Almost a toothless dog...

Recently, I needed to check Chassard's teeth. Last year, he had some pretty bad build up. Over the years, using a mixture of pathetic whines and looks of desperation, he succeeded in guilting my dad into adding a whole array of foods to his diet. At his peak, he was downing cheese, ice-cream, cake, cookies, durian...yes even durian!!

When I took him to get nutered (that's a whole other story), I signed him up for a dental as well. It added a good $150 to the bill but not smelling his breath any more was well worth it.

After that, I figured I should check his teeth once in a while, just in case. Which brings me back to "recently".

He was cosying up to a chair leg when I decided to make my move. I thought I was acting perfectly normal but he smelt a rat.

"Er...can someone help me, please? Anyone???"

Honestly! What happened to trusting the owner?

Anyway, I was carefully checking both the upper and lower teeth when I saw something that totally freaked me out!

His bottom two teeth were missing! I was having fleeting images of spoon-feeding baby food to a toothless dog when he wriggled free. I made another grab and pulled his lower lip down to make sure.

And...

They're all there! Phew! But isn't it wierd? Those two teeth are so much shorter than the rest. It's like he needs braces or something.

In any case, I checked it out. For the record, as of today, there is no such thing as dog dentures!

Chovin Blix Ong: Ms Personality and Hot Mama of the Year

I know this blog is supposed to be all about Chassard. But I just had to blog about Ms Chovin Blix Ong's appearance at the My Paper Executive Look of the Year competition in Vivo City. Woohoo!!!!

Right off the bat, Chovin was already a winner. Friends and colleagues turned up in full force armed with flags, banners and a whole array of whistles. We were the biggest, noisest bunch in the crowd... you couldn't miss us even if you tried.

The gals! Note: Sample number only!!!

The guys. Note: Full strength

Cho's Cricket Club Colleagues

Fran and David who totally pulled a Fran on us! We love you guys!

And her youngest and cutest supporter! If you look closely, Shine's wearing the cutest T-Shirt that says it all: "She's my mommy"!


And of course what's the gang without the ammo? Kudos to Jason, Cho's hubby, Felicia and Donna who took care of the arsenal.

Banners. Note: banner on the right was designed and specially crafted by the one and only Donna! (If you haven't already, you should seriously check out her art on shoes.) She and Felicia took a whole Sunday afternoon to paint it up. (Eh? How did the extra head get in the way???)

Flags. So fun!

(Thomas and Jess camwhoring with flags.)

And flowers - the crowning touch. Er...this one I need to say sorry to Felicia. I was supposed to get the flowers... went to have dinner and forgot. *blush* Came back, got reminded then busy taking photos...forgot again... *double blush* The next thing I knew, she passed this lovely bouquet to Jason. I really didn't know where to hide my face. Paiseh, paiseh...)

Then the music started and the show began.

Chovin posing...

Chovin strutting her stuff.

And the crowd goes wild! Okay, okay. It was just us. But still a crowd, right?

Then came the time for the contestants to say something about themselves. Most kept it short and sweet, some took....a little longer. Cho was gorgeous, confident and super professional. Not used to her being so formal. If I closed my eyes, I wouldn't have known it was her. keke!)

After some la-di-da stuff came the announcement that they would be shortlisting 10 peeps to go into the next round.

Eeep!

And I was happily thinking we could keep screaming ourselves hoarse right till the end. I mean, she's a hot mama (read the banner, judges!!!), they wouldn't toss her out, right??? RIGHT????

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Of course not! And the cheers, they just kept coming!

Part two kicked off with a jazzy song and dance (Ka Lic and Ryan: she sounded good, okay, GOOD!!!)

Then up came the debate section. The final 10 were divided into two groups. Cho was in the second group who had to discuss the topic:

Personally, I think many people gave mostly standard PC answers. But Cho spoke from the heart, displaying her personality and principles. For the record, I totally agree with you, gal - if that's what it takes to get promoted, it's time to pack your bags and ship out. Courageous? Maybe, but I think it takes even more courage to abandon what you believe in cos that determines what you become.

Cho was the last contestant to speak, and then we were side-tracked with the appearance of Jess' new hottie!

...which just as quickly became an ex-hottie once we found out he was married. Poor Jess... Talk about a 2-minute stand.

Anyway, ex-hottie was soon flushed out of our minds with the arrival of the MOMENT OF TRUTH. The MCs came out and in typical fashion, they announced winner of...

.... most stylish ....

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(no Cho...)

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.... readers' choice ....

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(still no Cho....)

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.... second runner-up ....

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(...pleeeease...)

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.... first runner-up ....

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(...pweeease! I'll be a really good girl I promise....)

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...... And the winner of

Executive Look of the Year is ........

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(Drumroll......)

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SOMEONE ELSE!

(sorry lah, I suck at names!)

At the end of it all, the truth is Chovin didn't need a title to prove anything. It would have been nice, but definately not necessary. She has friends and family who went out of their way to prepare for the event. She has colleagues and ex-colleagues who rushed down at the end of a mad work week just to show their support. Groups of people who didn't know each other banded together in one defining moment because of a pint-sized hot mama.

Actions speak louder than any award. If there was a trophy for personality, it would have been hers.

Even then, I doubt she'd need it... You rock gal!

The Angmoh and the Dog

For the last year or so we've been having a temporary-permanent house guest. Ross is an Englishman - Cambridge law grad at that - who is a missionary to China. Since he shifted his base to Taiwan from Singapore, he needed a place to stay for his occasional trips back here.

The thing is that although he's only back here for like 4-5 times a year, he gets along famously with Chassard.

Case in point: Last night, the black, hairy one was so sleepy nothing I did could nudge him out of his corner. All Ross did was to enter the living room, and immediately the dog got up to greet him with full tail-wag and all.

What kind of rubbish loyalty is that?!?!!! I think I need a new dog. *sulk*

Ross is here right now actually, which is how I managed to snap these shots:




Ross even has his own nickname for him: TEETH.

Weird name? Not really. You see, Chassard thinks he's human and likes to greet people with a doggie smile. It actually looks like a snarl, cos he bares all his teeth and snorts at the same time.

It freaked my aunts out the first time they saw him do that. They're not exactly dog people so they thought he was going to have a chomp on them or something.

I had a good laugh though. :D