Trip to Keukenhof

the mouse trap and some unrelated food...

I couldn't upload pictures onto the previous post ...duno why...blogger is so buggy...anyway...the first dish is Vietnamese Ginger Chicken and the second is Curry Chicken Potato Pasta...experiments last week cos I had a whole kilo of chicken breasts...half price...wahahahaha....recently I made some frenchy pork rib pasta ...will upload it next time...
also worthy of comment was the claypot mutton I had at a chinese restaurant after Ma Qingyun's boring lecture at Berlage...point to note was Koolhas' grand entrance right after Ma started to speak...and his storage of his handphone in his sock which caused his crossed leg to vibrate when it went off...other than this bit of trivia, the Q&A went pretty well tho...better than his presentation...back to the mutton....it was a well stewed claypot of herbal mutton and it went super well with the fermented tofu sauce...man did it melt in the mouth...urgh.....too bad too engrossed with eating that I forgot to take a pic...sigh...

Mickey mouse in my room

Last Thursday night, while I was happily doing my work as usual, I suddenly felt movement from the corner of my eye, just as I had leaned back to stretch. Puzzled, I turned to my kitchen and saw to my horror, a furry grey mouse stop short in its tracks, darted its tiny head at my direction, as it too had sensed movement, and scurried back under my kitchen cabinet, leaving me dumbfounded. The first thought that came to me when I recovered from the shock was 'how in the world did it manage to get into my room??!!'...And I had reason to be so puzzled as my room is a pretty tight container, and when I say container, I literally mean it; it's really a container, with only the wind tight door and a similarly wind tight window. There was no way it could have gotten in through the air vent or climb in through the window when it was open as there was just too much height for it to clear. Then I remembered that while I was happily cleaning my kitchen stove the night before, I had opened the door for quite some time as it had gotten kinda warm; it must have crept in while the door was open. But I was standing next to the door. Knowing what poor risk takers mice are I couldn't believe it could have gotten in that way. Anyway, the fact is, it was in my room, and I had to get rid of it.
Without much thought, I made a sticky tape sheet out of sticky tape strips and put some cheese and nuts in the middle, hoping that the mouse would get stuck to the tape and I could apprehend it. I prepared the trap and went to bed. I switched off the lights and waited in suspense. I was stuck in a 20msq wind tight room with a house mouse, and my bed was just next to the floor. I can't say I was afraid of it, as I had hamsters before, but I was more concerned with the possible diseases it may have been carrying. Before long, I heard the crisp clicking of the tape as the mouse tried to get to the food. The existence of the mouse was confirmed, I was not imagining things. Hearing the 'alarm', I reached for my glasses, and switched on the light asap. But I was too late, the tape was not sticky enough to stay the little twerp. I thought, maybe it was just testing the edge of the sheet. So I went back to bed and waited. As I waited impatiently for it to strike, I was thinking of how to improve the trap, and dozed in and out sleep. Who could sleep at a time like this? Anyway, after some time, I heard the clicking of the mouse freeing itself of the tape again, the 'alarm', but this time, I heard a lot more clicks. I was hoping that it would continue, which would mean that it was surely caught, but to my dismay, it went dead silent. My racing pulse slowed down in disappointment; looks like I would have to think of a better trap in the morning. I gave up for the night and slept as best I could. Surprisingly, I did sleep. I comforted myself with thoughts that people in more established neighbourhoods in most of the rest of the world lived with resident mice anyway. But the mouse did give me a nightmare, the details of which I won't delve into.
So the next morning, I made another trap; this time it was a more common design for larger prey, a box resting on a stick attached to food. I made several modifications to this design; I stuck a length of cheese with UHU to a small sheet of sticky tape and attached it to the stick which was holding up the box, which I had fashioned out of an Amazon box, cutting away the flaps. I later stuck a curtain of sticky tape such that it would dangle on the perimeter of the gaping box; the mouse would be able to enter as the sticky side was facing inside, but should the box collapse when the bait had been taken, the sticky side would now be facing upwards and the mouse would be stepping on it while it tries to lift the box, further trapping it! Brilliant! I gleefully smiled as I thought of this scenario; stupid mouse chose the wrong room to taunt.
Night came, and this time, I left the reading light on and kept my glasses on; I wasn't gonna waste precious time fiddling with them. fifteen minutes into my mock sleep, I heard the box collapse. I wasted no time in jumping out of my bed and placed a box of fruit juice on the box. Afterwards, I heard some resounding scratching sounds. Alas, mickey was caught! I was filled with relief, but was feeling a sense of foreboding, as I didn't know how to get rid of it. It was under the box, if I flipped it over even in an enclosed space, who knows how fast and how high it could jump? Not taking any chances, I decided to slide a piece of cardboard between the floor and the box, and then dumped it into a trash bag and threw it into the trash. Voila! Done...here is the trap...many thanks to Amazon...