bunny

happy birthday!

Sunday

yoohoo! happy 21st birthday to smelly ho diwei!

i got up early enough to watch doraemon and laze around in bed before i cleaned the hamsters cages and realised that i did not have enough bedding for them! the cage was only half filled and the hamsters were sleeping in the pail then. i don't have much of a choice, so i went to jurong point in the rain to get some bedding for them. this time i got them corn cob bedding and anchovies!

by the time i got home it was close to 3, i continued to clean the cages, gave them some anchovies and they took them out of their mouths as soon as they put them in. yiddy yaddda..ironed my clothes, read a little and it was time to head for my bro's birthday dinner. we had dinner at soup restaurant. i like that place, quaint deccor, good food. misa travel's husband & wife team gave us a treat at the airport outlet after our visit to the NATAs fair.

then we were home for the cake

and bran and i got ourselves another bunny! this time it's a netherlands dwarf. it's so soft and small it's like a teddy bear. and the ears are only slightly more than 1cm.

welcome!

bran with his other love

a simple solution

i read this in TIME and here is the gist of the cover story.

Diarrhea kills more young children around the world that malaria, AIDS and TB combined. Yet a simple solution - a fistful of sugar + a pinch of salt + a jug of water - can prevent many of those deaths. Why isn't it more widely used?

Many tiny patients in Bangladesh are weak, malnourished and dehydrated. They've suffered attack after attack of diarrhea and, in some cases, are clinging to life. Five-month-old Sohag had suffered diarrhea for seven days before she was admitted. Her weight plummetted to 2.75kg, just over one-third of that expected of her age. But her 15-year-old mother had never heard of diarrhea before Sohag was admitted.

Chronic diarrhea is the cause of 5000 young lives daily. Most cases of diarrhea can be traced to food or water tainted by intestinal bugs and rotavirus. Many children die from dehydration as they lose critical body fluids faster than they can be replaced. As in Sohag's case, many do not know how to prepare a life-saving remedy that can be assembled for just a few pennies.

While diarrhea is a major killer in developing countries, in the rich world it is usually no more than an irritant. SO developed nations channel health-care funds into areas preceived as presenting greater risks. Antiviral drugs are purchased and vaccines are ordered to guard against the potential threat from avian influenza instead of getting packages of rehydration solution costing just 6 cents a littler to those at risk of dying from diarrhea elsewhere. But far more children die from diarrhea daily then have ever died from avian flu.

Diseases that have high profiles and vocal activists - such as AIDS, TB and malaria - attract far more interest and money from big donors and governments, based partly on the misconception that they kill the most children. Celebs don't host concerts to fight diarrhea. WHO spent $7-10 million on controlling diarrheal diseases, but spent $217 million on HIV and $123 million on TB.

it's about time someone do something about this. Ben always say "charity begins at home", but we have a simple solution here, now, what are we waiting for?

tuesday

my parents picked me up from my work place after driving 6 rounds around the area because the car was not allowed to wait there. =)

IMM has changed so much. I love the new wing. they finally have some wingtai managed brands there. but it seems like they are going to implement parking charges because we saw dividers at the entrance. hmm..

we had lunch at ajisen and momma HATES it. heh. she complained about everything, from the soup base to the ramen to the green tea.

after shopping for some bananas and groceries, we came home and all of us took a nap immediately.

monday

another work-filled day, but i'm loving it.

i have half a day off tomorrow as a bonus for working our arse off for the anniversary celebrations! oohlala~

and i am so upset with bran. he says i need to lose 5kg.

of celebrations

it's been exactly a month since i joined cathay and the celebrations yesterday was a blast! the 'younger generation' in the office checked into a bungalow at nsrcc on thursday, packed the goody bags and ate and ate.

we woke up at 5am to move all the goody bags and what nots to the club house. that weili sure can perspire alot. she looked like she just came out of a pool when she was arranging the goody bags. i didn't stay at nsrcc long after the last tee-off at 9am. i had wanted to go to conrad earlier to practise on the piano before the reception at 6pm. i returned to the office to make some changes to the gala masterlist before ben brought me and christine to the hotel to join the 'older generation'. heh. whatever could go wrong went wrong. the delivery truck was late because of an earlier function, the truck could not find the unloading bay, and rai got stuck in the cargo lift! hahahaha! so we had to drag/carry the over 70 cartons to the passenger lifts because the smaller trolley was in the cargo lift as well. we were already delayed by an hour. we packed over 300 goody bags for the gala dinner. i was bathing at the fitness centre when ben called and ordered me to be at the lobby in 10. eh..but i still had soap suds on me. and i had not practised on the piano. we returned to the office and made more changes to the masterlist. by the time we got back to the hotel it was already 5pm.

the hotel's pianist was playing at the lobby and his playing was, of course, impressive. so, i didn't play at the cocktail reception, a month of intensive practice gone to naught. i couldn't muster up enough courage to play before such a large crowd either. so i stood faithfully by my booth to sell the aircraft models.

christine, boon, daniel, judy, elaine, tracy, sherril, ah-li and myself

the pyrotechnics at the openning was awesome! yadda yadda. by the time we packed up and moved all the cartons back to the office, it was already close to 2am. ben kindly sent a few of us home even though it was out of the way. i reached home at 2.30am and left for school again 6 hours later. omg the male hamsters are humping each other again.

phamtom of the opera

oooh! you heard it from me first! phantom of the opera at the esplanade, performance from 23 march 2007! i remember watching miss saigon 5 years ago and it blew me away. Wee!

letithia

i have been preparing for a performance for a long time, but when the day draws nearer, i realize i am not that prepared after all?

have you experienced this before?

anyway, does anyone know what is a letithia? how do you even pronounce it?

hee. the baby in the middle is letithia. this photo is so funny! the 2 babies (2 months apart) isabelle and letithia, and toddler brendan are all in it, but i guess diyang only wanted to take a picture of his mom and the baby.