Smiley

We celebrated dad's birthday dinner yesterday and after that, I advanced my level on the Marvel avengers alliance. The last team-up I had was with Daredevil. He's good. Before Daredevil was with Spidey. Before his attack, he'll have something like great power. And after the attack, he'll have great responsibility. Yea, I know 'with great power comes great responsibility', but it's so funny when the quote is being shown in parts in a battle. And before this game, I didn't know there's a she-hulk. I thought she's a character made just for this game. I told this to my brother and he say there's indeed a she-hulk.

 I had an early rest and woke up at 6plus am today. I did my prelim questions (the ones I'm most confident in) once again at my most freshest, washed up and got invited to a breakfast by my brother. We agreed on 7.30am and went to the MacDonalds opposite my block which is located inside Punggol 21cc. This MacDonalds opened this year and it's just across the street. I had a Hotcake meal and he had sausage McMuffin meal. MacDonalds in Singapore went through through a price restructure this year. It's 5.50SGD for a hotcake meal. And normally for lunch, I like to order a McNuggets meal at 5SGD. And top up a marginal cost of 2SGD for another 4 McNuggets. I must say I sort of like it.

We are just about 30m to the nearest LRT station. And just across the street, we have a shopping mall, KFC and MacDonalds. And about 150m away, we have @Punggol, with 2 seafood restaurants, an alfresco place which serve western cuisine,  Popeye's fast food and fishing/prawning area. The best part it, you have a good view of the reservoir when enjoying your food.

We chatted and share what's going on. He asked me cheekily whether I have a boyfriend or not. I shared with him what's going on and he shared with me his share of experiences. And at 8.15am plus, he went off to work. Although it's for a short time, it's so short and sweet. What a great way to start a morning.

At 11am plus, I went to the dental clinic. It's like an impromptu walk-in. Inititally wanted to do scaling and polishing, but in the end did two tooth- colored fillings. 115SGD in total. Heartache. I do not know where there's cheaper treatment. I miss free dental in schools. Today's a free day. I cleared my desktop on both Macs. Going training later!

Julia

白色的燕尾服，美妙的歌声和小提琴声，活泼的他。

第一个清晨，不要害怕，大城小爱。

Really cute.

Occasionally, Summer will pop by the side of my bed, stand and give me a few licks. Today, I was nudged up when she came to say hi with one of her pups (she picked it up with her mouth). Twice. Although it was really for a short while, but that's really a nice greeting. Although Shiro and Summer are not allowed on my bed, they will pop by the side once in awhile.

She now nurses at a clean corner with air-con and aromatherapy scent of lavender given off by the Lampe Berger lamp. The pups are always either drinking milk or sleeping. They'll give off puppy cries and that's when I come in, to check if they needs help. Either they need to find their way back to mom, or mom is in the process of transferring them to another place.

When we put her in the cage that day, she was panting for quite awhile. Only in the morning when she transferred her pups to an air-con room, then she had a good rest. She's an excellent mom, with the feeding, protection and giving warmth duties. Puppies are also doing fine. They haven't opened their eyes. Shiro's okay with the pups. He'll normally sniff at them awhile and then proceed on to continue with his stuff.

Getting bigger each day. Their bellies will always be so big after drinking milk. Their little paws, their little tails. Really cute!

Summer darling.

Counting the start date on 15 January, 18 March 2012 makes the 64th day of gestation. I just came back from a celebration and movie and was just relaxing and surfing the net in the living room. Then my mum called out to me in chinese and say, Summer's going to give birth already. When I rushed into the room, I saw the first puppy, being cleaned up by Summer and moving already. Parturition had started. I checked for breathing and rushed to the living to to get all the prepared items, which includes a small tub, scissors, dettol, iodine solution and straw. We waited silently for awhile, to keep the atmosphere calm. And when the joy overwhelmed us, we started to discuss how it happened. I took the Iodine solution, and put a few drops on the puppy's Umbilical cord to prevent infection. I've learned to use this through some videos and the Vet's advice.

After while at 3.30am, Summer turned around. And, the second baby was out. We could not really see the delivering process because it was too quick and Summer was very swift. In fact, we do not have to interfere at all. She broke her own waters, licked the puppy till it cries, and severed the Umbilical cord and clean up herself. The whole process was very quiet, except for the cries of the puppy which is very necessary, so as to know the respiratory system is working properly. The process was also relatively clean. The third puppy cam out at about 3.45am and the last puppy, 4.10am. We put colored strings around the puppy necks to differentiate them. My sis helped to record the times of birth. Bro did help to tie strings.

We had people offering to help us deliver at 450SGD. But in fact, we do not have to Summer did it herself. We were extremely proud of her. (*but to take note. Always to have an emergency number to call, e.g the pet clinic you always visit on standby. Because if there's any complications, you can rush the mom to the clinic)

Just went down to the supermarket to buy some apples and Yogurt for them. She about a bottle of Yogurt and a small piece of apple. Shiro ate the rest.

When I'm typing this, she's on her sides resting. This is the first time I see her taking her rest without us helping her. Yesterday, we were still seeing Summer with her big belly. Today, we have four, all healthy pups nursing.

So happy to be part of this. Love Summer.

This is the first day.

The miracle of life.

On the 12/3/2012

After we were informed that the X-ray was ready, we walked to the place of the procedure. As it was a small room, we stood outside. I saw a black and white lateral recumbency X-ray image on the screen attached to the machine and I turned to the vet and say 'Wow, that's fast!'. After she explained that it's faster because they are using a more advance digital electronic X-ray machine. Then, our focus is back on the screen.

The first X-ray done at another clinic was not clear. And I was still trying to figure it out after comparing some images that I've searched on google. Nope, it was not clear.

This was then I felt so touched and I had a surge of emotions. This time, I knew exactly what to look out for. There is calcification already and they were very obvious. I counted, and verified with the vet. My mum was still unsure that time, but the vet told her how many she has. I looked back at Summer. She was still calm, with the very gentle Vet technician holding her.

I requested a hard copy film for the X-ray, but since they said it's now digital, we had a copy of her image on the CD-Rom. The consultation fee is 30SGD+15SGD (because they told us that the consultation was too long) 70SGD for a medium X-Ray Scan. It was expensive, but worth it because it's now very clear. The X-ray was very necessary because we needed that to be prepared of how many to expect. We took the X-ray at Animal practice at Upper Serangoon.

I fished out my Animal health and diseases 2 and Animal anatomy and physiology study guide and browsed through the chapter on basic radiography and parturition respectively again. It now makes better sense.

We are lucky to have neighbors who had experience with this before as they delivered their own single Maltese puppy. We are glad to have some help there and now everybody's on standby.

I just gave them carrots. Healthy high carotene chewing snack.

So proud, really proud.

The Overachievers.

There was this one night which I couldn't sleep. I studied through the night and decided that instead of sleeping for a few hours (I had to work in the morning), I stay up to read some news online. This was when I saw Jeremy Lin's news. I was like wondering, what is this hype about. Why is this guy so celebrated. I thought maybe, he's just another Yao Ming, just that he's smaller in size.

This fiery point guard from the Knicks is firing. Of course his three pointer in the dying seconds awed me (He still asked for permission to take the shot somemore). But it was his other stuff that impressed me. A graduate from Harvard majoring in Economics, an NBA player, and a devout Christian and one who attributes the success to his faith and his teammates.

He's an American Born Chinese (ABC, we sometimes call) or Asian American. Just like what Lee Hom, is. And yea. I'm a SUPER fan of LeeHom. He's immensely talented, smart and humble as well. PLUS, really 帅。He could like take me away with his violin solo. Love much.

Watching his videos, reading about how he came through from the Golden state warriors to to Knicks, overcoming stereotypes. I read that he was called 'Wanton soup'? That's hilarious. No link, and ya, Wanton soup is such a nice dish, and I just had wanton noodles today.

There's one particular article which I like very much, which is breaking 2 stereotypes of the Asian Americans. 1) Ain't NBA material, 2) Brainy Harvard graduates aren't either.

From the postgame:
"The greatest beauty in what Jeremy Lin is doing is that he fulfills an Asian American stereotype -- he is smart, he went to Harvard, he works hard -- and by doing so, he subverts another stereotype,"

Lin's spirit has raised the psyche of Asians around the globe. A star now, future big star to be, I think he'll really go a long way.

I'm revising Elements of Social and Applied Psychology now. And the rising of Lin-sanity is one of my interests.

So after reading his biography and news, I feel all inspired and refreshed the next day despite the shortage of a few hours of sleep. Go LIN!