Gardens by the Bay Begonia display

Sprucing up ahead of the Trump-Kim Summit, the team at Gardens by the Bay.

34 views of the Supertrees.

Cool and comfortable. Cloud forest.

Lego display of Rafflesia.

At the Flower Dome.

Begonia display

Update: President Kim Jong Un visited the Gardens indeed on 11 June 2018. Excellent choice.

Its so hot today. Best place to chill is at the Gardens by the Bay!

The annual membership card @$34 is at 50% discount. Includes free 2hr parking. Get one for your family and for your domestic helper!

Apply online.
http://m.gardensbythebay.com.sg/en/join-us/friends-of-the-gardens/membership-plans.html

Hello Kitty Cafe Staycation

Mr Kim, if you are bringing your family for the Singapore meeting with President Trump, do stop by the Hello Kitty Cafe at Changi Airport Terminal 3. Its conveniently located just after the Arrival Gate.

Restaurant is very empty, there are tables for your entourage. It is so cute with orchids all over. Food is very ordinary but somehow the children love the experience.

Changi and the East Coast is the place to hang out if you want to avoid the road blocks next week for the Summit. Just avoid the airport on 10th June and 14th June.

Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe
65 Airport Boulevard, Singapore Changi Airport, Terminal 3 Arrival Meeting Hall Central, #01-22, 819663
6241 6127
https://g.co/kgs/riqc3G

Top 10 places Kim Jong Un should visit on his first visit to Singapore

Photo taken by me at the GB 5th anniversary celebrations: Gardens by the Bay supertree with the Marina Bay Sands at the back.

President Kim Jong Un wil be visiting Singapore next week, his first visit out of North Korea, as President, in a foreign land (except China).

Where do you think he should visit? I asked several of my Singapore  friends, and the popular votes go to:

1. Gardens by the Bay
2. Marina Bay Sands
3. National Gallery and the civic district
(Top 3 may be the reason why he chose to stay in Fullerton Hotel)
4. President Halimah’s HDB flat
5. Tiger Brewery
6. URA Gallery to look at Singapore’s city planning
7. Jurong bird park, Night Safari and plant a tree at Jurong Lake district.
8. Singapore Botanic Gardens (UNESCO)- likely an orchid be named after him. And the event.
9.
10.

He is afterall in Sentosa for the meeting so that is not listed as a separate destination. Our Foreign Minister is in North Korea this week to arrange the visit.

Ever the shrewd businessman, President Trump had his delegation comment that Singapore should foot the bill for organising the event and the N Korean President’s visit. Our Defense Minister, caught by surprise by the media, graciously accepted the responsibility.

Singapore may be the real reason why President Kim agreed to meet President Trump. Afrerall, Singapore was the nation Chairman Deng Xiaoping modelled China’s economic expansion.

Whether that is true or not? Let us indulge in this illusion of truth since the Singapore tax payers are paying millions in security cost to make this visit happen.

(If President Trump calls off this visit, we will be saving millions of US$. If the visit takes place, we are happy to do our bit for world peace. Singapore by the way, was the largest foreign investor in the USA in 2017.)

So, we hope the international media will be gracious guests.

So where do you suggest President Kim visit on this historic visit?

Our foodcourt and hawker centres? Your apartment?

Century of Light – colours of impressionism

One of the treats I received was visiting the Century of Light exhibition currently showcased at the National Gallery Singtel Exhibition. We had three curators from the Musee d’Orsay and National Gallery who did an excellent job leading us. Nonetheless, you may want to read about the highlights of the work from Straits Times before you go.

The magpie by Claude Monet and the interesting depiction of white.

Unlike artists in the past who paint in studios, spending hours perfecting the works, waiting for the paint to dry, and painting either religious symbols or important patrons, impressionists paint the changing landscape of France. Because they were outdoors, they paint very fast with quick strokes, often wet paint on wet paint.

What struck me was that they were artists as well as sociologists and scientists. Himself, who enjoys photography shared with me the influence of photography on understanding depiction of light source in photography

Advances in medical research and understanding how the (retina) eye works also influenced Monet who did not paint the snow as purely white. He painted it in the colours of the shadows his eye observed falling upon it – blues, yellows, purples, changing as the light changed. Blue was important in how Impressionists depicted shadows, such that a critic dubbed the trend “indigo-mania”.
http://canvas.saatchiart.com/art/art-history-101/art-history-101-impressionism-vs-expressionism

Paul Signac and the neo-Impressionists, who came a generation after the Impressionists. He championed the scientific theory of colour, using complementing colours and “Pointillist” method of dots to form an image. Here, the blue of the water is set against complementary colour orange in the yacht and houses. Time to memorise your color wheel. Which my teacher advised years ago.

Also on display are artworks by many Impressionist artists such as Monet’s waterlily pond.

Do catch works “Between Worlds” featuring the works of Indonesian artist Raden Saleh (c.1811–1880) and Filipino artist Juan Luna (1857–1899), two leading painters from Southeast Asia who achieved wide acclaim in Europe. The exhibition draws from important collections around the world.

“The exhibition explores how Raden Saleh and Juan Luna developed their work living between two diverse cultures and societies; and how the European experiences of these extraordinary artists have shaped the art history of this region.”

Juan Luna’s depiction of Cleopatra.

I am most impressed with this piece of the average workers by Juan Luna during his stay in France. Juan Luna was also instrumental in the rising nationalism of the Philippines, not just as a colony of Spain, but as a equal state. The betrayal when Spain gave away Philippines as a colony to the US.

The colour of the walls purple against orange caught my eye. And that cute little door.

The Impressionists exhibition left me with some thoughts of artists as not just concerned with aesthetics. Many of them were interested in politics, lives of ordinary people, a different world order.

I cannot help recalling Malcolm Gladwell’s piece on the rejection of the Impressionist artists by the acclaimed critics of the day in his book “David and Goliath”.

Be inspired.

Where:
National Gallery Singapore
1 St Andrew’s Rd, Singapore 178957
6271 7000
https://g.co/kgs/dCHPGS

Making art from Adversity

Natural History Museum – when dinosaurs walked the earth

Let there be Night, let there be Light, Marina Bay

Last night I was at the ilightMarinaBay Festival at Marina Bay.

It was a beautifully breezy evening with dark clouds looming but kept at bay (no pun intended).

The theme this year is on Sustainability and many of the office buildings participated by dimming their lights at night. Hey, time to go home, it’s the weekends!

Take an Mrt and alight at Raffles Place station. Have dinner around the area and walk towards the Fullerton Bay Hotel or better, treat your date for dinner at the Hotel. Walk off your dinner.

The Ocean Pavilion at 7pm.

Step inside and explore. It’s made of repurposed evian mineral water bottles.

Bottle caps.

800 Moonflowers looking for adoption by local artist Lee Yun Qing.

Transformed into a lake of luminescent display of flowers, each powered by its own solar-powered LED light.

Shimmering “Northern Lights’ for the artist’s commentary.  Download App found here:
https://www.ilightmarinabay.sg/

A blur photo of the artist, Aleksandra Stratimirovic (Sweden) and Randy Chan,  the Festival curator.

More information:
https://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2017/Jan/pr17-05

This year, the festival will see three distinct event hubs complementing the light art installations. Held at The Promontory @ Marina Bay, The Float @ Marina Bay and the Bayfront Event Space, the three festival hubs will be anchored respectively on themes of sustainability, imaginative play and lifestyle. Festival goers can look forward to sustainability themed workshops, children-friendly activities and a variety of food and beverage options.

Don’t know what to do with all your nervous energy spent on crochet? Transform it to art. Made with ropes.

Learn to make salt dough crafts. This Mexican passerby is getting a free lesson on the spot to make a rose for his girlfriend.

I’m going to sign up at their website. Subsidised classes at Orchard Central for senior citizens. I’m not quite there so my subsidy is lesser. Peer to peer taught classes. I like Marina Bay!

Learn about planting vegetables from these friendly guys in red. Giving out free vegetable seeds and compost.

Fancy your own vegetable Farm in your living room? Veera from Greenology has a solution. It doesn’t need airconditioning and comes with own fan and water system. I guess you need to plug it next to a electrical point.

I bought an enzyme cleanser for removing pesticide from vegetables. We will see. I was told that your vegetables taste sweeter after washing off pesticide. 

Festival hub at The Promontory will take place over two weekends from 3 to 12 March with ‘live’ music, workshops and arts and crafts fair.

Tip: Do bring an umbrella in case the weather is unpredictable. There’s a children playground next door.

Next: I am returning next week to catch Art-Zoo At The Float @ Marina Bay, an inflatable playground in the setting of an imaginative zoological garden. $15 per pax.

More pot gardens for small spaces

Some ideas from the Singapore Garden Festival 2016 for your small spaces.

The garden palette by designer Ann Teo. Dig the glass bees and dragon flies. How witty. Each pot contains different types of plants including a lotus garden and even canna like a miniature pond.

Assemble them together.

If outdoor gardens are not your thing, have a terrarium.

DIY or engage someone to fix it for you.

Terrariums are fuss free and an eco-system unto itself. 

Or plant vegetables and herb garden with these red, blue, green LED lighting systems by Plantui garden systems.

Or get some seeds and DIY.

Or grow fruit trees and lime shrubs in a pot trained over a fence – Espalier style. Does it look cruel torturing the plants.  Initially I didn’t think so.

Isn’t it like our minds training it to think a certain way, seeing the world through particular world views.

Rose shrubs or bougainvillea trained around a shape like a pagoda in medieval paintings ? Ok, no espalier for me.

Wind, water and chill@ Tanjong Rhu

If you’re cycling by Marina Bay to East Coast
Or canoeing
Or watching sea otters

Kontiki Restaurant is a nice place to chill out.

View from my seat outdoors

View from my seat outdoors.

My favourite snacks – cocaine wings which is a nice name for buffalo wings and the onion rings shaped like chrysanthemum. You can just chill for a drink.

Very quiet and serene. Casual dining with pork chop (S$21), tenderloin, smokey pork ribs. Fish and chips, chicken chop.

View is a million dollars that’s because it’s next to the Gardens by the Bay South Wing and it’s very much out of the way if you don’t drive or cycle.

I will return because very decent food with decent prices (Singapore’s standard) and still quote undiscovered.

Location:
Look for People’s Association
#01-02, Rhu Cross, Singapore
https://goo.gl/maps/axTfF1MohDT2

Happy 50th Birthday Singapore = Chinggay parade

One of the largest parades in Singapore, the Chinggay festival where floats and dancers line the streets. Celebrated during Chinese New Year, to replace the firing of Chinese firecrackers.!

This year’s performance was so spectacular because of the SG50 celebrations. Started at about 7pm and lasted till 10pm. Don’t miss it next year.

http://www.yoursingapore.com/festivals-events-singapore/annual-highlights/chingay-parade-singapore.html

Chinese painting masters performing on site

Pasir Panjang nursery

Cocoa beans eaten by birds or bats. One seed germinating.

A treat walking through the Nparks Pasir Panjang nursery. Every time I do so, I want to revamp my garden. They’ve better plants than the commercial nursery in Singapore.

Watch out the Nparks website for when the nursery is open to the public:
https://www.nparks.gov.sg/activities/events-and-workshops/2016/1/sgfuture-hortpark

Luminaire Lighting at Gardens Singapore

For next two weeks come and witness the spectacular and magical lighting put up at the Singapore Gardens by the Bay.

Entrance to the grounds are free, as the lights are sponsored by the Gardens.

The lights are put up by the same artists who put up the Kobe Luminaire.