..cats and stuff..

..ayam enjoying a nap..

..of course, there are cats like Toffee and One Ball Bandit, and they loll in luxury and travel in beemers and posh limousines...as there are cats like Awang Jules and Lilie, staying high above ground, peeing and pooing in private loos prepared by their masters and mistresses...but as they bask in the love and tender loving care of their minders, they are also cats who literally litter the wet markets and five-foot ways of towns and cities throughout the country...and for these cats, I try to spare a few seconds every time I meet them...a stroke and a pat...some cat food..sometimes, if they are in too bad a shape, a trip to the vet...

..mokku..just after her visit to the vet..

 ...one such thrown=away cat was mokku...dirty and thin with a pair of bright eyes, shining below a heavily diseased pair of ears, she was found sprawled one morning in front of my wifes little shop, starving...after a trip to the vet, she improved and turned out to be quite a dainty little lady... she remained at the shop and became the wife's constant companion...until a few weeks ago when she went missing...we think she was abducted, judging from the many comments she received from passerbys and strangers who saw her...

..rocky bubu, 7months...found wailing near a rubbish dump..

...at the last count, we have a total of 11 cats, with 4 toms, not counting another 3 belonging to our neighbour which had made pakmat as their forster father...they free ranged around our house compound and made the shaded area at the back of the house their play area...they slept where ever they like, pee'd everywhere and poo'd on a sand dump across what was supposed to be the lawn of our house...

..pointer-cat, ayam..

..gua musang rest area..

..gua musang rest area..

..greeting the main provider of food..

..there are times, of course, when the missus sighed and wished that we never had cats...but come feeding time, once in the morning and another in the evening, when she feeds them rice mixed generously with boiled ikan selayang, she changed her mind with 'Mari sayang...lapar ke?..kesian..'

...to pakmat, the cats are here to stay...they are totally dependant on us for food and healthcare...I enjoyed having them around and I think, my wife did, too...they are, after all, one of God.s creation...and I think, in many ways, my life is richer for them..

..chuan and chinese new year..

...Chuan, the goldsmith, is about the only person in Bachok who reads The Star...as it is not available in Bachok, he buys them in Kota Bharu where he lives...and pakmat the second person to read it after him...usually at about midday when I drop by the shop just before solat Zohor....over the years that we had known each other, it has become a routine...

..Lyn Sin...Chuan first cucu...to her I am papatok..

...yesterday he gave us a box of mandarins...he placed them in my car which I had left unlocked as I made my way to the bank...later as I walked in into his shop, looking for his day's copy of The Star, he told me about the oranges...he answered my comment of it being too early, isn't Chinese New Year another 20 days away, by saying that he will be closing shop next week...and for me not to forget to come by his house on New Year as he will be serving roti jala and chicken  curry...all halal, of course....supplied by a known Malay caterer....I raised my eyebrows as he had never done it before, being the strict vegetarian that he is...

..'Its for you and family lah...and some of my Malay friends...'
..'Kuih bakul?..'
..'Ye lah..but no Ipoh groundnuts this time...what for give you kacang...?.. you pun ada gusi saja..'

..yes, endentulous me would not be able to enjoy the nuts...but I am looking forward to the roti jala...

..happy chinese new year, all...

..new year thoughts..

....it was slightly misty on the morning of the 6th day of year 13...it sat like a thin veil across the fields near the river that flows in front of my house...aidil and adha, two newest members of our cat family,  were playing catch me if you can in the receding light...I scanned the sky, seeking signs of the promised tropical storm...but the clouds were thinning...and I sat there on the steps of the house that has been home for pakmat for the past 25 years..

...time fly by fast when you are not counting...but the house is in need of a new coat of paint...as pakmat is in need of a new set of teeth...but I am not a man of means...hardly a Roland Bleke, by any account....just an aging retiree, settled into his retirement, and wanting for nothing...except, perhaps, an enduring good health...

..but as I sat there, a song kept playing in my mind...dreams left behind sometimes are too real to replace..

..the new year..

..I did not do much on new year eve..it rained most of the time on the last day of 2012..and the night, I just lolled around the house, playing with the cats, or just listened to the patter of rain as it fell...neither did I dwell much about all those things associated with the new year...I have no resolutions to make...or any past resolutions to reaffirm...I just allowed my mind to free-float...apart from my health, which is failing in many ways, eyesight, hearing, and memory, I have few worries...life now is in auto-cruise until the final stop...

..but a free-floating mind will bring you to your past, inevitably...

...reduced to now having only one wife, I remember, as my children are fond of saying, my ex'es...I remember my first and I know that to her, I was a letdown...but there is no appeasing the first once you took a second...and I was a disappointment to my third..she married and old man of fifty who should have known better...the odds were stacked against her succeeding...

..like everyone else, my life has its highs and its lows...but I learn to take the laughters along with the tears...the good along with the bad....I have been hurt and spitted...as I have done wrong and slighted others...it is a long and winding road...whence  its end, I know not...but I am nearing it...

..so, happy new year, friends...it is not the end of the world yet...but it will end when it ends....