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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The "Lotus Festival" and other stuff

1 more night in Singapore before I fly off to Perth to finish my second semester of Honours.  I'm kinda apprehensive about it, but at the same time I'd really like to finish as soon as I can.  Oh well, from Thursday onwards I'll be in Perth, and I'll be back in Singapore again in November.

But before I fly off and disappear (I'd be really busy in Perth), here's another update.  It's been raining for the past 2 weeks and the skies only cleared up last Saturday, but when it was still rainy, I took the opportunity to take pictures of the lotus flowers outside the Art-Science Museum.  Yes - it's my second trip there, but this time, the lotus flowers seemed more gorgeous.  Took these last Sunday.







And not to mention, the flowers were popular spots for bees and insects.  Mostly bees, but they added more life to the flowers.  At least we know that the flowers were in full bloom and highly attractive.  I mean, how can anyone resist such gorgeous colours?





Saw someone attempting to take pictures of the flowers at this angle, so I decided to try as well.   I kinda love the results!






More evidence that the flowers were in full bloom and fresh from the rain.  I really love taking closeup pictures of lotus flowers - they are just beautiful.





Every now and then we'd also spot a dragonfly on one of the flower buds.




And more pictures of bees on the flowers.  Of course these pictures were kinda difficult to take as the bees were just swarming all over the place, and I wanted the pictures to look aesthetically pleasant...










Last Sunday I also spotted these adorable cows on display outside the MRT station too.  The cows were dressed in different outfits, supposedly depicting different occupations.  There was even a cow depicting an army cadet, and he was so adorable!

I think the cows have been on display for quite a while, and will be on display till 4th August (from what I remembered).  These are the only pictures I have of them, but I guess they're sufficient enough.















Last Sunday there was a retro-themed event at Centrepoint, and I happened to be in that area.  They had a jukebox, a bar for people to get drinks, a band (that played oldies and stuff like that), and quite a lot of stuff on display!

One of the highlights of the event was a gramophone with an actual LP disc (33 1/3 inch vinyl disc) on it!  The LP was manufactured by Columbia - one of the Big Three music recording companies when sound recording first took off (the other two were Victor and Edison).  I did a subject on the history of sound recording and my presentation topic was on the LP, and seeing these brought back good memories.

And of course, the gramophone was absolutely cool!  It had the trademark "His Master's Voice" - an advertisement featuring Nipper the dog sitting in front of the gramophone, supposedly hearing a recording of his master's voice, and also to promote the idea of sound recording.





They had 2 different versions of a film reel camera too!  And I HAD to take pictures of one of them!  It reminds me of the movie Cinema Paradiso - one of my favourite movies.




More closeups of the LP on the gramophone, plus another LP.





Old radios and some albums by artists from the 1950s (I think!).




They also had a camera exhibition where they featured cameras from the 1900s.  That included the film cameras my parents used when I was still a kid.  In fact I remembered we were still using film cameras when I was in secondary school, and only switched entirely to digital cameras in 2005 or so.  My mum still has her old film camera.











Couldn't resist taking yet another picture of that film reel camera...and the advertisement to the entrance of the event.  I'm a big fan of old movies such as Gone with the Wind (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Sound of Music (1965), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Rear Window (1954), Mary Poppins (1964), Darling Lili (1970), The Americanisation of Emily (1964) (and the list goes on and on), and I'd be really happy if they actually had an event that showcased old movies.





I guess it's auf wiedersehen (goodbye) for now, Singapore!  I'll see you again in November.  Till then, I've got lots of good pictures to enjoy - whenever I feel homesick or anything.  So far it hasn't happened, possibly because Perth is closer to Singapore and is in the same time zone as Singapore.  I wonder where I'd end up next year though.

I'll update when I settle down in Perth!