Dozens of lamp-shaped tealights gave a cheerful glow to the day, which celebrates the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness.
Category: Singapore
I am American. I moved to Singapore in October 2008. Here’s a post with some general information about Singapore.
Still there…
There aren’t as many of them as there used to be.
Release level to stop
Since the picture is too far away and blurry, you’ll have to take my word for it that these are the steps for using this Downtown Line fire extinguisher:
- [pull out the pin, presumably]
- AIM AT BASE OF FIRE
- SQUEEZE LEVEL TO DISCHARGE
- RELEASE LEVEL TO STOP
(I’m pretty sure they meant “lever”.)
Hang on, I’ve got a slightly better photo:
Here’s the extinguisher in my lift lobby (which says “lever”):
“Dr Bags is the trusted aesthetics clinic for your designer bags.”
I didn’t know designer bags needed an aesthetics clinic, but that’s probably just because I don’t own one.
Unless the upcycled seat-belt kind counts. (Probably not.)
Anyway, I’m posting this photo because I was surprised to see the word “ain’t” used in a Singapore ad. It struck me as especially strange because the ad is for a luxury service. Not, you know, grits or cornbread muffins or something similarly folksy and homey.
The ad says:
It’s not luxury if it ain’t clean.
After I thought about it, I realized there’s a third level of weirdness, which is that the first half of sentence uses “it’s” and the second half of the sentence uses “ain’t”. I guess I would have expected two uses of “it’s” or two uses of “ain’t”, not one of each.
But maybe the contrast between the two contractions explains the whole thing.
The more standard word “it’s” goes with the idea of “luxury” and the more casual word “ain’t” goes with the idea of “not clean”.
Or I’m overthinking it.
You can run but you can’t hide, JM Ice Truck #15
So cute. It’s trying to hide behind that plant, but it doesn’t realize that just because it can’t see me doesn’t mean I can’t see it…
I collect sightings of JM Ice trucks because they’re so colorful. I’ve now seen at least 22 of the 38 or more trucks in the fleet.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen #15, though, and it was sitting still so I got a photo!
I thought usually #37 delivered to Chinatown… Ah well.
…In Fact, It’s Our Specialty!
When I was a teacher, some of my students would bring to class bags displaying the name, logo, and endlessly amusing tagline of Tien Hsia Language School.
So finally I took a photo of the exterior wall of one of the Tien Hsia centers.
I think “Tien Hsia”, or 天下 (pinyin tiānxià), means “the world”.
No durians on trains! (Apparently they still have to remind people.)
Much has changed in Singapore since my husband and I arrived in 2008. But one thing hasn’t: the fines for these four public transit–related transgressions.
- No eating or drinking (Fine: S$500)
- No smoking (Fine: S$1000)
- No flammable goods (Fine: S$5000)
- No durians (?!?!)
We can only imagine the punishment for bringing a durian on this Downtown Line train…
And by the way, how exactly did it come to be that a hamburger is the universal sign for “food” on “do not eat” signs the world over? That picture is a hamburger, right? And it’s everywhere, isn’t it? Why?
Bukit Panjang Light Rail Transit (LRT)
It was my first ride on one of Singapore’s LRT lines. I went from Bukit Panjang Station on the Downtown MRT line to Choa Chu Kang.
The train I was on had one car; the ones going the other way had two. Looking at the trains going the other way, I wasn’t so sure they were trains. There’s one rail under these things, but they’re not monorail trains. They’ve got rubber wheels on either side and they roll on those. So is this thing a train? A bus? Or what?
It felt like a theme park ride, to be honest. The track seemed bendier in the left-right and up-down directions than the MRT lines, but since I don’t look straight out the front of the MRT trains, maybe I’m overestimating how smooth the tracks are. The platforms at the stations, which were sized like the trains, contribute to the theme-park-ride impression.
It kinda freaked me out that the elevated track didn’t really have edges. It looked like we could just plunge right over the side. The vehicle didn’t really go very fast, though.
When I left Choa Chu Kang during rush hour, by taxi, the driver pointed out to me where one of the LRT trains had broken down on the track over the road. I was glad I’d gotten to experience the LRT in working condition.
Aries Accessories
I visited Aries Accessories at Lot One in Choa Chu Kang.
I loved the name and the flying sheep; in the Western zodiac, I’m an Aries. I don’t like pink, but I liked the starry theme and I thought the tagline “Twinkles of Joy” was inspired.
More to the point, I liked what they had for sale.
Why I am not interested in meditation
Long story short: I read books instead.
(That’s not a stock photo, by the way, or a photo I took in a library. That’s a photo I took of some shelves in my house.)
The appeal of meditation
Meditation is a popular and ever-trendier thing in the West. I have to admit there is some appeal to the idea of a peaceful, accessible activity that increases one’s ability to handle life’s challenges with wisdom and equanimity. Nevertheless, I’ve decided to give up thinking that maybe it’s for me.
You could argue that I haven’t really tried it, but I have tried it, and after some thought I realized that reading, too, is a peaceful, accessible activity that increases one’s ability to handle life’s challenges with wisdom and equanimity, and that there’s no particular reason I shouldn’t prefer it.
Perhaps if you read about my experiences and reflections on the subject, you’ll agree.
