014: He doesn't care

Spillo in the yellow raincoat we bought him

He doesn't care if it's rain or shine, as long as he is out of the door. This is Spillo we are talking about. I heard of other dogs out not being able to step out when it's pouring outside. Sensible dogs! Not Spillo. He can sit on a wet puddle, no problem. We bought a raincoat. He is indifferent to that. He doesn't give a damn about it. On or off, as long as he gets to go out. We get a kick from looking at him in a raincoat. Cutest overload! He looks at us looking at him and thinks "huh? what?" Some dogs gets embarrassed when being seen dressed walks back inside, or won't even let themselves get dressed. He doesn't care either way.

Part of the highlight of the daily walk for him is sniffing dog poop, dog pee and cat poop. He pulls hard so he get to put his nose to where the dog peed the last time. He works hard sniffing. Never use your human standards to judge a dog. Why are you so excited over pee. "Andiamo, andiamo!" (Let's go) Then he chooses a spot to pee for the next dog to sniff and we continue again.

Eating off the ground. Why? When I give him good home cooked food. He loves these fruits from a particular tree in our morning walks towards the cemetery. Not the freshly fallen ones, but the ones that are flattened and browned probably from passing cars. Also some dried up bits of fallen gelato. Why does he not get sick from that? Must be the famed beneficial bacteria he picked up as a stray.

Oh well… ヽ（´ー｀）┌

#sliceoflife #Spillo #wetpuddle #raincoat #cutestoverload #goout #embarrassed #sniffing #humanstandards #fruits #flattened #beneficialbacteria

Post script2

One of my favourite books is Kieslowski on Kieslowski, biography on Krzysztof Kieslowski. (My favourite film of his is The Double Life of Veronique). There is a particular part that I remember clearly where he recounts about how entered the Lodz film school. He describe in minute detail of the toilet bowl flushing, in deliberate minute detail. So that's how he believe he got in. lol

I decide I should do the same as a writing exercise. Fingers crossed hope i come up with something good.

Post script: Writing what you want to read

It's easy to write anything you want these days and publish it. I'm really grateful for that. There is a lot of people that I know from my ani-twitter group that's into fan-fics. I've read a few too. Not all of them are fantastic but what they lack in skill they more than make up for it in spirit. With time they do improve. Same goes for fan artist.

I'm part of this movement too, which is nice. I started not long ago, but lately I'm not really happy with the way the writing is going. Feels like an old lady nagging lol. Obviously it's a work in progress. I'm going to change my approach. Try out a few different things.

Ultimately I want to write what I want to read. No endless emotional ranting. What's the point? Maybe I should pick up drawing? Who knows? I love that there are no limits on what can be done.

I hope friends also pick up this habit and that I get to read what they write.

#postscript #anitwitter #fanfics #skill #spirit #nagging #noranting #limits

013: Ordinary special

flowers from someone's garden when we out on a walk last week

Everybody wants that special day to be memorable in a nice way. That kind of propaganda you are fed with. On birthdays, a birthday cake with candles, a birthday song surrounded by family and friends who love you to death, tons of presents. On Valentine's day, a bouquet of roses for the girl, a night at fancy restaurant, girl all dressed up and the guy in a suit, the candlelight dinner.

Most of the time those things don't happen to me. A birthday cake with candles; I've done that. I'm no happier than before the cake and candles blown out. Yeah ok… I'm older, thanks for the reminder, let's move on, shall we. I've had a ex-roommate for her, the birthday was EVERYTHING. She had to have the friends, the cake, people wishing on the right day (not the day before… an italian superstition). She was shocked that Roby didn't come to celebrate with me in Milan and I was not upset about it.

On past valentine's days I only remembered expecting something and being completely let down. I spent alone waiting for my then boyfriend to come. A lot of bad memories there. On special days supermarkets here in Verona don't do their usual hours and only open in the morning. Which is inconvenient.

The stress created by expectations far outweighs the enjoyment of that day. Let's take Chinese New Year. Back in the day, it was celebrated in a big way. My grandma would make a ton of food. She would get an asthma attack as a result. Of course extra yelling for not showing up on time at 11am for lunch. Granted I do remember most of it fondly. But I still don't like Chinese New Year.

There was once when I was in Oslo for a friend's Christmas celebration. It was quite nice as an outsider. But in the end, it was their version of the Chinese New Year, with different decorations. Family get together, then the usual questioning happens. Do you have a job? Are you making enough money? Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend? etc. Nice in some sense when family gather, but stressful in other ways too.

I'm not saying don't celebrate birthdays, christmas or chinese new year. My point is the other 364 days could be as special if you make it so. Ordinary days have their own value. Not that everyday is a sunday. We know that. We all have our responsibilities; school work, work, chores. There are moments in day that is just perfect. It happens to all of us ALL of the time. You have open your eye and recognise it.

Easter monday, Roby woke up way too late for easter brunch. We decided to go a sagra (a local food festival; just another excuse to eat). Spillo freaked out at the crowd and started barking at kids. It was high tension until some time after we found a seat. That was stressful.

Last sunday was a no occasion sunday. The sun was up in the morning and flooded the kitchen with light. Roby woke up by himself (thank you) and took spillo for spin on bicycle. Finally so finally some peace at home by myself to do the housework. Yes that was a perfect day when nothing special happened.

#sliceoflife #memorable #propaganda #abirthdaycake #Valentinesday #abouquetofroses #candlelightdinner #Milan #expectations #badmemories #ChineseNewYear #fondly #Verona #Christmas #differentdecorations #ordinarydays #sagra #barkingatkids #stressful #nooccasionsunday #nothingspecialhappened

012: A walk in the park

"I'm so bored"

It's been a few months since we adopted Spillo. I never imagine it would be this difficult. I thought we solved the problem of barking at people. It's definitely not a 100%. orz He just barked at someone yesterday. Probably my fault for stopping when the 2 old ladies approached. That same night i understood what went on. Last night as we were on the couch, there was a stinky fishy scent coming from Spillo.

Then it became clear, why he was so irritated during the day. There was a built up of fluids in the anal glands before excretion, so he became very irritated and will snap at anything. There's no indication of this, except that he is more anxious than usual.

It's normal to have the results yo-yoing. Everytime this happens me and Roby keep having to re-examine what we have done or what we have done wrong. Walking Spillo is quite difficult. Already there is a huge improvement from before when he used to pull like crazy on walks. We went through a period of feeding him treats when he is in the right position while walking. At that stage he was barking everyone coming close. That was extremely stressful for us and the poor person taking a stroll. Because there's too many things expected of him. He didn't know if the treat was for not barking or for walking properly; it was too confusing for him. So we stopped "walking nicely" treats and treated only for not barking at people. We used only biscuits which is different from the cut meat pieces. That worked very well. Roby bought a video from this site which we are using at the moment. It's a program for reactive dogs. It's a long term investment in terms of time but well worth it.

I walk him fast; brisk walking. We do the morning walks together. It helps us exercise more than if we walk slowly. Spillo doesn't have much chance to exercise when he gets home. He doesn't sniff very often like this and our pace matches. Let's say if we were we doing a 5-legged race we will be winning. The down side is with the increase heart rate he also gets agitated easily. Maybe I have make stops in between. I would have a looser leash with him a bit further away from me. Roby walks him slow. He normally makes a trip to the dog park (it's fenced) and let him run around off leash. If there are dogs around Spillo normally plays with them if he can. Not all dogs like playing; some are hostile. Ahhh dog politics! Don't question. Just mediated when necessary. Spillo is also not friendly to all dogs only to some. He picks his friends and bully the ones he doesn't like. What a personality!

Spillo is quite territorial and guards us quite a lot. Roby is careful not to bring out the treat bag or toys in the dog park when there are other dogs around or there will be chaos.

The challenge of living with a rescued dog continues.

We use these youtube channel reference on positive training and counter-conditioning dog training: kikopup; zak george.


#sliceoflife #verona #italy #Spillo #barkingatpeople #analglands #irritated #anxious #reexamine #walkingnicelytreats #5leggedrace #looserleash #picksfriends #bully #territorial

011: Squalor

current state of mess in my room

I watched a youtube video on Erik Satie the composer's life. (I can't find the link, sorry) Gymnopedies is a favourite of mine. Right after his death, his friends entered his apartment. What they found was chaos and squalor in that apartment. There were 2 grand pianos one stacked on top the other. The top piano used as storage space for his compositions. A collection of umbrellas. Compositions stuffed in coat pockets. I did the most natural thing googled for a photo & got nothing significant. lol He did die in 1925 so I wouldn't expect anyone to take a snapshot and post it on instagram.

I've been struggling with the accumulation of junk for a long time. I have hoarding habits. My grandfather was a hoarder, some of my relatives are hoarders. If I ever was a music composer, the scene above could very well have happen to me. My one great fear in life.

When my grandpa was still around, this was happened at one point in his HDB flat (Please google HDB Singapore for meaning) Unusual for a HDB flat it had a high ceiling. Suspended 2 meters above was a queen sized mattress and stacked on top of that was some chairs I think. He loves fixing things. The apartment was filled with weird contraptions. Like the fan that would switch on when you switch on the lights in the toilet. Wooden extensions he made to the sofa. We hardly exchanged words neither me nor with the rest of the family. He never explained why. He would bring home things he found outside, things people throw out. My grandma would bitch about it non-stop when she was alive. It's actually quite organised for a hoarder, due to my grandma's nagging. She kept him in check.

During art school I accumulated a large collection of art material for art works. Ahhh that brings back memories. Mostly failed art experiments that produced a pile in my corner of the room in the Goodman Road campus. A pile of objects 1m depth x2m width x2m height …that was the rough volume of things I collected in that 1 year of art course. I couldn't deal with it anymore. Also I kept seeing art pieces being made and being thrown out casually. Our students room was around 5m from the schools dumping area. I definitely developed a complex because of that. Art one day rubbish the next. I threw everything out including my career in art. A bit silly looking back but I was a "child" then, so it felt right at that point.

My next hoarding trauma is actually not caused by me directly. I am responsible for it because I didn't stop it from happening. My ex boyfriend had a habit of collecting a lot of things. CD, books, little objects. He spends time and money on these things. That's well and fine. Only he didn't have a room of his own. That's how they all ended up in my room. Those objects and books did give me joy at some point just like how my ex gave me joy once. After 9 1/2 years the things only occupied space. Finally I had enough, everything went (my ex include). After much tears and packing I cleared my room of 21 very heavy boxes of things. I sent them to his mom's place.

After that hurdle everything was easy to deal with even my move to Italy. Hoarding & messiness comes very natural to me. I've developed a talent of finding an object in complete chaos. So a messy table is not stressful. The trick to throwing out things is to ask yourself what place or value an object has offer in your life. If an object no longer has a purpose in your life then out it goes. The problem is when an object holds too much value and too much memory. And you have a lot of those objects then you are done for.

Of course it feels good after being liberated of the boxes of things. It's like you've mentally carried those objects, holding on to those memories. Getting rid of those things also means letting go and finding another way of remembering without those objects. This is an ongoing struggle.

#sliceoflife #Italy #Singapore #ErikSatie #gymnopedie #2grandpianos #grandfather #hoarder #grandmasnagging #HDB #GoodmanRoadcampus #pileofobjects #artpieces #dumping #trauma #collecting #joy #hurdle #messiness #talent #purposeinyourlife #memories #lettinggo

010: The great iron adventure

sprouted mung beans a few years ago when i was in the middle of my sprouting craze

This began in a camper holiday I had with Roby before we were married. It was in the middle of winter. We stopped at Moderna and went to a restaurant. After a very full meal we were paying the bill when i suddenly passed out. I remembered gaining consciousness and laughing out of embarrassment, with Roby worried sick. I felt a bit light headed for some time after moving to Italy. Probably because of the change in diet.

So I had to do something about it. A few months later I had my blood test & it showed I had an iron deficiency. So I took iron supplements which did not work as it gave me an upset stomach and the iron just passed right out. I did not feel any better. So I moved on.

My mom would be make me pig liver broth years ago. It's a traditional tonic given to menstruating women to ease the anemia that comes with it. So I bought of lot of liver, made the broth for 1 or 2 weeks, freeze them in tiny cups. I had to take a dose daily, avoiding coffee before and after taking it. I felt slightly better, less lethargic. After I moved to Montorio/Verona, I took up jogging which also helped.

The worst part about this diet is the prep. Handling liver is no fun. It got to a stage where i was ordering a whole liver from the butcher's and making a whole lot of broth. It was a major operation from the cutting, boiling down the broth. On the day I would make the broth the whole house would smell of pork. orz

Then the thought that I had to make that for the rest of my life, got me thinking that I had to find another solution.

Solution no3 would be Floradix. This is an iron supplement in syrup form. This works quite well at first. Then for some reason, it stop working the longer you take this. This also gave me an upset stomach. I have issues with acidic food/liquid. So 1 or 2 I stopped. The improvements being less lethargic.

I felt the broth worked much better than the syrup. It had a stronger effect compared to the syrup in terms of energy level. I dread the cutting liver again so I had to find another solution.

The alkaline diet. That didn't directly affect my iron consumption. It did improve my health in terms of the acidity levels in my body. Very difficult to go 100% on this diet as with all diets. At best I was at 50%. I tried dragging Roby into this but it's hard. (¬ ‿ ¬) (¬ ‿ ¬) (¬ ‿ ¬) his attachment to cheese is incredible. Fatty cheese like gorgonzola which is his favourite is highly acidic.

I learned that nearly all our food is acidic with the exception of spinaci, kai lan & other leafy greens. orz Even the white rice is acidic... almost all carbs that we consume are acidic. The way out of this is sprouting. Something miraculous happens when you sprout grains, they become alkaline. It's on it's way to becoming a plant! I do this with beans as well like chickpeas and lentils.

The sprouted beans/grains tastes the same as they would before. For recipes just replace the sprouted beans/grain with the normal non-sprouted version.

If you boil them without soaking they are acidic. But if you soak them overnight, then you reduce the acidity. If you sprout even better. I recommend this site the Sprout People. A really detailed site on sprouting, even if you don't buy anything from them.


I used to suffer from very frequent heartburns. This diet really help. Although my iron deficiency is still not solved yet. The next step the nutritional value chart. With that I found the amount of iron in my diet. This is an eye opener. What I thought had high iron value was pretty average. For example beef. Compared to chickpeas. Lentils has even higher iron values than chickpeas. Shellfish is super high in iron and prawns too. This site is great. A bit of math and you can calculate how much iron (or any other mineral) you consume a day.

I didn't do any weird scientific experiments. This is based on what I consumed and how it affected my daily life. Back to the beef. Digesting food uses up a lot of energy, some more than others. After a finishing a steak or a burger, I feel so sleepy I need a nap. I'm effectively out of action after that. Although I benefit from the iron consume, napping or feeling sleepy means I can't do much else. The benefits are nullified.

I don't have access to good seafood so the shellfish option is also out. Food poisoning is not really worth it.

My current diet is accidentally vegan/vegetarian for lunch. For dinner is "normal". Italian or Chinese not a lot of pasta, not a lot of meats. Fish. We are still evolving our diet. Roby is currently obsessed with the ideas of a italian nutritionists he found on youtube. So expect more changes to our diet. I have experienced a marked improvement in my movement/speed, I think faster too. It's so freaky when most of my life I have been sluggish.

It's not really a disease but it might have just been. If I have discovered this earlier in life maybe I would have did better in school, or maybe I would have done better at work. Who knows.

#sliceoflife #Italy #Moderna #bloodtest #passedout #pigliverbroth #irondeficiency #ironsupplements #upsetstomach #traditionaltonic #butcher #floradix #alkalinediet #acidic #leafygreens #sprouts #chickpeas #lentils #recipes #noweirdscientificexperiments #sleepy #benefitsnullified #vegan #vegetarian