dîner pour deux

back to tropical humidity E the dog our own bed and my trusty kitchen knife. traveling is fun but coming home is good too. HOM says we will plan actively to travel aggressively more in the coming year.

scuppered

we plan a quickie trip across the causeway for the long weekend, HOM and i.

wake up early zip over have breakfast at ah koong coffee at oriental shop at mid-valley lunch at new lucky then massage. don't forget the hanjuku cheesecake from lavender. good plan, eh!

we manage the wake up early bit. the live traffic camera shows a solid line of car lights to the border.

we go back to bed.

portrait (of reluctance)

here is E when he does not want to walk.

clearly a dog who knows what he does not want.

optics

i'm not saying E is unaffectionate or unengaged. no sirree. he enthusiastically licks our post-workout bodies like we forgot to feed him last nite. he has been known to protest pee on the rug when we bring out the suitcases once too often. he waits patiently for both of us to retire before he himself enters the bedroom at nite. and then he carefully apportions his time between both sides of the bed.

but there's one thing for sure. when we are all together his preferred posture is to turn his back on us.

solo

HOM travels without me, which is a rarer occurrence these days. this makes for solitary dinners and a cold bed. it's a good thing i still have E's company and a good appetite.

tempus fugit

one moment he is a holy terror gnawing down the loo pipes and chewing up the door frames and the next moment he is ten and has geriatric reflexes.

mystifying encounter

E and i are down at the foot of our block for his evening ablutions. here is the background: i like my solitude. (that is to say, i don't like to talk when i am tired or if the weather is hot.) E likes his solitude. (certainly he likes big dogs more than he likes little dogs.)

enter, stage left, a woman and her little dog. E and i stand to attention and hope she moves off, although out of courtesy i attempt a half smile across the distance.

woman and dog approach. how is your dog? my dog doesn't really like other dogs. is yours a boy or a girl? is he neutered? my dog doesn't really like other dogs. she repeats as she gets closer and closer.

really, i think to myself. if your dog doesn't really other dogs would you mind leaving me and my dog to our evening activities? E, bless his doggy heart, does not show any interest in the little dog, as expected. and yet it takes us minutes to be disencountered.

sploot

the long-suffering E who tolerates our hugs despite his clear distaste for overly chummy displays of affection.

back to basics

back to E and regular stuff and tropical mugginess and my old breakfast.

coffee with milk - plain yogurt with almond flakes and choc chips - toast with butter and peanut butter

it doesn't get better. i've missed you!

that's it!

end of our extended jaunt for now as we head home to real life. thermal shock E other familial commitments economic responsibility and a leaking sink await. i am grateful for this mid-year interlude. although as HOM says it's been quarter-year interludes to date this year.

bring on the scarves!

lovely quasi-wintery weather this morning in a brief window following two full days of rain and right before it all starts again. bummer for E the dog but very good cuddling weather for the humans.

AND THAT'S IT

we say goodbye to xiamen end our longest vacation stretch ever and i realize with a thump that it's back to work again tomorrow.

and while a girl could easily get used to this i suppose it is still a good thing to have fruitful endeavor to return to not to mention faithful E who we hope has not forgotten how we look or smell.

resistance work

one elevator under maintenance. the remaining elevator breaks down.

it gives a new meaning to walk-up apartment when you need to get to the 14th level. with an almost 20-kg dog. who is in worse shape than you. but HOM and i manage it. gasping of course.

HOM is worse off than i. seeing as how he is the one who carries E up the steps.

that's it

E's leash snaps. thirty-one years. first S then G then E. although G was too large for this one. and on E's watch it gives up the ghost.

princess B

what makes a vacation complete is a holiday dog, is what i say.

retired

HOM's retired.

the loo seat is fixed.

the junk basket is half full. (it was full)

the spare batteries are organized.

the NAS has a back-up.

E is bemused.

it's been two weeks.

we are grateful.

looking back, 2010-2019

J1 ends high school and begins military service

then J2 finishes high school too

G the Dog crosses the rainbow bridge

we repatriate

i painfully rebuild a career

we get E the new Dog

J1 and J2 graduate college

we meet Y

J2 is done with post-grad school

J1 moves to a second job

i co-write three books, to my (still) great bemusement

we pass the twenty-nine year mark together

i learn that God is bigger kinder and gentler than i knew

redintegration, or, sudden light

HOM and i look thru our old photos. our salad days when J1 and J2 are little and vulnerable and then when they are bigger and vulnerable. when we have S and G before E. 

strange how things are so real and then you file them away neatly and try to forget quickly.

strange how memories stay subliminally docile and then suddenly like gossamer the old pain comes by to revisit.

strange how the sight of them scrawny kids twists your heart into all sorts of unplanned for protectiveness. dash them old photos.

li'l derp

that moment when you stop looking at corgi photos on the internet and realize that that relentless piece of furry destruction who lives in your home that eats everything in his way has grown up to become a recognizable corgi himself.

meet E

here is E, 2 weeks with HOM and me.

S got the kodak prints Dog had the digital camera and E gets the cellphone cam.

a dog-shaped void slowly refills.

excuse me while we go toilet train some more.