Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Weekend at Our Shores…

I am back after all the trips to Kusu and Tuas over the weekend. This year first morning trips have started out with a bang. We saw a lot of wonderful stuffs (See that why I have said it’s party time and it’s worth the sacrifice of sleeping a couple of hours less).

At Kusu, we were there around 5am and we headed to the area below the jetty. But it was a search for the rest of the crews for me before I finally found them at the jetty. Well…this was due to some communication breakdown when we were deciding where to start. Thus, I ended up (with another crew member) searching for the gangs from one lagoon to another. A great workout though. :O)

As I was approaching the jetty, I felt something sharp poking through my left booty and got me on the tip of my fourth toe. First thought occurred to me was “STONGFISH “! Oh My God! Please don’t let it be a stonefish! So I stopped and looked around but don’t see any moving “stone”. Next…try to sense if my left leg felt any pain. Nope…Ahh….a relief….but still have to be very careful…so lookout…lookout.

We saw two Scorpion fish (think one is a False Scorpion fish). We have mistaken the second one, as a stonefish but was later ID as a Scorpion fish. Phew!!! But it the same danger we are talking about even it was a Scorpion fish. No one would like to step on one of these guys right? I spotted a catfish but it swam away before our cameraman could get to it. We also shoot some footage on NEMO among an anemone before we have to climb the seawall and head back to the hut as the tide was coming in. Later on…we went down to the lagoon and there were huge land hermit crab, moonsnails with spotted foot and a seahare.

Next day at Tuas, we were at Raffles Marina around 6am. We were waiting for our boat ride out to sea at the pontoon and as we shined our torches at the water surface, we saw something flapping. We thought it was a flatworm but upon a closer look…yes it’s a worm…not a flat but fire one. It’s a FIREWORM! It gives you a nasty fire burning sensation if you touch it. Nonetheless, it is beautiful. We shoot some footage of it too.

Upon reaching the beacon, we set out to find stuffs to shoot. And boy! Highlight of the day was a frogfish. We also saw flatworms, the fireworm, carpet eel blenny, blue-spotted stingray etc.

As first day at Tuas turned out to be a good one, I decided to extend my trip to Tuesday and that mean taking half a day leave. And guess what??? Second day was equally great as the first. We saw seahorses (yes…horses not horse), hydroid shrimps, sea spider and an adorable nudibranch.

Wow…I just can’t wait for the next morning trip to start.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Happy Birthday!!!........

Oh...ya...one more thing before I leave.

Today happened to be a best friend's birthday. He was born this date 28 years ago.

So Happy 28th Birthday, Hong Zhenxing!!!!




Birthday Cake For You


To Hong Zhenxing,

Sorry, can only give you a birthday cake that I have drawn and this :

Ahh...Hmm…Hmm (clearing throat)...Here goes:

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to Hong Zhenxing, Happy Birthday to you!"

Make a wish and blow the candles...

Hope you like this greeting!!! :o)

Away To Our Shores……

Will be away from home starting today till Monday. I will be spending the next 2 days at other shores of Singapore besides Chek Jawa.

Will be going to Kusu Island on Sunday and Tuas on Monday. Will be there at an hour where most Singaporeans are in their dreamland. Yes....that mean will be at these shores before sunrise. But that’s when you get to see marine creatures having party and tell you, it’s worth the sacrifice of sleeping a couple of hours less.

Will tell more after I return from the trips. Watch this space!!!

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Today At Chek Jawa......

Was at Chek Jawa this morning for guided walk. And oh man!….the weather was a total contrast to yesterday. It was sunny, hot, with BLUE sky and of course huge fluffy white clouds. And thus, I was left with a tan at the end of the day.


CJ

The walk started around 10.30am and I was assigned to be a hunter seeker. Today route to CJ was not a smooth one as compared to any other time. For we were caught up in a traffic jam along Jalan Ubin(I bet that you must be wondering whether this is true right?. Well….it was not actually a jam but we were made to stop for about 10 minutes due to some bicycle racing going on and they have blocked the whole road. So we waited and waited and guess what? It turned out that there will be only one biker passing through the trek one at a time. And they blocked the whole road! I mean if it is going to be a group then it is necessary to do so. But one at a time? Then only one side should be blocked and not both. :o(

Anyway, come back to CJ. A hunter seeker, as the name suggested, is to look for things. I started from the sandbar and the stuffs for today were; Sea cucumbers (Sandfish, Transparent, Thorny and Ball), Seas stars, Sand dollars, Jelly fish, Cowrie, Sea pens ( There was a really really huge and fat one about 25cm long) and Sand collars.

Then I proceeds to the coral rubble area and managed to find a baby Catfish, Elbow crab and the highlight of the day, a baby squid. It was floating on the water and look like a twig as it was black in colour.


Beacon At CJ's Coral Rubble

Wow…CJ is so alive!!!! I had a great day! Will be looking forward to end of April before I make my trip there again. Meanwhile…..got to get some rest before I starts my early morning trips to our other shores next week.

So watch this space! ;o)

Saturday, April 02, 2005

This morning....

Okay….it was raining cats and dogs this morning when I was at Pulau Ubin. We have to wait for it to stop before we can proceed to Chek Jawa

When the rain finally stopped. We all squeezed into the back of a lorry and were ferried to CJ. We have a briefing and then proceed to the usual route to introduce/train the guides-to-be.

As some of us were heading out towards the southern sandbar, one of the officers was at the coral rubble clearing some bubuhs (What’s a bubuh??? Well…it is a wired cage that is used to trap fishes and crabs.).

Want to know what’s inside the bubuh? Let see….mmmm….there were 2 Velcro crabs and some fishes. (Think one was a Filefish). We took out the bubuhs, released the animals and flattened them. (Guess some fishermen will be wondering where on earth had his bubuh gone).

As we proceed, we saw Sea Hares, Moon Snail, Noble Volute and other die die sure can see stuffs. Lucky for us the weather hold and then it started to rain again just when we have finished our walk.

It’s not a bad day after all! :o) And guess what???…Yes! I will be there again tomorrow.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Hooray! It's weekend!.....

Have a busy week due to month-end closing. It will be my last month at the company. How time flies....I will be finishing my 3 months assignment.

Anyway, it's weekend again. Will be going to Chek Jawa tomorrow (Yes...it's that place again, but I just never get tired of it). :0). Just checked the weather...it's not good. Look like there will be R.A.I.N in the morning. Well...I just have to keep my fingers crossed and hoped that the forecast was wrong.

Oh no! Just realised that I have yet to pack my stuffs for tomorrow. Guess have to do it after this post.