Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Singapore Garden Festival 2008

Yesterday, I got really tired from the office move. At the new place, nothing was set up - the contractors were still around fixing whatever they needed to do. I was stuck in the office and felt the need to get out and have some fun. So I headed for Suntec City for the Singapore Garden Festival 2008.
My nose was assailed by the smell of greenery when I walked into Suntect City. I paid S$5 for my ticket (S$1 discount for being an Ikea Friends member). I also "lent" my membership card to a lady to get her that S$1 discount. I guess the discount made it easier to stomach the entrance fee since the festival wasn't so great.
I got to the top at Level 6 where they told us to start our tour of the festival. I entered and went straight that award winning garden display called Shangri-La. It was interesting. It was an underwater scene, so it was a little surreal like I was underwater and looking up towards the sky. The various cacti were artfully arranged to look like coral under the sea. There were bubbles (like what we blow for fun) floating upwards languidly from some hidden source somewhere under the cacti.
On the top was glass (representing the surface of the sea) and there was water flowing over the glass. It was truly an underwater scene. The only thing missing was Nemo swimming around!!
After that display, I walked around the whole exibition and got some creative ideas for my future floral displays.
I then went down two levels to another part of the exibition where they were showing community gardens, ikebana displays (so artificial), orchids galore and where they had gardening talks. When I got there, the talk was in Chinese, so I gave it a miss.
I truly like the NParks display of edible plants. That was the glutton or cook in me coming out - drool, drool - and it quite inspired me to consider growing my own veggies and herbs in our tiny patch of a balcony where we hang laundry.
I walked around to the booths selling stuff and investigate what's available - also the shopaholic in me coming out. Nothing interesting in truth. There was a booth selling the Singapore Shawl which I thought looked interesting, but I figured that I could make it myself so I didn't buy one. Saved some money there!
My downfall was the butterfly display - I saw these really pretty artificial butterflies stuck to the wall and my creative side popped out for the decorations for my squatter's rights office. Maybe a couple of butterflies could cheer up the place.
V came to join me and used my ticket to get in. Yeah we saved some money there on the ticket - 2 for the price of 1!!

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