Kseniya Simonova

speechless.

think you're strong?

"Asian Weaver ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) can carry weights of more than 100 times their own body weight whilst upside down on a smooth surface. To do this, they have incredibly sticky pads on their feet. However, this does not stop them from running quickly across such surfaces."

i used to love draw ants when i was a kid. i had this cute children's encyclopedia which had really pretty cartoon images of ants that i loved to replicate. perhaps that's why i still have an aversion to killing insects, cos when you are used to seeing them zoomed in, with their big eyes and their complex exoskeletons, it's hard to then step back and imagine them as anything less than one of God's beautiful and amazing creations (and by the way i firmly believe in evolution, but that's another story, for another time).

do you know how heavy 500mg is? it's the weight of a vitamin pill. now imagine that vitamin pill moving slowly across the ceiling, suspended in the jaws of an ant. freaky!

treetop walk

it's always nice when my family spontaneously decides to go out and do something wild (of course, by "wild", i mean anything involving stepping out of the house and doing something other than shopping or eating). this time, it was actually daddy who suggested going to macritchie reservoir to do some walking and fresh-air-inhaling. i remembered that there was this treetop walk in the news sometime back, and so the next day, 4 of us (dad, mum, me and hw) woke up at 7:30 to start our adventure (yy, meimei and joel were pre-expedition casualties).

and it was awesome! everything except for the following:

1. we did not bring any water
2. having singapore island country club constantly nearby was quite an annoying distraction (air-con, drinks, couches....)
3. the tree-top walk was 3.5km from our start/end-point
4. the tree-top walk is a long, gruelling trek of.... 250m
5. sweat! why can't singapore have winter??!!

still awesome though. check out the pictures.

we meant to wake up earlier than this but 力不从心!

watch out for approaching bbs!

in descending order of excitement

we let them pak tor

i was then sadly left behind

see the little bit of civilization in the corner?

mother nature has a heart!

bug on mushroom

world's tiniest handphone!

my parents don't look tired. at all.

cannot cannot cannot cannot cannotcanotcanotcanotnotnotnotnotnotnot

where the real macritchie reservoir is

tree laying seige on drain

baby lingzhi!

super not impressive, but no chance to turn back cos it's ONE WAY ONLY!

so we tried to look happy

we tried very hard

the ant was rather lost... it kept going round and round and round...but i guess i would too if i had a giant lens pointing straight into my face!

my trooper mum

my trooper mum :)

camwhore butterfly

gross looking furry balls of dunnowhat

there were dinosaurs!

baby monkey was very interested in the dinosaur

bb walked 7km in slippers

jungle flies aren't jittery and paranoid like hawker centre flies

poor tree...

gross tree

the sun is only pretty when you're standing under shade

spot the civilization in the distance...we were very very relieved

the parents were damn shack

the bb was even more shack

but we made it!

give it to me!

what is important to Singaporeans these days:

H ealth

D iet

B alanced life

F amily

L ove

A chievement

T ravel

give it to me embeetee!

they don't wither!

valentine's day can mean very many different things to different people. for some, it is a day of happy surprises, of pretty flowers and candlelit dinners. for some, it is a day of realization, that the person you have spent years with is really the person you've wasted years with. for some, it is a day of nervousness and cold sweat, of wondering if what you have prepared is a sufficient display of sincerity. for some, it is a day of camaraderie and gratefulness, for friends and family who tolerate your shit without question. for some it is loneliness, envy, and self-doubt. for some it is a revenue-generating opportunity, and for some it is a pocket-burning calamity.

for me, valentine's day has been most of the above, at one point or another. but this year, i'm just so glad that the person i wanted most to spend valentine's day with spent it with me. i hope you liked your present. it cost me next to nothing, and gave me only happiness while i was making it.


thank you for making me want to celebrate valentine's day!


...and for those who would like to try this out at home:

description:
these flowers bloom and "wither" when sprayed with water, and when inverted, they close up and harden in their pre-bloom form. you can do it over and over again, no more dead flowers to throw away after vday!

materials:
1. super absorbent chamois (reused)
2. 2 wooden sticks (reused)
3. chinese new year prawn roll bottle (reused)
4. pebbles and gravel (excess from another project)
5. twine (excess)
6. thread
7. permanent markers
8. heart
*no staples or adhesives were used in this project

cost:
less than 5 dollars

me and wen go wakeboarding again!

good try though! next time you'll be awesome!

we are family!

we're all still little kiddos! happy chinese new year to my wonderful family :)

smile

i was driving home alone, the brilliant sun in my eyes, when this song played over the radio. it made me think of you, which made me laugh, and cry, at the same time, for the very first time in my life. what a wonderful feeling.

give love

this chinese new year/valentines day, i want to thank God (again) for dragging you into my life, because that must be one of the greatest blessings i've had. ever. i also thank God for friends, who pray with me, who play with me. and for couples, because love is so important in life. and for extra stashes of chinese new year goodies woohoo!

hw, no expensive valentine's day flowers for you. because i'm donating (along with yy) 100USD (i know it's not much) to red cross, to help the suffering people in Haiti. and i know you will be happy about this because you are the most wonderful girl in the world.

to everyone else reading this blog, please show your love in a big way this valentine's day.

let us ride!

this is what we need in singapore. distinct, dedicated bike paths like the one above (in buenos aires) do not come easy anywhere in the world -- they cause money, reduce space for cars, and often risk the humiliation of under-usage. but it has become a reality in several brave new frontiers of our increasingly burdened world, and in my opinion, singapore is an ideal place for a bicycle culture to blossom. we are a small country, where work and residence are often nearenough that one does not have to spend half a day cycling to work. we have an intricate network of well-planned roads, which has already successfully implemented the idea of bus lanes. we have a growing traffic problem, which our electronic road pricing gantries do not seem to alleviate much. we have an educated population, that no doubt is aware of the global warming threat reality. we are an increasingly health-conscious society, with more and more singaporeans taking part in marathons each year.

all we need now is for some brave soul in our enlightened government to really do something about it.

alternative movie/tv posters

i love the jurassic park poster. if there's one thing i'll never forget about that movie, it's those beautiful tiny ripples in that glass cup before we all get eaten up! i think it's interesting how these posters are kinda like "hindsight ads" -- if you haven't watched the movies, you'd probably not appreciate the posters because what has jurassic park got to do with a two-thirds full cup? which is kinda silly in a way cos if you've seen the movie, you probably won't watch it again anyway, so all it becomes is a little private joke you share with the artist.

totally useless but totally fun! i like!

more at francesco mugnai

DAM you for destroying my land!

the NEW advantages of being a developing country with acres and acres of pristine, unspoiled nature -- you can get a contractor to build monstrous structures on top of this land, then get them to pay you millions of dollars in compensation for destroying your precious natural environment which you hold so dear. the paltry compensation sum can then be used for creating national parks, monitor forests and benefit communities affected by the dam put to good use.

sometimes, it does take quite a lot of ingenuity to do the really stupid things.

Brazil confirms huge and controversial hydroelectric dam in the Amazon -- TreeHugger