When We Walked On Water (2)

No, we didn't have another big flood. It's only that I participated in the New Paper Big Walk On Water today. In fact, the Marina Barrage (the end-point of the Big Walk) acts as a tidal and flood control barrier. It would help in some way to alleviate floods in low-lying areas.


This was the first time that I participated in the Big Walk. I went with my wife and my younger son. Big Walk was first started by the New Nation in 1984. The New Paper, which was introduced later, started its first Big Walk on 16 June 1991.


Flag-off was at the Fountain of Wealth at Suntec City at 7.30 am.

There were several wacky characters who contributed to the carnival atmosphere of the event:


The "Amara man" (looked more like a fruit tree to me).


The "creative green duo".


And an enterprising "phonecard seller".



Even what appeared to be a faceless dog walked along. I had a hard time telling whether it was moving forward or backward because its both ends looked so similar. :p


Some 20,000 of us trudged along the 5-km route in the hot sun - a scene that reminded me of the annual visit to the Chinese cemeteries in Peck San Theng during the Qing Ming Festival.

Luckily, there were some interesting sights along the way to break the monotony and the dreariness of the long walk.


We caught a glimpse of the "Ayers Rock of Singapore".


A not-so-common and not-so-shy dragonfly posing for our cameras.


At some point, it even looked like the great exodus.


Almost 3 hours later, we finally saw signs of the oasis Marina Barrage.



We saw big droplets of water everywhere but it was only a mirage barrage. ;)


This was one "f" word which we were most happy to see.

And no wonder why there were so many "danger" signs on the water. Can you spot the cannon? Hmm... could it possibly be for the purpose of protecting the barrage?


But to me, the real danger you face when participating in a Big Walk is when you wear inferior footwear, just like what some people found out, too late:

Smallest Roundabout In The World

I apologise for disappearing from this blog for a quite a while. Well, the reason is that I have been doing some roundabout in my life, literally. ;)

You see, YG wrote about what could possibly be the smallest roundabout in Singapore here. While I do not dispute his claim, I think I could have found the smallest roundabout in the world:


The above photo was taken when I was holidaying in Taiwan in November last year. It shows the entrance to a carpark near Pacific Sogo in downtown Taipei where land price is at a premium. Hence the approach road and the entrance to this car park is exceptionally narrow. They are so narrow that there is not enough space for a car to turn right normally into the carpark. So how did they manage to solve the problem? By using a powered roundabout or rather, I should say a turntable. The driver manoeuvres the car onto it; the operator presses a button to rotate it slowly 90 degrees to the right and voila, the car is facing the entrance directly within a few seconds. When the car exits the carpark, the process is reversed, with the turntable turning in the opposite direction.

Well okay, I admit that the yellow circle appears bigger than the roundabout in YG's article but if you could imagine and compare the turning motions of the cars in the 2 circles, you will realise that the car in my example is actually turning on its own axis, i.e. it is turning in a much tighter circle. So could this be the smallest roundabout in the world?

Note: I think that the man in the photo is the carpark operator. The driver is seated in the car on the lefthand side as cars in Taipei are lefthand-drive.

Effects Of The Current Financial Turmoil (2)

MAS is in the news again
Not the escapee from prison
Shouldn't it be keeping our savings selamat?*
People who lost money are understandably mad

Some investors bought "minibond"
Now their money could be all gone
Its complexity's beyond the layman
Many didn't know it was linked to Lehman

The product with a fanciful name
But minibonds and bonds are not the same
Who would think a 5% dividend is reasonable
When you could lose all of your principal?

For some it was their entire life savings
Yet the distributors said it had good ratings
"Your risk is very small"
Spinning a tale that's very tall

Is it the buyers' carelessness?
Or rather the sellers' callousness?
Were the buyers simply greedy?
Or were the sellers obviously shifty?

Many elderly people were targeted
The products were indiscreetly marketed
Some were not educated highly
A prospectus they'll not understand easily

Many of them were retirees
Who have collected CPF monies
The banks knew they were cash-laden
So what if there's no diversification?

Some had only wanted fixed deposits renewed
But instead had their investment strategies reviewed
The banks not caring all this while
If the products fit the customers' risk profile

Some VIP even said something like this
If you're unwilling to take any risk
Leave your money with the CPF for 4% return
A very good rate with no risk taken

* - "Selamat" is Malay for "safe". It is also part of the name of the escaped terrorist.

Below are some funny cartoons published in last Sunday's New Paper: