Gabriel AEC Blog

The Mace of the City of Singapore Origins The Mace of the city of Singapore was first presented to Singapore in 1953 by prominent Chinese philanthropist Loke Wan Tho. This Golden Mace was an act of recognition that Singapore had changed it's status to becoming a city, which was granted by King George VI on the 22 September 1951. The mace was made by Messrs Hamilton and Inches, Goldsmiths in 1951. The design motifs for The Mace was mostly suggested by the following: Loke, a university professor, and the staffs of Raffles Museum, the latter being known as the National Museum of Singapore in the present day. Different parts & meanings of The Mace From the top of the Mace, stands a lion under a coconut tree. This represents the Singapore City Council Crest. Following which are the different communities in Singapore, represented by the statues of people; Chinese, Malay, Indian, European. Next up is the different emblems for the different coat of arms; The Straits...

Imagine...... That during the day you felt like you wanted to go grab dinner together with your best buddy. However, you realise that you are only left with $10 and your friend is out of money. Knowing that going out to eat would be too expensive, you decided to invest the $10 to try cook something. In all seriousness, this is what the assignment is basically about: "Cooking/preparing balanced/healthy dinner for 2 with only $10 to spend!" So here are the few steps that I took to completing this task... 1)The plan First up is to plan exactly what I would want to prepare for the meal, given that I have a limited budget of only $10, I had to decide and choose wisely about what I want to prepare in order for the meal to be balanced in terms of nutrition. I decided to go for a more western approach by not having any rice or noodles in the meal. This would open up the selection of ingredients and reduce the cost needed for the meal as I feel it is not nec...

"Trying to learn to run your own house? Come let me teach you......." I had a an interview with my parents about what is it like to run my own house and the different house hold expenses that would be expected to be spent. It is as follows -Housing : There would be a spending of $900 with the most being spent would be mortgage, which for the most part is paid through CPF (Central Provision Fund). -Insurance : Total insurance cost of the insurances would be $780, the highest among the insurance would be both the Health and Life insurances. Which cost around the same. -Transportation: On average, the monthly transportation would be around $1,450 with the car's installment costing the most at $800. -Food : With $450 spent monthly, most meals are taken at home as dinner would normally be cooked. This does not  include cost for food bought outside. -Allowances : In a family of 3, there would be a total of $2.25 thousand spent within the whole family. Do note tha...

"What.... You got to be kidding me....." Plate 1: Image by Zhang (Her World, 2015) One job which was very odd to me was being a Tarot card reader. Meet Ms Joanna, a lady who can read Tarot cards. in case you didn't know, a deck of Tarot cards consist of 78 cardd, each having it's very own unique imagery. Each image represents a certain symbolism and meaning in a persons life. However, it should be noted that it should not be treated as your "destiny" or your "curse". Rather take it as a way to better interpret one's current life as there is no right or wrong answer to each card and interpretation of it. Meaning that all interpretations are all subjective. More information about Ms Joanna. Plate 2: Picture by DicoverSG (Discover SG, 2016) How Ms Joanna came to be was after experiencing certain downs in life, she decided to pursue to be a professional Tarot reader. Besides that, she has also been rewarded a PR Awards 2018 as the ...

Can I Really Change??? In Singapore there is a common understanding to not be bothered with things or problems that does not involve you, or else you might get into unnecessary trouble. That being said, I tend to not be bothered concern to the happenings in my surroundings. Over time it has lead me to become quite  uncourteous in public places. So as a small attempt to change that habit of not being bothered about what others are doing, I decided to try to do something to at least become more courteous or at least give back to society. So for a start, whenever I see a ofo bike that has been thrown off balance, I would make an effort to pick them up. The Process Well that is what I told myself  for the first two days, however I have not been able to pull myself to actually take the extra step to pick up a ofo that has been thrown off balance. Reason being? I was afraid of others seeing me doing something which can come off as quite odd. I guess that I was afraid ...

Coffee Is Always Welcomed! In Singapore, it is argued that food is a common interest among Singaporeans. Some might even argue to say that Singaporeans live to eat instead of eating to live! However, due to the busy work schedules that many Singaporeans have, coffee has effectively become part of their lives. May it be to keep them wake during work, or to even grab a drink down a the nearest barista to spend time/ catch up with some friends. Picture taken from sethlui,com (sethlui.com, 2017) Personally I don't have the habit of drinking coffee on a daily basis, however, I have seen many places offer cubes of coffee that, if placed in a machine, can brew into a coffee with aromatic smell that fills the whole room. Ever wondered who invented the idea? The answer is  Boncafé, and whats more is that  Boncafé is first established in Singapore! Company logo (ICCS, 2018) More about  Boncafé Boncafé was first established in the year 1962. They are a major sup...

What I know about money management. Money management is about learning how to spend within your own means. May it be the your weekly allowance, the money you earn from earn working part-time/full-time. As the common saying goes, "money make the world go round." Since young, I was told to save up as much as I can, may it be the money from my allowance or from the Ang Baos that I get during Chinese New Year. I personally have a lot of trouble trying to save up money, but I do know that saving up money can reap great benefits. For example, when new a game is released, all the teenagers will want to grab that latest game to experience the game first hand without being spoiled of the experience. Well not for me at least, as I have no money to being with! However, I do have a certain advice that has helped me manage my earnings and spending ever since I started my part-time job. That advice is to save up what you (or in this case I) think is necessary for me to spend on and ...