Night Safari and MacRitchie Reservoir

The Night Safari section of the zoo was an absolute blast. Because there are a lot of nocturnal animals that can't be seen during the day in the zoo, unless they're kept in unpleasant cages, the zoo has an entire section just for visiting at night, lit up with special lights and with a tram and guide.

My favorite piece of commentary, by far, was on a civet that looked like a half bear/half cat. "Like all civets, the bear-cat (forgot the name of it) excretes a sweet smell from its anal scent glands, somewhat similar to popcorn or bamboo."

Today was a 11km walk through the MacRitchie Reserve and Reservoir. Very beautiful, lovely in every way, quite hot, and a really long walk. About four hours, I think, but we took some breaks. I got some great photos today, although I didn't have any film last night at the Night Safari, and my digital is unfortunately not in any way capable of standing in for my Canon in the dark - or in the daylight, for that matter.

Tomorrow is my final full day in Singapore, and I am probably going to go out with J., from Birmingham, and my German friends. I'm packing tonight, and I am beyond excited to be finally leaving. Today, there were moments when I actually enjoyed being in Singapore. I think my adjustment to living in this climate and in these living conditions took a lot longer than I expected it to. But, I have clearly adapted to the rigors of the climate if I can walk 12.5km in one day (my road was closed this morning, had to walk for 1.5km in the morning to catch the bus to church). Regardless of my body's ability to acclimate, I'll be happy to come home, to the blessed, beautiful rain, and the constant gray skies. :)

Singapore Zoo

Today, all I did was go to the zoo and go swimming. And watch TV and make food, but that happens every day, so it's not really worth mentioning.

The zoo was quite fun! I was soaked in sweat, hot, hungry, and absolutely in heaven. When there are so many photogenic creatures around, you could spend hours just getting awesome shots of beautiful creatures. The only problem is, I got my shots with my lovely film camera - so, no prints for now. Must wait to get those developed. All of the shots I've uploaded onto my flickr page are from my cheap-o Nikon that I bought for the specific purpose of snapshots. I don't like the expense of film for taking dorky pictures of boys running around the apartment, so it seemed a good compromise, being that I cannot, as yet, afford the digital version of my camera. The ones I got with it are alright, but my real hopes are with my Canon.

Tonight's dinner ended up being a mish-mash, because the boys are the most homebodied homebodys ever. We were left money for going out to eat, and they begged to stay inside. So, we had pork chops in honey-teriyaki-orange sauce, steamed broccoli and carrots, with spinach spaghetti noodles. And hot chocolate for dessert. All in all, an excellent day.

The first picture is the photo we bought from the Zoo people. They did the same thing the cruise people do, and snap shots of you doing stuff so they can make piles of money printing cheap digital prints with zoo animals for borders. Anyway, I thought the boys' mother would appreciate a souvenir of our little jaunt, and zoos always need money, so we bought it. The second is my favorite picture of the giraffes. They're such lovely creatures! The giraffes, orangutans, and white tigers were the most irresistible today.

'Anticipation'

I'm listening to Carly Simon as I sit in my humid little room, in anticipation of tomorrow's fun adventures. 'Anticipation' is really a rather good song, it's too bad it's forever associated with the ultimate tease - a Heinz ketchup bottle. 'You're So Vain' is still my favorite, though, just for the 'you had one eye in the mirror' line.

Tomorrow, we're going to the zoo! I'm very much looking forward to that because I haven't been to the zoo in years, since I went to the zoo at Schoenbrunn in Austria in 2003. I am going to take my nice camera, make sure I have plenty of film, and snap lots of animals. Definitely bringing the telephoto to this place - I am really hoping for a Bengal tiger picture. If it comes even close to my brother's awesome picture when they went to the zoo a while back, I'll be quite satisfied.

Cinemax is currently running the old Star Trek movies, tonight was Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home. The storyline is really quite terrible, as with most Trek movies, but the one-liners are fantastic! As is having a Russian (Chekov) ask about where the nuclear 'wessels' are in 1980's US, and watching the great tard William Shatner for an entire movie. I'd never watched the whole movie through before, having only seen parts of it on TV (sorry, but I'm not going to bend over backwards to see Star Trek IV), and I kinda felt sorry for Leonard Nimoy, who reprised the role of Spock - something he had said he never wanted to do again - and that he will also be reprising his role in the new movie. Does anyone know Leonard Nimoy for ANYthing else, other than Star Trek? Maybe the Bilbo Baggins song.... :)

By the way, in case you were ever in any doubt as to the technical quality of the Star Trek series, The Voyage Home was nominated for four Academy Awards, for cinematography, sound editing, music, and sound (just nominated, though). It, of course, was nominated for piles of awards by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, but only won for best costumes. Best costumes?? Well, whatever.

Quotes!
McCoy: My God, man. Drilling holes in his head isn't the answer!

[on 20th Century America]
Kirk: This is an extremely primitive and paranoid culture.