BTPS Fun Day and Open House 2007

Date: Saturday, 28 July 2007
Location: Bukit Timah Primary School, Lorong Kismis, Singapore

Last Saturday morning, I took the kids to Bukit Timah Primary School (BTPS), which is Inka's school and Irza's future school as well, since we have also registered Irza onto the same school as well, during the phase 1 of the registration exercise.

We went there to attend school's Fun Day and Open House 2007. There are lots of activities which the kids can participate in, including many types of games (provided by the students for the students).

To play the games, we would need to use coupons which were being sold for 20 cents per coupon. Some games only require one coupon, some others require two or three coupons. Best of all, there are prizes given to the kids depends on the result of the games being played.

Bukit Merah Playground

Date: Sunday, 22 July 2007
Location: A children playground located in front of Block 2 Jalan Bukit Merah

While waiting for my wife to shop at IKEA on Alexandra Road (it's annual clearance sale in IKEA now until 12 August 2007, by the way), I took Inka and Irza to a children playground, located in front of Block 2 Jalan Bukit Merah, between the former SAFRA Bukit Merah clubhouse and the ABC market and food centre.

The playground is quite nice, and I remember that this playground was just built recently after the whole block and some other blocks nearby were undergoing major renovation. Inka and Irza were having a great time playing there.

The only one disturbing sight there is stagnant water, most probably as a result of drops of rain, smacked in the middle of the playground. With many cases of dengue reported all over Singapore, such sight is a bit worrying since if I'm not mistaken, the stagnant water can be a nice breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Wondering what would the NEA say about this?

Suntec City

Date: 15 and 21 July 2007
Location: Suntec City Mall, Singapore

Various photos taken at Suntec City Mall, Singapore.

Tante Shinta's Housewarming Party

Date: Saturday, 14 July 2006
Location: Shinta and Wisnu's residence, Sengkang, Singapore

Last Saturday (14/7), after dropping by at Tante Hany's place at Braddell to get a pot and some soil for Inka to plant her sunflower seeds she bought at school (as well as some pisang molen to be fried at home), we went to Tante Shinta and Om Wisnu's new residence at Sengkang for a small housewarming party.

At Tante Shinta's house, we met Om Jan and Tante Damar, who came with Arya and Falin, and Tante Luki, who came with Nadira and Adam. Moments later, Om Emil and Nonong also came with all their four children, Marsya, Fazil, Naira and Fauzan.

The kids are having a great time playing at a playground nearby. Unfortunately, Irza didn't mingle well with his friends, while on the other hand, Inka was playing with all the friends, causing Irza to be a bit left out. But overall, the kids really had a great time.

Umbrella Vending Machine

I have seen many vending machines throughout Singapore dispensing drinks and snacks. But this is the first time I saw a vending machine dispensing umbrellas. The vending machine is located at the first floor of IMM Building at Jurong East, just in front of Burger King fast food restaurant.

I believe this is a great business idea, especially in Singapore where the weather can be so unpredictable. One time it can be so hot, and one or two hours later, it can just suddenly rain heavily. Sometimes it can be difficult for some people (including myself) to get an umbrella when we need one. Either we forget to bring one, or too lazy to bring one.

The price of the umbrella itself is, surprisingly, quite cheap, for Singapore standard. Only S$6 per umbrella. I haven't managed to buy one so I don't know how's the quality of the umbrella, but the vendor's website claimed that it's a mini 3-fold high quality umbrella, framed by lightweight aluminum alloy, which also has ultra-violet ray protection as well.

Not too sure whether we also have this kind of vending machines in Jakarta or any other parts of Indonesia. Has anyone seen one? :)

DHL Balloon

Date: Sunday, 8 July 2007
Location: DHL Balloon, Bugis, Singapore

Last Sunday evening, after dropping my wife at Orchard, I took Inka and Irza to Bugis Junction. Our destination was the DHL Balloon, which is within walking distance from Bugis Junction and Bugis MRT station.

The ticket price is S$23 for adult and S$13 for children. Quite expensive for a short 10-minute ride, but it's quite worth for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Inka and Irza previously was a bit afraid when they saw the balloon went up quite high, but I managed to persuade them to try and board the balloon.

It's quite high, indeed, and not recommended for those who are afraid of heights. The view from the balloon on its peak at 150 meters above ground is quite amazing.

ISM Family Gathering, Fazil and Tante Gita's Birthday

Date: 7 July 2007
Location: Pasir Ris Park, Singapore

From Changi airport, we went to Pasir Ris Park, which is located in Pasir Ris, to attend an IndoSing-Mums family gathering. During the same event, we also celebrate Fazil's and Tante Gita's birthday. Fazil is the son of Om Emil and Tante Nonong, while Tante Gita is Fathir's mom.

The park is full of facilities to amuse the kids. There's a very big playground, with different type of playing areas. Inka and Irza were having a great time playing with their friends at the playground. They also played football at a field nearby.

Nenek is Going Back to Jakarta

Date: Saturday, 7 July 2007
Location: Departure Hall, Terminal 2, Changi airport, Singapore

After spending about almost a month here in Singapore, it's time for Nenek (my mother-in-law) to go back to Jakarta. Today afternoon, we are sending her off to the airport. She took Lufthansa flight to Jakarta, and now she's already arrived in Jakarta.

New Playground at IMM Building

Date: Saturday, 30 June 2007
Location: IMM Building, Jurong East, Singapore

IMM Building shopping mall, which is located at Jurong East, not far from the MRT station, is our most frequently visited shopping mall. It has everything under one roof, including Giant Hypermarket where we usually buy our groceries.

Recently, the shopping mall is undergoing major renovations, which are being done in batches. The building's management, CapitaLand, really have spent a lot of efforts to make the shopping mall even more attractive to visitors.

One of the results of the renovation works is the opening of the new rooftop garden, located on the 3rd floor, which is equipped with a new play area. The new play area consist of the usual "dry" playground, which equipments were previously located indoor on the 2nd floor, plus a new "wet" water play area.

The kids were having fun on both the dry and wet playgrounds. There's also a change area for the kids to take shower and change. The most important thing, it's free. :) The only downside is that it's outdoor, which means it can be very hot during the day. It's recommended to bring your kids there in the morning or evening. Don't forget to bring swimgears for the kids.

Migrating Albums from Yahoo! Photos to Flickr

Before I had my Multiply site, I used to use Yahoo! Photos to store my photo albums. There were more than twenty albums I stored there before I started to use Multiply, which I think is much better in terms of features and community. Time goes on, and since Flickr was being acquired by them, Yahoo! had two redundant photo sharing services. And now, they have decided to close Yahoo! Photos since they will focus their efforts for the development of Flickr.

Yahoo! will officially close the service on 20 September 2007, and they give the option of moving the photos to another photo sharing service, download the original resolution photos back to our computers, or buy an archive CD containing all the photos. I chose the first option, and considering Flickr is currently also being managed by Yahoo!, I decided to move the photos to my Flickr account, which I have merged with my Yahoo! account quite some time ago.

It's quite easy to migrate, I just needed to login to my Yahoo! Photos site and chose Flickr to transfer my photo albums, and they will do the rest. They estimated that it will take up to a week for them to do so, however I found out that all my albums were being migrated in less my two days. All my Yahoo! Photos albums were conveniently being transformed into sets in Flickr, and being set as private so I can easily mark which albums I want to set public and which ones I want to keep private. Very convenient.

The only problem is that the number of sets for normal (free) Flickr account is limited to three. Because I moved my Yahoo! Photo albums to Flickr, they have generously gave me free 3 months of Pro account, which will expire on 28 September 2007, but I was wondering what will happen to my albums (read: sets) after the Pro account expires. I might need to extend the Pro account, which will cost me US$24.95 a year. Holy smokes! That's cheap! Or, is it? :) Considering that Multiply can give unlimited albums and photos for free? :)

Well, what I am doing now is to create a same tag for all the photos on the same albums, so I can still access my albums using tags. Hopefully this will help me to track the albums even after the Pro account is expired. Or, perhaps later someone might be kindly enough to give me a Flick Pro gift account, for free? Who knows... :) :)

Problem Asap Kembali Lagi?

(Photo courtesy of ChannelNewsAsia)

Saya baru saja membaca artikel di Channel NewsAsia bahwa kualitas udara di Malaysia sekarang sudah mulai memburuk, karena pembakaran hutan di Sumatra, Indonesia. Katanya, sudah ada sekitar 200 titik api di Sumatra saat ini, dan arah angin menerbangkan asapnya ke Malaysia.

Walah. Mudah-mudahan kejadian buruk yang memalukan Indonesia tahun lalu tidak akan terulang lagi tahun ini. Bukankah bulan Juni lalu, sudah ada pertemuan menteri-menteri ASEAN yang membahas masalah ini? Pada waktu itu, Indonesia memasang target untuk mengurangi pembakaran hutan yang menyebabkan asap tersebut sampai setengahnya. Yah, mudah-mudahan saja target tersebut bisa tercapai.

Sementara ini sih, asapnya belum sampai ke Singapura, dan kondisi udara di Singapura saat ini masih normal. Mudah-mudahan kondisinya tidak akan separah tahun lalu. Mari kita berharap semoga pemerintah Indonesia bisa segera melakukan tindakan untuk mencegah pembakaran hutan di Sumatra dan daerah lain di Indonesia menjadi semakin meluas.

Lucunya, menurut sebuah penelitian akademis disini, datangnya asap tersebut ternyata tidak hanya merugikan, tapi juga menguntungkan. Katanya, asap tersebut bisa menahan panas matahari dan bisa mencegah suhu udara yang sangat panas menyengat Singapura. Tentu saja, “keuntungan” tersebut tidak sebanding dengan kerugian yang dialami, terutama kerugian utama bagi kesehatan kita: problem pernafasan.