Remember my pet crab?

My pet had almost everything a crab would dream for, or perhaps what I think they would :

Adequate, nutritious and yummy food, a rather nice tank with fresh water (changed daily!), suitable temperature, free from predators and competition to survive, and me playing with ‘em everyday!

To thank me for salvaging it from the terribly boring and crowded display tank at the pet shop, my crab constantly gave me attention by knocking on the glass with its sharp pincers and moving the marble pebbles around the tank all night, disturbing my sleep, study and everything else.

Sadly, despite our ‘loving’ relationship, I could tell that it was not happy.

Over the days two weeks ago, I had noticed that my crab was decreasing in activity and natural response. It no longer ran around when I let it out; it no longer made the annoying but cute bubble popping sound with its mouth; and somehow, I noticed that the bright colors on its body, blue and orange, had started fading…

Besides, I could see the desperation in its eyes – my crab wanted something more, something more than just good food and security – it wanted freedom.

During my week in Ipoh, I pondered over this.

This pet of mine has given me lots of funny and laughing times, I can still recall how it climbed out of the container that held it when I was changing the tank’s water for the first time, and all hell broke lose – no one dared to recapture it.

Indeed, I can still remember how my friends jokingly asked me to fry and eat my crab when it was making such a racket with the marble pebbles in the tank, and we talked over the ways to cook it – steam it, roast it or fry it…

And, I won’t forget how we were so worried that it would cut its own eyes out with its scary pincers when it started clamping on them when I first got it back from Midvalley.

But as I considered, funny or stupid as those memories were, I realized that they were nothing more than my pleasures, my pet itself was never happy – well, who would? My crab was after all a prisoner, a captive, an object of my entertainment.

After a long period of consideration, I made up my mind. However unwillingly, I decided to do what’s best for it. I decided to release my crab back to nature, where it first came from.

This decision meant that the ‘crab cuisine’, the tank, the anti-chlorine and the strenuous effort used to transport my crab back to my house in Cyberjaya then to Ipoh – would be for nothing.

I was very heavy-hearted and unwilling to part with my crab. (Don’t laugh!) I had not kept it for a long period, but I happened to like it quite much. Although I always complained that it gave me a great deal of extra daily work and was a distraction, I never came to hate it.

However, who am I to restrain it from finding its own future, to deprive it of the freedom it deserved – just because I enjoyed it being around? I finally decided that if I could not make it happy, I would return its liberty to find happiness by itself.

On the day I traveled back to Cyberjaya from Ipoh, I released it on a river bank in Ipoh – a place that I’ve spotted for quite some time since I started considering its release. The long, soft stretch of mud along the river bank, flowing fresh water, and the abundance of hiding places provides the best imitation to its natural habitat available around.

My friend sent me there. I hesitated before stepping out of the car by the river, but I knew it had to be done.

My crab stood motionless when I released it from the tank onto the soft river bank soil. I took a couple of pictures, said goodbye, and left – I didn’t want to keep my friend waiting. It still hadn’t moved an inch when I looked back at it for the last time from across the river.

I’m now in Cyberjaya. I don’t know how my crab is doing now, or even if it is, you know – still alive. I’ll miss it and do hope that it will live a good life.

-

**********

-

On a happier note, Jon’s five baby rabbits are growing like dinosaurs!

I dunno if Jon’s giving them Steroids or growth hormones or something… But when I came back from my one-week vacation, I was totally shocked.

This is how they looked like before I went back to Ipoh:

Their eyes were still closed and their legs couldn’t even support their body weights properly yet.

And when I came back a week later, like, ONLY ONE WEEK ladies and gentlemen… They transformed into these giants:

Really huge difference you know! … But still so damn cute – big or small!

Apparently, I was wrong about the Jon’s-rabbit-naming-convention thingy… I expected Jon to name the baby rabbits the way he did to their parents, which is always a repeat of a single Chinese word, such as mummy rabbit’s name – Kei Kei.

But guess what? He named the rabbit I am holding above – ‘Maya‘. I have no idea where he got the idea for that name, but I think it’s quite a nice name though.

They can now eat solid food and drink water from the water dispenser by themselves. Although Kei Kei doesn’t always give her kids priority when it comes to food and water, and usually keeps food to herself when food is in shortage; but the baby rabbits are still growing up quite healthily.

They don’t sleep day and night like they used to anymore too! They are now very active and always running around while Kei Kei assumes a motherly pose lying at the side watching her kids play around the cage.

However, if we take the baby rabbits out of the cage, Kei Kei doesn’t give so much as a second glance. Hmm… Not too protective of her kids, eh? We could easily barbeque her kids one by one for dinner without her even noticing! Hehe!

But anyway, I think Jon will roast us alive before we can ever succeed in lighting up the BBQ stove. So don’t worry, even if mummy rabbit Kei Kei is not protective enough, ‘daddy’ Jon sure as hell is. Like, ‘daddy’ Jon doesn’t even allow us to play loud music in the living room, saying that it could damage the baby rabbits’ ears… Sigh…

There you are, the five siblings! So insanely cute! Don’t you think?

Sadly, Maya is the only baby rabbit that Jon plans to keep. Its siblings will have to say goodbye and be adopted when they grow up. Yes, it’s a pity, but I don’t think Jon’s cage can accommodate seven grown-up rabbits either.

Can you spot which one is Maya?

Before start wrtng anythng want to complan a bt!! There s somethng wrong wth the stupd ‘i’ button on my laptop’s keyboard!!! t s very rrtatng! need to lterally slam onto the button to nput the letter! Normal pressng won’t do!!! Huhu…

OK, for the sake of this blog post I will SLAM onto the ‘i’ button today whenever I need it! Wahahaha…

**********

Sometimes I think I’m terrible at keeping blogs.

Originally I planned to write an entry every 4-5 days, and with that frequency I ought to cover a great number of happenings in my life, at least most of the public ones.

But, recently I notice I’m only writing once every 1-2 weeks, which in the end resulted in a mediocre score of 3-4 posts a month…

Sometimes, I stop blogging because I’m stuck in my hometown and my laptop can’t hook into my house’s internet connection; else, I’m having exams and stuff; otherwise, I don’t have photos for a particular event, and I try not to write about stuff online without images accompanying.

… and other times, I’m just plain lazy.

Haha, alright… I’ve gotta start making things right. Not gonna stop writing for too long anymore, OK!

**********

I stopped by Jon’s house in Batu Gajah, Perak, on my way back to Ipoh two weeks ago. Sebastian, and Agnes – Jon’s girlfriend, were there too. I’ve always wanted to visit his house because he promised to give me some of the… what do you call them… ‘fragrant coconuts‘!

The area was something like a traditional village area, with trees and nature everywhere – not something we can see everyday in the deserts of Cyberjaya.

The lawn in front of his house was huge, with towering trees stretching up in every direction. Coconut trees are prominent among the gigantic pillars of wood.

At first, we tried to use a long pole to poke at the coconuts and try getting them down. The pole was long and very elastic, making it very difficult to focus our energy on getting the coconuts off their stems!

Everyone tried hard under the blazing afternoon sun, and all failed… All except me! WAHAHAHA!!

Fine, maybe I was just lucky!

The coconut that I got down was very special! It was not the ‘fragrant coconut’ type though, mind you, just the normal type; but the special part is… it has gas!

Seriously! The coconut ‘water’ was carbonated! Like the Coke or 100-plus that you drink! We even saw gas bubbles forming around the glass when we poured out the water!

We had no idea where the ‘gas’ came from, but it tasted good, something like sparkling coconut juice. Haha!

Later, Jon brought out the professional coconut-harvesting gear – an even longer pole with a sharp blade at the tip!

With that menacing device, we plucked coconuts with great ease! Each of us took a couple of the ‘fragrant‘ ones home as souvenirs!

In strong contrast with the timid little cute rabbits he keeps in Cyberjaya, Jon has six monstrous dogs in Batu Gajah!

In ‘monstrous’ I mean huge in size, not scary or ugly. In fact, they were very friendly – a bit too friendly, actually.

Imagine an enormous dog that you’ve seen for the first time, charging towards you and start licking you like you’re a great lolly pop; and suddenly leaps and leans on you, sinking its huge paws into your shirt, eager for you to stroke its head! I literally staggered backwards at its weight, they were really heavy!

But at least they were friendly.

I couldn’t take any pictures while they were out, partly because I didn’t want to operate my camera with hands full of dog saliva; and partly didn’t want to risk getting my camera gobbled down by these gorgeous canines.

For the record: Jon has a Siberian Husky, two Rottweilers, a Labrador Retriever, a Mini Pinscher and a Pomeranian – If I ever became a burglar, I would probably break into Buckingham Palace before I try his house.

**********

While in Ipoh, I attended a church member’s wedding.

I know the bridegroom quite well and I’ve attended many Church weddings since I was young; but each time it never fails to make me feel how distinctly special and meaningful it is to have a church wedding, compared to a conventional wedding, in my opinion!

Maybe it’s the ceremony that makes it extra meaningful.

The processional, the wedding vows, the ring ceremony, the candle and signing ceremony, Pastor’s pronouncement and benediction, and even the last sentence: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. So-And-So”, is so heartwarming!

If I’m not mistaken, there’s a Church rule mandating both the Bride and Groom be Christians in order to permit a Church wedding.

Like, what if I converted to Islam before I got married?

**********

-

Yesterday was my birthday. It was simple, yet it was unforgettable.

I’ve never been so frustrated with a doctor before.

I’ve always respected professionals, or at least people who act professionally. To me, doctors are some of the more ‘professional’ professionals, because the doctors that I’ve seen have never given me much bad impressions. It seemed to me that all doctors are well trained and almost always know what is best to do and say when it comes to their job.

A few days ago, very unfortunately, my nice impression of doctors was permanently destroyed.

I am suffering from transient insomnia. As of today, I have not slept for nine nights. Nope, this is no joke – I have not slept for nine straight nights!

All the sleep that I’ve been getting for the past nine days are small 1-2 hour naps that I accidentally doze off while doing something else, and the only ‘long sleep’ that I had was on the fifth day, in which my brain, perhaps couldn’t take it anymore, shut down for a considerable number of hours.

Apart from those, I have not slept at all. I did try, but failed in every single attempt.

For those who know me well, they’d know that this is no fresh news. In fact, this condition can be traced back to my Foundation year, which is more than two years ago. I’ve written about it before, only that the condition has been consistently worsening.

I’ve consulted several doctors on this problem and each of them gave me fair bits of advice. A Psychiatrist diagnosed my condition as anxiety, coupled with a mild case of depression. (is there? I dunno…), but is so far trying to deal with the problem without relying too much on medication.

Since the effects of every treatment being done now is nothing dramatic, I have the habit of seeking out different doctors and talking to them about it, and see if they have any alternative opinions.

That day, I met Doctor D, who happens to be, like, the most pathetic doctor I’ve ever seen, please forgive my saying so.

Let me try to recall the dialogue: (This is not 100% accurate or complete, but it covers the ‘essential’ parts!)

**********

Me: “Hello, Doctor.”

Doctor D: “Hello, James, what seems to be the problem?”

Me : “Doctor, I think I have a sleeping problem, I couldn’t sleep for the past five days.”

Doctor D: “Oh, ya? (frowns in a sceptical way) Why you think you can’t sleep?”

Me : “I dunno, whenever I have to wake up the next morning, I’d keep thinking about it and won’t be able to fall asleep.”

Doctor D: (Stares silently at me)

Me : “Like, I’m having my final exams these few days, and they are mostly in the morning… So I think that’s part of the cause…”

Doctor D: “Do you think you didn’t sleep will affect you seriously in your exams?”

Me: “I don’t know, but for the exam I took yesterday, I felt really groggy and my brain was almost blank… Couldn’t have done too well, I think… So I guess, yeah, it does affect my exams…”

Doctor D: “So, tomorrow you have another paper? (I nodded) You plan to go for the exam?”

Me: (Thinking what kind of stupid question is this) “Err… This is the final exams, of course I’ll have to go, won’t I?”

Doctor D: “Uh-hm…” (Still smiling)

Me : “So, err, what do you think I should do?”

Doctor D: *Shrugs* “Nothing much (I nearly LOLed hearing this), I can give you some medicine to sleep…”

Me : “Yes, Doctor, that’s what the other doctor offered me. But I would really like to know if there’s anything else that I can do about this problem, other than taking sleeping pills…”

Doctor D: “Em… Try not to be so stressed la, try not to worry so much… (Duh, ‘best’ advice ever…) You having exam? No need to worry so much la, try not to take it so seriously la…” [Annoying point #1: Giving extremely unprofessional (and useless) advice]

Me : *swt* “But that’s my final exams, how can I, err, be not serious about it?”

Doctor D: “Just try don’t think about it all the time… don’t walk also think, go to bed also thinking what haven’t finish studying…”

Me : (Gives up) “So… other than trying not to worry too much, there’s really nothing much I can do about it by myself?“

Doctor D: “Ya ler… *shrugs again* we… general doctor… can’t give you much advice (WTF?!) If you want further, you have to see specialist, see Psychiatrist…”

Me : “Oh… Psychiatrist…” (pauses while I consider whether I should tell the doc I am already seeing one)

Doctor D: (Still looks at me with that stupid smile, as though she had caught me telling a lie or something)

Me : (Decides not to tell because she’d probably ask me to go see the specialist instead) “OK. So, err… this Psychiatrist, where can I find one around this area? Because, actually, I don’t really want to...”

Doctor D: “… See! I know, many people are like that…! (smiles in what she thinks is a very understanding way) Many people think if go see psychiatrist, you are crazy! They think must have serious mental problem only see psychiatrist! Actually no! Small problem you can also see specialist!” [Annoying point #2: Jumping to conclusions (Hey, I never thought that way, OK!)] (I was about to say “Because, actually, I don’t really want to see a Psychologist alone in KL, would prefer to see one back in my hometown where I can go with my parents…”)

Me: *stunned* “Er… OK… So, where can I find a Psychiatrist around here?”

Doctor D: “Putrajaya Hospital got… Other hospitals also I think got…”

Me: “What about Serdang Hospital?” (Nothing to ask, asked for fun)

Doctor D: “Serdang… I not sure la… But Putrajaya got la.”

Me: “Erm, apart from government hospitals, are there private ones around here?” (Another question asked just for the sake of asking)

Doctor D: “Private ah… I’m not sure la, but I know hospital got la.”

Me: “Do I need some kind of recommendation letter from another doctor to see a specialist in a government hospital?” (This question suddenly popped up in my mind)

Doctor D: “Yes, you need”

Me: “You can write one for me if I need it?”

Doctor D: “Yes, if you really need, I can.”

Me: “OK, so… If I need it I’ll come get it from you. Sometimes I just wonder what I can do about this problem, because it seems to be getting more and more serious and it’s starting to affect some other parts of my life…”

Doctor D: (suddenly and quite sarcastically) “Erm, James, do you know any friends who like to come see doctor before exams, and try to make their case sound very serious, and try to get fake MC to not take the exams?” [Damn Annoying point #3: Jumping to conclusions AGAIN! (Now this idiot thinks I'm here to get an MC to skip my exams! Grrr!]

Me: (Totally taken aback) “Huh? Err… yeah, I’ve heard that some people do that…”

Doctor D: “They’re usually… International students?”

Me: “I have no idea…”

Doctor D: “……” (Still looks at me with that stupid facial expression)

Me: (Getting very fed up, just wanted to get out of the place) “So, err, I think that’s all… doctor. Erm, are you going to give me any medicine?”

Doctor D: “I can give you some pills just for these few days, how many do you think you need”

Me: “Err… I think two or three pills would be enough” (I knew it is a controlled drug, and doctors usually won’t prescribe more than a few tablets.)

Doctor D: “OK, you know the dosage, right? Just take one tablet after dinner, and then you can go to sleep at around 10PM, then you can wake up at around 5AM…” (This loser really doesn’t know how us students’ time goes, sleeping at 10PM and waking up at 5AM is ridiculous Whatever!)(By the way, I think the instruction is not too accurate either, all other doctors have told me that that particular drug should be taken shortly before I go to bed, not after dinner, as it acts rather quickly and effectively puts you to sleep in 30-45 minutes.)

Me: “OK, I understand”

Doctor D: “And, make sure you follow the dosage ah, don’t take all at once ya!”

Me: “Huh? What?” *bewildered*

Doctor D: “Don’t take all at once, for fun or anything, like don’t take all 3 tablets at once ya!” [Annoying Point #4: This smartass was actually worrying that I would abuse the drug! Or maybe spike some girl's drink and rape her! What an insult to my personality!]

(I know this might be the doctor’s responsibility to warn me or something, but still, that’s what I thought and felt when I heard those words! Ish!)

Me: “Right… thank you, doctor.”

And I left.

**********

There you have it. It may not be word-to-word accurate, but I assure you that I did not intentionally add in or exaggerate any of the main points in the dialogue. (And yes, the doctor’s English was bad!)

I could tell that the doctor did not believe in my insomnia story entirely. I think this doctor probably thinks I am either faking my situation or exaggerating it – I could sense the doubt in the tone and body language. If you were there, you would understand!

Please, Doctor, if you can’t trust your patient, who the heck are you going to trust?