Congratulation Mr and Mrs A Tan

Yesterday I posted a photo of a friend who got married on Saturday morning. In the afternoon there as another friend who got married too!

Again another photo that will protect their privacy. :-)

E and her daddy walking down the aisle.



Congratulation A and E Tan! God Bless both of you too!

Congratulation Mr and Mrs J Lee

Today one of our good friend got married. Here's a photo of them that will protect their privacy :-)



Congratulations J & J. God Bless both you.

Advertisements on Bicycles...

I just realised that I have some photos in another memory stick that has never been extracted out! This was taken about a month ago!



Isn't it interesting?

Q1. Do you have adverts on bikes like this in your city?
Q2. Do you have so many storage cards that you forget to see what's inside like me?

Have a good weekend!

Big Man and Big Fish

This is a shot from the 2nd floor of a wet market. It was taken at the Bukit Timah Market.
What caught my eye was the huge fish in the container!



Do you shop in traditional wet markets? Or do you prefer supermarkets?

giraffe and dtrace

What's this? Colleague borrowed my camera and said he needed to do take some picture for documentation. When it came back to me, I saw this inside. Hmmm...



by the way is it a giraffe? haha..
well, if it is, giraffe is reading about dtrace. if you want to know anything about it, i am not the person to ask, my colleague is. a sun java black belt some more..


are you a very technical person? or you don't care, just hope that your PC or Mac works as it should, or else you will panic!

Mid-Autumn Festival - pigs included!

Today, we had a short eating session after our meeting at church.

It's the Mid-Autumn Festival today! So, we had some food. Someone even peeled pomelos for us! We have few boxes of mooncakes, but this was the 'star'. A piglet mooncake!



Ain't it adorable? By the way, it has no meat. So it can be considered vegetarian?

Anyway, it's just so so cute!
No, none of us carried lanterns! haha...

Flowers for Momo by a group of Friends...

Sunday was Momo's birthday. Momo helps fills the gap in this blog when I go on holidays. On Saturday nite, the 20 of us, planned a secret party for her.

It was coordinated by a few friends that it went so well. All the trouble and it was so fun. Cut the long story short, this is the bouquet of flowers that was given to her.



Huge orchids that can cover the person holding the bunch of flowers!
Green is Momo's fav color.



Beautiful orchids aren't they? They were made specially by two other friends in the conspiracy that are budding florist!

As many surprises in Singapore, it always involved food glorious food.

Constructions.. it goes on at Orchard Road..

This massive whatever they are called, are what you will see at corner of Orchard Road and Orchard Blvd.



This was how it looked some time ago! And the starting of the construction in July.

I am actually waiting for it to finish. It is to have a wavy roof like building. More details at its website.

Does construction goes on forever in your city too?

Mooncakes Galore at Takashimaya.

Every year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, people will flock to the Takashimaya Shopping Centre where you can taste and view all the mooncakes you want.

I was there with colleague during lunch hour yesterday. It's to avoid the mad rush on the weekend. You get to see chefs or bakers making mooncakes on site too.



An 'aerial' view of the foyer where all the temp stalls displayed their goods.


(If you have the bandwidth and want to view the photo above in more detail, click on photo)

I have also posted some photos of mooncakes at the food blog here and here.

Mooncakes in Singapore is quite elaborate, it is not like the ones sold in Chinatowns in many western countries which does not tempt you at all. Think 'Champagne Truffles Mooncakes' haha...

iwannagohome!

I was meeting friends for a movie last week when I saw this. Well, it caught my eye.

It's a new fashion home store that I guess recently opened.




I am wondering the mum and kids are saying, quick, we all wanna go home!
What about you? Do you wanna go home?

Spiderman Lanterns @ Holland V

Next Tuesday would be the Mid-Autumn Festival. The locals call it "Zhong Qiu Jie". It is also known as the "Mooncake Festival".

At our workplace, we have been getting boxes of mooncakes from our vendors. As practiced by many companies here, any gifts from vendors have to be declared. After that, we can devour them. The declare thingy is so that we wont be charged by the anti-corruption agency if contracts are not handled properly.


Children would be carrying lanterns too. This is a picture of how the traditional lanterns look like. Kids will still like Spiderman, Superman etc.



This is a shop in Holland Village, a suburb in Singapore that sells traditional lanterns.



Mid-Autumn festivals are celebrated in different cultures and countries. How do you all celebrate it?

Jean-Yves Thibaudet Masterclass @ Conservatory Concert Hall

Known as "one of the world's best pianist", he was at the Piano Masterclass today at the Conservatory Concert Hall at the National University of Singapore.

Here he is giving pointers to a student who was performing Liszt's Liebestraum No.3



It was interesting attending the masterclass.

For those in Singapore, he's performing this Friday at the Esplanade if you want to listen to the world's best pianist :-) Search for: GALA - JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET: HUNGARIAN RHAPSODIES at the Sistic website.

To French DP bloggers visiting, you must be proud of him :-)

Want to read more about him, try this: http://www.ffaire.com/thibaudet/jytbio.html

Signs: Thank you for your co-operation

This is another sign that is seen in many places in Singapore. They are always building something or repairing something here and then.

We always see "Thank You For Your Co-operation".



One thing about Singapore is that whenever a lane on a road is closed for repairs that will take some time, an alternate lane needs to be provided so that traffic would not be congested. This is something that I noticed.

Do you have signs like these in your city? haha...

Signs: Prepare to Stop

Singapore has lots and lots of road signs. Continuing with the road signs series....

Traffic Lights ahead. Please prepare to stop.



Do you always obey road signs? :-p

Signs: Hump - Slow

The next few days, I think I will be posting signboards. Err, sounds boring? Oh, never mind.

Every working day, I will be passing by so many humps to get to the office. This is how it looks.



You can't imagine how many I pass by! More than 15!
Do you pass by roads will lots of humps?

Bus Stop Sign - When is my bus arriving?

This is a one of the many kinds of bus stop in Singapore. For every pillar at all the various bus stops, you can see a number. It's the Bus Stop number. For example, this one has 11261 on it.

I have been noticing these numbers because I have been using it. I open the internet browser on the mobile phone, enter the bus stop number, the service I am taking and it will tell me when the bus is arriving!



You can try it out! This stop is the Holland Village bus stop. (11261).
Key in the SBS Transit buses route number. You can see when the next bus is coming! It's quite cool. http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/iRIS/overview.aspx

Currently only SBS Transit buses have such facility.

I access the site using the mobile version at (http://www.sbstransit.com.sg/mobileiris) which has no graphics. So the GRPS charges each time I check is only 2 cents on my mobile plan :-)

Abseil down the DSI

I don't know why, but I seem to like taking photo of people abseiling down buildings and cleaning them.



This was taken I think two days ago.

It reminds me of my cousin who is in Primary 5, who went to sports camp 2 weeks ago. She said they had abseiling. Makes me wanna try.

Have you tried abseiling?

Ramly Burger

Visitors to Singapore, if you want to try a local version of burgers, you should try this. Originated from Malaysia, these burgers are delicious! One distinct mark is when they cook the patties, they will slide the patty into two parts (butterfly it) to make sure there are more surface that is exposed to the hot pan.

Butterflying patties makes it dry, so browning it just enough to retain the juices is key.



As you can see from the photo, the patties are then wrapped around by an egg. It also has a slice of cheese and some sauce, you got to try it, I can't explain it. :-)

If you want the egg ones, you must say "special".

They are not sold in shops, but usually at nite markets (Pasar Malam) or in bazaars like this one.

Fairprice Finest

This is one of the newest Supermarket to open in Singapore. It has the name Fairprice Finest to it. This new branch concept has a more premium selection of products.



Well, they made news because they had square watermelons for sale there. They cost $268 for those from Japan, and $68 for those from Taiwan.

Hmm would you buy them at this ridiculous prices?


Fairprice Finest is located at Bukit Timah Plaza.
1 Jalan Anak Bukit.

Defibrillator

I have been noticing that Defibrillator are appearing at places around my workplace. This is the 2nd one that I have seen.



Do you know how it works? I don't. I guess its meant for trained personnel use when there's an emergency.

How much is parking rates in your city?

This is the sign indicating the parking hours and rates in the CBD. Usually in the city centre, the rates are $1 for every half an hour for public parking spaces. Elsewhere it is $0.50 for half an hour.



I dont pay for parking. Why? Because I don't drive that's why. haha...
How much is parking in your city? I remember when we visited our sis in London, we paid 6 pounds for half an hour! goodness!

Mee Goreng

This is one of a very common food in Singapore and Malaysia. It's called Mee Goreng and it's made of thin yellow noodles and is always a favourite.



It's a bit spicy at times, but if you visit Singapore or Malaysia, you should try it!

Apple Airport Yesterday, Changi Airport Today.

Yesterday's picture is of an apple product called AirPort. Today's is also an airport, but... It's a real airport. I was just at the airport today to greet mum and sis who just came back from a holiday. I saw this famous control tower, and I just had to take it to complement yesterday's photo! haha...



Singapore Changi's Airport has just been voted the 2nd best airport in the world. The results just came in last month. You can read more about it at: http://www.worldairportawards.com/

One of my presents...

I was quite shocked when I opened the box. Inside it was an Apple AirPort Extreme.



Thanks to the person who gave me this :-)

With this, my old linksys wifi router can retire.
Do you surf wirelessly at home?

At home, we are quite dependent on it actually. We have an iMac, an Acer notebook, a HP notebook and 2 mobile phones that are Wifi equipped that connects to it.

A what? It's a keropok cake!

Some 20 over friends gave me a surprise today at around 9:30pm. They made me a keropok cake!



They sure are a creative lot!
They had a few pieces of keropok, whip cream on it, and raisin toppings!

Thanks friends!
A real cake also came after. You can view it and more stories here.


(By the way, those who have asked what is a keropok? It is crackers, usually made from Prawns or Fish, just like papadams)

Take a peep inside the moon....

Judging from yesterday's comments, I think our friends from overseas have not really seen or tasted mooncakes :-)

Here's a view of what it looks inside. This one is the 'modern' ones with fillings that are different. This has macadamia nuts.




Traditional ones have salted egg yolks and some has melon seeds.

Even more contemporary ones are those made by Haagan Dazs! Ice cream mooncakes.
If you want to see more pictures of mooncakes I have posted previously, peep them here.

Today's food blog's about the little mooncake party we had in office.

Moon cakes from Marriott and the story behind it.

Mooncakes are back on sale these few weeks. My colleague bought this from Marriott Singapore. Yey, we get to eat moon cakes again.



What is the filling? Make a guess. Don't know?
It's White Lotus Seed Paste with Macademia Nuts.

Anyway, if you want to know more about The Mid-Autumn Festival and Mooncakes, read on. Story is courtesy of Marriott Hotel's mooncake box. :-)









hey, they even have a website: http://mooncakes.singaporemarriott.com/

We are waiting to see if our vendors will pass us some this year. haha...
Do your vendors pass you gifts during special occasions?

My new toy.... Sony T200

Yesterday I got myself a new toy! I read about the camera from the email newsletter sent to Sony Camera owners. Looks so impressive. Do you know it automatically takes photo when it detects someone smiling? Yes, their "smile shutter" really works! We were trying it in the office today with colleagues all smiling.

I was actually thinking about a DSLR. But I carry my camera with me daily, so I wanted a small light and powerful one to replace my current Sony W1 that is 3 year old. (If you don't know, I carry the W1 in my pocket daily to take photos)

Short story about what happened since 3 days ago. Friday nite, I went to Comex to catch a glimpse of it. Listed price is $699. No way you can bargain in Comex with all the zillions of people around. Also, people who serve you are just contract workers who are paid by commission. They just want to get a sale. If you notice, they just memorize a few lines and repeat them. You can easily detect contradiction when they talk. So, no deal there.

So, I thought I will like previous years, I will get them at Sony Gallery. I know you can't get discounted price, but you can get freebies like memory cards, batteries etc thrown in. So on Saturday I went to the Sony Gallery at IMM. I bought 2 cameras there before. This time, I just walked out after this salesperson showed an 'attitude'. I shall not anger myself mentioning it. The locals will say "kiam pak". Totally no deal. I think Sony Gallery should do something about it.

So, I walked a floor up to Best Denki just to ask. This guy serving was OK, but mentioned so many things about the camera that I know is not very true. Beep. Cross off this guy. Sis and I politely listened to him and said thank you. Even my sis can tell that we can't really trust him. haha..

Yesterday, I just happened to be in Centrepoint Mall walking around. Discovered there's a new Harvey Norman and walked in. A mature age lady served us. Hey, a few words and you know, there's no pretense, no pushing of products, not very technical about things, but you know you rather give her business for her excellent service and attitude.

She gave an instant discount without me asking. I had with me some gift vouchers, so it offset even more the retail price. Oh yes, thrown in some freebies too! *Happy glee*

Here's my camera. The front view.



The back view of the camera, no more dials or buttons etc. It's a 3.5 inch touch screen! One colleague said it's like an iPhone!



When you turn it on, the soft keys come out on both sides. It's quite responsive the touch screen. I hope it stays that way! My deal included a extra 2 year warranty I paid, so no worries if it fails for the next 3 years! With the disc, my vouchers, added extra warranty, the total was still less than the $699 at Comex.



Read all the other fun stuff at http://www.sony.com.sg/cybershot/t200/ if you wish to know. hehe... (no, I am not a pay per post member, so this is not paid advertisement haha)

I am happy with the purchase of this compact camera. It's the once a year in a particular month and you get something for yourself, and have every reason to say I deserve it. LOL...

Hmmm I still want a DSLR. The pictures comes out so much more different, I know, I know... But I keep trying to justify buying it. I have a compact camera daily with me, I will only use the DSLR on weekends! 365 days verses 52 days a year. I shall save up more money.

Over the weekend, I met some really Singapore celebrity food bloggers and they use DSLR, even my Pastor has a DSLR and recommends one. Yes, you can talk to Pastors even on DSLR other than spiritual matters. haha...

This might just be my wordiest post of the year! haha...

Bus Interchange

This is the bus park of one of the smaller bus interchanges in Singapore. It is the Kent Ridge Bus Interchange. It only has a few routes.

Some other bus interchanges in Singapore are bigger, and some have air conditioned waiting areas too.



International friends, how does the bus interchanges in your city look like?

Daily Photo Blogger's Theme Day: Street Signs in your city

It's the 1st of September already! How time flies. As usual, the first day of the month is the Theme Day for City Daily Bloggers.

Here's my contribution for September. These are street signs that indicate that a tourist attraction is nearby. It is usually written in many languages too. There's also a colourful graphic beside it. Now, you know where to eat in Chinatown, Singapore!





These fellow Daily Photo Sites around the whole are also participating in the Theme Day. See how the theme is being interpreted in different cities.
Due to different time-zones, some photos might appear at a later time.

Seattle (WA), USA - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Singapore, Singapore - Boston (MA), USA - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Kajang (Selangor), Malaysia - Mainz, Germany - Evry, France - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Sequim (WA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Nottingham, UK - Toulouse, France - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Manila, Philippines - Mumbai, India - Montpellier, France - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Stayton (OR), USA - Moscow, Russia - Paris, France - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Austin (TX), USA - Lyon, France - Stockholm, Sweden - Hyde, UK - Hong Kong, China - Joplin (MO), USA - Seoul, South Korea - Chandler (AZ), USA - St. Louis (MO), USA - Arlington (VA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Villigen, Switzerland - Sydney, Australia - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - San Diego (CA), USA - Bandung (West Java), Indonesia - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Nelson, New Zealand - Quincy (MA), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Bend (OR), USA - Wellington, New Zealand - New Orleans (LA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Detroit (MI), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Selma (AL), USA - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Miami (FL), USA - Arradon, France - Sheki, Azerbaijan - New York City (NY), USA - Inverness (IL), usa - North Bay (ON), Canada - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Tenerife, Spain - Auckland, New Zealand - Forks (WA), USA - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Chateaubriant, France - Madison (WI), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Orlando (FL), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Ajaccio, France - Baltimore (MD), USA - Crepy-en-Valois, France - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Budapest, Hungary - Lyon, France - Saarbrücken, Germany - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Le Guilvinec, France - River Falls (WI), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Naples (FL), USA - London, UK - La Antigua, Guatemala - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Paris, France - San Diego (CA), USA - Trujillo, Peru - Haninge, Sweden - Prague, Czech Republic - Oslo, Norway - Grenoble, France - Shanghai, China - Toronto (ON), Canada - Durban, South Africa - Zurich, Switzerland - Cape Town, South Africa - Singapore, Singapore - Torino, Italy - Flagstaff (AZ), USA