Dr Tan Cheng Bock - I understand

Singapore's 7th President is Mr Tony Tan

Dr Tan Cheng Bock lost by a mere 0.34% (7,269 votes)!!

And there were 37,826 rejected votes.

Empire Hotel, Subang (2)

A modern hotel with a contemporary style and is designed for business professionals; the bedroom is purposely separated from the study room. There are three big mirrors in the room, in front of the bathroom, outside the wardrobe and behind the door. The room has a LCD TV and an iPod dock by the bedside. The LAN speed was reasonable but the WIFI was sloooooow.

There were not many choices for breakfast. It was almost the same food everyday. I stayed there for four nights and by the second day, I was already bored of the buffet spread. 

The entrance of the hotel is at level "LG" and the reception is on level TWO. This is quite confusing. And the entrance of the hotel forms part of the shopping centre "Empire Gallery". It is a small entrance and can be easily missed. The hotel is also near to a few other shopping areas and less than half an hour drive to KLCC and Pavillion. Just besides the hotel entrance, there is a nice Italian restaurant and an Indonesia restaurant. Businesses at these two restaurants are brisk, if you are thinking of having dinner there, do make reservations!

The bad

- long waiting time for the elevator!! They only have two elevators!

- the shower only stayed hot for five minutes, after that the water just got colder, colder and much colder.

 

Pictures of the room, taken with the compact camera

Empire Hotel, Subang (1)

I am back from Kuala Lumpur! We stayed at Empire Hotel, Subang. I "cleverly" brought my compact camera that was running on low batt and I did not bring any extra battery!!!! Argh!

Some snapshots of the hotel, taken with the iPhone.

Cook a pot of curry!

Have you received this invite on FB? Read about it here!!

I was badly attacked by mozzies on Friday. The office is currently undergoing major (interior) renovations and I think we sort-of disturbed the mozzies' nest. 

Escapade from the mozzies!!!!! The good news is that I am going to Kuala Lumpur for training. My last trip to Kuala Lumpur was 5 years ago and I was there for only a day as I have to fly direct to Shanghai for work the next day. All I remember of Kuala Lumpur was Salsa, Shopping and Supper. Hahaha!!!!

This time I have decided not to bring the DSLR. For (a long time) once, I can finally travel light and I get to choose the bag I want to carry; not the camera bag each time. LOL.

Barcelona (5) - Architectures

I made the decision to bring only one lens on the trip ie 24-105mm F4 and I regret it now! I past by so many beautiful buildings and only the ultra-wide angle can do justice to them. I thought I will not have the time for photography, having made up my mind that shopping will take the priority.
 

Here are some of the photos which did not make the mark. There is no way the 24-105mm lens can capture the whole building. Not even if I lie down flat on the ground. Just NO WAY. Some photos were taken with  DSLR while others were taken with the compact camera. (See! I did not even want to lug along the heavy and bulky DSLR).

This city is famous for architectures by Antoni Gaudi.

Barcelona (4) - Food

Our second (corporate) dinner at Barcelona. I missed the first one as we already bought tickets for OperaYFlamenco and we missed the third (last) dinner as it was our last night and we wanted to get some shopping done.

During this work trip, I had Spanish food for the first time and boy! "Salty" is an understatement. We wondered why the food were so salty; is it because Barcelona is geographically situated besides the sea?

The restaurants in Barcelona are only open at 9pm for dinners. By then we were starving. We only had some tiny sandwiches for lunch!

The starters - I lost track of the slices of bread I ate. They just kept serving it to us which is good as we were all so hungry.

They are famous for this seafood rice thing. This is also the most saltish food I have ever eaten. I could barely finish a third of it.

The second main course was the steak. I don't take beef so I asked the waiter to take it away. In fact, at the table where I seated, 6 of us do not take beef (2 colleagues from India, 1 from Thailand, 1 from Malaysia and myself - due to religion reasons and the colleague from Japan - I think he was just not in the mood for beef that night and the colleague from Turkey - she prefers vegetables.)

The desserts - Sweet!

By then I was feeling very full from all the bread that I have gobbled.

Enough to go around a few tables

Thanks to the Head Office for organising this dinner. We had the third floor all to ourselves. It is a great restaurant!

Some snapshots of the scenery

Barcelona (3) - Hotel Diagonal Zero

Hotel Diagonal Zero is located in the financial district, in front of the Centro de Convenciones Internacional (CCIB) convention centre. It is a ten minutes walk to El Maresme Forum metro station (yellow line). There is also a shopping mall just across the road. This is a very new hotel and part of it is still under construction.

I did not quite like the room decor. I mean, what's with the bright pink and yellow walls? And as usual, there is this transparent bathroom wall but it is well covered with a screen. And I was quite surprised to find a mircowave oven in the room but no kettle (duh).

Hotel Diagonal Zero

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Barcelona (2) - Hotel Silken Diagonal

As Hotel Zero was overbooked, some of us had to stay at Hotel Silken Diagonal on the first day.

My two cents worth

The decor is modern and the room is clean.

It has a great location, next to the Torres Agbar landmark 5 minutes walk from the Glories Metro Station (red line). There is also a shopping mall just opposite the hotel - they have Zara, H&M, Mango, Dunkin Donuts, Macdonalds..... and a huge Carrefour supermarket.

There is free WiFi and the speed is reasonable.

I noticed one common thing about hotels nowadays - the bathroom door and walls are transparent. Is that the trend now? I get to have a room all to myself as this is a business trip. However, I will not choose this hotel if I am going on a trip with my friends. One side of the transparent bathroom wall is covered with a screen that is translucent. And there is nothing to cover the transparent door and the other wall (refer pictures).

The only complaint that I have - the bathroom is not very well designed. There is no shower curtains and after each shower, it practically floods. I tried using the towels to dry it but it did not work. I loathe having to step onto the wet floor! 

Hotel Silken Diagonal

20110710 KTM Choa Chu Kang

IMG_2880_Resize, originally uploaded by Technical Tango.

Gone are the glory days

Terracotta Warriors - The first emperor and his legacy

This exhibition features one hundred artefacts from Shaanix province in China. Besides terracotta figures, the display contains important bronzes and jades from the Qin state before the time of the First Emperor. This is the first exhibition of the actual terracotta warriors to be held in Singapore as well as the first presentaton in Southeast Asia.

The first Emperor (259-219 BCE), Shi Huangdi, unified China and established the imperial system that lasted for more than 2000 years. He remains an intriguing historical personality.

Interactive

1) Download the ACM Terracotta Warriors iPhone app.

Search ACM : Terracotta Warriors.

2) The Broken Warriors 3D Puzzle

This is just outside the gallery. Restore the two broken terracotta warriors back to their former glory.

3) Emboss a book mark

Hunt for the unique Qin Dynasty seals and motifs and emboss them onto limited edition bookmarks

One of my favourite photos. I like the shadows in this photo.
IMG_3030, originally uploaded by Technical Tango.

More photos on my Flickr photostream. All photos for the day were taken with EF50mm f1.8 prime lense.

FYI - There is a Terracotta Warriors Weekend Festival from 13th to 14th Aug 2011 (Saturday and Sunday) from 1 to 6pm. On this weekend, the admission to galleries (from 9am to 7pm) will be free!!

(All informaton are from Asian Civilisation Museum)