Had a visitor today ....

I went into the office after a briefing in the morning and I was thrilled to finally sit in front of my computer so that I could start on work which has been piling up from the last few days. And I didn't realise how it happened but a dragonfly somehow came into my room (the windows were closed and to get to my room, you need to go through the General Office. So I did wonder how the lil fella get in.

I didn't scream (I would have if it had been a cockroach) but quietly walked out and asked if anyone could help remove the dragonfly from my room. And a dear brave lady came to the rescue, armed with a plastic bag and scooped the dragonfly away.

We had a closer look and it was the prettiest dragonfly that I have ever seen. It wasn't the regular green ones but this one had golden wings. We spent a few seconds oooohhhing and aaahhhing and then we realised it outside where there was a pond.

I felt good after that though I have no idea what it meant when a dragonfly come visiting....

Note: photo used is not of the actual dragonfly that visited me today, it's a borrowed picture

TGIF ....

I am truly truly happy that it's Friday! It's been quite a hectic week with one thing after another and we had some visitors at work and everyone has been working hard so am pretty sure everyone's going to just chill out and do no work to recuperate and recharge for next week. We have about another week of 'rest' before we have another VIP coming for a visit so that would be an interesting session.

Going for a movie premiere screening of a documentary tomorrow so will have to give hula a miss. I am enjoying my hula classes though the third song that we're doing is real tough, at least to me. I feel like I might just trip on myself cuz my feet seem to be going everywhere during the routine.

Other than hula, I have given up on pottery class for now. I do miss the teacher who was so patient when he was teaching us. But am not feeling inspired yet to go back. I guess I have not been very crafty since started work at the new location as I spend quite a bit of time travelling to and fro work and am usually zonked by the time I get home. As for weekends, it's time to catch up with loved ones or work that I didn't manage to finish during the weekend.

So if I had a choice, where or what would I rather be doing right now? *thinks* I am not a beach kinda person cuz I do not like the heat (because I just burn and end up looking like I need a good scrub afters) and not into water sports. I usually get bored cuz the thought of just lying around doing nothing gets me all restless.

But right now, this very moment, I have a craving to be by the beach. Well not exactly at the beach but close enough. My dream spot right now would be in a Banyan Tree's Bayfront Pool Villa @ Binta *sighs* Now just have to start a saving can so that I can afford one of these villas!

Pulau Semakau Revisited

On 8 March, Mag, Nat, Slawek and I went for the Pulau Semakau Inter-tidal walk and despite the blistering heat, we managed to see some awesome creatures. Unfortunately, the heat meant that many of the creatures were hiding in the sand and I don't blame them cuz I would have done the same. The last time I went for this tidal walk was in November 2006 and you can check out my post by then. But each visit is different and there's always new things to see.

And it was rather nostalgic for me to go back to do this walk because one of my photos of a mangrove was actually used in a New Scientist article on 14 April 2007 about Pulau Semakau and I wanted to see how the lil mangrove had grown some and it sure did.

I love the sea stars and there will always be a zone along the coast where you will see heaps and we saw some with five arms, six arms and some pretty odd ones. These two below were hiding in the sand thanks to the heat!

This seastar had only four arms and it's not suppose to be normal. So was quite interesting when Slawek spot this one ...

We were also told that it was quite common to see Knobbly Seastars along Pulau Semakau during these walks but we didn't see any when I first did the walk. But during this trip, we did see the baby version of this.

There were different types of corals and we only saw a couple that had a lil colour on them. But when I saw these soft corals, it felt a lil creepy cuz these reminded me of many hands with fingers creeping out from the wet sand *shivers*. Don't they?

Part of the inter-tidal coastal walk required us to walk through a patch of seagrass and it helps to have them waterproof shoes because there is no avoiding getting wet. It's really part of the fun as you wade through this. Just don't think of what you could be stepping on. Just keep walking!

Will put more photographs on my flickr page but give me some time cuz it's a lil bit crazy this week. Here's a short clip of the landscape that we explored...

What do you with those coins lying around?

It takes very little to make me happy and today it has to be the discovery that there are now self-service coin deposit machines for DBS and POSB!! I have been using the cash deposit machine on occasions and these days with online banking, I thankfully have reduced my trips to the banks because I really hate the thought of queues and such. But my Dad, though curious about online banking, still goes to the bank to update his savings book and also for other transactions. So when I told him about the coin deposit atm machine, his reply was 'Yeah, at the right hand side of all the atm machines' with a tone that really meant to say 'where have you been all this while' *grins* I was also surprised to see lots of people carrying bags of coins to drop it in and I knew I had to find out more about this cuz I know somebody who keeps his loose change and we spent about an hour yesterday manually counting the coins to figure out how much he has (and we were pleasantly surprised by how much he has managed to accumulate!)

I know the banks had certain days where they would accept coins and I think they use to charge a nominal fee or something? I could be wrong. But with this coin deposit machine, it's so cool. What a great way to teach kids (and adults like me who are so assumed by lil things like this) - bring their savings and let them put it into the slot and wait for the machine to count the money and it goes straight to his/her savings account.

Alrighty, back to the coin deposit machine. A little more about it. All you need is your account number to get started. Simply follow the screen messages on the coin deposit machine and pour your coins into the hopper tray of the machine. What's more, there is no need to sort your coins according to denomination as the machine can accept a mixture of denomination of 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents and 1 dollar (Singapore coins, floral series only). After counting, a receipt will be generated from the machine and your account will be credited latest by the next business day. Yay!!! For those of us who are visual learners, you can see how the steps are here and for those of you who need to press them buttons and figure it out, head down to them machines the next time you have coins to deposit. If you have other questions, check out their FAQ site.

If you want to know where the machines are, well, there are 30 coin deposit atm machines located around the island so head there soon!

Hmmm...just went to the FAQ site and there's a lil catch here. Coin deposits through the coin deposit machine are levied fees based on $0.0075 (0.75 cents) per piece, and total charges rounded off to the nearest 1 cent. Coin deposit fees will be waived for deposits into Children's accounts (age 12 years and below). To enjoy this waiver, you will need to drop the coin deposit receipt in our Quick Cheque Deposit box. Refunds will be processed by the next business day (Mon-Fri). So might want to take note ya!

Stitch-opply

Was recently at Spotlight to grab some elastic band so that I can restring some things for hula class and S spot this cool board game Stitch-opoly that they had up on display. And yes, I left the store with more than just the elastic band. It's disgusting how I am just an impulsive buyer and queen of unplanned spending!!

More from the site:

Players select their favorite needlecraft token to represent them as they navigate the board. Each player collects needlework techniques and becomes an expert by buying and trading different needlecraft stitches. The goal is to “Start Stitching” and progress around the board without having to “Pull Out Thread” or “Lose Your Needle” while building your own needlework studio and empire. Players get chances to “Go Shopping” and look in the “Needlework Stash” pile of game cards that keeps the play fun and exciting. Game includes directions for standard play or shorter version.

And what's cool, the property cards feature a stitch diagram. It is the perfect game to introduce stitching to others who are game to try stitching some basic designs. A boardgame that is fun yet educational too. Alrighty, now need to find people who are keen on stitchin to play this game with me!! Anyone?