Majulah Singapura!

It's almost National Day in Singapore. The city has its flag hung everywhere and I took a few photos earlier this week. 

The old Supreme Court building across from the Padang where the celebrations will be held this year.

Here is part of the stage. They were doing sound checks when I was there so every once in a while really loud music would start up and I'd jump five feet in the air. Wonder if I gave anyone a good laugh?

 Central Fire Station. Too bad the flag on top was wrapped around the pole, would have made a nice photo.

Victoria Theater with the old bridge. So much construction still happening in the Civic Center. Wonder if it will be completed for National Day celebrations?

My best shot at cropping out some of the road work. The building is beautiful. Looking forward to attending a concert there soon I hope.

Gorgeous view of Victoria Theater and the modern city high rises in the background. 

The Arts House at The Old Parliament. Again my best shot at cropping out the construction. Once this area is finished you can expect many more photos. It is one of my favorite places in Singapore.

Happy Friday!!!

5 Days Down Under

Hello! Here are the rest of our photos from Perth, Western Australia. It was a great trip, we love it there in the winter. Maybe one of these days we might go in the summer.....maybe not.  I have come to appreciate winter weather so much more since we moved to Singapore. 

A little cityscape to start out. We stayed in the central business district mainly because of its close proximity to the Swan River and miles and miles of scenic parks and trails for running and birdwatching.

These gorgeous parrots fly all over the area. There are so many of them!

Two more sitting at the top of this tree.

This guy is grayish-white with a pink tummy and head and a super stylish white mohawk. Very fancy bird. Doesn't he know I do not have my zoom lens? Wish he would just get a bit closer.

Downtown shopping area. Just past the cars the street is for pedestrians only. We took the bus here a few times during our stay. 

I couldn't get enough of these trees. They look so interesting and the bark is so soft, almost like tissue paper. So many layers. 

I suppose the most exciting thing that we saw there was the kangaroo's. I did not expect to see them since we didn't go to a zoo or a wildlife park. We went for a run one morning and thought we would try a new route and stumbled upon a gate with signs asking people to please not feed them or leave the gate open.

Sort of really scared me. But we went in. 

Didn't see anything at first and it started to drizzle very lightly.

Then I see them from here and say, "OK, lets go now, we've seen them". Can't you see them perfectly? Good enough right? No? ugh

There are two kangaroo's in the photo. No one else was at the park at the time. I thought that was bad because there would be no one to help if they decided to attack us but maybe it was a good thing because no one saw how scared I was. Some of my photos I couldn't post due to shaking hands!

He seems ok. Just munching on leaves. I think they were smaller, maybe not full grown kangaroos.  

I like this one the best, he isn't even paying attention. 

On our way out we passed a few ducks and an Australian White Ibis. 

I think that is our hotel in the background.

Ending it with a bit of a rainbow over the kangaroo park on Heirrison Island. I really love this photo. Looking back it was a great day walking around taking photos. Definitely a must see if you are in Perth. 

Happy Friday!!!

Roo's in the City

Just a quick post for now and I'll post more next week. We are on vacation in Perth, Australia this week enjoying the winter cold weather of 40F in the evenings and around 65F during the day. Perfect weather for running and walking around sightseeing. 

Look what we found! We like to run along the Swan River because there is a nice path and its a beautiful park setting. We had no idea that the island in the river that we cross over each time had Kangaroo's living on it. Heirisson Island in Perth. Amazing. Right across the street from our hotel. I never would have guessed.

Tons of beautiful birds everywhere. Wish I had brought my zoom lens!

Happy Friday!!!

Telok Ayer and Chinatown

This week I took a walk around two of my favorite places in Singapore, Telok Ayer and Chinatown. They are both pretty close to home and easy to get to with plenty to photograph. Must have been super hungry when I was out as most of these photos are restaurants. :)

This is my favorite restaurant, Urban Bites serving mediterranean food. I love hummus and a shawarma and they are correct, good coffee and baklava does equal perfection!

Coffee house in an old shop house. This street is all old shop houses mostly restored and about half are restaurants / coffee shops.

This place just opened last week. We got very lucky and snagged a table on Saturday, pretty good food :)

This is one of my favorite temples. I like to go inside and look at the bats hanging from the ceiling sleeping. If they weren't sleeping I wouldn't like to go inside and check them out. 

Same temple as above, Thian Hock Keng. I like that when you walk in, just behind these doors there is a giant pepsi machine. Totally unexpected.

A hawker stall at Amoy Street Food Center. It was early, about 11am so it was sort of quiet. By noon this hawker center will be crazy crowded.

11am and the only queue at Amoy St. Our favorite stall here is this one serving sliced fish soup! YUMMO! 

It's hard to stick to a diet in Singapore. There are endless opportunities to eat delicious food wherever you are. I took the photo and almost ran away from this stall to stop myself from attacking the brownies. 

Another hawker stall at Amoy St. I'd guess there are about 50 different stalls at this hawker center. 

Chinatown dragon puppet thingys. 

Chinatown Food Street. Newly remodeled and covered for shade and shelter from rain. This street gets pretty busy at times. I was surprised it wasn't busy when I was there. See a lady with a cart? That is exactly the same kind of cart I take to the grocery store when I have a lot to buy. 

Happy Friday!!!

The Golden Crane at Parkview Square and The Sultan Mosque

One of my favorite buildings in Singapore is Parkview Square. Its art deco style and beautiful golden crane statue in the courtyard makes it stand out from the others. Last week when I was photographing the library people would come up to me and tell me that Parkveiw Square is where I should be taking photos. I did want to get a better shot of that gold crane...

I think this is my favorite pose.

This one isn't bad either with the building and both wings. 

With palm trees and a blue sky. Not crazy about that crane in the background though.

Front view

Side view

Color or...

black and white?

With stairs...

without stairs?

The gold crane is meant to be a physical representation of the artists homesickness and is facing the direction of mainland China. I am not trying to say anything about my own homesickness by posting nine photos of this crane. Nope. Not me. Maybe.  

Close by is the Sultan Mosque. It is currently Ramadan and the mosque is still under renovations so for now just a few photos of this beautiful place. Hopefully I will get more once the scaffolds are down.

The front facade is looking beautiful. They've done an excellent job so far. You can see on the left there is still work being done.

The tents in front are mostly cooked food stalls, snacks and treats for Iftar. I don't think they are here all year long, this is special for Ramadan.

Pretty shot of the mosque from the back. Is that the same crescent moon and star that is on top of the dome in front of the mosque? I think that is the only one. The windows are looking so pretty with a fresh coat of paint. 

Happy Friday!!!