Trainspotting

…days have gone by.

New friends.

New faces.

New life.

Zonked.

Yah, yah, a million people will ask me “why go to the museum? Blah blah…” and I will reply “because I like to be a tourist in my own home”. Yeah, closet tourist who lives in the heartlands. That explains my Singapore Explorer and my penchant for riding buses and trains. Hey, if you can’t tour foreign lands, try your own for a change, eh?

=)

Met Jia today for a trip to the recently revamped National Museum.

As usual, limited photo taking is allowed, and we’re two guys who aren’t exactly very fond of being in front of the lens. Hence more commentary and less visuals. Sorry.

Entry: S$10 for adults ($5 if you can produce a valid student pass or 11B), S$5 for children (as advised by the NHB corporate communications — see comment below)

Entrance fees are only required for two types of galleries: The History and Living Galleries. At the time of writing, there are two other exhibits: documenta and the stone banquet, which are free of charge and open to the public.

History Gallery
Paid gallery-darkness-audio companion-no pictures allowed. That sums up the history gallery. But hey, I spent two hours in there, so let me tell you more.

Essentially, the history gallery begins in pre-Raffles Singapore, and stretches all the way to 1972. The exhibits are mostly artefacts, manuscripts, commentaries, historian accounts, event recollections, first-person recollections, etc. The most interesting part was probably the splitting of recollections into events and people. In the events section, the history of Singapore was told through various occurrences of major events which shaped the formation of our nation, while in the personal recollections section, people who normally wouldn’t make it into our history books gave accounts of their thoughts, hopes and dreams of what Singapore would later become.

Interestingly, the two merged in the final gallery, as we saw Mr Lee Kuan Yew and a compendium of his speeches, as Singapore worked towards independence from the British and then Malaysia.

Typical history book stuff, brought to life. =)

Living Galleries
Essentially, these galleries chronicle the changes in food, fashion, film and photography throughout the ages. We saw old utensils used by street hawkers, smelled different types of spices, black and white photos and the eventual use of silver bromide in film, the making of malay films in Singapore by the Shaw brothers and Cathay-Keris productions, as well as female clothing evolving throughout the century.

Documenta
Held at the basement, this is essentially a tribute to the Documenta exhibition held in Germany every four years. Nothing much here for us, but I believe art and design people would be better able to appreciate this exhibit. Free.

Stone Banquet
Showcased in some of the local newspapers, rare stones are used in the creation of famous dishes. They look mouthwateringly realistic, but are actually not edible. Closed because some interview was being carried out inside. Bleh.

Some swinging lamps. They miraculously stopped after awhile though.

Also caught this short film “Love”. Don’t know why its titled so, because what was happening on screen can hardly be described as such!

One more to end the day:

Time Capsule, due to be opened in December 2009.

Daily rides:
Fri – 7302J (21), 2600G (33), 3623J (359)
Sat – 7440T (21), 7459R (80), 9565G (80), 7337J (12)
Today – 9573E (81), 9676S (80), 899A (2), 7422X (12)

Cameo watch:
Massive movement: Many NAC N113CRBs have been transferred to BNDEP, appearing as follows: 3623J (SP) was on 359 for a week and just spotted on 35, 3620S (SP) on 358, 3611T (SP) on 359, the list goes on. OACs have also appeared, like 39R (SP) on 518/518B and 64S (228) on 12.

New Deployments:
88 seems to be the next WAB service, as 4 B9TLs at BRBP have been deployed on the service. More to come, with many of the B9TLs still SP.

Missed out on this facet of life for the past 20-plus years, but in recent months have been experiencing it in waves.

Suppers with the guys, late-night KTV sessions, overnighters at chalets…the list just goes on and on and on.

Just last sunday-monday, went nuts at night after an over 20km trip on my ‘trusty’ bicycle with the squeaky brakes and rock-hard seat.

Pasir Ris -> Ubi -> Marina South Pier -> Mount Faber -> Ubi
First Leg: Pasir Ris to Ubi via:
Pasir Ris Drive 1, Drive 8, Tampines Ave 12, Ave 9, Ave 10, Kaki Bukit Viaduct, Ave 4, Rd 3, Ave 1, Ubi Ave 2, Ave 1.

Ubi to Marina South Pier via:
Ubi Ave 1, Ave 2, Paya Lebar Rd, Geylang East Central, Aljunied Rd, Geylang Rd, Lor 18, Lor 16, Guillemard Road, Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Drive, Fullerton Rd, Collyer Quay, Raffles Quay, Shenton Way, Maxwell Rd, Marina Station Rd, Marina St, Marina Place, Marina Boulevard, Marina Coastal Drive.

Marina South Pier to Mount Faber via:
Marina Coastal Drive, Marina Boulevard, Marina Place, Marina St, Marina Station Rd, Prince Edward Rd, Shenton Way, Keppel Rd, Telok Blangah Rd, Kampong Bahru Rd, Mount Faber Rd, Mount Faber Loop.

Mount Faber to Ubi via:
Mount Faber Loop, Pender Rd, Morse Rd, Telok Blangah Rd, Keppel Rd, Anson Rd, Robinson Rd, Collyer Quay, Fullerton Rd, Esplanade Drive, Nicoll Highway, Guillemard Rd, Paya Lebar Rd, Ubi Ave 2, Ave 1.

Too tired to cycle back after that, so it meant that I had to go pick up my bicycle, which I left at Ubi the previous night, and help to send the other bikes back to their respective owners, with zw’s lorry and reubs and kr riding shotgun.

That meant yet another night outing, cos we met at 12.30am tuesday morning, and returned the bikes before supper at Geylang Lor 15 before heading home at 3 plus.

Boy am I tired! But hey, here’s to more of such events!

Daily rides:
Tue – 9805L (12), 7348C (12)
Wed – 987D (21), TIB537B (106), 585E (175), 3639P (358)

Cameo watch:
SBS7494M appeared on 88 yesterday…a hint of things to come?

And into the fire.

My university days have officially come to an end, with the release of my final semester’s results. Did reasonably well to secure good enough honours, and now the countdown officially starts (read: 17 days) till gainful employment commences at the firm.

Goodbye, tertiary life. Hello, working life.

–

Met up with zhen today over at AMK. Was pretty much fun, eating cutlet and chatting and looking at comics and clothes and games. Talked about life in general, and what married life might be like. It’s funny, cos in the past, whenever you meet your friends, you’d talk about the latest fashion, latest game console, how much allowance you’re getting, which movie is great, etc, but now you’re talking insurance coverage, plasma TVs and DVD players, the price of rice and detergent.

We all move on. It takes time but we eventually do.

Congrats zhen, we’ve done it. And I owe you one now. Bleh.

–

Daily rides:
Tue – 9636H (81), 3715U (38), 9489R (12)
Wed – 7300P (21), 1726J (358)
Thu – 3708Z (39), 313Z (86), 3759B (25), 2621X (81)

Did a mini x-country today. KR asked if I would be so kind as to help him settle some matters at CMPB while he visited the Genting Theme Parks and being the nice person that I am, I agreed.

(Yeah I’m just glorifying my role in all this)

Well, in the know that the Defence Technology Towers is after all a military installation, this meant no cameras would be allowed. So no pics will accompany this post.

–

Ride details: 12, SBS7331A, Kallang Rd (Aft Kallang Rd ERP Gantry), $1.38

Boarded 12 at my usual bus stop, like I would when I go to the National Library and would prefer not to take the train (costs more lah!). The ride took me 50 minutes, and I got off at this stop because I thought I could catch 175 after it came out from Geylang Lor 1 terminal.

Bad move. 175 didn’t come in this direction.

Ride details: 51, SBS2786D, North Bridge Rd (North Bridge Comm Cplx), $0.40 (after $0.25 rebate)

I knew 175 would traverse North Bridge Road, so I could board either 7, 51 or 80 at the Kallang Road bus stop. 51 was the first to come, so I picked it. Lucky me, because as the bus turned into Crawford Street, what should appear but 175, in front! I should really thank my lucky stars that the 51 I was on overtook 175 before Parkview Square, so I got off opposite Bugis Junction and hopped immediately onto the 175 behind, which would take me the rest of the way.

Ride details: 175, SBS586T, Depot Rd (Blk 104B), $0.12 ($1.90 fare cap reached)

The good thing about SBS Transit services is that within 2 hours, if you transfer between different services, the fare is capped at $1.90. So imagine, I travelled from North Bridge Road, via Stamford Road, Somerset Road, Orchard Boulevard, Irwell Bank Road, Havelock Road, Outram Road, AYE, Jalan Bukit Merah and finally Henderson Road to reach my destination for the day, and all I paid was 12 cents! Heh.

And well, over at the DTT, you get similar service as you do at all governmental offices, except that security is much tighter. Bag scans, metal detectors, camera phones to be locked away, etc etc etc. But the most surprising thing is the FSC. I expected rows of counters, and all I saw was one little cashier.

Haha.

It didn’t take too long. There were two people ahead of me, and I spent about 20 minutes there. Then came the return journey.

Ride details: 195, SBS666E, Alexandra Rd (Alexandra Hospital), $0.65

Depot Road, if you didn’t already know, is this really ulu stretch between Henderson and Alexandra Roads. There’s a Botak Jones there (shocking!), right in front of the bus stop. And its served by three services: 57 (Bishan – Bt Merah), 175 (Geylang Lor 1 – Clementi) and 195 (Marina Ctr – Commonwealth Ave (Loop)). There used to be a feeder (274) to Bt Merah Interchange, but it’s been withdrawn because 57 duplicates its route.

So I waited for almost 10 minutes before 195 came. And I looked at the number plate and laughed to myself. ‘Auspicious’ number, I must say. I’d thought of taking the bus to Queenstown MRT, but then I’d not be able to save on fares, so I got off at Alexandra Road instead, and decided to continue my journey home by bus instead.

Ride Details: 51, SBS7397K, Sims Ave (Aft Geylang Lor 1), $1.03 (After $0.25 rebate)

Second ride on 51 today. I had so many options at the Alexandra Road bus stop, most notably 14 (to Bedok, can transfer to 12 along the way), 33 (same as 14), 197 (same), 93 (to Eunos, can transfer to 53, 81 and 21 along the way) and 51 (to Hougang Central, transfer to 12 and 21 along the way). I skipped three 33s, two 93s, two 14s, two 197s and one other 51 in order to hop this B9TL. I was hoping to get a gassy on 93, but it was not to be. Anyway 51 served its purpose, I got to Sims Avenue in 40 minutes.

Ride details: 21, SBS7305B, Pasir Ris Drive 6 (Blk 429), $0.22 ($1.90 fare cap reached)

Again, I managed to save on fares with the $1.90 fare cap. I was deliberating between 12 and 21 at the Sims Avenue bus stop, but 21 arrived first (when iris said 11 minutes!) compared to 12 (supposedly arriving). Uneventful ride through the streets of Geylang, Eunos, Bedok and Tampines.

Total fares: $3.80
Travel time: Slightly over 4 hours
Ride summary: 7331A (12), 2786D (51), 586T (175), 666E (195), 7397K (51), 7305B(21)

Nothing surprising about the fact that I do like to have a little kickaround, and until recently, play amateur sunday matches. It started off quite weirdly, actually, when I volunteered for the primary school football team in ‘93, after ’scoring’ a ‘goal’ in a void-deck game with one of those $1.50 plastic balls.

Went for one session and quit. Haha.

After that it was mainly tennis ball soccer, at the basketball or volleyball courts in school, or outside, under the void decks. Still remember the days when it rained cats and dogs and we’d be at the void deck and the ball would roll out into the rain and we’d get wet picking it up. Even got scolded by some ‘civic-minded’ residents who said “You cannot play here! This is not your playground!”

Civic-minded residents my ass. You buggers probably litter and spit and god knows what else un-civic things you do.

Those primary school kickabouts were supplemented by some field outings, over at the field right in front of my block, once we all went off to secondary school. Of course, the ’star team’ in primary school disbanded, and it was left to a few musketeers in the neighbourhood/vicinity. These were more leisurely, and usually involved four or less people, but it was quite alot of fun then.

In secondary school it was quite a different proposition altogether. There was no soccer team in the school, so we’d play on the field, and later, the basketball and street soccer courts in school. Sometimes we’d even head out of school to find alternative grounds when the courts were all occupied and we didn’t want to challenge the seniors.

Formed our first team then, in sec 2. White reebok jerseys, no numbers, and well, sad to say, it didn’t last too long. Then in sec 4, we formed our second team. Lasted long enough, but also disbanded. But there’s a fairytale ending: the guys I played with are now still my best pals.

Turned to recreational football once again after the army. Erratic but eventually got rolling again in the second sem of my first uni year. Formed yet another team last year.

And here I am, playing for my third team. Never played schools football, so actually I’m really amateur.

Oh well, it is leisure, isn’t it?

–

Daily rides:
Fri – 9361A (89), 9675U (89), 3639P (358)
Sat – 7444H (12), 9637E (31), 9402R (31), 7331A (12)
Sun – 1972P (21), 899A (15)