Minggu, 18 Januari 2009

Snowdrops (?)

(by Tika)

I was flipping through Tika's European holidays pics. Think these white flowers must have grabbed her attention well. So standout and nice that she turned her head and felt she din have to pose with them :) she said they grow on a hilly city in Austria.

(The species is still unidentifiable to the gardener)

Minggu, 11 Januari 2009

Let's Hippo Everyone

that guy was talking about seeing the unseen. But it wasn't about "Can you see the wind... its presence is revealed by the leaves on a tree" kind of vision. (anyway i can't put away the 'vision' of him wearing bell bottom pants!) the fact that everybody was excited about his talk, however, was enough to make me grounded. I respect him.

During his talking, i thought of the little girl i met near hippo pool the day before. I was expecting the hippo would emerge, take some breath, and make some noise or drag the branch down to the pool. one minute. the hippo din move. two minutes. he--or was it she?--only opened his jaw a bit. so i tried a different angle.

a voice came behind my left shoulder. "Have you seen it?"



my head lowered. it was a Fendi-veiled little girl. "Oh you fashionable kid!" i said in my head.

"Ah yes but he doesn't want to show up apparently," i said. "Or perhaps he's shy."

She nodded and continued her talking and all i did was examining her Fendi monogram veil. Where did she get it? and i got to know that her parents were just 10 steps away and keeping an eye on us--or me particularly. I got uncomfortable being 'inspected'


this chillun (her manner reminds me of Harper Lee's li'l heroine) kept talking. "He opened his long mouth! I saw it!" she was so convincing.

i asked, how long? just to see how well she was at her basic biology--if there is any at her school

"thirty meters! it's big. i saw it!"

my jaw dropped and my eyes heavenward, seeing the big, long, oversized, smelly snout...

While staring at the snout (I mean sky), i couldn't keep track of her fantasy. She talked and talked and suddenly when I was about to give a nod, she turned her back and joined her family eating Popmie.

I decided to encircle the cage. it was like 30 x 30 m wide, surrounded by smelly green water. all i was thinking was, this cage only fits his mouth!

(Ragunan Zoo has about four Nile hippos and two pygmy hippos. All came from the continent of Africa.)