Cats' Play - Mother's Love... the saga continues...

The story didn't quite end happily ever after. Soon after adoption, two of the five kittens died. The mother cat then took the remaining three kittens away, and all four of them - mother and kids have again vanished into the wilderness.

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For other posts on "Cats' Play", click here.

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Bliss Kitchen

There is a Bliss Kitchen in Malacca. It serves up free vegetarian lunches every Tuesday and Friday.

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It is run entirely by volunteers. There is no roster, but the turnout for volunteers are just about right everytime it is opened.

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The founder, Dr Aaron Lim said that there are many who are ready to express their kindness and we just have to get something started and there will be people coming to serve. Dr Lim had intended to pay for the kitchen himself, but soon after the Kitchen's opening, a charity organisation pays for the rent and then sacks of rice and vegetables kept coming, and the operations now does not need money out of his pocket. So there are plenty kind souls around, someone just got to get it started.

Cats' Play - Mother's Love

Look at these cute little kittens. These harmless little creatures, how could anyone possibly be afraid of them? Isn't it surprising to know there are people who have such phobia?

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I was called upon by one such petrified person to get these little creatures out of her storeroom where the mother cat had secretly delivered them and housed them in.

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Two other guys were called prior to me. The first one dared not handle kittens so young as he felt that they were too delicate and so he left. The second one went there and tried grabbing them out by brute force one by one, but they (all five of them) clinged tightly together and refused to be removed.

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When I arrived, the kittens meowed and crawled out to me. I didn't even have to lure them out. They all happily came to me and allow me to pick them up. Somehow, they trusted me and volunteered themselves into my hands. Clearly, the kittens had sensed that I love them and wouldn't harm them. I then gently took them one-by-one and put them in a box, and brought them away from the petrified person.

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That was step one completed - bringing the kittens away from someone with a phobia. The next step was to find them a new home. That needed time, so we wanted to leave the kittens in a temple a few doors away temporarily before we can find someone to adopt them, but the temple caretakers said that the kittens were too young and that they will die without the presence of their mother. Without a better option, we left the kittens in a box with some water just outside the house where they were born, just to keep them near enough for the mother to find them and far enough from the petrified occupier of the house.

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Soon after we took the kittens out, the desperate looking mother cat came and quickly picked up her kittens away. She was very apprehensive and stared at us to check if we would harm her litter while she took them away one by one. Realising that we were causing the anxiety to the cat, we decided to leave them alone.

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The next morning, the kittens were in the house again, probably brought in by the mother cat who felt that was the safest place for her litter. The house owner was again petrified. Something hard for normal people like us to understand, but it was a commotion.

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Luckily, for the kittens, a friend of my niece came and decided to adopt all the five kittens including the mother cat; and so the story ended happily - for the cats and the petrified person.

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For other posts on "Cats' Play", click here.

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Lunar New Year

This is a high-end raw fish salad, apart from raw fish, it has raw scallop and lobster flesh. In Singapore we call it "Lo-hei", meaning "toss it up", suggesting that the new year would be tossed up to greater heights of prosperity. This dish is invented in Singapore and now a must for everyone every Lunar New Year in Singapore and Malaysia. Originally, it was some other (cheaper) fish that was used, now salmon is more common, and this year scallops and lobsters are added in the more high-end restaurants.

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After the reunion dinner, I strolled along Marina Bay and stopped by a free concert by a singing trio, outside the Esplanade, against a beautiful backdrop of the bay and the banking city. It was splendid!

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On the way home, by the neighbourhood temple, they too have their celebration. Very basic, no frills concert complete with the gawdy Chinese kitsch and Hokkien cha-cha beats. It reminded me that in some quarters, life almost stood still while the rest of the country passes them.

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This New Year, very few of my relatives visited us. In the years of passed, everyone of the nieces and nephews no matter how distant they are, came to visit us. Those days, they even visited us during the year, and then gradually less and less often till they no longer come. I wonder what happened to them, as we have even lost contact.

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There are ups and downs in life, but I think it would be cordial to keep old family ties. Some things ought to remain the same no matter how affluent we become, or what advances in science and technology take us to. Sadly, this is not the trend.

Vacuum State - break

It has been a while since the last article. My laptop crashed and when I brought it to the shop, the silly technician simply reformatted my hard disk, clearing all the data without asking me. He was not repented and insisted that he had told me before hand, which wasn't the case, as the word 'ref0rmat' will raise the goose pimples of any IT person like me from a distance. To add insult to injury, he demanded to be paid for his 'work'. Not wanting an argument, I paid, but never again would I return to his shop. He has lost a customer and I won't recommend anyone there. Sadly, there are just some people who would still think of money first and customer last. Wouldn't it be commonsense and care to ask someone first if you clear their data permanently? *haiz*.

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Fortunately I have managed to recover most of the data since. When a hard disk is reformatted, the operating system merely tags the memory addresses as 'deleted', it doesn't literally clear all the space to zero.

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Ok, enough of that!

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There will be more interesting articles coming up now that my laptop is in order again. There should be interesting stories with my recent trip up to Malacca and also a recent run-in with some cats in "Cat's Play". Stay tuned!

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Gratitude

I saw these lush green shrubs and radiant flowers along the streets in Singapore today - that which is normally seen only in gardens and parks in other countries.

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I must give credit and gratitude to the National Parks Board and the Singapore Government for their endeavour to build this city as a 'city in a garden'.

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Thank you.

Zen Dance

Zen Dance: Dance Meditation

by Sun-Ock Lee (D.A)

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Date: 18th Dec 2010 (Sat)

Place: Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore

Organised by: Kwan Yin Chan Lin (KYCL) Zen Centre

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For over 30 years, Dr Lee has been teaching and performing throughout Europe, USA and Asia. Dr Lee's extraordinary dance performances and therapy programs, based on the mastery of Zen philosophy and Zen Dance technique, she has been recognised and awarded internationally at colleges and schools in Asia, Europe and the United States, as well as many dance concerts.

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Zen Dance is a hybrid of Zen and dance which Dr Lee has developed for performance, daily practice, and clinical therapy. It has been implemented various therapeutic programs for the breast and womb cancer, spinal disc management, pre and post-natal women, stress reduction for people of various ages and occupations.

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The evening started with the opening dance performed by Dr Lee, amid a backdrop of colours and light. The graceful movements and flow of costume was also complemented by the interplay of cymbals and the large Korean drums.

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After her performance, Dr Lee explained how she got into incorporating meditation into dance, after a Zen master told her that meditation can be done anywhere and even while one is in movement, as long as one is mindful of one's action. By that, she meant that the mind and actions are well synchronised. Being one whom she said 'cannot sit still and meditate', she decided to dance and meditate - hence the discovery of Zen Dance.

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She says, "Dance is the best way of relaxation and fighting stress."

With that, she asks all of us to stand up and dance, as she guided us with a few key aspects of what Zen Dance entails.

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As we moved our hands, we are to be fully aware of our movements. The movements are mostly continuous and 'piece-wise smooth', until she incorporated opposite and complementary movements - what she calls the 'ying-and-yang' movements. That is, you may be moving gentle and slow, then suddenly fast; or you can be soft and gentle, then turned over to strength. With such flip-flop of opposites, it becomes easier for the aggression and stress to be released. Basically, a dance of opposites, akin to the affairs of the heart.

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After the concert, I contributed some money in the donation box for the KYLC Zen Centre building fund. It is my little support towards having a full-fledge Zen Centre where more people can benefit from the Zen teachings and meditation. My friend who was with me in the concert too donated money to the fund - this to my amazement, as though she is a believer of the Christian faith, she was donating money to a Zen temple building fund.

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I guess it shows that she is able to rise above her religion to trust that in all that exist, there is sacredness and god in sublime; even if they exist outside the precinct and practice of her religion.

That's harmony!.

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