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.

Mom's yummy simple food

Mom cooked us steamed spicy lady's fingers and brown rice porridge for lunch on 2 separate occasions. I felt warm and contented just eating them :)

Eating good food in good company makes me happy!

Chocolate chip cheese muffins

As I had extra cheese cubes not used in my beer bread, I wanted to use them before they turned bad. I found a strawberry cream cheese muffin recipe in one of my recipe books and improvised it. Instead of strawberries and cream cheese, I substituted with chocolate chips and cheese cubes.

I quickly baked them after feeding the community cats yesterday morning and before going to the cinema to watch Ponyo (the animated film by Miyazaki - if you like his works, you should watch it).

I filled the muffin cups to the brim. A mistake as the batter was oozing out while baking in the oven.

But luckily the muffins still looked quite pretty. I quite like the cheesy crust and the cheesy chocolatey centre. The cheese and chocolate chips got pushed up to the top of the muffin, so the bottom of the muffin has no cheese and chocolate. But that's where I could taste the muffin on its own. It tastes like egg sponge cake.

Beer batter bread

A friend has made a copy of this recipe (featured in Straits Times' Sunday Times) for me some time back but I only managed to try it recently. Here's a photo of the recipe (you can click on it to view it clearly).

It's really easy to make and the taste of the bread is like a savoury cake but more airy. I tried making bread using yeast and I have not been successful in making bread the traditional way. This recipe using beer is a unique way to make a savoury bread.

For my first attempt, I used the normal baking powder instead of the double acting one and the bread turned out to be quite dense. Otherwise, I followed the recipe quite obediently. In addition to gruyere cheese, I also added some canned ham (Tulip brand) and frozen organic chopped spinach.

On New Year's Day, I baked this bread again, using honey baked ham, extra sharp cheddar cheese, mild cheese and spinach. It turned out well :) and I was happy that my family and my friends at work like it too.

Now I can consider baking this instead of shepherd pie for family dinners or potluck with friends :)

Cat souvenirs

My friend got this cute souvenir for me when she was attending a meeting for Poland.

Another friend got me this figurine when he was on holiday in Barcelona :)

I also bought a number of nice cat stuff during my holiday in Japan a few years ago. I was admiring them when I was packing my drawers last month. I still can't bear to use some of them.

Passion fruit

After trying passion fruit in the hotel suite on my friend's wedding day in Oct 08, I like it and have introduced it to mom. Both of us in the initial stage could eat one every day. I like its sweet smell and some of them are more sourish than others. It has a refreshing taste. I googled a bit about the fruit and learnt that it has antioxidants. However, it seems like the passion fruit season is ending soon as we see less of it at the provision shop near our home.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Hope all of you are enjoying this holiday season before working hard again in the new year.

It has been a long time since I've last blogged. Now using my new handphone to do so as my PC has crashed and under repair.

Here are some photos of Angel and Bob using the camera on my hp.

Taking a break from blogging

I haven't been blogging for the past 2 weeks. Perhaps it's because I have been busy catching up with friends, trying to find time to study Japanese, keeping Bob company in my room, trying to recover from my flu by taking Chinese medicine from the sinseh, getting ready to cope with increased workload, spending time with parents and the community cats in the park when I'm not out meeting friends, thinking of how to spend on more worthy stuff and save more, etc. Maybe I'm starting to lose the interest to blog. I haven't bought a new camera to replace my faulty one as I could use Sis' camera since she hardly uses it. Even then, I don't carry it everywhere I go.

Nowadays I just admire the yummy food and tuck in. When feeding the cats in the day, I will just stroke them after feeding them. Anyway, I have taken many beautiful photos of them for the past few years. I did take some photos of the simple food I cooked and of parents' yummy dinner dishes but I haven't downloaded them from the camera. Maybe when the urge to blog comes back again, you will see photos and read my blabbering. I'm not sure if it will be anytime soon. But if any of you misses me, you know where to reach me :)

Chewy ginger cookies

I spent Mon afternoon, churning out about 100 soft ginger cookies. I missed baking and decided to do a big batch since my mom and friends like the earlier few batches I made. I also added chocolate chip and raisin to some of the cookies.

Strangely, I didn't feel any kick when I tried a piece from almost every tray. So I needed affirmation from mom and friends that my ginger cookies still taste great.

Sis tried 2 and thought they are lau hong (cookies that are supposed to be crispy but turn stale) but she said the taste was not bad. I told her they are soft/chewy cookies like the Subway cookies. I was relieved when Mom tried the cookies that night and said they were good. This gave me the courage to bring the cookies to the office and offer to my friends and colleagues :)

AVA Responsible Pet Ownership Roadshow 2008

I visited the roadshow at the Singapore Expo yesterday with my parents after finishing my Japanese lesson in the afternoon. Reaching there after 5pm, the puppies at the Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD) booth were sleeping in the air-conditioned environment. Ricky gently touched one of the puppies and asked it to wake up and work to get itself adopted by the crowd who was watching them sleeping. I hope they get adopted by nice people soon.

The place at the Expo is more spacious and of course comfortably cool. There were drawings and paintings by children on their interpretation of responsible pet ownership, exhibition panels manned by AVA staff and a ferris wheel that carried some messages.


I headed to the Cat Welfare Society's booth to talk to 2 of the volunteers whom I know and find out how they were doing.



I continued to explore the rest of the hall and check out the other booths manned by other animal welfare groups. Before I left with parents for our dinner, I bought this bag, cute cat tissue holders and magnets from CWS :)

Goodbye, Rocky, Trini and Peanut

We haven't seen Rocky the long-haired black and white cat (abandoned by a Malay family) for the past few weeks and Mom learnt from an auntie that she saw Rocky being taken away by SPCA as he had an injured paw. It seems like the Malay owner had been feeding him and his nephew, Oreo and didn't do anything to help his injured paw, so someone decided to call the SPCA to help him.

Trini, the female calico cat who usually hung around my block's void deck has also disappeared mysteriously when I was away in Beijing. I did ask my Town Council officer who said he noticed that the old "sick" cat (our Rambo) has disappeared and he would let the complainant(s) know of the action being taken to remove the cat. He said he didn't remove any cats from my area so far. Mom and I hope Trini has been adopted by someone since she is a friendly cat. I have also called AVA to see if there were any cats taken from my area and the AVA officer said there were none.

First Bush disappeared, then Bony died, I have to send Rambo to a cattery, Rocky taken to SPCA and Trini has disappeared. I hope the rest of the cats in my area will remain safe.

This afternoon, I found Peanut (the hamster)'s cold body in his house. He hasn't been peeing and pooing well and also not eating well. Mom and I knew it was a matter of time before he left us. His sis, Pebble, did a few months. Now the remaining hamster, their brother, Poofy is the lone survivor after more than 2 years with us. He is losing some fur - clearly a sign of ageing. He will probably be the last hamster we are keeping since I don't think we will be adopting any more. I think the cats have been making us busy :)

Bob and my office laptop

When we let Bob out for a short while and Angel was in my parents' bedroom, I was using my office laptop to check some office emails. Bob hopped onto the table to check out the laptop and also rubbed his face against it vigorously. He really wasted no time in marking his territory :)

Angel on our lap

Recently, we noticed that Angel likes to settle on our lap or tummy for a few minutes if we are resting on the sofa. "We" refers to Sis and I and excluding Mom and Dad. This has happened the past few weeks, once a week. Here are 2 shots of Angel doing that on Sis.

Working from home

I got my office IT guy to configure my laptop this afternoon, so that I can access office emails from home in future. I was just fiddling around with the router at home and my office laptop and luckily everything went smoothly as I remember the IT guy's instructions.

I have been arrowed to coordinate 12 weekly sessions of some management meetings in Dec or Jan next year. I will be expected to get ready the meeting materials and agenda when there will be inevitable cases of late or last minute submission of papers or presentation slides. Like the current and earlier secretaries, there is no point for me to stay back in the office and wait for such emails to come in the night before or the morning before the meeting. It is better for us to bring back our laptop and try to resume some normalcy in our life.

For my case, it will be enjoying home-cooked dinners and feeding the cats with my parents before checking office emails and working on them, in between spending time with Angel and Bob. Life will be a bit more hectic when I have to take on the extra role of a "secretary" but I hope it will be an interesting experience to observe the thought processes and attitudes of the decision makers. I don't play politics but it's good to see what make the organisation tick and perhaps it may help me to decide whether it's meaningful for me to continue working here.