淘宝开箱 Online purchase

最近位于家人频频在淘宝网购。因为这几个星期有0付费的运输推销活动。连续下单买了鞋架，运动器材，厨房用具等等。。。

货物送到家时，得“开箱”验货。

We have been buying quite a number of items from Taobao recently - taking full use of the "zero" courier fees for item purchased from the website.

Undeniably, majority of the items purchased online from Taobao are very "cheap"; of course, sometimes the quality is of dubious standard, or the items sent may not be what we had ordered/purchased. Fortunately, the mistakes can be amended amicably in most cases.

I could understand why local retail shops may not be able to compete with online purchase from China!

民以食为天 Breakfast @ Hawker centre

民以食为天。早餐，不是在家里泡杯咖啡，啃面包，便是到小贩中心买早点吃。

这家位于裕廊西的“四美槟城炒果条“是我家的最爱。我们往往不厌其烦的驾车从新加坡东部，直奔西部去。往往那里的小贩中心人潮汹涌，很难找到坐位。

We usually have our breakfast in the hawker centre in the weekends.

Common places we frequented are - Pipit Road Hawker Centre, Macpherson / Circuit Rd Hawker centre, Bedok Hawker Centre, or Jurong West Hawker centre.

Many years ago, each bowl of noodles cost between $2.30-3. But gradually with inflation, the minimum charges for each bowl of noodles /plate of rice is at least $4 in most places. 

But this is still cheaper than in restaurants or Kopitiam. 

Dunhuang Exhibition @ Asian Civilizations Museum 亚洲文明博物馆之敦煌展

Went for Dunhuang Exhibition at Asian Civilizations Museum yesterday.

It was free entry for Singaporean Senior Citizens (age 60 and above).

The exhibits occupy two small section of the museum (at level 2) -most of the explanation is written in English.

Some of the exhibits showing exact replica of the grottoes were fascinating; the rest was rather underwhelming.

We did not spend much time exploring the regular exhibits on display in the museum though.

Somehow, the scenery outside the museum (along Singapore River, and around Victoria Theatre) was more interesting. Took some photos of the place, as what a regular tourist would. 

After visiting the museum, we drove to Food Centre at Chinatown complex for dinner. We took clay-pot rice there - it was cheap, but not as delicious as touted by others. To make matter worse, there was some confusion with our food order  - the rice came quite late (those came late was served food before us!). Not a good experience at all!

昨天兴致勃勃的往亚洲文明博物馆参观刚引进来的敦煌展。报纸上/多媒体传媒造势轰轰烈烈，参观之后，却有点失望。除了根据原来体积打造的佛窟/佛像还有些震撼力之外，其它陈列品显得有些逊色。更让内人与我有点失望的是，多数注解都是以英文为主，华语注解寥寥可数。

幸好年长者入门免费，不然会有点货不对板的感觉。

博物馆外围的景观反而更有看头。就把自己当个游客，捕抓一些照片。

看完展览后，我们驾车到牛车水小贩中心吃晚餐。听说那边的晚上饮食蛮地道及可口。我们在一家口碑蛮不错的沙煲饭店家叫了两人份的杂锦沙煲饭，结果等了好久才上菜。。。（好像是店家搞错了，与我们同桌较迟来的顾客，居然先上菜！）

其实这家店的沙煲饭也没有网传的那么美味，只是价钱实惠。

经过这次不那么美好的经历，我们异口同声的说应该没有第二次了！

百看不厌 never bored with it...

 有些人您会百看不厌，宠物也一样。我家的毛孩，就是那么可爱！

There are things that one never become bored with ... like our pet dog, MANTIS. He has been with us for a few years. He is probably 8 year-old now (we adopted him when he was reported to be around 4 years of age).

haze 雾霾

Singapore is hit by haze again this year.

The PM2.5 index hovered above 100 (i.e. unhealthy range) in recent days.

The romantic may feel that it is akin to 烟雨江南 (misty rain over Southern China); but such unhealthy haze does cause unfathomed damage to one's health.

最近，雾霾开始笼罩新加坡。颗粒指数过去几天都维持在不健康水平上。

唯美派者会美其名为烟雨江南，雾锁南洋。

机械人偷窥 Robot

前天在住家附近遛狗时，不期然的看到隔壁家即将竣工的住屋工地围墙凹口处，有一个“机械人”在偷窥。其实，它时吊架机的一部分；但那模型，让我想起了旧时卡通片的机械人。

再看一次， 又觉得它像一位蓄有白发白须，头顶戴着红帽的老者。

I was walking our dog recently, and chanced upon part of crane peeping through the opening in the enclosure at a HDB construction site nearby.

It reminded me of the robot depicted in old cartoons (of my era). I thought it was rather interesting! Then, on 2nd glance, it resembled that of old bearded gentleman!

建筑物 Concrete building

高耸坚立，即将竣工的钢筋水泥建筑物，如雨后春笋般，出现在我住家附近。

在夕阳的笼罩下，也另有一番姿色。

public housing

private property

private property

public housing

Next to where I stay, concrete buildings are sprouting out - they are due for completion soon.

One belongs to public housing (prices ranging from SGD 200k - 600K), another one is a private residential property (1 million SGD onwards).

Private residential property comes with facilities (eg. swimming pool, gym facilities), with 24 hours security surveillance; which means a monthly service charge is incurred.

Not that public housing is free of service charge - one also needs to pay for town council fees (that serves to spruce up /clean up the neighbourhood, maintain lift services etc). If parking is needed, additional monthly parking fee is needed as well.

In Singapore, 80% of Singaporeans stay in public housing facility. Some eventually will "upgrade" from public housing to private residential property as financial status improves.