Hot summer days, late night shopping and Christmas lights

It's hot, unbearably hot. I have a low tolerance for heat. Sydney feels like its surrounded by fire. It's that hot. The days are spent seeing how long I can last it's usually till lunchtime until there is an undying need to turn the air conditioning on. How do I survive this long? I compare it to that trip of a life time teacher's words not mine to Central Australia where the minimum temp. is probably the maximum here right now but that's for another blog post coming up.

So once the air conditioning comes on, the blankets come out. It's actually the best feeling in the world to be wrapped up in blankets while feeling that cool breeze coming from the air con. Being a growing teen, I probably eat ten times more than anyone else yes I'm a girl so what. There is actually nothing left in my fridge, mum refuses to buy anything until I finish all this random food around the house that's probably older than me. Yuck.

Mum finally decided that it was time to go shopping but since it was so hot, she left it till the middle of the night to go. Now I don't know about you but I always reckon shopping at night is so much more exciting than going during the day, there's less people too.

Anyway after what turned out to be a disappointing trip, we spontaneously decided to drive around the streets looking for houses with Christmas light decorations.

These houses were tame compared to some other houses I passed by (sorry for the bad quality but I was trying to sneakily take shots from a moving car on a horrible phone camera).


We were going to stop at that church which always has Christmas lights but all the streets around it were crazily packed and we couldn't park anywhere.

 Went back to the church during the day, and the lights still look amazing. They also have this life sized nativity of Jesus when he was born.

Merry Christmas guys,

Singapore Day 2

Day 2:
Morning...
Rise and shine! It was 7am and we had an entire day ahead to fill spontaneously. Spontaneous 'planning' in Singapore really don't seem to work and there are quite a few activities which do require pre-hand booking. We all dressed accordingly to the 90% humidity and heat.

After a quick breakfast down at the Marina food court, we inquired about the day's activities. 'Garden's by the Bay' for the early morning seemed an attractive option. The obvious attractions were 'Flower Dome', 'Cloud Forest' and 'Supertree Grove'. Everywhere in Singapore, anyone over the age of 12 is considered an adult in terms of admission/ tickets. 'Flower Dome' was a world of everlasting Spring and housed combinations of plants from all over the world including our very own (Australia) Golden Wattle and state Waratah. 'Cloud Forest' showcased a realm with overhanging platforms and apparently the world's largest indoor waterfall. 'Supertree Grove' spanned across 12 unique trees and ran an elevated walkway across the canopy.

Flower Dome

Flower Dome

Cloud Forest

Supertree Grove

Afternoon...
From Skytree Grove we then went for lunch. (I can't remember where but it was in Gardens by the Bay =D)
Chinatown and Little India were our stops after lunch and our first time on the MRTs as well.
The food in Chinatown was extremely cheap compared to that of the main CBD area. There was evident historical and cultural significance in both neighbourhoods.

Cockles

More Chinatown food stores

The market

MRT tickets








Little India for the most part was quite similar to that of Chinatown aside from some differences. The food, majority race and merchandise were completely of India's own culture. Unfortunately time was a major setback and minimal time was spent here.

Three musketeers who wanted a photo.













Fresh fruit produce along the array of market stores.

Food for sale









Night...
The famous Orchard Road was our next destination and once we alighted from the MRT all I can say was the atmosphere was the best. Loud drumming and music surrounded the sea of humans. The congestion was a queue to walk. Singapore and their queues.. hmm.. I'll go more into this later on. This 2 kilometre boulevard was shopping central for all the tourists and the country's general population to complete their last minute Christmas shopping. Filled with the world's most iconic brands, those with money to spend will inevitably find this an extremely pleasuring shopping experience! Once the afternoon turned to night the road came to life with festive lights, eye-candy sprinkled throughout.

Mr Peashooter I must commend you on your services in defending the lawn from zombies. [PvZ]

Merry Christmas
Daniel Xu    21/12/13
Christmas Wall filled with many messages from the public.

The throng of the crowd crossing the road.

Louis Vuitton yo!












All in all, day 2 was a lovely one filled with many foreign surprises. From flower appreciation to the dazzling of a world famous shopping district and packed in markets there were endless activities to partake in.

Signing off 

Daniel 

Singapore Day 1

Hey all my first blog post! Yay *mini celebration*
Day 1:
Landed in Singapore around 8-9pm AEST (5-6pm in Singapore)

My flight circled Bintan Island 5times before we were cleared for landing. =/

After baggage claim we went out of the safe haven of the air-conditioned airport to be hit by the climate.  Damn it was different to Sydney.After checking in at Marina Bay Sands which ended up being a slightly tedious process as some random error popped up.

Yea I'm a crappy photographer so here's a nice and convenient image I pulled off google. =)


Checking the time, it was 8pm already so we wandered around Marina's food court for something to satisfy our bellies after flight appetite (absolutely hate eating anything on a plane). There were an endless list of choices. One quirky behaviour (if i do say so myself) was that at some places some 'Singaporeans' tended to eat standing.
Oh and btw here are some photos:

Those who choose to stand and eat!

Red Bean ice dessert.

And some more of Marina Bay Sands' "Infinity Pool" =)

Exhausted, I had no energy to go swim and saved that up for tomorrow. 

Here's a photo off my phone above Tower 1 of Infinity Pool.

Signing off 

Daniel 

Christmas shopping time

It's finally here, the long awaited holidays. There's no early morning alarms, the rush to get ready and running for the bus.
So while the lucky most are off to someplace exotic like Daniel is, the rest of us are stuck at home with nothing much to do.
Being in Sydney, we were blessed or cursed with 41 degree weather today and there was absolutely no where to escape the heat in my house. So with my predicament, I felt the need to finish of my long list of Christmas shopping and take advantage of the year round air conditioning inside shopping centres.

5hrs and a whole new outfit later, I have not yet managed to clear of anything on my list but have instead wasted money on myself.
What can I say, Christmas time has the best bargains ever.

Happy Lab Jelly Beans - $14.95
I'm not a huge fan of jellybeans normally but these ones come on test tube containers and I couldn't resist.

 

Chicabooti Top - $5.99

Factorie Skirt - $4.95

I'm in heaven. Everything is on sale and I managed to pick up these pieces without blowing my stash of money. 

  

Factorie Flower Lights - $9.95

I've been dying for lights to hang up in my bedroom but everything was too expensive for a teenage budget until now. 

So after all my personal purchases, I had no time to find presents for anyone at all. Needless to say mum wasn't very happy with my wasted trip.

Moral of the story -  don't go shopping by yourself or with your friends especially during Christmas because you can't resist buying things for yourself. 

Until next time,