A lovely Christmas eve exploring and chilling out

National Museum of Singapore. Photo taken by RL.

Christmas eve 2008:

The original plan for Christmas eve was to visit the Singapore Flyer with one of my friends, RL, in the afternoon, after work. However, the Singapore Flyer met with technical glitches on 23 Dec 2008 afternoon and its flight operation was deferred.

Photo of the Singapore Flyer. Taken on 15 Nov 2008.

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that RL and myself that we could not take a flight onboard the Singapore Flyer on Christmas eve. We ended up, on a rainy day, visiting one of my favourite places in Singapore, the National Museum of Singapore. It was an enriching trip for me even though I have already visited the museum for umpteen times. The fascinating thing about visiting museum is that each visit is a unique learning experience. I am very biased. I think a short visit to the National Museum of Singapore is far more enriching than a flight onboard the Singapore Flyer.

Here are some photos that I had taken of the National Museum of Singapore quite a while time ago:

The Rotunda Dome.

The Glass Passage.

The Glass Rotunda and the escalators leading to The Canyon

There are a number of worthwhile exhibitions that are currently held at the National Museum of Singapore that I would recommend visitors to check out. I shall not attempt to write about these exhibitions unless the museum invites and grants me the permission to write and blog about these temporary exhibitions. Meantime, there are already a couple of good online posts that have featured these worthwhile exhibitions.

Here are the links, do check them out please:

Voom Portraits: Robert Wilson by Simply Jean.
Doubleness: Photography by Chang Chien-Chi by Simply Jean.

In addition, I recommend that visitors check out the Singapore History Gallery and the Singapore Living Galleries of the National Museum of Singapore.

Here is a relevant post that readers may wish to browse:
Tales From The National Museum by Weichong.

During my visit to the museum with RL, I have learnt from my dear friend and companion about "Access Audit" and some of the criteria to look out for so as to determine if a building is accessible to everyone, including people who are physically challenged. I've learnt that the toilet doors of the toilets in the National Museum of Singapore which are meant for the people with physical challenges are too heavy to be opened with ease. Try it for yourself and you will agree with me too.

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After our visit to the museum, we continued walking about Singapore. I was impressed with RL for her keen interest and stamina in walking from places to places instead of taking public transport. It looks like I have found my match when it comes to walking about Singapore.

While we were deciding on a place for dinner, we walked past a number of interesting buildings:

Previously the MPH building.

Stamford House.

Capitol Building. Singapore.

The Peranakan Museum.

For our dinner, we ended up, partly because of the weather, at Capitol Building and we treated ourselves to Hainanese Chicken Rice and other food from Hainanese Delights.

After dinner, we continued walking, and I insisted that RL take a view of the Singapore River from the Elgin Bridge. If it had been a clear night, the view would have been awesome.

View from Elgin Bridge at night. Taken in Aug 2007.

Afterwhich, we tried to look cold and uninterested when walking past the entire stretch of Boat Quay that ran parallel to the Singapore River. We had to look cold so as to attempt to deter the staff from the restaurants from asking us questions such as "What would you like to eat?", "Want to have something?" etc. However, we somehow seemed to attract a lot of such questions.

After a hearty stroll, we reached one of our destinations, The Fullerton Hotel. It was here that I have had a lovely and relaxing time chilling out with RL. Surprisingly, there were fewer people than I had expected at the hotel's courtyard. That meant good news for me since I prefer to be away from the crowd. Throughout the night, we were treated with live background music provided by a pianist as well as a choir.

Fullerton Hotel and Cavenagh Bridge

One thing I love about chilling out at the Fullerton Hotel's courtyard was that I was just sitting right below a lovely air-well! Please pardon me, I have a special liking for air-wells and tall ceilings. Maybe it is my love for spacious environment at work, subconsciously.

Courtyard of Fullerton Hotel. I love the air-well!

RL and yours truly indulged ourselves in the Fullerton Dessert Sampler. It was quite a treat to have on a Christmas Eve. The dessert sampler was thoughtfully presented, and one of the staff patiently introduced us to each and every item on the sampler. The service at Fullerton Hotel Courtyard was excellent. It was a lovely time chilling out, and I was glad that I have made time to chill out with RL.

Fullerton Dessert Sampler.

After chilling out at Fullerton Hotel, we headed for the Merlion, and the Esplanade Bridge. The satay-club that had used to exist just below the part of Esplanade Bridge near the side of the Merlion Park was no longer there. It was replaced by a Starbucks Coffee outlet. We continued our walk until we reached Anderson Bridge. I personally think that there was a pretty nice view from Anderson Bridge. It would be a good place to be standing on and to sing one's worries and sadness away.


Merlion, Singapore.

Anderson Bridge.

There are things on my mind that I have yet to have the answers for. I simply hope that those things that are out of my control would somehow work out well by themselves. If there are still things that are within my control but I am ignorant of, I hope somehow I could be enlightened.

My words of appreciation to RL for lending me company to explore Singapore and to chill out on Christmas eve. It has helped me spent the day meaningfully, taking me away from worrying about things that are beyond my control. I am thankful that I have found a friend in her. Here, I shall dedicate a post to RL one again to thank her for the most appreciated company on Christmas eve.

Here, I wish that everyone who reads this post will enjoy a peaceful and safe festive season. Keep safe please.