Lights up @ Chinatown 牛车水灯饰

The light decors during various Chinese festivals (eg MidAutum Festival, Chinese New Year) have been plagued by complaints for the past few years. The moon fairy statue was to "manly", the lanterns resemble that of decors put up during funeral... etc, etc.

The light decors for Lunar New Year this year have also being critisized as being too abstract and cartoon like.

Look at the lantern decor above... what Zodiac animals are they? ... Rabbit on the left, but what about the yellow creature on the right?....... the answer is "SNAKE".

The 12 Zodiac animals dotting the skyline

Can you confidently name all the Zodiac animals?
Rooster, Goat, Pig, Mouse, Ox (top panel)
Dragon, Snake, Pig, Rabbit (lower panel)

Which Zodiac animal is the one below?

Stretch your imagination, let your childhood imagination run wild.... it is the "TIGER"!

At one glance, it is indeed quite difficult to tell which Zodiac animals the various lanterns represent. But once you appreciate the difficulty of depicting the various animals within the confine of oval-shaped lanterns, you start to empathize with the artists predicament.

I must admit they kind of look cute, and will definitely attract the attention of young children. For once, I thought they were creatures from Pokemon!

The light decors along the New Bridge Rd @ Chinatown are more conventional and tradition. They are quite impressive as well.

Ushering in the year of the OX!

The year of RAT has been quite a disaster for many people, because of COVID pandemic.

Hopefully, the year of OX will usher in good health and prosperity for all!

Light to Night Festival 2021

Went for the Light to Night Festival at Civic District last night. 

Left home at 7.45pm, and drove to the carpark next to the Parliament House. But alas, the car park was closed for some unknown reason. Wanted to park in the alleys along Singapore River. But the places were rather crowded with people enjoying drinks/food at the various bars / boutique restaurants lining up both sides of the alleys. Eventually, I had to park at the basement carpark of Adelphi shopping complex. Fortunately, the parking wasn't too expensive - costs~ $3 per entry (after 5pm).

The colourful display of lights at the National Gallery was grand, but haphazard - the colour display occurred randomly,  without any specific theme. Somehow, it lacks the OOMH factor. Fortunately, the display appeared rather impressive on photos!

The skyline of Marine Bay Sands and buildings around Padang were more impressive.

The iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel

The light display at The Art House...

Finally, the last stop and probably the best light display - Victoria Theatre. There seemed to be some storyline - something about despair and help...

And the Fullerton Hotel nearby...

And the building along Singapore River...

My wife and I spent about 1.5 hour exploring the light show. Our next destination... Lights @ Chinatown 牛车水。

 

Old and New

Nowhere do you find old buidings being demolished, and being replaced by new ones within short period of time, except in Singapore.

Every 5-10 years, new buildings will sprout out suddenly. Old schools which have been left idle,  or sometimes used as holding schools, will be demolished and replaced by new schools. These old buildings are not that old, some not more than 20-30 years. 

Why such a haste to discard "old buildings"?

The historic brick public houses @ Dakota Crescent - one of the pioneer rented houses in Singapore history, have been ear-marked for re-development many years back. There were protests initially, lamenting our lost of heritage with the demolition of the old brick houses. The old tenants were relocated to other places many years ago, and the place was left dormant for a quite a few years. And finally, the demolition works started over the past one month. 

Up till now, it is still not clear what the authority intends to do with this vast piece of land after the demolition. 

A wet beginning for year 2021

It started pouring on the eve of 2021. With that, the water level of the several rivers gradually rose and flood alerts were raised. The rain kept going on and on, till the following night. The rain fall was higher than the monthly average of previous years. Inevitably, several low lying areas were flooded. And of course, the temperature started to dip as well .... down to 21'C in some places.

Rain

Rain

And Rain...

Hopefully, the rain will flush away all the back fortunes (COVID included) of year 2020, and usher in a new beginning for year 2021. Many people were hit hard financially last year. Hopefully, the arrival of "water" 水 ('money' in Cantonese dialect) brings along great fortune to all!

Happy New Year!

YEAR 2020...what a year

The world was brought to its knees by COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

People were dropping dead like flies when the virus made its strike in the first quarter of 2020. Panic buying of toilet papers first erupted in Hong Kong, then in South East Asia... then surprisingly in US/Australia. (nobody could fathom why this phenomenon occur???)

Then popular phrases that were unheard off started to pop up - locked down, circuit breaker, movement control orders ... social distancing ... wear masks ... work from home, home-based learning... zoom meeting....

Unflattering terms such as COVIDIOT, Karen made their appearances shortly after.

If there is any doubt about the cultural difference between EAST and WEST, how people from each continent react to "wearing mask" (to protect oneself and others) will put that to rest. 

Borders were closed. Flights were restricted (leisure travelling was either discouraged or forbidden).

Many businesses were hit hard. Even major shopping malls/chains were not spared. Many people's earning take a hard beating.

Finally, vaccines against COVID infection were fast tracked for approval and eventually rolled out for use before Christmas.

Let us hope that year 2021 will be a better year!

Exercise trail in Mac Ritchie reservoir

Woke up at 6am on Sunday (what an achievement!!!) ... in order to "enjoy" the morning fresh air @ Mac Ritchie Reservoir.

Reached the reservoir at 7am. Walked for about 2 km along the boardwalk encircling the reservoir, then cut across mixed sand/mud path next to a golf course (~200m), before reaching the scenic spots above.

The trail is truly fascinating, far away from concrete buildings and rowdy vehicles! It rained the night before ... the air was truly refreshing!

Mac Ritchie Reservoir is truly a place to savour nature's tranquility.

Manual labour

 

It was 3.30pm. Heavy cloud hovered above in the sky, but it failed to shield the land below from sweltering heat of the sun. The air was still. No breeze at all. 

I went for my routine walking exercises along exercise trail lining both side of the river. A small boat carrying two labourer in uniform and life jackets was moving like a snake along the river. The two men worked diligently, picking up the debris found floating on the surface of the river. The debris consist mostly of withering leaves, tree branches, and occasional loose pieces of paper.

The saying that " there is no free lunch" is quite true.

To keep the waterway clean, despite various devices / methods put in place to filter off waste from up stream, we still have to depend on manual labour to remove some of the debris/wastes. 

As the standard of living of a country improves, people begin to shun blue collar jobs that require a lot of manual hard work under the sun. These jobs are now done mostly by foreign workers. Without these manual labourers, a lot of things may be in limbo nowadays ... construction projects being delay, road works deferred etc.