new rodent pet

today, me and sm adopted 2 dwarf hamsters of the roborovskii breed and both is about 3 months old. we adopted them from mvo's colleague after hearing from pixel that hamsters are available for adoption. a month ago while visiting those pet shops, both of us had the idea of keeping them as a pet. we got the news from pixel last week that they can be brought to their new home and last friday itself, we went to pet safari to check out the cages, beddings, foods and other stuffs. we were lucky that we did not have to buy any of the them as sm's friend and brother-in-law were kind enough to gave us their habitrail cages. so, we only have to get the beddings, foods, food container and the water bottle.

on the way home, they were asleep and once when we reached home, me and sm had to try waking them up before transfering them into their new habitrail safari home. they were quite anxious about it and started moving around and exploring their new home. after a while, one of them stopped wondering around while the other one were quick enough to try out the wheel and the elevated deck. according to mvo's colleague, both of them were males and we're still thinking of what to call them. suggestions?

up till now, the active one are still running around, exercising in the wheel and scratching the cage wall. i think the other one must have gotten annoyed after being woken up by us. anyway, both of us were very happy with them and they looked just so cute and adorable. lots of thank you to pixel, mvo, mvo's colleague, lee and san. checked out their photos below and once we've decided on their calling, i will post about them again.

cool signboard

saw this cool signboard this morning when me and sm went for dim sum at taman connaught. taman connaught is famous for its 100++ stalls pasar malam every wednesday night. this is the first time i ever seen this kind of notice. i wonder will there be anyone bothered calling the hotline when they spotted any of the pirated cd stalls. futhermore, i don't think anyone will notice it especially when the umbrellas were put up by the stall traders and it's so dark at night.

photos uploaded

as mentioned in my previous posting, i've finally managed to sort out and uploaded the photos taken during my recent china trip. in total, i took about 900++ photos and randomly, i've uploaded around 100 for friends viewing purposes. all photos were taken using my digital slr canon 350d. i've just started venturing into digital photography world where some of the shots barely pass the line. so, please bare with me and shout out your comments to help me make room for improvements. to view the photos, click on the image below to get you there or here.

down again

it's definitely countless of how many times i'm down to iilness this year. this time, i'm equipped with the whole package (fever, flu, cough, throat infection) of illness. what makes it worst, my jaw is terribly in pain where i can hardly open my mouth for food. it all started when i came back from china where i sort of felt that my body system is not right. went to consult the panel doctor last thursday and were given some medication but it didn't do any good. on saturday morning, woke up with a very bad headache and whole body is aching, decided to consult my family doctor for much stronger medications. apart from that, he gave me a jab as well to indicate how strong the virus is. after 2 days of through resting at home, i felt a bit more relief today while the fever is gone.

back @ work after break

it's been a while since i last put up an entry here and the reason for it is, i've been away for a week in china. it was a family trip thingy since the last one back in 2000. this time, we were off to beijing, cheng de and tian jin. it was a 7 days 6 nights holiday cum tour. didn't managed to visit tian jin as the weather turns ugly on the day due to thick fog that causes visibility degrades to less than 500m. we were lucky that we still can visit other places in beijing as some of the other tour groups got held in tian jin due to road closure.

the places that i visited are such as tian an men square, forbidden city, great wall, temple of heaven, summer palace and lots more. other than that, as what most of the tours will do, they'll take you to factories that makes jewellery out of crystals, jades, pearls and hoping that you will spend money. one thing interest me is that, most of the factories producibles is guaranteed by the government of china and that makes buying more secure from counterfeits.

weather wise, it's cold as it's end of autumn which means beginning of winter. the temperature is at a high of 14 to 16 degrees during the day and low of 0 to 3 degrees at night. that's the best part that i'm looking for especially i'm only clad in t-shirt and pants. it's slightly more cooling in cheng de and that's a town that will definitely snow during winter.

overall, it was a good experience visiting those historic places especially the forbidden city where the emperor runs his administration and also the great wall. many of the sections were destroyed and some of it is under renovation works to restore its original structure. climbing the great wall is another exciting part where it really test you in both mentally and physically. as for me, i managed to climb to the extend of where tourist are able to and that's about 888m. at that peak, you'll be able to overlook the other sections of the great wall and most of it is badly damaged.

the only bad experience from this trip is the food where it just tasted so badly. as we were told by our tour leader, beijing food is more salty compare to other province that could be more sweet or sourish. for the entire trip, i took more than 900 photos and i'm still in the midst of getting it sorted out. will try to upload some of them once it's all ready.