MYOB

It is a hot afternoon, perfect for lounging away in the BusyBunny maze, resting on the cool tiled floor. No wonder the rabbits gave me their best "mind your own business and leave us alone" look when I tried to play with them :( Hey...when are you going to do your duty as pets? 

Handshake

It is hard for you to believe it, but this is Potato's favourite sleeping position. He must be practising some kind of martial arts! 

Hm...notice that the recent posts are on Potato. Frankly, he is now my favourite pet, because the rabbits are in disgrace, again. They had been so naughty about using their litter box that I am spending precious mornings cleaning up the muddy puddles. They even throw their hay cubes into their pee! So I had been pretty miffed with them, and not taking their photos.

Toilet training - back to basics

As you know, the rabbits had developed pretty naughty behaviour about their litter box, so now we are training them all over again. The problem is, one of them (or maybe both) can't be bothered to go back into the litter box if he (or she) is too busy eating the hay. In case you are wondering how we toilet-train rabbits, the secret lies in bringing the hay to where you want them to pee. You see, rabbits will pee where they want to pee, and no amount of scolding will make any difference. 

There you have it: a hay ball right above the toilet. They have no more excuses. Now...please be good. 

The Hamster and his favourite toy

Here he is again, having an epic fight with the toilet roll core. If I leave a thin layer of paper on it, he gets even more excited, and would strip the core bare in a short while, carrying the loot off to pad his sleeping areas. We are running out of these cardboard cores because he gets through them so fast! 

Money wise

These are lean days, as I complete the final modules for my course.

In the meanwhile, my personal budget requires a close analysis, but I can't bear to look at where all the dollars and cents are going. Probably into hay, which the rabbits ungratefully trample on.

The advantage of reduced income is that one learns to make the money stretch further. Cooking at home definitely helps to save a pretty penny. In fact, now that I've learnt to grill salmon, I can't accept paying such inflated prices for it at restaurants.

Then, a recent spring cleaning forced me to acknowledge that a lot of my shopping had been completely wasted! There were wrong purchases which I never used, food that expired untasted, and beauty products which I changed my mind about. Just imagine how much resources everything amounted to! Oh dear, now I have a new mantra when I shop - if in doubt, don't.

These are habits that are worth remembering, even when I get my income back. An article on money management that reminded me that "it isn't how much you earn that matters, but how much you save".

***
It is time to contemplate the next step, looking for life after education. Hm, what a sense of deja-vu. How wonderful it would be, if we can look further into the future and know what there is to come, but now, I can only wait in faith.

Home Improvement

Potato is such an active boy that he keeps us up at night with his treadmill marathons. I decided to give add an extension to his home - a loft that looks like a space ship. He likes it so much that he made it the hiding place for his food stash. 

Thanks Habitrail...you really understand what hamsters need.

Cuddly chubby

Potato is so cute and chubby, I wish that there is more of him to cuddle. He is so tiny!

I'm teaching him to climb into my hand on his own. Each time he comes out like this, he gets a treat. It is working quite well.

Forgiveness

Unforgiveness makes you look at people and situations through lenses tinted with grey. Everything looks more malicious and hurtful than it should be, because one is already predisposed to think the worst of what is happening.

Forgiveness changes everything.

Relationships with one's parents are always fraught with mixed feelings - love which frequently leads to disappointment and then resentment. Parents frequently frustrate their children with their best of intentions. In their own insecurity, they could become overly controlling, or while struggling with their own marital issues, they might neglect how their children feel. Some parents cannot control their own emotions when disciplining their children, and exceed reasonable punishment. Because we yearn so much for a fulfilling relationship with our parents, these expectations are more easily disappointed, and hurt more deeply when this happens. 

Yet I recently realized that forgiving our parents for being human - weak, imperfect beings - helps me to appreciate them more for the good they have done, for trying their best, even if things don't always work out the way they would like to be. Suddenly, everything looks different. The offenses and lapses appear understandable, and the happy moments are refreshed and new again. All of a sudden, I am struck by the beauty of their love. 

On this side of heaven, this is the closest one can get to agape love. Thanks Papa, and thanks Mama. I mean it. Thank you for working so hard your whole life to help me with mine. 

Hay Cave

Sometimes I feel guilty that the rabbits are given so little space to run about, and worry that they too bored to exercise. Then, it is time to get more furniture for them so that they keep active. 

The rabbits are thrilled to have a new toy - hay cave. They like it so much that they have dug out a huge hole on its floor already. Hey...it has to last, you know...

Isn't it exquisite irony that we are paying so much for things that are made to be destroyed?

Toilet habits

When my austerity drive is over, I am going to have to get the rabbits a new cage, since this present one has become disgracefully stained :( 

Now, I've heard that some rabbits are very good about using their litter box, but my two are so atrocious in this matter. Not only do they aim poorly, sometimes one of the silly heads would decide to set up a personal pee corner, OUTSIDE the litter box. You naughty things! Is this how I brought you up? 

Because they seem to respect V more, he is now trying to educate them on this matter - wiping up the mess, holding it to their noses, then showing them the litter box. Hm...do they look like they understand?

Sorry isn't always an apology

This controversy should never have been, and comes about because of the English language, once again, trips us up with its confusing, idiomatic word meanings. At the heart of the online furore is a truncated video of the pastor, apparently claiming to have received an apology from God for his suffering.

"For the first time in eight months, God, I heard Him cry. And he said 'My son, Kong, thank you...I am so sorry, but you need to go through this by yourself..." (transcript from "'Sorry' video")

Many, it seems, are indignant that a man would presume to be worthy of this word from God, but don't we all know that the phrase "I'm sorry" could mean two things?

1. To express contrition i.e. an apology
2. To express sorrow at another's state, i.e. condolences

Isn't this why, when we hear bad news of others, we sometimes say, "I am so sorry to hear that." In the same way, the person receiving this will not answer, "It isn't your fault".

This court case has certainly been the focus of much media attention and public interest, but this is no reason to find ways to condemn a man. Just let justice take its natural, rightful course, and in the meanwhile, don't be the first one to cast a stone.

National Day thoughts

V and I often joke about our generational gap. Though he is only older by 4 years, he grew up in a kampung, playing games of a much earlier era, chasing rabbits and chickens. On the other hand, I have only known the public housing flats that have since become an ubiquitous feature of Singapore life, while the kampungs vanished over fleeting decades. A person born during the time our country became independent would have seen such a transformation that it is as if he has entered a different world. Has life become better? Since Singaporeans have one of the longest life expectancies in the world, how can anyone not think so? I mean, we must be doing something wonderfully right if everyone is living to a ripe old age! 

Yet though our country has never been richer, a corrosive sense of cynicism and discontent seems to have pervaded the national spirit. The new National Day song, predictably, has been attacked by caustic criticism. Frankly, given the current mood, any masterpiece would have suffered the same fate. People are just angry and bitter, at war with their neighbours. Much has been said about our famed competitiveness leading to heightened stress and anxiety, yet dear friends, when we aren't fretting over things that are truly in short supply (like COEs), we are having epic rows over who deserves to buy more Hello Kitty dolls! Why create more angst for yourself than necessary? Maybe everyone secretly fears that he is missing out on something that his neighbour has. It is hard to be contented when everyone else seems to have so much more. 

Sometimes, on trips to the region, I wonder if what I am doing really generates value that is worth so much more than the work of the hotel staff serving us. Am I earning ten times their salary because I am ten times cleverer and ten times more hardworking? Much as I would like to think so, the truth is everyone who graduates satisfactorily here expects at least a middle-class lifestyle, by virtue of our birth into a wealthy society. And most of the time, it happens. But to take all these for granted, and then to demand more because others have more, is nothing short of covetousness. I really think that if we have lower expectations of how much we are entitled to, we would all be happier. And only then would we be able to enjoy the comforts that we can afford.