Commenting on the Bird Park, Comets and Dragonflies

I really should consider buying a data cable to transfer pix from my phone directly to the PC. Right now I use the PC a lot more than I use my laptop, so the savings in terms of time would definitely be better. On the other hand, the cable costs $88 so the savings in terms of money......

Oh, to win the lottery......

Anyway, the reason why I'm really considering this now is that I'd some pix in my phone that I wanted to show but to do that, I'd have to infra it to my laptop one by one, which is really irritating. Especially when I get the really loud BEEP! for a failed transfer and I have to press the button SEND over and over again until the damn thing gets through.

Oh well, but I will (hopefullyX3) get a digicam next week! I'm gonna get the Canon all-weather model, 3MPX, 3X Op for $299! Plus the 5000 petrol points that my dad's never used. :p

"You do realise, though, that I will not be able to pay you back till I come back from Europe?"

Dad: "That's ok. I'll just chalk it up to the huge pile of debt that you still owe me. *smile*" Dang.

Speak and be read

Do you guys see a Comments link at the end of the entry?

No? Damn, I did something wrong. Try clicking on the little link at the bottom of the entry that has the time. You'll come onto the archived version of that entry. Scroll to the bottom and there should be a Comments link there. If not, well, the tagboard's still there.......

Yes, blogger now comes with Comments, so if you're divinely inspired to say something about what I wrote, you don't have to scroll to the top, but you can just click on the link. Or rather I hope it works. I actually got a Comment from an Isshan, dunno who he is, dunno where he came from, saying that I could do better in choosing a favourite fantasy writer other than Eddings. ( ??? ) Well, if you are reading my blog, all I can say is that I like Eddings' brand of sarcastic, dry humour, that I haven't really found anywhere else. I don't think about whether the characters are cardboard, [though I would agree the ones in Redemption of Athalus is] and whether the plot is standard. To apply an age-old generic argument: "To each his own." :p

I'm kinda bemused, actually, at 1) the Comments working, because when I first tried to activate them, I ran into problems and they told them Comments Not Working or something to that effect. And then suddenly I realise they could work. And 2) that this guy has popped out of the blue to comment on my choice of favourite writer. Like, where the freak did you come from??? Did you google me or something?? Do I know you at all?

Yes, yes, I know. It's the Internet after all......

Leave it to the birds

Visit to the Birdpark wasn't too bad. The one thing that struck me was the sheer colour of all the birds around. Most of the birds you see in everyday life come in black, brown, white, but these birds were a multitude of rainbow colours! The ones that greeted us at the entrance was the famous red-blue-yellow macaw that we see on all the colouring pencil boxes, and gods, their colours look soooo much better in real life than on the boxes.

And I saw a Hedwig! Real life snowy owl, in a special enclosure that had hardly any light in it at all, and was dedicated to birds that lived in the dark. It was so pretty, but in terms of majesty, couldn't beat the Eurasian owl. [I swear I got that name wrong, but anyhow...] This owl is huge, must've been about knee height and the wing span was fantastically long... *Sigh*

Bird show was ok, your usual bubbly-over-the-top host showing off the birds doing their little circus act, but the Birds of Prey show is mucho better. Before the show starts, you're warned to keep all food away, lest something snatches it out from midair. Then when the birds come, whoa...... the birds of prey have a sheer majesty about them that the other birds in the park just don't have. As they stretch their wings, as they glide in midair a hair's breath away from your head, suddenly, you feel like prey. You feel vulnerable below these magnificent creatures, and you are aweful of them for that. How to describe the feeling you get when you see a creature so much more powerful and free than you are?

Then at a point of the show, they asked a 10 year old girl on stage, to hold a plate with a strip of meat on it, while the kites flying overhead would swoop down onto the plate and snatch the piece of meat away. Damn, they're fast. Before he even finished explaining it to her, one kite had already swooped down, gulped the meat down and flew off. And how do they feed these birds in the air? 2 keepers stand with slingshots and sling the meat into the air, where the kites would fly swiftly towards it and catch it deftly in their beaks, all in midair! Dang!

The funny part was when he suggested he put the meat on her hand instead. (!!) The look of consternation on her face was soooo hilarious... hee... And when he asked the audience Who wants to see them take the meat from her hand? she went Nooooooo and had this Oh God don't do this to me look on her face. Hee.

Well of course he didn't do it! I don't think the Bird Park is ready to be sued for a kite biting the hair off her scalp!

OK, I definitely the birds of prey to anything else in the park. Hee. The rest of the birds are unique because of their colour and plumage. The bird of paradise, for example, has a tail so long and fine, it looks like hair. Pure white hair cascading from its butt. :p The scarlet ibises are, well, scarlet, and there were tons of other small birds in the walkthrough aviaries in tons of different colours. A feathery kaleidoscope of colour. A flash of blue in the greenery. A spot of yellow flying before your eyes.

But I think the real masters are still the Predators. I still prefer majesty over colour. I think the sight of a pair of powerful wings, spreading itself wide, and strong, hooked talons are infinitely more awe-inspiring than a cute bird with pretty colours. Don't get me wrong, the cute birds are cute, but given the choice... make me an strong, large hunting bird. And carnivorous.

Hmmmm..... Meat......

Well, Newbie had to leave after that and because I don't like the idea of staying at home on a Sat night, I made my way to see...

Comets!

Though unfortunately, I didn't see any at all because tonight was too cloudy. Bleah.

Anywayz, the Science Centre has been advertising the appearance of Comet NEAT and Comet LINEAR for this week and next week. So on the 20 and 21 of May, they'd be opening later than usual [till 2130] so that people can come in and see the comets. [if they're lucky]Since I had nothing to do for the rest of the night, I stopped off at Jurong East to go there.

And half the folks there are... kids. You notice this the moment you walk in because of the reverse bungee that had been set up near the entrance, with a line of kids eagerly waiting their turn to be catapulted into the air and have their stomachs turned upside down. Dragged down by their parents in the name of scientific interest, and hoping their kids will develop a healthy interest in a subject that will prove of utmost importance in shaping their academic career. Ok, I digress.

Then, you notice... Gandalf???? Promoters for the LOTR exhibition, dressed as Frodo, [reminded me of keng leong for some reason. dunno why.] Gandalf, Arwen, and a Ringwraith, giving out pamphlets for the exhibition, and taking advantage of the added crowds coming to see the comet.

Over near Mac's, they put up a screen to show a movie that would add to the atmosphere. Mind you, this is a comet viewing, right? So what did they show? Deep Impact. Hm, I wonder at the irony. You're there to promote astronomy, by inviting people to view 2 comets in your place, and you show a movie about a comet potentially blasting the Earth apart. Er, whatever... Kinda like a butcher showing "Babe" at his meat stall.

Movie was boring, so after a while, I made my way to the observatory, and came out to see a sky full of... clouds. Argh! Where's the stars?? Where's the moon?? Where's the comet??? Dammit. Feels like a kid all hyped up to go to the amusement park, only to find all the rides suck.

On the other hand, though, kudos to the staff for making the night a bit more interesting. How do you entertain a bunch of restless kids, all clamouring for something to happen? You show off a $2000 laser. A mean piece of apparatus that shone all the way to the sky, and you hear all the kids go, "Waaaaa......" Then you fire a couple of rockets into the air, asking them to count "5....4....3....2....1! Blast off!" and as the little rocket shoots off, you hear them go, "Waaaa......" again. It doesn't take very much to entertain kids, it seems. Once you manage to tear them away from the TV, computer, and Playstation anyway.

But after that, I looked at the sky, and decided that with all the clouds in the air, I wasn't gonna see any comets tonight. I made my way back to the garden where they were showing the movie and played with some of the exhibits there. One was a big red round hear with a large black round nose. Think of a Mr Men character. What you do is you turn the nose 6 times very quickly, say something into the mouth, and later on, it repeats it back at you. The thing must have a child filter though. When I said "Lah" and "Wah lau why like that?" it repeated it to me. When I said "Stupid thing" and "Oh shit" it didn't. Humph. Should've tried f**k or something.

Then there's the pulley. Think of the rope climbing frames we had in school. Now think of a giant weight attached to the bottom of that rope, and a sophisticated pulley device at the top of the frame. What you do, is stand on the weight, and pull yourself up using the rope, while standing on the weight. So you're lifting yourself up while standing on the weight. Trust me, but standing there trying to pull yourself up really works as a motivator to lose weight. :p Especially when you have to lift yourself up somewhere.

What an educational day. Afternoon in the Bird park and evening in the Science Centre.

A dragonfly tale

This is a story based on the Dragonfly on the Shoulder story I wrote a while back. [start browsing, people...] However, the only scene that's been flashed in my mind so far, is the following scene. :p Maybe next I'll flesh out the story and people as I go along.

Or maybe I'll just continue from here. I don't know.


She holds her hand up to her shoulder, and the little dragonfly that was perching there all along walks onto it. She then lifts it up to her face, so that it's facing her.

What are you thinking? She wonders silently to herself.

Why are you content to simply stay there on my shoulder? Don't you want to fly? Don't you want to be human? Why do you prefer to just stay there and do nothing?

She receives no answer from the dragonfly. It looks at her with beady, unreadable insectile eyes. Its wings quiver slightly, as if contemplating an answer, but nothing comes to her. Then it flies off and lands lightly on her shoulder. Out of her sight, she only knows its there because she feels the slight weight on it, and the flutter of its wings.

Other than that, it does nothing.

It's amazing what a day of shopping and hanging with the girls can do for your mental stimulation. For starters, we watched...

Facing Windows

I'm starting to be of the opinion that any film out of Hollywood is good. Take this Italian film for example.

Giovanna is wife to Flippo, and faces all the problems that inevitably comes with marriage. Her husband doesn't listen, her kids don't obey, and her job sucks, though she hangs on for the money. With all the disappointment and discontent going on in her life, it's no wonder she starts to notice the cute Lorenzo, staying conveniently in the building across the street from her. From her kitchen window, she has a perfect view of the going-ons in Lorenzo's life. Does anyone think she's doing it because she has no TV? :)

So one day Giovanna and Flippo run into an old man in the streets, who's completely lost his memory, and mutters the name, "Simone" to them. They take him home, much to Giovanna's chagrin and care for him, while waiting for the police to notify them on any news. While she's totally irritated by the appearance of a stranger-potential-psycho-maniac and hence potential threat to her children, she slowly develops concern for the old man and even becomes friends with him in the end. Through the show, Simone also teaches her the value of life, to cherish what you have and hold no regrets.

Oh, and of course she meets and falls in love and tries to sleep with Lorenzo. :p

One of the things I like about foreign films is that unencumbered by Hollywood standards, they tend to have more originality, and rely more on talent, rather than big names to lure the audiences into the theatres. This is no exception. The age-old story of adultery has been given a few twists here and the ending is not exactly the typical happily-ever-after. [can't give it away. go watch it.] Though the adultery between her and Lorenzo and the old man Simone seem unconnected at first, it turns out that their stories are much more similiar than they thought, and everything is weaved out evenly in the end.

I also liked the parts where the amnesiac Simone appears to encounter spectres from his past as he traipses around in the real world. As he walks through a street, a woman would run to him, imploring him to help save her babies. As he dances with Giovanna, he is transported back in time to another flat, to another person, though he is still dancing with Giovanna. Past and present intertwine in an impossible dance.

Also remarkable is the main soundtrack of the movie, "Historia De Un Amor". [yes, we stayed back long enough to see the title on the credits] How can I describe the strains of the violin? As I sit here, I hear it in my mind once again, that simple refrain, the bow being pulled smoothly across the strings, a passion demanding for release. *sigh* I might just buy the VCD when it comes out just to hear that song again and again. And when accompanied by a very modern, trance beat.... *double sigh*

Without you
The red is not as red
the sky is not as blue


For the incurable romantic, or the hardened heart.

Women and Shopping

Might as well have titled this Fish and Water. Humans and Air. Simon and Garfunkel.

A current Newsweek article has printed an article on women, girlfriends and the bonding hormone once again, oxytocin.

3 cheers for oxytocin. Without it, we'd have no friends, no kakis, and a general collapse of the retail economy in general. Yes, women need shopping. And we need to shop with friends.

Here is the part where all the bemused men need to start reading. Why is it women love to shop? And why must they shop with friends?? Well, 1) Women are genetically engineered to be social creatures. Scientists believe that this is because unlike men, who generally compete for mating rights, [hey I have a BMW. Wanna f**k?] women have to be social creatures in order to make sure their offspring survive. Y'see, once the men've had their screw, they're basically off looking for the next screw, and so it's up to the woman to raise and take care of the child. [boy, this sounds sooooo familiar....] So in order to make sure their offspring survive, women have to band together in groups to take care of all the kids. [think soccer moms...]

2) Face it, there will always be more women than men. It's a genetic necessity in order to facilitate the survival of any species. Hence, in order to attract better mates, the women have to put in more effort in their appearances in order to look more alluring, more sexy, and general more willing to screw. Hahaha, just kidding...... But basically, most of women's fashion and cosmetics is designed to show off the parts of a woman's body that shows off her fertility, ie boobs, butt, stomach.... rouge for the lips, blush for the cheeks... Women need to look good to ensure future reproduction.

Put these 2 factors together and TA-DAH! This is where Taka, Wisma, and all the other shopping centres come to mind.

But other than these, there are definite advantages to shopping with your friends that you can't enjoy while shopping with strange females or guys. [boyfriends included. sorry guys...] For one, because they're friends, they'll choose stuff that'll look good on you, even if you don't think so at first. Common refrain: "Oh God, this will look great on you! Try it! Try it!" The last 2 phrases being punctuated in shrieks. They'll also pick out stuff that you won't normally wear, and encourage you to try new designs. "Oh c'mon! You're always wearing black. Try this shade for a change!" and they can instinctly pick out what they know you'll like. "Hey! They have it in your colour!"

Sound familiar? Read on...

Also, they're your best allies in the dreaded fitting rooms. If it doesn't fit, if the colour sucks, and if the back of your bra can be seen in that backless dress you're wearing, they don't care. The fitting rooms are where the final barriers come down. Even though in front of the rest of the world, you have to make sure your appearance is flawless at all times, in the fitting room, you are vulnerable in a state of half-dress, and naturally your close gal friends are the only ones you're gonna give a view of your unsightly stomach bulge in that shirt you're wearing. [boyfriends and husbands excluded, because most fitting rooms don't allow any men in at all.] Cheers to friends who can look at you honestly and give you truthful, constructive criticism, and who can accept you, bulges and all, in the fitting room!

Side: Though I have to admit, it galls me to have to shop in Singapore where everything to geared to the petite form. I mean dammit! Half the stuff I tried on, I couldn't even pull down past my chest! So while I can take comfort in the fact that I have broad shoulders, and that my waist isn't my biggest problem area, I have to also accept that, like one salesgirl wryly remarked, I am a very wei3 da4 woman. Bleah.

But I did manage to find another pair of XL Thai fishermen pants. Yay! Love those cos they're so casual and slack [hence suiting my present state of mind] and they're cheap and different from the jeans everyone else is wearing, and they're freakin' $10! Mwahahaha... wanted to buy some long-sleeved hippie shirts, but Quetz and Candle pulled me away in time. Phew...

And then later in the night, with Yenn, we found this shop in the Heeren that was having a sale, and everything was $10, and I bought this blue and white hawaiian-flower top. *sparkles in eyes* haha, Quetz, Candle, we should have shopped at Heeren. The Annex is undergoing renovation, so that shop had a sale, and there were some new shops in there as well. Nearly bought more cosmetic jewellery and hairbands, [blue camouflage!] and once again, my bank account was saved by Yenn......

New pants, and new top. Ah, life is good......

Apologies for the infrequent updates. My mind has been dulled lately, spammed with books, dragonflies, kids' exams, salaries, Europe expenses....... Argh! Not much in the way of intellectual activity there! Thankfully after a while, I managed to write a little piece about school and life in general. Scroll down...

Incidentally, last nite while at TP with Necroz, I saw something totally cool, it was a MINI POOL TABLE!!! Courts is selling a mini pool table, and it's not some cheap plastic thing, it's like made of the same materials for an actual pool table, so the balls are damn solid and the cue is wood! AARGH!!! I WANT! But it's $60!!! *cries* I found it so freakin' cute, I actually played on it for a while, despite Necroz's profound embarrassment. She said I was like some big kid playing with the table, but I repeat: IT"S FREAKIN" CUTE!!!

For Slayer's interest, DoE and I went to Sylveracyd's house for dinner last Sat. Now, the interesting thing about this visit is that Sylveracyd is currently studying in Adelaide, and her parents were nice enuff to have me n DoE over for curry chicken dinner. *Smackeroos!* Afterwhich, they set up the webcam, and let us see Sylver online through the cam, and even talk to her on their handphones. *2 thumbs up* to these parents. But is it any wonder, considering they've known DoE since she was like, 2? :p

Sylver looks much the same, though she's BORED STIFF OUT OF HER MIND over there. Can you blame her? Put a vivacious, party animal in a place like Adelaide, and no wonder she feels restless. Krystal, do you get the same way sometimes? ;p We spent the time chatting, making stupid faces in front of the webcam, insulting her stuffed fish, [ok, that last one was me, and resulted in me getting whacked with a stuffed pea by DoE] and she showed her some pix of her and her bf too.

Sylver> Hey hey lemme show you something
*Pic of her n BF appears on screen

[note: Her family doesn't know of BF]

Khel> Eh the screen just froze

[sometimes due to connection probs the frame will hang, and the scene be stuck there for a while]

Sylver> Wat??

Khel> Yah the pic's stuck there, and your mom's coming out of the kitchen

Sylver> OH NO!!!!!

Boing. Nah, the screen unhung itself b4 her mom came out, so it was fine after all. :p

Otherwise the past week, I've been hopping from house to house for tuition as usual, and then coming home and reading. At the house of my O' Level English student, I realised that an awareness of current affairs could be severely lacking in our youth. [or at least the one I'm teaching anyway] So onto the essay proper...

School of Life

This actually happened during a recent lesson with my O' LEvel English student:

Me: Ok, I want you to write an essay saying whether you agree with this phrase, ["Spare the rod, spoil the child"] and make references to the Nan Chiau incident.

Student: What's Nan Chiau?

Me: *blink blink* Did I pronounce that wrong? Nah-n Cha-o? Nah-n Qia-o?

Student: Oh, that sounds familiar, is that the one where the guy committed suicide?

Me: ?????????????????

What the freakin' heck???? This topic has been making the rounds of the newspapers, the TV, the Internet forums, and all the kopitiams around Singapore, and you have no idea what it is about??? What insulated, plexi-glass dome have you been living in the past few weeks??? Good God!!!

Everytime I encounter a student with problems in English, [or current affairs]I make the sincere vow that I will teach my kids to READ, read as if your LIFE and SOUL depended on it. Ye Gods! I'm not gonna let them out into the world with bad English, bad writing and total ignorance of the world outside the entertainment sphere!

In fact, wonder whether you think we learned the really important stuff in school after all. I mean, we pay all that money in school fees, uniforms, books and stationery, and all they teach you are some stupid Grammar, maths and science concepts, half of which we don't even use once we're out in the real world. And then lessons like Civics and Moral ed, they pass you over to bored, uninterested [and hence uninteresting] teachers and give you dumb exam questions, like one that popped out in my Sec 3 exam:

If you see a wallet on the road, do you:
a) Pick it up and keep the money?
b) Pick it up and give the money to a charity?
c) Pass the wallet over to a policeman?
d) Leave it there?

Like PUH-LEEZE LOR. What kinda dumbasses do you take us for?

But then again, I didn't really attend ANY civics and moral ed lesson throughout sec sch and JC, not becos I'm a moral-less being, but because being from a convent school and later a Catholic JC, and a Catholic [on paper anyway], you get sent to the Cathecism lessons, which are mainly about God, the Bible, and why you should do what He says.

Ok, but the point of this post is not about whether kids should receive religious education or not in schools. The point is that they spend so much time trying to cram all these so-called useful facts to us in school, and hammer us about how important our exams and studies are, they forget just how short a period these things are in our lives.

Consider this: If you learn algebra in school, for eg, ( X + Y ) * 2 = ?, the concept is useful to you as long as you're learning Maths. This could start in Pri 6, all the way up to Uni, if you're taking Maths or Engine or something like that. The life expectancy of a human is about 100 years, [if you believe the Five for Fighting song] and throughout those 100 years, the concept of Mathematics is only useful for about 10-12 of those years. [John Nash-wannabes excluded]

So essentially, the concept of Maths is only useful for about 10% of our entire lives! Why do they continually drill it into our minds that it has the power to shape our entire future? Because it doesn't! The knowledge is only good for about 10-12 years!

Why don't schools teach you more about stuff that's gonna affect you the WHOLE of your lives? Why can't they teach you stuff with more long term value, like:

- Love. How to handle falling in love? How do you know you're in love? What should you do to get the girl/guy of your dreams? What should a love relationship be about? How do you tell a girl that you love her?

- Heartbreak. How much it hurts to have your heart broken. What should you do? How can you handle it? How do you walk away from it?

- Ethics. What exactly is right and wrong? Why is there NO right and wrong? What should we do in grey areas? How come it's ok for the President to bomb and kill innocents, but not other people?

and generally, How To Be A Person? How To Live Life? What To Expect? How Will It All Turn Out?

You know what's the common feature of the 3 points I mentioned above? If you were a secondary school student, about to burst into adulthood, but still hazy about the details, mind pumped full of media trash, and you asked any respectable adult questions about those, most likely, the answer would be:

"You're still young. Don't worry about these, just concentrate on your studies."

Don't worry about these? OF COURSE I have to worry about these! Why should I put aside my 90 years of future happiness for these 10 years of Maths that I have to study in school?? I want to know about Love, Sex, Drugs and Rock N' Roll! [ok, scratch the last one]

The Govt still wondering why we don't have enough babies? There you go, INSUFFICIENT EDUCATION. Teaching kids the biology of things ain't enough, they need to know REAL stuff, like how do you know who is the one you want to marry? What is it like to raise a kid, for real? What do you have to expect? F'God's sakes, these things aren't instinctual in us, like birds you know, we have to be taught! And as long as you keep emphasising the 10 years of Maths over the 90 years of life, this is what you can expect.

Anyway, as an aside, you know the most likely theory why the adults just tell us to concentrate on our studies? The big secret is that THEY DON'T KNOW SHIT! They don't know themselves WHAT the answers are, and to save themselves the embarrassment of admitting this, they just brush our questions aside and tell us to concentrate on our studies. Actually, they totally don't have the answers, because their parents screwed up with them, and so when we try to find the answers ourselves, they get pissed with us for knowing something special that they don't, but which they should.

So hence, the one lifeline of parents:

"Just concentrate on your studies"

Note: The date of my Convo is out! I will doing the hat-n-gown on the 13th July 2004, Tuesday. Not sure of the timing yet, but most likely around 3pm. Venue is University Cultural Centre, NUS. [thank goodness it's after Europe. Phew!] If yr interested to come, [and hence see me in full graduation regalia] drop me a note, k? ;)

Back to the zoo!

Blogger has a new look. The blog looks the same, but the publishing desktop has totally changed. Hm.

Yes, I went to the zoo on Friday 7th May, with Newbie. Have to admit, when you're perpetually living in an urban concrete jungle, it's a great change to go back to nature, so to speak. When we took the bus into Upper Thomson Road, you could feel the change in the air, there was less people, more greenery, and no buildings in sight. Then when you changed to another bus to get into Mandai Road, it's even more deserted. We passed by Pierce Reservoir, and everything was so calm and peaceful, it didn't seem like Singapore at all.

Note to all out there: If you ever want a break from work/home/unemployment, take the trip up there, or check out the reservoirs. Very calming.

When we first arrived, I tot the zoo had undergone a complete revamp at first. The entrance was totally unlike what I had remembered it to be. Then again, the last time I'd gone to the zoo, I was something like half my present size, as I told Newbie, so this explains it. Turns out it was only the front entrance that had been revamped, and all the exhibits stayed mainly in the same place, so we didn't get too lost inside, hahaha.

Or maybe something did change from the last time I went. Everything seemed.... smaller. The amphitheatre with the animal shows, the cages, the enclosures, everything that seemed huge and imposing then, now seemed so much smaller when I looked at it through adult eyes. Even the elephants they used for the elephant rides didn't seemed so tall and grand as it used to be. Sad, when you revisit scenes from your childhood and you realise how much has changed, and how much time has gone by.

Anyway, it was fun, :). We managed to catch some of the animals feedings so we could stand there, watch them being fed and listen to the zookeepers' commentaries on the animals. The jaguar, especially, was a most amazing animal. Its closed cage may seem imprisoning at first, until the zookeeper tells you that it climbs, swims, and runs better than any human, and that it could jump to a height of 5m. Yikes. "Maybe in a worse case scenario, you could swim across the reservoir," Newbie jokes. "Yeah right, you'd drown before you even got halfway there." I retort.

And I managed to feed an arapaima! This is the largest freshwater fish in the world, and they were kept in a moat surrounding a monkey enclosure. The zookeeper first sticks a fish onto a bamboo rod, and then you hold it slightly above the water surface. And you know what? I didn't even get to see the fish, cos when it came, all I saw was this gigantic *SPLASH* and that was it. Bleah. Newbie's reaction was funnier, he said, "I saw this giant jaw coming out of the water, and I went WTF??" and he jumped back even further than I did! Hahaha! Later on,

"C'mon, try it! It's nothing! There's a stick for you!"

"No way."

"Or would you rather try it with your hands instead?"

"No WAY i'm trying it!"

Darn. No fun. :p

He did remark later, after dinner, that I didn't seem to be scared of animals when they came near me. I guess I was just brought up that way? No, that's not the reason either, cos my family doesn't keep animals. Maybe it's cos I was taught to handle them, to understand their thinking, and that's why I don't cringe and scream when a butterfly flies too near to my hair, like one Jap girl did at a walk-through exhibit. Sheesh. *Rolls eyes at ceiling* When you realise that they're much more afraid of you than you are of them... well, there ain't much to be afraid of I guess. Of course it also helps that most of the large, carnivorous or poisonous animals are either separated from us by a large moat, or by secure enclosures. Everything else was ok. :p

So that's my day at the zoo. Will be going to the Birdpark next, cos we bought saver tickets. :p so watch out for that one!

Interestingly a dragonfly landed on my shoulder on that day as well, a small, meek little thing that I didn't notice for a while, till he came into sight. I didn't wanna smack it, so I'm carrying it around for a while. See what happens next lah. ;)