Glory days have come - Part I

Katy Kat asked me if I had a blogger's block the other day. I think the question itself pushed me to attempt to break out of it. So this blog consists of bits and pieces which were typed out and saved on my phone while commuting, emailed to self later and then copied and edited on Blogger. My struggles with work life balance led to what I suspect a temporary mental aversion to blogging. To make matters worse, my computer started acting up - the keyboard in particular. It works on some days and not on others, with no explainable patterns. A keyboard is like a pen to any blogger. So the frustration of not having a pen when you want to write something down badly (assuming in both cases that no phones were available) is understandable.

In my search for a solution, I read up and tried various fixtures. Frustrations aside, one learns new tech-related things going through a crisis like this. The "one before the last" attempt was to restore the computer to factory settings. That didn't make the problem go away completely, but it seems to have improved the situation by extending the time that the keyboard remains functional. The last attempt is of course to replace this computer which I bought over 2.5 years ago with a new one, but this is not an option for another 6-10 weeks.

Sometimes when I can't recall dates of special events in my life (like the purchase of a new computer, for example), I often search my blog. Just now while referring back, I found this amusing line in a post I made in January 2011: 

No Shuri, you CAN'T have the X-box Kinect. But your glory days with Dance Central will come, be patient now.

Shuri is immensely patient. She waited two years to make it happen. Perhaps I'll blog about my secret dancing sessions on another day.

My boss gave me some chocolates after his return from his home town in South Africa. He tells me that the ripe Marula fruit in the wild attracts a lot of wildlife. When the fruit is overly ripe, it has a slightly elevated alcohol level making some of its consumers (like the monkeys) slightly tipsy!

Earlier this month, Katy and I went to a two-day camp organised by the Singapore Zoo. It was a lot of fun! We spotted nocturnal animals during a night walk (I learnt that Katy has well developed vision for spotting animals even in low light conditions! And projecting these observations skills of hers a little further, I don't think her kids will ever get away with any sneaky business without their mama knowing!), got VIP tours of the animal hospital and central kitchen and got to sleep inside sleeping bags. The zoo feels like an entirely different place after all the visitors have left and it closes for the night.

There were also awkward ice-breakers and an alpha male participant who volunteered to take the lead ALL the time. At times we were happy to sit back and observe him with amusement and at times I wanted to hit him over the head. 

This was the list distributed to the camp participants. Katy and I pondered a lot on what "1 set of undergarment" meant. Did it mean a two-pieced set for the girls? Then, what about the boys? Or was it one piece, like the confusing term "a pair of shorts" which actually means one piece? And do they still call them "undergarments" these days?

 

This is what "undergarments" initially brought to mind. I can't fathom why women of the 1960's wore cone bras, except maybe for self defence. I'm happy about the evolutionary path that underwear has taken since. Well, somewhat. It would be good if it can stop evolving right about now.

   

Our packed bags, waiting in swollen anticipation to go to the camp

A little frog used to for educating purposes which was duly returned to its resting place afterwards

 

The Animal Hospital. (left) X-ray room and (right) Operating Theatre 

 

Large food store feeding a majority of the 10,000+ specimens distributed at the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and the River Safari

Food in various forms, catering to specialised diets. These are carrots and yams to be boiled.

The sleepover at the zoo included watching "Despicable Me" just before bedtime. It was an excellent choice for a movie! After a restless night sleeping in noisy, unfamiliar sleeping bags and with back pains from sleeping on safari beds, the next day, we left the zoo feeling extremely thrilled about the wild experience that Wildlife Reserves Singapore gave us.