Signs you see around NUS carparks

Have you ever wondered why you could find a campus security vehicle patrolling around NUS almost every 15 minutes? Well, they need a vehicle to store their clamps and signpost to clamp wheels right?


Wheel locked! $100 for the keys..

Eh.. the clamp from the sign post looks very different leh...


"Your wheel is clamped" Duh... isn't it obvious?

In case you didn't see the sign posts around the carparks and couldn't call them to unlock your vehicle, they went the extra mile to provide this too, at no extra charge. First class service....


To prevent petty thieves from stealing the cone and sign, they even lock it to the wheel.

Good thing I brought my camera along for no reason at all...

Moral of the story: Don't anyhow park lah!

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Listening to my colleague talk about dissecting hearts (and not to forget the stench from a week old rotting one) and playing with acid soaked eggs makes me glad that some of the nature's weirdest secrets remains as one to me. But my daily dose of humour at Sherman's lagoon led me to do some search on exotic sea creatures just to find out how long does hermit crab live.

Part of the comic strip from Sherman's Lagoon

The anglerfish from Finding Nemo (image from BBC News)

When scientists first started capturing ceratioid anglerfish, they noticed that all of the specimens were females. These individuals were a few inches in size and almost all of them had what appeared to be parasites attached to them. It turned out that these "parasites" were the remains of male ceratioids.

They (males) have no digestive system, and thus are unable to feed independently. They must find a female anglerfish, and quickly, or else they will die.

... ... When he finds a female, he bites into her flank, and releases an enzyme which digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads that release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release.

Introducing some feathery models who posed for my camera...


Green parrot wearing his fine red cap

After filling up my 1 gb card with big birds in flight, it's time to fill up another 1 gb card (I recycle the same card) with small birds in flight. (Fact: I just hope from the big bird show to the small bird show)


Flying parrot...


Parrots are not too fast in flight but still its a challenge for a pair of new hands in BIF shots.


Hornbill in flight. The star of this photo got to be the lady with the "ohhh" look standing next to another lady with a hat.


Backside of the hornbill flying


Picture perfect


Messenger parrot...


Will work for 2 dollars


Flying back to the park keepers


Parrot through a hula hoop. Again the star got to be the "waaaa" lady found right below the parrot


Weeee.....!

The fun thing about taking these photos is to go home and look at all the expressions of the audience that I captured unintentionally. Some can be very funny. Could think of some funny captions to add to the photos but it would be disrespectful though (and I'm lazy to do so much photo editing too).

So this was the all star bird show (or they call it the birds and buddies show now)

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Last weekend may not be the best time for birding due to the cloudy/hazy nature but it's better than the rainy kind I faced a few months back when I tried to do some BIF shots with my H1. These may not be great shots but it still is my first BIF shots in not so ideal conditions using a cheap telephoto lens.


Incoming! Enemy ahead!


Making a turn...


This is not a remote controlled bird and that string is not a signal receiver...


Flying low...


Target spotted. Pray it don't drop a bomb en route...


Back facing me...


And my favourite: Motion blurred bird in flight.. looks fake but its real! trust me!

Hit rate is low initially and I need more practice to learn how to do BIF properly, if I ever want to do more BIF shots that is. So many areas of photography to try... lol...

Coming up soon.. small BIF, flightless birds, birds feeding and simply just birds (What do you expect at the bird park)

All shots taken with the Sony Alpha A100 with Minolta 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 (D) lens

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of why computerization may not always be desirable. Sucre, like me, takes private driving lessons so I could compare our experiences before and after all the computerization. Not too long ago, I gave the first example, so here's the latest for the practical test system.

How to book for practical test (For Private Students)

Before
Instructor: "Which day you prefer? Morning can or not?"
Me: "Anything lah" (Since I was student then, easy to arrange my time mah)
Instructor: "Pass me your PDL, your BTT and ATT results and I book for you"

Next lesson

Instructor: "Ok... 30 Feb 02 is your test at 1:23pm"
Me: pay up for booking fee

After
1.) Log in to Comfort Driving centre website, click to book test, enter instructor I.D., accept terms and conditions and select type of test to display dates available.
2.) The page did not load correctly, test information not available. Repeat step 1 using I.E.
3.) Log in to page, selected test date/time but not allowed to proceed because membership will expire before the test date. Please pay S$5.25 to renew membership
4.) Renew membership, repeat step 1 but not allowed to proceed because less than S$20 in account so can't book the test.
5.) Load top up page to log into E-Nets system. Need to top up S$5.25 only, but minimum top up is S$8, what the heck?!
6.) Log into E-Nets system, double check entries are correct. Click submit. Session expired! Please log in to Comfort Driving and re-initiate to pay!
7.) Log into E-Nets again, pay up in double quick time
8.) Repeat step 1 yet again, select the only date/time slot available for the month
9.) Application denied because instructor booked that slot already

Next Day
10.) Call Comfort to check - "All slots are booked, please try again next Wednesday"

To be continued... (why? Because Sucre yet to book her practical test date!)

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Canopy walk @ Kent Ridge Park got shelters like these for people to rest/picnic/enjoy the view. Too bad it's not facing the sea or sunset...

Besides the Bukit Chandu museum, the hill top view, canopy walk offers something unique to the Kent Ridge Park. It's a little sister to the HSBC tree top walk at MacRitchie reservoir which would take hours to complete. This very accessible but short trail have much to offer and convenience tops the list since it is less than 200m from the carpark.


The so common garden/park/court/multipurpose HDB style chairs found 20 m about the ground. (Alpha + 75-300mm f4.5-5.6)


Beware, spiders are a common sight on top of the trail. This is just one of them. (H1 + M3358)


Notice it's a seven legged one. Poor sod. Taken with the H1 with M3358 closeup lens. Hey, I need a comfortable distance shooting these folks in case they jump on me LOTR style.


Hanging gardens? (H1)


Snake like branches (Alpha + 75-300mm f4.5-5.6)


Parasites (Alpha + you know what)


The Sony H1, in Sucre's hand (Guess taken with which camera)


Sucre's take of the canopy walk (H1)

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What I found at Kent Ridge Park too...


Little yellow flower. This is 'vivid' yellow. (Colour of Getz before face lift, my first choice colour for my Getz too. *Wedelia trilobata, how do you even pronounce it)


Another yellow flower. This is sheer yellow. (Colour of Getz after face life, shun away from yellow and chose blue instead. *This is not a flower but camouflaged leaves)

The address of the museum

Somewhere along the road at Pasir Panjang where my family visit the famous Tung Lok Kuey Chap lies a bungalow museum that is dedicated to the ill-fated battle against the Japanese during the second world war. The Japanese mounted a surprise attack on Singapore and Kent Ridge was Singapore last resistance against the Imperial troops.


Is this a watch tower to over look the south coast of Singapore for Japanese Navy?

Admission to this little museum would cost you $2 per adult and aside from the groups of secondary school students, there were a grand total of 2 other visitors beside me and sucre. It's no wonder since Bukit Chandu, or Kent Ridge Park, is not really accessible to the public.


Those rude secondary school students

We were greeted by a friendly caretaker when we entered the museum and followed his kind advice to move to the theatre for a video before the seats were taken up by those students. Unfortunately, the pleasant experience ended there. After settling at a nice corner of the small theatre, hordes of rowdy secondary school students swamped the quiet theatre. And for some reasons, a couple of them just had to sms their friends throughout the entire video, blinding us with the light from their handphone.


One of the many multimedia display for the museum (Taken with Fuji F11)

There were plenty of displays for the museum, including the following:-
1.) A computerized touch screen multimedia video display superimposed on a 1940s map of Singapore showing the tactical and strategic superiority of the Japanese compared to the powerful but naive British troops.
2.) Audio recordings of unnamed survivals of the war sharing their memories of the war
3.) Video of a Steve Irwin impersonator in a presentation that tries to bring back the war in a sandbox shown above
4.) Various rifles, helmets and war artifacts


Uniform of Malay regiment officers

Shortly after the battle was lost here, Singapore lost her war against the Japanese. I wouldn't have known all these without visiting the museum and it seem to me the main purpose of the museum is to educate Singaporeans about this historical part of Singapore. The museum was boring and lacked interactive elements. It may have good facilities (Sennheiser headphones at the theatre) but all the resources are used in presentations etc. In other words, the museum is a bit boring.


Artillery of the past.

If only they put more thoughts in designing the museum. Perhaps they could design it such that a visitor would "live" through the few days before, during and after the battle as they explore the museum. We could walk into the first room where a family is having their dinner listening to radio for the latest updates on the war, and they could be talking about the retreating British troops that they saw earlier in the day. The next room could be a war-torn room or a bomb shelther where the Japanese had launched their first wave of air strike. Another room could mimic the command centre where the generals discuss the battle movement. And don't fence off your display items. Putting those dummies behind glass wall would keep the visitor detached from the museum.

Reflections at Bukit Chandu, could be better.

All photos taken with the Sony Alpha using the 18-70mm kit lens unless stated otherwise.

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