Exterior Lighting

Lightings in Singapore are very common in malls, festive occasions and celebrations. I was driving to a large mall in the west for some evening shopping when I saw how beautiful the building looked with the lighting on the walls. This one is in Singapore's IMM and it had been revamped in the past years to make the place more attractive to shoppers after a flop in business in the 90s. It used to be a place to shop for furniture, wedding photo studios and accessories and at the ground level there was the IMM supermarket for traders and members. In the mid 90s, the place was like a ghost town because most Singaporean did not fancy the idea of having to own an IMM member card before patronizing it's stores.

In late 90s and early 2000, Giant was among the main tenant and this hypermart was able to pull crowds in for it's cheaper products compared with other supermarkets. Then in 2000, Capital Land revamped it by adding more outlets, stores and made it so successful that on any weekend now, you have to drive around just to look for parking space. Parking here is among the cheapest in Singapore, with the first 3 hours FREE.

Look at this beautiful exterior lighting that is occupied by Esprit Singapore.

Long time ago, handphones were only used by only the filthy rich. Those handphones are bulky, weighed a ton! It's also like a squarish little box about the same thickness of your regular Yellow Pages. Some of those who uses the handphone included those who works in the secret underworld or what the local Singaporeans will call them Loan sharks or the Master mind of Triad gangs. People used to joke about it because these people owned the old fashion handphones basically for two reasons - to make contact with their secret member and to use it as a protection or fighting tool. Well.. how much truth, only those who were involved will probably know.. lol

Now, owning a handphone (some call it mobile, some call it cellphone) is like a fashion accessory. Like watches, one may have one, two or even collections of handphones! And some will buy them each time a new model is released... they even give it more character by dressing them in crystals, hooks on cute bears, figurines, clothe them in leather bags, cute pouches or even 'skin' them in patterns. There is no end to this fad and handphone owners are getting younger and younger. I've seen as young as kindy child having his or her own handphone.. geez!

Because of this booming fad, old telephones around public area are almost non existence. The new ones are the card public phones and some coin ones, but there aren't many. Check out a picture of this old phone that I found in a market somewhere in Singapore. This was what I meant.. the orange coloured telephone that I used to call ever so often.. I really miss it a lot!

Singapore Zoo is Unforgetable

Baboons


Tram Rides at the Tram Stops


Penguins exhibit

If you are in Singapore, you mustn't miss the Singapore Zoological Gardens. Opened since 1973, it is one of the best zoos in the world. The trend of displaying animals here is very natural spacious concepts, all behind hidden barriers, moats and lots of shrubs. Various modes of travelling is by trams, carriages and for many of course walking enables one to really discover the true beauty of walking and looking at the animals in man made natural habitat. Strollers, wheelchairs and 'Tiny Explorer' a little wagon for kids can be rented from the zoo.

Animal appearance and animal shows make up an interesting part of Zoo visits. If your kids are bored, you may take them to the Kids' playground where you have the Choo Choo Merah (Train for kids), the playground and a splash pool. There are also many food outlets and kiosks selling food and drinks so you don't have to worry about lugging a heavy bag.

Singapore Zoo is a lovely place to visit. If you enjoy, be part of the Friends of the Zoo and get unlimited visits.

High School Musical - The Ice Tour

The biggest teen musical concert is coming to Singapore. Can you guess? It's the Disney's High School Musical, The Ice Tour concert, of course! These are performed by World Class Ice Skaters and they will be skating to the smash hit songs featured in the original High School Musical. Performed in ultra high energy with fast paced dance moves, it will be an event not to be missed!


Tickets are being sold like hot cakes! It will be in Singapore from the 5th to 10th of August 2008, at the Singapore Expo. Photography for this event is allowed but no video or audio recording. Sistic is the official place to book your tickets now. Click for Sistic Site

Healthy Singaporeans

Health is an issue that Singaporeans don't take lightly. There are many drives and roadshows in Singapore to promote healthy living in Singapore, which is encouraged greatly by the Singapore government. There are free health assessments, bone mass test by many sponsors as part of the growing health awareness in Singapore. Anlene has done many roadshows to create the awareness of shortage of calcium in our body. It was one of these shows that I went and discovered that I had not enough calcium in my bones that may be a risk in old age. Singaporeans are not shy for free checkups and is very forthcoming in these. You will be able to see the crowds in such road shows or free health checks.

Medicinal Tea

As the weather gets so unpredictable, many people are falling sick lately. In Singapore, traditional teas are a good way to replenish the heat. When one is feeling that he is coming down with the flu or feeling sickly, they usually would boil Herbal teas at home or buy them from shops that specializes in Herbal Teas.

There are many kiosks that also sell herbal teas. Some have medicinal values in them. There are Chrysanthemum, Longan, Lo Han Guo, Water Chestnut, Honey drink and more. Different teas have different properties in them. Some are cooling teas and some are heaty ones. Longan is usually known as heaty ones.

I usually buy some medicinal ones like the Ling Yang or known as the Antelope Horn drink. It is very good for those who are having fever as it brings the fever down. I usually try to boil it at home once a week. And I buy the ready made ones when I am down with fever. It is more convenient when one is already sickly.

Fish Otah

Singapore Fish Otah

Served as a snack item, or part of a main dish. Fish Otah is a slightly spicy fish cake and is wrapped and grilled in banana leaf. The fish used for this is usually the mackerel family. The fish is minced and added with prawn or cuttlefish paste for different texture. It is mixed with some rempah (spices all grounded together) to form a paste before wrapped in banana leaves and secured with toothpicks on each end.

The wrapped Otahs are then transferred onto a grill or open fire charcoal for barbecuing. Some other versions of the Otah are the Popular Muar Otah (this one is spicier and usually sold in a block in supermarkets) and the Penang Otah Otah. Penang ones are slightly different in their taste which is richer in coconut with fish fillets and also has a layer of daun kaduk (wild pepper leaves) at the base. The Penang Otah Otah is steamed and not barbecued.

Bazaars

I like to walk to neighbourhood area that sells bazaar stuff or those similar to flea markets. It can get a bit noisy at times but it is all good fun. After breakfast one morning, I walked to find the 'noise' where someone had used a loud speaker to sell some cheap towels. It was very loud and kept on shouting like Buy Buy Buy, only $2.00!!! Oh it was so loud. Some kids covered their ears as they walk past. But it certainly brought lots of people over. Towels were selling at $2 only. Cheap. But these aren't the luxury towels, these are slightly thinner. But they were body sized. I like these towels better because it dries faster. The thick ones are good but dries slower. In Singapore, where majority lives in flats, it doesn't make sense to use thick ones. Heavy to hang up and takes longer to dry.

I buy my towels about 2 - 3 times a year. I just love new towels. The old ones I usually recycle them into rags or floor rags. I'd bleach it till it become super white too...hahahah

Blog Experiment Tag

A tag I hope will help to increase more page ranking and links for me. Got this from Almanac Queen.

Participants: 1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.Little Peanut 4. Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6. The Salad Caper 7. All Kinds of Me Stuff 8. Aggie Scraps. 9. Winding Creek Circle 10. Mommy Talks. 11. Fun Fierce Fabulous 12. Me, Myself + 2 13. Confessions of a Supermodel Wannabe 14. My Precious Nice 15. Just Me.. Eds 16. Eds Mommy Life 17.Jean’s Live it Up… 18. Sunny Side Up Foodie & Lifestyle 19. Almanac Queen 20. Alamak OiOi 21. Enter your blog here

RULES:1. Add your blog/s to the list. Feel free to add all your other blogs. It’s okey if you only post this questions in one blog as long as you answer them.2. Get back to Me {YEN} and I’ll add your blogs to the master’s list here!3. Tag as many friends online you know. But you don’t need to be tag in order to join.

QUESTIONS:
1. I posted this experiment at URL: http://alamakoioi.blogspot.com
2. I posted this on date (day, month, year): Monday June 2008
3. I posted this at time (24 hour time): 03:34pm
4. My posting location is (city, state, country): Singapore
5. My blog is hosted by: Free Hosting by blogspot
6. My age is: 39 yrs old.
7. My gender is: Female
8. My occupation is: Part time sales
9. I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: FeedBurner
10. I use the blog format to post to my blog: Blogspot
11. I have been blogging since (day, month, year): Jan, 2008
12. My web browser is: Internet Explorer
13. My operating system is: Windows XP

I invite all who are interested to pick this tag and see their technoratis explode!

Fruits of Abundance

Singaporeans love to eat fruits. Although Singapore does not have it's own fruit farms and is land constraint, majority of it's fruits are imported globally from Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Philliphines, United States, Vietnam, China, Japan and many more countries.

You can find abundant fruit sellers in every town, heartlands and supermarkets. There is no shortage of variety. These fruits imported are very fresh. Some of the fruits that can be found are Apples, Pears, Oranges, Longans, Dragonfruits, Chempedak (jackfruit), Bananas, Durians, Kiwis, Grapes, Strawberries, Watermelons, Honeydew, Rockmelon and many many more. Some expatriates and foreigners are amazed by such a variety they can get here. The prices of fruits in Singapore are among the most reasonable in the world. Fuji apples can be as cheap as 5 nos for $1.90, Dragonfruits 3 to 5 nos at $2.10, Durians at 3 boxs (4-5 seeds each box) for $10 and even a Watermelon for as low as $2.50.