Singapore Monopoly

Sweet home Marina Bay has made its way on the Monopoly game board. I got the Singapore edition as christmas present. Thanks YW! Lets have a game soon again!

Something concrete

Birdeye view to one of Marina Bay's many building sites.

Steel, glass and concrete. What else is needed to build skyscrapers?

Urban patterns

iPad - a Kindle killer?

Pictures from apple.com and amazon.com

Apple introduced its long-anticipated touch screen device yesterday. It looks like a stretched iPod Touch and it is called iPad. Basically it is like iPod Touch with a huge 9.7" screen. I will not go to all the tech details, you can read about them here.

One thing that is very interesting is Apple's intentions with iPad. They have made a handy surf board for sure and easy to carry around video watching device for traveling. But is iPad also a way to catch the market from Amazon's Kindle? iPad has a big enough screen for digital book reading and with its desirable looks it makes Kindle looking like an old calculator. iPad comes also with a wide variety of functions while Kindle is more or less meant just for reading.

Amazon has been marketing its electronic book reading device for couple of years now, but it never has really gotten to the main stream and hit the big buck. Apple on the other hand, is known for its ability to make gold of almost everything it touches. Apple's strengths lie in design, usability and branding. Amazon is not first and foremost a device manufacturer, they sell books. I am just wondering will iPad catch the bubbling-under market from Kindle and make digital magazine and book reading a hit? We will see. Still, at this point I read my magazines and books as paper versions.

UFOs have landed

Is it a UFO on the left side in the picture? No, it is the supreme court of Singapore. The wise judges can scan for criminals on 360 degree angle - handy!

But wait, there is another UFO on the right. Maybe not, it is a tower belonging to a new hotel (still being built) between One Marina Boulevard and Clifford Pier, which, now houses an excellent restaurant called One on the Bund. Their Peking duck is the best.

Dangerous side of Singapore

Be careful in Changi Village!

MIlan fashion week FW10, my favorites

Pictures from gq.com/style

Here are my favorite picks from the latest fashion week from Milan. My absolute favorite is the Gucci look with electric blue shades. It is timeless and effortless, yet chic and something new. That is what fashion is at its best?

NZ Tour: Invercargill

Invercargill town hall.

Common sight along the roads in NZ.

One for the road... On the last day in Queenstown we decided that we wanted to see Invercargill, the southernmost town in NZ (and one of the southernmost cities in the world). It took two hours to drive there, we spent about 15 minutes in the town and then drove back to Queenstown. At least we can say we have been there. But that is all I can say about that place, so quick was our visit.

NZ Tour: Queenstown

Queenstown seen from the hills. Behind the town The Remarkables.

Those darling seagulls.

Trees were huge.

This may be the southernmost LV store in the world?

A picture from our balcony right after the year's change. Happy new year 2010!

Our long drive across NZ was finally over and we arrived to Queenstown, where we spent 3 nights. We had booked a luxury condo at Alta Apartments. Our apartment had 3 spacious bedrooms and a huge living room with integrated kitchen. The apartment had a magnificent view towards Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables.

It was nice to have couple of days just to walk around without hurry to go to the next place. And we walked indeed. The last day of 2009 we climbed to Ben Lomond, which was partially snow topped and is 1748m high. The views along the route and from the summit were breathtaking. See below.

After Queenstown we flew back to Auckland and spent a day there before heading home.

Ben Lomond summit, 1748m high.

NZ Tour: Change of scenery

Home of God?

Anyone home?

After the glaciers and Lake Wanaka, the landscapes changed drastically. Suddenly it seemed that we were in Tuscany with snow topped mountains. The views from the dry hills were magnificent.

NZ Tour: Lake Wanaka

Lake Wanaka. Sorry about the poor picture quality. My camera ran out of battery and I had to use my cell phone camera.

Vineyard next on the sunny hills.

After a long drive from the glaciers and many lookout points later, we arrived to Lake Wanaka. It was only a one night stand before continuing to Queenstown. But still we had time to do some mountain biking and walking around the small town of Wanaka, which is very popular tourist spot on the southern island of NZ.

NZ Tour: Quick stop at Haast

End of the world?

Sands of time

After leaving the glaciers we stopped at many small and beautiful spots before our next destination. One of those places was Haast, which had a picturesque nature pebble beach. Haast is named after German geologist Julius von Haast, who spent a lot of time in NZ exploring its nature. Soon after Haast we saw an extremely beautiful mountain creek, see below.

NZ Tour: Glaciers

Icy creeks

Fox Glacier

Up, up, up!

View from the top of Fox Glacier.

Franz Josef Glacier

After Greymouth we finally reached the Southern Alps. We stayed two nights at Franz Josef Glacier village and did some hiking around. As all glacier walking tours were fully booked at Franz Josef, we headed to Fox Glacier, which was situated near by. Walking on the glacier was nice and it was great to see snow first time this winter (although it was summer in NZ). It was amazing to hear how long it does take for the ice to come down from the mountains to the point where it starts to melt and converts into small creeks that eventually form rivers. 100 years!