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Pic A
Pencil Fun Ooooh! I feel so embarassed! I haven't had a chance to write a new blog in two months. I do profusely apologise! Before I move onto the blog proper, here are the answers to Question 14 With this question comes the end of the point-scoring travelblog quiz because we have a clear, clear winner, Mr John R Odell!!
Check out his guesses for this question - John even went as far as building his own mini versions of the sculptures to get a better guess
Picture A - Pencil Fun - 9,800 Lego pieces - John's guess: 9,421 Picture B - Globe - 2,253 Lego pieces - John's guess: 2,500 Picture C - Doorway - 6,988 Lego pieces - John's guess: 6,935 Final scores are: John 30 points - Isabelle 19 points - Belinda 12 points - Colin 8 points - Sara and Laurie - 1 point each Well done Mr Odell! I owe you a dinner out when you next visit us in Singapore! Isabelle, I guess I owe you a dinner too because you were so very close in catching him but you have 2 kids so don't have the spare time to make Lego sculptures at the weekend. But ok John, we'll buy sparkling wine with Isa! ;-)
I will still carry on posting questions for those interested...!
When Colin was here in December, we also discovered the Southern Ridges walk - a stunning 3 hours-ish walk which stretches between Vivo City and Kent Ridge Park. Along the way, paths become bridges, bridges become roads, become parks, become canopy walks, become gardens and rain forests. It's a stunning place and generally extremely quiet + suitable for pushchairs. Each time we saw some wildlife, monkeys, lizards, geckos and stunning flowers. Recently one Sunday, we went back to Hort Park with the girls as we'd just walked through it last time without stopping. Hort Park is a destination in itself with a range of small gardens, veggie patches, playgrounds, a stream, winding paths. It's also a firm favourite for wedding shots*. * Allow me to move slightly off subject here. Around the City, and especially at tourist hot spots, areas of beauty, attractive buildings, parks, malls,etc...you can regularly see couples posing for wedding pictures. You can spot them a mile away as the couples are usually accompanied by an Pic B
Globe over-enthusiastic photographer, friends to assist and dozens of props, outfits, hats too. So far, I've seen couples outside MBS, at Hort Park, outside the Singapore museum, at Orchard Central mall, in the Botanic Gardens, and more. When booking a photographer for their big day, couples are offered packages varrying in cost according to how many locations you shoot at. So one bride I met outside the museum last month was baking in her full wedding dress in the midday heat of a June day and yet her wedding isn't until September. Her photogaphy package includes shooting at 6 locations of their choice. Another couple at Hort Park were wearing outfits a la Tom Sawyer, complete with straw hats and were posing in a variety of positions. Other props near them included heart shaped balloons... lovely!
Another place we've taken Colin, Maman and John too has been the City Gallery on Maxwell Road, Chinatown. This gallery houses 2 x 11m models of Singapore. The first you come to on level 1 represents the whole island, with all the buildings represented. The second is a close-up of central parts of Singapore, the CBD, Orchard Rd, Marina Bay. Alongside the models, visitors can find out about Singapore modernisation over the years and its future urban planning. When we were there with maman and Gaspard, we met a chap equiped with "mini-wooden buildings", double-sided tape and a map, whose job it is to go replace the buildings on the model. He was explaining that there are a only a few spots where to sit to fix/update the model. Very precise work.
With maman, we went back for a stroll to the beautiful Bukit Brown Cemetary. All these places, I've mentioned in detail in previous blogs. Here, I'm only hilighting our favourite places so far. Maman was keen to get some ideas for papa's tomb back in France and boy did it pay off! She and Nicholas, my cousin, came up with a very appropriate design which he carved in white stone. Those familiar with Chinese cemetaries will recognise the shape. See pics below. When John was here, we went to the Pinnacle@Duxton, the first 50-storey HDB (Housing Development Board) or (High Density Bivouac!!!). It houses 1,848 appartments in 7 towering blocks and sits on the site of the first ever HDBs in Singapore. It's also the first building in the Pic C
Doorway world with 2 skybridges on the 26th and 50th floor linking the 7 towers and thus creating the longest continuous skygardens in the world. Oh these Singaporeans, they do like to compete!!!
The 50th floor skybridge is open to the public but subject to a quota of 200 people per day. One can check the website in advance of going to see how many people have been up there that day. For today for example, no one has been up there. :-) The cost is $5 pp which you pay on site before taking the lift. The view from up there is a little surreal as it's baking hot and it's not the most interesting part of town. Yet I still think it's worth a visit.
On our way to Pinnacle@Duxton, I witnessed the sad end to the Chinese New Year yellow lantern snake in Chinatown...see pics. I promise another blog soon. We've done lots since May, just not sure where the time is going. Bye for now. Delphine TravelBlog:
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