If you have been following my blog for a long time, you'll know that I travelled to Hong Kong faithfully every year for street photography (before the COVID-19 conquered the world), as often as twice or even thrice a year. I get asked all the time why I love Hong Kong so much, and I have a hard time explaining it. I don’t know, I realised I’m all over the place, because I can’t actually put into words why I love Hong Kong. And I think that’s actually what makes travel beautiful. If I could put into words what I love about it so much, then it could be experienced “virtually” and there would be no need to visit at all.
If your memory serves you well, I wrote a commentary about the iconic pawn shops in Hong Kong after I returned from a trip there in October 2017. Pawnbroking in Hong Kong has a history as long as that of the city itself and are situated in almost every district of the city. Click here to read my photo commentary if you had missed it. A whisky specialist cum collector based in Hong Kong, Mr Freeman Ho contacted me via Facebook in February this year, offered licensing fee to obtain one of my Hong Kong pawn shop photos as whisky label, so I agreed. He read my blog and felt that the photo is very nostalgic and serves the purpose of a personal whisky collection which he had created with his group of friends. I supported his passion and felt it was a pleasure to help other people in their passion, while I pursue mine at the same time. Today I finally received the Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky in Singapore shipped from Hong Kong ! I placed the whiskies against the backdrop of a Mona Lisa pop art poster at home, and fancy seeing Mona Lisa tasting it :) The whiskies are exclusively for sale in Hong Kong only.
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As announced in November 2020, each eligible Singapore citizen received $100 worth of vouchers to spend on any approved hotel stays, attraction tickets and tours, as part of the SingapoRediscovers Vouchers ("SRV") scheme. The SRV scheme started in December 2020 and will expire in end June 2021. With just two months left to use the SRV vouchers, have you redeemed yours ?
I understand that not every attraction may inspire you to go out there and rediscover Singapore but there are actually nice tours and plenty of hidden gems to appreciate about Singapore. For me, I surfed the Klook website for almost an hour, and I finally clicked the button to select on a Limousine City Tour to experience sitting inside the luxury car and having everyone’s eyes on my entry is something I would love to have. The Limousine City Tour which was organised by Royal Wings Travel took place last week. Luckily it was not raining that day and I must say the whole experience was smooth sailing and enjoyable ! Everyone dreams of riding in style and luxury and wants to get it fulfilled. Limousines are superb luxury cars that are designed exclusively to give a ride to make anyone feel like a celebrity. If you want to enjoy a luxuriously comfortable ride, think no further than a limousine. No other car can match its level of elegance and style. Some people may think that traveling in a limousine is just about getting from one point to another. From the outside, it may seem that limo is just another vehicle with an extended body. However, a look inside this car told me that it offers much more than a spacious interior. The amenities fitted inside a limo make sure that traveling experience of this vehicle is nothing short of first-class. Also, who would actually get the chance to really sit in a limousine as compared to other types of vehicles? Riding in a limousine is a luxurious, breathtaking experience, so I would like to encourage all of you to consider pursuing this opportunity, if you have not redeemed your SRV, because why not, right? We might not be able to leave Singapore’s borders for leisure right now, but there is no reason why we cannot bring that sense of adventure into our explorations of this little red dot to gain a travel experience of a lifetime. HDB Colour-Coded Directions Signs as Wayfinding For Dementia Friendly Community in Yishun, Singapore17/4/2021 A series of community initiatives has recently been implemented to make some of the neighbourhood estates in North Singapore more dementia-friendly. For the people staying in North Singapore, did you notice that the facades of some Housing Development Blocks in high-traffic areas near Yishun (a.k.a. Nee Soon) were painted recently with striking colours and symbols?
Similar to zoned carparks, the blocks feature icons - pineapples for red blocks, fish for blue blocks and rubber trees for green blocks. Block numbers were painted prominently on the sides of the blocks and their pillars. The colours stand for different zones in the neighbourhood, comprising Blocks 837 to 850 Yishun Street 81/82. They are part of an effort in making the area more dementia-friendly, in other words, to better help persons with dementia find their way around the neighbourhood. Persons with dementia often find it difficult to navigate even their own neighbourhood, and risk losing their way. Mature residential environments are especially difficult for wayfinding due to high-rise almost identical height buildings. One promising intervention to make an environment more supportive for wayfinding is to enhance it with salient cues, especially since many environments that seniors inhabit lack salient environmental information. Salient cues are those that grab the user’s attention and stand out from the surround such as a large brightly illuminated statue. The rationale for using salient cues is that they address the problem of wayfinding both visually and cognitively. Visually, salient cues can stand out from the surround, attract the wayfarer’s attention, and are more likely to be seen by the aging eye. If a person with dementia were to ask for help, or if somebody were to find him looking lost, even if he cannot remember exactly which block he lives in, he might be able to recall the colour or icon. This will help people to lead him back to where he lives. Today's kids spend time playing virtual games in virtual environments. They play away everyday from life and the streets. They are unaware of social games of the past. There were once children's games that colored our lives. Nowdays the kids grow up without knowing the life, touching the life and sharing but only touching the screens. This is especially more apparent in big cities. Children growing up in big cities today neither know the street nor are they aware of the neighborhood culture. The adults cannot hear the joyful sounds of children rising from the streets.
I’m one for nostalgia. There’s something nostalgic about looking back at all the traditional games we played while growing up in Singapore. The games of my childhood always bring back fond memories of carefree afternoons spent outside. These games take us back to a simpler era when life seemed to move at a slower pace and all we really cared about was having a good time with our buddies. There is a set of murals at Blk 857 Tampines Street 83 featuring nostalgic childhood games from the past. They were done by a local artist Jaxton Su. It was a flashback to the past when I saw these murals ! Although not all traditional games were showcased in this artist's collection, let's remember the forgotten children's games and in the name of the joy of the streets! |
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