Not Your Regular Friday (Or Weekend), This

1) Proving it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game 😀 Golden Retriever Loses Obedience Competition, Wins Your Heart.

JD sucks at Obedience trials/competitions to this day btw. The popular ones we tried back in the day in Singapore, you’re not supposed to say anything to the dog while they’re in trial/competition. So I would stand there, back straight and arms at my sides and will her to note my facial expression when she is scratching, yawning, looking everywhere, and – wait for it – scooting her bum closer and closer to me (but not actually getting up). Anyone who’s had a female border collie will understand this – they look for loopholes.

Because she couldn’t pass Obedience, they used to bar her from proceeding to Agility, long ago back in Singapore. That didn’t stop her from going on to winning a Hong Kong International Advanced Agility Relay event before the Rockstars were born, when we moved here. (She’s placed or won other Agility events too, but that one was probably the biggest. To this day though, I don’t think she can pass the original 3 minute sit-and-don’t-move requirement.)

Anyway, note in the embedded vid the handlers are tweens or teens. I’d say something about dog/ pet training being excellent child training (you have to earn the animal’s trust and you need to exercise patience and restraint in order to train an animal – and because it is an animal, not a human/parent, it’s not going to cut the child slack/ rationalize with the ole’ “Ok, close enough, good enough” moniker – it’s just not going to get trained).

BUT it might not be fair to the dog. One of the mildly disturbing things I used to see when Kings and I would drive up to pet shops pre-JD was little kids going “Daddy, Mummy he’s so cute! Can we get him, can we can we can we??? But I want him, he’s soooooo cute!!!“

Please, please be prepared to say no. Or a very well thought-out yes. (Or just don’t go near the shop :D)

We were turned down by the SPCA in Singapore when they heard about our working hours. “It’s not fair to the dog,” they said. Months later, we then ended up buying a freaking BORDER COLLIE, of all things, on the spur of the moment just because we couldn’t leave her in the puppy mill-esque place. I gave up all gym/ hip-hop/ jazz classes and “trained” her from day 1 coming home to get used to hours of walks at night when we got off work, feeding her her big meal right before we left each morning. We also took turns working from home, coming back at lunchtime NOT to play with her – it was all unbeknownst to JD (we didn’t want her to expect any action during times we would normally be at work) – but just to observe how she spent her day before we got back. WOW those were the days. Details in my old entries.)

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2) Anyone who has a cat will apparently understand this.

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3) (Yet another) So This Is What We Have To Look Forward To With The Kids. Dad finds horrifying letter from 15 year old son. Some of the comments are pretty funny too.

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4) Landscape photographer parents bring their young children with them. Very inspirational for traveling with little kids by yourself. Kids come with a lot of baggage. So does photography equipment. Kids + often fragile and expensive photography equipment = n-ot an easy one either.

Respect.

Really. Respect.

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5) This one takes the dog along for photo shoots also. No, not a teacup poodle, not a chihuahua. A freaking Weimaraner. 

O.M.G.

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6) 25 Incredible Breakfast Ideas After Thanksgiving. Neither here nor there, just incredible. I don’t cook very often (don’t, not can’t), but I love the concept of enjoying leftovers.

Dis is art. (And stuffing waffles with cranberry sauce – yums!)

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7) Public service message: Black Friday is no longer where the best deals happen. Not… that I think anyone’s actually out shopping in Hong Kong specifically for BF, but this was just a note about shopping. From someone who, even at the height of her career, rarely bought big ticket branded items full-priced.

I loathe shopping crowds and think there’s a tradeoff and all that, but seriously, you can save so much money from shopping in warehouses or off-season. (I buy online way, way in advance, or way off-season, and squirrel stuff away around the home. I think it’s a manifestation of my mild OCD in general. And Rockstar isn’t the kind of child who will go around trying to find where his presents are squirreled away. Just tell him Your Present Is Over There. Leave It Alone Unless You Want To Spoil Your Own Surprise.)

To begin with, I’m fidgety, and in the absence of having any actual trades by my RM’s clients to run through in my head over and over again nowadays (ay, kept me virtually error-free for almost my entire 11 years ok, even in the worst of busy moving markets), I check prices online for shopping <sheepish>. I use online alerts and website functions – for e.g. on Shopbop.com. there is a “hearts” function. You “heart” the stuff you like and then in my case I stalk the summary page for absolutely ages, monitoring whether they’re about to sell out or possibly get marked down further or make it to one of those “Extra 20% off for 24 hours”-type days. All that just to avoid paying full price without even thinking. Why yes, I’ve checked against prices at Hong Kong departmental stores. Why yes, I’ve got girlfriends hooked on to the same habit. Like, whether you’re broke or not, why spend more than you absolutely have to? Exactly. If not broke, donate the money you save this Christmas 🙂

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8) The Miss doesn’t have so much the skit this week as a fun quiz: WHAT is she doing with the broccoli? (O-or, Alas, Poor Yorick, I Knew Him Well :D)

Good Weekend, Dears…