BLOG GIVE-AWAY RESULTS

The winner of my strawberry cake spoon is... Kimanh xo! Video below of the drawing process (I didn't look!)

Congratulations I'll contact you in a bit.

Thanks to all for joining, please keep an eye for more of my cute give-aways in future!

MY BLOG GIVEAWAY! - CLOSED

This giveaway is closed.

My first blog giveaway - a cute dessert spoon =)

Made of stainless steel with a polyresin slice of strawberry cream cake!

To join in the fun, simply leave a comment under this post and tell me which item you like most in my Etsy shop! http://lemonshortbread.etsy.com/

Closing date will be 27 June 2009.

I'll make little number squares and randomly draw a number; the number drawn that coincides with the comment post number will win this item. Results will be announced on 28 June!

If you don't have a blogger profile/blog, please leave me an e-mail address! This giveaway is open internationally and to everyone! I'll be having more giveaways in the future so keep an eye on my blog =) Have fun!

JURONG BIRD PARK - SPECTACULAR!

My trip to the Jurong Bird Park on 3rd June. The weather was rainy and cloudy, the downpour stopped just as I reached the place and became sunny for the later part of the trip. Perfect like my visit to the zoo (see earlier post), because I don't like the scorching sun when on excursions. Prayer works wonders for unpredictable weather!

I haven't visited the Bird park since about 17 years ago when I was small, and my memories of the place were: an A&W restaurant (now non-existent in Singapore), penguins, macaws (of course) and FLAMINGOS! Actually the only birds I was looking forward to were the flamingos and more flamingos! So here we go:

Entrance, there's a nice little duck pond on the side too.

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Here they are! A delightful flock of deep salmon-coloured flamingos! They're so much more vibrant in person and a whole bunch of them as well; their feathers are such a bright salmon-pink that my camera under-compensated their saturation!

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MORE flamingos... these were a pale pink with super fuchsia legs and beaks! =) I'm contented at this point though this was just the beginning of the trip lol.

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Scarlet Ibises. They were extremely red that it's almost impossible to photograph their actual luminance! They were scuttling about for fish (stinky enclosure too) and it was a patch of dizzying neon red all about.

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Pelicans. There was this funny one which took something much bigger than it could swallow. It caught a large black fish in its pouch and was trying to swallow it for ages. I wondered if it eventually let the fish go or if it choked to death.

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Cormorants. They are drying their feathers in the sun because the feathers get waterlogged when diving for fishes. These are the birds that fishermen in Asia use for fishing, by having a snare tied around its neck to prevent it from swallowing larger fishes when it gets a catch!

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Grey Crowned Crane. There were 2 crowned cranes which suddenly came out of the foliage and strolled across our path in the free-flying aviary! So very elegant birds.

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I think these are Marabou Storks. They are scavengers from Africa and reminds me of vultures.

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Emu sitting patiently.

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The ever popular penguins. There were several other penguin species in the enclosure and it was nicely air-conditioned too.

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Display in the Bird Discovery Center. They have specimens, skeletons, eggs and other useful info on birds.

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This cockatoo had its own quiet enclosure in the Discovery Center; it and its mate were the only living displays in there lol.

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Lories/ Lorikeets, they were flying all over the place as it was a free-flying large aviary. They are sociable, super noisy and you can feed them with some nectar water near the entrance.

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Tallest man-made waterfall in another free-flying walk in aviary.

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This bird has spectacular colours... its feathers are iridescent and shimmering with metallic rainbow colours as it moves about! The photo doesn't capture its true beauty. In the waterfall aviary.

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This bird is a patient darling and posed beautifully for our photos and video! It was just in front of our faces and seemed to know we wanted him/her to keep still for long enough. Maybe it's proud of how pretty its feathers are! Our favourite bird out of the whole trip.

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TOFU OYAKO STUFF

Along with Doraemon, Totoro, Astroboy, Aokubi Daikon and Gloomy Bear characters I also like Tofu Oyako. Recently I bought a night light figurine, so cute when illuminated. It may possibly be a counterfeit since the packaging does not say Tofu Oyako anywhere. A strange creature, ugly but adorable. 

I first came across Tofu at the back of IDN magazine as a filler comic feature a few years ago. The magazine doesn't carry the comic strips anymore.

I prefer the original Tofu Oyako face (red body with the smiley worried expression), There are many other characters in the family to collect, pretty much like Be@rbricks. Below I have Hot To-Fu and To-Fu America cellphone charms.  I picked up a flyer from the Singapore Post about a design your own Tofu postage stamp competition. I'm not eligible to join unfortunately =(

http://www.vpost.com.sg/tofu-mystamp/

A tee-shirt from my last  trip to Thailand: 

That's about it =P

I don't usually spend on toys, since I prefer collecting art books instead. Toys are nice but a little heavy on my pursestrings, unless my favourite characters catches my eye for the right price. Gachapon machines (lottery toys in capsules) work just fine for my case. Any toys you guys collect?

NIGHT SCENERY AT CLARKE QUAY

After a meal of pork ribs soup & two pairs of cheap shoes at the mall, I dropped by Clarke Quay for some night shots.

Clarke Quay lies along the Singapore River. At night, the pubs and chill-out lounges come alive, also lots of coloured lights and music. I've never really seen the place at night previously. In the past there were afternoon Sunday flea markets here but they have been scrapped in favour of the lounges.

The streaks of light are moving bum boats in the river. I thought to test out the low shutter speed night settings on my semi-wacky camera - by setting it on the floor while finishing the rest of my ice-cream (lol I'm no photographer). You can take a ride on the boats for a fee if you'd like a short tour of the river.

DEATHNOTE FANART & OBATA ART BOOK!

Phew! I finally gave up on working this fan-art of 'Deathnote', a suspense/detective/goth-styled manga by Ohba Tsugumi (story) & Obata Takeshi (art). My line art was made in pen and scanned into the computer, with colours added in Photoshop. It's been a super long time since I made any fan-art.

It didn't come out exactly as I hoped, or as good; and took longer than expected to complete (about 2 months) because my program would crash every 15 mins! I'll do better the next time.

Anyhow talking about Obata, he is one of my favourite artists. Recently I acquired this illustration collection of his artworks, unfortunately it is a COUNTERFEIT. Everything comes in counterfeits nowadays! The original Deathnote illustration book is entitled 'Blanc et Noir' and this one is strangely titled 'Left or Right'.

Also it is much cheaper at about S$30, whereas my other Obata art book (from 'Hikaru no Go') cost about S$110 (US$75). I'm currently saving up for the original 'Blanc et Noir' since this copy has annoyingly included some scanned HAIR and specks of dirt! It is also not a full replica of the original book though hardcover but I guess it'll work for now for browsing. Could've fooled anyone if not for the scanned hair.

It also includes other works other than Deathnote:

KAWAII TOTES & FEATURES

My new bag. I've been eyeing it for a while because the prints on it are so adorable! Besides I haven't bought a new bag for a few years now... The back, front and bottom all feature different designs, it has a side zip pocket (hence the word Roo), suspended pocket inner compartments and is binded on the seam edges. Naturally I chose the one with the flowers and panda florists! The brand of this bag is called Rootote by Super Planning (Japan), they have many super pop-arty totes:

http://www.superplanning.co.jp/rootote/

Also look what I discovered on the wonderful handmade world of Etsy:

Baby Elephant Walk by WolfBait

Pods Button Bag by SeatofMyPants

Geometric Funky Prints Tote by SunshineAnniedesigns

Polka Dots Tote by CinnamonTotes

SINGAPORE ZOO

The Singapore Zoo on 26th May. I love the place and it's the one local attraction I don't mind visiting regularly!

I also visited the Night Safari (opens at 7pm after the zoo closes at 6pm) on a different day but did not manage a single clear shot throughtout the trip as it was too dark for any photography. Flashes were also not permitted since the animals were mostly nocturnal.

The entrance, it was cloudy & rainy that day but way better than the scorching hot sun.

Elephant sculptures. I didn't get any pictures of the real ones as my camera ran out of power.

Hamadryas Baboons. The enclosure was huge and there were tons of the baboons playing about. I have to add that some of them had creepy red drooping buttocks.

A brass plate on the wooden plank floors

Orang Utans. The one on the left is using a stick to fish out snacks from a feeder.

Komodo Dragon.

Sculpture of a giant tortoise. Snapped this since the actual animals were hiding under their shells.

Goat. They are in the kid's section where you can interact closely with the animals.

A leopard... it's taking a leak without even getting up!

A lion. The viewing gallery allows you to view the lions by means of a glass pane so you get a nice view.

Beautiful white tiger. One of the main attractions of the zoo. They were in the news before for mauling a worker who jumped into the enclosure attempting suicide.

Sloth, it was rainy so its fur was clumped. It moved rather quickly for the snack! They were in the free roaming enclosure.

Flying fox. Adorable largest bats in the world, fruit-eater. It was feasting on a slice of watermelon earlier and looks quite contented. Also in the free roaming enclosure.

Edit: Here's a video of the glorious animals in HD glory! Please allow it to load (white tiger is the last animal):

singapore zoo from RONALD ASHBURN on Vimeo.