兄弟反目？

Prince of Valour was found to be injured today. He is bleeding in his front right paw. The reason for his injury is unknown as their Highnesses declined to be interviewed. Even me, the Palace Steward, do not know what went on in their quarters. There are rumours that the brothers are vying for the throne as they believe that only one of them should ascend the throne like the late Emperor. Seems that their relationship is not good lately and they might have got into fights.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess are in the midst of deciding whether to separate them or not. However after they requested the current status of the Palace from me, I told them the bad news that expansion is not very possible in near future. Now I am given the task to solve this problem after my 1 week break.

Merry Christmas in advance =)

Problems, problems, problems ...

The Royal Family is plagued with unknown abnormalities. Empress Marble has a tumor but it is not known whether it is cancerous. Empress Marble is leading life as normal. Nothing can affect her. After all she is the offspring of the mighty Empress Dowager and the magnificent Emperor. However I do worry for her because the Emperor passed away sometime after growing a malignant tumor.

In addition, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess have white fur growing on them which look like white patches on them. Hence there are worries whether the genes will be passed on to later generations causing them to have white patches of fur.

The Crown Princess. Rare photos taken when she is exploring new grounds to expand the Palace. She does not like to be chased paparazzi. However her white patches made her the focus of the media again.

The Crown Prince. Photos taken when he is exploring the palace grounds accompanied by the Crown Princess. He is found to have similar problems but not as serious. The white patches are concentrated behind. He too, do not like to be photographed. He tried to avoid the press when he realised that they are around.

The rest of the Family is healthy looking. The children of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess are growing well. However, there are potential problems of overcrowding in the Palace if the Couple is going to have more children. Thus there are plans of expanding the Palace by building an extension called the Crystal Palace. Nothing is confirmed.

2 little fur balls.

Their Majesties have plans to name the children of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess as heirs to the Emerald Throne. Reason being the Crown Prince and Crown Princess are not suitable to take over the throne as they do not possess the traits that a ruler should have whereas their children can be trained and educated in the Palace. In fact, both of them are already showing outstanding personality. Hence their Majesties dragged the naming of the children until today. They are given the titles Prince of Valor and Prince of Gallant.

Prince of Gallant (sleeping) and Prince of Valour (awake)

Prince of Gallent

太子与太子妃现在仍是继承人，但是两位皇后随时可以命两位年幼的王子直接继承皇位。圣旨一下，喜欢过着进宫前自由自在的生活的太子和太子妃并无怨言，只希望把两位王子调教好，将来能顺利登基。In fact the Crown Prince and Crown Princess do not like to be in the limelight. There are little reports about them from the media. This is more evident after the birth of their children; all attention is diverted away from them.

Palace Steward has problems too. I have problems looking for replacement to take care of my masters when I go on a week vacation in Ho Chi Minh. I have 1 week exactly from today to settle everything before I go. Food can be settled easily. It is the water supply that is problematic because water has to be taken from other sources outside the Palace. Only limited amount of water can be stored in the Palace grounds. I hope I can find a part-timer to settle this soon.

the dwarfed dwarf hamster, the Halfling, the hobbit hamster died ...

Yes, it did not survive. It is kind of expected. Survival of the fittest. However it is a pity. It has already come so far. Now there are 8 members left in the Royal Family and only 2 babies survived. The Royal family always has problems with 传宗接代 i guess.

Their Majesties have granted me a couple of days off from tomorrow onwards. They are such nice masters with the best employee welfare =)

The Fourth and Latest Generation ...

On the 14th November 2006, the Crown Princess was found to have given birth to half a dozen of babies. REJOICE!!! It was a long time since the Palace has great news as such. It is also the first time the Palace had 6 babies at a time.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 BABIES!!!

However this joy was short-lived because a week later, 2 babies were missing. Then another and another over the next few days. This mystery was never solved. Rumors flew that the young royal couple murdered their own children due to stress of unable to cope with so many children. As the Palace Steward, I have to put a stop to these rumors in order to protect their highnesses reputation and the Emerald Throne.

One week after the birth of 6 babies, only 4 hamsters are left. Notice there is a smaller one, it is the next one to go missing.

After a few days, 3 babies are left. Seen here is the Crown Princess and the remaining 3 babies. Notice the one on the right is much smaller than the other 2. The difference in size is more obvious as time pass.

Now their Highnesses only left 3 children, gender unknown yet. Each of them has their distinct characteristic and they do not look exactly like their parents. Firstly is the one with fur like that of a Husky. Very charming and attractive. Though young, it is already displaying traits of a fine leader. The other one look more like Empress Pearl. It has a coat of lighter fur and display an aura of grace and elegance.

Empress Pearl look-alike

Husky look-alike

The third one is, however, a big worry to the royal family. Everyone worry for its survival. Due to malnutrition, it is much smaller than its siblings. Until now it is only about one third the sizes of its siblings. It is a dwarfed dwarf hamster, a Halfling, a hobbit hamster. I hope it can grow up and survive this ordeal.

Spot the Halfling? Compare this photo to the other 2 siblings above in the same food tray 3 weeks after birth.

These young hamsters are approaching their 1 month birthday and are now staying in the East Hall while their Highnesses stayed in the West Hall. These young hamsters are heirs second in line after their father to the throne, forming the fourth generation of the Emerald Throne line.

New Blood, New Hopes to the Royal Family

Shortly after the deaths of their parents, Their Highnesses ascended the Emerald Throne and stayed in the Emerald Palace. As mentioned earlier, both of them are heirs of the throne. After ascending the throne, they are given the titles Empress Pearl of the East Palace and Empress Marble of the West Palace and stayed in the Emerald Palace.

Glimpses of life of Their Majesties after ascending the Throne

老佛爷 had the foresight that the royal family will not have any descendants since both of her children are female. Thus before her death, she sent me on the urgent assignment to search of a distant relative of the Emperor to be the crown prince. Hence the childless royal family adopted a crown prince, together with 3 concubines to ensure that the royal family will not face the problem of dropping birthrates. Together these 4 youngsters born on July 2006 form the third generation of the royal family.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess and 2 Concubines. Guess who is the one looking up.

His Highness, the Crown Prince
The Crown Prince looks just like any other hamsters when he first entered the Palace. However as time passed, he is diagnosed with a sleeping disorder, 嗜睡症。He will fall asleep without warning and once he is asleep he will have difficulty waking up unless he wakes up automatically on his own. Therefore this pose to be a threat to the crown prince’s safety, as such, security to protect the crown prince’s well-being is stepped up so that he will not injure himself or attack by anyone when he is sleeping. He is not disturbed about his condition and allows people to make jokes out of it. His Highness graciousness is welcomed by all. I witnessed the below 3 incidents, and the sight of them is really very, very funny and I actually laughed out loud. LOL.

Joke No. 1
His Highness is on his way to the court session. While he was walking out of his residence, he fell asleep when he reached the door. His head slowly bowed lower and lower and lower and lower until he toppled over and roll out of his house and woke up when he reaches the gates.

His Highness' head is already touching the ground and he is still asleep!

Joke No. 2
His Highness was doing his exercise on the treadmill when he fell asleep. His hind legs are hanging halfway out of the wheel and his upper body is on the wheel. He slowly drops down and down and down until he fell to the ground and yet remained sleeping.

Joke No. 3
His Highness was looking over his homeland on top of his roof when he fell asleep. He slides down from the roof and dropped onto the ground, rolled over a couple of times before he stopped and he was still asleep!

The Crown Princess and 2 Concubines
Among the 3 concubines, a crown princess was chosen based on stringent criteria. She is always very energetic and enthusiastic. She is also the first hamster I had seen over my years of service that is able to climb vertical bars.

The Crown Princess climbed to the ceiling via vertical bars. Amazing!

The other 2 concubines were arranged to stay in the Sky Manor while the crown princess stayed together with the crown prince in his residence in the Halls. The concubines are given titles namely, the Concubine of Gentle and the Concubine of Grace. The Concubine of Gentle has ears like rabbits and she is always gentle and kind like rabbits thus her title although she is clumsy in her actions and topples over often when she is walking. The Concubine of Grace is expectedly a graceful hamster in everything she does.

Concubine of Grace (left) & Concubine of Gentle (right)

至死不渝的爱

The Emperor was diagnosed with cancer soon after the death of the Empress Dowager. To surmount his illness, it depends largely on his will to live. However, the Emperor was devastated by the Empress Dowager departure. Their relationship is plagued with ups and downs but the love between this pair of royal couple was never understood by the public. Outsiders thought the Empress Dowager hated the Emperor. As the Palace Steward, I know they have always loved each other despite their age gap. What happens between them is never for us commoners to judge. His Majesty left quietly and peacefully on the 10th October 2006, less than 1 month after the Empress Dowager. 问世间情味何物，只叫生死相许。His Majesty was around 1.66 yrs old when he returned to Heaven. Till death, he was neat & well-groomed. He showed no signs of weaknesses even at the eve of his death. An emperor indeed.

老佛爷驾崩了...

As time passed by, the Princesses grew up and the Empress Dowager grew old. One can observe that her temper had become milder with maturity. As she grew older, she become thinner and weaker physically but she is still the same old 老佛爷 inside.

That fateful morning on the 14th September 2006, as usual I went to Their Highnesses to give them their morning call and serve them breakfast. I realized that 老佛爷 was not feeling well. In fact she looked terrible. She is breathing heavily, in cold sweat and struggling to move. I panicked. I tell that she cannot die. Not now, not today. I tell her I will be by her side and she can tell me whatever she want me to do. Instead of letting me stay, she sent me away to do some errands. Her headstrongness and strength never bend even when she was already dying, she insisted in completing all necessary things before she go.

Although I am unwilling to leave, I cannot defy her orders so asked her to wait for me to return that night. “老佛爷，您一定要等老臣回来。您一定要挺着，千万不要放弃，老臣一定会在日落前把事情办妥，您一定要等老臣回来。” I left her in tears and worries. Through the way she looked at me, I know I have to go. I remembered her black beady eyes when she was still strong and young. Now her eyes were filled with agony and tears.

As promised, I returned by evening and she was waiting for me. She waited for me. I kneeled down in front of her and reported my assignments. She was already very weak. I knew she was going soon. There and then, right in front of me and their Highnesses, she drew her last breathe and returned to Heaven.

I regretted. I regretted telling her to wait for me. If she had not done so, she will not have suffered so much. She could have attain 极乐sooner. Until today when I recalled this incident, my tears will start to well. 老佛爷，老臣对不住您，老臣知错了。I wished I can be by her side to serve her till her last breath but it was my greatest honour that she waited for me until I returned.

The Empress Dowager last seen in public with Their Highnesses at a dinner 1 week before her departure.

A grand funeral was held after that. There were a lot of food, palaces and other possessions to accompany the Empress Dowager incineration for her use along the way to Heaven and in her afterlife. She spent nearly 2 years of her life in the Palace and lived a ripe old age. Others may think this is enough but to her, longevity is something she is always pursuing. She wants her reign to last forever because no one can replace her, no one; at least, not in my heart.

Her Majesty, the Old Empress Dowager 10 days before returning to heaven on 14 Sep 2006

Arrival of the TWINS ...

On 9th October 2005, the Empress Dowager gave birth to a pair of twins. Perhaps it is typical for Royal families to have lesser children as I find it quite rare to have hamsters giving birth to twins. The arrival of the princesses is more than just a bundle of joy. They are the hopes of the royal family line. Both of them are heirs to the throne. With the combination of the Empress Dowager’s strong character, the Emperor’s mild temper and both parents’ good genes in appearance, the princesses are gorgeous and born to be natural rulers.

Due to differences in educating and grooming their heirs, the Empress Dowager and the Emperor once again filed for separation. The Emperor still cares a lot for his family so he stayed in the Sky Manor just beside them in order to visit them every day. Thus his influence on their Highnesses is still considered a lot which explains the nice temper that they inherited from the Emperor.

The Empress Dowager, though considered ruthless, handled them with extreme care and concern. She does not allow anyone to see them until they are big enough to address the world. She may not be a tolerant wife but she is certainly a wonderful mother. 老佛爷无微不至的照顾让格格们感受到了亲切的母爱，就连老夫也被深深的感动。世人未必能了解老佛爷，但主子好的一面，老夫全看在眼里。

After they reach teenage age, they are given the titles Princess of Marble Palace and Princess of Pearl Palace. Princess of Marble Palace looks exactly like their Majesties while Princess of Pearl Palace has a lighter coat of fur which brings out the elegance in her.

Her Highness, the Princess of Marble Palace (left) & Her Highness, the Princess of Pearl Palace (right)

The sisters are a perfect complement of each other. Due to the uniqueness of Pearl Princess, she was often given more media attention than Marble Princess. I am also smitten by Pearl Princess beauty. However, as the Palace Steward, I know Marble Princess has more traits of a leader. Despite Pearl Princess’ popularity, the sisters care for each other a lot and are the best siblings I have ever met. They are always so nice to each other. They do almost everything together. Their favourite activity is star-gazing on the roof top.

The Empress Dowager stayed in the Emerald Palace with their Highnesses until they grow big enough to move to the newest Palace extension, the Halls, so that the Emperor can stay in the Emerald Palace. The Empress Dowager spends her days growing old with their Highnesses in the Halls. The next one year was nothing but absolute peace and joy. When everything seems to be going well, 坏消息便接踵而来。The happiness in the Palace was soon disrupted and things will never be the same again.

The Empress Dowager with Their Highnesses

His Majesty, the first Emperor of the Emerald Throne ...

I met the first king to the Emerald Throne in a group study room (gsr) in Bukit Timah Campus in April 2005. (Actual date unknown, he was a couple months old then.) He was on his way to other places when he took a break in the gsr. I did not recognize him as some member of royal blood until someone picked him up and say he was special. It was at that point I realize I must take him to the Palace to ascend the Emerald Throne proper. Return of the KING!

He was arranged to stay together with 老佛爷, the Empress Dowager who was given the title because of her reputation and character. All hell broke loose. Her Majesty was so used to being alone; she was very displeased with the arrangement.

The mature Empress Dowager on the roof of Sky Manor during its opening

She never thought of remarrying and some more to an Emperor, the King of the Emerald Throne. They fought, very fiercely and very frequently. Being an absolute gentleman, His Majesty was at a losing end. He was so afraid of the Empress Dowager, he hide on the roof top most of the times. The pride of the Emperor and Emerald throne was at stake. I had no choice but to arrange him to stay in the then new building of the Palace, the Sky Manor.

Hiding on the roof to stay away from the overbearing Empress Dowager. The Snoopy wannabe.

After that there was peace in the Palace. His Majesty started to become adventurous and often explore the outskirts of the Sky Manor, surveying the grounds for opportunities to expand the Palace. He was slowly learning how to behave like a King, learning how to uphold the image of the Emerald Throne Emperor. His Majesty was the nicest behaving hamster I have ever come across. Always polite, prim and proper.

Exploration, explores, exploring, explored ...

In June 2005, I have to take a break off my duties in the Palace to travel to Bangkok. I arranged them to stay in a Summer Palace. I am not sure what happened during that stay. It seemed that they made up and agreed to stay together. Ever since the Emperor and Empress Dowager formed the first generation of the Emerald throne line. It was a joyous sight when I returned. And more good news follows.

Note: the Palace is made up of several buildings such as the main building for the present Emerald Throne rulers, The Emerald Palace, the Halls of East and West a.k.a. the Halls, and the smallest building, the Sky Manor. The first establishment of the Palace is the main royal residence, The Emerald Palace, and then expansion to the Sky Manor and the latest expansion is the Halls.

Early days of 老佛爷

the young Empress Dowager. She is chewing on a piece of apple.

Much of the records of the Empress Dowager are being destroyed when the only computer that the Royal family uses is being reformatted without saving all important details. Vague impressions of the Empress Dowager in her early days were left.

She first entered the Palace at a tender young age with her husband in late 2004. Yes, she was then a commoner. However she is already exhibiting extraordinary characteristics that other hamsters do not possess.

She had strong principles and unforgiving even for the slightest fault. Yet the charm and beauty that she possesses made her the most attractive hamster that has ever entered the Palace. Her husband died shortly after, reasons unknown. There are rumors that she killed him. However this was never established. No one ever knows the truth but with her strong character, it was not surprising if it is true.

Important note: According to historical records, in the year 2000, before the Palace was formed, the most charming hamster was a male which made the Empress Dowager the most influential hamster after him. His name was John Lame. Intelligent, witty, strong, selfless, efficient and well-loved by all. Mostly importantly he is well-trained in First Aid. He will always be missed. Ironically, he died of stroke after half a day of torturing from it. We can never administer first aid on ourselves, i guess. With deepest regrets, I was not around when he breathe his last.

On behalf of my masters ...

I am a Palace Steward. My job is to clean up the various halls and compartments of the palace. In addition, I am also in charge of the food and water supplies in the Palace and other details.

Recently, my masters order a decree and want me to record the happenings that took place in the Royal family, the Emerald throne line and the Palace. With my lowly education and limited vocab, I shall try my best to describe the life stories of every member in the Royal family. Their main purpose is to let their unique experiences to be recorded down so that they will not be forgotten as generations of the family pass by.

We are now into the 3rd/4th generation of the family but this record will start from the very 1st member of the Royal family; the formidable, the stern, the neat, the smart, the strong, the determined, the active, the most alluring 老佛爷, The EMPRESS DOWAGER.