During the last couple of days I have sorted through photographs taken during my last two trips to Singapore in February and April of this year. I still have a few photographs to organise. I have created a number of new galleries and added them to the galleries of my main web site.

April 2008 ~ Singapore

Kampong Glam and Arab Street with Alan and Westley.
Workshop at Singapore Airlines Training Centre.
Hwa Chong Institution Workshop and Presentation.
Macintosh Meet-up with the team from Me@n.
Nanyang Technological University ~ Read-Write Web Workshops and Presentation.

February 2008 ~ Singapore

Friends and Food ~ eating out with Tom Reeves, Westley Field, Siva, Airani, Anand, Vivien and Sheryl.
Good To Great 2008 Teaching and Learning Seminar, Nanyang Technological University.
Hougang Primary School.
Hougang Primary School Podcasting Workshops.
Chinatown.
Views of Singapore from the Peninsular Hotel. Day and night.
Changi International Airport ~ The new T3 Terminal.
First flights on the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380.

There were a number of other catch-ups with friends and culinary delights that I am going to blog about specifically in the near future, so please stay posted.

During the course of this week in Singapore I have experienced some rather impressive thunderstorms and downpours. I captured a few of the moments on my trusty little camera while walking around Nanyang Technological University where I have been conducting a series of workshops and a presentation.

The rain is pelting down

The drains are pushed to the max

Drenching rains and running drains

This afternoon Shao-Ping, myself and our two guests from Taiwan, Claire and Kelly, went for a drive south through the Illawarra, past my school at Albion Park and then up Macquarie Pass to the top of the Illawarra Escarpment. A new tourist attraction opened on the escarpment two weeks ago ~ The Illawarra Fly.

What is the Illawarra Fly you ask? A large insect of the order Diptera with dimensions not unlike the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour? Perhaps a massive opened zipper comparable in size to the Big Pineapple at Nambour? Well, thank goodness, the Illawarra Fly is not a kitsch piece of titanic tourist trash. It is a tree-top walk along the edge of the Illawarra escarpment.

We arrived at the ‘fly‘, bought our tickets and made our way through the temperate rainforest to the structure. It is quite high and I am not one for heights actually. Not sure why. I climbed Uluru when I was 14 and I have even been on two tandem skydives from 4000 metres but some heights still get to me. I ventured out on to the structure and began taking photographs. I will admit that I did not climb the tower. Perhaps next time.

The views north and east across the Illawarra escarpment are sensational. You can see all of the peaks conquered by my alter ego Larry as a member of the Adventurers’ Club. Mount Kembla, Mount Keira and Broker’s Nose are all there. The Illawarra looks like a nice place to live and work, eh? I car-pool with Diamond and Horse from the Adventurers’ Club.

Looking north towards Wollongong in the distance and the Illawarra Escarpment

Beneath us lay Albion Park and the Yellow Rock region. Due east is Shellharbour. The Pacific Ocean spreads out along the eastern horizon. The weather was perfect for the adventure.

Yellow Rock and Albion Park countryside

Following the tree top walk we made our way back through the forest and I took a few more photographs. I think I took 71 in all. I should create a new gallery.

A massive tree ~ I do not know the species…

Shao Ping, Claire and Kelly

After that we drove back down the mountain and through the dairy farms. Claire and Kelly jumped at the opportunity to photographs the cows in the late afternoon light.

Contented cows. They’re not thinking about joining a Diigo group.

After settling in at the hotel I walked over to Victoria Street, past the National Heritage Board building pictured below and caught a number 2 bus down to Eu Tong Sen Street, alighted in Chinatown, and went for a walk to my favourite eating haunt. I used the integrated electronic ticketing system that one can use with the trains and buses here in Singapore. If only they could get it to work in Sydney.

Shao Ping and I used often ate at the Tai Pei Eating House in Trengannu Street. My meal was predictable. The staff know what I will order. I always have the hot plate beef with ginger and some vegetables plus a little chilli sauce. And steamed rice. And a glass of beer. I followed that with home-made ice lemon tea.

Singapore is constantly changing. I would not be surprised if Singapore forms part of the definition for change in the Oxford dictionary. As I walked through Chinatown I noticed that the Housing Development Board flats were being upgraded. Lift wells that serviced every floor were being retrofitted to the structure. Prior to that the elevators stopped at every sixth floor. A resident that lived on the 8th floor, for example, would alight at the 6th floor and climb the stairwell to the 8th floor. Compare the photograph of the block below with this one taken in 2003 and this earlier view from 2000.

I went for a walk around Chinatown after dinner. I noticed that the Hong Lim Housing Development Board flats had also been given a fresh coat of paint. That is the third upgrade I had witnessed for these flats during the last three years. Some of earlier photographs of the same area taken in 2000 can be seen here.

I kept walking and taking more photographs as I had done in 2000. The old building on the corner of Ann Siang Road and Club Street has been renovated. It had been in a sad state back in 2000.

During my stay in Singapore I had taken many photographs around the Chinatown area documenting the change, the people and the events. These photographs area available in these galleries: Chinatown Scenes 2003, Chinese New Year 2003, Singapore Visit April 17th 2005 and the View from Chinatown 2000.

Today I had the very good fortune to fly from Sydney to Singapore aboard one of Singapore Airline’s new Airbus A380 jets. As I waited in the departure lounge I managed to capture a couple of photographs as it landed. I used digital zoom so the images are not that clear.

After that I took some photographs of the A380 as it was divested of its pasengers and cargo. the sun was streaming in from behind the subject. The glass was double layered. I was intrigued by the shape of the wings and the profile of the fuselage.

The inflight entertainment system was excellent. There were hundreds of movies and television shows on demand. Countless music tracks. You could even create your own playlist. In addition to that there were news-feeds from AAP, language lessons, business lessons and a built in OS that allowed you to create a word processing document, spreadsheets and the like.

The controller sat in a recess beneath the extra large video screen. It was not located in the arm rest. The controller also acted as the keyboard and mouse. On top of all this you could save your work to your thumb drive courtesy of the USB port. There was also a video jack and a network port that was probably Ethernet.