kolam ayer abc waterfront

what does abc stand for? it stands for active, beautiful and clean (water). today, i went back to the kolam ayer abc waterfront and saw a number of pleasing and interesting additions to this beautiful stretch of water from bendemeer to the kallang mrt station. the water was already quite clean even before the marina barrage was completed. i used to see shoals of fish darting about in the kallang river, the longest river in singapore.







i took bus service 67 and stopped near the kallang mrt station. from there i walked to the pcn that actually connects bishan park to the kallang riverside park, a distance of nearly 7km. there were a lot of flags fluttering by the side of the river and on the bridge across the river. no, they were not national day decorations put up by the residents' committee of that area. i think they were displayed by the taoist temple (chwee kang beo - shui jiang miao) for some religious festivity.





across the bridge from the temple are some octagonal-shaped buildings that reminded me of my visit to china. these are industrial storerooms and warehouses which have been around for sometime already.




there are disruptions to the path at two points along this stretch of the connector where you have to cross the road at traffic light pedestrian crossings to rejoin the path.

soon the the kallang vista come into view. these blocks of hdb flats, by the edge of the water, are nearing completion. these days, it is not easy to tell if they are private condominiums or hdb flats because of the better design and finish and also the name - river vista at kallang.

the floating deck is the focal point along the walk. "the floating deck is a dynamic structure that moves with the water level. by following the water movement, the deck stays close to the water surface. activities such as morning exercises or festive celebrations can take place on the deck or one can simply enjoy the scenery of the riverside on the deck". the last time i was there, it was not even under construction. how fast things change in singapore!

it is not only the deck that is floating, there are also troughs of plants floating by the side of the deck. it is a pity that some people do not realise that to enjoy the place, you have to keep it clean. there are empty cigarette packs, bread wrappers and tissue papers on the deck and by the edge of the water.









children will enjoy the two mechanical devices used for drawing water from the river - the archimedes screw and the water wheel. they are working models.

how keong saik road developed

into a red-light district

picture from national archives of singapore

keong saik road which links north bridge road to neil road did not start off as a red-light district in spite of its close proximity to the notorious smith street. i had thought that the prostitute trade was a spill-over from nearby smith street.

according to my friend, this was not the case. keong saik road used to have a concentration of clan associations where well-to-do merchants and businessmen would meet for recreation in the forms of food, gambling and entertainment by women.

some of these women eventually became mistresses of these rich businessmen and were housed in the rooms above the association premises. there, some would stay with an amah (servant), hired by their businessman lovers, to serve them. so, keong saik road became known as the mistresses avenue. (today, which two places in singapore have earned this title?)

the rest of the story is quite familiar. some got bored while waiting for their sugar daddies and so took on other lovers or clients. some, who fell out of favour, were abandoned and they ended up servicing other men to earn a living. the amah ended up as being the mamasan who played the role of soliciting customers for the lady, earning a commission in the process. some of these mamasans eventually bought over the place.

so, in the 60s, keong saik road became a seedy area with brothels located in the 3-storey shophouses on both sides of the road. unlike geylang and desker road, where the protitute dens are on the ground level, at keong saik street, the rooms were originally (and still are?) above the ground level. access to the 2nd and 3rd levels was usually via a side staircase.

my friend tells me that the trade (at keong saik road) is still alive. i did not ask him why he was so sure about it because, during our last exploration of chinatown, we tried to look for evidence that the place was still in business but we could not find any indication. maybe, we did not look hard enough.

one thousand fingers

at d'kranji farm resort, located at neo tiew lane 2, you can view two bunches of an uncommon species of banana called the 1000 fingers. i read somewhere that the stalk, which is more than a metre long, will continue to grow and add fruit till it touches the ground. (i was told that you can see them at the desaru's fruit farm in johor.)

the bananas, which are around 5cm long, are seedless, sweet and have a pleasant flavour.

i remember receiving an email - i think it was from nah - extolling the benefits of eating bananas.

it seems bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose.

a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial boost of energy. it is no wonder that it is the number fruit with the world's leading athletes.

this unique tropical fruit is extremely rich in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure.

bananas are best eaten when they are very ripe (mature). you should not keep bananas in the refrigerator because they lose their flavour very quickly.

when we were young and when we constipated, my mother would buy bananas for us to eat. there seems to be some truth in this home remedy because the high fibre in the banana helps in bowel movement.

eating bananas make you as happy (or as cheeky) as a monkey. some chemical found in the banana puts you in a good mood.

school building quiz

this school building exists in singapore. i am sure hardly any senior citizens are aware of its existence because it is a fairly new building. no, it has no affliation to saint joseph institution (sji) or st joseph institution junior - the former st michael's school.

although it is named ann joseph primary school, i do not think any primary or secondary school students know about its existence. but those who have completed secondary, especially post-secondary education, may have come across it.

clue: it is located in the north-western part of singapore. you cannot see the building from the main road. do not try to 'google', it will not be of any help.

question: where, exactly, is this school?

i think this one must give more clues. this place is a mock-up town with shop-houses, residential buildings, bus-stops and even an overhead bridge. when i first chanced upon it, i thought it was a movie town. but, it is not.

what do you do with an old bathtub?

in time to come, you will not be able to see the old bathtub outside the bicycle repair shop or the tyre repair shop in singapore. with tubeless bicycle and motor-cycle tyres, the repairman no longer need to submerge the inflated inner tube in a bathtub of water to check the effectiveness of his handiwork.

picture from national archies of singapore

you will be hard-pressed to find a bicycle repair shop in your neighbourhood. these days, even bicycle tyres are tubeless. if the tyre is defective, the bicycle shop will sell you an inner tube. however, if your bicycle tyre is one that still has an inner tube and that is punctured, you can easily mend it yourself. you buy a patch to stick over the punctured part.

in the days when we also rode bicycle with inner tubes and when we had a puncture, we would go to the bicycle/motorcycle repair shop to have it fixed. that was when the discarded bathtub came in useful. the repairman would inflate the punctured inner tube and then passed it under the surface of the water (in the bathtub) to ascertain the spot where the puncture had occurred.

he would mark the spot, dry the area around the spot and then he would use a metal file to file the area. he cut a piece of rubber from an old discarded inner tube, filed it and then applied contact glue to the two surfaces - the spot that he had filed and one side of the rubber piece.

i can still remember how he went about afixing the rubber patch to the punctured spot. he would stretch that affected part of the inner tube over his fist. after filing and applying the glue, he would have to wait for the glue to dry. to hasten the drying process, he would blow his breath over the area.

those days when motor-car tyres had inner tubes, when we had a puncture, we did not go to the workshop at the petrol station to have it fixed. instead, we would drive it to one of these bicycle-cum-motor-cycle repair shops. the mechanic would jack up the car, remove the offending tyre and follow more or less the same procedure. however, for bigger inner tube, there was one more step. they would use heat to fuse the two pieces of rubber together.

i think in those early days, the cost of repair for a punctured bicycle tyre was about twenty or thirty cents whereas for a car tyre, we had to pay $1.50 or $2.00.

where, in singapore, can you still find an old bathtub outside a shop?