Gardens by the Bay

Singapore celebrated its 50th birthday on 9th Aug 2015. We had a long weekend from 7 Aug to 10 Aug 2015. Many places of interest had SG50 promotions and events held during the Jubilee Weekend. Some events were even free to attend.

We planned to visit one of those places on 7 Aug 2015. However, on 7 Aug 2015, it was raining till about mid afternoon. It would not be a good idea to visit places that were too far from our house, that were outdoors and required paid admission since half the day was gone. 

By the time we got ready to go out, it was already 5 pm. We decided to go to Gardens by the Bay since we had never been there ever since it opened. 

In celebration of the Jubilee Weekend, all Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents would enjoy 50% off admission tickets to Flower Dome and Cloud Forest from 7-10 August. All Singapore Citizens and Singapore Permanent Residents aged 60 years and above would also enjoy free entry to both Conservatories.

There was also a special edition of the Garden Rhapsody (SG50 Special) held from 6 - 10 Aug 2015 at 7:45 pm, 8:30 pm, 9:15 pm and 10:00 pm  to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday. This edition of the Garden Rhapsody presented nostalgic favourites from yesteryear sung by prominent local vocalists.

By the time we reached there, Sera was hungry so we had our dinner at MacDonald's.

Sera was happy to be able to purchase this SG50 edition of Hello Kitty from MacDonald's. 

After dinner, we went to the ticketing counters and found that the queue was very long with a waiting time of about 40 minutes. We reckoned that after buying the tickets, there would not be much time left to walk around the conservatories as both of them closed at 9 pm. Thus we just walked around the area and went for the Garden Rhapsody (SG50 Special) held at the Supertree Grove at around 7.45 pm. 

After the show, we caught glimpses of a fireworks display and we walked up a bridge towards the direction where the fireworks was seen but the fireworks stopped. It lasted less than 5 minutes :(. Since we were already up on the bridge, we stayed there for the next Garden Rhapsody. Below is a combined video of the Garden Rhapsody (SG50 Special) which was taken at the 7.45 and 8.30 pm show and taken from different angles. Enjoy!

National Day 2015 (Golden Jubilee)

《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 10)

In Episode 10 of 《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge", 朱莉莉，罗翊绮, 黄振隆 and 谢伟娜 competed with each other for the chance to return to the semi-finals of 《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" . 

谢伟娜 was known for her powerful vocals and the tonal range that she was able to reach. She sang the song 《如果云知道》, originally sung by Valen Hsu, for this episode. She said that because this song was basically "very quiet", in an attempt to make a difference by singing one part slightly higher than normal, her voice cracked at one point. 

In the end, she only managed to get 79.3 marks, which was 0.7 mark short of the passing mark set by the judges to proceed to the semi finals. The other contestants managed to get above 80 marks.

One of the judges, Lin Qiyu, felt that it was a pity that she would be out of the competition. He requested for other judges to give her 1 more mark so that she could return to the semi finals. He previously mentioned that 谢伟娜 has the type of voice that could sing many different types of songs. As a music record producer, if he were to sign on one of the contestants as a singer, he would choose her. He also said that even very well known and good singers would sometimes experience voice crack when singing very high notes. 

With the support of the audience, and concurrence from the production team, 谢伟娜 was able to proceed to the semi finals.

Related posts:

《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" (Episode 9)
《歌台星力量》"Ge Tai Challenge" Finals and Toggle Awards