some turning points

2007 flew by me and it’s the end of the year again. So many things have happened in our household that I need some time to jot down the various turning points.

For starters, this turtlepad has been an avenue for me to pen down my thoughts and to make human friends. This year saw many of my female owner’s friends coming to read about my (siblings included) life. I am happy to be able to share my turtle life with so many human friends, coz at the end of the day, I hope that people will take care of their pets (and not abandon them) and gain insight into how important animals are to the world.

Another significant change in us turtles’ lives is of course, that our owners are no longer together. As it happened in June, we literally spent half the year as a complete family, and the other half of 2007 as a single parent family. Of course we miss him at times, but not having him around makes us appreciate our female owner even more.

A spate of events which I hope would never happen again, is the bout of illnesses that Dodo and I went through this year. While we recovered well, we know that at the back of our female owner’s mind, she is constantly fearful and anxious that we may fall ill again.

As pets, we also saw how our female owner changed this year. This year must have been a tough one for her, with so many changes in her personal and work life (some of which are chronicled in this turtlepad). Whatever it is, we turtles will always be here for her.

couple fren

Today's my female owner's birthday! Happy 18th birthday!!

As with Christmas, this was the first time in so many years that she celebrated it "alone". This year, she had dinner with her long-time couple-friend. She literally saw them starting out as strangers before becoming acquaintances then friends (she knew the guy first, before the girl was posted to her class), progressed to form a clique with them, witnessed the ambivalent stage of he/she likes me, he/she likes me not before they became an item, went through years of courtship, and now, about to seal their romance in marriage.

They were always there, in their separate ways and their couple ways for my female owner. For this, we turtles are grateful, coz this would in turn, help my female owner take better care of us!

potato, green peppers and eggplant

Apparently my female owner had lotsa mini adventures during her holiday to Shanghai. Largely monolingual in English, she visited Shanghai with two of her closest colleagues-turned-confidantes.

Most memorable for her, was the days spent together, wrestling the cold winter, enduring sore feet (from trying to look glam wearing boots) and bargaining with shopowners (who quoted exorbitant prices for their goods).

An unforgettable experience would be the night when the three of them visited a club with a male acquaintance. It was her first time being in such a social context and the experience was one to learn from and never to be repeated. Wahaha. (Whatever that means, coz she didn't want to say too much too.)

Craving for Shanghai food, the three of them ended up at a local food joint on their last night and devoured local delicacies, of which, the one featured belowed was the most delicious.

My female owner's travelling mantra has always been: "Go as friends, come back as friends." In recognition of the delicious dish above, the tagline for this trip would be "Go as friends, come back as potato, green peppers and eggplant". Three ingredients for three great friends.

left behind

My female owner finally came home today. She went for a holiday without telling us turtles and we only found out a few days later when her mother fed us. Her mother is the in-house nanny whenever she goes overseas. See how moody we look, because she was not around for so many days.

Me, brooding under the Trolley

Nanook, pouting.

Dodo leaning onto Dona, looking bored

memories linger

My female owner came home very happy today. She had a whale of a time at her friends' house celebrating Christmas. It was a comfortable group size of six, with diversity in demographics, but similarities in experiences.

During the party, one of her non-Christian friends asked a seemingly innocent question "How do you all usually celebrate Christmas?"

At the very moment, I guess my female owner was stunned... coz for the past 6 years, she had always spent Christmas with my male owner. They got together 7 Christmases ago. She has long forgotten how to celebrate Christmas "alone".

This would be her first Christmas as a swinging bachelorette in a long while. Not that she has any issues with it, just that memories linger and she's a sentimentalist.

Oh well... but as I was saying, I know she had fun today... without getting tipsy.

Yah, it was the exact same group of friends who had to lug her home the other time. This time, they learnt their lesson and collectively sought to reduce her alcohol intake. Strategy worked! (But she still didnt feed us when she came home...)

proof

For those who dont believe me, here's proof that I've lost weight. Look at the bulge around my neck in the photo below (Jun 2007).
This is me, a few days ago, with less bulge around my neck (aka no double chin!)
This is me, taking dancing lesson from my female owner. (Actually she was just testing to see how heavy I am)

1am

I finally get it! I've been wondering why my female owner has been coming home so late these days. I finally figured out why - she's addicted to coming home late. As in, if she reaches home before 1am, she will feel that something is amiss or that she was shortchanged.

Hmmm... then the next logical question to ask (and answer) would be, what could be the reason behind her addiction and cognitions? (my female owner is in the business of psychoterrapin, opps, i mean, psychotherapy... so i picked up some jargon along the way.)

Blame it on 6.5 years of being attached to someone who insisted on sending her home by 10pm everytime they go out. I remembered it being a sore point between my owners. My female owner likes to hang out late, while my male owner has this neurotic thing about getting her home by 10pm, so that he can take a bus home later.

The good thing was that we turtles got a lot of attention in those days. I mean, if your owners come home so early, that could only mean that they have more time to play with you.

Haiz. Times have changed. Not only do we not see our male owner anymore, our female owner has kind-of vanished into thin air. She only appears after 1am. She's probably making up for lost youth.

siblings

My female owner did something she has never done in her life. She went shopping with her brother (with her mother included as a chaperon) yesterday. Although it was for a purely functional reason - he wanted to get my female owner a laptop - the coming together of the two siblings was a sight to behold, simply because they hardly spoke more than ten sentences to each other in a year.

Trust us, we know, because we are the silent listeners in the household. Walls have ears, so do turtles.

reading

My female owner spent some time with us in the Balcony today, reading a book. We like it very much coz her presence is very reassuring. It makes us feel loved and remembered.

in the green of health

Thank you all for asking about me. I am in the green of health already. I am back to my usual routine - hiding under the trolley, coming out to greet my female owner and talking to my siblings. I am no longer kept in isolation, with a warm light shining over me.

The air smells fresh, the sky is extra blue, the weather is cool, just as long as you are healthy. Cheers to health!

stock-taking

My female owner had her brown-gold aikido grading yesterday. It would her last grading for a long time, so of course, the process was important for her. After all, the outcome is almost a guaranteed promotion.

It turned out to be the best grading experience she ever had. For one very important factor - her partner was someone she often trained with in a different dojo. Her partner was very gentle towards her and assisted in all ways possible to make life easier for her. Her other friend helped to take photos of her during the grading and commented afterwards that my female owner kept smiling.

Time to take stock. My female owner has completed her flute exam. She has gone for her aikido grading. Performed in town and terminated her flute lessons.

Will she have more time for us now?

unceremoniously

And so, it ended unceremoniously, the way each lesson would normally end. With a "bye" from my female owner to her flute teacher and that’s it.

Today marks the end of her official flute lessons. After dedicating 45 months of Mondays to flute.... it was time to say goodbye. My female owner is a closet sentimentalist and romantic. She’s not very good at saying goodbyes and expressing her appreciation for people, so she did the next best thing. She went shopping for her flute teacher. Again, being not very creative, she ended up with SINS chocolates.

She didn’t even tell her flute teacher what it was for. Christmas? Farewell? Thank you? (No wonder the lesson ended unceremoniously!)

She spent her last flute lesson playing one of her grade 7 exam pieces and believe it or not, she felt nostalgic running her fingers over those notes. Those passages which used to give her so much problems, those phrases where she would try to sneak a breath (and end up being caught by her flute teacher) and those high notes which she could never hit right. How one year of not playing the piece has made her so rusty.

Changes take place. Life moves on. Memories live on.

different directions

We haven't seen our male owner for exactly six months. That fateful day, six months ago, my owners had a big quarrel and since then, they have moved on, in very different directions.

My male owner, I heard, has found a new partner. Men generally move on faster I think. My female owner's male friend who also broke up around the same time as her has also found a new partner.

My female owner, still a swinging bachelorette, as with her girl friend who coincidentally regained her singlehood status six months ago.

For us turtles, Dodo and myself fell ill again. In fact, Dona also injured his arm, but he kind of healed naturally. Nanook is still the healthiest of us all.

quiet moments

Finally got to see my female owner for more than 5 minutes today. We almost didnt manage to see her today. She had a full day of activites lined up... aikido in the morning, breakfast with her aikido friends, birthday shopping with her mother, badminton, music practice in the afternoon, so that she can perform in town at night, and chill-out with her friends at night.

Then.... she came home in the wee hours of the morning today... after playing bridge with some friends. So she decided to skip aikido + breakfast. Then her mother couldn't make it for shopping and didn't go badminton. So she spent the morning and some parts of the afternoon at home. Yeah!

She crawled into the Balcony and spent some quiet moments with us. We like it very much. Those quiet still moments...

searching

12 days to Christmas but where's my owner?

We are all looking for her.

losing baby fats

I think I lost weight. I can retract my head into my shell a little bit more than usual. My female owner has been feeding us less these days. Maybe once every 3-4 days. Partly because of my illness, partly because she's in her depressive mood again.

Dodo and I try to cheer her up every morning, by waking up early to say hi to her. I think she likes it, coz she never fails to smile and come towards us to pet us on our heads. Hmm.. shall try to get Nanook and Dona to join us in this morning routine.

bombshell

My female owner dropped a mega big bombshell on us today. She told us that she would be leaving us to further her studies come early 2008.

All of a sudden, our perfect turtle world came crushing down on us. The weight was so great, our armour shells were not strong enough to protect us. Each of us is grieving at this sudden turn of events in our own ways. The mood in the Balcony is solemn and gloomy.

What would we do without our female owner? She's our greatest fan and no one takes care of us so dedicatedly as she does. Not even our male owner. We also do not want to go back to him. He looked after us for a while when we were little and left us at our female owner's house when we got too big for comfort.

Somebody help us.

drunk

My female owner came home drunk this morning. I heard a lot of commotion when she came home. It's a first in her life where she had to be brought home by her long-suffering friends who had their drinking activities interrupted by her lousy drinking capacity (followed by her strange acting-outs when she had too much to drink). She didn't even feel high. In fact, she felt choked, frustrated and restricted.

My siblings were actually waiting for her the whole day for food, but she disappeared from home early in the previous morning and never returned till this morning. A fruitless wait...

In the midst of her drunkedness, she couldn't help but recall one of the first few gatherings she and my male owner had with their mutual friends when he was still courting her. They went to East Coast Park to chill and she got a little high on beer (think her capacity for alcohol improved only a little over the years, but obviously has much room for growth). She started to see the horizon raising and falling. Then she needed to pee and he supported her to the toilet. Midway, she saw this very fat lady and started laughing, saying "she's so FAT!" Wahaha. She almost got everyone killed then.

Of course, that incident stuck with my owners and became a memory which they often revisited. Hmm... it also made my male owner impose a drinking ban on my female owner as he was afraid of what might happen to her when she drank in his absence. From henceforth, my female owner hardly drank alcohol, especially in public places. She didn't even go to pubs, clubs or watering holes. She kind-of cut herself off from the company of friends in this aspect, allowing herself to drink on selected occasions and even then, in small amounts.

Until this year... when my owners broke up. My female owner broke her abstinence and started to experience drinking in various quantities and varieties.

Hmm... that lack of drinking experience may explain for her lousy tolerance for alcohol. Right now, I know she feels traumatised by what happened last night. What embarrassing things did she do or say last night? She was trying desperately to be sober (just like her first experience at Iguana - more on that next time) but was fighting a losing battle and had to concede defeat when her friends carried her out of the restaurant by force.

aikido grading

My female owner is in one of her busy periods again. I think my recent bout of illness knocked her personal life upside down, so she's back with a vengance - to accomplish her other priorities in life.

Her aikido grading is round the corner and she's gearing herself up with extra practices. I know this, because my female owner's mother has to keep washing her gi (she only has two sets). Poor mother.

Today's practice was noteworthy. One, one of her aikido kakis asked her, after grabbing her upper arm, if she lost weight. Wah... I would be happy too, if people said I lost weight. Truth be told, my female owner hasn't been having regular meals these days. Sometimes, she would really forget to eat. Hmmm.... maybe she was trying to accompany me when I lost my appetite recently.

Second, a senior kaki commented to her that she has improved a lot, especially since the previous week. Now, the funny thing was, he did not even train with her today. So what were his comments based on (my female owner is very scientific. She needs evidence and examples in order to be convinced)? Anyway, he said that my female owner is ready for her grading. Yeah!

Third, her instructor said that some brown belts in the class still roll like prata.... and my female owner, paranoid by nature, asked her first dan senior if the instructor was refering to her. The first dan senior always says that my female owner roll like a bag of taohuijui (soya bean milk) or humjingpeng (a pancake). Wahaha. Then to satisfy their curiosity, they asked the instructor whether he was refering to her...

Haha.

grumpy

My female owner came home grumpy today. I know, coz she didn't even say hi to me when she reached home. I'm so cute and lovable, how can she not pop in to say hello, after not seeing me for one day?

my first morsel in 12 days

My two courses of anti-biotics are finally over. That’s like 10 days of injections. Some days I received more, because my female owner jabbed me wrongly (can you believe that?!) so she had to re-jab me again. I was very thankful when her mother returned from her holidays. You see, my female owner’s mother is a nurse and she’s really good at such things.

Anyway, to celebrate my release from those horrible injections, I decided to try to eat something today. So bright and early in the morning, I climbed into the feeding tank to await my female owner’s arrival. She came, as if on cue, at 7plus. Gave her my biggest smile and she dropped some pellets into the tank. I dutifully finished up the pellets (just a handful of them) and she, feeling relieved that I was eating again, dropped in some more for me.

end of flute exam

My female owner has been on leave for a week. Today, she woke up the earliest - about 7am. She woke up to find me walking around the Balcony. I'm trying to work up my appetite as I haven't been eating for 12 days. Anyway, today is a "special" day as she has to go for her flute exam.

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She just came home from her exam. Looks like she didn't perform well (again). I know my female owner suffers from severe performance anxiety (that's why she rejects all requests to perform SOLO at functions, because she doesn't want to spoil the event). She's just like us; she freezes when people focus their attention on her.

Anyway, we turtles secretly celebrated the end of her flute exam, coz that means that we no longer have to endure her endless practices. But wait! Oh... just remembered that she would still be practicing for her outdoor Christmas performance next week. But at least she will be playing Christmas songs. We turtles won't mind grooving to those tunes.


It's beginning to look (err sound) a lot like Christmas! Everywhere we go...

F. POULENC SONATA FOR FLUTE AND PIANO 1

My female owner's flute exam is coming. This is one of the pieces she will be playing. Of course don't expect the same standard from her!

back to turtle life

Thank you R and L, for your constant encouragement. As D puts it, we turtles have a great will to overcome adversities and to fight for our right to live. With you supporting me and my female owner, I'm sure we can make it.... though slowly and steadily, in good old turtle style.

Anyway, in an attempt to feel like a turtle again, I managed to climb over the new tank which my female owner placed me in yesterday. For those who do not understand what I mean... I escaped! From the small container and returned to communal living with my siblings! My siblings were of course, excited to see me. They welcomed me back with open arms and hi-shelled me.

I went back to my usual favourite spot to stone. Found my sister there, so I rested on her.

Went into the feeding tank for a soak, and my brother came in to join me. Think he's really worried about me.

sleep

My female owner’s parents came home one day earlier than she expected. She got the dates mixed up, probably due to her busyness. Anyway, she left the house in a hurry when she received the SMS from her father to fetch them from the airport.

Needless to say, her mother found out about my illness. As usual, she was upset that my female owner spent so much money on us turtles. My female owner didn’t dare tell her the real cost of the vet fees. Exasperated, her mother asked her to put me to sleep…

I think I'm falling into depression.