I went to the Monet Inside exhibition last Saturday at Parkview Square.
Claude Monet’s masterpieces were brought back to life through an immersive, 360-degree journey that was both impressive and captivating.
The entire experience lasted about 50 minutes.
Below is the painting that captured most of my attention.
It depicts a sunrise, but I mistook it for a sunset.
It still gives me the feeling of dusk.
Below are some of Monet’s other popular works.
I can’t imagine how Claude Monet managed to raise eight children from his two marriages, especially since life was so tough for him initially. Toward the end of his life, he went blind, his famous water lilies were painted entirely from memory.
Curtain and Huabao have been friends for a long time. Curtain loved bullying Huabao by acting dominant. He didn’t actually hurt Huabao, he just put on a show. Huabao would always cringe away, yet whenever food was served, he was always the first to eat.
Curtain and Huabao
After I took Huabao home and left Curtain behind, Curtain looked completely upset and lacked his usual energetic spirit. Meanwhile, the town council continued to make things difficult for me and the community cats by not even allowing a bowl of water. The weather in Singapore is scorching hot almost every day. It always makes me wonder what kind of human would want to stop others from providing kindness to living creatures who experience the same thirst and hunger we do.
Other feeders kept telling me how lonely Curtain was. It took me quite a while to make the decision to bring him home. One of the best reasons to bring him home was that I could finally close the feeding area and not have to go back anymore, which saves me 20 minutes every night.
Both of them recognized each other at home, but now Curtain has stopped acting dominant toward Huabao, and Huabao actually dares to slap him in the face!
Some things never change, though. Both of them still have their third serving of food after midnight, just like they did when they were living on the ground.
I attended the tournament throughout the week. My focus was on the women’s singles player, An Se-young. She is a 24-year-old, 1.7-meter-tall, world No. 1.
When I was at the indoor stadium, I noticed that most of the ushers were middle-aged or retired. I was a little disturbed when I was told to follow the zigzag queue even though no one else was queuing. I literally went under the belts to take a shortcut, but I was told not to do that and had to go round and round the queue anyway. When I went to another staff member, I was told the same thing. That really sucks!
It was not a perfect view from the seat that I bought, but I heard we were allowed to take any empty seats. In fact, someone handling the lighting told me to take empty seat next to me so that I’ll not block the lightings. However, a middle-aged usher shooed me away. She told me she had already shown leniency by allowing me to sit there for a while and demanded to see my ticket. I was like, “What the fk!”** So I left! That’s my signature move!
I spent a good Sunday afternoon catching the finals. It was an exciting match between An Se-young and Yamaguchi.
She also had a “meet-and-greet” session at Kallang Wave Mall. I didn’t know about this session until I was at the mall and asked people what was going on and why they were queuing. I managed to take a short video of her.
She looks like a kid! The next badminton tournament was in Jakarta, and she was playing. I continued to follow her matches on TV.
The above photo was a display at our stadium. She won again in the tournament in Jakarta!
Today is the second day of the three-day retreat at KMSPKS. I only sit in the afternoon, as my mornings are always busy when my home looks like a cat shelter.
I may not sit to meditate the way I used to, however, I try my best to attend the meditation sessions held at KMSPKS at least twice a week.
What does Dhamma exhaustion look like? The Buddha allowed four types of feelings and they are loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity. Out of nowhere, these qualities came to mind yesterday while I was in the bathroom, and I started to examine myself. Surprisingly, they are still there. My desires remain strong, desires that do not cause harm to others and that is enough. I need to live!
My fingers are too exhausted to flip the pages of the Nikaya texts. I don’t read right now, but I remember the teachings. I have always been intrigued by Sarakani’s alcohol habit.
Last week, I was having tea at the “Real Food” vegan restaurant and ordered a glass of fermented sparkling lemonade. Strangely, it tasted like alcohol and I got tipsy. At that exact moment, I thought of Sarakani. I have always wondered what was on his mind when he was drinking. When the tipsiness kicked in, my mind went blank, zero content. Was that what was in Sarakani’s mind when he drank?
I’m definitely not done with this experiment, and when the time is right… it won’t be kombucha.
We found a heavily pregnant stray calico near the chalet at Changi more than eight years ago. We didn’t want to abort her kittens and decided to let her have her kittens.
I left mommy calico in my vacant flat at Sembawang and provided her with what she needed. She had a room all by herself and some of my rescues occupied the other room. I had CCTV cameras monitoring them. Calico delivered four wonderful kittens – three boys and a girl and Lohei was the only girl.
Lohei, a few months old
Since I only visited them once a day, I provided them, hopefully, more than they need. I bought cat trees, comfortable beds and not forgetting carton boxes for them.
Lohei behaved like a lady. She didn’t allow me to touch and was quick tempered. The four kittens were vocals while mommy was soft.
Since Lohei was a black kitten, finding her a home was difficult. Mommy calico was adopted. As the kittens grew older, I moved them with me and they are eight-years-old now.
Lohei had abnormal nostrils discharge. We sent her to Dr Wendy for checkup. X-rays and blood tests were done and Dr Wendy even flushed the discharge from her nostrils. She was sent home with some medication.
We continued seeing discharge from her and it stopped after she completed the antibiotics. Shortly, the discharge returned again. We believe there may be growth somewhere along her nasal which cannot be found or seen by x-ray.
It didn’t take long for Lohei to live till her final days. Yes, I felt the familiar heaviness again. We never get used to watching them go, don’t we? I turned away, disgusted by the feeling.
I cleaned her and made sure she was comfortable. She called me and I petted her, assuring my love for her and not forgetting to thank her.
May the merits accumulated be dedicated to her favourable rebirth.
“Bhikkhus, dwell with yourselves as an island, with yourselves as a refuge, with no other refuge; with the Dhamma as an island, with the Dhamma as a refuge, with no other refuge. ~ SN 22.43
“Enough, Vakkali! Why do you want to see this foul body? One who sees the Dhamma sees me; one who sees me sees the Dhamma. For in seeing the Dhamma,Vakkali, one sees me; and in seeing me, one sees the Dhamma.” ~ SN 22.87
A place to discover and explore the discourses of the Buddha.
I highly recommend reading the sutta translated by Piya Tan. His "Laymen Saints" has been an inspiration to many lay people.
Cats who teach me to fly... 