Gardens by the Bay

We decided to visit the Gardens by the Bay last Friday afternoon and managed to explore the 2 domes and have dinner at the garden too.

Here are a few of the photos taken and I will be posting more photos into my online album, so watch out for it later this month.

We visited the Flower Dome and Cloud Forest Dome; admission fees are required but we enjoyed the air-con inside though...ha...ha.....

Very nice architecture of the dome too, besides the various gardens put up for the exhibition inside the dome.

This huge waterfall greets you upon entering the Cloud Forest dome....

 

At one level of the waterfall.......

  

We were hungry and decided to go for dinner at one of the many outlets in the garden and skip the Skywalk for another visit.

 

I still managed to get a photo of the Supertree Grove with Marina Bay Sands in the background before it grew too dark.

 

I took this night photo on the way out of the gardens to the Bayfront MRT station; this was taken handheld but with very high ISO setting using my Canon DSLR camera.... not too bad...!!!

There are many more photos of the flowers and plants that I took inside the 2 domes; to be sorted out and upload them into my online album soon......

So stay tuned......

BTW, you should visit the Gardens by the Bay if you still have not done so... very nice place for an outing....

I was supposed to have visited  it during my last birthday but somehow delayed until now....sigh



Jack's Ashes

Jack was cremated and the ashes in an urn was delivered to the house this morning.

I was touched by the delivery man who greeted me by saying that Jack is back home again.

We will be sprinkling some of the ashes in the garden where Jack grew up and then buried the urn in the garden and placed a dog figurine over it.

Since Jason has gone for his BMT and will get his first book out on 30 Aug, we will do it  when he is back home that weekend.

Jason - Enlistment to NS

We sent Jason off to Pulau Tekong for his enlistment this morning.

First to MacDonald's for breakfast then to Tekong..... ring a bell..?
( First to Bata then to School...... the advertisement..)

Surprisingly, they let the parents take photos in Tekong so I joined in too....

Apparently, the movie... Ah Boys To Men, was filmed in BMT School 2 in Tekong and they are quite proud of its success.

Jason is assigned to Orion Company in BMT School 2 too......!

I remember someone said that the bunk looks like a chalet ... ha..ha...?
We saw that they were given 2 small pails for their laundry washing.... poor Boys...!!!

Jas just called us after 9:30pm and told us that he was assigned the upper bed and has an ex-classmate in the same bunk.

Proud of him and he will only be booking out on Fri 30 Aug .. so look forward to seeing him then.

Jack - My Beagle Dog

Jack had succumbed to the cancer in his spleen and passed away peacefully on Sat 10 August late afternoon.

We had a very good 15 years with Jack as part of our family.

His ashes will be sprinkled in the garden where he grew up and the remaining ashes in the urn will be buried there too.

This photo was taken on the eve of his departure.

We love you, as always... Jack!

Happy Birthday, Singapore...!!!

As usual, we hung the Singapore flag in front of the car porch to celebrate our country's birthday and watched the NDP on TV 'live'.

You can visit this official site for photos on the actual NDP celebrations :

http://ndp.org.sg/gallery/

Jack, My Beagle, Is Sick

Jack has been with us for 15 years + and that is about 80 man years ( no, you are not supposed to multiply it by 7 as I saw a poster on the conversion in the Vet office today ).

About 2 weeks ago, Jack was not well and refused to eat ( can you imagine that... a Beagle not eating...!!! ) and also did not want to move at all.

After consulting the Vet, he was thought to have strain his back or having arthritis so some pain and anti-inflammation medication was given. It helped a bit and he was up again but then he was sick again;   no appetite to eat and not keen to move too much.

We thought it could take some time for the medication to work and he just needed more rest.

But as the days went by, we were starting to doubt if there could be other issues as he vomited once and his tummy area looked bloated.

We took him to the vet again and we wanted a blood test done and if necessary, an x-ray too to eliminate other potential causes of his illness.

Thankfully, the blood test results are good and no issues with his liver and kidney.

So we move on to do the x-ray, and it showed that there are some water in his lung that could be causing him to cough often. But there was some mass in his abdomen that was not conclusive so we took Jack to do an ultrasound this morning at their other clinic which has the equipment for it.

The results showed that there is some cancerous growth in the spleen and some fluid too in that area and this is causing the discomfort and tummy bloating ( there was an increase in his weight of about 1  kg in-between the 2 visits to the clinic ).

Options given are :

- Perform an operation to remove the growth but there could not be an guarantee that it will not return but importantly, Jack may not be able to take the operation due to his old age so it is very risky; 50-50 chance. If the ops is successful, Jack may have another 1-2 years given his current age assuming no other illness that may come along the way.

- Take medication to remove the fluid in the lungs and abdomen, with the pain and inflammation medication to help with any discomfort. Also, take a steroid to control the growth in his spleen. This may buy Jack some more time but in months only if it works.

The Vet recommended the latter option and after some discussion within the family, we decided to proceed with her recommendation.

Jack taking his car ride to get his ultrasound done, good dog...!

 

Jack's abdomen was shaved for the scan. All the excitement in the morning so he needed an afternoon nap....

Up and about again, looking good.. Jack...!

We love you so much, Jack....!

Japan Alpine Tour Photos ( Day 5 - 7 )

Here are the photos of the remaining days of my Japan Alpine Tour, enjoy please.

The main highlight of the tour is the snow corridor in Tateyama Mountains as it is opened to the visitors only once a year, around May.

 
 
Our next destination should be Hokkaido... sometime next year, like July..?

Japan Alpine Tour Photos ( Day 1 to 4 )

My family and I have enjoyed this trip very much as we love Japanese food and are intrigued by their country and culture. This is our first trip to Japan and it definitely, will not be the last trip there.

I have enjoyed taking about 1,600 photos with my Canon DSLR camera and here are some selected images that I would like to share with you.

Hope you enjoy the online photo album.



( I just watched a National Geographic documentary on their professional photographers and how they selected the handful of photos for publication. Their photographers are taking like about 2,000 to 4,000 photos for just one article....!!!

I suppose with the digital media format, this is much easier but then post processing is a huge challenge for the editors.

I reviewed my 1,600 images and selected about 300+ that I would considered as my final chosen images but it was fun as photography is my hobby. )

LIONS XII - We are the Champions..!!!

Congratulations to the Lions XII on winning the Malaysia Super League ...!!!

 

We watched the final 'live' on TV and it was a nerve racking in 1st half but luckily, the goals started to come in during the 2nd half.

Well done...!!!

We are proud of this team as the players and coach are all local boys and no foreign talents or imports...!!!

 

Haze & N95 Mask

Well, the haze came and scare the hell out of us when the PSI reached 401 a few days ago. I have dry eye so it can get irritable easily and it will become reddish and swollen, very uncomfortable feeling and it normally takes a long time to recover too...sigh

Luckily, I have bought 3 N95 a few years ago either for the haze or SARS and they could still be used now.

In fact, I travel with a surgical mask and a folded N93 ( what they called a duck mouth version so it can be flatten ) since the recent SAR period and when I have to go back to Penang very often to care for my mother who had a stroke around that time too.

We wore the N95 mask at least once in public when we have to go out for lunch and my physiotherapy session for my mild slip disc last Fri when the PSI was still 200+.

We were debating on what to do with Jack, our Beagle dog, as he is an outdoor dog. Prior to the haze, we have installed a fan to cool him during the day as the weather has been hot in the afternoon. We brought into the house eventually since last Fri.

Luckily, Jack was well behaved and did not bark as we were concerned that he would not adapt to his new surroundings but he apparently likes to be inside the house and in our presence. We still take him out for his short walk to pee and poo but I think he enjoys the coolness of the ceramic tiles indoor, with a fan running too, of course.

Well, PSI has dropped to below 100 since yesterday due to a change in the wind direction but we are now more prepared for it..... I suppose.

We also bought another 3 N93 mask from NTUC this afternoon to replace the current one when it gets soiled or damaged when used too many times. The stock is readily available now to the public.

However, we were told by the cashier that there are 2 sizes; child or small size and adult size. To tell the difference, there is a suffix 'S' on the code so pls get the right one as some shops are ignorant and just sell them as there are to all.