A hungry rabbit at our doorstep

For the first time today, I saw a rabbit in my compound. No, it's not the first time I saw a rabbit per se; it's the first time I saw a rabbit in my compound. My brother was the one who told me about it, as he saw the rabbit sitting in our porch.

 

We didn't know where it came from. I went over to pick it up, although it had a rather lame attempt to run away. But in my hands it barely moved. I didn't know if it was someone's pet (it most likely was). My brother suggested putting it outside the gate, but I couldn't help thinking that a cat might get at it (as it had eaten a friend's rabbit before).

 

I asked him to find a cardboard box, but no success. I thought that we could leave it at a friend's office, where she also has rabbits. Then we were told by my father's staff (who works at my father's office in the back of our house) that it belonged to our neighbour, whom we hadn't spoken to for about 20 years. It might be hungry, she said. It often comes over. Sometimes the maid feeds it carrots.

 

Oh, I replied. I hadn't known. So I put it down so that it could go home if it wanted to. It didn't. It settled itself comfortably next to our shoe rack outside the house, and it was still there when I left the house. It didn't look deprived enough - it wasn't chubby, but it wasn't bone-thin either. Perhaps it wasn't hungry at the moment. It might have been smart enough to forage for food - sometimes there are bits we throw out in the garden to decompose. Or maybe it has been 'weeding' our garden for us.

 

My brother said that the neighbours had already moved. I hadn't even known. I peeked over the fence and true enough, the lawns were quite empty of the things they used to keep there, save for a few rusty pieces of junk. But there were still a couple of their luxury cars. Perhaps they were driving the cars over to their new homes a few at a time on a daily basis. They have that many cars.

 

What moved me the most was that I was told the rabbit was sometimes hungry. How could anyone have a pet and not feed it? In fact... how could anyone not even take proper care of the rabbit, to the point that it can escape and cross over the neighbour's fence? True, it was domestic enough and probably smart enough to go home. But that was besides the point.

 

It had apparently been around a while. My father said that there had been a rabbit hanging around the cars, although he hadn't said for how long.

 

I swore to myself that if the rabbit was still there when I got home, I will take it and keep it. The first thing I'd have to do is probably take it to the vet to see if the necessary has been done for it. I have to admit, the expenditure flitted across my mind too - I have barely enough to pay for my own bills.

 

I'm disgusted by their lackadaisical attitude. You don't keep a pet and not take care of it. I know they don't even treat their maids properly - quite a number had run away from them before. They won't let the maid eat enough. Even if they have leftovers, they throw it away instead of letting the maid eat her fill. No wonder animals are running away too.

 

Is it anything to be wondered at that we haven't spoken to them in 20 years?

Documented youth

Last weekend a group of my school friends and I gathered at a friend's
house. These gatherings are rare; we usually meet only once every few
months. However this gathering came at the heels of a recent one we had when
we met up during Chinese New Year. I had somehow initiated the latest one -
when I had a tape converted from VHS to VCD.

When we were 16/17, my dad had bought a digital videocamera which I brought
along for fun to record ourselves. I saved it all into a dedicated
videotape, but early last year when I dug it out I found the tape speckled
with white fungus, and I didn't dare plug it into my VCR for fear of
contaminating it. It was then left lying around for a while, although I was
dying to watch it. I couldn't remember what exactly it contained, but I knew
that it would be fun to watch.

Even though late last year I had bought a video capture card (to convert
analog to digital - for that very same digital videocamera my father bought
years ago), I still couldn't convert the tape in question because (1) of the
fungus, and (2) my VCR was already spoilt, although not by the fungus in
that tape. I never knew where to get it converted though - I never saw any
signs on any shops that indicated these services offered.

When I started getting very involved in video editing (especially for my
dance team videos), I remembered that tape and dug it out again. This time I
vaguely remembered seeing a counter in U@Parkson that did display a
sign stating they had video conversion services. The next time I went to One
Utama, I walked around the store, but the counter was no longer in sight.
Upon asking one of the staff there, I found out that the service had been
discontinued.

Disappointment! But anyway while I was there, I wanted to find out the price
of a new battery for that ancient videocamera I had, so I threaded my way
over to some of the electronics shops. While enquiring, on a whim I asked if
they had video conversion services... and they did! Pretty pricey though -
RM45 per tape! I could've done it myself with my own video capture card, but
having no VCR was a big obstacle. And I figured that at that price, I might
as well let the shop deal with the fungus.

The conversion came out quite well, into two VCDs. I didn't know that there
was a movie attached to the end, and that came out into the VCD as well.
Somehow they didn't split the sequence properly when it was time to go into
the second VCD, and it was smack in the middle of one of our own
self-recordings. Fortunately there was a second recording of the same
sequence in the tape - I think that back then, I was quite fussy about the
order of the recordings in the analog tape, and had rerecorded the scenes
several times on the same tape. Using a little bit of video editing, I
managed to combine the sequence into one uninterrupted video, and then saved
all the relevant videos into one VCD on its own.

So it was on a Saturday night that my friends and I gathered to watch the
VCD. And boy, we couldn't stop laughing! The first video was a recording of
our play rehearsal at another girl's house. It wasn't the whole play though;
only the ending, but it was hilarious enough. The play in itself wasn't a
comedy - it was actually a tragedy. What we were laughing at is our own
overacting, and some of the silly things each of us did for fun during the
play - we obviously weren't taking the rehearsals seriously! Back then in
Form 5, this play was for an inter-class competition, which we won, and had
to perform in front of the entire school. It was nothing great, we weren't
all that good actors, but it was fun back then.

The second video was a recording of a New Year's Eve party. We were playing
a modified version of past-the-parcel... each layer of wrapping had a 'task'
we had to do. Sort of like the 'dare' part of a 'truth or dare' game.
Everyone in the party had already prepared papers with the tasks, and when
we had arrived at the house, we merely wrapped the parcel with the papers we
had prepared. Some disgusting tasks did surface, some nonsensical, some
lame. The night had finished off with a game one of the guys prepared: a
'fashion modeling' show, with the rest of us teamed up by pairs. There was
even a prize-giving session, which my partner and I won.

And I was sitting there, not remembering a single bit of the party, not even
remembering what prize I won!

The third video was a recording of a combined birthday party of two of our
friends, plus a surprise going-away for me as I was leaving for uni soon
after that. This recording was not so funny, but it was nice to see
ourselves back then. There were several camera-shy people, who often covered
their faces or turned their backs when the camera lens flashed onto them.
Others just continued being themselves without thought.

It was watching this VCD that made me realise how wonderful it is to have
our memories documented. My friends, like me, couldn't remember some of the
things that had happened during the parties. Memory is a wonderful thing,
but sometimes we are reduced to remembering only the general thing about an
event, instead of the individual happenings in an event. That was why, after
that, I was determined that from now on I will bring my videocamera to every
occasion - you never know when these memories will be wonderful to watch
again.

And I'm not talking about that ancient relic of a videocamera I have, even
though I had bought a new battery for it - I had recently purchased a
brand-new digital videocamera with a 3.5" CCD screen that will be so much
easier to handle!

That night we played Cranium, which was a brand-new board game one of my
friends bought. It's a combination of Pictionary, Charades, Trivia, and a
whole lot more. We only recorded the first half until I ran out of tape, but
when I watched it later, although it was not hilariously funny, it was still
nice to watch. I was only sorry that we didn't record the later half,
because (according to my undocumented memory) some of the funnier things
happened later.