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Showing posts from 2020

Dawson Falls

The Dawson fall view point is about 5 mins away from the parking area. If you like hiking, you can also hike in that area but it would take a lot more than just 5mins. Also I have tried and it seems that the view point is the main place that you can have a clear view of the waterfall without walking too much.

Yi Jing: Turn Crisis into Opportunity

As you might have heard about the circuit breaker is going to extend till 1st Jun. You might be interested to find out what else you can do this year to turn crisis into opportunity. When listening to Iverson's Power of Yi Jing video, the key take away is that he is able to do mass forecasting for others by getting them to pick a card. However, when using this method, please be aware that only the first card that you pick works. It is about the universe telling you what you can do this year to convert the crisis into your opportunity. It's pretty interesting I would say and I've converted it into a simple script so that you can now pick the cards below and get a summary about what each card would mean if you pick it and what you can do next. Try it, using this method would take you about 5 - 10 mins rather than watching the full 1hr 15mins video. Of course, if you are keen, you could proceed to watch his video . Pick a card

Otorohanga Kiwi House

When visiting the Otorohanga Kiwi House, u mainly see birds and small reptiles. The only Kiwi we get to see is in this super dark room, which makes me feel so giddy that I gave up looking at the Kiwis. There are quite frequent keeper talks / shows where the keeper will tell you about the birds in the area. Kakariki that you can feed during the bird show. Watermelon design bottle used to feed the birds.

Free books and Shows to keep you entertained during Covid 19

Free Books: Although our National Library is closed, our  Mobile library  is still available for you to download ebooks or audio books. There are free  audible books  from Amazon for kids, teens, etc. For adults if you like literacy classics or harry potter, you can consider listening too. Free read from  Scribd  for 30 days, no credit card information required, valid till 30 Apr. After signing up with a totally new account, it would still prompt you to subscribe but don't worry you are already subscribed for 1 mth. Just have to ignore the subscription prompt so that they don't deduct your money. If you don't mind providing a card and cancelling later, you can use my Scribd referral link to get 60 days free subscription. Free shows: Nites.tv movies  provides free online movies which includes 2020 movies, such as Frozen, Star wars, etc. But you can watch the Marvel blockbusters as they aren't there.  US TV channels  are avai

Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War

In the Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition in Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, you will see many sections exhibited the war that happened in 1915. At the entrance to each section, you will see bigger than life size figurine of soldiers or nurse that are key characters of the war. Every part of the figuring, apart from being over sized, looks super real, the blood on his hand looks damp and fresh except that it doesn't flow anymore. Also, you can see maps that combines electronic displays and mountain like terrain, displaying the movement of soldiers during the war. Also, you can see mock items such as bomb internals and telephone during that period. You can still see some of the items in that Museum online  but those item in there doesn't show what you would actually see if you are physically there though, including those free exhibitions. I think most of the exhibitions in the museum is free exce

Household Rebates during Circuit Breaker Period Apr 2020

With the current circuit breaker, the government had announced additional subsidies which I feel is pretty good especially if you stay in a 4 room flat or smaller. As it means in Apr, we (Singaporeans) will get $600 each + pretty much waiver of utilities bill as well as Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) payment. So I guess with the current setup, even the locals should have enough to survive and eat in the month of Apr even if we ended up with totally no pay leave, unless we stay in bigger house, e.g. non HDB or own private properties. This is the utilities rebates for FY 2020: This is the Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) rebates for FY 2020: Also, we would get $600 this month to help cover our grocery bills, for those entitled to get more would get their balance of $300 - $600 in June and parents would get additional $300, elderly would get extra $100 for passion card topup. For people with super small utilities bill like me will end up with ab

Kawana Flour Mill

The Kawana Mill is an abandoned flour mill that got converted to 24/7 free entry tourist attraction without anyone manning the place. I simply drive there and go in yourself to explore the area. Please visit the loo before going there as the toilet feel pretty gross and had no water at all. I would recommend going there during day time as there is only lights within the building. We simply open the door and go in ourselves. Exploring the insides of the flour mill, you can see the machines that are used to make flour.  Also we can read articles about the place, the historical value.  The lights in the building is all hydro-powered as there is this rapid flowing water right below the building. Also, on the way there, there is almost no telco connection along the way or toilet stops, the next toilet from that area feels pretty far away. 😨 But if you like mills, should visit it when you have a chance.

Art Deco architecture @ Napier

When visiting Napier earlier in Feb this yr, there is the famous Art Deco buildings that we should visit, or at least walk 1 round around their street to see the Art Deco buildings that are within walking distance in the city as plotted in the map above. ( Add route to google map ). We took the free method with the help of google, the paid method is you can buy a guide map for $15 or take a guided tour. First stop is the fire station Followed by the Public trust office The Daily Telegraph building Masonic hotel where you get different looks from different side of the building The library  Australian Mutual Provident Society  The Waiapu church Along the way you could see some interesting buildings and wall paintings too. Finally if you do have a car, you can drive a while to the tobacco building as well During Covid 19 period, if

Four Points by Sheraton Auckland

During COVID-19 period, I noticed that every shop, every hotel have hand sanitizer. In Auckland, Four Points hotel is the first place that I saw automatic hand sanitizer 😅.  This was taken during my NZ trip around mid Feb this year, I quite enjoyed staying at the hotel, it was comfortable and clean. The customer service is quite good.  When they had case of confusion where they issued us a room that is pending servicing, the hotel employee helped us reach the reception who gave us vouchers for free drink while waiting for another room and offered to send our luggage up the room.  Piggy likes the bed 😊 On the last night that we stayed there, we managed to get free upgrade to a very big room that come with bath tub. So if I go Auckland again for leisure trip, I would definitely stay there again, as long as they are still around post Covid 19. Would rate the hotel 4 star I guess, if there wasn't any error during first check in, will have gave them a better ra

Beans Party Desserts 豆派

Was on compassionate leave early last week and was hungry after leaving the wake. So we had some desserts from the beans party dessert at the Bukit Panjang train station. Wanted to try the other stall but there is no seat and this one was pretty empty so we gave it a try. We ordered a grass jelly and a soya pudding based flavour to try. I personally think that the topping tastes alright and the soya pudding base was way nicer than the grass jelly one. Overall, I would say that black ball is much nicer in terms of topping wise, as well as the grass jelly base. Didn't tried the soya pudding based at black ball before so cannot comment about which one is nicer though. If I ever eat there again, for sure I will eat the soya pudding version but definitely not the grass jelly as that was totally not sweet to me so I don't like 🤣. Overall I would give it 2 stars if you ask me for a rating.

Google Arts & Culture App: Virtual Museums

With the upcoming movement restrictions in Singapore, we can now visit museums around the world virtually especially since we won't want to fly out and be in danger of contacting the virus. This would help us kill time in a more meaningful way as well. Install the Google Arts & Culture app and select collection from the top left menu bar. From there you can check out the various famous museums and take a virtual tour from there. For example, you can visit  The British Museum  to check out the virtual Museum or just search for that museum and click on it via the app. The experience from the application itself is more seamless than the web version. You can check out the various online exhibits or take some virtual reality tour around the museum via the Google Arts and Culture app. You also can check out the various set of collections around. Click into any of the collection or exhibit items to find ou

Birds Of Paradise - Healthy Botanical-Flavoured Gelato

Went to the airport today to take back all the food in my drawer 😂.  The crowd there had dropped a lot and it is no longer crowded even though it is a weekend, probably the last time I would be there till our government lift the restrictions.  After dinner, I ate the pistachio flavoured ice cream from Birds of Paradise, tasted just like the one I ate many years back in Italy 😋. Tasted really nice though. According to my hubby, the place used to have long queues previously, based on the line arrangement, it does feel like it even though it was pretty empty when I visit today. Guess that most of the people are probably at home. Here's the flavours available today. I wonder if they change the flavours from time to time though. Also, due to the virus, we cannot try out any flavour without buying.