Marina’s Bloggariffic

What an incredibly beautiful day. The big fluffy clouds over the blue sky is gorgeous. I was tempted to lie down on the grass and just stare at the sky all day. It was a perfect day to spend national day.

After finding out that the entry to the Singapore Museums would be free on national day, although there were different types of museums and attractions to pick from, I finally decided to visit the Singapore Arts Museum.

Its been so long since I’ve visited the museum that I dont even remember the year when I visited it last.

But I still remember how beautiful the building was. The building was built at the year 1863, which explains the charming, colonial styled architecture. As I walked around the compound, I like to imagine how it was during those time.

Every turn was a peaceful, beautifully quaint sanctuary. It was easy to get lost in one’s own imagination. And then we go back to the realisation of the present time with the large and colourful banners which was decorated around the area.

Whilst inside, this charming display greeted me and as I walked up the staircase to see the gallery, I cant help to notice the many wedding food recipes gracing the walls. I wonder if there is a hidden agenda here :P

When I reached the second floor, there were a bustling of activity. I see children participating in a competition, roaming around the museum, looking for the next station to retrieve their clues. I also see couples and families walking, pointing to what catches their eyes.

I see this colourful canvas shoe display which was done by kids all over Singapore. This was to represent the diversity and uniqueness of Singapore.

I took my time taking in the views in the different galleries. The museum was segmented in different parts of South East Asia - I walked from Indonesia’s emotive expressionistic Affandi, to the peaceful works of Vietnam’s Le Pho.

But in the seemingly innocent museum, lies some memorable pieces. Gallery 2.10 housed contemporary South East Asian works. I saw many abstract arts as well as some very interesting ones.

I cant help but to chuckle out loud when I saw a huge canvas of a painting of a man sitting on top of a toilet looking horrified as a woman looked in his cubicle. In the real painting, there is no woman covering the man’s bits.

But I think the highlight of the gallery was the video display of three different performance art. As I sat down and watched the show, my eyes nearly popped out at what I saw. Although the footage looked amateur and slightly grainy, the content was a little risque.

The first footage showed a many different people peeping in a kaleidescope and I heard suggestive human sounds. Eventually we find out what the curious view in the kaleidescope was and I felt a little uncomfortable, with the wide eyed young kids sitting beside me. But since their parents was right next to them, I guess its their perogative.

The second footage showed a lady picking out random audiences to the platform and took off her apparel to be exchanged with the chosen audience. I think this particular performance was held in Vietnam. I doubt that the typical Singaporeans would be as daring to take off their clothing in front of everyone.

The third footage shows another lady asking some visitors to close their eyes while she puts her hands over them, but not touching the visitors. All I can think to myself was, “Huh? Is this art? Oh ok.”

Nevertheless, I did enjoy my tour around the Arts Museum. And the gallery certainly was a feast for the eyes and not to mention, an eye popper ;)

It was truly an enjoyable an lovely day.

Singapore Art Museum
Website : http://www.nhb.gov.sg/SAM/

You might also be interested in :

• Going to the Arts House
• The Museum of Shanghai Toys

Its always interesting to see an the point of view of someone who has not been accustomed to our way of life and lifestyle. To observe how ordinary things that we take for granted is seen as amazing to others.

When cartcart came over to Singapore, I was amazed at the things that he noticed. Like the countdown timer at the traffic lights and the tri-pole in trains.

Cartcart gushed about the usefulness of these features, and started to wonder aloud as to why he did not have the same feature back home.

I met up with Attilio, a reader of this blog whom has recently arrived in Singapore. Attilio is a native from Italy and will be here to undertake his phd at a local university.

After a bit of a blunder at the train station, we finally met and started to chat. I listened to him amiably describe about his first experiences here.

As Attilio was game enough to try some local food, we headed to Ananda Bhavan, a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Little India.

He tried the rice set and I’m happy to report that he likes Indian food! *thumbs up*

We talked about a multitude of things over dinner, such as life and inevitably compared notes on lifestyles of our countries.

Attilio enthused bout how efficient things are run here. Like how the trains were on time and the speed of how administrative matters were resolved. Being the devil’s advocate, I mentioned the ever rising cost of living and the fast pace of life here.

On the other hand, we both agreed that because our countries are a melting pot, there are some similar traits. Attilio said that some of the Indian sweets reminded him of those back in Sicily.

After dinner, we decided to walk around the area. It was a bustling saturday night. There were alot of people and activities around. We walked past goldsmiths, saree shops, provision shops. I see customers inside, examining the items sold or haggling with the owners.

Eventually we spotted a temple and decided to take a look inside. There were so much activities going on. It looked rather festive. There were already a number of people entering the temple.

Whilst inside, I observed the devotees praying, some were prostrating to a deity, some were carrying oil lamps and walking around an altar. I noticed some devotees clasping their hands to the priest who was inside a prayer hall. The priest then later pressed a dot of ashes on the devotees forehead.

Attilio was walking here and there, observing different prayer halls.

It was so facinating to see! Truth be told, that was the first time that I watched a hindu prayer upclose as I’d usually be too nervous to go an event such at this by myself.

Attilio explained to me about the statues, and the items needed to prepare for a prayer ceremony. I felt like such a tourist in my own country. Haha! But it was really very cool to see the devotees praying and I really enjoyed myself.

We found out later that it was called the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple. The temple was built by Bengali labourers and it was said to have sheltered the devotees during the bombings in World War 2.

Eventually we called it a night and said our goodbyes. Grazie mille Attilio! It was very nice to meet you :)

Related links

• From Bugis Street to Serangoon
• A beautiful temple in Jurong East

I was back from buying some groceries and I came across a lion dance troop. How really cool!

Back at the old house, we’d see these performance about once a month. The lion dance club house was in the block beside us, and us kids would rush out and sit down on the grass patch as the troop performed. I really enjoyed the loud and festive drumming as the lions balanced themselves on top of planks.

I think that these lions were there today as there is a new shop opening in the shopping center. The owner of the shop hired the troop to bring in good luck for his shop.

Here is a clip showing the performance :)

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I’m wondering why the lion throws things from its mouth. Anybody knows?

You might also be interested in :

• Hungry Ghost festival
• Museum of Shanghai Toys
• Chingay Parade in Jurong
• Field day at the Japanese Garden

While I was walking out of the carpark, I saw this colourful sign.

Cool a showflat! No wonder there has been quite a number of unfamilliar people coming over. Being the inquisitive person that I am, I thought I’d stop by and take a peek at the showflats. I’ve never seen one before. The fact that I’ve been living here for the past 7 years, notwithstanding.

But as I went up the elevator and reached the storey, I lost my nerve as I saw two men sitting, waiting at the table. I wasnt keen on being given the sales talk. But I think I’ll try again once I’ve got my nerves :)

Like the majority of other Singaporeans, I live in a flat. These are high rise buildings which was meant to accomodate our 4.5 million (estimated) residents from overcrowding on an area of 693 km²

Inside a regular 5-room flat is comfortable enough to accomodate a regular sized family. For the curious, the flat that we are staying in is 116 m² and was bought for 252k after the Selective En-Bloc Scheme

I like the area where I am living. It had a nice suburban-ish charm to it. It wasnt too crowded nor too still. There were plentiful of facilities around like the stadium, a small shopping center, a community center, food centers, a mosque and others. All of these were within a few minutes away from each other.

But I still have memories of our old house. I spend a huge part of my life here. It was not modern. It was only 5 storey tall, no lifts. It was a rather small, being a 3 room flat. It was a choice accomodation for the workers in the Jurong Factories nearby.

This picture of me and my brother was taken in 1985. In the background are the type of flats that we used to live in, and if you looked carefully, you can see some kids playing.

If the place was still around right now, many people would probably be too creeped out. I remember when I brought my classmates over for a study session. They said that the place was pretty run down.

But I loved the place.

There are so many memories here.

Hari Raya with friends in 1994

The friends I’ve made, and how we’d play games that we’d made up, like ‘hantam bola’, ‘police and thief’ and catching. I remember when my best friends in primary school, Michael Tan Xue Ming (hopefully he googles his name and finds this blog!) and his lovely sister taught me how to ride a bicycle. When I was able to go around the block without any aid, I felt such an achievement!

It was the age of innocence. Where everyone looked out for each other. I could leave the house unlocked, innocently floated some paper boats in the drain and still come back to see the house intact.

I was a tomboy then. Even after a broken arm from climbing trees, a chipped tooth from overzealous showing off from the metal bar, some burnt hair, numerous bruises and scratches, I’d still feel safe here.

Looking back even further, I can still remember when mum brought me over to my grandparent’s place. My grandparents used to live and own a provision shop in Pulau Tekong before it was taken over by the government to become military training grounds.

This picture of mum and her friends was probably taken in the 1970’s. The huts in the background was a typical accomodation. My grandparents house looked different though, being a shophouse. I cant find any pictures of them unfortunately. Many of the pictures were left during the transition.

My dad waiting at the Jetty at Tekong

There were so many things to see at my grandparents shop. There was a pulley that you can pull and a tin can will drop down. This was where change will be kept to be given to customers. At the back of the shop there were bales of cloth. I see my grandfather calculating rapidly using an a abacus. Sometimes my grandfather will ask me to accompany him to the small hut where the rice and oil is stored and I would observe him measuring the weight of the rice or carefully pump the cooking oil from huge containers using a metal pump into small individual bottles.

Mum by the cloth (I dont know how to get rid of that blue ink without making her looked like she got punched in the eye!)

My grandparents house was so cool.

There was so much space to run around and explore. Me and my cousins would make forts out of the things that we could find. At the backyard, my grandparents kept chickens which I would play with and sometimes if I’m lucky, one of my uncles or aunts would take a coconut to husk using a spear. Oh and we bathed in well water! It was refreshingly cold! I found simple pleasures in pulling out water from the bucket tied with string.

Try to spot the chickens!

I think the coolest thing about the place was that the neighbours kept aligators in their backyard. I’d sneak in to take a peek at those mesmerizing shiny yellow eyes. And some times, my uncle would take me and the rest of the cousins to the boat and we’d see him scrape the barnacles and shellfish from the chassis and then have some toast and kaya in the chinese coffeehouse afterwards.

I feel blessed to have such an interesting childhood :)

Its a pity that I dont have more pictures to show. I wish we had a device to capture all our memories and we can replay it ala virtual reality. Wouldnt it be great?

I’ll treasure the memories that I had. What are the memorable stories of your houses? I’d love to know :)

Update : Finally went to view the showflat. It was a really nice experience

21st of July is Racial Harmony day in Singapore.

When I reached my workplace yesterday, I saw many students and colleagues donning their traditional costumes. It was a lovely sight seeing people in their beautiful and colourful outfit. I admired the Chinese Cheongsam, the Indian Sharwani and the Malay Baju Kurong.

I really liked seeing people wearing these costumes. In some way, it shows that we still have the spirit of our roots. It was a warm day, but no one complained as today was once in a year that we could dress up like this.

I feel thankful that we are living in a fairly meritocratic country. Many of us has friends who are of different races and its so natural for us to mesh together. I feel amazed at why some outsiders are so surprised that we could get along so easily.

At the same time, lets not forget that about 40 years ago, Singapore wasnt as meritocratic as it was then. In 1964, Singapore witnessed the riots between the Chinese and the Malays.

And another incident that is close to my heart is the Maria Hertogh incident.

I feel for the two women, Che Aminah, who has been taking care of Maria Hertogh since she was a baby till she was about 13. You can see how close they are to each other in the picture. Maria has been brought up as a Muslim, Malay girl.

Eventually, the biological mother, Mrs Hertogh came back and demanded for her child. Even after fighting for custodial rights for Maria, Che Amina’s efforts was in vain as the rights were won by Mrs Hertogh.

I suppose Mrs Hertogh was too upset by the incident to think clearly and felt that it was the right thing to do to put Maria in a convent and made her renounce her religion and then later moved them back to the Netherlands.

But I dont believe that she really did get used to life there and I really feel bad for Maria, whom was fervently wishing for her life back in Singapore, not being able to visit Che Aminah in her dying days.

Such a tragedy.

We need to appreciate the freedom and liberty that we have now. I pray that another incident like the Maria Hertogh incident doesnt happen.

But one question nags my mind. If we emphasized so much on race, does that make us racist?

Links :

• Mia’s first time to a malay wedding
• Snowbiscuits wonders if the Japanese be ever forgiven
• Is there something missing here?

Today is the last day for the International Museum Day 2007. Having been to the Red Dot Design Museum yesterday with my sister, I was keen to see the Singaporean Childhood Exhibition at the Museum of Shanghai Toys.

If it wasnt IMD’s twitter, reminding followers, I think I would have missed this event.

I’m surprised that I dont know of the place earlier as it is along the stretch of road of Little India, which is one of my favourite haunts. But Rowley Road is quite a distance from the train station if one is going on foot. Luckily for me, I have my precious scooter! Hehehe!

I paid for the ticket. It was $5 if you could show the nice lady at the counter your Singaporean atm card, else, entry for adults is $8. I went up the steep steps of the old shophouse.

The exhibition focused on toys from the 50’s to the 70’s and I was thoroughly facinated by the amount of toys there. There must have been a kazillion!

A little trivia - Did you know that in ancient China, dolls were used to be charms to be buried with the dead? Thats why when Europe, the largest manufacturer of dolls during the time started to export them to China, many of them were too afraid of it.

I really liked looking at the toys, some really super cool :

Rawr! I is Godzilla!

I used to have a doll just exactly like that one in Red

But there were also some freaky ones :

What … On … Earth?!

And there are those which are just plain insane!

Uhm … I feel like I’m violating Batman and Donald and Dumbo

But it was all good. It was humorous and showed the innocence of toys during the era. I enjoyed the exhibition. And there’s plenty of toys that made me feel nostalgia. It amazing to find many of toys here which I have played with as a child. Does that make me old?

Which kid in the 80’s dont remember these colourful animals? We used these shapes to play Tikam.

Heck, I even remember the black toy on the left where you can shoot aliens with. All the toys in that picture is made in Singapore.

And now that I looked at the exhibition, I realise that I could possibly have had a vintage toy with me.

I used to hava a toy bear with the exact cloth logo by its side. Too bad my bear got so worn out that it was thrown away :(

I was almost sorry to have to leave the museum. It was really nice to be surrounded by so much toys. Such a lovely place. Do go if you have the time. Then you could treat yourself to some yummilicious food at Little India afterwards! :)

Museum of Shanghai Toys
Website : http://www.most.com.sg

Far East Plaza is a nice place to hang out. As it is in the city, it tends to get quite crowded. But there’s loads of things to buy and see there. I like it namely for the affordable and wide variety of apparel that were being sold there.

I recently bought some clothes at Far East Plaza. Each of the apparel that you see in this picture here averages at about 30 dollars each. One could easily go crazy with the range of clothes here.

Yesterday, I was at Far East Plaza again. But it wasnt for shopping. Instead, it was a day for meeting of friends.

My good friend Juli, asked for help in designing a logo and namecard. We met at Far East plaza as designated. As I turned around, she pointed to a guy who was right next to her and introduced him.

“Marina, this is Man”

Man is Juli’s boyfriend. We’ve talked about him quite a bit during our girl sessions and it was nice to finally meet him in person. Over lunch, we got to know each other and I cant help to think of what an adorable couple they were.

Man and Juli were always teasing each other. Hahaha! It was so cute. They said that they planned on getting married at the end of the year, God willing. We spent the time talking to each other. Man seemed a funny and friendly guy.

After we were all happy with the final look of the logo, we waved our goodbyes and I headed to try to find the ping.sg gang. There was a buybuttonz event going on. I saw a white booth outside of Far East Plaza, but where on earth are the pingsters? I twittered in desperation.

Luckily, Tstar picked up my message and adviced me to head up to the second floor where the fair was. It was then when I saw quite a number of booths being set up. I walked to each booth trying to find a familliar face. I must have made an entire circle around the fair and that was when I finally noticed DK. Finally! A familliar face!

Me : Hi! (DK doesnt hear me)

A guy who happened to stand in the middle reciprocated instead.

Guy : Err .. hi. You are?

Me thinking : Who the heck is this person?

Guy : Hi I’m Farinelli

Me : Alamak! Hi! I’m rinaz!

How embarassing! What a way to start to know another. Luckily for me, Farinelli was very friendly and easy to talk to. All feelings of embarassment quickly disappeared.

I quickly scanned around the booth and saw Uzyn and his girlfriend, Sek Ling, I finally got to meet Nicole and her boyfriend, Hendri. There were also arzhou, Ridz, Miccheng, Veron, Estee as well as others whom I unfortunately did not managed to catch their names.

It was so funny to see the gang acting so silly. It seemed like everyone was goofing off. I guess this pose was inspired by the picture that was made infamous by DK.

We headed off for dinner afterwards at the Ayam Penyet Ria restaurant . I’m crazy about this stuff. Ayam Penyet is an Indonesian dish that consists of a deep fried chicken with floss sprinkled on top, served with some raw vegetables and rice as well as extra hot chili.

Unfortunately, as our group was a little too big, we were split into two groups to fit a table. Everyone at our table seemed to like the speciality ayam penyet there. Here is a quick video of our dinner

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Clockwise from left to right : trecillia3678, Hendri, Nicole, Ridz, Veron, Miccheng, NTT, DK, CJ, Uzyn, Sek Ling, Farinelli and me.

After dinner, we chilled out for a bit at starbucks and had a bit of a chit chat. Just for fun I thought I’d do a quick intervew of everyone there.

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What a lovely evening it was. Anywhere can be a lovely place, with great company :)