Road Humps Will Deter.

The recent accidents at the Bugis Junction area were very disturbing. I believe the majority of Singaporeans have seen both videos of the accidents on Television and the Internet. The first accident already claimed three lives and caused injuries to two others and many more just escaped being hurt within split seconds. In less than two weeks, another accident occurred in exactly the same fashion, at the same spot, very uncanny. Unless and until the Authorities take swift actions to prevent and stop these madness from recurring, I dread more lives will be at stake.
I would suggest construction of Road Humps at regular intervals along this stretch of road be put in place immediately instead of wasting more time considering heftier fines, jail term or what heavier punishments be meted out to crazy and drunken speed maniacs, new licensing of sports car drivers and more studies to situations.
In my opinion, three strokes of the 'Rotan' would be the next best alternative for offenders. I think Road Humps would straightaway deter drivers from speeding and make other road users feel safer. It is very unfortunate that the two accidents involved taxis and their innocent passengers. Taxi driving is a very responsible job of ferrying passengers everyday and already to earn a living is not that easy let alone having speed maniacs threatening and instilling fear into their lives and livelihood.

"Where Have All The Monkeys Gone".

Started out early today and was driving towards Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, I decided to turn into Hindhede Road to check and see if there are still monkeys roaming around that area. It was around 5.00pm and I was surprised not to see a single monkey around right up to the car park at the end of the road. I looked up at the trees, fences and the surrounding areas, but not a monkey in sight. What I saw were only the sign boards displayed.

Continuous And Endless Festivals.

It was the Thaipusam festival once again yesterday and it has never failed to fascinate me each time I watch the procession of Indians and other devotees walking, chanting and carrying kavadis, pots of different sizes and together with so many friends and relatives, young and old alongside or in groups starting their walks from the Indian temples along Serangoon Road to the Tank Road Indian temple near Clemenceau Road. I have always driven very slowly as I pass these processions getting excited watching their movements and absorbing their noisy activities.

Apart from the Thaipusam festivities, we also witness at the same time the "Chap Goh Meh" activities which is to end the long Chinese New Year celebrations, and not forgetting also, today's funeral activities of one of Singapore's founding fathers, Dr. Toh Chin Chye, former DPM who passed away five days ago and will be cremated at Mandai Crematorium this morning.

We live in a multi racial society and all sorts of activities occur so very frequently and seems endless, so much so, making time pass us by even more swiftly and before one knows it, another year would have exited.

Driving around daily, together with these hive of activities, with people from all walks of life, the young and the old, the good, the bad and the ugly, makes for a very stimulating and interesting working day.  

Winds of Change.

Gigantic ''Waves of Changes' is presently brewing in Singapore.
On the scene, Hefty restrictions to curb the mushrooming of Money Lenders' and their undesirable activities, similar to Loan Sharking are being implemented, starting with the ban on advertisements in local newspapers which have seen hundreds of ads. in recent months, many misleading, making its appearances daily.
Next, we have the 'noose' tightening up Smokers' pleasures by more and even more restricted 'No Smoking' areas everywhere. I daresay a 'Smoke Free' Singapore is inevitable in the not too distant future.

Problem gambling is now being heavily scrutinized and studies to control and to prevent an outbreak in the destruction of Locals are in sight. The outcome I suppose, will result from more future debates, forums and surveys. Presently, with the Mass Rapid Transport, (MRT), Circle Line in full operation, teething problems which have already appeared, and have yet to be tackled and made good, is currently making headlines involving human traffic jams. More changes, controls and new Laws will soon be hatching.    

Marathon of Life.

The speed at which we live our lives nowadays is going past us too fast. After every weekend that we have just spent each week, we find ourselves facing the next weekend almost immediately. We will always try to seek for more time which is never there for us to finish our chores or to engage in newer activities. The pace is too scary, alarming to say the least, and before we know it, more and more numbers are added to our age.
Its very true, we Singaporeans have an exceedingly high expectation of life. From the very beginning, during our younger days, as early as 3 years of age, we are pushed to excel well in our studies for a start, systematically followed by numerous and unending tuition classes in this and that, as well as to participate in all sorts of sports and musical activities.
This lifestyle continues steadily on till we fully complete our education. With a piece or maybe more educational certificates, paper testimonials, we begin on our tedious journey into our second phase in life, which is even more hectic. Work, more work, pay, better pay, jobs, better jobs, will be the order of our monotonous tasks to achieve and attain a better lifestyle for our future. From then on, we start to catch up with time which does not and will not slow down at all. In our quests for excellence and a better future, we have altogether forgotten about the importance of the quality of life.
Stop and relax awhile........... have a thought.

Sex Blogs?

Recently, a woman Blogger made headlines with her porn-like video showing her kneeling in front of a guy and trying to take off his pants to suggest her sexual intentions in a short video uploaded to Youtube. Shocking and tasteless in her bid to attract readership to her blog which garnered 40 to 50 thousand hits in a day from sex starved readers trying to satisfy their lusts. Woman Blogger, Ms. Peggy Heng readily admits her whore style intention to grab attention, knowing very well that it must cause sensational outbursts from netizens which will eventually benefit her monetarily. She has put her reputation at stake to earn an income but unknowingly, she has also invited sex predators to her doorsteps. Other women bloggers like Ms. Wendy Cheng and Ms. Melissa Faith Yeo (Boob-job Blogger) are also using sexual modes to attract and popularise themselves.
Its true, people get turned off or are simply not attracted to serious and dry topics which can be dull and boring. Being a taxi driver, I have listened to my passengers, discussed about all things personal and sexual unabashly, such as counselling and giving advice to those faced with marriage breakdowns, adulteries, cheating partners, assaults, sexual failures and lots more. I may post about true sexual encounters with my passengers, some even lurid to cause sensationalism in my future blogs, what do you think? Should I?

Three letter words.

For your information, the population of Singapore is 5.18 million today, and very soon in the near future, it will reach the Govt planned figure of 6.5 million. I dread to think of what it will be like, imagine driving my taxi at a snail's pace in future, (no more speed limits). With increasing road congestions and traffic jams so common nowadays, on roads not having enough future space for further widenings, due to scarcity of land to accomodate the increasing volume of vehicles.
I think the Authorities will definitely approach its famous ways by firstly creating more new (3)-letter words to try to curb vehicle growth. "Walau, (BTH) 'buay tah han' liao!
Limit the release of Certificates of Entitlement (COE), increasing Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) rates, which is at present already too high, raise Road taxes and every other additionals involving motor vehicles. Maybe having two or even three 'tiered' highways and more tunnels are other possible alternatives don't you think? At least these suggestions may deter or prevent some of the imminent drastic changes foreseeable in the near future..

"recession" in Singapore??....

Singapore, I think, is about the only country in the world where you can witness its citizens queueing overnight to buy an apartment which costs more than a million dollars as soon as an opening date is announced for the sale of a new block of apartments or the opening sale of a new condominium block of flats. People will bring along their umbrellas, blankets, stools together with snacks and titbits, sleeping, resting, chit-chatting, reading newspapers or magazines whilst lining up in an orderly queue awaiting the doors of the sales office to open inorder to secure their purchase of a choice apartment, this is often done on a first come first serve basis. There again, if you were to talk about a recession happening in Singapore, I doubt there is, as the pace and life goes on uninterrupted with shoppers doing their favourite chores and the hordes of people still crowding outside popular eateries, food centres and restaurants everyday as usual. During the much talk about 'recession' period, I have observed that life goes on very normally and I don't hear of many people talking of failures in their business ventures nor about many people suffering or even about news of suicides due to financial distress, there is no such scenes in Singapore. I believe you agree with me on this too.

interesting holiday excursions....

You know, most of us Singaporeans like to go for holidays overseas, to visit, to relax, to go sight seeing, to experience different life styles, enjoy flying and getting easily excited about the preparations to become tourists in a foreign land, but if you were to ask the majority whether they have been or seen or even experienced our own local attractions which are also plentiful, you will be surprised that most of us are totally unaware or ignorant as to what our own country can offer us in terms of relaxation and excitement. 
Ask yourself, have I been or discovered the enchantment of the world's first Night Safari? Experienced the exciting adventure of our zoo environment, the vastness of a national wildlife park under the magical night sky, where you can discover and watch the beautiful and unusual wildlife roaming freely in their jungle settings? What about Southeast Asia's largest bird sanctuary, the Jurong Bird Park which has more than 8,000 birds representing about 600 species? Do you know that this Aviary, with a man-made waterfall, is also one of the world's largest? Have you even seen the Musical Fountain with its magical feature of light, laser and music, synchronised with powerful high jets of water to make it truly a spectacular wonder? Just to let you in on it, this is the world's most complex laser-water system and also the first in the world to deploy a fully-digitalised video projection. You should bring your whole family to watch and be thrilled by this particular attraction. I can continue telling you of many, many more interesting places you have not heard or seen and these are all within our reach and from the way I describe them, you might or maybe consider making changes to your future holiday plans. I must admit, I do need a coffee break now because I am getting overly excited myself by just reading what I have written.

usually the Driver only in vehicle........

If you are always on the road like I am, you will notice, especially along highways whether traffic is heavy, slow, moving or plain smooth, that inside most vehicles, most of the time, there is usually only one person in it.... the driver. So, when there is a long stretch of vehicles jammed up, not many complaints are heard from the bulk of the general public but only from the motorists themselves. They drive their vehicles mainly for their own advantage and convenience as well as to flaunt a bit of their wealth. Of course, sometimes it becomes a necessity although it is expensive to own and maintain a car. But, why not, if you are doing very well and can afford it...

Singaporeans love to complain and complain on whatever there is to complain, this is because we truly love and enjoy making complaints. Public transport like the MRT is cheap and travelling in one is a breeze, no traffic lights to wait and no traffic jams at all, very speedy clean and efficient. The buses are no different with the responsible Authorities continuously trying to upgrade and better its present system. Our taxi fleet consists of more than 24,000 taxis from 6 operating concerns and I dare say our services and fares are reasonable and comparable with nothing much to gripe about.

Water, water everywhere........

Yesterday and today have been quite slow moving and it therefore makes me easily tired when nothing exciting happens except for the sudden bad flash floods and vehicles getting bogged down, here and there. Lucky for me I don't happen to be or near those disaster areas as I ride out the rainfalls in kopitiams, either eating or drinking coffee till the rains subside.

Talking of floods, it has been a long, long time since, when regular floodings occur during heavy downpours along many, many roads. I remember times when my friends and I during our school days, would wait and anxiously watch for cars to be stalled and stucked in flood waters and then offer our services to push their vehicles to safety for a bit of pocket money. It was part time work, a lot of fun and getting well paid for just pushing cars out of the flooded roads. When rain falls, the heavier the better, we become rich kids. Those were happy days for us school boys to make money until the Authorities began putting plugs and improving drainage to do away with future floodings. Still, all kinds of 'catastrophies' will befall us at any time, anywhere, without warning causing untold heartaches, tragedies, loss of properties including loss of lives when an 'act of God' occurs. With all our superior high tech creations and inventions to try to prevent or to fight these calamities, we must acknowledge and be humbled by what God can do.

Tragedy of love gone sour..

How can a father kill his own son (5) and daughter (3)? Both so young and defenceless and both had to die so cruelly by their own father's hands. It was not the children's fault that their parents wanted a divorce, they were totally innocent and yet they had to suffer and die so wickedly. To get married, settle down and have children is all too easy. When two young people fall in love, everything between them is always yes and okay, very loving, always wanting to be together, petty quarrels and disagreements in all issues will always be resolved eventually, BUT, when they finally tie the knot and begin their marathon of life together, they then start to find out about each others' undesirable habits not known to each other or simply refuse to know or hear about them during their courtship, that's where Love is totally blind during that period of time, or should I say, it was actually only infatuation that got them stuck and bound together.

The understanding power between two persons is not easy. To forgive and forget is always sought but seldom realized, so when problems start to surface they find it difficult to cope and adjust or compromise between themselves, they shelf it for the time being, at the same time continue to harbour discontent, and allow anger to slowly build up within themselves until one fine day, the balloon must burst and all hell lets loose, that's when everything gets out of hand and war is declared. The once upon a time lovebirds became public enemy number one, and they then start fighting viciously for custody and property, sadly if one of them cannot take the pressure or traumatic turn of events, then tragedy occurs and the innocent ones suffer and even lives get wasted.

Nearly conned...

One night, many, many years ago, I was with my brother-in-law Philip, two of my uncles, Bobby and Anthony. We were playing mahjong in my house at Thomson Road, when all of a sudden, there was this young man, aged maybe 16 or 17 years old, dressed rather untidily, I remembered with his short sleeves shirt not tucked in and also barefooted. He approached us, looking rather disorientated and in a sweat.

He needed to use the telephone very urgently to call his sister and we allowed him to do so. We also stopped playing at the same time and was listening intently to his conversation. He sounded panicky, agitated and looks like crying and shivering also, spoke shakily, "Hello sis, mother met with an accident, injured badly and is now in General Hospital emergency unit! Huh? you cannot rush to hospital now? I am in a very dificult situation and right now I don't even have a single cent on me, how to take taxi and rush there? Mother is alone and the hospital needs us to go and sign papers before they can do any surgery immediately otherwise she may die. I was told she is suffering and is in a critical shape. I was working and rush quite far to borrow this phone to call you because the company's phone is out of order. I told you I have no money with me right now!"

He started crying, "What to do now? How?". He hung up the phone and sat down on the floor as if in agony. We felt very anxious and sad after listening to his plight and was going to give him some money to help out, when another uncle of mine who was sitting quietly at a corner reading a magazine, stood up, caught the youngster by his shirt collar, and spoke very sternly to him. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do! I have been dealing with you guys for such a long time, trying to get sympathy with sad stories, and con people of their money. Tell me the truth now and I will give you a chance and let you go or I will bring you straight to the police station".

The boy suddenly shakened, immediately cowered, knelt down and pleaded for leniency and kept saying "Sorry, sorry, sorry". My uncle said, "Don't you ever let me catch you doing this again or you will be properly punished, understand?" He nodded his head repeatedly, "Sorry, sorry, dare not already" and quickly sprinted out of sight.

All of us were shocked especially with the acting and realism that this young man displayed, and to this day, this episode of real life con-in-action will never be forgotton. Incidentally, this uncle, my mother's younger brother, happened to be Inspector Hong of the Singapore Police Force. Cons and scams are still very active in Singapore, even with the local media at present still highlighting many cases and giving advice and cautions, we sometimes forget and continue to be conned! Nowadays, we have more and more foreigners getting into the act, preying and testing our gullibilities.......

More Caucasian missions accomplished.

I was still thinking of the incident with the previous caucasian while driving off from Tanglin Mall when a fat looking, also caucasion man knocked on my door. I wound down the door window and he said, "Could you fetch me to Four Seasons Hotel?" I said "Sure, hop in".

"Thanks, please open the boot, my bags?" I immediately released the boot catch, came down and assisted him with 3 of his bags into the boot. He then got into my cab together with his wife, who is also as plumb as him. 
As I started to drive, he said "Wow, Singapore has changed so much since the last time I was here, about 12 years ago. I was living at Upper Thomson Road and those days, it was not as crowded and the pace was very much slower and the people then were more of locals and much more helpful and friendlier than now."

"Yes, but now the population has grown to 5 million with more mixture of foreign expats and new citizens. See, the roads now so congested and look at the people walking around, so crowded. Yes, yes Singapore has changed quite a bit, where do you live now?"

"I am at present working in Kuala Lumpur and back here to do a bit of shopping and now I find goods here more expensive."

We soon reached his hotel, the metered fare was $5.15. "Oh, just give me $5 will do."

"No, no, no here's $6.00 thank you" said the wife.

I thanked her and got down to help unload their bags from the boot. The man shook hands with me and said "Thank you again".

I thanked him too, then got into my cab when the hotel doorman asked if I wanted to fetch some passengers to the Night Safari. I said "Sure, ok." and this family, the father from Kenya, the mother from Canada with their 3 young daughters then boarded my taxi. It was around 7.20pm when we left the Hotel lobby heading towards the Zoo. This trip with the family was pleasant and most interesting as I repeatedly joked with them that they were indeed an international as well as nomadic family, we were all laughing. We continued chatting and I learned that the father and mother used to live here for 1 1/2 years, and before that in many other countries and currently living in Sydney, Australia since 2003. We arrived at the Night Safari at 7.45pm the metered fare was $20.40 and I just asked for $20/-. We waved goodbye as I continued driving away from the Zoo... What a satisfying and spectacular day it was for me as I sped off towards Bukit Panjang to 'seek' my well deserved coffee break and maybe dinner?........

MDA stricter disclosure rules

Its only a matter of time, and soon such rules would kick in. Bloggers who get gifts or money may have to own up and declare whether they receive such for their write ups. The Media Development Authority has said it is looking at stricter rules, its Deputy Director says such regulations will protect consumers by enabling them to make informed assessments about what they read. When and how likely penalties will be enforced is still not known yet, but as from 1st of Dec in the United States,bloggers will have to make a "clear and conspicuous" if, for example, they write a restaurant review after having been treated to a feast there. The penalty for flouting this rule in blogs or postings in Twitter, Facebook or YouTube: a fine of US$11,000, (S$15,360) will be imposed.
I have read that beauty product companies are suspected of having paid a female blogger here on 2 occasions to write 'glowingly' about their products. CASE said disclosure regulations would enable consumers to distinguish between advertorials and genuine reviews. Stomp Star Blogger is concerned, however, that these proposed regulations may give the impression that blogs are commercial, and have strayed from their original aim of being the voice of an individual.
NEWS, news, and more news about LIFTS, newly retrofitted and upgraded, inBedok Street 4 and Avenue 4 not having the electronic panels which tell them which floor the lifts are at, and, wow, the Geylang Serai's history as told through photographs and text mounted on a 2.5 metre high storyboard also out in the market. Incidentally, the Geylang Serai Market hit the headlines in April when contaminated indian rojak from one stall killed two people and left more then 150 people ill, recently reopened after a 4 months makeover, in July.
Being a Taxi Driver is not just about driving a taxi, its also about 'being in the know', I mean, that's what we call it, in order for us to engage in interesting conversations with our passengers as well as to ensure that their ride is pleasant and enjoyable and also the journey to their destinations usually feel much quicker........ The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling, and even more beautiful is, knowing that you are the reason behind it..........

Reflections

Remember the time when there was such a big Hoo Ha about the coming of the magical number, year 2000. All of a sudden, this 'number' is now 2009 and, coming around the corner you are about to see year 2010. How time flies, year in year out, this is still the famous phrase without end. 
Just a couple of months ago, was our huge and colourful August 9 National Day celebrations, then there was this festival of the Month of the Hungry Ghosts, the historical 2nd running of F1 night races, followed swiftly by the Muslim Ramadan, Hari Raya Puasa and even before these celebrations subside, immediately coming next with all the lightings along Serangoon Road, Little India to bring on Deepavali and still more to come. Look out for the start of the decorations on famous Orchard Road "Light Up" to welcome Christmas and the end of another hectic year. 
These are important and continuous festivals, celebrations for survival of Singapore's big fleet of Taxis (more than 24,000 cabs) and the latest stats of our growing population now standing at 5 million and the governments intention to bring it up to 6.5 m. And with the ever increasing inflow of tourists from all over the world, we shall continue to survive. There will always be angry, frustrated lot of waiting commuters everywhere and just as many taxis with 'On Call' signs and more 'Signs', fingers and all to make our lives more interesting as we ply our trade along increasing crowded roads, streets and highways. 
With heavy traffic congestions and jams everywhere, everyday, driving is no longer enjoyable and we cabbies face stiffer competition on the roads as well as get tired more easily, and still manage to try to give of our best services. 
As for me, I keep discovering pleasure in the elemental : eating, breathing, walking, tasting, touching, seeing, sleeping, dreaming and also watch a sunrise at least once a year.............

Selamat Hari Raya!

Wishing my Muslim passengers each time they take my cab will go on for a month and its so interesting seeing them in their colourful Baju Kurongs*.  When they go visiting their relatives and friends the whole family wears a particular colour, like all green, all blue or all yellow and so on.
"Hello Uncle, can take 5 people or not, one is very small and we want to go not so far away place, can?" 
"Where do you wish to go?" 
"Just to Bedok South Road, I tell you where." 
"Ok, Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri" 
"Thank you so much" exclaimed one of the ladies, "you are so kind". 
And the whole family packed into my cab, merrily chatting and giggling away. 
"Abang, today how many places have you visited?" I asked. 
"Only two lah, because my family wasted too much time at home so came out late. Its ok, still got Saturday and Sunday" 
"Wow, you all look fantastic in your bright purple coloured dresses, very 'chantek'*" 
"Thank you, thank you, ok, ok, now can stop at the green signboard over there." 
The fare was only $4.40 and he gave me $5.00, and another Thank you. 
As I drove away, I noticed another Malay family all in orange-coloured apparel walking further down the road. Its just simply colourful........ 


*Baju Kurong: Malay traditional dress
*chantek: pretty