14 Jun 2026 - Make Walking More Fun with Geocaching

In order to make the walk more fun at Ang Mo Kio Linear Park, we downloaded an app called Geocaching and started our treasure hunt adventure. The Geocaching® mobile app acted as our digital compass and treasure map, turning our smartphone into a high-tech tracking device. The core of the app is its interactive map. We could view nearby caches in real-time, toggle between street views and satellite imagery, and see exactly which direction we were facing as we walked toward a target. This is perfect for linear parks as they are long, continuous paths, and geocachers can easily map out a sequential route. We could move seamlessly from one cache to the next, treating the park like a real-life video game level where every few hundred meters offers a brand-new puzzle to solve.

The app is designed for both beginners and experienced players, using your phone’s built-in GPS to guide you within feet of a hidden cache. Below are two of the caches that we had found during our walk. If you intend to give it a try, all the best to your treasure hunting adventure! :-)

14 Jun 2026 - Morning Walk along Ang Mo Kio Linear Park

We went for our weekend morning walk today at Luxus Hills Park. It is a 6.2-hectare green space located along the north side of Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, stretching from Seletar Green Avenue to Seletar Road.

The park uses a series of hillocks, mounds, and meandering footpaths as a nod to the area's history as a 19th-century rubber estate tied to the Seletar Hills.

As this is more like a neighborhood park rather than a nature park, we did not expect to see much wildlife here.  However, we still managed to see the following birds.

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To be updated.....

17 May 2026 - Another Hike at Thomson Nature Park

Thomson Nature Park is one of our favourite weekend hike locations. However, it seemed to have a lot more mosquitoes today compared to our visits here in the past. Not sure if it was due to the rain over the night before.

We had seen a monitor lizard up on a tree previously. But this one was at another level. Look how high it had climbed on the coconut tree.

Due the rain last night, part of the path was blocked by a fallen tree. We had to slowly crawled under the branches to go over it.

Then among the trees, we saw a Colugo resting on a tree trunk not too far away.

At one point, we heard a unique chirping of a bird. We looked up and saw this "fellow". Can someone help to identify this bird? :-)

Along the final stretch of the hike, we saw a group of Macaques sitting on path ahead. One of them was "toying" with a jackfruit.

Another great hike at the park!

12 May 2026 - Unexpected Encounter with a Woodpecker at SGH

I had a medical appointment at SGH this afternoon. Unexpectedly, we saw a Woodpecker on a tree as we stepped out of a building. We just saw a Woodpecker for the very first time two days ago at Punggol Park. And today we saw another one. What luck!  :-)

10 May 2026 - Morning Walk at Punggol Park (Woodpecker)

This morning, we went for our weekend morning walk at Punggol Park. We always stopped at one spot where we had a stunning view of the calm waters creating mirror-like reflections of the sky, trees, and nearby buildings.

And for the very first time, we saw a Woodpecker on the tree.

Following are some of the amazing wildlife that we saw during the walk.

9 May 2026 - NOI Gold Award and NUS School of Computing Admission Letter

We were invited to attend NOI (National Olympiad in Informatics) 2026 Prize Giving Ceremony today at NUS as Javier is one of the award recipients for achieving Gold medal in this year's competition. This was his second consecutive year achieving Gold.

The event started with A/Prof Steven Halim sharing the programme for today.

After which was a welcome note by Vice Dean, Undergraduate Studies, A/Prof Kan Min Yen.

This year, there were 23 Gold medalists out of 199 students who officially qualified for the NOI 2026 Final Contest after the preliminary round held in February which attracted about 400 students from across secondary schools and junior colleges in Singapore.

As one of the Gold medalists, Javier then received the Gold medal award from Deputy Director, Mr Soh Cheow Kian, from MOE.

Since Javier is currently in JC1 and by getting Gold, he was also presented with the highly sought-after SoC Admission Letter, which grants him automatic conditional admission for undergraduate studies at NUS School of Computing.

He then received the SoC Admission Letter from SoC Vice Dean, A/Prof Kan.

After lunch, Javier and the other Gold medalists went on to participate in APIO (Asia-Pacific Informatics Olympiad), which is a level up from NOI in terms of difficulty. All the best, Javier!

4 May 2026 - Lovely Morning Hue and Moon

I managed to capture the beautiful morning hue spreading out in the east early this morning.

When I looked towards the west, I had a nice shot of the moon as well.