Sentosa 5Km Fun Walk

A funny thing happened about a few weeks ago. My wife applied online and managed to register herself for the Sentosa 5 km Fun Walk, to be held at 5 pm earlier this afternoon. For some reasons, when she sent in my particulars, a minute after her own submission, no *confirmation* email came to me. Yup, she must be the last person to reach the counter limit!

And, so I am here this evening - to hang around and support her walk. We took the MRT train from Sembawang, switching lines at various exchanges, and finally hopped onto the Sentosa monorail to get to the Beach Station (within Sentosa Island). If we had walked by the boardwalk, we would be $8.00 richer.

The goodie bag collection section is super crowded. She gets her goodie bag. We are delighted with whatever that were packed in. I wonder why the sign reads "Registration", when everyone there had already registered online - as we have to pre-order our Tees. Calling it "Collection of goodie bag/Bib" would be neater, I feel. It will be a disappointment if someone were to queue up for the 45 minutes of waiting, just to be told that it is not a registration per se.

My dear wife with her goodie bag! Another strange thing happened. The first person who finished the 5km Fun Walk is a runner. He ran all the way to 1st position and had a good minute of DJ interview for all to hear. 😅 Very soon the gifts for the 1st 1,000 walkers were taken up. Nope, she did not get hers. Must have been a slow walker, 😅. Too bad, she walked for the Fun Walk, instead of ran. 

While the Fun Walk is in session, I went round and took some pictures that interest me.

Three doves casually drop by and do a merry-go-round around me. This one hops up a boulder and walks toward me in a very happy mood. Soon, they too find that there is nothing else for them and walk away into the bushes.

And, so I end up sitting by the coaster water breaker, and notice these fleet of Chinese ships under the banner of "Peng Yuan Ye", each having its own vessel number. A large numbers indeed. I am sure they are not here for just maintenance services.

To the right of the beach, I hear a group of participants screaming as their boat haphazardly skims above the water. A fast speedboat is towing the passenger-laden zodiac boat. Must be fun!

Finally I get to shoot something nearer to the lens ( I had just put my 70-300mm lens on the Canon EOS 60D). This snail has just been buffeted by a rough wave. Of course, nothing bad will happen. It can hang on the boulder better than we can anchor our ships into the seabed, I believe.

One of the weeds that stands tall and mighty. Against the backdrop of the ocean, it certainly gives off a sense of loneliness and yet, when I look at it intently, I feel courage. Courage to be alone and standing.

Ah, I am so thrilled by this changeable lizard. It climbs up this coconut tree and continues climbing even when I am obviously zooming my lens on it. It just could not care less!

Well, it is certainly a brave fellow as it makes its way up slowly. Probably, the sun's energy feels stronger, the higher it goes.

That being the case, I stay around and try to see if it will stop. Nope. It goes up even higher. It takes a pause once a while as if to soak in more sun energy.

"It is not going to stop," I was thinking. Certainly, it proves me right. The climb is nothing for this lizard. Normally, they stay low, from what I have witnessed all these many nature trips out. Probably, it is trying to stay close to the leaves just in case a bird comes by. And, those leaves happen to be located much, much higher.

Here, you should be able to see it somewhere at the mid-point of this frame. Of course, the tree is really tall, which comes to the next picture that I took using my mobile phone, below.

Yes - the coconut tree to the extreme right! Basically, the changeable lizard has the whole ocean view by itself when it turns, and moves to the sea-side of the tree trunk.

This other changeable lizard decides that staying on the ground is a better choice. Probably, it knows how to read!

Here it is, the same ground-level lizard. I love that smug look. Certainly, it has the "I am the king" look! Such a beautiful reptile.

After a while, it comes down from the high-visibility log and moves to a grass patch nearer to the edge of the sea bank.

Here is a close-up. Such tough looking lizard. I am sure Sentosa has been a great host to this one, and his families as well. When I left the green to look for my wife, it was still there.

Here's a selfie from my ASUS ZenFone Max. I really like this "zero-$ StarHub Renewal - Mobile upgrade" phone as it has an incredible wide-angle feature that allows me to take pictures with the front cameras easily!

I like this view of the Reflections of Keppel Bay, taken from the Sentosa Boardwalk. Did not bring my tripod, so had to let the camera sit on the board!

This is how we spend our Saturday evening, as a couple. And with some lizards.

Punggol Waterway - Walking Session.

This is a continuation from an earlier post.

From Changi Point Village, we decided to drive over to Punggol Waterway - before heading home. This is not the first time that we went over. I am from the Sembawang area, and I always feel that Punggol is one of the better managed neighbourhoods that blends the urbans with nature rather well.

What wildlife would be shot for today?

Needless to say, we saw plenty of tortoises and the usual red-eared sliders. This terrapin was just lazing in floating mode. This semi-aquatic turtle has the best of both worlds capability, unlike their tortoise cousins.

When you have a waterway - you will have snail eggs. This is just one of the hundreds of batches of apple snail eggs. It is noted in the scientific area that the "P. canaliculata" apple snails have toxins that protect the eggs from being eaten. I am not sure if the "P. canaliculata" apple snails are even found in Singapore.

This group of Javan Mynahs really reminds me of the good-cops and the bad-cops scenarios. Hope you can see the differences!

Changeable lizards are not just plentiful in Singapore, they are also very "character" in look. This reptile looks very majestic, assured and confident. It probably is getting just the right dosage of sun energy, I guess.

Here are two red-eared sliders. Are they twins or siblings? Have they eaten? Are they going for a swim later or they are going to call it a day? At least, food is not a major concern here.

A scarlet darter dragonfly. These extremely thick-red dragonflies are common here. They lend some excitements and dashes of colours to an otherwise monotonous afternoon.

If you stared at this picture carefully, you would have spotted a greenish, gentle and thirsty butterfly quenching its thirst. Those dark "markings" are actually the groves between walkway bricks. Somehow, something or someone poured water at a short distance away, and the water sort of seep its way to this walkway.

Another changeable lizard doing a camouflage alongside a young tree trunk. Almost invisible. I am sure that since I can see it - the birds might have seen it too.

And, more red-eared sliders. I was thinking if the one behind was urging its friend not to jump and if it wants to, to wait for the water to reach a bit higher ,to reduce the falling impact.

A Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach). Beautiful bird. Looking from the back. It knows that I was just two meters away, and let me take all the time to examine it. 

It is the occasional spotting of beautiful birds like this that make walking along the Punggol Waterway a nice experience.

A changeable lizard taking shade, and probably about to take a nap?

And, of course, when your significant-half is also a keen outdoor person, the walking around is more like taking a leisure stroll of younger days.

A pair of brown butterflies taking shelter from the hot sun.

It is good that we have the "address" of where we were at various stages of the waterway.

 An elusive white-breasted waterhen skirting around the edges of the waterway. This makes it the first time that I have seen one at this location. And, its presence is certainly a good sign that wildlife has taken hold firmly, apart from the monitor lizards!

Plenty of directional signs to help lost souls find their way, or at least to know how "lost" they are. At least, I know that this area is called the "Punggol Waterway Park".

And, yes - shared bicycles. Lots of them. A sight of wonder and bewilderment, all at the same time. I made a detour and turned right! :D

A Short Walk at the Changi Village / Changi Point Promenade

Earlier this afternoon, we did a weekend walk at the Changi Village area. Of course, we walked along the beach and checked out the planes that came in every minute or so. It has never failed to amaze me how large the planes always look and, as usual the loud sound that comes in before you even notice the planes themselves.

Okay, actually, it was the walk that we were more interested in and the food that we hoped to try. Here are some of the more interesting shots of the walk.

A changeable lizard taking in the afternoon sun. Though this is a cropped image, in its entirety, it was truly sitting on an open space boulder, oblivious to whatever danger that might come swooping down.

As we were walking towards the hawker center, up popped, rather slowly, a monitor lizard. This is clearly a juvenile being about a foot long (body). Monitor lizards, though tend to stay close to the shoreline, for food, habitat and escape reasons, will not hesitate to venture farther out for reasons only they know.

The little ferries or bumboats that never stop. Today is a busy period. Could it be that it is also our June 2018 school holidays?

This is really an interesting "finger-pointing" sculpture. Of course, taken from the other side, it creates a totally different impression. I will probably include that angle of view at the end of this page.  

If I am right, this is a warty sea cucumber. I spotted two of them, at different parts of the beach. I understand that it is an Asian delicacy as well as its use in medicinal areas. For me, I decided that it should be able to continue its slow journey into the sea.

Here it is - FREEDOM. I am not so sure if it could make it. The sun was pretty hot. The beach was drying up fast. So, when the waves came again, I just gently gave it a nudge.

A sea urchin's shell. It is so intact and light. An empty shell that tells a long story. The wikipedia mentions that sea urchins can live far more than 30 years. Somewhere, it also mentioned a "200". What longevity! It is also a delicacy in Japan. 

The Oriental Pearl, a bulk carrier. This ship is 186m long, with a beam of 30m. Built in 1994 and has a tonnage of 26065, as per vesselfinder.com's page. In 2017, Usain Bolts ran the 100m in 9.58 sec. If he has an unobstructed path on this ship, it will take him 17.82 sec to complete!

Well, most people would show the whole plane but I was thinking that showing this shot with the tree on a peek-a-boo style would really bring up the closeness of the plane to where I stood. Guess which airline this plane belongs to?

We were back at the hawker center for some drinks and a bite before heading for home. I recalled this arrangement has been around for quite a while. Will they add one more?

A Javan Mynah. This bird was very keen in getting onto some food that some people left on their plates. Mynahs are great food "getter" and will never starve. Needless to say, they have since long ago kicked out our native common mynahs.

Yes, there is another group of birds that makes its presence felt strongly, and is always on the "Do not feed the birds" warning sign. The feral pigeons. They are so used to human presence that, like the Javan Mynahs, are gaining good population growth. Unfortunately for the pigeons, due to their propensity to create health havoc for humans, they are more "wanted" than the Javan Mynahs.

As promised, here is the "finger-pointing" sculpture viewed from its front side. That is my wife, Julie - just to give us a measure of the sculpture's size.

I recycle my silica gels by frying them over a used frying pan (given to me by my dear wife). This allows me to re-use the gels many times over.

I usually start off with a very small, slow fire, as can be seen here. Once I get the pan heated up (with the silica gel already in the pan), I will monitor and stir the content in a slow circular manner. Of course, you could stir in any manner that you want - so long as you keep that hand of yours moving.

This picture shows the original state of the silica gels. Actually, there are all brands and type of silica gels here, from all sources. That is why you can see that the content is sort of multi-coloured. The wooden spatula was a gift as well. I found that cutting off the mid portion of the base allows for easier gel movement.

Here is the same lot of gels, just about 25 minutes later. One interesting fact that I found out is that the longer you keep the gels in the hot pan (try not to melt them), the better the absorbent power the gels provide.

From what I know, silica gels (a synthetic form of sodium silicate) by themselves are harmless. The blue indicator chemical, supposedly Cobalt (II) chloride, may not be so harmless. In fact, it is deemed as carcinogenic. Now, that puts me a bit on the worrying side.

I did some searches on the internet and everyone else is promoting the re-cycling aspect with the cautionary side note on beware-of-small-beads-choking thing. Poison seems to be a non-topic. Nevertheless, there are some mentioning of poisonous stuff at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silica_gel].

For the moment, to ensure that I do not breathe in fine silica dust - due to all the stirring and heating, I have started putting on surgical mask when doing the slow frying of the gels. Will this help? I hope it does.

Here is a macro view of a wet silica gel!