dutifully displayed at whampoa south
enormously displayed at bendemeer road
car in bus lane in s'pore (around 5.30 p.m. on a friday)
bus in bus lane in melbournemany singaporeans like to think that we are a much more disciplined lot than the australians. but my one-month of observations in melbourne seem to suggest the contrary. granted, their roads are not as congested as ours although some can get quite as bad during the morning and evening peak hours. but, in singapore, even when the traffic is not that heavy, i see a number of 'couldn't care less' motorists driving into the bus lane.
could it be due to the fact that their bus lanes are more conspicious - the bus lanes in australia are red, covered with materials like those used for the tartan track at the stadium. over here, our bus lanes are demarcated by thick yellow lines or red lines for the whole-day type.
some drivers in s'pore stray into the lane unknowingly but the majority who do, do so with a sense of impunity because the man with the camera is not around to catch them. if the land transport authorty (lta) pays me $1 for each vehicle (photogaphed) that commits this infringement, i will be able to collect quite a substantial sum each day. in melbourne, i would have difficulty earning $5 a day.
another interesting way of letting the public buses move ahead (in melborne) is the presence of bus queue-jump lanes. i suppose they also have this feature in the other large australian cities, especially sydney. it is just a small space at a signalised intersection ,on the extreme left, dedicated to buses or rather to one bus. before the light changes from red to green, an extra light with the white letter 'b' will appear, a signal for the bus to jump the queue. we, too, have a modification of this feature in s'pore but they do not seem to be working as well as it is in australia.
another warp thinking of some singaporeans is this: they think it is perfectly justifiable to pick someone from a bus-bay, which happens to be located within a bus lane, during the bus-lane operating hours. i see this happening every weekday at the bus-stop near my place.
just yesterday, i saw this small van beat the red light, while making a right turn, and after that, he drove straight into the bus lane. however, his act was noticed by one of these traffic wardens. i watched the going-on between the two; eventually, the 'kind' traffic warden left him off with a verbal warning. imagine blatantly disregarding two traffic rules and getting away with it!
I think I‘d better leave it to our retired teacher, YG to blog about this bit of history and not confuse readers with my speculations.
i take this as my assignment from my blogger friend chun see. he wondered where baharuddin vocational institute was in this blog entry. however, i have managed to put together a sketchy account of the history of this place. maybe, someone else can help?
i remember baharuddin vocational institute because some of my former colleagues, who were technical teachers, attended some up-grading courses at bvi. but i do not know enough of it to write about its history.
fortunately, there is the internet.
baharuddin vocational institute actually started in borrowed premises before moving into its own building in 1970. it was to be called queenstown vocational institute but was eventually renamed baharuddin vocational institute in 1968.
it was the first and only vocational institute to offer manual and applied arts courses. when it operated from kim keat vocational institute (kkvi), it was offering courses like graphic design and dressmaking. in 1979, when it had its own buildings at stirling road, it offered 5 design courses at indstrial trade certificate (itc) level.
iskandar jalil, the reowned sculptor, taught at bvi and later at temasek polytechnic's school of design.
some of bvi's more well-known alumnis include zoe tay, who studied design and seetoh k f (of makansutra) was once a student of photography at bvi. there are also some graduates of the institute who have become very successful in the fashion and design industry but i am not well acquainted with their names.
could the name baharuddin vocational institute (bvi) have been adopted from the baharuddin vocational secondary school which was located at nearby commonwealth close?
in fact, in the 60s, there were at least 12 vocational schools (secondary) and one vocational institute. how many of them can you name? here is the list:
baharuddin vocational school, bukit ho swee vocational school, dunearn secondary vocational school, geylang serai vocational school, hwi yoh vocational school, kim keat vocational school, mattar west secondary vocational school, mountbatten secondary vocational school, ponggol vocational school, tanglin secondary vocational school, thomson secondary vocational school, toh tuck vocational school and the vocational institute was the singapore vocational institute.
in the days before streaming, those who did not make the grade in the psle (primary school leaving examination) were posted to vocational school where the boys learned woodwork and metalwork while the girls picked up skills in home economics and type-writing.
technical schools like balestier hill technical, dunearn hill secondary technical, kim seng technical, queenstown secondary technical, serangoon garden secondary technical, tanglin secondary technical, tanjong katong secondary techncial and upper serangoon technical admitted those who passed the psle.
thee were also some primary schools which were vocational schools. these were bedok boys vocational, bukit batok east vocational, kaki bukit primary vocational and telok paku vocational school.
i had wanted to explore the western part of the island after reading about the ketam mountain bike park in this blog. however, my friend, who have been to ubin several times but had not done the mangrove boardwalk at chek jawa was quite insistent on visiting that part of the island. i would have missed photographing the wild boar if we had stuck to my original plan. anyway, there is always time for another visit to the island.
at the mangrove reserve, there are quite a number of nipah palms. it is always the 'attap chee' that i would see but this time around, i saw some flowers on the palms. as it was high tide during our visit, we did not get to see all those creatures that are shown on colourful brochures of chek jawa. however, we did see two white bellied eagles, with one of them successfully snatching a fish while skimming over the surface of the water in the sea.
from the visitor centre, i walked to the jetty where i saw this formation of rocks - which together form what is called pulau sekudu. it reminded me of my younger days when, on some weekends, we would paddle the sampans from pasir ris to pulau ubin. on the way, we would make a rest-stop at this rock island to look for shells. i remember we referred to it as 'frog island'.
i do not know if it is my imagination. somehow, the disused quarries, of which there are five, at pulau ubin, especially the surface of the water, appear so much placid, cleaner and nicer than those on the mainland.
i think not many singaporeans have seen baya weaver's nests in the wild but actually these beautifully weaved oval or conical-shaped nests suspended from trees are quite a common sight in waste lands and secondary forests in singapore. you can sometimes see as many as 10 nests on a single tree - as is the case in the above photograph.
if you are lucky, you can even see the tiny birds that weave these nests. the male baya weaver looks like a sparrow but has yellow feathers on its back. you can read more about this bird here. when the nests are abandoned, other birds or creatures may use them. (there was actually a baya weaver in the above photograph but it was hidden by the foliage.)
the nests are usually constructed by the male baya to attract the females. one male may build two or three partially completed nests; after succeeding in getting one to lay (eggs), he goes in search of other females to woo and get them to lay eggs in his other nests. this bird is polygamous.
because of the uniqueness of the nest, there seems to be a demand for it. some people believe that these elaborately woven pendulous nests are good luck objects. so, they get them and hang them in their garden or in the compound of their house.
at this farm in lim chu kang, the farm workers have collected quite a number of nests from the nearby waste land and they are selling them at $12 each. i have also seen this type of nests at ivy singh's bollywood farm.
i shall not divulge the whereabout of these nests in the wild, otherwise some people may try to look for the baya weaver to learn something from it. no, not to weave the nest but how to court two or three partners at one time!
first, it was the rambai and the langsat. now, it's time to look at two other cousins in the fruit family - the pulasan and the rambutan. the name pulasan comes from the malay word 'pulas' meaning to twist. i suppose that is how it got its name. unlike, the rambutan where you need to make a break or cut to get at the flesh, for the pulasan, you twist it to get to the flesh of the fruit - one hand holding the top part and the other hand, the bottom, and you twist it in opposite directions.
the name rambutan also comes from a malay word 'rambut', meaning hair.
the other day, i was at sheng siong supermarket and they had both types of fruit on sale. the rambutans were going at $3.00 for 2 kilos and the pulasans were sold at $5.00 for two kilos. what is the implication? that rambutans are more plentiful whereas pulasans are harder to come by? that pulasans are better and preferred to rambutans?
the flesh of the two looks alike and the taste is not much different. some say the pulasan is generally sweeter. it is not true that the flesh of the pulasan does not stick to the seed. the one i had had bits sticking onto the seed (see below). the 'tood hood' rambutan does not stick to the seed. the difference is that you can eat the seed of the pulasan is edible. according to my friend, it tastes a bit like coconut.
chun see should have followed up the durian quiz with one on rambutan. the red and yellow rambutans are all over the place. to get the picture of the fruit for this blog, i punggol (hurled a stick) at a rambutan tree at the end of kampong chantek road.
the branches of the rambutan trees tend to give way quite easily. i remember, as a boy, i climbed a rambutan tree along chancery lane and found myself dangling a few metres from the ground because the lower branch, on which i had stood, had given way. i cannot remember how i eventually got back to solid ground but i believe i was not badly hurt in this incident.
i have yet to see a full-grown pulasan tree in singapore, much less climb one.
picture from national archives of singapore
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.
