Pulau Ubin: A cycling trip

This time round, I took a bum boat to Ubin. Rent a bike to cycle around.

On the way there.

Chek Jawa at low tide.

Quarry.

Pulau Ubin: A kayaking trip

Here is yet another round trip to Pulau Ubin.

Passed a kelong.


Stopped for lunch.

Back at Pasir Ris.

For those without kayaking certification, but still would like to try out sea kayaking, here is the place to rent a kayak. The price is abit steep, but their kayaks are very new.

Nature of Beauty

I came across 'Essays in Idleness' in the library. This is supposed to be a Japanese classic. I'm stunned by its perspective of beauty.

The author Kenko put forward the most peculiar Japanese of aesthetic principles:

Beauty is indissolubly bound to its perishability

He wrote: " If man were never to fade away like the dews of Adashino, never to vanish like the smoke over Toribeyama, but lingered on forever in this world, how things would lose their power to move us. The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty"

What a profound statement!

This inspired my to take the following picture of my fading orchid:

I didn't know that cherry blossoms ( as opposed to plum or peach blossoms) are priced because it is so short-lived. I haven't really seen one before, other than those in Japan Hour.

To end off, here is a food for thought:

Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom,
the moon only when it is cloudless?

Another view of ACJC

Snap this pic from the 3rd story of the main block.


Ever so often, we are busy, dashing here and there, working .

We fail to thank the uncles and aunties who help clean our surroundings.

Also, we fail to appreciate the morning sun
and shadows cast by trees.

a HDB flat

Visited a friend in a new flat just beside Commonwealth MRT station. Went up to the 40th floor. Honestly, for me, not a nice view.

Green Tea

I have written a bit about coffee and tea briefly in my blog. By now, readers would have known I am much of a caffeine lover. It is probably time to go into some details on green tea - in particular, Japanese green tea.

A summary of different types of tea is as follows:

Recently, I asked my colleague on a trip to Kyoto to buy me some Matcha, powdered Japanese green tea.

1. Matcha is made from the sprouts picked at the shaded tea field. After been steamed and dried, the leaves are ground by stone mill. It is originally used for Japanese tea ceremony. Now Matcha is often used for making sweets, ice cream and other dishes. Other variations of drinking Matcha include green tea ice blended. I believe something like this is available in Starbucks.
2. Gyokuro is one of the finest shapes of green tea. Gyokuro tea leaves are cultivated at shaded tea field for 2 weeks before havest. Its flavour is smooth ,and it is less astringent.
3. Sencha is the most popular Japanese green tea today. Its tea leaves are grown in open plantation. It is available in wide variety and prices.
4. Genmaicha is a mixture of tea leaves and roasted rice or hulled rice kernels. It has a savory flavour.
5. Houjicha is roasted green tea. It is brown in colour and has a toasted taste.

There are a lot more to Japanese green tea than this. To keep things brief, below is a glimpse of different types of Green Tea and how they should be prepared:

CCA Openhouse at Unity - Scouts

It is time of the year for CCA openhouse at Unity Sec again. I have always looked forward to this event. I hardly do any pioneering and knots these days. Wonderful to 'rough it out' a bit and build some structures. Pioneering fulfills a number of education aims which cannot be learnt in a classroom setting:

1. Teamwork: regardless of how good a person is, if he does not cooperate with others, be a team player, he cannot build a structure by himself. Pioneering a project is a team effort. Visit a scout unit and look at its pioneering project. It does not show how good one or two individual scouts' skill is ,but it reflects how strong and capable the team is.
2. Accountibility: every knots count; Safety is at stake. It teaches a scout to be accountable for their action. In this case, any negligence in tying the lashing may be catastrophic.
   
3. Esteem: You can take a lift up a 20th storey building and look down at the scenery. But it never beat looking down at a 2 storey structure you build from scratch.
   

The pride of a scout troop is
as high as the flag
mounted on its pioneering structure.

A group photo: