Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum

The Temple was built in Chinatown to house relics of the historical Buddha. After his death, Buddha's body spontaneously combusted and his remains (śarīraka) were divided into eight portions. These apparently contained some bones, as well as crystalline formations or bright jewels formed during the cremation. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism was spread (actually against his instructions).

The Temple contains a tooth, as well as a large number of these crystals, found in a collapsed stupa in Myanmar.

There is a rooftop garden, with 10,000 miniature Buddha statues. On the left, you can see the dharma prayer wheel.

Crappy museums

The Red Dot Design Museum is free on the first Saturday of every month, so we went to check it out this weekend. Since it's open to the public, they allow people to set up little merchant stalls, selling homemade products, jewelery and the like, which was a nice touch. The museum had a collection of interesting products from an industrial design or engineering stand point, but was ultimately underwhelming. I did, however, buy an excellent ice cube tray from the shop!

On Sunday, I dragged poor Anna out to the Science Centre Singapore at Jurong East. Ever since I was a child, I've loved these kind of museums and exhibits, but they're somewhat lacking as an adult. It also didn't help that everything that looked like fun was broken, pawed to death by the sticky hands of thousands of kinderfolk.

Still, we did get to see a demonstration of a large Tesla coil arcing through the air, and exploding hydrogen balloons, which I enjoyed. Other interesting items included:

Pangolins! Carefully placed to screw-over the English speaking audience members.

Funny mirrors...

Chicken incubators...

And me as a freaky looking old man...

APAC legal conference

We had a legal conference at work with a few overseas visitors, including the General Counsel of the whole company! As well as the various seminars we had at the office, we also squeezed in some sightseeing. Hot on the heels of a few drinks at the Fullerton Bay Hotel rooftop bar, this included a superb dinner at LeVeL 33 at Marina Bay Financial Centre, which has spectacular views across the Marina Reservoir.

I learned that the Marina Barrage was built to dam the reservoir, so that it will eventually desalinate, thus providing a new freshwater reserve. Coincidentally, the following day we chartered a tour bus around the city, ending up at the Marina Barrage itself. Surrounded by the grounds of the new botanic gardens (a work in progress), there is a small rooftop park here, and more wonderful views, this time back into the city.

Dinner that night was at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant at Riverside Point (opposite Clarke Quay). There was a rather terrific prawn fried rice, and the back pepper and chili crabs were very popular too (especially with Han and Clarence). We topped it all off with an evening of karaoke at Lunar.

February round-up

Caught up on our Oscar nominee viewings, seeing Black Swan, The King's Speech and True Grit.

I filmed a Jägermeister-branded Lion Dance troupe performing in Clarke Quay:

Yahoo! Chinese New Year party. "Around the World" theme. Legal team went as the All Blacks, and I taught them the haka.

Working on a secret film project with a local production company...

Went for Dim Sum with Michelle and Peter, then had some exquisite chocolate ice cream...

My birthday...

...and Yahoo!'s too :)