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Blenheim Palace set to install £1million gold toilet for visitors to use An 18-carat gold toilet has been plumbed into Blenheim Palace for visitors to use, but they’ll have to respect a strict time-limit. The lavatory, created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, will go on display at the Oxfordshire stately home in September. The fully-functioning throne will be open for public use, but a three-minute time limit will be imposed to reduce queue times. It has been placed opposite the room where Winston Churchill was born, and visitors will be able to book their time-slot in advance. There will be 20 slots an hour for art, or lav, lovers to choose from, provided they buy a £27 ticket for the palace, park and gardens. When the lavatory first opened at New York’s Guggenheim museum in 2016, it was so popular that people queued for hours to place their cheeks upon its glittering seat. Some 100,000 used it for its intended purpose, according to The Times. The piece previously made headlines in 2017 when it was offered on loan to Donald Trump. The US president had initially asked the museum to lend him an 1888 Van Gogh painting, but it rejected the request, offering Cattelan's golden masterpiece, titled ‘America’, instead. The flushable America arrived at the Marlborough family’s 300-year-old country home, last week, ready for a contemporary art exhibition that will open next month. The Duke of Marlborough’s half-brother and founder of the Blenheim Art Foundation Edward Spencer-Churchill told the Times: “Despite being born with a silver spoon in my mouth I have never had a s*** on a golden toilet, so I look forward to it.” The artwork is valued at more than £1million, but the palace appears relaxed about security. “It’s not going to be the easiest thing to nick,” Mr Spencer-Churchill said.

http://untoldhistoriesofmalaya.blogspot.sg/2012/09/untold-history-complete-history-of_30.html?m=1 I knew the land belong to Sultan of Johor but didnt know thre was a palace.

Padang Palace Restaurant The place to enjoy creative Chinese cuisine on Singapore’s historical Padang, an oasis in the bustling hub of the city. Tuck into it’s award-winning dishes such as, Steamed Juicy Dumplings in Chicken Broth, Buddha Jumps Over The Wall (Double Boiled Superior Dried Seafood with Sea Cucumber, Chicken & Whole Abalone), Roasted Peking Duck, Korean Puffs & Hong Kong Dim Sum. You are also treated to a picturesque view of the big greenery City Hall Padang’s field and Singapore’s financial district skyline. Padang Palace, sitting at the 2nd level of Singapore Recreation club, provides an excellent vantage of the city’s gleaming skyline. The restaurant also close to the many exciting events that are held in the city such as the F1 Night Race and the spectacular fireworks that are shown by Marina Bay. Padang Palace is open to the public. Singapore Recreation Club is a Members only facility. Dress code applies. Reservation is required. Awards Singapore Most Popular Chinese restaurant Group A, by MediaCorp Radio & The Restaurant Association of Singapore International Famous Restaurant for Chinese Cuisine by World Association of Chinese Cuisine, Beijing, China Food Fest Top 10 Favourite Restaurants by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd About the owner The restaurant owner, Mr James Chang, has more than 40 years’ of experience in F & B industry. A pioneer in Singapore’s restaurant business he has been active in promoting Chinese cuisine since the early 1970s. In the last decade he has introduced a modern version of the traditional Chinese “Man Han” Imperial Banquet to Singapore, which has been well-received. James also gives back to community by being part of the industry association to help upgrade our chefs’ culinary skills standard and raise the level of hospitality. Recognised as an expert in Chinese cuisine, he is a Chinese Salon Cuisine Judge, often invited to overseas judge gourmet events. Padang Palace Restaurant B Connaught Drive, Singapore Recreation Club 2nd Level, Singapore 179882 Phone: 63389595 Website: www.padangpalace.com.sg

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all comments welcome thks

A Palace of Gold Is Sold Off For Its Melt Value, but Not the Throne By JONATHAN CHENG HONG KONG -- At $800 an ounce, the golden bathroom sink had to go. At $1,000, say goodbye to the golden horse-drawn chariot. But don't even think about touching the golden toilet. Global economic uncertainty over the past few years has pushed gold prices into the stratosphere, and few people have felt that rise as much as Hong Kong entrepreneur Lam Sai-wing has. He has spent the past decade constructing a palace of gold, decked out in six tons of the precious metal. In recent years, the palace has become an attraction mainland Chinese tour groups couldn't miss, and a boon for Mr. Lam's retail jewelry business, Hong Kong-listed Hang Fung Gold Technology. Since gold prices hit four-digit territory earlier this year, Mr. Lam has been taking apart his hall of gold as quickly as he once raced to construct it. He is melting down golden chandeliers, armchairs and armored knights and selling gold by the ton to fuel growth plans that include hundreds of new retail outlets in mainland China. But even with the selloff, one thing is certain: The toilet stays. "I don't care if gold hits $10,000 an ounce," Mr. Lam says. "I'm not melting it down." As far as Mr. Lam is concerned, the golden toilet is more than a Guinness World Record-certified, 24-karat, fully functional flushable throne. Mr. Lam, a former goldsmith, came up with the toilet gimmick in 2001 as he was pushing his jewelry-manufacturing business into a fierce retail market. The come-on worked so well that he quickly added ton after ton to his glittering hall. At its peak, Mr. Lam's collection included a golden king-size bed, a 5-foot-8-inch-tall traditional Chinese statue of the "Guan Yin" goddess of compassion, and the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. He named his 7,000-square-foot display the Swisshorn Gold Palace. Obsessed With Gold As a boy growing up in Cultural Revolution-era China, Mr. Lam, now 53 years old, was obsessed with gold. He says he found himself transfixed with one sentence in Vladimir Lenin's writing: "When we are victorious on a world scale, I think we shall use gold for the purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of some of the largest cities of the world." Lenin's words alluded to a socialist utopia with no need for money, but Mr. Lam read them as an indictment of the poverty-stricken existence he found himself in. He rarely had meat to eat, and after he turned 7, Mr. Lam struggled to help his single mother and six siblings sell bananas and peanuts. "Life, it was tough," Mr. Lam said in a recent interview in his gold-bedecked office, decorated with golden pillars and statuary. At age 22, Mr. Lam escaped from his impoverished hometown of Chaozhou, fleeing by foot for nearly a month before swimming across a river to Hong Kong, he recalls. When he arrived, Mr. Lam looked up some relatives and got himself an apprenticeship as a goldsmith. He soon set up a small wholesale jewelry business. When China began opening its economy in 1979, as part of a sweeping reform movement, Mr. Lam was among the first to open a factory there, a jewelry manufacturer of about 100 workers in the southern city of Dongguan. By 1998, Mr. Lam was readying his company to go public, and to launch a new retail venture. "Building a gold toilet, I realized, was the perfect way for me to put into reality something that has been in my head since I was 16 years old," he said. Besides, he added, gold prices were so low they could only go up; buying gold at $200 an ounce would hedge against inflation. "It would be like an investment, plus we could let people see it for an admission fee, and we could use it to launch our brand," he says. Smash Hit Not everyone was on board with the plan. His board of directors balked at the idea, and his friends called him crazy. But Mr. Lam had his way, and construction -- headed by Mr. Lam -- began. The toilet became a smash hit. Mainland Chinese tours made it a highlight on their itinerary, and before long, the hall was drawing as many as 100 tour groups every day. The jewelry gift shop -- the company's first retail outlet -- reeled in about $100 million a year in sales for the company at its peak, while sales of Hang Fung's jewelry lines pushed company profit to new highs by 2003. The attraction even drew Communist officials from mainland China, fascinated that a capitalist haven like Hong Kong could have realized Lenin's dream without having first created a socialist utopia. "The first time I saw it, I thought, 'How wonderful -- how absolutely wonderful,'" one recent visitor told a Taiwanese television crew as he and others crowded around the toilet. "There's just so much gold everywhere. Never did I think I could see so much gold, not even in my wildest dreams." Competitors have set up gold showrooms of their own, but none as flashy as Mr. Lam's. Tse Sui Luen, a high-end rival, has constructed its own showroom. The place has a precision-timed tour modeled after a Disney World attraction, introducing visitors to the company's founder (a "sparkling legend") before whisking them by a workshop of laborers fiddling with custom jewelry under bright lights and into the gift shop. "You want to keep it like a tourist attraction," says TSL's chairman, Erwin Huang. When gold hit $980 an ounce in March this year, Hang Fung unloaded a ton of gold, and later slimmed down by two more tons, reaping about $64 million in the process. "This latest rise in prices has been incredible," Frank Wu, Mr. Lam's chief financial officer, said as workers hacked away at the furniture downstairs. The price of gold came down from a March 18 peak of $1,003.20 an ounce, to $848.90 on May 1. Since then, it has bounced back yet again, to $925. This past week, it has been around $880. If prices rebound, Mr. Wu says, the company will sell more. But not the commode. "The toilet and the Guan Yin statue are the most valuable pieces," Mr. Lam says. "The Guan Yin is a goddess, and she is to be worshipped. As for the toilet, that's the cornerstone of our company," located though it is in the golden bathroom of the golden palace. "It's an icon. It will never be taken apart." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1215387405...g2:r5:c0.096652 No sh1t!