It's all my own undoing. I thought it'd be cool to let them fly around my room with everything closed.
Let them exercise those wings abit. Most importantly, help them retain or regain their flight licenses.
Yes. Putehs who haven't stepped out of their cage in a long time flies so poorly, they bang into walls. Hard.
Not mine anymore. They're wonderful navigators of my room and can pick and land any where they want. Well, they do know how to 'test' a surface first before just plomping down their whole weight on it.
So it was through one of these free and easy flying sessions in my room when they actually told me what they had been aiming to do all along.
They've been in my room long enough to know that there is a little container of water right at the corner where Chubby always drinks.
Cao, the pioneer of this free and easy session, then plunged tornado-like straight into the bowl.
The rest is history.
Birds have this funny little thing about them that makes them just like monkeys. They try to imitate each other. Parrots are likewise, except they are able to imitate the way humans talk, and even associate meanings to the word.
Thus, when it came to their turns to fly out of the cage (due to possible fighting and injuring, I do not let them out of the cage at the same time until I am able to tell their aggressiveness towards each other), everyone else plunged into the water bowl as well.
It's all good except for the fact that when they bathe, they splash alot of water out.
I took a sweet little video here to share. Don and Cao are the ones out of the cage. Due to aggression, Shreky's cage was kept shut while the two are out.
You can even see Shrek actually trying to bite them if they land on his cage.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:47 pm
One Night in Beijing~ 你可别喝太多酒
Thursday, May 28, 2009
This song is sooo stuck in my head because a friend of mine is in Beijing on a business trip and did the most unfortunate deed of telling me.
Now, I can't stop singing the song, or rather typing the song in the chatscreen to that particular friend whether or not he is on or offline.
Yes. Maybe some of you have forgotten but I can be THAT irritating.
Yesterday, Manchester United lost to Barca.
*waits for the smirk some of you have so well-prepared awaiting for this day to use it*
Ya lor. Train so much, must give you all chance to use it ma, hor?
HAHAHA..
But that aside, I am JUST sad. But I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm actually depressed by this.
2-0. The part I hate the most is the big fat zero that stares back at me. I don't even mind if we lost 2-1.
And then again, as I have told the other Manchester United fans who are apparently alot more sian than me right now that at least we lost the game 'good'. Meaning to say, we didn't lose it to them because of some stupid undeserving penalties that happened in so many games leading to yesterday's finals.
We couldn't even control much of our possession during the game. I think at least Chelsea had more of a fight with Barca than Manchester United had.
And besides, there are more urgent and pressing matters to think about. Like how, right now due to yesterday's super late night, and maybe it had to do with the number of goals conceded by Man United last night but I very coincidentally popped up two pimples as well. On my nose and on my chinny-chin-chin.
How great is that. Your favourite team lost and here you are, battling with the very two pimples that may have been caused by it.
On top of that, I want to add that...
The stupid grass is NOT growing.
I think I just got duped.
Today is Thursday hor?..... I remember there is something on, on Thursday...
YES. DUAN WU JIE 端午节! *Dragon Boat Festival*
Stupidly enough, I told my mother last night "Tomorrow is Duan Wu Jie ar? Then tomorrow night I want to go 赏月."
*赏月 is a term used when people usually hangout under the moonlight, cause fire hazards by lighting countless candles, eating mooncake, sipping on tea and chit-chatting ALL at the same time. It's direct translation to English is ... um... to appreciate the moon. HAHAHAHA.*
I tell you... my mother was drinking water and she almost puke it out all over the computer monitor.
Apparently in that split second before I could control my mouth, my mind had registered it with the Mooncake Festival.
*rolls eyes*
As if to further rub in the fact that I made that error, my Mum laughed continuously for the next 10 minutes after that.
Happy Duan Wu Jie and enjoy the very nice Kee Zhangs, Ba Zhangs and Nyonya Zhangs!
Oooh. Talk about Zhangs. Ms. Joanna Kang, have you killed the Zhangs yet? Zhang Jiao Zhang this and one more Zhang that. I can't remember the names of that 3 brothers.
That's Qu Yuan for you. Standing on a dragon boat, with huge gigantic dumplings laid at his feet. Apparently I've always thought that Qu Yuan was the originator for dumplings. He was supposedly a very loyal court guy to the kingdom of Chu. Alamak.. what is his title ar?
Statesman, apparently that's what they put over at Wiki.
Qu Yuan was stripped from his title because he opposed the Chu Emperor allying with the state of Qin, where thereafter he became a poet (and that's how he got famous).
Years later, the increasingly powerful State of Qin indeed took over the kingdom of Chu where our poor loyal fellow then committed suicide in despair by throwing himself into the sea.
If you think that's stupid, then let me remind you these things are still happening today. JW once showed me this article where this Kenyan Arsenal fan actually hanged himself after Arsenal lost to Manchester United on a 4-1 aggregate.
You say lah. He die got use or not. Manchester United will purposely lose to Arsenal just so he won't die meh?
Then again if you think you're stupid... think of the equally stupid people who actually tried to commit suicide because their boyfriend / girlfriend broke up with them.
Okay, then people are going to argue that: Cindy, you don't know any better.
I do know. Tell me which part I don't freaking know?
I do acknowledge that I'm luckier than many people in this aspect of my life. Wait. Generally I'm luckier than alot of people in alot of aspects.
But that aside, I do know that your steadys are not everything in your life. What about your family, your buddies, your.. um.. pets.. if you have any.
If you do not know how to appreciate yourself enough, if you do not know the importance of your existence.. GET... A ... DOG...
He will teach... heck.. even SHOW you how it feels to be loved.
I remembered a sign that I saw at SPCA. It stuck in my mind ever since.
"To you, he's just a dog. To him, you're everything."
OKAY GUYS. Now some of you are abit frustrated that I digressed so far away from Qu Yuan's story.
After our lead character died, the people mourned for him. In the hope that the body will not be eaten by fishes, they made rice dumplings and dumped them into the sea in the hope that the fishes will feed on the rice dumplings instead (I think the lucky fishies fed on both).
Also in their urgent boat search for his body, it slowly evolved into today's Dragon Boat racing. Thus the English name for it is Dragon Boat Festival.
That's not the end. I mean, for Qu Yuan's side, that's the end, but then I found out that it is not true. It probably really happened but it was found out that rice dumplings were not invented because of Qu Yuan's death but was an additional story to make an existing festival more meaningful and significant.
DO YOU KNOW... Duan Wu Jie is a public holiday in China and Taiwan.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 6:11 pm
Pet-Free Blog Post
Monday, May 25, 2009
No one has told me yet that the mp3 player I've inserted in my blog template is irritating. I take it that it isn't, although its looped and destined to repeat till the end of time (or until copyright legal issues catches up with it) the only three songs that I could think of.
I didn't just want to insert any ol' song.
I thought people reading on my blog ought to listen to something more soothing and less rock, less noise, and absolutely no shouting at all.
I think I talk about my pets abit too much that even I myself am sick of it.
You have to understand dudes and dudettes: Being at home, they are the equivilant of the human beings in my life whereas you have had your fair share of human beings in school / work / everywhere else.
Since I gave my word that there are no pets in this blog post today, here's the catch.
No pets.. but there are plants. HAHA!
I remembered last time when I was in Sec 3, I came upon the very wonderful idea of keeping green beans in the classroom! :D
Yes. What a weirdo idea right. Screw it, we all needed to de-stress.
I was extremely glad when a few other classmtes shared my view and decided to keep their own green beans so that we could sort of compete to see whose green beans grow the fastest.
I think Kingston cheated because his seat was the nearest to the window (and thus, had the access to the strongest sunlight).
But there was a huge problem. Come Friday, our green beans would dry up over the weekend and then wither off by the time we came back to school on Monday.
I eventually flooded the whole desk with water (you know, the little depression in our table where our pens are held), almost drowning the poor bean. It worked, but only sometimes.
I actually took great care of it. Like a primp and proper mother, carefully documenting the plant's changes in height and etc, and taking a photo of it at a regular interval.
A few months later, the plant died.
I think I overwatered it, HAHA. Too much love and care apparently stifles and kills things (remember this, possesive boyfriends and girlfriends). I was so upset that, like a jilted lover, I deleted all the photos and every possible signs that reminded me of its past existence.
Thus in other words, no photo to upload here and tell you all about it.
I immensely regretted my stupid deleting actions. But not to worry. With life, came endless opportunities. All I had to do was to get another green bean and start off all over again.
But there is one problem. You cannot buy ONE single green bean from the shop. You have to buy it by weight.
And knowing me, there are a trillion things I can do with hundreds / thousands of green beans. I'd like sow them everywhere so that they will sprout out all over the entire neighbourhood, instead of killing them all by making them into green bean soup, even though I LOVE GREEN BEAN SOUP.
Do you know I have this ex-colleague (I won't name names) but she has a damn freaking good complexion for her age and I've been told the secret lies with her taking green bean soup like almost every week!
It's a cheap and good alternative then spending $20++ for ONE PIECE of SKII Mask. Crazy price. It's like using 2 piece of $10-dollar notes to stick on your face and then throwing them away afterwards. Abit wasteful right?
Yes, SKII fans, I know it is effective. I know it gives miracles etc etc. I'm just saying this because I am:
a) ignorant b) is the cannot care less type of girl c) don't know any better d) not old until I care about such things (yet)
Choose whichever option fits you.
So yea, today I went to Far East Florist with my parents and then I chanced upon this cute little thing!
I admit. I'm a sucker for such things. Those grow-it-yourself plant kits. Which explains the money I blew away on Staghorn Ferns.
Apparently right now you can get those adult sized staghorn ferns easily too. My dad bought one for the airwell. I'd take a pic of it during daytime tomorrow and then upload it here so that you guys can get to (finally!) see how the adult one actually looks like.. since mine always dies prematurely :(
So yea, I'm gonna grow my own grass! I've tried all kinds of things from the Venus Flytraps to one of mother nature's most powerful plants, the godly Aloe Vera, but this is the very first time that I'm going to plant my own grass.
There were a few choices though. Some were flowers that resembled Gerberras (kind of daisy family, I believe. I've tried my luck at 3-4 pots and failed miserably although each attempt lasted longer than the first).
But eventually I chose the grass because of its very nice name. Blue Moon Grass.
Of course, there is an extremely high possibility that this name is grossly misinterpreted or lost in translation but then it still IS a nice name and I'd be damned if I say that I'm not curious to how the actual grass with such a name actually looks like, since the picture of the grass printed on the box was a big failure.
Since, today is Day 1, I shall put a picture of the plant over here and share it with all of you, haha!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Blue Moon Grass, Day 1:
*Crickets chirping*
YEA YEA YEA. I know what you're thinking. But this is Day 1 what! And I told you this plant is starting from scratch! Which means it's still a seed! Not even a seedling okay!? A seed!
Give it a break!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:42 pm
OPERATION TRY TO CATCH THAT BIRD AGAIN
Friday, May 22, 2009
Sorry for the caps. But that's what they usually do, right? Or, I assume.
So ever since OPERATION CATCH THAT BIRD failed, I accompanied Mum out, not even wasting one minute of my time thinking about that damn bird because I was too preoccupied with Dynasty Warrior to be disappointed about not even seeing the bugger.
But when I came home later that day, there it was. Clear as day and loud as... a Puteh.. which unfortunately, is not very loud also.
But a distinct calling sound of the Puteh could be heard from the trees above.
Thankfully after getting Shreky and Dondon to retreat (Don's really stupidly terrified of butterflies that I wonder whether he knows that Putehs are actually supposed to feed on insects), I placed them at this little shoe cabinet that is outside the house as well.
Just nicely out of Kilo's reach, yet able to sing loud enough to call the Puteh over.
I parked the car and before my mother could get out of the car too, I ran over to the other side and swooped all 3 cages up in my arms and proceeded to run to the plant structure that Dad had lovingly set up for his Tomato / Ladyfinger / Pumpkin plants.
(I actually forgot to close the car door too.)
Hanged the cages up on it and the sight of my life came.
From the direction of the calls, I could roughly guess that the Puteh was on the tree right opposite our house. I was still looking for it amidst the greenery.
You must admit it's not easy to spot a GREEN bird on a GREEN tree. Moreover one that is so small.
The bird leaped down and flew rightttttttt....
to................
Warning: Objects in picture appear closer than actual
Now, it is one thing to see those huge eagles or trained parrots swooping down to their trainers during those bird shows at Jurong Bird Park.
But it's a completely different feeling when a bird you've never met in your life swoops down from the safety of the trees and lands so near to you.
I tentatively tried to bring a spare empty cage (that due to my sudden stroke of genius, I did fill with water and Puteh food, heck, even a slice of apple!), in the hopes that it would hop in naturally.
Impossible, you say? Well, the fact that it dared to be so close to my Dad yesterday, and then me right at that moment was proof enough that this particular bird had been someone's pet once.
Sad thing about Putehs? You can't really proof that it is yours. So once it flies away, even if someone else caught it, that's it, you know.
It's not like a dog.
Heck. If Shreky himself flies away one day, I'd probably not be able to recognise him if I even see his new owner bringing him out. That's the saddest part.
There are Puteh owners who can, but I am not one of them. But even if you can recognise your own Puteh, how are you going to dispute that?
Okay, digressing I know. But I can't help it after Chubby's recent disappearance (and reappearance) last week.
I should be very proud right now to declare that, after placing the spare / filled up cage near the Puteh, and then squatting some distance away from them under the not-too-gentle late afternoon sun, I finally caught the little bugger.
Out of the whole experience, the most heart-stopping part is NOT when the bird finally hopped into the cage to check out the slice of apple that I placed in there.
It's when I have to reach out my hand to close the cage door to trap the bird!
I was making noises, speaking non-stop to Shreky and Dondon as my hand slowly reached out to close the spare cage's door because I didn't want it to be dead quiet.. you know.. how stillness is associated with predators in the wild.
DEAD SCARY. Thankfully my past employments do not involve such high degree of intensity.
At the split second when my hand was about to reach the cage's door, I considered closing it gently as to not frighten the bird, or should I just shut it down violently to ensure a swift closure.
I decided on the latter. Better than risking it flying out when I'm still struggling with the door. I have to admit the door of the spare cage was abit stiff because of under-utility.
I would upload a clearer picture of him but the photos are with my Mum in her digicam; The unimpressive camera is just about the only downside of E71, haha!
Anyway, I have named the bird already.
And the name of the new Puteh is called.....
NO! JUST BECAUSE ONE IS CALLED SHREKY AND THE OTHER IS CALLED DONKEY (or Dondon for short)... DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M GOING TO CALL THIS NEW FELLA PRINCESS FIONA.
In fact.. his name is going to be....Cao Cao.
Because of the saying: 说到曹操，曹操就到！
In English, the meaning is the equivalent of: Speak of the devil.
A direct translation will be something along the lines of: As we talk about Cao Cao, he arrives.
Kinda like the way my Dad was excitedly telling us that a Puteh was watching him doing gardening earlier in the evening and then the very next day, we managed to catch it.
Plus, Cao is the same pingyin as the Chinese word for 'grass'. . and we all know by now the primary colour of a Puteh :)
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:17 am
Operation: Catch That Bird
Thursday, May 21, 2009
According to reliable sources (aka my dad), a puteh has been spotted observing him gardening.
The following day, the elite special duties unit (Shreky & Dondon) was equipped appropriately and officially embarked on the top secret mission: OPERATION CATCH THAT BIRD. Officers lay in wait at the garden area awaiting the reappearance of the spy.
Mission was aborted after 45minutes due to Office Dondon panicking (pinballing) in his vehicle (cage) after the unpredicted presence of many butterflies near his appointed camp-out.
The special force hae been officially withdrawn. Mission status: Failed.
Officers are advised to await redployment for the next mission: OPERATION TRY TO CATCH THAT BIRD AGAIN.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:45 am
King Cry Baby, King Cry Baby, Cry~
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
For some reason, the other day, my sliding door was out of alignment.
Someone had obviously pushed it in the wrong 'sliding'.
Not easy. I had 3 panels and luckily only 1 needed to be put back properly. I don't really know how to explain this.
So as the balcony occupant was circling hungrily around my feet, I was doing my best to lift the sliding door back into the correct 'thread'.
No joke. Blardy thing was heavy. I didn't watch where it was landing and one of the corners hit my toe instead.
I lifted the door up quickly again but the pain was soon setting in. I looked down, saw a dot on my toe and then my face could not help but crumpled up already.
Yes, yes. Tears were flowing. I was crying outwardly due to the pain, not bothering to hold my emotions back.
As the tears blurred my vision, I saw that the little wound was 'growing'.
It was honestly one of the smallest wound I got in the past few years. I mean, even if I had a mosquito bite and I scratched at it until the skin was raw (yes, I'm a violent mosquito bite scratcher!), the size of wound was easily let's say 3x the wound that the sliding door gave me.
Des was there alright. The first response from him was him running over to check my wound. When he realised it was just a small dot and that I was crying, he laughed.
He. Freaking. Laughed.
If it wasn't for the pain that made me lean my body weight on the other uninjured foot, I would have kicked him.
Apparently he found it extremely funny and that I looked like some little girl who fell down and started crying.
Not funny, Bob. Not funny.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 4:33 pm
Grasshopper Powder
Monday, May 18, 2009
The other day due to some prompting from some individual (I forgot which friend), I went Wikipedia to search for the angmoh name of Mata Putehs.
I then found out that they are called Oriental White-Eye. What an atas name! Oriental wor. Should call them Imperial or something, since I'm not surprised even if emperors back in the olden days of the Whatever Dynasty do rear these birds.
Oriental Imperial White Eye!!!
Unfortunately I don't think those emperors have time to. Probably more preoccupied with wars or something. Ohh.. or is that my warped point of view due to me playing Dynasty Warriors that is nothing but wars.. wars and MORE wars?
That aside, through Wikipedia, I also found out that Putehs are insectivores. . .
And the Puteh pellets that I have always been feeding them with contained absolutely nothing related to Insects (either that, or they didn't bother to list it down as one of the ingredients).
I read the ingredient list and it stated every kind of damn bean there is in the Asian market. Beans. Yes.
Insectivores... and I have only been feeding them Beans! That's like making a carnivore a vegetarian! Well, almost.
They do have their miserable intake of insect in their diet; consisting of some unfortunate and careless fly that somehow fly into their cage.
No wonder despite putting fruits in their cages for them to eat, there are NEVER fruit flies swarming about!
I quickly made my way down to look for 'kinder' alternative insect food since I do not want to buy live crickets/grasshoppers nor do I want to buy live worms.
"Why?" you may ask.
Do you know there is a special fork to impale the insect on?
According to SO, he says that firstly you must catch the, for e.g., grasshopper, make an incision in the centre of the body and PEEL it open so that its innards are exposed.
Think that's cruel?
After that, you have to impale the poor bugger (who is probably in shock), onto the special insect fork while the Puteh feed on its organs.
Are your legs feeling jelly now?
Let me jelly-fy it more for you!!!
TA DAAAA!!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 6:29 pm
Chubby's Weakness is that he looks cute
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I couldn't sleep man. Because the more I think about it the more pissed off I am.
Some people in this world is... *shakes head*.
My dog OBVIOUSLY belongs to someone. Tagged. With MY address and MY mobile number.
And poor Chubby had to wait until 9+pm before a kind-hearted family happily having their chalet all the way at Costa Sands actually FOUND HIM.
I agree it is partly my fault that my dog went out, desipte me having already made sure the door is closed and the sliding doors are closed.
Why? Because it is my dog, I'm the blardy owner and somehow people always blame the owner when the dog gets lost even if the owner is not at home and have absolutely no idea how the dog got out.
Not trying to specifically pin-point who's at fault here but going to solve this stupid problem by making sure that everytime I leave the house to go out, I'm going to tie Chubby up.
Anyway, I want to warn all those who has dogs that however old / sick / partially deaf / partially blind your dog is, there are CHEAPSKATE people in the world who tries to bring it home to keep!
Apparently the asshole (Yes, I'm spelling the word properly here because that person deserves it).. or assholes, for that matter, realised Chubby's disabilities at the last minute and decided to dump him there.. AT THE CARPARK.
The family who contacted me told me they found him at the carpark wandering aimlessly and almost knocked down by the moving vehicles.
One great solution to solve this problem is to spend less than $20 to make those metal dog tag with your name and telephone number. There are kind souls out there who will contact you, in the super unanticipated event that your dog goes missing.
Worst of all is that when such things happen, it dampens your mood too, you know. What with it being the weekend and all. My Saturday is destroyed.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 10:15 am
DW Coffee Break
Friday, May 15, 2009
Ahh... The irony. Because those who know me well also know that I do not take coffee.
Coffee and Cigarettes. The two most common addictions in the world today. . .
But I'm not going to waste this post to talk about those today.
Apparently I'm STILL stuck at where I was. After killing Diao Chan and her 'lover' whose name I cannot remember but it starts with a 'Z'... I am still stuck at Lu Bu and that huge tiger that I just cannot kill :(
I always run out of potions before I managed to finish them off.
Actually for this Dynasty Warrior game, those aren't potions. They're called meat buns. HAHAHA!!
Yes. A translation for Man Tou, I believe.
By the way, do you know that the modern day 'man tou' was believed to have been invented by Zhuge Liang?
Cool right?
Okay, so what I really want to talk about today is my new handphone.
I just got a E71x (which is the newer full black version).
Don't ask me how I find the phone. Obviousy there is something about this phone that I like alot, or at least enough to buy it. So right now, if you ask me, I'd say that I'm still quite contented with it, thank you very much.
But as you know, the honeymoon period for owning a handphone is 3 days. So maybe you should come and ask me the same thing after 3 days and I'd give you a better answer by then.
I have to admit though, when converting from a Sony Ericsson phone to a Nokia one, the contacts SCREW UP BIG TIME.
For example, 'Cindy Lim HP' in your contact would become 'Lim HP, Cindy'.
No matter how I toggled with the format of (first name, last name)... or even use the (last name, first name), the format just wouldn't get back.
So much for overdoing things, Nokia.
And one of the highlight today was a Crocs woven bag. Let's just call it a paper bag. Woven bags are the more environmentally-friendly version of paper bags.
So I traded in my C902 to the shop. They had a whole lot of testing to do to it to ensure that my phone is in re-saleable condition. Since I haven't had my dinner, I told the guy we would come back later after we ate.
THANKFULLY other than the handset that he was testing, I had the brains to leave the package box there too and only took away the paper bag (I like it alot and was afraid if I left it at the shop someone else would take it).
Wrong move, somehow.
We went to eat and walked away.
Less than 20 steps away from the table, we were stopped by a kind stranger who asked if I left a bag behind.
I thanked him and we both walked back and VIOLA. Bag was already gone.
I thought that maybe the efficient hawker centre cleaner had threw away everything but it was not the case for our finished plates were all still intact.
You should have seen that guy's face. He was like super shocked, up until I told him that it's okay because there is nothing in the bag.
Thanked him again, and went back outside to join Des the Smoker who was polluting the environment.
Des (and not only him, I must say), had to add in some sarcasm into the situation by saying I should have scolded the stranger cos he should have taken the bag and ran after us instead of asking us to go back to retrieve it.
Hey, that stranger could have chosen not to do ANYTHING. I thought it was very nice of him to do so already. And no, I'm not saying this because he is dropdead gorgeous okay?
Thing is right now, I am still very worked up over the arse who stole my Crocs woven bag.
And the thought of that thief possibly discarding the bag in some random dustbin after realising there is NOTHING in the bag ANGERS ME EVEN MORE!...
*Ciin enters Fury mode* (PS: You won't get this unless you play Dynasty Warrior)
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:24 pm
MIA-ing Again.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Whenever I seldom update my blog (considering I used to do so every blardy day), alot of you more or less have guessed that I am up to something.
A new game...
A new pet...
Or pulling every strand of my hair to encourage it to grow faster after getting a very regrettable haircut.
Thankfully, my absence is not due to the last-mentioned situation.
I am currently super hooked onto Dynasty Warriors - Strikeforce (PSP). Introduction to this game is courtesy of Mr. Nick Toh, one of my UWA karkee.
The game rocks. I recommend anyone who owns a PSP to.. um... buy it.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:28 pm
Canon IXUS Test
Monday, May 11, 2009
Let me see if I can just link the photo from Facebook to here...
Wow! Perfect.
Okay, now that I can save precious limited space on Blogger and then route the images over instead.
Now, that photo of Shreky was taken using the Canon IXUS. As I have promised to put up the photos.
There is also a video too, but as you know, I've stupidly accidentally deleted it :( so I'd take a better one and then upload it up for you to savour.. provided I get a good opportunity to video something stupid, haha!
But as with all digicams, there comes this problem. It is not prepared enough (yet) for ample situations.
Like.. if you want to take in a rather dark place.
Des and I wanted to take one with the flyer. But it ended up like this:
Yes. You can see the flyer. But you cannot see us :(
A stroke of genius led us to turn on the flash.
Unfortunately, the picture became like this....
So kids, what do you learn from this?
1) Choose a better lit place.
2) or else.. Choose between yourselves and the Flyer.
All in all, I'm not testing the Canon IXUS for picture perfect qualities. I'm just testing its user-friendliness of which I rate it 8/10. I would have given it a perfect score but then that is because I've been using my C902 and am sorta accustomed to the many logos and meanings they have on the digi-cameras these days. So I'm minus-ing 2 precious points off the perfect score in view of those who many not have come into contact with a PROPER camera for decades.
By the way, I don't know whether it's because I'm hard to please or what, but I do find the Marina Barrage a little boring.
Maybe it is attributed to me being there at a bad time (close to evening, thus the water museum attraction was already closed), plus it seemed more like an ideal place for families with kids since the kids went berserk at their little water splashing attraction where everyone can wade around in knee-high water and then navigate through the water park that kinda reminds me of a less exciting version of what they have at Pasir Ris.
I do not know how is it possible to go to that place in the afternoon though. Sweltering heat. *rolls eyes*.
I am starting to agree with Uncle Lee. One of the greatest invention in the world is...
The air-con.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:14 pm
The Canon Digital IXUS 860IS
I have had the privilege of using one lately.
It belonged to my mother.
I must say that digital cameras these days have improved tremendously by leaps and bounds.
Anti-Shake features.. Smile Detectors... Everything you think of or could NOT think of are now input as functions of these new awesome gadgets.
Smile Detectors is a rather debatable function. Sure it's good to capture those dao-sters who hardly smile for the camera. But what about some of the photos that you purposely didn't want to capture them smiling?
Sometimes the subject may be ready but the cameraman isn't.
. . . Which suddenly reminds me of how my mother fell down at the bowling alley that day.
No, I wasn't able to capture it on camera / video. But I was still quite convinced up to the very last second that she had fell down on purpose.
She had just bowled a ball and as it slowly rolled towards its destination (which was the drain), my mother kept tilting her head in the opposite direction in the hope that the ball could miraculously 'tilt' to her head's direction as well to move back to the centre lane.
Not only did her head-tilting stunt have absolutely no effect on the ball, Mum ended up falling on the bowling lane itself too.
The thing was, it was a super slow-motion fall that I thought she was just trying to show us how frustrated she was at the shot.
Okay, back to the camera, which was also there that fateful day.
I have managed to take a few shots and would be uploading them real soon over here. Only the nice ones. All would eventually end on Facebook but only the nice ones will be seen here.
I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.
I was quite pissed because earlier today I did take a cute video of Shreky who was busy eating orange. He was SO close and then he suddenly saw the camera lense and 'disappeared' from view in the video itself..
Only to hop back a few seconds later because the orange was just too tempting. . But not before he peered into the camera lense out of curiousity, and to ensure that nothing threatening is inside the dark lense. It is so awfully cute, I laughed and the whole camera (and video) shook with me.
But here's the best part.
When I was reviewing all the photos that were taken, I chanced upon a photo of a really blur-looking Shrek. Without second thoughts, I deleted it along with a few genuine blurred shots since young Putehs like Shreky are extremely fidgety.
Stupid thing to do. Because I deleted the video too!
Sigh.... Guess I'd just take another one tomorrow!!
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 2:00 am
Not going Holland V for a long long time!
Saturday, May 09, 2009
I find it very difficult to actually LIKE a place that is full of hippies, yuppies, locals and expats.
But the major pet peeve of Holland V?
SUCKY CARPARK. Gawd, save me! Why didn't the government do something about the superb LACK of carpark spaces at Holland V?
Oh no, they actually DID do something! They installed the blardy ERP barriers, that's what!
And then for the very first time in my life, someone actually snatched car park space with us. I thought this kinda people only existed in other people's stories but it has finally happened to me.
Needless to say these people really.. .. wa.. how to say ar... How to say them without sounding blatantly rude and vulgar? ROARRRRRRR!!!!!
So despite the very nice Sushi Tei meal and all, with the right atmosphere and absolutely no smokers near the area (if you exclude Des sitting in front of me, and even then, he didn't smoke near the place.. not because he didn't. More like because he wasn't allowed to.), I have to regretfully state that unless it's my leave day on a busy WEEKDAY where living souls would not be able to recall that such a place as Holland V actually exists.. THEN I will go to Holland V!
PS: Remember the photo of the super nice goldfish from the previous post? Well, a short update here. He's dead.
Yes.
He managed to trespass the border and get over to Cherry's side of the tank. There are guppies there too but they just do not interest Cherry. But this new nice and colourful one did.
There are now 3 parts of it that lay at the bottom of the tank. Stupid Cherry, she obviously killed for fun this time. It's beautiful tail is still intact and no part of the fish is missing.
I think if I look closely enough, I've even managed to spot some of its fishy intestines floating out from the mutilated corpse.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:39 am
Of Puffers and Guppies
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Yes, yes. I know it's a cruel thing to do; feeding live food to Cherry. But as all of you know I will choose to sacrifice any fish, any time, if Cherry shows any interest towards turning the new fish occupant into fish sashimi. Unfortunately, this includes my $12 Frontosa that had (suddenly disappeared and)passed away last year. I found its spinal bone at the bottom of the tank several days after its disappearance was noted.
Spending most of my time in front of my computer, what with the fish tank right beside me, has led to me paying even more attention to the fish tank. The part of my animal kingdom that is probably the most overlooked.
Oscar the terrapin is ranked at 2nd most overlooked. But then again I'm not very worried about him. He knows WHEN he wants to eat and he MAKES SURE he gets his food. From ignorant little mosquitoes buzzing near him, to his turtle pellets that he gets by making 'noise'.
Noise, in this sense of the word, refers to him banging against my balcony sliding door until I finally feed him.
Oscar, may I add, has the ability to recognise the presence of humans.
A recently switched-on light? The toilet door being opened / closed? Sounds of foot steps?
One, or a combination of the above will lead him to knock continuously against the balcony door until he gets fed.
That cheeky turtle. He is forever hungry.
Now back to the fish tank.
Cherry, the Target Puffer, with the evil gleam in her eye. I just always assume Cherry's a 'her' because she's so reclusive
Cherry has always amazed me. I sometimes wonder how she remains so fat even though I admit to not feeding her on a regular basis. Frozen blood worms every 3-4 days certainly isn't alot for her size. But at least for her, I ensure that there is live food in her tank that she can catch and munch as and when.
But even these live feed seem to stay around for a long time before sometimes dying off from natural causes.
I have a stubborn thing about live food. They need to be quarantined in a separate tank because I would not risk Cherry to any disease.. what with Puffers being a scale-less fish and more susceptible to such stuff.
I admit guppies was my last choice in this. I would usually go for ghost shrimps (which I'm too lazy to quarantine because they always JUMP OUT of my small quarantine tank and I gave up totally).
Another problem was that these shrimps seem to die off even BEFORE Cherry saw them!! Maybe they are not called GHOST shrimps for nothing, haha!
Another thing I didn't like was, in the REAL world, you could survive if you're tough enough. If you're fast enough. And if you recognise danger well in advance of other fishies.
But then this guppy thing goes against this natural theory.
How? Well, if you're ugly, you're dirt cheap and packaged up and sold with a few hundred other guppies for a mere $2 per packet.
If you're a pretty little guppy, you're dead expensive. And can go for up to $3 PER fish!
One of the $3 per fish guppy Now there is this Mandarin saying: 一分钱，一分货。Meaning to say, you get what you pay for. I think it applies to fishes.
But the tricky part about fish is this. You can pay for one with all the money in the world and then take it home. BUT. You cannot guarantee its survival.
I think water is such a difficult thing to control. You can measure it all you want but something may have caused some sort of upset in water balance.
There are a trillion things to measure. Nitrate level. Ammonia level. Salinity level. Air bubbles.. are they too big or too fine?
All of which, I have to admit, I didn't really bother with. HAHAHA.. Till date, I have not even bought a pH test measurement kit.
I just change the water as and when I feel like it, which would probably be, at most once every 2 weeks?
Believe me, fishes are sometimes more hardy than you think.
When I just got fishes, I dutifully changed the water every Saturday WITHOUT FAIL.
My fish reciprocated my goodwill by dying off a few at a time, every few days, without fail.
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 3:32 pm
Barcelona 3, Man Utd 3
Monday, May 04, 2009
Yes. I have THAT vivid dreams.
I dreamt that I watched the whole match!
In fact, when I woke up thanks to some inconsiderate SMS-ing friend (ahem ahem), I pondered with sleepy half-open eyes whether I should quickly resume sleeping because sometimes if you do so, you can continue the dream.
It has got to be the best match I watched so far.
But you know what was the funny thing?
Gary Neville actually scored. For Man Utd. Twice.
How power is that!!!
To begin with, for those who don't know, Neville is the captain, but also a defender of Man United. Along with Giggsy and Scholes, they're probably the only ones left of the Treble team 10 years ago whom I absolutely adored :)
In fact, during injury time (in the match that I was watching in my dream), I actually watched to the part where there was a throw-in.
Somehow, Phil Neville was the one who threw the ball in. Now this was weird, because Phil Neville had already gone to Everton (in fact, he captains Everton now!) all the way back in 2005.
Sadly I only learnt of this when I watched the match where Man Utd played against Everton. With great dismay, Man Utd lost out on penalties. I have to admit it was not surprising, what with the young team that was fielded.
But then again, a loss is a loss, and I admit it as a Man Utd fan. Who says Man Utd fans can't afford to lose? Actually we would RATHER not lose. Not that we can't AFFORD to lose.
I think if the opposition team rightly deserves victory, and if Man Utd was playing like shit that day for some reason, then the opposition ought to win.
You wouldn't want the team you support to lose AT ALL, right? You don't have to be a paranoid fan to want that.
Okay, and after Phil Neville threw the ball in, and boy did he really throw, he threw so far in that it was very near to the goalkeeper of the opposing team.
Guess who rushed out fast to reach the ball as all the players made a mad dash to that side of the field.
Yes.
Gary Neville!!! Wooooo!!!
Okay, I have to add the part that he looked much younger in my dream than he did now. Probaby due to that unshaven rough look.
Is it suppposed to be the 'in' thing now? Because it's not looking IN at all!
Gary, remove it!
The thing was, Phil threw the ball SO FAR in that Gary almost couldn't catch it in time before it went behind the white line (and ending up as a Goal Kick).
He did manage to stop it (I have to add that even in my dream, my heart did stop for a few seconds as I wonder if he would be able to reach it in time).
It was exactly on the white line.
Then he had to move it in a little more just to shoot it on goal but that was too late, because the other defenders had already closed in on him. A mild confusion ensued as in my dream I was trying to figure out who cleared the ball where and where the hell is the ball now.
Yes. My dreams were that incredibly detailed. I think I ought to write a book on my dreams alone if people were interested to read more about them.
Man, can you imagine? I would be indirectly earning my money by sleeping alot!
HAHA!!
Oh ya, I wanted to say something about Phil Neville as well, just to take the opportunity since I'm on the topic.
This is with regards to the Everton and Manchester United game that I blogged earlier on in this post.
You see, when it came down to penalties, Phil was one of the designated penalty-takers for Everton.
There was no doubt about it that he would score that penalty for Everton.
But the most important thing was what he said after that that made me respect him alot more.
'When I scored I did not want to celebrate in front of the Manchester United fans. You don't celebrate in front of people who have helped you in your career, but inside I was burning. When we won it I was just happy to celebrate with the Everton fans.'
That's sweet man. That's so blardy sweet.
(And then I would like to add, discreetly, that the same news article goes on to blast Rooney who does not hesitate to celebrate in front of the fans of his ex-employers, Everton, whenever he scores against them.)
CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:56 pm
Goodbye Mary
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Mary was a very nice Mercedes S350 that my Dad owned. Well, I seemed to have named Mary wrongly because although Mercedes starts with the letter M, I usually name cars after the 1st alphabet of their model. In Mary's case, it was supposed to be the letter S.
Well, doesn't matter now. Because Mary is now a car that my Dad USED TO own.
He changed it before I could even sneeze.
One thing i really loved about Mary was that, as most Mercedes are, they are wide and spacious, and is without one of the classic chauffeured cars available on the market (which is why my Dad probably changed it because no one chauffeured him around. My bad. I have no guts to drive a wide car and risk scratching it against anything.)
The above picture shows the arm rest where Mum and Dad always put their elbows on.
Kilo sometimes puts his head there too, in his once-in-10-years of a car ride.
One extremely funny thing about Kilo is that he loves to nibble on elbows. That little part of skin right above your elbow bone.
Now his nibbling HURTS, I tell you! He is able to use his teeth to pinch just a tiny bit of your skin that is so incredibly painful it makes you shudder and get goosebumps. Of course, not before you turn around and yell at him to stop.
Alot of us have been his nibbling victim.
Talk about being funny and comical, one of the things I would miss about the car was the fact that the back passenger seat on the left side was apparently the 'appointed' boss seat.
So, sometimes, boss may want to have a look at the front view of the car, but is unfortunately blocked by the front passenger seat, right?
Thus, boss' seat has the option of toggling with the seat of the front passenger.
Sometimes out of nowhere, my mother would give a short scream because her chair would suddenly move.
No prizes for guessing who is behind that :D
Now some of you must be wondering how is it done, so here's a pic I took as well.
Yes, the seat of the back passenger can also be toggled. Back rest, seat height, head support.
See the little 'front' and 'back' arrow direction?
Depressing the back one means you are toggling the seat fixture of the back passenger seat.
The 'front' arrow direction will affect Mum's seat. Heck, it will affect her throat as well since she usually gives a little scream too, HAHAHA!
One last thing about Mary I would miss?
The little make-up mirror that is available to both the back passengers.
Seldom, if ever, used by anyone else other than me. And even then I only used it sparingly when I need to comb / tie up my hair.
For the 'Superstar' effect, the little mirror has lights all over that shines on you when you flip it down.
Yes, Mary, my not-so-little Superstar car.. You will be missed :)
Meanwhile, let's welcome Lucy back!! Lucy the Second! Now in PURPLE colour too! Wooot! Purple rocks!!!
(Photo not yet taken. But I'm sure it will be, somehow. Like, really soon!)
