Mid-Autumn lanterns

The mid-Autumn festival was a time when I wandered around my grandparents' place, lantern in hand. The coloured cellophane paper may have been a fire hazard but I was a very careful little child and the worst that ever happened was that the candle blew out. But they were beautiful, these lanterns, with jewel-like shades of ruby, emerald, and sapphire glowing in the dark. My mother was probably not too happy with their collecting dust after that and of course they never remained intact till the next festival so she had to buy another, but of course these things never bothered me.

The traditional lanterns I used to carry are probably still sold somewhere. But I fear they have been mostly supplanted with these modern lanterns. I took this photo in a shop in Geylang. Probably sturdier and will be able to last longer, also no fire hazard because there is no candle (replaced by a small light bulb). But a little bit of the mystique and magic of the moon festival is gone as a result.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms come up quickly in the night. Spotted them outside the house on Sunday, on the way to mass. Certainly were not there the day before.

This photo was taken on my mobile phone and sent directly to this blog. But as it is not so easy to edit the post on the phone, I have had to add these additional lines on the computer.

My New Phone

Just got my replacement phone. Cost all of $0 and a 2 year contract.

It has mobile blogging! So this photo was taken on the phone and then sent off straight to the blog :-)

Post-Kitten-Script

My mother watched a TV programme some time ago about feral cats in Rome. The programme showed how a mother cat lost her kittens and spent a few days looking for them. But after a week, when she came across the kittens again, she did not recognise them any more.

The mother of our kittens (a.k.a MC) was certainly a good mother cat. First, she unerringly knew where a safe haven for her kittens would be. Then, she looked after them even through the bars of the cage we put them in. She made sure that the other strays in our garden did not go near. Whenever we tricked her into entering the cage, she patiently nursed and cleaned them. And when the kittens spent more time in the house, she became more persistent in trying to get inside. But now they are gone, she has (I think) more or less forgotten about them.

Which is, of course, more than we have. Sigh. I do miss the sound of little cat feet. But it is good to feel that they are well loved and taken care of where they are.

The Potato Basket is empty

Smee left our happy little cat family and went home with his new family yesterday. Now, the house feels so empty without any little kittens scurrying around.

Smee's adopters actually met him about 4-5 weeks ago, the same period that Jack Sparrow's adopter came by. But at that time, the kittens were still too young to leave their mother. Then the adopters were going for a dance competition in New York. So they could only pick up Smee after they got back from the event, on 11 Sep. But they came to visit him twice in the interim ... talk about devoted. Oh well, at least I can be confident that my baby kitten is in good hands.

Since Saturday (when his mama went for her op) Smee and his sister, Tiger Lily, had been roaming the house (mama needed their cage). They found a comfortable basket to sleep in - it didn't seem to matter that it was full of potatoes at the time. They also spent the time getting to know our fat boys, Winky and Dinky, much better. Winky and Dinky are probably their uncles, or cousins or whatever. Smee is Dinky's Mini Me, or more accurately, his Mini Smee. They have got the same tabby patches and their faces are exactly alike. Watching the big boys and little kits interact provided endless entertainment. The big boys try to bully the little ones and the little ones fight back or sometimes, run off and hide under the sofa where the big ones can't get them. Then they mistake the big boys for mama cat and try to suckle :-) Today, my big boys appreciate the added attention they've been getting. But I suspect they miss their little siblings, as I do.

Donut know what the fuss is about

Ok, that's a terrible pun, but honestly, I'm not sure that I would queue for hours for this!

The latest food craze (post-bubble tea, post-rotiboys) in Singapore is donuts. The shop that started it all, Donut Factory opened its first branch in Raffles City some time back. I didn't know it existed until I went there for dinner one evening and upon going home (around 9+pm) I was rather surprised to see a queue in front of one small little donut shop. A few days after I heard about this apparently superduper donut shop which had such phenomenal queues everyday, even worse than Lim Chee Guan bak kwa (where the queues are largely confined to the CNY period). It has since opened two more branches in Suntec and Novena Square.

I must admit I am no donut fan. And the idea of queueing for more than 15 minutes for an optional carb is not really appealing to me. But today, I happened to be in Suntec City and realised that the second, short (5 pax) queue was for people who wanted "up to 2 donuts". So I decided to give it a try and after waiting about 5 minutes, purchased the Mint Dark Chocolate and the Apple Cinnamon donuts. The chocolate was still very liquid, so the donut had been freshly made (good) but it rubbed off on the sides of the paper bag I was slinging it around in.

So I got home and we had the donuts for dessert after dinner. The dough was nice - soft, very light and fluffy. So it is really very easy to eat. The toppings were a little on the sweet side (specifically the apple cinnamon) but likely, not as sweet as the jammy ones.

On the whole, these are nice tasty donuts but I would not queue for hours for them. Value my time too much. But definitely, if the queue for "up to 2 donuts" is short, I will quite happily get in line. After all I would like to try the coffee and roasted almond donut too.

Cat Burglar

As per normal, it has been a cat-filled weekend. On Saturday, we took M.C. for her sterilisation operation. It was a just-in-the-nick-of-time appointment, as we caught her copulating with Paddy last Saturday (in between going for M's church wedding in the morning and the dinner in the evening).

Then, yesterday evening, we said goodbye to Tiger Lily. After a number of missed connections, she was adopted by two housemates (females) and has gone to stay with them in their apartment. One of them comes from a cat-owning household and misses having one around. I hope she does ok and is not too lonely away from her brother and two "uncles".

Finally, this morning, we were awakened by the sound of the burglar alarm going off. Or at least, I was awakened by it, ran down the stairs and turned off the alarm. Which, I was told, is not the right thing to do as what if there had been a burglar? Anyway, there were some tense moments as we regrouped in my parents' bedroom, just below mine. We checked the time - it was 5.30am. Outside, the newspaper chap was delivering TODAY. Our neighbour was wandering around her front garden. Armed with a small little clothes hanging aide, my father went down the stairs. I followed him with the alarm trigger in my hand. (Ok next time I will bring down a golf club or two.) We had only walked a few steps down the stairs when we saw the miscreant who had triggered the alarm. His little white face peered up at us as he lay on the carpet, somewhat startled by all the fuss. Somehow, Dinky had sneaked into the house whilst my father was doing some midnight chore at the back of the house (don't ask, don't ask).

Thus we started the day.