Naval Ships... and more naval ships!

Together with Singapore’s Blog Father, Mr Brown and other fellow blogger friends like DK and MoleMole, we had the privilege of attending the Navy Open House 2010 preview on 20 May 2010! On that day, organised groups from schools, grassroots organisations and MINDEF/SAF personnel were also there to experience the whole excitement of the Navy Open House!

Military Police Precision Drill

Before the Naval Sea Display, we were treated with the Military Police (MP) Precision Drill, which we only get to see at National Day Parade.

Chinook dropping the Naval Divers for the rescue mission

The Naval Sea Display was impressive! Naval Divers jumped off the Chinook near the mission area and off they go on for their mission.

"Cameo appearance" of the Submarine

One of the Navy’s submarines also made a “cameo appearance” during the naval sea display. Yup, it was quite random.

RSS Steadfast

To better understand how the Navy works during operations, we had a tour in one of our Frigates, The RSS Steadfast – The ship with the number 70!

CPT Augustine Lim of RSS Steadfast

CPT Augustine Lim gave us a quick introduction through demo videos as we proceed through the various stations of RSS Steadfast – If not this poor guy will have to repeat his script for 4 days! Haha. The Frigate truly demonstrates the thinking behind the 3G SAF – Operating a huge ship with a lean crew with the help of technology, and able to communicate with the land and air forces via the integrated combat network!

RSS Valour

The most exciting part of the whole Navy Open House for me is probably the ship cruise on RSS Valour! The wind were so strong when we were cruising in full speed!

LARC-V

At the Navy Open House, visitors can also get to experience the LARC-V (Lighter, Amphibious Resupply, Cargo, 5 ton), which is more commonly known as the “Ducktours”!

Greeting every visitors with a friendly smile

From what I understand from the Navy Open House organisers, more air-conditioned tents were set up after getting feedback from the public – So that the visitors can escape from the heat while getting to know more about the Navy. Very thoughtful of the organisers

The Navy Open House will be open to public on 22 and 23 May 2010. More details can be found at the official website. If you are still unsure about it, visit their facebook page to see the happenings at the open house! I am sure it will give you more reasons to make a trip down!

Just a word of caution… Remember to put on sunblock and drink plenty of water. And for the ladies, please do not wear skirts if you intend to go for the Frigate tour and Ship cruise! And did I mention that you need to ballot for the frigate guided tour and ship cruises? So remember to head to any of the three Information Booths for more information once you reach there!

Lastly, I would like to thank my ex-colleagues from the MINDEF Public Affairs and the Navy Open House organisers for invitation to the event and the great hospitality! Well done for your first foray into Bloggers Engagement!

P.S. If you like to see more of the photos taken during the event, remember to view my facebook photo album!

Have you heard of the “MP3 Experiment Six” in New York where a group of people follow the audio instructions from an MP3 file? This has inspired us to do something similar in Singapore on 29 May 2010 as part of the World No Tobacco Day commemoration!

Instead of following the audio instructions from an Mp3 file, the Health Promotion Board has partnered MediaCorp Radio 987FM to execute this “Great Audio Experience” through… Yup, pretty obvious…. The Radio!

On 29 May 2010, all participants and celebrity guests will tune in to 987FM at 4.30pm and follow the audio instructions from 987FM DJ Mister Young! We will be involved in a series of fun activities to live it up without lighting up – in a moving flash mob that will end up at Plaza Singapura.

This mass activation will start at the following 3 locations along the Orchard Shopping Belt:

• The Heeren Shops
• Orchard Central
• SMU Green

Register now to secure yourself a starter kit and stand a chance to win one of three limited edition “Live it up” iPad (16GB)! Refer a friend and both of you will increase your chances of winning the iPad! Registration will close on 28 May 2010 at 2359hrs! By the way, I am not eligible for the iPad lucky draw so put another friend’s number instead to increase your chances of winning, ok?! But make sure that they turn up to secure the additional chances!

My friends like DK, Claudia, Molemole, Nadnut and Nicole have already registered!

So what are you waiting for? Register now and I’ll see you there! :D

Photo credit: Clauds

Through Nicole, I was given a sneak peak of this upcoming exhibition at Asian Civilisations Museum – “Treasury of the World” featuring gem stones and other precious objects from The al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait . Early birds like me and DK were invited to put on the outfits and we were brought through some of the exhibition highlights.

Who are the Mughals? If you are as ignorant as me, the legendary Mughal Empire is one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties the world has ever known! One of the significant architecture piece of the Mughals is the Taj Mahal, which was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Rings a bell, eh?

For over 300 years (1526-1858), the Mughals dominated the Indian subcontinent and were renowned for their lavish lifestyle, love of beauty and vast collection of precious objects.

Image courtesy of ©The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait (LNS 2219 J)

In this exhibition, you will get to see the stunning collection of more than 400 exquisite, jewelled works of art – from household items to ornate necklaces and ceremonial swords – from the glorious era of Mughal-ruled India. This blockbuster exhibition has been shown in prestigious venues such as the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre Museum in Paris. It makes its Asian debut at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore.

Exhibition details

Date:  12 February to 27 June 2010

Venue: Special Exhibitions Gallery, Asian Civilisations Museum

Opening hours:  Mon, 1pm – 7pm; Tues to Sun: 9am – 7pm (to 9pm on Fri)

Admission charges: $8 (adults) / $4 (concession)

Giveaway!

I have been given five pairs of tickets to give away at Vic.sg. Here’s how you can stand to win them!

It’s actually very simple. Just leave me a comment with your real name to tell me what attracts you to this exhibition and I will randomly pick 5 winners!

The contest will close on 6 Feb 2010, 2359 hrs and the names of the 5 winners will be published at Vic.sg on 8 Feb 2010.

A big thank you to Asian Civilisations Museum for making this giveaway possible.

Wow. This post came really late! We, as in the Health Promotion Board (HPB), hosted an exclusive blogger event with Jack & Rai at the Screening Room on 3rd Nov 09.

Was happy to see DK, Hisham, Jayden, Mus, Diana and Eevon at our event and glad to meet William for the first time! Friends like Claudia, Nadia, Jacelyn and Lawrence did not managed to make it for our event due to personal commitments and Nicole was not feeling well that day.

Kicking off the event was Jack & Rai singing the unplugged version of “Pixelated”, a song in commemoration of World AIDS Day 2009, live at the blogger event and followed by a screening of August 29, a short film produced by HPB and a group of youths.

[Part 1 of August 29]

[Part 2 of August 29]

Starring Lawrence and Evelyn Maria, August 29 is a heart-wrenching love story about a girl who is dying of AIDS and how she chooses to spend her last days with her ex-boyfriend, a photographer.

My colleague, Janice then shared the objective of the blogger engagement event and programme lined up to commemorate World AIDS Day 2009. This might sound cliché to you but we really hope to create more awareness about HIV/AIDS through the power of our blogger friends.

Did you see the countdown timer on the right column? It will be counting down to December 1, a day when many people around the world can often be seen wearing the red ribbon that has now become a familiar symbol of:

• CARE and CONCERN for people living with HIV and those who have died from AIDS;
• HOPE in the search for a vaccine and care; and
• SUPPORT for people living with or affected by HIV

Did you know that…

• condoms can provide protection against HIV when used correctly and consistently?
• when you are tested negative, it does not mean you are HIV negative for life?
• you will not get HIV by sharing food and drinks with someone who has the virus?
• a lot of people still do not know about the above-mentioned after so many years of public education since the discovery of the virus in 1981?
• and you can find out more about HIV/AIDS at HPB Online?

“Your life, your canvas” is the theme for World AIDS Day 2009 and is inspired by the notion that we are all responsible for painting the canvas of our own lives. What we choose to put on that canvas is entirely up to us, and the choices we make all contribute to a constantly evolving picture.

We will be having the finals of the Graffiti Art Competition at Scape Park on 21 Nov 09 and will also be hosting an exclusive World AIDS Day event of art, music and dance, featuring guest appearances by Jack & Rai on 5 Dec 09 at SupperClub Singapore.

To stand a chance to win one of the 100 pairs of tickets to this special event, all you need to do is answer 3 simple questions on Breathe.sg.

To increase your chances of winning the tickets, do keep an eye on my blog as I will also be giving out 5 pairs of tickets to 5 lucky readers in this 2 weeks! Some of our blogger friends will also be holding a ticket giveaway in their blogs so do keep a lookout on Breathe.sg!

Show your support!

I sincerely hope that you can also show your support for the World AIDS Day 2009 by joining our Twibbon campaign on Twitter and Facebook to create awareness on HIV/AIDS.

If you blog too, you can also show your support by embedding this countdown widget on your blog.

To participate, copy and paste the following codes to your blog:

[Vid: This is the cause of my aching right arm]

I haven’t been exercising much lately and a single table tennis game from Nintendo Wii Sport Resort with DK had left my right arm aching.

Yeah, I know. Damn loser lah. Really need to hit the gym soon.

The whole group of us went over to the Nintendo Wii Sport Resort Experience Tent at Ngee Ann City after the Flash Mob at Wisma Atria. The waiting time to play the game is about 5 mins. Since Neo and DK were invited to the event, the rest of us just tagged along to play Wii at the media booth and skipped the waiting!

[Vid: Trying out the Archery Game]

One thing I like about the Wii is it actually workout your body. Definitely great people who want to play video games and yet want some physical activity! But too bad, my home TV is always hogged by my mum and baby niece.

[Vid: Father and Son playing the Swordplay Game]

The new accessory to the Wii controller is the Wii MotionPlus which recognises the slightest twist or turn of the controller. The Swordplay game is one game that make use of this new accessory.

Have the urge to go down to NgeeAnn City to try it out? The event should have ended at this hour. You can still get to try Wii Sports Resort at the following shopping malls in the coming weeks:

• Jurong Point: 30 Oct 09 – 1 Nov 09
• Funan DigitaLife Mall & Vivo City: 13 – 15 Nov 09

24 hours | 10 bloggers | 2 winners | 1 ultimate event

Were you there to support your favourite bloggers? I was there last evening and this evening to support Claudia, DK, Geekonomics, Jayden and Nadnut! Ok, my not-so-hidden agenda was to take their before-after pictures. Was wondering how “chui” (unglam and tired) they will look after 24 hours without sleep!

Just before Friday 6pm, I was at Tangs being “greeted” by the “chio” Lenovo gals… They automatically posed when they saw my Cybershot H7! Well, the bloggers were not at sight any where near the product area!

Chio Lenovo Gals

Don’t you think the left gal looks a bit like Selina? They certainly are more eye catching than the Lenovo laptops.

The covered shopping windows

Woo woo… “Where are the bloggers?”, I asked myself! I found myself walking into Tang to see if I could catch any of them before entering the shopping window! As expected, the bloggers were all preparing to enter the shopping windows where they will be there for the next 24 hours! Here’s DK and his much-loved hat!

@dk and his much-loved hat!

Here are the before and after peektures of them! Seriously, they were looking as good as they were 23 hours ago – No signs of any “chui-ness”!

Before…

@molemole and @claudia10

@dk and his "Home Sweet Home in 24 hours" sign!

@geekonomics

@adipatimusxzart, @nadnut, @jayleif and @gracey

After…

@claudia10

@dk

@geekonomics

@nadnut and @jayleif

I found @Gracey very familiar and seriously didn’t know where I met her before! A check on facebook refreshed my memory. She is my Secondary School Junior at the Prefectorial Board! Yup, how to forget this tall gal right?

After I got home from Tangs last evening, I realised that the blogathon website runs on FULL flash and is piggy backing on a wordpress engine. Although I must say that the website is pretty, the flying circles are not making my navigation any easier! What’s wrong with having it running purely on wordpress? It’s a blog after all. I wanted to comment on the blog posts on the go, but iPhone 3GS doesn’t support flash! Sorry @dk, I wasn’t able to respond to your call for comments!

Oh, @singabeng also went down to the event ground to show his support for the bloggers, of course without showing himself! Claudia, Jayden and Nadnut were all hunting for him! Jayden and Nadnut identified someone whom they think is @singabeng, but no one was able to confirm it though.

@singabeng - Show Yourself!

After 24 hours of blogging and tweeting…

• @geekonomics won the Judge’s Choice with the score of 251
• @nadnut won the People’s Choice winner with 61 votes

The prizes that they have won are:

• Lenovo Ideapad U350
• $300 TANGS voucher
• $250 Kiehl’s products

But who is the ultimate winner here? I would say it’s Tangs.

After launching Virtual Tangs in Second Life at SMB6 (which I thought was a very bad move), they are now venturing into the local social media scene again with Ogilvy PR Digital Influence Team. This time round, they managed to generate a lot of online buzz by leveraging on the popularity of the 10 bloggers.

From the MarComm perspective, I would say that this is a great job by Ogilvy PR Digital Influence Team! I really think their sister company, Ogilvy & Matter, should seriously consider getting inputs from them!