old taxi stand quiz

a number of these taxi stands, which have apparently outlived their usefulness are still around. i wonder why taxi stands like this one seem to have been accorded conservation status. the one at sembawang hills estate, which chun see blogged about, is still around although you hardly see any taxi near the stand.

some taxi stands have been relocated but they still retain their original names just like some schools today. for example, do not expect to find tanglin secondary school (its former name is tanglin technical school) anywhere near tanglin. it is at west coast road. likewise, beach road taxi service operates from ang mo kio and not beach road.

there are around nine such taxi stands found in different locations in singapore. today, with large taxi companies having their own communication network, i thought all these radio taxi services would have become obsolete but they are still in operation. or are they?

where is the taxi stand shown in the picture above?

the top tourist attraction among s'poreans?

even if you do not understand the language, you will know that this sign is pointing to some tourist attraction. a brown signboard with white lettering is an internationally recognised tourist sign.

so, in singapore, which tourist attraction/spot is most popular with local men - both married and unmarried - and some foreign ones, especially those from across the causeway? some of them go there surreptitiously, without the knowledge of their wives and family members. i suppose some women do visit this place. i do not have the kind of money to visit such a place.

i believe the place gets crowded on fridays and weekends.

where is this place ? most of the people who go to this place are repeat visitors.

scroll down for the answer

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sorry, hor, not geylang. geylang has red letters (numbers) on white signboard

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it is the singapore turf club!

what was the cinema that was here?

the cinema that used to be here was known by two different names at different period of time. the cinema was still around until the mid 90s. i cannot disclose the location otherwise it will be too easy to find the answer (by googling).

where are these one-storey houses?

these single-storey terrace houses should really be classified as one-and-a-half storey houses because the rooms are raised above ground level. i was attracted to these houses by the decorative motifs and the out-of-the-ordinary structure of the building, including the edge of the roof.

i believe this row of houses, together with some other houses, was featured in yesterday.sg two years ago.

quiz questions:

1 what is the address of this row of houses?

2 why was it built this way - with the living area raised above the ground?

registration of bicycles

i came across this bicycle with a registration plate outside 7th mile bukit timah food centre. it is indeed rare to see a bicycle with a registration plate on our road. with the recent spate of bicycle thefts, some people have been clamouring for the re-introduction of mandatory registration of bicycles.

this was the ministry of transport response:

as to whether we should re-introduce mandatory registration of bicycles, the ministry of transport is of the view that such a move would not only be regressive but unnecessarily subject bicycle owners to onerous requirements. bicycles have been exempted from registration requirements since 1982 as they are increasingly used for recreational purposes rather than as a mode of transport. developed countries like uk, japan, usa, eu countries, australia and new zealand also do not require bicycles to be registered.

developed countries like those mentioned also have many cases of stolen bicycles?



quiz question:


when the british were around, registration was compulsory. however, the bicycle number plate did not have the word 'singapore'. what were the letters that preceded the number on the plate?

'before hdb made its presence here' quiz
answers

the two photographs in the last quiz showed changi village in the late 60s. they were sent to me by the brother of my guest blogger, mdm ow.

among the many photographs of changi he sent me were also these three. one showed two unidentified caucasians at a roadside stall. the second picture showed the changi yacht club and the changi beach club. the third picture was an aerial view of changi in the early 70s.

john (jollygreen), peter and icemoon gave the right answers. victor, using the method adopted by some beauty queen, managed to answer correctly.

before the hdb made its presence here

this is one part of s'pore which holds fond memories for a number of bloggers. today, like almost everywhere else in singapore, most of the buildings and structures you see in the two photos have been replaced by hdb blocks of flats. the types of cars you see in the first photo will give you some clues to its location.

i am sure peter and chun see will have no problem identifying this place. cityboy victor may have been to this place when he was a schoolboy. some of the stalls that you see in the first photo may have been relocated to the shops in this area.



1 where is this place?


2 in which year (decade) was this photo taken?

what used to be here?

in the second photo, bounded by the four lamp-posts was a structure. what was the structure that used to occupy this irregular patch. i do not think it was octagonal in shape (like this).

where is this campus?

when i first saw this banner, i did a double check to see if the word 'singapore' appeared anywhere on it. even then, i find it misleading. however, if you can read mandarin, which i cannot, then you will know that it is associated with a university in the united states of america.

quiz question: where, in singapore, is this campus?

pictorial answers to 'who was wallace'?

1 where is the wallace education centre located?

what is full name of this place?

who was wallace?

alfred russel wallace, naturalist

where are the two designated car-parks?

junction upper bukit timah road and dairy farm road

near petir road and dairy farm road junction

who was wallace?

this morning, while on my morning nature walk, i came across this sign-post. this should give you an idea where i walked this morning. i thought: wow, this is my chance to pose a question where the answer cannot be googled. my googling friend had posted this comment in my blog: "YG, you should come up with quizes which are not "googleable".

this is a brand-new place, surely nobody will have blogged or mentioned it on the internet. however, this was not to be. when i typed in the search-box "wallace education centre", not only was the location mentioned, there was also a picture of the place.

anyway, i have decided to go ahead with the quiz because through it, readers will come to know more about this place which is due to be opened anytime soon. i have blogged about this place more than once.

QUIZ QUESTIONS:

1 where is the wallace education centre located?

2 what's the full name of this place?

2 who was wallace?

3 if you are driving, where are the two designated car parks?

what do the letters bws stand for?

in australia and new zealand, the term "byo" (bring your 0wn) emerged to describe establishments that had special liquor licences allowing guests to bring their own bottle of wine. it is believed that restaurants in melbourne, in the state of victoria, were advertising as "byo" establishments by the 1960s, with the concept becoming popular in new zealand in the late 1970s.

in other parts of the world, corkage is a practice of restaurants where guest are allowed to bring their own bottles by paying a small charge to the restaurant. (from wikipedia)

when i was in australia recently, i came across a number of establishments advertising 'bws'. what do these 3 letters stand for?

sorry, phil (of sydney), you are barred from taking part in this quiz.

where can you find this structure?

my blogger friend posted an old gate, and apparently it generated a lot of interest (responses). so, i have decided to show an old structure found in a disused place for this quiz. it is definitely older than the old gate. actually, this structure also has a gate, albeit, a small one.

i will pose the same kind of questions.

1 what is this structure?

2 where is it found? name the nearest road.

2 name one landmark very near to it.

clues: it is not in some ulu corner of singapore. in fact, it is in one of the oldest, if not the oldest, residential districts in singapore.

you may not have seen or noticed it but i came across a photograph of the same structure in some foreign traveller's blog. it goes to show that some tourists know more of the history of singapore than our own people.

is this the ntuc outlet in the video?

Wah, this must be the other extreme - hundreds of photos but only one quiz question?

acting on the complaint from my friend, this morning, i decided to change my routine. instead of walking at rural kranji or sembawang, i took the bus to a built-up area so that i could take the above photograph and add one more question to the one posed earlier here.

you may have seen this ntuc fairprice outlet. it looks similar to the one featured in the video clip 'things so singaporean'. however, there are some differences. can you spot them?

question: where is this ntuc fairprice outlet?

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 is this huge urn used for?

the other day, while we were exploring the chinatown area in singapore, one of my fellow explorers excited called out to me: "come here and see this! do you know what this huge urn is used for?"

the gigantic urn was raised and resting on four pieces of bricks. it had a cover which could be slid open.

i do not if the chinese characters on the side of the urn will give the answer away.

answer to the quiz:

as victor has correctly guessed the answer, i have posted a picture of the inside of the urn. it was used by the restaurant for preparing soup in the small pots. the shop where we came across this urn or jar is called the old shanghai.

one tree hill at bukit panjang

what you see in the above picture is some new development taking place at bukit panjang new town. this area bounded by senja way and senja road will be called senja green. the housing and development board (hdb) is building 474 new flats in this area. in addition, some 300 rental flats will be built in the vicinity, nearer to woodlands road.

the new flats will be close to the 10th mile junction shopping complex, senja light rail transit (lrt) station and two schools - westview primary and westview secondary.

earthwork has started. they have almost completed hoarding up the work-site and the vegetation has been cleared almost totally, save for the tree you see in the picture. this used to be a semi-forested (secondary forest) area.

quiz question: why did they leave this tree alone?

is it a heritage tree?

is it a tree that was planted by the town mayor?

is there a plan to build a road circus around the tree?

can you think of any plausible explanation? (what is the reason?)

maybe the spi (s'pore paranormal investigators) might be interested to find out if there is a spirit residing in this tree. that's why the workers dare not 'touch' it?

maybe there is something else on this tree that is stopping them for cutting it down at this stage.

maybe they want to have a 'one tree hill' in bukit panjang.

i am going to be a copycat (not plagiarist) - to copy mr philip chew and mr victor koo, i will provide the answer in one week's time (by which time i will be in melbourne, victoria, australia).

what are they building in the canal?

this construction has kept me wondering. what are they building in the canal and what is its purpose?

looking at the pictures, can you guess the purpose of this structure across the bed of the canal.

the level of the water in this canal is not directly affected by the tides. most of the time the water flows along a shallow channel in the middle of the canal (the darker patch in the 1st and 3rd pictures). the water level goes up only after some continual rain or a heavy downpour.

before they started construction on this, i was not aware that there are fishes (of two different species) of about 12cm long in the water of the canal. it was only when the water was held back slightly and its level rose that i noticed the fish.

since chun see has answered the question on behalf of victor, i am showing the photo of the net that they secured to one of the outlets. over the weekend, the net has been filled to capacity.

did they build this so that the fish can have a race, taking up position behind the 12 holes, when the water level is high?


in these hard times, to make it easier for poor people like me to catch the fish?


to trap the flotsam and jetsam that is making its way to the sea along this canal?


to make the canal look a little bit aesthetically pleasing?

maybe you can think of other reasons for the building of this structure.

name the restaurant that was in this building

there used to be a popular chinese/cantonese restaurant in this building. i ate there once or twice. i remember the old fashioned lift with a collapsible gate. i think the restaurant was then on the second or third floor.

(1) what was the name of the restaurant?

(2) where is its present location?

(3) what was the dish that it claimed to have 'invented' in 1964?

(4) who were the four culinary kings of singapore?

what fruit is this?

flower and fruit of the monkey apple

resembling a small soursop, this fruit is native to south america. it is grown as a roadside tree along certain 'lanes' in lim chu kang. even the flower of the fruit and the seeds resemble those of the soursop.

unlike the soursop, however, the fruit changes from green, before it matures, to yellow when it is ripe.

if you want to know more about this fruit, check out this website.

this is called the monkey apple or pond apple. in some places, it is called the alligator apple.

a recent study suggests that its alcoholic seed extract contains anticancer compounds that could be used pharmaceutically.

on a related topic, someone sent me this about the cure for cancer.

as i have already given you the name of the first fruit, now it is for you to guess the name of the second fruit. what is this fruit (in the picture directly above)? clue (especially helpful to icemoon): it is not a nutmeg. may be another picture may help.