When Singapore Turns 50... SG50

Apparently turing fifty is a very big occasion for a country, either that or elections are coming. Anyway the government have spent tons of money celebrating our 50th year as an independent nation and us citizens get to enjoy either free stuff or steep 50% off discounts. I do not know the full list exactly because I am not very supportive of this whole celebration.

I get it that it is no small feat that a country as small as ours gets to enjoy 50 years of independence and more than that, prosperity. But when the economy is in a slow growth of 1.7% in the latest quarter plus the fact that the government is spending a lot more on social services this year, it really makes me wonder why must we spend so much celebrating instead of saving for 'rainy days'. Needless to say, there is no accountability as to how the money is being spent or how much is used to subsidise lame initiatives from the private sector.

-end of rant-

So unwilling as I am, I still try to get into the spirit of things by participating in 2 SG50 related activities!
The first one was becoming a friend of the Gardens! Us students get 50% off the membership card in the month of July, so I jumped at this chance to sign up for one. Spoke to my friends about it but they didn't seem very keen, saying that 'the place is too far' and 'I would really just go once'.

Hai. All these nature-unloving people.
How could you just see this once and say goodbye?

For other pictures of the gardens, please view here and here

For adults, you can get your discounted annual pass during our National Day weekends from 7-10 August!
Details here.

At $34 you just need to go to the garden twice in a year and you will get your money worth *grins*

我是花园的朋友 嘿嘿

Moving on to another SG50 initiative... mobile games!

So there were a total of five games that were released to commemorate SG50.

I have tried all five but I only liked one because the rest were either not responsive, shit design or just lame in general (seriously, who plays memory game these days?!) 

Kan-Cheong! Kopitiam Saga

Thoroughly impressed with this game because it is so so Singapore, with the use of Singlish! And even our coffee shop (Kopitiam) slangs. E.g. kick ball (in Hokkien) is used to represent Milo because we used to only have a person kicking a soccer ball on our milo cans.

Love this game because it is a little like Bishi Bashi found in arcades. 

So you have mini games like this fanning the satay game

Or preventing the auntie from issuing fines for illegal parking. 

In addition to competing with other players online, you can compete with your friends too!

Of course the real reason why I like the game is because... I kept winning the bf, not once but three times :P

If you are interested to know what are the programmes lined up for SG50 celebration, you can click here!