Friendly And Generous Passenger.

Around 11.00pm on Wednesday night, two young men, cousins, flagged me along North Bridge Road just after Jalan Sultan and they wanted to go to Jalan Rumah Tinggi and then to Woodlands. They asked me to wait awhile when we reached the first stop to allow one of them to collect and hand over something to the other. Meanwhile, the other cousin and I alighted to have a smoke as we waited. We started chatting. He is a final year Polytechnic student in Design and when I gave him my card, he was very impressed and offered to design a new card for me free of charge and will call me when he is done in about two weeks time. I thanked him and he told me that he is at present helping out in his mother's Italian restaurant. He is a very pleasant young man and we spoke quite a bit as we continued again on our journey to Woodlands.
When we reached his destination and after paying me the metered fare which was $30.00, he insisted on tipping me an extra $5.00 which I refused and told him "You don't need to give any tips in Singapore you know". He said he knows, but he wants to and insisted that I accept. "We will meet again soon" he said as we wished each other goodnight.

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.

R n R.

I have just got up from bed after watching the 'Live' TV show, 2012 grand finale of 'American Idol' from 7.30am to 10.00am. It was a fantastic and lively show and I enjoyed it very much but I would have preferred the runner up Jessica Sanchez as the winner. For a 16 year old I must say, she did very well and I loved her performances singing Whitney Houston songs. She was terrific. As for the winner Philip Philips, he was just as good, well done. I will not be working today since this is a 'special' day for me and I have decided to go to this Chinese Restaurant near Universal Studios to have dinner, it will be my first time at this restaurant and maybe after that go and have coffee and ice cream, relax and enjoy a well deserved rest day.

Spicy Food Lovers.

Fetched a lovely English couple from Tanglin Mall heading home towards East Coast yesterday. They were an unusual pair who loves spicy food and eats at Kallang Airport, East Coast food centres and at many other heartlands food courts. Coming from England and loves eating local 'Pedas' food and curry fish head and all things 'spicy', they were indeed special. They told me that they both cook as well. I told them that Singaporeans are generally 'Gluttons' as we eat nearly 24 hours a day and we also love shopping. They have their home in Manchester but you know, he is a 'die-hard' Chelsea fan and sure enough, he was watching the Champion League's final early in the morning and his team won. I said sorry, but I did not watch the finals as I am a staunch Arsenal supporter. Both of them have been living in Singapore for the past three years. The lady does not like the cold weather back home and loves Singapore and the heat. The three of us had a pleasant ride, laughing and chit chatting all the way.

An Enjoyable Day At The Races.

I spent my sunday at the Singapore Kranji Turf Club to watch the exciting annual Krisflyer International Sprint race, run over 1200 metres and worth one million dollars in stakes money and the Singapore Airlines International Cup over 2000 metres and worth three million dollars. These races include participation of local race horses against the likes of international classy racehorses and jockeys from all over the world. The races were run on a soft track after the rain came and went. At 7.50pm in race nine, ATO our local racehorse with regular South African jockey Barend Vorster astride won the Sprint followed by MR BIG another local horse with Australian jockey S.Baster who came in second. This is also the second time a Singapore racehorse has won this prestigious Sprint with local champion ROCKET MAN in 2011. In the staying event, the horse from France, named CHINCHON won with his French rider Oliver Doleuze astride, followed by ZAIDAN from Hong Kong with jockey J.McDonald second and third was local horse FLAX with regular Brazilian jockey J.Verenzuela astride. The last time a local racehorse won this Cup was OUZO with local jockey J.Saimee in year 2000. Being an enthusiast in thoroughbred racing, I enjoyed the day in racing carnival atmosphere, felt proud for our local winners and will look forward to next year's challenges.

"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.

A Fair Guess.

Yesterday evening I fetched two Caucasian gentlemen from United Square taxi stand to Orchard Hotel. They were both having a conversation in a foreign language. I was listening and trying to see if I knew where they come from. When they stopped talking after we passed Newton Circus, I took the opportunity to ask, "Hello, are you both from Germany?" The rear left passenger said, "No, we are not. I am from Holland and my friend here is from Switzerland". I quickly added "Oh, I'm so sorry, wrong guess". When we reached the Hotel, whilst paying their fare, the one who spoke earlier said, "Uncle, you were right in a way, we were all the time speaking in German, you see, I don't understand Swiss and my friend don't know Dutch, but we share a common language, German". I replied "Thank you very much for telling me, enjoy your stay here and Cheers!". They were both gentlemen indeed, I said to myself as I drove on.

Long Taxi Queue.

Fetched a young Philippino man from Jalan Jurong Kechil to RWS Casino late last night about 10.30pm. After he alighted near the entrance to the Casino, I was going to drive straightaway to the taxi stand, but as it was a Monday night, the taxi queue was packed with taxis even lining up all the way near to the Casino entrance. I knew its going to be a long wait as there were hardly a handful of commuters at the pick up point. I decided to leave and head elsewhere.

Normally during week nights from Mondays to Thursdays, the taxi stand is full of taxis but only a handful of commuters. To use the taxi service from this stand, you will have to pay a surcharge of $3.00 at all times.

A Promise from a "Slip Of The Tongue".

Last night, I fetched four Secondary students from Paragon Taxi Stand, two boys and two girls. They wanted to go to Down Town East in Pasir Ris. Along the way, I joined them in their discussions about music and musical instruments and they were very surprised when they heard that I played the violin when I was in Secondary School so many years ago. I told them I no longer play the violin due to a compound fracture I suffered to my left arm whilst playing in a school rugby match when I was in Sec. 4, barely two weeks before my Grade 8 practical exams. Doctors had to operate on my 'crushed' arm and until today, the 4" inch stainless steel plate with four screws still remained in my left arm. Gone also my 'Lost' dream of being a Violinist. I even showed them marks of the 28 stitches still visible followed by their exclamations of "Ooohs and Waa's".

The students felt sorry for me, but at the same time, they were rather sceptical and thought maybe I was just telling them a 'Fib", so they asked and coaxed me to promise to write this post and also at the same time to publish the photo I said was an original taken in the concert held at the Cultural Centre in Fort Canning Road with the then Minister of Culture, the late Mr. S. Rajaratnam in attendance.

I promised not to disappoint them and they in turn also promised to go to my blogspot to check it out. There you are Guys n Gals, the truth and nothing but the truth........  

The Bottle Tree.

Yesterday evening around 6pm, I picked up a Malay woman together with her three young children at the taxi stand in Toa Payoh Central. When they were all on board, she said, "Please bring us to 'Chinchalok Road' near Katib in Yishun" I said "Huh, say again, what's the name of the Road?", she said "Chinchalok Road, never mind, never mind, I'll show you the way, its somewhere near Yishun Stadium". I suddenly felt 'blurrr', "Okay, okay, you show me the way" and I headed towards Yishun, thinking how I can forget such a road name. Where can it be??

Approaching Katib MRT Station, she said, "Turn left here", I said "Okay, this is Yishun Ave.1" and coming towards Sembawang Road, she said "Now turn right and then turn right again into (pointing her hand) that small road". When I heard her instructions, I immediately realised that she wanted to go to "Lorong Chencharu" which is directly opposite Sembawang Air Base. I said "Oh, you want to go to the Bottle Tree Park and she 'giggled' shyly, laughed a bit and said "Yah, yah the bottle tree" with a sigh of relief.

I did not hear her pronounce the name of the road clearly and all the time whilst driving, I kept trying to figure out her destination without any luck till I saw her pointing her fingers at the road. This is my second time here after a very, very long time and I must have forgotten all about the 'Bottle Tree'. The park here is very peaceful, quiet and hidden away. There is a fishing and also a prawn pond with 'kampong' style surroundings. A good fun place for fishing, food and family gatherings. After my passengers alighted, I parked my cab at the car park, took some photographs, walked around a bit, felt nice and very relaxed.