ja'mata ne!
I'll be out of town for two weeks. Am off on a little holiday with my family to Hokkaido and Tokyo (1
st time to the former and the
nth time to the latter)... gotta brush up my Japanese. It's hardly of conversational standard. They say it's beautiful in Hokkaido... it's the least-developed of Japan's four main islands, and there are vast natural and scenic areas; I've got my camera and gear all sorted out. Mom thinks I'm crazy, bringing my 'big camera' along, but there's no way I'll leave my baby behind. Oh, my tripod too.
Still have a couple of things I need to do over the internet. Hope I get 'net access there... 'else I'm kinda toast.
Take care folks, see'ya.
London's been hit again by
four explosions; one injured, and authorities think it's a repetition of the attacks from two weeks back. My parents asked if it would be at all possible for me to postpone my studies for a year. I scoffed. I appreciate their concern, and I'm a tad anxious myself, but I don't think a year or two would make any difference to the probability of terrorist attacks occurring. The world is no longer safe, the UK's not safe, and neither would Singapore be any safer, in this year or the next.
In other news, wetland birds in the UK have been
hit hard by drought - numbers of some waders have dropped by 80% in the south-east due to water shortages rainfall and climate change. The lack of water efficiency in homes is taking its toll on poor hapless birds.
The only decent shot taken at the Night Safari:
Fishing catThey've got a new Creatures of the Night Show, which was quite entertaining. It's just annoying when people never listen or read and they flash their cameras like there's a celebrity on stage. The poor presenter, he had to repeat the announcement so many times. "Please do not use the flashes on your camera..." and still nobody listens. It's not only distracting for the animals, it irritates other visitors as well.
Everywhere I go, there're crowds. Big mobs. Tourists, pah. Didn't take the tram; we walked the trails. Otters are oh-so-cute!
Went to collect my new pair of specs today. Mom says I look like a four-eyed geek. *shrugs*
Got my results. So overall - I didn't make it for one of the January papers, but I'm extremely pleased with my June papers' grades. Resource Management leads the way; Ecology and Parasitism are close behind.
There was a
free movie screening on Monday night at Cineleisure about the mystery of the German girl on Ubin. We were planning to go to the Night Safari, but with the dampness of the night, decided to do something indoors instead. Also shown at the screening was
Project Peter, also brought to us by Arts Central in their
Stage to Screen series.
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Yesterday, rain or shine (it turned out to be the former), we went down to Sentosa. For SingSoc's Sojourn orientation camp, I have been waddling down to that little touristy island every year. Nothing there interests me anymore... it's become a boring place, more or less. But well... Londoners Xi and Wink *are* afterall, visitors to Singapore, and the feeling goes that no tourist's trip would be complete without a day spent at Sentosa. So... it was the Butterfly and Insect Kingdom and Underwater World, and a bit of the beach and sunset.
Pics from the Underwater World:
Swirls of Fish
Curiosity
Jellyfish
Ps. Oh and yeah, the cable car service has been suspended and there's no more monorail at Sentosa; it's gonna be replaced by the 'Sentosa Express' in 2006.
Whenever my mom lets out a shrill yell or a scream, I'll know that there's something... some creature... in the house. A few days ago, it was this insect on the living room curtains. From afar, I thought it was a wasp at first (since we get plenty of those parasitic wasps around, carrying their victimised paralysed caterpillars into our rooms) but closer observation revealed it to be a winged ant. Quite a big one at that, too. A queen, travelling around to found a new colony? I might have studied a lot about eusocial insects and answered exam questions on them, but when it comes to actually identifying one irl, I must admit I need practice.
Alate hymenoptera
(Alate: a fancy scientific-ish term referring to 'winged' insects.
Hymenoptera: the order of insects which includes ants, wasps and bees)
That's one good thing about Singapore being small - you bump into people. Ran into my secondary school literature teacher at Wisma the last time, my form teacher at Heeren, Eugene again more recently at the Heeren, and the best of all - my primary school best mate Denise at Suntec yesterday. She - and her mom - was going out of the shop just as I came out of the changing rooms, and after staring after the two familiar figures for a while I shouted to my dad and ran off after them. What a surprise... I got so excited, I was shaking and sweating. What were the chances man! She looks about the same, and her mom too. Jane was wondering what all the fuss was about. Haha, I don't blame her; she was still 'baby Jane' then. So happy... lol... am so happy... we meet again after 8 years...
Scorpions in Singapore aren't that well documented. They aren't seen too often, but they are around. Heck, this was my first sighting of a non-captive or non-dead scorpion. I'm not a forest person... forest birds and invertebrates aren't my speciality. I'm not sure how frequently naturalists get to see scorpions in Singapore, but I'm quite sure when they see one, it's not in the middle of nowhere on a cemented gravel ground. It was raining when we were at the Botanic Gardens; I had kept all my gear and was just intent on getting to the gate, and Wink, in the calmest of tones and most expressionless of voices, said, "Scorpion".
Huh? Was it a question, a poster somewhere, a toy... or one of the souvenirs we saw in the Orchid Garden shop? I looked at him, and he pointed to the ground near my foot. I saw the black metallic thing near my foot and went bonkers. Took out my camera and started shooting for all it was worth. It *was* a scorpion to boot!
Black scorpion
I don't know... it's hard to say if Jay Chou can act. His character in
Initial D suits him too well - coolly indifferent, a man with little to say and little to express. It seemed like the movie was all about him. Bah, wished Edison Chen and Shawn Yue had more screen time... it was 90% Jay material. Anthony Wong and Kenny Bee, both vets in the industry, lent some weight to what was otherwise a young punky cast. Overall, anyway, another impressive movie (though the artistic direction was a bit too eccentric for my likes) by the people who brought us my all-time fav,
Infernal Affairs.
The bridge of my specs broke yesterday, so I had to order a new pair. I do have a spare, but the degree of my right eye has increased by 25 over the last three years (considering I've been facing the laptop almost every single day, sometimes for 10+hrs esp during those WoW crazed days, that's... erm... not too bad).
The rain sucks; it's been raining frequently... and July's supposed to be the driest month of the year. Rain means indoors... wanted to go Ubin, wanted to bike, wanted to go to the Botanics (safest choice for wet days), but heavy rain forced us to pace around at home, reading books or lazing on the bed, or linger in shopping malls and cinemas (today was
Fantastic Four <- nb, nb, 'twas quite funny actually).
Was going through some old photos today - those taken with my old, old Canon compact or Minolta SLR - and found some really interesting ones. Like a mutant two-headed caterpillar (they're actually joined at the waist; both ends have three pairs of true legs and an identical head) found in Buloh, a raptor chasing crows, a Common mynah which flew into my room and rested on the shower railings, suckling hamster pups, Changeable lizards moulting and some others. Shall scan them in when I have the time.
Time to pick up from where I left. Driving lessons restart for me; gonna hit the roads tomorrow... dunno if I still remember all the procedures and whatnot. Manual is such a chore... all the gear changes and stuff.
Here's something which has long been due. This current breakout of the Uraniid Swallowtail moth can be considered to be the 'second wave' (more about the moth on
Habitatnews).
Lyssa zampa has been sighted all over Singapore, from forests to the heart of the city. I've seen quite a lot of them at my apartment carpark, a few at Buloh, at Bukit Timah, and one on the shores during the Changi intertidal trip. It's the second biggest moth in Singapore, the biggest being the Atlas moth. They may look huge and menacing, but they're gentle giants. They flutter and float about softly - none of the startling zigzag movements of, say, Hawkmoths. Still wondering why there're so many of them about recently. Some say it's 'cos of the flower bloom etc etc during this monsoon season, or it could be attributed to a decline in moth predation. I'm wondering if it could be migratory as well, since members of its family have been observed to mass migrate.
Lyssa zampa (Locations sighted - clockwise from top-left:
Sungei Buloh, Orchard, Orchard, Bukit Timah)If anyone has seen this moth around, please do let me know. Where/when, how many, and if possible any other notes about its behaviour or appearance. It'll be much appreciated. ;)
Singapore's tallest hill
Bukit Timah summit, at a height of a mere 163m. Still, 'scaling' something is always exciting. The last time I went to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve was more than six years ago, with my churchmates. Then, we didn't reach the top but circled around the lower paths. And, then, I wasn't this into nature yet... not really. ThiHa and Jeanne joined in the fun (needless to say, whatever I do nowadays includes Xi and Wink; shame on Marv for being such a poor host) and we had a great time. A great diversity of invertebrate life... drongoes... other forest birds, and Clouded monitors. Saw some weird-looking caterpillar, and I've absolutely no idea to what family it belongs. The sighting of the Spiny hill terrapin was a treat, and the calls and presence of the Hill mynahs and the spread of the canopy below made you feel as though you were at a great elevation indeed. There was an adorable juvenile-ish Green crested lizard, a very tame one, and ThiHa and I managed to play a while with it. While it is relatively easy to grab a
Changeable lizard (an introduced, more robust species, it has displaced the once-common native Green crested) and observe it up-close in the hand, such an encounter with the Green crested from the wild is almost a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Some hairy caterpillar
Giant forest ant
Green crested lizard
Green crested lizard on my arm
When I conduct guided tours I usually prefer family or corporate groups. School groups aren't my first choice, but that depends. Primary kids are good for entertainment and company - they ask the funniest and most interesting questions. They pay attention. Generally-speaking, secondary school students tend to complain the most. And families... well, I get to approach them on a much more personal, and enjoyable level. Today I took on a school group - Alex's 'kids' the Victorian scouts. Not too bad. But there were just too many people in the morn... too many groups... too little things to see. Did R1 and the MB. Went to KNT after lunch with Xi and Wink... and spent... say... almost 2 hours stuck around the second bridge photographing weaver ants building a nest and the circling swallows. Sightings of the day - Smooth otters, and the Common flameback and Sunda woodpeckers.
Weaver ants farming mealy bugs
Pacific swallow taking off
Pacific swallow landing sequencesAt night it was dinner at Boat Quay... being a little out of touch with the local news recently, I failed to realise that they were holding the NDP preview tonight. There were roadblocks and police checks and MPs patrolling about the place, so we were wondering... :P We were lucky. We got to see the fireworks from across the Singapore River.
Muy bien!
The view of Singapore CBD from the Esplanade (after we had dinner with Marv last night)
NDP preview fireworks from Boat Quay
Fireworks over the Padang
The London blasts
It is perhaps an extremely easy thing to do... penetrating London's transports and blowing things up, to use simple words and if 'penetrate' is even an accurate term. London's history is full of blasts and simliar attacks, right back to WWII. Recent ones included the bombing during the General Elections in 1992, a micro-nuke megablast in the following year, mostly believed to be the work of the Real IRA, a dissident republican group. As were the blasts at Shepherd's Bush, M16's HQ and Hammersmith Bridge in 2000 and 2001.
The timing raises questions, no doubt. Right when the G8 summit is taking place - when all eyes and ears are on them and poverty and climate change and such - and all the world leaders are assembled... then this has to happen... what is this supposed to accomplish? And to come a day after London has won the 2012 Olympics bid... what a cruel blessing.
Right now the death toll is at 37-54 (conflicting reports from different sources) and around 700 injured. It's a tragedy, but it could easily have been so much worse. We're all scared now... those of us who are in London, been in London, or know that we have to return to London... this is a stark reminder that terrorism is much closer to us than what most of us would like to believe. How can we ever prepare ourselves for this sort of thing?
Intertidal trips: Changi
Some shots from this morning's (0430-7000hrs) adventure. It's just a walk along the shores but intertidal explorations are always an adventure. Xi and Wink came along as well, it was all quite fun. British shores, even those of the Channel Islands, can't compare. w00t... I simply love this! :)
Lots of ghost crabs, moon crabs, flower crabs, hermit crabs, moon snails, pipefishes, snapping shrimps, jarbuas, flatheads, nudibranchs, sea stars, brittle stars, and worms of sorts. My parents question the sanity of heading out at such ungodly hours to see these little creatures; why can't we just visit an aquarium instead?
They don't know... they don't understand the thrill and joy of the
wild.
Armina nudibranch
Black eel-tail catfish
Kite butterflyfish
Ghost crab
Pictures from yesterday at Sungei Buloh with Xi and Wink, have been bringing them around and introducing them to the mozzies; sightings of note were the otters... that's about it. Been rather quite these days, so Uncle Tay says.
Smooth otter
Female Copper-throated sunbird
Female Copper-throated sunbird
Dollarbird
The routine's establishing itself as a trip to the cinemas once every three days. Today was
Batman Begins (imho the best Batman movie made to date; Christian Bale's still as good as he was in his childhood acting days, and Liam Neeson, though a villian, is still as charismatic. Did anyone think of his script here as kinda Jedi-ish? And the story flows and effects were top notch) after meeting up with ZF for lunch at Wheelock's Fish & Co. New cafes and restaurants are springing up around the place - no more Nooch, but now there's Fish & Co. and The Simple Life and some Jap restaurant opening upstairs in Aug. Over at Shaw, there's no more KFC in the basement but there'll be a ramen place. Pasta Fresca's gone, replaced by a Dome cafe.
Initial D's next on the list.
In my literary exploits it's skipping between hardcore scientific texts, Gould's reflections in natural history, Wallace's
The Malay Archipelago, Lande's
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations and on a simliar front Diamond's
Guns, Germs and Steel, and some good 'ole Terry Pratchett.
I broke my curfew record. :P Came home at 12.30am on Thurs night after dinner and supper with the NUS gang + Viv. Tried out a gourmet delicafe at Bukit Timah -
Corduroy & Finch - great ambience, but the food for its price wasn't really worth it. It's one of those places where you'd only go once or twice.
Yesterday - JBP. The last time I went to
Jurong Bird Park was... ages ago. Usually the only occasions for which I go all touristy is when people visit. My cousins have long gotten bored of the usual attractions, so it's been a long while.
Having Jane tagging along isn't as bad when Xi and Wink are around. The last time I took my sis for a visit to the Science Centre, Thiha was there and after he'd seen how fierce I could get with her, he joked that I was a scary person. All went well today, Jane was fine, better than before, and she'd had her picture taken with the macaws and won a photoshoot with an owl.
Went to watch
War of the Worlds. IMHO one of Spielberg's worse movies. The ending might be a consolation to biologists but there were many times throughout the movie where one can't help but go "wtf?". Superb acting by the young Dakota Fanning but Tom Cruise is just there to look good. Some blaring plot holes. Might have a read through H.G. Wells' novel before I comment further on the plot.
Anyway, pics from yesterday are up in the gallery. Also added more pics from London; various albums updated.
