Fantasy shortening of service 62

The fantasy route service 62 will be shortened as stated in Transitlink Bus Guide 2009, looping along Geylang Lor 1 instead of Marina Centre due to the opening of Circle line in April 2010.

Amendment of service 85

Fantasy Route Amendment of Service 175

Service 146 will be withdrawn with effect from 24th May 2010. Service 175 will be extended to Sims Place. However, its route from Bugis to Orchard will follow the withdrawn service 146.

Fantasy Route Amendment of service 43

Service 43 will be amended to ply Serangoon Ave 1 and Bartley Rd with effect from 23rd May 2010. The main reason is to reduce duplicaion with service 76 from Yio Chu Kang Rd all the way to Marine Parade and of course to provide direct links from Serangoon Ave 1 and Bartley Rd to Punggol and Marine Parade.

New Service 188R

With effect from 1st May 2010, serivce 188R will be introduced during the weekends and public holidays to provide a direct link to Resorts World.

NR1 & NR6 extension

NR1 and NR6 will be extended to pass by Marina Bay Sands with effect from 7th May 2010.

Amendment to Marina Bay Sands

The posters are taken from SBST and SMRT websites.
Services 97, 97e, 106, 133, 502, 518 will be amended or extended to pass by the New Marina Bay Sands at Bayfront Ave, just South of Marina Centre. A new service 133M will be created to loop around Marina Centre from Shenton Way via Marina Bay Sands.

Service 354 extension

Already in effect. Service 354 is extended for 7 more bus stops. In my opinion, it is a good thing since there is public transport now at the road of Jalan Loyang Besar.

Svc 858 finally extended to Sembawang

Yay. Service 858 is extended to Sembawang and also to the new Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital in Yishun with effect from yesterday 28th March 2010. The route that is used for extension is the same as my fantasy route 969. Yay. Hurray.

Earth Hour 2010

Woah. Finally a new entry after about a month of slacking. Today is a day when many thoughts just flooded my mind. I went for a seminar that is co-organised by the National Environment Agency and North East Community Development Council with regards to the Action, Care for the Environment (ACE) plan. Before the participants start to brainstorm their plans, the Earth Hour video was shown. That is the same video that makes me feel rather touched when I have watched it one year ago.

Last year, I went to the Earth Hour at the Singapore Flyer. Everything is off and my friends and I were holding candles admiring the light. This year is a bit different. I went to the Earth Hour organised in NUS. It was totally cool as the night scenary from level 6 University Hall is magnificant. However, I think that the scenary at level 7 Miltary Medicine Institute which is a walk away is more beautiful since the tall pencil like Centrennial Tower and the SIA building can be seen very clearly.

Somehow, I notice that somehow bright lights conceal the inner beauty of the environment. Even if all the lights are off, I believe that I can still see the outline of the buildings. Earth Hour to me is more of allocating an hour for me to refelct my actions that I have done this year. As usual, I am graatful to be alive and kicking and also grateful that my parents and siblings are also alive too. During the hour of switch off, many memories of the past are switched on. The memories of doing homework and playing catching in primary schools, the starting of mugging process and CCAs in secondary schools, the rampant usage of the word "stress" in JC's time are replaying vividly before me.

In my entire life, I spend 4 years to learn how to talk, 1 year to learn how to walk, 20 years of studying and still counting. During these years, I don't know how I develop an interest in buses. I suspect it is the hands action that I have made since primary school but I am unsure of how I pick up that. To many people, the hand actions have no meaning but to me, somehow, a vivid picture of me driving that particular bus going from places to places appear before me. However, I certainly know that I begin to associate number plates to certain models which is a reason why I develop an interest for number pattern as well.
So, I also don't know how I join grassroots. Perhaps it is just fated.

Anyway, there is accompanying music during the hour of darkness while the ambience is great. My wish for this year is I hope that I can bring my parents to a place where they can enjoy and have fun.

2010 CNY

This year Chinese New Year is unique and yet mundane for me. It is unique because it coincides with Valentine Day and it is mundane because I don't get to visit relatives from my father's side again. Ya. It is a long story as to why I don't get to visit relatives which is supposed to be part of the CNY's long long tradition. I don't understand why my parents don't let me take a bus during the CNY period if they are saying that the car has no space to acommodate my younger brother and I.

2010 is a year when I witness or know many people around me getting attached, or boys having one sided crushes to girls that they admire. Sometimes I do wonder when is my turn. This thought somehow perishes when I saw the topic in Singapore Bus Forums about a question whether girls likes people who are obsessed with buses. Even though there are no girls that directly reply to this topic expressing their opinions, by witnessing how boys or rather males woo girls, these are the typical qualities of males that females are fond of based on my observations. Please correct me if my statements here are false.
Females at my age or in early 20s like males to be moderately dashing, have a good family background, devoted to them, financially independent not now but at least in the future to support them and have a sense of humour.

Okay speaking of myself. I actually yearn to get a girlfriend but I am confused if the ones that I have a good impression on is due to their presentable looks. In addition, the yearning of having a girlfriend will result to an internal conflict of my belief of saving money. I am more used to eating foods from the hawker's centre instead of eating in a restaurant. This is partly due to my poor appreciation of good quality foods. Knowing myself best and coupled with my wierd hobby of getting obsessed with bus routes, it is best to stay single and enjoy the freedom of being single. I have since told myself that for me, beauty is a form of art that can be seen but never to be bought.
However, one thing that I am quite sure of is my devotion to bus routes have never changed. Besides, when I went for an event entitled "MAD About SIngapore Buses" by National Library Board, I saw two girls that seemed to like buses a lot in terms of having a good understanding of different bus models.

Fantasy Route Amendment to services 36, 97, 133

Services 36, 97, 133 will be amended in a fantasy way to stop at the bus stop besides The Singapore Flyer with effect from 26th January 2010. This is to provide more accessibility to The Singapore Flyer.

Month of December

The last month of the year 2009 is over. We have stepped on into the year of 2010, a year filled with events in many different walks of life.

I have not blogged for about a month as I have been doing a temporary part time job last December. Hmm. It is temporary cashier job in Cold Storage at Kovan. It is a brand new experience, with new challenges which lie ahead. It is a clever combination of clear minded, being more outspoken and polite and endurance over a long period of time standing and also good memory skills.

During my first week, I was on OJT (on job training) mode. I help to pack the groceries that customers bought while my cashier scanned and keyed in the codes into the system. I was totally fascinated at the way they memorised the different codes of fruits and vegetables. In addition, there were only few moments to think of the codes. Cashiers are expected to serve the customers in a swift manner, with accuracy in providing the appropiate payment for them as that seems professional. During my first week, I try my very best to write down the codes of various vegetables and fruits into my small note book, using my laptop to print a table, sorted in alphabetic order of the name. Even apples can have different varieties, one which looks very much like red pepper, dark red in colour while the other is lighter red with some yellow patches (Fuji Apple). In addition to red apples, there are also green ones. Pears are also troublesome as they are very different kinds of them. There are English pears and the chinese pears. So, there are many different combinations of codes to remember. In addition, these codes may vary from time to time because of the various sources from time to time. For example, in this week, the cabbage may come from Beijing and the code is this with this price, and in another week, the cabbage may come from Korea and the price and code is different.

Memorising the code is one challenge while facing the pressure of long queue is another. In Christmas eve and New Year eve, customers keep coming to my counter so I was scanning and working non stop from 0900 hrs all the way to 2100 hrs. This is a very good experience, working non stop, saying Good Morning, Hi, Good Afternoon, Good Evening till my throat becomes sore.

Besides long queue and working non stop, there were also many admin matters for cashiers. Before we start our job as cashiers and signing on our counters, we will have to count our money to be put into our "float" so that we are able to give the change to customers. This is okay to me. After the cashiers sign off the counter, they will have to print out all the card sales and count all the cash that they have. This means tabulating and consolidating all the vouchers, allocating a standard amount out to be put into the "float" for the next cashier and counting the rest of the money as the sales. This is not an easy job as it involves a lot of procedures to be adhere to. Any wrong step will result to a mismatch of actual money collected and theoretical money keyed into the system. Upon doing this, a declaration will be made to identify the difference between the two sources. If the actual money falls short of the theoretical difference, the cashiers will have to make up the difference for above $5.
Hence, cashiers have to be clear minded in counting the change even though they face the pressure of long queue as not to be shortchanged.

THerefore, I give my respects to cashiers who have worked for very long as it is not an easy job.