Here’s another of my favourite videos to share with you.

Small Chualie hid one of Bam Bam’s bones within the pillow cover; something she likes to do to entertain both herself and the dog. Err… please don’t mind the crazy asthmatic laughter. It was just too hilarious!

If the video below hasn’t already made you realize that Maple has fully recovered and is back to her usual self, this photo should do the job.

Found this on her bed in the cage (yes, she certainly knows how to enjoy life!) after coming back from the surgery a few days ago. It is actually a packet of Japanese salted and spicy-flavoured crispy seaweed. It was bought just the day before, and left on the coffee table. I’m not sure how she managed to get it, but oh, why am I surprised she did!

Now, the other question is if Bam Bam had a share of it too, though I seriously doubt so. Knowing Maple, she would never share her food with anyone else. One day I should take a video of her furiously gobbling up her food when someone tries to remove her plate. She’s certainly a fine example of one who ‘lives to eat’. Well, at least she was smart enough not to wolf down the packet of silica gel!

I’ve finally managed to transfer photos from my new, lousy G900 to the PC, thanks to my old, faithful K800.

So as promised, here are some of the photos I took in memory of my ‘lost’ moles. Hope you’re not too grossed out by them. Perhaps the small size of the photos can help to minimize the ‘eekiness’.

By the way, I wasn’t that evil as to plant the food there ok. Somehow one of it just fell out of her plate and the cage while she was feeding. Admittedly, I have to take my hat off for her endurance. She was at it long enough for me to laugh at her, run into the room to get my phone, and still capture her on video.

I went under the knife yesterday.

Nope, I didn’t go for plastic surgery. (So chio already, no need lah… ) I merely removed some of my ugly black moles. Three, to be exact. If given a choice, I’d rather pay a bit more and opt for laser removal. But because these three black dots are protruding and deeply rooted, they had to be removed surgically.

I don’t know what is it with me. Moles have been sprouting out all over my body these few years, especially on the left side. Some of you, or rather most of you are probably going to say that you haven’t noticed them, or are not bothered by them. But the truth is, I am. It is not pleasing to wake up one morning to observe one new black dot on the face, or the arm, or even the leg.

Yes, the three that have been specifically picked to be removed have been residing on my cheeks for god-knows-how-many years. And since they’re making themselves a nuisance by growing bigger and becoming obnoxious, I’ve finally decided to 割愛, literally. Well, not that I ‘ 愛’ them a lot in the first place.

Honestly, this decision came after years of contemplation, as well as procrastination. On my last trip back, I don’t know what came over me, but I just decided on one fine day to pay a visit to the dermatologist. Within the same day, an appointment was made for the surgery. Within three months, the job was done.

Yesterday was a day that I’d been having mixed feelings for. One one hand, I was looking forward to getting rid of the three little imps. On the other hand, I was fearful. Ironically, the fear derived not so much from the scarring, which I know should be my utmost concern, but from the local anaesthesia. I could never imagine having a needle pierced into my face, regardless of any reasons. True enough, this worry was not unfounded.

As the three moles were relatively spaced out, I had to have three different injections to numb the individual spots! If that was not enough, one of them wasn’t strong enough, and I had to be given an additional one. Four soooper painful injections altogether! On the face somemore! Imagine that!

After the numbness set in, all I could feel was the doctor cutting and tugging on my skin. Within thirty minutes, the eye shade was removed. I’ve reached a point of no return. Whatever redness and scarring that is bound to occur is something that I just have to learn to live with. I can’t tell you yet if it was worth the money, the trauma, and the scars. The ugly (blue) stitches are still there and will only be removed in a week’s time.

Right now, I’ve a big patch of white gauze over my left cheek. Not surprisingly, I’ve also confined myself to staying at home for these few days. Should I need to bring Maple down for her business, I’d just wear a surgical mask and pray no one mistakes me for a SARS patient.

By the way, I’d love to share some photos with you (some gross and some not so gross), but thanks to my less than one week-old Sony Ericsson G900, I can’t seem to transfer photos to the PC. Maybe next time ok!

Maple’s been staying with the Chualies since I came back to the sunny island. Yes, I’ve been back since a few days ago, and it couldn’t have been a better time. On the day I arrived I was told that Maple’s sick. She had a worse bout of ear infection than the last and was down with fever. Appetite was lost for a while (which means serious business for this ever-greedy dog of ours!) and in return got two jabs from the vet. Add to that a whole bagful of antibiotics, medicines and ear drop.

It is sad to see her in this state; moody, tired and listless. She didn’t even greet me (not to say with a little bit of enthusiasm) when I first visited her on the day I arrived. I can tell that Mother Chualie too feels the heart pain, considering she’s the one who teases her the most.

With the amount of care and attention she needs now, it is only right that I bring her home. I feel bad that my godparents even had to bring her to the vet and trouble themselves with the medication for the initial few days. Besides her twice dosage of oral medication, which has to be hand-fed since she’ll cleverly move the pills aside if they were all just mixed with the food in the bowl, the real challenge is in applying the ear drops. Well, it’s not so bad when someone’s around to help. The nightmare comes when I’ve to go to battle alone. So far the most effective strategy has been found to trap her against the wall.

Due the medication, she’s always thirsty. I’ve never seen her drink so much water in her life before! Now here comes the real real battle. This is probably going to sound embarrassing, and a little gross, but I’m still going to write it anyway.

You can never believe how many times she pee-ed in the house the first night she was back! Let’s see…

7pm: We let her do her business in the park downstairs, and assumed she’d only need to do it 12 hours later, which used to be the norm everytime I brought her back.

930pm: After coming back from dinner, the damage was done. She’d already emptied her bladder, on top of her bowels. There was a huge pile of poop, right in the middle of the house. The bowl of water that we’d just left for her was empty. Stone ended up spending the next 15 min clearing up the mess. I was very sure then that she’d be able to ‘last’ till the next morning.

1130pm: Upon coming out from the shower, I struck 4D again. As I stepped out of the toilet, the yellowish liquid was still running along the cracks in between the kitchen floor tiles. Argh!!!! She’d done it again! This time, I was super darn sure that I’d wake up to a peaceful household the next morning.

2.30am: I retired for the night. As I lay in bed, Maple came into the room, walked one round, and went out. I knew something was amiss. Drearily, I dragged my tired and jet-lagged body out from the bed and went for Night Ops. She was then lingering around like a lost sheep in the living room. When she saw me, we exchanged looks for a good one minute, before she slid down to a sleeping position. I went back to my comfy blanket, having a feeling that I’d been conned. After 5 minutes in bed with ideas of Maple’s scams and slyness running through my head, I got up again, just to set my mind at peace. Bingo! It’s Toto this time! Cursing under my breath, I went about cleaning the floor, for the fourth time that night.

After hearing all these, it must not be a surprise to know that I was woken up the next morning by the commotion created by Father and Mother Chualie as they came out of their bedroom. Sigh….

The very day, we decided to buy those puppy training mats, just to see if it works. Yes, it did. But on the wrong dog. Bam bam, who has been used to the newspapers in the toilet decided to try something new. Darn.

The next day, after a night of brain-storming while in my sleep, I decided to retrieve Maple’s big old cage from my Godma’s. This has got to work. In the cage, I set her bed, the training mat, and her food and water bowls. If you’re starting to take pity on her, like how I was going when I was setting up the cage, don’t. Cos’ she seems to like it, and seems to enjoy being in her little own space. A few times, including right after it was set up, she walked into it voluntarily and settled herself comfortably on her cushion. This would be where she would belong when there’s no one at home. Otherwise, she’ll be one lucky dog who gets to go down to the park every few hours.

Since then, I’ve stopped striking lottery.

Despite having lived in zuzuland for almost 1.5 years, it still never fails to amaze me how expensive things here can be. I met auntie Estelle and my little boyfriend Paul for lunch at a japanese restaurant in town today. By zuzuland’s standards, I wouldn’t consider Samurai to be an expensive restaurant; kinda like the equivalent of our Sushi Tei.

As usual, I would order my Tempura Udon. As usual, I would LIKE to order a plate of Salmon Sashimi as a side. BUT, upon seeing the price, I quickly changed my mind. 23 CHF (30 SGD) for a plate of FOUR measly slices! (Well, maybe it was five. The photo wasn’t very clear lah. But still… )  As strong as my craving was, the exhorbitant price was too difficult for me to swallow.

Before giving up the idea totally, I made a last ditch attempt. Despite knowing how ridiculous it sounds, I asked the friendly japanese waitress if they had a smaller portion. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a positive reply. I mean, can they possibly have a smaller portion than one made up of four slices? I had my doubts. In response, she asked, in German, “How many slices would you like to have?” I was stumped.

Seriously, I was soooo tempted to ask for the price of one slice. As my mind was busy conjuring up an answer, I forced it to multi-task by doing some Maths. 23 CHF for four slices. So one slice should set me back by about 6 CHF. Hmmm…. that sounds affordable.

Then again, to order one slice would be even more ridiculous than asking for its price. Even if I were to order two, the absurdness of the price overwhelms that of the order. My heart sank. With clenched fists and a mega effort at controlling my drool, I said “nevermind, it is ok” and went on to order my Udon, which FYI also costs 23 CHF for a small bowl.

Sigh… two more days to home bound. Can’t wait man.

Seems like the number ‘8′ doesn’t mean anything auspicious to me.

Since two days ago, I can finally say I’ve survived through level 9 of my German course. It was the last day of the month-long course and it was a day of mixed feelings. On one hand, I was glad that it was over, cos’ it meant an end to an arduous daily routine (with reference to homework). On the other hand, I didn’t want the day to come, cos’ that would be the last of any German course, ever. As much as I’d wish to, the fees here are simply too atrocious for me to continue. Even if Mr Tan is encouraging, I can’t bring myself to do it. At least not for something that I’m not sure will  be put into good use in future. As is evident from the French language that I picked up close to ten years ago, any language that is not used will go with the wind.

Anyway, back to the number ‘8′. Well, I’d been considering making full use of the extra one week between the end of level 9 and the return flight back to Singapore this coming Friday. You must know the insecurity I’m facing with the few weeks stay in Singapore just before the exams. To make myself feel better, I decided that I should enrol myself for level 8 during this time, even if it’s just for one week. In case you’re wondering why I’m so adamant about taking level 8 when I should progress to 10, that’s because on top of new content being taught, 8 is essentially an exam preparation course, since that’s the minimum level required for the exam.

After the decision was made, I went to the front desk to enrol myself. Horror of horrors! Yup, you guessed it! The class was already full, with even a waiting list! After the bombshell was dropped, my feelings were a rojak of frustration, disappointment, and ‘pissed-ness’. A sense of deja vu swept over, as I was brought back to the scenario four weeks ago. Except that the feeling of sh**ty-ness now, I must say, wasn’t as bad as then. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what is it with this level. Last month I couldn’t take it because there wasn’t enough people to start a class. Now I STILL can’t because there are too many people in the class! @#$^!&#()^*)!

This was last Wednesday. The secretary then told me check back the day after while I put myself on the waiting list. Apparently, if more people enrolled, there’s a possibility that the class will be split to accomodate everyone. (Maximum per class is 10).

Thursday came, thursday went. The figure still stood at 12. I was again told to check back the next day, which was the last day of my course.

So on Friday, 8th August 2008, I went back to the secretary to ask what the situation with level 8 was. Bad news greeted me, not surprisingly. I was still the 12th, and the last on the waiting list. Deep deep sigh…

With not much of a choice left, plan B was then carried out; I enrolled myself for level 10. After a brief discussion with the sponsor of my course the night before, I decided that a week more of German was better than nothing, even if there was no emphasis on the exam in this level.

Looking back, it still wonders me how far I’d gone. When I first enrolled myself for level 1, I saw 6 as the endpoint, since that was only how much the company was willing to subsidize. After 6 was achieved, I thought I should just do two more and call it quits after getting a certification.

It had never occurred to me that I’d be starting on level 10 tomorrow.

Day 2, 630am. (Well, it was supposed to be 6am lah. )

Rise and shine. Another day of perfect weather. Yaaayyy…

Since we had to start making our way back to zuzuland in the afternoon, we decided to do a short and easy one on Day 2 morning. So, destination was the cable car station of Männlichen.

Supposed to be ‘an easy high-Alpine hike, suitable for all ages’, boasting of the following highlight - ’the world’s most famous mountain trio, the Eiger, Mönch & Jungfrau tower(ing) majestically before your eyes’, this trail is now No.1 on our list of favourite hikes. First, it was easy (except for the last part up to the tiny summit, which is actually optional. Ok, come to think of it, nothing is compulsory anyway. ) Second, the view was like ‘FWWWAAAAHH’! Hmm, how shall I put it?

The famous Eiger North Face (Wikipedia says: Since 1935, sixty climbers have died attempting the north face)

As we set off from Kleine Scheidegg, the entire North Face of the Eiger loomed magnificently to our right. Yes, we were just at the foot of the face the day before, but that also meant we couldn’t take it in in its full splendour. On a side note, apparently the other hotel in Kleine Scheidegg - Hotel Bellevue, was where families of climbers attempting the North Face stayed and eagerly awaited their safe return.

After a few bends further into the trail, all three - Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau came into full view behind us. If you were there too, you have found me turning my head back every few steps, so as to pamper my eyes. Or shall I say, my soul too.

Heidi and her exclusive moment with the North Face

That’s Jungfraujoch, zooooomed in

Taking a short break 

Another few more bends later, like as though we’d entered another mountain realm, the scenery transformed into a beautiful valley, overlooking the town of Grindewald below.

With the journey (each way) supposed to take only 1 hour 20 min, we thought for a few times that we were almost reaching our destination. Darn. We were wrong man. With no neverending slopes this time, it must have had been the photo-taking that pulled us back again. Hmm… now I’m beginning to doubt if it could also be because we were really just slow.

Männlichen and its summit

After the cable car station was reached, we realized it was another 20 minutes if we wanted to reach the summit, which was slightly higher elevated. And since we were already there, might as well right!

 Sound of Music goes to Switzerland

I just had to do this! Never mind the cocker spaniel hair. Grrr…

Mrs Tan at Männlichen…

and the copycat

So, huffing and puffing up we went. By the way, do you know that during these two days of workout, Heidi hardly stopped to take a break! Even when we did, she still kept herself busy roaming and sniffing around. This super dog easily beats us hands down! Ok lah, maybe cos’ she has 4 legs mah…

Trudging to the summit

Grindewald on one side…

Lauterbrunnen on the other

You jump. I jump.

My handsome hubby. (The once-in-a-while dosage of ego booster)

Along the (same) way back, somehow the journey seemed longer. Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Also, I wasn’t as appreciative of the surroundings. So we arrived at a conclusion, which I know is probably going to sound weird: we were just tired. The weird thing is, we didn’t actually FEEL that tired while walking back. But somehow the desire to reach our destination as soon as possible was strong, and that certainly played a part in us not enjoying the walk back as much. That’s why I say, we must have been tired, though perhaps subconsciously. Those two days of hiking must have taken a toll on our not-so-fit bodies, even without us knowing. With this, I can’t help but take my hat off to hardcore mountaineers. I used to dream I could be one of them. I used to also dream that I could conquer Everest one day. Looks like this dream will always remain as a dream.

So niceee right?

Lion King wannabe facing the wrong direction. Hehe!

Oh and guess what, while we were safely in the car on the way back, it started pouring! Thank God. Thank Allah. Thank Buddha. Thank our lucky stars. They must have had been shining super brightly then.

One of my favourites pic

Yippee! Tomorrow is the Swiss National Day, and a public holiday. It’s been a while since I looked so forward to a public holiday. Plus the weekend…Woohoo! No German for three days straight!

Mr Tan went to London yesterday for a colleague’s farewell, and is coming back only tonight. Since I have all the time in the world now, I thought I should write this long overdue post on a short trip we did two weekends ago.

The destination was Kleine Scheidegg in the Bernese Oberland, where we stayed one night in a bathroom-less room in a mountain lodge. For those of you who’ve been up to Jungfraujoch, this name shouldn’t sound foreign to you. It’s one of the stops along the way up. Remember the place where you had to change trains and where there’s a restaurant that’s forever bustling with tourists, right beside the station?

The bathroom-less room and its view. Don’t know what Heidi’s doing/thinking. Though we thought she felt a little clastrophobic in the small room. Haha!

Our Lodge and the Hotel at Kleine Scheidegg (2061m) 

We thought that’d be a good base station for our two days worth of hiking, except that there’s absolutely nothing to do after it turns dark. Other than our lodge and its connecting restaurant, there’s only one other hotel and one other cafe, right in the midst of the mountains. The last train leaves at about 6pm, after which dead silence falls. Even the cows with their noisy cowbells seemed to have disappeared. No TV. No shops. No nothing. We ended up turning in even before the sun had set, to rest our tired bodies after the first day’s less-than-easy hike.

Hiking Paradise

After checking in and a quick bite, we made our way to the Eiger Trail, with the Eiger Glacier as our destination. (Read more about the Eiger here.) After all my previous posts marvelling at how spectacular the Alps are, I can say I’ve almost ran short of words to describe our experiences along this trail. Which is a pity, cos’ the scenery is equally captivating, if not more. Again, not surprisingly, we took more than the average number of hours required to reach our destination. However, this time, besides the fervent photo-taking, the difficulty of the trail contributed to the duration too. The first half I would say was easy, as we cut across pretty flat as well as gentle sloping grounds. It was the Eiger Trail that was the killer. Honestly, I don’t think it was the steepness, cos it really wasn’t SO steep. Looking back, it was the fact that it was an upslope all the way, for the entire God-knows-how-far trail.

On the way to the Eiger Trail. Still looking strong eh? Heh heh! We shall see…

The Jungfrau Bahn, a modern cogwheel railway that tunnels through the Eiger to reach Jungfraujoch - Europe’s highest altitude railway station (3454m).

Jenga! Everyone seemed to be doing that, and adding on to the pile. So let’s join in!

And up we go!

Set of the Swiss movie - ‘Heidi’s adventures in Switzerland’

As what Mother Chualie would say, 狗奴才! (Dog Slave)

Again, for those of you who recall, the Eiger Glacier is the next station after Kleine Scheidegg on the way up to Jungfraujoch, just before you enter the tunnel. As we ploughed along the foot of the world-famous Eiger North Face, the terrain and vegetation slowly changed from grassy meadows to uneven graveled paths, and from the usual average-sized flowers to petite little ones that sprouted (amazingly) out from the rocky earth.

Are we there yet?

Heidi’s really getting good at posing now…

Even when we don’t want her in the picture…

She’d be there…

Are we really there yet?

After spending some time at our destination that we had toiled so hard for, and letting Little Miss Heidi go crazy over her favourite activity - dashing around on the ice, we reluctantly made our way back down.

Yippee! I love running on ice!

Just when I thought we’d have an easier way down, I was wrong. Several factors came into play: my ever-problematic and weird-sized left toe started aching again (not surprisingly if you picture the movement while walking, especially downslope); we went off the beaten track and unknowingly took the short cut that had been well-paved out. Naturally, the short cut brought us back sooner than expected, but not without cutting through steeper slopes and further straining our already well-worked muscles. If it helps in your imagination, think having sewing machine as legs!

After a hearty meal at the restaurant and a nice hot shower, with nothing else to do, we turned in. The time was only 930pm. You must be thinking that we’d have a good night’s sleep after all that hard work in the day. So did we. Well, we were wrong though. Perhaps it was the bed (which I thought was OK leh). Perhaps it was Heidi’s weird noises and barks whenever she heard people outside along the corridor (thank goodness the lodge wasn’t very occupied). Perhaps it was the thin air. Perhaps it was the deafening silence that surrounded us. We still haven’t figured it out.

Tomorrow’s gonna be another exciting day!

Heidi: ‘What’s she doing?’

Almost there!

 Taking a break at the Eiger Glacier station

Heidi stealing the show again

Time to head back down to earth