have you heard of st luke's church?

the church (chapel) was opened in 1928. the first priest was rev. r richards who served from 1928 until easter 1934. mrs mary mcgregor was the instructor from 1928 until her death in 1932. there is a plaque in her memory affixed to the south wall of the church.

st luke's church served as a chapel for traflagar hospital (formerly trafalgar home). anglican and protestant patients from the hospital worshipped at st luke's and so did former patients who lived in the neighbourhood.

bilingual services (hokkien and english) were held on sundays at 11 a.m. after the service, the blessed sacrament was taken to patients in the hospital who were unable to attend church. an evening service in hokkien was held on alternate wednesdays.

some of the church members who lived in a kampong off jalan kayu where there was no bus service. holy communion was celebrated in one of the member's house in the afternoon of the second sunday of each month.

information obtained from the diocesan digest, diocese of singapore

can you read the words on a small plate just above the door? it's 'om sai ram'.

buying direct from factory outlets

in tuesday's straits times, there was a feature report about food factories at woodlands drawing more customers during these hard times because of the lower prices. actually, those who live or work in woodlands and those who know about these bargains have been patronising these food factories at woodlands terrace, woodlands link and woodlands loop since 2005. most have started sourcing for bargains at the woodlands loop factory outlets even before that.

i have been buying ice-cream from foodedge gourmet located at woodlands terrace. they even have a mailing list and will keep you informed of special offers, which are usually available towards the end of each month.

fassler is the place to go to if you want to buy salmon and other imported fish. the cold room is so cold that they provide jackets for their customers.

we have been buying fishballs from housen seafood enterprise at level 1 block 15 even earlier, before 2005. then the plain fishballs were priced at 10 cents each and the fishballs with bits of vegetables and other meat were going for 20 cents each. they also sell uncooked fishballs and a variety of fish cakes. over the years, they have added other items like fried chicken wings, fried wanton and ngoh hiang. the fishballs and fish cakes are on sale after 4.00 p.m. they are not open on sundays.

if you want to buy breakfast snacks like carrot cake (the whole piece type), soon kueh and other kuehs, you have to go to block 15 in the later part of the evening, say between 7.00 p.m. and 8.00 p.m. to get them.

another outlet that we often go to buy foodstuff is j&c food industrial on level 3 of the same building (block 15). i go there to buy cakes, cream puffs and sometimes, pineapple tarts. i like their chocolate, butter and banana cakes. they used to charge 35 cents a piece. today, it is $4.00 for a box of ten pieces.

also on level 3 is janur food industry where i went once with my former colleague to buy halal satay. there are at least two outlets selling pork satay on the other levels. both the halal and non-halal satays are priced at about 25 cents a stick.

i usually go to fragrance just before the lunar new year to buy 'bak kwa' and other tit-bits. my friend goes to cecilia minced and dried pork food trading on level 2 at block 15 to buy the same stuff - bak kwa.

there are a few other factories along the same stretch of road that welcome walk-in customers, like the two above. over at woodlands link, which is parallel to woodlands terrace, you can buy fresh pastries from polar. there is also one food factory at the end of this road where i sometimes go to buy otah and chinese-style nasi lemak.

another place which we go to to buy from the food factories is located at bedok north avenue 4. it is called the gourmet east kitchen. i think this place is popular with people who live in the eastern part of singapore. we go there to buy chee cheong fun, chwee kueh, yam cake and pumpkin cake. i have blogged about the chee cheong fun here. my friend, nah, gets his kueh pie tee shells from red lips at gourmet east kitchen.

yet another place we go to to get foodstuff at bargain prices is ben's food at fishery port. it is open on saturdays for two hours only. across the road from ben's is song fish dealer where we buy our frozen cod fish in cube sizes and other seafood products.

i missed the chariot procession

i walk past the murugan on the hill temple every day. one day, i saw a notice announcing the chariot procession. it had a schedule, starting at 6.00 p.m. from the heavy vehicle car-park at upper bukit timah road. the procession would take the lighted chariot to bukit panjang, choa chu kang and finally ending at bukit batok.

when i reached the temple at 5.15 p.m. that evening, the chariot was sitting in front of the temple and the crowd which had been there that morning was missing. a few stalls that were around in the morning had also been dismantled. even the seat where the barber was shaving male devotees bald was vacant. i realised then that i must have missed something.

i asked the people who were still around and they told me that the procession was held on 7 april. the banner outside the temple had it as 8 april.

that morning, i had seen quite a number of male devotees shaved bald, with ashes on their bald head and wearing saffron dhoti. there were also a number of women devotees clad in saffron clothes. there were a few stalls set up outside the temple. thinking that the main event would be held that evening, i did not linger to take photographs although i did take one of the bathing point.



the chariot procession held by the sri murugan on the hill temple was in fact a mini thaipusam because there were some devotees who carried the kavadis. i saw at least one kavadi at the heavy vehicle car-park just next to the temple.

when i was living at towner road, i have seen the lighted chariot coming around to the estate one evening. it was a very attractive sight. the chariot would stop at certain points and the devotees would make offerings to the gods.

there is a very good account of a chariot procession in this post by another blogger.

1st shot, 2nd mis-shot

i am a long shot from doing a proper second shot. i need to take some lessons from the 2ndshot specialist.

anyway, the first photo was taken about two years ago when i first stumbled upon this disused building while walking around the dairy farm area.

the second shot was taken yesterday. it shows the visitors' centre of the soon-to-be-opened dairy farm nature park.

the development of the dairy farm nature park is meant to draw some of the crowds from the bukit timah nature reserve which is finding it difficult to cope with the number of visitors, especially those with cars, on weekends.

there are two wells that came with the disused buildings and they have been left more or less in tact.

there are two car-parks for visitors to the dairy farm nature reserve. one is at the junction of dairy farm road and upper bukit timah road. the other, a bigger car-park with toilet facilities, is just before the junction of dairy farm road and petir road, if you are coming from the bukit timah expressway (bke).

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