That Time Machine Feeling

Days, weeks and months have passed. All of the sudden, it's July. Time flies before anyone's eyes.

And the last sentence rhymed without any intention.

Anyway, quite a lot of things happened these past months since my last entry:

1. A mother cat (different from the one I've mentioned before) gave birth to 5 (!) kittens. And colourful ones too. A month and a few days later, something ate them. Some said a raccoon did it, some said an alpha male cat did. Either way, the kittens were eaten. It happened right after we woke up. It was a Monday morning, 10th of March 2014. My grandma was out in the backyard and saw dry blood splattered on the ground. I already finished showering so she asked to go up the back stairs to see. And I was only halfway up when I saw a furry foot. And I couldn't take it anymore, so I just went down. I also saw a body under the shed upstairs with no head. It's only a silhouette thankfully, but it was still shocking. So before I went to work, we asked the security guard to get rid of the bodies and bury them somewhere outside the house. He told us that only the heads were eaten.

2. The same mother cat was of course devastated. I heard her calling out for her kids for a few days and nights. But some time later, her kid (the only one left from her first 'pregnancy') was actually brave enough to go close to her and allowed to suckle. Before this, the mother was always mean to the kid; hitting and biting the younger cat. But one day, they cuddled together and it was a sight to behold.

3. My co-workers, students and I had an edutainment program on Trans Studio Bandung. It was fun, especially since I finally got to ride the roller coaster after months - probably years even - of craving. But unfortunately, none of my co-workers were fans of extreme rides. So in the end, I joined the students because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to and it would be such a waste when it's free!

4. My parents and youngest sister came to visit us, unfortunately only for a week. They arrived on a Saturday night and went back to KL on the next Saturday. My dad bought me a bicycle for me. To be honest, I wanted a simple one. You know just to take a ride around the neighbourhood. But he was more excited when we were buying and eventually he bought me a bike that's for hiking. It was complicated at first since I'm not used to professional bike (if I can call it that) and the seat is super hard. It's like sitting on a board!

5. Since I haven't been cycling in years, I was left breathless only after 10-15 minutes of doing so. It was embarrassing because I thought I could cycle further. Well granted, we kinda live near the mountains and hills so it was exhausting. But that's no excuse, so I just have to get used to it and cycle more as a form of exercise.



6. I bought a camera! I've been dying to buy one for months and I finally have. I bought a Kodak PixPro AZ251, 16MP and 25x optical zoom. I contemplated between buying a pro, semi pro and compact cameras. But in the end, I chose a semi pro because with that I could learn how to take a photos properly. And maybe professionally? Or in this case, semi-professionally?

7. I could finally ride my motorcycle everywhere. It's been months and it'll be a year old this September. Like I said, time flies.

8. It's Ramadhan all of the sudden. Office hour is now from 08.30 to 16.00. Sometimes time flies, sometimes it's too draggy. But the weather these days has been really great. Not too sunny, not too cloudy. It's just perfect. Although, it gets cold at night and the next morning. And it drizzles sometimes. But it's nice, in my opinion. It feels like the old Bandung all over again.

9. Dora is pregnant! I don't have a current picture of her, because whenever I want to take a picture, she walks away. Sometimes runs away even. Anyway, finally she's pregnant! Hopefully, her kittens would be fine and could grow up until it's at least 6 months old, unlike the others'.

10. The mother cat that I've talked about in the first two numbers is super famous. I think she's the only female around this neighbourhood. Can you spot how many cats there are in the picture below?

11. DORA GAVE BIRTH TO 4 KITTIES! So last Saturday (05.07.14) she came to the house with her stomach not swollen anymore. Grandma was confused because she didn't know where the cat has given birth. So when I got home, I looked around and found out - after waiting for Dora to look for her babies - that the kitties were sleeping inside a flower pot on our neighbour's front yard. Thankfully nobody has found out about them yet. So I took a box and put them inside so we could keep them inside our house.

Goodbye, hello

Time flew really quickly.

I remember watching the fireworks near my grandma's house last year (2012 going 2013). My sisters came to visit because it was their holiday. We didn't plan on going anywhere on the 31st of Dec 2012 because I knew there would be traffic jams everywhere. And to our luck, our neighbour had this firework show going on so it was really great.

This year, or rather the 31st of Dec 2013, I was only with my grandma. My sisters have their passports held by the embassy so they can't go anywhere. Learning from experience, I only slept after midnight because I knew I would wake up in the middle of my sleep otherwise. To kill time, I decided to watch Chuck because it's been awhile since I did.

When it was almost time, fireworks nearby have already started. My grandma woke up from her sleep and walked towards the front door to witness the show. It was pretty loud because it's really near. It was so loud apparently, that one of our cats ran into the house and took cover. She just stayed with me until everything finished at around 12.30 am.

My resolutions? I have so many that I can't even list them here.

Or maybe I'm just too lazy to do it.

Or maybe I just don't want anybody to know about it.