Ancient Phones

Lol...I was laughing as I write this post. I'm not sure if any of you find it funny, or relate to my story, but as its my own personal experience, I can still smile or laugh at the thought of it.

Its about my first phone. I believe it was in 1995. It started when my boss suddenly came into the computer room, (yes, those days you have to share computers in a computer room...lol!) and suddenly there a phone ring. Oh, he was just showing off, then. Maybe the first few personnel in the company to use handphones.

Soon after, I 'managed' to my own a handphone as a birthday gift. It was huge! Remember those days when handphones were so big, and your handbags trend, were small? Well, I was in that era during my first job. Contrary to the fact that I was then, so delighted to have a handphone, where less than 2% of the population in Malaysia have it, I was a bit 'shy' to carry it around.

So one day at lunchtime, I brought my handphone along with me for the first time, and it can't fit my bag. So, to conceal it, I put it in an A4 envelope. Suddenly in the lift, the phone rang! And everyone (about 10 of us) were looking about to find the source of the ringtone. It was a loud piercing sound. And it wasn't fancy enough that you can choose the nice ringtones. And on top of that, I haven't read the manual on how to put it on silent or discreet tone...haha! So imagine, initially I wanted to ignore the call, but later on, I just had to pick up the call and took out the phone out of the envelope! hahaha... I was so embarrassed, so the next day I bought a bigger handbag. Lol!

So, this was the picture model of my first phone. It wasn't mine. I just googled for the image. After so many years, and so many phones, my current model is the HTC pocket pc mobile phone which has been very reliable for the few years.


I believe there were about 7-8 phone switches before this last one. And I am not even a handphone freak. (Right?)
1. Nokia ___
2. Motorola ...tac
3. Motorola ...(microtac?)
4. Nokia (yellow interchangeable skin)
5. Nokia
6. Nokia
7. Sony Ericsson
8. Htc Pocket PC
9. ........
(To be edited as and when I remember. For my record purposes only)

I am actually eyeing the new iphone. Finally it is here! The only setback is that only Maxis carry it and the promotion is not attractive enough for the switch. I'll probably wait, then get 'someone' to buy me for my next birthday, or wait for a faster and better model with more attractive promotion....lol!

Love and Passion

Is it love, affection, obsession
Is it warmth, adores or possession

Could it be communication, or vibration

Maybe a part of visualisation

Friendship, tenderness, fondness

Passion, care and all

Visit Gattina for more Cats Stories.

Meet Lolly, Waffle and Munchkin!!!

The latest addition to the family are really cute! After a week plus, two of the little kitties are already opening their eyes and start having their vision. The colour is blue, and will change after a while. Only Loly is yet to open her eyes.Their size is almost doubled now!

Chow-chow time!

Honeybun has been a great mom so far. She always gives in to her litter's demand for milk and never abandoned them. Once in a while, she 'requested' for a playtime in the garden. Ooooohhh.....she's still so young and seems like a little girl, playing with the leaves and chasing after the bees. And now, she's a Mom!

For more Cat's Story, visit Gattina at My Cats and Funny Stories.

And a Big Thank You to Katztales and Target and Au for the International Bloggers Community Award for Minty and Honeybun (and for saying that we are cute.....lol!)!

Edited: Update. Lolly's name is changed to Sugar. Lol!

Three Calicos

Honeybun appears in my life out of tragedy, sheer luck and I believe, to an extent, visualization. And of course, on top of it all, God's will. I have repeatedly write this story in several entries, among them, Cat's Story Untold, and a very recent entry, Minty and Honeybun.

But now she is blessed with another surprise that caught me off guard totally.

She is such a sweet tiny little kitten, a baby to the family and we never thought of her other than that. However recently one morning, I almost jumped out of my skin when .....

I heard a loud meowing, not from Oreo, Minty, or even Honeybun. They're little kittens. I looked around and it comes from Honeybun's 'apartment'!

She gave birth to 3 little kittens, 2 Calicos and 1 Diluted Calico. The father is Minty!

First Outdoor Masterpiece

It may be not a big deal to most of us, infact, not a big deal to moi either...lol. Except, this is my first effort to arrange 4 different plants in a medium-sized pot. The name of plants, please don't ask me. I am the type who appreciates and admire them, but when come to names, especially the scentifically botanic names, I won't even bother to memorize.

Back to my 'masterpiece', this is actually a maiden effort to enhance my garden further. After moving to this house for more than a year now, I feel that this place needs some improvement and more artistic layout. Its time to redecorate and implement new ideas and concept to an already not-so-bad garden....haha!

The other day I invited a landscape designer to plan my garden. She was full of ideas. Among other things she mentioned was this concept, "...don't plant just one plant in a pot, put 3-5 plants together!" So, guess what, at the earliest opportunity we made our way to Sg Buloh and choose some plants as well as some other indoor plants.

Well, I think its a brilliant and refreshing idea and the outcome is beautiful. And if you haven't tried it already, you might want to adopt this concept for your garden! :)

Minty and Honey Bun

Quite a number of things to cat-update! All are cute and exciting! I don't know which one to write first!

Ok, ok, I choose this one first, because its more important in sequence, but not in event. So, it will be the finishing of Minty's misAdventures. This time Mommy will finish the story for him because 1. He is out playing right now, and 2. He was not too happy about it to tell you despite the fact that he did find home, at last.

Excerpt from last 'episode';

Mommy...! (Meeoow....meeooww....meeooww!)

Minty? Minty? Is that you? You're not a ghost, aren't you? Is it really you??!!

Mommy...! I am so happy and excited! Oh, I missed home. Home, at last!

But...what's that furry orange little thing doing there? What is it?? What is it doing here??

To be continued....again!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Here goes! On the day Minty was missing, I was so upset and angry with the vet and their staff. The vet was conveniently not around, so the staff gets all my ventings. I was teary and went out to the back lanes to search for Minty for more than half an hour, but he was nowhere to be found. When I came back to the shop, they told me that they would take responsibility by replacing my loss.

It's not the same, but what else can I do? Sue them? I was tempted! However, I am one who believes that everything that happens, happened for a reason. So, initially I wanted a cat as closest to Minty. Blue smoke male persian. But they can't find one.

So I called my breeder friend, and she has available, a Red and White Bi-colour flat faced female kitten. I gave the contact to the staff and they got her for me for about USD400. And that's how I got Honey Bun!

Honey Bun arrived at our home the day before Minty found his way back! Yes, that was the 'orange little thing' that he discovered when he got home!

It was still early in the morning when I went downstairs to see this very strangely familiar cat entering my front door. The cat was meowing loudly and he looked like Minty, but of course I wasn't 'expecting' him. I thought it was a different cat until he looked right at me and ran towards me! OMG, it was Minty! I just couldn't believe my eyes. He was rubbing himself against me but suddenly all his hairs stood up! When he saw Honey Bun!!!

The End! :)

For more COTs, visit Gattina at My Cats and Funny Stories.

Strawberry Jam

Suddenly I realised that I had too much strawberry in the fridge for me to be able to finish it before it gets spoilt. Oh dear, I can't be eating them too much since its not exactly sweet for normal consumption.Then I remembered seeing Anna Oleson on Astro doing strawberry jam.

The only challenge is, I didn't write down the recipe. I only remembered that she used 4 cups of sugar and how many strawberries? I tried googling her up but can't find exactly what I was looking for...(not fast enough) as I already cut the strawberries into pieces and put several spoons of sugar on the stove.

So I found the recipe below from All Recipes and its simple enough to follow. Except I didn't follow it 100%. Things like the sterile jar, the runny test, etc...haha. No patient for that. In fact, I can't exactly recall the amount of sugar I put. But you can definitely follow the recipe below.

Well, for tomorrow, you bet, I am having fresh strawberry jam with bread and butter for breakfast! Yummy!

Strawberry Jam

Recipes from: All Recipes.com

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berry. In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees F (105 degrees C). Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving 1/4 to 1/2 inch headspace, and seal. Process any unsealed jars in a water bath. If the jam is going to be eaten right away, don't bother with processing, and just refrigerate.

FOOTNOTES
To test for jelling
Place three plates in a freezer... after about 10 minutes of boiling place a tsp of the liquid of the jam onto the cold plate. Return to freezer for a minute. Run your finger through the jam on the plate... if it doesn't try to run back together (if you can make a line through it with your finger) it's ready to be canned!