This comes a little late, but since it was the beginning of the new year, there was a pile of work sitting on my desk, waiting to be cleared. As this post comes with photos, I had to spend a little more time than usual to select and arrange the contents, so please forgive me. The entire post is a little long, so I’m going to break it up into parts. Here’s the first part, while I continue working on completing the rest.

I was given the afternoon from work on New Year’s Eve. Rather than join the crowd who have gathered for the various countdown activities in and around town, I decided visit HortPark, the up-and-coming gardening hub in Singapore, which happens to be just 3 bus-stops away from my office.

It was a bright and sunny day, perfect for taking a walk in the park and taking pictures. Although it threatened to rain a couple of times while I was in HortPark, eventually the weather turned out fine. Armed with my camera phone, some maps and a bottle of water, I happily hopped on the bus that brought me to the footsteps of Alexandra Arch, the uniquely architectured bridge that links the HortPark and the Forest Walk. My journey begins here.

I crossed the leaf-shaped structure and arrived at the entrance of HortPark and started my trail through Floral Walk. I was greeted by a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees. Some of them are quite commonly seen along the roadside, some are more rare. Apparently, not all of them were in bloom, which was quite unfortunate, but it was still a beautiful sight nonetheless.

After a short walk, I soon reached the Visitor Center of HortPark. It was obviously decorated for the festive season. I didn’t stay here for too long since I wanted to quickly visit the other attractions in the park. Just outside of the Visitor Center is the the Water Garden, a beautiful pond with an interesting collection of aquatic plants potted in specially designed geometric-shaped containers. Oh, and did I mention there was FISH in the pond? Cool!

Beyond the Water Garden was the Car Park Garden. Imagine parking your car in a garden filled with various beautiful flowers and trees. Thankfully the car park was pretty much empty, so I could easily snap snap snap with my trusty SE K800i, without causing too much inconvenience to the car park users.

to be continued…

Tags: life, musings, Personal

I’ll like to say a big THANK YOU to Leo Severino for dropping me a note of thanks for mentioning and recommending his old podcast in one of my previous posts. For the uninitiated, Leo is the producer of the beautiful film, Bella. It really made my day, Leo!

I’ll also like to say sorry for being on hiatus for so long. Work has really been piling up as we’re starting on a new project and our team is pretty short-handed. It’s also the year-end peak season for program updates, enquiries, bugs, etc. So there’s hardly any chances to prepare a decently-length post.

Please be assured that I will be back. I may not be doing a “full-length” post anytime soon, but I will try to find time for it. Meanwhile, I’ll try to drop a couple of short posts to let y’all know that I’m still pretty much alive and kicking.

Tags: musings, Personal

It is now 2 days after the much anticipated Apple event of 09/09/09, and even though I’ve already found out what I needed to know via various tech blogs, tech podcasts and Twitter, I finally got to sit down and watch the keynote speech where Steve Jobs reappeared to a crowd who welcomed him with a standing ovation. Although not an Apple user myself, I was looking forward to the announcement of (much speculated) new features on the iPod Touch. I must admit, I was kinda disappointed at the outcome.

Sure, the addition of a video camera, a voice recorder, a pedometer AND an FM receiver (finally) to the iPod Nano IS exhilarating indeed. The colors and the polished anodized aluminum finish are BEAUTIFUL! All that goodness at an even lower cost is definitely most welcomed. The return of color to the world of iPod Shuffle is a big relief. The stainless steel version is SHINY, but that just about it (duh?). But where are all the changes that almost everybody prophesied about the iPod Touch?

I wasn’t wanting any cameras, nor anything particularly shiny or lofty, but I was secretly wishing for Apple to add 3G capabilities to the Touch to make it a more all-rounded internet device (for me at least). In the very least, I was hoping for slightly more dramatic changes to make the 3rd generation Touch more viable. I’d say that Apple was rather tame this time, to the point that it was a slight let down. Still, the drop in prices despite the increase in capacity still deserves credit.

I had originally wanted to get myself an 8GB 3rd generation Touch that would hopefully have all the wonderful new features that everyone was raving speculating about at a MUCH reduced price. What Apple has now is just an 8GB 2nd generation Touch with nothing new about it except the updated OS and the slightly reduced price of S$308, a reduction of S$80. I don’t think I’ll be running into an Apple store just yet. With the hardware improvements only available for the 32GB and 64GB models, I’m now deciding between getting a 32GB 3rd generation Touch (S$468), where I can finally house all of my music collection on a single device, and hopefully getting a Windows 7 netbook at less than S$600. The final decision will probably surface early next year.

Thankfully, iTunes 9 saved the day, despite all the disappointment and anti-climax I felt regarding the iPod Touch. I gleefully updated both the work PC and the home laptop. The new iTunes Store is fantastic! I love the way things are organized and how easy it is to navigate now. The iTunes LP feature looks great too, even if I don’t normally buy my music from the iTunes Store. The new “Show all available episodes” and “Copy Podcast URL” options are much welcomed. My only gripe is.. why can’t I do a “Update Podcast” if the feed doesn’t contain any episodes? The only options are “Show Description” and “Delete“. I used to be able to do that in the previous versions. Come on Apple! Do something! Please?!?

Tags: musings, Personal, rant, technology

I took the day off from work yesterday to catch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and also to roam around Orchard Road and explore some of the new malls that sprang up over the past few months. It’s probably my last chance to rest and relax a little before things start getting crazy at work.

The day started early with a trip to the dentist. Not the best way to celebrate a belated birthday. Indeed. I ended up with 5 fillings and a total bill of S$360.55. Ouch!   At least the dentist was pretty. Luckily, the company is co-paying S$100, but I’ll still have to fork up the remaining amount myself.

I quickly made my way to the nearest cinema, ended up at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. Remember I mentioned in my last post that I could get movie tickets for just S$6.50 on Tuesdays? That was for another cinema. Over here, I can get movie tickets for just S$6.00 on weekdays when I pay with my UOB credit card. After redeem the rebate points I had on my card, the ticket only cost me S$4.83. Sweet!

As I patiently wait for the Harry Potter movie to begin, while seated comfortably in my row of seats (I had the row all to myself as there was no one else seated on my row), I watched a couple of movie trailers:

• 
  Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
  
• 
  The Final Destination
• 
  2012

2012 looks interesting. Apparently it’s produced by the same people who produced Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, so it’s probably worth watching.

I personnally quite enjoyed the Harry Potter movie, which I watched in digital format. But somehow I think I preferred Order of the Phoenix. Perhaps it’s because I’ve already read the final book, so by now I already can tie much of the loose ends together with regards to each character’s actions and motives. But still, I think it’s still worth a watch for all Harry Potter fans. I’m looking forward to the upcoming 2-part finale.

After the movie, I went sightseeing. More accurately, I went “mall-seeing”. First stop, Singapore’s first “Vertical Mall”, Orchard Central. Orchard Central is 12-storeys high, easily making it the “tallest” shopping mall along Orchard Road, in terms of the number of retail levels. The shops are grouped into clusters, which is a totally new concept to shopping in Singapore. I think I only made it up to the open-air veranda on level 7. There was just so much to see, and I had so little time. Not all the shops were opened either. So I’m quite sure I’ll be back again to see Orchard Central in its full splendor.

One special feature of Orchard Central is the abundance of escalators within and outside the mall, coolest of which had to be the one that took you from ground floor to level 4, and the corresponding one which went from level 4 to the afore-mentioned veranda on level 7. I checked out the latter, and it was quite a breath-taking experience, especially for someone with a fear of heights like me. Here’s a panoramic view of Orchard Road from L7, if you’ll excuse my lousy “stitching”. The sun was burning bright, and my knees were wobbling.

Next, I made my way to my next destination. ION Orchard. It was opening day yesterday, so the mall was bustling with visitors. As in the case of Orchard Central, the mall has not been completely leased out, and many of the shops weren’t open yet. It was a pretty intimidating experience to step into the main halls of ION, since almost all the occupants I spotted were of major international designer labels such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Christian Dior, etc. Not quite my retail cup of tea, but it was a good place to window-shop and people-watch.

This one particular shop caught my eye. It sells various assortments of wooden-crafts, presumably from Germany. I couldn’t stop snapping pictures with my camera phone, until the pretty store assistant told me that photographing is not allowed. Oops!

An interesting feature of ION Orchard is the interactive shop directories. They’re operated by touching the screens, and you can search through shop listings by category, level, and name. There’s always a friendly member of staff around to assist you should you need any help.

Although much of ION Orchard is occupied by expensive brands, the basement portion of the mall were filled with more “approachable” brands. There are a handful of food outlets there too. One fine day, I’m gonna come back and check them out. Maybe I’ll try to come back for a visit at night, when the building literally lights up. Same goes for Orchard Central.

Finally, I left Orchard Road and ended up at Vivocity. Happened to pass by the National Geographic store and noticed that they finally updated the main display window. Cool!

Didn’t stay here for too long, since my main purpose in coming was to get a new pair of earphones from one of the gadget stores there. After a few quick rounds, I made my move to get dinner and headed home. Whew! What a busy day indeed!

Tags: life, movies, musings, Personal, shopping, videos, youtube

I mentioned in my last post that I was gonna spend my birthday catching up with sleep and reading. That was half true. I did catch up with sleep, as I usually do on Saturdays. But I ended up catching up on watching movies on the computer rather than reading. Did I ever mention that I’m a procrastinating lazy bum?

On my playlist for the day were Ice Age 1 & 2, and Madagascar 1 & 2. Of the 2 animated series, I prefer Ice Age. Madagascar was a little too over the top for me. I mean, wild African animals that have become full-fledged New Yorkers (no offense)? That’s just too wierd.

I’ve got one less person to get birthday presents now, so I decided to double-pamper myself. Although it was a day late, I did enjoy a sumptuous fusion Japanese meal with Mom at Ministry of Food. Mom had the Unagi (sea eel) Hot Stone Rice, I had the Salmon Bibimbap (hot stone rice + bean sprouts + raw egg), and we ordered an Ebi (prawn) Toji (some sort of egg stew) to share. We also ordered a Chawanmushi (steamed egg) each. Sounds delicious right? It sure was! So delicious in fact, that we started attacking the food, the moment it was set on our table. So no photos this time, sorry!

After the meal, Mom & I decided to do a little “exercise” to aid digestion. We went shopping!   Actually, I had some birthday privileges that had to be redeemed within a week of my birthday. So we decided to make good use of the special member + birthday discounts available.

As the title of this post suggests, this is just part 1. I’m taking the day off tomorrow to watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and to run some general errands, and perhaps visit the dentist (though I wouldn’t classify that as part of “celebrations” proper). Why Tuesdays of all days? Ha ha.. another member privilege of course! I have a membership to a certain cinema group in Singapore which entitles me to $6.50 tickets on Tuesdays, before 5pm. That’s $3.50 cheaper than weekends! It’s also less crowded, especially since the kids are in school. Which means I won’t have to put up with screaming children. That’s always a plus.

So watch out for my movie review, as well as the sequel to my little “Belated Celebrations” series. Meanwhile, here’s a nice trailer to set the mood.

Tags: life, movies, musings, Personal, videos, youtube