Book Review: Emma & I by Sheila Hocken

"I don't care if you can see I'm blind. I can see too: I've got Emma, and she's all I need."

I chanced upon Emma & I at a second hand shop. Naturally I picked it up since it featured a dog. The paperback version that I bought was a 1978 edition. The pages has yellowed with a couple of dog ears. However, the book was well written and very engaging. No way was I going to put it down.

This book is Sheila Hocken's account with her guide dog, a chocolate brown Labrador named Emma. Until Emma walked into Sheila's world, her life was pretty much a crawl. Emma introduces Sheila life at the pace of 4 miles an hour. The amazing devotion of a guide dog and a young blind girl determined to live life to the fullest is simply inspirational. Walks through the town are amazingly hilarious and at times quite a challenging adventure of its own.

Relationships are tested. The strangest relationship between Emma and the cats or Sheila and a sighted random stranger in a radio station provide thought-provoking moments. And what awaits both Emma and Sheila when they both go under the knife!

A good book that one can read again and again (I am reading this for the fourtth time), Emma & I is a recommended read to anyone who loves dogs or is dealing with the blind.

Article first published as Book Review: Emma & I by Sheila Hocken on Blogcritics.

Monsoon galore at Ruby's Resort (again)

Spent my new year countdown at Ruby's Resort at Cherating. It was monsoon. Yeah monsoon with rain, winds and grey skies. Still it wasn't a deterrent to us. We had our fun in the rain and the sun came up when we departed:P And this is actually my second time in Cherating during the monsoon.

I supposed being at Ruby's Resort, rain or shine, Aunty Ruby ensures that we have fun. The place itself is fun enough. And couple with buddies like Carlee, Jo and Lilian, the place was hilariously fun. Rain or shine, we had our fun. We walked a little in the rain. What choice had we? Our furkids needed to do their "business".

Oh...check out the cute lazy cats at Ruby's Resort.

As with any trips we had, we surely had our food escapades. Here's some pics. Will elaborate more in another post(s). But one thing for sure, this trip we discovered that Cherating and Kemaman has a fair selection of pork. Not kidding! Its largely a Muslim area but yes there is pork.

New Year's eve was different from the rest. It was raining. And having steamboat on a rainy night is certainly super duper fun. Here's some shot of our folks cooking. Hehehe a simple egg takes skills.

And the "funnest" was the playing UNO. A good fun game that most of us played. But because most of us had not played it for ages, it became hilarious that we were showing our cards to each other while we figured out the rules of the game. UNO...I'm so hooked on it. I can't wait to play it again. Hmmmm must organise an UNO Session soon.

Midnight came...its 2011! Yippee we welcomed the new year together with some of my dearest friends. Bliss!

We departed on 1st January. After 2 days of gray skies, the sun finally came out. The winds were still there but the sea was nicely calm. Jo and I dashed out in our bikinis. We needed the sun. I needed the sun so so so much. And Shalom wanted her walk on the beach (and soak in the sea - that water baby needed no encouragement to dash into the water).

And we as usual went out to gather shells:D

B and Shalom are both old girls - 9 and 8 years old respectively. But check them out when they chased each other at the beach. Amazingly almost like young puppies:P

It was crazy fun. So much so I've booked my stay for April and August (again). This 2 periods are when the skies and sea are beautifully blue...

Shalom turns 7!

OMG but my lil girl Shalom is all grown up and turned 7 over the weekend. 7 years old and I still call her a lil gal. That I supposed has everything to do with her manjaness, her running and jumping around the house every day!

Her current nick divashalom pretty much came about when I set up her twitter account. Shalom was not available so I thought why not divashalom since this Royal Highness demands to sit nothing but on chairs at home and parties. And when we're put in the park or beach, its the mat or only soft sand. No pricky grass for this diva!

This time around, I thought why not bake everything from scratch on my own for my kiddo. After all I have been baking 90% of her treats. So its a good time to share some wholesome almost organic goodness with her pals from her obedience classes, jungle trekking, beach bumming, makan & twitter kakis. Baking all those cookies and cakes wasn't easy amidst a busy period at my boutique sized ad agency. But I have no regrets doing so. It was therapeutic and mostly so when I saw the happy faces of the furkids when they ate.

We had tonnes of fun on that fine Sunday morning at One Utama Central Park. THANX to all who braved the rain and also did the sun dance. We had an amazing dry ground and mildly sunny weather when it was pretty much raining everywhere else! The furslaves (us) brought our own picnic nad yoga mats and settled down under the tress and enjoyed our breakfast. The birthday picnic was BYOM (Bring Your Own Mat) and BYOB (Bring Your Own Breakfast)! Many thanx for the lovely mini potluck to pals who also brought some yummy goodness. Edleen & Adam brought lovely nasi lemak bungkus. Jo made us chicken avocado sandwiches. Gladys who had to miss the picnic baked us lovely chocolate chip banana cake! Visit her website for the recipe!

This momma here basically packed the picnic for the kids. I reckon the kids will not complain on bad food:P

Oh oh oh...this was not a picnic for those with furkids only. We had pals like Wijay who swung by even though he does not have a furkid. Yeah wijay has always been a big part of Shalom's picnics and parties. And I must thank Wijay coz he actually went searching for candles at 8am on that Sunday morning coz this momma forgot the candles for her baby. THANX bro. *muaks muaks muaks*

Heres some pics for her 7th birthday do. Didn't take much pictures as I was busy being mummy to her 7 year old diva:P And also special thanx to Andrew, Cai Lin, Mae V and Rocky for the use of some pictures taken by them that I have used here too!

Visit the following blogs for more pics:D
• mikeyip.com
• runningandrew.com