then I realised I was sitting in front of it being too fascinated by my clothes taking a spin. Why was it so damn mesmerizing??

I also reached a conclusion that if even my cats don’t sit there watching my clothes go by, I really have to stop doing it. So I have. ‘Cept maybe a peak or two. Y’know, just to make sure the water and soap is, y’know, filling up properly. Or something…

Tippity tappity tap on the keyboard as a release to get thoughts out of my head in hopes that it will stay out. But as I type this I’m wondering about the futility of my actions.

Every time I feel myself slipping into this mode of what I call self destruction, I wonder why it never goes away. If I list down on paper what I have, it always looks like I’ve got it good but for some reason something inside just is never satiated. Never satisfied.

My sleep, if that is what you can call it, is filled with multiple dreams. I’m talking 5+ dreams a night, all attacking me. All anything but peaceful. It’s always pain, hurt and the hardest to get over, the inability to move/speak/escape from what it is that is coming to get me.

Every time I feel that I’ve moved forwards and am in a better place, this comes along to remind me that I have, not in fact, moved at all. It’s as if there’s something inside me that has a thirst that can not be quenched. And I don’t know, for the life of me, what it is.

It has been ages since I’ve had a decent night’s sleep. I’m willing to say it’s been years and it’s no exaggeration. I wish I knew what it is that will make this go away. A chiropractor once told me that it’s because my 2nd & 3rd vetebrae is not aligned. Is this really something as simple as a spinal adjustment?

I sometimes wish I could lead a simple life. One where I could be satisfied with whatever I have but something just won’t let me and I wish so much that it were not true. This constant battle with whatever it is that lives inside is tiring me so much! I wake up every morning and have to resist the urge to yell ‘I WANT OUT!!’ and the only reason why I resist is because I know that it will do me no good.

What is it?? I look down at my paper with a list of pros of my life and I can not find fault. It’s always the same thing over and over again. I can never pinpoint exactly what it is. It’s something that can not be written down on a list which makes it that much harder to overcome.

So god help me, because I’m struggling to help myself.

It started out small, as these things usually start out as. You get a knock on the door by slighly frantic building management people trying to explain to you in mandarin and then extremely broken english that the previous owners of your apartment did a really shoddy job in the piping and therefore when you use the kitchen sink and bath, the water collects somewhere and because it’s winter it’s all frozen and causes massive floods in other units.

Then they tell you that you can’t use the aforementioned kitchen sink and bath until it gets fixed and it’ll probably take 5 days. And there came the very first WTF moment. ‘What do you mean we can’t use the bath?’

As if being told you can’t take a shower in your own house for an extended period of time is bad enough, their disorganizational skills prove even more apparent when they say that during the time they want to fix the piping, you unfortunately can’t use the toilet as well.

So we said f*** it, we’re not letting you fix it. The timing isn’t right anyway. We’re going to be intermittently in and out of the country so please don’t screw up the toilet even more. Besides, it’s getting warmer and by the time our extensive travels over chinese new year came to an end, the weather was more agreeable and water didn’t freeze anymore.

Long story short, they still insisted on fixing it and since we were going to Taipei for 5 days we said ok, do it then. They did and we find out that somebody accidentally hit a water pipe, pipe burst and the entire apartment flooded. And then came the MAJOR WTF moment because it meant the apartment was no longer livable.

Came back from Taipei with no home and finding some things ruined by incompetence. Lived with a friend who had 5 cats of their own (loves!) for about a week and now we’re living in a serviced apartment which is turning out to be quite nice actually because there’s a free gym and sauna and cleaning services 6 days a week. Oh and I really love the tiles in the bathroom.

They’re so pur-dy, these tiles. Oh and the major plus point of this place is that it’s pet friendly! So Mango and Cookie are welcome and they’re settling in very nicely.

Mango loves chilling with me especially when I’m using my computer. Usually I’m on the couch with my laptop on my stomache and when Mango inserts herself between it and me, I can’t see what I’m doing. So this way, I get to read and write coherent sentences and Mango is comfortable. Win – win FTW!

I thought a fair bit about it and came up with a couple of conclusions:-

1. Layout – my current layout does not go well with short and random. It must come with a picture for one and for another, because it’s a one post one page setup, I find myself thinking it’s a waste of space. Which is really silly because this is the interwebs and it don’t matter whether I doodle all over the page or not.

2. Inspiration – my brain still does come up with the same nonsense I used to come up with (evidenced from the constant bullying I receive from unnamed friends) but I just don’t feel like logging on and typing it out. Actually, it probably has much to do with point number 1. It’s become a hassle to look for an image to correspond to the nonsense.

I need to come up with an easy, hassle-free solution for this because one day in the future I’m going to want to take a trip down memory lane and future me is going to think present me is a boring old twat. But will of course think that past me is hilarious and wishes for her return.

My past – Exhibit A (ok fine, the only exhibit but I can’t bloody well just call it ‘exhibit’, can I?)

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

I love my washing machine! I just moved in last weekend and I’ve already done 3 loads. Booya!

Monday, March 15, 2004

Have gastric… Damn pain… *faints*

Monday, January 20, 2003

Need to go to class. Need to go to class

Wednesday, June 12, 2002

Two masters students preparing for an exam that is 7 1/2 hours away:-

cHris says: cant help myself surfing for football stuff atm
Lye says : hahah
Lye says : it’s ok
Lye says : i cant help myself staring off into blank space
cHris says: hehe

Masters courses are so completely overated.

Thursday, August 1, 2002

Raise all your hands in the air and let out a whoop because I have made it to uni! Yes that’s right, I’m at uni right now. I have gotten off my ass and done something productive!

But wait… I’m blogging at uni… so that doesn’t really… make it.. produc… D’oh!

And this is a notebook I used to carry around during my last year or so in Melbourne. Not incredibly funky in design but I thought it was a bloody awesome notebook anyway. Simple things used to amuse me so.

They still do.

I’ve also bought what I consider to be the coolest board that could’ve been made without me actually customizing it myself.

Button badges! I love button badges. I would always ask to make badges everytime we had an event when I used to work with JUICE. They look great, are so versatile and you pop them wherever you want and if you change your mind, take them out and put them somewhere else. Plus I reckon it lends personality to your normal everyday items.

As if it couldn’t get any better, besides the fact that I got a huge discount because it was last winter’s design, the bindings were a beautiful blue with white fluffy clouds on it! I wouldn’t consider myself a total girly girl but I am, after all, of the female persuasion and I am the type that gets all gooey over all things cute.

Besides, I reckon that just cos it’s an extreme sport and it has a tough-like reputation doesn’t mean it has to be all fierce looking and boring. I can shred snow and have nice/cute gear. It’s the talent that matters and, as with everything I do, I like for some of my personality to be in the fore front.

Ok so talent is something I don’t have, to put it nicely, in abundance of but I’m working on it! I would’ve progressed much further and faster if it hadn’t been for that one fall that bruised my tailbone but hey, I’m not making any excuses. Ok fine, I did make one excuse and it was the fact that I’ve now entered the next decade of my life (read: I just turned 30) and my body may not be as agile as it was… I got a little upset at first but obviously not giving up.

In fact, me and my tailbone are going to be bracing ourselves for another shredding session this weekend. This time in a bigger, colder and most probably more pain inducing mountain. But that’s what protection is for. Yay to the invention of ass pads!

Nah, I exaggerate. I’m not shivering. Don’t get me wrong. It’s freaking cold out there but that’s why internal heating is my bestest buddy. Followed closely by humidifier.

Out there, though, is a different story and the temp ranges from -2 to 5 degrees celsius. Unfortunately I hear it gets colder but that’s why I’m always rugged up in a super warm jacket, fluffy scarf, gloves and ear muffs. And thermals. Very important, thermals.

This is the view from my apartment. Like my very own winter wonderland. It snowed before I got here and hasn’t snowed since but I still hold hope for my very first white christmas. Something I’ve wanted to experience for the longest time.

I’m still jobless but on purpose. Have no idea what I want to do but learning mandarin is top of the list at the moment. I hate not being able to communicate to people and it makes daily living all that much harder. But I’m excited. Was pretty stressed just before getting here but then when the plane almost touched down on the runway, I felt happy and a sense of eagerness to learn a whole host of new things.

I think the snow covered land beneath helped but it’s merely a representation of something so different. Which I love. But really, if you see something like this just before you land, wouldn’t you smile too?