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Published: August 22nd 2011
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Haven't updated here in a while, but will do my best to describe what I've been up to!
As always, things have been pretty busy, especially on the weekends. I'll start at this weekend just passed, as it's the freshest in my memory!
Had a pretty lazy day on Saturday, actually, but got around to going to the bank and opted to walk for a change. It's not all that far but because it's so bloody hot you tend to take your time! Ended up sorting out my internet banking, or at least signing up, and then headed back to have lunch at my usual spot at the hawkers. Much to the normal waitress' surprises I DIDN'T order a large Tiger beer and instead opted for a nice refreshing (homemade) ice lemon tea and got the fish and chips - there's a decent "western" stall at the food centre which also does things like pork chops, beans and chips, chicken cutlet and chips...things like that. They also do amazing black pepper chicken rice!
Headed home and played a few games before having like an hour's nap and then a shower as I was off to the Night Safari
with Ray and his girlfriend Rie (pronounced ree-ay), with whom I also did the Zoo and the Bird Park with. The Night Safari is in the same place as the Zoo and, surprise surprise, takes place at night!
We headed along around around 8ish and the whole place was buzzing with children and families - seems like one of the most popular attractions of the three. Anyway, the surroundings were all kind of tribal / African style and the entrance was basically a load of restaurants and bars.
The park is split into two bits - the walking trails and the tram rides (the safari itself). Seeing that the trams were jam-packed and the queues were massive, we decided to do some of the trails first. More or less there are dozens of animals as you walk around (some in outdoor enclosures, some in glass cages) - the trails are divided into things like, "The Leopard Trail" and things like that. We saw a lot of cats actually ...Clouded Leopards, Civits, some wild cats, and also things like Bush-Babies, a cute pair of otters who were squeaking and chirping at us for food, and also some pretty awesome
Hyenas who you could tell were just dying to eat one of us.
In case it wasn't clear by now by the way, this isn't anything at all like a real safari in SA!!!
Anyway, we went on to the tram ride next which was along a set path in the dark and we did manage to see some pretty cool animals - you see some of the stuff you already saw on the trails, but also things like Lions, Elephants, Bison and Hippos (up close they are absolutely MASSIVE!)....funnily enough when we went past the bull Elephant he actually stood right up close to the edge of his enclosure "shining" his massive white tusks!
After that we had our picture taken with a massive snake which was only $10 and they actually give you a free picture as well.
Anyway, we got a taxi back since the train took an absolute age to get to that part of Singapore, and I went to bed shortly after!
On Sunday we went to the STGCC with a few guys from work (Singapore Toys, Gaming and Comic Convention) which was held in one of the massive malls
in the centre of the city. It was absolutely amazing to see an event like this because things like comics, manga and that kind of thing are massive over here. It's also a massive opportunity for just ordinary people to dress up in some pretty cool stuff!
The whole convention was held in one big hall where all sorts of aspiring (and developed) comic and toy companies were based. Marvel, the comic company who wrote Captain America, Iron Man etc, also had a booth there which was pretty cool and I actually ended up buying an oldschool "Thor" comic which was $5...the collectors editions, to give you an idea, were about 4 digits!!
Anyway after the convention we went to eat some dinner and, as per usual, had something with noodles (char siu and pork belly!). Oh, also, I managed to collect my speakers which came as a gift with my Samsung 23" monitor and they're actually not all that bad!
Rushing back for the 7pm build up to the Grand Prix, I realised that it was in fact the three week holiday and there wasn't a Grand Prix in Belgium at all!
I don't remember
anything super amazing about the bird park except that it was seriously hot, sun blaring, and we saw (as you'd expect) hundreds and hundreds of birds! Like the Zoo, it's all set out in a big circular walk kind of thing and you see some pretty rare birds as you go round. Didn't notice that the Ostrich was actually quite so big, either! Will stick some photos up here as well for you guys to have a look at!
Apart from that, things have been going really well and I'm knuckling down pretty hard at work. Things have actually quietened down a lot but it comes in ebbs and flows! We just launched a couple of really awesome products at Gamescom, Germany, last week which is basically one of the world's biggest gaming conventions. To give you guys an idea, by the way, there's a new e-Sports game coming out which featured a $1,000,000 first place prize - yep, $1million USD! Pretty nuts. Concurrent spectators for the first matches was something like 2-3 million.
Anyway, that's it for now - no doubt this is looking more like a Deirdre update letter more and more, Grandpa!! I hope everyone is well and enjoying the rest of their summer. I'm told that, in Singapore, the only season here is summer. I guess I'm going to find that out pretty soon as we go into monsoon season!
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Anne
non-member comment
re-Grandpa
Grandpa had a good laugh about the Deirdre comment!