We live in a flat

Page 63 of 75

Phoneography Weekly: Not exactly timber

On July 1, 2013

Somehow the image of an woodcutter chopping up a tree and yelling “timber!” as the tree fell is ingrained in my memory, even if there is no woodcutting culture or industry here. Hah! That’s the power of the media for you.

Anyway, the tree cutting has started. Here’s the guy who will take the tree apart, limb by limb.

Phoneography Monday Challenge: Nature – I seem to be making a habit to take pictures of man and/vs nature nowadays.
Apps: GorillaCam, Snapseed, Camera+ (Cyanotype and Toy Camera filters)

S7F5XFJMWQHA

The fall of leaves

By weliveinaflat

On June 30, 2013

In Photography

It is sunny here all year round and the town council maintenance guy didn’t get to this tree soon enough.

The fall of leaves

Walking the dog has made me notice more the outdoor environment around me. In general the weather here is hot and wet but there wasn’t any rain in the last couple of weeks, and when it finally poured some areas in Jurong experienced hailstones… in the tropics! Go figure~

It starts the moment you return

By weliveinaflat

On June 29, 2013

In Behaviour

One hasty shot. Sorry,
photobombed by the bowl.

Local mongrel cheerleader
waving your pom-pom pup.

You’re a natural at it –
the welcome home dance.

That fat cat spying behind that thin tree

By weliveinaflat

On June 27, 2013

In Dog & You

Telling a story takes skill. Telling a funny story that makes people laugh, that’s an art. We’re actually pretty boring people with an ordinary dog, so you will understand if sometimes a post may just sink like a stone. :P

Anyway, I am terrible at reading long form, even if some of the posts here are pretty wordy, so I do try to put in at least a picture or two to liven things up. And then sometimes, when the mood strikes, I give my dog her “imagined” voice.

It could go like this:

Human: “Hey Donna, do you see a movement over there?”

Dog: “What? What movement?”

Human: “Behind you….
…No, no! Don’t turn your head around. It’s obvious you are looking!”

Dog: “Oops, sorry… … but what’s that behind me?”

Human: “I don’t know.”

*puts on night goggles*

Human: “I think it’s that cat from the other day.”

Human: “OMG, I think its winking at us.”

Dog: “That means it’s friendly isn’t it? Can I turn around and look now”

Human: You think?”

Dog: “I think it’s creeping me out.”

Cat: “…”

Storytelling on this blog I hope is an art that will continue to be polished with each post and show that I am getting better at both the words and the pictures used. And I do hope that you will take something of value away with you from here when you click on to the next blog, otherwise I fear I may be wasting your time. :P

With regards to art-art, Mr P recently showed me the painting Beijing 2008 with its accompanying analysis.

Art I find, throughout the ages, almost always take on a greater significance for me when I know the story behind it – the artist, his history, his influences, and the political/cultural climate which caused him to draw what he drew. Of course, a lot of art was not significant at the time they were produced simply because they were commissioned by clients and produced for pleasure. Time was necessary to show them up as representative of an age and more than a thing of beauty or a drunkard or mad man’s creation. But I am rambling.

What I was trying to say was that I probably would not appreciate Beijing 2008, without the text it came with it to explain the context. Much the same as this blog cannot function with text or photos working by themselves. But who am I to compare to an artist :P So I’II spare you the ramblings of an abysmal student of art for now.

Here you go to see the artwork (some nudity) and the analysis, if you are interested.

Note: I tried to find who wrote the analysis originally but failed. But I did learn – both the painting and the interpretation were [said to be] published in 2005. So that’s 6-years worth of hindsight for you. The painting sold for over $3.14m in 2012 which is within the normal range for works by artists of the same generation.

References
– http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog2.php/2011/11/11/an-erotic-oil-painting-with-a-profound-worldview
– http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/748644.shtml
– http://www.zonaeuropa.com/culture/c20060507_1.htm

Share the lift with my dog please?

By weliveinaflat

On June 26, 2013

In Training

Donna has learnt to “parallel park” herself by the side of the wall and stay quietly in her little corner while travelling up and down on the lift. She would still pop her head out to stare at neighbours. Please don’t mind her. She’s just being a dog, a curious one.

Our flat is more than 20 storeys high so taking the lift is an everyday experience for Donna. With approximately 138 households sharing two lifts that take us down and up to and from home and the outside world, there are plenty of opportunities to bump into any one of our neighbours (which logically would number at least 300 people).

We sometimes take the stairs going down, but I don’t think any of the three of us can make it going up. We are obliged to wait for the next lift, should a neighbour be afraid of dogs or be averse to ride in the same lift with a dog for religious reasons. But with at least 300 people sharing two small lifts, which if I may add are particularly prone to breakdowns and lift faults, it sometimes feels like it takes forever just to get on a lift to get home.

So we thought, hey let’s make our scary-looking dog (to some people) look less scary so people are not so averse to sharing the lift with Donna. Obviously, Donna is too heavy for us to carry around like owners with small dogs do when they take the lift. So we practiced with her standing quietly behind us while waiting for the lift, regardless of whether there are people waiting with us for the lift or not. We agree with all the dog-training advice out there that consistency is really the key to making it work.

There were times I tied a piece of frilly fabric around her so she looks more silly than scary. That worked well. I’ve met neighbourhood aunties who went “Oh, is it a girl dog?”

That’s Donna taking up 1/4 of the available floor space in the tiny lift. Doesn’t the frilly thing around her back look silly :P

Lately, I realised that Donna particularly likes to sit right in the middle of the lift. Or when she’s tired, she’ll just spread out like the lift belongs to her grandfather. And she always stares at neighbours with her open mouth grin. I imagine it may be unnerving for some neighbours to have an unfamiliar dog staring unblinkingly at you and grinning at the same time. God knows, sometimes even I think my dog looks like a maniac the way she stares at me (probably thinking about food).

So we started to consistently guide her to “parallel park” by the wall and “stay”. She has started to do that pretty well, though she does need reminders now and then. And we still plant our two legs right in front of her after she has parked herself, not because she is dangerous but just to reassure any neighbours, particularly ladies and families with kids and babies, that they are super safe with our dog.

It’s early days, but most people are kind and do not mind her.

But you know what, if the lift is half-packed with people, sometimes it is just more relaxing to wait for an empty lift. :P

Come :) Follow weliveinaflat.com on
Instagram @weliveinaflat | Facebook donna.weliveinaflat | Youtube Mutt Vlog

Abandoned, but for the sun and moon above

By weliveinaflat

On June 25, 2013

In Photography

This is a shot of the neighbourhood childrens’ playground that I took last week. On any other day, the picture will be clear and sharp, the buildings in the background would not look as faded simply because we are generally a hot, sunny island with very clear visibility. And yes, there might be a child or two about the slide, ladder or climbing wall.

We have been beset by smoke haze from hot spot fires in Sumatra, Indonesia from last week and the PSI index reached as high as 401 (air quality is described as hazardous when it climbs above 300). Over the weekend, things seemed to have improved, and air quality seemed to have stayed more or less moderate so that’s good.

On another day, I noticed the sun reflecting off the windows of a building.

I turned around searching for the sun and there it was.

I was telling Mr P how without the haze shrouding the sun, the picture above would have been impossible for me to shoot. And then he shared with me his own photo that he took coming back from work at 3a.m. The picture was shot from the carpark downstairs.

Mr P doesn’t take pictures very often, but the moon, red from the haze is something neither of us has seen before.

While I may whine and gripe about the haze like everyone else, I also have to concur with Wiley who was wise to say,

… poop happens in our lives every now and then. Are we going to ignore it…(or just whine about it)? Or are we going to face it head on and pay it forward…

Not sure how to pay it forward in this case :P Mostly, we are just thankful Donna and I have the option to hole up in our tiny air-conditioned study when necessary. Although I expect the electricity bills will climb.

Dogs lick themselves when they are relaxing, bored or stressed it seems.

Note:

Haze is a yearly occurrence in Singapore normally in the months August-September. We’ve been lucky to escape the worse of it in the last few years and one barely notices it if one is stuck at work in the office all day. This year’s haze is so unexpected and it’s not until I experienced how severe it can be in our own backyard so to speak that one starts to empathise with those who have to live with it daily.

Haze health tips for pet owners, read this previous post.

This post is a companion post to Weekly Phoneography: Population, in capturing our already very urbanised neighbourhood at a point where:

we have started to see physical changes in the landscape, growth of buildings around 3 times the height of existing flats
the interplay of the elements of nature in an urbanised environment – air, trees, sun, moon

Weekly Phoneography: Population

By weliveinaflat

On June 24, 2013

In Photography

new vs old flats
Phoneography Monday Challenge: Architecture (challenger’s choice)

New flats less than 2 years old on the left; old flats easily more than 20, 30 years old on the right.

As buildings grow taller, trees are growing shorter.

news infographic on roadside trees in Singapore
Excerpt from The Sunday Times, May 19, 2013

I have written before about the impending removal of some tall Angsana trees downstairs to make way for three new blocks of flats.

Change is inevitable, but I do like trees that stand as tall as 12 to 13 storey flats. When walking the dog, they provide welcome shade in our hot, bright climate although yes, they also harbour poop-dropping birds and life-threatening falling branches when it storms.

roadside trees

Wherever they stand, trees and the oxygen they produce enable life.

This is the main road junction of our neighbourhood. Look how well the trees obscure the blocks of flats behind them, and then scroll back to the first picture. How hard and stark the buildings are with the small trees. And then I think about the haze and know that I will always still prefer the big trees of life that cleanse the air around us faithfully.

Note: Copyright of the newspaper belong to SPH, I will be obliged to remove the clipping if requested.

Smokin’ Parkour

By weliveinaflat

On June 23, 2013

In Explore

We did crawl a little bit under a metal rung that was on our way to pee break outside in the haze. :P

We are having a break from the haze today with PSI under 100, i.e. moderate air quality. But it’s not difficult to empathise with our neighbours in Malaysia, who earlier declared a state of emergency in the Muar and Ledang districts where PSI breached 750.

Bang! Teaching the dog to “play dead”

By weliveinaflat

On June 22, 2013

In Training

We’ve been kept indoors because of the haze and Donna is very restive. She’s a laze-about dog at home, but she does need her daily walk or she gets restless, and then she gets rough when playing or worse, she gets curious and starts doing taste -tests that are not good for her tummy.

Our other cousin Mr B told us about his girlfriend’s amazing mongrel dog who could flop and play dead every time the human goes “Bang!” That sounds pretty cool, and it’s something fun to do besides trying to get Donna to ‘walk with me’, and the other obedience behaviours that we normally train in our tiny apartment.

So here goes…

Go to your bed > Down > Stay
Come > BANG!
Wait for dog to sprawl completely on the floor
Wait for dog to keep completely still
Good Job dead dog! > treat

As you can see, we are not very good at it yet. Donna tends to go into a down position and look at me. And then I keep thumping the floor before she remembers oh yes, fall to the side. And then she’s so happy anticipating the reward (yay! kibble!), her tail keeps wagging. Harlow, how can a dead dog be wagging it’s tail?? So it takes some time before she is totally still but she’s getting it, because then she gets the treat. Still, Good Job dead dog!! :D

Perhaps if we practise more, she start flopping faster.

Meanwhile, here are some Youtube dogs that are masters at this with their unique takes on the trick: