2010 April | the groovini

Head Outside: Orchids

April 30th, 2010

Photos by Jay Budai

please ask before using!

Is it an age thing? When I was younger I wasn’t much interested in nature. As I got busier at work, and increasing responsibilities, and more time spent on planes, I increasingly craved nature and the natural order of things. I wanted my home environment to be as un-office, un-airplane, un-hotel as I could make it.

And over the years, developed increasing interest in my interaction with nature. Really, I am not a natural gardener (worms: eek!) but I do like seeing things grow and flower (and preferably not die because I neglected it). Luckily for those of us living in the tropics, there are many plants that just thrive if we don’t interfere too much.

And in a country where our national flower is an orchid, it was a question of time before I had a few of my own. Orchids don’t behave how you expect. They pretty much do as they like and flower whenever they like. Or so it seems to me anyway!

So J and I, in a quest to see what else Singapore has to offer (other than proscribed shopping/eating options) drove out to Mandai to go to the Orchid Garden.

The Mandai Orchid Garden is just by the zoo. It’s basically an orchid nursery that you have to pay $3.50 to get into. If you’re not an orchid/nature/garden curious then this would not be your idea of a nice hour!

It’s a lovely setting: I would love to build a house on the top of the hill (not going to happen). And the place is full of, yes, orchids. Of many hues and varieties. From our national flower, the Vanda Miss Joaquim (that fact seems to be hard-wired into my brain) to spider orchids, hard to breed slipper orchids and crazy curly orchids.

One of the Vanda Ms Joaquim varieties

Interesting to see how they grow the orchids – in clumps, some grow tall, some have crazy roots, some like little shaded nooks, some need lots of sun.

why would nature make curly petals?

On the way out, you can buy a selection of orchids, remember to ask what conditions they like.

It’s really nice to spend time outside. And there, by secondary jungle, the Orchid Garden attracts some great bird visitors. We saw a really cool crane flying overhead (it looked like a pterodactyl), very tame doves, sunbirds, cuckoos. In the carpark we saw a sunbird try to meet his reflection in the car mirror. He gave up after a while. It was awfully cute.

A nice break from shopping centres, computers and concrete.

Photos by Jay Budai

please ask before using!

Posted in Blog, Reflections, Travel-and-Play | No Comments »

PaperTiger’s now available at etsy

April 29th, 2010

Lucy’s fabulous contemporary Chinese-motif giftwrap is now available on etsy.com

No longer do you have to make a special trip to Shanghai or Beijing to purchase!

Buy this and other designs, here.

Posted in Retail-Therapy | No Comments »

Bombay-Mumbai

April 28th, 2010

The Taj Mahal Hotel and The Gateway of India

Welcome to Mumbai! Over the years I’ve travelled to India many times for business. And enjoyed watching people going for the first time and their reactions.

For most, the initial visceral reaction can be overwhelming. The very obvious poverty is hard to accept, and then you find you stop seeing it, and then you feel bad about accepting it. Then you realise by reading and interacting that this is the way India works and has always worked, and that making a vast change overnight is just not going to happen. It’s an intricate system involving religion, societal rules and a lot of history. Remember that before you judge.

Anyway, I’ve been through the evolutionary cycle of India shock enough to have a love-hate relationship with it; I really love it, and yet it can make me want to pull my hair out. It is a wonderful kaleidoscope of humanity, culture, sights, smells; but it is also utterly maddening and can drive you totally nuts. I have worked with some very smart people and made some good friends, and been ripped off with a smile by others.

The airport has improved very much over the years, but don’t go expecting Changi. And get used to security officials and customs officials making the most of the power they have over you. Don’t argue with them, accept their rudeness calmly and carry on. I once questioned an official who was dealing with his friend’s passport (they cut the queue) and he took my passport and had me stand in front of the counter for 20 minutes. He relished every second of it.

Happy Kids! -©Jay Budai

What to expect

Orientation

The city sits on an island, which is longer than it is wide. The airport is to the Northern end, at Santa Cruz.

The area of Fort, right down South, is the old city centre, where banks and commerce was centred. The constraints of space over time have meant a lot of businesses moving north, to Parel, Bandra and beyond, towards the airport.

As a tourist, you’re best situated in the Southern end of Bombay. When I first started going to Bombay, we were based in the Colaba/Fort area, but in recent years, I’ve had to be located further north. Travelling from South Bombay to North Bombay means sitting in the worst of traffic. And if you hit the wrong time, you can find yourself sitting in a car, breathing exhaust fumes for a couple of hours. Tedious. So choose your location wisely.

(To all my Mumbai friends, yes, I know there’s lots to do in Bandra too! Next time…)

Sensory Overload

When you exit the airport for the first time, Mumbai hits you right in the face. Suddenly a LOT of people, noise, smells, and yes, chaos. This is with you for the rest of your trip!

Traffic

©Karthikeyan

If you’re arriving from Singapore, chances are you’ll arrive late night. The advantage of this is you’ll avoid another element that will be with you for the whole of your trip – horrible traffic! (the con of this is you’re going to be sleep deprived that night). And not only can you be stuck in slow or non-moving traffic, but driving can be opportunistic, squeezing into non-existent gaps, but drivers don’t use the horn just when they need to. It’s like a form of expression to them, so they are forever tooting, sometimes for no obvious reason. Beep-beep-toot-toot. Driving is a very noisy experience. Get used to it.

Click here to read more »

Posted in Travel, Travel-and-Play | No Comments »

Help Riverkids

April 27th, 2010

I’ve mentioned the Riverkids Project before. Dale started Riverkids to help the vulnerable kids of Cambodia. You can imagine that in a poor country, getting kids schooled is not a priority. There’s always the looming threat of the sex trade, or any sort of trade. Riverkids aims to school them, help them, keep them off the streets, and stop them from being abused. Now Riverkids needs help, and really needs to raise money to maintain their programmes and keep the kids fed.

US$60 puts a child through school for a whole year. Even a $10 donation will make a difference. $10!

Please help now, here. It’s really easy to do.

Posted in Good-Karma | No Comments »

Summer flats

April 27th, 2010

Yes, it’s always summer here. Happily, it’s now that time of year when summer collections are in stores.

There are some delicious flat slippers and sandals in great colours…perfect for our mostly casual-sometimes-smart climate!

Unisa $159 + $149

Guess $115

Fun colours, metallics, embellished with bling, a bit of a swish and maybe add a ruffle…and in store now.

Delicious metallics, CK Calvin Klein $150 - $210

did someone say bling?

Steve Madden PVC shoes, LOVE them! $150

By Beverley Feldman. $269 Cool, or Auntie?

from Nine West, $155

Posted in Retail-Therapy | No Comments »

From my dreams

April 26th, 2010

OK my fellow over-analytical, why me, woe is me-ers, a reminder from the Universe about context. While we’re (at least, I) busy navel-gazing, out there, 7,500 light years away, this is happening. Stop a second and take in the incredible beauty and craziness of it. The colours, the shapes, the light, the dark, the movement, the power…you don’t want to be in the middle of this.

This is the Carina Nebula, taken by my very favourite space telescope, Hubble! (who is 20)

Still need some detail to fixate on? Here’s the description:

This craggy fantasy mountaintop enshrouded by wispy clouds looks like a bizarre landscape from Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” or a Dr. Seuss book, depending on your imagination. The NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, which is even more dramatic than fiction captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars. The pillar is also being assaulted from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas that can be seen streaming from towering peaks.

Nestled inside this dense mountain are fledgling stars. Long streamers of gas can be seen shooting in opposite directions off the pedestal at the top of the image. Another pair of jets is visible at another peak near the center of the image. These jets (known as HH 901 and HH 902, respectively) are the signpost for new star birth. The jets are launched by swirling disks around the young stars, which allow material to slowly accrete onto the stars’ surfaces.

This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. The image celebrates the 20th anniversary of Hubble’s launch and deployment into an orbit around Earth.

Scorching radiation and fast winds (streams of charged particles) from super-hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionized gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks. The denser parts of the pillar are resisting being eroded by radiation much like a towering butte in Utah’s Monument Valley withstands erosion by water and wind.

Posted in Literati-Glitterati, Visual | No Comments »

Why isn’t this a big hit?

April 26th, 2010

Yes, this REALLY is a song!

I tell you, that chorus is darned addictive. Hmm, I wonder if a sugar gut counts.

Posted in Literati-Glitterati, Videos | No Comments »

Your Life, in Art

April 24th, 2010

Jay said something recently that really resonated with me. His grandma had told him ‘life is like a tapestry, full of different colours’. Which got me thinking, what would I want my tapestry to look like?

I would want it to have lots of colours, to reflect the enormous variety of experiences I’ve been privileged to have through my life.

It would have lots of different patterns, because life isn’t the same all the time, and it would have to incorporate the unpredictability of change.

Dark colours would offset the brighter colours, and give the brighter colours more prominence, and a greater ability to shine.

It would have a sense of freedom, an overall theme of unconventional conventionality.

There would be great streaks joy, mingling with deep pools of sadness. Then you’d see bursts of passion, idylls of contemplation, a mass of indulgence and tiny dots of self-discipline.

You wouldn’t be able to miss the large blobs of love, the sunny hues of friendship and most definitely, great splatters laughter.

Maybe it would be more like a contemporary oil painting than a tapestry.

I think the work in progress is on its way to the completed picture I would like to see. It’s lacking in some areas, and I’m working on adding the colours I think the finished work should have.

Maybe it would look something like Agathe de Bailliencourt’s paintings.