How Do You Spend A Lazy Afternoon?

...Why don't you take a cat nap!

Saw this sleeping cat today when I was about to enter the lift & thought why not take a picture of it (I haven't figured out the cat's gender, so I shall refer to cat as 'it'). OK, before I continue, I shall divert a little here to explain why the interest in kitty. You see, I met this kitty before...sometime last week. It was sitting outside the lift at that time but when it saw me standing next to my letter box at a little distance away, it actually walked over to sit next to me instead! I guess it wanted to keep me company while I fished out the pile of mail from my letter box! Heehee, how considerate! But the ungrateful me didn't stop to take a picture of it at that time. So this time when I met (sleeping) kitty again, I thought I should take a picture of it.

Anyway coming back to where I left off...The kitty seemed to be sound asleep, so I walked quietly towards it, fiddled with my handphone camera trying to get ready to take the picture, and when I looked back at the kitty, I was surprised to find it staring at me with its big yellow eyes! It caught me by surprise because I thought it was sound asleep! Anyway, its stare lasted for only about 2 seconds before kitty went back to sleep (or pretended to be asleep) again.

Later when I got home & settled down to continue reading my book (Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose"), the paragraph (on page 149) I turned to read:

"If you have ever lived with a cat, you will know that even when the cat seems to be asleep, it still knows what is going on, because at the slightest unusual noise, its ears will move toward it, and its eyes may open slightly...."

Well, well, another surprise...this book is not about cats, so the last thing I expected was to read that! What coincidence! Guess if I had read this first before my encounter with the cat, perhaps I would not have been surprised by its stare...??

Keroppi Card Holder

I don't know if I can call this a card holder but all I cared was that my favourite Keroppi was sewn on it! I used calico & green gingham fabric for the holder & felt for Keroppi.

HOT, HOT, HOT!

Looking at the post title, you may be expecting to see some hot babes' photos posted here but well, you won't get any! Gotcha!

Would you believe me if I told you this video was shot only just last week, on 15 Apr 09? Last Wednesday, I was still enjoying this kind of cool, windy weather but all of a sudden it became so HOT, HOT, HOT...only in a matter of few days!



The weather is now unbelievably HOT & has been like this for the past week. Today's temperature was supposed to be around 33°C but it really felt like 40°C! When I came home from the supermarket this morning, I was literally bathing in sweat. By the way, on my way back from the supermarket, I saw this tree with full of mangoes! So tempting...I love mangoes, yummy. Mango trees thrive in hot weather (I don't!) & will bear plenty of fruits during such times. So I guess if I want to eat my favourite mangoes, I'll have to bear with this terribly hot weather, right? Hmm, fair enough.

Can you spot the mangoes?
Here they are!
So, how do you beat the heat then? Well, for me, I just take more showers, drink more water, eat ice-creams & this:


This is frozen crepe with durian fillings. I guess you either hate it or love it depending on whether you like durian or not. I love durians, so needless to say I absolutely love these durian crepes. Mum made these yummy desserts herself but you can also buy similar ones at cake shops. Just hope that I don't put on too much weight from all these fattening stuff I consumed. But how can I resist???

Do You See The Similarity?

This is my favourite chair. I bought it from IKEA many years ago. But one morning it just dawned on me that this chair looked vaguely familiar...But what does it remind me of? ... ... ...


... ... ... Oh, I know what it is! I ran to my study & started rummaging through the drawers & finally found what I was looking for - this:

This is "The Chair & Pipe" painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The chair frame is different but take a look at the seat! See the similarity? So, this is what my chair reminded me of - my favourite artist's painting! Hahaha...you may not see the similarity like I do but you know how the mind works sometimes? Yeah, like sometimes you may think a certain person resembles someone but others don't feel the same way? Perhaps this may be one of those instances.

Oh, by the way here's a picture I took at the "Teddy Bear Museum" in Jeju, Korea last June:

It's the Vincent Van Gogh Bear! How cute!

I am trying out something I read from the ebook titled "Blogging in Pink: A Woman's Guide" by Michelle Mitchell from Scribbit. Chapter 19 (page 140) addressed the problem of how photographs and video footages lengthen the time it takes our blog to download and suggested optimising our photos for a faster download. According to the ebook, just upload your photo into your post draft in Blogger, preview the post, right click on the preview photo and save the photo as a smaller image by clicking "Save Image As" (this saves it as a smaller file automatically without having to resize it yourself). Then re-upload this smaller file and delete the old photo. So, I did that & guess what - take for example the photo of my favourite chair posted above, the original file size was 775KB but the re-sized one is only 13.5KB! Try it and you may also want to read the ebook for other blogging tips.

Well, enough of my rambling. Have an enjoyable

Bull's Eye!?

Tried air pistol shooting once & here's my result:

We were given 5 pellets (not sure if they're called pellets, but they're definitely not bullets!) each. Though I was nowhere near the bull's eye, at least I got them all on the target...Wondering why there are only 4 holes when I said we were given 5 pellets to shoot? Noooo, I didn't shoot outside the target! It's just that 2 of my shots landed in the same spot (the one on the bottom left)!
Move over, Clint Eastwood, I don't need a Magnum to do this! Yee-ha!

Crow

I don't like crows. I still remember this incident from years ago - I was enjoying a piece of curry puff while walking in a park when suddenly I felt something swept through my hair. No, it wasn't the evening breeze caressing my hair but a crow swooping down on my head, trying to snatch my curry puff away! Oh no, not my favourite curry puff, you bad crow! Arrrrgh...

Somehow, the incident reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 suspense film, "The Birds". Eeks! I think I watch too many suspense & horror films...

Hmm...but I guess this cute crow I sewed could be an exception??



P.S. There's "Harper's Island" tonight on Channel 5 at 10.30pm. It's one of those Agatha Christie-style whodunits. You bet I'll be catching this 2nd episode tonight. Hope there are no crows starring in the show though...

Strip Your Ego Now!

Sometimes, don't we find ourselves guilty of reacting or thinking based only on what we see on the surface of things? Watch these videos, be totally humbled & you'll NEVER want to judge a book by its cover ever again!

There's no embedded code for this video, so you got to click this link to view it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-KiGva9dV4


Video #2:

Take Two

Woohoo! Nature is good to me this year! I have discovered a second flower bud in my beloved plant while watering it today. The flowers that you saw earlier have since withered & then I discovered this, how apt. I attribute this 'bloom boom' to the brown rice water that I feed the plant daily (since Nov 08), i.e. the water that I collected from rinsing the brown rice before cooking them for my meals. So I guess all the vitamins & minerals from the brown rice must somehow have benefitted the plant as well, right? Well, I choose to believe so. Hehe...so do you have the urge to rush to the supermarket to get your own bag of brown rice now?


As I am writing this entry, I smell something real good coming from one of my neighbours' kitchen. Smells like chicken, very fragrant! Hmm... if only I could 'record' this smell & upload it here, the same way like I could take a picture or record a sound, then you would be able to smell this aroma & salivate with me! Ha ha...

"The Daffodils"

I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- by William Wordsworth


Note:

From Wikipedia - "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (erroneously known as "The Daffodils") is an 1804 poem by William Wordsworth. It was inspired by an April 15, 1802 event in which Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, came across a "long belt" of daffodils. It was first published in 1807, and a revised version was released in 1815.

From Me - I first read this poem during literature class when I was in Sec 1. I liked it & can still vaguely remember & recite the first paragraph from memory today (which is a great feat given my failing memory these days!). Today's April 15th; 207 years ago on this day, William Wordsworth saw the daffodils that inspired this poem! Wow!

Here are some beautiful pictures of the daffodil from one of my favourite blogs:
A Picture Each Day - "Another Mistake"
A Picture Each Day - "Just A Flower"

Egg Hunt

What have I been doing? Well, I was busy hunting Easter Eggs on Facebook's (fluff)Friends (I adopted a virtual pet there). The hunt lasted from 3 - 13 April 09 (ended this morning at 8am) but I only joined the fun on 11 Apr 09 night (don't ask me why cos I have no idea either).

Basically, every (fluff)Book was equipped with its very own patch of pretty grass, which may or may not be hiding an egg, like this:
So, when you click on the grass patch & if there's nothing there, it'll be like this: But, if there's an egg hidden there, you'll see this:

Anyway, so you go around clicking on other people's (fluff)Book & when you finally found an egg, it's not happily ever after kinda thing because you'll need to give a token of goodwill before sneaking across to take the egg - either by giving a gift or feeding their pets some (fluff)Food. Only once this is completed, then you'll be free and clear to go for the egg. Of course in some (rare) cases, you can simply pick up the egg and be on your merry way!

Here's part of my loot (only put some of my finds in my pet's habitat) - a few pretty decorated eggs, plenty of plain-coloured eggs, Easter grass patches & even rotten eggs (the green polka dot one with a crack at the top)!


Pssst...Some of the plain-coloured eggs contained these Easter goodies!
Yum...

Some of the gifts I received from the other (fluff)Book owners (when they found something in my garden) include:


Someone even fed my pet this 'Raggedy Old Boot' Arghh...Yucks!

Overall, it was quite fun...especially for people with nothing better to do, like me!


P.S. Brother 'R' - I sent your pet 'Giffi" some of the Easter goodies, including a rotten egg!