Lyssa Zampa Tropical Swallowtail Moth

There have been a lot of sighting of the giant moth, the Tropical Swallowtail moth in Singapore. Social media have been awash with photos of them except me. until now...

Since the mass outbreak of the moths, I have seen them five times. One dead in front of my office, 2 high up on the wall at the Tanjong Pagar MRT station and 2 flying around at the void decks around my place. But no photos so far as they were all dead or out of reach of my camera phone.

Until today. On my way to lunch saw this moth on the glass wall of the building next to my office building. On the way home, it was still there and at eye level too! So I got a nice shot with the camera phone.

 Too bad I cannot go into the bank and take the photo from the other side of the glass wall. That will be a first - the underside of the moth.

Our Great Nature

Another post on the great nature. This is a video I took on one of my walkabout.

Walking along the bank and looking at the far bank, this looks like some exotic jungle in South America or the Borneo jungle. But of course it is not. It is just a place that is not so well trodden and hopefully will remain that way for a long long time.

Can you guess where is this place?

Gardens by the Bay

Finally I managed to drop in both the Conservatories at Garden by the Bay. I have bee to the Flower Dome previously but not the Cloud Forest. These are the highlights of the Garden by the Bay in addition to the Supertrees.

Since it was the last day of the Tulip flower shows, I decided to go down and take a look at both the both.

Here are some photos from the visits.

This is the flower dome. There is a center area where the flower exhibits can be changed. The whole place is climate controlled to the cool dry Mediterranean region. In addition to the flower exhibits, there are display of plants from all the region such as olive trees, cactus and so on.

The Tulip exhibits with tulips from the Netherlands. Tulips of all colour and size. Beautifully arranged although sadly because this was the last day of the exhibit, a number of the tulips were already withering.

A close up of some of the tulips

Other flowers in the Flower Dome

The Cloud Forest is a stimulation of the mountainous region complete with a 35 metres waterfall and artificial mist. Plants here are those that can be found in the sort of altitude with many species of orchids, pitcher plants and bromeliads.

The main "actions" is on this 35 metres high tower cum waterfall. There is a lift to bring visitors up to the top and slowly walk down the bridge to the bottom while viewing the plants alongside.

Some of the flowers found there

Didn't have time to go over to the Super Trees. Was there last year and took some photos of the trees in the night.

Certainly while the Garden is a bit artificial, it is still worth a visit to gawk at the exotic plants and the colourful trees.

Those N95 masks from Temasek

Temasek announced 2 weeks ago that as part of its corporate social responsibility, it was giving away 3 N95 masks to 1.2 million household as well as more to charity homes.

This has got to be the most ill conceived public relation exercise. I don't know which idiot in Temasek came up with the idea of giving away N95 masks to all Singaporean. I suppose the idea behind it is sound but the whole exercise smacked of a failure to plan and think through the process and idea behind it.

1) Why 3 masks when the average household size is 4?

2) And why all households when those more affluent households can afford them?

3) Are these masks part of the stockpile that the government has built up and is distributing now because they are near its expiry date?

4) Why now of all time when there is no haze in sight?

Frankly while I appreciate the gesture, I think it was really not necessary for Temasek to give to every household. I can afford to buy the masks but I know there are many other who can't. Likewise, I am sure those people staying in private properties can afford to pay for them. 

Instead of giving 3 to every household, what Temasek should have done is to send more to those more needy household. Maybe using room size as a guide - say 3 rooms and below. Additional stocks can be given to charity, resident committees, town council, resident committees and community centres to hold and distribute to those who ask for them. That way there will hopefully be less wastage.

Bougainvillea

The hot and alternate wet weather has triggered a beautiful flower bloom all over Singapore and one of the most spectacular display is at the Bougainvillea Garden at East Coast Park. I didn't even know they come in so many colors and on a same plant too!

Illiterate or Blind?

Saw this car at the Bukit Timah Visitor car park. Maybe the driver is illiterate and can't read. But on my way back, he was blasting loud ang moh music from his car stereo.

 So maybe he is not illiterate but blind since that is a real big sign and he parks right below it!