Today on the 21st January 2012, just 2 more days before the Year of the Dragon takes over the reins from the Year of the Rabbit, I was outside with a group of photography and social media circle friends at Labrador Park, exploring the boardwalk and taking sunset photographs. The late afternoon rain did not dampen our mood for our photography outing and we were blessed with this awesome and most beautiful blessing by Mother Nature.

A Double Rainbow !!

It was so beautiful, beyond our words and imagination, just by standing there and admiring in awe of the blessings showered upon us! For an in-depth meaning of Double Rainbow, do check out Stumpbo’s blog post here! Do check out Stumpbo’s Double Rainbow post too!! The Double Rainbow of 2012 welcomes the Year of the Dragon with blessings, according to Feng Shui writer Lillian Too, the double rainbow is a sign from the Heavens above, from the cosmic Universe that we are about to have something great fall into our lap, and that one good thing will lead to another.

I am so blessed today with the Double Rainbow blessings and I would like to share and spread the Double Rainbow Blessings for my readers for Dragon Year 2012 !! Double Rainbow – An auspicious blessing for all!! May u be blessed with greatness in 2012!!

The Holstee Manifesto Life Cycle video – a beautiful, touching, inspiring, encouraging and motivating video, a call to action to live our life to the best and most meaningful, to live a life of creativity, passion, intention and creativity.

The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video from Holstee on Vimeo.

Let this video encourages you to make a difference in your life ahead, let this also encourages you to make a difference to other peoples life too, leaving them a positive and long term impact, to make them change and inspired for the better! Even though this video is based through cycling, it can also be applied to your life too, the journey and traveling, the people, friends and strangers you meet along the way.

It’s a celebration, of many different wonderful things in life, diversity and uniqueness of life, experiences that are both personal and shared among us, celebrating gatherings, friendships of old and new, experiencing the new life ahead that you choose to start! Let this video be the ignition that you need to kickstart 2012 !

It’s the 2nd day of the year 2012, I would like to dedicate this New Year Eve Fireworks to my friends, supporters and readers.

Happy New Year 2012 !!

Photo taken from Singapore Flyer
Thanks you Singapore Flyer and Marina Bay Division of URA for this special arrangement.

Wishing you all the best for the Year 2012 !! Good luck and all the best, wishing you great health and blessings with your family, loved ones, career, friendship and the goals that you would be setting for yourself in the year 2012!

I would also like to thank you for all the support and following you have given me over the years, through my business, photography, blogs, social media networking, alumni networking etc etc etc … Your heartfelt and dedicated support is the elixir that keeps me going when the chips are down and the going gets really tough especially when there are people who began to look down on me, questioning me and encouraging and wanting me to fail.

May the Force be with You for Year 2012 !

4 more days before the year 2011 handovers to the year 2012, how has the year 2011 been for you ? How has the year 2011 been for me ? Every year end, I would take a look back in time, reflecting on the year that passed through. Sometimes too many things/areas to write/share on, let’s hope this will be a good summary for me when I looked back in time for my review/reflection for the year 2011 in the years down the road. As you started reading away below, it would be filled with quotes of wisdom by great people that were very well-known and highly respected around the world.

Quote: “Whoever renders service to many puts himself in line for greatness — great wealth, great return, great satisfaction, great reputation, and great joy.”–Jim Rohn

Quote: “Don’t be reluctant to give of yourself generously, it’s the mark of caring and compassion and personal greatness.”–Brian Tracy (The Treasury of Quotes)

There was a quote that was imparted to me, it was something along this line “whatever you set and plan to achieve in the things that you do a.k.a running a business, you would take around 5 years to be start seeing/tasting the fruits of your success”, I can’t really get the exact quote, nevertheless, I promise to update here if I ever find it! With the exception of 2010, a year of freak incident, operation, post-op rehabilitation and post-op recovery (whereby I lost about 9 months of working time), the businesses and areas that started more than 5 years ago, started to grow more fruits and bigger fruits too. Showing more baby steps towards success, it’s more steps climbed up towards my ladder of achievement. Over the years of learning to give without expecting returns, there are times when I give and give, a lot, there were times when there were nothing in return and feeling abused. Through encouragement and determination, I continued giving and rendering services.

Quote: “No one has ever become poor by giving.”– Anne Frank

Quote: “Whatever good things we build end up building us.”– Jim Rohn

In 2011, good things begets another, more starting to appear, blessed with more privileges and kindness, access that were once reserved for media, blessed with gifts from lucky draws, connecting with brands and alumni bodies, building wider networks and friendship. However, I felt that this continuation and giving can be done better and bigger, since I felt the greatness and satisfaction in the returns, and I plan to make it better in 2012 for 1 area of my businesses.

Quote: “Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”–Gandhi

Social Media Networking – here lies another huge area of networking that goes online and offline (in real life), it just gets bigger and wider, locally and internationally, more friends made online and met offline in real life to know them in person. Through social media networking, it can help to grow my businesses, time will tell.

Quote: “You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.”–Brian Tracy

Health is slowly getting back to me, with a history of horrific injuries, I always remind myself constantly that no amount of money can buy my health back to normal, the injuries are for life and will be with me till the end of my time on Mother Earth. While still cautious on my rehabilitation and not too over zealous in exercising, it got me lazy and slowly gaining unnecessary weight and fats at the waist level, even without much alcohol drinking.

Traveling in 2011 was a breakthrough because for the past few years, I haven’t really traveled out at all for a holiday! Amazingly, 3 short trips to nearby countries, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, makes it a fun travel year in 2011, however, I am always tempted by medium to long haul trips and looking forward to do at least 1 or 2 of them in 2012.

Quote: “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”–Brian Tracy

Sports photography is another achievement that I am happy with the growth, being a sports enthusiast, I was able to cover cycling, football cricket, beach volleyball, handball, rugby 7s with media privileges while F1 was on a personal basis.

On the social causes, my personal projects on the Old Places and the Green Corridor are two areas that will keep me writing, sharing, photographing and documenting. Up next will be Bukit Brown, an area whereby I have roots relating to the area. Looking forward to 2012, I hope to be able to contribute more to these personal interests of mine, probably from a personal level to national level with iRememberSG , let’s see how things turns out for 2012.

Quote: “The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.”– Zig Ziglar

While we all busy earning money, there are things whereby money can’t buy when it’s lost or destroyed. Health, History, Heritage, Culture, Preservation and Conservation.

The year 2011 has been another year of learning, I subscribed to the mantra of lifelong learning, never ending and never stopping, that’s always something new to learn, everyday from different people, experiences, situations, sharing, mistakes, crisis and life changing. Moving forward to 2012, I always tell & remind myself that I always have something new to learn, a new skill, new experiences and many more.

Quote: “Commit yourself to lifelong learning. The most valuable asset you’ll ever have is your mind and what you put into it.” –Brian Tracy

 Quote: “Learn something new. Try something different. Convince yourself that you have no limits.”–Brian Tracy

What lies ahead for 2012 ? Well, coming to my writing near you, stay tuned!

The key words – Conservation, Heritage, History, Preservation and Conservation versus GDP Growth, country’s growth and expansion, building new infrastructure and housing development. Which comes first ? Which should have first priority ? This golden debate is not just peculiar to us in Singapore, it is probably happening worldwide too.

From my previous short summary post on History, Heritage, Preservation and Conservation, I mentioned briefly about Bukit Brown inside my post and recently on 24th December 2011, I went for Nature Society (Singapore) Public Walk at Bukit Brown and started to get myself more involved and understanding behind and within the roots of Saving Bukit Brown, it goes beyond the key words of Conservation, Heritage, Preservation and Conservation.

With a rising population in a limited and small land space Singapore, a thirst for more cars and expected heavier traffic, Bukit Brown Cemetery was slated for re-development, not just for roads, it’s also being planned for housing development too. This caused quite a stir too, with people stepping up to write, share and document down. This cemetery is iconic because of Singapore’s early pioneers, who helped to build up Singapore’s economy and society, some of them were buried there. Removing them is like tearing what builds up Singapore in the first place, way before independence during the British Colonial days. There is a public outcry and there are civic groups activities, social causes, social movement, sharing and telling, to Save Bukit Brown.

Saving Bukit Brown is also the time to learn more about our culture, heritage and history, we can do so much more in this few areas, it was an eye-opener for me, a reminder to myself, we must always keep on learning and never stop learning, in one area, learning from the forefathers of Singapore, with their entrepreneurship, philanthropy and giving it back to society is something so precious that no amount of monetary value can be placed on it and many of them are there at Bukit Brown.

There is also a thought that came to my mind regarding Bukit Brown – some of the graves / tombstones are neglected, some are abandoned, not visited by their future (current) generations. I hope that with the Saving Bukit Brown movement, this would be able to invoke feelings, filal piety and gratitude, to help families reconnect with their ancestors buried there at Bukit Brown.

When I was talking to my big auntie (my mum’s eldest sister-in-law) from my mother’s family side on my recent photojournalistic adventures, I realised that I have ancestors buried in Bukit Brown that I never knew about! They are from my Maternal Grandfather family tree line

- My maternal grandfather ~ 3 elder brothers

- My maternal grandfather’s parents ~ My 2 Great-Grandmothers and Great-Grandfather

My case study would be an example of how the family tree and information were not passed down to the future/current generations,  something probably lacking in extended family traditions nowadays, instead of finding excuses and laying blame, I would be working on chatting more with my eldest auntie to get more information and details from her on the tombstones/graves locations, something that she doesn’t have detailed information on. From then on, I would try to recce and locate the tombstones, find back my uncles, aunties and cousins, hope to be able to bring them all together and pay respects to our ancestors, along with supporting the movement of Saving Bukit Brown.

You can do a part too, support the movements to preserve and save Bukit Brown, follow them on these 2 sites on Facebook

Save Bukit Brown Cemetery – The Roots of Our Nation

Heritage Singapore – Bukit Brown Cemetery 

You can also Sign the Petition – Save Bukit Brown, Save Our Singapore

However, with the inevitable quest and thirst for more land, space and housing, where does the balance lies ? This is a question that is not a million dollar question as some people would put it, there might be no answer that fits everybody.

Epson, a world leader in digital imaging and they are the top projector in the industry, introduced and launched their new projector models. I was invited by XPR to Epson’s launch of their latest projectors and we were given a presentation and hands on testing for 3 of their projectors that were shown to us during the event.

Held at the Talent Cafe in Tanjong Pagar area, Epson Singapore hosted us bloggers/photographers/social media people and the 3 projectors showcased were

- MG 850 HD 

- EH-TW8000

- EB-435W

Different series of projectors for different usage/purposes, fulfilling different needs. How would each projector suits you or your business?

MG 850 HD

Do you remember the time when you were young and growing up in Singapore ? How was it like ? Different age groups will give very different stories of their memories that they grew up with and the younger generations today will not have the chance to go through their forefathers lifestyle and activities.

The National Heritage Board, is organising a Heritage Event, known as Heritage Along Footpaths, bringing us back in time and history, to re-introduce trades that were once common in Singapore. This would definitely suits the older generation because it would invoke many of their memories – childhood, teenager, growing up years and suits the younger and middle generation too, sharing the memories that their seniors/forefathers had last time. Here’s a map of the Heritage Along Footpaths event !

Some of the trades that would be re-introduced would be

- Street Barbers

- Cobblers

- Fortune Tellers

- Ice-ball Sellers

- Kachang Puteh Sellers

Heritage Along Footpaths will be held over 2 weekends in December 2011.

Dates : 3rd and 4th December ; 10th and 11th December 2011

Time : 10am to 5pm

Locations : The Singapore Art Museum and Stamford Arts Centre (along the mural wall facing Middle Road)

I am looking forward to go back in time into Singapore’s history, reminisce and enjoy the heritage and culture of our forefathers.

Memories, whether is it childhood, growing up, working adult or as mature/senior member in society, memories played a very important role and element in our human race. Memories define us, a human being, sociology of family, friends, society, countries and the entire human race.

“Keep all special thoughts and memories for lifetimes to come. Share these keepsakes with others to inspire hope and build from the past, which can bridge to the future.”
Mattie Stepanek

Singapore, a young country by independence, it has changed a lot, from a sleeping fishing village, to a bustling harbour that connects the East and West on the trading route, a British Colony, gaining full independence and transforming over her independence years till the cosmopolitan city today, the changes were tremendous, revolutionary and evolutionary, it’s not just changes to Singapore, worldwide, many countries are going through many many changes too, only memories can serve the human race to remember.

Singapore’s story is unique in her own way, as much we had progressed a lot in prosperity and standards of living, some of our history, heritage and landmarks were gone in our quest for economic survival, it’s inevitable that this journey was started upon. Therefore, as Singapore progressed today, a lot of us started to “take stock” and seriously look into how can we preserve our unique and special memories ? My personal in-depth thoughts on History, Heritage, Preservation, Conservation is a good starting point to read.

Our National Library Board, formed irememberSG and they are now actively collecting Singapore Memories, with a target to collect 5 Million Memories by 2015. It’s an awesome noble and worthy movement, it’s viral, active, lively, nostalgic, beautiful and engaging, not just for us Singaporeans, it’s for our friends and visitors too!

Let’s spread the word, tell your family members, loved ones and friends around you, spread the viral movement, let’s all help to collect Memories of Singapore and contribute ! Stay in touch and connected here -

Blog: http://iremember.sg
FB: http://www.facebook.com/iremembersg
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/iremembersg

Let’s all make it happen !! 5 Million Singapore Memories by 2015 !!

What you are going to read from here on, is like a compilation of some of the photography/writing that I had been doing, what’s happening recently with history, heritage, preservation, conservation and what action groups, movement had done and still ongoing. With quite a few things/situations happening around us in Singapore over this year 2011, let’s take a walk through this short timeline

The Green Corridor 

When it was announced that the KTM Railway will be returned back to Singapore, it didn’t kick start a major reaction until closer to the last days of the end of the KTM Railway. The 2 train stations were preserved and conserved, the railway tracks were removed and returned back to Malaysia, leaving the current entire stretch very different, just a path with grass, while waiting for the masterplan to be out on the plans for the Green Corridor. The future of the Green Corridor, with an exhibition at the URA centre, known as Re-Imaging The Green Corridor, showed that between public and private sectors, we can come together to work, discuss, plan and decide together for the future of the Green Corridor. Do follow this facebook group “We Support The Green Corridor” for updates!

My coverage of The Green Corridor can be found here on my photoblog and the special folder The Green Corridor on Flickr !

Old Places

Singapore is developing at such a fast pace, especially for me in the past 5 years, the transformation is remarkable and it gives us a modern cosmopolitan city landscape. However, in the quest for modernisation and change, Singapore had already lost and are losing things, from history, heritage, landmarks and many old places. After watching Royston’s Tan Old Places, I was very motivated to do my own photojournalistic coverage and write up of the Old Places in Singapore before it’s gone forever and they can only be seen on DVDs, libraries, micro-films, internet, photographs etc. For those who are into Old Places in Singapore, do check out the Facebook Group – Old Places for more updates !

My coverage of the Old Places in Singapore can be found here on my photoblog and a special folder Old Places on Flickr!

Interest Groups - Preserving, documenting and sharing early days of Singapore – On a little street in Singapore

This Facebook group is started by Jerome Lim, a blogger/photographer, someone who has very great passion in sharing and preserving the history and heritage of Singapore. His Facebook Group is sharing and connecting like-minded people of different age groups, who are keen on Singapore in the early days from the colonial days to independence days and early nationhood days. This is a very informative and interesting site, especially for the younger generation to learn beyond the history books on our culture and heritage and those landmarks and lifestyle gone by. Here’s the link on Facebook !

Recently, a few other areas surfaced into the picture

Bukit Brown Cemetery 

With a rising population in a limited and small land space Singapore, a thirst for more cars and expected heavier traffic, Bukit Brown Cemetery was slated for re-development, not just for roads, it’s also being planned for housing development too. This caused quite a stir too, with people stepping up to write, share and document down. This cemetery is iconic because of Singapore’s early pioneers, who helped to build up Singapore’s economy and society, some of them were buried there. Removing them is like tearing what builds up Singapore in the first place, way before independence during the British Colonial days. However, with the inevitable quest and thirst for more land, space and housing, where does the balance lies ? This is a question that is not a million dollar question as some people would put it, there might be no answer that fits everybody.

For more information and following on the updates, follow them on Facebook – Heritage Singapore – Bukit Brown Cemetery 

Save Old School

The Old School, perched on the top of the hill known as Mount Sophia, another rich history and heritage of early Singapore. A few historic buildings on the hill, which housed Methodist Girls’ School, is slated for re-development purposes and plans. It’s disappointing that more plans are being made/planned to change/remove these historic landscapes forever from our sight, for the sake of modernisation, growth and expansion. Let’s hope we can do more to Save Our School and preserve, conserve and protect more old historic iconic buildings!

For more information and following on the updates, follow Save Old School on Facebook !

Rochor Centre

This is stamped and sealed, in local terms “already decided, stamped chopped”, an area of very colourful of (Yellow, Blue, Red and Green coloured) Housing Development Board (HDB) flats in the area of Bugis, not too far from the Central Business District and Marina Bay area. They will be torn down, the residents and local businesses there relocated somewhere nearby, for the sake of building a new expressway, known as the N-S, North-South Expressway. The reactions, thoughts and feelings of the residents and Singaporeans are spreading in a viral manner on the social media channels and networks, on the traditional media and on the street level – the Heartlanders hearts, mind and soul.

My humble and simple coverage is just the tip of the ice berg, however, I hope that it helps to spread the word, cause and concern for us to Save Our Spaces, history, heritage, culture, preserve and carry it on for the future. This is also something to remind me again and again to continue on with my Old Places and Green Corridor coverage, something personal that had stagnated for quite a number of months.

As much as there is a need to replace and remove some of the older places and buildings for the inevitable growth and expansion of a country, surely and definitely we go around tearing historic landmarks and monuments that are part of our growth and expansion from her British Colonial days to early nationhood days to the cosmopolitan city that we are living in today ?

I believe we can find that balance, if everybody does their part.

In the year 2011, Earth’s population crossed over the 7 Billion mark, a number that has so many zeros that you might lost count of it. This situation is a very delicate cross road and when National Geographic Magazine launched their special year long series – 7 Billion on their site, along with a very informative app for the iPad.

This special series got me back into reading and following National Geographic, I am heavily influenced and mesmerised by National Geographic Magazine when I was a young kid in school, even dreaming of becoming a National Geographic photojournalist too! This special series brought up by National Geographic, with a few topics for discussion and deep thoughts thinking -

- Dealing with climate change

- Are there enough food for 7 Billion ?

- Are there too many people on the planet ?

The issues, questions, topics and discussions are going to be deep, specific and mind-opener. Is there a solution or are there solutions? Will concrete appropriate constructive action be taken? This will not be a straight forward discussion or answer session, likely a complicated and complex inter-related human race relationship and problems for Mother Earth.

That’s no 1 perfect solution, maybe multi solutions for each topic of discussion that was brought up by the National Geographic site, some questions I asked myself, what can one individual living on Mother Earth do or contribute ? If each individual can do something or contribute to one or some of the solutions implemented, it might be sustainable after all, how true, remains to be seen.

One simple task we can do is to share and spread this message of 7 Billion across and abroad, around us and beyond our shores and this meaningful quote below ~

Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.

We are more than the sum of our knowledge,
we are the products of our imagination. “

Ancient Proverb