Dog-haters should leave dog-lovers alone

Isn't it unfair that you have to have license to have dogs? I mean, I'm sure it is for safety reasons that they have such a ruling. But to give the owner 7 days to get a license or action would be taken is a bit harsh, don't you think? And the worst part is that I had wanted to get a license for my dogs long ago but I don't know how and where to get it! I used to ask my friend from Terengganu to buy them for me as it was very easy for her to get until I found out that you have to get the license for your dog from your City Council or Majlis Perbandaran (MP). After being sent on a wild goose chase from one department to another, I gave up. After all, life was peaceful for me and my dogs for years.

Somehow, someone in the neighbourhood must have lodged a complaint and my father received the warning letter last Thursday. I wished I could go and settle it but I am having examinations this week. So, my poor dad who never liked my dogs had to go on a wild goose chase. First, someone told my father to go and get the license from the MP. RM 20 only for a license. Then, another person  told my father that he should actually get it from the local government animal clinic. When my father went to the clinic, someone from the clinic told my father that he has to get the dogs over to any vet to be vaccinated so that the vet can write a letter or something so that he can apply for a license in the MP. And I have to take a photo of the dog. Mug shot and side view.

My dad gave up because he cannot handle the two dogs alone. I normally had to bring the maid along or bring the dog on two separate trips to be vaccinated. Luckily the two dogs enjoy car rides, but to get them out is a problem because they know what awaits them at the vet: injection and de-worming pills.

Sigh..sometimes I feel that the government is just trying to make life difficult for us nons who have dogs. Why don't they start a ruling to make cat-owners, hamster-owners, iguana owners, snake owners to apply for a license as well? They can be health-hazards, a nuisance and dangerous as well, right? And the fact that you have to renew the license every year? Just trying to make money, I think! It used to be RM 5 a license, a year. Then it went up to RM 10. Now, God-knows how much they are charging. *edited...RM50 a year a dog* And even then, you have to apply, not just buy like last time.

And I curse the person who lodged the report. Baby has been with the family for 12 years!! And the dogs have been trained to stay in the house compound until recently when Baby is a bit senile that she loves to go out for a run round the neighbourhood. And even then, we make sure that she doesn't disturb anyone (she would avoid people and animals on her runs out since she is half blind and helpless). I hate the injustice of it all! Hope you step on dog poop every day even when there are no dogs around!

Does anyone know the proper procedure to get a dog license? Please help. *For those who live in Selayang, can download the form from their website. But only 1 dog for an area of 300m squared allowed. You also need to bring lots of document along*

Once upon a Paris...

I mentioned in my blog post long ago that I was posted to a very small town about an hour plus away. In that small school in the small town, I was perhaps something out of the ordinary. You see, I was different. My first day reporting to the school, I went with my father and his driver. Since the school did not need me in the first place, my father just took me there for formalities' sake and had wanted to take me to Putrajaya to sort the problem out. (By the way, my dad got himself a driver after his by-pass surgery a few years ago and not because we are very rich or anything like that).

So anyway, since the department made the blunder, the headmistress received a call from them to tell her to take me in (even though the quota was full). So, there I was for 4 months. The town was so small that there were only 4 blocks of shophouses in the 'town centre'. And most of the time, the shops are not open. ALL the shops are also closed by 6.30 p.m. So, my arrival and the special case of the department asking the HM to take me in must have been something rather exciting to the folks in that town.

I travelled daily for a week and a half when the price of petrol was at its peak. Transportation alone cost me more than RM 70 per day (coz my car guzzles petrol like crazy and the toll fare was more than RM 10 per trip). I travelled because I didn't have anyone to rent a place with. Rather than having me to travel almost 4 hours daily and spending so much on petrol, my father said that I should rent a whole house on my own since the place wasn't too expensive either (big news to people around there as well).

My kind colleagues were worried because I was going to be staying in a house with 4 rooms alone. I told them not to worry as I planned to bring Charlie along to accompany (and protect) me. Yup, Charlie, who is friendly to everyone. But, hey, my landlord wouldn't let me bring bigger dogs over. So, anyway, I suppose in the eyes of the town folks there, I was their local Paris Hilton. LOL...

                                                           

                    

                    Low Quality Imitation

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The pupils look forward to see what I would wear to school every day. They scrutinize the brands of bags that I use. They complimented me. They whispered to each other in front of me, talking about what they liked about my appearance that day. Their comments spurred me on to look better every day. And, at the beginning, I didn't even try to look better to please them. It was just that I was the only Chinese lady teacher who had more than 10 different outfits to school. No offence to the other teachers intended.

However I hated the "no-lifeness" in that small town and however I dislike their scrutiny of what I did and when I did what with whom, I basked in the adoration of those people. I enjoyed being praised. And I took the effort to look good so that they have more nice things to say about me. Hehe...that is a good cycle, I think.

Transferring to this current school, the people aren't as simple and nice. Whatever you do would attract criticism. You wear nice clothes, some would praise you while some would say that what you wear is not appropriate or wouldn't even notice that you are wearing nice/new clothes (which is better than being criticized). You wear make-up and the teachers strongly criticizes you at the back for not allowing your pores to breathe. When you are in this kind of place, it just gets you down and you end up not doing anything to make yourself look out of ordinary or look good. This, my dear friends, is a very bad cycle. We'll all end up looking like old aunties very soon.



By the way, I googled for this image. Somehow, I ended up with Indian 18+ photos for my search for "aunty"! What has become of this world?? Sheesh!

I think I'm not going to care about what those people say. I wanna look good! I wanna be local Paris Hilton again! I'll lug Charlie to school in my back pack tomorrow! LOL...

The not-perfect housewife

I think I'm a hoarder...a mild one, that is. Since I was home because of unexpected holiday on Thursday and Friday, I managed to catch the show on Bio.. Hoarders. As I was watching the case of a young lady who uses the entire floorspace as her office because she doesn't have enough space on her table, I see a striking similarity between myself and the woman. I have a lot of books that I don't read anymore: children's books that I keep buying because I know it is a good one but I don't have the target readers (yet). Magazines that I buy but never throw because there are handy make-up tips in there (that I never use). Magazines that I subscribe to because I thought was cheap but never even got it out of the mailing packet. Paperwork that I copy and kept because you can never know when you would be asked about it again. GOSH...no wonder so many people complain that I have too many things in my room.

So, motivated, I drove 45 minutes back to my rented room and moved all the things that I have not seen in ages into my car. 2 hours later, I've cleared only a small portion of my room, and found countless pens, paper clips, files that I've "collected" over the years because I couldn't find them when I needed them. Hmm...

When I left my room, I can see that my gigantic bookshelf still cannot fit into the area that I just cleared. Sigh...

45 minutes drive home again. And now it's my mom and the maid's turn to sigh. LOL...love you, mum! =P

So anyway, is anyone interested in Newsweek? They are all brand new and I don't read them. I've subscribed to them up to next year...sigh...good money gone to waste. Leave a comment. I'll mail them to you. :)

Now, to minimize the clutter area. I gotta remind myself to throw or donate! Throw or donate! Throw or donate!! Yeah...

A B C D E...U P S R

It's raining cats and dogs outside and I'm still waiting for my gigantic bookshelf to arrive. Sigh...Jimmy finally spoke up and said that my room is really just a little messy, so he decided to buy me a bookshelf so that I can get organized. Sigh...

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UPSR results were annouced last Thursday and how did my pupils do? Better than I expected for two classes and not so good for the other. But I am happy, overall. I didn't sleep well the previous night and my pupil told me that I looked more tensed up then they were. Well said, SY! LOL

The express class that I was teaching had 7 people who scored a B in their English. The other, supposedly slightly weaker express class had only 3 Bs. The first piece of news I got about the UPSR was that. The other English teacher loudly exclaimed that her 2nd class only had 3 Bs while the 1st class had 7 Bs. Well, granted, the school expected all to get A in their English paper. Sigh...

Anyway, my last English class in which I was doing remedial lessons with 10 of them (remedial as in doing kindy things because they are at that level) had 10 failures while I expected more. It is the worst in the whole of Year 6 but I am so happy. I was actually expecting more to fail. But the same teacher who boasted that she had only 3Bs was going on and on about how her worse class had 9 failures after she found out that my class did worse. If I hadn't told her about that class, she was just talking about the 3Bs compared to my 7Bs. Dang...should have just kept quiet when she asked me about the other class.

A pleasant surprise was my BM class, which I was struggling with, has the highest passing rate among the normal classes! 80 over per cent! Woo hoot!! 7 failures for Penulisan and 6 failures for Pemahaman. =)

Well done, kids. And to the teacher who kept harping about your better results. It is not YOUR results. The kids did well because of their hard work and their ability to take in your teaching. If you don't take the blame when students do badly in their exams, don't take the credit when they do well. Phew...that is cathartic. LOL what to do? I don't have the guts to tell it to her face. Hehe...

Have a good day y'all!

I love my old man

I was reading a blog post about a day out with papa and was suddenly inspired to write about MY days out with my beloved papa. :)

The way with typical Chinese family where both parents are Chinese-educated is that the children will never be really close buds with the parents. My family is one of these families. I grew up knowing that my parents love us very much but in their own ways. There never was any outward displays of affection. My father was strict but he never raised his hands on us (except for one time, which I still complain about until today).

So anyway, my siblings and myself were always closer to my mother when we were younger. Then, when my eldest brother and sister went to study overseas, my father must have suddenly realised that children grow up very fast and that he must spend some time with his younger two. So, my elder sister and myself got all my father's attention from the time when I was about 9.

Being the youngest, I got away with a lot of things with my father. And to be fair, my sister was my mom's favourite, and I became the apple of my father's eye. My dad and I used to quarrel a lot...and we actually enjoyed the tongue sparring. =)

Recently, (well not so recently actually), I went on a movie-date with my dad. A lot of people looked at us in a strange manner, possibly thinking that I was my dad's young wife. LOL We were at the airport once and my dad was buying me bottles of perfume when the cashier tactfully asked for our relationship and I had to call my dad "Papa" so many times because people were giving us looks.

And my friends all think that it is so nice to be going out with your dad because our dads' generation just don't do these kinds of thing!

Ooh...I also go shopping with my dad quite often...as in buying household stuff. Hehe...Sigh...and to the little sprouts' mama: don't worry, your children will understand that their papa loves them very much when they are a little bit older. :)

To all you Chinaman papas out there, go take your kids out la. It's really not that bad! ;)

Googled for image. Love the warmth. Can you feel it? :)

He loves me, he loves me not...

Ahhh...the smell of coffee wafting through the air is the best wake-up call for a non-working Monday! Hehe...yup, that's what you can expect, being a teacher/student, so don't be jealous. LOL

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Anyway, I don't get it with kids these days. They want to grow up fast and they grow up so fast that it scares you. The boyfriend-girlfriend thing in the Year 6 classes is rampant after UPSR. And I am actually surprised that the "smarter" students are especially keen and excited over them. They profess their love and relationship openly on Facebook and in the class. Gosh...I don't know whether to laugh or to shout at them. I mean what's the rush? I hope they are not doing anything else that is not for their age...

Thinking back, my first crush was my best friend in Year One. He's now married to his high-school sweetheart. LOL...yup, we used to play together all the time. Erm...actually, do you even consider that a crush?

I remember my first real crush was on a Indian-Muslim senior when I was in Form 3. Yup, emotionally-late boomer. But I thought it was all right. Of course, I didn't do anything about the crush because I knew nothing would come out of it, and if he had liked me too, I would not go on with a relationship because I knew that studies are more important.

After that, I had a crush on my ICQ friend. And that was when I was in Form Five. I almost started dating him until my mom put a stop to it and that was that. From a young age, I told my dad to match make for me. You know, I always thought that parents know best. And I actually asked my dad for permission to go out on dates and told him the funny things that boys do/talk about when they were courting his youngest daughter. Gosh...I miss those days.

My next huge crush is on my Indian classmate, especially when he was singing and playing the guitar. And I almost had a second date with him until he found out that I was on the verge of going steady with our schoolmate. Shucks... =P

And at the age of 22, I started dating seriously. Yup, I was 22 (not 12!!). My own choice, but after 2 and a half years, we broke up.

Meeting Jimmy at the age of 25, I think my days of crushes and flirting with other guys are over. My dad is happy. His parents are happy. LOL. But, I don't think I'm ready for marriage yet though. Maybe it's because he hasn't asked me properly yet *hint*! Hahaha...

The first time he actually planned for a surprise. 2nd bouquet of flowers after a year plus together (at that time). Hahaha...