In memory of our hamster, the gymnast!

Today, my bro's hamster died while having his regular bath. Why he died, no one has any idea. It was a regular routine, when their cages get clean, they too will get a bath each. My bro had two hamsters. One minute he was jumping in the tub, the next min, he was lying motionless. 

He was a crazy hamster from the start. The two hamsters used to share a cage, but Mr Gymnast loved to fight and bullied his cage mate. The fight got so bad once, Mr Timid was bleeding from Mr Gymnast's abuse. So my parents created a cardboard wall to separate the two, but the wall lasted one night and then a hole was created. If you are thinking, it must be Mr Gymnast doing all that work, you are right, but only half right. Because Mr Timid loves company. He loves it so much, he joined in the effort to create the hole, forgetting that the company he was hoping to get is going to hurt him again. Very innocent. It seems like no matter how many times he got hurt, he doesn't seem to remember....Sigh.... Well, when all else failed, they both get their own cage. But Mr Gymnast, being a hyperactive, super crazy hamster that he was, could not stop at staying still. When there became no fight to pick, this became his way of using his energy. 

BTW, he was 30cm off the ground, hanging on to the disposable chopstick which is swinging from side to side. He loved it especially when the chopstick was moving. Really a hilarious thing. Every time we stuck a chopstick in like the one in the picture, he would use all his might to jump and catch hold of it. He would attempt to stay up there as long as he could. 

Don't Run Ahead of Him...

Some time ago, a friend recommended me to read a book "The Hiding Place " by Corrie Ten Boom. Didn't get to read it until very recently and one passage really struck me at the core and I thought I would just share it though I am sure maybe you already know.

Before these words, the author has just returned from visiting a family whose baby has died and while waiting to be tugged into bed by her daddy...

"....But that night as he stepped through the door I burst into tears. "I need you!" I sobbed. "You can't die! You can't!" Besides me on the bed, Nollie sat up. "We went to see Mrs. Hoog," she explained."C0rrie didn't eat her supper or anything." Father sat down on the edge of the narrow bed. "Corrie," he began gently, "when you and I go to Amsterdam-when do I give you your ticket?" I sniffed a few times, considering this. "Why, just before we get on the train." "Exactly. And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things, too. Don't run ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need - just in time."

The book is packed with so much good stuff that if you do like this tiny bit, go and get the book. It is a treasure.

The ants in my household

I remember I love to watch ants at work as a child, they would risk their lives from my mother's ever relentless effort to exterminate them, and come to collect our cake crumbs and bread crumbs which we might have dropped while eating. We all know ants love sweet stuff, a drop of honey, a drop of sugar, a little piece of cake. These things attract them and it is I guess what everyone knows.

Well, the ants in my household, they are different. They always go to where our water is. I have no idea why. At first I thought it was the warm flask they are attracted to or that boiled water is perhaps sweeter. Because we only find them in our boiled water. Then one day in a hurry, I left my half drank orange juice out and when I came home, no ants in them. I started an experiment putting all sorts of sweet sugary things near the boiled water. But each time, I find no ants in those things, just in the boiled water, swimming. Maybe they like to swim to death. I have no idea, they just seem rather silly to me. And it actually does frustrate me a little no knowing what I could do with them really.

So anyone has a swimming ant problem and know an answer to exterminate them, please do tell me. At this point, I would try anything.....

The ants of my household, they are definitely swimmers with no brains......

I have been thinking...

I have been thinking, I started this blog mainly to keep friends posted of my life while we were in San Diego. But now that I have been back, I often wonder if there is any point continuing to write. So what do you think?

I have also been wondering if I would ever write my thoughts down so boldly as some of my friends do.

I wonder even now, besides being a place to update my life while I was away, if this is a blog that could be more than that.

Hmmm...wondered and wondering.

Any feedback? Anyone?

More Trivia Stuff I will miss in SD

...forgot, but I notice that my eye lashes were longer when I was in SD and my normally almost non existence lower eye lashes actually "flourish" in SD. Going to so miss it.

Spoiled by choice

Just came back from grocery shopping. Thought that it would be a breeze, since it is exactly the same thing we are doing every sunday since leaving to San Diego, doing grocery shopping every weekend, to pick up stuff for cooking for the week to come.
But with a cart in front of us and several trips around the entire supermarket (C.S) in this case, we got only a few things.

WEP mentioned that the pork loin chops look a little small, and I mentioned "have you not seen the chicken thighs I have picked up, they are even smaller than the pork loin. And shopping truly is a skill here. I spent quite a bit of time trying to pick a fresh lemon. I guess with the stores just opening after CNY, perhaps the fresh stuffs have not hit the stores yet. But I come to realize how easy it is to pick up vegetables and fruits there, because there is few mistakes one can make, although I think meat tend to be fresher here. And fresh juices are good and cheap in US too (or at least where we were). We picked up the same brand of juice a couple of days ago, first we can't find the same size we had there, then when we look at the price, where it is local produce there and imported here, so the price is of course higher here, but even the actual juice itself, it is diluted here.

And I went around the entire Singapore looking for St Ives and could not find any. I remember before we left, they were selling them at Guardian, so if any of you know where I can get some, I love to know.

But the thing we love about being home is that we no longer need to pay USD5 for 1kg of Thai Jasmine Rice. Every grain of rice was very very precious to us in our stay in SD. And we will have more choices of green leafys to eat. The only leafy we had there and the only greens we eat there had been spinach.

Oh and I miss my rosemary plant! Glad that it has found a good home in SD and not see itself into the dumps.

Let's Get Cracking

For all you seafood lovers out there, this entry requires no narration. Feels like I am doing free publicity for them