Recently, I got into a car "accident". I'm reluctant to use the word "accident" because I wouldn't term it that way. It was simply a "miscalculation" on my part that I scratched the car of XXX while I was backing my car out of my garage. Anyway it turned out that the owner of the car, XXX, wld like the car re-spraypainted, refitted, and re-adjusted, and all that comes up to $340. What really bothers me is, is all that worth it for a scratch like this?

Over time, I've come to realise that perhaps I'm biased. Perhaps I should not judge others by my own standards. Personally, I would not have requested for such bold claims from anyone who caused such a minor scratch, but I cannot expect others to hold similar views.

I do not really want to dwell on this matter anymore but I'm tired of explaining to people that it's only a 1cm scratch. People can tell me I'm stupid for agreeing to pay the amount requested, or say that I should just pay and forget about it. I don't care anymore. There's probably no right way to go about dealing with this. It just revolves around the issue of how much one would want to protect oneself, and how much one is willing to give in to avoid conflict. Sigh.

Cats at play

Playing in the bathroom
















The curtain is a favourite spot for hide and seek between the two cats



















Baki stuck in the gap between the wall and the bed














Ball of fur in the bathroom




















Sudden fascination by the TV











Play biting

Trip to Swan Valley, or was it not...?

Day after the steamboat, we wanted to take a trip up to Swan Valley, just for fun. Only it turned out that we hardly spent any time visiting the wineries, and found ourselves in the Midland market choosing beads to make earrings (?!?) and ended our day at the Margaret River chocolate factory eating chocolate fondue till we were sick and had to be shooed from the place at closing time. I guess we weren't that serious about buying wine in the first place... we had wine tasting at every winery we stopped but found most of them too dry. Honestly I think it reflected that we weren't that great wine-drinkers in the first place... or is it just too much of a coincidence that we all prefered the sweeter tastes of white wine?

We had a steamboat dinner the week before school started to mark the welcoming of our new housemate, Wan Hon. Fine dining right at home :)

Series of cats photos

This is Baki, the cat belonging to my housemates Valerie and William. Isn't he cute? I didn't realise what a nice effect his reflection in my window would make. Now if only that scratching post wasn't there...















Misha sleeping on my table by the window. I love the way their eyes slit up an an angle.












Baki at my window, again. Before I had Misha, I never knew that cats love sitting by the window so much. Just being around him helped fine-tune my hearing senses... now I'm so much more aware of the chirp of a bird or bark of a dog from a distance.

Cross-eyed and dazed from watching TV... he totally ignored me for the next 10 minutes

Winter Holidays here in Perth

It's been quite a while since I last wrote. At one point of time I guess I really wanted to leave it at that. Then Misha came along and made me want to tell the whole world about my cat.

Three weeks have gone by since the start of the holidays, and very soon it will be over and it will be back to school. I envision this upcoming semester to be more eventful than the last - there's the annual vet Winter Dinner which a couple of us have signed up for, and the Halfway-Day event for which we have raised money (to buy beer) just to be able to celebrate the halfway point into our vet school days. And hopefully, some of us vet Singaporean students would be able to go on a short trip somewhere together, since we have never travelled together before, and will probably become too busy when fourth year comes along. Not to mention we just have a new housemate moving in this Saturday, and holding a garage sale on Sunday. This weekend is going to be busy.

I'm real glad that I stayed behind this school hols. Despite not being able to fly back to Singapore to meet some friends who have graduated, I felt that at long last, I have managed to do something different. It has been fun with my housemates around. During a particular dessert session, a major blackout occured in the neighbourhood and we brought out all our candle holders and lit all the tealights to create the lovely picture above. Our house never looked more romantic ;P It was so nice that even when the lights returned, we switched them off and admired them just for a bit longer. I've realised that they have helped me a lot, particularly when I met into some trouble when I scratched somebody's car while backing out of my garage and oh gosh, the story just goes on... and also in the acquiring of a cat. I really, really appreciated all that support.

Speaking of my cat, Misha, he is sooooooo so so cute. Yep, it's a HE, despite the feminine-sounding name. Misha was born on the 21st December 2004 to Ragdoll and Russian Blue parents owned by a Polish family here in Australia. The day prior to meeting him, I went to RPSCA and the cat haven shelter to source out their cats. But none of them were as perfect as Misha, whose details I obtained from the local classified ads. I had to drive 45 minutes away just to check him out at his previous home, and on my way there I had thought I would take a look at the cat and give myself a day to think about it if possible. However, that thought just flew from my mind... he was so adorable! Well, he was a little shy, as I was informed by his owners, especially with strangers. I thought I could probably get over that. When Brian and I brought him into the car, he just went crazy and scratched Brian in the arm. Luckily, he settled down when we stuck him in a box, else that would definitely have seemed longer than the 45 minutes it took us to get there.

On the first day, Misha just hid under my bed all day and only came out to eat and defaecate in his litter tray. During the entire night I simply couldn't sleep... cuz he was checking out the entire room and mewing through the night, which got me really worried. On the second day, he started coming out from under my bed more frequently and we brought him to the vet to be checked and vaccinated. He was surprisingly good about it, except the part where my housemate Val had to drive him from under the bed with a metal pole so that I could catch him and put him in his carrier bag. By the third day, he had already begun to sit on my bed whenever I wasn't in the room, and then he discovered a favourite spot sitting by the windowsill. On the fourth day, Misha started sitting around and on the table, especially on top of my laptop. We socialized him and Baki that very night and they seemingly got on ok... we were expecting more violent interactions between the two cats. By the fifth day, he started to allow me to stroke him without him running away or retreating in fear. Today, the sixth day, I can finally touch him with ease and carry him without him protesting... he has become quite the attention seeker! I was trying to write my emails earlier on today but he just sat around and mewed at me till I gave him the physical attention he craved. He is just so cuddly now. Over the last few nights, he came to sit at my feet while I was in bed, but I was so tired I fell asleep immediately, and probably kicked him off without realizing it =P

I admit, I am now obsessed about cats. Please don't mention cats to me if you do not want me to launch into a long speech about Misha =)

Misha

I would like to introduce to everyone my new Darling - Misha.

Misha stands for "Bear" in Russian. I did not give this funky name but it was given to him by his Polish family who reared him from a kitten along with the rest of his litter mates.

Now he is the "centre of my life", so you can bet more stories to come =)