Sick Cat

Profile Portrait
Originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

It has been a harrowing few days for poor ruskie when i was in Boracay. While i was away, he suddenly jumped out onto the balcony, refusing to come in despite pleas from wilk. By the time i got back, his left pupil had problems (cannot contract) and his vision was affected. Under such stress and staying out on the balcony, he became constipated and didn't eat for a while.

By the time i got home on sunday, he was one miserable and grouchy cat (understandably), and it took me a while to finally carried him back into the room. For the past 3 days, he still refused to eat and would growl/bite anyone who tried to carried him. The only exception was that he allowed me to pat him when he was in a 'relaxed' posture though he would give some warning growls whenever i tried to pick him up.

When the vet saw him last night (clinic was closed on tues and i kept him in to observe him on monday), she couldn't really say if his eye problem was due to a specific cause. He gave such a big struggle that eventually she had to sedate him to do the blood test and examination. Thankfully his liver is okie though his kidneys need some monitoring. Doc decided to hospitalize him for next 2 days to help tackle the constipation and dehydration problems. Hopefully that will reduce his pain and improve his mood. As for the eye, we can only see what could be the problem when the other things are cleared.

It is a stressful time for ruskie and a stressful time for me as well because i cant imagine if something were to happen to him. As it is, i am quite upset that he wont respond to me in his usual goofy way. Can't help but felt so guilty because i left him to go to Boracay and in some ways, felt that he is 'ignoring' me because he felt abandoned.

:(

Only hope now is that he can make it back home for xmas...

Sigh.

Mayday Concert - 10/12/05

The concert was FANTASTIC!!!!!

Basically had a rocking good time during the concert and it took some effort for me not to swoon whenever Ashin sang. Ya... becoming a band 'groupie' at a ripe old auntie age of 29 is sooooo... unbecoming. But what can i say? I am dead in love with mayday (with prior approval from the hubby already)!

So there we were, my colleague and I, waving our hands with lightsticks in the air and singing every song that evening on the top of our voices, as if we were still 18. Gosh.. an amazing experience and a most remarkable band!

Visiting Hakka Tulous

YONGDING, HAKKA TULOU 5
Originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

The inner arrangements of the tulous are simple (same for both round and rectangular tulous). It works pretty much like a row of step-up apartments placed side by side where a whole family occupies each segment of the 4 storied building.

The groundfloor is always the kitchen and toilet. The middle plot of open land is where livestock such as ducks, geese, pigs and chickens are kept together with a common well. On the second floor would be the storage area where the families would keep their grains. These are not kept on the ground floor due to the humidity and it would be unwise to keep it too high up and away from the kitchen. Finally, on the third and fourth floors would be the living quarters. Each floors are linked by a common passage way but each family's unit might be divided differently within their space.

It was said that as each tulou is so self-contained (with food and water), that during war times, a whole community can closed up the tulou and be self-sufficient for up to a year without having to step outside till the trouble blew over. And it is difficult for any attacker to lay seige to a tulou as the other walls were high to scale and the front doors could be double barred with stones. Local history has it that during the "Taiping Revolution" at the Yong Ding area, many rebels occupied the tulous and survived that way from the Qing army before moving onwards.

Visiting Hakka Tulous

YONGDING, HAKKA TULOU 14
Originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

The round hakka tulous were built using mud bricks and wood, without nails according the a chinese 'ba gua' format (round on the outside, octagonal in the inside) which makes it a truly remarkable feat considering the durability and functionality of the architecture. The unusual structure helps it to retain heat in the winter and keep things cool and ventilated in the summer.

Each 'octagonal' side within the round tulous are reinforced with bricks, which serves as a natural firebreak, hence one section of the building can be burned down (accidents or during war time), the other parts can remain intact. The damage area can be easily rebuild to connect to the rest of the structure again.

It is really quite majestic when viewed from the top though most tulou cannot be more than 4 or 5 stories high due to the foundations. When looked from the side, the other walls of the round tulous actually curved slightly inwards which helped in creating a natural incline for the inside roofs to shelter each floor from the damange of sun and rain. The foundations are usually around 3m deep with the width at the bottom of the other walls around 1.8m while the top is around 1.2m. Due to the thickness of the walls, despite the years of sun & rain, the buildings remain sturdy though cracks and erosion occurs.

Visiting Hakka Tulous

YONGDING, HAKKA TULOU 2
Originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

Spent 9 days (Dec 1 - Dec 9) in my annual trip to China this year. Half the time was visiting my folks and eating sinfully good food while other half was making a short trip to Xiamen & Yong Ding. Particularly memorable was the Hakka Tulous around the Yong Ding region (4 1/2 hr bus ride inland from Xiamen.

When talking about Hakka Tulous, most would probably think of the round community houses but in actual fact, most tulous are rectangular. The very first tulous built weren't round and it was only after a few years before round tulous appeared as it takes more effort and was more time consuming to build a round tulou. The sizes between the tulous also varies between having 3-4 families to 40-50 households within the same tulou, each a self-contained community. One village can make up of several rectangular and round tulous, usually situated around a river (the front door should face the water as the hakkas believe it will bring luck). Though everyone speak hakka, there may be slight differences even between different tulous in the area.

Most tulous has lasted for hundreds of years with minimum renovations (considering how poor the communities are, most probably couldn't afford to renovate), just strengthening some parts with bamboo strips or replacing wore out parts of the wood. Some have withstand natural disasters such as earthquake and man-made disasters such as wars.