Bukit Brown MRT Station

Following a private email response to my Sunday Rantings (previous blog), I just want to show some evidence of Bukit Brown MRT Station, which is not usually indicated on most official transit maps.
It is situated between Caldecott and Botanic Garden on the Circle Line.

The Bukit Brown MRT station is located at an empty plot (at the moment) at Jalan Mashhor, near Andrew Road where I work.
It is only a 'shell' station, i.e. the station concrete form has been built but not fitted out to function as an operational platform.
When it will be operational is subject to the development of the area around the station.

Mediacorp is moving out in 2016 and that will also free up a huge plot of land nearby.
The Bukit Brown station is adjacent to and sandwiched between the 2 huge cemeteries there;
the Bukit Brown Cemetery and the Chinese Cemetery at Mt Pleasant.

This is the Bukit Brown MRT Station as it stands today 2011.

Like Marina Bay MRT Station, where the station was built years before the surrounding Financial Centre or MBS was conceptualized, the Bukit Brown area will eventually be developed, cemeteries not withstanding.

Here is another official LTA map showing future MRT stations.
You might want to consider buying some real estate nearby?

Click on map for detailed view.

Update on Bukit Brown blog. 16 Dec 2011.

I was on the Circle Line yesterday from Serangoon to Holland Village and had the chance to 'pass through Bt Brown underground. 

About 1 min after leaving Caldecott station, you start to hear a change in the sound of the rushing train due to the air space at Bukit Brown.

If you sit facing the starboard (right) side windows, you can see part of the space that will be Bukit Brown Station. It's just an empty space and you can see right across to other other tracks going in the opposite direction.

Seeing Pink Elephants!

It's the time of the year when we tend to over-indulge and imbibe just a little too much for our own good.
It's all in the spirit of Christmas I suppose, religious or commercial, whichever you prefer.
If you are out at your favorite watering holes in Orchard Road or Marina Bay, you may be forgiven if you start seeing pink elephants after your night out.

The Elephant Parade is in town!
The Elephant Parade is a phenomenally successful charity event in support of the endangered Asian elephant.
The open air art exhibition is in Singapore now. The very first Asian country to host the event.
Previous hosts were mostly European cities like Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen, Milan, etc.

The elephants are all designed and painted by famous artists and celebrities and will be auctioned off by Sotheby's to raise funds.

If you have not seen the elephants yet, I suggest that you make a beeline to catch them before they are all auctioned off after the exhibition. You may not get the chance again in Singapore as there is a long line of cities waiting to showcase this event.

The painted elephants are really nice. Go get your picture took with them.

I really enjoyed myself wandering around the city looking for each of the 162 elephants on display.

(some of them are further out at the zoo and at NUS, which I don't think I will be there tho').

If you don't have the energy, then your last chance will be when all 162 pachyderms will be gathered at the Botanic Gardens on 9 January 2012 for a mass display.

My advice: DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE !

Related links:

My Elephant Parade photo blog

Elephant Parade Singapore 2011

Keeping Singapore litter free.

What better way to wake up on a lazy Sunday morning then with a good laugh.
The Sunday Times had a serious article with unintentional hilarious snippets.

More enforcement officers deployed, littering increased by 101%.
Put up banners on the penalties of littering, littering increased by 105%
Put up environmental messages: littering increased by 61.5%.
They observed how often the bins spilled over - 22 times ;
they added more bins - the spillage stopped.  Duh?
After a year of study, the results? "Inconclusive"

Click on the picture for detailed view.

Singapore has been oft praised as the cleanest greenest place anywhere, but the recent study found that 4 in 10 respondents admitted to littering, with 1% being hard core litterbugs!

The truth is that Singapore is kept tidy and clean not because most citizens do not litter but that the streets are swept and tidied by a huge battalion of foreign workers.
They are the unsung heroes of keeping Singapore clean and spotless.

Photo by Euyah from cajunsis.blogspot.com

I shall not venture to add any further observation of my  own.
You can read the 179 page study here.

Click the pix for the study results.

Humans Fail monkey bins

A while back I wondered when the monkeys at MacRitchie Nature Reserve would overcome the new monkey-proof trash bins introduced by NEA*. (see this blog)

I have yet to see this happen but something else funnier has occurred.

*National Environment Agency

The trash bins seem to be human proof as well.

I have tried these trash bins and it is so easy to understand why it fails.

1. The lock is tight and needs strong finger pressure to unlock it.

2. The lock appears dirty and you'll feel uncomfortable touching it.

3. The lid is made of thick steel and is heavy to lift it open. 

(The lid doesn't pop open - you gotta lift it manually - I supposed they presume monkeys don't have the strength to lift it)

Already reasons 2 & 3 makes you queasy touching the filthy surfaces, but lastly,

4. you need all three of your hands to use the trash bin.  

    One to press and hold the lock, 

    another to lift the heavy cover, and, 

    your third hand to hold the trash you intend to dispose.

So now you know why the garbage is outside the trash bins. It's a no brainer!
Well done, NEA. Kudos to you.

Mister, can you spare a dime?

Poor sad rich man!

Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Las Vegas Sands and one of the richest man in the world, is disappointed, apologetic and suffering from the loss of dignity.

And why is that so?
Well apparently, he made a substantial error in his profits forecast for his Marina Bay Sands Casino in Singapore.

His casino made MORE money than he imagine it would!
In the last 3 months, his casino made only US$413.9 million in PROFIT!
He didn't get his math right, he expected his casino to make less!
My heart bleeds for him.

Click on pix for detailed view of the ST report.

"But trust me, I will suffer through the indignity of being wrong by such a substantial amount."
Such arrogance! He is laughing all the way to his private banker at the expense of all the losers.

In Singapore, the number of those getting caught up in this vice trap can be seen through the increasing court cases of frauds and bankruptcies, the increasing numbers turning to gambling counsellors and the increase in self-exclusion orders.

This not withstanding the case of Madam Choo who supposedly won S$416,742 at the slots in his casino but was denied her winnings due to 'machine malfunction' ?

Her winnings of $416,742 is just 0.08% of the profits he made in the last 3 months.
That's less than a dime to the dollar!


Related links:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1161890/1/.html

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_725726.html

http://www.singaporelawwatch.sg/remweb/legal/ln2/rss/legalnews/73716.html
http://www.todayonline.com/Business/EDC111029-0000172/Singapore-helps-Sands-hit-jackpot
http://www.asiaone.com/News/The%2BNew%2BPaper/Story/A1Story20100920-238049.html

For God sake

I have taken this post down temporarily on the advise of the authorities.
Unfortunately, there are some who "can't handle the truth" (Jack Nicholson A Few Good Men


Due to threat and libel made, this piece has now become part of an ongoing investigation.
As such, I am unable to comment on this further until I am given the green light by my legal advisors.

Venice of Punggol? Oh Please lah!

The waterfront park at Punggol was officially opened to the public yesterday.
But I just couldn't help laughing at the newspaper report this morning describing the new waterway as the "Venice of Punggol" !

Venice !

Please lah!  It's just one big longkang and they put it on the same level as Venice?

I have been to Venice and just last week I visited the My Waterway@ Punggol .
It will tire out all my brain cells just trying to think of any similarities.

Maybe they can start a gondolier service to see the old dump, now converted to a wetland, at Lorong Halus?

I must say that the wording in the news report is so clever that you can't really tell who came up with the moniker!  So nobody can be faulted if there's any backlash! (see report here).
Maybe it's a pre-emptive way to avoid future embarrassment in case of floods like previously in Bukit Timah and Orchard Road? Or perhaps it's a new directive to rename flood prone areas to "Venice of..."

Venice of Bukit Timah?

I am not disparaging the residents (Venetians?) of Punggol and congratulate them on their new facilities.

There is a long long way to go before Punggol 21+ achieves its aim of being a truly waterfront eco town, but please, be a bit more original with the names.

(Click here for my photo blog on My Waterway@Punggol)

Related links:
Visiting Punggol after 30 years.

Get a better life ?

Today I did a typically Singaporean thing.
I went to the SMRT Circle Line Open House!

Free unlimited rides between Caldecott and Harbourfront stations.
Free mineral water, free brochures AND free balloons, wow!
And best of all - Irene Ang and Yam Ah Mee, live in person!
The good things in life are really free !

LOL ! Is this all there is to life in Singapore?

Here's a video I shot today....

I was really a bit devious. 

As some of you know,  I am photographing overhead bridges wherever I can find them.

So what better way to get around than to use the free rides on the Open Day trains!

Here's a picture of the overhead bridge at Telok Blangah MRT Station.

Not too bad composition for a boring subject like a pedestrian bridge, right?

Some people had ask what camera I use. 

But hey, it's not just the camera, dude. Give some credit to the photographer. 

I don't like lugging a bulky and heavy DSLR camera, so my pictures are taken with my small Olympus point & shoot camera. I've got 2 models, the waterproof u1030 and the slightly larger EPL1. 

I am happy with them.

I've passed the 100th bridge mark. If you want to see my bridge project, the link to that blog is on the right side panel. You can probably scroll through them all in about 6 seconds. The Jesuits have it on record that you can hold a person's interest only for the first 7 seconds, beyond which thier minds starts to drift.

Looking at the bridges, concrete seems so dull. 

I gotta write to the LTA to suggest they put some color unto the structures. 

Concrete grey is so passe.

Wouldn't you like to see red, yellow or blue bridges instead of battleship grey all the time?

Sigh, there's got to be more to life than concrete bridges!

Anyway, to break my routine, I am now planning for my annual trip to Japan. Yeaaa.

This time to see the autumn colors in November.

I had thought perhaps this year I might have to forgo Japan due to the radiation danger, but I guess it safer now. So at least my life is beginning to look better ?

The Shoeman of Bukit Batok

Quirky things happen all around us but at times we just don't open our eyes wide enough to notice it.
But lately I did notice a peculiar activity going on just below my apartment.

Each morning, an old man carts a large box containing numerous pairs of footwear.
Meticulously, he lays it all out on the lawn and suns the shoes till evening when he returns to collect them back.

The footwear seem to be of all types from sneakers, to cleats, to boots, sandals and pumps, to dress shoes.
And it appears to be different each day.

What is he doing? Where does he get these from? and why sun them every day and for the whole day long? Won't they dry out and crack under the burning heat?
I have yet to reach that stage of curiosity to approach him.

Till then, here's a short clip of him whom I shall call The Shoeman of Bukit Batok.

Teaching an old dog to speak american

For the past 192 years, Singapore has been using the British manner of English, or what we would say, "the Queen's English" or "BBC English". This has served us well, being the only nation in SE Asia, to have English as the main medium for official communication and work.

Last week, our elder statesman LKY, again stirred the hornet's nest by proposing that "it is inevitable.. to teach and recognize American English". The jury is still out on his call.

Inevitable or not, the American pervasiveness in all things today cannot be dismissed easily. On the Internet, English is really americanized. And my own belief is that sooner rather than later, American English will supersede all forms of communication, be it via the Internet, the airwaves or the media.

Thus, I tend to agree on this point with the ex-minster, who has been known at least to have some foresight now and then. Therefore, from today on, I will also try and convert to using the American form in my blogs.

Switching from british english to american english is not just simply a change in the form of the words.
It is not as easy as you think! 
Saying gas instead of petrol, elevators instead of lifts, apartments instead of flats does not make your thoughts american. It involves not only spelling but also the nuances of syntax and grammer. Phrases in british english are different from american english.

Though the lines dividing these are getting blurred as worldwide communication become much easier, there are subtle differences that can tell that I was not raised speaking or writing american english.
This is the dead giveaway, for which, I hope you will forgive as I progressively take this journey of learning new tricks.

There are grammatical differences in the way the british and the americans structure their sentences, although you may not have noticed. For example, collective nouns are used differently, we say "Manchester are the winners of the match", the American will phrase it as "Manchester is the winner of the game".

Thus, it will take a long time before all the subtleties are ironed out and my blog will be 'americanized'
From young I have been schooled in british english and it will take a great conscious effort to cross the Atlantic. My sister Jen had already made the transition decades ago, and hopefully can help point out whenever I unconsciously lapsed back into the Queen's English.

The other reason why I decided to make the switch is simply because all the tools on my Mac are in American English. The spell check, the keyboard, the nomenclature of working with the system are all easier, rather than having to correct the american spelling back to british spelling. Make sense doesn't it?

So from now on, you'll see me type learned instead of learnt, center instead of centre and dropping the u from honor, etc, etc. (is et cetra typically british?) The change will only apply in my written blogs. I'll start with spelling and eventually get around to the phrases.

If you think it's just a change of spelling, I'd suggest you read this primer from wikipedia regarding the differences in American and British English.

God help us all!

Penitenziagite !

I just finished my 3rd reading of Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose.
This time it took me all of 20 days to get through this tome.
Just 1 day short of the loan period from the National Library.
It was one of the  most difficult  book I have ever read, but I loved every passage of it.

 I was introduced to this novel by a franciscan friar, Fr Alban, back in early 1990s, but in truth, I gave up half way through the book because it was too difficult to comprehend. My first attempt ended up in utter failure.

It was not till almost 8 years later that I managed to read through the entire book. By this time,  a movie starring Sean Connery had been  made, based loosely on this book. I watched the movie and was totally enamored by it and that made me resolve to re-read the book.

I remembered that it was still difficult to digest but at least now I understood the gist of the novel which helped to move the pages along.

The book is vastly different but superior to the movie. 

While the movie is an excellent whodunit, it really does not do justice to the book. I'll elaborate on this a little further down after I tell you of the novel.

The 2nd time I re-read the book I skimmed over a lot of difficult passages. Perhaps I had actually wanted to make a comparison between the movie and the actual novel. But I did remember that the novel was so enthralling that from then on I kept it listed as my all time favorite.

Now, after 20 years from my initial attempt, I again decided to re-read this great book but at a slower pace to get a deeper insight and to grasp the finer nuances of Eco's writing.  

While the movie portrays a medieval murder mystery, the focus of the book is not on the murders but more of the discourses of philosophy, logic, church practices during the middle ages,  politics of the Holy Roman Empire, the dreaded working of the Holy Inquisition and the great debate about the poverty of Christ.

There are beautiful discussions of literature and books, and how the medieval monks so lovingly sought to keep alive knowledge through books. These discourses between the protagonist of the novel, Bro William, and the other characters are intertwined with the investigation of the murders at the abbey.
At the end, when the monastery burned, Eco's writing keeps you spellbound with pages and pages just about the great fire. That's how good a book it is!

The novel is sprinkled generously throughout with extremely difficult words that needs explanation.

Words like enthymeme, palimsests, semiotics, syllogism, aedificium.
Also many phrases are in Latin, the language of the church in the middle ages. Whew!

My 3rd reading of this book now comes with hindsight, having over the years since read more and knowing better the history of the church, the middle ages, of popes and anti-popes, and a bit of the history of the franciscans. (I worked in a franciscan parish church as a full time administrator years back)

I would recommend this book to you if you are somewhat interested in the history of the middle ages, literature or debates about religious practices. If not, it's better to watch the movie.

The movie itself is excellent, but it departs a lot from the book and take a very liberal re-telling of the novel.
In fact, the producers at the beginning disclaim this disconnect by calling the movie "A Palimpsest of Umberto Eco's Novel"

The main thrust of the movie is about the murders that occur at a monastery, where a debate between the Pope's representatives and the Franciscan friars over the poverty of the church was about to take place.
The protagonist, Bro William of Baskerville, attempts to solve the mysterious murders.
Being erudite but striving to keep his humility as a friar, Bro William gets entangled with the superstitious Inquisitor Bernardo Gui (a real person in history).

I shall not spoil your interest by telling you the story but it may suffice to know that the book ends completely different from the movie.

If you wish to watch the movie, it's actually available on Youtube, but I can't guarantee when it will be pulled for copyright reasons. There are 2 copies of the book at the Clementi branch of the National Library.

You can follow the movie via the Youtube link above.

NEA builds a better mouse trap

More monkey business...

The macaques have always been a nuisance in the areas around the nature reserves.
They forage for food not only in the reserves but from houses and places adjacent to their habitats.

The trash bins are always a favorite as they know that it contains thrown away delicacies.
There have been many previous attempts by the NEA (or NParks?) to contain this problem by building money-proof trash bins. But the monkeys have always learned to open the lids of all the different bins.

(picture taken off stomp.com.sg)

Recently another new design appeared. This time again said to be monkey-proof.

I'll wait and see how long it takes the monkeys to learn to open the new bins.
Just hope that the monkeys have not yet learn to read the instructions.

If you can't open the bin, then the NEA has done a great job creating an idiot-proof bin.
(NEA=National Environment Agency)

A bridge too far.... gone?

Some of you may know that I have embarked on a quixotic adventure to photograph all the overhead pedestrian bridges in Singapore. My wife thinks I have gone bonkers going after these windmills.

Anyway, I have already started the project and doing a temporary website to collect this database.
If you wish to follow my progress, I have another blog to do the drafts while I prepare the website.
You can see them here. This project will probably take years to complete as I will snap photos as and when I come across the bridges.

The reason why I am doing this is simply for posterity.
To capture the images before it becomes history and only in people's memories.
This resulted from the interest that people had shown in seeking pictures of old bus stops in Singapore.

I mentioned to my wife that it was a shame that the first generation steel truss bridges, the very first overhead pedestrian bridges, can no longer be seen today. And guess what she said?

"I think I remember seeing one still at Bukit Panjang where my old house was"
"No way!", I said, "they demolished your old house and the bridge a long time ago!"
She insisted she saw one just recently there.

So this morning, before going to office, I made a detour to Bukit Panjang.
When I was approaching near where my wife's old house used to be... OMG! she was right!!!

From afar, in front of me, I could see the old type steel truss bridge !
...except....
it was not the first generation type that was built in Singapore.
But it was almost an identical replica.

It is a temporary overhead bridge built for access across the road due to the MRT tunneling works going on at Bukit Panjang. Here it is....

The difference is apparent when you get near.
The steel trusses form a box 2.5 metres high, whereas the original bridge only had side trusses about a meter high and didn't have supports over head.
The original bridges also had wooden steps and floorboards.
But I must say that from a distance, it really looks like the original 1st generation bridge.

The old steel truss bridges were replaced by concrete types from the 1980s onwards.
This was due to the difficulties in maintaining the steel bridges which corroded easily and needed very high maintenance compared to pre-stressed concrete.

I really wish I can find one in service still so that I can complete my database.
Does anyone know where one may still exist? In some forgotten corner of Singapore?
That will be my one bridge too far!

Before its all gone

I checked the traffic on my blogs today and, for some reason which I am unaware of, the most read article is "Old bus stops in Singapore" which I wrote 2 years ago.

When I looked deeper into the statistics, I found that most readers arrived at that article as a result of Google search. People were searching keywords like 'old bus stops' & 'Singapore heritage'.
I guess that for these people old scenes and heritage of Singapore are an interest.

Perhaps the interest is due to the fact that these things are fast fading from the scene.
I had thought that bus stops were pretty much mundane.

I was thinking perhaps I should start taking and keeping photographs of another mundane object which we take for granted - overhead pedestrian bridges. Should I?

When you look at the new Helix Bridge, Henderson Waves bridge and the Alexandra Arch which are all pedestrian bridges, perhaps one day, the typical bridges we use daily will just be a long forgotten memory.
Already the 1st generation steel truss pedestrian overhead bridges are no longer seen,  having been replaced by the concrete types.

I looked up the LTA website and it stated that there are 480 pedestrian bridges in Singapore under their care.
So I'll try and capture as many as I can. It will be a long ongoing project.
Perhaps one day in future, someone will do a search for 'old pedestrian overhead bridges' and laugh at the current designs.

Here's a bit of trivia.
Which was the 1st overhead pedestrian bridge built in Singapore?

Here's an archive photo of it.

The Collyer Quay pedestrian bridge opened on 8 April 1964.
The same bridge eventually evolved into the Change Alley Aerial Plaza.

Useless Signs

I've started a new page for collating USELESS signs that can be found in Singapore.
What I want to show are signages that are redundant, ridiculous,  ignored or just simply useless.

I don't mean signs that have wrong translations like hand chicken for sale (hand phones), or singlish or bad grammer, which are commonly found at most heartland places, but genuine signs that might as well not be there. These are signs that actually have a meaningful purpose, except a lot of the time, it's simply ignored.

I am doing this just for laughs and not as a social commentator.
I'll lead off by showing some examples.
I would love to get more contribution from others as well.

25 July 2011

Another commonly ignored sign.

Life would be that little bit better if only everyone  do their part.

21 Jul 2011

At the MRT bicycle park.

In other countries, you are REQUIRED to slow down.
Here it seems to mean there's probably a school somewhere around here?
Ignoring this sign can be so fatal!

19 Jul 2011

No swimming on the grass at the HortPark.

At the MRT stations train platforms.

I have yet to see a single parent not taking the baby-stroller onto the escalators.

The most ignored signboard on the road.
Imagine the amount of money spent to put up thousands of these signage everywhere in Singapore !

You can't 'pay' when you exit, whether it's the correct or incorrect fare!
Technically,  the bus deducts the maximum amount when you board
and returns you the unused balance when you exit!
The bus gets extra money from you if you don't tap out.

Father of modern Singapore

As I write this, my country is in the midst of a General Election. The populace will elect or re-elect a government in a few days time according to their vote.

In the press, on the Net and in the coffee shops, arguments and counter-arguments, points and counterpoints, insinuations, mudslingings and the usual campaign gimmicks are all the talk of the day.

One particular piece of writing on the Net caught my eye. This person described the venerable Mr Lee Kuan Yew as the founder of modern Singapore. Hmmm, I was wondering. Is this what is being taught in schools now? I don't know.

From my own pathetic knowledge of local history, I thought that modern Singapore was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles back in 1819?  Was I wrong? 
Then again, when I took History of S.E.Asia as an A Level subject, it was way back in 1972, but I still can recall certain facts vividly because of my interest in local history at that time. Or has history been re-written since then?

From my aging memory, I recalled something like this....

The region around us then (i.e. S E Asia) was divided and controlled by both the Dutch and British, who were bitter enemies at that time.
Stamford Raffles, the British lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen in Western Sumatra, wanted to impress his bosses, the East India Company. He sought permission from his superior, Lord Hastings in India, to try and establish a greater presence right in the middle of the Dutch territories. (very garang! especially because the EIC Court of Directors were against this idea, but he went ahead anyway)


Raffles considered places like Bangka, Karimon, Bintan and Lingga before finally settling on an island called Singapura.  All these places were within the domain of the Rhio Sultanate, now know as Riau, Indonesia.  (Trivia- his initial preferences were actually Bangka or Bintan.)


The Sultan of the Rhio Sultanate, Sultan Mahmud, had recently died and his throne, based at Lingga under the Dutch, was usurped by the younger son Abdul Rahman instead of going to the rightful elder son Hussein Long.

Through political intrigues, Raffles brought the elder Hussein Long to Tumesek and installed him as the Sultan to be recognised by the British, in exchange for trading and administrative rights over the newly founded trading port (Singapura). The date was 6 February 1819.


Mr Lee Kuan Yew was not the founder of modern Singapore. He happened to be the incumbent prime minister of the island when Singapore was kicked out of the Federation of Malaysia on 9 August 1965. By default, he became the head of the government of a newly independent country.

Full credit must go to him and his team of people in the immediate period following Singapore's independence as a soveriegn country and the most difficult task of continuing to govern without much resources.

In 8 years time in 2019, Singapore will celebrate its bicentennial of its modern founding and its 54th year as an independent country. We should celebrate our modern founding with as big a bang as we can.
200 years of Singapore!

I hope I will still be around then.

Photo by hjtann

Upper Bukit Timah

When I was younger, literally at a time when the policemen wore shorts, I lived in the Upper Bukit Timah area. From the mid-50s till late 60s, I lived at a small estate called Princess Elizabeth Estate and then later a a nearby development called Fuyong Estate. PE estate is now demolished and Fuyong Estate is better known as Rail Mall.

Growing up in those lean years meant activities were all self made. Our playground ranged from the hills of Bukit Gombak, Bukit Batok, Bukit Timah and all the way to Bukit Panjang. Exploring the area, hills and jungle was the main activity for us gangs of schoolboys since places like amusement parks, shopping centres were all but non-existent.


View My Kampong area - Upper Bukit Timah in a larger map

From the old British radar station on Gombak to the quarries at Bukit Timah, the farms at Cheng Hwa and the dairy farms were the places we 'explored' in our free time. All these places were within a 2km radius from Hillview. And yes, there really were lots of cows at Dairy Farm, where now condominiums have replaced the farms.

Old pictures of the dairy farms at Upper Bukit Timah

I remember after Singapore gained independence and started its industrial development, the Hillview area was chosen for light industries. Factories like Union Carbide, Hume, Gammon, Malayan Guttas, Kiwi Shoe Polish, Lam Soon Oil, International Spinning Mills, Cycle and Carriage and Castrol all began to change the quiet rural area into a busy industrial hub.


But perhaps central and most important feature of this area was St Joseph Church. Being Catholic, this was my parish church and it played a big part in life. I was baptised there, had catechism lessons and later taught religious classes, was an organist there and eventually also got married at this church.


(Picture is of the current St Joseph Church, the 3rd rebuilding on the same site. It was re-built in 1963 under Fr Joachim Teng)

St Joseph Church BT c.1963

St Joseph itself has a long history that is very closely related to the development of the area which few people nowadays know. It was built in 1846 and is the 2nd oldest Catholic church in Singapore. In its 163 year history, it has seen the the history of Singapore literally passing with its own history.


But to me, the one event that makes the St Joseph and the whole Upper Bukit Timah area significant was a quiet event that took place in 1854. An event that was to have a big impact on the entire human history, and it all started here with a visit by a naturalist named Alfred Rusel Wallace.


Related links:
Alfred wallace and St Joseph Church

Showing the Flag

With National Day coming just round the corner, I thought it might be a good time for some patriotism. After all, I do love my country.

In 2007, I had the good fortune to get 2 tickets to the National Day Parade. That was the first time the parade was to be held on the floating platform on Marina Bay. It was also the first time that I attended a live National Day Parade as a spectator. I had actually taken part in a marching contingent way way way back in 1969 at the Padang!
Here is my video of the NDP 2007. Hope you like it.

Singapore Pledge

We, the citizens of Singapore

Pledge ourselves as one united people

Regardless of race, language or religion

To build a democratic society
Based on justice and equality

So as to achieve happiness, prosperity & progress for our nation