Two Sundays ago, due to my careless mistake of not checking before opening the garage door, Snoop ran across the street and bit my neighbour’s dog. Not only was I traumatised by my neighbour and his kids screaming and shouting, and the thought of their dog suffering a serious injury, I was also worried about the incident being reported to the local council.

This was not the first time that Snoop had bit a dog – the first time was the one and only time that my mom took him for a walk in the park, when he pulled my mom onto the ground as he rushed towards the other dog. If my neighbour had reported this incident, I was afraid that the rangers might make me surrender him to be put down. I was an emotional wreck and I was feeling nauseous and couldn’t eat and sleep for the next day. At one stage, I was curled up on the floor into a foetal position.

Luckily for me and thanks to my mom smoothing things over with the neighbour, the incident was not reported after we’ve had agreed to build a fence in our garage and to pay for their dog’s medical bills. The dog underwent treatment just this weekend and we are still waiting to hear back about how much it will cost, but initial estimates are that it’s going to be about $2500 at least.

Thinking back, this has not been the first expensive incident. Due to another careless episode, Snoop chewed open a box of snail pellets and my other dog Dillon ended up eating it. That cost us around $1200 to have his stomach pumped. There was the time he got hit by a car which cost about $4000. And then there was the time he had to have his leg amputated because of a tumour which cost about $1000 all up (it wasn’t so expensive anymore because I had pet insurance by then).

A conservative estimate would bring that figure up to about $10000. I’ve had him for 10 years so a rough approximation would be that he has cost me $3 a day to keep, on top of his food and regular medicine. If I look at it as cheap therapy it was worth it but then it was not all therapy – the stress that I went through during each unpleasant episode was terrible.

Would I have prefer to have had another dog? Perhaps. One that doesn’t hate other dogs so much would have been nice but at least Snoop is really nice with people and kids. I know that there has been a lot of times that my mood is instantly lifted when I’m around my dogs, and they motivated me to exercise by running and playing with them. Having them is therapeutic but it sure wasn’t cheap.

And one last thing, pet insurance is really worth it and I should have gotten it from the beginning. At around $300-400 a year and say your dog lives for 10-12 years, you just need to have one medical emergency or accident and you would have gotten your money’s worth. But it doesn’t cover your dog biting someone or someone’s dog so learn from my mistakes – be vigilant and know your dog’s character so that you know when and how to avoid potentially nasty situations.

For mom’s 65th birthday last Wednesday, we took her to a Japanese restaurant called Zen in Subiaco. Because why? Because she lurves Japanese food. Ok, on with the food porn.

We had their signature dish, soft-shell crab sushi called the Spider Roll. It was NICE.

The mixed sashimi with a raw oyster covered with roe. Dad loved it.

We also had the beef tataki …

And tuna tataki.

It was an awesome dinner. Happy 65th Mom!

One of my core beliefs in life is that the destination doesn’t matter as much as the journey and the people you have around you on that journey. However when that journey involves a long drive, I better like being around the people who’s coming along. Luckily for me, this trip was just like that. Most of the time anyway.

Tham had wanted the trip so that we can bond. My initial reaction was why couldn’t we bond right here in the city, and if we must be by the beach and wineries, we got it here too. Yeah that didn’t go down too well. Hahahah!

Something noteworthy: a few days after we left Margaret River, the control burning by the Department of Environment and Conservation got out of control and ended up destroying 40 properties in the general vicinity that we were staying and visiting. Luckily, no one was hurt or killed.

On to happier thoughts, these were the merry bunch of the trip – Kayo, Selina, Howe Chern and Tham.

First stop of the journey was Busselton and the jetty for lunch.

The weather was beautiful and after lunch we proceeded to walk the entire length of the jetty (1.841 km).

At the end of the jetty was an underwater observatory. Since we didn’t pay for that, there wasn’t much else to do but do silly poses and entertain the people on the slow moving tram. Yup – if you didn’t feel like walking, there’s a tram.

Next stop, Simmo’s Ice Cream in Dunsborough.

I was told it was to die for …

It was good but it wasn’t THAT good. Heh.

Less than a hour later, we finally arrived at the place that we will be spending the next two nights in. It was a beach house and it was awesome.

It was a fully furnished 4-bedroom house with TV, WIFI, dishwasher, fireplace and a BBQ. At $300 a night, I thought it was comfy but some of the others thought it slightly creepy at night. Though that was probably because we were watching a few episodes of American Horror Story.

After we dropped off our stuff at the house, we explored the area around the beach. It was too cold to swim though.

The next day and a half revolved around food …

wine …

wineries …

pretty gardens …

and more alcohol.

Oh and there was bonding. More or less. We did the same activities that we would have done if we’ve had hung out together here in Perth. I didn’t say that but I thought it. Hahaha! But honestly, thanks for the memorable trip guys. It wasn’t that bad after all. Next time we can save the long car trip and rent a place near Cottesloe eh?

It’s an old camera but it still serves me well.

On the weekend, a group of us (Me, Kayo, Tham, Sel and Howe Chern) went down to Margaret River for a little getaway. I would have blogged about it by now have I not lost my camera on the way back here. I didn’t realise it on the 3 hour drive back when I was the designated driver, and I didn’t realise it when I got home and dropped my stuff on the floor and slumped down on the couch for the next few hours. I only realised it as I was falling asleep and the thoughts of how I was gonna blog the trip popped into my head.

I jumped out of bed and began to look around frantically: the front door, the kitchen and the laundry; my bags and my dirty clothes and I couldn’t find it. I then texted the group asking if they had seen it amongst their stuff or in the car. Everyone said no. I then messaged our friend CC who works at Avis where we got the rental car to see if she can look for it when she gets to work the next morning.

What bothered me most was the thought of losing the photos of the trip and not so much the camera itself. Worried but exhausted I managed to fall asleep. The next morning CC said that she looked everywhere in the car and couldn’t find it. This was when I more or less accepted and came to terms with the fact that I have probably lost it for good and I tried to not think about it anymore, even as I was looking around the house and my bags repeatedly expecting it to miraculously appear.

Then this morning as I retraced my steps one more time, I decided to call the place that I knew we last stopped at before the drive home, Simmo’s Ice Cream in Dunsborough. To my great relief, they did find a lost camera and it fits the description of my camera.

So I’m gonna be driving down south this Saturday again to pick it up – a 510km round trip. A few people asked me why I didn’t arrange it for it to be mailed back to me. One, I wanted it back as soon as possible. And two, I wanted to do the drive down (those who know me well would understand how this is a big task for me ‘cos I hate long car trips!) so that this life lesson to be less careless is strongly reaffirmed in me. Heheh.

The other lesson that I learnt: when one has a laptop whilst on holiday like I did, one should upload the photos to the laptop at the end of every day so that if the camera was truly lost, then at least one would still have the photos from the days before.

Anyway, photos and write-up of the trip will follow after I get the camera back.

One fine day, I asked my mother …

Me: Hey mom, how long did you breast feed me for?
Mom: Never.
Me: What?
Mom: Never.
Me: Not even once?
Mom: Nope.
Me: Maybe that’s why I like boobs so much. I’m making up for lost time.
Mom: No, you like boobs because you are a dirty old man.
Me: Heyyyyy … 37 is not old.

1. Money can’t buy you happiness but it can buy you the company of your friends who may be too cash-strapped to hang out. I believe that money is nothing if it doesn’t bring people together in a good way. But there’s a fine line between being generous and being used.
2. My mom have told me this before: you can’t take your money with you when you die so there’s no point hoarding it. There’s a difference between saving for a rainy day and being a scrooge.

   Plus I think that making your descendants expect a big inheritance is only going to make them lazy and complacent and they would not know the true value and hard work involved in earning money.

3. Bill Gates was asked about being super-rich and he said this:
   

   “I can understand about having millions of dollars. There’s meaningful freedom that comes with that, but once you get much beyond that I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger. Dick’s (a burger joint in his neighbourhood) has not raised their prices enough,” Gates said.

   I agree with his sentiment. Once you have financially taken care of the basic things many times over, chasing for more money is just ugly and obscene if that extra money was not used to help people and advance society in meaningful ways.

   After all, the simple and important things in life cost little if anything, and those are the things that give the most long-lasting happiness.

   Bill Gates: Being very rich is ‘the same hamburger’ | Technically Incorrect – CNET News.

Feminine charms allow women to get away with a lot of things, especially with guys. I say boo to that. You girls should know this: the only reason why some guys let you get away with the bullshit that you pull on them is because they are either shagging you or they want to shag you. And even then there’s a limit.

The rest of us who aren’t infatuated with you will treat you the way we would treat a guy friend and that is we would call you out on your crap and put you in your place. The day that we can’t even be bothered with that is the day that we can’t be bothered with the friendship anymore either.

It doesn’t have to come to that and we are not asking for a lot. A little common decency, consideration and politeness goes a long way. That’s how you want to be treated yourself, right?

And if you are a guy and you constantly find yourself being taken for granted by your female friends, this mantra will serve you well.

Her boyfriend is the one who has to put up with her shit because he’s the one who gets the poontang.