Clear to fly!

Today is my clearance day in Singapore office, clearance to fly back home.

Many of my colleagues & friends told me why you are so adamant in going back in this difficult global recession period. I don’t know what to answer? I really didn’t answer & I don’t want to!  it’s my decision and this decision is not wrong; also people who are close to my heart are very happy in this decision.

Tomorrow I will breath different air, the air may be polluted/dirt than the place where I am now; but that is the air which made me who I am now.

I am ready to experience again the longest beach, crowded streets, food, society, people, traffic, friends & family.

EEP MUN (IP MAN)

Watching chinese movies with chinese crowd & dont know even a bit in chinese is a weird experience for me last friday. This movie in particular dragged my interest because of martial arts, obviously I can’t watch movie without understanding the dialogue or story; anyway this movie carries english subtitle.

Most of the martial arts movie I watched till now used to revolve around one point (Revenge); I expected the same thing in this movie as well, but to my surprise this movie is the story of the real life legendary martial arts master eep mun famously known as Master IP.

Master IP  lived in a china town “Fo Shang” which is famous for martial arts school, teaching and people lived here practise martial arts for hobby; he is rich & best martial arts player in the town and nobody dare to fight against him or won him, Life goes pleasantly, leisure & happily.

In 1938 Japan invaded the china province and captured Fo Shang,  as a turning point Master IP residence is used as headquarters by the Japan army; he and his family pushed to poverty.

Now story revolves how he and his family survived and escaped to Hong kong.

Master IP influenced many & one of the famous person is Bruce Lee.

Donnie Yen acted as Master IP, his martial arts talent is added advantage to his acting as Master IP. Finally the ultimate goal of the movie is not to showcase the martial arts, but to highlight positive moral & principles of master IP.

 

Jurong Bird Park!

After 3 weeks of work pressure, me & lakshmi manage to visit bird park last sunday (7th Dec). We started early by 10.30 AM and reached there by 11.30 AM because it is sunday and we both wake up late, so we decided to have brunch in bird park itself.

When I went to ticket counter, smart & well advertised LCD panels display the below ticket charges,
Admission: S$ 18
Panorail: s$5
Below are the packages they offer,
Bird Park + Zoo: S$30
Bird Park + Zoo + Night Safari: S$40

Packages are really attracting but already I went to Night Safari long back… (ofcourse before I start blogging…),  still package with Zoo is attractive for me but lakshmi suggested not to go as she can get me some free pass for it.

After brunch we started our adventure of bird park starting from African wetlands… Park has plenty of bird varieties and they are very well managed, still the nasty smell of some bird section is horrible (I suggest better have a perfume, it will be handy in some section of the park).

I liked Larry loft bird feeding, Bird of prey (Hawk), Parrot paradise & penicon cove. Huh! I forget to mention they also have bird shows from 10.00 am to 6.00pm; we planned to attend 2 shows one penicon cove chit chat (2.00 pm) & Hawk bird of prey show (4.00 pm) both are good especially the later one was awesome…

You should not miss African Waterland, a beautiful scenary section with birds and nature coupled together… beautiful waterfall and greenery environment in this section will make you feel you are inside deep forest of africa, it was a pleasant surprise for both of us; we had plenty of photoshoot and spent lot of time in African waterland.

Overall, it is a wonderful place and must see if you are in/planning for singapore.

Vaaranam Aayiram

Finally, I got the tickets on sunday night 10.30 show… no other chance as in singapore the movie is running full packed so I didn’t mind going @ 10.30 PM

Surya was army major and on the mission to critical rescue operation, he got the news of his father’s death; this is how the story begins and he start telling about his life, about his childhood, his school, college, first love, failure, difficult times & his coming back, all this stages are wonderfully portrayed.

In all this stages Surya dominated the screen & show us a mature acting skills. Still I don’t believe the way he came as 12th standard student it was really cool his physique, manerism & etc etc was made to believe he is really so young… hats off to surya for his physique, I believe his dedication to the project is his biggest strenght (keep it up Surya).

My favourite
I like the train sequences of Surya and Sameera, till sameera’s exit I enjoyed the movie a lot it was full of energy & full of love. I like many parts of the movie and I really felt bore in certain part of the movie, what I believe if Gautham made it less than 3 hours then it would be right formula & good as I felt more emotional because of the length. 

I ranked the song “mundhinam parthane…” in first place “nenjinil peidhidum….” in second that is before watching the movie but when I saw the picturisation of the song “nenjinil peidhidum….” it simply scored my heart.

Overall I enjoyed the movie and also felt it won’t be big hit as I can see lot of people commenting and joking some scenes & in the second half they were litrally started commenting each and every scene; so I believe it will take more time for us to understand this kind of movies & recognise it…

These are all my views and not the review, If you like Surya then you should watch this movie because the movie is full of Surya.

Run to gym…

After 3 months, I started going to gym; I was compulsive and prepared the exercise chart too for daily entry. First day it was normal (no pain) because I did jogging and simply stretching my muscles, second day I want to stress my muscles little bit so decided to jog for 2 km, 1000 meters rowing, doing some weights for chest  & shoulder, bars, pushups, inclined situps(abdomen).

Jogging, I ran constantly @ the speed of 7 km/hr for 18 minutes and completed the 2.28 km without any pain; as I am running in treadmill it will urge you to take the 5 minutes cool down. Totally 2.48 km in 23 minutes (I know it is not good timing but I felt great to complete this much in second day & first time).

Rowing, target is to complete the 1000 meters in 5 minutes; I concetrated, struggled and when I complete the 1000 meters the time was 5:16 minutes, if I maintain the constant speed then I would have achieved the 5 minutes but erroneously I picked up fast in first 2 minutes which made my muscles tired and unsupportive for the next 3 minutes, next time I need to follow invariant speed.

Chest, I dont want my muscle to cry in the second day, so I did bench with less weight.

Shoulder, same like chest passed easily with less weight (making ready for future weeks)

Double bar, first thing strike my mind was why shouldn’t I try it because I believed my shoulders are strong enough to hold my own weight (obviously I forget I am overweight, HA! HA! HA! ) then comes the price I am not able to push after 5th count, hands are shaking and finally I completed with 3 sets of 5 each.

Till here I am half way through;

Pushups, “Hey! I am good at it” so I took it with full confidence and when I was in count 11, know what happened? I was lying in the floor,  my hands are shaking more approriate word is dancing; but I didn’t give up and either moved from count 11, completed 3 sets with 10 counts each.

Inclined situps(abdomen), “I am zero in this” it was horrible like I went to hell 3 times and came back; I mean 3 sets with random counts in each sets; average 6 counts.

Anyway, it was good experience & will improve slowly… know, by who I am inspired? Hrithik & Surya… ( HA! HA! HA! HA! know what? my weight is 78 kg)

Deepavali @ Little India

My second deepavali celebration all alone in Singapore; usually I call 2 important person on that day, 1st my mom and 2nd my fiancee (present), lover (past) & wife (future). what surprises me was there particular question, whether singapore celebrate deepavali? it is actually good question because I didn’t shared my previous year experience with them, so they thought I won’t be getting leave as well.

Coming to deepavali celebration in Singapore

Little India  well known place for indians in singapore, deepavali will be celebrated with lots of light decoration all over all the streets in Little India, this year they have extended more lighting and covered all the streets almost they were switched ON for the past 1 month.

Crackers are banned in singapore so most of the deepavali fun is missing, like we can’t enjoy the skies in the night of deepavali how we are doing in India. In simple words, India – deepavali was full fun, enjoyment & beautiful & here it is another public holiday. 

But Little India is happening place during deepavali because of shopping, stage programmes, food & long walk in the streets are really great fun; this year I went to deepavali shopping few days before and when I went to explore it was rush, for 30 minutes I felt like in Chennai (T.Nagar)

Eventhough I celebrated deepavali alone it was different experience this year.

Canon Powershot SX110 IS

After many days of research I found & bought Canon Powershot SX110 IS. It was handy, good image quality, clarity, 10x zoom & within my budget of 500 SGD (price of this camera in singapore is 499SGD).

Below are some of the reviews I went through about this camera,

http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=3726

http://www.digitalcameratracker.com/canon-powershot-sx110-is/

Anyway I tried comparing with other camera’s as well, funny part is I took 1 hour to buy this camera in the “Harvey Norman” shop; trying zoom, various modes and image quality.

Below image was taken in Night Mode with 10x zoom; this was the top elevation of 40 storey building.

Below image is taken in Night mode without zoom, you can see the image quality and clarity.

Other samples, 

 

Last 2 images are my favourite! 

Near Office!

Photography! one of my hobby & interest; the camera which I am using is 2 megapixel mobile camera, picture quality is not so good, lot of care is needed while shooting; one of the main challenge for me is light.

Anyway I am planning to buy good camera, I am still investigating the price, features and reviews; let’s see how it is working out.

From Office Cafeteria

I thought of sharing some of my interest and I am starting with the first one which I took around my office; mobile are very handy because when I see some nice place with perfect lighting then I will click it with my mobile…

Just click!… 

iQuest building, IBP

 

 

 

 

International Business Park(IBP) is where my office building located, nice location far from crowded city life; 

I got this shot in the evening @ around 7.00 pm

German centre stop.

 

Everyday I use to take bus in this stop, totally opposite compare to my hometown. They keep up the time & bus captains show lot of courtesy to passengers. One of the reason I like singapore; they have very good public transport; trains are the best compare to bus service and singapore government is also planning for more train service and reduce the bus service (green environment programme).

I will reach my home approximately in 25 to 35 minutes with all the comfort.

Santa’s Birthday!

Yesterday my close friend Santa’s birthday; I & Lakshmi planned to surprise her. The plan is simple I have to arrange the cake in park near my apartment so by midnight (Friday night) Santa will come & bang! Surpriseeeeeeeee…

Santa blew the birthday candles & party started; I bought black forest cake (my favorite in cake), I usually won’t have cake but occasionally I will have so I made my mind & Lakshmi was helping Santa to cut the cake (I was thinking like they will serve me piece of cake)

Puuhhhhhewwwwwww!

Next second half of the cake was in my face, I was stunned & don’t know what to do? I was standing still with no reaction & full cooperation. After a minute I realized both of them made a cake art in my face.

What a mess? I made some cake art in their face too (all three look like clown). It was surprise for me because this is first time I celebrated my friend birthday with cake in midnight; it was colorful.

After they depart I came to my room & I was thinking about all the birthday I spent with my friends in past years, those wonderful memories made me calm, emotional & I slept.

It was such beautiful event happened yesterday.

Thanks to god for giving me such wonderful friends in Singapore.

Alone in Beautiful City!

Tall buildings, greenery, gardens, quality roads, ordered traffic, secured environment & quality of life… all these things never strike my mind when I got an oppurtunity to fly for singapore and work here; I was so surprised, content, looking forward to explore.

when I landed in singapore, I was totally amazed by the things surrounding me; my mind told me what a place? what a quality of life people having here; initial days I was staying temporarily with my collegues & searching for some accomodation, first few days I was scared to go out alone because this was my first trip all alone staying out of my friends, family & ofcourse my city (Chennai); slowly I gained the courage mainly because of the secured environment & accomodation (Paying guest) near my office.

In singapore, most of the apartments will be managed by the housing board; there are few private apartments also available which they call it as condomonium; difference? it is luxury flat with all amenities (swimming pool, gym, tennis court, security guard etc) luckily I got an accomodation in condomonium for less rent compare to other condomonium. In my house we are only 2 people, My housemate is around 45′ age & most of the time I will be alone in home; this is really a pain, for 25 years I was surrounded with family, friends, fun, entertainment etc… now suddenly I am alone in this beautiful city, it is like hungry man watching the food & cannot eat. 

When days went I was tied up with work, work & work; people here are working for 12 hours a day in average (oh god!), even early morning like 6′0 clock I can see many professionals with tie walking towards MRT (train) station.

whenever I have time, I started exploring alone not expecting others to join me, slowly  I stopped thinking about exploring as my work pressure grows, I had time only to take rest & eat in the weekends. It’s almost 15 months I am staying here all alone, ofcourse I have close friends here in singapore but most of the time I will be busy or they will be busy.

Life is so beautiful, it doesn’t bother how much we learn! it keeps on teaching us more & more.