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Saturday, January 31, 2009

More expired parking coupons

I found more expired parking coupons.

Night Parking Coupons

The current coupons have changed colours. They are now blue and they have a validity of 6 years.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Things of the past..

Many Chinese families have an annual 'clean up' (Da Shao Chu) just before the Lunar New Year. Guess what I found?

Night Parking Coupon

Night parking coupons from long ago.
A whole unused stack of it.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

O$P$

Saw this while visiting during the Lunar New Year.
On the wall was this sign. O$P$.

O$P$

O$P$ stands for "Owe Money Pay Money".
The owner at 05-169 most probably borrowed money from some loansharks and they are trying to demand money. I added the red scribble to hide the phone number scribbled there.

The economy must be getting from bad to worse. Sigh...

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Jam at 2nd link starts way before in Johor.

Was travelling back to Singapore and was caught in a massive traffic jam.

After the Malaysian Immigration and on the way to the Singapore Immigration. The jam starts way even before the 2nd link bridge.

Jam starts before the bridge to Singapore


Jam starts before the bridge to Singapore

Took 2 hours to cross the border. We witness all sorts of things, including a little boy who need to relieve himself, he did it over the bridge into the Straits. Yup, everyone saw it, but we are civilised not to take a photo of it. ;-)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Dried Persimmons

One of the many traditional goodies that people buy during the lunar new year is the dried persimmons.



Its very sweet. Some are even preserved wine.
They are also serve in a chines dessert known as cheng tng.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Wishing all a very Happy Lunar New Year

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Wishing everyone who celebrates the Lunar New Year a Blessed and Properous New Year!


This is taken from Chinatown when we visited it 3 days before the first day of the Lunar calendar. It was so crowded!




The literal translation of the 4 chinese characters means "Spring comes to earth" :-)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Nice sayings during the Lunar New year

Every year there will be 1 stall or 2 down Chinatown where someone will sit and write these couplets. They are usually bought and hung on the main doors, on the first morning of the lunar new year.



Usually these couplets comes in a pair, 2 lines of 4 characters each. But this one we saw, is 7 characters. Not too good with my mandarin, hence shall not attempt to explain the meaning of each of them :-) Although they usually mean good things for the new year or blessings for the household.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Developers and Foosball

There was a couple of foosball table at the conference and it seems to attract a lot of people.

Sun Developers and Foosball

I know a colleague who was an intern at Sun in California and when he came back he's always talking about it. It must be a good stress buster. :-)

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Oh there's food...

The buffet table at the Conference. The queue's super long!
The food on the first day was 'ok' only. The food on the second day's much better ;-)

There's always a huge crowd when there's food.

Do you believe that some people register for the conference not because they want to listen to new technologies? I heard people register for conference so that they can get out of their office and enjoy lunch and tea breaks here. LOL

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

This was the start of Tech Days yesterday. On stage was the Director of Technology Outreach, President South Asia, Senior VP Solaris Engineering Group.

They are usually dressed up in suits or the Sun casual friday clothings. But this year, they came up the stage dressed as fictitious gods.

Sun exec pretending to be gods.

It was a bit different, to watch them dress up like that to address the crowds and to give the keynote.

One thing though, the Singapore audience is totally 'boh chap'. No loud cheers or claps or standing ovation, the ones you get when these tech days are held in US. Why are we like that? haha..

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Singapore Book of Records - The most developer playing the Rattle Drum

Today I was at the Sun Tech Days Singapore 2009 Developer Conference and they decided to have to get an entry into the Singapore Book of Records.

What record? The most number of developers playing the rattle drum.

Singapore Book of Records - Rattle Drum

An official from Singapore Book of Records was there too.

Singapore Book of Records - Rattle Drum

Oh, it was silly, but it was fun. (and very noisy too!)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Wakeboarding at East Coast Park

Wakeboarding at a lake in East Coast Park.

Wakeboarding at East Coast Park

It's at a place called SKI360° and these people sure looked like they had fun!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Bus Lanes

One of the best initiatives around.

Bus Lane


More and more main roads in Singapore have a dedicated Bus Lanes. It's good for people like me who take the public buses a lot. But I know many frustrated car drivers.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Hossan Leong at UCC

Was at a Quality Service Day function at work. Other than congratulating fellow colleagues who have implemented projects that saved our organisation millions of dollars, we had a performance by one of Singapore's great comedian.

Hossan Leong performing on the piano and singing

He sure was funny. Bringing his brand of humour to entertain us.
Here he is, playing the piano and singing satirical songs.

You can read about Hossan at his website: http://www.miyagi.sg/hossan/

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Ready for dinner...

A shot of empty tables and chairs waiting for the night crowd to occupy the tables.

Red chairs and empty tables

Dinner by the sea.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Shophouses with olden style motifs

I was having breakfast with friends few weeks ago and saw this shophouse. It has been some time since I saw something like this.

Shophouse with beautiful motifs

"Shophouse" from yesteryears with their geometric motifs facade tiles. The glass windows were most probably wooden previously.

Beautiful aren't they?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Broken eggs on the road...

Oh no!

Oh no!

Saw this on the way to lunch. Looking at this photo now, I think this two girls showed their kindness by helping this egg vendor.

(I assume these two girls are helping because you can see the NUS student card.)

Show kindness to others around you. Join the Kindness.sg movement.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Force of Nature

A sculpture at the Marina Barrage.

Force Of Nature, an aluminium and stainless steel structures by Lorenzo Quinn of Spain at the Marina Barrage.

Force Of Nature

Usually people will take this photo on a sunny day, but this version's on a gloomy day.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Singapore largest solar park

A small country like Singapore always have to boast about it's 'largest' or 'biggest' something.

This photo shows the 'largest' solar park in Singapore. In the background, the 'largest' failure, oops i mean the flyer behind. ;-p


Solar park on top of the Marina Barrage

What a day to take this photo, it was cloudy, and I am at the solar park. :-)
Wondering where it is? It's on top of the Marina Barrage, this place makes an effort to be really green. You should visit it!

Thursday, January 08, 2009

From the ECP....

When you travel from the East to the West of Singapore on the ECP, along the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, you can see the word Marina Barrage from a far...

This is how it looks if you stand right in front of it. :-)
This is the pump room that pumps the water out of the reservoir in case there's too much water.
Oh, by the way, the water at the other end of the pump room kinda stinks! *cough cough*

The Marina Barrage Buildling

The yellow floaters you see from yesterday's photo, you can see it on the bottom left corner of this photo. It starts here.

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Danger...

More stuff from the Marina Barrage.

Danger. Keep away...

It says it is dangerous...

I like the bright yellow danger floaters.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

The water gate at Marina Barrage

These gates (and also the water pumps) regulate the water at the Marina Reservoir.

The water gates...


You can book yourself a free tour to Marina Barrage.
Go to: http://www.pub.gov.sg/Marina/ for more details.

Monday, January 05, 2009

The tour of the Marina Barrage. This free tour starts at the Marina Bridge.

The walk on the Marina Bridge

On the right of the bridge, is the sea water which is so clean.

On the left of the bridge, the water is dirty and dark. A mixture of fresh and sea water, need a few more years before the water is slowly filled with fresh water.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

The Marina Barrage

The Marina Barrage in Singapore.

The Marina Barrage


Have you wondered why it's called a barrage and not a dam? Is it because 'Barrage' sounds more sophisticated?

Well, a barrage separates sea water from freshwater. That's what the guide at the Marina Barrage told us. :-)

Friday, January 02, 2009

No Studying...

You find little signs like this all over Singapore. This is because many students just buy a drink and spend their whole day occupying seats in cafes.

I said some, because majority of students do not hog places. Many schools provide a place to study for students who might not have a conducive environment to study at home.



The schools in Singapore starts their first day of school for 2009 today.

Students and teachers have to wake up early today to reach school by 7.30 am. It's a brand new year.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy 2009 + Theme Day photo for Jan 2008

Wishing all of you a very Happy 2009!

Today is also the first of the month, which is Theme Day for the Daily Photo Community.

The Theme for January 2009 is Best Photo of 2008. This photo might not be the best, it always makes me smile when I view it.



Oh, my nose feels itchy now.


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