Day 342 - Sheep Souvenir

You'd think that on my 4th time in New Zealand, I would no longer find these sheep souvenirs interesting, but I still do! Because look! It's so cute! And it was on sale!

Anyway, I put him on the trolley while we were on our stopover at Singapore so he could see the Changi Airport, which in my opinion is the best airport in the world.

Fat sheep!!!

Day 324 - Unique Photo Opportunity

That's me! And the many different kinds of sheep there are. I went closer to them because I didn't want to miss the "unique photo opportunity", which I kept reading about in all the advertisements for the sheep show at Agrodome. They're not wrong. It was a fun show to watch and the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere! ;)

Day 298 - Photo Subject

One of the best uses for pets, I have found, is that they are neutral topics of conversation, or that no one will think too much about your being anti-social when you're playing with them, and that they're the easiest to convince to be a subject for your photos. I don't mean that they're easy to take a photo of, but at least when you take photos of them sleeping and post it on the internet, you're not a bad person for doing so, and they're not going to complain about it. ;)

So this is Gianni, my sister's parents-in-law's dog. He's very nice and easy to take care of. He's trained and everything. Also, very cute, as you can see.

Day 279 - Professor McGonagall

The neighbor's fat, fluffy cat was in our backyard today, looking directly at me through the window. My sister says that it had always wanted to go to their backyard, but never used to because of the dog. But now that the dog is in E's parent's new house, said cat is free to roam around.

It doesn't look very friendly so I didn't dare go near it. My friend said it was probably Professor McGonagall. It certainly is a stern-looking cat, so maybe she's right. :)

And if you don't get the Harry Potter reference, please go read that amazing book. Thank you!

Day 257 - Marine Life!

Yesterday was chill out and relax at the resort day, so today was tour around Coron day! We went to the lakes and lagoons and hot springs and somewhere in the middle of the sea in an area called Siete Picados where we saw lots and lots of fish. That's where I took this photo (with my underwater camera!).

I'm actually kind of afraid of fish. When we were in Davao, a fish, that had teeth like a dog, bit my leg. But these fish are harmless. Or so they were in my experience. Anyway, I'm happy to see marine life and hopefully the seas don't get too polluted that they'll be around for a long long time.

Day 251 - Lion Hat

I spent the day at Solenad (a sort of shopping centre) at Nuvali in Sta. Rosa, Laguna with my friends who were celebrating their birthdays. There was a bazaar beside the parking lot and we bought these silly hats. There were several designs and it was fun looking through all of them. I think you can tell our personalities from the animals we chose -- J1 chose the Siberian husky hat (because her dog is a Siberian husky), J2 chose the tiger hat, J3 chose a pink bear hat, and as you can see, I picked the lion hat. The best thing was that none of us wanted the same animal. I love that my friends and I are all different from each other. :)

More details about our day at Solenad in my main blog.

Day 155 - Peering Out

Sometimes (actually very rarely), I go "jogging" at the park in front of our house in the morning. Our friendly dog always wants to come with me when he sees me leaving but he can't really go outside without his leash because he might get lost, and I can't really bring him because he's too heavy for me to control. And so he makes me guilty by sticking his nose out this space under our house's gate, this look of longing on his face.

Day 151 - Rooster on the Radio

Sometimes I just find the strangest things in the house.

Day 143 - Pet Love

I should've realized that this was Day 143 so I would've come up with a romantic entry. Because you know, 143. Although 143 isn't actually specific to romantic love, so I guess putting this picture of our dog is just fine. We love him too, anyway. :)

This is our dog Brigham, currently taking his bath, assisted by Ate E. It's his first bath after he got anti-rabies and de-worming shots last week. Anyway, doesn't he look happy on the second picture (right-top)?

Day 137 - Bye Bye Blackfish

While the tank was being cleaned, we put our pet fish in this tub. If you met them before, you'd know that they're missing one black goldfish (apparently the goldfish specie has members that are black in color, despite their name). That's because he (she? how do you know when a fish is a boy or a girl?) died last week. :(

It's a shame. He was my favorite, not just because he looked different and so was easy to distinguish from the others, but because he was also the one who behaved the most differently, from swimming backwards to laying upside-down while asleep. I didn't actually see how he looked when he was dead, but that's a good thing. I don't like seeing dead animals. Even if they are fish, who I'm not particularly attached to anyway.

Day 132 - Kalabaw ng Cagsaua

We passed by the Cagsaua Church Ruins today. That's the site where the most famous pictures of the Mayon Volcano (the icon of Bicol province) are taken. Here's a sample:

Image from http://www.hawaii.edu/cps/maycag.html

But because that picture is too common already, and when we went there, clouds were blocking the view of the volcano anyway, I'm choosing to post this picture of a carabao instead:

We found him (or maybe her, but for some reason I think all carabaos are male) outside the "official" area of the church ruins (that is, wala pang bayad 'pag tumigil ka sa area na'to kasi hindi mo pa kita ang Cagsaua Ruins), beside these rocks and some ponds. Some of his friends were bathing in the ponds and I took pictures of them, too, but they were too submerged in the water so you can't actually see them clearly.

Anyway, I think carabaos are some of the friendliest animals on the planet. I don't really know though because I've never been really close to one. But I've only ever seen them resting or helping people, so to my mind they're very nice and friendly. :)

Day 121 - Elephant Door Stopper

Exactly as the title says, this is an elephant door stopper. And as you can see from the photo, part of my white door can be seen. It's very small but actually quite heavy, so that it can stop the door when elements like the wind are forcing it to close. Anyway, we have several of these, one for each room. The one my brother uses is a turtle, I think. And there's another one that looks like a dog. They're pretty cute. :) My mom bought them in Tagaytay. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the store that sells them.

Day 115 - At Play

Unlike our old dog (I still miss her sometimes :( ) who wasn't too sociable and was content with watching TV, our new dog Brigham (he's a little more than 6 months old) loves people and running around. I used to play with him a lot when he was a puppy (and therefore very small--I could carry him with one hand). Sometimes he would stand up on his hind legs and start pawing at me, which was cute when he could only reach my knees, but now that he's grown, he can reach past my waist, and so, I'm a little bit scared. Sometimes it's a source of fun around the house:

Me: Ang laki na ni Brigham. Nakakatakot na.

Brother: Ah, oo. Para sa'yo.

Fine. So I'm not the tallest person in the world. Whatever.

Anyway, I managed to take this snapshot because Brigham was preoccupied playing with my dad. Maybe next time I'll post a clearer and nearer picture of him, if he doesn't scare me first.

Day 106 - "Stray" Cat

Is it still considered a stray if it hangs out around your house all the time?

I saw this cat, a regular in the back of our house, lounging around the plants. I don't know exactly what it's looking at, but it was sitting so still that I was able to take a photo of it from my room's window.

There are several other "strays" who are at the back of our house sometimes, usually during lunch time, snacking on our leftovers, or sometimes our dog's. They've gotten along well with our dog, I think.

Day 42 - Orangutan

MOGLEY - Meet Mogley. He is 7 years old. He lives @ Lok Kawi Wildlife Park in Sabah. He is currently eating his reward for entertaining all us tourists.

Apparently, Sabah, Borneo (where Kota Kinabalu is located) is "Orangutan Country", which explains all the orangutan stuffed toys and other orangutan-themed souvenir items. So naturally, we went to the zoo.

I took this photo during the "Wild Borneo" show at the zoo. It was fun, but too short, in my opinion. The orangutan was featured for maybe only 15 minutes and the rest of the animals featured were birds (and a snake, which I'm not too interested in). Still, I had a nice time at the zoo. I discovered recently that I like going to the zoo.

Day 3 - Sick Day

Our dog Brigham and his lunch

I felt ill yesterday night on the way home because of a splitting headache. So today I spent the day at home. I got to play with our dog, who we finally decided will be called Brigham (my brother's idea). He looks like a real dog now, as opposed to the chubby puppy he was just a few weeks ago. He's only 4 months old.

Picture was taken at the back of our house, right after our lunch, and just before his.