Yesterday afternoon, a last-minute media event was called to address the media about the precautions taken to restrict the spread of the virus. COL (Dr) Tan Peng Hui, Chairman of NDP 09 Medical Committee, shows us the considerations taken with regards to both the participants and spectators.For participants with the possibility of infection of H1N1, they are advised not to attend the rehearsals. Within the participating organisations, they monitor their own members along the guidelines of MOH policies. So, multiple levels of screening are used to identify risk groups and to isolate them.

We were then brought on a tour to see the measures taken at the grounds of the Marina Platform and the F1 Pit Building. Most importantly, thermal scanners have been put in place at key areas to ensure participants and spectators are fever-free before entering the grounds.
Here, we see the thermal scanner placed in the holding area at F1 Pit Building. From next week onwards, spectators would be involved too. When entering, each person would be screened for fever. Any fever cases would be sent to one of the 5 Medical Posts located throughout the 2 buildings.Medical personnel will be in protective gear while attending to the patients.
Patients with fever or flu-like symptoms will be isolated and thereafter, sent home.

(Let's hope this space stays empty. =D)

This systematic procedure has been put in place in light of the H1N1 situation. Apart from these steps, some additional preventive measures are introduced too.

20 washing points have been set up at various locations in the F1 Pit Building for participants to maintain proper hygiene. Disinfectant/ hand sanitisers are available in holding areas and entrances for participants to use and public hygiene messages are displayed throughout to increase awareness among the participants.Meticulous planning has brought about these measures, in light of the current H1N1 situation. The Medical Committee wishes to assure the public that the preventive measures are put in place systematically to ensure the safety of the participants and spectators.

We are impressed by the measures taken and reassured of the safety of the people involved, including us too! Participants can continue to give their best for the parade. For the spectators, do enjoy the upcoming performances and take the time to appreciate the efforts of everyone involved in this year's NDP 09!

I went for the debate finals between vjc and acjc at vjc itself. Well kudos to vj for winning =). It was a rather close fight though. Here's what the debate was all about..Topic was on whether censorship is irrelevant in this age of new media, with acjc on the proposing side and vjc opposing.

Hello.

Its another weekend of freedom. Doesn't the weather just make u feel like sitting at home with the aircon blasting 16deg high mode? Not the most eco friendly, but its rather hot. 2weeks ago, someone told me, we hit a record high of 40deg in the afternoon. Insane weather. Strangely enough, the foreigners love it. How they enjoy sweating buckets, i'l never comprehend.

I know u'v been reading the Newpaper. Headlines: Aware saga. I'm honestly appalled at the lack of professionalism in this organisation. Really rather petty.

Another tabloid story caught my attention this week: We HATE S'pore(http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,199816-1240610340,00.html). The gist of the story is that there's a facebook group(Singapore sucks!) with over 400 members simply committed to criticising Singapore and Singaporeans. I visited the group and read a forum dedicated to complaining about Singapore and Singaporeans(vent ur frustrations on Singapore and Singaporeans here!!!). The members just complain complain complain. Slightly insulting. Water on a ducks back really. But the question i asked myself was "why would someone set up a group to complain and insult our country and us?"

The main irks, i find, are over courtesy, service and restrictions. And i actually agree(although not as immaturely) that we can improve. Hence the long lived courtesy lion campaign and the cheesy "Singapore service star award" advertisement.

In fact, we are improving. Service in some restaurants and shopping centres is impeccable. I recently had dinner with my family and our friends, visiting from Switzerland, at the Palm Beach restaurant on One Fullerton. Great time, great seafood, amazing service(yes, with "Singapore service star award" all).

But every country has its plus and minuses. Why do we get the honour of having our own insulting facebook group? Please please please educate me if u understand.

Happy reading!

How bad/extreme can the weather in Singapore get besides the usual sweltering heat or torrential downpours? Afterall, we don't see typhoons or snow in our land. Well, we had a little offhand taste of what extreme weather conditions are like on a night this week. Although it's nevertheless nothing compared to what many other countries may have experienced.

The strongest winds (83 km per hour) in 9 years hit Singapore on wednesday night, wreaking veritable havoc across the island. Tress were uprooted and a construction crane was incredulously ripped into 2 with 1 part hanging precariously from a 30-storey building at Ardmore Park neighbourhood(near Shangri La Hotel). Fortunately, the crane was safely recovered and no one sustained any injuries. I suppose it is imperative that the government and their agencies have pre-emptive measures in store to prevent any avoidable mishaps from occurring especially after such unforseen events.

The National Environment Agency has said that the strong winds had been caused by a Sumatra squall. The storm developed overnight in Sumatra and the Strait of Malacca before spreading over the shores to Singapore.

Well, i'm sure anyone lucky enough to be caught outdoors late at night on wednesday would have noticed something amiss with the weather, while those under shelter and in bed were possibly oblivious to the upheaval going on outside. haha. At the time, I happened to be having some outfield activity as part of my vocation in NS.

As I was resting on the ground, an arsenal of leaves got blown down onto my face and i awoke, startled. The powerful winds had caused the structure we were looking after to go astray. Me and 2 of my army mates rushed to pull down the ropes securing the structure to prevent it from falling or breaking apart. Never before have i felt such strong winds lol. The winds partially lifted 2 of us off our feet such that we were pressed against our vehicle while holding onto the ropes with every ounce of strength we had. We braced ourselves as the wind subsided slightly only to return in full force. Haha, it was like some tv drama scene. Anyway, we survived the 'crisis' and ran to a nearby shelter to seek refuge. And to think that we were complaining earlier on in the afternoon that our location wasn't windy enough. Driving back to camp the next day, we noticed that the gantry barricade lever had been broken off and blown away to the side. Wow, haha.

I guess it was a rather interesting and memorable experience as we don't get such so called "extreme" weather conditions in singapore often. We usually have either long periods of intermittent rain or frequent showers, or frustrating periods of blistering heat. Yes, Singaporeans like to complain about the weather. Examples: "Rain, rain rain, how to go out" , when orchard road is flooded with rain water and the underground passages are inundated with people. "Why is the weather so hot", on a lazy afternoon where we need to get some work done.

Hmm, i'd suppose we should come to appreciate the weather we have here. It's actually pretty alright as we need not worry about getting winter apparel (we just wear what we like and what's comfortable) or impending hurricanes. I had pen-pals from Finland and Australia and they always told me that it'll be really nice to have summer all year round like Singapore as summer is their favourite season. They get to go to the beach, wear lighter clothes and feel free to sweat it out as they have all kinds of outdoor activities. Some even have summer houses to spend the summer vacation. I found it quite amusing to hear that, haha. I guess we're too acclimatised to the weather conditions here. Of course, it'll be good to have some snow during the Christmas season at the end of the year or when we just get sick and tired of the heat. But that's not scientifically possible so we're sticking with the all-year-round summer regime.

I have been following the news on tertiary education for a while now as it is currently peak-period for application to universities in Singapore. What caught my attention though was the media coverage on scholarship bond-breaking issues, which discuss the moral implications on the individuals and impact to the sponsors and society. Most scholarships today are offered by organisations to finance applicants' studies and in return, expect a service bond of up to 6 years. Many are taking up the scholarships available but others are exiting their scholarship schemes prematurely, paying the liquidated damage and calling it a day… Some felt that these scholars have a moral obligation to serve out the full period of their bonds, which goes way beyond the legal obligation of paying up. Others that are sympathetic, believing that bond-breakage can be regarded as an option when job satisfaction is just not there.

My take: Singaporeans are becoming increasingly calculative in terms of benefits received. Some choose to take up scholarships despite being able to pay for their university education (and of course they must meet the required grades first) just for the prestige and recognition. This, I despise. We must learn to give and gain mutually such that both the sponsor and scholar benefit.

However, we cannot exclude possibility of employers exploiting the service bond period of scholars, laying down unreasonable demands and restrictions, resulting in job dissatisfaction and eventually bond breakage. Singapore is already facing a shortage of resources and human resource is the main driving force of our economy, it is a major responsibility for Singapore to retain its talents through provision of scholarships and a follow-up of a conducive working environment.

An article on why a PSC scholar break his bond
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,86038,00.html

Straits Times Discussion page [search: scholarship bonds]
http://www.straitstimes.com/vgn-ext-templating/sti/SearchPage.jsp?fromBN=true

Serangoon gardens is the nice little estate i've grown up in.haha. well, it's changed here and there over the years, but it's fundamentally the same to me. There're many nice places to feast your taste buds on. The famous Chomp Chomp is one of them.




I had dinner with my friends the other day at gardens and decided to visit chomps before dinner.It's a nice place to go for dinner or supper once in a while. Recommendations! : The stingray, hokkien mee, carrot cake, the thirst-quenching sugar cane juice, satay, the wide array of beancurd desserts.



Haha, the uncle posing with his beancurd. He was happy to pose to be part of this blog, lol. Anyway, my favourite's the chocolate beancurd.



Anyway, we settled for some indonesian-stlye food at the "village fare". The food was not bad and i found the condiments provided rather unique, haha. The price was reasonable too, below 10 bucks since service charge isn't included.

Well, back to serangoon gardens. Looks like they're gonna build a multi-storey mall where the NTUC block once used to be. (now i've got to get my ntuc stuff from amk hub, hougang mall or jurong point) I guess in such times, new malls are springing up all across Singapore-Tampiness One, the Iluma mall with the giraffe-like escalator, etc. It's all part of development and i suppose it's a good sign as we're still able to execute such progress in spite of the current economic recession we're facing.



Hmm but such change is gonna change the "look and feel" of the estate to some tangible extent. Some traditional stalls might have to leave the area in order to survive. I also heard that they're gonna build a shopping mall larger than the size of Plaza Singapura next to the serangoon mrt..heh, a few of my friends who stay in the area quipped that they needn't go to dhoby ghaut anymore as a new PS is at their doorstep. Singapore's really becoming "smaller" than it already is as the time we're gonna spend travelling will only lessen in the future, especially with the opening of the circle line.

Well, but some shops in Seragoon Gardens are here to stay for a long long time. haha. That includes the good ole' MacDonalds which has been here since i was born? Others include the sweet secrets pastry shop, Pao Seng Restaurant (with scrumptious chicken rice),the Chong Hoe chinese medicine shop, R.K. Eating House and Chomp Chomp of course. I was making an observation of how the chain resaurants like Thai Express, Macs, Sushi Tei are competing against the specialty outlets like Borsche Restaurant (a russian restaurant run by a family), Ice Cube and Pao Seng. Chain restaurants have an edge and tend to survive more easily while speciality food outlets might have some difficulty unless they manage to secure a strong customer base over time which the 3 outlets mentioned above have done so(those that have not have come and gone).






Above are the tantalizing desserts from Ice Cube Cafe! It's desserts are really good, i must say, haha, especially the mud pies. The one above's called "Eyes Wide Open" comprising chocolate chips and syrup and mocha flakes. The mudpie claimed to be the best in town is the "Alcoholic Anonymous", a must-have for rum and raisin fanatics.

Well, that's some publicity for this estate.haha.i guess that's all folks for now! =)

Singapore's reputed to be that clean city as well as a food paradise. have the two characteristics gone hand in hand? well, i guess we are a relatively clean city which is something to be proud of, but areas such as public toilets and certain hawker centres offer room for improvement.

Some news updates..2 victims have passed away after suffering from severe food poisoning.apparently they both had patronised the Indian rojak food stall at geylang serai. over a hundred people have fallen ill after consuming from the stall and some have been hospitalised. Investigations have shown that it's likely due to the consumption of raw or partially cooked seafood.



It's disturbing news..but it does reflect certain issues worth noting, in particular, our responsibilities as singaporeans and our roles played in society. if we're accountants, we work with integrity and strive to prevent fraud. if we're teachers, we do our best to impart our knowledge to our students while caring for their well-being. Similarly, if we're running a food stall in a hawker centre, we take pride in our work to serve our customers well. all form part of the society jigsaw.

It's also about caring for one another. We wouldn't want another fellow Singaporean to suffer would we? I once had this awful food poisoning experience back in JC. i was eating escargot(a snail dish, haha.)in lemon garlic butter and a beef dish where the beef was cooked with alcohol in some interesting manner. the escargot was alright and the beef was not bad. haha it was my first time eating snails though.yea anyway, i had some really bad food poisoning after the meal, not sure was it the beef or the snails or that beef and snails don't go together. but i ended up ill for the whole week of the march holidays. i still went to school for my cca's camp as i was one of the main organisers but didn't stay overnight as i needed rest at home.

Well i guess everyone makes mistakes, but lets learn from them. Such unfortunate incidents can sometimes be avoided if we play our part, which can actually mean a lot for someone else-enjoying a good meal and week ahead vs. the agony of food poisoning.

The opening of TAMPINES 1 yesterday, coinciding with public holi Good Friday, an ingenious way to draw in the crowd! Alighting from tampines mrt, I’m greeted by a performance by ladies in green at the entrance… What an atmosphere!?



Noticed something? The sheltered area from the MRT isn’t extended all the way to the mall, if it rains – ahem ahem… (first pic - T1 mall's on the left, mrt station on the right). Also, the design of the mall entrance is such that its’ below ground level, I wonder if flooding may occur under heavy downpour.

Worries apart - Yes, the place is super crowded though not all shops in the mall started biz yet. Despite the financial turndown rippling through singapore, it is assuring that there are still people willing to visit shopping malls and spend. Or are they just window shopping, who knows? Nonetheless, it's typical of singaporeans to join the crowd on anything new.







The food court ‘Kapitans’ on the 5th floor has a spectacular view. Can see the entire landscape with the other two malls! I’m surprise that the mall management didn’t exploit the view and rent it out to restaurants or those-who-r-willing-to-pay-more…