Hit & Run

It was a routine morning for me today.

Peeled myself off my bed and rushed my son to school.

As usual, we always arrive at the school gate just a few minutes shy of the 7:20am cut-off point.

Anyone who arrives after 7:20am will be ushered to a "sleepy heads" corner and listen to what the discipline master has to say.

3 strikes and the bigger sleepy head within the family will need to join junior sleepy head in school to listen in to his discipline master.

So far I've been good and there were no incidents.

As I was walking back home, Resident Anne told me that she saw a car being rear-ended along Kim Pong Road by a Malaysian lorry earlier in the morning at about 7:15am.

She thinks the driver was stopping there to grab a bite at the stalls along Kim Tian Road but sped of when he realised he hit a car.

It happened so fast that she could not record down the number nor take a picture. (Probably too shocked to react)

So if you are reading this and you actually witnessed the accident, please volunteer the information to the poor car owner. (You can post it here or email it to me)

The car owner probably went from sleepy head to disbelief within 3 seconds and another 5 seconds to turn that disbelief into anger.

Illegal advertisers - Think Twice or Thrice before you paste it here!

Finally the media is reporting about those pesky illegal, low class and unsightly advertisements that could be found all over Singapore.

Believe me, you can even find them in supposedly upper class enclave in River Valley!

(I wonder if people driving their Lamborghini around D09 or D10 would stop by a lamp post to see if they can find their next property there)

Anyway, Tiong Bahru has always been plagued by such advertisements and the most recent one was the most "cheapo" one I've seen.

The advertisement was scribbled onto a Singapore Pool's 4D betting slip and pasted all over Block 78, 79 and 80.

Have fun reading the following article. The enforcement agency should be "commended" for issuing so many warnings in 2009.
They were probably sleeping in 2008 and thus look as if they had done a great job last year...but it is a good start nevertheless, so I better not complain so much :-)

______________________________________________

Warnings issued for illegal ads pasted on street infrastructure rise
By Ng Lian Cheong/Hetty Musfirah, Channel NewsAsia
Posted: 12 January 2010 2132 hrs

SINGAPORE : The number of warnings issued for advertisements pasted illegally on street infrastructure went up by more than 10 times last year.

Sixty hundred and thirty-four warnings were issued, compared to just 56 in 2008. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is hoping a paint job will do the trick in curbing the sticky problem.

The columns of a linkway leading to Jurong East MRT station are the first to be painted with what LTA calls "anti-stick paint". Pasting anything using super-glue or even double-sided tape will not work on these columns.

It is part of a trial launched last July. LTA said the anti-stick paint was specially blended and improved based on its requirements. The trial cost about S$4,500.

The LTA said it has proven successful so far. In the last six months, all the columns were free of advertisements.

The project will be extended over a larger area to assess its cost effectiveness and public feedback before being implemented islandwide. Among the locations selected for the more extensive pilot trial are along Geylang Road and Sims Avenue.

With the new paint job on the Jurong East linkway, LTA said it can save about S$5,000 yearly in clean-up efforts.

The number of people who were fined for putting up such illegal advertisement also increased last year. Two hundred and one people were fined in 2008, but in 2009, the figure stood at over 450. First-time offenders were fined S$300 each. - CNA/ms

Notice Board

It has been ages since I looked at the notice boards that are all around the Tiong Bahru Estate.

There is actually useful information for residents to find out about what's going on in the community.

You may want to check out this course on photography fundamentals which will be held on the 17th this month :

Click on the image to enlarge it and contact Barnie if you are keen to join in.

There is also a night shoot on the 31st as well as a Heritage Walkabout on the 7th of February.

Please call the organiser if you are keen to join in.

Before walking away from the notice board, I cannot help but notice that there was a CONFIDENTIAL document that was posted there with all the Resident Committee Volunteer's name, complete with their home addresses.

I've blacked-out the addresses as I think that is really too "CONFIDENTIAL" to be posted here.

Must the addresses be published for everyone to see? 

This may actually deter many from "volunteering" their services.

What do you think?

Notice : Lost Dog

Coded Messages

Comic from Sunday Times, Life Section, 6th December 2009 by Lee Chee Chew, creator of the comics strip CHEW ON IT.

I don't want to get into trouble for sprouting nonsense but I think most of you out there will know what I'm driving at here with this comic strip.

Let's make our WORLD the most beautiful HOME.

If you are living in Singapore, you couldn't have missed this song on the TV or the Radio...(and now on the internet).

When I first watched it, I was more interested in the old footages of Singapore and the lyrics and melody was rather forgettable.

It was the image of the lady at 0:14 who swept all the litters down her flat that was etched in my mind.

“Are we allowed to do that? That will save us a lot of time!” I told my better half.

“Hello! That is not the message of the campaign!” my wife said to me.

Anyway, since I kept hearing the song whilst driving around and during my jogging session, that song somehow got embedded into my mind.

So I finally went looking for that song this morning!
(Did someone put in something subliminal there?)

Singapore has indeed come a long way from the days where drains were perceived to be the designated garbage bin.

Admittedly, there are still room for improvements but if we remain committed to the Clean and Green campaign long enough, we will get to a “heaven- like” environment, just like what the song mentioned in 0:23.

A Today reader, Ronald Chan, was also delighted with this song and it prompted him to write a letter in the Today Online Forum section.

While he loves the rapid changes, he also questioned if all these changes were at the expense of something else.

Ronald said: “Change is perfectly fine. In fact, we should all be worried if Singapore hasn't changed since independence. But sometimes, I wonder if we are seeking change for the sake of change.”

Yeah, are we changing for the sake of changing?

I guess not everyone can agree on this because what is important to some of us may mean nothing to others.

Frankly, I don’t really care about the Talentime that he mentioned coz I prefer American Idol anytime as it is far more entertaining…. but my dad may disagree.

But for something like the current debate about the Singapore Wet Market, I hope that will continue to be RELEVANT for a few more generations to come.

The future generations can decide if the supermarket is a better option over the wet ones.

Meanwhile, just leave the good and efficiently run wet markets alone and revamp the substandard ones.

I cannot imagine a Tiong Bahru without the Tiong Bahru Market….but I think that might be a possibility in say 2059 AD...and it might be renamed Tiong Bahru Super Market.

It should not have happened here!

This morning, as I was driving back home after dropping my daughter off her school, I noticed an ambulance that stopped next to block 33 Lim Liak Street.
(By the way, seeing ambulances here in Tiong Bahru is nothing unusual as most elderly residents seemed to get to the hospital via one and so I thought nothing about it.)

This time around it seemed a bit different.

First, there was a small crowd and I was stopped by a medic so that they can push their equipments across Lim Liak Street.

As I drove past the crowd, I saw blood stains on someone who is seated on a kerb in between two vehicles!

“Hah?! Road accident along this stretch of road?” I thought to myself.

“Couldn’t be serious and the blood was probably from an abrasion”.

Anyway, I parked my car and walked back to “kay poh”(busybody).

The first thing that caught my eye was the circular shaped dent on the wind screen of the white car.

“Oh no! Head injuries! I hope that girl is alright!”

She is conscious and her head was bandaged, but with head injuries, you can never be too sure.

Let’s all pray for her and wish her a speedy and full recovery.

As I was walking back home, I was thinking to myself how did that kind of accident ever happened here.

Lim Liak Street is not an expressway and all drivers should exercise caution when they drive around this estate.

The following are some possible reasons why they (me included) should slow down:

1) Residents can dart across the road without looking.

2) Bicycles and motorbikes will ride in the wrong directions.

3) Sometimes, cars will move in the wrong direction as well.

4) Cars will stop suddenly without warnings.
     (This is very rampant along Seng Poh Road)

5) Car doors will swing open suddenly.

6) Car will also turn where they are not supposed to turn or emerge from places where you least expected (The junction along Seng Poh Road and Eng Watt Street is one such place)

7) Not every driver remembers their highway code and they drive in a very unpredictable way.

If everyone play their part, (PEDESTRIANS included), then such accidents should never ever happen.

Let’s go for ZERO accidents.