SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

Of late, I have developed an affinity with the natural attractions of Singapore, visiting the Southern Ridges and the Treetop walk in Macritchie Reserves both within a span of one month. I am not sure whether this affinity arose due to the need to seek solace from the increasing stress in the society, which was made even worse by the current economic crisis or it just developed naturally. Since young, I have always like the beaches: East Coast Park, Changi Beach and Pasir Ris Park, all situated in the east. Living in the east of this island, these are green perks, which residents in other areas would only envy. After every visit to the parks and natural attractions, I feel refreshed and rejuvenated, ready enough to face the onslaught of the challenges of the coming weeks. The NParks Guide offers a list and description of all the natural parks and attractions in Singapore. Looking at the guide, I felt ashamed as well as happy: ashamed for not knowing and visiting the so many different

I hate to meet egoistic and arrogant people who will treat you as though you are invisible whenever they bump into you, reason being they believe they are very ‘high’, for being successful in business or careers, or they are part of a group of Singaporeans who lead charmed lives being automatically promoted rapidly and fast within certain organizations, though they have nothing much to show. I hope they will learn a lesson of humility, I abhor these arrogant people.

I love the answer ‘Unbelievable’ whenever someone seeks your opinions on certain matters and you would like to give an ambiguous answer. ‘Unbelievable’ could mean ‘Unbelievably Good’ or ‘Unbelievably Bad’.

(Part 2) As I made my way down the tree top walk, I surmounted what seemed to be endless flights of stairs. Stairs after stairs, my usually strong legs slowly gave way to weariness. The descent proved equally or more tiring than the ascent to the tree top walk. And the terrain and slope were not particularly helpful too. Concrete gave way to mud, which gave way to gravel. The bends and turns of the road seemed never-ending, at this juncture, I could hear some complaints from trekkers nearby that they regret coming to trek here. Personally, I find that if the navigation course through the forests was smooth-sailing, then it would defeat the purpose of coming to trek! Ruggedness, sweat and discomfort are the hallmarks of such treks. I was perspiring profusely, and at times panting as my strides were fast among the undergrowths. I was inevitably exhausted from the trekking at times, and it could get lonely at times doing solo, and it was scary at times, witnessing how large trees had fal

Today is Deepavali, a public holiday, which comes after the weekends, granting Singaporeans a long weekend, as we normally term it, to rest. But I find Singaporeans should not rest home too long else boredom will set in, though in this economic gloom, more Singaporeans may be staying put at home to reduce their expenditures. When it comes to public holidays, the Istana and the museums are open free to Singaporeans (Open house), but more or less these are the places I have visited before. The adventurous streak in me struck and I decided to spend a day in touch with nature, to tame the forests and walk the HSBC Tree Top Walk in Macritchie Reservoir....solo. I was ashamed of myself as here the tree top bridge was: open since the 5 Nov 2004 by MP Lim Hwee Hwa and 4 years have passed and I have not even gone to take a walk! With must gusto and without further ado, I commenced on my plan for this fun expedition. And there I got the travelling information from my beloved SBS transit website

Meclancholy sets in today for me. The economic crisis does have some impact on me, but there are also some little problems here and there in my life that needs a little tweaking. Life is not a bed of rose, and in this difficult time, one may feel slightly gloomier. Read on the newspaper yesterday, on a graduation ceremony of West Coast University (WCU) which was graced by MP for Joo Chiat constituency, Mr Chan Soo Sen. Mr Chan Soo Sen explained in the newspapers that he was not aware that WCU was not an accreditted university and he had responded to this invitation via a GRL. I pity those graduands from WCU who might not be aware that it was not really accredited. Imagine spending some thousands of dollars and efforts to obtain a certificate from a university deemed to be not worthy of recognition. Worse still, now that it was reported in the newspapers, a joyous graduation for the graduates of WCU may become the beginning of the reckoning of the true worth of their certificate.

I travel quite widely.... but within Singapore. Happening to be in Bugis on Friday 24 Oct 08, I decided to visit the National Library and spent some time there. There are quite a number of exhibitions taking place in the library: Level 7: Singapore Travelling Exhibition Level 8: EPSON and Nikon Photo exhibition Level 9: Writers' Fair I may be the first Singaporean to visit this Writers' Fair as the organizers were in the midst of setting up the exhibits and booths when I was there. Level 10: Singapore Street exhibition One may think that I have a most eventful day visiting the different exhibits but the whole library staff has a retreat that evening thus all the exhibits were closed... I visited the exhibitions on the outside only. What a pity!

Part 7: Hort Park Our last stop of the Southern Ridges trail is the Hort Park. This is our last stop, but not the last stop of the trail as there are still the Kent Ridge Park and the West Ridge Park for those determined to complete the whole of the Southern Ridges Trail. I have described the Hort Park as a Jewel in the whole of the Southern Ridges, and here are the whys: Generous offering of manicured and splendid gardens Beautiful murals Landscaped building with open-air cafes offering al fresho dining Wonderful, tranquil, breathtaking scenary Garden Home After a long long day, treking the different terrains of the Southern Ridges, seeing so many flora and fauna and people, it is time to relax and unwind as we laid our backs on comfortable wooden resting cubes, stretching our backs and admiring the beautiful sky that is fast fading as night fell. A popular saying is that it is the most beautiful at the moment just before night falls and to validate this saying, I captured the foll

Bugis is one of my favorite hangouts. Since the late of last year, I have been noticing a building slowly taking shape quietly amidst the hustle and bustle of the vicinity. Without a doubt, it must be a shopping centre again! or could I be wrong? I am not sure what this building will be, but I believe it may be a shopping centre to-be. If so, alongside with this shopping centre, there will be a shopping mall just besides Tampines MRT station, called Tampines One and the Ion in Orchard coming up soon (construction works already taking place quite a number of months ago). No wonder, Singapore is lauded and touted as a Shopping Paradise!

Part 6: Alexandra Arch This is the Alexandra Arch, a bridge linking the Forest Walk to the Hort Park. Alexandra Arch proves a little bit disappointing as it is just a bridge, nothing impressive, save for the design maybe. However, Alexandra Arch led my Dear and I to the Hort Park, the BEST atttraction of the Southern Ridges trail, and it is even better than Mount Faber, in my opinion. It is the Jewel of the Southern Ridges Trail! In my next post, I would be showing you why the Hort Park is this Jewel.

The story for today is short: I am Busy the whole of this week and just come back from my commitments and will not be sleeping anytime soon cos still got lots of things to do. In Life, I have lots of committments in many aspects of life, but I am always humbled by some whom I know have even many committements with heavier responsibilities in life.. they are successful in life: work, family, community,health.... and these are the exemplars of life I aspire to be. And one of my committement is blogging, one of my favorite pastimes too, thus even though I am now seriously running short of time: tomorrow got important matters to settle, here I am, still blogging some sentences here and there. Sorry, I will not be describing to you the Alexandra Arch here tonight because I am going off now.. trying to rush off some work and capping off with a major week soon.... on Saturday... haiz weekends are also busy too... ciao!

These days, my brain is overload with information and information.. till it feels so heavy. Been ten of years before since my brain feels this way. I remember some scholars told me in future the assimilation of data into man would be made via a USB transfer! Then kids do not need to spend 20 years of their life studying to get a degree... just plug the USB cable into their brain and within 20 seconds, they master 20 years of education! Sounds interesting and impossible, but with technology's phantom advance, nothing is impossible! Cloning can be already be done, what is impossible then?

Part 5: Hilltop Walk and Forest Walk After the stint at the Henderson Waves, it is just natural to proceed to the next attraction on the Southern Ridges trails.. which is the Hilltop Walk. To bear justice to its name, the Hilltop walk is really a walk down the hill not along the contours of the hill definitely, for it is suicidal to walk down the hill in such a manner! In actual, it is a descent down the hill via metallic steel bridges which zigzag down in a magnificent manner, forming a colossal art piece, carrying people, strollers and joggers amidst the natural landscape. Once you reach the equilibrium, zero degreee, you are at the starting of the Forest Walk. In fact, since the Forest Walk is also to be made via the metallic bridges seamlessly connected to those of the Hilltop Walk, for once, I thought the whole combination of both bridges is just the Hilltop Walk. But it is not, and the logic is simple, metallic bridges down the hill: Hilltop Walk, metallic bridge along the fores

There are quite a number of bridges in Singapore. Bridges, especially the historical ones have stood the annals of time. They are part of Singapore's rich cultural past and each has a story to tell. One of the most famous bridges is the Elgin Bridge in Singapore. Many Singaporeans would have passed the bridge at one point in their life before or would also have certainly seen it. It may be a shame that many Singaporeans, though knowing the bridge, may not know its name. I like Elgin Bridge because it is a beautiful bridge, spanning across the two banks of the Singapore river, and across the finanical banks of the Central Business District too. It appears not only beautiful but also strong and steady. The two weeks where Singapore hosted the F1 in September last month was also the inaugural Singapore River Festival. Elgin Bridge (see picture above) came alive at night! I believe it would be even better that in addition to the beautification of the bridges in Singapore River, for f

Part 4 : Henderson Waves As mentioned earlier in the previous related posts, the whole of the Southern Ridges trail is dotted with signages indicating the various landmarks of the trail. However for once or twice, the signages indicating to Henderson Waves from Mount Faber grow wanting, thus it becomes challenging for my Dear and I to navigate our way out of Mount Faber as the thought of whether we have chosen the correct path to take us to Henderson Waves constantly filled us. We went down a slope, where the signage 'To Telok Blangah' pointed, we passed a structure which in my opinion, might be a foreign embassy undergoing some renovation works. Going down, we saw the signage as follows: and we knew that we were on the right track. Minutes later, we were greeted by a structure: and there it was: Henderson Waves! We were at Henderson Waves finally, the first time for both of us ! The view from the Henderson Waves bridge is breathtaking as it is a bridge suspended at a great h

Part 3 :Mount Faber After conquering the Marang trail, you will reach the summit of Mount Faber, partaking in the breathtaking scenary: You will be greeted with a posh restaurant called 'The Jewel Box', whose entrance is decorated with pictures of the owner with the dignitaries and luminaries of the nation. The restaurant offers an unparalled scenary of our island, amidst a luxurious setting. Prices of the menu are not cheap, I suppose. After a relaxing stop at the summit of the little hill, let us proceed to Henderson Waves! Here is a snippet at what you would expect to see at Henderson Waves: