Gardens Galore - Singapore Garden Festival 2010

For the third time, I brought my mother to the Singapore Garden Festival - the third time the festival has been held.  As always, we walked through the two huge halls of Suntec City until we were footsore, and till my camera battery was running low (such was the number of zoomed shots, macros etc which I had taken). 

Some SGF highlights:

The huge figure of "The Man Who Planted Trees", an allusion to the story by Jean Giono.  The figure greets visitors to the Festival, and I must say is truly imposing.  Except, that I regret not taking the effort to view it in the far more natural surroundings of the Botanical Gardens, where it was "grown", before being transferred to Suntec. 

This year, I somehow found that the gardens were a little less memorable than previous years.  Somehow, the underwater garden featured in SGF 2008 really took my fancy. This year, somehow the imaginative and creative element was somewhat lacking in the Fantasy Gardens.  Nonetheless, I rather liked the enclosed garden, "Hortus Inclusus", meant to represent a monastry garden, surrounded by pear trees trained in the form of a grill.  There's a technical name for this which of course I can't remember. 

Another favourite (from the landscape gardens) was probably the "Mystic Rainforest", which was really like a cube of rainforest transferred wholesale into the Suntec halls.  I liked the dense smell of moist earth, the dead leaves scattered on the ground, the snakes twined on the branches and the packaging around the cube.  Sorry, I'm not a fan of "Modern Kampong" which won Best in Show.

I always like the immense variety of beautiful, vibrant orchids displayed in the Orchid Festival, and this year was no exception.  Here, I fear, is where my camera is really strained to its maximum capacity.  The "Community in Bloom" is also very interesting - this year, it features some wall garden equipment or "Vegge Pipes" which enable one to grow plants vertically. 

What I found new and fascinating this year was the bonsai.  These perfect miniatures invite one to view these sturdy little trees from every angle.  This little example on the right won a prize (I can't remember what).  

As always, I am amazed at the immense crowds at the garden festival - the serious photographers, the camera phone crowd just snapping away for a photo to remember the event.  I always meet someone I know too.  It's  such a comfortable, neighbourhood type of event and it's no wonder people go year after year.

P.S.  Just re-read my review of the first SGF 2006, and am pleased to note that I had in this post noted the importance of being more inclusive, involving community gardeners.  Obviously, NParks has listened!

P.P.S.  My photo set on Flickr is here.

A Meeting of Cats

I attended the Cat Welfare Society "Mad Hatter Tea Party" event last Sunday. It was held at The Garden Slug, the comfy diner just down the road (which explains why we went).  I rather liked was meeting all the cats and hearing a little more about them during the Cheshire Cat competition. 

Let me introduce you to just a few:

 Toto, the big and beautiful cross between a Scottish Fold and a British Shorthair.  Weights almost 7 kg!!  His placid and easygoing temperament made him the favourite at the Cheshire Cat competition.  A creature of routine, he likes sitting by the door to wait for his humans to come back from work.

Juju's  owner informed us that this poor cat had two broken legs.  I forgot to ask how these were sustained.  But Juju's mobility is definitely affected as he stayed most of the time in the little baby chair.  But still, as you can see, a rather handsome cat!

Smokey turned up a little late for the competition but he  is after all a true Deuteronomy amongst cats.  He's 18 years' old, and was carried in by the son of his human (who must be a good 6 years at least younger than him).  Smokey was the only cat who was attired for the occasion, in a handsome Argentinian jersey (by contrast, his humans were in Brazilian strip - what does this mean)?  He's blind but can still find his way around the house.

I'll put up a few photos on flickr later on but in the meantime, photos from the event (by official photographer) can be seen on the CWS Facebook page.

P.S.  My photos here.

Sea Lions of Pier 39

Went last month to San Francisco.  It was a work trip, but I had time to pop down to look at the sea lions at Pier 39.  Not the most exciting of videos, but I thought it was fairly interesting to see the sea lion swim up to the pier and jump on top.  For more professional videos, see here.

The End of an Era - Goodbye Dr Goh Keng Swee

(photo from CNA website)

Like so many Singaporeans, I was saddened to hear last Friday 14 May 2010 of the death of Dr Goh Keng Swee.  I have never met Dr Goh, but his policies and actions have surely shaped my life in so many ways. I was probably one of the first batches of Singaporeans to go through streaming in secondary school (ended up in the Express class), and of course encountered his legacy in the workplace, through dealing with agencies he created and through reading and hearing of his actions and practices from others. 

For that reason, I thought I would also join the crowds to pay my last respects to Dr Goh as he lay in state in Parliament House.  It was a hot day with the sun positively blazing down on us, but still the queue built up steadily.  It did move quite fast, with crowd control done by the SAF officers.  There were young school children, parents with their kids, older Singaporeans coming alone including a short, elderly lady with swollen legs which made it difficult for her to even walk (not to mention rather improbably dyed raven black hair).  We moved forward, signed the many condolence books, and walked forward to the coffin where he lay.  His widow was seated beside it.  I said a quick prayer and then it was over. 

As I left, I realised that the Old Guard of leaders was indeed slipping away.  Mr Rajaratnam, Mr Lim Kim San, and others, and nearer home amongst the MPs, Mr Ho See Beng.  One of my younger colleagues confessed that she was not familiar with what Dr Goh had done.  I was surprised as somehow, I thought that there had been so much written in recent years (eg MM's Memoirs, the recent book "Men in White" etc.  It is sad to think that the younger generation these days probably don't read the newspapers, or books of this nature and because of that take for granted the Singapore of today.

But when I was reading through the stories on Dr Goh in the papers over the past few days, it struck me that the first generation of leaders were perhaps far less distanced from the rest of us masses than their legacy makes them out to be.  The stories of Dr Goh sitting and drinking in the mess with his soldiers, and telling risque stories; and working out how to improve his golf, paint a far different picture (or maybe a more complete picture) than the analyst par excellence and the architect of the Singapore economy and the builder of its defences.  We owe him a tremendous debt.

Not sure how long this will stay up but here is link to channelnewsasia videos on Dr Goh.

Terminal 3 Butterflies

Terminal 3 Butterflies
Originally uploaded by Taking5

I was going through Changi Airport Terminal 3 to fly to the US and stopped by the Butterfly Garden in the transit area. They're incredible to look at - look at the beautiful markings on the wings of this butterfly.

They're remarkably easy to photograph too.  There are some butterfly feeding stations around the aviary.  These are flowers with their stems dipped in tubes of sugar solution - the butterflies then sip the nectar through the flowers and stay wonderfully still for the photographer.  This one was a slightly more challenging shot as the flowers concerned were in a separate area, and the butterfly was moving around from stalk to stalk.  So I'm quite proud of this particular effort.

Congrats to Changi Airport for this innovative butterfly garden which brings pleasure to the many passengers through its gates!

My other photos here.

Cat Routines

After all the sad stories, I thought I should put up a positive cat post.  So here is a list of cat routines, amusing, endearing, irritating and more.

1.  The Breakfast Routine.  I am glad to say that I do not get woken up by cats in the mornings, even though I sleep with my door open for ventilation purposes.  No, the cats are waiting patiently downstairs by my parents' door for the moment when my father will emerge to get them their breakfast.  The outdoor cats too are waiting, and they make their presence felt through their mewing and thudding on the front door.

2.  Orlando takes the air.  My ritual every morning after my breakfast: wash my breakfast dishes, wash the cat dishes, clear the litter tray.  As soon as I have finished the last, Orlando is on the alert.  He comes to my side and walks me to the front door where he waits for me to pick him up and take him to sit on top of my car.  He sniffs the air, looks around him, and when he feels like he is ready, jumps down and goes to the front door and waits to be let in.  The downside is that sometimes our little friend wants to stay out a lot longer than I have time for and I have to pick up him and carry him, protesting grouchily, into the house.

3.  MC's manja in the morning.  When I open the front gate just before driving off to work, MC walks from wherever she is and lies down behind the car.  She is waiting for someone to stroke her, pick her up and put her in a safe spot.  Never mind that I'm  late for work!

4.  Jumping on the bonnet. Coming home, Paddy likes to jump on the bonnet of the car, and walk up to the windscreen to look me in the Eye.

5.  Night time head-rubbing.  Winky and Dinky need attention too.  They like jumping up on my bed as I lie there reading before going to sleep.  Winky just wants me to stroke him as he lies beside me (one paw extended to touch me) but Dinky likes to come up, rub my head with his and slump down beside my face.  And that's when he is not lying on my chest just below my chin, practically suffocating me. 

Ah, pussy cats.  You certainly make life interesting!

A rare picture of all three lads - Dinky and Winky and the back, and Orlando in front.

Bye Blanco

Bye Blanco
Originally uploaded by Taking5

Blanco left us on 14 Feb 2010, the first day of Chinese New Year. He did not come for dinner and after that when we went looking a neighbour told us that a dying cat (prob hit by a car) had staggered into his driveway.

Blanco -your sweet temper, warm and affectionate manner will always be remembered.

(I've got to post some more positive cat stories, the last few are all so depressing!)