A Tribute to the Dog that was Baeng.

My Baengky passed away on 12 Feb 2007 and no one had the heart to tell me until last week when i interrogated the parents and demanded the explanation to my suspicions on the matter. Much wailing and squeaking soon ensued.

Mummy took leave to mourn him, Olie sleeps with his dog tag, and uncle weng and family called to offer condolences. He'll be missed.

I dont know why, but i never really thought that Baeng would die. I thought he'd just live as long as i did and watch my children grow up, and they would love him as much as i did. Olie and i used to have mini arguments about who would get to keep him, and papa's input to that would be, "Yah not me can already. Smelly dog." After one week of not bathing him, you could tell once you stepped in to the house (if you'd never been to my house before) that we had a dog, and a big hairy one at that. I dont know why, but i never really thought it was a bad smell and i never quite understood the elders when they told us not to kiss the dog because he was smelly and had mites. I honestly couldn't care less, because to me that smell was comfort, and the assurance of a bag of warm fur, soft ears and a wet, black nose.

His favourite activity - or rather activity most engaged in - especially as he got older was sprawling flat, belly-down on the floor to soak up the cold from the tiled floor on hot afternoons. When i was younger i would share the fan with him while i did homework, and he would sit right in front of it and hog the air with eyes half-closed and tongue hanging out. He was a fan of grapes, ice cubes, chicken wing tips, pork and herbs from popo's soup, peanuts with the shell on, Pedigree canned food, most dog biscuits, raw spaghetti, durian (when he was young), and licking sauce off hands after meals. With the grapes and ice cubes, he would take one gingerly in his mouth between his tongue and upper teeth and then trot off to a corner where the victimized fruit/frozen water would be pushed around on the floor in between awkward gnaws before being swallowed. Peanuts were not usually given because of the mess of wet, minute flakes left after the deed was done. As for meat, his eyes would take on an almost fanatical glaze, and as long as the meat was on the table, his very wet, sniffly nose could be found hovering under the table and he would breathe on your knees until you gave him some or you chased him away.

Baeng wasnt particularly well-behaved, nor was he an excellent exhibit of Border Collie intelligence. He hated other dogs and was decidedly not partial to other small animals (hamsters, cats and toddlers are fine examples). But he was loyal and enthusiastic (when he wasn't tired) and we would always be assured a warm, barking, tail-whacking-everything-in-range welcome when we got home.

He was a pet, childhood friend and loving foot warmer. When i think of him, i think of the breathing in the smell of the top of his head (Olie and i agree that it should be described as 'musty'), stroking his smooth, floppy ears, listening to his long claws clicking on the tiles and predicting what he would look like when he turned the corner and appeared in the doorway. For example, clikclikclikclikclikclik would probably mean head belligerently up, ears facing forward and standing up as straight as half-flopped ears go, and tail lifted poker-straight into the air with the end of it waving searching for excitement. Scratchyclickscratchyclickscratchyclick would precede a very slouchy, cannot-be-bothered black and white fuzz-rug looking for his next nap spot. A flipped switch during a midnight journey to the bathroom would illuminate a pair of sleep-heavy eyes, innocent as a puppy's, and a shyly wagging tail.

But my doggy's gone now. And i'll never tickle his nose anymore, or pinch his cheeks, or kiss his ears. But i'll always remember him as the best dog in the whole world. I refuse to believe that dogs have no soul. I believe he's in heaven now and happy. Besides, God told me he'd look after him. He was dearly loved.

Rest in Peas, Baengky. I love you.

Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton

It's late in the evening; she's wondering what clothes to wear.
She puts on her make-up and brushes her long blonde hair.
And then she asks me, "Do I look all right?"
And I say, "Yes, you look wonderful tonight."

We go to a party and everyone turns to see
This beautiful lady that's walking around with me.
And then she asks me, "Do you feel all right?"
And I say, "Yes, I feel wonderful tonight."

I feel wonderful because I see
The love light in your eyes.
And the wonder of it all
Is that you just don't realize how much I love you.

It's time to go home now and I've got an aching head,
So I give her the car keys and she helps me to bed.
And then I tell her, as I turn out the light,
I say, "My darling, you were wonderful tonight.
Oh my darling, you were wonderful tonight."

Doesnt this say 'I love you' so well? I like this song.

I'm So Hungry.

I do not like rhetorical writing one bit. I suck amazingly and astonishingly at it. Writing narratives i'm fine, putting rubbish into words i love, but my writing trips over its own feet and flattens itself when i'm asked to point out fallacies and put my critical thinking skills into words. The only type of writing that is really useful and i have to be expertly lousy at it. Why? Tell me why??
*looks into the heavens*

Oh! I find it quite interesting that i never had a nosebleed until a few days ago. It was rather exciting in a wondrous kind of way, like Wah... There's blood in my nose! So this is what i would look like if i got into a fight, and other such wonderments. After soaking several pieces of tissue paper in patches with my blood, and then stopping to admire the artistic effect on the tissue when spread out, i realised that one of my favourite colours is Blood-red. Fresh blood-red. Okay i'm not trying to be a blood-thirsty weirdo right now, but really, blood-red is one of the colours i could just stare at mesmerized. It's so strong and fresh and passionate and determined to be red. It must be why red is the colour of love and of hate and of revolution and of danger. Now i want a blood-red dress. *schemes*

I cut open a sea urchin today and looked at its innards. This is how you do it:

With the sea urchin (dead) sitting right side up ie. anus up, pierce the outer covering shallowly on it's side and cut around the body and remove the top, so that the innards sit in the lower half of the 'cup'.

Observe how most of the innards is gonad ie. sex organs - a good 2/3. Then get rid of them by scooping/scraping them out gently with a blunt instrument. A dissection probe-thing or your finger works just fine. The gonads have a consistency of jam so this should be easy, but take care not to stab the intestines or rip a portion out in an overenthusiastic attempt.

Note how the gut (stomach and intestine) is looped and folded. The lower loop is the stomach and the upper one is the intestine. Observe the Aristotle's lantern, the 'jaw', and it's structure related musculature.

Look for other organs i cannot remember the names of.

Throw disemboweled sea urchin into biological waste bin.

Wash hands with pink smelly soap.

Poke around in the starfish tank for a while and disturb the fat pink anemone at the side of the tank.

Wash hands again.

Go home.

And there was much Rejoicing.

Today is the BEST day of the year!

I'm so happy i'm going to bust out of myself! I shall put this on repeat:

*censored* First class clearance required.

I'm the happiest person. Nobody can be happier than me. lalala.

Aaaaand...
I'm coming home 18 June instead of 28 July!

YEAYYYYY!!! jumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjumpjump.

SPARTANS!

Number one on my wishlist is sunlight and blue skies. Save me from the rain and dreary weather. It's been raining non-stop for the past 2 days. I'm so tired of this sky that's a nothing-grey colour, and the trees that droop under the rain and drip gloomily. It's diluting my soul into a sad, watery mess. Please give me sunlight so that i can grow into a strong healthy plant.

I miss the mother and the olie and the baeng. I wish they were here now and we were living in a bright new haus and "all the world is bright and gay". And baengky has a big field to run around in. Whine. I want my mummy.

28 JULY FASTER COME!!!

I have decided to apply for the Biology Co-op Program this year. For the university-term iliterate, co-op is a program where the university helps you apply for internships so you alternate between work terms and study terms, and because of this, you take an extra year to graduate. Despite my averse reactions to extra study time, i think work experience is extremely important in biology. So yah lor, i shall plow through it. This also means that i'll be working in the summers ie. no such 4 month holidays such as the one so joyfully taken last summer, bad news i know. But hopefully i'll be back for the christmases, cos christmas means jessie's house and good food and all my favourite people. After all, it's really for the good of my own future and it's time i did more stuff like that. Man, i'm so mature.

Halp! I just swallowed some ghastly tasting cough medicine. It's not sickly sweet like most of the other ones. It has no taste whatsoever until you almost swallow it, then the horrible bitterness hits you and the noxious fumes go to your head, and the reflex action at this point is a grimace of extreme disgust and a few seconds of intense whining to your father. At this point he laughs at you and goes to wash the spoon. I do not like being sick. Papa is sick too from stress-cold, he was whispering for several days until i caught his cold as well. I grew progressively worse as i sat in the third row watching 300 on the day it opened, until i was positively shivering by the time i got home.

300 is an excellent movie by the way. I want to be a Spartan person now. Man or woman also can cos both are damn cool. Sparta is going to be my latest craze for now.

Leonidus: SPARTANS! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?

The 300 soldiers: AHU! AHU!

Wah. Too much. Too cool. Too sick. Cough.

The Arrival of Father Yeo.

Ah Pa is here!!!

He was greeted with much squealing and big hugs. He rented a car already (Toyota Yaris), so efficient. It's very spiffy, so kyoot and kompact. We drove to Safeway to buy instant noodles because papa was hungry and because we didnt want to walk to the much-nearer Shoppers Drug Mart since we were such bums. When we got to the car, i automatically went to the left side and papa automatically went to the right. We opened our respective doors, exclaimed "EY!", roared in laughter a bit then got in. Too much... and i've been living here for how long? Tsk.

Meimei lent her smelliest Chocho to papa to smell while he's away. I've stolen it for a while. It's sitting on my shoulder as i write this. I realised as i was smelling it that i miss my meimei very much. Chocho now has my complimentary tears on it. Barn also lent me his aeroplane brothers. So sweet of him. I shall keep them safe from the uh... wild things that prowl my room looking for stuffed planes to consume.

Yawn sleepy time! Papa is fetching me to class tmr! HAHA! On the condition that i steal breakfast for him.