Saturday, October 08, 2005

What to do with Jaffy? You decide...

As you may be aware, we have spent the past week looking after Jaffy, a stray cat found near the Thai Embassy in Orchard Rd.

And this is the afore-mentioned Jaffy:

Click to enlarge
At first the plan was just to look after her (or I think it's a her) while the person who 'found' her, Pete, returned from his trip to Malaysia and found a full-time home for her.

[Now Pete has a habit of picking up all sort of strays (cats, dogs, snakes... you name it, he's probably had them) - which is a pretty noble / samaritan thing to do, I agree. But when he realises that he has no more room to extend his zoological collection, and invariably has to use,to quote a popular 4-piece combo, aka Oasis, "some might say", emotional blackmail to off-load his new-found furry (and, sometimes, scaly) friends to others, then maybe he should have left them where they were.]

The thing is, that Sarah, on her travels, went to the Thai Embassy and not only saw Jaffy's mum but all her (as in Jaffy's and not Sarah's) siblings too. [They all have similar markings and, unusually for Singaporean cats, full length tails]. Sarah also gleaned from the Thai Embassy security guard that the cats there were fed and well looked after by all the staff at the Embassy.

Sarah then decided, quite righly in my book, that the best thing to do was to return Jaffy back to her family (once again, I mean Jaffy's and not Sarah's).

That was until, Pete (ditto: Jaffy's side of the house rather than Sarah's) had heard of our plans to reacquaint Jaffy with her family and said that he would take Jaffy back, pronto.

Now, if Jaffy was an abandoned stray and one that would have a rough life if returned back to her home, then Pete taking her back (or us keeping her) would not be a problem. But when you know that Jaffy had a nice place to cat-nap (the Thai Embassy has nice gardens, is staffed 24/7 and is mighty handy for the shops in Orchard Road), then maybe the best thing is to return her to the Thai Embassy.

Or should we? Cast your vote - and leave your comments below. The poll will close on Wednesday and whatever you decide will determine the fate of Jaffy.

[Despite my web/html background, I cannot for the life of me sort out the gap that appears between here and the poll, so, until some bright spark gives me a clue, you'll have to scroll down a tad. Soz. D]






So what should we do with our furry, ferral house-guest?
Return Jaffy to where she was found
Return Jaffy to her finder, Pete - the picker-upper of all things stray
Keep her
Find some rocks and a dustbin liner....

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

And it’s goodnight from him

Ronnie Barker died yesterday – which is a massive shame / loss. The guy was a pure comic genius – both in his acting and in his writing.

Here are just a few of his pearls - c/o the Guardian:

"The search for the man who terrorises nudist camps with a bacon slicer goes on. Inspector Lemuel Jones had a tip-off this morning, but hopes to be back on duty tomorrow."

"Have you heard the one about the retired general who said he had not had sex since 1956? His friend said, 'That's a long time ago.' 'I don't know,' the general replied. 'It's only 20.27 now."
A famous Spoonerism from Open All Hours: "Don't just crit their siticising".

To his assistant Granville (David Jason) who is toying nervously with the cash register in Open All Hours: "Come on, you aren't there to play the Warsaw Concerto."

As Fletcher in Porridge, when playing monopoly: "Would you Adam and Eve it? Go to jail!"

Again from Porridge: "What have I learned, Mr Mackay? Three things. One - bide your time. Two - keep your nose clean. And three - don't let the bastards grind you down."

"There was a strange happening during a performance of Elgar's Sea Pictures at a concert hall in Bermuda tonight, when the man playing the triangle disappeared."

"Next week we'll be investigating rumours that the president of the dairy council has become a Mason, and goes around giving his colleagues the secret milkshake."

"We'll continue our investigation into the political beliefs of nudists. We've already noticed a definite swing to the left."

"The man who invented the zip fastener was today honoured with a lifetime peerage. He will now be known as the Lord of the Flies."

"The toilets at a local police station have been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on."

"In a packed programme tonight we will be talking to an out-of-work contortionist who says he can no longer make ends meet."

"The prime minister held a meeting with the cabinet today. He also spoke to the bookcase and argued with the chest of drawers."

"Following the dispute with the domestic servants' union at Buckingham Palace today, the Queen, a radiant figure in a white silk gown and crimson robe, swept down the main staircase and through the hall. She then dusted the cloakroom and vacuumed the lounge."

"The West Drayton man who has kept himself awake every night for 17 years by snoring has at least found the answer. He's going to sleep in another room."

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Furry Friends

Tonight we pick up a little house guest. She’s 3-months old, called Jaffy (due to her jaffa cake markings) and was ‘found’ in Orchard Road by Pete, who’s a friend of our neighbour, Nicole.

Pete has ‘found a number of animals on his travels – from cats to dogs, snakes to rabbits. Which is very charitable and noble – but he usually picks up too many for his place and then asks if anyone else wants a cat!

The thing is, is that there are loads of stray cats around Singapore if you want to go looking for them. [Eg By the post office or Cold Storage in Holland Village. They are fed by locals and all have a semi-decent place to live in and run around.

So am not really sure that turning a semi-feral cat into a domesticated moggy (and one that is kept in a flat all the time ) is really the right thing to do.

Anyway, we’ll look after Jaffy and I will have to make sure that Sarah does not get too attached to her – especially as we are off to Perth for a week on the 15th!

Re Sunday

Re: Sunday’s game. I don’t think that the scoreline (1-4) was a true reflection of the game. Just that Chelsea did not really put a foot wrong and bided their time until Liverpool did!

Jimmy Trarore’s lunge on Drogba was very clumsy and an obvious penalty. But then I thought that there were two deffo penalties for Liverpool in the game on Weds. Still they’re not a penalty until the ref gives them. And the goal from a throw-in was schoolboy stuff.

Still – we get to play them again at least twice more this season and hopefully we can defend a bit better, while getting some breaks at the other end of the pitch.

[If there’s a future’s betting market – Carvalho must be a good bet to concede the first pen as he has gotten away with a few against Liverpool to date]