beijing olympics opening ceremony

for those who missed the spectacular opening ceremony held on 8 aug 2008

shine for singapore - ndp08 theme song

my friend kannan (101)is featured in this video clip, delivering newsapers and participating in the vertical run.

singapore has made it!

thanks to feng tianwei, we have finally made it to the list of prize winners in the olympic games again, after 48 years.

roadside fruit trees of lim chu kang (2)

the tall meninjau trees are found mostly along the sides of lim chu kang lane 8. on the female meninjau tree, when the fruit first appear, they are green. then they turn yellow and eventually red, when they are ripe. the male meninjau trees do not produce fruit. the indonesian emping, which we call belinjau, is made from the fruit of this tree.


the monkey/velvet apple trees are found along lim chu kang lane 6. my friend once asked me if the fruit was edible. i told him that the ava would not plant something if the produce was inedible. it is just that the people here are not familiar with the fruit so they do not go for it like, the way they go for langsat, mangosteen and soursop.

the abiu trees are found growing along neo tiew lane 3, the road that leads to the golf course in kranji. the abiu is a smooth, brilliant yellow fruit with sweet translucent flesh. its delicious flavour is reminiscent of crème caramel and it is sometimes used to flavour ice cream and make other desserts. the taste of the fruit is a cross between a mango and a persimmon.

the egg fruit is not the same as the egg plant. the fruit is yellowish to orange with somewhat meaty pulp similar in appearance and texture to a cooked egg yolk embedded often with a single large seed. at maturity, the strong odour of the pulp is musky and the skin colour turns from glossy to dull. there are many such trees with fruit along lim chu kang lane 2, the road where the fire flies health farm is located.


this rambai tree looks very much like the langsat tree and the fruit also can be mistaken for langsat but it does not belong to the same family. like langsat, the fruit hang from the branches and trunk of the tree. there are two rows of rambai trees, one on each side, along lim chu kang lane 3, where it joins with lane 5.

the novena church

( my kampong neighbour cheng and i posing at novena in 1965)

although, for thirty years, i lived a stone throw from the novena church along thomson road, there was only one time when i ventured inside the church building. that was when, as a curious teenager, i accompanied a catholic friend to observe a service in progress. i have also been aware that in the past, the congregations were largest on friday evenings and on saturdays.

before the row of terrace houses along jalan novena terrace were built, there was a short-cut from my kampong to thomson road. it was a path that was not well used because the owner of the house by the path did not seem pleased to have their privacy intruded. we would not and could not use the path at night because there was no lighting at all.

as a young boy, there was one incident that made me realise how tolerant the traditional chinese were of other religions and that they would worship many gods. one day, as my mother and i walked past the novena church, she turned and faced the church and putting her two palms together, she prayed. i asked her why she did that and her reply was: the 'western god' is more powerful than our 'oriental gods'.

the area around the church has undergone very much change but the facade of the church has remained unchanged over the years. the seventh-day adventist school across the road has also remained quite intact but that building was built later. i think the novena church had already been there before we moved into the kampong.

i did not know that it is called the church of st alphonsus. all along, i have referred to it as the novena. it is so well-known that roads, buildings and the mrt station in the vicinity take after its name.