Chilling @ SingJazz 2014

Summertime and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'
So hush, little baby; don't you cry

Sing Jazz 2014

Last weekend , Singapore was experiencing one of the hottest weekend for the year. No, we are not talking about the heat wave but rather the the debut of Singapore Jazz Festival.

Jazz festival

This being the first Jazz Festival on our shores , we were naturally hype to watch the performance. We had the Sunday slot and we had UK Jazz Masters (Alemat Fernandez, Richard Jackson), Roberta Gambarini, Roy Hargrove, Gregory Porter and the headliner Earth Wind & Fire experience.

Marina Bay Sands

This inaugural event is held at Marina Bay Sands. There were concerts held at the Grand theatre and Event Plaza. The event we attended was at the Event Plaza. It was early evening when we reached and the crowd was strolling in.

Roberto Gambarini

We initially thought we would be able to catch the whole event. However this is a Marathon Jazz Festival with the first act starting at 530 and the last set ending close to midnight. Unfortunately time was not on our side as due to parenting commitments, we can only stay for 2 acts.

Sing sing sing

Although we enjoyed the performance, we felt it lack a kick. Perhaps due to the lesser crowd ( most came after 8pm ) or the fact that Roberto had performed the night before, the set and the repertoire sounded more like a rehearsal than a performance. During one of the breaks we actually caught a glimpse of Roberto in her gorgeous gown the evening before. Somehow the causal setting for this performance seemed a little underwhelming in the huge stage.

Nontheless the crew was tight as they cruise through the numbers. The fiesty Italian even performed a set with vocals mimicking the saxophone. Hailed as one of the best jazz vocalist in fifty years, the raspy voice charmed the crowd as the sun sets.

Somehow sitting under an open sky and listening to lay back tunes made a perfect date for us. Truth be told, it has been a while since we were out for a decent date, thus this was a welcoming setting for a romantic evening.

Beer

A nice cool beer would have cap an evening well spend...
The night arrived when Roberto finished her set.

Roberto

The next performer was Roy Hargrove. The American jazz trumpeter was a former Grammy Award winner for differing music in 1997 and 2002

Roy Hargrove

The night ended for us, but the music played on. The setting at MBS events plaza was good for a cozy audience. We were reluctant to miss the headliners but parental duties call.

Event plaza

There are also free events during Singjazz held at various locations at MBS. We spotted this set at the rink where couples were jiving to the tunes by Havana Social Club.

Singjazz may have just found its roots in Singapore judging by the crowd that evening.

Havana Social Club

One of these mornings you're gonna rise up singing
And you'll spread your wings and you'll take to the sky
But till that morning, there ain't nothin' can harm you
With daddy and mammy standin' by


Copyright - Summertime Ella Ftizgerald

10 (Almost) FREE March School holiday activities for kids in Singapore

It's time for school holidays.

It may only be a week, but there is still enough time to pack in fun for the children during this short break. They say the best things in life are free, so we bring you the top ten free activities to do this coming March school holidays for Kids! Most of the items on the list are free, however there are some that came quite close! Singapore may be the most expensive city to live in, but there are pockets of fun that is FREE around this little country.

It is time to discard the standard events listing and experience real fun.

1 Explore Singapore latest Children Gardens @ Gardens by the Bay

GBTB Children Gardens

Given the heatwave in Singapore. Places with Water dominate this list!

Head down to the newly minted Gardens By the Bay Children Gardens to cool down this March Holidays. Wet and dry options available . With over 1 Hectare of play, this is one place that will surely entertain your children for the day.

Cost : FREE

2 Go for a dip... at the Shopping Malls

Tampines one

Shopping malls are a great spot to find those water spots. Head down to your nearest shopping mall with an outdoor water playground. Get transported to the North Pole or simply indulge in a wet playground, shopping malls are now alot more fun with them. We visited some of them such as Tampines One, 112 Katong and Changi City Point. Our conclusion - Don't forget the wet suit!

Cost : FREE

List of Water Playgrounds in Shopping Malls

• 112 Katong
• Changi City Point
• IMM Building Jurong
• Lot 1 Shopping Mall
• North Point Shopping Mall
• Nex Shopping Mall
• Tampines One
• Vivo City Skypark
• Westgate

3 Explore the Great outdoor.... PLAYGROUNDS!

Holidays are meant for children to take a break from school. Revisions can wait. Head down to the playgrounds for some sun and fun. From the neighborhood playground to mega parks like Pasir Ris Park, West Coast, Tiong Bahru Park , Bishan Park amongst others. There will be acres of space for the little ones to roam and stretch their legs.

Cost : FREE

4 See the City from afar

Take out the glider, put on a pair of skates or simply a pair of running shoes and head down to Bay East. This linear park is just parallel to the city skyline. A great way to enjoy the view and exercise at the same time. Head down all the way to Marina barrage connected via a bridge to cool down at the Water playground there.

Cost : FREE

5 Beat the heatwave at (Cheap) 'Waterpark'

Pasir Ris Swimming Pool

A cheaper option to the expensive Water Parks would be your neighborhood Swimming complex.This is a great way to introduce the young ones to Water Parks without breaking the bank. Adults can have their fun too at slides and even the pool. A one stop family destination for Water Play.
Swimming complex with child friendly facilities in Singapore

• Chua Choo Kang Swimming Complex
• Jurong East Swimming Complex
• Jurong West Swimming Complex
• Pasir Ris Swimming Complex
• Sengkang Swimming Complex

The list and details can be found here.

Cost : $1 per child

6 Visit the Treehouse and a Library

Treehouse @ Central Library

Fancy a treehouse in a libary?
Take a visit to My Tree House, Singapore first tree library at Central Library. You can also choose to get some storybooks for the children too!

Cost : FREE

7 Go to the airport and don't leave town

Slide @ T3

Slide down to Singapore Changi Airport. Between the Slide@T3 and the Canopy @ T1 there are pockets of fun waiting to be discovered in Changi Airport for kids.

Cost : FREE

8 Go wacky with Arts and Craft

Arts and Craft

Stuck at home?

Take some paper or recycled materials such as bottles and newspaper for some Arts and Craft. No rules here, just let your imagination flow.

Cost : FREE

9 Make someone's day.. Volunteer

Volunteer @ Willing Hearts

Help someone out this holiday. Be a volunteer.

Cost : FREE
Reward : PRICELESS

10 Discover a new place or an experience

Try something new

They say Singapore is a tiny red dot. There are only so many things we can do or places to go. However we had since discovered that there are alot more activities to do and experience in this little jem. So go ahead, explore a new park, a new playground or a place you always wanted to go. If you need ideas, just scroll through our archives and see what interest you.

There is whole world of experiences waiting to discover. That is priceless in our books!
Have fun this holiday!

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ESET Smart Security and Mobile Security Review + GIVEAWAY!

Eset Smart Security

If you are reading this, you probably know by now that this is a blog. If you ran through the pages, you would have notice tons of photos and hopefully awesome content.

Maintaining a blog is not easy. There will be time spend on research, updating the blog and checking put other social platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. With all the time spend on the internet , it is important for us to secure our access . We do not want an unwarranted virus or malware to infiltrate into our computer and wipe out all these years of memories stored within. With threats like hacking and identify theft , any compromise can lead things such as financial loss and even the closure of this journal by a hacker!

Eset protects us.

So when ESET offered us a trial of their products, we decided it would be wise to give it a shot. We have the ESET Smart Security to protect our personal computer and the ESET mobile security for our smartphone.

Eset Smart Security

Eset Security

ESET Smart Security is essentially an Antivirus software loaded with a host of other features that aims to secure your home computer or network.

Features of eset Smart Security

The full suite of features are as follows

More details can be found at http://www.eset.sg/
After a quick installation, we did detect potential threats in the system. Naturally we removed them using the program.

The features that we like the most are those that protect us on the Internet. Anti-Phishing warn us of suspected websites that may post a threat to us. This is useful especially if you are lead to bogus banks sites and may unknowingly divulge personal information such as usernames and passwords of your accounts to hackers.

Anti Phishing

Parental control mode is useful to protect kids from offensive online content by blocking more than 20 website categories.In addition, personal firewall keeps the laptop invisible in public Wi-Fi to prevent unwanted data copying.

Get Protected!

ESET Mobile Security

ESET Mobile Security

The ESET Mobile Security extends to the mobile platform. This is compatible with Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian system.

Features of ESET Mobile Security

We used this on our Samsung S4. Installation was a breeze using a QR code. ESET mobile security does comes free for the device with antivrus function. However the paid version comes with useful premium features such as Anti-Phising, Anti Theft and SMS / Call Filter that prove useful.

We did have a competitive antivirus installed previously. However we were surprised that ESET is able to detect additional threats upon installation. It just shows it never hurts for one to upgrade the security on your devices.

If you want to try out the ESET Smart Security, click on this link for an exclusive extended 60 days trial!

Wacky Giveaway

Free ESET Smart & Mobile Security

Since it always pays to be protected, we decided to share this with our readers.
ESET have kindly provided not 1, not 2 but 10 sets of ESET Security 1-USer-1-Year and ESET Mobile Security 1-User-1-Yeartotal worth $59. Simply do the following to qualify

• Like our facebook fanpage
• Like ESET facebook fanpage
• Share this picture on facebook (Click for Link)
• Join the Rafflecopter below
• Let us know on the facebook link that you have done the above once completed

Contest ends 12th March
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Terms and Conditions

1. Open to residents of Singapore with a valid Singapore mailing address
2. Only 1 winner per household - Duplicate winners will be disqualified
3. All the above must be done to qualify
4. Results will be out on 14th March
5. The Wacky Duo is not liable on the product usage. The Giveaway is conducted on behalf of ESET and all product related queries are to be directed to ESET.

 

War of Roses @ Flower Dome

Knight at the entrance

So it begins...
The feud between The House of Lancaster and The House of York climaxes at the Battle of Flower Dome.

War of Roses

This is the battle for the throne of England. The Victor will be crown King and the defeated will be vanquish. Proudly displaying their emblems, the 2 warring parties feud. The House of Lancaster bath in the passionate Red Rose , Rosa Gallica will take on the pureness of the House of York clothe in White Rose, Rosa x alba.

The Battle begins

The battle begins.

White Rose

This is the War of Roses!

Red Rose

Take your side as fair maidens awaits the victorious knights.

Lady in Red

Fair Madien

For amongst them would be the future Queen of England.

Queen

A feast awaits the weary knights.

The Feast

But first , the epic battle will commence and the victor goes to the spoils.

Battle amongst the Roses

This is where History is made.

Charge

In the year 1485, Henry Tudor from the House of Lancaster rode into battle at Bostworth Field.

It is time

Facing the King of England, Richard III , this battle will conclude the war.

There can only be one

With bated breath, the knights take their positions for their one final charge.

War of Roses

Watched over by the people from towers afar...

Towers

who witness blood shed in all shades of RED

Shades of Red

They watched and they waited.

We ride

Till the Victor emerges... and they have a new king. The Red Roses from the House of Lancaster greeted their new leader of England... King Heny VII , the first Tudor King and the founder of the Tudor Dynasty.

Long Live the King!

 

The above short tale is a fictitious representation of actual events that happened in History. This month's display at the Flower dome is part of "Gardens by the Bay goes round the World" series for 2014. Starting from United kingdom, the War of Roses will be the showcase display from 26 Febuary to 6 April. The rose is the national flower of England.

Featuring over 60 varieties of roses, there are thousands of roses invading the Flower Dome. This is one display that invokes passion, rage and pride in a well known tale in English history. It is probably one of the better displays at the Flower Dome in recent times. The clever use of the iconic wooden horses from the Year of the Horse Floral Display is a plus for Eco-friendliness.

Facts of Rose

Other that the magnificent displays, there were shields of knowledge scattered around the gardens. From there you learn what each colour of a rose represents and the medical benefits of roses amongst others.

If you can, try to spot a Blue Rose amongst the roses. Tried as I did, I could not see the elusive rose. In case you are wondering, blue roses does not exist naturally. They are man made as one of ' the shield' will explain.

Facts about Blue Rose

It will make an educational trip for children if they visit the Flower Dome. Too bad the Wackies could not make it this time round. Nonetheless, for the closet shutterbug,it is indeed good photo therapy!

War of Roses

War of Roses

26th February - 6 April 2014

Opening Hours : 9 am to 9 pm

Flower Dome