ASIAN TALES: FLORAL DISPLAY (DAHLIA) - 16 JAN 15

This is the first Asian Tales display after the Christmas Wonderland and will start from 16 Jan 15 until 8 Mar 15. The design was inspired by the mountainous landscapes shown in chinese paintings and is inspired to celebrate the Lunar New Year to welcome the year of the wooden goat.

The highlights are the following:

Props

• 8 mountains up to 9 m
• 3 driftwood goats
• floral goats
• 12 zodiac animals
• lots of firecrackers
• couplets
• pavilions with lanterns
• ingots and coins

Plants

• big, bold and beautiful Dahlia flowers which are related to Chrysanthemum, Aster, Cosmos, Marigold from the same Family Asteraceae
• non-Asteraceae annuals and plants such as Celosia, Cleome, Bamboo
• 3 blossoms - Cherry, Plum and Peach
• 5 artificial orchid trees with Oncidium and dwarf Dendrobium

Dahlia 'Rowdy'

pavilion with a view and cut flowers for photo-taking

butter Chrysanthemum floral goats

Dahlia 'Rebecca's World'

Dahlia 'Sean'

Dahlia 'Coralie'

Dahlia 'Night Butterfly'

Cymbidium orchids

one of the many couplets

Dahlia 'Show and Tell'

Dahlia 'Kenora Canada'

Dahlia 'Berliner Kleene'

Dahlia 'Autumn Fairy'

Eucomis

CNY display in 2014

INTO THE WOODS

This is a Broadway musical adapted into a movie, so there were lots of singing and dancing other than the rather exaggerated acting.

This collection of fairy tales brought together a number of characters and told some of the familiar stories that all happened in the enchanted woods in a different way from what we know of.

Meryl Streep played the Witch for the first time in her movie career, James Corden and Emily Blunt were the Baker and his wife, Anna Kendrick was Cinderella, Chris Pine was Prince Charming, Johnny Depp was the Wolf, Lilla Crawford was Little Red Riding Hood and Daniel Huttlestone was Jack and MacKenzie Mauzy was Rapunzel.

Personally, I didn't enjoy this movie at all and found all the singing grating and non-catchy or -memorable although some of the humour was entertaining.  

Meryl Streep as the Witch

the Baker and his wife, who had a brief dalliance with Prince Charming

the Cinderella who professed to enjoy house cleaning

the Prince who was raised to be Charming not sincere

the same old Wolf

the Little Red Riding Hood

Jack and his beanstalks

Rapunzel

TAKEN 3

I have waited for this movie for some time now especially since I love the first two parts.

With the same cast ensemble comprising Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills, Maggie Grace as Kim Mills, Famke Janssen as Bryan's ex-wife Lenore St. John, Dougray Scott as Stuart St. John and a new member Forest Whitaker as Inspector Franck Dotlzer, the story progressed rather lazily in the first half an hour until Lenore got murdered. That was when the pace picked up, the plot thickened and the action began.

Liam Neeson didn't seem as intimidating in this movie than when he was in the first movie perhaps because of age, but his voice was still certainly commanding and sexy for his age. Thankfully, Maggie Grace wasn't acting like a teenager and freaking out easily anymore, which was really irritating in the earlier movies.

The rest of the movie was kind of predictable in that no matter how many enemies were up against him, the ex-operative with the help of a few friends in this movie eventually eliminated all of them, except for one. I think the movie has lost some of its lustre and the formulaic success was no longer enough to keep me riveted to the chair.

Will there be a part 4? I don't know and guess it would depend on the box office takings for this movie. 

Bryan Mills with daughter Kim

this will be the last we see of Famke as Lenore

Stuart St. John

Inspector Franck Dotlzer

Bryan dueling with one of the villains Oleg Malankov

FLOWER DOME

Kalanchoe pumila

These are some interesting plants in the Flower Dome.

unknown

Gazania with a missing ray floret

double-petaled Fuchsia with a skirt

SEVENTH SON

I was thinking I should post about this today because I would be extremely tied up for the next two weeks.

Starring Ben Barnes as the titular character the seventh son of the seventh son Thomas Ward, Jeff Bridges as Gregory the Spook, one of my favourite actresses Julianne Moore as the evil witch and dragon Mother Malkin, Alicia Vikander as Alice, Kit Harington (lead actor of last year's movie Pompeii) with a brief role as the apprentice Billy Bradley and Olivia Williams as Tom's mother Mam who is a good witch, the simple storyline was a letdown to me.

Thomas, the son of a good witch and human, was sort of destined to be an apprentice to help the supernatural master the Spook to kill a dark witch, who was once Gregory's ex-lover. What is a movie like this without a love relationship, hence the character Alice, who was the daughter of another witch and human, and Thomas fell in love with each other. Anyway, that was besides the point and I hardly think it was a pivotal part of the movie.

Interestingly, Kit Harington had a small part to play at the beginning of the movie and died shortly after being killed by the dragon. This was another recent movie of Julianne Moore's but I wasn't quite impressed with her character and role. Ben Barnes was just there to look good. I did find Mam quite an interesting character though.

Anyway, I don't think this is excellent box office material, which kind of explains why it wasn't released in December 14 with the bigger blockbusters.

Billy ensnared by the dragon's tail.

the witch in human form

Thomas and Gregory

Alice and Thomas

Mam who sacrificed herself to save the village

85 YEARS OLD GRANNY

I find this MRT poster of this granny so awe-inspiring and mood up-lifting. At 85, she wears a beautiful smile that tells of a beautiful amazing world that never lets her down, despite her age and what life throws at her.

I am so full of admiration for her courage and character. She is the kind of role-model we should look up to. I must seek out her wanton noodles some day.

TREE FLUSHES

These trees behind the Meadows toilet were flushing with new red leaves a month ago.

SHANGRI-LA HOTEL

I missed these photos out earlier on Shangri-La Hotel's christmas decor for this year.

 

ORCHID

taken on 29 Dec 14

This epiphytic orchid at the office finally bloomed and I shall post its opened flowers soon.

the opened flowers taken on 2 Jan 15

BIRDS

I don't know when these Flamingoes were put in but it goes to show how long ago I haven't been to Changi City Point.

Other than these rotating Flamingoes with really long legs, which I find very interesting and lovely, there were lots of towering cranes in the vicinity. So this is a great place for bird watching. How I wish we have similar stuff in the gardens.

OTTERS

Ok, I must confess I am not the one who took the photo and video. It was taken by my colleague yesterday at the garden. A group of  8 otters came visiting on New Year's eve. I do hope it is a good omen.