Love Singapore Sandals

Whatever you call them - sandals, jandals or flip flops - they still look great on your feet!

Love Singapore Flip Flops (Sandals)
Get a pair here.

Thoughts On Durian Wine

I was always brought up the belief that wine was "fruit of the vine", although clearly now it "grows on trees".  I can't really comment on the pros and cons of a good vintage, durian wine as I have yet to sample it.

Fruit wines though are hardly a new idea and I can't see why durian would be any different.  The British have a long tradition of making fruit wines and I remember as a youngster trying to make some out of plums (we had a tree at the time that was over-burdened with fruit).

Despite the fact of my mother gives me generous support the result was a syrupy mess that was completely undrinkable.  The pet dog was kennelled in the same shed and whined to get out - that's how bad the smell of the vintage actually was!

In New Zealand there is a South Canterbury company called Barkers and although they are today better known for their fruit jams, chutneys and syrups, it is fruit wine that made them a national icon.

Blackcurrants grow very well in Canterbury and it was this fruit that Barkers has been exploiting.  My grandparents who lived in Dyers Pass Road in the Port Hills of Christchurch had a large patch of blackcurrant bushes and I have fond memoires of fresh blackcurrant jam during my infrequent visits from the North Island.

So will the NUS graduates students who created durian wine no branch out and produce a mangosteen cuvee? One would hope they give it a try.

Cruising On

News that the Singapore's Marina Bay Cruise Centre has officially opened in good news.  As a person who has enjoyed several of the Star Cruises I well remember the problems the country faced a couple of years ago when they were unable to berth larger vessels.

Cruising is a multi-million dollar industry and having the capability with the new terminal to dock ships of up to 220,000 tons and measuring up to 360 meters in length, Singapore is well placed to build on its determination to be the cruising hub of South East Asia..

To me it is just another example of the nations 'can-do' attitude.  They don't spend years being bogged down by resource consents and bureaucratic red tape; they simply make a government determination to pursue a goal and get on with it!

 

$S500 million might seem like a huge sum of money but they will get a great return on this investment as as 'The Little Red Dot' cements itself as the home port for  several of the major cruise lines in this part of the world.

Related articles

• Official Opening of the Marina Bay Cruise Centre Singapore
• S'pore set to triple number of maiden ship calls this year: DPM Teo

A Bird In The Hand

Image from the Digital Nature Archive

When I worked at NUS on of my favourite lunch time activities was to eat at the Student Food Court on Lower Kent Ridge Road which was just across from the the then NUS Alumni office.

Walking in the other direction proved to be an equally enjoyable activity as it took me past the main administration block,en-route to the rather quirky Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, originally established in 1849 and relaunched in 1998. I wrote about this museum in an earlier article but in the intervening couple of years it has changed beyond all recognition.

The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research will soon morph into something quite spectacular and bear little resemblance to what it was previously, apart from retaining some wonderful natural history collections.

In two years time there will be a new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum built at a cost of some S$46 million. 800,000 Southeast Asian specimens will be housed there and three giant dinosaurs fossils. The latter should certainly pull in the punters. The new museum will be adjacent University Cultural Centre and NUS Museum.
For those of use with an interest in the flora and fauna of Singapore and its tropical neighbours the wait will be considerably shorter as the RMBR has launched the The Digital Nature Archive of Singapore.

This is a truly wonderful resource made available to serious researchers and the browsing public alike.
A site visitor is able to browse through a variety of multimedia and reference source materials: slides and print images, digital images, historical photographs from retired university professors, natural historians, experienced photographers, old local books, etc. video clips and sound clips.

The database makes good use of online technology including YouTube to host its videos. Here is an example; a caged Oriental Magpie Robin singing.

Related articles

• First natural history museum in Singapore unveiled!
• Private Lives: An Exposé of Singapore's Rainforests

Mapping Moments

I must mention the most comprehensive of Singapore's online maps.  OneMap is a great resource with a wide range of search filters

Showing cultural sites and museums in this example

It is a street map and also a land lot map. You can search a diverse range of data from traffic accidents to the latest house prices, from funeral parlours to recycling bins.

The themes filter even allowed me to identify bird watching spots, cultural sites and museums.  The wireless hot spots are identified and not surprisingly the majority of these feature in the tourist belt along Orchard Road. If you click your mouse on any of the icons then name of the establishment and provider is identified

This map is an absolute boon for any visitor to Singapore as well as for locals. Bookmark it today; I have.

Prints From The Past

Posters - Malacca ................................................................ Roger Smith  1982

I first travelled through South East Asia in the early 1980's and this print reflects and celebrates the exotic (to me) textures, sights, smells and sounds the enveloped me at that time.

The prints are scans of old 35mm transparencies which now only exist in this digital form.