Author: coolerinsights

Buzzing Blissfully with the Bees

August 13, 2009 1 comment

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Island Beehive at Kingscote of Kangaroo Island

Located just off the road from Kingscote (near the Emu Bay Lavender Farm) is Island Beehive – an organic honey farm located at Kangaroo Island. One of the biggest organic honey producers in Australia, Island Beehive produced and distributed a wide range of apian products like honey, royal jelly, propolis, beeswax candles, candies, pollen and more. Apparently, some claim that honey is one of the best foods offered by nature, with antibacterial and wound-healing properties. A dollop of honey (together with lemon) is also widely used as a cure for a bad throat.
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The retail shop of the apiary offered a lot more than just honey. Yellow and black were the thematic colours here.


Celebrating Singapore’s Birthday @ Melbourne

August 9, 2009 Blog 2 comments

Thanks to the efforts of the Singapore Students Society at the University of Melbourne, together with counterparts at RMIT, University of Monash (Caulfield & Clayton), more than 500 Singaporeans and friends of Singapore had the chance to celebrate our country’s 44th birthday tonight. Held at the Sidney Myer Asia Centre at the University of Melbourne (along Swanston Street), the party was a great way to rekindle passions and emotions in one’s homeland.

While I haven’t been away from Singapore that long (my last trip back was in mid July 2009), I still feel the pains of homesickness occasionally creeping up on me (especially since my family is there). Which was why I think that its a great idea to have celebrations of Singapore’s birthday in cities with significant numbers of Singaporeans. Special thanks must go to Wan Hua who helped made this gathering possible.

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No prizes for guessing what this ticket to the event resembles! I thought it was a great stroke of creativity.


An Aromatic Afternoon

August 8, 2009 Blog 1 comment

As a pristine pastoral paradise, Kangaroo Island boasted of farms offering various primary produces. One of the first places which we checked out during our first afternoon on the island was the Emu Bay Lavender farm, a family owned property located beyond the Kingscote area of the island at its Northernmost tip.


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To give you a sense of orientation, I have included a Google Map above which shows where the place is. From Penneshaw where the ferry landed, it was a breezy drive through the largely empty roads through the farms and wilderness to reach this field of fragrant flowers.


How To Generate a Good Following

August 7, 2009 Blog 3 comments


Having great photographs always help (courtesy of the highly talented Nay aka tranquil niche – a friend from Graduate House)

Why do we return time after time to a favourite blog, Youtube channel, web forum, or Flickr group? What makes it seemingly easy for an individual to attract hordes of Twitter followers while you have problems breaking past the 500 barrier?

The answer lies in what I call the degree of interestingness of these user generated content creators. In other words, the quality of their writing, photography, videography, music making capabilities and how these can help to sustain an audience.

Of course, being able to build relationships are also important, but you can’t just befriend your way to blog superstardom if your blog posts, facebook updates and tweet feeds are complete bores.


Hoppin’ Happily to Kangaroo Island

August 2, 2009 Blog 2 comments

The greatest highlight of my family’s trip back in April to South Australia must be the one to Kangaroo Island, a sprawling sanctuary for nature and wildlife offering some of most spectacular sights I ever saw down under.

While it is seven times the size of Singapore, Australia’s third largest island (after Tasmania and Melville Island) is pretty sparsely populated with close to 4,300 residents. Almost all of its economy is agricultural, tourism (it hosts some 140,000 visitors a year) and fishing oriented. The charming farms on the island boasts of primary produce like honey, milk, wool, meat, fine wines, and eucalyptus oil.

Of course, the greatest thing about Kangaroo Island is its abundant wildlife, both freely frolicking the vast bushes or living in parks and reserves.