Hush

Friendly is having a good snooze. Isn't it cute, the way she exposes her stomach without a care in the world?

We let the TwinSqueaks play with PipSqueak, and disappointingly, it wasn't such a success after all. The Squeaks were inquisitive about one another at first, but when it came to sharing food and favourite spots, it's every Squeak for herself. This is actually the first time I've seen PipSqueak take an aggressive stance. Poor little PipSqueak, placed side by side with the babies, we suddenly realised that they have outgrown her. She is, once again, the tiniest of them all.

In the meanwhile, the TwinSqueaks are now on a weight-management programme. We must have overfed them, because they have become so chubby! Too many sunflower seeds :P Now it's time for them to eat more alfafa and carrots instead, haha.

The good side

Oh well, I must be fair. Sebana Cove is lovely, with luxuriant greenery stretching along calm blue waters.

And here, you can almost believe that this is the Carribean. 

A smashing time

 You have been warned, so why wonder that there are swarms of mosquitoes everywhere? On our way into the resort, we encountered road signs that said 'Elephant crossing', 'Beware of Wild Boars', but our troubles were mainly with animals of far smaller proportions...like...mosquitoes. I'm still scratching dreadfully from all the bites I got, and mind you, it is despite using a number of repellent stickers :(

Then, inspired by the Chen Zhen dvd we brought, I exercised my gongfu chops. Vengeance is sweet...and painful. (Warning: gross sight below)

I felt slightly guilty for dirtying their wall, but as V pointed out, that this wasn't the first insect smashed on the wall anyway. 

Always 2009 and never 2010

Going to Sebana Cove is like stepping into a time warp, where all developments stopped a year ago. Even the newsletter displayed on the bulletin board is dated 2009. It promised that under the new management, there would be major refurbishment and renewal. Something must have happened since, or rather, nothing happened since, and there are signs of half finished work everywhere. It was a little like being the main characters of a Hollywood ghost story - wandering around lovely architecture, now crusted with mold, and shuddering a little at the fine layer of dust that cover the elegant fittings. Restaurants are shuttered. The gym and other facilities lay unused. There are mysterious rooms that are boarded up, though they once must have been intended to be function rooms. What had happened in the time between V's first visit and our present one?

It is as if the resort is fighting a losing battle with the Nature it is hewn from. Monkeys stroll insolently in the golf course and along the marina. Squirrels dart around our balcony, not that I mind them. Mosquitoes attacked in swarms, which is why the lizards are so fat that I wonder how they even managed to stay on the walls.

We asked to rent bicycles, which were advertised. After a phone call, we were informed that all bicycles are broken. All at the same time? Is there no one in charge who cares anymore?

And these, besides the fabulous food, are my main impressions of Sebana Cove.

TwinSqueaks - Friendly and Ninja

We still can't tell who is who. They are so perfectly alike! But they exhibit different personalities, and this is how we named them. One shall be named Friendly, because she is such an extrovert. Offer her food, and she would hug your finger instead. She runs everywhere, and when she met PipSqueak, she happily groomed her.

The other is called Ninja, for her ability to slink around and her preference for dark corners. She is also a docile little thing, but tends to be shy. TwinSqueaks get along well with each other, betraying no hint of bullying behaviour. We are going to let PipSqueak play with them soon.

Greedy Squeaks they are. It seems that they are much bigger already, though we barely had them for two weeks.

Farewell to a bit of history

Was shocked to hear that the Royal Copenhagen tea lounge would be closed down soon. Apparently the parent company in Denmark intends to halt its operations in Singapore. For the uninitiated, it used to be a place where tai tais sip tea out of fine china and enjoy elegant open face sandwiches. Over the years, I did notice a gradual fading of the lustre from its cushioned chairs, and signs of slipping standards. They didn't even serve us with matching crockery that day. Guess, it is all over now. We have to find another place for high tea.

TwinSqueaks

Meet TwinSqueaks. Tentatively, this is what they would be known as, until we have figured out who is who. They look so perfectly alike that if you have seen one, you have met the other. Here is one of them. Doesn't she look sweet and innocent?

 Here is another of them. Or...maybe it is the same one. Hm...I can't tell.

The menagerie is growing. We put the cages side by side, and PipSqueak is very curious about them. She keeps coming out to look, with her ears pricked up and nose quivering.

Yes, they were an impulse buy. I have been looking for a Syrian actually, and we met some. There was a pretty grey one, but I just don't feel anything for it. Then there was another wild-haired spitting male Syrian hamster, but it looked more like the Tasmanian devil. We can't imagine having it at home and we wouldn't dare to groom it!

Then suddenly, a dear little face looked out at us from the tank. They are such pretty little things that I wonder how I could have missed them at first! So, the inevitable happened. They are settling down very well and playing actively.

Expert teaching

For all the learned theories of language acquisition we have read in the university, I still find it a mystery. Parents (and early childhood teachers), don't imagine for a moment that we are the ones who get them to understand language. Most of the time when we teach a child words, we focus on nouns - 'cat', 'dog', 'apple'. Sometimes, but rarely, we move on to adjectives - 'happy', 'hungry'. Then, in the gap between our teaching and full speech, the child somehow puts in 'is', 'on', 'to', and other functional words that have no real content. Most mysteriously of all, he develops a sense of personhood and differentiates between 'baby' (in the third person), and 'I', between 'mummy' and 'you'.

How does it happen?

The biggest social hazard of being a language teacher is that parents are always anxious to get tips and tricks from me, as if I have some secret manual that we teachers possess and guard jealously. I declare that there isn't, and everything I know, I am not afraid to reveal in class. Sadly, they are invariably disappointed by my response.

What is the parent to do? I feel that language learning is far more holistic than we dare to admit. We would like to think that if we could force a child to read more and write more, he would improve. But we forget that for every hour he spends reading and writing in Standard English, many more are spent listening and interacting. If a family's lingua franca is Singlish, which is likely to have more influence on him? Basically, if parents want their child to speak well, they have to model good language practices for him. I remember that when I was young, mummy explained to me the logical relationships implied by 'but' and 'because'. And my father taught us 三字经 and 唐诗. Nowadays he still corrects the wrong characters in my Chinese smses. In retrospect, they have probably helped me tremendously in my academic pursuits.

I understand that parents are anxious to give their children a headstart in English, our language of instruction. But I think parents who are less proficient in English are better off speaking to the child in Mandarin instead. Besides, then they can save on Chinese tuition. To my horror, someone once told me that he isn't good in either language. Then...what language does he think in? But that is a cosmic question I can't deal with today.

A Grief Ago

I have been thinking of getting another hamster, but the Fat One reminded me that they erm..don't have very long lives, and the traumatic experience would happen again not too far in the future. So, get a dog, she suggested. They last longer, at least ten years.

I say, if one really wants to escape the sadness of losing a pet, get a tortoise. Or an elephant. They are more likely to outlive you.

The regrettable truth is, nothing is permanent on this side of heaven, and we are all cursed to suffer big or small bereavements one day. There isn't any point trying to avoid the inevitable, we just have to learn when it is time to let go. There is a season for everything. A time to be born and a time to die...a time to weep and a time to laugh (Ecclesiastes 3).

Sometimes I think that our pet ownership gives us a glimpse into Eden, to a time before the Fall, when Man was given dominion over the earth. I suppose it is a little like having all the animals, lions and all, as our pets.

Thank God that we can look forward to a time in our redeemed future when the wolf will live with the lamb...and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all (God's) holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11).

Only then would we be free to love without the pain of parting anymore.

Prayer and Worrying

One very useful tip Pastor gave during sermon is this: to replace worry with prayer. To worry is to constantly talk to yourself about what troubles you. So instead of talking to yourself, talk to God instead. The same faculty that frets can be trained to pray. What a good idea!

I tried doing it, and when I paid more attention to my thoughts, I noticed that I am nearly always worrying! It doesn't matter what I am thinking, or what conscious thoughts I have, somewhere at the back of my mind, looming like a dark shadow, are the things that worry me. They never quite go away, though they don't intrude into my activities or words.

Which means that if I were to follow Pastor's advice, I am going to be praying day and night! Well...it beats constant worry, so never mind, I shall just do it anyway.