The One Watch

Booked out on saturday. Woke up the next morning only to hear my mom saying

"You wanna buy a watch right? Come, I bring you go see my friend, got discount one!"

So off we rode to find the one watch! It's durable, it's 100m waterproof, It's battery operated! It's a Seiko Calibre 7T94 watch (is this how i'm supposed to name it?)

The search for the one watch

2 Watches in half a year, all broke with water leakages.

I'm now stuck with a free watch redeemed from Baron's strong brew. Nice watch, but I sense a breakage sometime soon...

And thus I've begun searching! A watch that can withstand a slobberknocker, as well as water. Who knows? I might need this kind of durability 10 years down the road on the job?

Of course, it's gotta look good too!

any suggestions?

Pink is My Favourite Colour

As of now, my I have only one colour in mind - pink.

Although I am wearing green, deep down inside is still pink, much like the flesh in my body.

But if my country needs me to defend her! Then I shall put on my green colours with pride and honour!

H.P.V = Hot day + Photographs + VodaVoda?

I haven't been to Haw Par Villa in a very long while already... Last time I went was more than a decade ago, and apparently I got frightened after the boat took a nose dive down this steep slope!

So I decided to go again, this time with 2 of my friends, one of whom I've never seen in about 3 years already haha.

The entrance sure hasn't change, but that's as far as I remember the place. I can't even remember if there used to be any other entrances to the place. During the 90's, this place was renovated and refurbished into an amusement park by the name of 'Dragon World'. Needless to say, who would want to 'have fun' at a place that has already been plagued with images of death and suffering?

It's also interesting to note the different names this place took since it's construction in 1937. It started off with 'Tiger Balm Gardens', which was the most obvious choice since the brothers that constructed the place were developers of Tiger Balm, an effective ointment that I myself use for mozzie bites, aches and such. In 1979, the place was sold to the Singapore Tourism Board, who then renamed the place to Haw Par Villa in 1985 before reopening the place in 1990 as 'dragon world'. This would shock you a lil' but they used to charge SGD16 just to get in!

That's all for history! Once we set foot on HPV, everyone started snapping away - Me and Wei Choon with our DSLRs and Gladys with her cute lil' T77.

The place is so quiet and remote that even bees decided to build a nest inside one of the decorations!

Don't know why, but when I was taking this shot, I felt a sense of uneasiness. It was as if there were people looking at me...

We spent about a dollar to enter the 10 chambers of hell. In earlier days, parents would bring their children here to see the kind of punishments people would get for doing wrong, some of them included things like having your innards dug out (cheating in exam) as well as dismemberment (plotting murder).

For a $1 entry, the place was reasonably entertaining. Taking pictures inside the place was a pain though; the place was coloured only by ambient light and using any form of flash would give you a brown picture everywhere!

We then headed out of hell and towards more gut pleasing attractions such as:

A misplaced statue of liberty


A very disturbing set of figures


Last but not least, a very scary looking bird thing


That's all, until next time :)

Superstitions or Tradition?

Yesterday was 端午节, better known to the English loving Singporean society as the Dumpling festival. So the story goes that this guy jumped into the river for his country (i'm too lazy to get the full picture so do yourself a favour and google about it!) and the people wanted to prevent his body from being eaten by the fishes. The idea was to throw rice dumplings into the river while at the same time riding around in long boats to search for his body.

Here in singapore, we do equally funny things. Fine, MY MOTHER does equally funny things. Here's what happened...

Apparently, the 12pm sun on this day is very 'powerful'. As a tradition passed down by my late grandmother, she decided to hang her wallet out to sun. According to my mother, her mother used to bring EVERYTHING out into the sun at this hour. Of course, now that we live on the 16th storey, that's not possible now is it? Nevertheless, I seriously found it amusing that anyone would do that. I've never even heard of this practice!


That aside, there are other practices that most of us Singaporean youths know of:

1. Eating Dumplings.
EAT YOUR DUMPLINGS! DON'T THROW THEM INTO THE RIVER! While the idea of stuffing rice with random stuff and wrapping in a leaf might not sound appetizing, I assure you that it's a unique taste everyone would love!

2. Dragon Boat races
This has become an annual event. As dragon boats require superior coordination between 20 men, as well as crazy endurance, this event has become an interesting sport to spectate.


3. Showering at 12pm
Similarly for the sun, water at 12pm is also considered powerful. As such, everyone in my family takes a mandatory shower at the sacred time. Even if we're out, we'd make the effort to wash ourselves with a towel or something, maybe wipe the face and arms and stuff.

Anything else?

Fact: One of my grandfathers (both of whom have passed away before I was born) died from eating rice dumplings! Apparently, he was feeling bloated after eating the delicacies and thought that fizzy drinks could aid digestion. A few days later he was announced dead in the hospital. Moral of story? Don't drink fizzy drinks when you're feeling bloated hehe

Snapshot Bangkok

Graduation! What's next? GRAD TRIP!

So immediately after the graduation ceremony, 6 of us headed off to the Land of a Thousand Smiles, Thailand!

While it was unfortunate that we went during the rainy season, I must say that the trip was enjoyable thanks to the company we had. Valuable lesson learnt too, although I shall not share about it anymore.

ANYWAYS! I took the liberty of taking some photos whenever I had some 'Bruce Time'. That's when I walk around alone with earphones blasting. Call me weird but I like being alone sometimes.





ALPHABET OF THE DAY!

royal escort on it's way















i love this auntie, she kept my stomach full for 5 months during my internship!



BOO!

For Sale: 1999 Macau Returns to China Commemorative Coins

Selling this set of Coins for $4,000. No separate purchases since we're clearing them.


1999 "Macau Returns" Commemorative Gold Coin.
Face Value - 1,000 Patacas
Mintage - 1999
99.99% Pure gold
VERY RARE
Sealed


1999 "Macau Returns" Commemorative Silver Coin.
Face Value - 100 Patacas
Mintage - 38,888
Has a 24-karat gold piece embedded.
Sealed


Macau Specimen Set.
1999 Macau Uncirculated Coin Set
This was in Conjunction of Macau's return to China in 1999.

Feel free to email me at matsukaze69@gmail.com for enquiries