VidMama

Singapore Bikers

In a lot of the major cities these days, you see a lot of scooters.  There’s plenty of good reason for this. With their compact size they can negotiate tight spaces better than just about anything.    Some of them get legendary fuel efficiency, and all of them are at least twice as efficient as anything with four wheels.  Singapore’s no different, and there is a very lively scooter community.  This unique island city state is really an ideal spot for getting around on two wheels, because the sprawl of Singapore is fairly substantial, and it’s possible to live a very urban existence without needing to get beyond the city itself.  There’s a lot going on in Singapore, every night of the week, and this makes for a kind of cafe culture not seen since the mid-sixties.

There are many things to keep in mind, however.  Generally, the busy streets here make it so that it’s not a tourist’s sport, and it’s necessary to have a local license.  There are also terrific rains here, of course, that make it particularly necessary to have a kind of local deftness to the ride, so visitors here would be best off admiring some of the cool local bikes.  It’s one of the many splendid attractions you can look forward to as you make your way around town, checking out Singapore’s restaurants, and seeing some of the fantastic entertainment that comes through here.  It really is a magnificent place to visit, and it has everything.

If the smaller bikes aren’t interesting to you, then there are the bigger motorcycles in Singapore, even the HDs that are mysteriously popular in other parts of the world.  If you like retro, however, Singapore has retro, and it’s visible in the biker cultures here as well.  The scooters and the motorcycles are what separates the mods from the rockers, and these days, they do well when they decide to get along and play fair, because it is a risky business, and so much of the shared experiences can make life a fantastic ride.

Tags: cool local bikes, motorcycles, Singapore Restaurants

Sitges at Night

On my last trip to Europe, I noted that in Paris the evening meals don’t even begin until around nine or ten in the evening, and the actual night life starts around midnight, and the same, I’m assured, is true of Spain, especially in Sitges.  In fact, I’m also told, if you want just a relaxing evening, to take a walk along the waterfront esplanade, then have a dinner (late by American custom), then adjourn to one of several open air cafes around eleven in the evening for a drink and watch people pass by.  Since Sitges is largely known as a gay friendly town, if you’re straight and want a bar, you may have to take a look around for one that isn’t mostly aimed at a gay clientele; however, there are places that cater to a mixed crowd, such as Ricky’s Disco, on Sant Pau 25.  They charge a cover and serve a mix of international gay and straight patrons.  The nightspot is back from the beach on a fairly narrow street.

The next morning, if you haven’t been out too late (at least one club closes at 5:30 a.m.), then a look in at the museums might be fun.  In Sitges, you’ll find the Museu Cau Ferrat, which features two 16th Century cottages joined together by the Catalan artist, Sasntiago Rusinol.  When the artist died in 1931, he willed his home to the city, and the artwork their includes paintings by El Greco as well as Picasso.  Taking a look at some fine art may in fact be the perfect counterpoint to the previous evening.  Three’s also the Museu Romantic, which takes a stab at recreating family life in the 18th and 19th Centuries.  You’ll find antique furniture and antique dolls here.

If you’re checking into one of the hotels Sitges has to offer its guests in February, you may be in time for Carnival, a highlight of the town.  And, of course, if none of these appeal, you may always hit the beaches or simply sleep in and gather some needed energy for your second night in town.

Tags: hotels Sitges, Museu Cau Ferrat

TransGlobe and Moving into the Future

Living in a web-based world presents its own unique challenges, and there are certainly some that we could never have anticipated before.  There are generations growing up right now that have more information available to them in seconds that we had in years.  Even the most devout and caffeinated graduate student could not research any faster than a savvy user of search engines.  We can find all sorts of fantastic information immediately, things like movie showtimes, driving directions, or even the text version of an important speech that was delivered just a few moments ago.  We can also find thousands of listings for rental properties, with companies like TransGlobe Property Management, who have the foresight to move into the computer age with all the engines running.

This certainly does change our reality, and in ways that we can’t really even philosophize yet.  We’re living in the middle of the change, and it will take a few years to develop the hindsight to determine what exactly has happened to our conception of things.  It is certain, however, that these changes have affected our memories.  We simply don’t need to have the same kinds of information in our brains any longer.  Very few people remember more than one or two phone numbers, because of the way our cell phones are programmed, when just twenty years ago most of us could remember dozens.  There are those who claim that this only results in lazier thinking, and this is why the new generations have such short attention spans.

At the same time, it also seems possible, and even likely, that our memory banks are being used in different ways.  We may not live long enough to reap the benefits of the sudden increase in our own memory vaults, but we can see that we think about things differently now.  Even every day occurrences, like moving from one place to another, have a different series of actions involved.  Where before, we would probably make a few preliminary trips to a potential neighborhood, or gather our resources to find out facts about the places we’re considering, we can now log on to the database at TransGlobe Property Management, and browse their properties with the help of twitter and youtube, in order to find out more information than was ever available to us before.  These have to be very splendid changes, because we’re living with more knowledge about where we live, and where we’re going.

Tags: memories, memory, Transglobe Property Management

Zenobia and the Costa Brava

It’s a splendid place to begin any new adventure.  The Costa Brava has some of the finest beaches in the world, so they say, and there are many opportunities to get distracted from the petty details of life in Malgrat de Mar.  Hotel accommodations are always spectacular in this part of the world, but there’s something very precious about this place.  It is everything one dreams of when thinking about the perfect getaway in Spain, where there’s a lovely nightlife, with plenty of choices for an exquisite time, along with a natural beauty that is impossible to ever get over.

These days, there are many contemporary pleasures here, with dance clubs and discos, and certainly more than enough to feel far away from the world you know, but still connected to a very vital urban scene.  But there is also a charm that hearkens back to the days when the main entertainments were troubadours and poetry.  You can almost sense the ghost of the young Zenobia Camprubí here, in the time before she met and married Juan Ramón Jiménez.

His fame as a poet would overshadow her own accomplishments in her lifetime, but she is still very beloved, and her own life reveals a spectacular series of contributions to the cultures of the world.  Her famous Diarios are still regarded as important contributions to literature as well as world history, and she is one of the most important translators of Tagore’s works.  Her life’s work, along with that of her husband, took her all over the world, to Columbia, to Cuba, to the U.S., where she taught at Maryland, and to Puerto Rico, where she eventually died, in 1956.  Her lifelong love affair with her husband was legendary, and apparently very tumultuous as well, but it seems obvious from her journals, and the stories told about the couple, that they both drove each other to work, again and again, with great benefit to the world at large.

Tags: Juan Ramón Jiménez, Malgrat de Mar Hotel, Zenobia Camprubí

Two Person Hot Tubs Make Romantic Gifts

Steve couldn’t decide on what he wanted to get his fiancée Becky last year for Christmas. The two of them had recently purchased a new townhouse, which Steve was living in at the time. They had decided that Steve would live there until after the wedding at which time Becky would finally move in as well. Until then she would remain in her apartment though she would slowly pack her belongings and move some of her stuff over prior to the actual wedding date.

They had been planning a special ceremony for over a year and they were both extremely excited to not only get married but also to spend the rest of their lives together. That’s part of the reason Steve was so insistent on making last Christmas one of the most special holidays they would experience as it would be the last time they experienced it as singles. However, his intention was not to celebrate their independence for the last time, but to mark it as a major transitional time frame for them. He wanted to honor both their individual lives as well as their joined life together. The more he thought about it the more nervous he became.

Finally one night he was out shopping for a new outdoor refrigerator with his friend Troy. Troy had a nice kitchen in his backyard and needed to replace his refrigerator with a new and larger model. Steve looked around while Troy made his purchase and stumbled across some beautiful hot tubs. He longed for the day that he and Becky could renovate their own backyard when suddenly he saw a beautiful and romantic looking model in the two person hot tubs section. He had no idea these incredible, and to Steve romantic, designs existed and he was also impressed and surprised with the included features and optional accessories. He felt the lighting and sound systems that were included with the model he had his eye on would be perfect and he was suddenly sure of the perfect Christmas present for Becky, which it certainly proved to be.

Tags: Christmas, two person hot tubs, wedding date

Goddesses in Singapore

Singapore could very well be the perfect spot for a perfect wedding.  The attraction for the happy couple is pretty obvious.  This is an elegant city with a fantastic urban feel, sensational design, and access to many splendid natural areas, and the tropical feel of the place which offers instant romance to any occasion.  Weddings are right at home here, and there are so many different options in terms of setting, theme, and ambience, and there are hosts of professionals to help you every step of the way.  It’s an exotic location with a very cosmopolitan feel, and all the guests will be impressed and dazzled.  It also has an amazing number of attractions and events, and a fantastic cultural scene.  Guests will certainly love the opportunity to see your Singapore wedding, and the city state is pretty easy to get around in, so they’ll be in for a few days of adventures on their own when it’s all sealed and done.

Besides the contemporary cultural scene here, which really is spectacular, there are many other sides of Singapore that offer a uniquely romantic feel.  Local legends and myths have origins in Chinese, Indian, and Malay culture, and there are always plenty of other cultures coming through, and adding their own stories and histories to the collection.  But there’s something particularly crucial about weddings that lends itself to spending some time in pursuit of the goddess, whether in a metaphorical way, or by actually trying to track her down.  With the amount of temples and historic spots here, it’s a great place to do either, and in your pursuits, you’ll likely come across the figure of Matsu.

Her origins are Chinese, and her name very likely translates to mean Mother-Ancestor.  She’s one of the original Great Mothers in the pantheon of the sacred, and her realm is the sea.  She is a fierce protector of sailors, or anyone who has anything to do with the depths of the oceans, and she is a sensational representation of the power of young femininity.  She may have been mortal, or may have been birthed from another goddess, but one thing that’s common in her stories is that she never did marry, because no man could ever match her.  Matsu is also connected to dreams, as well as second sight, and her visionary powers saved her brother and father in the stories.  Look for her while you’re here, because she’s probably already looking for you.

Tags: Matsu, Singapore wedding

Hot Tubs & Simple Pleasures

Having a hot tub is indeed like returning to the simple pleasures in life.  There’s nothing more elementary than soaking a tired body in some nice warm water, and with massaging jets, there’s even more reason to celebrate.  In a busy world, when there’s never enough time to stop and smell the roses, it’s a wonderful thing indeed to get back to the basics, and enjoy the little things, because it’s the little things that really count.  They mean a lot, and they do add up, and at the end of the day, it’s nice to be able to get some perspective and experience your own perceptions clearly, and to see things as they really are.  It really is infinite, too.

The hardest part about the hot tub these days is the buying.  You want to buy from a reputable company, and one where the customer service comes before anything else, so that your needs will be taken care of no matter what, and that’s why choosehottubsdirect.com is the one that makes sense for you, and for the ones you love.  For a simple pleasure like a hot tub, you want to find a company that understands simplicity, and offers the kind of simple customer service that you can respect and trust indeed.

It’s a company that’s focused on the customer’s needs, which is a fantastically common sense approach to selling, keeping things simple and direct.  It should be simple, but it’s difficult to find place these days that are willing to take the time to listen to your needs and wants.  But it’s exactly what you should expect indeed when you’re making a long-term commitment like having your own hot tub.  And the rewards are terrific.  Working with people you can trust takes out most of the stress, and the rest will wash away when you soak yourself in the delicious water, and enjoy the simple pleasure of a spa.

Tags: choosehottubsdirect.com, simple and direct, simplicity

Golf, Scuba Diving and More on Ibiza

Carl had been wanting visit the Balearic Island of Ibiza for as long as he could remember, though he was quite sure the desire to do so went even further back than that. He remembers he older brother talking about a great summer vacation he had taken there years ago and this left such a strong impression on the ten year old Carl that Ibiza become something of a mythological paradise in his mind and he longed for the day that he would be able to make this journey himself. And that’s what it amounted to, for Carl it really was a rite of passage or his interpretation of the hero’s journey, which demonstrates how significant the anticipation of this trip became for him.

He was twenty-two when the time arrived. It was actually later than what he had originally intended, throughout his early teen years he planned to visit Ibiza as soon as he turned eighteen. However, life’s obstacles got in his way, as they have a tendency to do and he went to college straight out of high school. He had to work his way through school and was too poor during those years to take any kind of a dream vacation, so he worked hard and studied and it was actually at his graduation party that his older brother presented him with the plane tickets and a reservation for a week long stay in one of the fabulous hotels Ibiza.

As it turned out, Carl’s trip was even better than he had ever imagined it to be. This surprised him somewhat because he really had incredible expectations. His brother had given him two tickets and he brought his best friend Troy with him.  They enjoyed the infamous club scene that is associated with the Island, though Carl was more interested in exploring the beautiful beaches and spending time learning to scuba dive. They also enjoyed the beautiful golf courses on the island. And the two of them spend a day exploring the interior island and were amazed at how rich in artifacts and cultural relics it contained. Ibiza was the beautiful paradise he imagined it to be and Carl wrote a poem to Plato and though it was full of respect, it clearly told him he was wrong about reality never matching the imagined ideal.

Tags: college, hotels Ibiza, Plato

A Detour to Cape Town

Sorry about being away for so long. We’re having a great time, but we do miss Korea and our friends there. We had 2 great weeks in India. A very cool place, but it was monsoon season, so it was really very wet, all the time. The sun did manage to come out the last few days we were there and India literally transformed.

We’re now in Cape Town, we were supposed to be in Kenya, but that got cancelled because there are pirates on the eastern coast of Africa, the water their are unsafe. I wouldn’t mind about the pirates if one of them looked like Johnny Depp. So, our first day was scrambling to find accommodations. We were fortunate enough to find one of the best Cape Town South Africa hotels with room available and for a very reasonable rate. We told them our story about Kenya and the pirates, hoping they’d take pity on us, and we feel they did.

So, by just winging it, we went skydiving at 10,000 feet. I think I’ve definitely conquered my fear of heights. We could see Table Mountain and Robyn Island and the country side of Cape Town. We also visited Simon’s town, which is where Cape Town navy is located. We ate lunch at Kalk Bay and we were able to see a ton of whales, which are here currently because it’s mating season.

We went to Boulder beach to visit the penguins and hiked Table Mountain, which by the way, took us over 6 hours, mainly because we got lost, and the trail we picked was the hardest one. Later, did we find out that there are 12 trails that go up Table Mountain. There’s so much more to tell you about Cape Town, but right now, I’m off to spend my last day in Cape Town checking out the local market and visiting the District 6 museum. Kenya will just have to wait.

Tags: best Cape Town South Africa hotels, Cape Town navy, Johnny Depp