Of course such an awesome shop needs an awesome opening party. Next Thursday, the 8th of December is the party and everyone’s invited. You just need to RSVP here.

I’ll be at the party, of course. Along with some of my Lomo-loving friends.

If you’re curious about what Lomography is, you can check out the official Lomography website to find out more. Also you can follow Lomography Singapore on Twitter or check out their Facebook page.

A year later, after having gone on so many adventures with my beloved AdCrew, a hike is just another thing we have to do.

And that is exactly what we did.

Last Saturday, I dragged myself out of the house at insane O’clock and headed to Clementi to meet up with @Hai_Ren, @irukafishy, @deafknee, @wilfredphua, Raven Silvers and Sarah Coldheart. As it turns out, @irukafishy and I have a mutual friend – my best friend from Australia – but that is another story for another day.

Our hike started out with us walking across open grassy areas but soon we entered the jungle. And that was where the real fun began.

This was truly jungle jungle – and not the controlled jungle that is Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

There were parts when we were walking on the old railroad tracks. Guess they were taken out of use and the jungle just took over.

We had to duck under branches, climb over logs, walk through muddy ground and push through trees and grasses. There was a point where my foot got stuck in some weeds and someone had to help me free my foot. Kind of a fail, I guess.

Half way through the hike, we reached a tunnel. And then it was really muddy there. As in you step in and the mud goes up to your ankles. At first I was being squemish and didn’t want to get too dirty. So i tried ways to get across the muddy area without getting too muddy. I nearly made it, but then fell and then I was muddy. So I thought HECK IT and just walked through the mud.

Then I got into the tunnel, and fell a second time. This time, I managed to end up on all fours on the ground. So I was muddy even on my hands. At that point, I truely thought HECK IT, I’M COVERED IN MUD ALREADY. And just clomped through the tunnel. I think I reached the point where I didn’t think I could get any muddier. Unless of course I fell in a way that ended up with my body falling into the mud – which thankfully didn’t happen.

We walked on through the jungle, taking breaks ever so often. It was really ironic how we were in the middle of a jungle yet we were still connected to the outside world via our smartphones. Of course there was much photo taking as well.

An old signal lamp

We also met a group of older folk who were walking in the opposite direction. The group was quite large and their leaders had knifes to hack away at the branches. So I guess they were fine.

After more walking, we finally got out of the forest and into open fields. On we walked. We passed a river – i think.

And finally we reached the railway tracks – the ones still in operation.

YAY we're out of the jungle

More photo taking occured. Thankfully the train wasn’t coming by at that time so we could walk along the tracks and take photos. But it is good to go in a group so that we could look out for one another.

the tracks

Also, No-Thumbs the Android came out around this time for photos.  (No-Thumbs is my Google Android figurine and sort of my current travel toy. I take him around and get shots of him in interesting places or just my daily life. And he’s a lot cheaper and less fragile than my ball-jointed dolls.)

Walking along, we found a station house where we took more snaps and sat down for a rest.

More walking and we finally reached civilization. I had never been happier to see Bukit Timah Road – and that is saying something since I live along said road and travel along it almost everyday.

We headed to McDonalds for some much needed rest and food. My legs were so thankful when I finally sat down.

even No-Thumbs was glad to be able to get a snack

I took a lot more photos but they’re on my Diana mini & LC-A+ so I’ll have to get those rolls of film developed.

Next adventure: Filmcamp 2011. and at least that is A LOT more sedentary.

And here are some of the pictures from that adventure.

The banner!

A gijinka? Whatever it is, I like!

A stamp card we filled out. We had to go to various booths and collect the stamps.

A beautiful Alienware gaming laptop. That I would love to own but don't have the money for.

The Samsung Galaxy S - running Android 2.1 and putting my Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 to shame.

Sarah has a photo of the Galaxy S and my Xperia X10 next to each other. But it’s on her camera so I’ll have to wait for that photo.

IPAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some super cute game!

And last but not least, some super cute and hilarious and fun to play game.

and this is how we bring Pokemon into the real world

Misty & Pikachu came by as well!

Oh how I drooled at the limited edition Pokemon Gameboy

The event area from above. The video game challenge is in the middle - where the TV screen is. The surrounding tables are for the Trading Card Games.

Another view of the event area

And to end off, I HAD to take a picture of that Pokemon since it is my starter Pokemon in HeartGold.

I’ll do a proper write up of the event soon. When I have time to write and collect my thoughts. It’s been a very tiring day. Still I had loads of fun.

Was sitting in my room when suddenly I heard my maid – domestic helper to be exact – screaming and freaking out. Apparently she had been washing clothes in the backyard when she noticed that some frogs were hopping about madly, and being chased by a snake.

Cue much screaming & freaking out.

Then I called my father and he came home and took a look at the situation.

Sidenote #1: The back of our house shares a common wall with the garden of the neighbours behind. Said neighbours’ garden is higher than our backyard. Which leads to a retaining wall and holes in the wall for water to drain out from.

And the snake apparently had gone into hiding into one of those holes. Chasing out the family of frogs that lived that.

After more freaking out, mainly on my maid’s part, I ended up calling the AVA (Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore). Managed to get the number of a pest control company from them. But that number wasn’t worked.

So I got online and searched around. And found SITA Pest Control. Gave them a call and they agreed to come over to the house to take a look.

All these while, I was up in my bedroom. Sometime later, I wandered downstairs and saw the men from the pest control at work. They were spraying some kind of chemical into the snake, hoping that the snake would be driven out.

However, dispite their efforts, the snake stayed hidden. The men stayed around for close to two hours – trying all ways and means to get the snake.

Finally, they suggested that we find some way to cover up the holes. And left, not before telling us to call them again if there was any more snake trouble.

My father then decided that it would be wise to cement up the holes – leaving only a small hole for drainage.

And then .. probably the only good thing so far that has come out of the drainage works in front of the house happened.

My father went to speak with the supervisor of the drainage works. And was able to get the help of one of the workmen in patching up the hole.

Currently, the holes in the wall are patched up with cement. But we have a hunch the snake is still hiding in there. Hopefully, it’ll just die in there and not find its way out and go annoy someone else.

damage report of this adventure:
2 frogs – dead
1 spitting cobra – hopefully dead.

Honestly I feel sorry for the frogs.

What's in front of the Science Centre

The first thing that we saw as we reached the Science Centre was the massive queue at the counter. Thankfully, the staff alerted us to the self-pay kiosks. So I paid for the tickets with plastic.

Then we wandered over to the other side of the Science Centre, where Bodyworlds was. Then we saw the second massive queue – to get into the exhibition. So we decided to go find some food first. We got our food soon enough.

OH MY! Look at the queue!

Then it was back to the madness of queueing. But finally, we did get in.

Lots of wandering around happened at this point. Saw exhibits that I saw before. Spent about an hour and a half inside. Sadly, the exhibition hall was crowded so I didn’t get to fully enjoy the exibhition. Oh well, that’s what I get for going to an exibhition on its last day. No photos inside since it’s not allowed.

Some of my favourites were there. Like the Skin Man and the Horse and Rider.

Sidenote #1: I went to an earlier exhibit of Bodyworlds the last time it was in Singapore – in 2004.

Also discovered new favourites like the Giant Squid and the Octopus. Both my friend and I liked the Octopus the most. We think it’s cute.

Overall, I found this exhibition very interesting and educational. And not so much the shock factor since that was the second time I saw the exibhition. Although I felt it was smaller as compared to the previous time – when it was held at the Singapore Expo. Still, loads of fun. Since I was doing silly things like mimicking the poses of the exhibits. And pretending to take a large bite out of the Giant Squid.

Yes, I want Bodyworlds to come back to Singapore again. And no, not after six years. Maybe in a year or two would be nice.

I headed to Marina Bay MRT around 1:30 and met up with a fellow LomotionSG member and a friend. After hanging around the station for another half an hour, we decided that we weren’t going to wait any longer – and headed off to Marina Barrage.

sidenote#1: This outing/adventure was very impromtu. It was more or less agreed that we would just head to CAN! Create and see if we could bump into anyone. Which – as we found out later – wasn’t the best idea.

We got to the Barrage and saw the festival at once. We stood around for a bit then wandered over to check out the stalls.

the various activity booths

Ended up at the badge making one. I made a badge that said “I ♥ QE2″ while my photographer friends made badges about cameras and lenses. Just as we were finishing up with the badges, there was the call for everyone to go to the stage area. And so we did.

Ms Wong & the kite she decorated

The guest of honour, a Ms Audrey Wong , gave a short speech. She also decorated a kite and that was given to a representative of the organising commitee for the event. With that done, the event was officially opened.

sidenote #2: One of the aims of CAN! Create was to have the participants make a total of 169 kites which were to be flown – to represent the number of days to the Singapore Youth Olympic Games.

The three of us were dying from the heat by now. So we headed over to the drinks booth and got ourselves cold, cold Cokes. Which did wonders.

a Mongolian instrument piece

a Mongolian dance

Now , rejuvenated, we wandered back to the stage area. Where there was a performance of a Mongolian instructment. Then it was a dance piece.

AFter that, we wandered around taking photos and looking at the other stalls. There was one that did shrinkable plastic pieces. Was tempted to do one but didn’t know weather to draw the QE2 or attempt the Lomography logo. So passed. Then there was a stall that deciorated bags. The smell of spray paint from that stall was just awful.

Some more wanderings and photo takings occured at this point.

Then we decided to head to the upper level of the Barrage via elevator. So off we went.

Discovered the Gallery along the way and popped in to escape the heat. Glorious, glorious air conditioning. Also saw a working model of the Barrage in there. Very interesting.

Then we headed to the upper level of the Barrage. Wandered around taking photos and just generally bumming.

Finally the heat got to us so we decided to head off. And that’s where the CAN Create part of my adventure ended.

all photos taken with LOMO LC-A+ RL loaded with Solaris Ferrania 400.