Snowville to Greenville

Refer to my earlier post Snowville posted a few days back. These pictures are taken exactly from the same angle, just that the snow has  disappeared. Climate is hitting 50 F +, making it much easier to move around the city.

Human Natural Curve - Reversed !

Picture Courtesy : http://www.espncricinfo.com

What a pleasing sight if you are an Indian cricket fan, not a every match scene. Picture from 4th day of the second test match between India & South Africa @ Durban, Dec 2010. Jacques Kallis, one of the most accomplished batsman in cricketing history jumps and bends to avoid a short pitched ball from Sreesanth. But all he managed was to get out by fending the ball to gully. Delightful scene for an Indian fan, not many bowlers have done this to Kallis.

India went on to win the test match.

Snowville

This is not exactly a picture of Snowville in Utah, i named it so. After all its my blog, and i think i have the rights to title it as i wish ;)

This is how it looks when it snows, the picture was taken on the Christmas Day 2010. Infact even after a few days the place looks very similar just the drive ways, roads & walking paths have been cleaned. I particularly like the snow on the roof of the buildings for some reason, probably i would link it to the snow scenes in the old movies. Familiar sight !

My first US home

That's homestead studio suites Norwalk CT, my first home @ US. The picture was taken from my office desk, thankfully my employer was kind enough to find me a place right across the office street which made my life a lot easier with commuting. The trees looks so sad with the winter on, shedding all its leaves and infact the whole environment looks a little dull. The day dawns around 6 in the morning but the sunlight goes off around 4 in the evening, and it gets really cold. Working after 4 even gives a feel of working for very very long. In spite of all these i kind of like the winter especially after coming down here from Singapore where it was hot & humid throughout the year.

I was said, the place looks a lot better in the summer with the colorful leaves. Looking ahead for that, already had enough with the winter. Cold, snow & freezing temperature and without a car not too easy to move around.

Chicago under Lights

That's a picture of Chicago from a flight journey to O'Hare airport. I realize now that my iphone camera isn't any good to shoot pictures at night, i thought it would be much better than this. Coming back to the picture itself, the streets and roads are all in straight line making it such a beautiful sight. Grouping is just amazing, well this is my first view of this kind at least with the lights in the city. No wonder i am liking it a lot !

Macy's Parade..

If you have watched Spiderman 2, you would have known about Macy's Parade. Its the parade where  The story of this parade starts way long back in 1927, if you want to know more about Macy's visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy's_Thanksgiving_Day_Parade.

I had a few hours to spend in New York on the Thanksgiving day(25 Nov 10) before heading to Washington DC on the same afternoon. I reached early too, so why not use the Opportunity to visit one of the famous parades in the world. And indeed i enjoyed each and every bit of it. Grabbed a hot chocolate and took a comfortable to stand in one of the streets right before the parade started. I dint have to wait too long before the parade and these are some i saw. The floats were amazing, have seen them earlier in movies but seeing them in real was amazing. Spiderman, Panda, Toy Story 3 One(The one who speaks spanish), Shrek are some of the floats, there are a few for which i don't have a name either, Google please.

 

Gotta Go ?

Gotta Go ? Visit Charmin's restroom is the advert. There are about 20 of these restrooms available in the New York City. Unfortunately i couldn't get to the other side since people weren't allowed to cross the road because of Thanksgiving Parade. By the way Charmin is the manufacturer of the tissue papers, you know what they are for.

Certainly a great idea for a city as busy as New York, after all you don't your citizens running around for washrooms in busy areas.

Muni Meters

When I saw this Muni Meters along the streets in Manhattan, the first impression was - am I reading it right. After making sure I was reading correctly, I was wondering why would the NYC do the exact spelling mistake at each and every instance. Well finally I realized the Muni Meters would stand for the municipality meters of the New York City.

These are the meters used to pay for the car parking charges. The charges weren't too bad as one would expect in Manhattan.

That's the American way !

In a earlier post in August, I posted a picture of pet owners responsibility to ensure that the public places are kept clean. http://catchypictures.blogspot.com/2010/08/poo-for-thought.html

The below is a picture shot in Norwalk, CT again illustrating the importance of keeping it clean from pets poo. The picture dint quiet come out exactly in the same way, i wanted it to be but i couldn't do any better when it was freezing cold. Bottom Line - When you own a pet, you have to go that extra mile.

 

Thirukkural

Thirukkural in english. This was in the Lord Muruga temple at Siglap Road, Singapore. I ofcourse went down there for the free prasatham :P. For people who dont know what a Thirukkural is ~ It is a collection of 1330 Tamil couplets organised into 133 chapters. Each chapter has a specific subject ranging from "ploughing a piece of land" to "ruling a country". For people who already know what it is, translate into Tamil and comment the Tamil Equivalent.

Wattfish

Relationship between Human & Light energy is an interesting observation. Reminds me of 3 Idiots movie, where stress is on how important it is to think out of the box and how things can be so beautiful if you start doing so. By the way this picture was shot in the helix bridge on the way to Marina Bay Sands.

Hendersons Wave Bridge

This is the Henderson Waves bridge in the western area of Singapore. There is a direct bus which goes all the way from the Red Hill MRT station in the Green Line or there are a bunch of buses which you can take from the Harbourfront MRT station. Henderson Waves, a structure not to be missed, connects Mount Faber Park to Telok Blangah Hill Park. Standing at 36m above Henderson Road, it is worth visiting for its artistic, distinctive wave-like structure consisting of a series of undulating curved 'ribs'.

Personally, i loved this bridge for one main reason the view from the bridge is fantastic. One could view Water Front, Sky Scrappers, Green Trees from the bridge. One picture taken from the ground level and other focusing towards the place where the first picture was taken from.

The Three Belles by Strange Fruit

You won’t believe your eyes! The street performance of The Three Belles by Strange Fruit from Australia is awe-inspiring . Their stunning show fuses theatre, dance and circus tricks performed on flexible 5-metre high poles that bend and sway back and forth in the air. Catch this breathtaking and hypnotic spectacle 3 times a day, Wednesday to Sunday at The Shoppes in Marina Bay Sands.

I tried doing a video of the show, couldn't do much since my camera's battery power was running out i managed to squeeze a short one though which will give an idea of what it is like. Mind you the show is fot about 30 minutes.

Grading !

Any better place to grade the answer sheets other than the local trains. This picture was shot when a school teacher of Singapore was grading while travelling on the train, and ofcourse i shot this picture without her knowledge. I am sure there isn't anything wrong in doing this over the journey if she really dont have the time to do it elsewhere, but if that isn't the case i doubt how good a teacher and how accurate in terms of grading she can be ?

A Bridge in Scotland

This picture was taken way long back, almost 5 years back i would imagine. Out of nowhere planned for a trip to Scotland from sheffield, about 8 of us started our way to the highlands. This bridge is somewhere up north of Edinburgh is all i can remember at the moment. The serene mood of the picture is what i like the most about this. One of my favourite picture of all times.

I was also said by someone that this bridge was one of the shooting spots of Harry Potter, not sure how much of that is true. I have seen a flying car scene in a bridge in one of the sequels, but i dont know if this is the one definitely .

F16 Fighter Planes ~ Singapore National Day Parade '10

This is some video which i have been thinking about posting on this blog for some time, primarily this blog is meant for pictures but i dont see any harm in posting this video. This is my first experience of the F16 fighter planes, infact this is the first ever time i have seen one of them ofcourse at a far distance. These are amazing pieces of creation, the noise they generate brings about an environment of Forumla 1 racing and even could bring the sky down to earth, so much rumbling. A lot of the noise couldn't be heard, since there were a lot of people around me when i was shooting the video, so their screams out of anxiety takes priority ;)

Why not shave a Tender Coconut ?

This is the way tender coconut is being served in the island of Pulau Ubin, a singapore territory. I haven't seen anything like this ever in my life earlier. Presentation matters, be it in a board room or a tender coconut serving place in a remote island.

The island by itself was a fantastic place, there was not much there to see as such other than the Chek Jawa Wetlands which has a lot of scenic beauty when there are low tides but i wasnt lucky enough for those views. Trekking, moutaineering, cycling and walk by the coast are few notable activities. There were a few towers in the island, from which one could see the view of the island and its facing to the sea. A very good place to spend a whole day. Restaurant by the sea was awesome, but food was crap atleast i couldn't take it ~ however the beer compensated for the food quality :)

To Shoplifters Attention !

Picture taken at the Fairpirce Retail Market in Tampines, pretty effective way of conveying of message to the shoplifters. 

Polite way of saying "You will Land in Jail" if you wanna get your hands dirty.

An Artist at WORK

I always wanted to be a painting artist, thats a lie not even in my dreams i have dreamt of being an artist. You know where i am coming from, yes you are right "The Inception" thats where the dream inside a dream inside a dream is from.

I was strolling around the City Hall MRT and hit this place SAM which stands for Singapore Art Museum. That was a friday evening around 6:30 PM and i caught my eyes on a billboard which said that every friday it has a free entry between 6 to 9 PM. Why would anyone on earth waste a chance to have a look at the galleries for free.. No need to spend any money out here plus I could spend a couple of hours over here which would ultimately put off my idea of drinking a couple of beers and thereby saving 10 $. Thats a lot of calc, anyways the SAM had art works from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Tibet and ofcourse a good share from Singapore & China.

Ok then some of the art works i liked are :

Kailash Temple Cave 16 of Ellora in Maharashtra. I particularly liked this because of my Indian affinity and ofcourse i visited this place very recently about a year back i think.

This is a painting of Wu Guanzhong, there were about 10-15 works every one of them was descent .. This is the one which i liked the most, dont remember the theme. It was more like an abstract work and fairly big as well. 

Happy Victims is what they were referred as, probably these are paintings of different punishments for making pathetic paintings. Thats as much a guess..

This is done with clay, and little pebbles ..

Thats the entrance with the light works..

Poo For Thought !

A couple of days after reading one of the forward emails with the statement,

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay, Mr. Tinaikar , had a point to make. 'Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place,' he said. 'And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels the pressure in his bowels? In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?'

I visited one of the parks in Singapore which had one of these sign boards, which confirms the statement made by Mr.Tinaikar. Dog owners of India, please keep an eye on your dogs. On a serious note, cleaning up your dog's poo is a mandate overseas, well if you dont clean it up you will have your lesson learnt and keep a keen eye on your dog's back everytime you take it to the street. But why is that not a case in India, dog owners just gives a whatever the dog poo deserves. No One can accuse me of this though, i was never allowed to own a dog at any stage of my life..

Castle Beach ~ East Coast Park

Castle Beach is a part of the East Coast Park. Mr. Alvin Lee was the founder of the "Castle Beach" primarily for the reasons of family bonding. I was also said that the Castle Beach runs a charity for under previleged childern which is indeed an excellent way of helping the society.

This is one of the many activities that goes on in the east coast park. Skiing,Skating,Cycling,Fishing(though i haven't found a single soul with anything like a fish) and lot of hawkers(eat outs) are some of the prominent places / activities around the park. I saw a dedicated team of people with uniform T-Shirts spending quiet a good amount of time in building these castles. If someone wants to the visit the park i would suggest them going around 4 PM which is when the castles are all built and in shape to view, i saw a professional photographer too making some pictures of the castles. The castle building team had brought their own meal and at the end of the day, they gulped some food to add on some calories which they had burnt through the day. Though they sweated out on a hot day, i saw happy faces when they had a good number of visitors for their castles. I really dont know if there was any family bonding, but it was a nice team building exercise. Corporates can take away a few tips from here, conducting their team building exercises mostly in a closed room for the heck of it is not much of a help.

Berlin Wall @ Bedok Reservoir

This is a portion of the Berlin Wall installed at the Bedok Reservoir, its quiet amazing to find out it's carried all the way from Germany to Singapore. This portion was part of the Berlin Wall which stood between West and East Germany till 1990, and was brought down marking the end to the cold war thus unity Germany. It was good piece of work, the artist work is appreciatable.

I visited this place on Sunday Evening 15th Aug 10, Indian Independence Day. Its not too far from where i live, half hour walk or a 5 minutes bus ride will take me here. Lot of activities go around this reservoir park ~ Jogging, Fishing, Cycling are a few notable ones. Nice place to spend a few hours over the weekend. Picture below that looks like a Silhouette,shows a person fishing in the lake, i was said you have good chance of getting fishes early in the morning when the sun rises rather than during the sunset. Fishes tend to get deeper into the lake when the sun gets out.

National Day Parade ~ 9th Aug 10

I started hearing about NDP from the 1st week of July, then i started doing a little googling which got me some more information on National Day. It is very similar to a Republic Day in India, which i have seen it in the tele when i was a kid ~ parades of troops, tanks, trucks, navy equipments,jets and fighter planes. Here i had an opportunity to see it directly, right through my eyes after 27 years of my life. I got one of the worst ever possible places to stand( it was hanging to a wall like a lizard :P ) and watch the parade. The tickets for the actual parade gallery was sold a couple of months back, which means by the time i entered Singapore the tickets for NDP were mostly sold and i never had a clue about this.

The show had parachute troopers, fighter planes, military troops, tanks, heavy artillery, marines, fire service, ambulance, dancing females and then the best of the lot "Fireworks". I heard that Singapore military is a pretty descent one, they do their drills with the NATO countries and the do their military purchases with the states. I have been to Big Ben @ London on a new year where there is fireworks also to edinburgh for a new year which has fireworks too. But i am sure this one i saw in Singapore is the best of the lot. Ofcourse the last time i saw a firework was 4 years back so we cant compare them, but the intensity and the way it was organised in Singapore was very nice indeed. A special mention on the fighter planes parade, the noise they create was awesome it had the effect similar to one which we see at movies. Fantastic, I would say !

It all finished at about 9 PM, got myself a fillet burger from KFC and started back home.

Rhino !

I visited the Singapore Zoo at Mandai lake road and though i managed to shoot a load of pictures, very few turned out to be descent enough to see one among them is what you see "The Rhino". Lesson Learnt : Dont borrow a friend's SLR, even though it looks fancy doesn't help you a lot unless you know how to use it, instead use your own Point & Shoot Cam.

 

Coming back to the Rhino, this is the first ever time i had a chance to look at the Rhino in real and it is indeed massive. If someone could visualize the Rhino from the movie "300", this one isn't any different and ofcourse the one in the movie had some chains wrapped around it. The one you see here is a white Rhino, and below are the different types of Rhino.  

• White Rhinoceros
• Black Rhinoceros
• Indian Rhinoceros
• Javan Rhinoceros
• Sumatran Rhinoceros

Reiterating on a everyone known statement "Save Wildlife, We have established ourself by increasing population at every possible chance, even though we cant put a stop to that, can be controlled by obvious means. And let some space for these wild animals, its fun watching them."

Save A Life !

Earth allows you to stand on it, Why dont we help trees to stand by us. It very nice of the Singapore Goverment to ensure trees are grown, maintained and preserved. They take utmost care for the trees as much as they do for their citizens. This picture was taken near the Tampines MRT.

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

The Buddha Tooth Relic temple is the biggest Buddhist temple in Singapore. The temple is dedicated to Maitreya Buddha, and it houses the Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic. The temple also contains the guardians of people born in different years, the birth year is usually associated with animals like rat, ox, rabbit, rooster, dog, etc .. My birth year is associated with dog. Please follow the Wiki Chinese Astrology link below on more details about this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology

The temple is a must-see for anyone interested in Chinese architecture.Location ~ very close to the China Town MRT station in the North East or Purple Line.

Art Work !

Saw these statues near the DBS building ~ Changi South Avenue 2(Adjacent to EXPO MRT, Singapore). I see these everyday on my way to the food court for lunch ! Map below directs you to the place where you can see the art work.


View Larger Map

Marina Bay Sands ~ Singapore

The giant wheel like structure is the Singapore observer, comparable to London eye. The building behind it is the Marina bay sands. A boat shaped structure is built on top of 3 buildings(Hotels). This hotel / building has numerous entertainment zones ranging from casino, shopping, bars, etc .. Couldn't do a better picture this time around, will try for a better shot again sometime.