Bernie’s Blog

Today we visited another relative’s house for dinner. That’s how Chinese New Year is – we gather at different relatives’ homes for dinner, chit-chat, and watching TV.

Singapore is home to number of species of orchids, and we visited the National Orchid Garden today. Rebecca and Charlotte loved walking through the garden, though I don’t think they really appreciate the flowers. They just found it fun to run around, chase each other, and I think the greenery of the area makes them happy. Rebecca was running, walking, and dancing the whole time we were in there. She was definitely in a good mood.

Ok, I had Yusheng a third time. This time with smoked salmon. I guess you could put anything in there if you like.

Today we visited Doug’s Mom’s side of the family. The older generation are fishermen by trade, so every year they’ll prepare fresh shrimp and fish. The flour battered shrimp are to die for! Rebecca met two of her cousins there, but they were both 5 and 7 years of age, so they spent most of the time trying to figure out what Rebecca’s saying and wondering why she’s so whiny.

Happy Chinese New Year! Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Everyone puts on their new clothes, and goes visiting relatives. Those who aren’t married get the opportunity to get red packets filled with money, while those who are married have to give them. Rebecca got her first red packets from Ye Ye, and Dad. The first day is usually the busiest. We went to visit my parents in the morning, then Doug’s Grandma’s, came back to our place where everyone gathered, and had dinner.

More relatives to visit tomorrow.

Tonight is the eve of Chinese New Year, and the official day of reunion dinner. All retails shops, malls, food stores, and markets close early today so that everyone can have a chance to spend the evening with their family. We had a very nice spread, prepared by my mother-in-law.

Charlotte is the daughter of Doug’s cousin, so I guess Rebecca and Charlotte are cousins too. She’s 6 months older than Rebecca, but they are both born in the year of the Rooster – two chicks. They played together immediately, even though the last time they met was a year ago. It’s so much fun watching them.

We had dinner at Long Beach, and there I had Yusheng for the second time. Did I mention I love Yusheng?

Doug wanted to do some shopping for New Year clothes, so we went to Orchard Rd. On the way there, we drove past Chinatown, and Reb got a peek at the decorations along the streets. Since the new year will be the year of the Rat, there were Mickey Mouse decor everywhere. Imagine her constant excitement whenever she spots Mickey Mouse.

The good thing about Chinese New Year is that it gives family members a chance to get together, something we might never get to do any time of the year. We all met at one of Doug’s Aunts’ house to have hot pot.

I love Yu Sheng, and tonight we went to Dragon Phoenix Chinese Restaurant to have dinner, and I had to request for Yu Sheng!

We landed at around 12 noon on Friday, at Terminal 3, a brand new airport terminal at Changi Airport. Grandma and Aunt Mich was there to pick us up. Surprisingly, it wasn’t so humid or warm as I expected. It’s probably the time of the year. I’m not complaining.

Being in jammies on the plane, I changed her into something more comfortable after a nice shower at her Aunt’s. Here she is looking all refreshed and happy, ready for anything!

Big news of the day – Sun acquires MySql for $1 billion. Read more here. MySql is here to stay.

Wanna Play? It goes like this:

Reb: “Kee Kee!”
Mom: Monkey?
Reb: No
Mom: Spanky? (that’s the name of our leopard gecko)
Reb: No! Kee Kee!
Mom: Froggy?
Reb: Kee Kee!
Mom: Piggy?
Reb: Yes, Kee Kee!

Okay.

It’s 2 am now, so technically this took place yesterday. Ok, yesterday I dropped Charlotte off at the vet’s early in the morning at around 8 am. She was going to have her teeth cleaned.

Up until today, I’ve never cleaned any of my two rat terriers’ teeth. I thought by just giving them dry kibble and bones to chew on it would be ok. I forgot to include all the times when they licked up the food dropped by Rebecca, or when I gave them leftovers from the table. So on their annual examination, the vet told me that both Charlotte and Cayenne needed to have their teeth cleaned. I sort of put it off because of how expensive a procedure it was, but last week, when I smelled Charlotte’s breath, it was just unbearable. I could even smell it when she coughed. That was the last straw. I called up a few vets around the area, wanting to have a feel of the average cost, and it seems to be around $300 per dog. Ok, I guess I can live with that. I made an appointment with a vet who had a package for $289 (I save $11!). The package didn’t include any additional charges arising from x-rays and extraction. Of course, I hoped that Charlotte wouldn’t need to incur those costs. From what I’ve heard, extraction is time-based, and they charge by the minute (gulp!).

So everything was fine yesterday morning. On the surgery consent form, there was a question “If you can’t be reached, do you give permission to extract teeth?” I thought about that for a moment. If I’d said yes, who knows how many teeth they would pull? Well, I just have to make sure that I’ll be available to make any decision should they call. So I checked “NO”. The staff was very friendly, and helpful. Charlotte took to them immediately, so I was pretty sure they were nice people, and would take good care of her. After filling up the form, Rebecca and I said goodbye to Charlotte and left the vet.

I got a call at around noon. It was the vet tech. She said Charlotte had a deep pocket, and needed to get an x-ray done, and most likely needed an extraction. My heart sank. I recalled a few days ago when I made the appointment and Doug told me that I would end up paying more than $500. He’s so right. There wasn’t a choice for me. I would never withhold surgery to be done on my pets for the sake of money. Just couldn’t do it. I was just worried about how freakin’ high the bill would be. So I said, yes, do the x-ray, and extract the tooth. After hanging up, I was in some kind of daze, and was just dwelling on what just happened. My thoughts ran back and forth from the final cost and being worried about Charlotte and how she do after the anesthesia. Finally at around 3 pm, the vet called, said Charlotte is awake and doing fine, and they wanted to keep her for a while to monitor her. I can’t leave till 5:30 pm anyway, so it was ok. When she told me the final cost, it was like waiting to get your exam results. I was helpless. Whatever amount she said then and there I’d have to pay. Then she said it – “$630″. Ouch. Ok, I let that amount sink in for a bit. It’s funny how if you repeat something over and over again, it numbs your senses and you start to accept it. I just told myself over and over – “That’s not so bad, at least its not $1,000.” I don’t earn much, so this amount is pretty significant for me, but, at least Charlotte isn’t going to get any infection arising from that bad tooth in the future.

Let me tell you what makes the difference between a good vet clinic and a bad one. It’s not the price they charge, because here in the Bay Area, its pretty much the same for every vet. The difference is the people who work there. When we went to pick up Charlotte, the vet tech was patient in explaining to me what to do, and was able to answer all the questions I had about Charlotte’s bad tooth. Even though it was after closing time, they didn’t try to rush me off. I still had to pay the $630 though. Ok, whatever, what is done is done. I just needed to get this off my chest. I would’ve still taken Charlotte to get her teeth cleaned anyway, so, it wasn’t something I could “save” on. I think her bad breath was due to that bad tooth. What’s more, Cayenne is next, and come to think of it, I’m so glad I didn’t schedule them both for the cleaning! Now that would’ve been a hefty bill. Cayenne’s teeth is much better than Charlotte, so I’m hoping she doesn’t need any extractions, but … who knows!

Charlotte is doing really well so far. When we came back Cayenne was ecstatic to see her sister come home. She’d been moping all day long, looking aimless without her “partner in crime”. I fed them and Charlotte took the dry kibble with no problems, so that was a good sign. She did look a little more sleepy, and understandably too, she’s had a long day! Antibiotics and pain meds for the next few days and she should be back to her normal self real soon.

I’m sure those of you who are reading this and have pets of your own, you can relate on the costs of vet care. The amount I paid today might be nothing compared to what some of you paid for your dearest pets. But we just love our pets too much to not care.

Moral of the story, keep your dog’s teeth clean. I know I’m going to brush their teeth on a regular basis from now on.