project 365 : days 36 - 42

Some of you might be wondering why this week's 52 post came a bit later than usual. As you know, I make it a point to post these every Sunday. The reason for not being able to this week, is because I've been a bit depressed following the events of last week. If you read my last 52 post, you might remember I posted a photo of one of the strays we've been feeding who recently became a momma cat. I mentioned how there used to be three kittens, but one of them disappeared. We could only assume that the kitty already died. Last week, the other two passed away as well. I blame myself for not being able to do more for them. I've been so troubled over this these past few days that it was hard for me to make a happy list. Had this tragedy not happened, number one on the list would have been "being visited by cute strays". But well.. real life happened. It's very unfortunate, but I can only wish they're in a better place now. I'm able to think a little bit more clearly now, so I managed to write this post today.

Day 36 – Cup noodles for 23°C weather


Day 37– Stray momma cat and her two kittens. Sadly, the orange one passed away the day after I took this photo.


Day 38 – Mong keeping herself warm behind the laptop


Day 39 – Sweet baby. He disappeared the day after I took this photo. We assume that he passed away as well, since we couldn't find him no matter how hard we looked. I hate humans and their cars.


Day 40 – Din Tai Fung (and xiao long bao!!) for the first time ever


Day 41 – This one's started to camp outside our door, which gives me a bit of assurance that he'll be safe. I left him a box to sleep in after this.


Day 42 – These three babycats are now a year old! How quickly time flies ♥

The only bright spots in my week:

1. Finding a potential forever home for the stray tuxedo cat. I'm sad that we weren't able to find homes for the two kittens and that they weren't able to live full lives, but the important thing now is to focus on the present, and to do what we can.
2. Fixing my blog's navigation bar. I added dropdowns for certain labels, so now it's a little bit easier to browse my blog.
3. Having xiao long bao for the very first time! I got curious about them ever since I watched that one episode of The Layover with Anthony Bourdain in Taiwan. I didn't know what to expect, as I can't handle hot food well. Surprisingly the inside wasn't that hot (maybe it's because I let them cool for a bit before trying?), so I was able to down half an order in a couple of minutes.
4. Colder weather. The weather's been super cold recently – lowest temperature was 21°C, if I remember correctly. It's not as cold as other countries, but this is already super cold for Philippine weather! Only downside is that coffee gets cold quickly and that I can't shower without shivering like crazy, but I'll take the cold over the sweltering summer heat any day!
5. Receiving our Petcube Play in the mail! I've been doing test-runs since it arrived. I also posted a short video on Twitter. It's super useful! Whoever thought of this deserves an award. I especially love the 2-way talk function, because now I can talk to the babies while we're out. I'll put up a detailed review of the Petcube Play soon!
6. Celebrating Jake, Mori, and Mong's first birthday! Time flew by so fast with these three. I was looking at their baby photos the other day and they used to be so tiny! Out of our seven cats, only these three have actual birthdates because they were born at home. The other four are rescues, so we take the dates they were rescued as their "birthdays".

What was the highlight of your week?

To have a better appreciation of life's moments, no matter how mundane, my 365 day challenge for 2017 is to take photos every day of the year, and at the same time write a list of things that have made me happy recently.