Set off early this morning for Sungei Buloh on my bike for a guided tour as part of my orientation to becoming a volunteer guide. Traffic was light so it was very enjoyable cruise. My guide for today was Iris, who's a 4th year medicine student at NUS, and true to her vocation, her memory is just impeccable, rattling off all the facts of all the plants and insects that we encountered. While the other trainee took notes, I went photo happy, putting the macro mode of my camera to good use.
I found out that the tensile strength of the golden bulb spider's web is stronger than that of steel. Some biotech firms are looking at methods for making use of the spider's genes to replicate the web for use in bullet proof vests! Oh and if you crush the leaves of the mangrove tree, it emits a poisonous white sap which will blind you if it gets into your eyes!! We spent about an hour and a half walking through the mangrove boardwalk and Iris is just so knowledgeable. I learnt so many interesting facts! After the tour, we went to look at the artists painting pictures to be displayed in the new toilet, under the supervision of this famous artist who gives free painting classes every last sunday of the month and he invited me to try my hand at painting one too! So I roped in Iris and one of the other volunteer for a joint project, and you can see our masterpiece below! I think its pretty good for my first attempt at acrylic painting and I hope it'll be good enough for display in the Gents. You can see my initials at the bottom right corner of the canvas. Ha! What do you think?