In celebration of Spinergy’s 11^th anniversary, we had a day off work to have some quality time together. Unlike the previous event, we did not know what we got ourselves into until the day before the actual event. This time round, we tried making pottery. Instead of lunching out, we decided to have pot luck. In line with our recent craze of being environmental friendly, we agreed to bring our own cutlery and serving plate in our attempt to reduce the usage of plastic utensils.

Thow Kwang Industry was where we did our pottery. The place was situated somewhere in Boon Lay, off Jalan Bahar. Thow Kwang Industry was very well hidden among the tall trees along the roads. If it was not for the signage, no one would ever have guessed there is a building with an enormous compound behind those lanky vegetations. Thow Kwang Industry is a truly amazing place where people not only learn about pottery, but one which allows people to have hands-on experience. The 40 meters long dragon kiln used for firing has a history dated as far back as 70 years. Thanks to Lai Hock, we got the chance to know this fabulous place we did not know existed!

We tried the hand throwing pottery (creating pottery on the potter’s wheel) before the hand-building technique. I have to admit, hand throwing was not as easy as it seemed to be. It looked simple when Mrs. Tan, the owner of Thow Kwang Industry demonstrated it. The clay seemed to follow on closely to Mrs. Tan’s command and went into the shape and direction she wanted it to go. However, as soon as we set our hands on the clays, they started bullying us – refusing to go into the shape we wanted and even collapsing on us as soon as we were about to finish our masterpiece.

After trying out the hand throwing pottery, we were ready to use the hand-building technique to make ourselves a mug. Mrs. Tan showed us how a mug is made before we were all geared up to face our mission for that day – mug making! Instead of making a mug, Xiao zhen and Stacy opted for something else. Xiao zhen made a Pokémon figurine, while Stacy made herself a flower pot. As for the rest of us, we settled for a drinking cup. However, some of us were fickle minded and changed our mug to a pencil holder when we realized there is a high chance that our creation would leak.

(Here are our masterpieces) 

Once we had our masterpieces completed, we thanked Mrs. Tan for her guidance and patience before heading to one end of the pottery, where a pavilion lies, for our pot luck. The pavilion was built over a pond, facing nothing but rows of tall shady trees and luxuriant vegetation. As we were really hungry, we charged at the food. Civilly. Other than the pavilion, there is also a large platform under a huge tree where we could chill out.

Next stop was an organic farm off Lim Chu Kang road. We had a farm tour and found some interesting signages! We even came across a toilet in the middle of the farm! It has no doors. The only thing that covers up the toilet while people do their business in it, is a piece of curtain. That is not the most surprisingly thing we discovered. We walked into the toilet and realized that it was odorless. There was not even a tiny hint of funny smell. The most shocking thing we found out was that the toilet does not have a flushing system! When people are done with their business, all they need to do is to scoop up a pail of sawdust and toss it in the ‘toilet bowl’. All the smell would be covered up nice and well. At the end of the day, the waste would be collected and used it as fertilizers. Sounds like the good old days, doesn’t it? J

A happy lunar new year from all of us at Spinergy! We would like to wish everyone a prosperous year of the ox.

Have you had your lou hei yet? For those who do not know what lou hei is, let me try to explain it here to the best of my knowledge. ‘Lou hei’ is done by tossing ‘yu sheng’ (raw fish salad) high into the air while saying auspicious words wishing for good health, prosperity, wealth and the like. ‘Yu sheng’ connotes increase in abundance. Therefore, lou hei is a symbol of abundance and prosperity.

We had our lou hei together with our sister company the past Friday. It was the BIGGEST lou hei we have ever seen. Two tables long of shredded carrots, cucumbers and lettuces, together with ginger, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, shrimp crackers, pomelos, strips of raw salmons, topped with a variety of sauces and condiments; were so huge that they were enough to feed a cow or two!

(Here are some of the pictures taken during our massive lou hei.)

Behind the gigantic lou hei was an enormous amount of work. All of this would not have taken place without the dedicated work of Eelin and her father, whom spent a whopping 8 hours on the preparation of ingredients! Eelin, here is a big THANK YOU from all of us to you and your dad!