Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Hamsters For Adoption

Pets Channel's Hammies In HamsterVille Adoption Ad
It has come to this...

We are putting our hamsters in HamsterVille for adoption. We are seeking all those animal lovers who would like to own a hamster or two to adopt our hammies.

We love them dearly, after 13 cages later with a population of 45... and maybe a few more it seems, as one looks rather... big to be fat, God help us, it is just overwhelming to care for them all.

They have literally overtaken our service balcony, much of our weekends to clean after them and the painful-to-see wounds after vicious territorial fights in some cages, because these little furry animals normally would live alone in the wild.

We simply cannot afford to separate every single one of them because the space required and money spent to buy the cages. A couple is good, but now is just too many to handle.

Our last resort would be to surrender some to Singapore's SPCA but knowingly, the association will euthanized them within 24 hours since they are also constrained by space and funds.


We cannot bear to think that we are sending them to die. Neither can we let them go into the wild... as these domesticated creatures will surely have a slow death from starvation and dehydration. It is just too cruel to abandon them and hope for the best.

We just have to find ways to find them new homes with animal-loving owners.

Through word of mouth at our son's school, his Teacher was nice enough to announced to the class about our adoption plan. We so far have one potential taker. His parents allow him to have one, but only after the CA1 or Continual Assessment First Term is over.

Pet Valley's Hammies In HasmterVille Adoption Ad
Through the Internet, we have so far submitted personal advertisements for pet adoption in several local websites here.

I found two huge and active websites called Pets Channel and Pet Valley from SPCA's Links page. I registered myself today and put adverts for adoptions of our hamsters. Hopefully there will be good, responsible pet lovers out there who would like to take in these beautiful creatures.

We are giving the cages and whatever accessories that the hamsters are having now to the right new owners. What they need to do are to care for and love them. Now is to wait for any interested people to call in.


The last option is to put up an Adoption advert in newspapers, but figured we give it some time for responses to come from our previous efforts.

There is a need to give potential pet owners, especially hamsters what they will be in for and the know-how to not have a population explosion like we had. We have learnt our hard lesson through ignorance, but we will always remain humane as we are a family of animal lovers.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Just Let Go...

Sunday Morning 25 Feb '07 7:25am
I woke up early this morning and could not seem to get back to sleep. Looking out of my bedroom window, the morning sky was beautiful today. I sat on the bed silently for sometime, watching the sun rising... casting interesting shadows to the clouds.

Looking downwards, I saw the tree where all of the hamsters that have died were buried. Our son called it the Hamster Tree. It reminded me of something sad recently.

Our HamsterVille is so teaming with life and buzzing with activities that we enjoy watching them. And where there is life, there is death. A recent one involved an unfortunate soul named Luckie.


The Attempt...

It happened on Monday night, during the festive Chinese New Year long weekend.

Wifey named her Luckie because she jokingly said the residents of HamsterVille were lucky to have a compassionate and caring Mayor, like me. She said Luckie was fortunate to be saved and her wounds being nursed by me, hence the name.

Baytril Anitbiotics from Buddy's Medications
I cleaned her wounds and gave her a drop of antibiotics using a syringe, leftover from our late Buddy's medications. She took it without being forced. She drank the water I gave her from the syringe too and started to groom herself. She did not look dehydrated, just hurt.

Luckie was the target amongst the 6 hamsters in one of the large sorority homes. She was the one that was being attacked often by the alpha female we named Sepet, or small, slit-eyes in Malay.

The largest female hamster in the cage, Sepet is the only one that does not have beady eyes. Though they were sisters from birth, nature took over with survival of the fittest. Luckie was the smallest in the group, the weakest.

Since Sepet has been tormenting the rest of her room mates too, I told Wifey that I had to buy a small cage to separate her from the rest and end her reign. Since it was already late into the night, I could only go to the pet store the next day.


The Tragedy...

Luckie did not get a chance to see the next day.

Quite late into the night, she was attacked again, but viciously this time. It was fatal.

With a loud shriek, but a strange one which none of us ever heard before, I rushed over to her cage and found her in lying on her back, like normal submissive stance hamsters take. This time she did not get back on her feet and dashed away. She was panting hard instead.

I picked her up only to find she had a new wound, a fatal wound. Pardon for being too graphic, but her anus was pulled out so much it was bleeding badly.

Another Alpha Female - Angry Angie
I wrapped her in layers of tissue papers and pressed firmly on the wound to stop the bleeding. She did not move, but just panting hard with her eyes closed and at times opened for a while. I know that she was in a lot of pain.

Wifey was horrified and cried when I showed her Luckie's wound. Our son just looked angry, vengeful even. I reminded him that it was their nature, acting on instincts and he should not do anything harsh to Sepet.

I could not do anything more for her, but cupped her with my hands to give her warmth and be there for her until her last moments. She struggled in pain at times, but otherwise was not moving at all. Her eyes opened and seemed to look at me once in a while.

"Let go Luckie... go on, let go..." I kept whispering to her as I stroked her head, "the pain will go away." Wifey cried even more when she overheard me saying that. I did not mean to be dramatic, I just wanted Luckie to not suffer any longer.

"Go Luckie, just let go." our son reiterated, looking at her, stroking his fingers on her head.


The Goodbye

Luckie kept holding on for more than 4 hours until past midnight.

Everyone was already asleep, but I kept holding on to her in my hands and stroking her head until she finally drew her last breath at 12:50am when she opened her eyes the last time. Wonder if she looked at me to say goodbye...

"Bye Luckie..." as I looked at her and run my finger over to close her eyes, "you're in a better place now." I think I was comforting myself. I felt relieved that her pain had stopped.

I held her and watched her for a little while longer until her body became cold and rigid. I wrapped her with more tissues and placed her in a disposable plastic container to bury her in the morning. Washed-up, wiped my eyes dry and went to sleep. Death always gets to me.

Luckie Being Buried Under The Hamster Tree
"How is Luckie doing, Ayah?" our son asked me when he woke-up in the morning.

Upon hearing that Luckie was dead, he dashed over to her at the service balcony and took her out to bury her straight away without even being asked to.

"Goodbye Luckie..." was what I heard him whispered to her as he went out the front door.

She was buried at the same tree Buddy was, and a few of our hamsters that died before Buddy. I guess it will not be the last. We will be having this grieving moments in the future since we have a population of 45 in HamsterVille.

HamsterVille... cute hammies playing and doing their thing... bringing us joy just by watching them, caring for them, yet we cannot escape the cruel truth nature has intended the flip-side of life to be.

Another day in the life of hammies in HamsterVille. Goodbye Luckie.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Beach(ing) About Fun

Changi Beach Along Park Nicholl Drive
Finally its Friday! The weekend officially starts after I turned of the office PC this evening.

The short work-week was a crunch instead as work was rather hectic due to backlog and the need to prepare for the coming early March audit. I was just too tired to face my home PC to blog-surf, much less write about anything.

I felt like a stranger to my own blog when I stopped for several days! Funny feeling.

Now that with the last item in my to-do list at work has been strike-off, I can enjoy the weekend and blog! Sweet!

The long weekend-cum-holiday was good, not as great as I had planned or hoped to be, but nonetheless good. I am thankful that the long break gave me back my energy and the long forgotten zest to do my work and complete it well and in record time too.

Let me see now, how did our long break turned out...

Chinatown Singapore CNY Light-up Chinatown Singapore Food Galore

PLANNED: Saturday night to Chinatown for the light-up and fireworks as the Chinese usher in the new year. Meet Wifey at Bugis as all shops, including ours were closing as early as 5:30pm.

ACTUAL: Cancelled. Wifey was too tired to face the large crowd after what was a very brisk sale for her today. Instead she was sweet enough to meet my son and I for dinner outside at one of our favourite old haunts - Bedok Market at Old Bedok Walk.

The food there tasted great. I even enjoyed the bus rides to and fro on double-decker Service 10. Must be the mood I was in. Everything looked, felt and tasted... dandy!


PLANNED: Sunday morning to leave for Sentosa Island Resort and be amazed with the glory of flowers blooming as a Chinese celebration of "spring" in Singapore at Sentosa Flowers 2007 festival called "Rhyme In Bloom." After that, get some excitement to be whisked-up to Imbiah Lookout on a Skyride and zip down in a Luge Cart before heading to Palawan Beach for a swim.

ACTUAL: Cancelled. Wifey was not feeling well after we delayed till after lunch time. Sigh.

We watched a DVD movie "The Devil Wears Prada." Understandably, our son was not pleased at all, locked himself in his room and played PC games with his online friends instead. I did some gardening to kill time. Double sigh.

Changi Beach Park At Nicholl Drive Entrance
PLANNED: Monday afternoon to camp and overnight at Changi Beach Park. Spend the whole Tuesday swimming, getting tanned... just relax and soak in the tranquility of sea.

ACTUAL: Modified. Since Wifey was not felling too well, we decided to just have a picnic at the beach; swimming... and a much needed tanning for me especially.

We had our lunch of Nasi Penyet, a Javanese version of Chicken Rice... a nice version of it I thought as I liked the chili sauce and the salad. Set our mat on the beach when the day was looking dreary... ran off back to Changi Village Hawker Centre 10 minutes later when it started to pour and poured really heavy. Sigh.

We ended-up sitting at the hawker centre drinking Teh Tarik or Indian Tea and chewing on ground nuts to wait out the rain. It did not about to stop though, so we headed back home. IT was a bummer, but you cannot blame mother nature. It was hot the whole weekdays and mother nature had to "water the plants and trees" on the weekends. Oh well, tomorrow then.


CONTINGENCY PLAN: Tuesday morning to Changi Beach Park again to swim, tan and relax. Get energized again for work. PLEASE!

ACTUAL: Yes! Successfully blissful, even without Wifey as she wanted to open the shop after a two-day lull. As it turned out, none of the other shops were opened, so she headed back home instead of meeting us at the beach as planned. I guess she needed her time alone doing nothing but just and catch-up on the recent movie releases on DVDs I bought for her.

I had a good tan. I was like a human sun-dial for a bit, while my son started off picking-up seashells and other unfortunate marine life off the beach and into his bucket.

We eat Nasi Lemak together, we talked about lots of things, joked and reenacted lots of funny movie scenes and swam, swam and swam until we both got quite a sunburn on our noses especially.

Changi Beach Park Ferry Terminal
The pictures I took using my Dopod C800 PDA camera did not do much justice, but we had a wonderful time at the beach anyway. I was all charged-up to go to work the next day.

On top of that, I can now see more muscle definitions on my body with a darker tan. Sweet! Wifey liked it too... like Austin Powers, I say... Yeah baby, yeah!

A good break for me I felt... yeah literally, the next couple of days when the sunburn on my shoulders cracked and painful to the touch. My son was spared somehow... guess I have old skin, the repeated sunblock I put on did not seem to work well for me.

I am very familiar with the phrase "No pain, no gain" doing my weight training, but never expect the other phrase, "beauty is pain" applies to me too. Ouch!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Lunar New Year!


Wishing All My Chinese Friends & Families
A Great Year Ahead,
Full of Happiness,
Abundance & Good Heath
Happy Chinese New Year!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

5 Antagonistic Analogy


I like because it is Chinese New Year:

  • The minimum guarantee of 2 days off work. This year, a long weekend of 4 days is here!
  • Mandarin Oranges are in season! My favourite fruit... Lukan, Swatou, Pakistani... fibre!
  • The shops are closed for celebration. I get my Wifey back with me!
  • Family outings and activities... camping at the beach, visit the zoo, short trip overseas?!
  • Good shows on TV and Cable... armed with new DVDs for indoors.

I hate just because it is Chinese New Year:

  • Most shops, shopping malls & coffee shops are closed for days at a stretch.
  • Virtually no green vegetables left on the supermarket shelves.
  • The tough time to get cabs and longer bus waits.
  • The incessant clacking of Mahjong's gambling-neighbours late into the night, days on end.
  • The extra work to cover for Chinese friends during their celebrations, only for them to take medical leaves after the celebrations. Sigh.

You just cannot help it since 60% of Singaporeans are Chinese, the prime movers of the economy... life slows down to a crawl when most take a break for about a week. Well, they deserve the break anyway.

When you cannot fight them, you just have to join them... time to execute my extra-curricular activities and have fun!

Monday, February 12, 2007

Saturday's Superlative Meals

Scenery Along TPE Woodlands Avenue 2 Exit
It is so delicious I could taste it in my mouth even before I reached my destination.

"Remember to bring along the Tupperware..." was my Mom's reminder. I was going to their place to give some monthly pocket money for their expenses.

Dad went to the market earlier to buy the ingredients and Mom cooked it and gave me a surprise since they know I was coming over. My parents are the best!

They cooked my favourite dish - sambal goreng and asked me to have the meal and take it home for Wifey and our son too. A childhood favourite dish that never fails to tempt me even today.

It was a pretty good Saturday, though it could have been better if both Wifey and our son could be there with my parents.

Wifey was at the shop in Bugis cashing-in on the Chinese New Year festive sale, while my son has his afternoon Malay tuition class in Kembangan.

Woodlands Beyond The TreesThe 40-minute bus journey on Service 168 from Tampines to Woodlands was extremely tranquil.

The long distance route cruising along Tampines Expressway was a welcomed reprieve for me.

Sat on the upper deck with my favourite MP3 songs playing on my Dopod C800 cell phone, the full view of a bright and sunny day, looking out of the window and lost in my thoughts. Ahh... heaven.

The simple pleasures...

Not wasting any time, I headed to the kitchen once I was at my parents'... where Mom had prepared an early dinner for me. Ooh, pineapple syrup drink too!

I did not realize that I actually finished the whole pot of rice with the sambal goreng she cooked, while I sat at her kitchen, chatting away with her.

I sinfully pigged-out this most wonderful dish... some anonymous, Malay ancestoral lady conjured-up in her kitchen decades ago maybe... but Mom's version is exceptionally special to me.



"I want to eat Yong Tau Foo for dinner..." Dad came to the kitchen from the room after his afternoon prayers, "we go to Banquet, OK?" He pointed to the direction of CausewayPoint Shopping Mall.

"Yes, why not! I would like to see the new place too." I answered, "Why don't you both get ready while I finish my meal here." I suggested.

They both went in to the room to change while I surreptitiously licking my fingers. Yes... still tasted heavenly as I have always remembered it. Heaven in Mom's kitchen.

We had dinner... well, they had dinner while I sipped coffee, at the newly opened Banquet food court on the 7th floor. The place was huge with a Malay village theme.

A halal food court was packed with the weekend diners where I saw mostly Malays; knowingly so as Woodlands is very near to the Singapore-Johor causeway to Malaysia.

Parents Enjoying Yong Tau Foo At Banquet Woodlands
Just as I enjoyed my sambal goreng, my parents were enjoying their Yong Tau Foo... they hardly spoke and by the look at the spilled chili sauce on the table... they were in heaven. Dad did not care at all, he enjoyed his favourite meal thoroughly.

Once at CausewayPoint, Dad's must-stop shop was the $Value store, where almost all items are sold at S$1.05.

He spent a good enough time browsing and getting items he "needed," like 8-in-one pack of pens, 4-in-one pack of Superglue, 10-in-one toothbrushes for the many unplanned guests that may stay overnight... a magnifying glass to help him look at minute items to fix around the house... hand towels, etc.

At about a dollar each, I guess why not! I joined-in too. Pens and magnifying glass for my son, Velcro-stickers for Wifey's shop deco ideas, hand towels and scrubs for the kitchen... and, a back-rest support for my blog chair.

We stopped by the Chinese New Year Bazaar erected at the open field just beside the mall and bought snacks and fruits to take home.

Before long, it was time to send them home and get to my home myself... of course not before Mom and Dad packed lots of stuff they cooked and stuff they already bought for me to take home.

I had so much stuff in tree carrier bags as though I just came back from grocery shopping. Wonderful folks these two.

I love them so dearly. We had a good outing together on Saturday. Hopefully Wifey and our son can join and enjoy their company next time.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

A Weekend Welcome

Wednesday With Buddy's Blog In Background
Wednesday returned to us yesterday morning, when I left the front door opened for some weekend fresh air.

Fortunate for this cat because her beloved Chosen One was not home but was at English tuition class, else my son would have chased it away in anger.

He had been angry with Wednesday since the tragic incident which resulted in Buddy's death. I guess he felt his trust for her was betrayed or something to that effect. He loved both of these animals, but nature had to run its course somehow in the scheme of things.

What more today, was that fact that after he had buried Buddy just this morning before he left for his tuition class, looking depressed and wanting to skip class.

Hamster Burial Tree - Buddy'd Burial
As endearing as Wednesdays has been all this while, she came in hungry... wanting food and fresh water, but not before looking for her Chosen One.

She went straight to my son's room meowing loudly announcing her return... forgiveness maybe, and started to go to every room in the house looking for him... minus the kitchen, of course. We are not making the same mistake again, not taking any chances this time.

Wifey was not too sure about her coming back. I just told her that we should let Wednesday eat... after all, we already bought cat food and was a walk short of buying her, her own food and water bowl when she pulled the stunt.

Wednesday settled for us once she could not find our son and asking for food. She eat a lot, most probably not getting any while she was banned from the house since that fateful day.

Wednesday Obstructing Blogging Process
This silly cat still needs someone to be around her while she eats. Else she will meow loudly and keep coming to the food and back to us as if telling us to be follow her to the food bowl and stay there until she had her fill. Amazing, this silly cat can be.

This cat bit the hand that fed her. Rule of nature showing its ugly side?

Once she had enough, Wednesdays started giving cat-massages to me and then slowly warming up to Wifey until she successfully won Wifey's heart to at least stay for a while longer.

The most intriguing thing happened when my son returned home at about noon. Upon hearing the doorbell rang, Wednesday rushed to the front door.

And when she saw him, she slided herself on his legs and wanting to leap onto his arms. Our son did not respond to her. Meowing loudly, she flipped on her back several times on the ground... attracting attention, overjoyed it seemed.

Wifey was so surprised that Wednesday acted so excitedly, so... cutesy. Asking to be taken back in again, maybe?

Well for me, I know she had me at "meow..."


Wednesday Lounging On P.A.L Blogger's Desk
It took my son quite a while to warm up to her. And for the rest of the day, Wednesday was by his side in his room, tailing him around the house, even to the toilet where she had her first bath.

Yep! He bathed her... act of revenge of something, but Wednesday came out cleaner after those vagrant days outside. Forgiven maybe?

She slept indoors last night and has not left the house since. Wednesday is home again. She is banned only from entering the kitchen... not too bad a comeback. I am glad.

As for me... I have to content with a slower update of blogging as Wednesday keeps blocking my keyboard and my view of the screen to focus on her, only her. Cutesy indeed.

I think I will get her that food and water bowl after all.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Bye, Beloved Buddy

Young Buddy. The Old Days
The unfortunate incident proved to be too much for Buddy, our most beloved hamster.

The Shock

On my way back from work today, just as I left the office after an eventful work day, my son called me over my cell phone to inform me that Buddy has died. His body was still warm.

My heart dropped upon hearing the news. My son just hung on to the phone, spoke nothing except whispers of sobbing if I am not wrong amid the buzzing of cars passing me by the road side.

The Denial

My mind was a blank... I just told him to hold-on to Buddy, to give him warmth, maybe he really needed companion in his fight to survive. I was deluding myself, I know, I was just hoping that Buddy was not dead yet.

I flagged a cab to return home quickly instead. I needed to be with Buddy as fast as possible, maybe... just maybe Buddy will know that we are there for him to fight on and live through this. Yes, I was deluding myself still.

When I reached home, my son had Buddy wrapped up in layers of tissue. His body stiff and cold. Both eyes still glistening from a little slit opening... as if looking at us.

My son was truly sad as he handed over Buddy to me.

I stroked Buddy's forehead like I always do for quite a long while. Maybe he would become alive again, a miracle was what I was waiting for, as I sat at the sofa looking at his face.

The Grieving

My son left me alone with Buddy and retreated to his room. I hate to admit it, but I stole a cry quietly as I sat stroking lifeless Buddy. Was not a manly reaction to expect from me, I would not know what I will do if my son saw me crying over a small creature... but Buddy was my personal favourite.

He was the one from the first time I pointed to in the glass enclosure, amongst so many in a group in Sam's Pet Shop at Marine Parade Promenade.

He was the one Puffy did not reject and the one who did not attacked Puffy when the shop keeper tried to pair them together. In fact, Buddy regurgitated food from his pouch in his mouth and Puffy accepted him by eating it up. Sweet!

It was totally amazing to see such selfless act from a selected companion, a buddy for life. Thus his name.

After my secret grieving alone, I placed Buddy, wrapped with tissue paper on my PC desk to wait for Wifey to come home and see Buddy for the last time. Bid him farewell.

We will bury him beside Chubby under the tree in front of our bedroom window tomorrow.

The Anger!

I just do not get it!

Although Buddy was wounded with a gaping wound, there was no sign of infection during my daily checks on him.

He was understandably weak for the whole day after the attack, but he began to be himself again... dotting about, responding to our calls by coming towards the side of the cage to us.

He was out and about, eating and drinking and lively as the wound was clearly drying up. It was this morning that my son who is on medical leave for two days himself, noticed that Buddy was not moving and could barely walk.

After asking for my permission, he brought Buddy to Pet Safari's Animal Recovery Centre at 3:30pm this afternoon all by himself. With an emergency money kept at home, he took about $150.00 with him for the vet to save Buddy. I admire him for being brave and independent to save a life.

The vet said that Buddy was a little dehydrated, but should recover if he responded to the antibiotics and vitamins that were administered to him. It cost only S$36.00 for consultation and medicines... but no guarantees, she said.

Last checked with my son at about 5:00pm, Buddy was more alert and moving around in his cage. He was grooming, my son told me. I was relieved, but I know I did not want to keep my hopes too high.

The condition was just like the late Chubby then, after coming back from the vet. Chubby was alert but died a day later.

Letting Go...

I know all three of us will need a little time to get over this loss. That empty cage is how we feel. Our son's favorite buddy is no longer with us... after over a year and a half.

Oh, Buddy! We love you so much boy. No pain now, Buddy... no pain. Beautiful soul returned to his Creator.

Good bye, our most beloved pet.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

OneCare 4 Three

Windows Live OneCare! Installation Successful Screen
I do hope that after today, I can put my worries to rest that my home PCs will not go bonkers on me and risk loosing precious personal data.

Like the slow recovery of my recent office PC fiasco, loosing all my email data was a heavy price to pay. I have become pro-active in prevention even at home.

So when Microsoft's Windows Live OneCare email came to my inbox offering their Beta Testers a fully functional released version that are now available in Singapore, I accepted the offer with wide-open arms!

Windows Live OneCare! Software PackageI have to arm all 3 of my home PCs - Wifey's, my son's and mine that are wirelessly networked together with broadband access, a fighting chance against viruses, spyware and malwares from the net... and also the ability to repair Windows systems files with its built-in tune-up feature amongst others.

For a small on-line subscription fee of S$29.90 covering a maximum of 3 PCs, the cost is extremely negligible to have a restful mind that your PC health is taken care of.

Now, all 3 home PCs are under OneCare! Peace be upon me. Yes!

I am however very grateful to the following free softwares that have kept all my PCs in good health so far:

These are well recommended free programs that do wonders for me personally, but with the all-in-one program of OneCare! with auto-update is the convenience I have settled for.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Mauled Me Over


If you have to choose between a cat and hamsters.... what will it be?

Had a terrible thing happened in our household last night. Sigh....

Our newly adopted stray cat, Wednesday has been so endearing, giving cat massages to all, especially me... on my belly! She has been the focal point of our attention these past weeks with her antics. Wifey's heart has obviously already melted for her... and then she had to pull a stunt like this one!

She has been observing the citizens of HamsterVille for some time now... but nothing serious, she just looked amazed at the restless little critters in their condos with a little "paw" here and there... startled at any sudden moves by the hamsters.

I view it cautiously, though it looked harmless from my observations. I began to become complacent against the order of nature.

Just when I was ready to retire to bed after Wifey came home from the shop, Wednesday toppled one of the cages that were stacked on top of each other. The cage door was released open upon impact.

Buddy WoundedOur most favourite hammy, Buddy was thrown out of the cage and as nature would have it, Wednesday mauled him instinctively. I guess that was what she intended anyway.

As soon as I heard the sound of the cage crashing down onto the service balcony floor, I knew what Wednesday was up to.

I rushed to the kitchen to find Buddy mauled tightly in Wednesday's mouth and she was trying to get away with her "catch."

As sweet as Wednesday is, she stopped on her tracks and yielded in front of me. She released Buddy when I shouted her name in shock.

Wifey came running after me and quickly took Wednesday away and put her out of the house. Wednesday was meowing loudly, wanting to be let in for several hours. We ignored her while nursing Buddy.

Buddy has a deep gash on the right-side of his back. A punctured wound that tore his skin off to reveal a pinkish dermis layer. Buddy was bleeding.

With layers of tissue paper, I pressed the wound for several minutes to stop the bleeding while comforting Buddy... calling our his name. Buddy did not struggle, but just laid still with his eyes all watery. The pain was definitely excruciating for him. Poor Buddy...

After about 10 minutes, Buddy began to move again and started to lick the palm of my hand like he normally does. That is the peculiar thing about Buddy. He is the only hamster that does that. He will lick our noses too if we put our faces near to him.

He is the "pioneer" and founder of HamsterVille... together with Puffy who escaped from her cage after their first born and never to be found again... like going out to buy cigarettes and never returned.

This morning, I told my son of what had happened. He was devastated to learn about Buddy and what has become of Wednesday. A double whammy for him.

The Order of Nature
Wifey has made-up her mind about Wednesday... she is staying out of our house. While I am still in a dilemma. Maybe they both can co-exist under one roof. All we need to do is to secure the cages doors and teach Wednesday to stay away from the cages.

The latter is tougher as I have no idea how this should be done. It will be even tougher to instill this to Wednesday when no one is at home. Dang it!

It is like a cat and mouse game... the order of nature that I am trying to change?

Until I can figure something out and able to convince Wifey, Wednesday is banned from our home. Sigh.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Malaise, Movies, Market...

Tampines Central Community Club
As she went down and disappeared into the stairway, the house was quiet and boring again.

Wifey as always, will be full of hope for a good business on Saturdays. She left for the shop. I wish to go help her out, but this light irritating headache will do anyone any good at the shop.

My son has already recovered from a bout of flu, but he too has this lingering headache from time to time just like me.

I guess I had it better than him as I can now rest at home while he still has his Malay language tuition class in the afternoon. Sunday will be his free day. Poor boy.

So... what was I to do after I could not sleep anymore?

Sinking Of JapanI started to blog-surf for awhile until I started to get the headache again... attributed to too much focusing on little letters on my 19-inch LCD monitor. The whole week at work staring at the monitor is quite enough for me.

I had to switch off my PC and do something else...

The obvious, not physical almost morbid activity would be watching a movie or two on DVDs.

I picked two movies that I have yet to watch after buying the DVD. One was Sinking Of Japan and the other, Apocalypto.

The first one was especially interesting to me because I really wanted to see how the Japanese conjure-up the devastation as realistically as the Hollywood counterpart.

It was impressive, no doubt. I especially like the cracking-ground and rising... brittle like biscuits. The huge wall of tsunami coming into the Japanese islands wiping out the entire town was thrilling. Awesome because I had always wanted to be a computer graphics artist when I was still studying computers then.

The most impressive is the satellite view of the devastation. Awesome. Realistic scenes.

Unfortunately, the worst part for me was the storyline... the falling in love bit between characters. The movie came to a slow crawl that I dozed off several times, only waking-up to the loud theater sound blasts when the earthquakes came.

Wifey would love this lovey-dovy scenes as she is a big fan of the Korean TV series.

Apocalypto Movie PosterThe second movie was more to my liking... storyline-wise, not so much CGI, but thrilling all the same. Mel Gibson's Apocalypto was very believable, but I was a little uncomfortable with its subtle hints of western humor and thinking amongst the Incas.

Maybe it will be more palatable and easily understood to cater to the western audiences... amongst the many gory scenes Hollywood is famous for.

The actors and costumes are believably authentic to me; tough, muscular warriors that did not look like they came out from Planet Fitness. How much accurate of Inca culture was in the movie is another debatable story altogether.

Overall, I like that movie very much.

The tough life as humans make the world closer to each other over vast body of water, consuming the unquenchable desire to explore and exploit the weak.

You know what? I suddenly realized that both movies were foreign language and I actually had to switch on the subtitles to understand the movie. So much for reading on a monitor.

Enough movie watching for one day, it was time to do some groceries shopping armed with Wifey's grocery list. This time, it is wonderfully convenient since NTUC Fairprice Supermarket is just a 5 minutes walk from our home.

It has taken-over the more expensive Cold-Storage and the Seven-Eleven convenient store shop space at the ground floor of Tampines Central Community Club.

Never saw so many people at that place than today. I even met my Customer doing his marketing at the new place. All this time he was he was staying a few blocks away from me. Wow!

This slow Saturday... of malaise, movies and markets. Bring sick sucks, the weather sucks too... wonder Sunday will be a sunny day. Laying on the beach with a light throbbing headache is not too bad...