Cats « My Itchy Fingers

Nine Portions with Nine Lives – Taiwan Trip #14

March 22, 2009 at 6:19 pm | In itchy backside | 4 Comments
Tags: Cats, Movie, Taiwan, Travel

Once upon a time there was this village with just nine families. Each time the villagers would request ‘nine portions’ from shipments arrived from town. As times went by, people began calling the village ‘nine portions’, or jiufen 九份 in chinese. And the people lived happily ever after…:p

Wow. Er…I vaguely remembered reading there is another place in Taiwan called Shih-fen 十分? :p Wonder what was the story behind…. :p

Well, Jiufen used to be a propsperous gold mining town until mining was discontinued. In 1989, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien 侯孝贤 filmed A City of Sadness 悲情城市 in Jiufen, and the small town with charming old buildings and streets on a steep mountain became popular destination for visitors. In 2001, Jiufen’s downtown was used as a model in the anime movie, Spirited Away 千と千尋の神隠し, one of my favourite movies by Hayao Miyazaki 宮崎駿.

stairs1
Have not had a chance to watch the chinese movie, but just because of this
sign here, this must be one of the most photographed spot in Jiufen…

Movie poster of another movie, Dust in the Wind, by the same director…not
sure if he shot the film here…couldn’t find much information about this 1987 film

There were no lack of teahouses to relax tired feet…

You could see mountain and the Pacific Ocean here…very good fengshui…hee

A lot of homestay available…next time maybe can try…

Another view…

We soon felt it was a bit touristy for our liking…such a charming place bustling with commercial activities…so we tried to escape by sneaking into backlanes…

cat3
…and saw a sleeping cat on a roof top…shouldn’t old towns have such
relax and laid back feel? Made me feel like sleeping too… Guess if you
were said to have nine lives like cats you could afford to sleep anywhere you like…

Not too sure what the stylised chinese words said…but I like the shape

Nice old window

Surrounded by plants

A heart shape…

Refreshing…

Besides the protective shield, many bikes had these fabric gloves attached onto
the handle to keep the hands warm…

And we saw more cats…Cats seemed to be everywhere in Jiufen…

Stretching…

on door….

on sign…

We soon found ourselves back to the busy streets again….

One of the shops that I had planned to visit in Taiwan….Henry Cats

The cats and dogs merchanise were simply beautiful…especially the hand
painted stones…couldn’t afford those though…:(

At the other corner was a second shop with cafe upstairs

Ooo…So many cats on the sign…

Wow! More cats inside!

There were many chops with cat designs available for you to DIY and
personalise a card…This was the card Itchyfingers chopped, complete
with a typical Jiufen old building along the stairs and postmark…

The artist at work

When there’s cat, there’s fish…. :p

Cute doggy waiting to be fed dried cuttlefish…

The same cute doggy resting by the street when we were about to leave…

As a whole, I like Jiufen for the charming old buildings and the view you get there. The weather was cool so having something hot to eat or drink was such great joy. There were many teahouses, cafes and eateries as well as shops selling food but I wished there were lesser of those shops selling the run-out-of-the-mill souvenirs for tourists. Instead have some unique designed stuff inspired from the place itself. With its proximity and relatively easy assess from Taipei city, there would be no problem attracting visitors for short day trips or stay.

I think the many shop owners in modern day Jiufen can also live happily ever after, counting the endless flow of tourists’ money…. :p

Visiting an Old Friend

June 22, 2008 at 9:55 am | In itchy backside | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cats, Life

Whenever you moved out of your old house to a new place, what was it that would be most memorable and unforgettable to you? My family must have an unexplained liking for moving houses, cos since young till now, I had shifted house four times! But each time, we merely moved a few kilometers within the western side of Singapore. :p

Since moving out of my old place nearly four years ago, I had always wanted to go back to take a look. I did go back twice, but twice I went home disappointed. Why? Because I couldn’t find an old friend. I had thought she might have gone somewhere else, been adopted by a nice family or the worse case scenario, passed away…:( I was certainly glad that I went back a third time cos finally I found her!

So who is this old friend of mine?

Mao Mao! A female ginger coloured cat!

i guessed it must be my cat bone tee shirt that brought me the luck…

Mao Mao coming over to say hello…

I used to play with Mao Mao (that’s what I called her lah) when I went downstairs. She was a very sweet cat and liked to rub her head on my legs. I read on books that cats do that to mark their terriority…er, so technically, my legs belong to her…hahah…:p It was through her that I first observed cat eating grass, supposedly a way to relieve stomach ache. It was also through her that I saw how cats do their business…hahah…Anyway, I found Mao Mao special cos she had no tail…

Not too sure if she was born without a tail or lost it later in life…

And tatoos on both her ears! I supposed it meant to say she had been
neutered? I have never seen any other cats with tatoos like this

Most had a part of the ear clipped off…a disfigurement in my opinion…
This is another cat I knew, but she was less friendly, even up to today :p

I could be wrong about the tatoo being an indication of neutered cats cos I remembered seeing Mao Mao being pregnant once and she left a very deep impression on me when I saw how she buried her dead baby in the grass patch…I wished I had remember if she had the tatoo then or not…

I recognised Mao Mao the moment I saw her. She seemed to have lost some weight and her fur had two clumps sticked together on the top…Mao Mao had aged…:( I had stayed in my old flat for at least 12 years, but I can’t remember when was the first time I saw Mao Mao. But it must had been at least five or six years. Plus the nearly four years since I moved out, Mao Mao must be at least ten years old….quite an old age for our feline friend.

I think Mao Mao also recognised me, cos she seemed to only pose pictures for me and not Tisu Boy :p

“Where have you been all these year?” Mao Mao seemed to be asking me…

I played with Mao Mao for a while longer before leaving her. Kinda feel sad cos I am not too sure when I revisit my old house the next time, will she still be around for me? After all, age seemed to have caught up with her…:(

Mao Mao…are you feeling sad like me? Oh I love her white socks!

This was something new. It was not there when I lived there. No where
else have I seen such a sign

Cats are one of my favourite animals and I would certainly like to keep them if not for the fact that I already had turtles at home. It was quite sad that our government do not allow people staying in HDB flats to keep cats, though many still keep them, provided their neighbours are tolerant and do not complain. With no where to go, many became strays. I do not understand why dogs are allowed but not cats – barking dogs are certainly an equal nuisance like cats calling out loud when they are in heat. Many people disapprove the feeding of stray cats, but I feel that as long as the person feeding is responsible enough to clean up after the cats, it should be ok. After all, if you don’t feed them, they will mess up rubbish dump for food. I think we need to be more tolerant of other living things as they too, deserve to live life with dignity.

Also see related post:
> Growing Up in A One-Room Flat
> Secret Garden in the Last Kampong

Secret Garden in the Last Kampong

May 23, 2008 at 11:33 am | In itchy backside | 4 Comments
Tags: Architecture, Cats, Culture, Life, Photography, Uniquely Singapore

We were wandering around Kampong Lorong Buangkok, the last surviving kampong in Singapore, on a warm Saturday morning. Muddy ground laid with discarded carton boxes, rice sacks or old carpets, wooden houses with zinc roofs, rusty mailboxes, randomly placed household items outside the houses were the norm there. Few residents were seen that day, either still sleeping (though it was already half past nine in the morning), out working or out for grocery shopping at the nearby housing estates. Time seemed to be on a standstill, with people living a simple life in their own enclave, oblivious of the changing world outside which was just a stone’s throw away.

I was exploring around taking pictures when I took a wrong turn and found myself attracted by rows of plants that lead the way to this house sitting quietly at a corner.

Rows of neatly planted birdnests’ ferns opening up the way to this nice
little house sitting quietly at a corner

What followed was a most welcoming sight!

Cosy corner in front of the house welcomed owners and guests for a chit chat

It was a stark contrast from the rest of the houses that we saw earlier! Brightly painted in fresh hues, it was very well-maintained, with plants lovely pruned and the exterior wall adorned with paintings and photographs.

Even the door was different from the rest!

Close up of the door

A gong sat outside the door

An old fashion electricity meter

A dining area at the right. There was this lovely mirror with windows
among the many paintings and photographs

Candle light dinner anyone?

A cute water buffalo ash tray

Wooden clogs…classic kampong look…

The main attraction must be this wooden bed! Such a waste to leave it
outside explosed to the elements. But maybe that added to its charm.
Notice the traditional game on the bed?

All the while we wondered if there was anyone home, but seemed like they were all out. Would be nice to have a chit chat with the owner. They certainly took a lot of pride in their home and made it so cosy, even though it was rented on a land with an uncertain fate. The monthly rental of between S$6.50 to S$30 was really cheap – where else in Singapore could you rent a house with so much space where you are free to grow fruits and plants, leave your belongings outside the house unattended without worrying of theft, have neighbours as close as families, all these and more, at $30?

The late morning sun was scorching hot and a natural mozzy magnet, I had already collected quite a substantial numbers of kisses from the blood suckers. Time to go before we died of hunger and I died of blood lost…:p

We left the lovely wooden house and on our way out, saw a miniature tiger sleeping on a wooden bench…

Haha…just a fat tom cat enjoying the sun lah

We saw a couple of cats in the kampong and so far had been unable to take their photos cos most were too shy and ran back into the house. But this tom cat couldn’t be bothered with our presence, and continued dreaming in his slumberland…

Yawn…so sleepy…

Until we got distracted by another sweet looking white cat…

There was this sweet and innocent look in her eyes…

It was only then that we met a friendly Malay aunty. Our friend tried to have a conversation with her with her rusty and limited knowledge of Melayu. The aunty had been staying in the kampong all her life. Now alone with her pet cats, she would not want to leave if possible. There was a slight saddness in her eyes and I supposed that came with not knowing the fate of the kampong. In a nation caught up with development and progress, and with limited land, it is inevitable that the land where the kampong is sitting now will be acquired by the government sooner or later. All we could do is to try to visit and experience their life, and capture whatever left on photographs to preserve memories of old Singapore.

We bid the aunty goodbye and left the kampong. Hopefully, the last kampong of Singapore is here to stay for many more years…We might come back for another visit, and hopefully we would be able to see more residents so as to understand their lives in the kampong better.

Also see related post:
> Balek Kampong – A Return to Village Dwelling