From mountain tops where we can see for ever



and valleys dotted with hotsprings between those mountains



unequal race at pavilion beyond Dragon Eye



And to seashores such as this in Green Island off Taiwan, another magical nook of paradise that much of the whole world do not know.


This is a love story of me and my Tinkerbell, a free flying Congo African Grey parrot CAG , as we roamed about the mountains and forests and cities of Taiwan. She loves to go riding with me on the motorbike as she sit on a perch on the handle bar.

Tinkerbell Homepage

Full details of that and more are in that webpage, together with URLs to the relevant Webshots folders of hundreds of photos. Without those photos, what I wrote will never be believed

As with all love story, it is happy and sad.


Warmest regards

Shanlung

Tinkerbell Homepage

Welcome to PC Shanlung. It's so exciting to have you here with us. I loved your photos and look forward to looking through your home page.

Simply gorgeous pictures! I'd love to read Tinkerbell's story, but unfortunately the link you provided is not working for me.

Welcome to Parrot chatter! You have great photos.

Welcome, Shanlung. Its always wonderful to see photos of Tinkerbell. The second one of this series, where she's flying over the river with the rugged hills in the background is one of my favorites. She's so beautiful. Have you had news or been able to visit her since 2005?

Welcome to Parrotchatter Shanlung! It's so great to have you here. You have some of the most fabulous pictures!

welcome to parrotchatter

Welcome. I love the photos.

Folks,

Thank you for such nice warm welcome.

I am happy to meet new friends as well as to catch up with some old friends here.

Quito's Qage,

I was wondering how you seem to be familiar with those old Tink photos and events until I got to end of your letter and see that you are Nate. You saw those photos and writeups in real time more or less when they occured.

To my new friends, Part 1 of http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/ can be
a bit overwhelming. Thats from about 3 years of writing almost from the time Tinkerbell came into my life and we went off to do crazy stuff that you must have been rightfully warned against. But I am glad we did all that. Even the bad had its silver lining.

To new friends, I suggest you read a kind of summary of me and Tinkerbell here http://shanlung.livejournal.com/8284.html

That will be easier than to read Part 1 that you can do later when you have the time.

Nate,
The question you asked of since 2005 made me suspect you might have missed some key events after that time.

You might even have missed Yingshiong, the white rumped shama that was a gift from Tinkerbell. WR shama is the world finest song bird weighing 30 grams.
Shamas are classified as 'aviary birds'. They are among the most timid of birds but they are also the best song birds in the world.

Yingshiong was borned wild and was old when he came to me.
You can see from the daily blog I kept that he flew to me on recall within a month. Breeders of 4 decades of experience with shamas told me my photos are the first ever of a male shama landing on a human. I just think none of them thought of ever trying in the first place. And they had not met that birdwhisperer of Tsaoling that inspired me that much

You can see how I adapted what I wrote in Tinkerbll Legacy to work with a shama instead. Why a shama? I just could not get another parrot into my life even then.





Yingshiong was caught in the forest and he was 3-4 years old when he was given to me.

Within a month, he flew to me when I called him.

You can hear him in these recordings.

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/shamasong.html

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/shamasong2.html

You can see him in this videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b56Bqb3tEE

and how I tell him to fly back to his cage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVMbbxjjJqs

I had not taken many videos of Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell response to my recalls were like YS. Except YS flew like greased lightning.


All of you can do what I have done. I kept a diary everyday as to how we train together. YS started with me here
http://www.livejournal.com/~shanlung/2005/10/14/

You will find it all in http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/

(Continued in the next letter)

(Continuation)

It was another painful goodbye that I had to say to Yingshiong. That was on the 7 May 07. I flew back to Singapore to be with him, and then to hand him over to the Jurong Bird Park.
Tha was painful even if not of the magnitude when I first had to say goodbye to Tinkerbell.

The only way to prevent that is to close our hearts entirely. Then there will be no pain, and no beauty or magic either.

The leaving of Tink is more than a throbbing hurt. Much of my life still evolve
around her. When I went to work in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, I was hoping that would lead me back to Taiwan. Then I realised that was not going to be the case and my wife understandably refused to live with me in Saudi Arabia. I could not fly back to Taiwan to see Tink and ignore seeing my wife.

Thats why I am now in Brisbane down under. Where my wife is willing to come and live with me here. We can both
visit Taiwan together as Tink is her daughter too.

Only recently we decide my wife is to join me here even though I been here since Nov 06. If it was just the two of us, she would have been here with me from the beginning. But we have Yingshiong to consider about. If
both of us were to leave Singapore together, that will be the end of chapter with Yingshiong. And he did wiggle into our hearts much as we tried not to let that happen.

I had made a couple of visits back to Taiwan just to be with Tinkerbell again. You knew of Tinkerbell Revisited back in June 2005.

The last visit is Tinkerbell Interlude in Nov2006. Here is a letter which is a good precursor to that episode.
And also partly explain why I am in Brisbane.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaa
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/65169.html

2006-11-16

Tinkerbell Interlude photoset and videos, and start of next chapter of life




Hello to all my friends around the world,

The last couple of days were spend in collating the photographs and videos
taken during the Tinkerbell Interlude, a period from 1st November to 8th November
when I was in Taiwan to be with Tinkerbell again.

I sort the photos to cover the day by day with Tinkerbell.

The Livejournal entries now have the appropriate photos in them that
better illustrate some of the events I wrote about. The videos are
also embedded in the Livejournal entries.

You find that in

http://shanlung.livejournal.com/2006/11/


Tinkerbell flights were very weak at the beginning. Yu treated her
too well, taking delicacies and tea to her. As a result, she hardly
had to fly. She never made recall flights to him for a long time. That
led to him not trying to let her fly. That was a sad spiralling circle.
It took me just one morning to put right in my "Retraining the trainer".

Tinkerbell needed to be reminded of the joy of flying, and given the chance
to fly again. In the videos at Chiayi Park Confucious temple, you can hear
clearly the heavy landings she made on me, none of those feather soft landings of before.

It was only a week later, that I trusted her with longer flights at BanTienYen.
Look at the video where she flew at me, circled off with the leash screaming from the reel and her breaking off and returning to me.

The photosets can be seen here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanlung/sets/

You can also see the videos here.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=shanlung

You should see that from bottom up starting from Confucious temple flights.

Why I went to Taiwan for this short holiday can be told now.
When I left Saudi Arabia, I went to Brisbane Australia and accepted a 4 year contract to work and live there. I came back to Singapore to do the paper work to get that work visa for Australia. I knew my time frame will be short. So I had to see Tinkerbell when I could.

It was lucky that I did so. Yesterday, I received news that the visas for me and my wife Joy were granted. I hoped to start there early next year. That company then wanted me over asap.
We compromised in that I fly over to Brisbane on 26th November starting 27th November 2006.

My wife will remain in Singapore for a few months until the work and company find us mutually agreeable
for that long term. Then she will fly over and live with me in Australia.

This started when I was working and living in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia. Then I read this BBC article in June about the Russian tundra melting. We knew that would happen. But I thought that to be a consequence of global warming. That article then described the gigatons of CO2 and methane trapped in the past to be coming out now. So instead of the permafrost melting as a consequence, that might well be a timebomb giving us even less time in a world and society that we know.

I rather enjoy life with my wife NOW, than to make lots of money in Riyadh for a future rather uncertain.
There were other reasons, but my preference is to enjoy the time that is left to me and my wife. Working and living in Brisbane Australia will be much better than in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia even if the pay is less.

Perhaps, what I wrote ten years back might make interesting reading for you.
http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/oldluddite.html

I will not argue if you think differently. In fact, I hoped you are right, for the sake of my son
and your children, that we will have a lot more time in the future. If true leaders are found and all
of us ready and able to accept the drastic changes in our current lifestyles. Rather difficult isnt it?

That bring up what will happen to Yingshiong should and when my wife joins me in Australia. You note that I deliberately had to fly back to Singapore from Taiwan as my wife flew to UK to see her nieces. That was done as one of us must be with Yingshiong.

By the way, Yingshiong is in the PC room with me. He flew in to join me as I wrote this rather long letter.
If I ignored him too long, he would hover over my head. So I do a few recalls for the chance to treat him with millis.

I love YS too, even if not at the level at the soul as that with Tinkerbell.

Should me and my wife cannot look after YS, I will not allow YS to be back into a round cage. I had discussed with Taufik with the various possibilities and he agreed with me.

Yingshiong might go into the Jurong Bird Park in the waterfall aviary. This is the largest walk-in aviary
in the world. I have had discussions with the highest level and given an in-principle approval for Yingshiong.
There are 4 resident male shamas there and one or two females among lots of other birds. It will
be a life and death struggle for Yingshiong. But I think YS is a prime 4-5 years old. I believe he will fight
and be dominant or at least carve out a space for himself.

So if anyone go there in future, you might be hearing Yingshiong singing up in the canopy of trees.

My friend BK offered Yingshiong a permanent place in his huge aviary, and beautiful shama wife for him too.
But no one other than me , BK, and a few of his friends will ever hear Yingshiong again. He will be safe there,
pampered for the rest of his life. BK aviary seen here http://shanlung.livejournal.com/64879.html

Another option will be to release Yingshiong back into the appropriate forest. This might have the risk that he
is unable to integrate back into nature or capture by other people to be kept in a cage again.

It is yet too early to decide now.


Warmest regards

Shanlung

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa

Well, the decision was made and that deed done. So painful that I still have not written that final farewell even now a month later.

__________________
Warmest regards

Shanlung

http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9/