My furry companions at home

Pip is not as active as before but he will still squeak loudly when we hold him in our hands and then starts licking us and then wriggling to tell us to put him down.

It's hard to take nice photos of Poofy as he is very fidgety and nervous. So I am very happy to get some good shots of him last night.


Pebble, the only hamster girl is very active and moves very fast. Of all the 4 hamsters, she clearly dislikes us touching her. We used to refrain from touching her as she was quite fierce. But I believe that hamsters will mellow with age and recently, I just quickly grabbed in my hands and she would struggle but she doesn't bite and would tolerate me handling her for a short while before nipping my fingers a little to tell me time's up :)

Peanut used to be just walked in our hands to be carried. But nowadays, he has become more fidgety and doesn't seem to enjoy me holding him.


And what was Angel doing while I was being the hamsters' photographer and cleaner? She was under the table, lazing the chairs. When I was near her, her paw would try to hit me. Hee.


Angel is starting to lose her kitty look but I love her all the same. She is especially adorable when she's purring and wants to be hugged and stroked.

I tried to take photos of her but she's quite attracted to the camera and here she was meowing away while standing on my chest. Luckily she's light and I'm not very ticklish.

I wanted a photo of her and me but it's not as easy as I thought.

I will try again the next time :) or just get sis to take a photo of us when she's at home.

Yummy fried brown rice

Mum prepared the ingredients while Dad did the cooking. The soup was made by Mum.

I was happily chewing on the rice and drinking the soup before joining Dad downstairs to feed the community cats.

Nee Soon East Pet Carnival 2007

I was at Nee Soon East Community Centre to man the booth for Cat Welfare Society at a pet carnival yesterday afternoon. Other animal welfare groups such as SPCA, Action for Singapore Dogs and House Rabbit Society. There was a good crowd - dog owners and their dogs, families, children, etc. There was an adoption drive by SPCA for their toy breed dogs, kittens, rabbits and hamsters. An animal welfare interest group was also launched. It is good to hold such an animal event in the heartlands as it helps to increase the awareness of the residents there.

This is one of my regular volunteers who has helped me at such events. I really appreciate the help and the time contributed by him and the other volunteers and I'm really happy to also get to know a few of them better and become friends :)

Last night, while I was almost done with counting the amount received from merchandise sales, Angel was very curious and came to check out the coins and my pencil, pen and papers.

Another fall

This morning when I did another assignment (my 8th one) of house-to-house checks with the same partner (of the 7th, last Thurs), he tripped when walking up the stairs. A short while later, I tripped like him too and now I have a bump on each knee. My right one is more painful and I can't kneel without yowling a bit.

I hope I'm not getting into a habit of falling. I didn't trip/fall during the first 6 assignments and I was wearing my sports shoes. I thought it will be easy to wear and remove my sandals when I need to enter people's houses. On the 7th and and 8th assignment, I wore my sandal and tripped and fell. It seems like I should just stick to wearing my sport shoes to prevent further injuries to myself :) Mum said since I'm accident-prone, I should hold the railing tightly when I walk up and down the stairs. Haha. And I may be sporting nice blue-black bruises on my knees soon.

Almost lovely day

It would have been an almost lovely day if not for my on and off headache and stomach cramps. My swollen ankle is not giving me a problem as the ointment I applied last night helps to reduce the pain and swelling. But now as I'm typing this, I feel alright. The panadol I popped before I went down to feed the cats with mum didn't help much. Perhaps it's due to seeing the cats, breathing in the cool air from the drizzle plus the warm honey drink I just downed :)

Let me share with you some highlights of today:

Mango, peach and grass jelly concoction Mum made - it was yummy.


The tail of one of the mice toys came off. I only realised that when I looked at this photo after I took it. See Angel biting the red string/the tail.


Angel also seemed surprised to see the tail separated from the mouse too :)


Angel likes to climb to the top of the sofa and sleep there or even get a good view from there.


For lunch, mum cooked us udon with beancurd, egg, mushroom and fishcake. With some chilli sauce added, mum's creation was delicious.


I also checked the underside and belly of our 4 hamsters for any unusual growth. None :) Some of my hamsters in the past had tumours, so it's good to detect early and visit the vet if I spot any in the hamsters.

Another eventful week

Life can go as planned and can also be unpredictable.

As planned, I met with 2 friends whom I haven't seen for quite some time. We went to one of the girls' new place to feast on Botak Jones food. For those who are not familar with Botak Jones, it's big portion of western food sold at a coffeeshop. We got ours from Clementi. We had hot dogs, fish and chips, salad and plenty of chilli fries. We talked, laughed and also admired our friend's kitchen, raindrop shower, bedroom "wardrobe" and lighting. At the moment, there is only a sofa in the living room. As she shared with us what she will be getting and doing, I can imagine how cosy and lovely her new home will be.

I was away from office this morning on an assignment with a colleague. As we were finishing, I was walking down the steps from a flat unit, missed a step and landed my left ankle and my bum. I was a bit stunned and my colleague quickly came over to help me up. When I told my friends later, they asked if anyone else. I said the aunties at the void deck of the next block may have seen. Haha. They probably think I'm a clumsy girl :) Luckily my left ankle is only slightly swollen and I can still walk quite normally.

I'll be on leave tomorrow with a plan to sterilise a cat but with my ankle like that and realising that she has a young baby, I have to postpone her sterilisation to a later date. So I shall rest at home and perhaps iron my mountain of clothes or catch up with my reading and play with my hamsters and the cats :)

This Sun I will be helping Cat Welfare Society to man their booth at this event. Do drop by if you are in the area. (click on the picture below to see an enlarged version)

Feasting and catching up

On Sat afternoon, I visited Joan's place and had fun making my own popiah, laughing how it turned out.

Joan and her parents are experts in making tight popiah that doesn't have the fillings falling out and juice dripping like mine. Each of us only managed to down 3 yummy popiahs. Uncle made refreshing lime and honey drink.

We then watched a documentary film, Born into Brothel about children of prostitutes in the slums of Calcutta. A Caucasian photography lady first got to know the prostitutes and later their children and tried to teach them photography and educate them about life. The children (mostly girls and 2 boys) are mature in their thinking and captured interesting perspectives of their life and surroundings through their film cameras. Their Auntie Zanna tried to get them out of future prostitution, drug addiction, etc by trying to find them boarding schools but it was not easy.

After the movie, Joan heated up the brownie that she made earlier in the week. It was yummy and we had it with warm chinese tea.


In between all these stuffing and catching up, Joan's dog, Harry also received some attention from me. Too bad I didn't take any photos of him.

Recycling pieces of my life

Newpapers that I have read. Old clothes I no longer want to wear. Plastic and glass containers emptied of skincare stuff I was using. I encourage my family members to contribute their stuff into this bin too.

Mummy's birthday

A good reason for me to be on leave today. A few friends asked where I would be going and I told them I'm staying at home :) Other than feeding our community cats with mum this morning and evening, I was at home with sis and mum -
playing with Angel, bathing her,

watching her play, acting like a vampire, scolding her or distracting her when she tried to bite us, checking emails,

watching my family watching draggy Taiwanese drama series,
watching Angel sleeping (the cute mushroom cushion is from sis) and

preparing Swedish meatballs (from Ikea) for dinner.

I should plan more of such "holidays" to recharge myself and spend quality time with my family and the cats :)

Crazy looking Angel

Family's Day Out - Father's Day

I treated my family to lunch at Organic Cafe Xperience @ Velocity Novena Square. I recommended them the Boneless Chicken Set lunch ($13.90) and only dad decided to take it up and likes the chicken. I had fish and chip set lunch ($13.90) which is quite normal.


Mum tried some breadcrumb pacific white fish with organic mulberry sauce ($10.90)

- she found the sauce a bit too sweet. I thought it tasted interesting and quite nice.


Sis had this beef tenderloin spaghetti ($12.90) and it was yummy.

Mum, Dad and Sis had not been to Novena Square for a long time, so after lunch, we did some shopping there and at Square2. I couldn't resist eating Soya Ice Cream cone ($1.20) from the Mr Bean stall. It was my second time eating that and I really love the taste of soya bean ice cream.

Learning from the good and bad

The past few weeks have been unusual - mixture of good and bad. The good comes from my interaction and bonding with my family, Angel, the community cats and friends. The bad comes from the interaction with a stranger and at work.

My life can't be all merry without some incidents to remind me that I shouldn't take certain things from granted. I didn't suffer much and learn from my experience and was able to share with my family and friends about it. It makes me a stronger person too and gives me a glimpse to the dark nature of some people. In process, I also receive support and encouragement from my family and friends and I'm glad to have them :)

The former messy eater and drinker

Angel looked very funny when we first introduced her to the dry food. I grinded the Nutro kitten food as the kibbles are quite large pieces and I wasn't sure if her few teeth could handle them. Her muzzle would be coated with the crumbs and we had to clean her mouth after she was done with eating.

When we fed her with milk, she would show tantrums at times and the milk would get spilled on her neck. Now that she can manage with the dry food (the whole ungrinded kibbles), she drinks less milk. We are also more familiar with feeding her with milk.

I got a table mat from Ikea for Angel to eat her dry food and water without messing the floor. Angel seems to like the scratching pole and some toy balls. She can climb almost to the top of the pole and will play soccer with the ball on her own or with us.

Angel and Mouse

Introducing Mouse or rather Blue Mouse as there are Pink Mouse and Yellow Mouse.


Angel likes to play with one of the mouses and sometimes sleeps with it

Usual and new

A friend commented that after a while he noticed the dinner dishes prepared by my parents seem similar. I guess it's difficult for parents to come up with different items everyday and I'm generally not very fussy.

This is one of the usual dinner of egg, veg and meat and a soup.


2 Fridays ago, mum made curry pork ribs which was yummy and last night, we had cod fish.