Bye-bye train(tracks)

So, on the same day Minister Khaw Boon Wan brought his wife, daughter and chihuahua for a final walk on the tracks, I too, brought the Hubby, Miss K and our westie for that "final" walk on the tracks.

The excitement started when we decided to follow a throng of  visitors up a slope by the main road, in hope for a short cut to the railway tracks. It was a short cut lined by a meter long lalang grass which terrified the dog. The dog stopped dead in her tracks and since there was a LONG queue of people behind me, I frantically started tugging the dog so hard that the dog broke loose from her leash; I screamed for the dog to stay; I can see the aunty behind me started to get rather nervous as we suddenly had a dog on the loose situation, so I frantically scooped the dog up and quickly proceed towards J and Miss K who were then struggling to cross this narrow 45 degrees slanted wooden plank to get down onto the the tracks!



Not too sure whether taking this short cut was a good idea afterall...all these commotion just to get to the tracks which is a mere 100m from our home!

But we did enjoy the short walk from hillview to the Bridge at Rail Mall.

Recollecting the times when the Railway was still in operation, those times when I (sometimes) have to wait at the manual operated level crossing for the train to pass when picking Miss K up from her infant care; hearing the whistle of the train speeding by when taking my nice evening stroll with the dog (this was before Miss K's arrival) ...I do have mixed feelings about bidding farewell to the railway tracks.

Miss Grumpy at Changi Boardwalk

I had wanted to bring Miss K and the dog to Changi Boardwalk for a while now, so when I saw that the weather was fantastic, I thought this day MUST be a great day for photos and a family outing ....

....I was soooo wrong. Miss K refused to nap on our way to Changi, she was all grumpy when we arrived, refusing to walk and sulking in most of our photos. Let's see, this was what she was like 90% of our time at the Boardwalk.

We managed to catch that rare smile at the boardwalk when I offered her my coke in exchange for some smiles for the camera.

The dog was much more manageable, she adorably just sat down and pose for the camera. Fuss free.

So, to add to the grumpy behaviour, she demanded to be carried almost all the way throughout the boardwalk; After carrying a sweaty 13 kg for about half the boardwalk, I tried to bribe her with a fruit bar, it worked for about 2 minutes...

...then its back to her refusing-to-walk "Mama, bao bao, BAO BAO!!!!" sobs which means, time for dinner then time to head home.

We had our dinner at this Peranakan Place:

Gd O' Times,
5 Changi Village Road.
Tel: 65422382.

As Miss K was still in her grumpy mood during dinner, I didn't have a chance to snap some photos of the Nangka Lemak, Ngor Hiang, Ayam Masak Merah and Babi Sio we had, but I have to say, very good nyonya food!!

I got this picture from streetdirectory.com and this is how the exterior looks like. We had an outdoor sitting because we had the dog with us. Total bill came to about $45 including drinks.

Dairy Farm Quarry

It was a nice early evening stroll at Dairy Farm Nature Park on a Sunday. We wanted the dog to have an extended walk, so decided to re-visit the Quarry at this nature park.
I love this park much more than Bukit Batok Nature Park, simply for the fact that it has a proper walking path which is stroller friendly, and it is ants-free, woohoo! (Ants = My dog's biggest enemy!)

The last time we were there, it was 15 months ago, Miss K was 6 months old. And if you have spotted it already, the dog has the red-shirt on, both then and now.

I'm going to sidetrack a little bit, here's the story of the red shirt back then:

The dog just had a S$1200 surgery to remove a spikey, 2.5cm-diameter seed which she swallowed. That seed must have been in her intestine for a while, but we only noticed something amiss when she started to vomit puddles and puddles of water, refused food and water, one day, her body went limp and she lay motionless at one corner. On our way to the vet, she had problems breathing, she was gagging for air, I thought she was going to die! Greed almost killed her! Red shirt was to prevent her scratching her surgery wound.

This time round, the dog is having some skin problems (common in westies), so shirt-on again to prevent her (1) licking the steroids and (2) scratching which will worsen her skin.

It was a pleasant surprise for Miss K to see huge carps, and other tiny fish (and a turtle) swimming in the quarry. Her teachers at childcare have been bringing her class to the nearby pond every alternate days for 2 weeks in a row now, so when we arrived at the quarry, she squealed with joy and said "Mama, pond, big fish" , "There, turtle swimming" then ran to get the dog "Gigi, come here, see fish".

The outdoor really provides endless prospects for exploration and discovery. And bringing Miss K to the Dairy Farm Quarry this past weekend was great as it reiterated what she has learnt in school that week.

GiGi is 6 years old today!

Our little Westie came into our lives 8 months after we got married. She was 3 months old.
A very lively (and at times hyper) pup who taught us much about responsibility.
Since the birth of Miss K, we have been neglecting her - so much so that she now has no more weekends at the dog run, no evening walks at the park and I cannot even remember when was the last time I played fetch with her around the house...

Last week, I told Miss K that we will bake a cake to celebrate GiGi's birthday, and so we did.
The little one is still nursing a cough and fever, but was in good spirits, and happily helped out.

Gigi is now on a strict vet-prescribed-diet as she has some skin allergies, so I ditched the idea of making dog cupcakes.

We made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese frosting and mango centre.



Miss K have been 'practising' the Birthday song in childcare, so she was all excited when I lit the candle and told her that we will be singing happy birthday to Gigi, then we will blow out the candles together.



There wasn't any decent pictures of Gigi with the cake as Papa's travelling and Miss K did not know how to handle the dog nor the camera, so this is the best picture of the dog with the cake (with the two humans trying to get the dog within the frame for the camera at the background).

Gigi, we will bring you out for a nice outing this weekend when your master returns!

Happy 6th Birthday!

Our newly found dogsitter

My colleague, D, has been the best dog sitter ever! She has been taking care of our little westie whenever we go on holidays. Going over to D's is like a holiday for our little westie too! She gets to meet her best schnauzer buddy and go for long walks and outings.

However, D is not in the best of health lately, hence we have to look for another dogsitter this time round. I was so relieved when I found out that our part-time maid agreed to dogsit! She comes and bathe our dog once every week (yes, bathing our dog is part of the task she has to do within that 3hrs she's at our place). Our westie gets along well with her and she loves dogs, so praying that both of them will be best of friend these 2 weeks.

Alright, we are off, and this time round, the destination is Princeton and New York City!

Japanese Tsunami, Japanese Dog, Japanese determination.

The latest Tsunami in Japan sent a big jolt to the rest of the world.
I admire the Japanese spirit, I admire the close knit Japanese community, I admire their determination.
Watching scenes unfold each day on the media, makes me appreciate the abundant blessings in life.
Sometimes I take things for granted.
I grumble.
I forget God.

Does it take a Tsunami to make us cherish our loved ones? Our live? Our Blessings?

This video of the Japanese Dog really touched me. I am glad both dogs are now rescued. I hope that they will go to a nice home soon.

2011 Lunar New Year Happenings

This Lunar New Year holiday, which stretches through the weekend, gave us some opportunity to continue "training" Miss K to bring westie for a walk. She has improved. She knows how to 'detangle' herself from westie's leash, She knows how to stop when westie is sniffing at some corners and walk faster when westie is on a 'mission'.

Training in progress...

We had J's buddies and their family over for steamboat on CNY Day 2. I was happy with the soup stock I made (for the steamboat) as I initially thought I would not have enough time to prepare it before leaving for Day 2 visiting.
I managed to simmer the pork bones for almost 3 hours and it tasted yummy!
Miss K joined in the fun, she had steamboat for dinner too! She loves her mushrooms, sliced beef, noodles and eggs in soup.

And of course we had Yu Sheng as starters.
This Yu Sheng from Ichiban Sushi was really good!

Andrea and Anya Jie Jie came for the steamboat and brought this (and many more toys, which their mum said they had outgrown) for Miss K. Thanks for the toys!
Miss K was kinda scared of this yellow Dinosaur the morning of CNY Day 3 when she first saw it in our living room, but look at her at the end of the day! Totally loving it!

J says this toy has a sillhoute of a westie in the dark :)

Walk the Dog

Sunday,12/12/2010....and that's when the dog-walking training starts!

Miss K took to the 'challenge' pretty well, gripping the leash tightly, never letting go.
Our little westie was rather behaved, she strutted along real slowly, sniffing along as they go about their 5 metres walk.

THe dog loves the grass,...BUT Miss K refuses to walk anywhere near the grass!

I am hoping that Miss K is not suffering from hastenburaphobia...(fear of grass)
We need more 'grassy' session this weekend when we bring the dog down/out somewhere for a walk - maybe botanical garden, somewhere with LOTS of grass!

Come on, stop scavanging!!



(Haha, muzzle on, no more scavaning) Good dog, let's go.



MAMA!! she refuses to walk, do you want to take over?

Miss K, the dog and the Bean Bag

We shifted the beanbag from the entertainment room to the study when the cot arrived as we needed to convert the entertainment room to Miss K's room...now the beanbags are back!

Main reason: Miss K inches towards the TV while watching her DVD...I don't like that. She stays put when we put her on the beanbag.

The dog loves to sleep on the beanbag...she used to have both beanbags all to herself, now, she has to share it with Miss K.

The Lil' TV addict with her fluffy friend

The dog and the bandana

Brought our Westie for grooming on Sunday (decided to try a new cheaper groomer (petzplanet at opposite Bukit Gombak MRT, $35/groom instead of the normal $70/groom) and she came back with army-prints bandana:



* Note the carseat behind the dog - Miss K poo-ed in the car and her poo leaked onto the carseat. We had to carry her IN her carseat from the car all the way up to the toilet
** Might need XL diapers?