max's return from the cattery:
i picked max up from her 3 week stay at the cattery on the 16th. from what i'd been told, the since knighted 'mad max' had been causing quite a commotion at toorak road's village vet, leaving minders with messy cages and poking the random vet in the eye whenever they cared for a cat in neighbouring cages. but apart from my elation at being reunited with her, something rather amusing caught my eye...
to tell the carriers apart, each had to be labeled with the pets' name...
she really is my baby huh? ;)
by the time i got her home, her possible indifference started to worry me. what if her habits had changed? what if she forgot all the little tricks i've taught her over the months? what if she forgets who i am?!it took max a total of 10 minutes to re-accustom herself to the house. she did one lap of my bedroom, the living and dining room, kitchen and bathroom and realised that she was back where she started. before long her tricks had resurfaced and her affinity for attention had reared too ;p
mark's nineteenth birthday:
mark tan shi sheng turned nineteen on july 24th 2007. resuming our usual birthday planning duties, me, jacq, kevin and joel contemplated ways in which WE could comemorate mark's increase in age ;p for as jacq explained "it's his birthday... so he has to do what we want to do". well put jacq jacq... well put ;) (i swear all my teachings are rubbing off on her!)
but as he forsaw this threat in his safety, mark asked that we keep celebrations at a minimal this year, opting to have a simple dinner on the night of his birthday after everyone had ended class. placating the now 'old man' of his concerns, a steamboat dinner was planned at my house on tuesday night. kevin, jacq and lee brought the birthday boy to chapel street, packed with enough food to feed a small army ;) it's was lee's first time at my house, so extensive cleaning was needed in preparation for their arrival. it thankfully paid off, however, with jacq approving my current code of cleanliness (if only you saw what my place looks like on a daily basis jacq!).
mark was presented with his dockers long sleeved shirt upon arrival... in a fcuk paper bag. i had the pleasure of seeing the glint disappear in his eyes when i told him "happy birthday... here's your present... and we love you... but we didn't get you anything from fcuk" ;) (what?! HE taught me the methods of being evil... i wa just returning the favour! hehehe).
the dinner was great. the food was good and there were plenty of laughs to go around. lee and mark are an absolute riot when placed together in the same room. with verbal fist-fights not enough over the dinner table, the boys let the ps2 do the rest of the talking. it was close to midnight before the controllers were pried out of their hands and peace was restored oncemore ;D i don't think i've heard the word 'gundu' or 'idiot' being shouted so much over a game of justice league in my life :)
but with ALL the cameras out of commision, our phones were left with the duty of capturing the night's moments. this in itself... should have been our reason to NOT try... ;)
strike one
strike two
strike three
strike four
strike five
but it didn't take long for the fatigue of university in its first week to catch up with the boys...
mark's surprise visit:sticking to jacq's definition of a birthday, mark was still due to recieve 'punishment' for making us oblige by his platonic birthday wish. so on top of the dinner on tuesday, it was decided that an ambush be planned for the following saturday ;)
after class yesterday, i came home, sorted out max, packed my bag and left for the city. having decided to spend the night on jacq's couch, i pretty much had the entire night to sort out the plans for the visit to mark's. at 5.45pm i met up with jacq and kevin outside their apartments before going to safeway to buy the gorceries needed for the cake we were baking. jacq had borrowed a book on chocolate and gave it to the supposed authority on all things chocolate (me) to decide on which cake to bake.
taking a page out of mark's orange yogurt conspiracy, we settled on a chocolate yogurt cake ;) with sam needing to study, we occupied kevin's apartment to bake the cake instead. it took us close to 5 hours! kevin's older brother edwin provided the entertainment, as he played a soccer game on the ps2. with his team taking beating, edwin was VERY expressive in his displeasure. even opting to turn off the music that was playing so he could 'concentrate' ;) and it worked! cause his team ended up in the final!
then the ps2 crashed! without him having saved it!! the poor boy was beside himself! when we asked kevin whether we should freeze the cake to set the icing, edwin yelped from the living room "NOBODY SAY FREEZE!" as he stared at the unmoving screen. it was so funny, but we felt bad for him nonetheless... (just in case you were wondering... kevin's the youngest ;p)
it was close to midnight when we left kevin's. and close to 3am before me and jacq finally went to bed. we were up by 8am this morning, and in mark's lobby by 9.30. the plan was to get me to call mark before i left jacq's to say that i had come to the city early to get groceries, and left my keys in the apartment. to make things worse, jacq was supposed to have gone out and the caretaker would take no less than 2 hours to break me in. so *drumroll* he had to open the door and let me in.
me and jacq waiting for the damn cake to bake!
but since plans never really go as we want them to, mark didn't pick up the phone when i called. we decided to walk to his place anyway. when i got to the lobby and dialed him on the intercom... he didn't pick up either. and here we were, four kids (joel, kevin, me and jacq) sitting in the lobby with a cake. finally, after 3 attempts, mark's sister claire responded and woke up her younger brother. and let's just say... her younger brother was NOT happy. i used the excuse that i needed his help so he had to let me up... but i could've sworn... that in that second... if i was REALLY in need of his help... he would be glad to leave me dead by the side of the road ;)
he wasn't too warm and fuzzy when he found out what was really going on, but he was all smiles and cracking jokes within minutes. it was nice being able to all be there for him. for all he wanted this year was for everything to go back to the way they were... with everyone there. even if we were all sleep deprived, it was within our stupors that a few 'i miss this' and 'i miss you's were traded ;) and THAT was nice :D th cake was half eaten by the time we left (though mostly by the people who baked it) and i got home to a thank you message on my phone that was worth all the effort ;D
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