hello kitty
hello kitty
I am not a fan of cats. I don’t hate them. I am just oblivious to their presence, just like they are to mine.
When I was young, some ten to fifteen cats would occasionally block my way when I had to walk through a back lane to catch the public bus to school. No amount of shooing would frighten them off and I had to just walk cautiously around them with their menacing eyes following me.
Sometimes I wonder if I owe them something in my past life as they keep appearing in my life in a big way, albeit in different shapes, forms, sizes and situation.
I was first introduced to Kit Kat when I was a teenager. My neighbour’s dad was working in a company that distributed tea, apparently tea from Cameron Highlands and also Kit Kat. I don’t recall trying the tea, but once in a while my neighbour who was also my classmate, would offer some Kit Kat to us. It was delicious but because it was expensive, we could not afford to buy them then. Even when I started working and could afford it, I had no craving for it.
It was several years later that this long-forgotten cat came back to my life when my kids went crazy over the macha (green tea) flavoured Kit Kat when it was first released in Singapore. It was the beginning of my journey to hunt down the different flavours whenever I went on work trips to Japan as the latest flavours would not have been released in Singapore yet. I would spend a long time at the airport deciding which flavour to get and how many and always end up buying all the available flavours and a box each. It was certainly excessive but I don’t like having options. Options mean having to make decisions based on several factors like who prefers which flavour, which friend and colleague to give and would there be enough to go round. It was just too hard after a week-long of meetings and decision making. Buying all available flavours was an easy solution.
The good thing that came out of this excessiveness was that it helped kill the kids’ craving for this cat as it came to a saturation point where they got so sick of even opening the fridge as the rows of Kit Kat would be staring at them. A check on the internet shows that there were already 204 flavours of Kit Kat in 2017 and boy, I am glad I got rid of this cat earlier.
(Photo credit: thisiswhyiambroke.com)
Kitikat came to my life when I was working as a sales promoter at Super Kinta, a newly opened departmental store while waiting to enter university.
Kitikat was a local brand of children’s clothing where unfortunately the racks of clothes were placed next to Ladybird, a renowned UK brand; making it hard to compete with customers wanting the “best” for their children as it would be a sign of wealth and success for their kids to wear an international label in the small Ipoh town. The Ladybird sales promoter was a very experienced middle-aged lady. Due to our age gap, we seldom make small talks while standing at our respective racks waiting for customers to drop by. However, we would instinctively assist each other whenever it was crowded.
Without her knowing, I learned a lot from observing and eavesdropping how she promoted the kids wear and closed the sales despite the price. Applying her sales technique, I learned to upsell and cross-sell (in today’s vocabulary). I also learned about target audience; while parents are the ones paying for the clothes, it was the kids who made the final decision. They were attracted to the Kitikat stationeries which were given out free for purchases. I smiled in glee every time the kids start to pester their parents relentlessly over the stationeries.
As sales was starting to pick up and I was paid based on commission, I could only afford a quick lunch or dinner. I would pack my meals from home which usually would be steam chicken drumstick with a dash of oyster sauce; with steam rice as it was easy to prepare. It was over this simple meal that I got to know more about the Ladybird promoter as we sat together to have our home cooked meals where we bonded and strike a friendship as she imparted more sales techniques to me. Much to her delight, I gave some Kitikat stationaries for her children without the need to purchase any clothes from me.
Steam drumstick with oyster sauce
When I left for university, I did not know that I was leaving this cat for good as sadly, Kitikat does not exist in the market anymore. Ladybird is still around. I often wonder how the promoter is doing whenever “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir” come on screen. There must be some connection to my past.
In the hustle bustle of graduating from university, getting a job, settling down and having kids, cats had no place in my life.
But Hello Kitty decided to come to town in 2000.
“The Hello Kitty “craze” that happened back in 2000 in Singapore when McDonald’s launched the plush toys on New Year’s Day saw fans getting injured in fist fights and forced the chain to hire private security personnel to control the crowds”. (Yahoo News: 4 June 2013, Winifred Wong)
Big men and women fighting over cats! You can’t miss such headlines and avoid such lunch topic with colleagues if you do not want to eat alone. Not wanting to be outdone when colleagues boasted of how they managed to get hold of this cat, sadly, I had to queue for this cat even though my kids were not crazy over it. They were more into doggies. But that’s life when you live in a competitive society. There were several more launches by McDonald’s over the years and I dreaded it each time; not because the cats end up in the store room but because I did not want to in today’s lingo, FOMO.
(Photo credit: ebay.com)
With no sign of cats dissipating from my life, Hello Kitty showed up again in 2015. I was presented a full set of SG50 Hello Kitty in multiracial costume as a gift when Singapore celebrated her Golden Jubilee. The cats just refused to live me alone.
SG50 Hello Kitty
My biggest nightmare with cats was about to begin!
A Hello Kitty café was opened at Changi Airport Terminal 3 in 2016 and I could not avoid not dropping by given my frequent overseas work, and leisure travels with family. I wasn’t disturbed when it closed down two years later not because of the food which was a sight to behold.
(Photo credit: stuckattheairport.com)
(Photo Credit: danielfooddiary.com)
This Hello Kitty café wasn’t the nightmare.
My elder sister was working as merchandizer for Hello Kitty Town, a theme park set up in Johor located south of Malaysia. In the course of her work, she became a Hello Kitty FANATIC! She would purchase all Hello Kitty paraphernalia and utilised to the fullest Hello Kitty mould to churn out cookies, biscuits, desserts, you name it.
Hello Kitty Jelly & Sponge Cake
Hello Kitty Pudding with fried garlic and brown sugar sauce
Hello Kitty mini fruit cake
Her obession was relentless. She baked Hello Kitty chocolate coated cookies.
And festive bakes!
Hello Kitty Mooncake
She also organised a Hello Kitty theme board meeting with her colleague where they took time to self-bake and prepare the tea session.
It was not a surprise that when she left the company, her colleagues ordered this multi-tiered jelly for her!
Obsession can be frightening for the person witnessing it.
I took a car ride from my elder sister when I arrived Kuala Lumpur, after having not seen her for more than two years due to the pandemic. When I got into her car, I hyperventilated, not because of the prolonged usage of mask on the flight and train ride, but because of what greeted me.
Car Accessories
She further showed me her other prized possessions when we got to her home.
Enough of cats, I mumbled to myself when she dropped me off at the airport for my flight home to Singapore.
As if it was fate, my daughter recently announced proudly that she had bought a British short hair cat from UK. Honey was grumpy looking and would move away whenever I play with her. She would wriggle her way out and then go into hiding under the chair or table. Great. I don’t like her too.
Last week, my daughter asked if I could go with her to the vet as Honey was due for her first vaccination after arriving in Singapore. I obliged for my daughter’s sake since she had spent a big sum to get her.
The vet asked my daughter to hold on to Honey’s body while all I had to do was to just pat her on her head to distract her from the injection.
Honey meowed when the needle first pricked her; when the vet pushed the vaccine into her skin, Honey let out the sweetest and most beautiful yet pitiful sounding meow twice while looking straight into my eyes with her huge round green eyes. My heart melted. My son in law had told me earlier that cat meows to communicate with humans and not with each other.
You may follow Honey on Instagram at arunformyhoney
The cat and I connected; as fate would want us to.
Suddenly my sister’s Hello Kitty bake seems so enticing and delicious. I will get her to bake me a Honey looking fruit cake when I next meet her.
When I was young, some ten to fifteen cats would occasionally block my way when I had to walk through a back lane to catch the public bus to school. No amount of shooing would frighten them off and I had to just walk cautiously around them with their menacing eyes following me.
Sometimes I wonder if I owe them something in my past life as they keep appearing in my life in a big way, albeit in different shapes, forms, sizes and situation.
I was first introduced to Kit Kat when I was a teenager. My neighbour’s dad was working in a company that distributed tea, apparently tea from Cameron Highlands and also Kit Kat. I don’t recall trying the tea, but once in a while my neighbour who was also my classmate, would offer some Kit Kat to us. It was delicious but because it was expensive, we could not afford to buy them then. Even when I started working and could afford it, I had no craving for it.
It was several years later that this long-forgotten cat came back to my life when my kids went crazy over the macha (green tea) flavoured Kit Kat when it was first released in Singapore. It was the beginning of my journey to hunt down the different flavours whenever I went on work trips to Japan as the latest flavours would not have been released in Singapore yet. I would spend a long time at the airport deciding which flavour to get and how many and always end up buying all the available flavours and a box each. It was certainly excessive but I don’t like having options. Options mean having to make decisions based on several factors like who prefers which flavour, which friend and colleague to give and would there be enough to go round. It was just too hard after a week-long of meetings and decision making. Buying all available flavours was an easy solution.
The good thing that came out of this excessiveness was that it helped kill the kids’ craving for this cat as it came to a saturation point where they got so sick of even opening the fridge as the rows of Kit Kat would be staring at them. A check on the internet shows that there were already 204 flavours of Kit Kat in 2017 and boy, I am glad I got rid of this cat earlier.
(Photo credit: thisiswhyiambroke.com)
Kitikat came to my life when I was working as a sales promoter at Super Kinta, a newly opened departmental store while waiting to enter university.
Kitikat was a local brand of children’s clothing where unfortunately the racks of clothes were placed next to Ladybird, a renowned UK brand; making it hard to compete with customers wanting the “best” for their children as it would be a sign of wealth and success for their kids to wear an international label in the small Ipoh town. The Ladybird sales promoter was a very experienced middle-aged lady. Due to our age gap, we seldom make small talks while standing at our respective racks waiting for customers to drop by. However, we would instinctively assist each other whenever it was crowded.
Without her knowing, I learned a lot from observing and eavesdropping how she promoted the kids wear and closed the sales despite the price. Applying her sales technique, I learned to upsell and cross-sell (in today’s vocabulary). I also learned about target audience; while parents are the ones paying for the clothes, it was the kids who made the final decision. They were attracted to the Kitikat stationeries which were given out free for purchases. I smiled in glee every time the kids start to pester their parents relentlessly over the stationeries.
As sales was starting to pick up and I was paid based on commission, I could only afford a quick lunch or dinner. I would pack my meals from home which usually would be steam chicken drumstick with a dash of oyster sauce; with steam rice as it was easy to prepare. It was over this simple meal that I got to know more about the Ladybird promoter as we sat together to have our home cooked meals where we bonded and strike a friendship as she imparted more sales techniques to me. Much to her delight, I gave some Kitikat stationaries for her children without the need to purchase any clothes from me.
Steam drumstick with oyster sauce
When I left for university, I did not know that I was leaving this cat for good as sadly, Kitikat does not exist in the market anymore. Ladybird is still around. I often wonder how the promoter is doing whenever “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir” come on screen. There must be some connection to my past.
In the hustle bustle of graduating from university, getting a job, settling down and having kids, cats had no place in my life.
But Hello Kitty decided to come to town in 2000.
“The Hello Kitty “craze” that happened back in 2000 in Singapore when McDonald’s launched the plush toys on New Year’s Day saw fans getting injured in fist fights and forced the chain to hire private security personnel to control the crowds”. (Yahoo News: 4 June 2013, Winifred Wong)
Big men and women fighting over cats! You can’t miss such headlines and avoid such lunch topic with colleagues if you do not want to eat alone. Not wanting to be outdone when colleagues boasted of how they managed to get hold of this cat, sadly, I had to queue for this cat even though my kids were not crazy over it. They were more into doggies. But that’s life when you live in a competitive society. There were several more launches by McDonald’s over the years and I dreaded it each time; not because the cats end up in the store room but because I did not want to in today’s lingo, FOMO.
(Photo credit: ebay.com)
With no sign of cats dissipating from my life, Hello Kitty showed up again in 2015. I was presented a full set of SG50 Hello Kitty in multiracial costume as a gift when Singapore celebrated her Golden Jubilee. The cats just refused to live me alone.
SG50 Hello Kitty
My biggest nightmare with cats was about to begin!
A Hello Kitty café was opened at Changi Airport Terminal 3 in 2016 and I could not avoid not dropping by given my frequent overseas work, and leisure travels with family. I wasn’t disturbed when it closed down two years later not because of the food which was a sight to behold.
(Photo credit: stuckattheairport.com)
(Photo Credit: danielfooddiary.com)
This Hello Kitty café wasn’t the nightmare.
My elder sister was working as merchandizer for Hello Kitty Town, a theme park set up in Johor located south of Malaysia. In the course of her work, she became a Hello Kitty FANATIC! She would purchase all Hello Kitty paraphernalia and utilised to the fullest Hello Kitty mould to churn out cookies, biscuits, desserts, you name it.
Hello Kitty Jelly & Sponge Cake
Hello Kitty Pudding with fried garlic and brown sugar sauce
Hello Kitty mini fruit cake
Her obession was relentless. She baked Hello Kitty chocolate coated cookies.
And festive bakes!
Hello Kitty Mooncake
She also organised a Hello Kitty theme board meeting with her colleague where they took time to self-bake and prepare the tea session.
It was not a surprise that when she left the company, her colleagues ordered this multi-tiered jelly for her!
Obsession can be frightening for the person witnessing it.
I took a car ride from my elder sister when I arrived Kuala Lumpur, after having not seen her for more than two years due to the pandemic. When I got into her car, I hyperventilated, not because of the prolonged usage of mask on the flight and train ride, but because of what greeted me.
Car Accessories
She further showed me her other prized possessions when we got to her home.
Enough of cats, I mumbled to myself when she dropped me off at the airport for my flight home to Singapore.
As if it was fate, my daughter recently announced proudly that she had bought a British short hair cat from UK. Honey was grumpy looking and would move away whenever I play with her. She would wriggle her way out and then go into hiding under the chair or table. Great. I don’t like her too.
Last week, my daughter asked if I could go with her to the vet as Honey was due for her first vaccination after arriving in Singapore. I obliged for my daughter’s sake since she had spent a big sum to get her.
The vet asked my daughter to hold on to Honey’s body while all I had to do was to just pat her on her head to distract her from the injection.
Honey meowed when the needle first pricked her; when the vet pushed the vaccine into her skin, Honey let out the sweetest and most beautiful yet pitiful sounding meow twice while looking straight into my eyes with her huge round green eyes. My heart melted. My son in law had told me earlier that cat meows to communicate with humans and not with each other.
You may follow Honey on Instagram at arunformyhoney
The cat and I connected; as fate would want us to.
Suddenly my sister’s Hello Kitty bake seems so enticing and delicious. I will get her to bake me a Honey looking fruit cake when I next meet her.
