She is the third cat I fostered and still I couldn’t hold back the waterworks when it was time to say goodbye. I wonder when it will ever get easy to to see them go.

Simple joys

2 most lovely things happened when we got back from Switzerland. When I went to get our mail from our neighbours, they passed me a whole stack of books! The secondhand kind with the money-can’t-buy old book smell. Hours of reading joy await! The second thing is HK has finally cooled down! It perpetually feels like someone has left the aircon on which is the most perfect kind of cool. Guess you can’t ask for a better way to round off our trip.

It’s been 2 months…

since I arrived and I have: found an apartment, furnished an apartment, zipped back to Singapore,  hosted 2 friends, fostered 2 cats (pics below!), started volunteer work. There is much pain that comes with relocation but it’s really quite fun rebuilding your life with new experiences and people.

And before I know it, it’s back to NY again for a week! Ken is back for meetings and I am back to shop. Trust me, both are equally hard work…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sadie and Sally. A pair of Scottish folds rescued from a bankrupt breeder. Most gentle cats ever. Found good home

I was asked the other day how long I am married for. I told her “3 years” and she looked really surprised. I thought it was because I looked young to her (always a good thing). But she said it’s because when I talked about my husband, I had a twinkle in my eyes reserved for the newlyweds. I thought that’s a real nice thing to hear from a perfect stranger.

Tea for Two

It was such a lovely way to while away a wet afternoon. I know coffee is more popular in NY but I am always mad about tea.  Since the city empties out during the July 4th weekend, it seems like the perfect time to try the otherwise highly sought-after Lady Mendl’s.  Lady Mendl’s is really very lovely. Tucked away in an old brownstone, the tea salon resembles a cozy (but very luxurious) living room of someone fabulous and we were simply invited to take tea with her. Service was great, most of the time, we were not even allowed to pour our own tea (Now, that’s an establishment working for their tips). The place was rather quiet so I didn’t feel that self-conscious snapping away. The scones were the highlight for me but I was too excited to get started on them that by the time I remembered to take pictures, they were gone…

The Last Frontier

Yups, Ken and I are in Alaska! I got it into my head that I wanted to see glaciers and Alaskan huskies and that was how we ended up here. Ken had grander ideas of wildlife and mountains. Alaska is so painfully beautiful that we know that our photographs will hardly capture it all. Even for decidedly city people like ourselves, we can understand why people can give it all up and choose to settle down here. The evening sun (it sets after ten here) has cheated us of our dinner a few times cos we keep thinking it’s still early and only look for food after everything is closed!

Along the highway:

He’s going to gow up to be a great mushing dog:

Cheers to not working

I realised that drinking cheap wine in cheap plastic cups is still a decadent experience once it is done on a beautiful spring weekday afternoon under a cherry blossom tree in Central Park. The 3 of us, jobless and childless wives, didn’t even mind the cherry blossom petals falling all over our strawberries, cheese dips, salad. The Japanese eat these flowers too, we rationalised. More beautiful days like today please.

View from our tree:

I know this is a rather tall statement, but somehow, I know my life will be a little better if I have this:

I know I am not young anymore when I actually took this long to get over the trips back to Singapore and then DC. Granted that I am in no hurry to recover. I realise that I stop rushing through life anymore since, unlike before, my life does not just begin on weekends or public holidays or those 3 weeks of annual leave…

It’s really good to see family and friends and pets again. Some things just don’t change: Billie still pees when he gets excited (and perhaps a little more this time since we have not met for 7 months), parents are still as eager as before to feed us, we are still the last group to leave restaurants, goodbyes still take forever, we still like to dig up the hilarious past no matter how embarassingly painful it is (the only thing fair about such exercises is that no one is spared), I still lose handphones in cab (it’s a gift I know). But Singapore has moved ahead of us a little and sometimes I have to agree with Ken that it’s hard to feel nostalgic about a place that keeps changing.

There are hundreds of pictures to sort through and to be posted but I am wondering, what’s the hurry?

Speed up Spring

A huge plus of not working is never having to deal with Monday blues. Mondays, now, are really quite wonderful. I start off every Monday morning, bright and early, with the kitties at the cat shelter. Every week, the other volunteers and I, as we clean/feed/play with the cats, talk about how wonderful some of these cats are despite what they have gone through. Every week, before I leave, I say a little prayer that they would get themselves adopted over the week. There’s nothing sadder that to see a kitten grow up inside a metal cage, without a home.

This is an extra special Monday morning because I found out that I am going to have a niece! Finally, a baby girl to spoil and I have made sure I am the first one to get her something pinky and girly. A tad excited I know.

And if the colorful blooms at the Greenmarket are anything to go by, I think, despite the temperatures, spring is definitely coming.

Pearl, the perfect lapcat:

Greenmarket: