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"There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away."
--Emily Dickinson

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-Is an English Language major undergraduate who likes to Take It Easy.

Words and languages, Jane Austen, period dramas/films, Vitagen, Korean dramas, good songs, better books, Green, wanderlusting, Culture, writing, Experimenting

Things I'd Like

- A Nitendo Wii gaming console
- My own set of rollerblades
- More nail polish (bought just one, neon pink in colour)
- Concert DVDs! (Back to Basics: Live & Down Under by Christina Aguilera, The Black Parade Is Dead by My Chemical Romance , Mika: Live In Cartoon Motion, Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live In Los Angeles )
- A cat

Old Stories

High Hopes (on English)
Stickers are fun!
From Genting
More pics!
Pics in Penang....!
Malaysia trip =)
My Ipod
hey Johnnnyyy!
Visit www.pirates.com.sg!
My Schedule:):)

Older Stories

March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
July 2009
August 2009
October 2009

Great Clicks

Twitter
Rapture
Heaven
Mraz
Mayer
Xiaxue
Andrea
Retro Music
Music blog

Thanks

Designer: fedora_girl :)
Image: Pride & Prejudice (2005) screencaps
Brush, Pattern: The Magic Box
Edit: Adobe Photoshop

FROMMER'S travel guide (4th edition, 2005), says ," Although you have no risk of contracting malaria in Singapore, (the country’s been declared malaria-free for decades by the World Health Organisation), there is a similar deadly virus, dengue fever, that’s carried by mosquitoes and for which there is no immunization. A problem in the tropics around the world, dengue fever is controlled in Singapore with an aggressive campaign to prevent the responsible mosquitoes from breeding. Still, each year cases of infection are reported, almost all of them occurring in suburban neighbourhoods and rural areas. Symptoms of dengue fever include sudden fever and tiny red spotty rashes on the body. If you suspect you’ve contracted dengue, seek medical attention immediately. If left untreated, this disease can cause internal hemorrhaging and even death. Your best protection is to wear insect repellent that contains DEET, especially if you’re heading out to the zoo, bird park, or any of the gardens or nature preserves, especially during the daytime.”



Where I live now, my area, is a freaking Dengue Hot Spot. We have 14 cases just in my little small area, as reported on pg 4 of The New Paper today. Well, none of my family members have been affected so far, I’m thankful to say, and I hope we never ever get infected. Don’t you think it’s laughable when such tiny creatures can cause so much damage and mass mobilization from us humans?

I live on a storey, which is one-digit high. I used to live on the 13th floor in my old place and we got bugged by those mosquitoes every once in a while. And my old home was surrounded by dense vegetation. While here, in my new house, there is vegetation right outside my window, but considerably less dense. I don’t know if it has something to do with the difference in altitude, but mosquitoes soon became a major problem for us in our new home.

From day 1, I saw and felt the presence of those pesky buggers. They weren’t lean and harmless-looking as the mozzies at my old home were. The ones at my new home, came in all shapes, colours, sizes, and hariness. We got bitten a few times every day. For sure.

I used to be able to get through the night with just my windows open, and the cool light breeze of the night drifting in. But in my new home, when I slept at night, I couldn’t sleep, from the buzzing of the mosquitoes around my bed. So I switched on my standing fan at nights, blowing straight directly at my bed, and this kept those buggers away. As for my family members, my parents had to burn the mosquito coil nightly and my brothers installed the electronic odorless mosquito repellent in their room.

Every day was a battle against those mozzies. We started burning mosquitoe coils in the daytime, but They never seemed to stop visiting us. We soon got used to those uninvited guests hanging around.

Aedes mosquitoes hang around my area. That’s a fact. In my old home, the mosquitoes were relatively small and completely black in colour. Occasionally, very rarely, they had white stripes. In my new home, every single one of them has white stripes on its hairy body. My brother noticed this for the first time only a few months ago, and he went hysterical! He made sure every one of took a good hard look at the mosquito he caught, at the white stripes of the dead mosquito in all its glory. Silly boy. I already noticed that way long before he did. So to appease him, we placed the mosquito in a small transparent bottle and handed it over to the Town Council Office. Three days later, a town council person came knocking at our door and asked us a few questions on the potted planted displayed outside our home and of our house conditions. That’s all. That was a few weeks before the first of dengue cases broke out in my neighbourhood.

Those crazy blood-sucking bitches(the mosquitoes which bite are all females) are so prevalent that, they even bred in our own freaking home recently! In my home toilet, in a pail of water which my aunt didn’t clear out. A whole breed of them. About 20 plus. The day they hatched was the day we discovered them. The ones which hatched were really hairy, and flying drunkenly in pairs around the toilet. Others were still in the midst of hatching when my brother sprayed the whole batch with insecticide. Thankfully, he did the dirty job. Because he was the one who discovered our new family of tenants. I guess being mere guests were not enough for these pests huh?

One time last month, I woke up to a very loud sound. I looked out my window, and saw a person going up to every vegetation with a fogging machine, and fogging every branch. What a sweet scene it was. It was the first time in a year plus that I’ve stayed there that they’ve done fogging (in my old home, fogging was done almost every month). Nearby him, a group of inspectors were peering down the ground around a lamppost for more than 20 minutes. I guess they had just found a nest of mozzies there.

The mozzies at my house have reduced very much significantly. Hallelujah! I hope it’s not just at this period, where Singapore has reached the epidemic level of dengue (exceeding the threshold of 378 cases a week). I hope it would stay like this in years to come. Or we would just have to keep sending dead mosquitoes belly-up to the people at the Town Council. Or we would just have to keep stocking up on insecticide. Or buy plants like geranium or mint plants which are natural repellents( my mum researched on this weeks ago).

In Singapore, first-time offenders(mosquito breeders in homes, be it intentionally or unwittingly) are fined $100, while second-time offenders are fined $200.

While in Indonesia, ‘breeders’ will be fined up to 50 million rupiah ($8,600) or jailed for 3 months. In Hong Kong, breeders at home, work place or construction site is liable for a fine of HK$25,000 ($4,900).