Posted on 31 December 2010 @ 23:57 in Personal, Stress Busters
This year marks my 10th year as a giant panda lover. It was in February 2000 when I fell in love with a 6-month-old giant panda cub making her public debut in San Diego Zoo.
Hua Mei was that 6-month-old giant panda cub. She returned to China in 2004. I first saw her in San Diego Zoo in 2001, and it was another six years before I saw her again in 2007, this time in Wolong. I have seen her every year since then, and it was only fitting that I would once again see her on our 10th anniversary.
She turned 11 in August this year, and is the mother of 8 – three pairs of twins (2004, 2005 and 2007) and two single cubs (2009 and 2010).
Beautiful Hua Mei (March 2010)
Pausing at the door to decide whether to go out to her yard
She’s quite a poser
This year also saw my adopted giant panda, Feng Yi (who I’d named Yoong Ping) turn 4. I’d adopted her when she was a month old in September 2006. I first saw her during my 2007 Wolong trip. In 2008, she was one of 8 giant pandas chosen to live in Beijing Zoo as part of the Beijing 2008 Olympic 2008 attractions. I flew there to see her after my annual trip to Bifengxia in August that year. A year later, she was back in Bifengxia and I saw her there in May 2009. In December 2009, she was sent to Guilin Zoo with another panda, Mei Xin.
Since I adopted her, I’d never celebrated her birthday for her. This year, I was determined to do so, and my determination paid off.
Enjoying the pool in her yard the day before her birthday
Official 4th birthday portrait – Feng Yi / Yoong Ping, 23 August 2010
There was another black and white birthday celebration I attended this year. Fuzhou Panda World celebrated the 30th birthday of their star panda, Basi.
Basi enjoys a close relationship with Ms See, her keeper of 20 years
I got my picture taken with the two special ladies
But it was also a sad black and white year. We lost six giant pandas during the year – Chuang Chuang in Shanghai, #20 in Jinan, #21 in Xiamen, Shui Ling in Shanghai, Kou Kou in Kobe (Japan) and Lang Lang in Nanjing. Of the six, Lang Lang’s death affected me the most. He was my photo pal during my 2007 photo session in Wolong. He was only 4 years 4 months when he died on 16 December 2010.
Lang Lang (25 August 2006 – 16 December 2010)
In other news, I had a short story published in The British Council’s A City of Shared Stories Kuala Lumpur.
I also published a photobook of Tai Shan’s public debut in Bifengxia Panda Base.
Proceeds from the photobook go towards Pandas International’s Wolong Earthquake Fund. Please order your copy here!
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Posted on 30 December 2010 @ 19:05 in Personal
It’s complete and set up. One day before the end of 2010.
I’ve been collecting plastic, paper and glass into a reuseable shopping bag to take to my sister’s to add to her pile which she sends to a recycling centre run by the Buddhist Society every third Sunday of the month. Her pile is separated into paper, plastic, glass and metal. So I’ve had to separate mine when I take them over. Sometimes, when I don’t have the time, I leave the bag for the maid to sort. And recently got an earful from my sister who said I should separate the stuff myself.
So I decided to do a little recycling centre in my apartment. My sister’s consists of a big cardboard box (formerly used for holding A4 photocopy paper) for the paper, a smaller box for the glass and metal, and a large plastic bag for the plastic. I wanted something a little more, er, stylish for mine.
The boxes are from IKEA, set of three for RM35/-.
The plank is a shelf, also from IKEA, RM8.90.
The “legs” were the hardest to get. I thought of getting two wastepaper baskets to hold up the plank. But with nothing in them, they could be pushed around easily. Then this afternoon, while at HomeFix in 1 Utama, I saw these “heavy duty fridge stand (big)”, four for RM9.90. I made two “legs” of the four stands.
So now, I have a sorting centre for all the recyclable items.
I still need to find something to line each box so that I can just gather up each pile instead of transferring items from box to bag. Ideally, something made of paper, not plastic.
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Posted on 28 December 2010 @ 14:25 in Reading
Hello, my name is Chet and I’m a book collector. I collect more books than I can read. Well, yes, I bought them to read, but I have been buying more than I’ve been reading. As a result, I have many unread books in my collection.
Fortunately, I am not tempted by book sales, however cheap they are. Otherwise, I will not be able to get into my tiny apartment anymore.
I do browse the local bookstores occasionally and I do buy a book when it strikes my fancy, even if it’s by someone I’ve never read, or heard of, before.
I also buy from online bookstores, but only if I can’t find a book locally. In particular, I buy from BetterWorldBooks, which has just started offering free shipping worldwide. But that’s not why I buy from them. The main reason is their literacy fund.
So I am not short of reading material. In fact, I have pulled out a selection of both fiction and non-fiction to read in the new year. The books may not be new, as in recently published, but that’s okay. As long as I’ve never read it, it’s new to me.
I got very excited looking at my 2011 TBR (to be read) stack. Hopefully, I will go beyond excited and actually read each and every one of them during the year.
This is by no means a “closed” stack; there’s room to add a few more … maybe new books purchased during the year?
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Posted on 27 December 2010 @ 10:55 in Fun Stuff
This one’s offered by Tropicana City Mall.
There’s also one offered by Ikano Power Centre. I was so excited to be able to go into the city without having to drive in and then pay for parking that I even wrote about it here.
Tropicana City Mall (TCM for short) is a new mall down the road from Ikano. For some reason, it doesn’t seem to be as popular as the other malls in the area; you can find parking here quite easily on weekends, which is how I gauge a mall’s popularity. Its free shuttle seems to be less popular, too. The last time I waited for the Ikano shuttle back from the LRT station, both buses arrived together and while a crowd gathered to get up the Ikano bus, the TCM bus had far less passengers. And the first time I used the TCM shuttle, a woman asked the bus driver at the LRT station, “Bas ini ada pergi The Curve? Does this bus go to The Curve?” (another mall across the road from Ikano). He kindly told her no and to wait for another bus.
While Ikano is nearer to where I live than TCM, the latter’s bus actually works better for me. It’s closer to the LRT station (just 10 minutes away) and parking at the mall is just RM1 all day after 11:00 a.m. I can stay in the city without worrying about the cost of parking; it is one reason I avoid driving into the city.
I was initially worried about taking the TCM bus; as it was a new service, I wasn’t sure if it’d be reliable. Altho I’ve taken it just once so far, it has kept to schedule. So yes, I’ll be using the TCM free shuttle whenever I go into the city from now on.
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Posted on 21 December 2010 @ 17:51 in Stress Busters
Bifengxia Panda Base
8 August 2008
Well, all giant panda cubs are special, but this one is more than special (yes, the word is extra-special). He was not only the first cub to be born in 2008 but the first to be born AFTER the May 12 earthquake that extensively damaged Wolong Panda Center and killed one giant panda there. His mother, Guo Guo, was traumatised by the earthquake and had to be sedated in order to be moved to safety. At the time of the earthquake, she was thought to be pregnant and there were worries that she would miscarry. After being moved to Bifengxia on 24 June 2008, she settled down and gave birth just days later on 6 July 2008. It was nothing short of a miracle that she did not miscarry but went on to give birth to the first 2 cubs of 2008. They were later named Ping Ping and An An, from the Chinese term “ping an” for “peace”.
By the time of my visit in August 2008, her twins were already a month old and thriving under the joint care of their mother and human nannies. The joint care was necessary because in the wild, panda mothers were observed to be unable to take care of two cubs at the same time and would often sacrifice the weaker one; as a result, many cubs died in the wild. So Wolong came up with this joint care plan that enables twins to spend quality time with mummy. While one cub is with her, the other is in the nursery. It has helped ensure the survival of more cubs and increased the captive giant panda population.
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