vinyarb

like, what is legit anymore?

Together we care at East Coast plan

Jul
02

The long anticipated Singapore General Elections is back, and we’re slated to head to the polls on 10 July 2020. My GRC is East Coast. I was previously at Tampines, where Heng Swee Keat was. And was glad that he followed me from Tampines to East Coast. 

Apparently, he had a plan for our GRC. Obviously as a concerned citizen, I’m really curious as to what this marvelously named plan entailed.

The plan was articulated as such.

Great.

 

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From Caterpillars to Butterflies

Jul
17

The last couple of weeks have been an exciting one for the Tan household. We got 3 caterpillars, and the boys were super excited to see them morph into butterflies.

 

For the boys, it was an interesting process, seeing the caterpillars up close, spending their days endlessly eating and pooping, and then one day just suddenly stop moving, and start curling up into a cocoon, as you can see from the caterpillar on top, just starting that process.

And then, 2 weeks later (somedays I truly believed they were all dead), one by one, they blossomed and turned into beautiful butterflies.

I was also very impressed by Oli’s sensibilities, and how OK he was with releasing the butterflies so they can go to the flowers to “eat”.

Here’s a video of one of them flying off into the sunset.

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The Night King takes Singapore Zoo, and brings Viserion with him

Nov
20

From now till Dec 31st, visit the Zoo, and you will get more than you bargained for!

Not only have beasts and other mythical creatures descended upon the zoo, the Night King has taken a couple of days out of his very busy schedule of killing Westeros to make a very special appearance at the Zoo, possibly advised by his PR team once he becomes the new leader of the world.

Don’t think Trump can stop this one with tariffs!

As he is a very busy man (?), he will only be making special appearances on 24 and 25th November 2018, at 11am and 2pm. Be sure to catch him!

His trusty new dragon, Viserion, though, will be in Singapore through to 31 December 2018.

Some other creatures include this Tiger|Dragon|Elephant hybrid. Cute.

This snake like dragon caught Oli and mummy by surprise cos it started spitting out water!

This was also where we revealed the truth behind the origin of Oli. Unlike other asian parents, we didn’t pick him up from the trash bin. We found him in an egg!

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Oli turns 4!

Nov
08


It’s amazing how time flies when you have kids. It honestly didn’t feel that long ago that I cradled this little wee baby in my arms, and now he is starting to fall into the “tall enough to get into rides” stage.

He’s also starting to want to play big brother and guide little Jubes and teaching him to say words. Here’s hoping you thrive in your role as a big brother, and enjoy guiding him down a good path of responsible toddlership!

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We live for Holidays! Sydney and Hunter

Nov
07

I’m sure many people experience the same feelings we do. As soon as we come back from a holiday, we start planning the next!

Given we have not actually started giving any thought to the next holiday, I thought I’d put up some photos and reminisce our latest trip to Sydney and Hunter Valley in October of 2018.

 

We’d initially thought about hauling the boys to Tokyo, Japan, with Disneyland as the crux of the trip. But on second thought, the boys were still too young to fully enjoy the park, so eventually, we decided against Japan and thought of Sydney (going back to Margaret River for the 2nd time in a year seemed… excessive).

So, http://sargeantstudios.net/?p=99 Sydney it was.

 

The weather was in the cool teens and early twenties, so perfect for us, though still a bit chilly when the winds came.

We could see the Harbour Bridge climbers, and I’d totally love to do that one day, although with 2 little kids in tow, it wasn’t possible for now.

We also checked out Taronga Zoo. This was taken in a cable car atop Taronga Zoo, which also gave us a beautiful view of the harbour.

 

The wife had an amazing deconstructed mocha, so good we had to go for seconds the following day! This is at The Grounds at Alexandria, highly recommended!

Also, I imagine one of the highlights of the boys’ trip would be that amazing tub where they had bubble baths every day.

Up next was a 2.5 hour drive to Santa Clara Hunter Valley. Once again, we booked Starline Alpacas, the farm we visited back in 2015 when Oli was a wee baby. It’s hard to imagine he turned 4 during the trip!

 

At the farm, we were given a bag of feed with which to feed the farm animals. The boys had a blast doing that, although Jubes still has to learn to open his hands in order for the alpacas to pick off the pellets.

We even managed to squeeze in some time to get some wine in!

Well, time spent during holidays always seem to move a lot faster than any other time, so… i guess it’s time to start planning the next one! 🙂

till next time!

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M Night Shyamalavengers

Jul
23

via GIPHY

If you recall the 90s and early 2000s, you’ll remember that that narrow time window was a great time to be M Night Shyamalan.

It seemed like he could do no wrong, with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and The Village.

After a while, it became apparent he was a one-trick pony, relying on the plot twist, a roughly last minute-ish reveal that totally re-framed the entire movie you’d seen, and forced you to confront it in a very different lens.

Well, after languishing in disappointing films like Lady in the Water, The Happening, he’s kinda back on track with the better reviewed The Visit, and Split, whose reveal was that it’s actually residing in the Unbreakable universe.

And when Split didn’t suck, he was suddenly in possession of (gasp!) a superhero franchise??!

So while Split’s twist was that it was a sort of sequel to Unbreakable, we now have the trailer to the trilogy to cap it off, Glass.

Is the trailer good? Well, it’s… interesting.

But perhaps, what’s more interesting is reading the comments, and seeing how the readers are chiming in on what they think the twist for Glass would be.

What are your thoughts on Shyamalan? Too far gone?

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Black Panther

Mar
15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“De rekorrds of de black panta will knot be streeped aweh!”

To say Black Panther overachieved would be an understatement, having recently crossed the $1b mark. Let’s look at some of the milestones it smashed along the way.

  • Biggest ticket pre-sales of all superhero movies
  • Highest Grossing Solo Superhero Movie in North America (ousting Batman in The Dark Knight!)
  • Best Feb opening weekend record (ousting previous holder Deadpool)
  • Biggest opening for an African American director
  • Highest grossing monday sales (ousting Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
  • Black Panther also scores for highest Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday grosses ever for Marvel

And now, to the film proper:

 

via GIPHY

Black panther has a lot going for it, giving us a glimpse into a brand new culture, an entirely fictional supposedly third world African nation of Wakanda, whose technology is secretly superior thanks to a brush with vibranium carrying meteorite.

That meteorite crash infused Wakanda with Vibranium, allowing them to develop advanced technology, and then shield it from the world. Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa heads home to be crowned King of Wakanda and bestowed the power of the Black Panther.

In the process of mourning his father’s death, he must also deal with a threats old and new, as a mercenary called Killmonger has an old score to settle with Wakanda.

Everything about the film was superb, from the realisation of Wakanda to the portrayal of Killmonger as easily one of the best villains in the MCU. With a bit of positioning, some might even say he’s actually the hero of the film.

An amazing watch that even the wife approves. With Avengers: Infinity War coming so soon after, the future of the MCU has never looked brighter, or in our heroes case, bleaker.

Rating: 9/10

1 point removed for the casting of Forest Whitaker, whom i just can’t even.

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Children being children

Nov
13

A bunch of kids. A birthday cake. Some sugar high. And a ready camera.

Hilarity ensues.

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