happy baby day

2003 N*S wushu training camp - think e whole baby business started with this video?


10-Q to man-maid for uploading this

two tails!!



still recall tuition teacher's kan4 xian1? ;)



[160104] e xian1 that turned out to be one violent aeroplane-flying, grenade-throwing, boi-spearing baby:



lucky whale papa is trained in demolitions work =P

started off with babysitting & bedtime enforcement, & then e milk bottle + bib (lau whale, we didn't take any photos?), & then....

[310704] shopping for e 21st baby day:




while e family adults were eating fish at Forum Genki, tuition teacher spotted this pair of wings:



[140804] cat mama + man-maid heading to Chinatown to hunt for a(nother) ninja:



family complete - ninja found:



[220804] family guys in duck's room sewing clothes for baby's toys:





[270804] 21st baby day at KE7:



baby powder....for wushu shoes:



[270806] don't think babies cannot kena Hello Kitty-ed!!




may there be plenty of good weather ahead, so that whale papa need not complain that raincoat very troublesome to keep, cat mama won't hafta hide under cars for shelter, man maid won't have to dry out his falconz wings & e tuition teacher duck-that-cannot-swim won't drown in puddles =P

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 ]

yellow-vented bulbul - 03

part 1 & part 2

[080706] more streamlined shape now:





it has 'whiskers' =P cute to watch e eyelids when it blinks. by now e bird could peck lumps of birdfeed pellets mixed with water from a tiny plastic teaspoon. tried training it to peck food off e ground, but it could only pick pellets off e floor & drop every single one while trying to manipulate them into a position easy for swallowing. with mealworms it caught on e idea of pecking at moving wormy creatures, but didn't manage to pick any up before they squirmed or crawled away. patience....

e cat's mum decided to start e bird's 'outdoor education' by putting it on e plants outside in e daytime. e plan was to let it spend e night indoors, as 3 community cats had been staking out e house every night since its arrival. but once we turned to walk back in after setting it down on a branch, e silly bird zoomed right back into e house through e front door....& if we kept e door closed, it would aim for a shoulder & wait for e person to walk indoors....

after a few more attempts e bird overcame its fear of e great outdoors & would settle in a flowerpot & wait patiently for someone to carry it back in. gradually grew used to e traffic zooming past e gate & other urban noise, & started singing in response to 'foreign languages', chirping merrily to e other non-bulbul birds that visited e plants. 'mynah song also try to copy', said e cat's mum....this fella is either facing a major identity crisis, or trying to be a lyrebird?!

[110706] preening:







e willow where it practised pecking fluff off e 'fruits':



still lousy at pecking up mealworms, but started to demonstrate its ability to 'track & snap' flying insects out of e air when outdoors. an adult pair of yellow vented bulbuls that have been regular visitors to e garden for >1.5 years also started trying to interact with it. e bird would also zoom in on e cat & e piano & sing loudly in response to higher pitched notes =P

[180706] because e cat's household believes that birds should be free & not caged up:




exposed surfaces = easily cleaned/wiped =) animal-friendliness of family is one of e factors considered before bringing this fella home.

yet another game of 'spot e bird' on returning home:



fast asleep on e curtain without a care showing off its tail & yellow butt to e world =P

these would turn out to be e last photos of it. it didn't appear before sunset after another day of 'outdoor education' on 190706.

hope it hasn't been trapped & confined within a cage in someone's home, or become a mouthful of feathers between a cat's jaws, but has adapted to e wild & learnt how to fear cats & other dangers, & is happily flying free with fellow yellow-vented bulbuls & being e butt of their jokes as a clumsy confused (identity-wise) tweet that happily 'replies' to mynahs, sunbirds & crows =)

[ 200806 update ] a lone yellow vented bulbul now visits e fig tree almost every afternoon to feast on e fruits. unlike e rest which always appear in pairs, this fella is always by itself, & has e habit of bending with its head turned sideways to tap its beak against e branch - something never observed in other birds.

[ filed under: nature1 + 9_lives_2006 ]

happy big fat whale day

over e past 2+ years....

[140104] Hello Kitty War round 1:



ashtray in shape of bike helmet handpainted with Hello Kitty design for man-maid. cat mama had to hunt for an ang pao with e Hello Kitty picture to show e artist at e Chinatown CNY pasar malam, so that he could copy e design onto e ashtray.

[180804] Hello Kitty War round 2:



e biggest project to date, with KeroP, JohnHawk & MP helping out. back to Chinatown, where man-maid & cat mama hunted down e Hello Kitty & whale towels. streamers, balloons & lanterns came from e Ophir Road toy shop in Bugis. e whalemobile makeover took less than an hour while whale papa was busy face-stuffing with JohnHawk at YIH.

turns out that we started a trend:

Hello Kitty Ferrari (photo of exhaust pipe)
Hello Kitty Mitsubishi Kei

he was later made to drive his whalemobile through e campus from S16 carpark to KEVII Hall. along e way even a police patrol car slowed down to stare.



his workstation also kena makeover:



[300105] Hello Kitty War round 3:



whale exacted his revenge with a Hello Kitty birthday cake + place mat + tissue box holder for man-maid =P

[011005] a break from Hello Kitty-ing:



PINK & gold hula hoop for e whale to jump through. baby & man-maid got it from e Holland Village toy store.

[120206] Hello Kitty War round 4:



Hello Kitty-ing resumes, with whale papa & tuition teacher decorating a pink torch with Hello Kitty stickers from e Chinatown CNY pasar malam (favourite hunting ground). cat mama modified e torch:


photo by man-maid

wasn't sure how big or small e outline should be in order to get a clear image at a reasonable distance - took a few attempts & some testing in one of e darkrooms at e cat mama's workplace to get this:


photo by man-maid

man-maid was very pleased with this addition to his flashlight collection =)

[190806] 10-Q for being a source of family entertainment for us over e years:



here's to many more years of Hello Kitty-ing to come! hope you can find a MM soon so that we can have more help dreaming up of new ways to Hello Kitty you ;)

*evil laughter from man-maid & cat mama*

[ update ] e cat was late for wushu as an old lady who had difficulty climbing up & down steps got it to carry her marketing stuff off e bus, to e SBS52/410G/410W berth at Bishan Interchange, & up another bus. along e way she said she'd bought so much food as she was going to cook a big fat meal for her grandkid's birthday today....talk about coincidence! apart from big fat whale, happy birthday to e cat's dad + PET + Bill Clinton too =P

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 ]

aug 06 - 01

[020806] on e way to get lunch, walked past e big fat banyan in e drizzle & found it FULL of birds hiding from e rain - more than 5 pink-necked green pigeons (never seen more than one individual at a time before) + 2 noisy looks-like-glossy-starlings + more than 3 bright yellow black-naped orioles + lotsa other no-idea-how-to-ID non-mynah/sparrow/crow birds =) on e way back, most were still there, including one of e pink-necked green pigeons that appeared to be kooning.

[030806] Education is about lighting a spark, not filling a bucket - from ST Forum letter by Ms Tay Boon Hock

[070806] IMF+World Bank meetings are coming! roads are being repaved, & instant trees & shrubs are sprouting up overnight a la Jack & e Beanstalk in strategic spots along e ECP & Nicoll Highway & e Suntec/City Hall area, hiding e ugly bits of Circle Line & Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway construction sites.

Orchard Road without stripes:



instant (no need to add hot water =P) traveller's palms, frangipani trees (they come in HUGE pots that are sunk into big fat holes dug in e ground) & other plants:



outside Paragon:



[080806] colleague who asked for e microscope room key almost screamed & dropped it, because of e keychain e cat had attached to it - a little rather life-like-looking frog....orz

[090806] national day sunset:



[100806] cat-nabalism - Hello Kitty inari sushi from Ngee Ann City Cold Storage:



[110806] Holland Drive market & food centre:



[140806] in e evening, met a fellow SPS alumni on his way back to SSLS on e SBS95....e cat could still remember that he was working there, & that former SPS staff mentor Prof A. Huan was a pioneer =P e next morning, found a message from him saying that it was great catching up - he'd hunted down e cat's work email on e web, so nice =)

on e SBS14 home at ~11.15PM, counted 45 taxis in e stretch of road between e Orchard Emerald & Plaza Sing bus stops....

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + thewonderingstraycat + nature1 + cats1 ]

jul 06 - 05

[290706] evening sky:



crescent moon:



moments later fighter jets would roar across for yet another NDP rehearsal & spoil everything with ugly grey trails of smoke =_=

[300706] on e way to SDT's BUTS at Fort Canning with supergarf....

Queen Street - where e school moved to in 1928, almost half a century after its founding in 1879 (or 1844, if you count e girls' section in RI):




simple & nice - e 'carrot' (according to e cat's dad) + plain toast + burnt toast + 'filiae melioris IVY' =P



original intent was to catch Oshima Sakiko's 'Whose Voice Cries Out', but e performance dates are too close to e cat's supervisory committee meeting, so we settled for BUTS with e Kino discount:



Mr Purple Lim came to mind, cos he'd taught Maths, PE & gymnastics in RGS & used to dance for SDT. think he's far better at ballet (image of him partnering Cecilia Hon who used to teach Physics comes to mind), teaching PE & as a gymnast than at teaching Maths or cleaning OHPs. after an entire year e cat understood nothing he'd taught about graphs, not even how to plot y=x, but it learnt everything from someone else in less than a week later on. when it came to OHPs he used his hanky & saliva >_<



good weather + katsu-don o-bento from Raffles City basement Kuriya + entertainment + e chance to lie down to watch e clouds moving across e sky during intermissions so inspired supergarf, who now wants to go camping to stargaze =)

[310706] Waterloo Street-Bras Basah Road junction from upper deck of SBS14:



[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + thewonderingstraycat + art1 ]

jul 06 - 04

[250706] free ride home from work courtesy of e monumental one, but with a detour to e airport. he appeared dressed in longs & e cat held its breath as it got into e car, just in case he was 'fresh from (out)field'....luckily he wasn't =P

two Lins:



one works in forests (& swamps & mudflats) & e other is now in forestry (& environmental studies) school. maybe it's something to do with their surnames.

not to scale:



to scale:



e monumental one's cat-shrinking effect at work again. two more examples of such 'trick photography' from e 2004 Kinabalu trip:



maybe that is why we usually talk only when seated =P even TC looks small standing beside him!

one Lin left - lens testing at T1 viewing gallery:





attracted e attention of police on patrol, who allowed us to continue after taking down e monumental one's particulars. guess they thought e cat's Olympus pretty harmless & low-end. hope nothing happens to any of e planes we photographed....

T1 departure hall:



e cat has lost count of e no. of times it was left behind here by its parents, who lost count of e no. of kids (anywhere between 5-9!) they had in tow. they didn't realise that any were missing even after reaching home. e first time it happened, e toddler cat was found wandering alone happily in e viewing gallery, & handed over to airport police by some strangers. e subsequent times it happened, it knew how to make its way to e arrival hall info counter to find those adults who would inform its parents that they'd left something behind at e airport.

walking back to e car, spotted a perfect angle for capturing e control tower:





had bags & gear on e car bonnet & ground, & had to move several times to make way for cars that wanted to leave or park. initially worried that some drivers might mow us down, but most slowed down to stare instead. after quite some time, we packed up to leave, only for e monumental one to realise that he'd forgotten to change his ASA/ISO settings....so everything had to be unpacked again! by e time this Lin reached home e other Lin would have already landed at Don Muang.

[ filed under: 9_lives_2006 + thewonderingstraycat ]