bird diaries

16 Aug

love bird flies to our window.  11 am. 5 pm. 

nilan's mum calls around 6. love bird in their house. 

we go down with a bowl and some apple. it hops right to the rim if the bowl. neighbour uncle catches it. we out it in a box, cover it, take it home to ashwin's room and feed it apple. Ince full it starts flying.around the room. sits for a sec on akshaya's back!

ashwin and I head out to buy it a cage. it has to be a large one I insist.  

so that night we have a bird 

Aug 17

we notice it biting its nails and previous day some scratching.

highlight of the day. we take the bird to the vet large cage and all. she says all is well with the bird, save some mites that gets it itchy. it's like a science lesson. we feel the bird, it's stomach, see its feather under a microscope

I turn down the option to have it's wings trimmed! 

Aug 18 - 23

we try a whole of things. 

papaya. no. honeydew. no. keerai no. chilli no. Chinese pear. maybe..

we practise catching him from time to time. he's very smart. recognises the towel and flies away. 

when we do catch him, we get to rub his head and all. really sweet darling

.

when we turn the door knob to his room (it's noisy) he knows and peeks his jeans out to.decide whether to come down or not. 

Tuesday 24

discovers joy of tearing paper! 

Wed Aug 25

Finally found something else he seems to like. Brocoli! he took a few nips of it while joining us for family dinner. 

Little fellow has a bath! such fun. he dipped his whole head into his drinking bowl and wet himself thru. several times

He ended up looking like a tiny chicken, more than a love bird. finally he dried off. and we saw he has deep orange feathers hiding beneath his brilliant blues 

Thurs Aug 26

hoola hoop fun. fascinated by the hoop. cheeped at it. tried to bite it. then stood on it. then nearly fell off when he went to the side of it rather than the top. 

Managed to put medicine for him

he nipped wiwit quite hard in the process

Aishu sang songs to him for a full 15 min. 

He seems to like her best. wants to sit on her or near her more than the rest of us.which makes her scared to go into the room now haha

 

Aug 27

Twiggy fun. aishu found a cool long thin branch with curved tapering edges. he was curious tried climbing it and nearly fell off had to grab on by his beak and all. he likes such adventures! 

Bumped into a young girl carrying a parrot on her shoulder. walked with her and got tips. seems I need to be strong and brave and take his bites to show him I don't care and that I'm the boss! 

Saro now sleeps in the bid room and he came to the hall instead..

 twig for him. 

he has a lot of personality.  tof

day flat refused to come down from his fav perch on the high window sill..until I shook some sunflower seeds. then he flew down suddenly and startled me. managed to get him into the cage. he likes being free. 

Aug 28

my dreams last night was nightmares of trying to save lovelace from being eaten or taken away by a kingfisher. absurd. don't think k kingfishers attack other birds. just shows the fears I have I guess. a new loved one is an addition of a new world of worries and fears right 

today. I heard a bird chirping at 7 thought it was him turned out to be noisy mynahs outside bit once o lofted the sheets from him he woke up and refused to go back to sleep. we hung around talking around him so he felt he had company.  he watched us play sandwich with the you get two.we had brocoli and apple sauce and sunflower bread etc in his honour. 

sep 1

unforgettable day. he sat on my shoulder for the first time. I had just resigned myself to the fact that it may take years for him to trust me and he sat on my shoulder 

sep 5

now he regularly sits on my shoulder and head. I'm still afraid he may peck me. he kind of nicked at my neck but I scolded him.  he is a lot closer to us now. pray to God he gets even closer and kids aren't afraid of him

sep 6

lovelace sat on aishu's head today for so long, eating apple off her head. and sat on my head too. totally made her day. she is so brave. I'm so proud of both her and lovelace. he is warming up to us nicely. seems to look forward to us visiting him and being with him. we cage him up at meal times and game times so we can help him by our side. then let him fly free for a few hours and spend about 25 to 30 mina  time at least twice a day with him while he is free. he loves rhe sound of the ukulele.flies down to investigate.  puts his ear next to the hole where the music comes from. he is a joy to watch. am so glad aishu is brave enough to want to be with him for ages too. 

we tried him on endamame beans, and keerai and green mango today so little fellow is finally trying new kinds of foods 

September 7

bird is busy making friends. 

sat on saro and wiwit today! 

and on aishu 4 times apparently.  

I cant wait to go see him

v2

Hey babe. it's just you and me. 

The world sucks.

Bloody covid everywhere, 

We can't get away anywhere

Though we have coptors flying to Mars, 

Maybe soon up there we'll have cars.

We now recycle our piss in underground vats,

In India hospital beds and oxygen are both scarce 

in Mynmmar the junta is back 

in America, you could be shot for

being Black. 

Everyday, people are dying 

Fires in the North, Floods in the South

War in the West and Disease all around 

If its not the virus, its the vaccine

So you and me, we better hold on

when everything around us is gone. 

what I did yesterday

Yesterday I cleaned out a store room 

a tiny space near the front door 

that spilled out a sea of stuff

assorted, collected over the last 6 years of living in this house 

it had been periodic cleaned, but never like this, with its guts spilled out all over the living room floor 

I picked my way through it, slowly, sorting as I went along

bags bags bags.. I never want to see another bag in my life 

drawstring bags, paper bags, cloth bags, canvas bags, tote bags, plastic bags, shoe bags, gift bags, big bags, travel bags.

I left the children's art work for the last.

Their early years of scrawls and scribbles take me back to when they were so small, they poured all of themselves into those pieces

I study them

My eldest, perhaps wanting to impose order in this house of disorder, her drawings are full of compartments where each family member does their thing neatly , either alone or together. She draws neat bedrooms with clothing stacked in order, a tidy kitchen, a living room space, with stick figures smiling in each allotted space.

My son, his drawings couldn't be more different. Full of untidy lines emanating energy, his are peopled with monsters of all shapes and sizes and they are always in a frenzy of activity. There goes a dinosaur-like monster running away with the eggs of another, looking over its shoulder to see if it's being followed. Then it rises a cliff and falls to its death spectacularly. 

My youngest, she has the fewest drawings I've saved, having learned to appreciate and discard by the time she reached her drawing age. I feel a twinge. Still I see her work. pretty, girls in gardens with flowers and trees.

And so many declarations of love, for me,  for their father, for both of us. No wonder I had kept all of them so long, for how can I throw away a scrap of paper that carries my babies' hearts. 

I look at them all, pick a few to keep, then with a heavy heart, I thank the rest for showing my kids' love and artistry to us, and put them away for recycling. 

Can love be recycled? Paper can, so there it goes. 

Now my store cupboard can breathe. and my house feel lighter, it has shed a few pounds. 

Cheshire moon

The moon is a Chesire Cat 

smiling down at us 

as we go about our work tonight 

dropping things off at the salvation army

before shopping for a gift for a 2 year old

the moon is like a chesire cat 

tonight 

smiling down at us

appearing and disappearing 

the scary chesire cat is

My father my hero

My father My hero

so many stories

ups and downs 

even in his downest moments 

he finds precious lessons to learn

hope and gratitude 

he has shaped me into who I am 

and my kids and my hubby 

we grow just by being with him, learning with him 

books to read

1. the last lecture

2. semawang 

3. tapestry 1

4. tapestry 2 

5. pinocchio 

6. overstory

7. Billy Collins poems 

8. writing picture books 

my dream for Singapore

that we grow as a kind nation

supportive of one another here 

and welcoming of foreigners,

whom we are not threatened by, but whom we graciously accept in our midst

who see ourselves as Singaporeans first before our races

and if ethnic integration policies are needed for this then so be it, just provide support for the minorty house owners beyond market value economics

and sometimes distasteful things happen, like the brownface advert and high handling of minorities who protest, but now no one would dare do a brownface would they? either for ads or as a joke in a schools, 

this is my country and I will do my part to keep it this way a beacon of hope for other nations 

a home for my children and their children 

rubics cube notes

white Cross

white corners 

middle layer 

yellow Cross - fur urf 

yellow corners - feed the fish 

run up, up 

run down,  up

run up, up up

run down

placing yellow corners 

run to me, fast, run to me, back back

run away, fast, run to me, back back

placing yellow edges 

front front.  up clockwise.  left down. right down. 

front front, left up, right up, up anticlockwise 

front front 

tutoring

I'm coaching my neighbours daughter

and am astounded at the chasm between her current level of understanding and that expected of her.

my heart sinks at the prospect that this child could work really hard but still not be able to catch up. 

and I wonder where and when she slipped thru the crack 

and how long and far is the climb up again on track. 

tree dress

today I saw a tree dressed from head to toe in green

it's willow trunk covered in creepers it looked as if it was wearing a tailored green dress, form fitting and beautiful, embellished with a few orange highlights here and there thst tell of the season to come 

along this river i look out for my friends 

animals are creatures of habits as much as ourselves 

and onmy evening walks I see the same white thorsted kingfisher perched on the green stile, studying the waters intently, the same monitor lizard, today lazing its fav drain cave, and that delightful woodpecker chirping from the top most bare branch of the tree across the river 

these friends have turned up in my poems before for they too are always here with me

national day

this national day I find myself wondering 

what does it mean to belong

just last year I went thru a series of ups and downs regarding belonging. 

once I felt as small as dirt when the Chinese daily printed that article about Indian workers and their filthy habits that brought the spread of covid in the dorms. such blatant racism thst a daily saw fit to publish. I felt low low low. then the ugly leelxtions where as a mi ority I was told I should be grateful for my education, also passed un admonished by the gov. 

the dreadful elections, followed by the euphoria I felt at the results for my country had voted race blind. and Singapore felt like a home I cam call my own again

then this year. 

so many micro aggressions. leading to an emboldening of those who hold racist views. here as in us, the ugly realise they don't have to be ugly alone or in private they have company and company could mean ugly is beautiful.  

so here we are today. how will we move from today? the level of xenophobia and virtrol online is sickening wverytine an Indian is in the news . an investigation into his right to be here. my husband won't be sg enough coz he hadn't done ns. 

and I am now walking home after sending three kids to school, delighted at wearing red and white and excited to sing the national day songs 

and I recall my primary school days when I sang, my Heart filled to bursting, and my days as a secondary school teacher watching the lackadaisical attitude of the kids, wondering where we went wrong as a m education system that these kids feel no pride in their national day, and I'm here now walking home like a walking national flag in white and red ..why? to prove to others I'm Singaporean? for a feeling of love foe this country my only home? to make my kids happy show I share their enthusiasm for the celebration? 

is belonging a two way street? can one feel they belong if others around you don't accept you? 

dieting

this is my 5th 10 day fruit and raw vegetables diet in a year.  

I like my body how it looks in this punjab suit. I look trim and smart you know.

this is a test of will power really. to not eat the tomato rice and all

but good.

my best was the fourth diet. fully complete. 

1st time.. 4 evening meals

2nd time. 1 evening meal

3rd time. 2 evening meals and last day 

4th time. perfect 

5th time. 1 evening meal and 1 lunch. and 1 extra chocolate! 

overall still quite good. 

trick is to replace the original diet menu with innovations 

guacamole is a great one. subway salad was good too coz it had jalapeños and corn and stuff. 

I should research more salads around the world. maybe can do  Thai mango salad one day. 

Thai salad

Japanese salad

Indian salad

Mexican salad

Spanish salad