Wednesday in the Park with the Birds

Exams ended for me yesterday (or technically, the day before yesterday) - not much to say about it really save for that there appeared to be some kind of consensus among the class that the compulsory question was quite one kind, for anything else we'll just wait for the boxing day present from nus...

I'm still in pgp though, at least up till friday, cos i've amassed quite a bit of stuff over here over the past two months or so and i'll need transport to bring it all back, and the folks have been away as of late - which has complicated overall happenings at home but anyways...

Yup so to that end i was looking forward to today, cos, armed with my zoo card that costs a bomb but i've not used ever, i was sorta intending to take a random trip up to Mandai and perhaps cover both the zoo and the night safari at one shot.

As they always say, however, the best laid plans of man can go wrong, and to that end it just had to be today when the rain came and lasted practically throughout the day up till early evening. I wouldn't actually have minded still going there, just that i think the animals would probably be less keen on the constant rainfall than i am.

So instead, and so as not to totally waste the day just lounging in my room, i decided to take a looong walk over to Kent Ridge Park, just cos i've not been there in a while - and so off i went on a methinks 45 minute trek in the pouring rain (i made an exception to my general lack of enthusiasm for umbrellas even in the pouring rain simply cos it was such a long walk) and then got there and just soaked it all in (the scenery, as well as the water into my sandals and berms). One thing that cracked me up was some of the anti-poaching/fishing signs that i encountered there:



While there, i chanced upon an info board that listed some of the bird species that one might encounter in the park - but as it was pouring unceasingly at the time i didn't think that i'd actually be able to spot any of them. One bird listed though, did catch my attention, the White-crested Laughingthrush, which inspite of my semi-familiarity with local bird species, i'd not paid much attention to before.

So then on my way back i decided to use the science park route, and just as i was going down the steps towards there, i heard this noisy group of birds in the trees above me (they must have been unsettled by my sudden appearance cos i was like one of ten or less people in the whole park, as far as i could count) - it was a call unfamiliar to me - and it sounded strangely like laughter. Then i looked up and after a couple of seconds, i spotted them - a group of at least six or seven White-crested Laughingthrushes =) Unfotunately i did not get a shot of them, but i must say, as geeky as it sounds, that spotting them made my whole rain-soaked trek to the park more than worth it.

I dunno if these were clouds but if they were, they sure were low...

vaguely voyeuristic

In the mood for some randomness so...

About two weeks ago went together with Clem, SJ and Weichang to Astons, where we had a real good meal. Here's a more-than-decent New York Strip with house salad and coleslaw, all for just $13.80.


What was a bit intriguing about the meal is that we did not head over to near my old place in Katong to have dinner, but rather we went to, of all places, pgp... Yup Astons has just opened an express outlet in the pgp food court, which is really quite an unlikely place for so atas an establishment wouldn't you say? But well business appears to be good for them, even though from my observation the prices are no cheaper than they are at Katong. But well, the prices are really reasonable given the quality anyways, so no complaints there. One other good thing is that while the ambience is hardly as good as that in Katong, at least one doesn't have to wait in line for at least half-an-hour outside the restaurant inhaling car exhaust to even get seated. I suspect that a good proportion of their clientele comes from western exchange students who are hard-pressed to find more authentic so-called 'western' food close enough to nus than that at Astons...

Anyways, yours truly is looking for excuses to go there again so if anyone is ever in school with a somewhat padded wallet and in the mood for a good steak/burger etc just buzz me heh...

In other news, it was a little sad to hear of Martina Hingis' abrupt second retirement from pro tennis under a cloud of suspicion, especially when it involves something like cocaine of all things. Well drugs aside, it's a pity that such an impressive career had to end in such a manner... Women's tennis is nowadays chockfull of hard-hitting banshees in the general mode of Maria "make every shot a power shot" Sharapova, and Hingis' clever and nuanced way of playing flies in the face of all that. Even though Hingis used to be a bit of a brat when she was playing long ago, since she returned to the sport all that's by and large gone, and she'd become one of my more favorite players. And with Anastasia Myskina also out of commission for now, it's hard to find another top-tier female player in that mould... Ah heck, i reckon most people reading this wouldn't have a clue what i'm rambling on about... Heh.

I was wandering around Cold Storage yesterday when i came across this - Saffron - the world's most expensive spice. One gram of the stuff retailing at $11.01. Fwah. But in any case, you must admit, the packaging is such a clear example of excess - the stuff is so expensive that i suppose it has to be well-showcased... I don't see what's the big deal about saffron though, all it does is add a nice orange-y color, i don't taste any difference when it's added to food...


After that, and while killing time before heading to law for some thingy, i took a brief walk around the botanics, and chanced upon the Wildlife Stampede thingy that was going on - to spread the conservation message, something close to my heart as well. While there was a really long line of people who took part, definitely more than half of them were ang mohs, and even many of the Asians who i saw were from SAS. Sadly, i don't think most S'poreans could care two hoots about conservation. While S'pore doesn't really have a lot left to conserve, it doesn't mean we should not bother to do anything at all... The recent motorcross thingy that they agreed to open in Kranji or somewhere in the general northwestern direction at the expense of an important site for local birdlife, and @#$% golf courses that take up lots of space, destroy valuable habitat, and are by and large catered to the elite do so annoy me...

Oh, but anyways, i've digressed. My point in mentioning this was that i managed to catch sight and take a distant picture of Dame Jane Goodall. Cheap thrill, but ah well...

And in keeping in the spirit of boliaoness, she's probably about the fourth most famous person i've ever sneakily taken a picture of, after John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, and Chris Matthews (Well actually, if you're not American, you'd probably not have heard of these three people, but conversely, i reckon that most Americans have no idea who's Jane Goodall but will know who the other three are, in descending order...)

In other news, the Tar Heels are #1 - woo! Go heels!