Thursday, August 30, 2012

'Dashing' cat and Butterfly

Some stray cats have a peculiar habit. Lucky they make up the minority as their strange habit of dashing around is rather confusing to both the feeder and other strays. When a 'dashing' cat is fed, instead of enjoying its food, it will run over to another cat being fed and start eating its neighbour food.

So if a feeder is feeding a few strays, a 'dashing' cat will be running all over eating other cats' food. Some strays have this confuse looked in them, probably thinking "Why is he eating my food ?"  Others more dominant strays would 'scold' and chase it away.

Often wonder if this dashing habit is survival trait - get to eat more if it runs around swallowing others food. Is it due to greed or insecurity ? Sound pretty much like the human race.

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Saw a butterfly at the ground floor of one of the HDB block. Seeing any 'friendly' insect in HDB is like striking the lottery as they are a rare occurrence. The frequent spraying of insecticide has killed off most tiny life forms except for resilient pest like cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes, which ironically are suppose to be the target group for extermination.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Idling and Unproductive

It is a common sight to see only 1 worker WORKING and the rest of the workmen looking on idly. Just today, saw a worker operating an excavator and 4 others standing by looking bored. No wonder productivity in S'pore keep sliding down and down. With so much cheap import of labour and local wages suppressed, companies can afford to hire workers by the dozens and don't bother about putting them to productive work.

Most construction sites have a worker standing by the main entrance the whole day. He is suppose to ensure traffic safety when heavy vehicle enter/leave the site.  There is usually a guard post at the entrance. The security guard could have easily taken on this role as the vehicular movement is seldom heavy throughout the day. A worker could be deployed to the area when there is a need, instead of standing there doing nothing most of the time. I often see such worker looking sleepy and bored. 

In fact a saw one so 'turn off' that he did not even hear the heavy truck honing to get his attending to clear some vendors holding a conversation near the site entrance. I don't see how traffic safety can be improved with a man standing at the entrance the whole day when his mind is bored to death instead of being alert.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Myna & Curry Sauce

Saw two Myna birds dipping their beaks into the container of left over curry sauce at MacDonald. They ignored the left over French fries at the next table. They seems to have acquire a taste for spicy stuff.  I would have thought they will go for the French fries instead.

The bins are near by and yet patrons did not clear their trays after eating. So much for being considerate. Anyway it 'benefited' the birds as they get to have a go at junk food.  But then since it is junk food, perhaps they do not benefit after all as they may become obese birds if they make it a point to hang 'over' the fast food outlet for easy pick of food.

I recalled this advertisement for some brand of sauce. This duck wanders over to the boy, grabs a piece of French fries from him and instead of eating it, dips it in the sauce first. Good humour.

Perhaps MacDonald could use these Myna birds to promote their curry sauce, - so good that even the birds love them. But they would not be able to promote their French fries at the same time as these Mynas don't seem to like them.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Condo vs Bungalow

A 6,232 sq ft four-bedroom unit at The Marq on Paterson Hill was sold for $30.4 million ($4878 psf). It is  freehold. It is not the most expensive condo as there was one which was sold at $33.9 million at Seven Palms.

Then there is this good class bungalow (GCB) at Chestnut Drive which is 18,500 sq ft and freehold. It is going for $26 million ($1405 psf). This makes one wonders why paid so much for a condo unit when GCB is a much better buy. Perhaps it is the long term maintenance fee and property tax. After all up keeping a private swimming pool in GCB is heavy compare to the fee charge by condo property maintenance management.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Ergonomically design Cat Food !

I was pretty amused when I came across a promotional leaflet for Iams cat food. Their improved cat kibbles (dry biscuits) are ergonomically designed so that they are easier to pick up by the cats eating them. According to the pamphlet, "The enhanced design provides a more natural "mouth feel" which cats prefer."

The leaflet is informative and an interesting read. I just learned that a cat's jaw can only move up and down and that 75% of cat owners consider their cat as fussy eaters. This is their sell strategy - a good one. So get your kitty Iams kibbles as your cat bound to love them since they smell and taste great. They even looked into the texture and feel of the kibbles.

Think I shall get my cat some to make him purr as he makan. After all he is 12 years old and deserve the best to keep him happy and healthy. Some cats purr when fed. Mine don't. Perhaps Iams kibbles will make him 'be over the moon' as he eats ?

S'pore Bronze medal in Olympics

Seems like most S'poreans did not feel our pride swell when our table tennis players won a bronze medal. This is not normal, as rightly we should be deliriously happy that our team won a medal. After all it has been decades since our last medal at the Olympics.

One of the reasons is she is a foreign talent bought over by our govt with $$$. I think the main reason is there is a lack of connection between these foreign talents and us. After years in S'pore, most of them, if not all are still very foreign. Their mannerism and speech just to name some aspects.

She was interviewed and as expected spoke in heavily accented Mandarin. In her interview, she did not use the more endearing term 'my country' in Mandarin, but use the word S'pore - just like foreigner would do when talking about another country.

There is a table tennis match this evening - S'pore vs Poland. As usual our team is represented by foreign talent. The Poland player is using her left hand as her right hand is amputated below the elbow. I find myself hoping that she will win. She must have a hard time proving herself. Being able to represent her country in Olympics is likely a tough fight for her. Pity Poland lost. Did I feel proud or happy that S'pore won ? No.

It is sad, but many of us feel this way.