Good news for bike enthusiasts! LTA's six month trial to bring foldable bicycles on trains and buses has begun.
During the trial period from 24 May to 24 November 2008, foldable bicycles will be permitted on MRT / LRT trains every weekday during off-peak hours, and all day on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays. From 24 May to 24 August 2008, foldable bicycles will also be permitted on SBST and SMRT buses all day on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The trial on buses will be reviewed after the first three months.
There is even have a spot for you to test if your bicycle fits the 114cm by 64cm by 36cm dimensions allowed. There is one at Kovan station on the NEL.
According to Mr. Brown, Dahon MuP24 fits just fine. Others chose to ride on Strida bikes.
Refer to this LTA link for more details http://app.lta.gov.sg/corp_press_content.asp?start=1933
Fold it and Ride it
Cig warning
Singapore's cigarettes are sold in pretty little boxes... No wonder cig cases are so popular here...
Singlish
Singlish is Singapore's version of English. Though it takes after British English, Singapoareans sounds very different from Britons. You might even think that Singlish sounds not English at all if you hear it for the first time. It actually takes sometime to understand the accent.
Just after Christmas, my husband and I hopped into a tax and asked the driver to take us to the newly renovated Kallang Leisure Park mall.
So I said "Uncle, please take us to Kallang Leisure Park mall."
He asked "Where?" (It actually sound 'weh' with no r at all)
I said again "Kallang Leisure Park mall."
"Weh?"
Then it dawned on me that I forgot to speak in Singlish, so I corrected myself and replied "Kah-laang Lee-shoo Pak mall."
Then he finally got it.
But then he said next "Y goh to Kah-laang Lee-shoo Pak mall? Noh people deh! Goh to veevoh [pause] citeee." (He means Vivo City)
We said "We already been to veevoh [pause] citeee. We want to go to Kah-laang Lee-shoo Pak mall"
"Y not goh to veeloh [pause] citeee. Wannah goh deh now? Ah tek you deh now?" And he started taking a U turn.
My husband and I panicked and answered uncle "No, no, we don't want to go to Vivo City. We already know Vivo City!"
"You mean you been deh also? Dah one at Novena?"
So my husband and I look each other and said "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh Velocity!"
However, no matter how bizarre Singlish may sound, I do understand that Singlish is a mixture of British English with Chinese (usually Hokkien) and Malay words. It's like Philippine's Taglish (Tagalog + English). So since I am the visitor here, it's just fitting that I try to speak Singlish. Anyway, even in the USA, the world's largest English-speaking country, New Yorkers sounds different from Texans, and Americans sounds different from Britons. So are the Australians and Kiwis.
This is how Singlish sounds:
For more Singlish, click here.
Singapore's Chinese Opera
Back in 2003, when my husband and I used to live in a studio at Beach Road, we often saw night street Chinese Operas held on a patch of land between the said road & Tan Quee Lan Street. The first time we saw one, we wanted to watch and took some pictures. But we changed our minds. Something was odd. The opera's stage was about 20 feet from the audience who were having dinner inside a huge tent. While these people were seated far from the opera, there were about 10 unoccupied chairs right in front of the stage. We did not know what was the occasion. Someone's birthday perhaps? Were they supposed to sit on the empty chairs after the dinner?
On other nights, the audience were seated in front of the stage but behind a row of empty chairs. Didn't they want to have a better view of the opera?
Then we noticed a pattern: empty chairs were always present in every opera.
So years passed since then but whenever we remember those encounters we were still baffled. Our puzzle was only solved when we saw "The Maid", a movie. (Warning: spoiler ahead) The empty chairs were for the "other" audience... ghosts! Whew! Thank goodness we changed our minds! Imagine the look on their faces when they see two sillies taking pictures of the dead people...
More about "The Maid":
- It was a 2005 Singaporean movie that broke the country's box office record for the horror genre. It tells the story of a Filipina maid's (played by Philippine's Alessandra de Rossi) recent arrival to Singapore during the Hungry Ghost. Most Singaporean Chinese believe that during this 30-day period, the gates of hell open and spirits are let loose. For 30 days, the dead walk among the living. It is a time when, in the words of one author, ghosts get a vacation from purgatory.
- Official website
- Trailer
- At Wikipedia
- Review
Know the culture
More jewels from YouTube! Get to know Singapore in this episode of Girls Out Loud. Do you know what "vomit blood" means? Watch this.
Links to finish the episode.
Watch other videos of Sgbox1988.
