Wedding Shop - More photos

I always love weddings. :) Last November 2008 was my hubby's nephew's wedding and this November 2009 will be my nephew's wedding. Geez November seems to be a favourite month for weddings. My eldest sis, youngest sister and myself have our weddings in November too but of course different years.

Today I will share some more photos of wedding accessories. You can see my last year posting of photos of these wedding accessories in here.

This is a very traditional wedding costume for the bride and is known as the Dragon and Phoenix Bridal Dress or "Kwa". I have one too and still in good condition. I will show you mine at another post (been 25 years since I last wear it...lol). By now if you have been following my blog, you should know that Chinese love Red. Red represent Good Luck and evil is afraid of the colour Red.

According to Chinese tradition the dragon and phoenix represent the natural balance that exists between man and woman so the dragon and phoenix are always found on chinese wedding dress or cheongsum. Take note that the dragon must always be on top on the phoenix and not the other way round as the man is always seen as the head of the family. In royalty, dragon represents the emperor while the phoenix is his mate.

These are the stuffs (scissors, ruler, comb, red thread, mirror, etc) we need for the wedding mornings that is the combing of hair ritual. A "good luck" woman (a married woman who have lots of children and grandchildren) will comb the hair of the bride or bridegroom.

The below photo is the word double happiness in chinese. This Chinese character "Double Happiness" is a very important symbol in the Chinese culture. It conveys the idea that man and woman are meant to go through life together. Every person, in effect, has a soul mate in this world. You can read the story of the double happiness from source in here.
A modern wedding shop selling all accessories a wedding might need. Very convenient.

Can you find more double happiness in the below photo?

Oh I love these tea sets, they are so pretty and cute. They play a very important role.

The wedding couple will present tea to the parents and relatives in sequence of seniority. Those who receive the tea usually give the bride gifts such as jewellery or money wrapped in red envelope or hong bao.

It can be a very costly affair for wedding especially someone close to you is getting married. I have to give a jewellery piece to my nephew during the tea ceremony and at wedding dinner I need to give a hongbao (with money in red envelope) to my brother in law and sister as wedding gifts. The money can be in hundreds depending where the dinner is held, i.e. four or five stars hotels.

Each dinner table of 10 cost about $700 to $1000. Sometimes wedding couples can make profit out of wedding dinner...lol. The hongbao gifts can help covered the cost of the dinner.

A very chinese wedding bed and accessories on sale in the wedding shop. :) To know more about chinese weddings, you can read the source from here.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

I hope you all will not be bored by my long post today. :)

White Cat

Saw this huge cat sculpture in Waterfront Copthorne Hotel, Singapore.

It is quite huge cause when I spread my two hands across, I could not touch the head and tail altogether and maybe because I dont have very long hands to begin with .....lol.

Pink Saturday-Lanterns

My contribution for pink saturday will these beautiful lanterns that comes in different colours. They were part of a decoration in the shopping mall.

For more pinky participants, please visit Beverly of How Sweet The Sound.

Skywatch-Friday-Istana Park - Part 3

Continuing from posts on flowers in the Istana Park.

Saw these beautiful bougainvillea. I always thought that bougainvillea are pink, did not realise they comes in white too.

Looking up through the arches, you can see both different colours of the plant.
Closer look at the white bougainvillea with the sky in the background.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Istana Park - Part 2 - Flowers

Continuing from yesterday post on Istana Park, today I will show you some flowers that I saw at the park. As it is a very small park, there are not many flowers. Sorry I am not familiar with the names of the flowers. Will try to put in the names when I come across them.

Love these beautiful pink flowers

I think these are part of the ester flowers group, will t

Canna Flowers

This flower looked like a trumpet so it is called golden trumpet or as Yellow Allamanda (I hope I got the name right, correct me if it is not.)

My World Tuesday-Istana Park Part 1

This is a very small park but of great importance. It is Istana Park. You can read more about it in the below photo. The world Istana is actually a malay word meaning palace. But the Istana in Singapore is infact the official residence of our President where he receives and entertain guests. So this little park is just opposite the Istana.

The centrepiece of the park must be this Festival Arch which is 26 metres tall. You can read more about the Istana Park in here.

At the Istana Park, there's a coffee house here and when night comes there will be more customers.

Visit tomorrow to see the beautiful flowers I saw in the park.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Candle in the Dark

It was earth hour yesterday. We were supposed to switch off all lights between 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. to support earth hour.

Ok, I was excited and lighted a candle and listening to my portable radio. Able to do this cause both sons went out otherwise they would be using the computer, etc.

5 minutes passed then 10 minutes and 25 minutes, Ok I am getting bored by now. Cant do anything in the dark and too early to go to bed. So 30 minutes passed and the clock said it is nine pm, my favourite TV programme is on.

So I blow off the candle and watch my TV without switching the lights. So does it count? I guess I am only 50% into the earth hour...lol. I have to be honest. :)

Yikes, I now know I cant be left alone in the dark without a good plan...lol. Bravo to those who are 100% supportive of earth hour.

Just a short video to show the burning candle. I am surprised that the candle looked good in the recycled cover. It was an old cover of a broken container. The light reflected by the candleflame through the cover looked like a beautiful pattern.

CREATE! DON'T STEAL! A campaign for protecting our rights

Laras Welt initiates a campaign today! CREATE! DON'T STEAL!

If you support the campaign to protect your works and not let anyone use them without permission, please visit Lara of uproad blogspot to get the original banner.

You can see her other post on Protest against theft.

Skywatch Friday - Kelong

Today my skywatch photos are about kelongs. Kelong actually is a Malay word to describe a structure with wood in waters. These kelongs are used for fishing and also serve as dwellings for the fishermen and their families. You can read more about them from Wikipedia.

The above is not really a real kelong. It is just part of the boardwalk found in Changi for leisure. It is not used for fishing but just as a decoration piece. Today there are only a handful of real fishing kelongs left in Singapore. You can read my previous posting on the boardwalk in here.

These structures are found in Sentosa. They are built to resemble Kelongs. At night there were be performance in here. There will be laser lights and fire coming out of these "kelongs". I did not watch the performance now that there are limited tickets (they used to have a venue near the Sentosa Merlion Park). The old venue was demolised to make way for the Integrated Resort and I think the above kelong will be temporary. You can see how the kelong looked at night from photos found in the internet.

Closer look at the "kelongs".

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Window Display

I always love to look at the window display. The window display at Robinson in Centrepoint Shopping Centre always make me take a double look. The mannequins are not dressed in any fancy clothes this time, they are promoting the lots of super discounts in their windows display this time round. I love shopping at Robinson.

Another window display at Wisma Atria Shopping Mall - I love the clothes in here. They are beautiful and they are not very expensive. I would love to buy the centrepiece but I dont have a sexy figure to wear it...lol.

Best time to shop at Guess must be during their promotion period.

I cant remember which shopping mall this window display was at.

Yet to be completed shopping malls coming soon

Today I will featured yet to be completed shopping malls that will be opened this year. More shopping choices for us but with the recession and bad economy, I wondered if business will be good. Competition must be very tough for the many shopping malls in Orchard Road. There are just too many. But it will be good for me....lol...I like to shop or window shop in different malls and looking out for good dining places and good deals.

This is ION Orchard which is opposite CK Tang. It is a high-rise residential condominium cum shopping mall. It is expected to be completed end of this year. You can read more about it in here.

This mall is so big and the escalator is facing the main road. Glad they kept the trees otherwise it looked like a concrete jungle. It is an offence to cut down trees in here, you need permit to cut down trees. You can read more about the mall in here.

Another yet to be completed shopping mall called Lluma Shopping Centre opposite Bugis Junction.

The star and hexagon shaped structures will be lighted when completed. This shopping centre will looked very lovely at night.

With so many shopping malls, we are spoilt with choices...lol. But I hope they dont sell the same stuff in the malls. We can always see the same brand of shops in almost every shopping mall. I am not a shopalcoholic. During good times, I shop less cause things are too expensive and not worth to buy but during the bad times, the many discounts and good deals allowed me to buy the things that I have been eyeing for a long time.....yayyyyy....lol.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Lemonade Award

Today I received an award from a very friendly blogger who never fails to visit me and her nice comments everytime make me smile. She is so sweet to translate her blog into english for the english visitors to her blog. Her name is Anya and this is her blog.

Here is the text of the award:
The Lemonade Award is given to sites which the giver show either great attitude and or gratitude.The rules for these awards are:
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate 10 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I am just happy to have bloggers visit my blog and appreciated very much their nice comments. I cant make up my mind who to give. So anyone who loves this award, please grab it from here. :)

Skywatch Friday-Housing in Tiong Bahru

My skywatch will be these housing in Tiong Bahru. Built in the 1930s, Tiong Bahru Estate is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore. Almost everyone in Singapore knew that Tiong Bahru is famous for their buildings and of course their food (especially chwee kuay) at Tiong Bahru Hawker Centre. I will go there another time to take photo of the hawker centre.

These flats featured rounded balconies, flat rooftops and the famous spiral staircases.

These flats are protected under Tiong Bahru Heritage Buildings. They cannot be demolished without the government's permission. You can read more on these flats from
source.

These newer taller buildings are private condominiums.

It is directly opposite the MRT Station of Tiong Bahru. The place where I am standing is Tiong Bahru Shopping Mall.


This condominium is so tall that I have to squat down and bend my head real low to try to take the whole building...lol. I still did not capture the lower few floors. I think this condominium is at least more than forty stories high.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.