Well, I didn’t take photos inside the mall exactly. There was a courtyard area that I saw through a set of doors as we were walking through the mall so we stepped outside to look around. It was a pretty cool looking spot.
Recent updates
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Mini Marble Is Back In Action
Mini Marble is back in her territory enjoying life. After going jogging on Thursday night we walked by where she lives and called her name. Right away she ran to us to say hello. We went ahead and gave her a little something to eat, played with her a bit and then went on our way.
It was good to see her back in her usual spot. It was kinda lonely walking through there and not seeing her the past week while she was at the vet getting spayed. It seems like everything went well. They kept her a few extra days to make sure she was ready to play outside again, which was really nice of them.
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Bicyclists Vs Pedestrians, Battle For The Pavement
Practise Zero Impact pavement riding, meaning you ride with minimal disruption to the pedestrians walking there. By the way, pavement riding is illegal in Singapore, but it is not enforced strictly.
On the Tampines Pavement Riding Scheme, an experiment where cyclists are allowed to ride on widened paths together with pedestrians, they have started to enforce penalties for dangerous cycling.
The above quote is taken from a July 2008 post on the popular mrbrown.com blog. Since then, cycling on the pavement seems to have been extended to Pasir Ris, where I live now, though I’m not completely sure how it works. You see, there are separate riding paths for bicycles in some areas of Pasir Ris that are clearly marked by bicycle symbols painted on the pavement. These paths are very easy to distinguish from regular sidewalks. However, cyclists seem to be trying to monopolize all sidewalks in Pasir Ris.
The reason I pulled that quote from his blog is because of his great advice.
Let me repeat it: “Practice Zero Impact pavement riding.”
Over the past few months I’ve noticed a trend in how cyclists use the pavement that’s annoying and often dangerous. Cyclists will often zip by you, going so fast that were something to happen, there would be no way for them to stop in time to prevent a serious accident. Despite the relative lightweight structure of a bicycle, it can cause serious harm to a pedestrian. A cyclist should take care to maintain a safe speed and watch out for pedestrians who may not be paying attention.
That leads me to my next point. Bicycles need to have bells on them and those bells need to be used.
Do not expect pedestrians to realize you’re there, especially if you’re approaching them from behind. Even if you’re approaching pedestrians from the opposite direction, you need to ring your bell. Bikes move fast, and a pedestrian may not have noticed you the last time they looked up to orient themselves.
Most of all, be courteous. Understand that you’re the newbies on the pavement. Keep in mind that sidewalks were made for pedestrians and because of concern for the safety of cyclists, the government is allowing you to share that sidewalk with them. Even if you’re on a dedicated bike path you have to keep it real. People are by nature going to take the easiest path and if that includes walking on the cycling path, they’ll do it. That doesn’t mean you should run them over and nearly clip them as you go by. You should still show courtesy and ring your bell to alert them to your presence. Who do you think will take the blame if you hit them and cause them injury?
The past few months I’ve been experiencing more and more instances of cyclists nearly running me or my wife over, or seeing it nearly happen to other people. I’ve seen cyclists swerve and nearly crash because they weren’t watching where they were going and almost hit someone. It really pisses me off because if a bicyclist slams into my leg with their pedal and breaks my shin, chances are they’ll get up and cycle away quickly to avoid having to pay what will be an excessively high medical bill. Where does that leave me, the pedestrian, who was simply walking on the pavement as I should have been? What will I do? Write to the forum? I certainly can’t pay a hospital bill with ideals or popular public opinion. I can’t say it wasn’t my fault and get a free fix.
photo via electricbicycle.wordpress.com Complicating this matter even further is the fact that motorized, electric bicycles are becoming more and more popular in Singapore. These cyclists typically travel at greater speeds than a person on a regularly pedaled bike would and, because what they’re riding is considered a bicycle, they’re not obligated to use the roadways. This poses a big risk to pedestrians.
Also, in this same category of potential disaster, why are motorcycles regularly driving down sidewalks in Pasir Ris? Ya, seriously. I’ve seen motorcycles make turns up the ramped curbs at pedestrian crossings and then use the sidewalks as a shortcut to get to their HDB parking area. The problem is even more serious in front of the hawker and food court area located at block 443, Pasir Ris Dr 6.
Motorcyclists regularly drive onto the sidewalk, shooing pedestrians out of the way as if they were the ones in the wrong place, so that they can then block pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk by using it as a motorcycle parking lot.
Speaking of block 443, over the past few days there has been construction in that area. I was really happy with it… at first. I thought they were finally going to do something about the congestion on that sidewalk between the pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. I thought they were going to widen the sidewalk. There’s certainly plenty of space for it, given the 7 feet deep bushes on one side and the grassy area on the other. Instead, someone, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put a heavy, high curb along the edge of the sidewalk which makes the usable space even smaller and creates an even higher risk for physical injury. I’m sure they meant well. Perhaps they thought that putting the curb there would discourage cyclists and motorcyclists from using that area, but that’s definitely not going to be the case. This is a rather central area that sees a lot of bicycle traffic and this food court is a big gathering area for watching football (soccer) games and drinking at night.
Something needs to be done to regulate the use of sidewalks. Motorcyclists shouldn’t be riding on them at all, and if cyclists are going to continue to be allowed to use them, there should be a better level of policing going on by plain clothes officers lounging in highly trafficked areas, like along Drive 1 in Pasir Ris.
I shouldn’t have to worry about my physical safety every time I use the sidewalk, constantly looking over my shoulder to keep an eye out for reckless cyclists.
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Sometimes A Dog Just Has To Go, Unfortunately
Owning a dog in Singapore, as in any city, has to be a real pain in the butt. It’s something that I intend to never try myself. If I don’t have a yard I don’t want a dog. In fact, even with a yard, I wouldn’t want a dog because I’m sure that involves hours of scouting the yard and cleaning up dog turds. That’s just not something I’m willing to do. Cats area easier for me. You just clean the litter box every day. Sure, it’s still scooping turds but at least I don’t have to play hide-and-seek with them in a lawn.
Anyhow, I often wonder how it is that people in Singapore can maintain dogs. They have to be walked regularly and the messes they leave are supposed to be cleaned up, though I’ve seen personally that sometimes that’s not the case. Most dogs are large and the HDBs are small relative to their size. They can be incredibly noisy when barking at people or noises that they don’t like. They eat a lot! Still, I see quite a few people with large dogs in tow walking around the HDB estates and I think it’s great that some people have the patience and love for dogs that allow them to keep up with them and offer them a home.
I also think it’s admirable when someone takes on the responsibility of a grown dog. That offers a unique set of a challenges. In addition to the normal routine of caring for the dog, you have to try to integrate the dog into your household. Dogs have a pack mentality and, having been raised elsewhere, the person they recognize as the Alpha Male won’t be present in your home. That requires a new person to assert authority and let the pet know who’s in charge. Personally I have no idea how to go about that, but I do have some experience with what can happen when things go wrong.
I room with a local family that adopted a grown dog. When the dog arrived everyone was very thrilled to see him. He was treated well. Time was taken to play with him and walk him. He wasn’t scolded when doing something wrong. He was allowed to have fun. Somehow, things went bad. The dog became overly aggressive not only towards people outside the house, but towards people inside the house as well.
After a while, the family stopped walking the dog. I don’t know the full story behind that, because it wasn’t any of my business, but given the later track record I imagine it’s because he was prone to trying to attack unfamiliar people. He was so bad about trying to attack outsiders that the front door had to be kept closed because he would stick his head through the front gate and try to get at the people walking by. Instead, they would keep him in his kennel until he used a tray for his business and then he was allowed out to run through the house.
Later, he started going after people in the house as well. It seemed to me that as long as you let him do whatever he wanted, things were fine, but the moment you tried to shoo him away, or take something from him that you didn’t want him to chew on, he would attack rather than comply. Some of you may remember my post where he attacked me and bit my arm for trying to take a work shirt away from him that I didn’t want chewed to shreds. I wasn’t the only one that had this experience with him.
His behavior became more and more … touchy… I guess you’d call it. He would glare at people as they walked by in an evil way that gave me the creeps coming from a dog. Eventually it got to the point that no one wanted to closely interact with him for fear of being bitten. It was even a harrowing experience walking past his kennel at night to get to the trash chute. He had to be kept in the kennel at night or he would urinate and defecate all over the house. I wound up trying to avoid him as much as possible. I didn’t really want anything to do with him before, and I certainly didn’t after he bit my arm. I told him, “[Dog], we can’t be friends anymore. I’m afraid our relationship is over.”
So, in the end he made himself into a menace, a threat to health and safety. There’s nothing fun about having an animal in your house that is more likely to bite you unexpectedly than not. There’s also nothing fun about getting to know an animal and then having to send it away because it couldn’t integrate properly into your household. Despite his rather aggressive personality, I guess I’d gotten used to him being around. The house seems quiet without him here.
If you’re wondering, the dog was picked up by the SPCA. I came home one day and was alerted by the maid as to what had happened. Even though I really don’t like the dog, I’m sort of glad I gave him an ice cube the day before he was hauled away. I don’t know why but he really liked ice cubes and would come to the kitchen whenever he heard the rattle of the ice tray.
Hopefully someone will find him there and have better luck with him. If not, I hate to think of the alternative, but I suppose there was little choice. How can you, in good conscience, give away an aggressive animal to another person, since it may harm them?
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Cats and Singapore HDBs
In Singapore, most housing is government subsidized and have been nicknamed HDBs by locals. Since these units are government subsidized housing, there are a lot of rules and regulations regarding them. Those rules extend to pet ownership beyond the laws that already exist in Singapore regarding what types of pets are legal to own. I’ll go into that in another post. For now I just wanted to draw attention to one particular issue.
Cats aren’t allowed to be pets inside HDB housing. Some of the reasons for this is that cats are supposedly noisy and dirty. Really that just boggles my mind. Cats are required to be spayed or neutered in Singapore at around six months of age. If this is done then house cats rarely make any noise at all. The majority of the noise a neutered or spayed cat will make is when it’s confronting another cat in its territory. That’s not likely to happen inside of a home, is it? Unless you’re just in the habit of letting random cats come in and out at their leisure. Dogs, which are allowed in HDBs, will often bark very VERY loudly for little to no reason at any given hour of the day or night. Also, cats are not dirty. Well, not any dirtier than dogs anyway.
It all comes down to responsible pet ownership. Bathing your cat and cleaning its litterbox regularly are just something that a person should do, and if it’s being done the house won’t be any dirtier than a house without cats, or a house with a dog. In fact, cats always use a litterbox. Dogs on the other will crap and pee all over the floor if not let out and that will sit there all day if no one is home. To me, a pile of crap on the floor, with a breeze blowing the odor to other homes, is a lot filthier than a covered litterbox. That’s just me though.
This weird obsession with cat persecution extends to outside of the HDBs as well. One complaint is that cats rifle through garbage and make a mess. I don’t see how. The HDBs use a garbage chute system, where the garbage winds up behind a locked door on the ground floor for collection. There are a few regular trash cans under the buildings but they rarely have food waste thrown into them to start with, and I’ve never seen a cat in or even near one. I suppose part of that is that even outdoor cats in Singapore are well cared for by people in the community.
The animals that do make a mess of the ground floor of HDB estates are actually people. It’s insane how disrespectful and prone to littering people are here lately. When I first moved to Singapore it was usually spotless, but over the last year and a half or so it’s been getting progressively worse. I’ve posted a photo of the mess people typically leave behind before. It’s usually kids and young people doing it, but even still you have to wonder what their parents are teaching them that make them feel it’s ok to make this sort of mess. There are very poorly paid foreign workers that go through the HDB estates every night, cleaning the areas, but is that an excuse to simply toss your garbage on the ground? Especially when you’re right next to a trash can?
Anyway, what made me think about all this is that I was downstairs and saw this disaster below where I live:
It’s like this on a nightly basis, and usually worse. I’m pretty sure it’s not cats that are doing it. The difference here is that this goes unremarked, while cats are rounded up and killed at the slightest provocation.
It seems to me that the HDB rules need to be revised to allow cats into the buildings. There’s no logical reason why they shouldn’t be there. And instead of fixating on rounding up and routinely killing cats, they should focus on rounding up and routinely fining people that are actually ruining the cleanliness of HDB estates.
There are groups here in Singapore, like Cat Welfare Society, that regularly take the time to try to educate people and Town Councils about real cat behavior and that’s great. I, like other bloggers who like cats, am just doing my part in pointing out an ongoing issue.
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Singapore To Start Utilizing Underground Space For Future Development
THE Government is studying how to use underground space for future development.
Senior Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu said on Monday the Government should invest in the creation of new land and space.
‘Just as Singapore has reclaimed land in advance to support economic growth in the past, our subcommittee recommends that the government acts early to catalyse the development of underground space,’ she said at a press conference at which the Economic Strategies Committee released its report.
Somehow, this really brings out the dork in me. It reminds me of so many post-apocalyptic novels I’ve read where people have resorted to living in tunnels under the earth. Dorkiness aside, I can see this proving to be a very worthwhile step for Singapore in terms of development since the country has such a limited amount of horizontal space to work with.
Singapore could, in fact, use Montreal’s Underground City as an inspiration:
With over 32 km (20 mi) of tunnels spread over more than 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi), connected areas include shopping malls, apartment buildings, hotels, condominiums, banks, offices, museums, universities, seven metro stations, two commuter train stations, a regional bus terminal and the Bell Centre amphitheatre and arena. There are more than 120 exterior access points to the underground city. Each access point is an entry point to one of 60 residential or commercial complexes comprising 3.6 km2 (1.4 sq mi) of floor space, including 80% of all office space and 35% of all commercial space in downtown Montreal. In winter, some 500,000 people use the underground city every day. Because of its Underground City, Montreal is often referred to as the “Double-Decker City” or “Two Cities in One”.
via Wikipedia
Singapore already has quite a few underground tunnels that connect shopping centers together in the Orchard area as well as malls that descend for multiple stories below ground. These are both heavily used and readily accepted by the public. Having more structures underground that are used publicly like businesses, retail outlets and perhaps eating establishments, would integrate easily into Singapore’s landscape, especially since it offers a ‘cool’ factor. It could be called the Singapore Underground, and it could really be an extensive underground business and retail area. It could really play out well with the right architect at the wheel and could even prove to be a tourist attraction.
So, what will Singapore actually use these underground areas for? The government is just now starting talks about how to properly use the underground space but I think there are at least a few obvious answers, like storage and further transit links. Placing that sort of thing underground could free up Singapore’s limited surface area for more businesses or residences.
Hopefully Singapore sticks to just putting businesses underground. While I have a feeling that sometime in the future people might not mind living below ground, possibly with fake windows that project an image of sunny skies and green meadows (like in the offices at the beginning of the original Resident Evil movie), now is not that time. I think people still cherish the idea of living above ground, with cool breezes coming through their windows.
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Photos From The Kitchen
It’s amazing what you can manage with a simple, handheld camera sometimes. My wife was in the kitchen preparing a Filipino dish called sinigang and I happened to have my camera out, taking photos of the Chinese New Year decorations around the house, so I snapped some photos of some of the ingredients:
A leafy green. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it’s not bad tasting. It seems like there are a lot of leafy green vegetables in the supermarkets here with a lot of different names that all taste more or less the same. I like them, so my wife usually adds plenty.
This is radish. In the US I always associated the word radish with the small veggie that has a red tinted skin and a powerful bite, that go on salad. Here, radishes also come in large, root looking form and have a blander taste. I love it when it’s cooked in sinigang so my wife adds extra.
An onion. I’m not sure where the blue tint on the wood came from, but it looks nice right?
The same onion along with fresh garlic.
After taking those photos I filled a cup with ice. We’ve had an ice tray that we bought at Ikea for about two years. It makes ice in the shape of hearts. I realized I’d never taken a photo of it, so here’s an icy heart:
And here’s an icy heart melting in Grass Power, a local wheat grass drink:
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McCafe Drinks
Last year in June I purchased a drink at McCafe for the first time. It was the outlet in Pasir Ris’s White Sands mall. I ordered a double chocolate frappe and it was the most horrible drink I’d ever had. It was watery and bland. It didn’t taste of coffee or chocolate. It mostly just tasted of ice. The best part of the drink was the whipped cream on top.
Well, maybe it was the outlet or maybe things have improved with the quality of their drinks. Lately, while waiting to catch a movie at Downtown East, my wife have been getting drinks and sitting in the McCafe there to chat, read and kill time. When I go there I get an iced latte. It’s my favorite ‘fancy’ drink. Out of the three times I’ve bought that drink there I’ve had two hits and a miss. The one time the drink wasn’t good was because the girl gave me a glass of iced milk instead of a latte. Seriously. You couldn’t tell there was coffee in it at all. Thankfully, though, when I brought it to their attention they fixed the drink.
Anyhow, the quality of the drinks has gone up. I guess my original assessment isn’t valid anymore, because I’m loving the fact that I can get reasonably priced coffee there that’s good now.
The presentation is nice too:
My wife’s cappuccino. 
My iced latte. -
The Problem With The 72 Virgins Theory
I was thinking about this theory of Islamic martyrs receiving 72 virgins and it doesn’t seem to add up. This doesn’t really have anything to do with Singapore, but I’m an American who previously served in the Army and spent time in the Middle East, so it’s an issue that I have some interest in. Extremists are constantly attacking Americans both in the US and abroad using suicide bombing tactics, presumably with this concept of martyrdom and rewards in mind.
So, I did some research and this is what I found:
The theory itself has no basis in the Koran. It is instead based on a supposed saying of Muhammad, but Muslim scholars have agreed that the chain of referrers for the supposed saying is fairly weak and that one of the people in the chain is known to have produced unauthentic ‘sayings’ before. That’s from Wikipedia, so it may not be 100% spot on, but the information is usually pretty reliable.
What Muhammad supposedly said was:
‘The smallest reward for the people of Heaven is an abode where there are eighty thousand servants and seventy-two houri, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine and ruby, as wide as the distance from al-Jabiyyah to San’a.’
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=talovecof-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1931930252&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrThere is also some debate that if this were in fact said, the current translation is a misinterpretation and that what was meant was white raisins, rather than 72 virgin maidens. White raisins were considered a delicacy at the time. Also, Margaret Nydell, who wrote Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times, stated that many mainstream Muslims view the 72 virgin theory the way many Christians view the idea of getting wings and a harp and walking on clouds in Heaven. It’s just a bit of myth and fluff, not really what you experience. Unfortunately, the idea is being twisted and used by extremists to turn young men to a path of violence.
From the perspective of people who are far more knowledgeable in the subject, the idea of getting 72 virgins after martyrdom is a fantasy, rather than a reality. I have to agree. I tried to rationalize the whole thing, if it were true, but I couldn’t see how it would work.
Let’s just say that there are indeed 72 virgins waiting for martyrs in Heaven. Where do they come from? That’s the question that I couldn’t get past.
At first, I thought that perhaps these 72 virgins are unbelievers or sinners who are serving in this position for eternity as some sort of punishment for their Earthly deeds. However, that doesn’t stand to reason. How many virgins do you know who’ve committed sins grave enough to be sentenced to an eternity of bodily servitude? Besides that, how could they be serving their sentence in Heaven? If these 72 virgins are waiting in Heaven, then they too have to be believers, or how else could they be admitted to Heaven in the first place? And if they were believers and they were admitted to Heaven then wouldn’t they be in a position of reward? How many women out there believe a reward in Heaven to be spending an eternity servicing a man you’ve never met along with 71 other women? And of you who say this might be appealing to you, how many are virgins? It could be possible that these women would be created out of thin air for this very purpose, but what just creator would construct sentient life and then sentence it to an eternity of servitude?
Perhaps I’m mixing my beliefs into this but I just don’t see it as feasible. If these 72 virgins are live souls then there’s no way they could find themselves in that position. If they’re created for the purpose of slavery then it’s unjust, and that doesn’t fit the description of anyone’s higher power that I’m aware of.
Keep in mind that this post isn’t meant to tear down Islam as a religion. How could it? I don’t understand Islam well enough to launch that kind of argument against it. This is just my attempt to tackle a theory with common sense, and the series of thoughts I had regarding it. Perhaps there’s a way to rationalize the existence of these virgins, but I don’t see it.
Having reached the conclusion I did, I wonder how it is that people allow themselves to be tricked into throwing their lives away?
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2010 Chinese New Year Home Decorations
Another big holiday in Singapore (other than Christmas, where they go berserk with decorations) is Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year. Last year we missed it, but this year we’re planning on being front and center at whatever celebratory event Singapore has to offer.
With the holiday upcoming people are already starting to decorate. I’ve seen some decorations up at malls, but nothing too serious, yet anyway. The family we live with has also pulled out their decorations, which are pretty cool looking. I took some photos to share.
