… continued from Part 1.

I quickly moved on from the Car Park Garden towards the section of the park known as Flora Fancy, where there are various display plots that showcase various garden designs, concepts, products and home gardening ideas. Among those on display were some playground setups, a scarecrow garden and an orchid garden. Interesting.

As I trudged along in the heat towards the Glasshouse Complex, I passed by the Tree Garden. Nothing too interesting to me, except for a unique looking piece of log. The Golden Garden looked quite cheery with its brilliant sea of yellow, but I only stopped for 1 quick “photo op“.

And here we are, the climax of my HortPark experience, the Glasshouse Complex. As the write-up describes, this complex consists of a collection of large and small glasshouses that are designed to simulate different growing conditions (temperature, humidity, etc) of different climates and geographical regions. Contained within the complex was a plethora of various species of flowers and shrubs. The interior of the glasshouses was not accessible to members of the public, so I could only take pictures from outside, through the glass. Since it was a bright and sunny day, reflections were aplenty. Hence if you spot a green shadow “lurking” among the flowers, it’s probably my reflection.

Not only was there a breathtaking variety of beautiful flowers in the glasshouses, there were also beautiful flowers in the outdoor compounds of the complex.

After almost half an hour, I finally managed to tear myself away from the beautiful flowers in the Glasshouse Complex, and started making my way back to the Visitor Center. Along the way I passed by some interesting topiary. There were 2 pairs of dragon topiary, a tiger topiary and a pair of Merlion topiary. I think there was a chicken topiary too, but I didn’t take a photo of that.

I also passed by the Herb & Spice Garden as well as the Bamboo Labyrinth. I stopped for a couple of quick shots.

On my way back to the Visitor Center, I also passed by the Silver Garden, which features a collection of silver, grey and white hued plants set against a backdrop of green dominated landscape. I appreciated the serenity this section of the park offered. Despite all the greyness, I still managed to find bits of color hiding in little corners, and I marveled at the genius of the Creator, and the creativity of the landscape designer.

Finally back at the Visitor Center, I stopped for a breather and a quick drink. Before long, I picked myself up and made my way out of HortPark and towards my next destination, the Forest Walk. The Forest Walk consists of an Elevated Walkway and an Earth Trail. Originally, I wanted to try the Elevated Walkway, but it was a little too elevated for my comfort. (Have I ever mentioned that I’m afraid of heights?) I only managed to cover probably 1% of the entire distance, before I quickly (and carefully) scampered down one of the exit stairways (complete with cold sweat and shaking legs, no doubt). The Earth Trail is quite rugged and seemed rather deserted since most of the visitors chose to take the Elevated Walkway, so I give up on taking the Forest Walk. However, I did venture back up on the Elevated Walkway via another entrance where the height of the walkway didn’t seem so intimidating. I spotted a pair of monkeys, probably mother and child, but they ran off before I could even whip out my camera phone. Ultimately, I had to end my Forest Walk midway as it was already getting late, and I didn’t want to risk getting stuck in the forest alone. I did take some pictures, just so that I can tell my friends “yup, been there, done that“. Maybe if I can find someone to accompany me in future, I’ll try to complete the Forest Walk.

There are still other attractions on the Southern Ridges, which HortPark, Alexandra Arch and Forest Walk are a part of. I definitely will find time to visit  the other attractions when I get a chance to. And you’ll definitely updated when I do. Meanwhile, for more photos of my little date with nature, as well as my other photos, please visit the Photos page on this blog.

This comes a little late, but since it was the beginning of the new year, there was a pile of work sitting on my desk, waiting to be cleared. As this post comes with photos, I had to spend a little more time than usual to select and arrange the contents, so please forgive me. The entire post is a little long, so I’m going to break it up into parts. Here’s the first part, while I continue working on completing the rest.

I was given the afternoon from work on New Year’s Eve. Rather than join the crowd who have gathered for the various countdown activities in and around town, I decided visit HortPark, the up-and-coming gardening hub in Singapore, which happens to be just 3 bus-stops away from my office.

It was a bright and sunny day, perfect for taking a walk in the park and taking pictures. Although it threatened to rain a couple of times while I was in HortPark, eventually the weather turned out fine. Armed with my camera phone, some maps and a bottle of water, I happily hopped on the bus that brought me to the footsteps of Alexandra Arch, the uniquely architectured bridge that links the HortPark and the Forest Walk. My journey begins here.

I crossed the leaf-shaped structure and arrived at the entrance of HortPark and started my trail through Floral Walk. I was greeted by a variety of flowers, shrubs and trees. Some of them are quite commonly seen along the roadside, some are more rare. Apparently, not all of them were in bloom, which was quite unfortunate, but it was still a beautiful sight nonetheless.

After a short walk, I soon reached the Visitor Center of HortPark. It was obviously decorated for the festive season. I didn’t stay here for too long since I wanted to quickly visit the other attractions in the park. Just outside of the Visitor Center is the the Water Garden, a beautiful pond with an interesting collection of aquatic plants potted in specially designed geometric-shaped containers. Oh, and did I mention there was FISH in the pond? Cool!

Beyond the Water Garden was the Car Park Garden. Imagine parking your car in a garden filled with various beautiful flowers and trees. Thankfully the car park was pretty much empty, so I could easily snap snap snap with my trusty SE K800i, without causing too much inconvenience to the car park users.

to be continued…

I’ll like to say a big THANK YOU to Leo Severino for dropping me a note of thanks for mentioning and recommending his old podcast in one of my previous posts. For the uninitiated, Leo is the producer of the beautiful film, Bella. It really made my day, Leo!

I’ll also like to say sorry for being on hiatus for so long. Work has really been piling up as we’re starting on a new project and our team is pretty short-handed. It’s also the year-end peak season for program updates, enquiries, bugs, etc. So there’s hardly any chances to prepare a decently-length post.

Please be assured that I will be back. I may not be doing a “full-length” post anytime soon, but I will try to find time for it. Meanwhile, I’ll try to drop a couple of short posts to let y’all know that I’m still pretty much alive and kicking.

Yup, this kitty is finally on Google Wave!

“Wave” me at nekogal [at] googlewave [dot] com !

It is now 2 days after the much anticipated Apple event of 09/09/09, and even though I’ve already found out what I needed to know via various tech blogs, tech podcasts and Twitter, I finally got to sit down and watch the keynote speech where Steve Jobs reappeared to a crowd who welcomed him with a standing ovation. Although not an Apple user myself, I was looking forward to the announcement of (much speculated) new features on the iPod Touch. I must admit, I was kinda disappointed at the outcome.

Sure, the addition of a video camera, a voice recorder, a pedometer AND an FM receiver (finally) to the iPod Nano IS exhilarating indeed. The colors and the polished anodized aluminum finish are BEAUTIFUL! All that goodness at an even lower cost is definitely most welcomed. The return of color to the world of iPod Shuffle is a big relief. The stainless steel version is SHINY, but that just about it (duh?). But where are all the changes that almost everybody prophesied about the iPod Touch?

I wasn’t wanting any cameras, nor anything particularly shiny or lofty, but I was secretly wishing for Apple to add 3G capabilities to the Touch to make it a more all-rounded internet device (for me at least). In the very least, I was hoping for slightly more dramatic changes to make the 3rd generation Touch more viable. I’d say that Apple was rather tame this time, to the point that it was a slight let down. Still, the drop in prices despite the increase in capacity still deserves credit.

I had originally wanted to get myself an 8GB 3rd generation Touch that would hopefully have all the wonderful new features that everyone was raving speculating about at a MUCH reduced price. What Apple has now is just an 8GB 2nd generation Touch with nothing new about it except the updated OS and the slightly reduced price of S$308, a reduction of S$80. I don’t think I’ll be running into an Apple store just yet. With the hardware improvements only available for the 32GB and 64GB models, I’m now deciding between getting a 32GB 3rd generation Touch (S$468), where I can finally house all of my music collection on a single device, and hopefully getting a Windows 7 netbook at less than S$600. The final decision will probably surface early next year.

Thankfully, iTunes 9 saved the day, despite all the disappointment and anti-climax I felt regarding the iPod Touch. I gleefully updated both the work PC and the home laptop. The new iTunes Store is fantastic! I love the way things are organized and how easy it is to navigate now. The iTunes LP feature looks great too, even if I don’t normally buy my music from the iTunes Store. The new “Show all available episodes” and “Copy Podcast URL” options are much welcomed. My only gripe is.. why can’t I do a “Update Podcast” if the feed doesn’t contain any episodes? The only options are “Show Description” and “Delete“. I used to be able to do that in the previous versions. Come on Apple! Do something! Please?!?