A Problem With Sengkang

I recently moved to Sengkang. It was a choice determined by proximity to my nephew (for the weekday delivery of the little monster for my mum to look after with the rotan nearby), availability of a flat within a reasonable walking distance to the MRT (I hate taking feeder buses), how broke I'd be when I sold my soul to HDB, COV, HSBC and other acroymns you read about when people talk about flats, plus other factors.

Having been here a month and a half, I made some conclusions about why Sengkang sucks, or could suck for some.

Urban planners had put on their Utopia hat on when thinking about the transportation scheme here. They imagined brainwashed heartlanders walking in file to LRT stations, pleasantly smiling and hardly distressed by small platforms and closeness with each other, all fillng up small compact metal boxes headng towards the nexus of Sengkang, the all-hallowed MRT/Bus interchange, the heart of this suburb. But all this of course, doesn't quite pan out in real life. All these peak-hour people stuff themselves into small lego-land trains and fall out at the hub to get into bigger moving boxes. Thank God that it's just the Punggolians/Punggolites/Punggolers that board the NE trains down to the city before us Sengkangers/Sengkangites/Sengkangolians enter. So yes things are a little crowded.

The LRT system itself is kinda screwy. From the hub, the trains apparently can venture off in 2 directions in 2 loops around the estate and passengers have to board this confusion at one of two platforms. So there's a 1/8 chance of picking the optimal train. I use the term "apparently" because I can't sometimes figure the signage out. I pity the tourists.

Why couldn't they split the hub role? Sengkangers/Sengkangites/Sengkangolians don't always want to end up at one place. Why put the stress of populace and sweaty bodies in one place? It would have been smarter to spread the LRT network between Buangkok (Yes, the urban planners and SBS Transit of 'white elephant' fame forgot that Buangkok has people and it's also part of Sengkang) and Sengkang. Then the madness of platforms and directions would have been solved. Residents headed to the city would end up taking LRT trains to MRT stations closer to them, splitting the human traffic and the associated craziness in two directions. (Buangkok MRT station would have opened earlier too instead of languishing in Compass Point - Sengkang hub's dust.) It would be smart to invest in this change even now, as the HDB puts up more Sengkang BTOs.

There is only one pan-Sengkang feeder bus. The rest are trunk services that connect between the interchange and some other housing estate. So everyone generally has to pay extra (I think) to get to work and school. The feeder bus also doesn't really connect all the neighbourhoods because they're thinking the LRT does that job. It does but bus stops are far more in existence than LRT stations, walks are shorter to bus stops and people are lazy or don't want to sweat.

On the bright side, there are 3 express bus services to the city in the morning. I hope they make sense for those paying $3-5 for each daily ride. I hope the CTE morning grind doesn't mess things up.

Well that's the state of Sengkang transport. I mean the nomenclature sucks already (come on, Rivervale, Compassvale, Anchorvale and Fernvale with all the usual street types at the end is more than enough to confuse drivers without GPS) so let's just improve the dynamics.

Howdy Hougang

I am guilty of not writing, again. I blame it on the move. We moved out of the Woodies to Hougang.

Moving is always trying and tiring. Good thing we left most of the boxes (mine by the way) in the other room and so we didn't have much packing to do. Though the packing we had to do was done painfully. We ran out of boxes and improvised with many a trash bag, pails, baskets and other things around the house. Even the large clay pot had something else in it.

The other bad bit about completing the move is unpacking. I spend a whole Saturday opening boxes and deciding where to put stuff. Guess what, I don't have enough shelving for my millions of artefacts, books and CDs. Habis. So now there are 14 boxes mostly untouched taking up space in my room. It's a large room though, so it's not so bad. Old flats were built bigger is the general concensus.

Apart from these gripes, I am so glad I got broadband back. The modem connects at 130mbps sometimes! 130! More than the speed in the office. I could finally update my Mac software. It came down at a blistering 1mb in 5 secs. Happiness is digital.

The ride to work isn't so bad. A 2 min walk to the bus stop, a few minutes wait for one of 4 buses to bring me to the train station, a 2-min bus ride to the mrt (I know I should walk but the weather ain't conducive) and a 38 min train journey across 1 interchange and 2 lines, a 2 minute stroll up to the office and I am sitting pretty. Still coming in 15 mins late each day but at least I'm consistent.

I twittered that the NEL seemed sterile, and blamed it on the underground nature of the whole line. No sunlight gets in vanquish the early morning vampires from the northeast with their pale, lifeless skin and bloodshot eyes, smart in shirts and skirts. I miss the glistening waters of Sungei Seletar reservoir that would reflect too much sun into trains that zoomed by on the red line to and from the remote north.

I think physically I am staying half the distance I was from the city barely 2 weeks ago. I've already experienced the superior connectivity of the KPE but yet to discover the hood. I need to jog around Punggol Park too.

Here's to new beginnings.

Bookworm Evening

I was at Harris bookstore earlier to make use of a discount voucher. Expires 30 Apr so I'd better make use of it. With no intention of what to get, I simply enter the store and keep my eyes open. Sisilia, and later Nana, came along to influence my decisions.

It was a fun adventure that unfolded as such:

• Upon entry, we were overwhelmed with books on the financial crisis, and some books on Obama.
• A cool title was "What Would Google Do?". Interesting way to run a business I guess.
• Tin Tin is categorised under Humour. I have only ever read one Tin Tin book. I have also only read one Hardy Boys novel - I got that for Christmas 2 years ago.
  
• I nearly bought The Ways Of The Weasel by Scott Adams - more hilarious takes on corporate culture.
  
• There were many different books in the Humour section, some mostly about nothing. Seriously. There are many books that are about crap. One book was titled 1001 Ways To Die, a compilation of strange ways people died. I remember that one Vietnamese man fell into a vat of fish sauce and the four people who tried to save him were overcome by the fumes of fermented fish, fell him and drowned too. How not to laugh? There was another sketch book with loads of dark humour stick figures. One page had a stick figure with a stick figure knife, and black splotches on other stick figures laying slain. The speech bubble read "I think I misplaced my medicine." Good eh. It's not good I appreciate this.
  
• There was only one shelf of Humour books and three shelves for Self Improvement. A sign of the times? Are we really in need of much help? If I didn't up there, would I know I needed help? Goodness.
• Sisilia picked up a self help book with a byline that read "How To Be A Person" or something to that effect. I think a dog wrote that book.
• Nana said that this section makes her feel useless. There was a title staring back that read "How To Not Have A Life That Sucks" or something like that. Horrible isn't it? All these problems you never knew you had that you now had to buy a book or 27 books to solve.
• There was a Dummies' Guide to Work-Life Balance.
• There was a book for husbands to stop beating up their wives. Imagine getting that for Christmas.
• There was a pair of books by two faces I felt compelled to slap. A man, his perfect teeth and his wife with much hair. Too happy, slap slap. They also wanted to make my life better. Slap slap.
• In autobiographies section, it seems like anyone can write. I remember many books about Obama, one from Steven Gerrard.
• We crossed over to Cooking and I discovered anyone who's been on Discovery Travel and Living has got a book out. My dear Nigella had several. That ass Ramsey had a few too.
• Sisilia then pondered submitting reports in a pink folder.
• Nana next confessed to plastic wrapping her books a few years earlier to prevent them from damage.
• I confessed to buying The Book Of Ingredients which is a picture encyclopedia of all foods. And I mean all - from animal parts to jams and pasta. So much fun to look at and imagine eating. I use it to identify spices my mother knows only the Punjabi/Malay/Tamil names of.
  
• I went to pay and found a little fact book filled with precious gems like "What does 'Wuthering' mean?" and "What's the origin of cinnamon?". You could know all this for $12.30.

We left for dinner next.

Oh I ended up buying "MBA in 80mins". I'll be a master soon. Woof. At 25% off some more.

A Look At Hard Surfaces

I think the pink flamingoes have always been there.

The boxed-in approach houses 80% of the population. We add colour where we can.

I reduced the exposure to get this shot of Capital Square in Church St. Citibank is there. Looks aptly moodier now.

All the little people who make things happen.

More buildings under Singapore Thru My Lens >>

Recent Snaps

The Year End series at my Flickr

Dunlop Street Snaps & Zsofi's Tapas Delights

It's always good to shake things up a bit, break off from the routine. Most people my age quite likely live a "wake up - go to work - go home" life most of the week. Take a detour man, it'll do you some good.

I ended up at Dunlop Street on the shophouse fringes of Little India. The street is a surprise. I started at Serangoon Road and cross over at the lights - indoctrinated procedure for Singaporeans - while throngs of others simply dodged traffic in a lane by lane approach to jaywalking. No chicken would make it across this road safely.

Dunlop Street has shops galore, filled with Indian spices, saris, cloth, religious ornaments, food, electronics, mobile phones, CDs, VCDs, DVDs and many other things. Komala vegetable market was a sight to behold. All the greens and beans an Indian chef would need lay in crates displayed across one side of a no-signal junction. Beautiful.

Further down, lay one reason why Dunlop Street shot back to fame - The Prince of Wales. Pub and backpackers' inn, the POW, as its term of endearment goes, has given a interesting lifeline to the area. Backpackers from all over now stay in the area and more such hostels have opened up to cater for the budget traveller who doesn't mind sharing. The angmohs trawling the street are an interesting contrast to the overwhelming number of Indian and Bangladeshi workers who do the same.

Opposite the POW lay my endpoint. Zsofi, a tapas bar, opened about a month ago and Ashlynn, recommended meeting up there with Farah (author from previous post) and Ravi. I got there early and was the only one being served at the first floor bar. Armed with my Ixus and not much else to do with my hands, I went around snapping. Soon, company arrived and we moved upstairs to the 2nd floor rooftop, a horizontal plane shared by all the adjoining shophouses, partitioned only by low walls and zinc roofing. How cool. Thankfully, the weather was too. Next door, Filipino ladies were singing real bad karaoke. We beared with their rants and made good conversation.

Turns out that down the street towards Jalan Besar, many Thai massage parlours had come to be. They, ahem, provided reasonably priced services. I think the prophylactics come per entry.

Well, go check out Zsofi. You get a small plate of excellently crafted tapas item for each alkie ordered. And the quality of the produce is amazing. Seriously, the chicken wings, prawns, mushrooms, salad, potato frittata, sundried tomatoes, tomato poppers and salad will have you raving (They've got a really experienced chef apparently). Perhaps even ordering larger portions from the menu. The alkie is cheap too, a pint of Heiny from the tap is $10, no taxes. Check out Zsofi's online presence at www.tapasbar.com.sg. Go make an evening, and a friend or two, at the place.

Got home way past midnight, too tired but happy.

God Save The Queensway

It's a throw back in time. I remember my father buying me strawberry Meadow Gold ice cream there when I was a wee kid. I can't remember why we were there. It could have been because we had gone to Alexandra Hospital next door. Today, Queensway stands like a historic testament to the power of focus. People from all over come to buy shoes at the scores of stores that stock every conceivable form of footwear. Escalators now carry you upstairs, only one way up - which I figure helps to control shopper traffic flow. On the top floor, the same old shops that zap 10 pages a second still do a reasonably roaring trade. I bound my Final Year Project report there, as did many other undergrad. We did a loop around the first floors before we decided that this blast to the past maybe perhaps had lost its charm. I guess we were a little tired and aimless. But I got a cone of strawberry to enjoy :)

I may be coming back, since my pair of Asics are looking less than fresh. We'll see.