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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pink mascot at Jurong Bird Park.



Yhis pink mascot pf the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore.
Thursday Challenge is a place for photographic fun and learning. This week, Pink

I found myself





After writing my book, and researching into my roots, I found myself. Though I have never been to China, I have Chinese blood in my veins. I am a Chinese.

This is my Chinese blog to share with my fellow Chinese in China.

http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/3270690843


在写这本书
在研究我的祖先
我找到我自己
我是一个的中国人
我是 陈洁雪


请访问

 我的博客


ann洁雪的博客[编辑]


Monday, April 8, 2013

ABC Wed: M for Macaque Monkeys

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.

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The monkey is eyeing Olivia's ice cold drink. ignoring Chris.

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.

I took these from my balcony.


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 15 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."





http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz

Friday, April 5, 2013

http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz Quirky



http://whistlestopphotohunt.blogspot.co.nz  Quirky

The owner of this pair of feet is a sized 13, and feel embarassed when people talk about his "boats"

Thursday Challenge: Puddles



Against the Chinese beliefs that we shouldn't be in the rain, I let D, then five to enjoy, "I am singing in the rain." I bought her a raincoat, gum boots and sewed her a pair of leggings. She had great fun, and I was there too, but with an umbrella.

There was a deluge from a heavy rainstorm, and part of our garden became a paddling pool. You can see from her face that she greatly enjoyed it.

http://youtu.be/D1ZYhVpdXbQ





SPRING (Mud, Puddles, Spring, Sun,...)
roseThursday Challenge is a place for photographic fun and learning. 

http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

ABC Wednesday: L for Looking





Nicole is looking what to choose, her mum and relatives are looking intently.

We, the Chans belong to the Kwang Ning dialect group of people from China. We have this unusual tradition. When a child is a year old, on his DOI SOI, meaning double birthday. ( The Chinese consider the nine months the child is in his mum's tummy as one year) we go through a special ceremony.

Put in front of the child are all sorts of goodies, a chicken drum stick and tools of the trade, eg, books, hammer, abacus (replaced by the calculator), a pen, a wad of cash, and so on.

The poor kid is to choose the right item which will depict what his career will be. Naughty Uncles and aunts will tease that the kid is a greedy kid if he/she chose the chicken drum stick, when in fact, it means he/she will have plentious to eat.

A poor mum would not be happy if the kid chooses a hammer which means he will be a labourer.

A wad of cash is self explanatory.

My husband doesn't belong to our same dialect group, and he thinks this is mumbo jumbo. So we didn't have this kind of fun with my kids.

***Here is Nicole choosing her "fate". Her parents were happy. She chose books given by me when she was a baby. They emailed to tell me. May be when I become a published writer, I will say that Nicole chose a good career choice."

Today, my new nephew chose an egg. But I don't think they had the whole display. He had either a drumstick or an egg.  Alicia, this is for you.






http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz