30 March 2008

To: Mr John Davidson
Group Leader

From: Joel Ong
Sec 3G
Victoria School

Recommendation of building to visit
I would like to recommend you guys to visit VivoCity when you all are in Singapore. VivoCity is open for 12 hours from 10am to 10pm. VivoCity is the largest shopping mall at the HarbourFront precinct in Singapore. Opened on 7 October 2006, it marked the completion of the main structure by a topping-out ceremony on 18 April 2006 and was officially opened on 1 December 2006. Derived from the word vivacity, VivoCity, according to Mapletree Chairman Edmund Cheng, "evokes a lifestyle experience that is modern, stimulating and accessible to everyone, a place bubbling with energy and flowing with vitality". At the end of the first week of operations, the mall had received nearly a million visitors. VivoCity has also served as the official venue for the live televised countdown to the new year for both years 2007 and 2008.
VivoCity was built on the site of the exhibition halls of the former World Trade Centre, now the HarbourFront Centre. VivoCity has 1,500,000 square feet (139,000 m²) of gross floor area and 1,100,000 square feet of retail space, larger than Suntec City and Ngee Ann City, the former of which was the largest prior to VivoCity's opening. It was designed by the renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Mapletree Investments is the developer of the S$417 million complex.

VivoCity’s iconic architecture sets it apart from the traditional box format of many existingretail developments in the region as it includes event spaces, al fresco dining by the 300 m long promenade and a large roof top amphitheatre. The Sky Park of the shopping mall is a popular place for all walks of life. The playground and the open spaces in the mall are also popular places with families and children. The Sky Park also has an amphitheatre and it is also a place popular to view Sentosa. You can also hold picnics in the mall's outdoor space as well. VivoCity's design allows it to accommodate over 300 different tenants.
VivoCity has Singapore's largest cinema multiplex with 15 screens and 2,293 seats by the cinematic company Golden Village, along with one of the largest cinema screens in Asia. Companies such as Toys "R" Us, Dairy Farm and many others have their flagship outlets in VivoCity. The new hypermart, called VivoMart, is connected by its own travelator and sells gourmet food from all over the world, including the United States, Germany, Japan and Australia.
The mall has a car park with a total of 4,000 lots and a loading and unloading bay. The car parks are located in basements 1 and 2 as well as from levels 2 to 7. Also, there is a coach and tour buses bay in the mall. The car parks are divided into several zones, with the mall giving free parking on the opening weekend of the mall. The terminal of the Sentosa Express monorail is located on level 3 which is next to the Food Republic food court and is known as Sentosa Monorail Station.
You can get to VivoCity by taking the MRT, then alighting at HabourFront MRT station. From there, a 5 minunte walk throught the linkway at basement 2 would bring you and your group to the one and only VivoCity.
ﺎوهﻝ
Joel Ong Yao Zu

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You have to have a dream or you go nowhere.

You have to have a dream or you go nowhere. Initially, I heard this sentence from my father. He was a great man who would share with me his life experiences, his pains and gains, his ups and downs. From young, I have enjoyed hearing his stories, stories not about those fairy tales that most parents would tell their kids. However, I was unlike the average child. With slightly above average mature thinking, I preferred hearing materialistic events and happenings, such as religions, superstition, and so on.

Having heard many real life stories about successful men and women and how they started from a nobody to a somebody, I was nonetheless inspired to be one of them one day. Only determination, luck, skill, and hard work I knew would be my stepping stones. There would be no one-way path for anyone. Having said so much, I did not make and plans or attempted to follow in my father's or their footsteps.

Influenced by friends and fellow gamers, the vines of gaming addiction strangled me. Results plunged into a black hole. Day by day, week by week, it was hard. Hard and tedious, tedious and energy absorbing, to be able to catch up with the mountain of homework. However hard i tried to climb out, I continued to slip into the bottomless pit and continued falling and falling.

"Why was I falling?" I thought to myself. I did not have a dream, an aim, a target, nor a destination. I had not decided what I really wanted for myself.

One day, I pondered. Pondering in peace allowed me to be in a world of my own. With no
obstructions and disruptions, I was finally able to have silence, not thinking of the fun and thrills from gaming, not thinking of the stress from the homework. I wanted to have a good life, and in this practical world, money was the key to all the chests and boxes. And to acquire this magical thing called money, working towards my goal was the right way to walk.

Now I am, an accomplished man. Famous throughout Singapore. A rich man whom most people aspire to be. Once aspiring, now to be aspired. Many have asked how I manage to reach the top. I answered, "The stepping stones are always there. It is up to you whether you want to run or walk. Even if you fail off the flight of stairs, they will still be there for you to go back on. You have to have a dream or you go nowhere. My dream was to get the pot of gold at the end of the stairs. It is your choice."

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I'm testing this with this special post.

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