Marina's Bloggariffic

I had the most amazing time last Friday evening with my friends treasure hunting!

Isn’t this pretty?

The was the ‘Flight of the Night Owl’ event organized by the National Museum. I only knew about the event when Juli persuaded me to join in her team. Initially, I was a little apprehensive. After all, it was held on a Friday night in the heart of the city – the traffic is crazy there! But at length, I relented since it was something that I’ve never done before. It will be an experience!

My friends Juli, Redzuan, Raimie and Sri and I, were at the National Museum and by the time I reached there, there were already a large a number of people congregating around the area. All participants participants were given glowsticks, making everyone looked so festive!

Star Wars Kid from rinaz on Vimeo

At length, the event started with a dude wearing a Malay outfit, complete with the headgear, Samping and keris – he was roleplaying as Sang Rajuna Tapa, the Royal Treasury Officer. And he was angry that the Sultan had insulted his family name! He wanted us to recover the Sultan’s hidden treasures.

Everyone there was so enthusiastic and started to cheer loudly. And not before too long, the Sang Rajuna Tapa started the race, and everyone scrambled to get their first clue.

Off we went, running past the large group of people who were picnicking by the museum with an outdoor movie from the Night Festival. Past the Singapore Management University and past the Substation. The first place that we headed to was the Peranakan Museum where we met the game-master and were were given 5 tasks to complete in there.

The tasks were really tough! One of the challenge was to find an object that matches the one in the picture. But with the museum being spacious and about 3 stories high, it was quite a challenge! Another challenge required us to search for a particular person in there to give us a piece of parchment. With no clues to what he looked like or what outfit he was wearing, Sri ended up asking random strangers if they had the parchment to which all of them looked as us strangely and said no.

At length, we had all the answers correct and we were given the next clue. We were given a crossword puzzle with the answer to head to the next location – the only clue that was given was “This placed used to be a place for pious people, now it has been converted where many weddings and hip restaurants are”

When we saw ‘ROM’ at the side of the crossword puzzle, we immediately scrambled to the registry of marriages. But it was so quiet there, and after awhile, I was sure that something was amiss. Pious … pious … I thought to myself while staring at the crossword puzzle. And thats where I finally saw CHIMJES!

CHIMJES! CHIMJES! I screamed excitedly! And we rushed off there where we were given a new clue to figure out. It was a logic riddle where you had to figure out who was telling the truth and who is lying. If you got the answer wrong, you’d be sidetracked to the wrong location. We took a while to figure out the right answer and eventually agreed on the Arts Museum and we had to search for the 10 different symbols hidden around the area.

One of the ten symbols, sitting insouciantly on the wall

It was quite a legwork scouring the entire museum for the different symbols! It was so tiring!

Other memorable task that I remembered was to figure out a trivia such as “What was the highest watchtower in Singapore in 1903?” We were all stumped. Eventually, after a call to my sister who googled the answer, we found out that it was actually the ‘Central Firestation‘. Ah the convenience of modern technology!

And another another task was to figure out a location by this clue  :

“Thousands of girls has passed by this school gate before it was relocated to Queen’s street”

I was completely clueless. What school was that? It was only by sheer luck that we stumbled across some student which helpfully pointed us to the right direction.

And when we reached the place, I actually saw the original Raffles Girl’s School gates. I was flabbergasted! I’ve walked on this road, countless of times but this was the first time that I’ve noticed it before.

I like em perky!

Finally with our next clue, we headed to the National Museum and then the Philatelic museum to do another round of searches. While scouring, I remembered wanting to linger a while longer to look and read the different displays. There have been so much changes since I last been there. It was fascinating to me. But being in a treasure hunt, I could not stop for too long!

Posing at the Philatelic Museum

Eventually we were informed that the last search was at 11.30 pm. By then, my legs felt extremely sore. This was even more intensive than any of the aerobics session that I’ve been to! We headed back to the National Museum and we were dejected that we were not able to complete all the tasks given. It was there that I saw a group of very fit looking runners triumphantly announcing to the gamemaster that they had completed all of the tasks. I felt very envious of them.

Some of us still use these mortars to blend our spices together

Regardless, I had loads of fun, it was surprising! I enjoyed discovering new things about Singapore. And the heritage trail really gave me a new perspective – it was already so physically tiring to join in this treasure hunt, that I have a newfound utmost respect to anyone who joins the Amazing Race. Nevertheless, I don’t think I’ll ever regret in participating in this 🙂

Here is a montage of the race :

Flight of the Night Owl Treasure Hunt from rinaz on Vimeo

Have you ever joined a treasure hunt before? And have you seen our new museums? What was your experience like?

Related links :

• Asian Civilizations Museum
• National Museum
• Singapore Art Musem
• Philatelic Museum
• Peranakan Museum

You might also enjoy :

• Visit to the Malay Heritage Center
• The innocently risque Singapore Art Museum
• The museum of Shanghai Toys

In the 1930s there were two very flamboyant and very rich brothers, famous from their tiger balm products, decided to build a park where everyone could enjoy and at the same time learn about Asian values.

As a child, my family would bring me out there and we’d spend time together picnicking and just having a lovely time together. At the time, entry to the Haw Par Villa was free. It was bustling with people strolling about. I’d always have a blast in my imaginary world, believing that I was interacting with the statues there.

Then came the 90s when the government took over and did a number of changes to the park. The attractions were developed, and they started to charge money for entry. Though the place seemed well taken cared of, the entire feeling was different and commercialised. The number of visitors dwindled.

This is possibly inspired by Antonio Ligabue

It was only several years later when Haw Par Villa became a public park again. Some of the segments being adopted by various organizations for its continued upkeep. Unfortunately, the number of visitors did not go back to its heydays. Reasons cited ranging from being unaware that Haw Par Villa was opened to lack of interest.

Regardless, I’m missing Haw Par Villa a lot. Even more so when realised how close it was by the company headquarters. A sense of yearning keeps coming back to me. The following months could possibly be the last time that I could visit it freely.

Hence, I asked a couple of blogger friends who might be interested in visiting and last Saturday, and eventually, we visited the amazing Haw Par Villa.

It was a rainy saturday morning. Fortunately, it did not last for too long and I was able to ride out and reached the Haw Par Villa Carpark safely.

After parking my scooter in the designated motorcycling parking area, just as I stepped on the entry steps, I saw Nicole, Chillycraps, Xizor and Endoh coming out of a taxi cab. Together, we walked up the hilly entrance where Mintea was already waiting.

Xizor is pointing to the disappearance of a large dragon

While passing through, it did not take too long for me to feel a deep sense of nostalgia. There were heaps of figures that I can remember from my childhood – it was as if I stepped back in time.

We stopped by the signature pool and Nicole decided to get some fish food to feed the fishes there while waiting for DK to arrive. I was amazed at how the group were intently looking at the pond animals – In the hustle and bustle of life, its been a while since I’ve seen anyone stop to admire nature’s work.

Normally seeing turtles swimming around brings me a sense of calm. But that day, it was really funny to see the turtles pushing each other to get to the food, while the fishes shyly swam underneath. And that was when we noticed something very mysterious swimming by. It was rather large and it had whiskers!

It was a catfish! I’ve never seen such a large catfish in real life before. I was enthralled when I spotted some. It was strangely captivating.

Feeding the fishes at Haw Par Villa from rinaz on Vimeo

After emptying the 2nd pack of fish food, finally DK arrived and together, we went to search for a sheltered area for picnicking. We stumbled upon a large and colourful sheltered area, and shortly after we played a couple of classic games such as Snap and this odd game called Indian Poker.

It was quite amusing for me to see the losers having to eat the lovely food from our pot-luck as punishment. When can it be punishment when you get to eat yummy food? Such as Mintea’s Curry Puff, Dk’s nuggets, Malique‘s Cupcakes, Nicole’s Chips and my Chiffon Cake. I loved it all!

But at one point of time, poor CC had to stuff himself with the food as he lost as much as 5 times in a row!

After stuffing ourselves silly, what better way than to ease the feeling with a little dancing 😀

Malique and CC being silly from rinaz on Vimeo

We then explored the area, where we saw the monuments that I can still remember from time back.

I remember posing by this very display when I was a little girl! In the background there is a flower vase with a human hand. Mintea thought that it was creepy. But I guess I’m used to it.

DK tells me that the guy in the middle is a priest and he was caught in the middle with some spider spirits disguising themselves as women. They believed that by eating his flesh, they will become immortal.

Personally, I thought that this diorama was strange as it was entitled ‘Gambling causes you to lose a life’ since the boy died from being careless at not looking at where he was going on the road rather than his father’s gambling habits.

And before we know it, it was already nearing the closing hours at Haw Par Villa already. Time really does pass by quickly when one is having fun. We took a group picture to remember and cherish our moments in the future 🙂

Taking a picture for memories from rinaz on Vimeo

I really enjoyed myself at the Haw Par Villa a lot. And I do hope that it’ll still be around for more years to come.

Have you been to Haw Par Villa? When was the last time that you went there? What did you think of it?

Links to other blog posts :

• DK
• Xizor

Sidenote : Shaun thinks that I am down to earth and thinks I’m a winner! *flattered!*

I was at Suntec City 2 Saturdays ago to visit the first ever Toy and Comic exhibition to be held in Singapore.

Unfortunately, I only knew about it last minute when I saw several of my friends plurking about it. By then, it was too late for me to be an early bird registrant and I missed my chance in getting a Happy Tree Friends goodie bag! Happy Tree Friends is a violent cartoon series, but the characters are undeniably cute 🙂

I met fellow blogger, ChillyCraps who was my fantastic plus one for the day. He patiently waited for me at the foyer and together we bravely swam through over the sea of humans who were already there. It was already crowded just 30 minutes after the event started.

It was really scary!

Nevertheless, it was all worth it because as soon as we entered through the doors, it was like being in another dimension altogether. Wonderful displays of toys were all over the place. CC and I instantly hyperventilated over the sheer awesomeness of it all!

The first thing that caught my eye was the Wii fit. Having already watched the viral video of the Wii fit girl, I was very curious to experience it for myself.

rinaz on the Wii Fit from chillycraps on Vimeo

Above is a short video CC took of me while I was trying out the Wii Fit. It was a very interesting experience and actually curiously fun! I was so tempted to get a set for myself, but a Wii unit with the tablet would cost about $900 altogether, a tad bit steep, I think.

Pretty soon, guess who I saw? It was Darth Vader roaming around the convention. And the interesting thing was that there were loads of people clamoring over him trying to get a picture session with him and his soldiers.

The picture is a little bit blur because CC and I had to be really quick before someone else pushed us away for their photo-op! I looked a little to happy even with Darth Vader seemed like he was about to chop my head off with his lightsabre 😛

CC then stumbled upon one of his favourite characters – Ultraman! The both of us, like most Singaporeans, grew up on ultraman! 🙂

We then explored around the different toy displays.

There was the wierd

Like the popular but creepy Blythe dolls. They might be cute to some, but with those type of eyes, its easy to imagine that they’ll come to life when you are sleeping and do bodily harm to you.

We were fortunate enough to see some of the artists at work. One of them was Mori Chack, famous for his Gloomy Bears as seen as in the pictures below.

Actually, I thought that those bears are kind of creepy with the blood stains on the mouth and claws. Its probably an acquired taste to get one of these, perhaps.

For some reason I was quite fascinated by these toys. Partly because they are gold perhaps, but also because they were sort of like transformers, but morph themselves as golden lighters instead of cars.

The cute

Here are a couple of Kubrick and Tofu dolls that CC and I were rather crazy about. It looked simple, just a rectangular head over a plastic body, but owners are able to do their own customizations by drawing over the head – which I thought was pretty cool 🙂

And these are rather cute too. Tofu dolls with them holding up their noses! They are smelly Tofu!

And before going to the Toy Convention, I’ve never heard of Monsterism before but I love these figurines very much! They are so kitsch and I love the retro design as well. The website looked pretty spiffy 🙂

And I love this giant plushie by dooodolls! The plushies are easily recognized by their boogly eyes. But I like this one specifically because it is big and smooshie! It feels just like cuddling Cartcart 🙂

The wonderful

I quite like this Homer Simpson action figure, spoofing Thor! The clerks must have had a sense of humor as they put Homer and Thor side by side!

There was also the very popular Tokidoki! Over here in Singapore, it is so famous that it has been inspired and even copied in many designs, especially bags and purses.

Unfortunately for me, that entire counter was extremely crowded! I could not even see what was on display. I could only see the heads of the clerks running around busily attending to their customers.

Regardless, I managed to capture these pictures. Aren’t they adorable?

There was also a booth which showcased some displays from many famous movie scenes. Can you recognize which movie these came from?

The old school

I was amazed to see Lau Fu Zhi being exhibited. Its’ so old school! I used to read these comic books a lot during my primary school days. Most of the cartoons were wordless which made it simple to understand 🙂

And who doesn’t know Astroboy? The famous robot boy who has graced our television and magazines since childhood 🙂

The interesting

While roaming around, we stumbled upon a kiosk and I noticed loads of bread. I called out to CC. “Look! There is even a refreshment stall here. Lets take a bite!”

It looked like bread. It smelled like bread. It even felt like bread to the touch. It was only when I squeezed it repeatedly and the bread did not disintegrate was when I realised that it was not true bread.

What cool stuff! I got one for myself, for the novelty factor. Besides, I could use it as a stress ball 🙂

These are stickfast. A popular Singaporean made toy. CC mentioned that he used to collect them before. And I thought that, it was very well done as well as affordable.

Then we explored though the other side of the convention where there were heaps of artists displaying their works.

One of them was this lady from C.D.S who is showing off her manga illustration. Looking through the portfolio, the works looked good enough to rival even commercial ones from Japan.

I also saw a digital artist doing a live demonstration of how he works, drawing on his tablet using Photoshop. This guy here was from ‘Imaginary Friends Studios’. I admired his skilful and deft touch.

Digital artist at work at the Toy & Comic convention from rinaz on Vimeo

I also saw a couple of wacom products which fascinated me. Having worked on a wacom tablet myself for my artwork, they can be quite useful. But drawing in such a small tablet can be quite cumbersome and I’ve always wished that they could integrate it to the monitor instead.

And thats when I saw this :

You can draw directly on the monitor itself! Very useful for a designer.

After spending about two hours in the convention, CC and I reluctantly left for our appointment. Regardless, I love the Toy Convention! Even with the amount of people there, in a claustrophobic environment. I enjoyed myself thoroughly 🙂

I didn’t get a Happy Tree Friends T-shirt in the end. But I guess posing with a display works too.

Links :

• CC’s blog post

If you enjoyed reading this entry, you might also enjoy

• Gundam seed cosplay meetup
• Mint Museum
• Museum of Shanghai Toys

P.S. After we left the convention, we saw Darth Vader queuing up for a bowl of noodles. I guess even a fearsome evil ruler like Darth Vader needs to eat.

Even Darth Vader needs to eat from rinaz on Vimeo