You know recently i'd been asking my mum, if i see a very cute kitten outside may i take it home.

she never said no.

well, what do you know, i was just walking home when there was this huge orange PERSIAN cat sitting lazily just 2 doors away from my house.

all the neighbour's doors were closed.

it looked extremely bored and meow-ed at me, came and rubbed itself against me, refused to be touched, looked extremely bored again and went to lie lazily at another neighbour's doorstep.

i've never touched a persian cat's fur before, and GOSH! it was so soft! so soft! so soft!

never mind that its got the most disinterested and grumpy face i'd ever seen, but that soft fluffy cloudy wispy orangey coat more than makes up for it!

so soft! *SHRIEKS*

but i had dinner waiting, so i went back home eat and negotiate with my parents, and by the time i came out with something shiny and jingly to play with it its disappeared.

darn, i'd wanted to keep it for at least a few days while looking for its owner.

sigh. this shows that once you miss an opportunity its GONE.

while on the subject of lost opportunities and regret, i saw this really nice butterfly shell earring in a cartshop the other day.

i eye-ed it for 3 days.

by the 4th day when i finally convinced myself that $8 was really not too expensive for something i wanted so much, the shop closed down.

and now a similar shop opened up... and it had everything the previous one had.. but going at $5 this time (THERE! I KNEW IT! IT WAS EXPENSIVE!)... minus the earrings i wanted. awwwwwww. darn.

OH and latest update.

the cat came back. was playing with it awwwwwwwwww~ and then a neighbour came along and informed us that it belonged to the family upstairs. so, oh well.

but i guess lost opportunities aren't lost forever afterall. i'll continue hoping to see that pair of earrings again :)

i had originally booked last week off from work long ago, planning to go Genting highlands with my family.

lots of stuff happened, and my grandmother died last thursday. so i was able to rush off to her funeral on friday, having already tied up the loose ends and passed on my work assignments, and without needing to upset too much of the team's assignments.

it was the first time i'd ever sat through such a traditional ceremony. the first two days had large boring prayer sessions in the night, where we sat on a straw mat in the garden feeding mosquitoes while the priest sweated and chanted and rang his bell in the front. well, this was pretty similar to singapore...

on the third day it wasn't just a praying session anymore. it came complete with microphones, speakers, backdrops, props, and an actress singing out lines. i don't really get the script as i couldn't understand teochew, but its something about someone dying and saying something to her children, and needing money to cross the bridge.

and whenever we are free, we would sit down to fold paper money, or burn road tax.

we folded 20 garbage bags full of money.

and on the third day of rites, we hauled out a few bags of paper monies, a few boxes of of paper clothes and neccessities, talismans and etc and burned them all up in the middle of the road.

one thing i notice about the country and its customs is that the different races are actually pretty considerate of each other's religions and practices. the neighbours take care to use alternative routes to avoid the tentage, and don't kick any ruckus about all the cars parked outside their houses, the large bonfire on the road, or even the noise and smoke, even though the neighbours on both sides of our houses are non-chinese.

after the cremation, we had to go collect the ashes and remains. what happens is that everyone has to pick up three pieces to put into the pot. i'd always thought that we turn into a pile of ash, with maybe only little bits and pieces left. its actually many, pretty large pieces of white calcified bones.

...which comes as a huge surprise, as in dramas where they decide to sprinkle the ash into the sea, its ASH ash you know.

basically, it was half a week of burning, incense, burning, praying, mosquitoes, heat, interpreting hokkien instructions and eye-opening. my face is all flushed and pink now.

and hmm... i wonder if this entry about death and customs is appropriate in the first place. give me a holler if you think it should be taken down, mwahahaha.