The CNY eve

I promise that after this one last post about the CNY holidays, I will move on!

I have a more interesting note to write about underwater robots, but this has to go in first! In my later years, when I look back at 2013 and try to remember what the h*ll I was spending my days on, I want this to be on the chart! Because it was a fun night. :-)

Moreover, this is the most recent holidays we have had and so automatically it is a high!

Note : I will swallow as many words as I can and let the pictures speak.

I love the Chinese New Year season for the yearly supply of mandarin oranges, love letters and other goodies, amazing decorations in Chinatown and not-so-amazing fireworks on the eve. Continuing the yearly tradition, we set out to see the lights.  They were as magnificent as ever! Then I noticed the posters about River Hongbau 2013 - unlike the US budget, Singapore is in surplus and spending cuts are unheard of ;) Well, the River Hongbau was a full fledged celbrations complete with lighting up the whole riverside, enormous floats and decorations at the Marina, food street and what I had wished for - mega scale fireworks !

For the 2013 actual New Year's we had missed most of the fireworks due to "technical errors"(Please note my usage of the most handy term when situations are better left unexplained) . So, this time, we determinedly went early as 8.30, to catch the whole fun !

Prepared we were! An ideal field day, Aye ?
Lights, Camera & with the right spirits

That is the fortune god. He was periodically showering lucky numbers for the year!

Candy time .. Oh we had so much fun! :)

The carnival - I missed Teena here.

She is the only other one in the gang ready for these rides.

The grand finale !

Photo credits : Dragonfly 

Singapore's finest Sling ?

Lately, December is becoming my fave month. Yes, the holidays officially makes it the month for family get togethers.

We planned to spend this Decemeber and New year at Singapore and invited my dad and brother to be with us. During their last visit, we had exhausted all the touristy spots. So, the relaoded version of the tour involves the places which they wished to re-visit & few additional ones we have 'discovered' through the years.
Since we don't have many high risers back home, it still thrills me to be high up in a tower and get the city view. The trend runs in the family. After a few successful high-floor views, we decided to pay a visit to the ever-famed Swissotel Stamford. My photographer companion declares the sunset/twilight as The most beautiful time of the day. So, we decided to get there for sunset and soak in the city below while itz glowing in the golden sunlight.

Readers, just becase we were on a tight schedule, we(as in I) scheduled to hit just the bar, spend an hour there and fast track to the next spot for dinner appointment. Genuinely, there is no other reason for me choose going to a star-rated bar. The swissotel has always been a happy and 'high'ly satisfactory experience. We have had our fair share of 'cheers' there. Happy moments ranging from crazy dancing when I was a tourist in SG, celebrating a friend's engagement, to late night rounds of drinks with our most-special Japanese friends. Most thrilling one for me was hitting the helipad for Manu's Birthday [Courtesy - Mr.Jha]

The rule at City-space bar is, each person should order a drink. I swear, I did not see anything non-alchoholic. I have been wanting to taste a Singapore Sling, for quite a while. Being in SG for 3 years and having a blog tag named after the drink, does it seem over-rated ? No.

When I saw "Singapore's finest sling" in the drinks menu, I did not hesitate. I shrugged away, when Dad wisely said that Cucumber and Rum doesn't seem nice together. If they ain't good together, would it be world-famous ? Famous enough for me to be charmed by it, without even seeing it, to name my precious scribblings as Singapore Sling ? But, when I saw the pale frothy drink in a tall glass tumbler, I realized, this is not what I wanted! Sigh!

Expensive Lesson learnt - Singapore sling and Singapore's finest Sling, are totally different!

Anyways, from the 70th floor the view was amazing, sunset was stunning, clings were heard and hearts were content.

When I saw the 'Am impressed' look lingering over my favourite faces, even when the ears popped in the escalator on our way down, I thought - Mission accomplished!

Kite Runners

Flying kite is an image which I always associated with visiting my mum's house during summer vacations. Back then, I ddn't own a kite and I never knew how to make one. So, I just enjoyed clapping and running behind the people who maneuvered the kites.
Manu knows to fly kites and we usually go for kite flying sessions. I did not deviate from my policy - "Do not attempt anything more than my old skills."
This weekend, we went to Marina Barrage with T.J. and my dad. Oh, Teena and Jai are the T.J., so named to respect Teena's extreme knowledge and love for abbreviations.
Thanks to the excellent navigation skills of our shotgun and driver, we reached the destination in just 50 minutes (usual drive time is 20 minutes)

Consequences - sky was getting ready for sunset colors, wind was dying out and the place was crowded enough. Our skillset dramatically shrinked, with a man-down situation. Manu gets easily distracted with the sunset, impending blue hour and his new camera. I know him well enough to walk away when that glazed look comes over his face and he starts talking sentences which have filters, shooting modes and cloud patterns.

Jai has enough knowledge on how to fly kites, from watching movies. Dad has seen the it live in Rajasthan. With the solid theory backing, we started. It was fun, not for us, but for our on-lookers. They circled around us and started giving suggestions on what step to take next. The kite somehow had an affinity to the ground and never wanted to defy gravity. How much ever we ran with the kite and released to the sky and envisioned it to soar high, the kite did not understand the concept. It just insisted on falling nose first to the ground.

Photos (almost always) never lie !

(ഇത് ഇപ്പോ എങ്ങിനെയാ ആകാശത്ത് എത്തിക്കുക? പണ്ടാരം  ! ഞാന്‍ പുലി ആണെന്ന് പറഞും പൊയി ) 

Being an expert, How do I make this thing fly ? 

അവന് അറിഞ്ഞൂടാ , ഞാന്‍  ദിപ്പൊ ശരി ആക്കി തരാം ! 

I will fly this kite in a minute!

Jai decided that the kite ain't good and went to buy another kite. Feel free to imagine my un-surprised face when he came back with cola & chips and a flying rubber band with lights. He named it "Shashi"! (പേര് ശശി)
Dad said that the wind has died and suddenly cultivated an immense interest in functioning of a reservoir and water purification!

Me and Teena decided to learn from scratch. In practical terms, it means to watch how others are launching the kites & duplicate it. Close inspection revealed that our experts had assembled the kite wrongly! So, we re-assembled it and started running around. The draft was stronger now and the kite started soaring high :) We got too excited and forgot to thread it. It came back at double speed! Once we had mastered the technique we were ok to fly it again.

Workers Me & Teena with Senior PM

After a while we noticed that our kite ain't flying higher even though when we were threading it quite generously. We tried to bring back the thread and realized that our kite was in a love triangle - A Donald duck kite and another rainbow beauty. How much ever I hate to interfere in an entangled relationship, this was a must do. We rescued the kites and relocated to another space in the park. When the sky was getting darker, we gave up the air space to kites with lights and retired to enjoy the beautiful skyline and the light show at the Super tree groves in Gardens by the Bay(Google for 'Garden Rhapsody' until I write about it one day and link it here).

It was a great evening peeps. We should do this more often with more kites and friends. Hereby, I officially declare Marina Barrage to enlisted be in my "Fave Five Spots in Singapore" list.

Note :
How to reach Marina Barrage, if you are taking public transport - Board the North South(Red) Line, go to Marina Bay and take Exit A. You will see MBS on the left side. Don't get distracted. Walk straight to the bus stop and board SBS 400.You will see the Barrage right after the Gardens by the Bay.