Furry foot reflexologist

Angel likes me to give him a massage using my feet and also nuzzle his face against my toes.

Gifts from Japan

My cousin went to Tokyo recently with his friend and he helped sis to buy 4 tubes of mascara and on his mom's instruction, bought some lightweight sturdy brolly for her and me. He is also very sweet to get Sis and I handphone straps with cat cartoons. I choose the one with the eyes opened and I'm going to keep the paper wrappers (with cat stickers) :)

Angel, his new toy and the books

Angel also didn't take much notice to the toy initially and I had to make it bob in front of him.


He was more interested in checking out the 2 books I borrowed from the library. One book is "Cat vs Cat" that Sis said it is a recommended book by some online site on how to introduce a new cat to the resident cat. Another is "Meow Chow" - I want to find out if there is any good recipe that I could introduce to the cats if it's simple and nutritious. So far I have only been feeding them dry food and occasional wet food as a treat.

Bob in my bedroom

Bob seems quite comfortable in my room and also putting on weight.

He looked a bit cock eyed here.

and he was curious in the camera.


YesterdayI bought him and Angel some new toys (like a roly poly) so that he will have something to entertain himself when we are not in the room with him.

At first Bob wasn't too interested in the toy. He actually overturned it, so that it can't bob anymore. He was more interested in following me around the room.

Then I played with it myself and he noticed the new object and bit the felt material.


Then he went stoning after playing with it for a short while.

Busy

With Bob at home with us, I find myself less time to blog and surf the internet as I want to spend them with Angel and Bob after feeding the community cats with Mom. Bob is usually in my bedroom and we would let him out sometimes in the kitchen or around the house when Angel is sleeping in the other bedroom. Angel is still hissing at Bob, so we are trying to be patient and wait for the right time to introduce the 2 cats face-to face.

Work has not been exactly fulfilling but I'm fortunate to have bosses who are not nasty and nice colleagues. Come May 22, I will have been working in the same office building for 8 years. I have been thinking what else I can do but part of me enjoy the familarity of the work environment and also the pace of work that doesn't require me to work late often. I can then exercise with my good friend once a week, feed the community cats with Mom almost every evening, plan for outings with my family, squeeze in some time to catch up with friends or with things I want to do (like reading a good book) and also help a few other caregivers to trap their community cats to sterilise or handle occasional complaint cases about cats in our areas.

At the moment, I'll just go with the flow and see where it will lead me to.

Health check

I have recently received my medical screening results and was shocked to find out that my bad cholesterol is borderline high (used to be low) and my Rheumatoid Factor (RF) is 23 (acceptable range is 0 to 14)! Otherwise, I'm in the healthy/good range for good cholesterol, blood triglycerides, BMI.

I'm now waiting for my organisation to organise a post-briefing and I will ask the doctor present about my results. No point jumping about the information I have read about RF (eg. high RF could possibly mean risk of rheumatoid arthritis - scary).

However, I realise I have been eating less actively and exercising less. It's time to watch my diet and start exercise.

Angel, can we keep Bob?

Mom and I had difficulty deciding whether to bring Bob home after seeing how Angel reacted to Pearl when we were fostering her. However, we couldn't bear the thought of Bob missing or trapped in the drain during a thunderstorm. On Thurs night, I brought the carrier to the park, hoping to get Bob to enter willingly. We made the mistake of feeding Bob first and by the time, I used the food as a bait to lure him into the carrier. It didn't work.

We almost wanted to give up the idea of bringing Bob home as Dad is facing some problem at work and we don't want to add to Dad's worries. On Fri, I brought the carrier down again. Mom and I were a bit half-hearted but we thought to give ourselves and Bob a chance. Bob doesn't seem to like the carrier, so I had to hold him by his scruff and Mom held the carrier upright for me to gently put Bob in.

Back home, I gave Bob a quick bath. He only struggled a little and then tolerated me using a cloth soaked in soapy solution and then warm water to bathe him. Mom toweled him dry before putting him in the balcony.


Yesterday we took him to the vet for his first vaccination and he even purred when the vet checked his heartbeat. I asked the vet to check the black stuff in his ears and the vet after examining some sample said they are just some ear wax and not ear mites. The vet also said Bob could be more than a year or 2 as he has already lost some of his teeth.

We have let Bob out for a short while when Angel is sleeping. Bob seems to be interested in the shows we are watching on the TV. When I tried to take photos of him, he actually slanted to one side to look behind me. Haha.



Bob is so friendly and gentle that even Dad and Sis are won over. He likes to rest/sleep on our laps or next to us.

I was quite surprised that Dad let Bob out of the balcony last night, so that Bob can sit beside him on the sofa to watch TV.

We realise Bob sleeps a lot. This could explain why we don't see him in the afternoon. He is probably sleeping in the drain or bushes. Bob is such a darling that we can't imagine putting him back in the park.


Angel seems to behave better than when we had Pearl. He would still hiss as he run past the balcony.


Last night, the 2 of them almost had a confrontation. Angel was sleeping on top of the rack next to the TV and Bob was resting at the sofa. When Angel was waking up and wanted to get down from the rack, Bob noticed him and I quickly put my hands on him. His body stiffened and he looked alert and seemed to want to move forward. Both of them started to hiss even though they are about 2 to 3 metres apart. I quickly carried him to the balcony.

Bob would have to stay in the balcony in the meantime while we try to think of ways to introduce him to Angel. I have seen Bob play wrestle with Bush in the park and I don't think Angel would take nicely to that. Angel, on the other hand, probably thinks any other creatures other than the 4 humans are his enemy.


I will have to wake up briefly on weekdays at 5.15am to help Dad when he leaves the house as our balcony is just next to the exit. Bob, unlike Angel and Pearl, has no qualms about leaving the house to explore the corridor and he also will like to enter the rest of the house where Angel roams.

We really hope Angel and Bob can get along.

Mom's bak kut teh

Mom cooked her own version of bak kut teh. There's no teh but pepper seeds and less salty.

Sunset and night

A lovely view of Clarke Quay and sunset from the top of Asian Civilisation Museum.

I like how the lights play against the walls of the museum.

Rambo and Trini

Mom has been preparing dry cat food soaked in hot water mixed with some canned wet cat food (sometimes some rice too from our dinner) for Rambo. Now Rambo seems to put on some weight and his coat looks less dull.


A friend has advised me to sterilise him while another said I may want to think twice about sterilising an old cat as he may not wake up from the anaesthesia, so I'm still considering whether to put him through sterilisation.

Although he looks quite sad with his jutted out tooth, out of shape face, he is gentle and friendly towards us. When mom and I come with food, he will run to us and sometimes when the weather is cold, he will snuggle near our legs/feet.

I have recently sterilised Trini, the 3rd calico cat in this area. She was actually pregnant, so it is a good thing I managed to trap her in time or we would have many kittens who might not survive the recent rainstorm. She is quite vocal and will greet us with her meows and likes to rub her head against our legs and hands.

DIY Facial Party

A few Saturdays ago, my friends and I decided to chill out at FR's place to do face masks. We had fun showing one another the stuff we have been putting on our faces.

FR treated us to some pies she and hubby got from a bakery from Sunset Way.


After the pies, we cleansed, toned our face before we slathered green and red clay masks on them.


FR also made some concoction of tomato juice and lemon juice to tone our faces after the masks. Our skins felt a bit stinging but I like the sensation.

Nearing the end of our pampering session, we each had a bowl of FR's health tonic of white fungus, wolfberries and dates.


What a nice way to spend our Saturday afternoon :)

Green Issues and Tree Hugger

These are some websites where I get my regular dose of environment news and green tips and how to simplify life:

• Green Issues
• Tree Hugger
• Care 2
• Guardian
• The Worsted Witch
• Real Simple

Giving magazines and newspapers another life

I receive free magazines (not the lifestyle and entertainment kinds) at work. Usually, I will usually just put them into the recycling box near my workstation. Recently, a friend, through her emails and actions, have reminded us to green our life, whenever possible. When I was flipping through the colourful pages of a magazine, I thought I could keep it to wrap a friend's present. This was what I did.

I think the combination of rolled up newspapers and a bowl as a mini table is innovative. However, it can't work for curious inhabitats like Angel and clumsy humans like me. Hee.

I decided to try this out just for the fun of it. An ugly version :)

Yay, Bob is back

When out for lunch yesterday, I received a call from a feeder in my area that she saw Bob hiding in one of the covered drain in the park. She lifted up one of the slabs for Bob to come up to the surface and fed him some food. She said he fits the description I gave her on Sun night. I quickly
called Mom so that she could go down and look for him but she told me later that Bob was nowhere in sight.

At a work event/dinner last night, Dad called me to offer to drive over and pick me home. I told him I could make my own way home. He had finished feeding the cats and said that Bob was in the park and Dad fed him. I was very happy to hear another person seeing Bob.

I went home straight after the dinner and quickly cleaned up the 3 hamsters’ cage, washed up Angel’s toilet tray and put in new cat litter and pine pellets. When Mom came back from her taiji class, I happily told her Bob is back and suggested going down to the park to look for him.

We went down but only Bush, Shadow, Oreo and Baby greeted us in the park. We looked into the covered drains and called his name but no Bob meowing or appearing.

This morning, Mom saw Bob and the other cats and fed them. IShe said he looks healthy but he’s afraid of Manja/Shrek/Malay cat (a roaming pet cat of a Malay family who would join the other cats for a meal sometimes). After eating, he went back and hid in the covered drain again.

We don't know where he was hiding the past few days. Mom said he could be trapped or swept away by the rainwater in the drain and he managed to find his way back.

I was very happy to see Bob just now and had him sleeping on my lap. Mom and I are thinking of bringing him home on Good Friday to try out the possibility of keeping him at home but we also know it won't be easy.

Cloth pads

I think Lunapads are a cool invention for females like me who find wearing disposable pads uncomfortable. I got to know about the Lunapads a few years ago and bought a few with the idea of alternating them with disposable pads. However, I wasn’t very committed to using them and still used disposables most of the time.

Last year, I found out that a friend has been using cloth pads from Lunapads and completely phased out the use of disposable pads. I was encouraged and thought I could do the same too. After buying some more Lunapads, I have been using them for the past 3 months, without the need for disposables.

Some of you may feel disgusted by the idea of having to wash your blood-soaked/stained cloth pads. I don’t think it’s icky to do so; after all it’s my blood. Of course, it’s easy to throw away disposable pads but the discomfort they give me pushes me to use cloth pads. I have gradually overcome the inconvenience of having to soak/wash the Lunapads and the liners and bringing extra liners to change them where I’m out. I feel better about myself and don't feel cranky wearing Luna pads. Now I just need to find the best way to reduce usage of water in washing the pads. Then I’ll be on the way to being more environmentally friendly (by contributing less waste and using water efficiently).

I have taken some photos of my Lunapads:

(From left: liner, day pad, liner with wing)

(Top and side views of the pad with the liners attached with the aid of the elastic bands)

I have also read that the use of disposable ones has some health risks. Planet Green has an article on some alternatives to disposable pads.

For any of you who are keen to try, you will have to order cloth pads online since Parenthings who used to bring Lunapads in has stopped its operations. Simply Peaceable (SP) is considering bringing in Sckoon’s cloth pads and baby diapers if there is a demand. If you are interested, you can drop SP an email.

(Underside of the day pad - isn't the design chirpy? :) Wait till you see the Sckoon designs)

(Lunapads' pouch that came free when I bought the liners a few years ago. The recent purchase doesn't have any accompanying pouch)

I’m attracted to Sckoon’s cute prints on the pads and other products (such as leak proof pouch and panty). Lunapads and Sckoon pads are quite similar and the difference seems to be how the liner is attached to the pad. I’ll get some to try if SP carries them.

You can also try making one yourself by following the steps in these websites: Tiny Birds Organics and Adahy's cloth pad patterns. It looks easy!

Missing Bob

Bob has not been sighted and coming for food since Thurs night. Mom and I have looked for him in the areas near the park. Mom has a few theories to explain his disappearance:

1. Bob was hiding in the drain during the rain/thunder storm and got swept away
2. Someone saw Bob and decided to adopt him

We hope it's scenario 2 but we also hope Bob will appear again when we are in the park to feed the other cats. My earlier plan was to bring him to vaccinate before the coming Good Friday holiday and bring him home to see if he and Angel can get along. But now he's missing. He is a very sweet cat. On those nights when it was cold and raining, he likes to climb onto our laps and sleep. At home, Angel doesn't do that but he's still a darling.

Whenever he is, I hope he is not suffering.

Feast @ Shangrila's The Line

kuro.shiro.neko and I met our friend from Japan for lunch at The Line 2 Saturdays ago as she read about the buffet in some Japanese guide book about Singapore (published in 2005). The price for the buffet in 2005 was $35+++. In 2008, it's $48+++.

We sat near the dessert counters.


These were what I ate. The desserts were quite nice. The savoury stuff were alright.

Pearl in her new home (Part 2)

Pearl's adopter, Ben sent me an MMS of Pearl on his shelf of books. Mom and I visited her last Sun afternoon in her new home. She hid under the chairs when we entered the house. After a short while, she was curious and approached us. Maybe she recognised us and allowed mom and I to stroke her. We are happy that Ben and his friend dote on Pearl and she seems to adapt well to her new surroundings.

Organic black sesame spread

My breakfast is usually 2 slices of Sunshine bread spread with peanut butter or nutella or cheese or margarine sprinkled with wheatgerm and a cup of water or Yakult.

After reading the Baker's post about sesame spread, I remember and looked for it when I was shopping in Takashimaya.

I like the taste of sesame - the burnt nutty flavour, so after sampling it, I bought a jar. Now I can have sesame spread to go with my breakfast. Yummy :)

Mom's mouthwatering dishes

My current favorite is Mom's cereal fish. She has tried cooking cereal prawns too but I think her fish version is yummier.