A Moving Masterpiece: The Song Dynasty as Living Art

清明上河图

When the advert for this exhibition was shown on tv the very first time, my hubby got excited. I was like, "what is that?" Honestly, I have never heard of this painting in my 30 years. I guess it is because we did not learn about China's history in details in school. I only remembered studying about 秦始皇 (Emperor Qin) briefly. I became very interested when I went to surf the website for more details of this historical painting. I was even more intrigued when I realized how the painting was animated to introduce the lives of the people during the Song Dynasty.

Facts and Figures

- two years in the making

- 128x6.5 metres long projection screen

- 12 cinema projectors

- more than 21000 pixels

- 1068 moving characters in the painting

The Song Dynasty was introduced using the five elements : 金 (gold) 木 (wood) 水 (water) 火 (fire) 土 (earth)

火 (fire) : Festivals and Traditions

木 (wood) : Imperial Examination System of the Song Dynasty

土 (earth) : Science and Technology

金 (gold) : Economy and Trade

水 (water) : Cultural Integration

And onto the highlight, the painting! The most creative part, which was also what I like most about this exhibition is the transformation of the painting from day to night. It was really interesting to see the daily lives of the people living in peace and prosperity during the Song Dynasty 900 years ago.

Actual size of the painting, this is the replica. The original is kept at the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The animated painting, shot some scenes in both day and night.

Rural scenary

Ships of ten thousand stones (万石船)

Rainbow bridge (虹桥) - realised that I didn't get a good shot of the night scene
This was found in the middle section of the whole painting. It is a large wooden bridge, shaped like a rainbow. My favourite part.

Crossroad

City Gate Tower

Sun Yang Restaurant (孙羊正店) - A three-storey magnificent building which is popular for drinkers to gather.

Another crossroad inside the city

This is the actual size of the animated painting in the exhibition hall. Actually, I only managed to capture about 50% of the whole painting. (*look out for the Rainbow bridge in above pics)

The ticket price is inclusive of the audio guide. Though I still think that the tickets are a bit too pricey ($21, or $18 if you have passion card), but I think it is really an interesting exhibition if you are the kind that is into historical China. I only managed to take the still pictures but in the exhibition, the people, camels, horses and ships are actually moving. It was really an enjoyable experience. Only 12 days left (closing on 6th Feb)! Catch it if you can!

http://www.amovingmasterpiece.com/index.html

The BIG 3-0

I have not been celebrating my birthdays much since the 21st one. Every year, one night was spent having dinner with my family and another night with hubby. So I was really overwhelmed when I received presents and had celebration with close friends, colleagues, and of course, with my family. I suspect it is due to the big THREE-OH. They say reaching the big THREE-OH, you have stepped into another stage of your life. I guess so.

I was invited to my sec friend's house for steamboat a week before my actual day. Since we do not meet up much, I had thought it was just a normal gathering. I brought my little girl along. I had really no idea that they prepared a cake (apple crumble made lovingly by my bestie) and sang birthday song for me! I was so touched! We have known each other for 17 years...and counting...:) Thanks girls.

Close collegues also planned a dinner with me. We went to Ma Maison at Millenia Walk. Come to think of it, I have known these guys for almost 7 years! They treated me to a nice dinner. Received eye masks and body lotion from them as presents. Thanks!

Was rushing my work one day before my actual day coz I had planned to be on leave on my birthday (which was the next day). Received a unknown call from someone. Thinking that it may be call from some bank, I did not pick it up initially. After letting it ring for sometime, I do not know why but I decided to answer. It was from a florist. He said he is reaching my office in 5 mins and asked to meet at the guard house. Oops! Flowers! From hubby? Unlikely, though not impossible. I was thinking more of my sisters. And yeah..they were really from them! What a great surprise! Thanks, sistas!

So on the actual day, hubby and I had a buffet lunch at MBS Todai Seafood Buffet. It serves a wide variety of food. However, most were there for the seafood and so were we! It was my first time having Alaskan Snow Crab. Yummy!

First time to MBS. Didn't know that there was a "river" indoors, just like the one at Macau Venetian Casino. Instead of gondolas, the Singapore version were sampans.

After watching "Real Steel" (a very good show), we shopped around and finally, to have dinner with my family. We went to the Singapura Restaurant located at Selegie. Saw the recommendations of this restaurant from a Channel 8 show and decided to give it a try. The crispy duck was really good.

Can see that I was trying desperately to take a photo with my baby, but she refused!

Blurred pics of a hug and a kiss.

Birthday cake from the sistas!

And, my present from hubby. Yay! :)

Thanks all for the presents and celebration. I really felt loved......and old. Haha..:)

***This is another long overdue post. Just FYI, baby's birthday was in Sept and mine was in Oct...***

movie screening at home

during the long hari raya haji weekend, hubby and I watched movies every night. eversince we had our baby, we seldom had time to go to the movies, hence whenever we have time, we'll try to watch some at home.

hubby selected some highly rated movies to watch. all these movies were not the latest, the most recent was screened in 2010. usually, before deciding which movie to watch, I would read the synopsis to decide if it is worth watching. however, this time, I started watching all 3 without knowing anything beforehand. I must admit, watching movie this way is interesting too since the expectation is not so high. so I shan't divulge much on the storyline but just to share my thoughts on each one.

movie watched on the first night
:: the blind side:: 

from the title, you would never have guessed what is the story about, unless, of course, you read the synopsis. this movie was based on a true story. screened in 2009, it was much raved as the story is very heartwarming and touching. this movie was the best out of the 3 we watched over the weekend.

movie watched on the second night
::  岁月神偷 ::

a bittersweet family saga. actually the storyline is simple and anticipated but it is still a heartrending film. it makes you laugh, smile and also tear.

movie watched on the third night
:: crash ::

this movie involves many characters which life intertwines as the story goes. it talks mainly on racism in the united states. language used were very harsh and blunt but i guess they tried to film it as close to reality as possible. weird feeling i get from watching this show but the storyline is really fresh and interesting.

try to google these 3 movies. all 3 are award winning films. have fun watching them! :)

Baby Ziqing @ 20-21 months

[started this post when baby zq was 20mths, but didn't manage to finish, so updating it now at around 21 mths...haha]



3 more months to the TERRIBLE TWO! haha... it is a phrase used describe a behaviour of testing boundaries and finding limits. More info on this can be found from the 2 websites below:
The Terrible Twos: Fact versus Fiction
Terrible Twos - Not About Good or Bad children!



After reading both articles, I think I have already experienced it since 1 month ago! Anyway, this post is more about baby zq's growth and development at 20-21 months. To be honest, I'm not sure of the ability of an average toddler at 20 months but from what she has accomplished, I am already very proud of her. *beams*



Language and Cognitive
1) Able to recite numbers 1-30 in English. Have not started to teach her in Mandarin yet. [updated at 21 mths: much to the surprise of everyone, she rattled off 1-10 one day in Mandarin! my mother asked if I teached her, but  I didn't!]
2) Able to recite the Alphabet in the form of singing the sing "ABC". Although sometimes, some letters are missing, but it is good enough for me.
3) Able to recognise numbers and letters when shown.
4) Able to "fill in the blanks" during sing-a-long and story telling.
5) Communicate only in Mandarin as we speak Mandarin at both me and hubby's home. Thus, we have enrolled her in the English class at Julia Gabriel.
6) Knows the difference between 大大 and 小小.
7) Blabbers to herself while playing her toys (starting to learn her to play by herself).
8) Repeating every word you say.



Motor Skills
1) Able to feed herself with spoon although about 1/10 of the food will fall into the bib.
2) Able to aim and kick a rolling ball.
3) Likes to take a cloth/tissue and go around the house wiping the tables and chairs, trying to imitate the cleaning auntie that goes to my mother's house 3x a week.
4) Likes to doodle and is able to draw "1" and circle (not very round but able to join both ends)
5) Able to turn the cap of the bottle.
6) Likes to stack things one on top of the other. [updated: managed to stack 8 upright big mahjong tiles]
7) Able to climb up and down the stairs with 1 hand supporting the rail.

8) Shakes her butt and body whenever she hears music.

9) Expert and using the iPhone to go to the applications that she wants. (trying very hard to minimise her usage of the hp)



Behaviour and Social Skills
1) She is the friendly neighbour, who waves hi and calls out whenever she sees them going in/out of the house.
2) She is the friendly baby, who says hello and calls uncle or auntie to whoever is in the lift with her.

3) She is the overfriendly baby, who hugs other babies (other=stranger) whenever she feels like it.

4) Sometimes, she is the naughty baby, who throw things or beat you just to test your patience.

I am a first time mother and I am really amazed at the speed of growth of a baby. I strongly believed it is due to the storytelling and bedtime singing while she was a baby that helped her learn things very fast. Talking to her (just as you would talk to your friend same as your age) also helped her to learn the correct phrases and words. Having read that a 2-3 yr old brain is 80% that of an adult encourages me to even teach her more things now.

photo taken at the zoo at 18mths

she starts to walk.....

finally, baby ziqing has decided to start to walk by herself, without support, not for long distance yet, not even from the entrance of the room till the windows right inside the room, but it is a start. *happy*

day by day, she is gaining confidence to walk longer and longer distances. initially, when 2 of us sits at one end, she will look and "mentally" gauge who is the nearest to her and decides to walk (without support) to that person. clever huh? this few days, she will push your hand away and try to walk away from you, but just a few steps to maybe the table or the chair. also, she will stand still for about 30secs (?), trying to stand properly and be more stable before she starts walking towards the person.


though she is still not walking by herself for long distances, i think it is an accomplishment for her. it is really amazing to see how fast she grows day by day, all the changes and development in her. *beams*


today, she is 14.5months. :)

the day that I was so happy

actually I had wanted to share the below experience here on my blog when it happened that day but somehow I couldn't blog on my iPhone, so i wrote it on my fb. I think I should have it noted down here in the event that one day my fb account would be gone or something... haha, paranoia.. so here it is again. for those who have already read it, u can close ur browser now.

date: 18th oct 2010

day: Monday night

baby did the most amazing thing just now...
for the past 2 weeks, she has finally decided to call mama... *happy* =) for the past few days, she actually look at me or pat me when she calls out mama... *double happiness* =))

every night I will carry her, pat her to sleep while singing songs or recite nursery rhymes to her. I will also name each and everyone of her family members and tells her dat we all love her. it goes something like dat.. "mama sayang (means love) qingqing, papa sayang qingqing..." and so on until I finish naming every single one. usually, she will just listen but just now she did the cutest thing! when I went on the 2nd round starting with "mama sayang qingqing....", she pulled out her pacifier from her mouth, opened her eyes, looked at me, smiled and whispered "mama"... den she put back her pacifier and close her eyes. ohmigod!!! I was so amazed! so I finished the 2nd round of names and started the 3rd round again. this time she did exactly the same thing but did not open her eyes (must be already dozing off). *beams*

love love love!! I'm in heaven ~~ =D

now we know....

before i start blogging about the "biggest event of the year", i found out something last night...

hubby and i went out shopping yesterday evening while zq was sleeping..we had dinner out too so by the time we came back, it was close to 8pm...zq was playing in the living room and when she saw us, her face lit up and started crawling towards us at a super fast speed....hubby and i were standing at a distance apart, she "sped" past hubby and came towards me...i thought she was crawling into the room, but she stopped at my feet, held on to my legs and tried to stand up....once she stood up, she started hugging my legs...."awww~~~" she missed me....*smile*


so i carried her up and asked her to sayang me, she laid her head on my shoulder and kept patting me...sweet!! :)MIL and FIL were around too and they were like "oh she misses her mama!" hubby was then trying to prove a point that zq only wans me to carry and not him, so he asked her if she wans to "bao bao", and guessed wat? she stretched out her arms for her papa! haha....hubby was shocked, all of us were shocked (coz usually, she doesn't want her papa to carry her)....so hubby carried her and she started to also sayang him the same way as she did me....hahha....so sweet.....


i concluded, she misses both of us....but she wans me to carry her first....


so laogong, dun always snatch her from my arms and make her cry.....wait for your turn...she do miss u too!

i'm excited..

wanted to post this up last night coz i was really excited....but just realised i couldn't blog using iphone....so last night's excitement had to wait till today to share with all....

i'm excited because tomorrow is my baby's first year birthday celebration (though actual day is on 16th, which we will be celebrating in jb, so 12th will be the celebration in sg)..


i'm excited because i've ordered a customised cake, doraemon's theme, just for my baby girl..


i was excited last night because i've just texted the baker and she has already baked the cake! and she was moulding my little girl at 12am last night!


i was excited last night because i just can't wait to see how the cake turns out!!


just for my baby and also for all, i've developed about 400 photos of her since the day she was born till 11 mths. i've already put them all nicely in 3 different photo albums...final 'project' is to add some slips of paper to the albums to show others and also to remind myself the different months and occasion to which the photo was taken...


i was really excited last night for sunday's birthday celebration, but the excitement was a bit dampened as my baby had a slight fever this morning =(..i will make sure she rests well today and get well enough to enjoy her BIG DAY tomorrow...

back...

hello...i'm finally back....


most of u know there are some changes and that there are going to be changes....yes, in my life...in our lives...*smile*



as i'm writing this, she is actively kicking me....



did we plan for it?

yes, we planned for a baby cow......


are we happy?

though both of us were surprised at first, as the day passes by, as she grows or rather as i grow bigger, we are gradually adapting to the presence of another life in me....and yes, we are happy......


are we ready?

financially, we are still saving...but we will adjust as she comes....and yes, we are ready for u, baby......:)

no more computer...but....

my laptop crashed......i seriously dunno how it happened.....

though i'm not so into net surfing as my hubby or sisters, but still, i feel handicapped....right into the 20th century now, who can imagine himself/herself without a computer by his/her side? anyway, so far so good considering that my poor laptop is well into its 3rd yr now, and the only sites that i surf are my sister's/cousin's/fren's blog, facebook and fantasy premier league....not losing too much yah??


luckily, hubby started me on reading naruto...addicted to them now...1 after another....now i understand why my final year roomie was forever watching naruto on the comp, and why my sisters were so stucked onto the comic from the net...still i think it is better to read them from the comic book itself...thanks to his bro, having a whole collection of them....


to also keep me company is "sex and the city" serial....after much consideration, i finally got hold of them....some may wonder wats so nice bout the show, but to me, i think only the girls will understand (except my sis, she totally hates it!)....some of the things they mentioned bout men are so true dat i cannot help but nod while watching...and not to mention that it is so hilariously funny!!!


this is juz a random blog since the comp is free while hubby is showering.....and he is back now.....ciao2....

Yesterday Once More......

do you still remember these??

can't really describe the feeling when i see all these.......wat bout u??

hehhlow..

*waves* finally..here i am again..haven been updating my blog..following being the reasons:

(1) too tired after work everyday. most of the time dun feel like using the comp at home after staring at the comp for the whole day.


(2) boring life. nothing interesting to share with u guys.


(3) gonna stop updating my reno pics, so dat u guys will get a surprise during my housewarming.



yup, talking bout that, i better start my wish list.


see, told ya, boring.

On Marriage

An excerpt from an article on TODAY.

Do you agree? I do.

is it real?

counting down to 2 more days...

juz received a call from my best fren, seems like she is more excited and nervous than me. i dunno y, but i do not feel nervous at all. i guess i'm still at the disbelief stage. she say she will call and check on my emotions the day before the BIG day. i guess its true to some extent that subconciously, i consider my BIG day to be the customary one in nov and not the one which is upcoming and thus, i'm not all flustered about it yet.

i wonder how he feels...

I don't believe it!

I swear the whole world is getting married! We went for our appointment at the ROM for verification of our documents. The timeslot given was 830am - 930am. We managed to reach around 845am. And guess what?! Our queue no. was 62! There were SO many couples there and apparently some of them have already left. GOSH! Are there really SO many people getting married? I wonder if there is only 1 day per week allocated for couples to go and do the verification or is it like that everyday? If it is like that everyday, the government should not be worried that Singaporeans are not getting married and having babies. But then again, having babies is another topic, which I shan't go into it here.

We didn't wait very long. When it was our turn, our documents were verified and on the spot, we get to see our Certificate of Marriage. It was all printed out nicely and all we have to do was to check. I thought that was all, but no, we need to sign another form stating that we are conscending adults, above 21 yrs of age, have not been married previously, blah blah..AND before signing the form, we have to take turns to raise our right hand and read out loud. It was funny in the sense that there were many, let's call them, adminstrators, and each couple was "assigned" to one. So everyone was standing at the counter, raising their right hand and reading out loud. *laughs* Luckily I managed to read through the whole "passage" without laughing. We left with our Certificate of Marriage which we are supposed to bring on our day of solemnisation.

4 more days.......

Why employees leave organisations?

A friend of mine recently sent me an article.

Why employees leave organisations?

http://www.citehr.com/why-employees-leave-organisations-azim-premji-vt2059.html

This article makes me think of the recent happenings around me. The company is losing quite a number of people. I guess one of the reason is because there are so many opportunites out there nowadays, and with many new companies sprouting out, it is no wonder why people want to leave. But on top of this, there is also another reason which, I believe, is valid enough to make one change company.

An excerpt from the article:

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he's the reason why they quit, taking their knowledge, experience and contacts with them. Often, straight to the competition. "People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Upon reading this, I thought of the people who are leaving the company. It is true, to a certain extent, that the supervisors/managers did indeed play a part (disclamer: does not apply to all). In one way or another, if one feels the limitation of his/her growth within the dept, job focus is made unclear because of many reasons, directions are often ambiguous, disinterest in the job, there is a tendency for him/her to look elsewhere. The above relates to all supervisors/managers, which I believe, if they take the chance to review and improve the situation, he/she may still be able to keep his/her employee.

Actually, I am in no position to say the above as I have not exactly experienced leaving the company because of the "boss". But it is truly the case for some of my colleagues, who have come from other companies. I guess, to stay or to leave a company depends on what do you want. Do you want to grow with the company, to strive and to learn new things, or to just do whatever your job scope require of you? All these, in one way or another, are linked to the supervisor/manager.

I was recently being faced with a dilemma to accept another job scope or you can say, another area of expertise. This situation arose due to the decreasing size of our team. If I accept this new job scope (not exactly new, as I've done it before for a few months), the "boss" would be free of one problem and all the other team members will be happy. However, it is not what I want as I am satisfied with my current job scope. I am learning what really interest me, eventhough it may take me a bit longer than others to fully understand. I would prefer to continue with what I am doing now and hope to excel in it. Hence, my decision was clear, and that is to remain in my current job scope. Luckily, the "boss" did not insist.

One will go, no matter what, when a better opportunity arises. It cannot be guaranteed that once you leave this company, your supervisor/manager of the new company will be better. But, I strongly believe that the supervisor/manager will somehow play a part in the employee's decision on whether to stay or leave a company.

What do you think?

just to share...

I've finally got infected, and here I am, starting a blog. I know it's kinda slow, with the craze dying down, but what the heck, it's not everyday that one bought a house, renovate the house and get married. So here I am to share, with all, the process of going through to the next stage of my life.


Let me just give a brief introduction to me and my fiance. We got to know each other before we were both sent to Italy for training by our company. There, we became close friends. I do not know exactly when and how, but my heart started to thump real badly whenever I see him. Later, I found that it was mutual. I will not go into the before, during and after, but, here we are, together at last. :) After all that we have went through, I truly believe in fate now.

Just to share with you some places that we have visited during our 1 year in Italy.