Friday 19 October 2007

Mommy in Malacca

The Sea and sand, the salty breeze rustling through the coconut trees, the sounds of a rooster in the mornings whose duty is to wake the entire Kampung! Fresh seafood that comes from the local fisherman who go out in their small light boats and return in ladened vessels with fish to sell. A slow windy coastal road drive will lead to the city centre where one will find the usual suspects - shopping malls and cinemas! This city though is different in that it is really rich in history indicative by all the conservation ole style shop houses that are narrow but long. Also these long houses are filled with old trades, kebaya making, traditional handicraft work. One can find the most unusual and beautiful pieces of crafts (big and small) to decorate one's humble abode!

There's also places of worship that truly reflect the olden architectural influences from our european masters from the past! You would think that all this would be enough to make your visit there worthwhile. There's more! Food and the activity of consuming it (one of most Asians favourite past time) takes this obessession to a whole new level. Cultural richness intoned in everything you can put into your mouth. If you aren't so adventurous a gourmet there's always modern fast food joints or your usual mamak food that you can get round the corner of any street. But i say - try it...even looking for the good stuff takes you to obscure places with strange new things to see! Like once when we went for famous prawn mee. It was this hole in the wall with only about 5 tables max. There's usually a queue just for a table and an even longer wait for the food to arrive! They are very fast at collecting money though! anyway, it's near this monsoon drain and whilst waiting for your food, you might spy monitor lizards swimming from bank to bank!

The highlight of my visits there is always the night market (Pasar Malam) at Jonker Street. This happens only on Friday & Saturday nights! It a great place to see all things unique about Malacca gather in one place. An event that ties old trade businesses to new world economics and emerging tourism! Such a fascination! You just stroll through...checking out wares on sale. You can find the old school games or gaming items that you thought lost in our modern society! Along the pasar malam you will also see different clan associations - i.e. Hokkien Clan. This type of association appears in most part of asia where people from the same dialect group/province etc can meet and catch up (i have even heard of them tracingyour family tree route back to China). During the pasar malam these clan halls are filled with members and non members (public) partaking of "making society" through karaoking, line dancing etc...

The result is a colourful, bright, noisy environment at the pasar malam that only a chilled beer to live music can cure! So find a table at the one of the many pubs for a R&R session. Kick back and listen to the live band (usually one guy) belting out hits from all eras!

If this is too busy for you then head down to the seaside for some seafood and cool night air..watch the stars and drift quietly into a state of contented bliss! hmmm...just the thing to get away from the hustle and bustle of our regular lives!

Try it! My mommy's there now!

Sunday 14 October 2007




Left: Skeletor and his two henchgobies












Left: Skeletor with two henchgobies!














Left: Skeletor!!



Left: Seahorse


















Left: Seahorse














Left: Seahorse












Left: Shrimps





















Left: Turtle with remoras



Left: Pink Squat Lobster
















Left: Procupine Puffer











Left: Soft coral crab














Left: Me on Monday Mornings!!















Left: Me on Monday Afternoons!

Left: Nudi










Left: Nudi
















Left: Nudi













Left: Nudi Eggs - Pale Rose Pink


Left: Nudi - Menage a Trois











Left: Nudi - Pikachu

















Left: Nudi - Longnose













Left: Pufferfish with Nudi - Tambja













Left: Nudi -"Lookie me! I'm so flexible!"

Left: Nudi - Halgerda with Egg



















Left: Nudi - El Toro
















Left: Nudi - Cliff hanger


















Left: Nudi - Romance

















Left: Nudi




Left: Devil Scorpion
















Left: Frogfish
















Left: Nudi - Melibe
















Left: Feather Star - Squat Lobster

















Left: Nudi - Unknown

Saturday 13 October 2007

Angels at Rest

Heaven comes in small occurrences! Like in a flower blooming or when you see the smallest life form in the vast ocean or when my dogs are asleep. When they sleep, quiet rules. No growling! No jumping! No gnawing! Just quiet! Now that's heaven! Not that i don't lurve their high energy bounding - but i think balance is great and these naptimes are a different sort of heaven!

It is a bonus to watch them sleep or rest. They look peaceful, breathing easy in whatever dreamland they are in. Sometimes i think they have either have really bad or really great dreams coz every once in a while you see them twitch in their sleep! They are acting out the scenes in dreamland...who knows...they could be dreaming of open fields chasing a rabbit or in a fight scene with another pooch! A bit like what Poppet is doing right this minute! Sometimes when they awake after such a high activity dream they can either be in a great mood or a terrible bad one! The resultant mood always points to the kind of dream they had!

At this moment - all my pooches are asleep! Each in their own corner or nook! And it's quiet! Great for blogging (i dun have to worry about wolfie typing as he walks over my laptop!)
Watching my angels at rest (coz that's the only time that they are really angelic like) makes me happy! It means they had a full day and are going for a full night's rest! This also means that they will be full of pent up energy in the morning to jump! gnaw! growl! Not so great....but we lurve our poochies anyway! So for now i will continue to enjoy watching My Angels at Rest and deal with tomorrow tomorrow!

Nusery Madness!

The last couple of months have seen me go a little nuts in the nusery department. Before we go any further, the nusery in which i am referring to is that belonging to the safe keeping of green babies not human babies. That's right the plant nusery!

Anyway, this weekend is no exception. I have been down to visit my local nusery and have returned with arm loads of stuff! I have to date (a collection in three weekends) 3 rose plants, 2 little bushy things (i tot they were too cute to not get), 2 other flowering plant (the ones with the raised roots), 2 small ferns and 4 daisy looking plants (all in a bed row), and my mostest favouritest to date is a lily like plant - i got them in a pair. Oops...I forgot about Moni - my money plant (she's doing well!...sigh...if only i could say the say about the reality of my Moni situation!)

Now the rose plants - my mother and the nusery resident gardener had warned me off - saying that they require a lot of work and that with my track record (usually a plant dies off on me within a month! No exception to the hardiest ferns) or rather the lack of (of not having any green thumb tendencies) - it might be better to get hardier plants...

After two weeks i have to say the roses had bloomed and are now bloomless. I am patiently waiting for the next buds. I am hoping with fingers crossed that against the odds of my not so green twisted fingers i can get them to bloom again. My two root above ground plants are in the same bloomless state. (silent mantra in my head ...patience...patience...)

After 3 weekends of this nusery itch that cannot seemed to be scratched - i have spades, shovels, bags of soil, bags of shredded coconut husks, bags of fertilizers, bottles of fertilizer, spray cannisters and loads of plastic pots!

In half a year of slowly gathering my forest...i have managed to kill 2 citronellas, a bonsai and half of three pine trees (these are hardy fellows - they keeping coming back alive!) My dead plants have gone through a verbal post mortem. The findings were conclusive - MURDER by OVER FERTILIZATION for the Citronellas and underwatering my bonsai!

There is one other plant that i have that i have not spoken about...they were the hardest to locate and the tastiest to Wolfie. It took me about a month to locate it and transplant it. I had four pots of these wonderful butterfly leaf plants. Two of them had their leaves eaten by Wolfie anf promptly died. The third drowned in Mags' pee - it died too...the funny thing is ...all its leaves are still there and it's been preserved (sort of) by Mags' pee. The leaves are all there just that they are all yellow now! SO i have one remaining butterfly leaf plant left alive and I intend for it to stay that way!

I have also taken to walking along the street and plucking a branch of creepers and plants that i like and will try to grow them at home - it's a very strange phase that i'm going through but a very pleasant one!
As requested by
Lady Hawk - some of the pics from Dumaguete, Cebu PHP


Above: Soft coral crab (dunno name)
Below: Frogfish


Above: A pair of harlequin ghost pipefish
Below: Common Lionfish, banded cleaner shrimp

Thursday 4 October 2007

The Singing Emperor

I confess publicly - I lurve my man! But and this isn't a big but...but it's still a but! Where was I? But he's tone deaf! As i write this he is belting out Take me home country road! Not two feet from me!

The urge to knock him unconcious is subdued by the cuteness of him singing out with all his heart, staring with such fierce concentration into the lyric book! He has just put on the next song "Sunshine on my Shoulders" and asks me if i know it! I said yes and he says he's never heard of it! Makes me think my hubby is a bit of a commercial music nut stuck in the 70s era. In summary this means that he likes music that was very commercial in the 70s and has not changed his tastes since then.

He seems to like country music (provided its not been mangled by any new boy bands on the new millenium scene). He has however picked upsome new millenium habits like channel surfing at warp speed and he does the same with any new CDs given to him. This can be fairly annoying since I am usually enjoying the song privately in my head only to have the tune change suddenly and before 15 minutes are up you've gone through the whole CD. Then he gets bored and picks up something else.

Now's it's Annie's Song...oh you know the one..."you fill up my senses....like a night in the forest" and he's going at it with his squeaky voice...it's cute but definitely not american idol...he probably wouldn't make the heats! he's got this nasally effect on the songs....and the funniest thingy is that he usually has trouble with the words even though his eyes are glued to the lyrics in his hand...so it sort of ends in some kind of mumble....

The high notes are the ones you never forget when he loses wind and goes all over the place...man! I could have Simon Cowell's job...i could be his sistah! I know just the person that could be Paula Abdul as well but i'm not telling! Hopefully i survive this night of tone deafness and will return to thrill you about my happening life!!

Bite, Biting & Bitten

Mercy! Will the foolishness of mankind never end? I mean i dun expect peace time throughout my life with no wars ever happening in this world! But is it too much to ask for people to have a little common sense on the small details in life?

In just two instances in which i am about to relate - you be the judge! The first is WHY OH WHY DO PEOPLE LET THEIR PETS RUN AROUND UNATTENDED? The main point here is if you are too lazy to walk your pets then don't have one! The people in my estate (not all but a fair number) allows their dogs to roam free to take the daily walkabout and pissabout and poohabout. Sometimes they are walking a distance from their pet, most times they are not present and simply let the little gringos roam loose! You might think that
1) they have excellent control over their doggies BUT they don't
2) they feel bad putting a leash and restricting their doggies movements
3) they cannot be bothered to be pulled around
Well, these little gringos cause a lot of problems for people like myself. If my doggies gets antsy when it sees another dog - I still have some control over its behaviour - THE LEAD! The gringos that run free have no one in control of its behaviour and act aggressively towards me and my dogs. These owners that walk a distance behind or ahead of their loose pooches feel that they have excellent control over their pets. Yes they do - in the house. Not outside and especially when they cross paths with other poochies! Scream at them, call them back...none of them will heed you or your commands! PEOPLE!!! Please remember "PRIMAL INSTINCT"!! So since you as a homosapien is supposed to be superior in intelligence (NOT THE CASE FOR SOME!) you would be expected to exercise common sense and PUT YOUR BLOODY DOGS ON A LEASH!

The humanitarian excuse - "oh i feel bad about treating my dog like a dog by putting a leash on it" IT TOTAL AND UTTER BOLLOCKS! It is a dog...yes you love it and you care for it - SO bloody show it! What do you think a lead is for? It's to educate your doggies and to keep them from harm (read not get into fights)...SO get off your moral high horse and put the lead on the dog!

That's only one of the idiotic instances of the lack of common sense in people! The next point arises from the scenario where your dogs are agitated by other loose roaming dogs - what to do?
Personally - i would have reined in my dogs and walked away - NO CONFRONTATION! Even if the doggies are rushing me - I will stand my ground and protect my pooches from the loose roaming pooch as well as from themselves.

What i don't get is how SOME people can let the leads go slack and allow the agitated doggies full rein of the situation? I mean - is it not easier to control your dogs if they had less rope to hang themselves and you with? In situations like these...tighten the lead and lead your dogs away.

The reason for this rant is because i got bit again! and it all happened because of these two idiotic instances where the human mind lets slip and shit happens...so now i have holes in my left leg (that's right the earlier bites were in my right leg and hand - soo i'm just waiting for my left hand to get chewed off! All in the space of a year!)

RULERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM TAKE HEED! They are your pets therefore your responsibility. If they do hurt anyone or anything - YOU WILL BE AT FAULT (though the poor doggies will probably be put to sleep and the irresponsible owner just goes on to get another dog!! My thoughts? The owners should be the ones to be put to sleep!!)

Poppet

Poppet
gimme sexy...oh yeah!