CNY10.. pity the trees

Day One of CNY. Year of the Tiger. Start of 2010.

The usual house visits and needless to say, collected my usual hongbaos (red packets).

While I was unwrapping the hongbaos, I was just wondering... what else can I do with them after taking out the money? Nothing. Throw away of course. I do not have a hobby of collecting the packet designs, and I believe at least 99% of the population do not have that as well.

Perhaps years later, somebody is going to invent an e-hongbao system in collaboration with iphone, the 'Santa' to bring a card to every house visits, and children (like me) could eagerly be waiting for his arrival, clutching onto our iphones. All Santa needs to do is to tap his card on our iphone, and in goes the money! Whatsmore, this saves Santa the time spent stuffing red packets the night before his dreadful $$ bleeding day.
Santa is happy, kids are happy, so are the trees.

As for now, I am not complaining about the heaps of crushed hongbaos in my trashbin.
I only pity the trees.

My Special V Day gift - Toblerone too HUGE to handle!

I've never held or ever seen such a thing:

JUMBO TOBLERONE
Specs: 4.5kg, 80cm in length
In comparison to the usual Toblerone we see, it is many many times bigger!

He got this specially flown from Germany > Paris > SG
I was so thrilled when I first saw it. Later starting to wonder how we are going to finish this!
I love chocolates.
I love him.

Bukit Timah Walk to Macritchie Reservoir

A beautiful morning, sun was beaming and I was able to get out of bed early on a Saturday.

My gal friend and I decided to go on a stroll, and to try out the route from Bukit Timah to Macritchie Reservoir.
Perhaps, it was more of a stroll, since it lasted approx. 5hrs including a few rests and wrong turns, and we were looking all burned out when we finally reached Macritchie!
Physical and mental challenging!
Nevertheless, all was compensated by the alluring beauty of nature.

I love this railway tracks.
Maybe because you can hardly find this in Singapore, I like how it stretches through the plain.

This sign reminded me what I am here for, to slow down my pace and appreciate nature.

//Sidetrack// This sign also reminded me of a song by Emma Rossum:
Rushing and racing and running in circles,
Moving so fast I'm forgetting my purpose,
Blur of the traffic is sending me spinning, getting nowhere...

Slow me down, don't let me live a lie
Before my life flies by
I need you to slow me down...

Here is the entrance of the Rifle Range Road, into the Kampung Trail where we embarked on our expedition.

Do keep in mind on the signages along the way, you do not want to end your trip on an unpleasant note.

The kampung trail can be a little to the less adventurous ones.
Being a themed 'kampung', it was not surprising to find monitor lizards crossing our paths or simply busking under the sun and spiders, giant ant or army of ants.
For the wild ones, be very delighted to spot cute squirrels or monkeys!



I like how this big tree stands.
It was really huge and tall, probably able to form a canopy layers in the forest.
Strong, sturdy, reliable. Hmmm...

No, it is not the 2.2km that we're heading towards.
Yes, it is the 9.2km sign that we were heading!!





Trails after trails, pavements after pavements, we finally reached a rapsid fall and it was the gushing sound of water that caught our attention.
What better way to rest and relax in a scorching, hot weather?
A dip in the water of course! Foot Dip.
The water was so cold and sitting on the bridge above this canal was really nice.


We decided to take a break at the Ranger Station and as we were almost lost in direction, we saw this very interesting sign on a rock, left by an interesting passer-by.




We finally arrived at the beautiful Macritchie Reservoir, tired but smiling.