This isn't a post about the usual grouses against those who peddle single stalks of limp roses in cellophane for obscene amounts of money, or against those who suggest that dinners that cost a few hundred dollars would put them in their loved ones' good books. It's also not about 'Valentine's Day is every day' and all that stuff --- although we should be able to --- indeed, we should really just -- tell our loved ones what they mean to us every day.
Nope --- it's just going to be about school days --- when I was a teacher in a mission school. I remember how excited the girls would get about this day, and numerous other days when they could affirm friendships. It was hardly necessary to even give them a reason. So those 'special' days would be filled with mini-gifts on every table, geberas and baby's breath, squeals and hugs, and photo-ops. Sometimes, of course, this would degenerate into 'popularity' contests --- but, generally, the girls made sure no one was left out.
This year, I gave my daughters a chance to show their friends that they liked them. So I tied ribbons around the stems of 60 lollipops for Daughter # 1 for her to give to her friends, and passed Daughter # 2 packets of 'hamburger' and neon-coloured 'worm' gummies for her to give to her friends.
Maybe it's just a girl thing .... but I personally enjoy this language of love --- gift-giving.
I've --- like many others -- seen toilets that flush themselves, activated by the slightest movement, to the frustration of some of the slower users; I've read of toilets that play soothing music to mask the embarassing sounds users inadvertently make when they 'answer the call of nature' -- ahem; I've heard of solid gold toilet bowls for those who like a bit of bling in their bleak lives. But this was the first time I have ever seen a toilet that, at the press of a button, gives new users a clean seat to perch on. Sorry --- but I just had to take a video of this. Watch this --- a toilet at Incheon Airport, Seoul, Korea:
Hope it's clear. I have no idea why there's a second box here in this entry. Am learning all the time....
This evening was a great one. Old friends from my past (and also, my present and my future) --- Albert and Belinda, Benjamin and Wendy, Hillarie --- came over to my place for a potluck dinner. So, as we ate pizza, garlic bread, meatloaf, ratatouille, vanilla ice cream and homemade jam, we talked about our lives, people we know who were making decisions that would affect their own lives, the world economy, Tokyo, 'interesting' Japanese words, travel experiences, school and students, discipline, and moving house.
Daughters No. 1 and 2 sat and listened and talked and made funny faces. The hamsters dozed. The chandelier in the hall swung round and round in the strong wind pulling in from the reservoirs. And we old friends just chatted, laughed, joked and made contact again, coming in together for a short time from all our disparate paths and journeys to connect and strengthen the existing bonds.
The last few times I met up with them, CNY or otherwise, we fake-ate plastic geckos, celebrated Francis' 40th birthday, admired Bel's lovingly tended garden, praised Albert's fishing paraphernalia, played with huge Ragdoll cats, and talked about our collections of fabric. I'm sure there'll be other good conversations in the future.
Here's to old friendships and the building of a shared history.
On a happier note, this entry will be about a gift I made for a friend and colleague, Meena, who recently gave birth. I'm into scrapbooking, and creating, so I leapt at the chance to make a just-stick-pics-here kind of gift album for her new baby girl.
It took me some time, many evenings, a few weekends, but I finally completed it. It was totally a labour of love. Note: one day I will try an autograph album, a bit like the ones I used to have in school. Hmmm --- I see a potential posting about this in the future.
Anyway, here are the pics:
This is the front cover of the 8 x 8 corduroy album by Chatterbox:
The front page --- this, and all the others, are in acid-free page protectors.
I punched out the words on the left page and stuck them back on with dimensional stickers to make them pop out.
A page for the happy parents to write down their feelings on discovering they would be having a baby soon.
This page is for the grandparents on both sides --- traditonal terms have been used here.
These two pages feature cut-out flowers and rub-on transfers, as well as journalling notes. On the next page (below), I used fabric yo-yos (made using that yo-yo maker tool from Clover) and cut out paper strips to make the whole thing look like flowers:
I liked combining patterned papers in the next few pages:
A bird-shaped chipboard accent, laser cut. Tweet, yes? And the full two facing pages below:
I used a sheet of paper with the words 'laugh' and 'love' and used the words as a background for a photo mat (below):
I have a whole stack of library cards --- doesn't it make a neat journalling spot for a book-loving new mother (above)?
...and we come to the end of the album. The measuring tape is actually a ribbon!
I buy most of my stuff from my two fav scrapbooking stores here in Singapore:
Made with Love --- at Plaza Singapura --- and Laine's Papeterie at Wheelock Place. I have so much stuff from these two places....but I figure I will use the beautiful paper and accents and embellishments some day!
I just love the smell of paper.... :-)
Hamster Tragedy
9:46 PM
My first post after a hiatus of 6 months is going to be a tragic one.
It is an ordinary evening. As usual, the girls are taking their time eating and doing their homework, and the parents are either vegetating in front of the TV watching another inane show, or working on the laptop.
Daughter No. 2's hamster gives an oddly loud squeak.
Daughter No. 2 goes over to look at it, and asks me casually if I gave the critter a prawn.
Huh?
I take a look --- lo and behold! It's given birth! There are at least 5 pink gummy-bear lookalikes wriggling in a pile, in the transparent tube, and mummy hamster is resting, then getting up, then eating some placenta thingie, and licking the pups. They're about the size and shape of kidney beans. We are all very EXCITED and I start calling people and facebooking and updating my status to announce to the world the great news.
Shortly after, however, everything goes on a negative cline.
Mummy hamster gives birth to one last pup, picks it up with her teeth and tosses it to one side of the tube, onto the slope of the transparent tubing. Miraculously, it sticks precariously and does not tumble down. Thirty minutes later, she dashes over to the huddle of babies, picks one up in both paws as if it were a peanut and starts eating it down to the neck with relish. Strangely, as I stare at the pup's moving front paws as its head is getting chewed down, all I can think is 'There's no blood'.... Daughter No. 2, optimistic as ever, insists it's just 'cleaning' the baby, but it's clearly cannibalism in action. Such a traumatising scene! We are all horrified. Hubby kindly tells Daughter No. 2 that he would never do that to her. Daughter No. 1 tells everyone not to make so much noise around the new mummy. I just hope for the best for the other pups as I pick up the leftover half of the poor dead pup. Its back feet are perfectly formed, and remind me of those anti-abortion pictures that show the tiny feet of fetuses whose lives have been prematurely ended.
Sadly, the long-awaited 'happy hamster family' we dreamed of is not to be. The next morning, just before the girls go off to school, we see two more chewed up bodies, and the rest are missing. Daughter No. 2 says, almost clinically, as she eats her breakfast, "She must find them tasty." I'm glad she's so resilient (?!).
All my colleagues are suitably horrified by my recount of these events, and a few are disturbed enough to insist on some form of punishment for the mummy hamster. I read about how hamsters can commit this massacre because they feel threatened, or because they instinctively know the pups will not survive. I think about how animals are essentially amoral. Doesn't matter --- I've never seen an animal eat its own young before.
That evening, I clean the cage and find two whole but desiccated little pups, all but hidden in the bedding, dead from dehydration. Their eyes are dark shadows beneath the unbroken skin of their eyelids, and their bodies are naked and wrinkled. I say a little prayer over them before I dispose of their bodies.
Suffice it to say, I shall never look at gummy bears quite the same way again.
Here's a sign I saw up on the Great Wall of China, after huffing and puffing up those rough-hewn stone steps, which were indented in the middle from an uncountable number of feet --- how would you interpret it?
This page is for the grandparents on both sides --- traditonal terms have been used here.
