I got my Tattoo ...Henna Tattoo again!

Look! This is my newly "painted" Henna Tattoo, on my hand. This is Henna Tattoo and it will stay on my hand for about two weeks. 

I remembered my first encounter with Henna Tattoo was about 10 years ago during a carnival. I was so excited and so scare about it. I thought it was tattoo. But later, I find out it is merely a temporary tattoo and won't stay on the skin for long. So I decided to give it a try and it turn out to be a very good and memorable experience for me.

Henna Tattoo may be a new word or a new thing for you. This is some of my sharing on henna tattoo and hope you can enjoy this fun art someday soon. 

Henna artwork is a temporary tattoo on the skin surface for a short period of time, usually it will last for about two to three weeks depends on the area of the Henna and how it has been taken care of. I got it on my hand and I usually wash my hands very often and need to do house chores and thus, the Henna painting on my hand just last for one and a half week to be precise. 

Anyhow, it is still a good experience for me and it will never be a problem for me to get another new Henna painting again when I am in the mood. That is the benefit of it since it is not a permanent tattoo. I can do the Henna Tattoo on any part of my skin with any design that I like. 
 

The paste will take 30 minutes to hours to be totally dry. If you like the color to last longer on your skins, you can leave the paste on until it drop off naturally. I tried that and it take about a few hours. It is a fun process and then you can appreciate the nice design on your hands for weeks to come.

The photo shown some part of the dried henna paste started to drop off and you will be able to see the true color of the henna which is brown in color. You can choose to wash off the remaining of the dried henna paste with water.

Look, this is my nicely done henna tattoo!I got this service from http://hennatattoosingapore.com

The King of Fruits - Durian

Durian is a kind of fruit that is commonly found in South East Asia especially in Malaysia and Thailand. However, the taste of durian varies in different region. There are many species of durian. Some of the famous is D24, and Mau San Wang (Mandarin). It means the king of durian. Not everyone will enjoy this kind of fruit as it has a very strong taste. I personally like durians since I was young.

Durian has green shell full with sharp thorns. Its look total different when the fruit is cut. the fruits are generally yellow in colors. Sometimes, it is orange-yellow, some is in light yellow, some is in dark yellow and some even look reddish yellow. It is all depends on the species of that plant.

The fruit can be weighted between 1kg to 3kgs depends on the species and the quality of it. Generally, the bigger the better and more tasty for the species of Mau San Wang. It has a mixture of sweet and bitter in taste. Some species might be just sweet and without the taste of bitterness. When one buy the durian, they need to inform the seller of their preference taste so that the seller can recommend the appropriate species for them.

 

Since Durian has a very strong taste and people will eat it with hands, so it will leave a very strong smell on the hands. Of course someone can just wash their hand with soup but there is a way to get rid of the strong smell. It is to wash your hands with the durian inner shell, which is in white color. Just put some water on the shell since it  has a shape to contain the water and then just wash your hand there.... Try out next time when you eat durian again!

Chinese Calligraphy - My name in colorful Chinese Calligraphy

Chinese Calligraphy - My name in colorful Chinese Calligraphy, and more than that is, the combination of my spouse and my name. This is something special that I never seen before. I get a piece of the artwork from www.portraitartistsingapore.com . This is definitely a wonderful idea for my wedding anniversary gift. 

  
Both of our name blend together in the Chinese Calligraphy with beautiful and colorful drawings that form each of the words. There are a greetings or wishes on the right side of the scroll, which pronounce as "bai nien hao he" in mandarin. It means to have a blissful marriage for a hundred years (forever). 

In fact, my spouse like the gift very much. He felt so amazed with the art of combining two names in to one and is really a good symbolic for a marriage that husband and wife become one person, share the high and low in life and days to come. Cheering on the same happy event and encourage each other during the down days. 

He plan to hang this artwork in our room. Whenever there is dispute among us, we can just look back at this piece of artwork, with our name on it. It reminds us that we are always together as one no matter what happen and will work to resolve whatever dispute or challenges that we faced together. Our relationship improved and become stronger! 

I just love this piece of Chinese Calligraphy! It represent both my spouse and me are together as one. In fact, husband and wife are as one ever since they married. Both should have the same vision, same goal, same direction to achieve. Of course the common goal is to have a blissful marriage, start a family.. etc. What is your common goal with your spouse? 

Other than wedding anniversary gift, Chinese Calligraphy can be a great gift idea for all the occasion. Some people will chose to write their name or names (like myself), or some will choose to write the greetings or wishes that consist of four character words in Chinese like "bai nien hao he", or even Happy Birthday "Shen Re Kuai Le".. and so forth. It is an art, it is lively and colorful. May all the wishes that written on this piece of artwork will come true and add colors to our daily routine life. May it will brighten up days for people who are down, may this colorful chinese calligraphy paintings bring surprises to your love one and cheer them up. 

Thank you to Portrait Artist Singapore for such a meaningful and lovely gift idea!

In memorial of Tanjong Pagar Railway Station

I think this would be the last trip that I will take a train from this Tanjong Pagar Railway Station as it will be relocated to Woodlands effetely from 1^st Jul 2011.

Before I will board the train for my next trip back to Malaysia using the new railways station at Woodlands, I really want to share about all the memories that I have with this Tanjong Pagar Railways station.

My journey in Singapore started from here. Here marked my first impression of Singapore. This is the place that I first stepped on to the land of Singapore in more than a decade ago. My first impression to this railway station is that "wow"..It is a nice building with unique geometric design that full of art deco.

According to an article that I read, the idea of design for the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station is from Helsinki Central Station in Finland. It is why the design has the element of “European” style.

I am not really sure about the history of behind this building but I just have a strong feel for this building... hmm.. Maybe that is a reason why I like to take train home instead of the coach or other means of transport..haha.

Let me post some photos that will become historical in the coming days, for the future generations... as this railway station in Tanjong Pagar will "retired" from it service...No more trains will be park here.. I am not sure whether the railway rail will be retained or it will be demolished.

But thank you.. For bringing me wonderful memories.. Thank you for transporting me to my destination for the past years...Although you will be "retired" soon but you will always in my memories and these photos will be a good memory to show to our future generations....

Ipoh Food Tasting Trip

Ipoh is located in Perak, a state in Malaysia. That is a nice place full with minerals, good source of mineral water, nice cave and mountains. Because of its strategic location with lots of natural minerals, the place is famous with good food especially for bean sprouts.

The outlook for the bean sprout from Ipoh is it is "fat and short". It looks very different from those I can find in the local market, which look "long and slim". According to the local, it is because they has use the good water that full of minerals to grow the bean sprouts and make it so special and different from the rest. It tastes so rich and fresh. 

The famous dish is called "Bean sprouts chicken". It means the chicken is sewrved together with bean sprouts. There are many restaurants selling this signature dish in Ipoh. This is one of the restaurants that we decided to dine in. Here we ordered the famous "Bean sprouts chicken". It comes in 2 servings, one is a plate of bean sprouts and another is a plate if chicken.

As you can see, the bean sprout is look really nice, "strong and fit".. haha.. Tell you what, it taste very nice too, every bean sprout is so rich and "juicy"... not sure that is the correct description... Do correct me :)

The chicken looks normal for me and I actually find it is too "oily", as it served with too much oil. The chicken is a bit fat too.. So I eat more bean sprout than the chicken on that meal. Another special dish from Ipoh is called "Ipoh Hor Fun". It is so special maybe due to the good source of water used to make this "hor Fun".. I guess. It is indeed much smooth in texture than the "hor fun" from other places.. Thumb up!

After the meal, we had some desert at the famous "dau fu fa" in Ipoh. The name for soy bean custard or bean curd jelly in Cantonese. According to the local, the "tau fu fa" from this stall is the smoothest in Ipoh. I have not try the rest of the stalls so I can't commend much about whether it is the best but indeed it is quite smooth in texture. Thumb up for this too, I have consumed 2 bowl of the soy bean curd :), as the serving is pretty small, just about half of a normal rice bowl. But we can see there are many people buying from this stall but most people there didn't queue up.

If you have a chance to be there, just try it. Overall, it is a nice place for food. I have yet to explore to the caves in Ipoh, will share with you all if I have any chance to travel to those caves in the future.

Another interesting Plant, I named it as "Lantern Plant"

Remember I have shared about the "bird plant" not long ago that my brother is taking care of? This is another plant or flower that I find is very amazing... it is just look like a "chinese lantern" and hang all over the plants. It is nice, isn't it? I found it in a garden during my trip to Cameron Highlands, a wonderful place that full different beautiful flora.

Look at the plant and flower carefully.The flower is red in body and the bottom is yellow color. Try to compare it with the look of a chinese lantern... is it look alike? Except maybe certain type of chinese lantern look more round in body..

Is lt amazing and interesting? Well, I personally think its look almost identical except the plant is in mini size. I am not sure the actual name of the plant, please comment and let me know if you knew it.. much appreciate that!

I always have this question in my mind wondering whether these plant has evolved to imitate the actual chinese lantern or this plan already existed in the oldern days and people just imitate its look to make the lantern. I really cannot answer that, just can praise the great power of the wonderful nature.

Another flower to share is this, unknown species to me. When I first saw this flower, I feels like there are many little fairies dressed with pink and purple color dress, dancing around the plant. 

Maybe you need to use a little imagination power to see what I saw.. haha.. hmm.. maybe I "imagine" too much..Well, this is just something interesting I want to share as I think this kind of flowers are not commonly found.. in fact, this is the first time I came across this. 

I can only say that the creation of the nature is so wonderful and so great! We must take good care of our earth and appreciate it!