Bob and Joy

Bob was hiding initially when Joy was in my room. However, after a while, he was less scared and Joy could stroke and carry him. He even rubbed himself against her towards the end of the visit but Joy said Bob is still very attached to me as he would rub against me too. It's nice to see another person with affection for Bob. Joy commented that Bob and I will be sad if she adopts Bob. True, we will be initially but if Joy and her family loves Bob and Bob and their cat can get along or accept each other, we will be happy again.

Joy and I discussed and think we can try to let the 2 cats meet at her place. That will probably take place in May after my Japan holiday and her working trip.

Joy, I can still smell your perfume on Bob's fur just now. Hopefully that will help him to remember you the next time you visit :)

Bob's afternoon out of my room

I took a few photos of Bob when I let him out after my lunch. He is now resting on the floor in the living room while Angel is in my parents' room with the door closed and other defenses such as the weird fence, bottles of water and orange peels I blogged about earlier.


A potential adopter, Joy will be visiting Bob later. This will be the second time she and her 2 sisters see him. About a few weeks ago, they came too and Bob was quite freaked out and went hiding under the sofa or the toilet or under my bed. It's quite surprising as Bob used to be friendly with people when he was a community cat in the park. I guess after a year interacting just with me and my family, he lost that. Joy told us that she likes the look of Bob and the feelings she has after seeing the ad on Cat Welfare Society's adoption bulletin board. As I guess with that feelings and me hoping to find Bob a better home with more freedom, Joy and I decided that she could visit him again.

Bob is still meowing when he doesn't like to be cooped up in my room. He is still interested in the barrier separating him and Angel. I'm still sharing my pillow with him and my head is usually warmed by his body. I still get some scratches and bites from him on my arms when he is frustrated. He is still the cute guy I see when I go to my room and when I wake up :) But the sad thing is both still can't get along and either one will be unhappy being cooped up.

The last of yam soba

I have been trying to finish the packet of yam soba, so that I can try other brands. Today I made a bowl from the last strands with some veggies I found in the fridge, sausages and egg. For the soup, I put in the dashi/fish stock satchet and also added in this Jap yuzu hot sauce I got from Isetan Scotts supermarket. I like the taste and the dish made a nice satisfying meal for my lunch.

Angel on Ikea plank

Dad is creative. He likes to DIY and recently, he put up a plank from Ikea and shower curtain to cover his new TV in their bedroom. I don't know the purpose of the plank though but it seems like a great place for Angel to relax :) Oh and I like the blue tones of the curtain- bright and chirpy.

How I eat my capsicum

I like green capsicum/pepper, not the red or the yellow. I find the green one less sweet. I like to eat it with plain bread or toast it on top of cheddar cheese, some toast wheatgerm and bread. Yummy!

10 down, 2 more to go

The last time I wrote about being assigned to be the secretary of some senior management meetings. I started in Dec 08 and I have completed 10 sessions. The 10th one was yesterday from 4.45pm till 8.20pm. The 1st agenda item already took more then one hour of discussion and we had about 6 items. Anyway, I will try to draft the minutes and send them out to the directors for their comments by this weekend (my own target) before clearing with CEO by mid-week. Then hopefully, I will do 2 more meetings, as scheduled and be able to lead a more "normal" life.

The experience wasn't that painful. I get to see the decision making process, the dynamics, etc. The content of the discussion will be boring without the personality, experience and passion brought in by the participants. I am not one of them, just someone there to make sure the projector and my laptop run well for the presentation slides, to get presenters to come in at the right time and to record the minutes of the meeting.

I can't wait for my duty to end by end Mar and then I can give myself a little break :)

Watching anime

I have not been crazy about watching anime. The only time that came close was quite some time ago when Central (TV12) was showing Inuyasha at 11.30pm. Mom, sis and I would try to catch it on those weekday evenings. But that anime was quite long and came in a few seasons, so after a while, we stopped chasing after it. The storyline revolves around the adventures of the half-demon, Inuyasha and a schoolgirl, Kagome and their friends in fighting demons. Both Inuyasha and Kagome were from different era and had special powers. I like the storyline which is interesting, funny and sad but it was hard trying to catch up with it. Maybe I will try to follow the later seasons when I have the time.

Recently, I was listening to the Jap song on Sweeteepye's blog and like the tune. I was curious and started to find out what the anime Nabari no Ou was all about. Last Thurs till this Mon, I was watching the anime. I love it, the storyline, the music, the characters (how they were drawn and the colours). I laughed at the earlier episodes and as the story gets darker and sad, I teared/cried at times.

The story is about Miharu, a schoolboy who had some secret art/power in him - he didn't know about it at first and people (who were ninjas/samurai in the Nabari world) were interested in his power. Some became his friends and others just wanted to use the power for their own gains or to create their ideal world. It shows how misguided some people can be by destroying lives around them just to get what they want. There is also goodness where strangers became Miharu's friends and were there to help him. Another important character is Yoite who had the power of Kira and was also called the Death God. The scenes of him and Miharu were very touching as the 2 of them were similar in some ways and they shared a special bond.

I also like how the anime portrays some baddies with some goodness in them and even the good guys had some secrets they were keeping. Things were not what they seemed to be. It was fascinating to see how the story developed. I feel it's kind of unpredictable. Initially, I was attracted to the ninja fighting scenes, then in the later part, it was how the feelings and emotions of the characters were played out.

Most of the guys in the anime (especially Thobari Sensei)look cute and I initially thought one of them (Raiko) was a girl with his pink colour hair. Thobari sensei (another good guy) looks very cool and he was very funny to have a phobia of taking any form of transport. I managed to catch a few familar Japanese words that I have learnt but my eyes were catching the English subtitles all the time. Nabari no ou is only 26 episodes (about 30 mins per episode). I'm not sure if this is the usual length of anime but Inuyasha was more than 100 episodes. It will be wonderful if I am able to understand the anime in Jap. That is, if I continue to persevere in my Jap lessons (still at basic level and not been studying hard for it).

I don't think I will get addicted to another anime soon. Anyway, I could only watch it late at night when I finish checking on the community cats and the 2 rascals at home. But I have been feeling good about being able to catch Nabari no ou. At least I don't feel that I have wasted my time and it's not often I get glued to the computer for hours other than for work. Hee.

Another calico cat sterilised

Another calico cat appeared in my area. She looks well fed and is friendly. I wasted no time a few days later (on Tues) to trap her and asked a friend to help me to send to the vet for sterilisation.


Yesterday, I passed her in the carrier to a Malay uncle who wants to keep her as a pet. His wife and roaming pet cat recently passed away. This new cat will also be another roaming pet cat. At the moment, the uncle is keeping her indoors or in the carrier to train her to know that his place is her new home. I wonder if she will know to go back to his place to sleep after he releases her. We'll see. Either way, my parents and I will be feeding her as we also fed the uncle's previous pet. He stays at the ground level and let his previous cat pee and poo outdoors. He just left it to us to feed his cat and probably sometimes shared part of his meal with his cat.

Cooking on Sundays

I have been cooking simple meals for myself last Sunday and today.

Last Sun, I had the yam soba soup with veggies and egg. Angel jumped onto the sink counter and looked at my dish curiously.


Today, I made a dry version of the yam soba with kailan and egg while trying to bake some organic brownie from a premix I bought from Jasons supermarket. Both were yummy!


For dinner, I used the rice that Sis couldn't finish with her bak kut teh to cook fish and veggie porridge.

Goodbye, Poofy

Poofy, our last hamster, passed away this afternoon. Mom found him motionless outside his toilet. His 2 siblings, Peanut and Pebble, left us last year. For the past few months, Poofy lost most of his fur and walk in an awkward manner but he would still grab bread, corn and beansprout from us.

I'm not sure if we will be keeping any more hamsters since we are already quite busy with the cats. The hamsters have given me good memories and through them, I have learnt to be a more responsible person and also start this journey of loving creatures great and small (except cockroaches and mosquitoes).

Water globe

A friend gave me this pretty water globe on Christmas day. It's resting on top of my cabinet and sometimes I will give it a shake and watch the "snow flakes" falling on the cats :)

Monkey the new community cat

Mom and I saw her one morning more than a month ago. We suspected that she may be an abandoned pet cat as she is very tame and allows me to rub her tummy. She is not sighted daily and recently I was worried she would get pregnant as a new young male cat had been following her for the past week. So I was determined to try and trap her after Chinese New Year.

Dad called me when he saw her near the carpark. I quickly went home to pick up the carrier. It was a funny sight when I saw Dad using one hand to hold her head. Luckily for him, Monkey is a gentle cat and just allowed him to kind of pin her to the ground. When I opened the door to my carrier and Dad released her, she just ran into the carrier. It was the easiest trapping! She started to meow softly when I carried the carrier.

After feeding the other cats, we went home and found Monkey trying to meow but she seemed to have lost her voice. I opened the door to the carrier and stroked her head and chest and she didn't bite me at all and seemed to enjoy it and even purred a little.



Lingcat is helping me to send Monkey to the vet. I will see her again on Sat evening and release her back to where she is found.

Angel's 2nd lunar new year with us

Last night, Angel was resting briefly under Sis' clothes hanging tree. He just refused to look into the camera :)


I managed to catch him on Sis' bed. Hee.


This morning, I snapped photos of Angel again resting and in action.

Bob's lunar new year eve

This is his first lunar new year eve with us at home. Last year, he was in the park downstair.

I like this photo of him sitting behind my left knee :)

I played this colourful toy with him but he got tired of it after a while.


Bob's favorite sitting posture which shows off his figure. I have been giving him light cat food and feeding him less for the past few months. Hopefully that would help him to lose some weight.

Banana cake failure

I tried baking this banana wholemeal cake, using a recipe I saw in ST's Urban Supplement. However, it turned out rather wet even though I followed the instructions. It tasted more like kueh or pancake rather than cake and it's rather oily. Oh well, I will just try to finish it myself. Mom said she will help me to eat too.

The barrier between Angel and Bob

This is what we need to set up outside the door of Sis' room when Angel is inside resting and Bob is let out of my room. The detergent bottles of detergent/water act as weights to prevent Bob from removing the cardboard. The oranges and orange peels act as a repellent since cats don't like the smell of oranges. However, there are times when Bob will overcome then and use his strength to move the bottles and cardboard. Especially if Angel is just behind the door, meowing and scratching.

When I looked at the photo this afternoon and showed to my sis and parents, we laughed. It's really funny and if relatives or strangers were to see it, they may wonder if we are praying to some god behind the door. Hee.

It is also kind of sad that we need to do this :(

Soba, lemongrass and shepherd pie

2 Tuesdays ago, I took leave to be at home in case Mom needed my help to do spring cleaning. Instead, I cooked soba soup for our lunch. With fish balls, mushrooms, lemongrass and fish stock and some Jap yuzu spicy sauce, I think it tasted yummy. Mom said it was not bad too.

I also made lemongrass drink with panda leaves and ginger. I love the spicy taste from the ginger. Next was to bake shepherd pie for dinner. Its insides were sausages, frozen mixed veggies. The top was mashed pumpkin and potatoes covered with the leftover cheeses (extra sharp cheddar and mild). It tasted quite good too :)

Many faces of Bob

I took these shots of Bob using my handphone camera while I was in my bedroom with Bob just now. I played with him a bit, combed his fur and when I was checking my handphone camera, he wasn't very pleased I didn't pay attention to him and tried to bite me. What a baby! I had to tell him no and smack him on his head. After a while, he just made some "erm" noises and sat at one corner and later went next to rest next to me.

He has a nice coat on his back and a cute little tail.

Bob's cries

Some of you may remember my earlier post. I have not mentioned much about Angel and Bob. Both can't still be together. Bob is still in my room most of the time - mom will let him out for a few hours when Angel goes into one of the other rooms. At night, if Angel decides to snooze in Sis' room, we will let Bob out for an hour or so.

For the past month, Bob has been meowing more frequently and louder. If I'm home late or doing work outside my room, Bob will cry for attention and we are worried that our neighbour (the HDB guy) will complain. Luckily so far we haven't heard any bad news. Perhaps closing the window in my room helps with some gap for fresh air at the top window grille.


I recorded the above video of the gate outside my bedroom's door with Bob crying inside. His "ow" sounds are loud. The gate acts as a precaution in case Bob dashes out when Mom/I try to enter my room. I always enter with a big bag to block his view as Angel sometimes will just rest near the door and Bob will get excited and try to dash out.

Mom has also shared with me that she has been stressed with the daily late morning routine of letting Bob out of my room after feeding the community cats downstairs. Sometimes Angel doesn't like being shut in the room and will meow in the room and scratch the door. Bob gets excited and will try to push away the big bottles of water and cardboard used to cover the door. Sometimes the bottles will fall,spilling the water. That's how strong Bob is.

We also realise Bob loves human attention. If Mom/I are in the room, he wants us to play with him, hug him or sit by his side. I have tried reading my book or studying my Jap. If he is alert and already frustrated at being cooped up in the room, he will try to bite my ankles. When he is out during the day, Mom finds that he likes her to pay attention to him. While doing the housework, she feels she can't really focus as she has to keep an eye on him in case he attempts to "break down" the barrier between him and Angel.

Mom loves Bob but feels that he can't have the freedom to roam around the house. Sis and Dad like Bob too. I love Bob too but sometimes I feel guilty that I can't give him all my attention and time. My work, interest, going out with friends mean less time with him and because he is not able to run around the house like Angel, he sees less of the family and his whole world is just my room. Sharing my room with him, sleeping with him, feeding him and spending time with him whenever I can - is it the best I can do for Bob? Sometimes I wonder if Mom and I have made the right choice in bringing him home. But at that time, we really thought things could work out with him and Angel.

Now everyone seems to be suffering because of our decision/action. I want to try putting an adoption ad of Bob on Cat Welfare Society's adoption board again. I'm not holding out much hope as there are many other lovely cats out there. I don't know how long Mom can withstand the stress and if one day we receive a letter from HDB. Our other option is to put him at a cattery like Rambo, the old community cat but that is a last resort. Bob's future has been on my mind all this time. I feel kind of sad at times I don't have a good solution. But everytime, like 20 mins ago when we managed to give Bob some time to just relax in the living room with us, I feel better. It, however means Angel is either resting on Sis' bed or feels trapped. When we heard Angel scratching the door, we had to put Bob back in my room again. Sigh.

An artistic shot of Angel

A nice shot of Angel taken by Sis using her Canon Ixus 70. I have also been using it since my Casio camera died. I can help her to use it instead of letting it idle away in her cupboard. Hee.