Catercise

Happy life

How can life be better than that?

Homemade salad...with homemade cheese, homegrown green and homegrown herbs.

Kitties playing...

It's quite a touching scene, isn't it? Two cats finally played and enjoyed a game together. Looks fun.

Moving in my office

Those of you who are following this blog should know I am figuring out a way to get out of the 9-5. Since I am a crazy cat lady, I have decided to be in a 'cat business'. Today, I finally feel I am one step ahead getting there...setting up my office.

The office corner is just in the guest room but it is very significant to me. It means I am finally doing it!

I am not just doing it, I am also assembling it too. (read: I have to put up the office myself with bear hands...thanks to modern consumerism with no customer service whatsoever) To celebrate this moment of self-empowering, I have taken some photos.

In one hour, I have turned this...

...into this.

It doesn't look much like an office for the 'cat business'? How about now?

The process of putting up my office got me thinking about two things.

1. Geez, how much I enjoy doing actual things with hands for myself! It feels so great to be doing something for my own benefit and stop worrying about other people's benefit!

2. No matter how much I try not to think about it. I am my father's daughter. I have never got any training whatsoever on DIY, but there seems to be a build-in part of my brain that tell me exactly what I should do whenever DIY occasions arise. Assembling an office is no big deal, but there have been other occasions to install a lock, fix the cupboard in the kitchen, etc. Maybe what people said is true. 'No matter how much you try not to be, you still got a bit of your parents in you'.

Anyway, now that I have my office, I have to get going to act bring in business. And that's the tough part.

More kitten picture

Who can have enough of kitten pictures?

There you have some more...

Larmlarm: Geez, this kiddy is so annoying, why does he always need to come to sleep next to me whenever I need some chilled out time?

(Kitten slowly falling asleep)

Larmlarm: Ok, whatever, I sleep...

Kitties dialogue

Kitten: Meow, Larmlarm, give me a lick, give me a lick, give me a lick...

Kitten: Meow, are you listening to me, give me a lick, give me a lick, give me a lick...

Kitten: Oh! Someone is looking!

Look at this face, how can anyone in sane mind leave him in a puddle in the rain to die?

Homemade Pizza

Yesterday we talked about how knitting got me into the whole new way of living, which I have never imagined before when I first picked up the needles. What have knitting done to you? Please leave a comment.

Today, new way to think about pizza night.

Back then before the birth of crafty me, I would order take away pizza. In Dublin, the price would be around 16 Euros. Now I would make my own for about 4 Euros.

Here is how it goes:

1. Make a dough (I cheated, I used bread machine by I am not a purist homesteader.) and kneed into a circle. = less than 1 Euro

2. Shamrock Tomato Puree - support local product. = less than 1 Euro

3. Go around and put on the dough.

4. Put mushrooms that happened to be in my fridge. = less than 1 Euro

5. Cheese from the fridge. = less than 1 Euro

6. Put basils from my veggie garden. = can't put a price on it, I mean I did pay for the dirt and stuff, never mind.

7. Ta-da!

I know some of the crafty reader among you will say, 'hey, it is really no big deal, homemade pizza.' Guess what? I totally agree with you and that's the whole point of it. It is no big deal! But why didn't we do that before? And why most people out there don't do that? People would rather, spend that 16 Euros ordering pizza from the chain started with an 'A' if they are in Dublin (and honestly doesn't taste very good and we all know that), than making it themselves.

With the whole financial crisis caused by the questionable economic model, we should really all sit down and think, do we really need to keep on spending money? What have these delusional believes that we are free because we have a job, we have a salary, we can spend money the way we want, got us into? A house full of stuff that we might not need; 8 to 10 hours a day of servitude; to some of us - a debt. Instead, we could live our life in true freedom with stuff that we only need in the house; spend less money by thrift shopping, make do and mend; work less to fit in your own schedule so that you can spend more time outside with the wonderful sunshine and sea breeze, your family or your pets. Look at all these, the fact that I have to worry how my business is going constantly, might just be worthy...

Yarn Hunt in Paris

I was in Paris the whole last week to get some medical things done. The almost non-existence of health care in this country makes me realise how close I feel to my adopted country - France, where people are helpful, non-judgemental and smiley in health care sectors. Most importantly, you don't have to pay very much. My adventurous years in France deserves another blog by itself, but today we are going to talk about yarn!

If you were going to Paris, La Droguerie is a must to visit. Since photo-taking is not allowed, I can only tell you, you have to go, just go! They only sell their own brand of yarn and there are piles and piles of quilt fabric if you are into that. There are also huge selection of beads, buttons, ribbons. It is a crafter heaven. What I got this time is 100g (yes, they sell yarn by weight) of Laine de Terroir from France. The wool is a bit of the rough side but I love the character of it. Plus, comparing to the wool from Ireland, it is so much softer, so I knitted up a hat quickly in a few days, I call it Terroir.

I swear the following two photos are not posed, it just happened.

(Attention to cat lovers in Dublin: This little kitten is being fostered at my home for 4 more weeks, after that he will be ready to be rehomed by DSPCA. If you are falling in love with him, please be in touch, he is a lovely guy who loves loads of attention and love, he wouldn't leave me alone, so if you are looking for a lap cat, he is the one.)

Of course, there is always Larmlarm the King...

Foster Parents

We got a call Saturday morning from DSPCA looking for foster family for a 4 weeks old cat. I was a bit hesitated as I was due to fly to Paris to get some medical thing done, but the man said YES immediately so I thought it could be fun. So we went to the shelter that afternoon and found him.

Look at how small he is, a better photo.

Since he doesn't have a name yet and I am just fostering him for 6 weeks, I just call him 'kitten'.

We are going to have a lot of fun. I feel like I am renting a cat as I know he is not going to stay and the shelter provides all the food and supplies. I immediately realise it is brillant and will bring such a great satisfaction providing a nice home for a kitten in need. A nice way to prepare them to find a new home.

Animal CSI Workshop

I have attended the Animal CSI Workshop organized by DSPCA last Friday.

I actually almost couldn't make it because all the admin people in the office are either on holiday or sick. But as I said, my boss is the nicest boss ever, he let me go and do receptionist himself. See? I am not happy with my work not because of the people nor the stuff I do. I am ok with that. It is the whole corporate way that makes everyone the same that pisses me off. My boss is a kind man and he offered to do that because there was not many people in the office that Friday and he was the boss in the office. I am sure if he was travelling and I would ask the second-in-charge, he would have said no. (It has actually happened before) Because in the corporate world, everyone is trying to cover their arses. I am not blaming them because they are victims themselves - bi-product of the corporate way of management, making everyone generic. Anyway, I hate you Corporate World!

Back to about the workshop...

It was such a great feeling again to be with a room full of people who all cares about animal cruelty. There were vets, vet nurses, cops, social workers, SPCA inspectors, etc. I felt so at ease to be with these people. And for once, I am not the 'weird one' who cares about the animal.

I was listening to the lecture from 9-5, I didn't feel one second sleepy or bored or anything that like (unlike the time in the Corporate). I was so excited that I almost couldn't even eat my lunch. I was also knitting while listening to the lecture, no one stared at me nor asked silly questions. Then I started day dreaming about if IT is my life, a life as self-employed an animal behaviourist, going to conferences, lectures, cat-sitting that fit into my schedule, knitting while doing all that. That's not too bad at all! I need to have a life like that!

Then come Monday, back to the Corporate, feeling worse than ever, it's like people giving prisoner a taste of freedom and lock them back in. That's how I feel, I feel worse than before. The urge to get out of here is bigger than ever.

My first animal conference

I have attended my first Association of Dogs and Cats Homes Conference yesterday.

Actually I have only half attended because I couldn't get out of work (all administrative staff is either on holiday or ill, I was alone), but I am happy enough to be there for at least part of it.

The conference was held in O'Reilly hall in University College Dublin. Look! It's a nice place, isn't it?

I couldn't make most of the lecture, I could only make the evening event for the exhibition, networking and dinner.

So I arrived at the registration and found my pass there. It felt so good that my name is actually on a conference pass for an animal conference. It gave such a I-am-in-this-new-business feeling. I browsed around other people's names, they are all from different existing animal companies or organisation, I was the only one without a company name. I felt a bit uncomfortable at the beginning knowing that I would probably be the one who know the least about this business, but I didn't feel too nervous, I mean I might not know about animal business but I do know how to go to conferences, I have been some because of my work, so I figured it would be too different.

I started browsing around, talking to exhibitors, played animal care professional. It was fun and great to know it is one step closer to my self-employed road to this new and exciting industry. Though I had difficulty to remember that I AM in this business now and presented myself differently from my day-job. Instead of sayingm, 'Hi, I work for xxx bank', I have to say, 'Hi, I am starting a pet-sitting business, how are you doing?' Some practice is definitely needed.

I met quite a few people from DSPCA, it was great to see them again and hanged out with them during the dinner. I have never ever seen the vegetarian option during a hot-folk dinner to be the first one that needed refilled! Hey, it is an animal care conference!

It was so great to be with whole bunch of people in this business in the same room, talked to different people who care about animal, passionate about their welfare, bringing new products to the market for the animals and their human companion, etc. Everything is new to me and exciting. I am so glad to be there.

Plus, there is always the goodie bag...

( Proof of co-existance of day-job and 'road to self-employed' : business suitcase thing behind the conference bag)

Question: Is it weird to be so happy to have a bottle of 'URINE OFF' and a box of cat treats in my bag?

I am officially in this business.

I am back!

Guys, I know I have been disappeared for a while. There have been a lot of things going on for the past few months since my last entry, starting by crazy Christmas knitting...

I don't know if I shall do this Christmas knitting thing again. I thought it would be fun, but it turns out (like many of you have already known) to be very stressful to make sure everyone is happy. I am a PA by trade, it is stressful enough as it is to make sure everyone in the office is happy with the Christmas party! (turns out, like every year, they are NOT happy, there is always someone...)

Then January, I was still struggling with my Christmas knitting, depressing January, I don't have to go in details, you know what I mean.

February, the coursework from my Cat Behaviour course starts to roll on (I will tell you the details in the coming days, coz it is so funny that it deserves separate entries).

March, the big trip back to Hong Kong. I was so freaked out that my man won't like my hometown, won't like my folks (vice versa of course), my friends will think I am an alien because I don't dress the same, etc.

I have been feeling a bit depressed after all these months, it is a long story, will you get a cup of coffee or tea and listen?

Here is how it goes...my grandmother was seriously ill in the hospital in December, well, she was dying, we all knew that. You know when you got to the point that all of your family couldn't do anything but wait? On top of that, as you can imagine, there will always be legal stuff regarding to inheritance for time like that. People are crying, fighting, etc. I am sure I am not alone, it happens to a lot of family.

However, I realise one thing is not right. I went to work every day, I have to put on a smiley face.

Some people in the office knows about the story, but I work in a bank. Those of you who work in a corporate environment will see what I mean. In the corporate world, there is just a lack of human touch that you are SUPPOSED to have a smiley face. You are SUPPOSED to be professional, banker looking, etc. I don't know if it has ever happened to you that you sit down and think, 'hey, that's not right, I am a human being!' Then the ball starts rolling. I realise working in a corporate environment is not right. I am sure many of you feel very comfortable about it, but I realise I don't. I hope I can explain myself clearly. Imagine if I were to work in a shop in a village or I am a farmer, the whole village of people won't expect me to smile and chat away while they know my grandma is dying, right? That's what I am saying if you see where I am getting to.

I just can't stop thinking about this subject. I talked to Stephanie from a LYS the YarnRoom. One of the thing she said keep haunting me. She said, 'I have tried all these, being corporate people and all, but I am so happy now to be running my little yarn store.' I looked at this woman standing in front of me, in the cold and rain of Ireland, minding her little booth in the Sunday farmer market, she is contented. She went on to say, 'because you know all your efforts goes to your own benefit, not of the other, that's a good feeling.'

As if it is a sign from some superior power, I fell into the story of Jenna Woginrich, then I just come to an awareness that, 'hey, I am not alone to feel that; spending most of your waking hours in a cubicle farm, staring at the screen, dressing the way you are supposed to and pretending you love the company, etc; is not humaine!' Especially all the financial crisis that happened since then makes us realise, we are just a number on a piece of paper to those corporate executives. Hey, crap, I do have a number, that's the number I use to communicate with some far away IT help desk people when my computer has a problem. To the company, I am not my name, I am the number. There are people around me who worked for certain companies for 10 years, they have a laugh and share 8 hours every day with their colleagues and bosses, one day, they could come to you and said, we are going bankrupt, sorry, don't come back tomorrow, we won't be able to pay. A company with 20 staff won't go bankrupt in one day, it is just bad behaviour not to tell people until the last minute if you ask me.

However, this enlightment is not totally a pleasant thing, because now, I am just thinking of GETTING OUT OF HERE every day! It is driving me insane!

It is all too depressing. I couldn't bring myself together to write about all these until today because there was just too many things happened in my head in one go that I wasn't sure I could put them down without sounding negative. Thanks to some of you who left comments to cheer me up on my writing, I am back here today and will be around from now on.
I am not just sitting here and whining about my life though, I do have an action plan! Once I finish my first year of Cat Behaviour study, I will start up a cat sitting company to serve the Dublin area. I would rather to be working with cats and their owner who care about the same thing as I do than figures, targets and balance sheet. So if anyone of you are looking for a cat sitter with professional training, I am here!

I am so going to read these books and rest assured that the topic of my road to self-employment will keep coming back from now on.

My thought on babies

I don't have a baby yet and I am not sure I will ever have one.

Having observed how kids are like nowadays, it freaks me out. I used to babysit for a family when I first arrived in Paris as a student. The 14-year-old girl had more boyfriends in one go than I had ALL MY LIFE together. The 10-year-old boy played porno games on computer and the parents said it's fine.

I thought it was because I have a very conservative upbringing but as I have found out, it isn't me. It is just that parenthood is very different from what it was like before.

I know you are going to say, 'hey, you have never been a mother, you can't judge others'. I can't of course not. But even I am not a mother, I wouldn't understand how can a girl close the front door of the house on her mother's face because her mother said no to buying yet another toy. I wouldn't have allowed that. Our parents didn't allow us, did they?

Glad that I am not alone in thinking parents are too permissive nowadays, other bloggers apparently agree. (I thought I am a witch or something to think that girl who closed the door on her mother's face was a devil!)

I can also understand that both parents are working nowadays and they want to give them as much as they can to compensate for the fact that they are not there for the children more time than they could. I also know that a lot of women have children very late in their lives and it is some sort of achievement they feel, etc. I understand all these.

But darlings, letting your kids do whatever they want and you being obsessed about them is not helping. You don't need to be a mother to know that. You just need to be a sane adult to know.

Just to be clear, I am NOT against all parents, I am just talking about 'baby-people'. Do you have those 'baby-people' around you who can talk only about their babies? They don't have hobbies or anything else to talk about. They don't talk about their jobs or their own lives in general, they just talk about their babies. 'Oh, you can't believe it, she sat up yesterday!' 'Man, he slept the whole night through last night, it's big progress, isn't it?' Do you have one or many of those people around you? Honestly, I don't know about you, but I wonder if anyone out there apart from themselves the parents, close family member and close friends will care about if the above-quoted baby have slept through the whole night.

I remember my dad told me a story when I was little. (My dad is a good story-teller, he likes to tell stories).

Once upon a time, there was this evil boy who was a bully in the village. His parents were rich and he was the only son. They let him does whatever he wanted. But they were rich and they got him a job as the officer of court (it is a Chinese story, we got officer of court to represent the king in different regions). He messed around and stole money from the government, etc. He finally got into jail and on the death roll. It broke his mother heart. She went to see him and asked him, 'darling, what do you need?' She tried to touch his face across the bar in the jail. He came forward and bit part of the flesh from her arm off. She cried and wondered, 'why do you do that darling?' He said, 'it is ALL your fault, why didn't you teach me what is right and what is wrong? Now, I am on the death roll, you kill me, you are the murderer!!!'

The story is a bit bloody, to the contrary of what European thinks about us being zen and all, many of Chinese traditional stories are bloody. Apologies if the story freaked you out a little. However, I hope the freak-out effect will make you think a little, just as it did to me when I was little.

Here is another thing, try to be obsessed over other things that matter in your life, eg. knitting, cars, stamps, model trains whatever and talk about these stuff around the clock with people. What will people do? People won't take it. But if you talk about babiessssss, then people will think you are a witch if you don't listen to them. What has the world become? But then again, the 'baby-people' is just one of the fuck up things we have in the world nowadays. If you keep an eye on this blog, I will eventually talk about them. Or, rather, those things will eventually pissed me off enough to deserve a blog entry.

In the meantime, hey, why can't I talk about my baby the whole freaking day long? Look at him, isn't he cute? What? You have a baby and he is my baby. If I choose not to have children and have cats, you should respect me as much as I respect you and let me talk about my cat the whole freaking day long, alright? Try again, look at him, he might be a bit more hairy than yours but he is real nice. He won't grow up and call you from a police station to ask for a bail. No matter how much you spoil him, tell him he is a king or a god or he doesn't have to give a crap about other passengers on the bus.

Cat Behaviourist

Back to school season is on.

Yarncat has joined in the flock to go back to school as well! Yes, I finally did it. I am enrolled to a long distance course on Cat Behaviour with an UK institute. I am officially a part-time student again!

Though I am excited about the future of studying my beloved animals, I am also hit by the amount of bill await for me to pay for the course. Course fee, books, potential travels to animal shelters, conference, etc. Still, I think it worth to try out to do something that I really care and hopefully can get a career out of it.

I am very well aware of the fact that I might have to hang on to a more conventional office job to put food on table all of my life and my animal caring career will never come to a full-time capacity.

BUT, BUT, believe me, it will make your office day goes so much faster if you know there is something else waiting for you in the evening; where you are the boss and you are doing something that you really care.

I will keep you guys update on my pursuing of a career as a Cat Lady.

In the meantime, I wish somebody can tell me how did it happen…

What was he thinking or doing that causes this?

Let’s have a brainstorming here, should we?

1. He was playing and suddenly wanted to go to the bathroom…
2. He was playing while going to the bathroom…
3. He thinks the bathroom wants to play…
4. All of the above

A more artistic photo might help your brainstorming.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Larmlarm the King turns into Irish

Our fellow Irish knitter Carrie has officially naturalized to be an Irish citizen, I am so happy for her.
I wonder what does it take to be Irish, here comes the stereotype: red-headed, Irish dancing, potato-eater, ah, the most important one, heavy-drinker.
Will being in Ireland turn one into Irish? Or you can never be real Irish?
Anyway, I think my cat Larmlarm the King understands one rule of thumb -- when in rome...
So he decided to learn to be a bar-standing, beer-drinking Irish cat...

I swear there is no Photoshop involved whatsoever, it is a real picture!!!

If you don't believe me, look at the second one while he is ACTUALLY drinking, I don't think you can Photoshop that!!!

So in your opinion, what does it take to be Irish? Can Larmlarm the King pass to be Irish?

New Charger

Hi everyoneeeee...I am back after two weeks away from blogging. (Reason refers to the last entry.)

What have I done during these two weeks? Loads of things! I am going to go through all these with you in the coming days. (If not, it will become a half an hour reading entry)

First up, Larm's kick pillow.

Since Larmlarm the cat/king/owner of the house likes to kick our feet, I have decided to make him a kick pillow if kickboxing is his hidden dream job.

I have used cable patterns in the middle for the following reasons:
1. I can practice how to make cables.
2. It will tough up the fabric for the rough kicking of Larmlarm the king.
3. It is nice to look at anyway, no? Let's look at the close-up.

I know, some of you might be suspicious about if LL the king will actually kick this pillow? I have prepared photo report for you...

Step 1. Observe the enemy...(imagine some kung fu music starts, dang dang dang dang dang, cha cha cha, dang dang, cha...)



Step 2. Calculate the risk of an attack...(notice there is a broken panda at the top left corner of the photo? It is one of the millions toy LL the king has lying around in the house. If you say, 'oh man, poor panda's spine is broken, then imagine my feet got the same treatment of LL the king and you might start to understand why I make this kick pillow, etc)

Step 3. Um...let's try another angle to attack, we could lick and understand the smell of the enemy...


Step 4. Corner the enemy...

Step 5. Getting ready...


Step 6. FULL ON ATTACK WITH FOUR PAWS!!!


Step 7. KICK THE HELL OUT OF THE PILLOW!!! (Look at his face, it is scary, isn't it? Eyeing me right into the camera like 'what are you doing? stop freaking taking me picture, I am going to sue!)


Step 8. Something unbelievable happened!!! CIRCLE KICK!!!

(Look at the sad sad broke panda still lying there...)

On a less violent and more loving tone, I am glad that the national newspaper Irish Times has interviewed some of the StitchNBitcher in Dublin City Centre Group and done a full page feature. The article was honest enough to give Irish people a real picture of knitting and knitters in Dublin nowadays. Please click here to refer to the article.

Preview: More FO done during these 2 weeks, some heavy-duty crafty stuff purchased, spinning class participated by Yarn Cat.

A Cat Story

Larmlarm the king is looking out from his window to observe his cat-dom...

He said, 'how dare you spying on the king?'

'Your king is in anger! I am going to...I am going to...''

'...walk on your computer to pay revenge, maow!'