In a few days, November will be over, and before we know it, the end of the year will be here.

For many, the end of the year is supposed to be a festive time, what with all the gifts giving, all the cards and the good wishes.

A few years ago, I came to decide that all the gifts/cards that I sent would have to mean a little more than just cards/gifts. I do so by shopping for all my cards from unicef.org (for Thailand, please click here.) And when I was back in the US, I try to buy gifts from St. Jude where all their products are oh so very cute, at reasonable prices, and, of course, most importantly, for a great cause.

I’m looking for something similar here in Thailand where I can buy cute/affordable gifts knowing that all (or part of) the profit will be donated to some respectable charity with a good cause. If that can be done online, all the better.

If anyone knows of such a place, please do let me know so I can give gifts and good deeds at the same time in this upcoming festive season. :)

I was going to blog something somewhat politics-related. Well, you know, a bit of a rant-style to let out my frustration with the current situation!!!

But then I remembered what I said about staying away from politics on this blog and decided against it.

So, on an almost completely unrelated note, my aunt, uncle, cousin and I found a little baby bird (nestling, I was told it’s called) on a footpath last night. (The location of the footpath is not significant in this story.)

After observing it for a while, we decided that there’s probably something wrong with its leg and that it probably has a small chance of surviving the night as the nest was nowhere in sight, and the parents didn’t seem to be around.

So, we decided to take it back home to see the vet. According to the vet, the birdy’s leg was not broken (fortunately!!!); it was just very weak and hungry (possibly from not having probably eaten for who knows how long.)

So, after prescribing some supplement, the vet also gave us a syringe and demonstrated how to feed the little birdy (with milk or baby cereal.)

So, right now the birdy is safely at home in a cardboard box. (Which, by the way, is actually dog’s food’s cardboard box!! I hope the 2 doggies at home won’t mistake the birdy for their usual food! *laughs*)

Its right leg still looks odd the way it keeps the leg swung over its wing sometimes (that cannot be normal, can it?) And I haven’t really seen the birdy walking properly yet. . . I hope that it can walk. I hope that it can then fly. . . and I hope that it will be able to live a normal life.

Anyway, so here I am, baby-bird-sitting. I fed the poor little thing with some Cerelac. And now everytime I walked by, the birdy would chirp and keep its mouth open in anticipation that I would feed it some more.

Cute. But more importantly, I guess this shows it’s strong enough to try to catch my attention. ;)

I really do hope that birdy will be able to fly away soon. Does it need to be taught how to fly? Should we keep the box by the window so that it can observe the other birds flying by??? Would that help?

PS. Note to self: if we have to take the birdy back to the vet to check out its leg, make sure to ask the vet whether it’s a he or a she.

PS2. Birdy actually does have a name from my cousin, but I want to refrain from mentioning it here.

*laughs*

I heard the “Theme of Exodus” music a few weekends ago, and I just remembered the name of the song now. So, I’d like to quickly blog it here before I forget.

Very grande and moving song.

Anyway, there are about a million other things I want to blog about right now, including my first 10k run outdoor, my best friend’s sister’s wedding, details of my last day (what I learned and whatnot), a few of my future plans/goals, some festive holiday’s season’s spirit, etc.

But I guess I’ll come back to those in 2 weeks’ time.

I almost cried today . . .

when I had to say good-bye (even though it was just a soft good-bye) to my colleagues.

It was much harder than I expected, and it definitely took much longer than I expected. (Seriously, for those who may be thinking about leaving a job, you should count on having at least 2 years for every year that you have worked to have enough time to actually get around to say good bye to everyone . . . so, I should have at least about 3 days or so. AT LEAST.)

After all, it had been 1.5 years. Of course, it’s not like it was a complete perfect and completely peaceful 1.5 years, but you know, in the end, there were more good memories than bad ones over the 18 months, and I’ve learned much more than I expected, in areas completely outside my expectations!

Above all, I had gotten to know so many great people. They’re truly the first group that I would call my “work family” and I’ll always remember all the great time I’ve had with them, and all the things I had learned from them all.

You know who you are . . the biggest thank you and you’ll always be in my heart . . . always.