This item is not on sale.

The Great Singapore Sale started yesterday.
With almost everyone with one or more shopping bags, especially along Orchard Road, you might have thought the recession is over!



I thought the above was really creative. The planters along Orchard Road are definitely not on sale. LOL!

Have you done your part to stimulate the economy?
Some deals do really look very very good!

Oh, they even have a website at: http://www.greatsingaporesale.com.sg

Pisang Goreng / Banana Fritters

A local favourite. I have not seen Pisang Tanduk for some time. (That's because I have not been eating these fritters ;-) )

Pisang Tanduk are these huge bananas that you see in the photo below. Twice or three times bigger than the usual bananas. These bananas look ripe now, just nice for frying!



Any pisang goreng (or some call goreng pisang) fans out there?

Duanwu Jie / Bak Chang Eating festival.

Today's Duanwu Jie. Also known as Dragon Boat Festival.

For many of us, we don't really care about the boat festival, but we are happy just eating Zong Zi (or most people in Singapore call it Zhang / Bak Zhang).

This is Bak Zhang made by my cousin's mother in law.
If you are interested, you can view the process of making it here. I capture my mum making this delicacy last week. View them at my Flickr site.



Happy Duanwu Jie to all.

You can read more about Zong Zi here at wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zongzi

People sitting at the window eating...

I am sure you can look at the two colors and guess where this place is!

The windows on the building is where the Ikea Restaurant is. It seems to be 'forever' packed with people inside.



So many people likes their famous meatballs?
Are you an Ikea Restaurant fan?

Restored Buildings

Yesterday's post shows a building that desperately needs restoration.

A few shops down, this is an example of a restored building.



Doesn't it look so much nicer? :-)
It protects the nice designs that you see on the walls too.

The 3 buildings have different bright colours. I wonder how they decide to choose those colours. LOL. A high resolution photo of it can be viewed here.

In need of repair

This building looks like it is in serious need for repair. It has such nice details on the walls, but it's sad that no one is maintaining it.



This shop is just opposite the 'face' that you saw in yesterday's post.

If you are interested in the details on the walls, click here to view the large version (around 500 kb) of this photo.

faces on building

It's quite interesting to walk around Singapore and look at the old buildings.

Looking around, you might see that the old buildings around have faces on them!
This one spotted on buildings in Purvis St.



It reminds me of the buildings I see in London and Paris. But the ones there are more elaborate and 'scary'. LOL...

the buildings can be erected so fast!

More HDB blocks that look like it is going to be ready soon. They get higher and higher, and yet can be up in such a short time.



Look at the 'bald trees' in front of them. I think before the leaves covered the trees, the building behind would have been ready!

Need more brain power for exams?

Few days ago, I met up for dinner with a friend that's 'collecting papers'. He is doing some Masters program, and a few other certification courses. Asked him how is his studies, and he said he had trouble remembering things.

Guess what? He asked his doctor and doctor actually has a medicine for it! haha...



How come I did not know of this when I was studying last time? LOL...
(Maybe I did not need it. haha.. I think I did not bad for my graduate school. )

I wonder how many people take this in Singapore.

Another view of ION Orchard

Some people call it ugly. But suddenly I admire how they make the building so curvy.




If I was rich enough, I would buy an apartment tower that's on top of the shopping mall. LOL

ION Orchard.. yes, eyes are on it..

The name's ION Orchard. Someone said it's to be read as Eye On Orchard.
Everyone's eyes are now on it.



Everyone's waiting for it to finish, so that we can all go in and see what's inside!
Even if it's only window shopping ;-)

Asian Youth Olympic 2009

Asian Youth Olympic 2009 starts in around 42 days!

If I am not mistaken, all schools in Singapore are in one way or another involve in the Youth Olympics.



This banner seen on one of the primary schools in Singapore.

Go to the official Asian Youth Olympic 2009 website at: http://www.ayg2009.sg to read more about this event.

Air Exhaust Outlet

Lots of hot air coming out...



But sometimes I wonder, is it an outlet or an inlet to suck in fresh air.
I don't want to stand under the thing to find out though. LOL..

Tanjong Pagar MRT Station

Tanjong Pagar MRT with the tallest HDB in the background.

Singing with a hairdyer mike on Orchard Road

I thought this is something different on Orchard Road.

I guess it's one of those sanitized graffiti. But I like it though. LOL...



I have no idea, what it is part of. Maybe some Raffles Design school thingy? I saw a booth a few metres away from this.

Urine Detecting Device

No, they are not in baby diapers, but on some lifts in Singapore. I have not seen one for some time, and happen to go into one that has this sign today.



Hmm the sign seems to suggest that they will snap a photo of you, but no, they just have sensors at the lower part of the lift.

Anyone tried to activate it before? What happens? LOL...

Rocking the vending machine

This sign can be seen at most vending machines.

I wonder they put this message because someone had tried to tilt or rock the machines to get the coins in it.

It's so heavy, is it even possible to tilt it?



They sell everything in vending machines these days.
Just last week, I read that they sell bread (Gardenia bread loaves) in vending machines now!

When was the last time you bought something from any vending machine? What did u buy?

Dip me in chocolate and call me dessert

The words on the side of the delivery truck sure is interesting.

"Dip me in chocolate and call me dessert"



Wonder if there's such a shop? Dessert shop? Anyone knows?
Do you like chocolates?

The U Turn Sign

One day, the contractors came, put up some barriers, had black paint covering some words on the road and a drew a big U-turn sign.

Suddenly all cars have to do a u-turn!



These few days, many things have made a u-turn. Some examples:
- The requirement to take daily temperature to record it down.
- Taking down of the Mas Selamat posters, now that he has been captured. (I saw a colleague's twit that says, grab those photos before they are all gone! lol)


What things do you wish that you can u-turn?

Notice on the SMRT bus

Saw this on the bus yesterday.

Are bus drivers known as Service Leaders on SMRT?
On SBS Transit (the other bus company) they are known as Captains. (just like on the airplane)



I wonder what will the Service Leader do?
Tell you not to take their buses? Or detour to the nearest clinic / hospital for you. :-p

Funky Alumni House

The Alumni House at the National University of Singapore. The design's nice ya? But not sure how it looks inside though...



A few colleagues and I passed by but did not go in.
Some of us are alumni because we did out graduate studies here, others were undergraduate studies here. None of us had the urge to go in though....

I wonder why...

Have you taken your temperature today?

I have to take temp and record them into the my workplace intranet by 10 am daily.

If you move around the different facilities/buildings, you might be required to take your temperature again by different group of people.

You get a little yellow sticker like this.



So glad to hear that they will be lower the alert from Orange to Yellow in a few days time.

Where do you put your face mask during lunch?

I did not have my camera with me today, but my colleague took this photo with his N95. His Nokia N95 phone. Not the N95 masks that people working in hospitals are wearing now.

We had lunch at one of the local hospital's staff canteen, and we were trying to observe where people put their face mask when they are eating.



Many people will just lower them to below their chin.

From the photo above, we could see that one person stuff her mask below her plate. Another one put it on the food tray. My colleague and I wonder if they are going to use that mask again?

No, these are definitely not the nurses or doctors. They are most probably visitors or students visiting the hospital.

Are masks suppose to be a one time use thingy? I certainly hope they are. Look at how people handle their masks!

Backup...

This was what our company issued us... USB Thumbdrives...
It is now so cheap to buy these. I remember years ago, it was so expensive.



Remember few years ago, we were all issued personal Thermometers.
Do you have thermometers to take your own temperature at home?

IRAS

The IRAS building. Or known as the Tax Man building.



So glad that we receive a refund cheque from IRAS today. :-)

May 2009 Theme Day: Shadows

The Theme day for the Daily Photo community this month is Shadow.

Here's my contribution.
Shadows from the ice cream bowl is pretty isn't it?



I think the ice cream is even nicer.
The flavours above: Baileys, Chocolate, Raspberry and Mango. yum yum...

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants for the Theme Day.