My brilliant nephew: Jacob Chan

The cool and handsome one, he's my nephew.







My brother Joseph's son Jacob is going to compete in the State (Queensland, Australia) Championship in October.

He and his team beat all the top schools yesterday. He got two medals. One for winning and one for being the best player in the championship team.

Jacob you are awesome! if you were in New Zealand, your teacher will tell you to Paki Paki your back. (Paki Paki means clap.)

If you think this story is familiar , you are right. You read about him before.

http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2009/11/jacob-chan-nature-verses-nurture.html

Outdoor Wednesday: Daisy fields

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

In summer, the lawns and fields in New Zealand quickly turn into daisy fields. Here my "baby" sits and picks daisies so I can make a daisy chain for her.

All too soon, she has grown up and will be traveling and doing what she likes to do.

When she is in the freezing Harbin or Paris, I hope she looks at this post, and remembers the warmth of her mum's bossom.

Friday shootout:Flora, Fauna and critters

In Australia, my brother in law found this lorikeet on the roadside and it was being attacked by other birds. He rescued it and brought it home. We think that it had been a pet as it is very tame. Thomas thinks he is a pirate now with a parrot sitting on his shoulder.

In New Zealand, where there is plenty of rain and the climate mild, our fauna is lush, and flora plentiful.





Snakes made news in New Zealand and Singapore today.





We are glad that here in New Zealand, we have no snakes. We do have some trying to sneak in. Yesterday a 80cm snake was discovered by port officials in a shipping container of plants which had come from Guatemala.

Over in Singapore, a resident found a 3 meter long snake (python) in his apartment on the 13th floor of Nanyang Heights this very morning.

"It was 3:30 am we first found in the living room and the pest control guys came at 5:30 and eventually caught it. In the mean time, the policemen and campus security also came and helped us.

We are trying to figure out how the snake was able to break into this high floor apartment unit. We always make sure that the screen doors are closed. In any case it is hard to believe that such a huge snake could crawl up the wall up to the 13th floor. Another possibility is the drain holes in the bathrooms. The caps of the drains can always pop-up open if something like snakes push out from inside the pipes. Then it can move from house to house.... Still, largely a big mystery....

Given that we have two toddlers in my family, it was truly scary to see that python lurking in front of our bedroom."

In Australia, a snake visited my nephew's garage.



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Our theme for Sept. 17th will be...Flora, Fauna and/or Pets. So show us your wonderful shots of wild critters and wild plants(flora and fauna)around your town!
Maybe from a trip out to the woods or park in your area! Or if you are lucky in your own backyard!!

Emily's Mum's the best

I am a very proud aunty. This is Emily Chan, my brother Charles and sis-in-law Karen's baby daughter. Yes, no matter whether you are 23 , or you are 2, you are always your parents' baby, especially if you are the youngest child in the family.

Emily plays the guitar, piano and sings. She writes all her own songs and had recorded her music. Her music style is alternative/indie rock. Here she sings this aged old Chinese song for her Dad this father's day. http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/09/thursday-theme-song-moms-best_08.html


Download Emily Chan - Mum's The Best .

This is Emily's song: Mum's the best. Click on the link to listen to her lovely voice.

I have been bracing myself of how to write this post, and Emily's recording of a fifty year old song suited to a T.

My New Zealand raised son doesn't not understand the sentiments of this Chinese song.

Almost twenty one years ago, on a Saturday morning, I was singing in this song,
I was "without a mom you are like a stalk of weed", I really needed my mum.
I needed my mum because my new born baby was dying, and I wanted my mum, but my mum had died eighteen months earlier.

Today, as I think of other mums preparing to celebrate their sons' twenty first, for me, it will be a day, I celebrate in my heart. I want to sing this song that Emily is singing.

I dug up a photo which is so precious. None of my sisters and girl cousins have a photo like this. Here's my great grandma, my grandma, my mum and me in 1975, taken just before I left for Canada. Mum took me back to her village to say goodbye. Little did I know, that's the last time I saw them together.

Mum's the best by Emily Chan
Shi shang zhi you ma ma hao
you ma de hai zi xiang ge bao.
tou jin ma ma de huai bao
xin fu xiang bu liao

世上只有妈妈好
有妈的孩子像个宝
投进了妈妈的怀抱
幸福享不了

Mommy's the only dearest in the world
Those with mums are like treasures
Run to mum's bosom
you will be so happy

shi shang zhi you ma ma hao
Mei ma de hai zi xiang ge cao
li kai ma ma de huai bao
xin fu na li zhao.
世上只有妈妈好
没妈的孩子像根草
离开妈妈的怀抱
幸福哪里找

Mommy's the only dearest in the world
without a mom you are like a stalk of weed
away from mom's bosom,
where will you find happiness?

Shi shang zhi you ma ma hao
you ma de hai zi bu zhi dou.
Yaw shi ta men zhi dou
mon li yie hui siao.

世上只有媽媽好
有媽的孩子不知道
要是他知道
夢裡也會笑

Mommy's the only dearest in the world
Those with mums don't know
If only they know,
They will smile even in their dreams

Mei yu mama zui ku now
Motherless kids have most worries.

Outdoor Wednesday: Looking at Mother Hen

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

My nephews from Australia visited Sarawak and saw a mother hen sitting on her eggs. I don't think the hen was very happy with these kids.

When I was young, mum kept chickens like this, free range you call these days. The hen sat on the eggs for one month. Mum would not let us visit the hen. She said the hen would reject her eggs. So we obediently listened to her and waited patiently for the little cute fluffy chicks to hatch.

High Court, New Zealand

4As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127

Today, my second child was admitted to bar as a barrister and solicitor. We were there to witness this event.

The judge told the new consuls that today was a culmination of years of hard work. Now their learning has just began.

My friends say that I must be a very proud mum. Am I proud? No! but I am extremely happy for her. I quoted the Bible verse Psalm 127. I am also reminded that all children are gifts of God. It is our responsibility to bring them up. We have prayed for her.

This is the second time I sat through a Bar admission ceremony. In 1977, I was with my mum when my brother Charles was admitted to bar. It's like a cycle. My mum and my brother, and me and my daughter. Incidentally, Charles also was with his daughter when she was admitted to Bar.

Outdoor Wednesday: A hen that thinks she is a boy.

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

We have a lot of excitement among my siblings. My sister Helen in Australia has a big problem causing an enormous headache. She has a hen that seems to be crowing. Blackey is an six month old Australop crossbreed. She can grow up to 4 kgs provided she doesn't crow again.

The council doesn't allow roosters in her house, and Helen is worried that she might have to use the axe. My other brother is quite happy to solve Helen's problem with the council or her neighbours. Her kids are very attached to Blackey and are very upset with the prospects of losing her.

"I locked all the chickens up in the timber hutch and blocked the light. This morning, Blackey crowed at 6 am. The crowing is not too loud coming from the box. But then, every thing else is making noises too. The crows are really loud, and kookaburras too.

I bought pellets for laying hens and hopefully, Blackey will balance her hormones.!!
I am still worried that the silly black hen destined for cooking pot. I am is giving Blackey a few weeks grace. If it lays eggs, then it can still be saved. Lincoln, my 10 year old, suggested that we should feed Blackey soy products for estrogens. " says Helen.

We have done a bit of research and some people suggest hormonal change can cause a hen to sound like crowing. It appears other Australians are having the same problem. May be it is that Australian species as I once watched an Australian Vet program, and it featured a dominant hen as well.

http://www.au.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg1017484021681.html


Do any of you have a similar experience with your hens?

Friday shootout: Mothers' day special

After a long hike in a hot humid Borneo jungle, an ice cold can of sprite is heavenly to touch, says Sam.

Whose hand can be tougher than mine? asks the seller of Durian, the king of fruits which is hard and prickly like a hedgehog.

This satin sheet is so smooth to touch and it is better when it's sun dried and wind blown.

Sam love tomatoes. Here he just harvested little tomatoes from our one and only plant.

My brothers loved flying kites. I guess they would give anything now to touch the strings and fly kites like they did once upon a time.

The cousins live in Singapore and Australia, once every few years, they visit. Here they are playing a touching game.

This is not what I like to touch, Thomas tells me that it is OK to touch the mouse.

Here's Olivia and Thomas. My daughter G and Sam had done it before, so did I. We inheritted the Amazonian women's genes from our Hakka mum and Grandma.


At the Polar bear enclosure, the kids were touching the cool glass.




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May 7 - Mother's day special - Things I like to touch - by Butler and Bagman

Mark of Butler and Bagman suggested this weeks topic ‘things I like to touch’

I can’t do justice to the topic that he would have, knowing exactly what he had on his mind when he sent the topic suggestion our way but here goes my take on it.

“While your other four senses (sight, hearing, smell, and taste) are located in specific parts of the body, your sense of touch is found all over…. The most sensitive areas of your body are your hands, lips, face, neck, tongue, fingertips and feet”

I read somewhere that the sense of touch is the only sense that helps us define the world around us. Not only do we have a physical sense of touch, we also have emotional, memory, and communication connections that keep us in touch with our world.

This morning I went to Tutti-frutti supermarket and realized I use sight and smell to know if the fruits are fresh but the most important, I used my finger tips to test if they were at their peak of ripeness.

This week with this topic I hope to see a return of many of our group and to see many different interpretations of ‘things I like to touch’ in our towns (in our world)

GingerV

My family is very brave, and what they like is to touch not be what you like to touch. The photos are are nieces and nephews. Olivia, Lincoln and Thomas have a pet snake. Definitely not for the faint hearted to touch.

Save the world: Co-existing with wild life

http://reducefootprints.blogspot.com/
The monkey on the tree and dropping mango stones unto Christopher's head.
This monkey snatched a packet of biscuits from the children. The monkey held the packet firmly under one arm and with his 3 other limbs zigzagged his way through us and and quick like a flash, was up the tree. I was within reach of his tail but wasn't sure if I still wanted the biscuits.

The monkey came very near to Christopher and Olivia waiting to pounce on the goodies the children were having for their picnic.

scaffolding when my apartment was painted. You can see the vertical stainless railing that the monkeys climbed on.

There were rainforest trees just outside my balcony. The upside, I see lots of exotic birds and monkey jumping on the branches. The downside, monkeys come into the house and steal our food.

We were the first household in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore to have a brush with wild monkeys. When you see our apartment and the tall trees, you will understand why. The University was built on the edge of the city and encroached on the jungles. As more and more land were cleared for housing, the monkeys had no where to go.

It was about 8 years ago, I had just returned with Sam from a shopping trip, and Sam had left his french fries on the coffee table. I was at the corner of my dining room at the computer. Our dining room and lounge opened to the balcony where the trees were just outside us at the 4th storey.

An adult monkey climbed on to the railing of my balcony. Next, he was sitting on the chair barely a metre away from me. I was quietly calling to the children who were upstairs to come downstairs to watch. At the same time, I was afraid that it would attack me as it bared its fangs at me. It then walked to the lounge, sat at the couch and started eating the french fries. After he had finished eating the french fries, it grabbed hold of a canister of roasted peanuts under his arms.

At this time, three little monkeys climbed along the railings. The adult monkey very cleverly balanced on 3 limbs and climbed up the roof of my neighbour's apartment and cracked open the canister.

More monkeys came to join him, and all in all there were eight. I peeped from my stairway watching them enjoying a feast from my peanuts.

I had a nature journal with the university resident's website. Soon everyone knew about the monkeys. This was very interesting to the expatriot community. My neighbours came from all over the world. Unfortunately after the initial curiousity, the residents treated the Macaque monkeys as pest. We couldn't leave food outside on the tables. These monkeys created havoc by stealing our food and tearing orchid flowers apart.

I invited A/P Dr. Vilma for the Nature Society and the university to talk about these Macaque monkeys. The ladies had an enlightened afternoon. Vilma explained the plight of the monkeys and how men had rob them of their natural habitat. The best thing was to ignore them.

The university however, did not ignore them. They trapped and darted them. Oh, how sad, we could not exist with them.

My nieces and nephews went to visit a nature reserve. They went to the MacRitchie Reservior. There the monkeys are no longer living the way they were meant to be. They have become very aggressive.

Here's what my sister Grace wrote of their experience.

"someone had opened a packet of biscuits, before I know it, a monkey had taken the whole packet right under our noses. While the kids yelled, gave chase and Lincoln clapped his hands in the monkeys face, the monkey held the packet firmly under one arm and with his 3 other limbs zigzagged his way through us and ran up a tree. I was within reach of his tail but wasn't sure if I still wanted the biscuits.

Michael was very frightened and tightly held the other packet of biscuits while trying to drink. Angelina with a piece of biscuit in one hand and a cup in the other was fiercely protecting her cap by tucking it under her arm. Thomas got the long drink bottle and told us that if the other monkeys came nearer, he would use it to push the monkeys' heads away. By then, many monkeys came running towards us from far away.

A monkey came up to our feet to pick up the biscuit crumbs. Some watched us at shoulder height from a nearby tree. It was eerie because the monkeys were camouflaged in the tree trunks but we could see their eyes watching us. There were about 5 lining up on the ground 3 feet away from us.

Helen decided to keep the biscuits inside the box but started on the pomelo fruit with Olivia. Helen told Olivia to be careful. I didn't even realise that the pomelo sacs were dropped on the floor until the monkeys rushed over to pick them up. There were lots of shouting and shooing from the kids, Michael started crying............next thing I heard, Olivia's pomelo was snatched from her hand.

I couldn't believe it, here we were lecturing about our food, Jessie verbally abusing the monkey which was enjoying our packet of biscuits. Olivia said it was like a tug and war, and it felt strange when the monkey's fingers touched hers.

It just got really scary because lots and lots of monkeys had turned up and we had to leave.

It was an experience. I couldn't take any photoes of the monkeys lining up in front of us because Michael was crying and Angelina kept holding onto my leg.

A week later when we were deciding where to go for a picnic, Olivia jokingly suggested the monkey park. Thomas said we can't go there, the monkeys will steal all our food again."

For more monkey stories, I will be posting more of these kids adventure with the monkeys at my other site: http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/04/outdoor-wednesday-wild-monkeys-in-city.html