Witnessing the Syawal Moon of Hari Raya Aidilfitri

For a long time I had this small dream for Hari Raya Puasa. To witness the young crescent moon that announces the end of Ramadan month which also marks the start of the festival of Eidul Fitri. Last Sunday evening I got my chance. The thin crescent appeared in the west at dusk, the gleam sharp yet the illumination was not overpowering. It was as if to remind me, gently, that my modest dream had been fulfilled. Snapping out of what seems like an eternal fixation on the lunar beauty, I reminded myself that this was all temporal, the moon would disappear below the horizon later that night. I am glad to have wasted no time in retrieving the camera.

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Our National Stadium … Recycled!

When all have been blogged (example) and recorded (example) following the demise of the Grand Dame, a chapter closes in the history of Singapore. But is it true that nothing more could be said of our National Stadium? Not really. In this short pictorial post, I'm going to show how even when our heritage are destroyed, they do not always disappear. They get ... recycled!

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45-65 at the National Museum and A Surprise Discovery

When I got wind of this new exhibition at the National Museum, I was pretty much excited for two reasons. First, admission is free; secondly, it talks about our pre independence history, the period between 1945 and 1965, that I recently found an interest in. Let this short introduction whet your appetite:

The exhibition brings visitors through the tumultuous period of post-war recovery and illustrates the challenges and hardships of building a nation then. At the same time, the awakening of a national consciousness further contributed to the determined struggle for decolonisation and self-rule. The events of these 20 years of rebuilding a nation, independence from the British and separation from Malaysia - set the stage in our quest for a national identity.

The surprising thing is, through the exhibition which I visited on 8 July just one day after its opening, I made a discovery of a "second shot nature", which incidentally has nothing to do with the exhibition at all.

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