Hey guys!
It has been quite a hazy period these few weeks. Truly appreciative of the rare days when the wind direction changes and we get clear skies. We had one and a half days of haze-free air over the last two days, and it was good enough for me to post about it! Hahaha!
The SG50 time capsule thingy
On virtually every Saturday since December 2012, I will spend an evening (sometimes a little longer) with Chelsea. After almost 3 years it can slowly get challenging to find places to go to. Thankfully this year got SG50 so all the SG50 events help quite a lot. I decided to bring Chels to the National Museum of Singapore. We were last here during the national week of remembrance in March to view the LKY exhibition. Today, I heard that there was a SG50 time capsule event, where members of the public can vote for the things they want to include in the SG50 time capsule, to be opened 50 years later.
It’s quite cool… 50 years later, everything that is ‘current’ now would be positively ancient. Especially in the world of technology. We should throw in an iPhone 6s even though it’s not made in Singapore… just for exhibition sake. (Maybe PM Lee Hsien Loong’s iPhone 6 would be a cool idea, instead of trading it in). A whole list of items available here, but they only showcased some items.
And it’s not even items in the physical sense… it’s just a exhibition stand, where you can press into the cardboard saying that “I want this in!”. Chelsea and I chose some stuff that we felt would be awesome, like the NRIC card, ERP in-car unit, HDB keys (heh), and some items from the current haze period. I thought a SAR 21 model would be cool too, so I voted for that.
There were some items from yesteryear, like Singa the Lion and old textbooks. Even photos of the old Jurong Industrial Estate, and National Library cards (the paper kind). Even National Theatre memorabilia – wow. I thought these items would be frankly quite dumb. I would think it would be more appropriate to show things that are actively being used by Singaporeans in 2015, not things that are used even before the 21st century. It’s a SG50 time capsule after all. Those items, being so old already, can find their place in museums already.
Would be nice to include some things like songs. Songs composed and/or sung by Singaporean artistes. But what media to store it in? Such that in 50 years time people can actually access the data? 😉
After that Chels and I spent a little time in the “We Built a Nation” exhibit where we saw many items that belonged to our founding leaders. Very interesting. (I found Goh Keng Swee’s Hewlett-Packard calculator – made in Singapore, no less – to be particularly cool)
When we were done, the haze lifted and we took a little stroll to the (new) Capitol Theatres for our dinner 🙂
Gardens by the Bay – the free outside
On Sunday, the haze didn’t come back. I was so excited I went for a quick run right after breakfast – you don’t know when the haze will come back! We decided to head somewhere outdoors on this day, even though it was getting quite hot. My dad suggested Gardens by the Bay, and we readily agreed.
After having lunch at Satay by the Bay, we walked around the outdoor area. We walked past the children’s garden, which comprised a large water playground and some (dry) playground areas. We spent a bit of time looking at young kids (and their parents) play with the large fountains and stuff. Quite nice. They even added Disney music as background ambient music for the kids to imagine they are in some fairyland.
What we didn’t see before was the kids’ playground. There was this obstacle course thing that my mum tried and it was quite funny to see her ‘revisit’ her childhood. It was quite big, quite impressive. Too bad not many people were there (perhaps it was due to the hot mid-day sun!).
After that, we made it to some of GB (Gardens by the Bay)’s free outdoor plant displays. We saw the Sun Pavilion, with a good number of large (and huge) cacti and desert plants. Quite nicely done… especially since it’s a free display. I think many people just associate GB with the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest. It’s quite a sprawling area outdoors too, at least for the South Gardens. A walk in the evening to explore around would be nice.
I then spotted a sign that said “Big Fish Aquarium”. Definitely didn’t hear of that before! Followed the signage to this somewhat small aquarium with big fishes inside. Also free. This attraction is not even featured on their printed brochures! Felt somewhat like the Zoo/Birdpark enclosure, and the fishes were quite excited to see us. (Location… quite ulu. Near the Sun Pavilion, hahaha)
After that, we headed back to the conservatories’ outdoor area to see a huge bunch of tourists clearly happy that the haze is absent for a while. Can just imagine how sian they must be when they land into this hazy island!
And that pretty much sums up my two days in the haze-free sunny Singapore. Today, the haze returned.
Swee Life 