Deepavali @ Changi Airport

Exactly a week to Deepavali (or some call it Diwali) and the decorations are all up at Changi Airport.
Deepavali is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs in Singapore.



Wishing all Hindus and Sikhs visitors a very Happy Deepavali.

You can read about the "festival of lights" below.

Playing Monopoly again...

I know quite a few people who are quite excited when the fast food restaurant with the golden arches reintroduced Monopoly yet again!



Did I follow the arrow? No, I went straight to jail, bypass Go and did not collect the $200 (or $80,000 here). :-p



Many folks in Singapore will definitely go for it. (One of the reasons why the casinos are doing well). Folks here love the thrill of having a change of winning something though the chance is very slim. I have friends and colleagues who always say this: we want to 'buy a hope'.  买一个希望. (Mai3 Yi2 Ge4 Xi1 Wang4.) Are you in that category?

Free Detergent

If you do your groceries in supermarkets in Singapore, there's always sign that says 'please be gracious' / 'please be considerate', do not take bring our shopping trolleys away from the supermarket.

These people must be inconsiderate and ungracious? haha. They stole a trolley!



The crowd in Orchard Road did not mind though. In fact, they were quite happy. People were given sample packets of liquid detergent. 

Hmm... I wonder these folks have criteria before they give them out to people.
Do they only give it to people whose clothes looks dirty?

Bye Bye California Fitness

From February next year, we can expect more changes on Orchard Road.

For the last 12 years, this building shown here is known by the brand of its main tenant, California Fitness rather than it's own name, Orchard Building. California Fitness would be moving a few blocks away when their lease here expires.



I am actually looking forward to the change. I wonder what company will move in.

There are already so many high end fashion shops on Orchard Road. Brands that are suppose to be 'cheap' overseas are always marketed and priced as premium brands in Singapore. It's not that consumers here don't know the prices are marked up 50% or more. There's a reason they only shop when there's a sale and use a combination of store cards and credit cards for discounts.

Maybe Primark should open here? A low-cost chain might be able to do well. Primark seems to be doing well in Oxford Street, London?

Follow That Fire Engine!

Last Saturday, Momo noticed a fire engine behind our car on the road. She asked me look at the fire engine behind us! It looked different!

As a courteous driver, when you notice a fire engine behind you, you give way!  Momo quickly changed lane so that the fire engine can pass. (the real reason was so that we can take a photo of the fire engine! haha..)

The reason we wanted to take photos of the fire engine was because we noticed the license plate is not the usual Singapore license plate. Also, it was not the usual civil defence fire engines we see in Singapore!

We saw the license plate and noticed the stickers all over the truck and guessed it must could from the UK! Oh yes it was! This fire engine had traveled all the way from UK!



What was the UK fire engine doing in Singapore?
It was a real hazy day (as you can see from the photo below), we were wondering if they were here to prepare themselves to get ready to help Indonesia put off their forest fires! haha...

This grand dame can move really fast! So sorry for the a bit blur of the next photo.



You want to read more about them? Visit http://www.followthatfireengine.com/

Church of Saints Peter and Paul

It's always interesting to walk small streets in Singapore and discover new things.
I was walking Queen Street and discovered this Catholic Church.



I never knew about her history or existence until I did an online search about it.
This church building with its tower was constructed between 1869 and 1870! That is how old this building is!

According to this wikipedia entry, Napoleon III of France contributed to part of the building of this church too!



A few months ago, I visited Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano / St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and was so amazed by it. It's amazing how such a huge Basilica can be built in the olden time without modern machinery. I am suddenly interested in the architecture of Catholic churches.

One of these days, (though I am not Catholic) I shall attend one of the mass here to see how the Catholics worship God. This church is said to be the 'Mother Church' of all the Catholic churches in Singapore. Interesting!

Oh, why the second photo? I found out from friends that the church compound is a popular place for people park their cars because the charges here are lower! (Larger version of the parking charges photo here)

Sampan Rides

I thought this was rather fun!
You can take sampan rides in air-conditioned comfort in Singapore.



But it's a really short ride! It's inside a 'river' inside the Marina Bay Sands.
I guess it's mostly meant for tourist or locals with kids who pester their parents to take them for a ride.

The haze visits Singapore again....

**cough cough cough**


The haze is back! Thanks to the change of winds, the burning smoke from the Sumatra, Indonesia like migratory birds are paying Singapore and Malaysia an annual visit!



This is the view of the 'national bird' of Singapore, the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) cranes. It's now partially covered by the haze.

The 3 hour PSI reading hit 80 at 3 pm earlier today. You can find out the hourly PSI update from the NEA's website here.

The old style cloth coffee strainers.

I took this photo at around 3AM in a 24 hour coffee stall some weeks ago.
These coffee strainers were being hung out to be air dried.



They are used to make the traditional style coffee in Asia. Coffee powder is put in the strainer and hot water poured into the bags and strained a few times.

So different from say a Nespresso machine!



I think new bags are needed. These looks well used.
I wonder each time new bags are used, can the regular coffee drinkers taste a difference?


p/s they reminds me of dirty old socks! LOL...

Hey, have I seen that design before?

I saw this building when I came out of the Tanjong Pagar MRT with another friend.
Guess what?
We saw this and thought someone copied the design of the NUS Business School Mochtar Riady Building!



Anyone seen the NUS Business School new building? Does this look like a skinny version of it?

I wonder what is the name of this building. Anyone knows?
I did not walk near the building to find out more.

5 Minutes of your time to win an iPad? Infocomm: Enjoying a Digital Lifestyle.

[This is a public service announcement from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)]

IDA want your ideas. In return, you might win yourself an iPad.
For more information, click on to: http://enjoy-infocomm.blogspot.com 



HOW TO PARTICIPATE AND WIN ?
Go to this online form to submit your ideas: http://www.bit.ly/enjoy-infocomm

Closing Date of Participation: Thursday, 18th November 2010
The winner would be announced at http://enjoy-infocomm.blogspot.com and be notified via email or phone for prize collection by Thursday, 25th November 2010.

You Can Make  A Difference Today! Let Yourself be Heard.

Music therapy for my rosemary plant

My first rosemary plant died a few weeks ago. My first try in planting this supposedly hardy herb.

I got a small little sprig from my colleague's big rosemary plant. For the first plant, after 2 or 3 days of being in the water without any roots growing, I planted it straight to the soil. Despite watering it daily, it did not survive. My first sprig of rosemary became dried rosemary!

My colleague asked if I wanted to try again. This time, I left the new sprig of rosemary in a ceramic cup with water in the office. It's unconventional, but I was hoping it will root. In about 7 days, I noticed roots were growing!



I thought I would be patient and let more roots grow. It seems the cool office temperature, office lights and water encourages roots to grow! It was growing well just on clean purified 'diamond' water from the office pantry.

After around 2 weeks, which is today, I decided to transfer the plant into soil. I put the soil into the cup. Half an hour later, I realised the sprig is not surviving! Oh no... The top of the sprig began to  bow down. Arrghh.... In desperation, I put it on music therapy! I put the plant in between the office PC speaker and played classical music.

Do you all think I am crazy?  Let's see if it survives when I get into office on Monday morning.

100 hours movie indulgence

I was at the Dhoby Ghaut train station today and saw these people staring at this big screen.
You can see it has been 24 hours, 24 minutes since it started.



I was curious and did an online search. These folks are taking part in a 100 hour movie marathon. It will end 11 pm on Sunday night. The list of movie they are watching can be found here.

Will you be able to stay awake for 100 hours? The most I have stayed awake is 48 hours and I could not take it anymore!

The Museum, MBS

The lotus shape thingy on the bottom left of the photo is the upcoming Art and Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands.



Looks like the exterior is close to completion. You ca see the cranes cladding the final pieces of the exterior. It's suppose to be a metal and glass structure.

I just did an online search and found out that Lord Cultural Resources has been engaged to facilitate the
project. The same folks that has done jobs for various museums worldwide. I guess we can look forward to what it can offer.

Be Positive

The Singapore Health Promotion Board had a "Be Positive" event recently.
It was health in conjunction with World Mental Health Day which was on 10-10-10.

I think it's a good day to choose 10-10-10.
Whether you are using the US or Singapore way of reading dates, you know which day it is. You won't 'go mental' trying to figure out what day it is. LOL



I took this photo at Marina Square. It is a big jenga like display with lots of positive words on it.
Are you a positive person or are you always having negative thoughts?

I know some people do break down. There was an ex-colleague working in another department which we think has gone 'mental'. She talks to us about things that happened a few years ago as if it just happened a few days ago. I think she went to the doctors and is under medication.

If you think someone you know needs help, there are lots of Mental Health Services contacts in Singapore listed at http://www.depnet.com.sg/uni0/emergencyhelp/

Dans Festival 2010

The Dans Festival 2010 is on-going. There are quite a few free events if you are not sure if you want to pay for something like 'arts' that is alien to you. ;-)

It's on from 8 - 17 October.
This was one of the free performance at Esplanade.



Visit  http://www.dansfestival.com/2010/ for more information.

I uploaded a bigger photo at Flick here if you want to read more about the above Tari Pendet.

Panasonic Full HD 3D TV

Last Saturday, I got invited to view the Panasonic Full HD 3D TV over breakfast.

When I got there, I was wondering why were there so many sunnies on the breakfast table!
Oops, those were not sun glasses! They were the 3D eye wear for viewing the 3D TV!

These are not the flimsy plastic ones that you put on when you watch 3D movies at the movie theatre. These are battery powered and they deliver superb 3D experience for each eye. Although I am a techie by profession, I shall not try to explain how it works. You can read about it if you are free here.




I don't have 3D lenses on my camera. So the photos I take can't show you the 3D effect. You just have to down to a Panasonic showroom or your favourite electrical shop that carries it to have a look! Go after work or during the weekends. I think you will be quite amazed.


We were watching Ice Age 3 in 3D!  If you have watch Ice Age in 2D, you should view it in 3D!
What you see on the photo below is just a 2D image, just imagine it popping up in front of you when you watch it with the 3D glasses on the HD 3D TV!



If you want to read more about Panasonic 3D products, click on to: http://www.panasonic.asia/3d/

Do you want to win one of these HD 3D TV? If you do, visit their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/panasonicasia You can join the competition and may you win it!


Note: I received a free breakfast and Toy Story toys attending the event. I am posting this because I think it's really cool!

OG - Ocean Garments or Old Girls

I took this photo the other day because a lady professor told me what OG stood for!
We always joked that OG stands for Old Girls because only old girls shop there!

OG was "Ocean Garments" long long ago.



You can actually find good bargains at OG, especially during their sales!
I think their household goods during sale is 'dirt cheap'!

One thing unique about them is that their 'members card' is only issued once a year.
This year's card issue just ended yesterday. Did you get it?
(I don't have the card. But I know people who do and I can tag along to buy things. haha)

Love Your Ride

"Love Your Ride", is a recent initiative to educate commuters in Singapore to be polite, gracious and considerate when they are taking public transport.

I think it's a good initiative. Anything to remind commuters in Singapore. Even if some people don't think it will work, I think they bring the message across. Let's hope one day those twirps who needs to get it in their head will get it.




In the train stations, and inside the train, they play the 'Train is Coming, Train is Coming, Please queue up" jingle. You can do a search on YouTube to view and listen to the jingle.

I think they should have a "Let people in, let people in, please move in" jingle for the buses!


Here's the youtube video of the whole campaign. Enjoy!

October Theme Day: Graffiti

It's theme day again for the Daily Photo Bloggers. The theme is Graffiti.

I am reusing this photo I posted some time ago.
It's by Daze aka Chris Ellis.



Click here to view thumbnails for all participants of this month's Daily Photo Theme.