Sky Sky in Vet Hospital For 4 Days

Date:  Aug 8, 2015

The deworming medicine that the Pet Shop gave us is way too strong for Sky Sky.  

After applying it for a day, Sky Sky become ill.

He had high fever, no energy to move, and his eyes become very crooked.

So, we put Sky Sky in the Vet hospital for IV dripping.

My younger son is bond to this cat.

Sky Sky is skinny, 3 months old.  

He is very light.  Just like Kay Kay.

Sky will be in “hospital” for 4 days.  After the blood test, we can bring him back on National Day.

He is my cat look.

This is Sky Liew.  A locally breed Ragdoll.

 

Its Jay turn to carry him.

It is Kay Kay’s turn to carry Sky Sky.

Now is my turn.

Oh silly me.  Have I introduced the “Hospital” yet?

Pretty solid China made cage. 

Sky Sky stayed in this Isolation Ward.

This hospital is huge.

This is Blue & Sky’s official Vet.

The Joyous Vet is open by Dr. Heng.

Dr. Heng has been attending to our cats since 14 years ago.  

Yup, both Mel Mel and Molly were her patients.  

And she is very good.

That day, when we brought in both Blue Blue and Sky Sky for a Vet check when we first got them, it was her that told us, that Sky Sky is a male cat instead of a female which is labeled at the Pet Shop.  Hahahaha so funny indeed. 

The clinic is huge too.

Blue Blue stay at home, very lonely.  He was wondering where is his buddy, Sky Sky.

This are two video clips on how I trained Blue (just like the dinosaur in Jurassic World, also called Blue)… how to catch and play ball.  hahaha

Another video.

On Aug 9, 2015.  We went to fetch Sky Sky back.

And he is now perfectly healthy.

And he is still very playful.

Learning Chinese Composition 作文

Date:  Aug 13, 2015

Today, I am going to share with you something which I think really really cool.

“Houston… We have a problem."

Last semester, Jay has score very well in his Chinese MCQ (Multiple Choice).  He knows a lot of words.  Thanks to the Flash Cards that I made for him, and the daily reading and listening of text book exercise.

But, his scored a band-2 grade in overall, because his Chinese composition has dragged his overall score down.  Chinese composition has quite a weightage in overall marks.

Let me see, how can I improve his Chinese composition?

After having some careful thoughts… I have decided to do this.  To make use of technology to help him to achieve higher scores in Chinese composition.

1.  The Technology - iPad.  

Why not.  It is an excellent tool for learning.

2.  The App - Dragon Dictation.  

Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application.  Means, whatever you speak, it will write them down.  And yes, you can set the language to CHINA CHINESE.  Why do I need this app?  Very simple.  It will help his Oral reading.  It will train his pronunciation.  How each Chinese word is being pronounced.  If he pronounce something not so accurately, Dragon Dictation will write down garbage as closely sound as what he has read out.  It is actually quite cool that it help improve his Oral reading too.

Using this app is the faster way to write down your thoughts without using a pen.  Chinese composition is about looking at a few pictures, and writing down thoughts and form a story.  If your thoughts are not organised, then, you will not have a story line, and you will fail to get higher marks.  

It is about getting higher marks.  And the more you practise, the more you read, the more you use it, these phrases will automatically imprinted in your brain. So, I need a way to quickly jot down the thoughts.  And make him understand where you can use conversation Chinese in Chinese composition writing.  Slowly introduce a few good phrases and good sentences, hopefully he will remember next time.  It will benefit him eventually.

 

 

3.  Let’s do an example.  This is a simple 3 pictures composition.  It talks about a boy which is “Me”, feel hungry during the recess time, so, I bought a bowl of “hot” noodle soup.  While walking towards the table carefully, a boy (Tom) has run passed me, and I drop that bowl of soup all over my body.  The soup was hot and it has burnt me, so I sat down on the ground and cry.  Tom did not help me, and he ran away.  What happen later, is up to your imagination.  May be a teacher have seen the whole incident, and he stopped Tom, and scolded him.  The teacher wanted Tom to apologise to me, and Tom knows his wrong doing, and he promised he will never want to run in the canteen any more.

As simple as that.

4.  So, I let my son try it first.  By reading it to the iPad, the Dragon Dictation actually write down what he reads.

I must say, as long as you read it loud and clear, the dictation was done 95% correctly.

 

5.  Let’s check out what he has come up with.

Just look at that.  I almost want to faint.  hahaha, this is exactly how Jay Jay speak.  So, he speak this way, and therefore his composition is also the same as how he speak.  This is what I called conversation composition. hahahaha

6.  So, I spent time, to analyse what we saw from the pictures.  The first thing I corrected him is, the title gave the hint that it is me (I) who was knocked over by some one.  Not Xiao Ming (??).  And he wrote so long without any clear pointers where the story going.  There is no summary paragraph.  There is no indication that the boy has done wrong and apologise.

7.  Together, we analyse further the pictures and we come up with this new paragraph.  He has learned new words too.

8.  Let’s try another example.

Don’t waste food.

9.  This is what he has written down.   Which is much shorter, and again, this is how he usually speak in conversation.  Hahahahaha

10.  Again, we do a passage together.

11.  Sometimes, there is also sample answer you can refer to.  This is the 8 points model answer.

And this is the high mark sample answer.

I can see immediate improvement.  And he start using proper writing grammar for Chinese.

So what is left is how to translate this thought into writing, and if you don’t know the words and you are able to say it, then, you can use the electronic dictionary to learn how to write those words.

Let’s see how he score in couple of weeks time.  

Flower Dome SG50 Tour

Date:  Sep 7, 2015

[SPOILER ALERT] I guarantee you there are many interesting new knowledge you can learn from the tour guide.  So, if you want to try it yourself, please skip this blog.  If you think you will never have a tour guide to guide you in Flower Dome, enjoy the new information you are about to receive.

We just did the Annual Pass for the Garden by the Bay yesterday.  During the national weekend, there are promotion, and since there are too many people applying for their card during that weekend, we were advised to pay for the Annual Pass first at the promotional price, i.e. S$90 for the family, and then, they issued us a voucher so that we can come and do the card anytime after the crowded national day weekend.

The boys love the “weather” inside the dome.

We have visited the Flower Dome many times.

But this is the first time we joined the free tour.  We are the only Singaporean family joining the tour.

The rest came from all over the world.

The tour is free for this SG50 exhibits special.

I am not sure when is the time they conduct, but we joined the group at 3pm, and the tour last for almost 1 hour.  

The tour guide is Ms. Magdalene, and she does give just a lot of surprise.

Here are some of the highlights.

1.  The first stop is Sang Nila Utama. For me, I only know that some one came to this island, saw a lion and name the island Singapura which is a Lion city.  The tour guide tells us that the historian will object to this story, because, Lion originated from Africa.  And during that time, around the year1299, there can’t be lion in Asia as the British, the Spain and the Portugal has not even begin their sea voyage.  So, what did Sang Nila Utama see that day?  A hairy tiger?

The kids listen to the story with their jaw drops.  Singapore is a lion city, but there is no lion during that time.

2.  This plant originated from Australia.  Looks like a grass.  But also looks like a tree.  So, is this a tree or grass?

 It is a grass.  Not a tree.  Somehow when they grow, all the long grass will be kept inside and under to form like a branch.

Interesting.  OK, in order to pollenate the grass, they have to use strong fan at night to blow the grass so to hope that the pollenate process works.  So far no result yet.

3.  This is the Kangaroo Spores tree.  It originated from Australia too.  Notice that the flower is very nice.  And it only blossom during spring time.

The Flower Dome temperature is 16 degrees at night and 20 something degrees at day time.  This is the spring time temperature.

And Flower Dome has successfully “fool” the plant to think that every day is “spring” time, and thus, it is blossom for whole year round.  Cool!

4.  Our forefather who build the nation in the early years.  OK, the next question is, we all know the “Kuli” came from China and India.  Which labour force is more cheaper?  The Chinese or the Indians?

The answer is Chinese.  That is because, during those days, the Chinese are poor, and they want to get out of China, but China impose strict penalty to catch people who stole away to come to this part of the world.  The Indian was under British government, so, they are more expensive.  Usually Indians are the “supervisor” employed by the British, and Chinese are the real cheap “Kuli”.

Some real history for the kids to learn. 

5.  This is the Monkey Puzzle tree.  It is from Chile.

Why it is called that name?  

When monkey saw the tree, it is so spiky and even the monkey scratch their head to figure out how to climb the tree.

Thus it is named Monkey Puzzle Tree.

6.  This is the Chilean Wine Palm.  This tree makes good wine.  But it takes 20 years to grow until like this.  And sadly, you have to chop down the entire tree to make a few bottles of good Chilean Wine Palm Wine.

7.  I am very sure we saw Aloe Vera before.  It is always grow on the ground.  But in some countries, they have the Aloe tree.  It actually has branches for them to grow up into the sky.

8.  Now, can you see the fruits on this tree that looks like Kiwi fruits.  When Garden by the Bay is opened back in 2012.  Those fruits are there.  Today, you are seeing the SAME FRUITS as in year 2012.  Wah… these fruits can really tahan.

Those kiwi-look-alike fruits are so old.

9.  This is the OLDEST tree in Flower Dome.  Guess how old is the tree.

Slightly more than 1000 years.  ONE THOUSANDS YEARS OLD!

It is an old olive tree from Spain.

Another old tree.  They don’t know the age of the tree.  But it is old.

10.  Learned an important lesson today.

Orchid always has 3 sepals.  And 3 Petals.  Some time one the Petals is called Labellum.  If you look at the flower, it is always symmetrical.  Means, the left and the right looks the same.  Male and Female are grown on the same flower.  Cool.  I really did not know.

So this is orchid.

This is also orchid.  And this one has very unique way to do pollination.

11.  Why is it called Sisters Island?  Two sister died.  And next day, two island appears.  One big one small.  Thus Sisters Island.

Learn all these legendary stories.

12.  Next is the very sad story about Red Hill.

You have to combine the two stories.  This is another story.  The Sword Fish story at Tanjong Pagar.

This story is actually in the P3 Chinese Text Book, Chapter 14 I think.

In Tanjong Pagar, there was a lot of sword fish and they kill the residence.

The King was angry but none of his soldiers can do anything.

A boy came and propose an idea, by putting the Banana trees branches and guard the shores.

Sword fish came and poke into the banana branch and got stuck.

Fish is a fish, without water, in the air, they all died.

The boy is a hero.  He stay in a hut on top of where the call Red Hill now.

The King was again worried.  Because the boy is smarter than the king.

So, the King worries the boy will take his throne.

So, the King sent two guards to kill the boy.

The boy bleed his blood and his blood cover the whole hill.

And thus that place where the boy stay is called Red Hill.

13.  New exibits coming in to settle down.  This looks like Sakura.

14.  Next story is Badang.  The strong man who become strong when the genie grand him a wish and he chose to be strong.  

From Fort Canning, Badang, the strong man throw a big stone to where Merlion is today.  Very far he throw.

And thus, this stone is the national treasure, it is called Singapore Stone.

And and… the best part, no one know or understand what is the words crafted on the stones.

Alien stones.

15.  At the Radin Mas there...

You can find this.  The Tulip Orchid.

By the way, do you know that Cempedak is a GMO, cross breed between Durian and Jack Fruits?

That ends the tour.

It is very interesting.  The tour guide from the NParks will always have more juicier story than reading the story yourself.  So, next time when you are in Garden by the Bay, don’t forget to look out for such FREE Tour.  Don’t worry, they also welcome Singaporeans.