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Squirt passed away last night at roughly 9.31 P.M. at the age of nine months old.

I am not going to go too much into how she died. Basically, she left us as soon as I reached home, allowing me to carry her one last time. She was still breathing lightly when my mum thrust her into my hands, wrapped in a towel. It was as if she was waiting for me to come home before she let herself go. Eventually, the breathing stopped.

October 2009 – May 6th 2010.

Squirt fell sick previously in March 2010 with multiple ailments, but made a miraculous recovery eventually thanks to the dedicated force-feeding of food, fluid and medication by virtually almost every member of the household. The vet was amazed, so were friends who heard her survival story – because like what everyone says, guinea pigs go very fast when they are sick.

She remained happily active for one month plus until a heatwave decided to descend on Singapore again. The excessively hot weather led to her developing with a (dangerously) high fever of 41.3 degrees celsius earlier this week. She remained relatively stable but deteriorated sharply yesterday evening out of the blue.

I will really miss my little Squirtypoo and her hilarious little antics.

Me and three friends – S, R and J – having a conversation over a pre-dinner snack at Simpang Bedok two weeks ago. (Yes folks, we had a meal before a meal.)

And then, there was S‘s friend – a colleague, to be more precise. No, he was not present at our conversation. We have no clue who he is and have never met him before. Let’s call him C.

Apparently, S, R and J and me had absolutely no clue what we could do during our next planned outing, and that was when R thought of doing some fishing.

That was when C came into the picture because he fishes on a regular basis and knows the basic techniques (and all the other thingamajigs one has to know about fishing). Plus, he was always looking for people to accompany him on his fishing stints which was why S suggested we join him.

Conversation hereby goes.

Part I

S – So are you guys sure you’re interested? I’ll drop an SMS to C.
R, J and me – Okayyyy.

(S‘s phone beeps a short while later, a response from C.)

S – C just replied. He asks whether you guys have any fishing experience and equipment.
R, J and me – Err …

Well, quite obviously none of us have any proper fishing experience.

A short fishing encounter (with rented equipment) during one of our prior overseas trips together does not count. Plus, that was like … two years ago?!

Part II

(R, J and myself were still hem and hawing since we weren’t sure how to respond to C‘s question.)

R – Well, I have a net. (The small one that catches goldfish, apparently.)
J – I have um, rubber bands to err … tie the fish together.
Me – Well, I have a bucket.

(S broke out laughing and we all followed suit.)

S – Ohmygoodness. So how? What do I tell him? Obviously I can’t tell him all that. He’ll think we’re nuts.

(R snatches phone from S and sends out another SMS to C reiterating exactly what we just said.)

S, J and me – ZOMG. Seriously?!

Yeah. Quite obviously, my friends are nuts.

No wait, what am I saying? I am just as equally nuts.

Part III

(S‘s phone beeps a few minutes later, and we all waited expectantly as she reads the incoming message.)

S – Um, he says he has enough fishing rods for all of you. And you can leave the net and the rubber bands at home.
R, J and me – ?!?!
J – You mean, he actually took us seriously?

(A few seconds later.)

Me – Oh, shit. Wait. Does that mean I have to bring MAH BUKKIT?!

But honestly, C is such a nice guy. Other experienced fisherman would have laughed us out of the country and would have rejected a bunch of noobs like us tagging along on their trips. Whereas C even offered to loan us rods.

So my guess is, fishing is on the list for one of our coming outings!