Prunus Trail

This post is dedicated to a certain lady, G, who invited me on the Prunus Trail (MacRitchie) guided walk. Am so grateful to her. These walks are organized by N parks and the guided walks on this particular trail are available every second Sunday of the month.

A volunteer guide took us on this 1 hour walk which ended 45mins longer than planned because he had so much to share. While he proclaimed right from the start he does not know everything, he does have some good knowledge of the flora and fauna that can be found commonly along the trail. Here are some picts on what I learnt there.

Fruits of The Fig
Commonly known in Mandarin as the Wu Hua Guo (the fruit with no flowers).
No flowers? Where do the fruits come from?

The Inside

Here are some interesting-looking leaves.

Drip Tips?
More than that.

Pitcher Plant
Belongs to the Nepenthes family.
Nepenthes = End of all sorrows

Here is another plant which has been extremely useful. It used to land on me backside when I was naughty. :)

Yep, the Rattan.
Also nick-named the 'Wait a Minute' plant.
Because if you are walking thru the forest and gets hooked by it, playing the tug of war with it will only rip your clothes or your flesh apart. U need to stop, maybe take a step back, and get it out of you before proceeding.

And ah, an interesting occurrence - leaves that sweat. Yep. This is not the result of rain. Most other leaves were dry and it hasn't been raining earlier on.
Another of those leaves found 'perspiring':

There are many explanations but our guide offered this one: the plants are trying the keep the forest humid. :) Interesting.


And now, back to me state of repose.


SW

Last of the Assignments

Yes!!! Finally... :D
But got to echo CY's sympathy for our tutors who got to mark whatever we throw them.


Okie, now on to my holiday resolutions. Time to do loads and loads of other stuff, and to indulge in some hobbies every now and then. :D

First, is a wedding, of which I have to be coordinator for my girl fren, an ex-colleague, who happens to be marrying a current Geog teacher, who was also from the same cohort as me during uni days. So, will be working with some t'chers here and there. Talk about it being a small world. And this loafer (wef 8 Nov 05), tasked to be calling up the helpers, has problem reaching everyone because the poor t'chers are busy like anything. Will be like them this time next year. Sigh.... So, must enjoy as much as I this hols.

Then, going to be a tourist and visit different parts of Singapore, especially the parks, and maybe sign up for a couple of guided tours listed here in their respective calendars:
Nature Soc
Wild S'pore
N Parks

Then, got to catch up on Shakespeare and other children's literature, Harry Pottie (our Lit tutor's terminology :) ) and what not.

Experiment with IT stuff.

Meet up with friends, ex-colleagues, family and relatives. Bring the children for outing. And also makan sessions with Geog class. Pls do not forget to include me. :D Lit class mentioned karaoke. Hmmm... I can only freak everyone out with Hokkien songs, since I am no pop music person.

Take part in a tear-ing (as in crying) art project.

Short overseas trips if frens never stand me up.

Jog jog swim swim at least every other day. Too fat for comfort. Also got PC poisoning already. Need fresh air.

Clean up the house, tidy the shelves and table to make room for more stuff next year. My table is a whole mess of Himalayas, Rockies and Alps...

And do whatever further reflections where necessary.

Good good. In case u are wondering why these need to be listed here... they won't actualize unless I write them down. :) My zodiac says I am a dreamer...


SW

Distracted

Hmmm... 2 more assignments due next Tue and am done with rushing assignments for the rest of the year. Yippee! While I am enjoying the freedom of not having lessons and having full control allocating my own time for working on assignments, there are just too many distractions at home. But am just not ready to give up the comfort of home and spend 4 hours travelling just to do my assignments back in campus.

Can't help counting down - just 2 more days of being torn between assignments and Animal Planet (the most killing of all distractions), and I can watch all that I want. Once I am stuck in front of the tv watching animals, I'm stuck. Even when the repeats come on, I still cannot bear to tear myself away from the tele. Terrible me. But I just cannot get down to proper work. I think it all started with little Jo's hermit crabs. :D
Sigh... Flipping thru some old animal picts and here are a couple of cute ones.

Hope they bring smiles to your day.

Time for the zoo this hols. :-P Yeah!

SW