PRINCESS

Did I say Princess is getting slightly more rounded than before? Compared to a diet consisting of vegetables and being caged the whole day at the previous owner's house, she is having a whale of a blissful time these days.

ROSE

I am amazed by this exquisite rose with nary a blemish. The subtlety of the beautiful folds of the petals, the sweet tinge of pink on white just blew me away. There are hundreds of other rose cultivars in the Flower Dome of Gardens by the Bay.

MOTH

This is the second time that I have seen this moth. The first time was outside the lift on my floor, where the coloration of the moth sort of blended in slightly with the surrounding.

Anyway, I was bathing and saw this little fella on the ceiling of my bathroom. After my bath, I made a quick dash to retrieve my camera to take this moth that is hardly a centimeter across. It's amazing, I must say, considering its intricate design and color.

PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS

Following the success of the 2010 movie "Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief" where Uma Thurman played the unforgettable Medusa, the sequel was finally released 3 years later with the same cast starring Logan Lerman, Douglas Smith, Jake Abel, Alexandra Daddario and so on.

This time round, Percy and his team had to find the golden fleece in order to restore the life of the magical tree that created the shield that protected the camp of half-bloods from any outside invasion and to save Mount Olympus from being destroyed by Luke. Here Percy was united with his half-brother, who was actually a cyclops.

Along the way, they took a ride on a magical creature Hippocampus, which is the scientific genus of the seahorse.

Overall, I wasn't quite thrilled by this movie although there were some bit parts that I liked.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES

I caught the movie and must admit that I enjoyed it more than "Elysium". Based on a young adult fantasy novel, this movie is the first story out of six books. So if this movie does well, sequels would be made to capitalize on the success.

Lily Collins is not one of my favourite young actresses, especially after I saw her in "Mirror Mirror" as Snow White, but she was alright as the lead protagonist Clary here. The cast included the long absent Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who acted as her father, and the taiwanese actor Godfrey Gao, who mesmerized me with his height and eye liners. Interestingly, there was a gay shadowhunter played by Kevin Zegers, and this is a sign that the movie industry is becoming more liberal and is slowly weaving such non-main-stream minority groups as some of the key characters.

Having said that, I must say the storyline was a tad too convoluted in the sense that there were too many things happening at the same time that there wasn't much time for viewers to digest the story. There was never a time when the pace was too slow that it put the audience to sleep, even right from the beginning. But that could be bad too because I think a movie needs moments of fast action and moments of brief respite.

Anyway, I wonder when the next part would be out.

ELYSIUM

I read that "Elysium" topped the US box office last week whilst "Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters" came in second. I watched "Elysium" last week and frankly, I didn't quite like it.

Starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, it tells the story of a world separated into two classes of people in the year 2154. The rich and elite escaped from a deteriorating earth to live in a space station known as Elysium whereas the remaining population were left behind to inhabit what is left of earth. In Elysium, there is no aging, sickness, poverty or poor and each household has a machine that helps to heal the people whenever they are sick or injured. 

Matt is Max, the unlikely hero who had big dreams when he was young, who in desperation tried all ways and means to get on board a spacecraft to get to Elysium to use one of the machines to heal himself after a freak accident exposed him to lethal doses of radiation and leaving him with just a remaining lifespan of 5 days.

I am not certain why but I wasn't thrilled by the storyline or acting although I must admit I enjoyed Jodie Foster's portrayal as the mega-bitch Secretary of Defense who tried to take over as the President of Elysium.

Now it's time to move on to the next movie.

LOVE AND PEACE FLOWER

This is the sculpture on the flower of love and peace by Ana Tzarev outside the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.

There are a many of these sculptures all over the world and the link is as shown:
http://www.anatzarev.com/exhibitions/international

FISH EYE: PRINCESS

This was a trial photo shoot of my little princess Sandy using the fish eye lens. She had absolutely no idea what was happening.

DUSK

I just love to see the orange glow thrown off the clouds from the setting sun in the far horizon.

NESTLING

We picked up the bird's nest on the floor along the promenade and brought it back to the office without realizing there was a nestling, until a colleague was shocked to find it on the metal basket.

We were totally speechless because the nestling, with eyes closed, was about an inch long and still breathing. It must have hatched not long ago and there was no way it would or could survive without the mother. With a heavy heart, I can only use this post to dedicate this short write-up on the nestling, as remembrance of its short fleeting life.

THE WOLVERINE

Since "X2: X-Men United" in 2003 when Jean Grey disappeared, a few other X-Men movies were made with Wolverine gaining more onscreen presence. "The Wolverine" made a decade later, is sort of a spin-off movie due to Hugh Jackman's excellent portrayal of the character.

After what appeared to be Jean's death, Wolverine went into hiding out of guilt. His recurring nightmares of Jean beside him, night after night, turned him into a recluse. That was when he was brought to Japan and met Mariko, his love-interest in the comics. I didn't quite like the storyline though, with the Yakuzas and ninjas and the Viper.

For me, the best part of the movie was the easter egg segment, where Magneto and Prof Xavier appeared, and hinted of a huge storm brewing ahead of them, thus uniting both forces together to fight what was coming up.

步步惊心, 宫 AND 宫锁珠帘

Of late, I have been listening to the songs from the China TV serials 步步惊心 (Scarlet Heart), 宫 (Palace) and 宫锁珠帘 (Palace I and II) over and over again because I love them. I posted about the song from the former before and just realized I didn't put up anything from the latter serial. The serials are eye catching, lyrics of both songs are so beautiful and coupled with the music, they make very good songs. Although they may not be everyone's cup of tea, they do appeal greatly to me. I attach the few songs below for reference:

LOTUS

I am just happy that I took photos of this pot of Lotus this morning because by evening time, the petals were all gone and was told that some kid pulled them all out. 

The Zephyranthes in front of the pot were trampled flat because of curious visitors who stood right in front of the pot to take the photos. How sad!

STERCULIA AND BIRDS

When I saw this interesting tree at the base of the Malay Garden slope, from the bridge between the Colonial Garden and Malay Garden, that started to flower recently, I made a mental note to share this with everyone.

In fact, there was a recent post just days ago and I have been taking photos of this particular seemingly nondescript looking Sterculia macrophylla (Common Name: Broad-Leafed Sterculia; Family: Malvaceae), which is critically endangered and found in fresh water swamp forests or along streams, for the last 10 days or so because I was tracking the development of the new leaf flushes and red flowers following the shedding of its large hairy leaves before that. What really struck me was how amazing the new leaves and inflorescences developed over the days. From small leaf and flower buds grew clusters of coloured leaves and creamy inflorescences that I somehow imagined as jellyfish floating in the sky. Day after day, I stood at the bridge and observed how the jellyfish took on a different look as the leaves grew larger and flowers began to mature.

This morning, I was prepared to take the final series of photos of this tree to post about it, when I was suddenly attracted by a familiar call that caught my attention, which was later confirmed to be from that of a beautiful woodpecker species.

As I made a quick glance at this Sterculia tree and the adjacent Pandanus tectorius, I was excited by the sight of a pair of Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers, a pair of Peaceful Doves and three Common Goldenback Woodpeckers (1 male with red crest and 2 females). The pair of Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers appeared to be feeding on the insects from the discoloured trunk of the Sterculia tree while the other pair of Peaceful Doves was busy snuggling up with each other on the same tree. It was just so cool to watch this pair of doves displaying such affection. The trio of Common Goldenback Woodpeckers, on the other hand, were pecking up and down the trunk of the Pandanus and uttering the unique call.