Chewie - last steps

12Nov2013

Chewie passed away this morning, around 9:30am, according to my dad's caregiver, Dina. She called me at 9:45am at work while I was in a meeting. Needless to say, I was devastated but not really surprised - and very relieved for Chewie.

Dina had heard Chewie gag loudly, so she carried Chewie to her bed. But when my dad and her were ready to leave the house for his dialysis, Chewie had already passed on. Dina found Chewie on the floor, her bowels voided and her eyes still open. I told her to leave her eyes open because I think Chewie wanted to see me. I called Tengoku to arrange for the cremation and asked Mag to meet me at home.

When I came home, Chewie was still lying in her poo! I hugged, kissed her and closed her eyes. I think her body was still warm. I carried her body, stiff with rigour mortis, into the bathroom to clean her up. I did what she hated the most - wash her in the bathroom. And blew dry her and combed her hair for the last time. This time she did not/ could not complain or whine. I can't believe how much I actually miss her whining and crying... (Video of her bathing and whining)

The night before had been bad for both of us.

We hardly slept. Chewie had had her ups and downs but in the last 2 days, she hadn't been eating or drinking. I knew that was a prelude to something bad. Not eating is still tolerable, but not drinking? Chewie's eyes stayed open the whole night. It was as if she was trying to stay awake, or maybe she was in such pain that she could not rest. That night, I had spoken to Jacq Ong (Susan's animal communicator friend) - I don't normally take to this kind of thing but Jacq shared some interesting ideas about what Chewie might be feeling. I just listened and felt uncontrollably sad. I cried even though I know I should not cry in front of Chewie. But she was not the sort of dog that senses her owner's feelings! Jacq said that Chewie showed her a sunny day - she wanted to go out with me in the sun.

We hung up and I patted Chewie to sleep, or tried to. Her ribs protruded - they were like the keys of a xylophone. I put my ear to her chest and counted for a minute, listening to her slow deep breathing and her slow shuud-shuuud of a heartbeat. Her heart rate was about 30 beats a minutes. Every few minutes, she would tremble in pain, and she heaved and gagged. But nothing came out as she had had no food in her! Every spasm tired her out so much that she collapsed in my arms as I held her chest up to help her to sit up. It tore my heart to watch her suffer.

We went repeatedly through the cycle until it was almost 4am. I decided to force her to take some Polysilic III Suspension to calm her stomach. She dragged herself on all fours (with my help) and drank some water! By 5am, I was exhausted and fell asleep. I was sure Chewie continued gagging as I slept.

When I woke up this morning, she was lying outside my door looking at me with her big black longan eyes. I'd promised to carry her downstairs to be in the sun but it was raining! I had also planned to call the vet for an appointment (again) but there was no need now.

Tuesday - the second work-day of the week, the 45th day since that fateful day at the vet's when Dr Ly told me she had liver failure. Then came a litany of ailments - her heart walls were thickening, she had high blood pressure, indigestion, nausea, blood in the stools and even vaginitis. They were just some of the many afflictions that developed in the same month.

Godma came by with beautiful flowers and we decorated her bed. Chewie looked so at peace, like she was sleeping. The pet cremation guys were very professional and compassionate. We both said our goodbyes and then she was pushed into the incinerator. It takes 2 hours to cremate a small dog such as her! It's like stewing meat for hours until the bones soften! Haha.. bad analogy.

I took her ashes to the Botanic Gardens. I don't know why I did that. Perhaps to remind myself of the places that a happy white dog used to prowl. It was cool after the rain and yet sunny. Her favourite brook bubbled, without her. Her favourite lamp posts and bushes beckoned, but Chewie wasn't there to take the bait. (Old clip of her fun Botanic Gardens walkies)

She may not be in the same dimension as me now, but I am sure she is happy wherever she is.

The vets, when they checked her, always said Chewie didn't look so bad. But just because she looked so well groomed didn't mean she wasn't sick. I knew she was in much pain, but there was only so much I could do for her. I would like to think that I eased her journey to the Rainbow Bridge. I hope I did not prolong her pain.

The house is quiet tonight. No pitter-patter of tiny paws, long nails scraping on the floor (yes, mommy is lazy), no mischievous eyes glancing at me, tempting me to touch her and then running away, no big black eyes staring at me while I take a leak, no wet nose pushing the door open, no mommy-carry-me-onto-the-bed paw, no sound of her tongue tapping the water bottle spout as she drinks, no pee-saturated newspaper shoved in the corner of her tray because she wants to help us clear the poop.

It rained the whole of today - as if Mother Nature too is mourning Chewie's passing.

Happy Birthday, Singapore!

HAPPY NATIONAL DAY, SINGAPOREANS!!

We were so patriotic today! We wore red and white, like many other people we met on the streets, smiled at everybody who passed by... Someone gave out red and white caps and little Singapore flags and we wore them. Drank red watermelon juice, ate white kway-teow soup, even had a strawberry donut. How's that for patriotism? HAHAHA.... Mag even wore a T-shirt that said "I LOVE SINGAPORE!" Woo hooo....!!

I didn't want to fight the crowds and sweat in the heat so I stayed home with my dad and watched the National Day Parade on TV. Other than watching TV, we still managed to catch the F16 fly pass, and 2 of the Red Lions freefalling(parachuters) - could spot them above the roof! Every time the helicopters or the planes fly pass, Chewie would bark at them! Silly goose...

I know... my photos are pathetic... gotta scour the net later with the hope that people with better cameras post their pictures online!

The parade was quite nice actually. The only slow part was the last bit just before the fireworks started where they dragged that song for such a long time!! How many times can you sing "Will you swim the current? Will you scale new heights? Will you make it happen,
Will you let your dreams take flight? And... Will you make the difference? Will you seize the day? Will you live each moment, Will you dare to find new ways?
Dare to find, dare to find, dare to find new ways! "

..... The fireworks would've been fantastic from up front!


We had our version of a "TV dinner" at home - with a hokkien rice dish cooked with 'gwah-chai' - some green mustard leaves like cabbage, pork, mushrooms and hei-bee - dried prawns. And also peanut/pork rib soup. Yummmms :P




Would this qualify as one of Ed's spoon creations? hehe.. probably not!






Here's a vid I found which is pretty close to what it was but it's from the NDP rehearsal performance:

NDP 2007

National Day fever is back! Everything is decked up in red and white and everyone seems to be wearing red and white every weekend!

This year's National Day parade won't be at the National Stadium anymore. Like all old things in Singapore, the grounds have been slated for re-development. This year's National Day Parade will be held at the new 'stadium' at Marina Bay. We can see the yellow/red/blue/green chairs from my office window. Maybe I'll go back to work on August 9th just to catch the fireworks!

Here's a short video I made using some clips and photos we took yesterday while strolling along the Esplanade. Didn't take enough, so I included pictures from previous years' NDP as well.. hehe..

Xray of an elbow

Ever seen one? They're not great pictures. I could only try and hold still while I hold the x-rays against my ceiling light. But you get the picture.

I went to see the THIRD doctor on Monday (after my fall 11 days ago on 16 June) and this one FINALLY sent me for an x-ray. The first 2 doctors (one from Gleneagles A&E) sent me home with anti-inflammatory meds and muscle relaxant. After so many days, I still could not bend or straighten my arm! Had trouble doing simple things like washing my face, combing, putting in my contact lenses. It's more and more painful to move it.

There's an arrow showing the part where the bone might be fractured. The radiologist's report says "There is a strong suggestion of a fracture at the neck of the radius in the AP view. Advise oblique views for confirmation. The rest of the elbow is clear".

Will be seeing a specialist tomorrow to see what should be done. Sigh... And Mag & I signed up for not one but TWO(!) ladies' runs just the last few days!! One is the Shape Run that will happen on 9 Sept 2007 and the other is the Great Eastern Women 10K run on 21 Oct 2007. Let's hope that I will recover in time for them! As usual, I'm optimistic! :-)

More Owwws

Today I went back to the Chinese sinseh for review. He took off my bandages and said he'll give me a steam treatment for my elbow. My wrist is totally healed but my elbow isn't so good.

A boiling pot of medicinal herbs was prepared. 2 blocks of wood with a hole in the middle was used to channel the steam up. I was asked to place my elbow above the hole so that the steam can regulate and increase circulation.

After half an hour, it was back to the 'torture chamber' where my elbow was treated to another session of re-adjustment and massage, with me yelping for mercy! This time a lady did it for me and she gave me acupuncture as well as suction cup treatments!! More owww's for these but they weren't as painful as the bone alignment.

Elbow is back in bandages and I can see caked blood inside.. sigh.. Hope things are going to improve from here on..

With my semi-crippled arm, I find it so hard to tie up my hair! So I FINALLY went to cut it today! Goodbye long hair, hello short again! Much neater and cooler.

Beng, no lah.. I didn't go to the gym. How can I with these bandages? I don't want them soaking in sweat.

The smell of today's medicine is even more nauseating... yuck...!!

Owww

Yup! Slipped and fell on Saturday while walking on a muddy pavement near some HDB flats in Bedok!! (went there to eat bak chor mee.. sigh.... )

Landed incorrectly on my right arm, inner part. Wow!! Excruciating pain for about 10 mins right after the fall. I could still move my fingers but I knew it wasn't good. GUESS WHAT !!! I was wearing my Timberlands trekking boots when I fell!! And I'd bought them because of the Vibram soles that were supposed to have great grip for hiking! That's a hoot, isn't it?! It was just fated I guess that the ground was muddy and it was raining and I had to go step on a slippery bit of muddy cement... sigh... My jeans and shirt were totally covered in mud and I had to sit on newspaper in my car (with the beige seats).

I went to see 2 doctors (one on Sat and one on Mon) and both said I didn't need to have an xray and just gave anti-inflammatory meds.. silly buggers.... They didn't THINK my arm was dislocated, although it hurts like crazy in the mornings and it looks swollen/puffy. So today, I went to see a Chinese sinseh in Paya Lebar - one recommended by my colleague - better than the ang-mo doctors who only prescribe painkillers!! This was the first time I was going to a TCM for a serious sprain and I heard that it was going to be painful ..... little did I know .... that THAT was an understatement....

Anyway, he knew my wrist and elbow were hurt and he re-aligned my wrist bones!! I could hear the "clicks" when he pulled/yanked/pressed it back!! Owww... AND then came the PAINFUL part !! My elbow. It's so badly swollen and the ligaments around there were stiff and hard, so even though he asked me to relax, I just could not !! He had to ask an assistant to come hold me down while he used practically his whole weight to put my elbow straight again !! You should've heard me yelling in pain !! LMAO... I didn't think I had it in me to yell in pain so loudly. HAHA.... Afterwards, he asked me "Did you hear the click?", and I said, "NO!! ALL I heard was my screaming!!!" He put some black gooey stuff on my wrist and elbow and bandaged them up. S$56 for that - non-claimable.

ANYWAY, that was this morning, and my arm feels so much better now that the bones are back where they're supposed to be ! I still have problems rotating my wrist though... and still can't wear my bra (the usual way) ;-)

Here's a photo taken by Mag this afternoon. We were having coffee and toast near my office. I look weird cos she insisted on taking the picture and I probably had bread in my mouth!! Hahaha...

The smell of the medicine (inside the bandage) is beginning to get to me... Feel nauseous everytime I get a wiff of it. Ugh...

Help! Hot Hands!!

My hands are HOT HOT HOT!!!!! Left hand more than my right. I was cutting chillies to make chilli sauce - the large ones and the small tiny super hot chilli padi.

HELP!! Can somebody tell me what's the secret to relief my hot hot hands?? I know there's a remedy out there.... !!!


Actually my helper already made a bottle but I said we need MORRRRRE because I know my friends are such Chilli Kings & Queens. So I decided to do the cutting myself since Dina complained of her hot hands when she did the first batch!

Easy what, riiight?? And I even wore plastic transparent gloves! Snip snip snip... No problem!!! NOooooooo... not when I got to the HOT ONES!! And then thin plastic just didn't cut it and couldn't protect my fingers. I suspect I must've even cut through and made some holes.

Anyway, I managed to finish the task and tried to wash off the heat from my hands with a little basil water but now my hands are still getting hotter and hotter as I type... Why...!!??!! Strange...!!!!

To those of you coming on Monday and if you eat THIS bottle of chilli, I hope you guys appreciate it!!! hehehe....

The product of my pain and suffering... arrrrgghhhh...... LOL...
Chilli ground with ginger and onions.

Chinese New Year Lanterns

As you can see, I'm taking some time out from editing my Vietnam photos. (*whispers* I still have Shanghai sitting on my HDD's dusty shelves.. hehe...)



My colleagues and I have been busy folding Chinese New Year lanterns. Every year our department does this for the old folks at Henderson.



We give them 2 lanterns each and a bag filled with mandarin oranges, bak-gua, bak-hu, lapcheong, wolfberries, chinese herbs and other goodies. Funds raised from selling specially designed lanterns go into buying these CNY stuff. We also hold a dinner party for them with the usual CNY games, karaoke (they love this) and a visit from the "fortune god" (chai shen ye) who will give out ang-pows to them.



This Chinese New Year, don't forget to spread joy and happiness especially to the less fortunate around you!

Vietnam, here we come!

We're off to a short holiday in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC for short). So did you expect us to go without checking out the geocaches there? Haha... Here's a Google map of Saigon's 3 (out of 4) caches.



Ok.. Change of subject.. so Beng SMS'd me this weird message that goes something like this: "Haha I just saw u nearly stumble through the signing of your bank's name"

I was like, WTH ?!?! What is she yakking about!?! And then I nearly jumped out of my skin when she told me what it was. I had buried this horrible experience right at the back of my mind that I'd forgotten all about it! It was a stupid interview I did with Arts Central for the Sign Language volunteers programme. I signed a sentence and totally botched up the signing of 4 simple letters - H S B C ! AAARrrrrggghhh...! Had to do the take THREE times! Of course, it was ridiculous of me to hope that they had lost the clip and would not select it for use in the final product... So, ...if you want to laugh at me and watch me make a fool of myself, click the play button! After that, please go and have a drink of water - to wash the bitter taste out of your mouth!!! ugh... Super embarassing...

(The video has been edited so you don't see other people's perfect interviews. Took it off the TV, so it flickers badly.)


* off to hide under the blanket... *

Oh ! I'm off to Vietnam for 3 nights! Back on Monday...

First Weekend of the Year

Today's song is Loreena McKennitt's Tango to Evora - very haunting, beautiful tune which I'm sure you will find familiar. I wonder where I heard that tune before...

What a great weekend it was! Sunny, bright and filled with activities outdoors and indoors. Mag has the photos, so let's hope she has time to put them up soon.

Watched the movie, BORAT on Friday night. OMG! It was .... dare I say it was hilarious? I'm sure if I was one of the 'victims', I wouldn't find it so funny.

AND also the Queen on Saturday. Loved the movie. Helen Mirren is sooo good in it. At certain angles, she even looked like the real Queen! Charles, ugh.. he's such a pushover... So Blair saved the Queen..?

After gym on Saturday, we went to check out Mag's latest desire - the Sony Vaio VGN-C13G in lime GREEN! It's so cute!

Then on Sunday, we went for Body Pump and Body Combat at Vivocity with Sue POWER! LOL... She's a funny and entertaining instructor. Mag said her buns were like 2 Cavaillon melons... LMAO... I'm sure she was talking about the SHAPE of the melons rather than the taste! LOL...

The best ending to the weekend was kite flying at Marina South! This seems to be a regular get-together for the kite enthusiasts. There were families and groups of elderly men who came fully equiped with small foldable chairs, AND masking tape wrapped around all their fingers - to prevent rope burn - we would find out more about this later..



It was FUN!! With Chewie in tow, it was a little bit mah-fan (troublesome) but still, we had lots of fun. The 2 kites which I bought in Wuxi flew effortlessly and they bucked impatiently as we held them with our hands, like they were dying to rise into the heavens! Well, after they reached their highest point, there wasn't much else to do except stand there and stare at our kites! LOL.. And nurse our slightly cut fingers - ouch!

There was a group of friends nearby who tried to launch their kite and never really managed to. At one point, one of them said, in Mandarin, that they will NOT go for dinner if they don't fly the kite. At 7pm, they STILL have not got the kite flying! LOL... poor things.. The girls insisted that they'd had enough and they left soon after...

On the way home, we stopped along the road to snap this beautiful sunset picture with the CBD in the foreground. Another car did the same. This is Singapore, you know!



(Photos at Marina South taken by Kakatua. Check out her entry)

Countdown Fireworks 2007

To catch the countdown fireworks WITH music, go to this youTube video. It's not mine, so not so nice to show it here directly. Go to youTube for viewing. Too bad they didn't play the music where we were... We should demand our money back! Haha..

Holiday Mood

Thank goodness today is a public holiday! I'm not quite ready for work yet. Just read in the papers that some people don't even take leave... I can't believe it! I think I'll burn out if I don't take a break from my mundane office life.

Anyway, back to the NY's Eve dinner at Pierside Kitchen & Bar...

Our dinner reservation was at 8pm and we had four hours before the countdown and the fireworks! Dinner commenced at 8:30pm with a cute little starter :

Tartare of vine ripened tomatoes with fine frisee & kenya beans, winter truffle emulsion. This has got to be the most elaborate description for such a small mouthful of tomatoes ..umm... I'm sure the chef would be upset if I called it a salsa.. LOL.. Just take 1 spoonful!! The other one isn't yours!! *slap*





On with the fun, laughter, cleavage and LOTS & LOTS of champagne...

Rougie duck liver a la trios faison
Terrine of duck liver with sauteed dry fruits, pan roasted with celeriac shavings & fine yellow frisee, warm sauterne jelly,
chawanmushi of duck liver with edamamme emulsion

Maine lobster nage with petite legumes, sauteed wild mushroom,
pea sprouts & cous cous

Braised wagyu beef cheeks with hickory smoked artichoke,
chanterelle mushroom & potato layonnaise, pinot noir reduction

White chocolate mousse with pistachio baklava,
rosemary infused chocolate sauce

After a few champers, our real selves emerged even though we have been hiding them so well... Let's hope the neighbouring tables didn't notice our superpowers!!

New Year New Post

Happy New Year, everyone :-)


I must say I had the best New Year celebration this year. Started with pre dinner drinks at the Post Bar at Fullerton Hotel. Wanted to make sure we get parking so we arrived at 6:15pm, way before the road closure at 8pm.





Martini's (not sure if they were shaken or stirred) and Mojito's later, we tripped over to One Fullerton for our dinner.

Mag & I were convinced to take the free flow of Moët et Chandon rather than the one-glass. Beng brought this lovely Wild Hibiscus syrup to add into our free flow of champagne. Made our champagne pink. The flowers were sweet and yummy. Throughout the night, our glasses were filled and refilled and our faces maintained a (un)healthy red colour... tee hee...



We had more than FOUR hours to kill, so we had a very very slow and leisurely dinner. Plus a lot of fun with Beng's Cleavage :

Goodbye 2006!

Tonight I'll be joining a few friends at Pierside Kitchen & Bar for New Year's Eve dinner and hopefully be catching the Marina fireworks from a vantage point!

More about this later, if I manage to recover from either 1 glass or freeflow of Moët & Chandon. But thank goodness Tuesday is a public holiday too!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

(I just finished bathing Chewie cos I want her to smell nice & clean for 2007!)

My Nokia N80 Mobilephone

All photos in this post were taken with my Nokia N80 Handphone.

On a little street in Singapore... Actually, our roads are rather pretty, when you're in the right frame of mind - you just have to slow down and forget the troubles at work, close your eyes and imagine cool weather and pretend that you're on holiday..
Doesn't this look like the Winter Sonata picture? Just add snow and the pretty boy Bae Yong Jun and there you have it! Haha..
This photo was taken in a moving car along Changi Coast Road, on our way to Pulau Ubin.

Finally managed to send photos from my N80 to my PC via Bluetooth (蓝牙). When I started to do this a week ago, the bluetooth dongle did something to my PC and it froze(!) and I had to restore some previous backup. Thankfully nothing was lost!

The pictures look fine on the phone because of the small screen but then when they are transferred onto the PC, they look a little too blur for my liking and too pixelated. So I had to use Photoshop to reduce the size and sometimes sharpen them. So much for the 3 megapixel lens.

The first photo I took with my N80 was this cute one with legs sticking out from a trash bin. Saw this funny sight during lunch near Banquet at Clifford Centre. The message was clear - upgrade yourself or you get trashed!

The Vivo traffic police posed for me when he saw me aiming my handphone at him! And nearby... Instant New Pron? ;)


I wanna buy this for Chewieeee!! But then it would be too warm here..


Taken using Night mode without flash, hence lagi not sharp!

A few of my colleagues and I attended HSBC's CSR night (Corporate Social Responsibility) at the Ritz Carlton the other night. It was a nice sit-down dinner with award presentation for outstanding volunteers and performance by Janani. I was even interviewed by TV12 (again! SIGH...) which was quite embarassing because I wanted to sign a sentence and I had 2 NG's before I could spell "HSBC" correctly with my pathetic sign language skill!! (what skill???)

At Bugis Junction, we saw them setting up the Soo Kee Diamond/Crystal Christmas tree. The star on top has >20,000 diamonds and worth $1.55million! Top that! If you're thinking about swiping something, think again! There will be security guards and surveillance cameras, so unless you think you're Mr Freeze or some diamond thief, I suggest you just look and don't touch! But you could win a diamond necklace, worth $298 though! Just guess the number of diamonds on the star. For more details, visit the Soo Kee Website.

Sunday Shopping

Had some last minute shopping to do before my Shanghai trip, so I headed for Tangs hoping to grab something local or something nice for the home of my Shanghai hosts. I didn't find anything I liked except for a RISIS vanda pendant. I like the modern design and really interesting double-strand cable.


For the longest time, I've always wanted to get some of these cute little Bodum thermo glasses. So I thought this might be a good gift for the house. The large tea glasses came as a set with stirrers and fruit tea. They are mouth-blown and heat resistant. The double-walls insulate the heat of hot drinks (u won't burn your fingers) and keep cold drinks cold without messy condensation! And yes, I bought myself a pair of the little espresso glasses - they're so cuuuuute!!




Other stuff bought today : a black woollen jacket, packet tissue paper, mints, tooth brush heads for my electric toothbrush, hand lotion, and chocolate fondant from Beard Papa.

Retail Therapy Day :-)

Oh, and in front of Ngee Ann City, the Subaru Challenge was going on - where car-mad crazy people put their hands on Subaru cars in the hope of winning one. Tonight was their second night at it. Some of them look really tired. They started out with 7 cars and 280 contestants but now there are only 63 contestants left! They're only allowed 5-minute breaks at 1pm, 7pm, 1am and 7am each day. All the best to them!!

Check out the mediacorp website for more photos and webcams.

Culture vultures

Oh BOY... you KNOW you're old when one of your favourite bands has a reunion and all the band members look like grandfathers and lao ah-pek's.... *hangs head*

Last July, the band replaced Boy George (who's been a naughty boy) with SAM - a nubile young 29 yr-old (who could also pass off as a woman actually). Wonder who's climbing into bed with him.. hmmmm... ;-)

Apparently, the band is furious with Boy George for singularly accepting a classic song-writing award at the Q Music Awards for "Karma Chameleon" - a song that ALL the original band members wrote together. AND for also criticising their new lead singer SAM.


You can listen to some of their favourite songs here: Culture Club on myspace

A couple of videos of the NEW Culture Club:
Mikey Craig, Jon Moss, Phil Pickett and INTRODUCING... SAM

So what do you think of Sam? Does it look like the band is looking for someone who looks like the 'old' Boy George? He sure doesn't sound the same...

Anyway, they will be going on their CUlture Club Reborn tour which kicks off in Manchester on 07Dec2006.

I watched the video but I don't know if it's nostalgia or what, but I still prefer Boy George (even though he always sounds FLAT!) I think he needs to be tuned up (like a guitar) because he never quite hits all his notes correctly. LOL... But still, I loved their songs and their MTV's especially the old ones. Those were the days when we used to borrow VHS or Betamax (these got phased out when it lost to VHS) tapes and watched MTV's of Culture Club, Eurythmics, Duran Duran and Thompson Twins on Top of the Pops! What memories...

And NOW... THIS(!) is the Culture Club that I remember!