In Bloom

It's the time of the year again when this huge, tall yellow flame tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum) in front of my block is decked with all her fineries and starts to flower. My mother dubbed it as the 'Singapore Sakura'. But that term actually belongs to another tree.

Anyway, doesn't it looked like it's up in flame? And all her suitors - butterflies, bees and sunbirds - will take this opportunity to cash in on the bonanza of nectar and pollen. The tree is supposed to have a beautiful umbrella shape. But, unfortunately one or two years ago, the left side got burnt due to burning of incense paper during one of the funeral wake. This resulted in the 'lobang' you see on the left of the tree. Nonetheless, its still the yellow flame with the most luxuriant bloom I had seen so far. Since, the window of my bedroom faces it, I am able to see its splendor for the next 1 week or so, twice yearly :)

Close-up of the flowers

The flowers fallen onto the ground. Doesn't it looked like the ground is covered with gold? Hahaha... But pity the roadsweeper. He needs to sweep away those that dropped on the pathway.

The towering yellow flame tree

FFI

Went to my reservist unit today for my FFI (Fit for Infantry) - IPPT phase I review. All servicemen >35 years old had to do this to make sure that you will not collapse and die after completing the 2.4 km run of the IPPT. This was the second part of the FFI. The first part was about a month ago. Oh... what a waste of time that was. After making all the way to the unit, all they did was take 2 tubes of blood for lab investigation. The appointment the unit gave me was 8 a.m. I had to wake up at 6 a.m. that day as the unit was very far from where I stay.... arrghh!! I think the medical centre should upgrade to using syringe for the vacutainer system. They are still using the conventional needle and syringe. Then after taking the blood, they pump into the vacutainers. Sigh... he took so much blood from me and the excees was thrown away... arrgghhh. What's more my vein was so prominent and yet he had some difficulty drawing blood. He had to 'fish' about before he was able to get a free flow. And all the while while he was 'fishing' I was staring at it. I got a blue-black that lasted for about a week.

Today's appointment was in the afternoon. As I reached Yishun MRT station quite early I decided to roam about a bit going to Northpoint and Golden Village Yishun 10. Even though Singapore is not a very big country, there are still places that I seldom go. Yishun is one such place. Unless I had reservist, its unlikely that I'll set foot on it. However, as I walked about I started to reminisce about my days when I was serving NS. I spent about 2 years of my life in Yishun area as my unit then was also near Yishun. Sometimes during our given night offs, me and a group of my army friends would go to Northpoint to eat or walk about. Otherwise, we would go to Golden Village Yishun 10 to catch a movie. Golden Village Yishun 10 was the first multi-screen cineplex in Singapore. However, as more and more cineplexes appeared, it is now no longer what it used to be. With dipping attendance rate some of its theatres were rented out. Nowadays, it is also screening Bollywood movies. Well, yes... as I was walking about I was thinking about the times I spent with them. After NS, I had lost contact of the majority of them... sigh.

Anyway, back to my FFI. For this time round, I had my blood pressure taken, BMI calculated, urinalysis and ECG done. Talk about urinalysis. I was expecting it as I saw the medic getting ready a dipstix. But, I didn't expect him to ask me to pee right over the dipstix. I was a bit surprised. I thought I would be given a urine bottle. Hey... I work in a lab and we use urine containers. It was a bit like cultural shock initially. But, as I think about it this is also a good way to save the environment. So, I managed to wet the dipstix with my urine, put the it inside the sleeve provided and handed it over to him. The final thing to do was to see the MO.

My result? I passed my FFI lor. Don't know what will happen if I fail it. No IPPT? Anyway, I was deemed cardiovascularly fit. But my chloresterol level is slightly high leh, including my LDL. How hah? My HDL is also high. Must watch my diet liao which I think is very difficult....sigh.

Elan Sneaker In Damier Canvas

Went to the LV outlet at Ngee Ann City hoping to check out this pair of sneakers from its 2008 Spring/Summer collection. I searched high and low but couldn't find it on display. I asked this security man whom I thought was a saleman. When he saw the design in the catalogue I was holding, he said that it was selling like hot cakes for the past few weeks. When I got the chance to ask the salesman there, he told me that this design already sold out and most likely no new stocks would be arriving. When I heard that I felt kind of depressed. This was the second pair of shoes that I missed out. The other time was also a pair of sneakers from last year's Spring/Summer collection.

The last hope I had was the outlet at Hilton's Hotel which also sells shoes. When I went there I searched high and low for it again but didn't see it. So I approached this saleslady. When I asked her whether this design was available, she told me that it hadn't arrived. I thought finally I had a glimmer of hope. But that thought lasted a few seconds. I told her that this design already sold out at Ngee Ann City's outlet. Then she replied that if that was so, then most likely their outlet wouldn't have it also since Ngee Ann City's had a wider range of designs compared to theirs. So, with a heavy heart I left.

Lesson learnt: never wait too long for something that you really like. Otherwise, you will lost it.

Let's hope I would be able to find it in other countries that I will be visiting (fingers crossed).

In your opinion, do you think this design is nice?

元宵节快乐

那么快元宵节到了. 等了一年, 今年的农历新年就这样过了. 家里还有一大堆的新年小吃. 不懂几时才能吃完. 今年新加波很想没有什么庆祝. 春到河畔迎新年比晚年早结束... 初十吧, 如果没记错. 可能新加波比较关心她是否能够举办2010青年奥运会. 我在家看到成绩揭晓.... 新加波打败莫司哥. 这很想大伟对垒巨人.不能举办夏季奥运会, 举办一个青年奥运会也算不错.... 没鱼虾也好. 我呢? 今晚得职夜班. 所以吃了晚餐, 休息一下就出门上班了... 唉.

好啦... 元宵节快乐 :)

Today is the 15th day and last day of the Lunar New Year (Chap Go Meh)... so fast. There's still lots of New Year goodies at home. I wonder when will we finish eating them. It seems relatively quiet this year. RiverHong Bao ended earlier this year... 10th day of the Chinese New Year I think. Maybe Singapore is more interested in knowing whether she managed to outbid Moscow to hold the inaugural Youth Olympics in 2010. Its like David versus Goliath... Singapore so small and Russia huge. I was able to witness the IOC announce the winner. Singapore managed to win the right to host. It's not possible for Singapore to hold the Summer Olympics, so to host the Youth Olympics is also not that bad...no fish, prawn also good.

As for me, tonight I need to work night shift. So after dinner, a short rest and off to work... sigh.

Anyway, Happy 'Chap Go Meh' :)

Nothing to Crow About

Crows are very smart bird with very good memory. There's this one crow. I didn't know when or how we crossed path. Everytime I stepped out of my flat, as long as I was in its territory it would fly very low, like wanted to peck at me and calling loudly. It had wonderful eyesight also. No matter how far away it was, whenever it saw me, it would fly to the tree overhead and taunt me with its call. Once, I was standing in a small garden taking photos of the butterfly there. It flew to the tree overhead and kept calling. What's worst it even broke some small branches and threw them down. It never hit me of course. Its really getting on my nerve. So everytime I had to be very alert in order that it didn't have any chance to peck at me. I think God answered my prayer. A few days ago the crow-shooting people came. Since then I had not met that irritating crow. Even this morning they came. I was awakened by their shooting...gosh. Hopefully it was the last that I saw and heard of that crow.

Valentine's Day

Hmmm... Valentine's Day. Is it really that special a day? People in love go to eat, give each other flowers or gifts. Don't they do that on other days? Why they need to pay extra for the food they eat or the roses they are giving just because somebody designated 14 Feb as Valentine's Day? Will the food be extra nice on this day? Or the roses extra red or smell special?

Anyway.... I was reading today's article in 'Our Daily Bread' and came across what the author's friend dubbed "the best love note she had ever received". It is from John 3:16...
For God so loVed the world

That He gAve

His onLy

BegottEn

SoN,

That whoever

Believes In Him

Shall Not perish

But have Everlasting life.

That's how much God loves us. His love for us will never change, whether its Valentine's Day or not.

Namdaemun (Great South Gate)

Learnt from the newspaper that this 600 year-old gate was destroyed in what was believed to be the act of an arsonist. I quickly went to search my photo album to see if I had a photo of it. Thank goodness I managed to find my one and only one. I like old things. It had managed to survive the Japanese Occupation and the Korean War. It is really a pity that such a historic monument got destroyed. Even if they managed to have it rebulit, it will never be the same again.
Anyway, this is how it looked like before the fire.

我的早餐 My Breakfast

农历新年初四。。。初三职了夜班，早上回到家我妈就煮了两包快熟面做我的早餐。单吃面觉得很单调，就加了带子、西刀鱼肉做的鱼饼，《美珍香》肉干和特制XO酱。只有一句话。。。。赞！

I was working night shift on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year. After getting home, my mother helped me cooked 2 packets of instant noodles. Quite boring just eating the noodles, so decided to add scallops, fish cake make of knifefish, "Bee Cheng Hiang" Bak Kua and special made XO sauce. Only one word... yummy!

Sentosa Spring Flowers 2008

Second day of Chinese New Year. Today, I went to the Spring Flowers Show 2008 at Sentosa. This was the 3rd consecutive year I had visited the event. It was 1 year ago since I lasted visited Sentosa. So I didn't know that now we had to buy the island's admission ticket at Harbourfront bus interchange before we can board the shuttle bus. What a queue there was. It stretched all the way to the end of the bus interchange. I was in the queue for about 45 mins before I got the tickets. Thank goodness I didn't have to wait long to board the shuttle bus. In the past, the shuttle bus would drop us at the visitor center and then we change to an internal bus to bring us to the venue, Imbiah Lookout. This time, the shuttle bus drove us all the way to the beach station which is only a short walk to the venue. This really saved a lot of time as I did not need to queue for another bus to get to the venue. Another option is to take the cable car which stops directly at Imbiah Lookout.

This year's theme is based mainly on rats as this being the year of the rat. The organiser had also extended the opening hours of the festival into the night (10 pm). Maybe I might make a trip down to take some night shots. Some of the new flowers on display include daffodils, nacissus and lily. As usual, it was so crowded making it difficult to take photographs at some of the floral display.

Look at the crowd... its already around 4 pm in the afternoon, still got so many people coming.

2008 农历新年快乐

今天是农历新年正月初一，是鼠年的第一天。很快的一轮又过了。生于鼠年的我不知不决的就过了三轮。。。嘿

今天也没做什麽特别的事。。。 早上去了教会。因为时华文教会，所以每年的正月初一会有特别聚会。回到家，二嫂已经走了。还以为二哥不在她不会来，真没想到。之后，大哥一家人就来。吃了些东西就起程去二伯母的家。到了她住的公寓楼下碰到一位住在那里的住客。他刚好要从旁们近去，我爸就问他可以然我们从这里近去吗？大叔的人很好帮我们。近去之后，发现到大叔所穿的上衣跟我爸的一样... 哈哈哈。到了二伯母的家才发现她全家人不再。在外面等了一会儿，她们没回来, 我们就走了。

























吃完晚餐后，跟我妈到春到河畔迎新年看烟花表演。能看到烟花表演的地方有几个。我最后决定在安得圣桥 (Anderson Bridge) 看烟花。当我到桥的时候已经有很多人站在那里准备看烟花。还好还能找到一个位子挤进去。从安得圣桥看过去就是浜海艺术中心和滨海湾, 景色满美的。 在桥上大盖等了一个钟头, 烟花表演开始了(9.30 正)。 这是我第一次在新年看烟花。 我不知道以前的表演怎样, 但是这次我看的不是很好看, 没什么爆发力。 大多数的烟炮就是直直飞上天。 那些会开花的不是很美. 五分钟后, 表演完了, 我们也回家了。
















































浜海艺术中心和滨海湾



祝大家在2008年有
“鼠”不尽的快乐
“鼠”不尽的收获
“鼠”不尽的钞票
“鼠”不尽的笑容
“鼠”不尽的幸福
“鼠”不尽的美满生活
鼠年快乐。

Reunion Dinner

Had reunion dinner today, the eve of Chinese New Year eve. This year the dinner was held at this day because my second elder brother needed to fly off to Korea on Chinese New Year eve. That was why he requested to bring forward a day. As always my mother was the only one who prepared everything and cooked everything... its really tough on her.

Every year the menu is about the same. This year we had lotus root soup, curry chicken, ngor hiong, braised duck, steamed grouper, broccoli and shark's fin with crab meat and egg. The new addition was a huge pot of pen cai ordered from Lao Beijing. Before that we had salmon yu sheng.

What took my mother almost half a day of preparation was finished in less than an hour.

刚吃过团圆饭。今年我们的团年饭是定在新年除夕的除夕因为新年初夕我二哥得飞往韩国去。所以他提意早一天吃。跟每年一样团圆饭的菜肴都是我妈一人准备于煮。。。真是辛苦她了。

今年的团圆饭菜肴：莲藕汤，咖哩鸡，五香卷，卤鸭，清蒸红石班，菜，干炒蟹肉鱼刺蛋和盆菜。之前，还有鱼生。半天的心血在少过一个钟头就吃完了。

Yummy!!!!

Pen cai from Lao Beijing restaurant (老北京餐馆的盆菜）

The ingredients contains: 10 head abalone, sea cucumber, oyster, mushroom, prawns, scallops, cuttlefish ball, black moss, pork shank, fresh mushroom, deep fried yam, bean curd stick and chinese cabbage.

材料： 十头鲍鱼仔，海参，金蚝，北菇，虾球，带子，墨鱼丸，发菜，元蹄，百灵菇，炸芋头，枝竹，津百

Chinatown at Chinese New Year 农历新年的牛车水

The Chinese New Year Festive Market （牛车水年货市场）

Opened a few weeks before Chinese New Year to allow people to stock up on New Year goodies and things associated with Chinese New Year. The festive market will end in the wee hours of the first day of Chinese New Year.

每年在农历新年之前的几个新星期，年货市场就开始了以然人购买新年所需要的食物和用品。年货市场会开到正月初一的凌晨。

Pagoda Street - one of the street where the festive market is held
宝塔街 - 年货市场的其中一条街

Clockwise from top: A stall selling waxed products (腊味摊), lanterns and new year decoration （灯茏与新年装饰），sweet-and-sour tidbits （甜酸咸）, Chinese paper cutting （中国剪子）, New Year plants （年花）, Chinese seals （印章）, melon seeds （瓜子）, a very red stall (because most of the things inside are red), a green-haired stall-holder and the goodies he is selling （青头发的摊主和他所卖的苓食） and a stall selling pumpkins and pomeloes （金瓜与柚子摊）.

Lost in selection.... so many things, what to buy?
买什麽呢？

Chinese New Year Light-up （牛车水亮灯）

Coincide with the festive market is the light-up of Chinatown. The theme for this year's light-up is Disney since this is the Year of the Rat and the most famous Disney's character is Mickey Mouse. There will be setting off of fire crackers on the first day of the light-up. The light-up will last until a few days after the 15th day of the Chinese New Year.

年货市场开始的那一天也是牛车水亮灯的开始。今年的主题是跟迪斯尼人物有关因为今年是鼠年，而米老鼠是迪斯尼最出名的人物。亮灯那天会燃放煸炮。牛车水会亮灯一直亮灯到元宵后的几天。

The start of the light-up area. （亮灯区的开端）

The entrance of Chinatown Point
唐城坊的大门

Disney's Characters Lantern on the Garden Bridge
花园天桥 - 迪斯尼卡屯人物彩灯

Disney's Characters Lantern on Eu Tong Sen Street （余东旋街 - 迪斯尼卡屯人物彩灯）