jun 06 - 01

[020606] big fat dinner in a big fat bungalow in Chatsworth Park, with beautiful old trees full of squirrels & birds. usual non-work conversation topics covered with e UK boss: (1) - outdoor stuff (he'd just climbed Gunung Kinabalu for e third time) & (2) Chinese/Asian society (he still can't imagine how locals can remain living with their parents beyond e age of 18, & all e policies geared towards maintaining this 'status quo' - told us that he can't wait to kick his 13 y/o son out of e house).

& then he asked e cat what it thought Singapore was like before Raffles came by, if there were any indigenous people (apparently he was thinking along e lines of Orang Asli, Penan, Iban, etc) already living here, was it really a 'sleepy fishing village' as it has been made out to be? started telling e cat about Guns, Germs & Steel, a book he'd just read. can't recall what transpired next....some discussion on e insatiable greed of humans?

& then he suddenly asked, 'at what age did you start thinking about all these things? what made you start thinking about such things? when I was your age I definitely wasn't thinking of such things yet (boss is around mid-40s)....you should be a politician(!!), people need you to change things(!!!!)'....when your PhD supervisor tells you to be a politician, it is not a good sign....? =S

[030606] first time in 100 Victoria Street, for Let's TAP @ NLB. nice building with great views =) did e same company design e loos for NLB & Wisma Atria? Pearl Bank Apartments (more pics here) in Outram reminds e cat of e traditional Hakka 土樓/圓屋 tu lou/yuan wu dwellings that it first came across in China stamps, & now in FNK's photos.

[040606] MacRitchie carpark - Lornie Trail - Golf Link - Jelutong Tower - Sime Track - Petaling Track - pipelines - HSBC Treetop Walk - Petaling Track - Sime Track - Jelutong Tower - Golf Link - Lornie Trail - Macritchie carpark - Thomson McDonald's....any trip to CNR has to end in an AIR CON McDonald's cos of e bigfatwhale ;)

TTW from below:




nest raider hunting for fresh eggs:



close up:



TTW can take bigfatwhale's weight:



looking towards ranger station:



cat like trees =)

looking north:



there must always be something to spoil e view & remind us that we are in Singapore:



& not forgetting e NOISE & SHRIEKING & SCREAMING from other visitors....staying in e blazing sun proved to be a good way of keeping a distance from them without having to toss them off e suspension bridge, since many are sunshine-averse....especially those who climbed all e way up to e penultimate storey of Jelutong tower, & then refused to take e last few steps to e top as it was too sunny up there *LOL*

not very clear - branded imperial butterfly Eooxylides tharis distanti:



thirsty:





yet another monitor crawling away from us - plenty were encountered today:



[040606] NEA turns East Coast area into e Singaporean version of e Plain of Jars in Laos:



they are placed along e pavement at regular (~10 metre?) intervals....probably for some mozzie breeding study? have this feeling that doggies will use some as their potty =P

[070606] Scotts food court with QY, rumpel, aki & fuchsia halcyon:



is e cat more used to seeing everyone in an Akha village, with QY shooing chickens out of e hut where rumpel is tapping away at a laptop, fuchsia halcyon pounding slices of banana tree trunks to make pig feed, & aki stamping away in a mudpit to make bricks? get this weird feeling looking at everyone in an air con urban environment....like have seen them before - in a very different somewhere else ;)

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + thewonderingstraycat + nature1 + architecture1 ]