It has been a while since Garfield has come out to play,
Though Garfield is oft mumb with nothing to say!
Garfield does a good game of sit and play,
Always staying put, in one place he stays.
Unlike any animate furball, fleas, mites or ticks are kept at bay,
Stuffed with cottony filling and not hay.
Still, an inanimate furball that keeps giving me hugs, no matter what I say!
Lil Red Dot is surrounded by Indonesia and Malaysia.
Whilst everywhere in the world is battling some form of Covid-19, others are having it worst with government politics or natural disasters.
Malaysia is having its worst as the government is constantly under duress and with the coming elections, the King is also brought into the fray. I sincerely hope that Malaysia has the best outcome for its people as constant changing of the ruling Prime Minister undermines its political growth and everyone suffers.
Indonesia has President Jokowi and has been in power for some 6 years now. He too, I am sure, has loads of stressors.
Personally, I do not think it is a fun occupation to be a head of state. The stressors would kill me before I can even do the job I think.
Some are cut out to be leaders in terms of heads of state. I admire the stalwarts of Iron Lady Thatcher who survived in a man’s world. Not easy as her gender was already a step down but she carried her weight well and earned the title of Iron Lady.
Not all leaders are saints. I am sure some heads rolled along the way to get them to the helm. Others were probably thrown under the bus to pave the way for their leadership.
Oh and don’t get me started on the sacrifices they make or at least some do. I make this in reference to Orange Man whose self trumping of his antics has earned him a lot of publicity; both good and bad.
Sarcasm, lies, family time, stabbing in the back of others and being stabbed in the back by others – the list goes on.
I have seen how the leaders of lil red dot have aged. Our 4G leaders ie to take over from current Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong looked so tired and shag from managing so many things.
Like many others, our leaders grappled with Covid-19 as they did not know much about it but I am glad they kept us safe. Draconian but good outcomes.
I liked Dr Bones summary of how our leaders are – the start may be rough and rocky, not getting it all right at the beginning but they did it for Covid-19. But then, it also took a polite and obedient populus to cooperate with them. Yes, we are good boys and gals as we obeyed the rules, wore our masks, use Trace Together apps, collected Trace Together Tokens and use safe entry.
Hand sanitisers in every location we visit and left generously for all to use and stay safe.
To me, the handsome payment leaders get may not compensate for all the dramas, loss of privacy and continuous a tete a tetes would drive me nuts. But don’t get me wrong, the glamour would be great to have….maids and butlers in waiting, huge palace or living quarters …unending glorifications!
It is tough being in a place of power. I did not like it for work as I do not like office politics.
I prefer a simple life, just hugging my inanimate furball Garfield and contemplating life’s vicissitudes and battling umpteen surgical procedures on “damn bones” like Sir Lancelot! LOL!
Onward ho!
I have a list of Who’s Who to thank on Nurses Day as they have spent every hour of their shift hours, checking in on me, ensuring I am alive, not in pain or at least comfortable.
I am a difficult patient, not because I am demanding but because my body is not easy to take care of.
It protests at foreign items such as drugs, bandages or dressings when attempts are made to introduce into me, to help me get better.
IV drips will cause backflow after a while as the veins will collapse and gee, hunting for a new vein is as good as prospecting for water in the Sahara Dessert with a “Y” fork.
i hate IV drips and will always beseech the surgeon/my trusty Dr Boey to remove is asap and that I promise to drink like a fish so as not to get dehydrated.
My nurses are fantastic beings as they would come in and check on Garfield and I. If My foot is bandaged, they would also do a bandage for my inanimate furball.
If my arm is in a sling, so will Garfield’s arm as one of the nurses would painstakingly sew a sling to fit my inanimate furball.
It is the wholistical care they shower on me, complete with indulging in my inane love for an inanimate being.
These little things, besides, wound dressings, sponging me, helping me with toileting etc is not just a job but a job they do without an ugly or unwilling face.
From my heart, I wish all nurses a happy nurses day, filled with safety and protection against Covid-19 and may they be richly rewarded for their kindness, graceful touches of making the ill well again.
Blessings and Garfield Hugs!
The WordPress community is a friendly, kind and supportive one.
True, not everyone is the same and I do get an occasional oddball – in fact in all honesty, with 7 years of blogging under my belt, I only had one ranter who heckled, chided me for posting about pokes on Orange Man and blogging about my illnesses or about lil red dot.
I did a post on this when it happened and was heartily surprised when my blogging community supported and reminded me that any reader has an option to choose to read. Ranter could ignore my blog and move on to read others. Yet she chose to read and gave some odd comments. I should feel flattered that she chose to read, but had a difference of opinion.
I felt this ranter (a “she” by the way) had a very bad day and was on a melt down or an avid supporter of Orange Man. Who knows, she could have been a staff of Orange Man and had to stand up for her Boss?
My posts have always been about humor, on myself venting of the illnesses I face and work blues.
Thankfully, the latter is manageable now as Monkey Lord is decent and work is really busy but at least I need not be fending off knife wounds!
But what does get into my head when I sit down to do a post?
My primary intent is that it must never debase any human being.
No racial slurs or mean things.
Everyone is a sister or a brother in this zone.
We are all the safe. Orwellian theory does not fly here although some are super great bloggers with hundreds or thousands of “likes” and followers!
I use nicknames for the humans I meet in life but they remain anonymous, known only to me.
No personal attacks or hurling of vulgarities but a good dose of sardonic humor.
I look at things as they are and say it as I see it.
I do not sugar coat things as my messaging gets watered down and that defeats the punch lines I want to deliver. I need to give it that “kapow” LOL!
I appreciate good government, good work ethics, honesty and sincerity.
I dislike hypocrites, dishonest people and those who love to do a “Knife To The Back”
I have long searched for my true love and realised that this person does not exist. There is no romance waiting for me. Romantic love, marital love and all kinds of love tags elude me.
I have questioned the Almighty Lord but He has not found the time to reply me. I am in spiritual limbo for sure. I guess with Covid-19 now, the Good Lord is even busier.
I challenge my medical team of specialists such that they confess they have sleepless nights trying to figure out how to keep me alive.
I quote Dr Short Tongue (Brilliant specialist and a trusted medical chap for the Who’s Who who stutters when he is excited about a find or observation. He is a big wig in his field and it shows me that despite whatever challenges one has, one can aspire to climb to the top because of meritocracy!) and admire him for his honesty with me.
He said that so long as I “stay as I am, without major shifts in conditions, then I am well” and that he has done his job. I trust him with my life as he asked me not to invite viruses or germs to my body when I asked if I should take shots against this or not.
So, now I ponder – if a Covid-19 vaccine becomes tenable and available, should I take it? Or will I react against it and instead die from it? I must remember to ask for his opinion when I next see him! Hmm! I wonder what he will say?!
The insaner side of my posts are about my raggedy inanimate furball Garfield and how he hands out Garfield hugs and squooshes to keep me sane. Garfield with his beady plastic eyes accompany me on stays at Bates Motel and keeps me company when I groan in pain and recover from my many slicing and dicings!
There is always a child in us and I applaud Pam, another blogger who does fantastic quips that really made me think when she did a post on this. I have a big child portion in me but unfortunately due to the position I carry at work and in social work life, I have to be an adult.
Being an adult is draining as I have to always behave in a politically correct fashion. No tantrums, speak in soft tones and be mindful of who the characters are in my plot of what I call life.
So what’s in a blog post? Or specifically, my blog post?
Who’s to tell? I get all sorts of ideas and when the light bulb lights up, my fingers go to the key board and tap away.
But I believe in not deliberately hurting anyone in life or in words as I know what is is like to be hurt. It is not nice!
A blog post is a window to a life I think I need for the day.
A blog post offers me refuge from my daily adult life.
A blog post lets me laugh freely.
A blog post lets me vent my frustrations.
A blog post lets me share my thoughts and elicit views.
A blog post, most importantly, is my own work.
Garfield’s asleep,
Nary a beep!
Silently Garfield sleeps,
Exactly how inanimates sleep.
Garfield on my bed is king,
The corner is his thing.
Garfield hugging is my thing,
Happy, contented – I sing!
Dogs are fiercely protective of the owner.
I know as my dogs were.
They were ferocious guard dogs and other than the occupants of the house of the owner, they were judgemental in that no one else is a person they like.
Dogs are precious and after losing my last dog to heart worms, I swore never to own another live dog.
Hence Garfield my inanimate furball came about. Garfield lives on and on, just shabby from over hugging!
I shared with some of my close friends and siblings that I chose to donate my cadaver when I leave the human realm and these are their hilarious replies:-
My Sibling1
“BTW, long distance swimming and treading water!😨”
Note1
Obviously Sibling1 has the heart to worry about my ghostly spirit doing long distance swimming and treading water in eternity. Clearly Sibling1 is worried about me getting tired at some point or another. But hey, being dead, so I feel anything? I am unsure but his statement spoke volumes to me.
My Sibling2
“Ha! Ha. Wonder who goes first?”
Note2
Sibling2 is skirting the issue and chose not to comment. I expected this as Sibling2 is not one to talk about death freely and without qualms. A sibling of few words and a polite guffaw.
Mr Docile:
“I cannot applaud this. But you are very brave and am proud of you. I salute you”
Note3
Mr Docile cares a lot about me. I was only blind not to see it. He has never stopped caring for me since the first day I met him. Till this date, I get daily greetings and questions from him on my well being or how am I doing. As to what to make out of his reply, it could be he is not happy about it, but he has to respect my wishes as this is not an easy decision he feels for anyone.
Chicken
“Aiyoh!”
Note4
A lament in Singlish, our colloquial slang!
Ms Legal Eagle
“I always wanted to. I am scared. I want to get rid of my body in the most biodegradable way possible. It would be nice if there is an alternative to burial in lil red dot. Basically, they “plant” you as fertiliser for a tree. Being a tree would be nice.”
Note5
Ms Legal Eagle is a planned out and well thought out person as I suggested for her to be buried in a private property that she buys and no one would know LOL! She said there were laws on proper disposals of the cadaver. She is a good lawyer!
I have a niche ready and my epitaph on it could read as,
“Here lies Garfield Hug 1993 (date bought from ToysR Us till his Master’s Expiration) Whilst Master At Sea!”
I hope you enjoyed and laughed here. It is not macabre. To me, it is addressing a reality of life.
Bird saw this in the display cabinet in a shop at Changi Jewel.
I will not buy it as it is not huggable haha!
Fu Manchu the rat was missing from my inanimate furball Garfield’s life for about 3 years.
Why?
Mum gave it to her friend despite my telling her not to do so when she found Fu Manchu cute and cuddily and I loaned it to her for company.
I was sad as one day when I visited her, I found Fu Manchu missing from his favorite plastic chair.
I was very sad and cross with mum as she ignore my instructions never to give away Fu Fu Manchu as he was a limited edition mascot of Mercedes Benz and was given to me by Mr Mercedes Guy.
Fu Manchu at retail price at that time is $1,200!
Mum retorted by saying that if I wanted it back, she can ask for it back from her friend.
I told her it would be awkward as a gift to take back is oh so very wrong!
I guess mum knew my pain of losing Fu Manchu and last week she retrieved Fu Manchu back for Garfield.
Garfield and pal, Fu Manchu are now reunited, happily and seated side by side in the passenger seats of my car.
Snugly and securely fastened by seatbelts, it is good to have them both together again!
Reunited and it feels so good….reminds me of an oldie song but I forgot the singers’ names!
P.s. I named the rat Fu Manchu as its face reminds me of a character named Fu Manchu in the Pink Panther series – the classic Return Of The Pink Panther (1978)
I am a child of yesteryears I feel as these days, children do not like huggable toys because of artificial intelligence (AI).
This explains the slow death of Children’s programs such as Sesame Street as AI takes over with console gaming, 3D modelling amongst others.
Last evening I had to catch up with Mr Mercedes and I saw a brilliant yellow colored A200 coupe that is souped up with all things AI to capture the millennial market.
A class is the entry level of luxury cars in the Mercedes Benz totem pole of cars.
A class
B class
C class
E class
S Class
Maybach
AMG
E class car paintwork is never loud or eye catching but drabby. When I showed mum the new bright yellow colored car (it brought me back to memory of Transformers colors) photo, she said it was gorgeous.
LOL! Mum is a millennial at heart.
When I asked Mr Mercedes if this yellow hue comes in E class, he said outright that such gaudy colors will never attract a post baby boomer, Gen Xers, Gen Yers or seious businessmen.
Sigh!
Where is the fun right?
Back to Garfield….so now that huggable soft toys are near extinction, I dread the day when Charlie Brown’s Snoopy, Cookie Monster and Disney characters will all end too as no demand for them.
A200 coupe has a function that allows the driver to speak to it like Siri.
As it is, now cars have all the bells and whistles and much of it, I do not even use constantly.
I enjoy the GPS on screen, touch screen functions for SMS to be read aloud to me, a mouse to use, and intelligent warnings on lowered tyre pressures.
But I miss the touchy feely feel of a squoosh and a Garfield Hug.
New children born after 2019 may no longer have the luxury of such toys as iphones, androids, tablets will the main stay of their life.
Farm animals live in the tablets or in the supermarkets in body parts and not alive, strutting on farm land or in its fine feathery plumes.
Where is the warmth?
Where is the humanity – will we become thinkers like androids or robots without conscience and only see black and white?
Will compassion or empathy be lost?
