Reminders for Uncle "Moox"

Her Royal Highness, P.S., will give you free reign of the house most times. We know she’s always liked you, so we are happy you are with her. I bet she will even keep you entertained! But she is very demanding when it comes to being fed. She wants it now and all the time!

A MEAL TWICE a day of 1/4 of a cup is more than enough. If her meowing and nudging with pleading eyes are melting your heart away (she’s really good at it), you can give her lactose-free milk as a treat, 1/8 (if daily) to 1/4 of a cup. Measuring cups are supplied for your convenience. Good luck!!

I suggest not leaving any yummy meat within paw’s reach, especially chicken. It is one of her weakness, and no amount of reprimand will make her change. If she catches the scent, she will hunt for it.

Neighbourhood garbage gets picked up every Friday morning, around 6.30AM. Yellow recycling bins are emptied every Friday fortnight. I recommend taking the bins out Thursday nights.

You can plan to empty kitty cat’s litter in time with (Thursday) bin nights, in the least. You can change her litter more often than that if you prefer. Newspapers and 2 bags of fresh supply of kitty litter are stocked up for you in the laundry area. There’s an extra litter tray too so you can alternate use. The emptied tray can be soaked then sun dried for hygiene. The extra tray is there, mainly for our convenience, so while one is soaking/drying the other is being used.

She loves company, so she is likely to follow you around the house with doting eyes. It will be easy to get used to, and guaranteed to give you plenty of smiles. For obvious hygiene reasons, please keep the toilet door close at all times. That area is off limits to her, but she may follow you in there or explore the sights if left accessible.

Sometimes in the bathroom, if she’s comfortable with you, she may jump on the sink while you are brushing your hair or teeth. This could mean she’d like to drink straight from the tap. What to do next is up to you - tell her to bugger off, leave her alone, or let the water drip softly so she can drink. It is very cute to watch….

As you’ve seen before, she can play fetch. Milk bottle cap rings are perfect for this, or her tiny toy mouse. Sometimes a small crumpled piece of paper or a clothes peg works too. She will either play with you or push it around the house for ages.

Don’t worry about showers, fur brushing and nail clippings. She’s very good at grooming herself, as you know. Hopefully I had cut her nails short enough to last until we get back. She will try to sharpen it again as part of her grooming routine, but because she is an indoor cat, it shouldn’t be too fast. She sharpens it by scratching on her post but when feeling cheeky or trying to get your attention, she will do it on the lounge suite (very rarely) or side of the bed (more likely). If she does, especially on the leather lounge suite, please tell her off! It is not cute!

She loves the sun. But because she is an indoor cat, she only gets to bake under it from the window or outside under our supervision. I wouldn’t recommend letting her out, as she becomes stubborn – she will not listen to you and even hide far from reach when it is time to go back inside the house. Only Mr Man of the House is able to reprimand her enough to force her out of hiding and running for home. He’s had about 30% success rate.

So before stepping in or out of the house, be VERY aware where she is and assess what she seems to be planning. Oh, she’s cunning!! You think she’s just sitting pretty there watching you, and then she bolts for outdoors as soon as there’s enough space for her to sneak through!!! So lightning fast at times you wouldn’t even notice, until you are surprised by seeing her already stretched out on her back on the dustiest part of the driveway! Sometimes she will reason with you (meow!), or try to use her charms. Unless your confident you can tell her to go back in when commanded, this is the time to show her you’re the boss!! Raise your voice, show anger, stomp your foot to make her move away from the door, or make a warning sound if she looks like she’s making a run for it. Good luck!

Even the best plans can fail. If Her Royal Highness manages to step outdoors, by stealth or by sweet-talk; there are 2 ways to get her back in. Keep the screen gate and door open, be angry, stomp your foot, point toward the house and raise your voice commanding her, “NO! Go back INSIDE!!” The words “no” and “inside” are very important, as she is aware what it means. You can also use a stick or rake to make her move from underneath the car. Make sure she can easily run inside the house once freaked. If not, she will run for the door, but seeing it closed, will run the other direction. If all this fails, you have no choice but to either risk scratches or let her be, leave the screen gate partially open so she can squeeze through, and wait for her to come inside hours later on her own accord. She does come back home after 4 hours max, tired from her mischief, for rest, food and drinks. Our main concern is feral cats, if they scratch/bite her, it could get infected. Safety of birds is only a worry if she gets out at night.

You can let us know how your relationship is evolving; or ask questions by text, phone, email or web cam. Hope you enjoy the house! There are a variety of chocolates and goodies in the fridge and pantries. Please feel free to eat and use them. Mi casa es su casa! Thanks again for your help! We really appreciate it!!

Love My Cat

I’m going on holiday soon… excited to be with my man… but leaving our little delight, our kitty cat.

I am sooooh in love with our cat. My heart feels wrenched by the fact that I have to leave her. I am going to miss her terribly.

I do have a thing for felines, always have. I never fancied dogs, even though some are cute or awesome looking. Anyway, when I was a child, my mom used to freak out because I always took home feral cats. My family allowed me to keep one, even though my eldest sister was allergic to her. Unfortunately my cat didn’t get along with our next-door neighbour’s cat. I was devastated when I found out their helper poured hot water on my pet cat. I wondered for a long time why my cat didn’t come home, until our other neighbour found her scalded, dead on the roof right on top of my bed. I was traumatised and couldn’t for a long time bring myself to have another pet, until our cat now.



When I started going out with hubby, him being more a dog person, he gave me a beagle. He knew I was more into cats but he wanted to convert me. It didn’t work out, I was getting beaten and bitten by a puppy, so we had to give her away. Later on, it took less convincing from him for me to have a pet cat. Luckily he did not get any allergy. He even found our kitten, and she was the cutest shy kitten, with the softest silkiest blue-tinged fur we’ve ever seen. She easily grew into his heart.



People could see how much we love our cat. We’ve been lucky, as she really is the sweetest and cutest. Even our friends would attest to her being beautiful, with her cat personality and all. She’s very loved, but she gives us a lot more.

Even though I like felines, I am not one of those people whom surround myself with “cat” stuff. I also don’t want to be one of those people, with what seems to me could be an unhealthy obsession. I have 6 cat stuff – a brooch, set of mugs, a tin can, a book, a display thing, and a jewellery box – 5 of them given by friends and family, whom understandably mistook my gushing and ooh-ahhing over my cat as a “thing for all cats”. I adore felines, but I only have a thing for my cat….



Our cat relaxes us. I come home after a hard or long day, I see her and the tension melts away. She’d be waiting by the door or window meowing; curled up like a ball sleeping; or stretching and meowing to us. She loves being close to us – gives plenty of nudges to our face/forehead/nose/legs; jumps on our lap while we sitting down to nudge or give us a hug; and curls up next to us or on our lap. She's even work out a move where my hand ends up on top of her head so I know she wants me to stroke her around there. She’s very affectionate.



She is no angel, very capable of being naughty - for example, sneaking out by bolting for the door as soon as we open it. At times she wakes me up by pulling on hair strands or by licking my face very early in the morning to feed her. She also goes through the bin because she can smell chicken in it, her favourite. But she’s a cat - a cat’s a cat. Still, we find it hard to be angry with her, for example with messing the bin, because you can see she couldn’t help herself and she really enjoyed the chicken, licking her lips deliciously while we are telling her off. She makes up for the naughtiness by her cuteness – playing fetch, playing rough with my Sugar, lying flat on her back stretched out like a dog asking for a rub (cats don’t usually like being tummy rubbed), or just plainly being herself.

My Sugar is already missing her a lot too, which I knew he would. So whenever I can I show him her cuteness on the webcam. Hopefully we’ll still manage to see her on the webcam while we are away….


As I said earlier, I’m already missing her. I’m going to miss stroking her soft fur; rubbing her tummy, face and neck; how she looks after a shower; and her smell (Dove when newly showered, or at times like cheese, maybe due to her diet). I will definitely miss how her fur feels next to my skin; her being vocal; her pink nose and paws; cute ears; beautiful colour-changing eyes; her warmth; her weight on me; and her fat ass and wobbly bits.


I will miss carrying her in my arms or next to my face; her paws on my hands; her always lying down smack in the middle of my reading or work; her cleaning herself and licking her paws and reaching over her ears to clean it; her scratching her head/neck with her back paw; her tail; her playing; her sitting position, like a sphinx, but with the front paws folded and hidden; her naughtiness; her play with Sugar; her hugs; her nudges; her wet nose; her purring sound, her sleeping, especially when curled like a ball or with her paws shielding over her eyes; her stretching; her curiosity; her company. Daily, I will miss everything about her….

Night Shift

It is almost 3am, started 10.30pm finishing 7.15am, night shift number 4 of 7. I’m at work, alone (on our floor). Each night to, at and from work has been a mini sleepless adventure.

First, my schedule and sleeping pattern was thrown around because of the Commonwealth Games, hence why I am where I am. I’m averaging 3 hours sleep each day. I’ve been going to the gym for about an hour before work, to make myself tired enough to sleep. So far, it’s only helping my fitness.

I tried using public transport to get home in the morning. The train and bus system heading away from the city centre was appalling! The first weekday instead of being home by 8am, as train and bus timetables suggested, I was home 9am. It was only going to get worst for the weekend. Taxi was too costly (around $50 x 2 each shift). Needless to say, I knew I needed an alternative.

Hubby being overseas, I was forced to drive our manual car. I rarely drive, and mostly only automatic. I am too uncoordinated for gear changing from neutral to first gear. We also own a little sports car, with a lot of front wheel horsepower drive. It has a lot of grunt. Everything is very responsive and manual driving is too fiddly.

Mind you, I asked to buy this car. I decided then (several years ago) to get my manual license. I knew I’d get too bored with an automatic car, and it’s still true, I am very bored with automatic. Anyway, long story short, I can drive only automatic. I’m petrified to drive manual. But I love our car and can't bear to sell it for an automatic. So I don’t get much practice driving, people are not even aware that I can drive. My skills are okay considering you can count with 2 hands the number of times I’ve driven. I have good offensive and defensive driving reaction, whenever the need arise. However, parking situations are messy for me.

I started driving to work on the 2nd night. I am an independent strong woman! I had a practice using our car 2 days before, realising the possibility of me needing to drive to work. I was more than capable of doing this!!...! It took me 10 minutes to reverse out of the flat and straight driveway approximately 15 metres long. My excuse… it was hard to see in the dark :-).

I got out, jumped to first gear and up, and headed for a petrol station. Now we all remember how scary it was the first time you had to fill the car with petrol, especially if you were a new driver. As this was my third time, I think, the first and second being many years ago, I felt all those emotions again.

All these nights and dawns, I was driving this really nice noisy sports car. I almost looked good… kind of cool. Except when the lights went green, I did bunny jumps from neutral to 1st and 2nd, sometimes all the way to 3rd gear. The gears/rpm were usually under or overworked too, which I think was made obvious by the exhaust noise…? I wasn’t feeling nor looking hip and cool those times, but people could see I was laughing at myself, so those with sense of humour laughed along with/at me.

I am also not confident on my ability to start the car uphill without rolling backwards. So every drive I sweated and prayed for the lights to stay green on uphills and for car park spots outside work to be easy to get into. I’ve been blessed so far. After taking about 15 minutes the 1st dawn to reverse into our 15 metre driveway, which was trickier, that I did many starts and over-revving; that I am sure I scared the wits out of our elderly neighbour (probably thinking I will go through her window); and waking up the neighbourhood with the noise; I decided to park outside next to the footpath. Parking inside the building was also not an option, too many stressful variables, as the incline is horrendous and the space is anorexic. Combine that with my lack of understanding how to park… too messy!!

At work, being alone in the “control room”, I needed to stay within it, or hearing distance from it. It is freaky walking or running around an empty office, especially after just watching ‘The Haunting’ on TV. I made many mad dashes for the ladies or for drinks. I did pilates, yoga or aerobic exercises to stay awake. I even brought some gym equipment to the room. It would have been a sight if someone walked in on me.

Doing many things in between writing this, it is now 5.24am. I am hanging in there, tired but not too sleepy. I’m considering using the skipping ropes to get some adrenaline going and stay awake. Or maybe I'll take it easy and make myself believe the preparation outside for the Games' marathon looks very interesting....

International Women's Day

My organisation has given me the honour again to be one of the representatives for this year’s International Women’s Day Lunchtime Seminar held at the Plaza Ballroom in Collins Street.

International Women's Day (8 March) - the universal day marked by women's groups around the world. It is a day where women of all races, religions and cultures can unite and celebrate the women throughout the world. Women can acknowledge the struggles we are facing, celebrate our achievements, as well as consider what needs to be done for the future to embrace and enhance women's community.

This date is commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.

International Women's Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. It is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of women’s rights (United Nations: www.un.org/events/women/).


Celebrate it... Support It... Encourage It.

Australian Values

An afternoon TV program has set up a phone poll asking
“Should migrants who don’t observe Australian values be stripped of their citizenship?”

The result was: 1% no 99% yes.
What is your reaction to this??

To inform you better -- this poll came about around the time the issue below was shown on TV...

Measuring up migrants
REPORTER: Glenn Connley
BROADCAST DATE: February 24, 2006

Australia's Treasurer has said Islamic sharia law is not compatible with Australian law and called for migrants to subscribe to Australian values.

Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has kicked off the citizenship debate again, likening migrant entrance into Australia to entering a mosque. "Visitors are asked to take off their shoes; this is a sign of respect," Mr Costello told a Sydney audience. "If you have strong objection to walking in your socks, don't enter a mosque."

"Before becoming an Australian, you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objection to those values, don't come to Australia."

The key to the Treasurer's argument was that our rather bland oath of citizenship was neither demanded nor enforced. Mr Costello read it as follows: "I pledge my loyalty to Australia and it's people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights and liberties I respect and whose laws I will uphold and obey."

In the US, citizenship applicants must "absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty". They must also talk about adopting the American way of life. In the UK, the oath is similar to Australia's, but gaining citizenship is much tougher. Applicants must be UK residents for five years, pass a British knowledge test and possibly even register with the police. Would-be Canadians must be permanent residents for 3-4 years, sit an exam about Canada and speak English or French.

Even the Treasurer's brother, the Reverend Tim Costello, a renowned humanitarian, was full of praise for Peter Costello's strong stance. He said it was high time Australians made being prepared to be Australian a criteria for being Australian. "I think most Australians know that it's an incredible privilege to live in this country," Reverend Costello said. "We are 'the lucky country' and to take that pledge of allegiance is to actually really commit yourself to it."

But Muslim commentator Keysar Trad said the Treasurer's speech damaged the reputation of all Australian Muslims, despite being based on the actions of just a few. "The vast majority of Muslims are law abiding, the vast majority of Muslims are doing their utmost to be good citizens," Mr Trad said. "We are shocked, horrified, offended by a small element within our communities."

Other Friend's Baby News... Plus More

A and A's daughter is so cute, with huge eyes! She's got daddy's looks and mommy's facial mannerism. We celebrated her 2nd birthday on the weekend. I wasn't working so I finally caught up with them.

The trip to their place took longer than expected (2 hours) due to traffic, stoplights and 60km-80km zones, until we entered the freeway. But we worked out (using a printed driving direction from our car club) that it was the best way for us to take. It was good we only got lost once, wasting about 5 minutes only to get back on track. The trip home was trickier -it was in the dark and we had to do everything backwards from the printout! Even though we followed it properly, it didn't work out. We got lost at least twice, wasting around 10 minutes each time. We got back home very late.... Nevertheless, I'd do it again :-).

It was a good feeling to be there physically and seeing everyone - parents, grandparents, siblings, children, other friends, partners, etcetera. I was updated too, like F and T's planned wedding overseas and current residence closer to me. I got the giggles seeing A's tummy more preggy-looking for their 2nd baby, while looking great! Seeing youngest G no longer a girl, but not yet a woman. Seeing N, who is still a stud. I love A's magic tricks and antics too! He always cracks me up! Oh-oh... melodrama queen coming out again... Nooh..!! It was just so loooong overdue. They haven't been able to visit me at my place, and vice versa. The effort is hard to pull out when life's throwing so many things at us. But we all understand.

With the Games, Grand Prix and a trip coming up, next time we'll catch up is most likely end of May. We've got two places to stay overnight at now - A and A's, or my brother's and J's place, on the way to the snow this season, since it is almost in their backyard ;-).

Beef with Bitter Melon and Black-Bean Sauce

Tally so far… 2-0.

Harold came home late last night. I saw it as my turn to shine again, from sweat, in the kitchen. I hanged next to the cutting board, and looked for my printed recipe for beef and black bean stirfry.

My inspiration to use this recipe came from acquiring the taste for bitter melons. Bitter melon is rich in iron that helps our energy and blood. I needed a healthy boost in all 3, after overcoming the H-fever overseas. I wanted to lessen the need to drink iron tablets too; tired of this routine I have been doing since before I joined school. I was also encouraged by the fact that Harold seem to love eating bitter melons too, even making a salad out of it.

So I prepared the vegies and added the bitter melon, which by the way was not part of the recipe. The recipe was only meant to have celery bits. I added extra ingredients like the teriyaki sauce and more black bean sauce to suit the amount of ingredients I was using. I cut carrots and red capsicums too, to add colour to the dish, but gave up on the idea. I decided simplicity and taste is key to this cuisine.

It was so easy to make this dish! Maybe the fact that I wasn’t sticking too close to the recipe helped… I was more relaxed… more creative. Harold was so happy I cooked, totally unplanned… completely unexpected. He could smell it from outside and thought the neighbours were eating something nice. He loved it! Scored it at least 9, at least! This dish will definitely make an appearance from now on.


Beef with Bitter Melon and Black-Bean Sauce
Serving size: Serves minimum 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon peanut oil
400g beef strips, or steak cut thinly for stirfry
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 medium white onion (150g), sliced thinly
2 trimmed sticks celery (150g), sliced thinly - optional
1 bitter melon (size depends on how much you want to eat), sliced julienne (diagonal)
1 teaspoon cornflour - optional
1/4 cup (60ml) black bean sauce
1 teaspoon teriyaki sauce

METHOD
Blend corn flour, black bean sauce and teriyaki sauce in a small bowl.
Heat the peanut oil in a wok or a large frying pan. Combine beef and garlic, and stir-fry in batches, until beef is browned. Remove from the wok and set aside.
Stir-fry onion, bitter melon and celery.
Return beef to wok and add blended cornflour mixture. Stir until mixture boils and thickens slightly.