World Animal Day 2009

HAPPY WORLD ANIMAL DAY!!

http://www.worldanimalday.org.uk/2009_e ... egion=Asia

REPUBLIC OF CHINA - Taiwan Animals Taiwan

We are very happy to announce to you that Animals Taiwan decided a few months ago to organize and sponsor World Animal Day for the very first time in Taiwan. We have worked diligently with the government and a local public relations firm to get approval of our venue and events, which will include: a Dogathon, an Agility Course, Dog Show, Entertainment Program (with local celebrities, musicians, etc.), a pre-event painting competition for elementary school children. All painting entries will be displayed at the event and prizes will be awarded. There will also be stalls for other animal organizations in Taiwan, food, drinks, vendors, etc. Venue: We are delighted that the government has approved the use of the park and square directly in front of City


This year, Animals Taiwan, along with other organizations, groups, animal shelters, places of worship, schools, clubs and individuals throughout the world, will be holding a World Animal Day event. The event will be held on Sunday, October 4th, 1:00 p.m. ~ 7:00 p.m., at the Taipei City Hall Plaza, which is located in front of Taipei City Hall on Shi Fu Road. The theme of this year’s event is Adoption Saves! Abandonment Kills! This event will feature a 1 kilometer dog walk-a-thon, an opening ceremony with several distinguished guests, entertainment, a carnival featuring 60 merchandise, food and drink booths, a coloring contest for kids and an evening charity show with performances and appearances by celebrities such as Ivy Hsu, Evonne Hsu, Fan Yi-Chen and many more.

World Animal Day was started in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. Since then it has grown to encompass all kinds of animal life and is widely celebrated in countries throughout the world. October 4 was chosen as World Animal Day as it is the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. It is intended as a day of celebration for anyone in the world who cares about animals.

The mission of World Animal Day is to 1) to celebrate animal life in all its forms, 2) to celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom and 3) to acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives – from being our companions, supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives.

So join us on this special day to commemorate our love and respect for animals and to highlight the importance of animals in our world. For more information on Animals Taiwan World Animal Day 2009 event, visit www.u-channel.com/event or www.animalstaiwan.org, or call the Animals Taiwan rescue center at (02)2833-8820.

Please help us spread the word about the World Animal Day event to your friends, family and colleagues. We look forward to celebrating the special day with you!

Chinese Valentine- Qixi Festival

Qixi Festival 七夕節, "The Night of Sevens" is also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar; thus its name. It is sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day in recent years.

The story of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl

See also: The Princess and the Cowherd

In late summer, the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky, and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which there are many variations:

A young cowherd named Niulang (Chinese: 牛郎; pinyin: niú láng; literally "[the] cowherd"), came across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox, he stole their clothes and waited to see what would happen. The fairy sisters elected the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhinü (simplified Chinese: 织女; traditional Chinese: 織女; pinyin: zhī nǚ; literally "[the] weaver girl", who represents the star Vega) to retrieve their clothing. She agreed to do so, but since Niulang had seen her naked, she agreed to his request for marriage. She proved to be a wonderful wife, and Niulang to be a good husband. They lived happily and had two children. But the Goddess of Heaven (in some versions Zhinü's mother) found out that Zhinü, a fairy girl, had married a mere mortal human. She was furious and ordered Zhinü to return to Heaven. (In another version, the Goddess forced the fairy back to her former duty of weaving colorful clouds in the sky because she could not do her job while married to Niulang, a mortal.) Down on Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had gone. Suddenly, his ox began to talk, telling him that if he killed it and put on its hide, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife. Crying bitterly, he killed the ox, put on the skin. Carrying his two children with him, he went off to Heaven to find Zhinü. The Goddess found out that he had come and was very angry. Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever (thus forming the Milky Way, which separates Altair and Vega).

Zhinü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar and takes care of their two children (his flanking stars β and γ Aquilae or by their Chinese names Hè Gu 1 and Hè Gu 3).

But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge (鵲橋, "the bridge of magpies", Que Qiao) over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.

It is said that if it rains on the night of Qi Xi, it is the tears of Niulang and Zhinü crying at the misery of their life because the magpies will not come on a night that rains.

As an interesting note, Barry Hughart's fantasy novel Bridge of Birds is loosely based upon this celestial story, though the two figures are switched here. The girl is forced to remain on earth, and her male paramour in heaven. She is a peasant girl, and he shepherds the stars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Xi

Swim & Art Play Date

We haven't had a play date for the longest time!! The busy work schedule and me going down to Kaohsiung...etc.

We've finally managed to set a date for a swim & art play date!! :) Boy, were the kids excited!! Bren LOVES swimming & art!! So off to Sue's house it was...

The kids were very excited about swimming and went wild in the pool! The water was just marvelous for my hidden 'mermaid tail', i love being in the water and have always dreamt of being a mermaid.

We stayed in the pool for about 40mins?? (seemed long...) and then it was time to get changed and get ready for lunch, Larry's Pizza!! :) We ordered a whole pizza and some extra slices and pasta with meatballs for lunch, there was alot of food for all of us.

Then it was time for ART: Father's Day Craft (in Taiwan they celebrate Father's Day on August 8th, 88 sounds like baba/dad in Chinese).




The kids made a photo frame with colored fur balls glued on the white frames for their Dads.


Then it was time to work on the Chinese clocks, the kids gave up and left it for their Mamas to complete the Chinese clocks, only 1 Mama successfully finished the cock!!

After art, there was more fun and 'craft' with playdough!!

Then it was time for us to make our way home, Conrad came over for more play with Bren. It's was indeed another fun playdate!! Thanks Sue!

Rekindle Kindermusik

I must say it's been awhile... more than 2 yrs!!

Reasons being:

1) moved too far away
2) waiting for an afternoon slot
3) (and the real reason really) finally decided to move my lazy ass and decide to spend some real quality time with Mr. B!! So every Tuesday is my date day with Mr. B... :)



Bren was shy for the first 20 mins of the class, then he began to warm up when he found the songs familiar and the studio being right in front of the Muzha mrt line helped a lot!! ;) And of cos, dear Jennifer's patience with B.

Brendan's 3rd Birthday Party

I didn't have a Birthday Party last year because my Mama said I had tooooo many toys already and we just didn't have space for more thus we went on a road trip instead. So she made it up to me by throwing me a Thomas the Train theme party this year!!


The Guestlist:

1) Conrad & Rita
2) Aidan & Ian
3) Brandon & Kaylee
4) Vincent & Laura
5) Lila & Ilai
6) Jed & An
7) Shanshan & Zhenzhen
8) Celine
9) Aunt Keri & Ge Ge Isaac & Jacob
10) Aunt Tania & Victoria
11) Brian & Angela



About 41 of us filled the basement of Hook Restaurant & Bar on June 14th for my 3rd Birthday Party!! We had a all-you-can eat buffet food spread.

The Food:

1) Hotdogs
2) Onion Rings
3) Chicken Wings
4) 2 kinds of Pasta
5) Fries
6) Salsa with many dips
7) Caesar Salad
8) Mango Salad
9) and more...





To my delight, everything was decorated in Thomas the Train Theme!! :) The wall banners/flags, the food toppers, the giftbags, I even had a 3D Thomas the Train cake and Mama even made a Thomas pinata from a post office box!!

The Activities:

1) Facepainting
2) Thomas Aquadoodle
3) Pinata
4) Decor-A-Cookie
5) Cake cutting


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Thank you Aunt Victoria and Aunt Tania for doing the facepainting!!


Thank you all for coming and celebrating my 3rd Birthday with me!! :)





Thank you so much Aunties and Uncles for all the lovely gifts!! :)

Elvis

Elvis is one of the 2 dogs that I've been sponsoring for close to a year now. We used to visit the shelter more often but I stopped because I always felt really sad leaving all the 60+ dogs behind... Elvis is one of the better natured dog @ the shelter, i've yet to hear him bark till today.

He was always happy to see us at the shelter till this Mother's Day. After an absence of about 3 months, Elvis seems to have lost his ethusiasm for life and doesnt look as happy as he did before and seem to have lost soooo much weight in just 3 months.

It daunted me for the longest time! I didnt know how to help him as i do have 7 cats and a kid and can cats and dogs really get along?? After seeing him again at TAS flea market, i asked Brendan if he wanted to take Elvis home as Bren is petrified of dogs!! loves cats but afraid of dogs!!

Bren agreed to take Elvis home and i filled up a fostering form and we were gonna be Elvis' foster home!! with the long holiday, my busy work schedule, bad weather... i think it was just my fear of the 'consequences' between my cats & Elvis when i take him home. It was either NOW or never!! Brendan and the nanny kept asking bout Elvis, when was he gonna come home...

So, June 5th 2009, Lilian, who is also a volunteer @ Animals Taiwan kindly drove Elvis to my house. Elvis is known for being sick in the car...etc He actually did throw up like thrice in the car as Lilian couldnt find my apt.

With all the lil hiccups, Elvis is finally home... YES!! A place where he can call his home. It gives me sooooo much joy to see him sooooo happy!! (words just cannot express my joy or rather our joy to have Elvis here)

WELCOME HOME ELVIS!!

21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009

"The design of the emblem for the 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009 incorporates the following three elements: the Chinese character for north "bei" representing the host city Taipei, an ear representing the Deaflympics, and a figure representing the athletes. These three elements come together to form simple, flowing calligraphic lines that create a sense of dashing forward, while cleverly evoking the image of a running man. This lively emblem symbolizes Taiwan’s undying vitality as well as the courageous spirit of deaf athletes as they meet the challenges of competition."
www.2009deaflympics.org

Amazing what you can see on the streets of Taipei!! (God I love this city!!) Giant frogs, floating big sneaker, men on stilts, walking packet drinks, star wars, enormous floating caterpillar and giant giant balls...

WAIT A MINUTE..

Isn't the frog is the mascot for the 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009?? So.. this is probably the opening ceremony parade for the event here in Taipei. They were all marching into the empty plot of land right across SYS Memorial Hall for a concert that night.





2 major world events to be held in Taiwan this year! Am glad to see that Taiwan is finally getting 'global recognition'. The World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung and the 21st Summer Deaflympics Taipei 2009. Am proud and very honored to be a part of the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung!! :) Stay tuned to my blog for more updates and details. But for now, will keep all of you in suspense...