Mondays are tuition days.

I had lunch with grandma, foot reflex with her, then went to give tuition to my niece.
Tuition with her is never boring.
My aunt will always be giving me food, her younger sis will always be opening the fridge, giving me whatever she can find. Sometimes, she'll tell me about her day and showing me things that her teacher gave out in school.
Today, she sat beside me and talked non-stop. She looked through my stationery set and commented on anything and everything she sees.

When she saw my purple pen, she asked if teachers can use purple pen to mark.
When she got hold of my eraser, she asked if she can have it.
When she took my highlighter, she exclaimed "Orange pen!" and I had to correct her.
When she saw my pink highlighter, she asked if that's another highlighter in pink.
And so on.
Then she saw my black pen, with the monstrous looking pad hold. And she went "Eeeeeee.... Why so disgusting? Gugu, why you buy this pen?"
I told her it was free, and she went on digging out the other stationeries.
She saw the ugly pen again and went "Ahhh! I see the pen again!"

I like listening to them talk. Hahaha.
And I love their dog! The one and only dog I'll ever touch, or even go near it.
Because it's so predictable. I know it'll never follow me when I walk. I know it'll not sniff or lick me when I put my legs near it.
I like the way it looks up at me when I stop rubbing its head. But it's so camera shy!
It hid in a corner when I took out my camera. I had to snap pictures of it from under the chair.

And when it finally came out from under the chair, it refuses to look at me because it assumes I have the camera in my hand, which I do.
It either ignores me when I call it, or it just turn back for that mere second.

But I got a picture of it anyway.
I had to hold onto the shutter and snap the moment it turns its head.

Speaking of pets, I think my hamster's going to die soon.
One's gone, and this one's getting weaker and weaker. It's balding, cos I can see its skinny little pink legs (not just the feet) and it's only a few bunch of fur here and there.

When I first got that new cage, both of them used to climb up to the roof and hook themselves across it, upside down. It's like watching a mini circus performance. Once in a while, they'll fall back to the ground but proceed to climb to the top again.
In the night, I can hear them running on their running track. Sometimes, both will be up and attempting to run in opposite directions.

Today, I fed it its favourite yoghurt honey drop and watched it run around its cage, which seems so huge in comparison to its shrinking body.
It attempted to run on the running track but failed to climb onto it. It kept trying and when it finally got on, it dropped back down. It reminds me of how a stubborn elderly wouldn't admit the fact that he's old and keeps trying to prove others wrong.
It attempted to climb to the top again. When it was hanging upside down from top, I saw its underside. It was all pink and totally furless. So very different from the day I got it.
It pains me, thinking that it'll die one day, alone in the cage, just waiting for us to just chance upon its dead body.

That's what happened to the one that died.
I was in camp and my mum called to say it disappeared. They searched high and low but just couldn't find it. I went home, blew on the wooden shavings and saw a tinge of grey under all that shavings. It died, buried in the shavings.
And my heartless dad threw it into the rubbish chute, with me screaming at him. I wanted to bury it in my grandma's garden.

Well, I'm going to get a guinea pig after this hamster is gone.