I've just discovered that the Puteh likes watermelon. That's weird because the usual is feeding them apples, oranges, luffa, heck, even cucumber (that's disgusting. What living thing in their right mind likes cucumbers other than using it for eye mask?).
Des was shocked because he hadn't heard of anyone feeding watermelon to their birds and I told him I know why. Cos it gives them watermelon-y shit. Yucks.
HAHA..
My dad likes Shrek alot, I don't know why. Maybe because it sings really nicely and has a chirpy voice that fills up our airwell with LuRvEeeee.
It had been raining out of nowhere these few days. Just a sudden pour type of rain. We frequently hang Shrek out at the airwell (my dad actually hooked up a series of hooks so that the bird cage could be hanged up there).
Dad was having his afternoon nap while I slacked in the room on Mum's computer when he suddenly sat up out of nowhere, probably due to the sound of heavy rain drops against our roof and he said "The bird got bring in or not!!!??"
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 1:19 pm
Wisdom II
Friday, August 29, 2008
I shall talk a little more about myself for starters.
HAHAHAHA.. Yea, I really talk alot about my pets, I realise.
Over the past few days I had wisdom tooth problems. As such, I didn't make it today to haggle my new pay. Dad wasn't too happy because he felt the pay was just a tad more than a Sri Lankan construction worker (ouch).
Anyway, I had them both removed without hesitation.
Boy did the shit hurt this time because apparently the teeth wasn't very near the gum yet it had already become infected (there was pus inside, or so the lady dentist told me).
I have nothing against lady dentist but I thought it would help alot of they had more strength and could remove the tooth really fast.
The lady must have adjusted her self three times in three different positions in her attempt to wank out that troublesome tooth that had not erupted.
The X-ray was also quite cool. It was in a seperate compartment situated outside the clinic (it was those void deck shop) and then right beside the rubbish chute. I assure you though, there was absolutely no smell of the rubbish dump. It was only upon going home that I realised it was actualy beside the rubbish chute!
The X-ray scan was disappointing though. I saw a hidden Wisdom tooth on the lower jaw too close to the bone although the angle and everything was alright. Apparently it was already infected because when she poked my gum to test the anaesthetic, she told me that there was pus (and at the same time I added an Ouch because the anaesthetic was not enough). There was no way she could get at it without removing parts of the bone *grimace*.
The upper Wisdom, as usual, was a normal extraction (thank gawd!).
Fast forward, you know how they always blindfold you when they do those surgery?
Well, I peeped. Yea. The blindfold eye-mask wasn't too close to my nose area so I could peep out. But what I could peep was limited. Only could see the doctor's hands moving around me. What a sight. White spandex gloves with red blood. A stark contrast.
I have always praised anaesthetic. Thank gawd for it, otherwise alot of things could not have been done no matter how advanced the medical field could be.
The blood left me in awe, not disgust. Here was my gum, cut open and them "moving away the gum and tissue because it's quite thick and there's more blood than usual due to the infection" according to the doctor's words, and I didn't feel shit! Behold, the miracles of anaesthetic!!!
Anyway, to counter possible pains / infections / swelling that would accompany it thereafter, I was loaded with all types of medicine and mouthwash due to possible brushing difficulties at the affected site. Boy that was alot of medicine to me.
One of the funniest thing though, was biting the gauze to curb the bleeding after the surgery. Believe it or not, I find that the most difficult thing to do. I mean, during the surgery, all you had to do was lie down there. After the surgery you had to bite the gauze. The thing about anaesthetic was its ability to make you think you've lost control of your mouth.
Well, I guess to a certain extent you really do lose control of it, but it makes you feel like someone took it away temporarily or something. As such, you keep imagining that because you are not able to control it, your lip becomes droopy. And then worse of all it starts to salivate and you drool from that corner of your mouth.
But nonsense! None of that really happens. But you can't stop yourself from imagining that way. The only inconvenience though, is that you can't tell for sure whether you are accurately pressing your wound against the gauze that they ask you to bite hard on in order to slow and slowly stop the bleeding.
As I had done two years ago, I kept my wisdom. But this one was real ugly. There was abit of my gum still on it when the dentist passed it to me. Thankfully after soaking it in bleach for a few minutes, the blood came off and it looked more like a piece of tissue (no wonder they call tissue, tissue) rather than part of my flesh.
Behold!~!!! I have returned to one of my normal I-Aim-To-Disgust-All-Of-You posting!!!
Apparently although I don't drink coffee nor do I smoke, my teeth is still very coloured. You can see which are the parts out of the gum and which were the parts intact just via the colour alone.
This teaches us, boys and girls, NOT TO SMOKE. Or drink coffee. :) And you know I only dare to say this because I don't do both.
My dad is on a medication right now called Zyban or something. I think you smokers should go check it out. It's some medi that helps to alleviate your desperate feeble and at times ridiculous dependency on cigarettes.
It's been a record two and a half weeks since he last smoked a stick and he has never gotten so far. In fact, not far at all with patches, not with nicotine gum.
Hail Zyban!!!
Let me end with a pic of my tooth from two years ago. Yea, they haven't rot yet. You're supposed to soak them in bleach for I think close to 24 hours so that you can keep them and they won't stink :)
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:21 pm
Found a job
Alas, after a not-so-hardworking search, I found a job but it's quite low-paid (temp job, waddya expect?).
I am going to meet the necessary peepz tomorrow and will try to haggle it higher.
Meanwhile I would like to share with all of you a new bird. Not exactly new though. It was Des, who had apparently gone on a shopping spree and bought two more Putehs and then got complained and I now have to babysit one for him.
Babes and Hunks.... Meet..... Shrek!!!!
Of course, Des wanted to call him a more 'manly' name, like Hulk.. cos Hulk's green too, but so is Shrek. And who said Shrek isn't MAN!?!?!!
Shrek is terribly afraid of everything and then becomes a total pinball inside his cage. You can see that this is obviously not those very expensive ornamental cages (there are bits of transparent plastic sticking out from the photo).
Apparently because they are young birds, they have to be kept in these types of plastic cages (that cost peanuts then compared to those decorated with ivory and mother-of-pearl that could go up to thousands of dollars. Ridiculous!!). This is due to ornamental cages being less sturdy.
We learnt this through Baby. Baby was terrified of humans too when it first came. Just by holding its cage it would become a pinball as well. All of a sudden, Baby knocked through the cage grill and his head was stuck between the two grills. Panic ensured and for awhile Des pondered whether should he help the bird (by pushing its head backwards or not) but thankfully Baby soon reversed and got out of that difficult situation.
A cheap plastic cage was immediately bought to prevent a repeat of the above.
Baby is called Baby because.. well.. guess? IT'S A BABY LAH U DUMB DUMB. Oops. . . I just called you a pufferfish. HAHAHAH...
Anyway, supposedly young Putehs can be differentiated because their tails tilt at a higher angle than their seniors (I can't figure out the tilt is which part and at where).
I have so much to learn about Putehs and yet I suddenly found myself smacked with a job. Hahaha!!!
Should I intro you the rest too?
Okay, so now you all know who is Baby and Shrek already. Hmm.. who else...
Well.. there's Cartman. Cartman was bought together with Shrek. When Des purchased Cartman, the shop assistant cajoled him into buying another young bird. And so he did. So Shrek ended up with me.
Cartman is named Cartman because... He's FAT. Period. Fat in a good way. Not Puffed up kind of fat. We have a term for puffed up Putehs. We call them Ping Pong balls. Now it's not good to see your bird like that because either it's feeling REALLY cold (which is not good for their health), or they're totally sick to the core! In fact, Des had a Puteh that became a ping pong call for only three days before it eventually died.
He couldn't for the life of him trace the reason why, until he heard people saying that Putehs sometimes die from eating Flies/Mosquitoes that somehow had insecticide sprayed on them before. You know how these pests don't die immediately even after you sprayed a whole load of Baygon on them. They fly like a drunkard for some distance before finally collapsing.
Yes. Putehs are insect-eaters. Which explains why if you had a piece of fruit inside their cage (they WORSHIP apples, and I will speak of it in further detail another day), there are absolutely no fruit-flies surrounding that piece of fruit because the puteh would have walloped them all!!
So yea, I don't know Cartmen really well.. you know.. him being new and all. So let's move on to Poot Poot.
Poot Poot was named Poot Poot because when Des asked me what we should name him, I looked at the bird and he did just that. Poot. Yea. He crapped. He must have thought I was a predator eyeing him when all I did was look at him for some sort of inspiration.
However, our bird guy decided that Poot Poot was a very inappropriate and vulgar name for such a lovely Puteh; he had the nicest body of all the Putehs he owned. In prime condition, a good Puteh is supposed to have a long slim-looking body with a very good upright posture...
He wanted to recall the name Poot Poot.. and rename him to Yandao... but that did not work. Apparently after naming the bird for a mere three days, he had gotten SO USED to the name Poot Poot that whenever mentioned something about that particular bird, he himself referred to it as 'Poot Poot'.
Now we come to our very last contestant (like real!!).
LUCKY BOY!!!...
Remember just now I mentioned that Puteh that ate insecticided Mosquito and died? He was the best among his 3 Putehs at that time. So when he died all of a sudden, Des was pretty upset. Thankfully, or should I say, Luckily... Lucky blossomed into a fierce little Puteh who Buka-ed alot.
Buka is when a bird is trying to be really fierce, it sounds like a little machine gun. I guess in the wild when they fight for the same female, or fight for territory, they use Buka to determine the winner. The loudest, fiercest and longest Buka wins.
You know how birds go Tweet... *pause*... Tweet.... *pause*....
Buka* (means 'Open' in Malay) goes something like Tweet-Tweet-Tweet-Tweet (can be up to many sounds). Of course in competitions they also judge by the voice quality and the number of Bukas.. or Tweets.. as you may prefer to know it as.
So our little Lucky boy blossomed. Oh yea, only Males Buka, if I'm not wrong. Females I don't think so, although if they are fighting for the same Male I don't know what they do. Catfight? Hahahahaha!!!
But here's the thing. Lucky had always been a nameless bird. You know what they always say, once you name something, it means you start to develop feelings for it. But Lucky absolutely had to be named.
Every morning at 6+, Bird Guy wakes up. He hangs the birds outside along the HDB corridor and then goes back to bed and slack for maybe an hour or so more before he drags himself up and prepare for work (and subsequently bring in the Putehs that have been singing outside).
One day, it was raining. But since it was along the corridor, he hung them up as per usual anyway. Bad idea, it seemed.
When he really woke up and went to take the birds in, one cage was missing.
Lucky's (of course, he was NAMELESS at that point in time).
Bird Guy thought it was weird. Why would anyone just steal one bird when there were three hanging out right beside each other?
Gut feel made him run down the stairs to go and check.
There, standing in the rain, with a broken cage was (guess who).... Lucky.
Let it be more dramatic. The wind was blowing that day. Howling even. It was one of those days that many trees fell and blocked the roads (Oh well... the problem with being a Garden City.... Don't get me wrong. I LOVE PLANTS!!).
Worst of all, the cage door was OPEN due to the drop. Oh yea, forgot to mention to all of you, Bird Guy stays on the second floor.
So there was the damaged broken cage, in the rain, the rain was even rocking it back and forth and the door was wide open.
He didn't have much hope as he ran nearer but lo and behold, there stood a very pathetic looking drenched Puteh standing on what was left of the bird stand, probably the most least-damaged structure of the bird cage.
From then on, Lucky was named :)
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:28 am
Uber Clear Finch Photos!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
I don't know what to say if you say these photos aren't clear enough.
You can even see part of a millet spray husk stuck on the female's beak! What a messy eater!!
I have yet to name them and would welcome any suggestions (please make sense).
I also like the way they look like they are wearing lipstick!!! That's so cute though I read somewhere that this had something to do with the brighter red it is, the more ready they are to start a new birdie family.
I've read about horror stories off the net about how some finches ignore and subsequently kill their young (starvation). I'm hoping that these two in particular would make good parents. Apparently, experts advised that no point breeding them if after a few batches they keep ignoring their babies (to the point of throwing them out of the nest!!).
I also delight in sharing with all of you that they are quite used to my place right now. I don't know if it is by chance or what, but I think they know how to say hello. Or at the very least, give them some credit for attempting to.
It imitates the tune of a person saying Hello... except through its mouth, it comes out pronounced as Weee-Huuuuuuuu.... weird thing is they only do it in the morning so I haven't figured out if it is the result of them trying to imitate the 'Hello' sound.. or it is their natural call sound.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:06 am
The Wedding Singer
Monday, August 25, 2008
Gary offered his services to sing at my wedding dinner, although that dinner probably won't take place until like... Year 2015. HAHAHA...
But anyway, that was a sweet gesture though I'm sure he wanted to sing for the sake of singing and has nothing to do with the wedding.
Anyway, his kind offer made me recall a particular song by Adam Sandler, from the oldddddddd movie, The Wedding Singer. Here's the clip from the show:
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 1:52 pm
When was the last time you've been to Chinatown?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
I still maintain my thinking that Chinatown is too over-commercialised.
Oh come on, look at the things for sale. It's for tourists more than anything! What with the exorbitant prices meant to chop off the heads. And the act oriental stuff that is so blardy overpriced, though I have to admit that though you may be able to get exactly the same thing in China and at a (much) cheaper price, the better quality one is most probably found in OUR Chinatown.
Des had promised me months ago that he wanted to bring me to this particular place he had surveyed while he was at work.
It was this heritage museum at Chinatown. I would say the beginning part of the museum was really boring. You learnt from the passages written that how hard life was for the immigrants, known as 'Xing Ke' although the way they spelt it in the museum made me wonder what is Hsingkih for awhile.
I think it originates from the Hokkien word for 'new guest'.
One thing I absolutely had to commend the museum was the exact replica of a pre-war immigrant living place.
People in the past didn't have their own homes. They rent small little pathetic cubicles located usually on the 2nd or 3rd floor of these shophouse.
For example as we walked in, one cubicle belonged to this old lady who sells shoes (quite evident by the bags of shoes that were hanging in the cubicle). Another belonged to a taylor family whose wife just gave birth (to explain why there were baskets and bright pink dyed chicken eggs).
Another was this horribly cramped cubicle, supposedly belonging to a family who had a wife and 4 daughters (the husband and one more son lives in another room, which is not surprisingly also cramped!).
By those standards, the size of my current bedroom can easily accomodate three FULL families!!!
Downside? That place was a tad bit dusty. It was quite disturbing that Des sneezed like once every 3minutes while we were exploring the exhibits.
Some part was really real. There was this sound player in the kitchen, where you can hear some women conversing in Cantonese while they are cooking (yes, frying oil sounds!!), complaining about how everything is expensive (my gawd, they call that time expensive. They ought to be living today to see the inflation man!). Really makes you feel like you went back in time and some ladies are really cooking in the kitchen!
Maybe it was due to it being a weekday, we were probably the only ones in the museum (I didn't see anyone else except the staff walking around checking on the exhibits).
The downside? Other than the initial boring part, we were not allowed to take photos. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhh... what good is a place if you can't even take photos to encourage people to go view it?
I thought that it's a pretty good place though, especially if you want to find out the startling living conditions the early immigrants of Singapore were surviving in. Just another nagging reminder to appreciate the lives we are all having today. I really salute our grandparents and ancestors!
Another shocker for me was the toilet. THANKFULLy because they are museum exhibits, they do not stink the whole place (it was air-conditioned! The stench would have make every tourist not want to visit!)
Back at that time, I think the only plumping service was those that belonged to the kitchen sink. Turn the tap, get water, though I don't know how fresh or clean that water is supposed to be.
The toilet bowl was a good replica. It was nothing more than a little squat area with a hole, and a bucket placed right under that hole so anything you bomb lands there. I've heard Ah Gong tell shocking stories of how if you're not careful, your leg might slip and land inside. Gee, that would have suck big-time.
I doubt men in the past pee accurately either, so I really pity the women back in those days.
And for the toilets on the ground level, it was an open air area. When I went there, it was drizzling heavily. Imagine no matter how heavy the rain was, you still had to run to the little shed (that is actually the toilet) to go there and pee / bomb / bathe.
Of course, you have to remember that no matter what, it was just a museum. The exact real place would have been 10x darker (it was quite dark inside already, they made fake flame lamps to help you get that feel but I'm sure people would rather live in the dark rather then spend money on fanciful lamp lightings), 20x more humid and 100x more smellier back in those days.
By the way, we had this after the museum walk at the nearby Mei Shi Jie... direct translation Delicacy Street?? It only costs $5 but in my opinion it was quite a generous portion. I'm not a great lover of 'kong ba', but this looked really nice so that I decided to take a photo of it for memorial sake.
Just for your info, the dish I ate was something called Singapore Fried Noodles though there is absolutely no link, and I have no idea what the ingredients represented and I so regretted ordering it. Should have eaten the cannot-go-wrong Carrot Cake instead!
Should also share another info with all of you that I got another pair of birds. Gouldian Finches, they are called. Pretty little things but they're absolutely terrified of people and have not started to eat yet. I only brought them home this afternoon. There is a little coconut husk affixed in the cage too, as according to the aunty at the birdshop, they breed quite easily.
I wanted to name them Jem and Scout Finch, after the beloved characters that we are all know so well, don't we, 4E3 2002? But then I decided against it because they are a Finch couple, not Finch siblings like Jem and Scout are!!
In the photo here is the male. Its colours are more distincitive and bold. I was unable to take a good shot of the Female. She has a black face and the colours on her body are duller. I learnt from the sites that this is so that they are less noticeable when they are nesting the eggs, whereas the Male would have to be more sacrificial; its bold colours aid it in taunting and luring predators AWAY from the nest. Awww.. how sweet.....
At the very last minute, I decided against keeping another parrot. I'm sure Joon would have none of it, and partly because I don't think I have enough attention to spare if I have another parrot. I only realised that Joon is extremely protective and choosy about people who get close to her because she kept trying to attack our new maid, which means all the more it will be difficult for her to get used to the idea that she has to 'share' me around with another parrot.
The finches proved to be a good choice because unlike parrots, they would rather I leave them alone as much as possible, plus other than routine cleaning and refilling of food / water, they do not need as much attention.
I'd try to take a sweet couple pic of both of them standing on the swing by the next post :)
Meanwhile, here's a molting and tired Joon Joon! Look closely and you can see the new feathers sticking out awkwardly.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 7:32 pm
KO One
I have decided to rewatch a certain drama of mine, KO One.
Here's to share with all of you some of the funny parts, in case, like me, YOU CAN'T GET TO SLEEP!!:
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 4:01 am
Dumb Dumb Dee Dumb Dumb...
Friday, August 22, 2008
Have you heard that song by Rihanna, called Disturbia?
Yea, I know that part actually starts with B instead of D.. Bum Bum Dee Bum Bum. Not as my title states, but heck!
Remember how I mentioned once that I ran out of names for my two little spotted puffies? Yes. I have named them Dumb Dumb and Dee Dee.
What more appropriate names can I give them?
Dee Dee is the short form of my name that is in my email already. Whereas Dumb Dumb is, well, describes what it is. Dumb.
I have to admit the dog tick problem has been getting worse lately. I've used my last pipette of Frontline on Kilo but due to Chubby's age and his great weight loss, I didn't dare use the Frontline pippette on him.
But I guess I have to. Probably get a lighter dosage type (maybe the one that was meant for TINY dogs like the chihuahua).
So yea, while the ticks problem exist, I feed them to the puffers.
I have had the 'good' fortune of seeing dog tick babies too. Apparently they are a super bright red in colour and extra squishy. If you aren't careful you might have popped it already. These are a favourite enjoyed by my fighting fish as well because it is small enough.
Before I bought back the spotted puffers, I used to feed all ticks to my fighting fish. To its great frustration, a fighting fish mouth is apparently too small to poke at the tick.
I've also learnt from a fighting fish ex-fanatic that after fighting before, a fighting fish usually loses all of its teeth, thus cannot fight as well anymore.
I think this explains why I bought my fighting fish at a mere $2 instead of $10.
So the tick ends up drowning in the fighting fish tank (which I have remark, is really a very NICE tank :)
But the same baby ticks thrown into the pufferfish tank usually gets 'lost' because they are so tiny that even the fish would miss it. Either that, or they don't bother to eat such small ones when they know bigger ones will come their way.
But Dee Dee is forever alert. Big tick, small tick, even if it is NOT a tick, she gets there first.
Dumb Dumb would be, as its name is. Forever looking at me. Unless in super slow-mo I slowly dropped anything in front of him, then he would realise I really DID drop something. Otherwise, Dee Dee usually would have finished it.
Here's a cute pic of them. Believe me, I had given up the idea of photographing them clearly because they are like little torpedos/helicopters zooming around the tank. They saw me standing so close and got so excited because they know it's feeding time!
In case you want to know, Dumb and Dee stays very clear of Cherry's tank. No doubt they had seen Cherry feed before.
The one on the left is Dumb Dumb (see what I say about him always near me and getting very excited!?) and the one on the right is Dee Dee. You can tell that he/she is very attentive. Being the smarter of the two, it usually stays further back to see my hand movement better (since the food is dropped from the hand).
Dumb Dumb only realises if I drop the food with my fingertips nearly touching the water. Now, I have to tell you, I seldom do that. That is like finger suicide and my fingers are right now more important than ever since I need it so much for my data entry job (that I already started to hate. Apparently my love for typing is limited, lol).
PS: I think my blog has a curse. Other than Cherry and my Mono, all fishes that I have mentioned in this blog before usually die within a week of blog publicity. We'd wait and see for Dumb Dumb and Dee Dee. For the record, I've been keeping them for a little over a month and they still look as cute as they first came. although definitely much bigger.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:09 pm
This is HILARIOUS
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Hitler feels for Singaporeans and the ever-increasing ERP Gantries popping up all over the island....
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:41 am
A Belly Itchy Problem
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Once upon a time, I woke up on a wonderful Saturday morning and pondered the possibility of skipping Band practice. This was back when I was in Secondary School.
This was due to a silly little Mosquito bite. Silly yes. Little, well, not very.
The dumb mosquito bit me right smack in the centre of my upper lip.
My lips are naturally pout. So much so that sometimes when I am not pouting, people ask me to stop pouting (this is a very frustrating problem).
Add that mosquito bite bump there and my upper lip greatly resembles a hotdog. Needless to say, I looked like I was pouting, more than ever!
Thankfully that happened all the years back. And as I had learnt, leaving a Mosquito bite alone would generally make the bump less obvious.
However, last night I was bitten at, of all places, my belly button. . . !!
I scratched at it until abit of the skin came off and now it hurts like hell.
Let this serve as a reminder to all of you that the skin at the belly button is damn tender. Please do not scratch at it unless. . .
Oh by the way, that apple cider vinegar on mosquito bite thing? It really works!!
I kept scratching at it although it started to smart already from the raw skin but once I sprayed some vinegar dilued in water on it.. TA DAAAAAA... I not only stopped scratching. I went to sleep!
It's a miracle! The next time you kana a mosquito bite, you should really try it!
For the first time in my life, my blardy full name was on the papers!!!!! Let's hope if it ever appears again it's also for a good reason, hahaha!!
Can't see it clearly? Never mind. Life Section, Straits Times Page 3. I don't want to provide the full clear copy because it's going to take up ALOT of photo space and I don't want that to happen since now total photos uploaded got limit.
Those were the days..... Those smart people. Give it to all of us free of charge and now they say want to charge if you cross the file size limit!!!
I also bought a new keyboard now, so my typing speed has went back to what it should have been *wink wink*. Except unlike the old keyboard, instead of missing letters in the word, it became additional letters in the word because its so sensitive.
To be honest, it's not exactly a typing keyboard. It's a gaming one. Let's see if some of you recognise this gorgeous (albeit, obvious finger-prints!) babe!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:06 am
Work Peeve
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
No doubt that there are days that absolutely suck at work and at school.
But you have to admit that in our lives, there are always certain issues that CANNOT happen but usually do!
As Murphy's Law state: 1) Anything can go wrong will go wrong. 2) Anything that cannot go wrong, WILL STILL go wrong. 3) All of the above.
However, throughout the past few years, the few things that will majorly piss me off is:
1) Internet Access down 2) Printer down. Printer, at our office is a multi-function device. It is our fax machine (both incomin and outgoing), our photocopier, our scanner, our computer printer. So basically once it dies, I can do NOTHING. 3) Keyboard issues
I have come to be extremely particular about my keyboard. The 'Back-Space' key has to be full size. I know some compact keyboard makers halve the size of it and this super frustrates me.
As such, whenever I had to use the computers that belonged to other people, I use it with angst!
Behold, now that I am home and do nothing but play games and chat on MSN the whole freaking day, I made a most nerve-wrecking, heart-pounding, soon to heart attack discovery... my stupid 'a' button needed to be typed with extra strength or else it won't appear!!!
Can you believe it?
So needless to say, I started to hunt for that perfect keyboard. . . and then I found it (but I don't think I'm able to get it though. Doubt they sell it in Singapore *rolls eyes*). I'd be trying my luck at SLS later.
Check this out:
It's a dream-come-true isn't it? I had been joking with many people that I would like to get a completely blank keyboard that is capable of forcing me to memorise where all the keys are. I can jolly well remember A to Z as well as those on the numberpad, but am still clueless about where the others are. And this will jolly well engrave it into my mind!!
Other impressive features include the individually weighted keys, depending on which key it is, and how far it is from where your hand is situated, further away keys weigh less, while important keys (such as Enter) are heavier to prevent you from accidentally pressing onto it.
PERFECT!!!!!!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:24 pm
My Posts Suck
Monday, August 11, 2008
I think that somehow along the way, my circuit got cut off or something. I've lost all that literary creative spark. I'm unable to type as interesting, as raw, and as .. I don't know.
I've been reading recent posts and comparing it to some of my older posts such as those from 2006. They're super different.
I think I sounded much more happier back when I was still a student.
And then it so happened that when the geniuses at the handphone companies came up with the idea of merging the camera and phone in one.. then the frenzy started. I made it a compulsory rule (for myself) that each blog post should be accompanied with at least one photo for the readers' sake of staying interested.
Then I realised that I should be blogging for my own sake. To stay reminded of little things that have happened and made me happy or sad, the coming of the new things and the going of the old things.
Actually part of the goal of this blog is bit silly; I wanted something that I can read and follow up on myself so that if ever it came to happen that I knocked my head somewhere (I'm not surprised. My stupid roof is leaking and the water might weigh down on the false ceiling but the roof repair people always claim that they can't find anything wrong!) resulting in me having temporary loss of memory, I can read this blog and go "Oh, so I am this sort of person."
Of course let's hope that never happens. The blog also serves as a diary for me so that in future my grand children can actually read the stupid things their Ah Ma had done in her lifetime.
Come to think of it, if they go through every single blog entry of mine diligently, they are going to know the names of all my ex-boyfriends, flings, associates, and Jo, if you're reading this, my kid is going to know that you have been pestering me to get married since forever!!!
(At which I hope you marry Santa so that you can really get to go see Finland.) Relaxxx.. Santa may not be that old and fat as they always make him out to be in fairy tales. I mean look at the Santa in the Sims Deluxe game!! He's quite skinny and looks quite young to me!!
I would also like to add that in one of my recent posts, there was this awfully cute doggie pillow that some of you had been asking me where I got it.
That pillow was a birthday present, courtesy of my jie mei men, Fang & Jo.
I thought this was pretty funny and would like to mention it abit.
I was telling Jo how cute that pillow is and then she asked me "so you got use the mousepad?"..
And I replied her "What mousepad?"
The following critical moment involved an enraged Jo calling up a shop and demanding an explanation of why is it the mousepad they bought wasn't wrapped up together with the pillow.
Somehow they must have found the mousepad at the cashier, and then had it placed back at the display because by the time I opened the present and by the time she found out that I didn't find out any mousepad was inside, it took a pretty long time.
They sold the mousepad by the time Jo called. At least the particular design they had bought was sold out already.
At which I told Jo she had better not tell Fang anything yet as she was in Paris and we wouldn't want to hear her screams from Paris echo-ing all the way to our sunny island (at which I would like to add, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE YOU OLD GIRL!! Not many people displayed their flags this year because of your stupid ERP gantries all over the place!!).
*Regains composure*.
Fang came back alright, and I still heard her scream echo-ing from Toa Payoh area when I eventually told her about it.
For your viewing pleasure, here's how the soldout mousepad looked like:
There, now I've accomplished my self-stated mission of providing at least ONE photo for every blog post. Oh dear, I should be blogging for myself, but WHAT THE HECK, sharing's the fun of it all!!
I have to admit to all of you that this well-deserved break of mine made me think of alot of things. I still feel that it was only yesterday that I had to wake up at 5.45am every morning to go to Bendemeer Sec Sch. Who could forget, walking to the classroom to put your bags while the sun was barely up and the weather was perfect and the air was gloriously fresh although our faces seldom reflect the same.
Then when we reached our classroom we would stand there for a mere millisecond stunned by the bright fluorescent lights that all our classrooms had.
Now the thing about going to school was unlike going to the office, not a single soul (not even out of politeness!!) would say 'Good morning' to you.
No, no. Good mornings are reserved for people you WORK with. Not people you STUDIED with and see 5 days a week for most parts of the day.
But then this resulted in me finding it very extremely awkward to say good morning to ANYONE at all. Not even at the office!!
On a sidenote, thankfully I sat next to Mickey in the office because she always ALWAYS ALWAYSSSSS says good morning to me which would make me say it back to her as a form of courtesy. At times when I was too busy to hear her good morning, she would say it again. And again.
In fact I counted. Her highest record of Good mornings to me within a day was 5x. I didn't hear her at all the 1st two times, the third time I replied her with a "huh?" the forth time I turned my head to look at the computer screen again and I finally got her and answered her back on the 5th time.
She didn't lose her patience throughout it all, can you believe it? If I had been her and I was the one trying so hard to say good morning, I would have whacked the person upside down inside out left right centre if that person hadn't heard me clearly the second time!!!
But then again, my good mornings became reserved strictly for the ladies. None were for Sales. I have never recalled saying good morning to ANY OF THEM. Not that I mean to be rude or anything. I just find it really WEIRD, you know what I mean?
Like, do you greet good morning to your own sibling when you see each other in the morning before you go to work / school ? Me? NEVER. I have never in my whole frigging life said a good morning to my brother.
I recalled this one time he RUDELY woke me up after he washed his hands. Yup, he washed them (with the coldest water, no doubt!) and then put his fingers, palms and all right onto my sleeping face.
I awoke in terror. It took me a few seconds to realise what he had done and then I ran after him to try to kill him. I was only in Kindergarden back then.
I'm in super story-telling mood today. Bang, you must be enjoying it. You often complain that my post is too short so that you finish reading it within 1 minute. I see how you finish this all in a minute, muaha!
So that waking up incident occurred back when we were staying at this house at Jalan Labu Manis. If you checked the streetdirectory (unfortunately you can't do it online as yet, they're still fighting in court regarding copyrights issues and stuff), it is pretty near to where I am currently staying.
In fact, during this break of mine, I found this really old photo of my grandparents having lunch!!
Wow, looking at my Ah Ma made me realise that it's been a really long time since I've last seen her. I mean, why do people always look so blardy different when they are lying in the coffin? Aren't those make up people supposed to make them look really cheerful and lifelike?
This photo was used for one of my arts and craft project back when I was in Secondary 1. I pasted it on as a card that we had to make supposedly for our GrandParents Day project.
It was dumb, basically. We had to hand it the card up to our teachers for marking and can't even pass it to our Grandparents. Now which part of that sound very Grandparentsy?
But earlier on in the project I realised it was dumb already because, as I told the teacher, "My grandparents don't understand English!!"
Another finding of mine was a pleasant surprise. I learnt that I had actually drawn a pufferfish back when I was in secondary school, except that I got the pattern abit wrong.
Now this is my super duper cute pufferfish that I had drawn:
I got the spots wrong. It should be on its back. Not on its tummy!! A puffer only has obvious spots on its tummy when:
1) It's sick 2) It's sick 3) It's dead
Otherwise they are suppose to look white and spotlessly clean :) Just like my little greedy pig, one of my most enthu dog-tick eaters which I have yet to name. I have had so many puffers before that I ran out of names for them.
PS: Just in case you were wondering/worrying, Cherry is STILL around, alive and healthy (and fat) as ever....!!
Another weird drawing that I had plucked out was this. Remember Ekin Cheng had this series of ultra cool gangster movies called Young & Dangerous?
Well guess what............
I drew them one day when I was bored. I believe, during one of the many school holidays we had when we were still in school!!!
Since young I always had this weird 'thing' about my drawings. No matter how hard I tried, they were always slanted to a side because my right hand does not have the ability to 'balance' the drawings up, so the subjects I drew always tend to slant to a side. This little art of mine was no exception.
Perhaps to prevent this problem, they always drew this cubic guidelines so that things won't go out of hand. Oooh.. we learnt about this before, it's called the point of.. point of.. No no, I think it's called Linear Perspective. The Linear Perspective is drawn and serves as a guide so that everything goes according to it and doesn't get 'out' of balance.
The time is 12.30am. Other than setting a self-requirement that every blog post SHOULD be accompanied by at least one photo, I had also set down a requirement for myself during this breaktime that I should not sleep late and risk darkening my eye circles.
Thus, my apologies for ending so abruptly. GOOD NIGHT :)
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:27 pm
Chubby's Sore Throat
Sunday, August 10, 2008
This post is in addition to another post I had done up two years ago, back in 2006. Wow. Time flies. This blog has been around for quite some number of years man!!
Would like to share with all of you a refreshening 'Vinegar Miracles' post. Click on the post name to access.
Chubby's sore throat is making me go crazy... with laughter.
Usually due to his eyesight he takes quite a while to climb the stairs up to my room. At which upon reaching, he would bark at the door to signal me to open it. Yea, I know, sometimes I'm not very clear either exactly who's the master and who's the dog.
But yesterday, due to his sore throat, he barked as usualy but it came out sounding like a quack.
Well, he didn't sound like a dog for sure. It sound more like a 'waccck.. waaarrkk... warrrrk'.
If that didn't sound like a duck I don't know what else does.
As such, apple cider came to the rescue.
Luckily due to the dogs' tick problem, I had just restocked a new bottle of apple cider vinegr. I had told Des that I want to go to the supermarket to buy it and he was like: "buy WHAT?"..
Apple. Cider. Vinegar.
When we got to the section where they sell the soya sauces and vinegars, I instantly found what I'd been looking for.
Before my hand could reach out to it, Des declared "Omfg. There really IS such a thing..."
You know sometimes you are so eager to take a photo of something that it was only after uploading it that you realise you had unwittingly included a picture a pack of Poker Cards (or part thereof).
And before I forgot, I would like to add a paragraph here to acknowledge that Didi is no more. Woke up one day he was gone. I wish for his sake that he could find a better family elsewhere where he can display his fiercelessness and loyalty to because other than food, shelter and the occasionl pat on his head, I admit that we did not do much for him.
Okay now, back to topic.
ACV (apple cider vinegar) mixed in the dog's food / drinking water works wonders against fleas and ticks. Application to their coats keep it nice and shiney and helps to combat many skin problems.
In fact, apple cider vinegar is also good for our hair, as in humans! You're supposed to rinse it out with diluted ACV for shinier-looking hair (though I don't know how else it is supposed to benefit our hair).
The only downside is it's not that easy to get your dogs to drink it because too much of it makes the water/food taste horrid.
And ACV stinks to a certain extent, despite still being able to retain the wholesome yummy smell of apples, there is still the vinegar stench there, so you might think twice if you really want to rinse your hair through it. I have to admit I tried this and the whole day nobody said anything about my hair.
Probably because no one ATTEMPTED to smell my hair that day (not even my mum who is hooked onto sniffing my hair the way I need to sniff on chou chou to sleep with every night).
So there you go ladies and gentleman, you can go yahoo or google about ACV and its 1001 uses. Each bottle that big (as illustrated the photo) would only set you back by about two dollars odd.
Ok, does this sound like a TVMedia ad?
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:26 am
Fishy Spa
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Sea Monkey Update: Can only see one!!!
The other day went to Qian Hu's fish spa.
We actually went there after Joseph's place since it was just a stone's throw away. . . Actually a stone throw, provided the thrower is the Incredible Hulk himself.
I think it's stupid. $38 for half an hour?
Well, just go to Qian Hu and you can get it at $10 per half an hour (and surcharge of $0.30 every additional minute, which is STILL CHEAPER than $38 for strictly 30 minutes).
What, that's like taking the ridiculous Singapore Flyer!!
A dollar odd per minute. Maybe only if they incorported the fish spa thing in the Flyer then I'd think twice about spending that $38 (especially since now that I am jobless, haha!).
It's very weird because when the fish bites, they don't really just bite you once and then wait a few seconds before biting again. They ... wow.. how do I describe this.... They just nibble NON-STOP. Imagine a bo-geh hamster biting you.
Yea.. something like that... As a result, hundreds of little nibblers will result in a weird electricla sensation.
This led to alot of people who had just put their foot in to giggle UNCONTROLLABLY like an idiot.
HAHAHAHAHA.. I couldn't stop laughing to the point that I had to slap my hand over my mouth to shut myself up so that I would appear less foolish.
Overall conclusion of the whole experience?
Well to SOME POINT the fishies really clear the dead skin, but do not expect too much. Toothless fish are after all toothless fish. They would be piranhas if they could clear those months of hardened skin at your heel. I would say they did a good job at those skin around the toe area but that's about all.
If you have serious dry skin problem gathering around the edges of your toe nails and at the back of your heel (as I do), then it'd be probably better to just go get a professional pedi.
Here's to clean toes!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:38 am
My First Unemployed Working Day (and Pics from Wayne Hoo's 1st Mth)
Monday, August 04, 2008
I wanted to upload pictures of the new Sea Monkeys but apparently when I was reading through the instructions last night, I realised that I had to pour in this packet named: Water Purifier exactly TWENTY-FOUR hours before I could pour in the eggs into the tank. Which means the eggs can only go into the container TONIGHT. At.. approximately 7.03pm to be exact.
This thing is really a test of patience *paces around the Sea Monkey container impatiently*. Oh by the way, the sea monkey statue in the container really glows in the dark. So does the little torchlight that the package provides (doubt I'd use it).
I also came to learn that the difference between Sea Monkeys and normal brine shrimps that they sell at those fish shop is that Sea Monkeys live MUCH longer (in fact, 2 years, or so they claim).. are much bigger size then those at the fish shop, and more playful.
Yup, you got that right. Playful.
They sell this toy called Sea Gems too (of which I am no doubt going to get sooner or later) that the Sea Monkeys would actually hit around like beach volleyball... or try to get up on them and ride on them like surfboards... "giving them much needed exercise!!"
Okay, I think I should stop here about my Sea Monkeys. Hey, talk about their toys called Sea Gems, I ought to upload a few photos of my new crystals that I had gotten over the past month.
I've been crystal-hopping alot. Late last month I eagerly wanted to get a amber something else. I eventually got it. A ring, that was unfortunately too small for my hand (when I wear that ring in the afternoon, my fingers swell up and expand so that the ring becomes painfully stuck!). At the beginning of this month for about 2 weeks, I was eager to get a Lapis Lazuli anklet (a very pretty royal blue colour), then I became infactuated with Ammonite, a type of fossil but some come with very pretty rainbow-like colours. Some ammonite are sold in halves and their insides are equally intriguing as well.
Then came my infactuation with Meteorite.
As you would have noticed, starting from the amber onwards, those are no longer considered crystals anymore. Fossils, rocks and meteorite from outerspace.
There is a never-ending list of things we can buy!... Or rather, I can buy :)
Shucks. I've diverted again.
So, we attended Joseph's little prince's first month. His place was all the way at Lim Chu Kang. I had blogged about it before having been there previously only twice.
The first time we lost our way. The second time we barely found it. The third time since I was no longer driving *pats Des on the back*, I actually BOTHERED to check the street directory and had another two cars driving by The Sex That Won't Ask For Directions trailing behind us.
In fact, certain parts of the road on the way there looked like we were traveling in Malaysia.
There are people who actually counted. There are 40 lamp posts along each side of the road along this stretch.
To think that we went there all the way to see his newly born son, which I did not take any photos because the little fella was sleeping. But it was quite plain to see though. Most of the babies I've seen were often reddish, in fact, some of them looked very tanned.
But Baby Wayne was fair like anything. In fact his skin looked like those baby who are about 7-8 months old and have started becoming 'fair'.. if you know what I mean. It was his little size though, that made you realise he's not a baby that was older than 6 months.
But one thing though, I took quite a number of photos of the little new batch of Shetland puppies there!!!! Enjoy :)
Four puppies altogether. Each costing a four-digit figure (that I shall not reveal here). And all four were already sold!
Can you believe it ?
I should have went into dog-breeding instead... haha.. just kidding. It's alot of hardwork and even harder work to find good families for them.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:25 am
Even Later Posts
Sunday, August 03, 2008
I just got some of my birthday presents.
Yea. Hahaha!! Yes. We are all THAT busy these days.
In fact, when Fang and Jo had to pass it to me, I wasn't even at home to begin with! They had to pass it to my maid.
I think we are all abit too hard up for time.
That aside, throughout it all I had been very curious, especially when Jo told me that the gift from the mad bunch at UWA is actually alive.
"A plant" I asked.
Nope, was the reply I got via MSN messenger.
And then she typed: It will only become alive when you get it.
I thought for about 3 seconds and then I typed back: I hope it's not Sea Monkeys you know....
What the hell is that? ... was the reply.
I went on to explain: Oh, sea monkeys are just overpriced brine shrimps. I hope you didn't get those because I feed those to my puffers.
Now in Chinese, there is this proverb, not really wise proverb but it's called "Sa Huang Bu Zha Yan".
And Jo just did that, I can imagine.... sitting in front of her computer screen. It is a phrase to describe that one can lie so well without batting an eyelid.
You know what they say, liars don't dare look you in the eye and stuff when they are lying, but this one is so professional he/she doesn't even blink!
Because when I was unwrapping the presents.. Okay, that was a gentle way to put it. I tore them up like the Tasmanian Devil would have done himself.... and discovered the gift was:
Really Sea Monkey. Sea Monkeysss to be exact.
Chubby was not impressed. Not even with the SUPERBLY life-like doggie cushion that my mother disturbingly likes alot.
I also found another photo in my computer that I had forgotten to upload.
As most of you don't know yet, Friday was my last day with the Pest Control company.
It feels weird leh. It hasn't really kicked in into me that it was my last day (yes, despite me having to pack up everything).
And it was amazing how working there for a little over two years, the toys that I had accumulated at my desk was like ... ALOT.
I had quite a hard time thinking how to pack all home because I would like to move them at one-shot.
Thankfully the cleaner Auntie got me boxes, although eventually I used only one.
Maybe a few more days later I'd start to miss everyone more because I somehow always have some sort of delayed emotional response. I studied a wincy bit about Psychology as a Cross Disciplinary Subject back when I was in Temasek Poly and there was this response called the Fight or Flight response.
When encountering danger, a person stays to Fight or trie to Flight (escape and get the heck out of there!!). I think my response is none of those. My response is Blur. You know, imagine big Sotong standing there.
Hey, someone at work always calls me that. Damnit, can't remember who. . .
Anyway so since I was talking about the picture allow me to bring it out.
You see, this bunch of us always eat out together and we always have certain nicknames for certain places.
For example that Chicken Rice Store actually sells more than chicken rice but we call it that anyway because there was one point in time most of us will ONLY order that when we eat at that kopitiam.
Then there's another more favourite place of ours called Gua Gua. Named so because it was the eating outlet nearest to the Singapore Pools shop at which we all will proceed to buy a few and try our luck by buying the Gua Gua Le.
So one day we were at Gua Gua.
Our favourite table was taken but since we are not gangsters in the training (we had the potential because there were close to 10 of us I think). . we decided to leave the couple alone to their sweet-nothings although these 2 person were occupying a 10-seater table.
We decided instead to use another round table.
Made of marble, it looked really heavy and one side of it was too close to the edge of the walkway to even be able to sit properly.
So Tricia said: "Let's move the table in abit then we all can sit around it".
I heard someone saying "Marble table leh. Very heavy."
Tricia replied "We so many people leh, you scared cannot move one marble table meh?"...
And then everyone lent a hand. The table didn't even move an inch.
And then Jaryl made that "Tsk" sound and pointed to the table leg.... and we realised why.....
Anyway, to counter possible pains / infections / swelling that would accompany it thereafter, I was loaded with all types of medicine and mouthwash due to possible brushing difficulties at the affected site. Boy that was alot of medicine to me.
By the way, we had this after the museum walk at the nearby Mei Shi Jie... direct translation Delicacy Street?? It only costs $5 but in my opinion it was quite a generous portion. I'm not a great lover of 'kong ba', but this looked really nice so that I decided to take a photo of it for memorial sake. 
I wanted to name them Jem and Scout Finch, after the beloved characters that we are all know so well, don't we, 4E3 2002? But then I decided against it because they are a Finch couple, not Finch siblings like Jem and Scout are!!
