WATERFRONT

These were some photos taken of the Marina channel. I love the silhouette contrast of the Cycad and plants along the promenade against the background of MBS, city skyline, conservatories and the setting sun.

KAMPONG ARANG

This is a block of flats at the Kampong Arang hawker centre area. I actually took a bus there for lunch but the hawker centre was undergoing major renovation. Anyway, the Bougainvillea cultivars along this corridor were flowering beautifully. This is a plant that I am considering for planting along my corridor.

BAY EAST

I planted the uncommon native plant Sophora tomentosa and hope in time to come, there will be lots of seeds to collect for germination.

In addition, I planted out the uncommon Asclepias fruticosa around the pond. This is a plant where its bulbous air-filled fruit capsule is used in plant decoration. These plants looked quite sickly and I hope planting them out in the ground would give them a better chance of growing well. I just love the unusual white flowers but unfortunately they are non-fragrant.


Across the pond can also be found clumps of Echinodorus and Nelumbo nucifera (common name: Lotus) to add to the variety of aquatic plants.

CACTUS

 Today's weather - sunny

This clump of silvery green cactus is so cool. Even the flower has whitish petals.

MACBOOK PRO

It was a terrible Deepavali for me. I bought my laptop from the MBS EpiCentre outlet last Wednesday after I knocked off from work and just 2 days ago, a green vertical line appeared on the monitor screen. After some googling, I found this to be a hardware problem and brought it back to the shop for the replacement.

At the shop, I was told to bring it the service centre at Wheelock Place for a one-to-one replacement. When I reached there, a Filipino receptionist lodged a service report for me and directed me to the neighboring outlet. There I was told that I had to make another trip to the Suntec outlet for the replacement since they do not have the stocks. At that point, I was already quite annoyed with the idea of having to travel to Suntec for the exchange. I grumbled but eventually made my way there.

After lugging the heavy laptop to Suntec, the salesperson at the outlet informed me that I need to go back to MBS to get the replacement since I bought it there. That was when I blew my top.

I confirmed earlier with the sales person at Wheelock Place that Suntec carried the stock before I made the trip and that I could get my replacement there. So imagine how mad I was when they suggested I return to the outlet. I threw a fit and refused to accept their suggestion.

Eventually they gave in and changed the set for me. By then, it was near evening. The day just passed by in a blink. What a waste of time!

MARINA BAY

I went MBS yesterday to replace my faulty MacBook Pro and took these photos.

HOIST

I was a few seconds short and missed taking photos of the hoisting of this piece of the glass roof. My fingers also blocked the first photo. What a shame!

RHODODENDRON

I saw two stands of this Rhododendron at the Beach Road Community Centre entrance for some time now. In fact, they are quite big and occasionally produces these violet flowers to delight passers-by.

SANCHEZIA

The leaves of this foliage plant is so strikingly handsome.

ROSE TEA

I tasted this bubble tea at Bencoolen Street several times already and it is not too bad.

PEEK-A-BOO

I saw lots of them hiding behind trees, on the ground etc. What's going on?

SCULPTURES

What's the inspiration and messages behind these sculptures at the Singapore Expo? Their poses are, hmmm, unusual.

HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

I missed this 2009 movie on love when it was screened at the cinemas but finally managed to catch it when it was recently shown on television. Frankly, I love watching movies with a huge ensemble cast of well-known actors and actresses, so I was looking forward to watching it especially when some were my favourites.


I don't even know where to begin listing down the actors and actresses, so I will do so alphabetically:

• Ben Affleck
• Bradley Cooper
• Drew Barrymore
• Jennifer Aniston
• Jennifer Connelly
• Kevin Connolly
• Scarlett Johansson

In fact, the only unknown to me is Ginnifer Goodwin, who played the central character looking for love. The movie explored the love relationships between Jennifer A. and Ben, Scarlett, Kevin and Drew, Jennifer C. and Bradley, Justin and Ginnifer. In the end, there were both success and failed stories to be told e.g. a long term relationship seemingly going nowhere ended up in marriage whilst a supposedly happy marriage ended up in divorce. Nothing was really what it seemed as each and every individual had their own takes on and expectations in love, relationships etc, and eventually experienced different outcomes. Some were finally blissfully happy while others were sad and lonely. It goes to show that every relationship is different and one cannot apply a single formula to make them work for everyone.


I felt this movie had a lot of potential to be fantastic but turned out to be a disappointment because there were too many characters involved and there was just insufficient time to explore all of them in detail. What a waste!

WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER

I don't think this is a popular movie, judging from the small audience in the cinema. But it stars two of my favourite actor Chris Evans and actress Anna Faris and there was no way I was going to miss it.

Ally, the protagonist in this movie, realized from a magazine that she was sexually very promiscuous compared to the average women i.e. sister, girl friends, in her life. She already had 19 sex partners and according to the survey, women were unlikely going to be married once they have more than 20 sexual partners. Hence, she vowed to stay celibate until she meets the final one in her life. Therein began her search for ex-boyfriends or past partners in her attempt not to cross the magical number. Colin, the next door neighbour and a playboy who has a different sex partner every night, agreed to help her track down her past partners but ended up falling in love with her.

Compared to heavy 'Real Steel', this is a light-hearted comedy of sorts. I love Anna Faris, who always plays bimbo but likeable characters with a sweet voice in movies, such as 'Scary Movie' and 'The House Bunny'. Sadly, I feel she seems to have aged quite a bit since her role in the latter, which was shown in the cinemas not too long ago. I hope she won't disappear from the big screen any time soon.

As for Chris Evans, I feel such roles are most suitable for him although these roles would never bring him any fame. In my view, his cheerful and playful demeanour and personality suit such characters perfectly, unlike the round peg in a square hole role in 'Captain America'.

It is interesting how both of them were willing to bare all in some scenes in this non-critically acclaimed movie. Call me weird, but I at least had some peace between the ears after the very noisy 'Real Steel'.

REAL STEEL

Today's weather - sunny

I wasn't keen to watch this movie actually. Set in 2020, it stars the Australian actor Hugh Jackman aka Wolverine of the X-Men movies and Evageline Lilly, best remembered for her role in the TV series 'Lost'.


In the future, human boxers were replaced by robot boxers. Charlie, Hugh's character, a former boxing champion whose life was in shambles tried to reclaim his former glory through participating his robot boxer in illegal matches etc. After being united for the first time with his preteen son Max left behind by his recently deceased former girlfriend, he slowly learnt to pick up his life through his son and childhood girl friend Bailey, Evangelline's character.


There were a lot of people in the cinema and most were thrilled by the high energy of the boxing matches. I, for one, couldn't stand the noise level whenever the boxing matches were on, which is in fact so frequent. This was made worse by a pair of talking kids, seated behind me. They were so annoying and kept talking throughout the movie. After a few loud "sssshhs' and glaring sessions, the older kid stopped for a while but eventually they went back to it. I swear I almost felt like boxing them unconscious. Why are there still such inconsiderate people around, who yakked constantly throughout movies without any regard for others? This reminded me of a movie I watched previously where a pair of aunties talking incessantly throughout the show despite my numerous attempts to get them to shut up. This is what I hate most about going to movies with a big crowd. Inevitably, someone somewhere would be talking loudly and disrupting my enjoyment of the entire movie.


The best part of the movie was the fantastic acting by the adorable and precocious child actor Dakota Goyo. Come to think of it, why are kids so precocious these days and they behave so mature and seemed to know everything? Anyway, to me the most touching scene has to be the part in the final boxing matches between the robots where Charlie was so deeply engrossed in the simulation fighting, that unbeknownst to him, the two persons Bailey and Max who love him immensely turned to look at each other with tears brimming in their eyes as the sound of the cheering audience drowned away to reveal their joy and pride for him in finally achieving his dreams.


All in all, this movie is not for me because I never know how to really enjoy watching boxing, not even if it is played by credible, sexy actors and actresses.

CHANGED VIEW

The view from this vantage point has changed so much since the last time I was here. The opposite block used to be those old HDB rental flats. Now in its place are these new flats.