We celebrated Mom's birthday at our place, the first party with our family. We did not have a housewarming, so this was the first time we all got together at our place.

I prepared most of the food, well... at least 80 percent of the food. Some of the items we had were:

Vietnamese Rice Roll (Pork)

Vietnamese Pho (Chicken or Pork)

Chicken kebab

Grilled Prawns

Grilled Mushrooms

Sausages

Satays (Mutton & Chicken)

BBQ Chicken Thai-style (Gai Yang)

BBQ Crabs

Otah Otah

Thai Mango Salad

Lemongrass Drink

And of course, the Mandarin & Passionfruit Cake topped with fresh fruits that Alan made specially for Mom.

Sri Lanka - A Land Like No Other
It is now been marketed as:
Sri Lanka - Small Miracle

To me, it will forever & truly be a land like no other.

Still haven't been easy to cope with not having Bodhi with us here in Singapore.

2 very personal & special attachments from Sri Lanka: Bodhi & Rasika. Miss them so much :(

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Alan's in Orlando at the moment, and he was pleasantly surprised when his USS colleagues brought him to watch the Discovery Launched to ISS. How cool was that? 

Unfortunately, he didn't have his camera with him. But I found this video from YouTube, what's life without YouTube these days.

Enjoy the video below...


PS: Orlando is exactly 12 hours behind Singapore (+8 GMT)

My first trip to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage... it was spectacular, especially when the four of us were so lucky to be only inches away from the males after a much well-earned scrub by their handlers.

From Wikipedia:

Elephas maximus maximus (Sri Lankan Elephant) is found only on the island of Sri Lanka. It is the largest of the Asians. There are an estimated 3,000–4,500 members of this subspecies left today in the wild, although no accurate census has been carried out recently. Large males can weigh upward to 5,400 kg (12,000 lb) and stand over 3.4 m (11 ft) tall. Sri Lankan males have very large cranial bulges, and both sexes have more areas of depigmentation than other Asians. Typically, their ears, face, trunk, and belly have large concentrations of pink-speckled skin. There is an orphanage for elephants in Pinnawala, Sri Lanka, which plays a large role in protecting the Sri Lankan Elephant from extinction.

Definitely worth a visit to the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage if you are in this part of the world. I know I will be back in a couple of weeks  :)

A video of Lisa feeding the elephants below

See how delicate the steps taken by the elephants... 

Bodhi doing her thing... it actually started with me chasing the chooks back into their safe haven. But Bodhi does a better job getting the chooks in there in just a few seconds.

These chooks are free-range & organic, we have to keep them in their safe haven so that the snakes do not prey on them. We don't eat the chooks, just the eggs. :)

A video of Rasika removing the coconut husk - under 30 seconds!

We have 7 coconut trees in our garden, Rasika is also capable of climbing the trees but I rather leave that to the professional for USD 50cents per tree & minus the worries of him falling off. There's usually about 15-25 coconuts to be taken down every two months.

Enjoy the video...

We had to chop down the breadfruit tree in our vegetable garden as it was rotting and killing most of our crops, and having bugs, etc.

There were 3 baby birds in the trunk and they were really young. I quickly had Rasika transferred them to the bamboo basket (no, these birds are friends NOT food).
We waited for the parents to return, they were definitely devastated and were looking into every holes for their offsprings. But eventually, they found the babies & continued caring for them. We also gradually transferred a piece of log to our garden table and placed the babies in the hole so that the parents can continue to care for them, and that they would be protected from the predators.

Rasika & I couldn't identify if this new white chicken from our neighbour's house was a boy or a girl... until he crows...

Now that we have established it is a HE, we called him Waiboi (White Boy) for a period like we did for Neuga (New Girl). I decided to call him Casper instead. Neuga rejected him for a long period, but she has now given the (flock) lead to Casper. :)

Bodhi with 13 sleepy pups at Day 6.

We are going to miss them heaps, but we also know that they will be well taken care of by Rasika.

Day 64 --> Part ONE

Yes, Bodhi has finally given birth to her first litter... she started the first pup at 5pm on 1 April 2008. No joke, I have pictures to prove that.

Her first pup 'ploup-ed' out in the back garden, just beneath the lemongrass.

I guess she must be shocked, as she came back into the laundry room (her area) looking worried. Luckily, Rasika found the first pup (very healthy) & brought the 1st male pup to be with her.

So, all the work stopped. We were preparing satays during that time... and Rasika & I moved straight into 'midwifey' duties, from 5pm to 10pm and still going...

Bodhi looked a lot more calm after the 3rd pup, most pups were about 15-30 mins apart. The last few pups were about an hour between each delivery.

(Below) First 4 pups born in the first hour at 5ish.

OK... I have a video of Bodhi delivering her 6th pups...

Caution: Graphic material below.

New Year's Eve Party @ Browns Beach Hotel

We were truly pampered by Chef Suresh Kanna, he was an exceptional 'host' and we were impressed with the selection at the enormous buffet tables that they have set up. We had such a great time celebrating the New Year, here's wishing everyone a Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year.

Tang: Thanks so much for booking us the table at such last minute notice.

Chef Kanna: Heartfelt thanks for your great hospitality.

Finally managed to video Neuga laying egg.
I left my digital camera (video mode) running while I was doing other stuff, so I was not prying or invading her privacy. LOL

American Idol - two of the very best...


LaKisha (above) in her groundbreaking performance;

Melinda (below) simply WOWed me with this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KsbMHPjn10

You can watch a video recording of a Lion dance during Chinese New Year in Singapore.