VERTICAL GREENERY

I saw a map of the Taipei airport in the form of vertical greenery in Taiwan last year but now there is a world map in the same form at the on the pedestrian level of Ocean Building above the Raffles Place MRT near the underpass leading to NTUC Centre.

Vertical greenery is also slowly creeping into buildings, as evident by stores such as the following.

BUKIT BROWN CEMETERY

A Ficus (fig) tree.

I was there just last week and there are a number of trees that are interesting.

We visited the Ong Sam Leong's grave which occupies a large footprint which is perhaps the size of a 5-room HDB flat? A road at Farrer Park MRT vicinity was named after him. Another road Boon Tat Street at Raffles Place area was named after his son Ong Boon Tat.

By a stroke of luck, I also saw a yellow Skipper butterfly and managed to capture its beauty on my iphone before I left.

The fruits are edible?

There are a number of beautiful Crotons in the area.

Grave of Ong Sam Leong

The body guard

The Earth Deity

I couldn't believe that I managed to capture a good photo of this Skipper.

Unknown groundcover

SINGAPORE BOTANIC GARDENS

I think I took these photos at the Singapore Botanic Gardens near the Eco-lake. I couldn't remember the name of this tree but it reminded me of the Adinandra dumosa (Common Name: Tiup Tiup).

I was walking to the MRT station when my attention was drawn to the abundant cauliflorus fruits along the branches of this tree.

MRT

I am always attracted to colours, so naturally this advertisement would definitely pique my interest and attention.

Whilst the advertisement served to promote the free IDD talk time to 15 destinations, I was more curious with what these countries were and the key architectural logos used to depict them. Anyway, they are shown as follows:

• Australia
• Bangkok
• Brunei
• Canada/USA
• China
• Hong Kong
• India
• Jakarta
• Japan
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Philippines
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• United Kingdom

STADIUM MRT STATION

This was the first time I set foot at this Stadium MRT station and for this virgin visit, I paid the price of $30 to take the train from here to Suntec City Convention Centre for the IT Fair.

Well, the MRT fare did not actually cost that much. However, I had to pay the composition fine for parking the car outside the station without displaying the parking coupon due to my carelessness and over-zealousness.

OF BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES

I love birds. So I was naturally very excited to see this mural put up by the Jurong Bird Park in the North-East line MRT station on 3 Apr 10.

Frankly, I have not visited the JBP for a long time but when I did, I always have a great time. I remember fondly the aviary containing birds that seemed to roam so freely. That was where my primary school classmate got a deep gash on the sole of his foot when he walked on the sharp rocks below the waterfall. The crown crane also reminded me of how gifted my other primary school classmate was because he drew a most beautiful hand drawing of it back then. In fact, he had parrots and cockatoos in his house then at Bukit Merah. Their logo used to be a coloured wing that I found to be simple yet befitting of this attraction. Now they have it replaced.

Anyway, I love these colourful birds. Interestingly at Australia recently, I noticed their ibis were just gathering and walking amongst people along the Brisbane esplanade, just like our mynahs, without displaying any fear of humans. Hmm, they are such sociable birds.

This red parrot also captured my attention since I just took the photos of a live one the day before.

Then I saw butterflies on the mural! And an extinct one too. I was delighted to see the Clipper above the Bird of Paradise. Then there were the Tiger and Eggfly beside the pelican and crowned pigeon. Interesting!

By the way, the landscaping that was depicted is natural and nice too. Would I visit this attraction? I would love to.........

NEW MRT LINE CONSTRUCTION

The new MRT line construction is underway and trees e.g. Rain Tree, along Rochor Road, Sungei Road and Bukit Timah Road (beside Little India MRT) were felled to make way for it.

Presumably, these trees would be transplanted out to other places? It's sad to see them go as I had a hand in planting some of them.

SNAKE

I saw this interesting ad yesterday on the MRT home.

What caught my attention was not the actual product but the accompanying text and graphics that brought a smile to my face.

This one reads: the most venomous creature in the corporate jungle, the office snake's favourite snack is a new colleague. The ultimate saboteur, the snake will slither its way into your confidence, before ruthlessly suffocating your career.

Don't we all recognize someone in the office who behaves like this? In fact, there are more of them e.g. vulture, that are equally amusing to read.

Which one of this is us?