01291: Happy Prince Day!

Today has been largely a recovery day given the recent Singapore trip. That means a lot of getting back into one's normal schedule after making the most of our trip practically from sunrise to sunset (and beyond). It also means getting the Sietch back into order after living out of our suitcase for the past three days. And most importantly it means reconnecting with Prince after not seeing him for quite a while. And that was probably the most fulfilling part of the day indeed, especially since Prince had been watching over the Sietch periodically over the time of our trip. Thus when we arrived home today, he was still sleeping.

The Sietch had a few quirks that needed to be addressed today. First, our modest water dispenser had conked out so it could only come up with hot water but no cold water. And in this country, that's beyond horrible. While we could have considered getting it repaired, we figured that it would be easier to get a replacement since it has already been around for almost three years. The other was finding an antenna for the TV so that Prince could be able to watch local TV for the times he's hanging out here.

So we stepped out to resupply our food stores, get something nice to eat for lunch and address the aforementioned errands. But before that, we brought Prince over to Silverworks.

Since we had formalized things between the three of us, Prince had been holding on to Tobie's rainbow pendant - the one we had gotten together at the 2009 Pride March. And while that's definitely been a source of strength for him and a reminder of our commitment, we wanted to make sure he had something that was truly his and not just something that felt like it was on loan. So cue today's trip and we finally got Prince a ring of his own. It's not an exact copy of the matching rings that Tobie and I have (since they're no longer making them as of now, apparently), but it's pretty darned close. But beyond the appearance, it's the meaning that matters more and I know this will go a long way to keep him firmly reminded that we love him. Rings are such traditional symbols, but they do tend to be rather good ones.

Then we went grocery shopping together and Prince offered to prepare dinner for us. We also found a replacement water cooler (but apparently it only "chills" water since it doesn't have a compressor) and we picked up a decent enough indoor TV antenna. We got the grocery shopping done together, which was a different brand of fun entirely, and made sure that Prince finally had an official key to the Sietch. He's definitely transitioned beyond being a guest after house-sitting over the weekend and we certainly wanted to make sure he had an easy way to come up whenever needed.

The TV antenna became a really funny point in today's events. It should have been a plug-and-play affair given it was an antenna with a ready coax cable, however our flat screen TV seems to have a different kind of antenna port at the back. I tried to modify the plug so it would fit and eventually had to defer to Tobie to utilize his Don Bosco skills to get it working. So far we've only managed to come up with a really rough black and white image with decent enough sound, but at least Prince can watch his shows for the most part. Tobie and I aren't fully satisfied with the solution so far, though, so we're bound to continue to tinker with the rig until we get things just perfect.

The challenges of living without cable TV.

And now it's time for dinner! Nom nom nom!

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