s'pore's latest attraction - the marina barrage

finally got to where we wanted to go today. last week, instead of the barrage, we ended up the singapore flyer where we could just look at the barrage in the distance across the water. today, the four of us, all former monk's hill secondary teachers, made it to the actual site.

we drove there and parking is free, with ample parking space at marina south. if you take the train to the marina bay mrt station, you can hop onto the free shuttle bus which runs at half-hour intervals.

when you are there, there is a lot of space to move around. there is the green roof, a central courtyard and the largest solar park in singapore. after walking the 350m barrage bridge, you should visit the sustainable singapore gallery on the 2nd level.

one of the galleries that you should not miss is the one with a model of the barrage. you will be able to watch the demonstrations on how the crest gates are lowered and how the water gushes into the sea and also see how the pumps work when the tide is high.

plovers at upper peirce reservoir

my morning walk took me to upper peirce reservoir park. this is one of the less accessible parks, if you do not drive, and so there are not many visitors. but, it is one of the best places if you want to enjoy peace and tranquility.

as i walked on the embankment at the edge of the island country club's golf course, i came upon a flock of plovers. i guess they must be plovers because i have seen replicas of them at the sungei buloh wetland reserve's display area.

these plovers are smaller in size than the masked plovers i met at the upper seletar reservoir park.

the reservoir is teeming with fish. saw a number of schools (maybe, should say 'classes' because the number was not that big) of fish. there were two types but i was not able to identify them. one group appeared to look like the dwarf snakehead and the other looked like tilapia.

most number of coupons displayed

what is the most number of parking coupons you have seen displayed on the dashboard of a parked vehicle? what is the greatest total value of the parking coupons which you have seen displayed?

this truck parked outside the sri murugan (on the) hill temple along upper bukit timah road had on display twenty $2 parking coupons. that is forty dollars in total value for parking the vehicle in an open car-park lot for five days. good thing for him, it is free parking after 5.00 p.m. and on sunday, it is totally free.

he could have parked at certain places further away for free, and that would have saved him forty dollars.

popiah party

ivy and ida,

auntie helen and uncle victor samuel joined us for a popiah lunch/party today. in spite of our bad experience with hup kiat at havelock food centre, your mother still went there to buy the plain popiah skin from the stall as she was on her way for a medical appointment at singapore general hospital.

for the main filling, we used shredded strips of turnip, carrot and french bean. the shredded stuff was first sauteed, before being transferred into a slow-cooker and stewed for many hours. the rest of the filling included bean sprouts, thinly sliced chinese sausages, prawns, groundnuts and lettuce. we spread sweet sauce and ground chilli on the skin, to form the base.

your mother bought one kati (less than a kilogram; 0.625kg) of plain popiah skin for $10.60 from the stall. another place we go to for popiah skin is kway guan huat at 95 joo chiat road. yet another place where we sometimes go to get the skin is at jalan satu, near to the kallang old airport food centre.

to make our own popiah, we first spread the sweet sauce and chilli paste to form the base. next, we layer it with lettuce before putting the filling, followed by the rest of the ingredients - prawns, sausages, bean sprouts and the groundnuts bits.

we start by folding the two sides and then the side nearer to you. roll it and tuck the rest in neatly into a tight and compact wrap.

anyway, there is more than one way to wrap a popiah. the important thing is not to squeeze too much into it otherwise the skin may burst. some people place the lettuce leaf right at the base and the spread the chilli and sweet sauce on the leaf. the rest of the ingredients then follow.

gathering of ttc campers and instructors

two camp instructors - clarence lim and sng thai soon - who have not met each other since the 70s.

amateur magician (mr magic) lim kay heng entertaining the crowd. he always has something up his sleeve; performing his magic anywhere and everywhere.

natahar bava (former national rugby coach) relating his meeting with gerry de silva (one of the camp instructors) in perth.

combined age of these four former physical education lecturers (tan eng yoon, lau teng chuan, yap boon chuan and tan hwee hock) - around 320 years. i meet tan hwee hock regularly at bukit batok nature park.


last night, a gathering of campers, instructors and physical education lecturers from the 60s and 70s was held at the moe recreation club at evans road.

some well-known sports personalities from the past were there. they include kunalan, natahar bava, lau teng chuan, tan hwee hock and tan eng yoon.

apart from drinking and eating, included in the planned programme were a magic show, speeches, slide presentations of the old days and the present and crooning of oldies like ramona, bye bye love and the young ones - someone quipped that it should be called 'the young once' - by some of those present. music and accompaniment was provided by the band from seletar country club.

the presentation of the black and white photographs brought back memories of those 'you can do it' days.

the activity that i had found most challenging at the camp was canoeing. actually, it should be termed 'sampaning'. instead of the fibre-glass canoes, we used wooden sampans for our canoeing activities.

when you were a first-time canoeist and the boat, out in the sea, did not seem to go in the direction you wanted it to go, it could be really trying. your arms were as heavy as lead and whatever energy you had (from the hurried lunch) all expended, it was very tempting to just throw in the paddles (towel) and just quit.

somehow, the camp spirit pushed you on and at the end of it, you learn more about your own physical and mental strengths.

you can read more about it in the old wise owl's blog.