Antibiotics, Travel and Pets - CNY'17'D1/D2

After a break of 2 years, I went Malacca for CNY this year. Lynn came down with fever on Thursday night. I took her to see the doctor on CNY eve (Friday morning). When the doctor said he will prescribe antibiotics, I started saying my usual line "Err, it is really necessary....", but I changed my mind quickly.  Since we were travelling on the following day (CNY D1), I decided to "play cheat", and started her on antibiotics immediately.  Although antibiotics is supposed to be only for bacteria infection, somehow, it has been proven by trial and error that recovery is faster with antibiotics.   

We risked traffic jam to secure more sleep.  We woke up at 7+, and were out of the house only at 9am.  The jam was tolerable.  As usual we did several stops along the short journey, so we ended up reaching only at 2pm.  It took us a whopping 5 hours to get to Malacca on CNY D1. 

On day 2, we went Kulai to visit WK's grandma.  She shifted to one of WK Uncle's house.  And to our pleasant surprise, they have 2 dogs and a cat!  We had a great time "playing" with the cat.  She's a fierce one, only allows grandma to pat her and scratches anyone else who touches her, including Uncle.  But she played with Lynn, chasing her a bit in the living room. 

The traffic on Day 2 was great, and we ended our Malaysia CNY visiting with 2 boxes of Magnum ice-cream at half price when converted to SGD..  And here are the pictures:
 

 

 Momo, looking longingly at folks at the dinning table and those with food..

 

I look so "aunty" in this photo

 

 

This year we stayed at Novotel for the night instead of Aunty's house. 

 

D2 morning, back at Aunty's house.  What to do when bored?  Take wefies

 

Lynn is well enough to roam the garden.  She managed to catch "butterfly", and took it back to SG.

 

When we reached home, we asked her to release it out.

 

Here's a few photos of the pets at Grandma's house.  This one is a friendly dog.  

 And here's the pretty cat, who lost an eye.  She is actually quite playful and curious, but is quite wary of human.  Next year, we plan to bring a cat tease to play with her!

Update (1) - Gor Gor hamster died

It died someday in June. I wanted to write about it immediately, but did not, so now I don't remember which day it died exactly.


It is a special pet to me. It was active and yet gentle, so it was very fun to play with.  It was the only survivor of the first batch of 5 babies. It was attacked by ants when it was one day old. Lynn was his hero, cos she used her bare fingers to flick the ants away from its tiny and fragile body.


It has strong "arm muscles", and I posted a video (on FB) of it swinging from bar to bar on the ceiling of its cage. Once, it escaped for 3 days and turned up unharm, but hungry, on the 3rd morning. Then it escaped once again, and got stuck on the sticky lizard trap. And once it's head got stuck in the hole at the side of the shoe box. When I pulled it's body backwards, it knew that I was trying to free him. It looked extremely cute when it squeezed it's eyes shut while I'm tugging.


This is what Lynn did using Sketch App on my Sony and put up as my phone wall paper.

 

My poor hamsters - RIP

One year ago they started off being Lynn's hamsters.  And I have said before, that I grew to love them like my own pets.

The 2 girls (from the 2nd batch of birth by the original mummy hamster) died.  They died a horrible death..

I guess I'm sad partly because it is my fault that died.  They had been living in this same cage for almost a year since their birth.  The cage has a hole, on the top.  For such a long time, we had been careful not be place the hamster toys near the hole so that they climb onto the top and out of the hole.  After one year of no incident, I was just pure careless, and placed the toy near the hole.

On a Monday morning, we found "Angelina" gone for the cage.  Angelina was Lynn's favourite.  I liked it a lot too.  It is the prettiest of all, and the most gentle.  I am extremely surprise that it was her and not "Jewel" who escaped.

I had hopes (false hope really) that she will appear by herself.  The other 3 hamsters (daddy, mummy and Gor Gor) ever escape from their cages, and appear by themselves, some a few days later.  Other than hungry and thirsty, they were unharm.  Gor Gor hamster even got himself stuck on my sticky lizard trap, but was rescued and unhurt.

It was pure carelessness that I did not remove the toy from near the hole of Monday itself, and to my horror on Tuesday, Jewel was gone too.  I hoped and I hoped, but they didn't surface for 3 days.

Friday night after work, I went to my friend's house for mahjong.  Juin whatsapp me to say that the hamsters were "found", and sent me a pic.  The pic took 1 hr to download successfully.  I must be living on false hope and delusional, and for that hour I really thought that they were found alive.  When I received the pic, I was stunned, but I was still delusional, and I messaged him back asking "are they alive???"  I called him in the next minute when he didn't reply.

He explained to me that they really got stuck in the water pipe that WK's mum had suspected that they went into.  They were rotting and was emitting horrible smell and how he dug them out of the pipe.  At that point I'm lost..  I kind of register that it must have been a horrible experience for him (and I should be very grateful to him for clearing the corpses out the pipe), but all that's in my mind were Angelina and Jewel, in the pic he sent me.

He said that Lynn's affected too, so I quickly called Lynn.  I suspect that she is not that affected, but I really can't tell.  [I always have this suspicion and "fear" that she is not sensitive and emotional enough, like me and her dad.  My friends tell me that she is still young, and may not know how to express their feelings.]  She said that she has 3 more of them (me faintzz..).

Back to the hamsters, I hope this kind of stuff will never happen again.  RIP, Angelina and Jewel, 4Jul2012 - 17May2013 (the day that they were discovered).

Hamster update

I also want to do an update on the hamsters before the year ends.  Ever since we gave away 2 male baby hamsters in Aug, the remaining 5 hamsters had been living well and healthy since then.  Things settled into a routine, which consist of daily morning feed, and once a week(end) cleaning of the cages.  Right now there's still 3 cages, with 3 females in one big cage, and the other 2 male hamsters each in a small cage.

Something quite interesting happened a few weeks back.  Firstly, the daddy hamster escaped from it's cage 2 nights in a row.  When it happened for the first time, we realised that the cage door is easily opened.  When the daddy hamster loitered around the kitchen in the day, it actually went back into the cage when WK's mum offered it the cage.  We then tied the cage door with twisting wire.

That night, it happened again.  It was because Lynn didn't tie the wire tight enough, and daddy hamster squeezed thro the small opening in the cage door.  This time round, I experienced it for myself how daddy hamster goes back into the cage when offered.

We thought that daddy hamster's too eager to go exploring, so we switched cage for daddy and ko ko.  It was a big mistake.  Although we tied the cage door very very tightly, ko ko hamster actually found other ways to escape.  Till today, we still do not know how ko ko hamster escaped.

Ko ko hamster is a mild and gentle hamster, unlike daddy who bites.  However, Ko ko hamster must had liked the freedom.  He refused to go back to his cage, and kept running away from us when we try to catch it.  It was out of it's cage for 3 days, before we finally captured it!

Here's some pics of the family of 5:

Ko Ko Hamster - Gentle, doesn't struggle when handled.  Loves to run on the wheel

Mummy hamster - Skinny; the smallest of all hamster.  It's runs all around the mini bath tub when it's taking the bath; probably she doesn't like water

Jewel - the darkest of all the 3 females.  Probably looks like the daddy more like the mummy, hahaha!!

Jewel on the plate

Angelina, Lynn's favourite hamster.  She's very gentle, and has much more white fur compared to the rest.  Lynn hates it when I call her Angelina fat!

Daddy hamster - Very aggressive; bites whoever that goes near it.  Lynn got bitten twice before, and I gotten once.  When I try to take these few pics, it was trying to push the cage door open.  I think it's a very smart hamster, who knows the way to open the cage door, except that now we keep the door tightly secured.

On top of the cage:

Hiding in one corner:

Pic update (2) - Hamster family

Here's some pics of the hamsters.  These are the 3 cages for the 5 hamsters.  Below pictures are taken during the Hari Raya weekend, when I invited my new colleagues to our home for a gatherting/potluck.  So I dresssed Lynn up.  She took pic with all her 5 hamsters, but they look all the same in the pics.

 

Here's 2 pic of the fishes. Currently there are 4 little fish tanks in all.

(Schedule to publish on Monday night.  End of first biz meeting day in Shanghai, maybe in Biz dinner now.. )

Hamster video

Update, but where to start from

Finally I switched on my laptop instead of TV, telling myself that I should update my blog. But I have been staring at this screen for 5 minutes, not knowing where to start... Too much back log is a bad thing.

A) Words of encouragement:
Got a sms from WS and saw on her FB, that she decided to revive her blog. I wanted to send her words of encouragement immediately, but I was beaten by laziness. Hopefully she will persist on, and start posting stuff. Memories in words and pic is priceless. JIA YOU!

B) Phases:
All of us go thro phases in life. This para here's going to sound very contradictory. Not too long ago, I was lamenting that friends are neglecting or not continuing with their blogs. I declared that although I acknowledge that blog is a time consuming activity, but for various important reasons it is worth maintaining. However, just not too long after that, I picked up a few new "hobbies" myself, so the time and energy that I have for blogging reduced. So I'm trying hard now (and going forward) to keep all old and new hobbies. We shall see how it goes. JIA YOU!

C) The Hamsters:
This is the #1 backlog post ; I NEED to blog about them, but I just can't find the time. OK, let me do a quick one here without the photos that I wanted to take and post.

The last time I blog about them, it was about 5 babies out of which only 1 survived. That was in June. Just less than 3 weeks after the 5 babies were born, mummy hamster gave birth to another 4 babies. I was shocked, cos I didn't know that it could be that fast (less than 3 weeks!). That night, I got from the neighbour their spare hamster cage for the daddy hamster and "gor gor" hamster (the sole survivor baby who was less than 3 weeks old), so that the mummy can concentrate on her new born.

This time round we did the right things from the start, so all 4 survived. In the next 2 weeks, I researched and planed for "birth control". Well, I bought a 3rd cage. Out of the 4 babies, there are 2 males and 2 females, so I put the 2 boys in the new cage.

So at one point in time, I had 3 cages and 7 hamsters! So there's a very very genuine reason for neglecting my blog, cos 3 cages and 7 hamsters took a lot of effort in maintaining. Eventually, I persuaded Lynn to give away the 2 baby boys. As of now, we have 5 hamsters but still 3 cages - 1 for daddy, 1 for gor gor (cos they fight when placed together in a cage), and 1 for the mummy & the 2 girls.

Lynn name the 2 females "Angelina" and "Jewel". Their chinese names are: 安琪鼠 and 珠宝鼠, hahaha.. Frankly speaking, they bring fun and laughter to the family. I will post some pics at a later time, cos I really want to capture and document the cute furies.

D) Piano
Finally I bought a piano. In name, it is for Lynn; in substance, I don't think so..

I have shared my story regarding my piano journey on this blog before. I was very undecided about investing in a piano for Lynn because I'm really haunted by the thought that one day she will give up piano like I did. So I toyed with the idea of learning piano myself too (so that I have bigger justification to invest in a piano). I couldn't make up my mind, so I just casually asked my dad if I should learn the piano. He actually said that it depends if I have the time or not. What he said struck me, cos I never thought of that as the key deciding factor.

Interestingly, I made the decision to buy, although the answer to my dad's question is "no, I'm already very busy now". It is because I realised that it is about making time for our commitments. So while I didn't sign up for any lessons (because I can't make that amount of time), I had been practicing Lynn's song on the piano myself. I'm making good progress rediscovering notes and rhythm. I really think that one day, my dream of playing “心爱妹妹的眼腈” will come true.

E) Lynn
Lynn is not a hobby, but she is the biggest, most important, most energy sapping, long term "project". I have been spending a lot of time on and with my sweetie. There's also a lot of stuff about her that I want to update on.

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Well, I'm really tired now (11pm), and there are countless tasks, challenges, and new things to experience tomorrow and every new day. I think it had been a good update. I will try to catch up postings on Lynn and of pics. I hope that whoever is still reading my blog will enjoy this sincerely done update.

New Born

The list of topics that I want to blog on just gets longer and longer.  Usually I don't get much time to blog during the weekends.  During the weekdays, I spend my free time (after 10pm) on TV, cos it's my favourite way to wind down (brainless activity).  If I'm not watching TV, then I will be reading my Ibook. 

Let's see how many posts I can do tonight.

Last Saturday, something very exciting happened - we got baby hamsters!  It's just so funny how they were discovered.  On Sat morning, I took a quick look at the hamsters, placed the food dish in the cage and walked away as usual.  Me and Lynn were in the living room, when WK (who had just came back after being 10 days away) looked into the cage and said "How can there are baby hamster????".  Lynn and myself rushed over and saw 5 new born.  Immediately I posted pics on facebook.  The whole weekend, even till now, the focus had been the baby hamster(s).

But most of the baby hamsters didn't really make it.  The first one to die didn't even last a day (was dead by Sat night).  Then on Sunday morning, we couldn't find 2 out of the remaining 4, most probably eaten by their own mother.  On the previous day (Sat), we learn (from reading internet/talking to experienced people) that we should try to aviod distrubing the new family, not clean the cage for sometime, not hold the little ones (else their smell may be altered), and the mummy may turn hostile towards the little ones. Lynn did hold one baby on Sat morning before we found out about the do and don'ts. However, I think it may not be our fault either (could still have happened anyway).  So we hoped for the best for the remaining 2.  We were doing some art and craft on Sunday morning in the living room when we heard loud squeak from the cage.  We were horrified to see ants attacking the babies!  We were panicky and upset.  I told lynn to kill the ants (with her fingers).  Lynn did the best that she could, alternating between flicking/pinching the ants off the tiny/vulnerable 1 day old new borns, and stopping/looking/mumbling that there are just too many ants.  I was quite useless, and kept repeating to her to "kill the ants, kill the ants...".  I remembered that at one point, Lynn raised her little voice saying "I'm trying!".  Towards the end, she held the babies in her hand to get to the ants on their bodies, and I wasn't even protesting.  After that, we cleaned the cage.  I'm actually very proud of her that morning, because Lynn's actually a little afraid of ants, and would demand that we kill the ants if she sees them on the wall or near the food.  So I told her that she's very brave and that she saved the little hamsters.

The family seem to settle down better in their newly cleaned cage.  We did notice that the 2 remaining babies were located at different parts of the cage, and the mummy seemed to be only nursing one.  By yesterday (monday morning), the neglected one died too.  We are really hoping for the best for the sole survivour, which the mummy is nursing/cuddling very regularly. 

Over the past 4 days, Lynn learned a lot about animal behaviour - motherly instinct, sense of smell, nursing, natural selection (many offsprings, fittest survive), etc..  I asked her yesterday night if she would like to be a vet when she grow up, and she said yes..  Haha.. still a long way to go for my sweety, and most people don't become what they dream of, but become what they work for.  But children should dream.  And most importantly, this experience in itself is already priceless. 

Here's some pics:
The 5 new born, pic taken on Saturday morning:

The sole survivor. It has definitely grew bigger in size over the last 4 days:

Lynn named him (or her) "Clever":

I still can't tell the 2 adult hamsters apart, as to which one is mummy and which one is daddy. I think the greedy one is mummy and the playful one is daddy: