walk @ bishan park ii on 1 march

looks like, no matter what, we are required to make a report, with some group photographs, of all our monthly walks. on the third day of the lunar new year when we had our 'traditional' gathering at jennifer's place, william asked why there had been no report on the lower peirce walk. you see, while he was away in beijing on his business trip, he still kept track of the group's activities by way of the internet.

today, we had an umbrella walk...should have captured it, with each of us carrying our own umbrella as we walked the perimeter of bishan park ii. the drizzle drove most of the park users away. as usual we had to wait for a 'lost sheep' - seck yeong and teck seng had ended up at the wrong car-park.

after the walk, still armed with our umbrellas, we crossed the overhead bridge to block 338 where we had our post-walk activity. as there was no table at the teck ghee food court big enough to accommodate the group (of nine), we opted to have it at the coffee shop at block 338.

our next walk will be at east coast park at the end of march or early april 2008. by then, mary will be back in singapore.

lorries & trailers tail back to mandai road




















with the more stringent check on all vehicles leaving singapore, the causeway jams have never been worse. today, at about 5.15 p.m. the lines of lorries, trailers and other long vehicles backed up all the way to the junction of mandai and woodlands road. initially, the big vehicles occupied only the left lane. soon, with impatient ones from the rear budging their way to the front and finding that there was no way forward, they formed another line to the right of the original.

as is typical of these malaysian drivers, when frustration got to them, they started blasting their horns. with police personnels deployed all over the island to look for the runaway terrorist, there was no one to direct traffic and to get the drivers to fall in line except a lone woman wearing an arm band and a volunteer, most likely one of the stranded drivers.

i have wondered why the search for the terrorist had been concentrated on the malcolm park, swiss cottage estate and dunearn roads area on the first two days. it was only on the third day, that they decided to extend the search to the bukit brown cemetery area. i thought that should be the first place to look for the fugitive. the proximity of the place to the detention centre and the nature of the place would make it a choice hiding place.

the sprawling old cemetery ground is almost devoid of people except for the ocassional joggers from the houses along lornie road and sime road. this somewhat eerie place sees lots of visitors only during the qing ming weekends. however, at present, you do see some people because there is some construction work going on along lorong halwa, a place which, in the past, was used for conducting driving lessons.

if mas selamat had made some prior arrangement, he could have made his way to the polo club to rendevous with his helper. another possible hiding and meeting place is the catchment area of macritchie reservoir, about 20 minutes walk from onraet road.

ride on a truck @ dairy farm


















wanted to show victor the work that was being carried out at the site of the old warehouse and bungalow which would be part of the dairy farm nature park, scheduled to be ready at the end of 2008. the bungalow would be converted to a ranger station and the warehouse into classrooms and a centre showcasing the heritage of the area.

after breakfast at eat at rail mall, we walked in the direction of the railway track. the disused track besides the railway line used to serve a small squatter colony which consisted of a few ramshackle old houses. we got onto a road which led to the singapore quarry. the water level in the quarry pond had dropped considerably.

we backtracked and walked towards the moe dairy farm campsite. from there we moved on to the dairy farm quarry, which has been covered up for sometime already. met a few groups of deyi secondary school's students on a field trip. as we reached the gate leading to the site we found that access was denied because the workers were carrying out some hazardous (to health) work - removing asbestos from the old building.

we proceeded to walk towards dairy farm road. that was when the truck came along and the driver stopped for us and offered us a ride to the main road. we both sat at the back of the truck.

kidney detoxification

the other day as i walked past my neighbour mr ang along the corridor, he was pruning this plant. it was not usual as his wife was the one who normally tended to the potted plants along the corridor. i asked if he was doing that to stimulate the growth of more leaves; this could be the secret why his plant was growing luxuriantly while my plant of the same species was rather stifled.

he was going to boil the leaves and drink its extract. according to him, the drink was beneficial for cleansing the kidneys. there may be some truth in his belief because i have seen the leaves and stalks of this plant being sold together with other herbal plants at the bangkit market.

this is what i found on the net on the topic of kidney detoxification:

fruit and vegetable juices assist in kidney detoxification. fruit and vegetable juices are the cleansers, energizers, builders, and regenerators of the human system. a combination of either fresh, raw fruit or vegetable juices will supply all the enzymes, vitamins, minerals, protein and fats critical to increased vitality!

according to the same article, consumption of grapes, asparagus, parsley, spinach (uncooked) and cranberry juice aid in the process of detoxifying the kidneys and other organs in our body.

changi terminal to changi point terminal

i often wonder: where do people - 4.5 million of them - spend their leisure time? there are such wonderful facilities in such a beautiful environment and yet they do not seem to be appreciated by many.

the 3.3km stretch of changi from the changi ferry terminal to the changi point terminal has a paved track that runs through a casurina cove, alongside a coconut cove, a fishing jetty and a large grassy patch, which is so breezy and therefore ideal for camping and picnicking (not just on weekends, but all the time).

the wooded stretch is actually quiet and serene most of the time, disturbed occasionally by the roars from the jet planes coming in to land. the track caters to both cyclists and joggers but i saw only four other cyclists and a solitary jogger. the only people who seemed to enjoy the greenery and nature here are a pair of lovers.

hopefully, things may change somewhat when the bicycle station at changi point opens in may 2008. you may still meet very few joggers but the number of cyclists is definitely set to increase. the station at changi point will not only rent out bicycles, it will also serve as a drop-off point for those who have started their trip from bedok, siglap, pasir ris, the east coast or anywhere along the eastern coastal park connector (pcn).

with the completion of the extensive eastern coastal park connector network (pcn) linking bedok, siglap, tampines, loyang, pasir ris, east coast and changi, cyclists now have a challenging feat of covering the full course of more than 42km.

i was told by a friend who has completed the 42km network that you cannot pedal all the way; at certain stretches you have to get down to push your bike across pedestrian bridges.

a serene and quiet spot

































you don't have travel far from the city to look for a serene and quiet place to cogitate. if not for the ubiquitous orange dust-bin, you will be forgiven for thinking that you are in some place with a temperate clime.

on a peaceful sunday morning, this is a good enough place for quiet contemplation or serious cogitation. or just a place where you can be by yourself.

if you prefer to be with other people, then just cross the road and join the congregation at st george's church at minden road.

devil's flower (tacca chantrieri)

tacca integrifolia - the white bat flower




















tacca chantrieri - the black version



when i first showed victor around bukit batok nature park, he was most intrigued by the variety of flowers that were found there, especially the tacca chantrieri. he lamented that he should have had his digital camera with him to capture the weird and interesting flowers in the park.

like its cousin the tacca integrifolia (white bat flower), the black version is also found growing throughout south-east asia. the black version is more dramatic, and perhaps sinister. may be that is why it is called the devil's flower in malaysia. some people explain that the name came from the way the eyes in the bloom seem to be following your every move.

the peculiar "whiskers" of the flowers are actually filiform bracteoles or small bracts (modified flowers) which arise from the same axil as the flowers.

where can you find these plants at bukit batok nature park? as you walk towards the pond, you will come across this huge boulder covered by the roots of a banyan tree on your left. on the right side, there is a path that leads you to the war memorial. just before this path joins another on the left, you will see this clump of tacca chantrieri to the right of the path.

you will not able to miss them when the flowers are in bloom!

trapping spotted doves

as young kampong boys, we devised very simple contraptions to catch sparrows, mynahs and other common birds that visited our backyard or frontyard. one such contraption that we used was the food cover. we would tie a long string to a thick stick which was used to prop up the food cover. to lure the birds to the trap, we would leave a trail of grains of rice around and inside the cover.

we would then hide ourselves inside the house and wait for the 'prey' to make its way into the trap. more often than not our patience would wear thin after a few minutes of waiting and we would abandon the waiting game. the few times when we managed to pull the string to cause the cover to collapse, we ended up with nothing under the cover. the reason was that the mechanism involved was not technically sound, so its inefficiency provided the bird enough time to make its escape.

i can recall another instance of bird trapping, when i went with my distant relative, who lived in the neighbouring kampong, to a piece of wasteland next to the old tan tock seng hospital to catch spotted doves. for him, catching the doves was not just a game, it was a means of earning some pocket money. he would sell the captured spotted doves to the bird shop.

his spotted dove traps were in the form of loops made from fishing line. each trap would have five loops spaced out quite evenly. the size of each loop was big enough to allow a dove through. he would lay two or three such traps over a certain area. he would camouflage the trap with leaves. grains were strewn on both sides of the loops. the two ends were tied to twigs anchored to the ground.

the trap was devised in such a way that the dove would not have a chance to go right through. one of its feet would get caught within the loop and as it struggled to free itself, the loop (noose) would tighten around its caught leg.

"the spotted dove's call is a sonorous cooing 'kou-kour-kour', a low coo-croo-coo, a soft 'te-croo-coo' and three notes 'coo-coo-croo' with emphasis at the end."

"spotted dove feeds mainly on seeds and it forages through vegetation or on the ground. it forages singly or in pairs, sometimes in small groups if there is a good food site."

in those kampong days, we referred to the spotted dove as 'the coo coo bird'. it was a popular caged bird, especially with the malay folks in the kampong. it was so nice to listen to the soothing call of the dove as you awoke in the morning.

simpang kiri @ low & high tides

was at simpang kiri park connector on two consecutive days - on thursday morning and friday evening. was able to observe the different types of human activities during the two different stages in the movement of the tide. even the fauna was not the same: saw herons at high tide and egrets and mynahs at low tide.

not many people - even those living in the north of singapore - are familiar with this place. the connector runs alongside a canal which drains into the straits of johor. the entrance of the track is near yishun industrial park a. the marked 2.8km track ends near tanjong irau beach, next to the former sembawang sea sports centre (now, the bottle tree village).

yesterday morning, at high tide, there were a few anglers at the jalan mempurong end of the connector. over at the yishun end, somewhere near the 200m mark, someone had strung a fishing net right across the canal. he or they were trying to trap the bigger fish in the canal.

this evening, at low tide, it was a different scene altogether. first saw three persons squating in the shallow water, picking shellfish in the nutrient-rich mud. one of the men was heard complaining that he would not be able to gather one kilogram of the shellfish that day. each had a plastic bag to hold the shellfish, a spade to dig the shellfish out of the mud and a glove to protect the hand picking the shellfish.

these three were joined later by others, who came similiarly equipped, to dig for mussels in the mud. one woman even came with a stool to sit on while she picked the mussels. on the beach, there was another group of people foraging for a different organism - worms.

then, right in the channel, which was about knee-deep at low tide, one man was scrapping for living things that had attached themselves to the sides of the channel. i learnt from one of the shellfish gatherers that this man - a vietnamese - was catching crabs. she had bought ten small crabs for $2 from him the day before.

the national park board people have made this connector more accessible by constructing a wide path to join the track somewhere in the middle, near the 1400m mark, so that you can access the track from sembawang road.

parking woes at s'pore general hospital

































these days if you have to go for a medical appointment or visit someone at s'pore general hospital, please be advised not to drive there unless you enjoy driving from car-park to car-park searching for a parking space or you like to entertain yourself to a self-drive tour around the whole campus.

with the closure of the car-park next to the housemen's canteen, there is now a very tight squeeze on car park space. every car-park within sgh seems to display the 'full' sign and within each car-park itself, you will find a number of cars and other vehicles waiting for others to vacate their lots. forget also about parking at the only coupon-parking car-park near second hospital avenue because it is always fully parked.

if you really must drive, then you should be there much earlier than the appointed time. you have to factor in the time you need to spend looking or waiting for a space. or you could park somewhere nearby like the car-park at the temporary chinatown food centre.

the best way and the way that is least frustrating is to take a bus to outram road or new bridge road. during peak hours, it is also not a wise move to travel by train because the trains will be sardine-packed.

the tau yew man

another feature of my kampong life that has stayed in my memory is the tau yew man. he would announce his presence with his trademark call of "yew, yew". the original tau yew man must have been in his fifties when he started making his rounds in my kampong. i had seen him in the neighbouring village and also in tasek utara where i went to visit my school mate.

he was always dressed in the same navy blue shirt and dark trousers. his shirt had three or four pockets. like the lady who sold breakfast, he carried his ware in a basket but he did not sling it over his shoulders; he carried it at the elbow of his hand. he was always smiling, always in a good mood.

if i can remember correctly, he made his rounds once a fortnight. he would first take the orders, collect the empty or near empty bottles and then go to his tricycle where his containers were to top up the bottles. he would use a funnel to transfer the soy sauce from the big containers to the customers' bottles.

the tau yew man served us, his customers, well. he not only provided cheerful home delivery service, he also rewarded us for supporting him. every year, towards the lunar new year, he would present his regular customers with complimentary bottles of soy sauce.

i do not know whether his soy sauces were home-made or if he got them from a supplier. in the later years his son, i presume, took over the business of delivering soy sauces to the kampong folks. his son upgraded the tricycle to a small van. unfortunately, he did not inherit his father's friendly and cheerful demeanour.

"soy sauce is a staple condiment and ingredient in most homes. soy sauce is a salty, brown liquid made from fermented soy beans mixed with some type of roasted grain (wheat, barley, or rice are common), injected with a special yeast mold, and liberally flavoured with salt. after being left to age for several months, the mixture is strained and bottled. the sauce's consistency can range from very thin to very thick."

2 papaya trees, 2 types of leaves

"one often sees papaya plants growing around a house in the tropics. this may be because the papaya is an important, regular fruit in the diet, but it is also often necessary because papaya is usually dioecious, so that at least one male and one female plant are required for fruits to be produced.

there are, however, cultivars that are monoecious (separate male and female flowers on the same plant), and the popular cultivar solo has perfect flowers (each flower on a plant has both stamens and a pistil).

male flowers are small and borne in long clusters, whereas one to several female flowers are produced on a short stalk in the axil of each leaf. typically only one female flower per leaf develops into a fruit; the trunk is thereby so covered with fruits that one can barely see the stem.

the oldest, mature fruit is the lowest one, and the youngest the uppermost one. therefore, once a plant starts to produce, there is a continuous supply of fruits. "

scenery of singapore









i am very sure that not many people can identify this scenic spot in singapore. among the few people who have ventured to this corner of singapore are the bird-watchers and the anglers.

people do not get a chance to see or visit this place because it is not very accessible. there is a barrier across the track and this barrier is most of the time secured with a lock.

the building found at the end of the track is a protected place. there are notices that say 'fishing is forbidden' but the lure is too strong, so you do come across some doing illegal fishing.

fly budget to melbourne

an economy ticket on sia to melbourne costs s$1200 inclusive of taxes and surcharges. fly budget and you pay only $750, giving you a saving of $450. the cheapest flight on a full-fare airline is about $800 plus, on cathay pacific. the drawback is that you have to transit in hong kong and make a stopover in adelaide.

if you have time at hand and you do not mind the waiting and long queues at the terminal, then taking a budget flight is not a bad deal. whereas it takes seven and a half hours to fly (on sia)direct from singapore to melbourne, it will take you about eleven hours on tiger airways. the total flight time includes a three-hour transit in darwin.

i was told that at darwin, you have to change plane which means another round of queuing. with budget fare, you are not served any food or drink. in fact, they do not encourage or allow you to take your own food to eat on board the plane. so, it is four hours without food or drink to darwin and another four hours to melbourne. of course, you can still get food on board but you have to pay for it. there is also no in-flight entertainment.

i remember on our first no-frills flight to bangkok, ivy and ida ordered cup noodles and did not finish the food.

one of the drawbacks of travelling budget is that there is no rescheduling of a flight once it is booked. i think you cannot recover any money in the event of a cancellation. on tiger airways, baggage limit is 15kg. i am sure it is also the case - lower baggage limit - with the other budget carriers.

selective booking by traffic police

there is this place i walk past practically every sunday where i see many cars parked against double yellow lines. then, there is another place i go to on most evenings where i see a few cars and some heavy vehicles parked by a road with a continuous white line in the middle.

the sunday place is very close to the city, within the restricted zone. the evenings place is along a quiet stretch of road leading to the chestnut avenue waterworks. so far, i have yet to come across a single car booked for any parking offence at this sunday place but i have seen a few vehicles being booked for illegal parking at the evenings place.

is there some kind of discrimination? why booked vehicles parked along a stretch of road where they do not really cause any obstruction because there is hardly any traffic? the other place where the offenders go scot-free has through traffic even on a sunday and sometimes the parked vehicles create problem for longer vehicles trying to negotiate a turn.

is it for security reason that the traffic police strictly enforces the no parking rule at chestnut avenue? but, what security? the waterworks in more than a kilometre from the offending site. or is it considered a greater hazard for a car to be parked where there is a continuous white line on the road when compared to one parked against double yellow lines?

or is it because the drivers of these vehicles are not so educated and so they are not likely to challenge the rationale for the application of the rule whereas some of those cars parked against double yellow lines are driven by well-connected people?

another reason i can think of is that the traffic police has granted "special permission" for the vehicles to be parked along fort canning rise on sundays?

it seems to me that the officer who goes around booking the vehicles is taking the easy way out. as there is less likelihood for him to be asked to explain or to justify his course of actions, he target those who will not write to their chief to question the actions. to me, that act of issueing summons to this group seems a bit dastardly sneaky and unfair.

pineapple tarts
of m'ka
















ian song who went back to kuching, his hometown, for the chinese new year, brought us a container of pineapple tarts made by his 80-year old grandmother. the open tarts with intricate patterns on the pineapple filling were meticulously crafted by hand. i think kuchingites prefer the pastry firm.

whenever i eat pineapple tarts, i think of those that we used to buy back from the shop behind the federal cinema in melaka. the coffeeshop called bee bee hiong is also very popular for its yong tau foo. a lot of locals and visitors could be found eating yong tau foo for breakfast at the shop.

the rolled crumbly buttered pastry tarts come in transparent plastic containers and each box of tarts was priced at rm$10. i am sure with its popularity and the increased cost of its ingredients and other things, the price will have gone up. i do not think they made the tarts themselves because each time we placed our orders of twenty to thirty boxes, we would be told to collect them later in the day or on the next day.

however, unlike other pineapple tarts, the rolled tarts from melaka cannot keep for long. we were advised to consume them as soon as possible. the pastry melts in your mouth and the pineapple filling is just nice, not too sweet and sans the sour taste.

the last time i went to melaka i found the rolled tarts being sold in quite a number of shops in the town, especially in the jonkers street area.

are we on our way to become a gracious society?

it is impossible to expect each and every individual to be gracious. if we are looking for a society in which everyone exudes graciousness, then we are looking for an utopia. when we talk about a gracious society, we are talking in comparative term - where you are actually comparing the outward manifestations of graciousness between one society and another.

when someone says that singapore will never become a gracious society (in his life time), that someone may have in mind another society where the manners and behaviour of the people are more refined and acceptable. in most cases, the benchmark that such a person uses may be that of a more developed country.

graciousness encompasses more than just etiquettes, manners and behaviour. a person well versed in etiquettes is not necessarily a gracious person. likewise, a person who is well-mannered and behaves like a gentleman may not qualify as a gracious person. a gentleman who refuses to get involved, to lend a helping hand, cannot be considered to have grace.

during my travels, i have witnessed some facets of graciousness which i hope to see evolve in my own country. i remember when i first visited hawaii, i was most impressed by the warm and spontaneous greetings of the local people. in london, the good impression came from the way the commuters who are not in a hurry automatically keep to the left of the escalators. on the roads, even in busy london city, the drivers appear to be less impatient and more forgiving. in australia, i was warmed to hear the passengers thanking the driver at the end of the ride - this was in an suburban area, not in the city.

as i see it, to become a more gracious society, first, we have to learn to be less inhibited and more open and forthcoming. in a situation where help is needed, we should not wait for another person to act first. graciousness has very much to do with being considerate and showing concern for our fellow human beings. graciousness is also about having compassion and mercifulness. a gracious society is one where people are interested and concerned about the welfare of their fellow men.

another insight is the experience from my walks in singapore and australia, i am able to sense the difference between the people here and in australia. the australians are more forthcoming; they will greet you first when you meet them along the walking path. in singapore, we tend to hold back because it is still not a part of our culture. and when we do greet people, we sometimes receive a stony silence kind of response.

another indicator of graciousness is the way we drive. over the years i have observed some improvements in this area but we are still not there yet. we still find a lot of queue jumpers when there is a bad jam, a lot of drivers not signalling and, of late, i have noticed drivers ignoring the red light.

i am not implying that i am more gracious than others or that i am already there. i do have my quirks and idiosyncrasies which make me do things which are not so gracious. for example, i will not give in/way to queue jumpers or motorists who do not form up when they have to turn.

so, it looks like the road of graciousness is still way ahead.

multi-colour bougainvillea

bougainvilleas come in a variety of colours, namely, yellow, exotic orange, purple, deep purple, pink and white. you may have come across a hybrid bi-colour bougainvillea. but, have you ever seen one with all the colours in one bougainvillea plant?

set eyes on one today at ngee phoe flower garden at 240 neo tiew crescent. what we refer to as the flowers are actually the bracts.

( a bract is a modified leaf growing just below a flower or flower stalk. bracts are generally small and inconspicuous, but some are showy and petallike, as the brightly coloured bracts of bougainvillaea or the white or pink bracts of flowering dogwoods.)

old woodlands centre

had breakfast with victor at the food centre at old woodlands centre. the prata stall located at the end nearer to the exit of the car-park is popular enough for the pratas to be sold out by around 10 a.m. each day. the draw is the sardine gravy - for which the stallholder charges 40 cents per serving. if you want just the curry, it comes gratis with the pratas/murtabaks.

i had intended to recommend the prata from that stall to victor, instead i found out that he is a regular patron of that stall. he even knows the original owner of the stall, the father of the present owner. in my case, it was jameela, my former admiralty colleague, who introduced the stall to me.

when the bus interchange was moved from old woodlands centre to causeway point, i had thought the place would become quieter. how wrong i have been. the place is thriving as well as before, with sheng shiong attracting the housewives and the food centre pulling in the malaysian workers. the money changers here offer better rates (for malaysian ringgit) than those in other parts of singapore.

still, there have been a few casualties. one is the them is the woodlands cinema. with the opening of cineplexes at causeway point, the old cinema died a natural death. according to victor, it is probably being used by some church groups. one section of it houses a kindergarten.

the macdonald's adjacent to the old cinema is definitely much quieter than it was during its heyday in the 70s. this used to be our meeting point for our many self-drive holidays in peninsular malaysia.

exotic fruit - jambu mawar

the jambu mawar is a shrub with slender, wide spreading branches. it can grow to a height of 7 metres. as it is non-seasonal, it fruits throughout the year. you will most likely be attracted to it, first by its flowers with creamy white petals.

this is one tropical fruit most youngsters today have not seen, much less eaten. you hardly find this fruit in the market or at any fruit stall. the fruit cannot keep for long. in fact, in most cases, the birds get to them before we humans do.

if you travel along neo tiew road leading to the sungei buloh wetland reserve, you are bound to see the jambu mawar trees lining both sides of the road (neo tiew crescent). interspersed between them are the odd kedongdong, mango and nutmeg trees.

the fruit is nearly round, oval or slightly pear-shaped but much smaller in size, about 4 to 5 cm. the young fruit is green in colour while the mature fruit is pale yellow. it has a smooth skin. do not know how today's children will take to it because the fruit has a dry taste. i like the firmness and its fragrant scent, like that of a rose. that's why its english name is rose apple.

i am surprised that even adults do not know about jambu mawar. my wife asked what i had brought home. when told that they were fruit, she asked if i was sure. even my good friend victor, nearly seventy years, has not tasted the fruit before.

oily man and other stories

i suspect that when we were children, out of exasperation, some adults fabricated stories about the oily man and head hunters to frighten us so that we would not stay out too late or wander too far from the house.

at one time, talks and stories about the oily man were so rife that every kampong kid was gripped with fear when it got dark. we stayed close together in a group and did not dare venture to unfamiliar places at night.

from what i can remember of those stories told, the oily man or orang minyak (as the malays called him) had very dark skin which was also shiny and oily. some stories told of the orang minyak raping young virgin girls. it seemed that sex with virgin strengthened his power in black magic. he was elusive and difficult to capture because his oily skin made it difficult for his captors to get a grip on him and so he always managed to give them the slip.

the other story that struck fear in us was that of children being beheaded. the theory was that every time a new bridge was built or being built, they needed human heads to ensure its stability. incredible as it might sound, we were too young and naive to see how illogical it was. we were just too afraid to lose our heads.

then there were also stories of pontianak associated with the banana tree. some movies were made based on these stories and in some way it reinforced our belief in such stories.

the southern ridges walkway

looks like the much-awaited southern ridges walk will have to wait for another two months or so. although the structures - the two main bridges over henderson road and alexandria road - are up and ready, the finishing touches are taking quite a wee bit too long to finish.

today, i went to make an unofficial check on the progress of the work at the three parks. first, i went to kent ridge where there is not much evidence of new pathways except at the nursery and work there is still unfinished. the road at which the telok blangah hill section will tie up with the kent ridge section at hortpark has been re-surfaced.

next, i went to telok blangah hill park, to the point where the highest pedestrian bridge ends. over there also, the hoardings are still up and that section remains 'hanging'. over at car park 3, which is next to mount faber service reservoir, i managed to walk along a section of the elevated walkway. where the walkway ends, there is a structure which looks like a shelter.

at mount faber end, the evacavator was still at work, levelling the earth and preparing for the paving of the path.

although the bridge over henderson road was completed at the end of 2007, the rest of the route for the southern ridges nature walk is still in the process of being laid out. i saw a sign at telok blangah hill which states that work will only end on 31 mar 2008, which means the entire route may not be open to the public until april, at the earliest.

mass drill display 1963

this photograph which was reproduced on the raffles65 group webpage reminds me of poor sense of coordination during my secondary school days. in 1963, i was in secondary two then and that year our cohort was selected to put up a mass drill for national day and subsequently, malaysia day which was held at the padang.

i remember how awkward i was, occasionally making the wrong move and not in sync with the rest. in a mass display, this kind of glaring error is not forgivable because it spoils the whole picture. i think my position was changed to one where i was not so conspicuous. because of my height - or rather lack of it - they still had to place me in front but at the edge.

we had many practices on the school field and at the site itself. though we missed a lot of lessons it did not bother most of us very much. at that age and time, you just did what you were told to do. you don't question, you don't argue.

eventually i was placed in the second row so that i could take the cue from the person in front of me. anyway, on the actual day, we all rose to the occasion and put up a flawless performance.

my hand-eye coordination may have improved over the years but it has not reached the stage where i can excel in sports and games.

ida's 1st year, 2nd semester in monash

after being back home in singapore for more than a month, ida is on her way to melbourne to pursue the 2nd semester of her first year course of study at monash university. ivy, who graduated last year from monash, will be at the airport to meet her to drive her back to clayton.

ida did not sleep last night and she stayed up in the company of dorcas and desmond, her former pjc mates. early this morning, her former secondary schoolmates jill, sin yee and rong choo came to the house and left together with us for the airport. jill, who has just got her driving licence, drove her father's mpv. on the way, they stopped at pending road in bukit panjang to pick vanessa.

jill, her bukit view secondary school's classmate, will be going to paris (france) in march to do a course in french pastry and culinary. she has plans to set up an eatery when she has gained enough skill and experience. told her i would like to be considered for mopping and clearing tables.

this being my first time at t3, i had expected to be wowed by it. it could be that i had come to expect t3 to be bigger than t2 and t1, so the impact was not there. it is quite visitor-friendly with the directional signs at the right places. still, i had some problem locating the car. i thought i had parked at basement 2, when, in fact, it was basement 1.

as usual, while waiting for departure, we had some light makan at one of the eateries. we had drinks and some toast at wang's cafe which is next to coffee bean.

cny gathering @ jelapang


the year of the rat is a time for changes. first, we departed from the standard practice of meeting at my place on the first day. secondly, instead of getting together in the morning, we changed it to an afternoon rendevous. so, the gathering was held in the afternoon of the second day of the lunar new year. still, some things do not change.

although the agreed time of meeting at my place was 2.00 p.m., the earliest, my brother's family appeared at 1.45 p.m. the last, my 2nd sister's family, reached my place at around 5.30 p.m. along the way, some got lost this being a once a year affair. some like alvin ended up at the wrong house; he and his girl friend went to pasir ris.

so, they munched and snacked as they waited for the whole 'clan' to make their appearance. i had fried some nuggets, golden chicken and goreng pisang. there were perng kueh (rice cake) and some glutinous rice stuff from indonesia.

for dinner, we had rice with fishball and cabbage soup, herbal chicken, breaded prawns, the nuggets and some stirred fried vegetables.

to occupy themselves, the young ones played cards and mahjong while the older ones watched tv or just reminisced about the kampong days.

travelling - opens up eyes and mind

before i visited shenzhen and guangzhou in mainland china, i used to have this thinking: these mainland chinese, poor things, when they come to s'pore, they must suffer from a technology shock. how they would marvel at our advanced transport system, the skyscapers and the wide range of goods available at our huge shopping malls.

would they know how to use the handsfree taps, those that use sensors? would they know how to travel on the mrt, lrt and the public buses?

all this idea changed when i visited these two places in january this year. i found that their trains have features that are better than ours. like the trains in hong kong, they have this light indicators near the door panel that shows the train route, the point you are at and the direction of travel. as a visitor, i found this feature very helpful.

and when i used the toilets at the train stations and the shopping complexes, i found out how misplaced my own apprehensions for them had been. most of the taps in these toilets also use the latest technology; they are hands free.

but, as i have mentioned earlier, the manners and behaviour of the people have not kept pace with the kind of infrastructure and the new technology. just as we are not gracious enough; they are far from gracious.