Mochi Dupe

A few days ago, we lost Mochi again. I duno who but somebody didn’t fully latch the gate. I was already lying on the bed, swiping hp when Daddy Lim called for me. He said that he cannot find Mochi in the house, the gate was opened and Mochi probably escaped again. 

We started Mochi Rescue Mission. IG reel said that cats have the tendency to climb upwards if one ever escaped from home. Armed with a pack of his snacks, I headed onto the 20th floor, rattling the snack bag and calling for him. So many of the neighbours had things stored in the corridor and were perfect hiding spots for Mochi. Zzzz. 

Daddy Lim and ah yee went downstairs. By the time, I was at the highest 25th floor, I still had no sight of Mochi, and was thinking what should we do if we really lose him. I was just about to backtrack with the rattling again when Daddy Lim came out of the lift and said that they had found Mochi. He was on the 18th floor, trying to head to the unit right below us. IG bluff people.

Does Mochi recognise our house? I don’t think so. I even doubt if he recognises us. Daddy Lim said that when they approached him, he was shying away and then grabbed the neighbour’s gate when they attempted to bring him home. Silly cat. 

Yday morning was even funnier. I was about to get out of the house with my bike for my morning ride. I am always very careful when exiting the house, looking several times to make sure that Mochi doesn’t escape. I did the same and opened the door. Just when I was sure that Mochi was somewhere in the house, I opened the door and saw Mochi looking at me from outside the house!!???

It took me a second. Hey, that was not Mochi but the stray downstairs that looks like him. We call him Mochi Dupe. 

This is Michi, looks the alike right? 

Mochi Dupe was meowing away and Mochi was drawn to the gate. I had 2 cats, one inside and one outside checking out each other out and I was stuck in the house. Lol. I had to wake Daddy Lim to help me, to make sure that Mochi doesn’t escape and Mochi Dupe didn’t try to enter the house. Yes, all at 5.20am. 

Nope, Mochi Dupe didn’t try to come in. He was still in the corridor when I entered the lift. I have no idea how he got to the 19th floor. Morning exercise? The lift? This is the 2nd time that I saw Mochi Dupe on the 19th floor. The last, he was on his way to the 20th floor. He is the normal cat that climbs upwards, not like our Mochi.

Mochi ah, Mochi, pls stop escaping. 你又不认识路，又不会回家. If we lose you, we will just bring Mochi Dupe home. Same, same.

Mummy Lim

Another Business Trip to JKT

Yay! Done! Dusted! One more down. To JKT on Monday and back home on Thursday night. 

Checking in was in T3. I was at the airport at 5ish for the 7.25am flight. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to get my Indonesia colleagues’ favorite Garrett’s popcorn bcos there is no outlet in T3. Then, the departure gate was at T1. Bingo!

My inflight bfast. Only meh.. and I don’t like Meiji yoghurt.

I duno why but I always enjoy a kopi O on flights. 

The flight was alright. It was only 1.5 hours. I watched 3/4 of a movie and made a mental note to complete the movie on my way home. 

It was a busy trip and my calendar was super packed. By the end of the 1st day, coupled with the early morning, I was exhausted. Daddy Lim and the kids were home late and ah yee was in BKK. I was tasked to feed Mochi some kibbles using the auto feeder.  

I thought the kibble may be a bit stale; I should change it. Did Mochi eat the kibble? Of course. 

So cute! 

I hit the gym every morning. Ayana Midplaza hotel has a nice big gym with many equipment. 

I wore Nana’s funny red sheep socks, to be discarded after the trip. I think I looked so weird. Lol.

Of the 3 mornings, I managed to have bfast on 2. On the last day, I had time to slowly enjoy the bfast. 

Dinners?  My favourite mushroom room in the comfy of the room. 

Also, a can of regular coke with ice is to die for after a long day. 

The trip went past rather decently and quickly bcos I was so busy every day. My flight on Thursday was at 7pm JKT, which is one hour behind Singapore. I left for the airport at 3pm and arrived very much on time. Luckily O flew on Thursday and not Friday, where the global outrage happened. I want to go home.

My 1st dinner bcos I skidded lunch. 

Ya, BK sells fried chicken and it was very nice, better than the KFC we have at home. 

My 2nd dinner on flight.

The rice was nasi lemak rice. Nice.

The flight was full and I had the window seat at the very last row by the time I checked in to select seat. 

Yes, I finished the 2nd part of the movie. The flight was alright but at the landing part, I am not sure if it was air pressure or the pilot, but the plane was swaying slightly from side to side. Scary siol.

Home sweet home. A pleasant sight always that shouts “efficiency”!

It was already 11ish when I hit the pillow. Unpacking and laundry can wait. Happy to be home.

Mummy Lim

1st RI in 2024

There was a point where Daddy Lim was crazy about RIs and I was simply tagging/ dragging along. Then Covid came and so did the travel restrictions, and I become the one doing RIs. Every long weekend is an opportunity for a RI. 

The crazy days are over when the travel restrictions eased. I did too much traveling both for work and leisure. Long weekends are to rest and too precious to be pedaling on a bicycle around Singapore. 

It had been a long while since I last did a RI. Bcos there were so many requests, I planned my 1st RI for 2024 and for WWF. I wonder if it would be my last one for the year. Bcos the sun is very hot and I will melt but I also have no energy to do a RI after a long day at work, we decided that we will roll at 4am. This means waking up at 3am and riding on the road at 3.20am. 

I had thought that the roads would be deserted but there were some cars and a few grab bicycle riders. It didn’t seem much different riding at 3ish vs the usual 5ish. 

We rolled off at 4am as planned, with strong pullers led the pack. The pullers got too excited at the start of the ride that we had to keep reminding them to look at their speedometer at regular intervals and remember the poor souls in their pack (aka us) and were chasing like hell. 

Our 1st stop break was at Sinopec. I was very much reminded of the many RIs that I had did with Daddy Lim.

The next stop was to CV for bfast. 

Checked! 

The sun had risen. We had our tummies filled before we tackled TMCR. It had been such a long while. The trick to TMCR? Just draft, regardless of who the puller is, even if I duno the rider. 

We gathered at the end of TMCR and that was the last stop. Then, we rolled all the way home. The usual route is via the West Coast Highway. However, after ECP service road, we met road closures everywhere. In the end, we had to take the Bukit Timah way home. This meant that I would be the firsts to reach home but just that the BT way was full of traffic lights and thus not fun. With tired legs, it is easier to just keep pedaling than to go up and down the bike to stop at traffic lights. 

I was glad that I opted to roll to Frontier to start the RI. Otherwise, I would be short for my 100km. My RI map just looked a little weird. Never mind, a RI is a RI and I got my 100km. Hohoho. 

I is happy. 

On Sunday, I really cannot make myself go to the gym. I rolled on my small wheels instead. 

I only clocked 12km bcos it was going to rain and I had to rush home for church. 

Daddy Lim is always worried that I would fall while rollerblading. I didn’t… but I fell while at home. Zzzz. I was standing on the little stool to reach for the guards on top of the shelf. I found myself losing balance and attempted to step off the stool, only to step on the rollerblades on the road. Zzzzz. I don’t remember how I landed but I think 1st on my knees and then I flipped and bang my butt and almost knocked off the bikes. Luckily, no bikes fell. It was quite silly and very loud that I woke Nana up. lol. 

My blue black. 

mummy Lim

Chinese O Levels is Over.. for now

We did what we could in the last 2 evenings, going through the materials given by the school, which is over 100 pages, and also from our tutor. We have worked hard; I have worked hard. lol.

There aren’t many topics left after 5 days of Oral. We were trying to spot topics and I asked Nana to revise those during her breaks in the afternoon. She had a long break before the exam starts at 2pm. 

Nana called at 3ish. She was finally done but we kept missing each other’s call as I had a full afternoon of meetings. She sounded happy, which was good but I duno how much of the happiness was bcos she did good and how much was bcos O level Chinese is finally over…. for now. I think plenty for the latter. 

Nana at least thinks that she had quite some to babble about and speaks much better than her Chinese prelim oral. She has kind examiners as well, who repeated some parts of the question when she missed answering. 生米煮成熟饭, there is nothing we can do now. 

I think the results will be released in August. Last week, when she was super stressed, she said that maybe she should drop Chemistry, like stop taking classes totally, like what some of her classmates are doing. Huh? Just the beginning of the year, she had decided to swop from physics to Chemistry tuition bcos she thought Chemistry is easier to score and she would do better. My heart cannot take this drastic change of mind so quickly. 

After she calmed down, she agreed that she will wait for the Chinese results before making the next strategic move. Is it NH’s pace? Or she is just over stressing herself? If she really get into a JC, I will have to face this s**T in another 2 years’ time. Zzzzzzz.

Should we retake if she doesn’t get an A? Should she drop another subject? Aiyo. Fighting.

Mummy Lim

Mochi Updates

Updates:

The remain of his 2 upper canines. So much of them were still stuck in his gum! Good riddance. 

++++++++++++

The antihistamine and eye drop didn’t seem to help Mochi. Still, there were good and bad days and we have no idea what made it good or bad. The last review, we decided that we should still send Mochi to have his eye ducts flushed. It is a GA procedure and he had to stay in the clinic for the entire day. 

The day has come. To prep his GA, we had to fast him from 10pm last night and no water from 8am this morning. Fortunately, Mochi jumped into his cage this morning (duno why) after meowing for his bfast and we locked him in the cage. This is so that he doesn’t bite us bcos we cannot give him bfast.

I had to send Mochi to the clinic at 9.30am and I was able to do so bcos this is the beauty of working from home. Hoho. Zaky has HBL and was able to help me catch Mochi and put him in the carrier. He was so quiet that the Tada driver didn’t even realise that he existed in the car. 

I wonder how come the clinic is never on time. I was slightly early and had thought that I would drop and go. I had to wait… for duno what, until I asked. The doctor will have to examine Mochi and explained the procedures and also highlighted the cost. He needs to undergo a GA and then have his tear ducts flushed. Since we are putting him down, we thought to do his dental work as well and figured out what happened to his missing canines. The doctor actually mentioned that his teeth look ok and maybe we can put off the scaling and polishing. Sure, it would help our pockets.

The doctor also said that if the canines are indeed broken off, then part of them may still be embedded and should be removed to prevent future problems. The estimated cost without the extraction amounts to $600ish. Zzzzz.. per extraction cost is depended on how complicated the procedure is. Ok lor. 

The clinic called at about 11am to inform that the canines are indeed broken off. Part of the top 2 canines look in worse shape and the vet suggested to remove those 2. The bottom one looks clean and she suggested to keep as it is and for the body to repair and do the needful. 

Then, the clinic called again at 1ish. The vet was very nice to give an update of what had happened and the findings. The flushing took place but other than a little resistance on the right eye, the left eye was totally smooth. So, it is unlikely to be blockage. What??????? This teary eye thing started like a few months ago and I have no recollection of what has changed to result in his condition. The doctor has no suggestion as well - if it is allergies, the antihistamines would have helped. In fact, his eyes were still very bad that particular week of giving him antihistamine but recently were much better. Why ah? The doctor can only suggest that we monitor and do the cleaning and to put on the soft cone on really bad days. Poor Mochi. 

As for the canines, again, nobody knows what happened. Mochi doesn’t bite on hard stuff; he only bites us. Other than kibbles, we also don’t give him hard food. The vet also said that from the full mouth x-ray, while the other teeth looks intact on the outside, she observed that there are some degeneration on the teeth in the gum and mentioned that the lower jaw bone looks more brittle than normal. Zzzzzz. It is time for us to look for multi-vitamins and calcium. Otherwise, there is nothing much we can do for now. 

The doctor also said that they did the scaling and polishing bcos the extractions were easier than expected. She said that they did the scaling and polishing procedure as the overall cost was within the budget that she had earlier quoted/ told me. Huh? Can like that? 算了, might as well since he was on GA. 

The clinic called again at 3ish to inform that Mochi was awake and I could bring him home if I wanted. I had a whole afternoon of meetings and Daddy Lim had the honor to collect Mochi. 

Mochi was so quiet on the car ride home. He was still groggy when he was left out of the carrier and was wobbly in his steps. 

What he did remember is that he is hungry. We didn’t give him bfast this morning and I don’t think the clinic fed him too. Even if the clinic did, Mochi would probably be too stressed to eat. 

Mochi is now on stealth mode bcos he is so quiet. He was hiding beside our bed in the dark earlier. I put him on our bed and then he fell when he tried to jump off. Poor thing! 

Total damage: almost $1k. Ouch! 

Mummy Lim

Last Weekend before O Level Chinese Oral

NH organised extra Chinese lessons for the 普华 Sec 4 students in the last week of school holidays. Nana said that they practiced on Listening Comprehension (LC) and was proud that she scored full marks for the practice. 

Her LC exam was on 3 Jul. I was in JB for a Company event when she called me to tell me how difficult LC was. She said that everybody has different answers (and thankfully not that she alone had different answers from everybody else) and eventually concluded that she had about 4 wrong. That is 8 marks flying away. Zzzz. Her tutor was very encouraging and commented that 只是比别人错多了一两题. We want to be so positive too. 

Her last hurdle is the Chinese Oral exam. The oral started on 4 Jul and the school scheduled the students in batches for the exam. Traditionally, NH had the 普华 students take the oral before the 高华 students. This year. The schedule was flipped. As a result, Nana would be taking her oral tomorrow, the last 2nd day of the entire period. Ya, majority of NH students are taking 高华. 

Preparing for the O level Chinese had been a pain. I lost count of the meltdowns that she had and heartache at the pushing that I had to do. We had been chewing Chinese oral materials for the many days, increasing the intensity during the weekend. 

Nana was supposed to earn extra bucks, helping out at Boo’s relative’s wedding last Sunday. She had to back out bcos of oral practice and Zaky took her place instead. He was very happy to earn the extra bucks as his social life becomes more colorful and he started the “no money” phase of his life. 

What sacrifices Nana had made. She blamed the late schedule but also recognises that being scheduled late means that she could better spot the oral topics. Well, the oral topics don’t run far away. The examiners are creative in how they twist and turn the questions but it goes back to those same topics. 

Her “compensation” for the sacrifices? 

Durians are so expensive now. 

Tomorrow is D day. Let’s hope for the best! 

Mummy Lim

Ah Yee and Athena in the House

A year flew by and Ah Yee and Athena are back in town!

Ah yee said that it was a dramatic trip. She purchased the flight tickets at a bargain 6 months back only to realise that the family name that she had used was not as per her passport. It was a whole nightmare of trying to change the name to buying new tickets and asking for refund. She ended up paying more than a direct flight with the boo-boo. Then, her connecting flight was canceled, which she only found out upon arrival at the airport. She was given a new flight, transiting in Seoul but having to fly for longer hours and yet not seeing any Korean oppa bcos the transit was too short. Beggers can’t be choosers. 

They were originally due to arrive on Thursday evening but eventually only touch down at 9ishpm. At least Athena is now old enough to self-entertain (I hope). They only stepped into our door at the 11ish. The kids were barely awake, happily greeted the pair before heading to sleepy land for school the following day.

Ah yee said that the taxi ride was equally traumatic bcos the taxi driver went round and round and couldn’t find our  block. IKR, we are tucked in this weird corner and google map just cannot “reach us”. They had to be let off on the side road and dragged their luggage to our block. I would have offered to meet them at the carpark or something but ah Yee had no internet and was contactless after leaving Changi Airport. #1stworldproblem 

Zaky had generously given up his room for the next month for ah Yee and Athena. He wasn’t upset at all and seemed very happy to bunk into our room and sometimes onto my bed. Zzzzz. 

We headed to my bro’s place for steamboat dinner on Saturday. It was very good; we haven’t had home cooked food for a while. The kids, particularly Zaky, were raving so much over Popo’s cooking, as if we had starved them. The kids had also made plans to have dinner at my bro’s place this evening. Lol.

Almost full force, short of ah tioh CY.

Mummy Lim

The Mystery of the LV Wallet

I blogged about “losing” the LV wallet when we moved. I was notified when my credit cards were used the next day and that was when I realised that my wallet was missing. I suspected that it was stolen by the movers the night before when they were in the house to install the shelf. I had to make a police report, which was required by the banks and also to replace the IC. 

Bcos the exact date and time of the transactions were recorded (by the bank) and the thief had used the CC at a petrol kiosk, which are all equipped by CCTVs, the culprit was captured. 

The Investigating Officer confirms that it was really one of the movers. It is really upsetting bcos I was so nice to them, buying them drinks/ lunches and being flexible with timing and paying even when the fees kept increasing. I have come to doubt the professionalism of all movers; we didn’t choose the cheapo ones for this move some more. It didn’t pay to be nice/ kind. 

I was updated while I was in Bangkok of the capture. The IO had asked if I wanted to be compensated the $$ spent on the CC, the culprit was willing to compensate. Thinking that it was small $$ and I was probably delirious from the stomach flu (and still wanting to be nice), I told the IO that I don’t need the compensation. I was told to go down to the station again to give a statement of my stand. 

A few days later, when I was clear headed, I remembered that the LV wallet cost a lot more than the CC fraud charges. Then there was the cash, the GV movie card, the hassle and fee of replacing the identity cards. I asked if I can ask for compensation for those instead. 

It turned out that I have to make a civil claim against the culprit bcos it is lost property. That means that I need to hire a lawyer. Zzzzz. It is again too much hassle, and it would cost me $$ to get a lawyer and maybe the thief wouldn’t be able to pay me back even if I filed against him. Never mind, forget it. 

As for the CC charges, I actually didn’t have to go down to the station to make a statement if I ask for the $$ to be refunded. What? Yes, to save me the hassle, I have changed my mind and asked for the $$ back. The problem is that I have to now hunt for the CC statements. Errr… December ah.. where to find ah? 

Mummy Lim