Lady Marmalade

[img]"/images/perlis/orange2.jpg"[/img]

[i]Me and Lady Marmalade ~ photo courtesy of Mei Fong[/i]

I'm back!!!

Monday was a series of firsts for me. It was the first time I attended a mass in a Catholic church. [url=http://paulosfootnotes.blogspot.com]Paul's[/url] parents graciously hosted our stay in Kangar, Perlis during our trip up north. They are charismatic Catholics and we followed them to Sunday mass. I couldn't help feeling excited. I'm going to an honest-to-goodness Catholic mass! I'll be seeing a priest in action and go through an ordered liturgy. Wowie!

So with eyes agog, I soaked in the whole mass and was inspired by the sermon. Towards the middle of the mass however, I experienced a horrible pain in my stomach. In a flash, I knew that the culprit was the leftover currypuff which was left overnight that I had for breakfast.

Uncle Peter (Paul's father) had put a note on the plate of leftover local delicacies which read, "Not suitable for consumption". It had an arrow pointing towards some red pudding so I thought that the curry puffs were fine. I never could resist curry puffs and so ate it despite the warning note.

And now, I paid the price for my greed.

The pain was excruciating and Uncle Peter took me home and gave me some laxatives to rid off the toxic the right way. We were supposed to go to Gua Kelam (some famous cave in Perlis) for a picnic and he was optimistic that I would be as right as rain in no time at all.

I wasn't as optimistic as he was. The pain was consuming the center of my being! So I told him to go ahead without me.

"I will go and have breakfast with the rest and then we will come back to pick you up. Don't worry, you'll be just fine!" And off he went.

I crawled to the comfortable bed with a good book to read. After about 20 minutes, my stomach churned wildly and I rushed to the toilet. Gosh, the laxatives were that powerful!

When everyone else returned to the house after breakfast, I still felt unwell and declined to go with them. Seeing how potent the laxatives were, I was worried if I couldn't find a toilet in time if I was out there in the wilds.

But Rina just gave me a pleading puppy dog look and made me feel guilty if I forego the trip. And so, against my better judgement, I went. And Rina was appeased.

All the way there and as I walked out of the car towards the picnic spot, I still felt worried. It got worse when I saw that the main toilets were closed due to it being a public holiday. Man, oh man, what is a food-poisoned girl to do at a time like this??

Suddenly, an orange vision appeared and came by to brush her head gently on my legs. My heart lifted when I saw the orange cat whom I shall call 'Lady Marmalade' and bent down to stroke her. With every stroke, my fear melted and my worries fled with the winds.

It's not often that I encounter friendly cats like this. And when they do make an appearance, it's always a sign from my heavenly Father that things will be alright and that He loves me.

And truly, the rest of the day went on to be one of the best times of the trip. We sang worship and love songs in perfect harmony to the strumming of Paul's guitar. We even danced on top of the stools and table at the picnic grounds because we felt so good. There's just... something about that place and that cat that makes me feel that everything is alright with the world.

So, thanks Rina for giving me that guilt-inducing look and Lady Marmalade for gracing my path. And thank you, Father for yet another reminder that I'm in good hands... Your hands.