Category Archives: My Journals
Building a new future for Boys’ Town
I’m not sure if you have ever heard of Boys’ Town but they are not to be confused with Boy’s Home. Not known to many, Boys’ Town was established in 1948 as a charitable institution by the Brothers of St Gabriel. It is a unique Catholic Institution dedicated to providing guidance, shelter, education, vocational training and practical living skills to youths. Learning that they needed help to raise funds for their new building, I got in touch with the director of Boys’ Town, Dr Roland, a former boy himself to arrange a visit to Boys’ Town to spread awareness of it through social media.
Don't get to see such buildings around anymore...
Their 60-year-old building along Upper Bukit Timah road has taken its toll over the years and various sections are in a state of dilapidation. From my understanding, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) have sent letters to Boys’ Town to inform them to renovate their building to have a proper upkeep or I fear for the worst that they may take more drastic action. Being a charity organization under the Gabrielite Brothers, they do not receive any form of funding from the government and they have been sustaining from private donations.
The statue and motto of Boys' Town. Created by the old boys as one of their project.
As it was built 60 years ago, there wasn’t the blueprints of the building had been lost. Hence, renovations can’t be carried out and they have no choice but to rebuild the entire Boys’ Town that will amount up to S$15 million. Currently, phase 1 of the construction work is being carried out as they only have the funds to do so. A garden used to be on the ground of the phase 1 of the construction that brought back a lot of memories for the staffs and youths at Boys’ Town. According to the youths, 2 staffs got to know each other while working here and they held their wedding ceremony at the garden. With their garden being taken away, the boys were very upset that they don’t have a place for star-gazing anymore.
Afternoon Cake at Drips Bakery Cafe
A little while ago, I met Daniel from Daniel’s Food Diary for an afternoon cake as he was looking for friends to have cake with him as part of his birthday plan this year. I thought since I’ve not met him for a while, why not give him a birthday treat instead? Hence, I suggested that we visit 40 Hands Coffee but we settled for Drips Bakery Cafe as he wanted to try this new place in the vicinity of the quint old neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru.
According to Daniel, the previous time he visited 40 Hands Coffee, it was very disappointing as most of the items were sold out and the manners of the staffs were rude. Although it has been highly raved by a number of media, I’ve not been there so it’s up to you to decide for yourself. 
Alright, coming back to Drips Bakery Cafe, they have quite a number of tarts and cakes on display in the chiller when we enter the cafe. They have cookies too but since it’s Daniel’s birthday cake treat, we settled for some tarts as it looks really good.
The Mixed Fruit Tart had generous bits of blueberries and kiwis on it! The round tart had a firm crust with a nice layer of cream cheese at the bottom.
Paradise Dynasty CNY Yusheng Lou-Hei with BFFs!
I was very happy to celebrate Chinese New Year with 2 of my BFFs, Mint and Darren this year as we had a Yusheng (raw fish salad) lunch lou-hei at Paradise Dynasty. I chose this place for lunch as both of them have not been here before and I enjoyed their xiao long bao very much!
Credit: Mint
We also took this occasion to celebrate Mint’s belated birthday too as both of us could not make it to witness her unforgettable zoo birthday bash as she got engaged to her fiancée, Jackie! Hence, we got her a present from Neatoshop and some brownies from The Ugly Cake Shop!
McDonald’s hosted 38 seniors from the Lion Befrienders Service Association for a CNY dinner
When I receive the email on this event, initially I thought it was a press release for McDonald’s and wanted to send it right into the thrash box. Honestly, it has been a long time since I wrote for fast food restaurant and I felt that they can survive without the need for any publicity. However this time, the email title came as “Have a Prosperity and meaningful meal with McDonald’s & the seniors this CNY!” and I told myself, why not, since I love social responsibility events. Immediately, I RSVP for this event without any hesitation.
The underprivileged senior folks, were accompanied by 2 volunteers from the Lion Befrienders Service Association and was hosted to dinner at the Ridout Garden McDonald’s branch. Also, we were very fortunate to have Ronald McDonald and Managing Director, Ms Judy Harman were present to distribute red packets and mandarin oranges to everyone.
Photo Post: Sunset @ Reflections at Keppel Bay & Night View from Henderson Wave
One random evening, met up with my buddy Conan and I brought him to Reflections at Keppel Bay to take some nice photos of sunset. After that, I brought him up to Henderson Wave since he have not been there and we took a few more photos.
A few of the photos have been processed to give it a slight variation.
The last 2 photos are random shots of sunset that I took a few days ago.
All the photos were taken in RAW and some of them have been stitched for a HDR effect.
Do comment below and let me know what you think of the photos. Thanks! 
*Photos were taken using Canon EOS 1100D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens.
