Manja Cats, Singapore & Us

Manja Cats: Tigger, Ve Ching, Harmony & Missy (in order of adoption); Singapore: Where we are currently living; Us: Alex's British, Tarsier Girl is Singaporean.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

A380 at Asian Aerospace 2006


This week was Asian Aerospace 2006, which was held at Changi Airport which is close to where I work. I didn't go down to the exhibition, but the limited flying display was during lunch time so I went onto the roof to watch. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy all week, the exhibition was at the other end of the runways and there were only five planes flying, four of which were fighters. So all I could see was a little speck in the distance whizzing in and out of the clouds. But because the new Airbus A380 was flying, that made up for it.

It seemed to be flying so slowly during the display and the angle of climb and bank angles the pilot pulled were very impressive. But unfortunately too far away for my camera to get a good photo. However, after the display was over it flow up towards my office, performed a tight 180 degree turn and flow back passed my office to land, enabling me to take the shots posted here. Fantastic!

I went up to the roof the next day, and although less cloudy, still difficult to get good shots of the flying display. This time on the return to land they flow directly overhead, (it is incredibly quiet), but instead of landing on the runway closest to my office they landed on the one at the far side of the airport, and so no second chance for a close-up shot.



Sunday, February 19, 2006

View on a Clear Day

















On 7th January, I took some pictures of a rainstorm coming over our flat, to give an idea of how quickly a tropical rainstorm can travel and how heavy the rain is. January was particularly wet and from mid-Jan till last week I was working evenings and weekends, so this is the first chance I've had to get a picture for the other half of the comparison. As is somewhat typical of the weather here, the day started off fine with a nice blue sky with some clouds. But by late afternoon, when this photo was taken, the clouds had built up in the east (the direction of the photograph). The darker band on the horizon are clouds, not a distant mountain range.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The Big Book of Cats






















This is my favourite pictorial book on cats. Not only does it have gorgeous pictures of cats and kittens, for most of the pictures, a little background is given on how the picture came to be taken and there are also many touching, interesting, lively true short stories about kitties.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Loy Loy Part II












Loy Loy & Ve Ching

People always asked me whether Loy Loy got along with the cats. For the most part, I would say that she did. She certainly didn’t chase them out of malicious intent or from some genetic hatred of the species. She didn’t even chase the community cats that she came across on her walks. In fact, she was once attacked by a mother cat, when in her very blur way, she wandered too close to a nest of kittens. At home, she would only run after the cats for two reasons: when they try to steal her food and when she wants to join in their play.

Sometimes, it crossed my mind that Loy Loy thinks she’s a cat. Not long after she entered our household, she started to lick herself. We took her to the vet but she couldn’t find anything wrong with her. We tried spraying her with Bitter Lime, but it didn’t stop her. She simply ‘cleaned’ herself everyday as if she was a cat.

Then there was the matter of her food. She preferred eating cat food over her own dog food. We ended up having to put the cats’ food bowls on the counters and cupboards, so that she would not be able to reach them. But sometimes when we gave the cats some canned cat food as a treat, we would give her a little as well. If not, she would give us her very sad look.

Another food item that both Loy Loy and some of the cats liked a great deal was cheese. It was a habit started by her previous owner. She had given Loy Loy a slice of cheese, once a day, everyday, for the last 10 years. When Loy Loy thought that she’s getting cheese, she would jump up and down and turn around and around and around. Never before or since have I seen anyone behave so maniacally for such a small thing as cheese. And when she’s fed the cheese, she swallows the pieces in super fast time.

The only other thing that would rival cheese in the amount of excitement and happiness it brought Loy Loy would be going for walks. The minute she saw me in my walking gear, she would start with her jumps and turns all the way to the front door. She got so animated by the time she's reached the the door that I often have a hard time putting her harness on her. Sometimes, Harmony (the little curmudgeon) would get so annoyed with all the jumping and turning, that she would thump her one. But even that wouldn’t quell Loy Loy’s exhilaration. All she wants to do is to get out the door, race down the stairs and the long corridor to get to the lift. Once in the lift, she would place her little snout in the corner where the lift door would open and shoot out the minute it was a few inches wide!

Writing these postings about Loy Loy has brought forth a lot of good memories about her. Most of it is in little disjointed bits and pieces. Perhaps I'll jot them all down one of these days and create another post with them.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

View from Hai Tien Lo

Hai Tien Lo is a Cantonese restaurant located on the 37th floor of Pan Pacific Singapore. Today being the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year, it is customary for families to get together for a meal. As it is also my sister's birthday today, we held our double celebrations at Hai Tien Lo. They had a choice of ala carte or ala carte buffet. For the uninitiated, an ala carte buffet means that for the fixed price of $58 plus service charge and taxes, you can order an unlimited number of items from the menu. The food was fresh although not exciting, with the exception of the cod fish and the char siew pow which was excellent.

















A view of the business district a.k.a Shenton Way

















The harbour is in the foreground while the port is in the background.

















The entrance to the harbour

















Marina City Park (the bit above the road)

Herding Cats



I've been told that this commercial has been around for awhile. But in the light of Brokeback Mountain, it is even funnier.