Kittens: Update

Well, the little kittens are growing up adorable. Their enclosure sort of crumbled after the rain, and then their mother started carrying them out of the re-constructed enclosure. So we bought a cage, which they have been very happy in. It has some ledges in it so they have been happily climbing up the walls of the cage. Mama cat, after some apprehension at the start, has also consented to be pushed into the cage to look after the kittens.

Thus far, there have been expressions of interest but no firm takers yet. So do take a look at these cute little faces: don't they melt your heart? We have given them tentative names. Top left, we have Jack Sparrow. He is energetic and playful, and often wrestles with his brother, Davy Jones (at bottom left).

Tiger Lily (top right) is the only female. We originally named her Blackbeard, but then we found out it was a she. She is pretty energetic and a good climber. Smee (bottom left) is adorable, and my personal favourite. Isn't he sweet, stretching out his little paws in this picture?

So what is there to wait for? Adopt them! Email me at feline.fans@yahoo.com.sg if interested. More photos available on my Flickr site (click the flickr zeitgeist to see more).

Schmap!

Haha! I mentioned a few days ago that my photo on the Washington DC National Shrine had been shortlisted for inclusion in an on-line travel website. Well, today I got an email saying that it had been selected. And, there are little Schmapplets which can be put on my webpage to a) show off my photo and b) help direct more traffic to the Schmap site. So I tried to get a Schmapplet. I followed all directions but for some reason I can't insert the little widget on my site. So I can only insert the link to the Schmap Washington DC guide (churches and temples section).

ANNOUNCEMENT : KITTENS FOR ADOPTION!

Now, this is a serious announcement and appeal: Adopt a Kitten!



My father, as mentioned in many earlier posts, has been regularly feeding the stray cats in the vicinity and they tend to follow him home. Now one of them was a Pregnant Female. One day some three weeks ago she showed up Not Pregnant and we continued to feed her as normal. Then on Wednesday morning, my mother watered the plants and then noticed the emergence of a wet, furry ball from beneath the foliage.

The Mother Cat (MC for short) had brought her kittens one by one. There were 5 altogether, 4 strong healthy ones and 1 underdeveloped little runt. There they were, under the plant pots, when suddenly this torrent of water had descended upon their unsuspecting little heads. My mother dried them down (enduring a scratch from a protective MC in the process) and placed them in a box. We have since made a little enclosure in the corner of the driveway where the MC placed them.

Now, we can't keep them. There are 7 cats regularly in and out of the driveway (Paddy, Martia, Mickey, Mollie, Sootie, Brucie the Bruiser and the Mother Cat herself). The little runt died on Thursday but we really can't have another 4 cats in our garden.

They are a little young to leave their mother as they are still nursing. But in a few weeks, they will have outgrown their enclosure and will start wandering around the driveway. They could even start going onto the heavily used road outside my house. So, dear reader, please look hard at these absolutely adorable little kittens and see if you can find it in your heart to take them into your home. Drop me an email at feline.fans@yahoo.com.sg if interested and I'll respond to you.

More photos of little kittens here.

More Flickr self-publicity

The basilica
Originally uploaded by Taking5

I received a Flickr mail the other day which began as follows:

"Hi Taking5,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the third edition of our Schmap Washington DC Guide, to be published later this month..."

I took a look at the Schmap Guides website and it is quite a handy on-line guide, with options to print out pages etc. Since they paid me the compliment of shortlisting my photo, here is their website for reference: www.schmap.com.

The photo itself- well, it was of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC which I wrote about in a much earlier post. Am quite gratified but a little regretful that I didn't make a try harder to get a better shot.

Little Pieces of Heart

I went to see Dim Sum Dollies: The History of Singapore on Friday night. It was fun! Enjoyable! Definitely worth braving the traffic and human jams getting into Esplanade on a Friday night.

This was the first Dim Sum Dollies production that I have seen. Somehow, whilst it always looked pretty amusing and entertaining, never really felt the urge to go. But I thought it would be interesting to watch their take on the history of Singapore.

The show started promisingly. Sang Nila Utama (played by Hossan Leong, the "chopsticks" which go with the dim sum), nagged into activity by his mother into founding an island city, takes off in his boat with his girlfriend and finds the island of Temasek. Not impressed, he is about to take off when the estate agent comes and does a fast sell on him. He spots an animal, and fortunately for us his girlfriend doesn't like baboons. The next skits take us through the early history of Singapore - the prevalence of pirates in the area, the arrival of the British, the early sarong party girls, vice in old Singapore (gambling, women, and opium dens), Hossan Leong again as an Indian dhobi man with his cow. I truly enjoyed the touching tribute to the samsui women.

Somehow, I didn't like the second half very much. There were some funny moments such as the fan club for wonderful - LEE. But I really didn't appreciate the unnecessary scene of Irish nuns caning the wayward convent schoolgirl (although Hossan Leong was absolutely adorable as the schoolgirl in question) called Maria (although I am sure no one really remembers, I think this would have been around the time of the Maria Hertogh riots!). The ending scene was charming. Hossan Leong, as Miss Singapore kicked out of the Miss Malaysia pageant was hilarious.

The Dim Sum Dollies cleverly blend current issues (eg Ministerial pay hikes, en bloc fever etc) in the skit. Problem is, that sort of dates the play and in a few years, some of the items may not be current. So the play would always need updating. Fine when the Dollies are doing their regular reviews, but for history of Singapore, bit more difficult. But they sing well, look good and the whole show hangs together pretty well.

Favourite dollie - has to be Selena Tan. She really hams up the characters she plays, eg Sang Nila's mother with gusto, pirate captain. She milks her plump figure for laughs (eg, what dim sum does she make you think of? - well she thinks she's bigger than that!). But my favourite actor in the play is Hossan Leong, who steals the show every scene he is in.

Graduation

Well, today I took part in a most archaic ceremony. With a lot of people for whom it means the start of their life as working adults. For me, I must admit it was somewhat old hat. I can only say that it was shorter than the last ceremony of this kind I attended.


Four of my overseas classmates came back for the ceremony - from Indonesia, Philippines, China and Laos. There were another four of us from Singapore attending. We all dressed up in our medieval outfits with the little mortarboard hats and long flowing sleeves (this is apparently the hallmark of the NUS Masters' robes). Then we paraded down to the University Cultural Centre where we stood as a group of men (yes, they were all men) in a different set of medieval robes plus bonnets mounted the stage and sat there for the next hour.

We listened to the commencement address being given by the guest speaker. Then, one by one, we went up on stage to receive an empty tube and walked off to receive a piece of paper with our name on it. Then after the 8 of us had finished, we watched whilst all the Science Faculty graduates mounted the stage. They were a rather more lively bunch than ourselves, with some cheering for graduates whose names were being called out.


My classmate gave the Valedictorian speech next. I quote part of it here, obviously my favourite part where she reminds that we must be:

"the salt that seasons, the salt that preserves, the salt that renders the ocean a dynamic and exciting livable habitat for new ideas, best practices, and true friendships."

Obviously, she's from the Philippines and thus a good Catholic girl. The ceremony ended fairly punctually and we went off for our reception and photo-taking.


So, I suppose, closes the chapter on a memorable and most enjoyable year.


P.S. I started this post the night of the graduation ceremony, but am finishing it on a subsequent day. Later that night, I was to get an SMS from the valedictorian classmate. She was staying with a friend in Hillview Park, a 2-block development. The SMS was to say that the other block was on fire! Fortunately she had packed to go down to KL and so she just lugged her suitcase down to watch the flames much to the amazement of other residents who were wondering how she got the bag packed so quickly.

What a phone contact list can tell you

I lost my mobile phone yesterday. Suffice to say that it was a painful experience and am not in the mood for talking about it.

So instead of my K750i, my happy camera phone friend, I am carrying my old Nokia which may have been all the rage once upon a time but is now sadly antiquated compared to all the new generation phones on the market. And of course, it has no camera!

This phone is actually a spare phone which my family members borrow from time to time. One person who borrowed it for a few months is an aunt of mine who lives in Canada and comes back for a month or two every year. She buys a hi-card, inserts it in the phone and that's it! So her phone no.s are now stored in the phone memory.

I am in the process of re-creating my contact book on this new SIM card. So I opened up the contacts list expecting to see at least a few of my old entries. The list has been completely transformed. After the names of her sisters (my other aunts), the list of contacts contains the following:

Big Sweep
Big Sweep
4D (Sat)
4D (Sun)
4D (Wed)
Horseracing
Sports
TOTO
My Star Sign

I was curious about the last as it was not clear how it added value to the overall contact list. So I called the number indicated - it's one of those *Send numbers which you call to get information, etc. My Star Sign follows the Chinese zodiac. It offers 3 options to those who are willing to pay $0.32 for the privilege:

1. My Lucky Pix
2. My Love Match
3. My daily horoscope.

The mystery at once became clear.

Sigh. Am just wondering what the person in whose hands my phone has fallen is making out of my contact list.

Flats and Cats

I've been accompanying my sister and her fiance view flats over the past few weekends. It is quite an interesting exercise, looking at how people do up and maintain the flats. At one end, there are the house-proud where everything is so immaculately kept and at the other end, the karang-gunis where the paper is peeling off the walls and where junk is piling up on every available surface. Then there are simple, spartan homes and then there are those which are done up resort style even in a humble 3-room HDB flat. But flat prices are going up by the week. Valuations have risen over the past 2 months and yet people are still asking for up to 20% more than valuation. It is a bit worrying, knowing you are chasing a rising market. But there is no point paying more than one feels comfortable with - unless we find the perfect flat, we'll just keep our bids appropriately low.


One unexpected benefit from flat viewing is that we are meeting all sorts of lovely cats! This white cat with black and orange markings was in the Old Airport temporary hawker centre, where we went after a viewing. The other customers were watching with some amusement as my sister and I took his photo. One hawker came up to us smiling and asked us to help take the cat's photo so she could replace her hubby with the cat on her phone wallpaper. My sister took the photo but we couldn't figure out the wallpaper bit as the phone language was Mandarin - so much for all those years of learning Chinese.


We also met a group of four cats at the foot of one block, aptly below a sign saying "Pets' Funland". Now one suspects that was the name of the childcare centre just behind the sign. But the cats seem to have adopted the place as their own, in any case. All the cats had been neutered - the sign of the clipped ear. Alas, no photo as I had not had the opportunity to down load the picture from my camera phone before it got lost.


Nearer home, there have been more kitten sightings. Sigh. Definitely, we need to capture the new Mother Cat (or MC for short) which has been wandering around the place and discovered the happy cat haven a.k.a our front driveway. She's just delivered a litter! Well, time to make the arrangements for her sterilisation - a little on the late side but better late than never.