Quest for Immortality

Being a fan of Egyptology, it was no surprise that I went for the exhibition, Quest for Immortality – The World of Ancient Egypt, at National Museum of Singapore.

When did I ever start this fascination, I cannot really remember. But I do remember being an avid fan of the cartoon Mummies Alive during my younger years. It could have started from there… =)

At the entrance, we were introduced to some of the sculptures of Ancient Egypt.

They even showcased some of their daily artifacts…

Posing with the mural wall

There was this wall which featured little sculptures of the Ancient Gods, from Horus, to Anubis to Sekhmet. Boy was it crowded… Every one was crowding behind the glass screens taking snapshots of every sculpture, which made me wonder if they really understood the Gods and their area of care, and would they also remember them when they finally leave the exhibition…

Relics for the dead… Tombstones and their resting place, the pyramid.

The last section which we went was mainly about mummification. I thought that it would have been weird to take some pictures of the mummies and the sarcophagus, so I didn’t. Plus I was a bit disappointed that they did not share more about their beliefs of the afterlife.

At the end of the exhibition, we went back to the little spot where visitors could have some interaction with the exhibits. There was this section where we could print our names according to the ancient hieroglyphics. And I decided why not, since I decided to forgo it previously when I went to the exhibition at Science Centre previously.

The alphabet system of Ancient Egypt. If you can see, they do not have the alphabet “E”!

We pretty much had to fight with kids and adults alike to get some space, as well as paper and the printing blocks…

Tadah!! Our names in hieroglyphics (though I’m missing my ‘e’)!

With our mission accomplished, we decided to take a couple shot together =)

I’m so glad that I got to take a look at the exhibition, albeit being a little small. And thanks to the Boy and his mastercard, we managed to get the tickets at half price!(which I felt justified the value of the exhibition rather than at its actual pricing).

Now, when can I ever travel to Egypt to see the real deal???

Another OT Day

A belated entry, this year’s celebration was just a simple affair of a luncheon with senior executives. And due to lack of communication, I decided that I would only bring my P&S for the day, only to be told that I would have been preferred to be the photographer for the day. So what’s a girl got to do but return home and get the DSLR for the event? Thankfully, my home is pretty near to my workplace, as I got the camera back all within 1 hour.

Setting up the place…

Posing during set-up

Decor for the event…

And so, the lunch started…

We were suppose to be mingling with senior management, but I guess most of us were just more comfortable among ourselves.

With the exception of Dorothy I guess, one whom I felt really interacted more with the senior management =) Happy OT Day!

Year End Moments

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

The Boy and I decided to try out new restaurants for good meals to celebrate the festive season. And we decided that he would plan for Christmas, and me, the New Year.

Our Christmas eve dinner was at Limon, a Spanish and Thai fusion cuisine.

It’s a really small but quaint restaurant along Purvis street. The decor though was really nice!

I love just this cheeky grin =)

For tapas, we had Guy Krapow – Thai style fried chicken. It tasted pretty good, though I was wondering what leaves were in the dish. I had a feeling it was basil…

As for our mains, we were both in the fishy mood, as he had the Filete de Salmon, while I had the Limon Bacalao. Both fish were really fresh, and they were yummilicious!

Time to tuck in!

As usual, my sweet tooth was calling out, as we tried out the Lemon Caramel Egg Custard Flan. This was absolutely delicious! If only I could have it as my main, haha…

We also had some wine for the night, as there was a 1-for-1 promotion on their wines. Overall, the dining experience was a really pleasant one, as the place was very comfortable, and the food was great.

Our New Year’s Eve dinner was of another cuisine, as we tried out some Swiss and Continental cuisine at The Tavern Restaurant.

When you enter, you are greeted by a Swiss Chalet-inspired theme.

And because it was New Year’s eve, they even prepared a package of New Year celebration masks, hats and blowers if you were to stay on till midnight.

We carried on with our 3-course meal, as we shared some escargot and lobster bisque.

And on the house before our main dish was a raspberry sorbet.

For our main course, I had some beef with avocado (one whole fruit in fact!), and the Boy had some pork chop with apple sauce. Both tasted fantastic, and we could not help enjoying ourselves to the fullest!

When it came to dessert, we were cracking our heads on what to get, and finally settled for Baked Alaska. Huge mistake I would say, as you can see from the picture, it had loads of cream on it, despite having some rum poured over it and it being flamed with a blow-torch on the spot. For me, I am ‘allergic’ to cream (though it is actually meringue), while the Boy cannot stand food that are overly sweet. So, despite the lure of alcohol, we gave up in the end, as it was just not to our liking…

But overall, our experience at the Tavern was good. The waiters/waitresses were warm and friendly, plus our entrees and mains were sumptuous. We can only count ourselves unlucky to have chosen a dessert which we both didn’t like. So, if any of you got a chance, do try out the 2 restaurants, though you do have to bear in mind that the Tavern is more pricey than Limon =)

The Japan Diaries – Tokyo

1-7 December 2009

On the night that we returned from Mount Fuji, we headed off to the Metropolitan Government Building, where we ascended to the highest level to view the night lights of Tokyo city. However, with the rain that plagued us throughout the night, the windows were filled with watermarks, coupled with the bright lights in the building itself made it  difficult for us to capture any shots…

Our next stop then was the ever famous Shinjuku Kabukicho Night Street. We would have loved to stay there longer, and even make our way to Shibuya. But time was not on our side, as we could only wander around a few streets before having to make our way back for dinner.

Here are just some shots that I got on this wet and rainy day…

Upon returning to Akasaka Hotel, we decided to continue exploring the area. That’s when we discovered this!

It was such a pretty scene, I somehow really want to capture it on photo. That was when we saw this group of ladies, and approached them for help. But… They could not speak English, and neither could we speak Japanese, very much like a scene of a duck talking to a chicken! But after much gesturing and patience from them, we finally got a decent photo =) It was also this time when I realised how friendly and patient the Japanese really are.

After spending a day at Disneyland, our final day then was a city tour of Tokyo.

In the coach again…

Our first stop was Asakusa Kannon Buddhist Temple.

We also got to shop along Nakamise Shopping Street, though once again, we were too early for most of the shops to open…

We then proceeded on to Ueno Market, a place where we could buy lots of food at cheaper prices! It was there that I told the Boy it would be a good time to buy a box of hi-chew. But he thought that the airport might sell it at a cheaper price. In the end… I was right! And we were a box of hi-chew less…But I did manage to buy some mochii to make up for it =)

Moving on, we made our way to Ginza, a place of high-class shopping, home to the ever famous Burberry Blue brand… It is here that we ascertain our beliefs that we were in a tour of rich people, as most of them bought the expensive label back home.

Next up, we bought tickets to the monorail, as we made our way to Venus Fort. It was quite cool trying out the public transport system of Japan. In fact, there were many other tourists on board as well.

Our extremely mini ticket for the ride…

A nice view aboard the monorail…

After a few stops, we finally came to Palette Town, where Venus Fort was located.

Photo snapping again…

After much shooting in the nearby areas, we made our way into Venus Fort for some lunch. However, we discovered that due to the festive season, the shopping mall has prepared some lovely lightings for its shoppers!

They did not have this previously when I was here. So seeing the lights against their ever beautiful ceiling, it was really lovely.

After lunch, we proceeded on to our final destination – Tokyo Bay.

There, we took pictures of the Statue of Liberty and the Rainbow Bridge against the ever beautiful sky of Japan.

And then… It was time to go home!! =(

It was really sad to know that it was time to leave beautiful Japan and head back to Singapore. I will miss the nice cool weather, and the opportunity to wear my boots! (Seriously, Japan is such a boot country, regardless of age.) And although this marks the end of our Japan trip, I am very sure we will return once again, especially when we have yet to capture Mount Fuji on camera! Japan 2011?

The Japan Diaries – Tokyo Disneyland

*Warning – Photos Intensive*

1-7 December 2009

On our second last day in Japan, it was time for some fun in Disneyland! Unlike my previous tour, the tickets were not part of the tour package. But our kind tour guide decided to help us purchase it from a convenience store, for us to exchange it for the tickets itself when we reached Disneyland. Although we had the choice of  choosing either DisneySea and Disneyland, we decided to go for the latter because I had experience with it before. (Besides, we can always go to DisneySea together next time) =P

Our hotel was kind enough to provide transport to and from Disneyland. However, it came at a price. It was either at 730am or 10am, when Disneyland opens at 9am. We decided to go with the later one, as I could then sleep in more since I looked more and more like a zombie as the days go by. As nice as it might sound, horrors of horrors, the day that we visit Disneyland is actually a Sunday!! Crazy crowds…

Since I came to Disneyland before, I knew that the Boy had to take Winnie the Pooh ride. Our first stop upon entering the gates was to head directly to that station. But… When we reached, we realised that the Fast Pass was for 8pm onwards, and the standby queue had a waiting time of 210 minutes!! Disappointed, we decided to give it a miss first, and headed off for other rides.

Our first ride was the Haunted Mansion, which the Boy felt unimpressed. What high expectations… =D

Here, we waited for more than 2 hours!! The crowd was just crazy, that even the ever patient Boy got a bit tired of waiting…  Though when finally we got onto the ride, it was a really nice one!

When we finally got out of Splash Mountain, there was a parade on suddenly. We thought that we’d skip this one first, and head on to the other rides first, because the crowd tends to dwindle for the rides when parades are on. But luck wasn’t on our side, when we discovered that Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster ride was having maintena

nce…

In the end, we decided to just try waiting for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. Struggling through the crowd to make it to the ride, somehow we got a bit lucky that we managed to still see the parade carousel past us while standing in the horribly long queue…

It was during this 1+ hours of waiting that the Boy got turned off by the Fast Pass too. He realised that while it was good to get it, but the system of letting in 20 fast pass to 3 standby crowd was overly unbalanced. Thankfully, the ride was just awesome to him, that I’m so glad that he thoroughly enjoyed himself! =)

After these 3 rides, it was time to camp for the parade… And with it being 3pm, we decided to just feed ourselves with some munchies to tide us through lunch.

A star shaped prawn and dumpling bun with mickey chocolate banana pastry.

One might realise that I have more shots on the parade floats than the characters. That’s because we decided that my P&S was better at capturing that, while he’ll zoom in with his DSLR for the character shots.

It was a really nice and entertaining parade, filled with lots of Christmas cheer. And while it was only about 4pm, the sky was starting to turn dark. Hence we quickly made our way to the castle to grab a shot of it first before we lose the blue skies…

Nice nice… =)

Towards the end, we took a few more rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours (of which I felt sick), and shows like MicroAdventure.

Soon, it was time for the Night Parade, where thousands of lights dazzle the streets!

Apparently, this parade was a lot longer than the first one we saw. So much so that my arms were aching from holding up the camera for so long. Not to mention that I had no tripod as well that it was such a challenge taking clear pictures with the floats constantly on the move. Nonetheless, it was really cool seeing all the lighted floats. Quite an experience indeed!

At the end of the float, I cannot help but feel starved. During then, we decided to just give in to our hunger pangs and buy some of their expensive food in the theme park. During then, we were hurrying with our food, because it wasn’t long before they would blast off some fireworks in the sky. I thought that I would have loved to capture the fireworks with the castle. But due to the lack of time, we ended up being behind the castle, the wrong place to be to capture both the castle and fireworks together on film.

As such, this was the result of only the fireworks… Bummer… =(

At the end of everything, we decided to just call it a day. As our shuttle bus back to the hotel would only arrive at 1045pm, we had close to 2 hours of shopping! Unfortunately, Disneyland only sells food and souvenirs, as the Boy went crazy over choosing the various types of cookies and crackers, and even influencing me to buy some! Before I met him, I was not one to buy souvenirs or foodies from such theme parks, but because of him, this time, I bought a lot! =P

Anyway, before I end this entry, I shall share with you all a wonderful find.

By the time we reached our hotel, it was about 11pm, and most shops were closed by then. But because we were starving, we decided to try out the convenience store’s takeaway. I chose the udon (left), he chose the prawn noodles (right). And… They were extremely delicious!! Do not be misled that we found them tantalizing just because we were hungry. They do really taste good, and you will really marvel at how they turned from a frozen ball of food to such delicious meals. If you are ever in Japan, do give these takeaways a try! =)