music forest an ocean butterflies musicology

I was walking around town and saw this. The name's so long as it makes me look twice at it. "music forest an ocean butterflies musicology" i found out is an Arts School that trains talents in music, singing and dancing.




I just thought that this photo looks 'foresty' because of the trees. Just to match the name.
Click over to http://www.obmusicforest.com/ to check out their site. I thought their website is rather interesting.

Samsui Women

Sculpture of Samsui Women at URA Centre.




Samsui Women came from the Samsui Province in China and emigrated to 'Nanyang' (olden term for Singapore) to work as migrant laborers.

Do a search online if you want to find out more.

"I Was Here" actually travelled around Singapore....

I never knew this "I Was Here" was a traveling installation until recently. It has been around Singapore and it's currently at the University Cultural Centre, NUS.






Francis Ng’s I Was Here is the travelling installation encountered at various spots across Singapore. The monumentality of the structure appears to engender an ambiguous ability to provoke questions of identity (I), presence (WAS) and place (HERE). Teasingly, it also engages the subtle urges of vanity of its passersby who seek to leave their footprints behind by merely observing the work or of those who choose to take away a piece of the space perhaps by taking a photograph with it.

For the fresh graduates of Commencement 2007, this installation provokes a nostalgic experience of intellectual becoming. It recalls memories which can range from disturbing tales of struggle to relieving sighs of success to realizations of indifference.

Therefore, if you do indeed take a photograph beside I Was Here—remember—it only records but it does not see, it endorses your presence at NUS but it does not reveal, it confirms the infinite possibilities of the future but it does not promise.

This is just the beginning.

Remember, the world is your idea!

Somewhere over the rainbow..

It has been a long time since I saw the rainbow. You could see everyone taking photo of the rainbow using their camera phones.

Friends have posted nicer looking view of the rainbow because they were higher up.
Here's two I took.

From a bus stop where I was waiting for my bus on the way home from work.



From inside the bus. You would see many people looking out and snapping photos of it.



Can you see there's two rainbows? One clearer and the other not so clear.


Rainbows represents a covenant for Christians. The appearance of this double rainbow on the first day of Lent brings much comfort to many who might feel down and out.

Link Hotel

A few days ago, our family had dinner at one of the restaurant in this building. This building was Singapore's earliest public housing many years ago.

Two of the buildings in this area have been converted into a hotel.



Have you wondered why it's called Link Hotel?
We can't really find the answer from their website, but we think it's because there's a bridge that LINKS the two blocks together? Is that why it is called Link Hotel? ;-p



You can find out more about this hotel at: http://www.linkhotel.com.sg

Read books everyday....

I thought this was rather interesting and eye catching.

An advert by a bookstore called Page One.



Eat 3 meals a day, read 3 books a day. LOL...
Possible?

Shh... guess where's my favourite place to read? While sitting on the throne doing business. LOL.. Really! It seems it runs in the family.

Scramble Walk

Some streets in Singapore has this Scramble Walk sign.



When the 'green man' lights up at the traffic light, go any direction you want! LOL.

David Elias Building

A few colleagues and I were behaving like tourist in the city we are living. We never knew this building exists. Thought it was quite interesting to see a building with a Star of David on it.



We then later ate at the restaurants on the ground floor of this building. If you are wondering, No, it was not Kosher food. It was chicken rice. One thing interesting we noticed though. The plates that was used to serve the rice had pictures of hyssop, olive etc.


If you wish to read more about this building, click on to the Singapore National Library Infopedia website.

Capitol Theatre

Capitol Theatre was a theatre until the 1940s.
Hmm plants seems to be growing on top. They need to take care of this building!



Read about this building at Wikipedia or the National Library Infopedia.

School of Young Talents

Colleagues and I passed by this place, and someone asked: "Why is there a school for Young Talents but none for old talents?"




Old people are no longer talented?
Or only old people ask such questions? ;-p


This is one of the building of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. They do have very talented students there.

We know of a friend who plays the piano so beautifully. He studied here. He's now on a scholarship to pursue his studies at the Royal College of Music in London.

Catch Spouse Cheating

Saw this advertisement on the walls of Peninsula Plaza. It's an advertisement by a Private Investigator company.

What caught my eye is the URL. (Website Address).



It says Catch Spouse Cheating! LOL
Is that the main business of private investigators I wonder....

Hazy Days back in Singapore

Taken at 7:28 AM this morning. A view of Bukit Timah.
The haze seems to be back since last week. It has been very bad these few days.



A local news websites quotes National Environment Agency (NEA) saying the cause of it is light wind conditions and also bush fire burning in Singapore.

But many people doubt so. Quoting my colleague:"Where can we find enough bushes in Singapore to burn that can cause this?"

Chocolate Research Facility

Saw this the other day at one shopping mall. (Millenia Walk).
It's a chocolate shop with such a catchy name.

It sure caught the attention of these 4 people who happen to walk past the shop.



You can read more about them at: http://www.chocolateresearchfacility.com/

I love chocolates. Might just walk in when our collection of chocolate at home is running out. Can't walk in now because we have too much chocolates at home. LOL

We have a mini fridge at home that stores only chocolates and sweets. We have it in the living room, beside our comfortable couch for easy reach when we are watching TV. :-p

(Our latest indulgence is eating chocolates (from chocolate bar NYC) that my youngest sis bought in NYC when she was delivering a conference paper there.)

$8 hotel room at Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen.

The other day, my colleague (shall call him ZS) came into my office room with such excitement. He asked me to go visit http://paywhatyouwant.com.sg and pay any amount you want for the hotel room. He said he put in $10 for his bid and got it.

I asked him why not lower? Well, the website seems to suggest $30 and so he thought $10 was low enough.

I thought why not try $8? So I registered and bid for a $8 room and I got it. He was like 'hey, that's lower than my bid'. Then another colleague (shall call him Yippie) wanted to lower the bar, and bid for a $1 room. He got it! Ya, Yippie for him and ZS was like "hey, how can?"

So, he waited for the next contest timing and he got a room for $1. He is happier now. LOL...

I booked the room for today and here's some photos of it. ZS and Yippie said I should put them up, so that it might be the first few photos of these place that's not created by Ibis PR people.

It's at 170 Bencoolen Street, Singapore 189657.
Brand new building that was recently completed.
(Just beside Fortune Centre, if your taxi driver does not know where it is)



A very elegant and modern building. If you have been to Ibis in another country, you have seen this sign too :-)



Here's my $8 room. Bright and clean. Nice timber laminate flooring.
The spring's mattress is ok, but I will miss my Tempur Bed and Pillow at home.

But the view's outside the window's errrr. It's Singapore CBD so don't expect much. hehe...



Two colleagues during lunch time to check out the room. They felt claustrophobic. But the other colleague says it is much bigger than Tokyo hotels. To maximise space, everything's very minimalistic in design. Beside this shelf with the mini safe, mini coffee set and micro fridge, is where you hang your clothes.

For the normal price you pay (I overheard the receptionist saying to another customer that the walk in rate is $148 today) it's still big enough, clean and comfortable.



Yup, I said micro fridge. It's not a mini fridge.



Micro, because it only fits two bottles of mineral water. LOL



The flat screen TV is mounted on this mini wall piece and it's also where they put the Ibis related brochures. Saves space this way.



They must have bought more than 500 sets (I assume each room has a set and this hotel has 500 over rooms) of these TV, that they will put in the hotelibis.com label on it :-)
You get the local TV channels plus a few cable TV channels like ESPN, CNN, NHK etc.




Toilet's clean too.



Not grohe taps, but it's ok.



That's it. My short review of the $8 hotel room at Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen.
Hey, if you want to try the hotel yourself, quick go to http://paywhatyouwant.com.sg/ and bid for a room! :-)

They need instructions on how to turn on their air conditioned unit in the rooms. :-)
(Yeah, it's so hi tech, 3 guys who work in IT can't figure it out!)

(No, this is not a sponsored post, I paid for the $8 room.)

Indian Wedding Car (Part II)

More of yesterday's Indian Wedding car photo.

Two little dolls that looked so cute in front of the car.



And side windows decorated with the heart shape.



Wishing the couple (whoever they are) a very Blessed Marriage. ;-)

Indian Wedding Car

I thought this was rather nice. We saw this at a carpark where the (most probably) owner of the car is taking off the flowers off the car Indian Wedding Car.




It looks very unique right? Those are all fresh flowers on the car.

(The flowers are not so fresh in the photo, because we were told the flowers have been up for a full day the day before)

Where to get your LV, Prada, Fendi, Hermes stuff cleaned.

I don't own any stuff from these brands, but if you do, do you clean them yourself or you send to the professionals to do it?



This shop says they are the expert ;-)
Spotted at China Square, Singapore.

Thaipusam 2009

Saw part of an entourage of the Thaipusam procession while having dinner in Chinatown.
I think they are on their way to Little India for the festivities.



Wishing all Hindus a Happy Thaipusam.

CNY Lights

The Lunar New Year's ending. Here's one more photo to add to the collection.



Have a great weekend!

Orchard Central

Took a photo of this mall way back in April last year.

Around 10 months later, so much have been completed. This corner with the interesting roof is coming up nicely.



Few more months and it should all be ready I guess.

The Toto queue

This happens in Singapore every Lunar New Year.

The annual Singapore Pools Toto Hongbao Draw that pays out $10 million dollars make these 'hopeless' or 'hopeful' (your pick) queue to fill in the coffers of Singapore Pools.

Spotted this during lunch hour. You think the queue is long?



Think again... It gets even longer! And much longer...



Then at the Toto booth opposite Dover Food Centre and Market. People from all races queue up. Even domestic helpers and school children in uniform in tow! Sigh....


If you are asking if I queued up together with the hopeless/hopeful?

No :-), for.....

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Words by Edward Mote.

The Lion Dances...

At our 'company lunch', every year, the lunch starts off auspiciously with the thundering drums from the Lion Dance Troupe.

A colleague noted that for this year there's only 1 lion. It has been a pair of lions for the last few years.

The start of an austerity drive?



We had 'hong bao' as well. But they have only a month to go before expiry.
The message is clear. LOL...

Stole a cow?

These fake cows are some by this advertising company called Moove Media. These cow placards is synonymous with them now.



These few weeks, this company have cows with Chinese Characters like this one appearing randomly at different places.

Momo saw this at one house, hmm and wonders if this family 'stole' it and left it in front of their house. haha..

Daily Photo Theme Day - February: Paths & Passages

Daily Photo Theme for the month of February : Paths and Passages.



This is the walking path also known as Marina Bridge right above the Marina Barrage.


Click here to view thumbnails for all participants