We caught Marley & Me on our tiny laptop screen on the aftermath of our first Valentine's Day together. I cried, she didn't.
I guess it was because she always had the habit of acting tough when things happen. She endured when her puppy of 2 months old died. She persevered on when her family went into debt. And she always had to put on an optimistic look when we are separated from each other once again.
There were still many other things, among all these, that happened but of which I shall never discuss openly in this blog.
She is one of the strongest woman I have ever met.
We adopted our puppy three weeks after we first met. She (the puppy) was the tiniest thing ever at just a few weeks old and there were times when we imagined she would be carelessly crushed by our behemoth feet when we stumbled to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
She was of the maltese breed. And if you are hardworking enough to check the web, the matlese are small, little companion dogs, extremely lively and energetic and can be a cute, little monster during her mood swings.
Her tendency to mistake the entire room for the lavatory was legendary. We once embarked to the Taiwanese capital for a two-day trip somewhere in November. Though most of our friends and neighbours found her adorable, it was particularly difficult to find someone who was willing and responsible enough to care for her while we were away.
So we took a little risk.
We left an entire pile of dog food, gallons of water and even left the lights on for the darling before we embarked on our trip. I swear I could spot the unmistakeable greed of the little creature when I laid the bowl of food on the floor, ready to be gorged on. We assured ourselves she wouldn't eat herself to death and closed the door.
My girlfriend was continuously worried throughout our stay in Taipei. We cooked up infinite scenarios that could go awfully wrong for our little creature, including smashing her own head against the concrete because she decided the wall was a cushioning stop for her cross country sprint.
However, we didn't quite expect what we saw when we came back the next evening.
Her penchant for covering whatever flat surface she could see with her poop was demonstrated in the fullest extent. She was happily sitting (tail furiously wagging) on our comfortable bed, of which she was previously unable to climb onto because of the tall height. But when we were gone, the beast was clever enough to leverage on a nearby giant stuffed toy to attempt a mighty jump to her cosy position.
We decided that we couldn't trust a properly placed newspaper to the little puppy anymore. She always had to treat every newspaper article as if it was her mortal nemesis, and we particularly worried because some of those newspaper might have ended up in her stomach during those murderous sessions.
Despite all these, we love our puppy and laid all the love we could on her. She eventually learnt to taunt me into playing tag with her, which included myself acting like a fellow dog and barking my coarse throat away. She was a joy to have around, and I always loved to give her special dog treats in the form of tasty dog cuisine whenever I did my weekly shopping at the nearest supermarket.

She passed away last December when my girlfriend was away to Singapore.
My girlfriend's mother announced it over the phone, when I realised it must be particularly urgent if she was to call at 6am in the morning.
Our first puppy together had contracted stomach flu in the cold winters of Taiwan while we were away. Despite her knowing nothing about her condition, her optimism was eventually not enough for the virus that took her over.
She had been a great puppy, though she had never known the outside world nor the joys of running through wide open fields with her tongue dangling like all other dogs do.
But we guess she must be doing that in the heavens now and we console ourselves every night because we knew she was happier with all the other maltese in the cloudy place now, never short of food, or things to chew on.
And it would be quite a while before my girlfriend could recover enough to adopt another dog again.
大哥要結婚了!是的,就九月或十月份就舉辦婚禮了。
而且,婚禮將在Fullerton Hotel舉行。價錢快嚇倒我了。摆一桌快要1000元!
今天,我們就一家人跑到莱佛士坊去見親家和一起吃飯。一路上還見到阿姐鄭惠玉和許美珍再拍戲。這還是我第一次見到我國藝人在拍戲。
回到重點。原來餐廳在UOB Plaza的第六十樓!上面的風景可美妙了!
可是,遠遠的海邊帶來了傷心的一個景色。。。好多空空的大船停在海邊,動也不動。哥說,經濟不好,船都沒生意。
看著遙遠的天空,不禁想到芷涵。好想讓她分享我所看得一切。
現在,只能單單用文字和說話來保持一切。
