The witching hour

This morning, an owl flew into Leo's kitchen!!! I was coming out of the toilet (which is in the kitchen) when I heard a swoop and a whole lot of things falling off.

The huge greyish-white owl was probably perched somewhere near the ceiling when it saw me come out, was petrified and fought against the window - which was closed - to escape. Its height was about three-quarters the length of an average adult's arm and its wingspan was simply astounding. I don't remember how wide, but it was wide! I was so majorly freaked out and awed at the same time, I didn't dare take a second look. Ran straight into Leo's room to wake him.

"Bi! Wake up! I think there's an owl in the kitchen!"

Uhm, I've never seen him wake up so fast in my life, especially on a dreary work day. For a moment, he didn't know how to respond, but soon walked swiftly to the kitchen for a peek. And he could only say: "WAH."

At that time, I could still hear lots of flapping and things falling. The owl was desperate, resting occasionally on the kitchen sink, turning its head to stare at Leo. I made sure I stayed out of sight, tip-toe-ing near to take a look when my weak heart allowed me to. While I was amazed at the beauty of the magnificent bird of prey, I did not want to turn prey myself (I had visions of it clawing my eyes out)!

(Later on, while recounting the incident to cocoatina, she immediately said: HARRY POTTER! Oh yes, I thought! What a Harry Potter moment! My editor asked if it dropped the latest book in the kitchen...haha.)

Anyway, Leo looked around the living room and found that the bird had been flying about. It knocked down a clay vase that lay in shattered pieces in front of the TV. It pushed over two tiny pots of fake flowers that were standing on the edge of a picture frame. Uhm, it even left a splotch of poo on the marble floor.

And so it was frantically banging against the window to get out, cos it wasn't clever enough to find its way to the gap on its left - the gap that he flew through to get into the house, probably to take shelter from the downpour. Amazingly though, as Leo was opening the main door, and some windows in the living room, the bird disappeared. Noiselessly. Well, presumably it found its way to the gap.

I checked everywhere in the kitchen but didn't find it. So it must have flown off. What a strange thing to happen. And then of course, we had to suddenly realise we didn't take a picture of it. Imagine a creature of such beauty perched on a none-too-clean kitchen sink, in a five-room flat in Jurong West. What a juxtaposition.

(oh Leo just msned to say it might have been a masked or barn owl. I think it's a barn cos it looked somewhat like this.)