Hello baby!! :] Here are some cooking tips for u.
1. Cold/frozen meat items (like chicken) should never be placed in the microwave when cold, or when there is bone. The microwave will heat from the bone and the blood and marrow from inside the bone will seep out and make it stink.
2. If you need to defrost it in the microwave, remove the bone(s) first, and just for a few seconds. The actual cooking should be done in a pan/pot.
3. Similarly, raw meat should not be placed in a pot of water until the water has begun boiling. Its the same logic as boiling noodles.
4. Oil should be used in moderation! :] You can pour the oil into a tablespoon first then into the pot. The oil also needs to be hot before you put in anything to be cooked. Wait for the small bubbles first before pouring the eggs. If too much oil has already been put into the pan, you can soak up the excess with a paper napkin. Putting food in when the oil is not hot will make it soggy with oil, quite un-yummy.
5. If noodles are being soaked for too long, remove and drain them from their water source. If its become too soft, you can slosh them in iced water for a few sec before draining them again. When the its time to eat you can then combine the soup and noodles again.
6. If big pieces of meat are to be cooked alongside pasta (whether wet or dry), they should first be cut into bite-sized pieces because they cook much more quickly. Big pieces of meat are hard to thoroughly cook on a pan (normally they are roasted, baked or grilled) so they are either overcooked on the outside or undercooked on the inside.
TADA! Hope this helps, baby. Eat well, love you!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Bad Cooking
Today's dinner was bad. Really bad. Remember I said I wanted to try your chicken curry? When I walked out to the kitchen I was feeling cold, so I decided instead to cook tom yam udon with wanton, eggs and vegetables. Then came my first mistake, I thought of adding a big piece of chicken (drum and thigh came in 1 piece) into the soup so that I would have more meat. I was really hungry then.
So I put the chicken into the mircowave to defrost. After 5 min, I opened it. There was this damn bad smell of blood and the chicken was like quite bloody. So I instead of putting it into my noodles to boil, I put it in a separate pot to boil. but then the chicken couldn't fit into the pot. All this while my noodles was already cooking in a separate pot with the wanton already. zzzz so I just threw the chicken away cos the smell of blood was overwhelming!! Holy shit man, I still got 2kg of that chicken in my freezer...
Ok nvm so I thought to make up for the lost chicken I shall fry the famous vjc ham-cheese omelette. Mistake no. 2: I added too much oil! Wah in the end the oil was like floating on top of the omelette, and the omelette didn't taste too good at all. And bear in mind that all this time my noodles were cooking in a separate pot! Haha so in the end I ended up with super soggy udon and vegetables in a not-very-nice soup. Oh and I forgot to mention that I added a bit too much udon cos I thought I was very hungry!
By the time I finished cooking everything, I wasn't really that hungry anymore. I had to sort of force myself to finish the udon. Really couldn't finish the omelette so I kept it away for tomorrow's lunch.
Oh well, just when I thought I was a not-bad cook already, this had to happen and bring me back down to reality! Sigh, a little down now, but I guess tomorrow will be a better day! Just had to tell somebody about this bad cooking...
So I put the chicken into the mircowave to defrost. After 5 min, I opened it. There was this damn bad smell of blood and the chicken was like quite bloody. So I instead of putting it into my noodles to boil, I put it in a separate pot to boil. but then the chicken couldn't fit into the pot. All this while my noodles was already cooking in a separate pot with the wanton already. zzzz so I just threw the chicken away cos the smell of blood was overwhelming!! Holy shit man, I still got 2kg of that chicken in my freezer...
Ok nvm so I thought to make up for the lost chicken I shall fry the famous vjc ham-cheese omelette. Mistake no. 2: I added too much oil! Wah in the end the oil was like floating on top of the omelette, and the omelette didn't taste too good at all. And bear in mind that all this time my noodles were cooking in a separate pot! Haha so in the end I ended up with super soggy udon and vegetables in a not-very-nice soup. Oh and I forgot to mention that I added a bit too much udon cos I thought I was very hungry!
By the time I finished cooking everything, I wasn't really that hungry anymore. I had to sort of force myself to finish the udon. Really couldn't finish the omelette so I kept it away for tomorrow's lunch.
Oh well, just when I thought I was a not-bad cook already, this had to happen and bring me back down to reality! Sigh, a little down now, but I guess tomorrow will be a better day! Just had to tell somebody about this bad cooking...
Saturday, October 3, 2009
hello from copenhagen
hey gf,
We're here in copenhagen now, just finished breakfast and pang-ing. I'm planning the itinerary for today now. Think we're just gonna do more walking and sightseeing! I'm in the hotel room tapping onto some free wifi again, and it's raining outside! Zzz hope it stops raining and the sun comes out, if not it'll be damn cold!
Kk better get going! Cya!
We're here in copenhagen now, just finished breakfast and pang-ing. I'm planning the itinerary for today now. Think we're just gonna do more walking and sightseeing! I'm in the hotel room tapping onto some free wifi again, and it's raining outside! Zzz hope it stops raining and the sun comes out, if not it'll be damn cold!
Kk better get going! Cya!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
SnakesSsSsSs.
Hi! This is Channel Sab bringing you the latest snippets of what Sab has watched on TV or otherwise. Today's episode is on snakessssssss.
Many people have a fear of snakes, what with their slimy, scaley bodies and slender, slithering waif. Their fears of course, are somewhat justified and logical, given that snakes rarely have a good reputation. And if I'm not wrong, the serpent is also used as a religious symbol of evil. No wonder people are afraid of snakes!
You know, I used to have nightmares of snakes myself. Once that there was a snake hiding in my toilet and that it would bite me if I sat on it (which led to me mastering the art of hover-pissing, but that's a story for another day), and another where snakes, all kinds of snakes, appeared in my grandma's house one day when we woke, and I had to hide on the bed and fling them off with the bolster. There were so many of them I could smell their acidic, saliva-like smell. Eew.
Anyway, today's insight into snakes is something that really surprised me, not in the sense that wow, hey, I actually like snakes, but more like, oh, they're really just another kind of human just looking for survival.
I shall commence to introduce to you different snakes and/or some interesting fact about a particular snake. In other words, snake-related tidbits. Yum.
1. The Non-venomous Poseur snake: the Scarlet King Snake
Coral Snakes are red-yellow-black horizontally-striped snakes that have fatal poison in their fangs. Their bright colourations are a warning of that threat, but for the Scarlet King Snake, the colours are a mere deterrance - they aren't actually venomous. As a general rule, the saying "red and yellow can kill a fellow, yellow and black's a friend of jack", helps, where in cases of a red touching yellow stripes, it is, in fact, the venomous Coral Snake, and in cases of red touching black strips, it is but its harmless doppelganger - the Scarlet King Snake.
2. The Egg-Eating Snake: I am unable to name it.
This snake does not rely on powerful venom in its fangs to get its kill. It eats eggs, and swallows them whole. Although, the interesting thing is, a part of their backbone is spiny, and when the egg travels to that area, they simply arch their backs and the egg is cracked. Its body then absorbs the yolk and protein, after which the unwanted eggshell is regugitated through its mouth. Yeah, yuck.
3. The Child-Bearing Snake: It Gives Birth! - the.. (gasp!) ANACONDA!
Anacondas have always been feared for their man-eating habits, and can yank a man into the jungle from the river with their sheer mass - the anaconda can grow up to 8 metres, holy shit! The one I did see (on the show of course) was about 3 metres, and its diameter thick as a leg of honey-baked ham! Crazy! And getting to the point: the much-feared Anaconda gives birth to its young, unlike its other cold-blooded, legless counterparts who lay eggs. They can give birth to a maximum of 40 baby Anacondas at each birth! However, the Anaconda is afterall, still "cold-blooded", as it leaves its young to fend for themselves as soon as they are born, like other snakes.
4. The Romantic: *Snakes have 2 Penises! (Penii?)
I'm not so sure if this is correct for all snakes, but if I remember correctly, the snake I saw was a black-and-white striped King snake. It found a mate, and they curled around each other. The commentator (David Attenborough if I'm not wrong), said that they had two, so that they could satisfy the female no matter which side she preferred. Ahhh, I see, so snakes are romantic, eh?
5. The Assassin: Mystery Snake whose Name I Forgot
This snake I discovered (in the sense of me being introduced to it, and not its existence being introduced to mankind) in a separate documentary about the Amazon. Its thin and sandy-brown in colour, resembling a rope. Its a water-snake and lives in the Amazon rivers, although I'm not sure if its geographically-exclusive. It is so elusive in the water against the sand! Its barely visible, and yet its bite contains poison strong enough to wipe out your lungs and kill you in 3 minutes. That is really freaky, especially of it takes you 3 min to swim back to shore, and another 3 days boat ride to the nearest hospital.
6. The Pugilistic Law-Abid-er: The King Cobra
The King Cobra (the Black one) has awesome venom that doesn't even have to be delivered with its fangs. Its venom can be squirted out with ducts in its mouth and sprayed in a haphazard manner to ensure maximum efficiency in blinding its attacker/prey. PS I read in a Duncan Watt novel that in this case, milk can be used to sooth the eyes, although I'm not quite sure how true it is. Its also the same snake that has a flap of skin that can pan open for it to up its intimidation quotient. Despite its awe-inspiring power, King Cobras observe a strict rule when facing off with its own kind: Two King Cobras will not resort to venom when fighting each other. Instead, they do some sort of slow, swaying dance-like movements to mirror each other, and try to slam their opponents down. The loser will leave the territory and no blood is shed (literally speaking).
7. The Gourmet: Another Mystery Snake
This snake is one fussy eater. Guess what its soulfood (sole food) is? CRAYFISH! Yeah, you heard me right. This reptilian connoiseur eats only freshly moulted crayfish, and finds these, not by sight, for snakes have reputedly bad eyesight, but by smell. They can smell the scent of freshly moulted crayfish even though they look just the same as the hard-shelled ones to the naked eye. Their sense of smell is so acute that they can smell them from nearly 30 feet away.
8. The Wastrel: One more Mystery Snake to add to the fun
This is like the Kiasu-Singaporean-at-a-Buffet Snake. This snake eats crabs - see where I'm getting at? They like the atas, expensive stuff. Crabs are usually not preyed upon because of their armour of hard shell, so basically its a buffet of crabs for these snakes. They rip the crab apart while it is alive, and eat just the legs. The body - too formidable a task to feed on, is simply discarded, the same way sharks are thrown back in the sea after their fins are cut off.
I have run out of reptilian juice for this night, and I shall retire soon, but I shall end of with some other random reptile tidbit that popped into my mind. Something I read when I was at the Singapore Zoological Gardens. Alligator saliva is full of bacteria. If I remember correctly, about 50,000 kinds of bacteria thrive in alligator saliva. Prey often die from their injuries eventually even after successfully escaping the alligator, from infections caused by the saliva on their wound. The only creature to be immune to this deluge of bacteria is the alligator, so alligator-on-alligator action will not end in saliva-infection-induced death.
And because of the insight I gained for this channel update, I am gonna revise on the previous post on The Meerkats. The snake did not pause at the 2 routes in the meerkat nest because it could not smell well, as I suggested. I have since learnt that snakes have a superb sense of smell. It was probably confused, since the meerkat scent (as I have mentioned, really quite strong) is all around the nest since its droppings and pee were surely all around, it was not able to make out the route which the little meerkats took. Its sight didn't help either - snakes have bad eyes. Maybe its one reason its eyes look so cold - it can't see much anyway.
Adios and good night to you, darling! Muacks. I hope you enjoy this post as well!
-Bananas in the Jungle of the Amazon
Many people have a fear of snakes, what with their slimy, scaley bodies and slender, slithering waif. Their fears of course, are somewhat justified and logical, given that snakes rarely have a good reputation. And if I'm not wrong, the serpent is also used as a religious symbol of evil. No wonder people are afraid of snakes!
You know, I used to have nightmares of snakes myself. Once that there was a snake hiding in my toilet and that it would bite me if I sat on it (which led to me mastering the art of hover-pissing, but that's a story for another day), and another where snakes, all kinds of snakes, appeared in my grandma's house one day when we woke, and I had to hide on the bed and fling them off with the bolster. There were so many of them I could smell their acidic, saliva-like smell. Eew.
Anyway, today's insight into snakes is something that really surprised me, not in the sense that wow, hey, I actually like snakes, but more like, oh, they're really just another kind of human just looking for survival.
I shall commence to introduce to you different snakes and/or some interesting fact about a particular snake. In other words, snake-related tidbits. Yum.
1. The Non-venomous Poseur snake: the Scarlet King Snake
Coral Snakes are red-yellow-black horizontally-striped snakes that have fatal poison in their fangs. Their bright colourations are a warning of that threat, but for the Scarlet King Snake, the colours are a mere deterrance - they aren't actually venomous. As a general rule, the saying "red and yellow can kill a fellow, yellow and black's a friend of jack", helps, where in cases of a red touching yellow stripes, it is, in fact, the venomous Coral Snake, and in cases of red touching black strips, it is but its harmless doppelganger - the Scarlet King Snake.
2. The Egg-Eating Snake: I am unable to name it.
This snake does not rely on powerful venom in its fangs to get its kill. It eats eggs, and swallows them whole. Although, the interesting thing is, a part of their backbone is spiny, and when the egg travels to that area, they simply arch their backs and the egg is cracked. Its body then absorbs the yolk and protein, after which the unwanted eggshell is regugitated through its mouth. Yeah, yuck.
3. The Child-Bearing Snake: It Gives Birth! - the.. (gasp!) ANACONDA!
Anacondas have always been feared for their man-eating habits, and can yank a man into the jungle from the river with their sheer mass - the anaconda can grow up to 8 metres, holy shit! The one I did see (on the show of course) was about 3 metres, and its diameter thick as a leg of honey-baked ham! Crazy! And getting to the point: the much-feared Anaconda gives birth to its young, unlike its other cold-blooded, legless counterparts who lay eggs. They can give birth to a maximum of 40 baby Anacondas at each birth! However, the Anaconda is afterall, still "cold-blooded", as it leaves its young to fend for themselves as soon as they are born, like other snakes.
4. The Romantic: *Snakes have 2 Penises! (Penii?)
I'm not so sure if this is correct for all snakes, but if I remember correctly, the snake I saw was a black-and-white striped King snake. It found a mate, and they curled around each other. The commentator (David Attenborough if I'm not wrong), said that they had two, so that they could satisfy the female no matter which side she preferred. Ahhh, I see, so snakes are romantic, eh?
5. The Assassin: Mystery Snake whose Name I Forgot
This snake I discovered (in the sense of me being introduced to it, and not its existence being introduced to mankind) in a separate documentary about the Amazon. Its thin and sandy-brown in colour, resembling a rope. Its a water-snake and lives in the Amazon rivers, although I'm not sure if its geographically-exclusive. It is so elusive in the water against the sand! Its barely visible, and yet its bite contains poison strong enough to wipe out your lungs and kill you in 3 minutes. That is really freaky, especially of it takes you 3 min to swim back to shore, and another 3 days boat ride to the nearest hospital.
6. The Pugilistic Law-Abid-er: The King Cobra
The King Cobra (the Black one) has awesome venom that doesn't even have to be delivered with its fangs. Its venom can be squirted out with ducts in its mouth and sprayed in a haphazard manner to ensure maximum efficiency in blinding its attacker/prey. PS I read in a Duncan Watt novel that in this case, milk can be used to sooth the eyes, although I'm not quite sure how true it is. Its also the same snake that has a flap of skin that can pan open for it to up its intimidation quotient. Despite its awe-inspiring power, King Cobras observe a strict rule when facing off with its own kind: Two King Cobras will not resort to venom when fighting each other. Instead, they do some sort of slow, swaying dance-like movements to mirror each other, and try to slam their opponents down. The loser will leave the territory and no blood is shed (literally speaking).
7. The Gourmet: Another Mystery Snake
This snake is one fussy eater. Guess what its soulfood (sole food) is? CRAYFISH! Yeah, you heard me right. This reptilian connoiseur eats only freshly moulted crayfish, and finds these, not by sight, for snakes have reputedly bad eyesight, but by smell. They can smell the scent of freshly moulted crayfish even though they look just the same as the hard-shelled ones to the naked eye. Their sense of smell is so acute that they can smell them from nearly 30 feet away.
8. The Wastrel: One more Mystery Snake to add to the fun
This is like the Kiasu-Singaporean-at-a-Buffet Snake. This snake eats crabs - see where I'm getting at? They like the atas, expensive stuff. Crabs are usually not preyed upon because of their armour of hard shell, so basically its a buffet of crabs for these snakes. They rip the crab apart while it is alive, and eat just the legs. The body - too formidable a task to feed on, is simply discarded, the same way sharks are thrown back in the sea after their fins are cut off.
I have run out of reptilian juice for this night, and I shall retire soon, but I shall end of with some other random reptile tidbit that popped into my mind. Something I read when I was at the Singapore Zoological Gardens. Alligator saliva is full of bacteria. If I remember correctly, about 50,000 kinds of bacteria thrive in alligator saliva. Prey often die from their injuries eventually even after successfully escaping the alligator, from infections caused by the saliva on their wound. The only creature to be immune to this deluge of bacteria is the alligator, so alligator-on-alligator action will not end in saliva-infection-induced death.
And because of the insight I gained for this channel update, I am gonna revise on the previous post on The Meerkats. The snake did not pause at the 2 routes in the meerkat nest because it could not smell well, as I suggested. I have since learnt that snakes have a superb sense of smell. It was probably confused, since the meerkat scent (as I have mentioned, really quite strong) is all around the nest since its droppings and pee were surely all around, it was not able to make out the route which the little meerkats took. Its sight didn't help either - snakes have bad eyes. Maybe its one reason its eyes look so cold - it can't see much anyway.
Adios and good night to you, darling! Muacks. I hope you enjoy this post as well!
-Bananas in the Jungle of the Amazon
Lists!
Hello bf! I've decided to do a list Places I'd Like to Visit in my Lifetime. Here goes!
1. Alaska, US
2. Hokkaido, Japan
2. Hokkaido, Japan
3. The Amazon Jungle! Brazil
4. Cape Town, South Africa
That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to add! Poke.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Meerkats
Hello! I just watched a documentary today from Funshion. Its super nice! It has a nice plot and the meerkats are so cute! Although when I saw them in the zoo they were really smelly. Really really smelly.
A little background info: Meerkats are highly organised creatures and they take turns to stand watch. At the sign of danger they will make screeching cat-like sounds and alert their family, who will then escape back underground into their nest. And they look way cute on alert.
As the snakes begin to stir from hibernation, they are hungry, and meerkats are easy prey. It slithers stealthily towards Kolo's family and almost gets his way, until Kolo's brother sounds the alert and the family starts running in different directions. The snake follows the young ones into the nest, and slithers. This part is amazing, I tell you.
The camera followed the snake into the nest. Burrowed underground, the young meerkats dash into their homes - their once-safe abode, and took a left turn where there were two paths. The snake stopped. I think maybe they don't smell too well? Then the snake took a right turn, and saw no meerkats. It was a dead end. With deadly speed he turned around and went for the left turn, where the little meerkats had zero chance of survival if he found them.
As the snake made for his tasty snacks, someone else was heading its way - Kolo's older brother, the protector of the young ones. He pounced on the snake's body and started a menace of scratching, biting and screeching. The snake, provoked, followed Kolo's brother (in this story Kolo is the only one with a name. The rest are just Brother, Mother, Father and Siblings), towards the surface, sparing the fortunate young ones.
Heng.
But instead of escaping from the snake like I expected, the family started to surround the snake, screeching their high-pitched yelps around it and advancing to provoke him, and retreating in a quarter of a second to prevent getting bitten. Boy did they look menacing! The snake, admitting temporary defeat, slithers away atop a nearby tree to spy on Kolo's family and strategise for a next attack.
Life for a meerkat isn't easy. The rains were supposed to come, but the rainclouds left as swiftly as they came, parching the already dry Kalahari desert ground. Food was now scarce, and bigger predator, like lions, began targetting our little family of meerkats.
Food is scarce, and Brother begins teaching Kolo the way of a meerkat. He teaches him to dig for insects, and when he does successfully unfurl a scorpion, Brother teaches him to kill and eat it in little steps to avoid getting stung, by making use of the meerkats' sharp paws and teeth, and its lightning-quick reflexes to smack the scorpion while avoiding its tail until its eventually weakened and eaten.
Kolo is growing up to be a quick and resourceful meerkat, but what is to happen will change his life and his resposibilities.
On this day, one of its most dangerous predators, the eagle, is here hunting for food. This is a huge eagle with a 7-foot wingspan - as tall as 2 full-grown meerkats! The eagle flies high overhead on top of the trees and is hard to spot. When Brother finally spots it and sounds the alert, it is almost too late for the little ones, who scurry back into the nest for safety.
Kolo senses the eagle gone. It has flown off overhead, so he stops and stares (I start to wonder why you're here not there..), but unbeknownst to him, the eagle is swooping down for his kill - Kolo.
It is now slow-motion as Brother rushes toward Kolo and the eagle. As the eagle's claws reach out to grab Kolo, his Brother slides in the way, putting himself between the eagle and Kolo. The eagle now has a bigger kill in his claws - Kolo's brother.
You know, its really amazing. You can see the look on Brother's face and the focus and urgency in his eyes when he realises Kolo is in danger. And you can also see the look on Kolo's face as he watches his big brother taken away by the eagle to feed her eaglets. Its heartbreaking.
Kolo spends the next few days mourning for the loss of his beloved brother. He is not the only one. The family is now much weaker without his brother, and the family still faces threats from the lack of food, the predators and enemy meerkats.
Rain comes at last. It is sweet refuge for the meerkats, who finally have abundant food when the insects surface to get water and feed on the greens. Kolo's mother gives birth to another litter, and Kolo now has to play the role of the big brother - the one who will stand watch and guard his family, and protect them at any sign of danger, even though he is still much smaller than his brother was.
Kolo screeches. He has spotted the eagle! The same one who took his brother. He speeds back to his family, and everything is slow-motion again. The young ones scamper back to the nest and Kolo follows to make sure no one is left behind, just like his brother had done for him.
I believe this next part to be untrue, because of the lapse in video frames when it happens and for its sheer coincidence, but this makes for a great point in the story so..
It was really nice, you know. I shall tell you all about it! The story follows the life of a young meerkat named Kolo and his family, as he grows from a young pup into a brother his parents and siblings can rely on.
A little background info: Meerkats are highly organised creatures and they take turns to stand watch. At the sign of danger they will make screeching cat-like sounds and alert their family, who will then escape back underground into their nest. And they look way cute on alert.
As we embark on this journey with the birth of young Kolo, we learn how his family survives in the harsh Kalahari desert in Africa. The meerkats feed mostly on insects, and dig with their paws to find yummy grub like millipedes and scorpions. We also learn that the meerkat family unit is imperative in surviving in "a world of giants" - a grown meerkat is only at most a metre tall.
As the snakes begin to stir from hibernation, they are hungry, and meerkats are easy prey. It slithers stealthily towards Kolo's family and almost gets his way, until Kolo's brother sounds the alert and the family starts running in different directions. The snake follows the young ones into the nest, and slithers. This part is amazing, I tell you.
The camera followed the snake into the nest. Burrowed underground, the young meerkats dash into their homes - their once-safe abode, and took a left turn where there were two paths. The snake stopped. I think maybe they don't smell too well? Then the snake took a right turn, and saw no meerkats. It was a dead end. With deadly speed he turned around and went for the left turn, where the little meerkats had zero chance of survival if he found them.
As the snake made for his tasty snacks, someone else was heading its way - Kolo's older brother, the protector of the young ones. He pounced on the snake's body and started a menace of scratching, biting and screeching. The snake, provoked, followed Kolo's brother (in this story Kolo is the only one with a name. The rest are just Brother, Mother, Father and Siblings), towards the surface, sparing the fortunate young ones.
Heng.
But instead of escaping from the snake like I expected, the family started to surround the snake, screeching their high-pitched yelps around it and advancing to provoke him, and retreating in a quarter of a second to prevent getting bitten. Boy did they look menacing! The snake, admitting temporary defeat, slithers away atop a nearby tree to spy on Kolo's family and strategise for a next attack.
Life for a meerkat isn't easy. The rains were supposed to come, but the rainclouds left as swiftly as they came, parching the already dry Kalahari desert ground. Food was now scarce, and bigger predator, like lions, began targetting our little family of meerkats.
Food is scarce, and Brother begins teaching Kolo the way of a meerkat. He teaches him to dig for insects, and when he does successfully unfurl a scorpion, Brother teaches him to kill and eat it in little steps to avoid getting stung, by making use of the meerkats' sharp paws and teeth, and its lightning-quick reflexes to smack the scorpion while avoiding its tail until its eventually weakened and eaten.
Kolo is growing up to be a quick and resourceful meerkat, but what is to happen will change his life and his resposibilities.
On this day, one of its most dangerous predators, the eagle, is here hunting for food. This is a huge eagle with a 7-foot wingspan - as tall as 2 full-grown meerkats! The eagle flies high overhead on top of the trees and is hard to spot. When Brother finally spots it and sounds the alert, it is almost too late for the little ones, who scurry back into the nest for safety.
Kolo senses the eagle gone. It has flown off overhead, so he stops and stares (I start to wonder why you're here not there..), but unbeknownst to him, the eagle is swooping down for his kill - Kolo.
It is now slow-motion as Brother rushes toward Kolo and the eagle. As the eagle's claws reach out to grab Kolo, his Brother slides in the way, putting himself between the eagle and Kolo. The eagle now has a bigger kill in his claws - Kolo's brother.
You know, its really amazing. You can see the look on Brother's face and the focus and urgency in his eyes when he realises Kolo is in danger. And you can also see the look on Kolo's face as he watches his big brother taken away by the eagle to feed her eaglets. Its heartbreaking.
Kolo spends the next few days mourning for the loss of his beloved brother. He is not the only one. The family is now much weaker without his brother, and the family still faces threats from the lack of food, the predators and enemy meerkats.
Rain comes at last. It is sweet refuge for the meerkats, who finally have abundant food when the insects surface to get water and feed on the greens. Kolo's mother gives birth to another litter, and Kolo now has to play the role of the big brother - the one who will stand watch and guard his family, and protect them at any sign of danger, even though he is still much smaller than his brother was.
Kolo screeches. He has spotted the eagle! The same one who took his brother. He speeds back to his family, and everything is slow-motion again. The young ones scamper back to the nest and Kolo follows to make sure no one is left behind, just like his brother had done for him.
I believe this next part to be untrue, because of the lapse in video frames when it happens and for its sheer coincidence, but this makes for a great point in the story so..
At this exact moment the snake decides this is time for his surprise attack. He slithers with great power toward the entrance of the nest, as the eagle arrives, slow to catch his kill, when he changes his target and grabs the snake instead. The eagles flies off with a pale yellow cobra in its claws as Kolo watches and his family peeks from the nest.
Seems this eagle has the habit of getting prey larger than what he aimed for.
Just as one problem is solved, another crops up. The enemy has approached! Kolo's family is now bigger than before because of the new litter, but the young ones are weak and not strong enough yet to fight. The family commences their screeching and puffing up and standing upright to look intimidating, while the lion bares it teeth. The family huddles into the nest while Kolo distracts it. Realising the lion is squaring in on him, Kolo runs towards the tall grass - where he, nor his brother, have ever ventured.
Kolo stops running. The lion is no longer hot on his heels, but he has never seen this place and has no idea how to get back. Alone, Kolo will not be able to survive when a predator attacks. Kolo finds a small abandoned nest and seeks temporary refuge inside when it is nightfall, but shivers in the night chill without the warmth of his family stacked beside and on top of him.
In the morning Kolo realises it is pertinent he find his way back. He needs his family, and his family needs him now more than ever. He is going to need to use all the skills his brother had taught him and more.
Kolo runs and runs with his instincts of where home is. After a long time he smells something familiar. He realises with a triumph that this is where the showdown with the lion had taken place! The family can't be far from here! Having been taught well by his brother, Kolo climbs up the tallest tree he could find to get a vantage point. Kolo is now strong and agile - skillful enough to climb a tree just like Brother.
There! He spots his family. But one big problem lie between him and his family. A pride of lions. A lion and his 3 tigresses, feeding off the corpse of a zebra. Its a big kill and they might not notice, but Kolo was not taking chances. Afterall, alerting them to his presence could bring harm to his family as well!
Knowing his best option was to wait, Kolo waited in the shadows for a chance to dash across when all 4 lions were busy with their food and was finally reunited with his family.
This part is so, so nice! The meerkats actually hugged! Really! When his family saw him they jumped up and down and reached out their paws and hugged him! AWW! The documovie ends with Kolo atop another tree, looking out for danger, protecting his family just as his brother had taught him to.
NICE RIGHT!!!!!! :] So nice. Love you!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Admin!
Hello bf! Just a gentle reminder! All photos and videos in the blog should be aligned to "center", and any accompanying text should be in the next line. :]
Hehe. I shall not edit your previous one, cus I think its very cute that you blogged! Poke. I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY excited about our trip! Unbeliveable!
I think I will most likely go and extract my wisdom tooth on monday, so that by thursday I will be pain-free! Hopefully. I will get 3 days MC, and also the cost is fully-claimable by Medisave. I also checked my Medisave - it has sufficient for the approximate 800 bucks.
Maybe I will eat less too! Hopefully.
I'm waiting for my hair to dry. Bf! Not all the maggi packs are soups you know! I think there are 2 packets of instant porridge. For maybe not-so-feeling-well days, or maybe cold, cold days when you just wanna eat something hot and steamy with lots of pepper.
Love you!
Can't wait for my term break, can't wait even more for December 27.
Hehe. I shall not edit your previous one, cus I think its very cute that you blogged! Poke. I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY excited about our trip! Unbeliveable!
I think I will most likely go and extract my wisdom tooth on monday, so that by thursday I will be pain-free! Hopefully. I will get 3 days MC, and also the cost is fully-claimable by Medisave. I also checked my Medisave - it has sufficient for the approximate 800 bucks.
Maybe I will eat less too! Hopefully.
I'm waiting for my hair to dry. Bf! Not all the maggi packs are soups you know! I think there are 2 packets of instant porridge. For maybe not-so-feeling-well days, or maybe cold, cold days when you just wanna eat something hot and steamy with lots of pepper.
Love you!
Can't wait for my term break, can't wait even more for December 27.
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