A haze of a walk.

Some people would die than be anywhere close to their workplace on an off-day, but me? I took a day off just to bring friends around my workplace.

BECAUSE I'M A +100 FRIEND.

There's a WHAT function in my camera??!

Sometimes you're with someone for a really long time and then you discover there's something you didn't know about him/her before - this happened with my trusty camera.

I've had the Sony NEX-5N camera for close to a year now and I've barely even skimmed the surface of its myriad of functions. On my mother's birthday (that was yesterday), I decided I'd give something different a go. Fiddling with the camera, I discovered there's actually an option right in there for shots to be taken in a 16:9 resolution, in contrast to the default 3:2 resolution I usually shoot in.

I realise there is absolutely no correlation between this and my mother's birthday, but there's no reason for anyone to blog either, so thank you for wasting your time on me.

There are certain numbers of you who know I work in the middle of a garden in Singapore, so please do bear with the impending abundance of images here featuring plants and flora. I'm boring. I don't go out much.

NOW. PICTURES. GO.

So I got to spend an inordinate amount of time at Gardens by the Bay

Unless you've been literally living in a dark hole under a sewer, you couldn't have gone by the past two weeks without hearing about or seeing images of Gardens by the Bay.

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore's newest, greenest attraction at Marina Bay opens its doors to the public June 29, 2012, and I got the best seats in the house.

I really don't want to say too much, because this is an experience you'll have to go through for yourself, so I hope you enjoy this preview of some photos I managed to take recently, and perhaps entice your taste.. buds (see what I did there? eh? EH?) enough for a visit soon.

For some people who've asked me on various avenues, most photos on my blog are taken with a Sony NEX-5N with dual kit lenses, and the occasional toy CCTV lenses.

I went out without my camera camera.

The skies were brilliant for photographs to be taken but as luck would have it, the battery in my Sony NEX-5N camera died (like, totally, cannot-be-charged-anymore-died), and my spare could not be found anywhere.

Thank goodness I just got myself a brand new HTC One X cellphone then.

So I got invited to the Audi Fashion Festival 2012 (17 May)

I don't own anything to wear that's above $50, and weighing machines scream murder when I'm in the vicinity, so you can imagine the look on my face when I got invites to only THE fashion event of the moment in Singapore. That said, I still went knowing I would feel absolutely out of place and inadequate.

I wasn't wrong.

Where I Chased The Bird Chasing The Squirrel at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

Let me put this out there and set the record straight - I love nature. I really dig (geddit geddit?) geting out there with grass, plants and flowers. Granted I meet a lot of people I would label as vegetables, none of them smell as good.

During my days in the Singapore National Service conscript, I used to whine a lot whenever there were outfield training sessions because whining together made me a lot more friends. Unbeknownst to everyone, I really quite enjoyed myself sleeping on grass, sand and dirt. There are actual places in the wilds of Singapore where you can wake up to freezing temperatures beside a pond, see dew on leaves and play with visible, "steam breaths" coming from your mouth. It's too bad these areas are cordoned off for military usage.

Personally, I get my own joy seeing rows of potted plants right outside my apartment. Got a couple of our own that my father takes care of, and a lot more from my neighbours, which my father also takes care of lovingly (the plants; not my neighbours).

Wait a minute, don't we call Singapore the Garden City? Don't most also recognise it as a shopping haven? Then where would you go to experience a bit of nature right in the middle of a shopping district?

The Singapore Botanic Gardens. Now let's begin with some pretentious photographs of flowers with ridiculous-looking bokeh.