A Moment of Silence...

Just to let u guys know that both my fish died... oh did i mentioned that i got Mr. Lonely a blue companion?? Mr. Lonely died in the last few days of 2007 and his companion died over last weekend... Sorry that I did not update u folks..

Mr. Lonely's death was probably caused by me... ammonia toxicity i think. I went on long leave, without getting my colleagues to change the water. I was afraid to trouble them and miscalculated the days that I would be away. Mr. Lonely loss his appetite for about a week and kicked the bucket.

I eventually brought his companion home.. let's call him Mr. Picky.. he was happy to be home and my dad was delighted to welcome our new friend. It wasn't too long when my dad started smacking mosquitoes and feeding them fresh to Picky. The latter enjoyed them so much and refused to eat his freeze-dried blood worms since.

When dad left for his trip, there's no more fresh kill for Picky. He continued to refuse his usual food and lost his appetite. Even when dad returned and got him some kill, Picky became anorexic, stopped eating totally for a fortnight and passed away eventually...

So let us observe a moment of silence for these poor souls...

Oh, by the way, dad bought another female to keep Mr. Picky busy but turned out that he was being intimidated by her ferocious moves.

Sudden Death

I know it sounds morbid but something really happened to an ex-colleague who used to work quite closely with me. We all called her Auntie and though she's a Chinese, she always cook Indian curry for us as her husband was an Indian. They had a son who just came out from NS. I've known her for about 6 years and still see her around my work place very often. During these years, she would invite us over to her place during Deepavali.

I received 2 sms from different people on the Friday morning, reading it one after another, telling me that Auntie's husband died the previous night from heart attack. It was unbelievable as I knew his husband was only in his mid-40s or 50s. The first thing that came to my mind is that Auntie should be devastated by now... she has led a very sad life in the past.. and now, they have snatched her hubby away from her.

It bothered me throughout the whole day surprisingly, despite meeting her hubby a only few times. Perhaps it was too long a time before I had such news.

I felt bad not being able to attend the wake after work as I had a lecture. Indians do not have a long wake, so his body would be cremated the following day. Most of my ex-coleagues went, together with Love. I came to know that Auntie was sobbing really badly and everyone who visited her went home with a heavy heart. I couldn't imagine how bad it could have been.

I visited her with Yu on Friday evening and she was much composed. Through her puffy eyes, I saw not only grieve, but a tinge of strength as well. She narrated the whole incident to us without shedding a tear. She said that she'd remain strong for the sake of her son and her mum-in-law.

After this incident, Love and I were reminded that life is so vulnerable. And we seemed to treasure each other more.