I should have blogged about this earlier during my holiday but I was too reluctant to touch anything to do with work during the period that I was supposed to be relaxing with my family, so here it is now
My boss invited some of the Malaysian celebs like Chantelle Chuah (Miss Malaysia Model of The World 2007)...
Rooftop garden offers a respite from hustle and bustle of the city.
As many as 500 species of rare tropical and temperate plants are flourishing in a secret corner of 1 Utama shopping centre, Petaling Jaya.
Fondly named the Secret Garden, the 2,787-sq metre rooftop garden is certainly a convenient and cost-free respite if you happen to be weary and dreary of the daily hustle and bustle.
Leaves swaying in the wind and flowers blooming in various hues fill the otherwise concrete platform in a harmonious order. Foot paths meander through the garden’s seven themed sections, leading visitors on to a therapeutic excursion through calming sights and scents.
It is a magical corner where desert and highland plants co-exist while climbers, herbs, spices, fruit trees, flowering shrubs and even a mini-padi field beckon. Pergolas, waterfalls and ponds made to classical elegance complete the experience.
Together with the shopping centre’s popular rainforest enclave, the Secret Garden is also cultivated by botanist Dr Francis Ng who was recently awarded the prestigious David Fairchild Medal 2009 (Plant Exploration) by the National Tropical Botanical Garden of the United States.
“The garden took eight years of research and nurturing to reach the maturity today by thriving naturally. Through novel experimental technologies we now house 500 species; some aren’t found in other parts of the world,” said the shopping centre’s director Datuk Teo Chiang Kok.
He said the garden, which could be the largest rooftop and experimental garden in South-East Asia, had been kept a secret. Even staff members did not know its existence.
“With today’s rising concerns to reduce carbon footprint, green roof is the latest antidote to climate change. Once considered a waste of space, rooftops are presenting countless opportunities not only to go green but to save energy cost, improve insulation and air quality and for water management,” he said.
The garden adopts recycling technologies such as chilled water irrigation sourced from the shopping centre’s air conditioning system to grow temperate plants and a rainwater harvesting system for general irrigation.
The plants are grown on a soil mix based on granulated horticultural carbon, Ng’s breakthrough creation said to have been adopted worldwide. The mix is made from sawdust that has been compacted and carbonised. It also deters pests, so fewer pesticides are used.
“The Secret Garden’s vast amount of carbon is sufficient to replace an entire rainforest of equivalent area and reduce the shopping centre’s carbon footprint. We have in a way contributed positively towards amelioration of climate change,” he said.
Watch the grand opening of The Secret Garden.
This place is beautiful~ Darling & I enjoying the scenery
I love this unique plant's name - Bishop's Hat Cactus.
The Secret Garden is open to visitors from 10am to 6pm every Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free but the number of visitors at any one time is limited to maintain its serenity. Tickets to the garden can be obtained at the Customer Service Centre on the ground floor Highstreet. I recommend you guys to go early in the morning or around 5-6pm because it tends to get really hot up there!
My Sony Vaio laptop is qualified for the free upgrade! So I happily ordered the free Windows 7 here and my order reached about a week later.
Actually the package arrived a day late. As you can see, DHL asked me to contact them 2 days ago because they could not find our place. After giving them the direction to the house, the DHL delivery guy appeared at our doorstep yesterday. Darling asked him whether it was hard for him to find our place and he confessed that actually there were too many packages to be delivered on Monday, and didn't have enough time to deliver ours :X It doesn't matter because it arrived in perfect condition anyway!
Happily unwrapped the package, backed up my files and let the upgrade begin!
I've my ever so addictive novel to keep me company while waiting for the upgrading process to be done which took around 2-3 hours. Seriously, you girls just gotta read this novel! I can't put it down until I finish reading it within a day
Finally, upgrade complete! What a stunning new user interface! I can't help but notice that Windows 7's UI feels 'smoother' on my laptop than before (Windows Vista)! Thank you Sony for the free upgrade
I can't help but notice that Windows 7's UI feels 'smoother' on my laptop than before (Windows Vista)! Thank you Sony for the free upgrade 
