A Photo Canvas

While I have always been a fan of the military, navy and air force, surprisingly this year I wasn't that keen on going to the Navy Open House (I'm guessing it's probably because I felt tired). But the Boy decided to check it out, as we head off to the East side for some sunny experience.

It was such a hot and crowded day! Every where we went, there were tons of people queueing up to board the ships or were waiting for the rides. All ships had a minimum waiting time of 1 hour, which was a big turn-off for me, especially when the weather was extremely hot. It was no wonder then that we decided to hide out in some of the tentages. Even then the crowd was scary... Fortunately, it was in the tentage that we discovered through some high-tech screen that there were some ships whose queues weren’t that long. Hence, we decided to give them a try.

We boarded both the Patrol Vessel and Mine Countermeasure Vessel, as we were given a tour of both ships.


When it seems like we were almost done, we received a call from the event organiser that our ballot for a ship cruise was successful! As such, we had to continue waiting in the hot sun for another 30 minutes before it was time to board the Missile Corvette.



Our little boarding ticket. Can we say that we are lucky considering that we also got to board a plane during the Air Force Open House?

The corvette took us out of the harbour for a quick cruise. It felt nice to have the wind blowing against your face against the hot sun...


And to show you how big the gust of wind was...



What I felt interesting was that we actually boarded the 3 smallest ships compared to what was available. I guess big ships and us are not meant to be...

Anyway, at the end of the day, I was a sunburnt cookie!! But then, I had such a great and special experience with the Boy, nothing can beat that, not even the burn =)

Being an avid fan of experiencing anything new, I decided to drag the Boy along for the Circle Line Open House. Besides, we could both practise our architectural photography skills too =)

Departing from Bras Basah Station, we hopped into the train and travelled to a few stations. There were also some events at certain stations, of which drew some crowds of course. And although there weren't many things to shoot at, I wast still amazed however at how places are connected to each other without having the need to step up to the surface... There were lots of space too, of which I'm sure will be filled up with shops/cafes soon even though I prefer quiet spaces.

And Paya Lebar Station. I would have loved to take more of this but they constructed a fashion walkway in one of the lanes such that my opportunities were limited… I love how the red contrasts with the rest of the station.


Anyway, as part of the event’s open house, we were entitled to free entries around the 4 museums of Singapore. Since we had some more time on hand, and we have had visited the National Museum and the Art Museum before, we decided to brave the hot sun, and walked all the way from Bras Basah Station to the Peranakan Museum!


I think I am really a failed Peranakan, for I don’t know much about my heritage/history, I can’t speak Malay, and I do not know much about the culture. But hopefully one day I will be able to discover more about my heritage…


Once again, I was awed by the lovely architecture of the building, so much so that I wondered again if I could possibly take wedding photos at the museum in future! (I think I'm a little wedding-crazy...) And while I tried my best to find out a bit more about the Peranakan culture since I’m there at the museum, the crowd made it pretty difficult for me to read and find out more. I did however read up a bit about the wedding customs and the handicrafts of Peranakans =)

With one museum ‘conquered’, we moved on further to Singapore Philatelic Museum.


I was quite surprised that its interior was pretty small. Yet despite it being a small museum, its decor was pretty nice, and it is a place rich in information. There, we got to find out more about the different types of stamps from all over the world. It even brought back memories of our younger days when the Boy and I used to collect stamps. It’s just too bad that in the midst of growing up, we either threw our collection away, or we lost it… I think it just proves my point further that one will only learn to appreciate such hobbies/pursuits when we are older. For when we are younger, we probably only go with the flow of collecting just cause others were doing it, or just cause our parents asked us to.

Anyway, as part of their open house, they had some in-house games and events. Deciding not to miss out on it, the Boy and I thought that it’ll be nice to just soak in the atmosphere and try our hand at the games.

Tadah!! The games were of course pretty simple since it was piqued to the level of the children swarming about the place. But hey, no harm being a kid at heart =)

In between our Sentosa celebration and the next event, having chanced upon the news that a Spanish ship will be docking at Vivocity, the Boy and I took the chance to board the exhibiting ship for some photo fun.

But it seems like luck was not on our side as the skies were very gloomy...



But of course despite the gloomy skies, we still had our fun. In fact, I felt that we were already considered lucky when it skies decided to stop raining when it was our turn to board the ship =)

Since Body Worlds was in town, and it was conveniently situated in the West, I dragged the Boy along for the exhibition. I thought it would be good for him to take a look at the naked human body, and also better understand what I was studying during my poly day. It sure brought back memories...

Unfortunately, due to the no photography rule, there are no pictures to share. All I can say is that while we were intrigued at the human bodies, the giraffe and squid exhibit were however more fascinating =)

(And I thought we were there to be amazed at human bodies, not animals…)

With our disappointment at River Ang Bao, we thought that the lighting exhibition at Sentosa would be better. Replacing their usual flower festival, this year, they featured lights instead.

But... We were so wrong! Lights of Spring was not any better. Once again, apart from the zodiac signs, there wasn’t any thing more to look at =(


Not to mention that I could hardly make out what the lights were suppose to look like either. Plus the lightings on the Merlion wasn't that pretty, but instead made me think that it looked sick... Sigh, this year's exhibitions were just horrible… I guess the country wanted to cut down on cost so much that nothing was worth our time…


Though I think I should count myself lucky that I got great company to get by the lousy exhibitions =)

Our 3rd straight year again to the annual River Ang Bao Exhibit at the Marina Floating Platform.

All excited about it, we actually walked our way to where Citylive was instead (being the dodo-brains we were). However, with no tickets on hand, we could only do a roundabout turn to where we wanted to be).



We took our usual animal zodiac shots, and then... there was nothing left to look at!


We were only fascinated with this exhibit at most, a dragon and phoenix made of cutlery like spoon, plates and bowls. Other than that, there wasn't much to look at, and the mountain of tigers wasn't very interesting to look at.


So we had no other choice but to walk around and try to entertain ourselves. That was when I saw a master drawing using 'molten' candy. It brought back childhood memories of mine, as I remembered enjoying the sweetness of my animals back then. Never thought I would see such art again...


And then, we came across people trying to hit well-wishes hanging upon bells. I usually do not participate in such things, but I thought, 'what the heck', since the event was pretty boring.


Armed with my 3 coins (two 10-cents and one 5-cent), I aimed for 心想事成. But as fate would have it, out of my 3 coins, only my 5-cent coin hit a little known saying: 春风得意. Ha, I guess even with its well wishes, my 5 cent would not make much of it. Oops... Hopefully my luck would not be that bad this year, haha...

Happy Lunar New Year!