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Added links at sidebar to Route Information of the New Premium Bus services 538, 539, 540, 542, 543, 544 and 545

Food for thought

In recent days, there has been heavy downpours in many areas of Singapore causing the weather to be cooler at night. But as a result, there are floods occurring in certain parts of Singapore. At night, while I am resing comfortably at home watching TV, I am pondering the type of programmes that are broadcasted on the television, be it entertainment or drama serials over the years. For drama serials, I have definitely watched more drama serials from Korea and Hongkong instead of Singapore. This can be due to the fact that the plots for these dramas are different from locally produced dramas. They are more interesting, exciting in terms of plot advancements and the characters also act very well.

For entertainment wise, music and songs seem to be the limelight recently. The recent show titled 'S Pop' is a show that reminisces the lyrics of the various chinese songs created by the songwriters. This show is to promote chinese songs and music and to give recognition to these songwriters who have put in their utmost effort and feelings in creating those songs. The songs with the lyrics depict what the writer is trying to express.

It is like, once in a while, I feel that wanting to be in the limelight, wanting to be the centre of attraction. However, upon thinking of the consequences and the adverse effects of it, this holds me back. Sometimes, I will imagine that if my passion is to create good songs, instead of creating bus routes, perhaps I can be more famous. If I have a passion of singing, perhaps I can be more famous. If I have a passion for sports, perhaps I can be more famous. I start to think of all the interests that I have, why the interest and passion for bus routes. Even though one can agrue that everybody is unique and worthy and it is nothing wrong in having this passion, I am just pondering, is it unfair to me? Is Heaven unfair?
I don't have a concrete reason of why I like bus routes. Since young, I have been reading Transitlink Bus Guides and the bus routes automatically go in my mind. It all comes so naturally without any environmental influence from firends, siblings and relatives. It comes purely out of my own.

Even though I have complains to Heaven of being unfair, I still believe Nature advocates balance and in moderation. I may be in luck some day though this passion is permanent. Bus routes will soon become my life and perhaps my occupation in the future who knows.

Just some updates about my work life here. I will be on leave from 301107 to 101207. Actually, I don't intend to take leave for so many days at one shot as I will feel bored having to stay at home. Anyway, I am so called coerced to take those leaves and if not, I will have insufficient days to clear all my leaves. Finally, my ORD date is approaching nearer and nearer. I can see the light at the end of a long dark tunnel.

Amended (fantasy) 109 with effect from 2nd of December 2007

This announcement is one of my fantasy bus route change of service 109 from Serangoon to Changi Village.

Service 109 will be plying Hougang Ave 2, Ave 3 and Tampines Rd instead of Hougang Ave 9, Sengkang East Rd. This is to avoid excessive duplication with service 17 which is already using these routes to get to Pasir Ris area. In addition, there is an existing service 89 which provides the link from Sengkang to Loyang Industrial area and Changi Village.

Besides, this new service 109 is providing a new link from Hougang Ave 2, Ave 3 to Loyang Industrial area. The journey from Serangoon to Pasir Ris will be faster too with this new route coming up.

Lucky incident

Luck goes round in a cycle. I have met with several unlucky incidents while I was playing Heroes 3 with my brother as mentiond in my previous entries. However, I guess that luck is something that prevails as a cycle. I was doing a GP question about luck in my A levels. I was entrusting my GP results on the word luck alone. And friday, lady luck has helped me.

Let me describe the incident on friday.
I was designated to be the cover medic for an excerise on friday at Pasir Laba Camp. It was a whole day thing and I had to stay in. Of course, I felt so depressed at that point in time cos I have to stay in, having stay out life for a very long time. Frankly speaking, I thought that it should be ok to stay in but after spending considerable time thinking about it, staying in meant that there were also night activities. Hence, things will become more complicated. I will then have to send (if there are any) casualities to the nearest 24 hrs medical centre. At that time when the news is told to me, there was no further details about which part of the Pasir Laba Camp the activities are conducted, when to report and other admin stuffs.

Anyway, when Friday 23rd of November arrived, I wited for the driver or the in charge to pick me up at the medical centre. I waited from 8 onwards. At that day itself, it is also the SAF Medical Corps 40th Anniversary. Some of my friends will be going to the event itself and hence at around 1030, they can leave there together with my MO. I can actually go there and take a half day but too bad, I have medical cover on that day. Coincidentally, I found ut that my cousins were coming to my hse on that day itself on Thurs, the day before my cover. And besides, since one of my colleague is going to do that cover on the weekends and he was supposed to do Khatib Duty on Sun, I am supposed to do duty today. On the whole, because of this cover, I had to stay in two days which were fri and sun.

I waited anxiously, thinking about the type of activities that the excerise was about. I was running through the procedures that I needed to do in case there were any casualities during the excerise. So, at around 1030, I continued waiting despite the fact that my colleagues are going to the event. After they were gone, I decided to call the officer who was in charge of the excerise to inquire about the indentation of medic for that's day excerise. So, in the end, the excerise is only commencing on Monday instead of Friday. Thus, my weekend is now free. Yay.

Luck is a very mysterious thing in my opinion. It comes when you least expect it. Misfortune comes when you rely on luck too much. The above statements are just my opinions and view on luck.

Amended services 18 and 60 into Bedok Nth St 3

Click the image for a larger version.

New fantasy bus route
Taken with effect from 25th November 2007, Service 18 will ply Bedok Nth St 3 instead of Bedok Nth St 1 to provide a direct link between Bedok Nth areas and Tampines areas. Meanwhile, 225 freq will remain the same.


Click the image for a larger version.

New fantasy bus route
Service 60 will also be plying into Bedok Nth St 3 with effect from 25th November 2007. This new service will provide a direct link between Eunos and Bedok Nth areas.

After going to Bedok several times, I have realised that though 225's route is short, it is very high in demand. So, I presume that in order to benefit more people who are staying or passing by that area, service 18 and 60 which are short haul trunk services can be extended. Besides, since Eunos and Tampines are just neighbouring towns of Bedok, it is good that Bedok Nth has direct buses to them. So, to go to Bedok Reservoir or Eunos CC, simply take 60 if u r at Bedok Nth St 3 instead of taking 225 to Bedok then transfer to 60.

Food Exhibition at Expo

I went for a food exhibition yesterday on Sunday at Singapore Expo. The car park lots were full up to a point that my uncle who drove there had to park to somewhere else which he had to a bus.

As soon as the doors opened, we made our way in as soon as possible to grab the seats. Judging from the magnificent number of people, the number of seats and tables provided for us to tuck into our meals would surely be insufficient. Anyway, after we grabbed, we went to hunt for our food. I bought some ordinary stuffs like popcorn chicken, $2 per bowl "shark fin" and some cookies plus fried bread. My mother and my auntie went around and bought anything which looked unique to them. In the end, I had to carry bags of goods back home.
I guess probably due to the fact that I have eaten too much fried stuffs, I develop my mouth ulcers today. My words that I pronounce is unclear.

After visiting the food exhibition, we went to the Giant's Hyper store located at Tampines Ave 10 near IKEA and COURTS. As usual, my mum and auntie went for a shopping spree, buying a range of products such as fruits, veggies and clothes while the guys like my brother, my cousins and me went to view the latest electronic gadgets and computers.

Enjoy your day and wish everyone's gd health.

Birthday thoughts plus heroes 3 thoughts

OMG!!! I am already 20 after yesterday. Hmm. I look at myself in the mirror and questioned myself, "Have I changed for the better for the past one year? Have I become more matured?" I guess probably not.

People always say and I myself believe that after 2 yrs of tough NS life as National full time serviceman, I will get more matured. Indeed, I have learnt a lot of things during these 2 yrs NS life. I still have 43 more working days to my operationally ready date which is on the 7th of February 2008. I have learnt to talk to people, explain the procedures to them in a concise manner and also to handle customer's enquiry and to refer to the relevant authorities for other enquiries.

For providing customer's enquiries, I realise that he or she may enquire about things which are beyond our scope and it can be frustrating at times as more people treat the medical centre as some directory to look for the other authorities.

Everyone else excluding me and a few others have already orded and have looked frantically for a job. lol. I am still stucked in here.
Looking back, I have already joined the Residents Committee for about 2 yrs. At first, I was shy in approaching others to buy tickets for block party as I am not that type that like to pester others or force others to purchase the tickets. Anyway, after a certain period of time, I will feel accustomed to the idea of selling tickets and hence that awkward feeling diminishes. This also applies to my NS too.

Recently, for the past 2 days, I have decided to pick up Heroes 3. It is indeed an addictive game which is worth playing over and over again. However, it is a pity that the computer controlled players are not really smart and challenging enough.
I start an allied match with my brother yesterday with the map entitled "The Last Continent." To me, that match is really a curse. I have encountered several unlucky incidents. First and foremost, as I feel that Town Portal and other teleport spells like Dimension Door is rather cheating, my brother and I have decided to diable the spells and artifacts that will cause us to have it. Town Portal provides us to have the links back to our own towns and hence, it becomes easier to protect our towns when we are out for our adventure or conquest. Besides that, the armies can be combined easily to one hero. This means that that hero will be my main hero, the hero which conquers towns for you and protect your towns at that same time via Town Portal.
I feel that the beauty of Heroes 3 is that they have 9 towns, each with their unique abilities coupled with the effort made by the game makers to make them very balanced. In addition to that, Heroes 3 has taught me more about planning, before making any moves. It is not just planning on just combat alone, planning how to move around, planning on how to defense your conquered towns successfully, planning on building the structures of the towns to maximise your creature growth. It is vital for the economy and the creature growth to be balanced in order to get a good start.

Yup. Let me recall the few unlucky incidents that I have encountered while playing Heroes 3. First and foremost, with no Town Portal and Dimension Door, I have to pick at least two heroes, train them to attain good stats while my brother concentrates his army strength on just one hero. He is lucky to obtain Angel Wing after combating the dragons in Dragon Utopia. This angel wing artifact enables him to fly around in maps and to fly over obstacles. Thus, it enables him to conquer towns which are across the seas. For me, I am not that lucky. My hero have failed to learn Logistics which increases the hero land movement speed by 30%. Hence, my hero movement speed is very slow. Besdies, coupled with the terrain's penalty, I move even slower.

That's not all. I have tried to conquer some towns using these two main heroes. After that, the main heroes of the third strongest player came at my territories to invade my towns. I lost 2 towns at one go. I have 3 Infernos towns together in a piece of land. I was left with only a Inferno left. As Inferno has castle gate which enables me to town portal within Infernos. My main hero in the ned have to conquer one Inferno which is not in this piece of land, town portal and attack my enemies.

Another incident is that after a couple of weeks, another enemy hero arrives with an intention to conquer my Rampart, a town which is on the other side of the map. He successfully invades the town. So, I called upon one of my main heroes with a decent force to conquer the town back. However, for the first time in my life that I have witnessed, the enemies cast prayer on their units, boosting their defence, attack, speed of their units. Hence, eventually I lost and I have to rely my another main hero which has a slow movement speed to get my town back.

As for my bro's case, no one has ventured into his territories to invade his towns. He is rather lucky. It has been two times since I have played with him, and for these two times, he is lucky and I am unlucky.

Sigh!!!!

New bus stop located along Changi Airport Terminal 3

adapted from SBS Transit website. Click on the image for a larger version.



Click the image for a larger version.

Services 24, 27, 34, 36, 53 and 858 will call at a new bus stop at Changi Airport Terminal 3 with effect from today. All of them will call at T3, followed by T1 and T2 respectively before proceeding back.

Finally, T3 is done. Maybe one day I should go to Changi Airport to visit the new terminal.

Graduation Ceremony

Yesterday, I attended my sister's PCF Serangoon Graduation Ceremony 2007. My is is going to be studying in a primary school next year. She will need to learn about adapting the longer hours in school.
Thinking back 14 years ago, when I was almost the same age as her, I remembered that for my batch, we didn't even have a graduation ceremony in my kindergarden. At that time, we were kust told by our teachers to don the so called "graduation suits" with a square shaped hat. After that, all of us were taken our individual photo for memory. I couldn't remember really a lot about my kindergarden days, my classmates' names and their hobbies. Anyway, nowadays, before the batch of kindergarden pupils graduate, they are "forced" by their teachers to learn some dances and songs so that they can perform on stage. It is rather hard to become a teacher and also a student. However, in my opinion, it is gd for the students as they learn fast at young and hence, it is easier to teach them and expose them to learn new skills. Every class contributes an item and at the finale, all the students ang together a finale song. I should say I am impressed by the students performances. Some of them really danced well despite their young age.

My mum is busy again to make more Malays' clothes. By the way, my mother is a tailor who works at home. She specially makes Malays clothing for them to attend their major events.
So recently, her Malay customers have some events to attend this monthand thus my mum receives several bookings by the Malays to make new clothes. I thought after the annual Hari Raya Pausa period which is the peak period, she can finally relax. Sigh!! She still have to work every day. I guess her business is becoming more brisk as the economy is improving.

I have my driving lesson this morning from 0800 to 1100. Actually, I take up 2 lessons 1.5 hrs each today. After driving for 3 hrs, I feel pain at my lower abdomen region, probably due to the prolonged awkward position when I was sitting in the car, pressing and releasing the clutch. I learnt more about parallel and perpendicular parking today plus some driving around ubi area.

Anyway, I am tired today after going out to town with my friends. Enjoy your day and gd luck.

3 dogs stare

While walking at a certain place, I saw 3 dogs lying at the floor, semi conscious. When they hear my footsteps, 1 by 1, they start to turn their heads and look at me with a menacing look. I was too terrified to respond in my head while my legs continue to walk. lol. And by the way, the dogs are known to harass people along the way according to the people residing a that area. I am quite fortunate that they just stared at me just now.

That's all folks.

Just a thought

Recently, I have become more and more frustrated of working at Dieppe. Although I am well aware of how lucky I am to be posted at Dieppe which is a stay out unit, I still feel sian and frustrated.

The first incident, in today, I have made an appointmnt with NSman to MMI for his Treadmill test. I have asked him regarding about which day he is free to do his tradmill. He mentioned 19th of November. I called MMI and found out that the slots for 19th of Nov 07 is fully booked. So, I slot him on the 16th of Nov 07. I called and informed him and he said ok. After that, the Admin site said that I will have to reschedule his appointment on another date. And the reason is because they can't pay him while he is on ICT period. This reason is rather amusing as just because of this trival reason, I will have to reschedule him. Besdies, they said that I can schedule him on the 9th or 12th of Nov 07. lol. Schedule is so tight and I doubt MMI have the slots for him. What about the payment for asking him to come down for the treadmill?

I have been wondering, since he has spoken to me that he will come down for tradmill during his ICT period, the admin site can treat this like a last minute walk in and pay him accordingly using manual payments. I guess with the introduction of e health, more administration procedures have been laid out instead and hence all of us have more work to do. I was thinking, with the introduction of new systems, shouldn't things be made easier. If not, I will rather utilise the old system instead as it is more reliable and less work.

Another factor that I am getting frustrated is that I finally realise more significantly the difference between work friends and personal friends. We can be good friends but when both of us are working together, the situation can be different.
For example, there will be office politics all over. I am starting to realise this recently. People have been trying hard to be lazy. Of course, that is human nature. But isn't sharing workload the way to go to ensure fairness? Perhaps I feel indignant as the workload currently now is not evenly distributed among us. Though, I dislike doing treatment stuffs like cleaning wounds and drawing bloods, I can do it voluntarily if no one is around and I have to draw blood on that person.
Knowing stuffs such as the admin procedures are good. However, the problem comes if you know too much and you are being too responsible and efficient. Other people from other branches will come and look for you to assist them in filling up some medical information which I am proficient in digging out in the system. Imagine, I am unaware of anything, I can just push the things to other people to do. Of course, if that guy has so many things to do, I will try and help them in whatever way I can. It is because of the above statement, I unknowingly learned some MOPA skills. I learned how to type clinical entries, do a statement of case in prior to a medical board, doing medical board stuffs all by myself. However, I just remained as an assistant to my colleague who is a MOPA. In case he requires assistance for me to type some case, I wil assist. Of course, my main role is still to trace docket which contain medical information, make appointments, track X Ray flow.

Perhaps I am frustrated by the fact that work is just conveniently pushed to me and a few other colleagues to do. In my opinion, it is always this few people who gets the lion's share of the job. I am always the one that gotten the scoldings from two Nsmen which really angered me till emotions got the better of me. All because I volunteer to inquire more about him. For the most recent case, I have documented in I guess end sep or early oct entry in the blog. I feel that everything is arrowed to me.
From the latest din created by me and the NSman, I have realised that I need to learn how to control my emotions in certain tense situations. Especially in situations when I know I am reasoning with people who I know obviously that they are at fault, I will tend to lose control and unleash my anger. I have done that previously on AJC Service Learning project. So, now I tolerate the Nsman's nonsense in the recent incident as I know that being service oriented, it seems inappropiate to quarrel and scold him as it might have serious repercussions. I guess that I will have much to learn be it emotionally, mentally and in work.

Thinking back 2 years ago, I feel glad that I have joined the Residents Committee. It provides me a chance to learn more about leadership, learn more about social interacting skills, persuasive skills. I recall a period when my friend deals with a rather tense situation in a composed manner. There is a guy who complain to him about things not done and so on and so forth. He explains to him, maintains his stand while he phrases his words which sound soothing to the ears. He will be my role model to learn more about social interacting skills. Human relationships especially relationships at work can fluctuate quite a lot.

Looking back at the things that I have written just now, my thoughts seem to be disorganised but in summary, it all zooms down to venting out my frustrations on this blog, my aim of controlling my emotions in tense situations.

Anyway, enjoy your day. I hope that evryone is in good health.

Short service trip 173A

adapted from SMRT website. Click the image for larger version. Visit SMRT website for more info.

Almost similar to 859A. Its purpose is to provide a link from the last train at Bukit Batok MRT to Bukit Batok St 21.

General

Yesterday, I went out with a group of friends to Marina Square to celebrate Jiaxing's birthday. We met at City Hall MRT station control. So, from my house, I can take 147. I reached the bus stop at 1635 but the bus came at 1655. Woah 20 minutes wait. Not only that, the bus is like 85-90% packed. So, everyone is squeezing inside the bus. However, halfway on my journey, when the bus is around 70-80% packed and a commuter flags the bus at some distance from the bus stop, the bus driver ignored and continued to drive on. I can understand that the bus driver must be behind schedule but I guess customer service should always come first. One can't expect that passenger to continue waiting for this service since there are still some spaces available in the bus. If I am that passenger, I will get very frustuated.

Besides, I have noticed the pattern that 147 buses always disappear between the 1630 - 2000. Perhaps a serious bunching problem has occurred during this period. While I was waiting for the bus, I saw 3 service 147 buses passing by. Sigh!!! It is very frustuating to see the service worsen.

On the other hand, it was a good choice to dine out at Swensen during birthdays. So, since Jiaxing's birthday was on yesterday, we got one main course and one ice cream free. Besides, as Swensen is celebrating some award which I guess is some excellent service or performance award, they are introducing some 1-1 package for sundae.
So, guess wat. We order 1 Giant Earthquake and we get another Earthquake free.
So, in the end, all of us were very full especially we had to clear up lots and lots of scoops of ice cream. For the flavours of the Earthquake, on normal circumstances, people tend to choose the 8 flavours. For us, we exclude the flavours that we don't like or was not available. Then, when the 2 earthquakes came simultaneously, people who were dining at neighbouring tables turned their heads and looked at us while the waiter calmly placed the 2 earthquakes on our tables and poured some water into a bottle of dry ice, causing columns of smoke to be emitted. The 1-1 thing was indeed a surprise and we really enjoyed ourselves.

The single decker WAB buses

Scania K230UB (WAB) has finally hit on the roads today. The buses according to The Straits Times Report have a capacity of 87 passengers (58 standing and 29 seated).

Several buses have been deployed on service 100 and 174 today. Be the first to check it out.

Just an entry

I had intended to write it yesterday but didn't have the time to do so.

Time really flew. lol. The word "flew" is used here instead of "flies" means that it is in the past. This is due to the fact that I am feeling bored and thus penning down my thoughts in a diary. There have been a few encounters where I felt like creating a diary or blog to document my daily life. This can be due to external factors for example, watching this Korean drama titled " Precious Family." The father in the show writes a diary to inform his deceased parents regarding about the evens occurring when they are not around. He has a purpose, motive of starting to write his diary while I have none. This is probably the explanation of why I am so fickle minded in writing a diary last time, abolish this idea a few months later, start my diary again after one year plus. I am really fickle minded in many areas too bbesdies writing my diary as mentioned earlier. One such area is swimming. I used to swim every Tues and Fri, then every Fri to build up my stamina. However, I have not swum for a very long time since Feb 2007 I guess. So, I hope this time, I will not be fickle minded again in continuing to write my diary. Then again, it will be difficult to continue this conquest if I have no motive of writing it.
Anyway, all the above comments are just thoughts that flowed through my mind while watching the show just now.

Today was a rather swift day as mentioned in my first phrase "Time really flew." PTE Lau (to be formal) and I went to Army Logistics Base to collect 3 Medical Officer Bags and 11 Medical Operational Pouches. Before collecting all the above items, wehave to check whether the items are in gd conditions, and of correct quantity. Besides, their expiry dates have to be checked too for expendable items. So, in the end, it took us up to 3 hrs plus to finish checking all the stuffs. It feels mundane having to check items and items again for 3 MO's bags and 11 MOPs. Besides, the in-vehicle journey from my camp to ALB is around 1.5 hrs to and fro. However, I still feel that it is essential to check all the stuffs as my friend and I have found some expired and missing items from the bags and MOPs. For this "excursion" I called it, I volunteered my own service because firstly, I have never really ventured into ALB which is at Choa Chu Kang Rd near Lim Chu Kang area. I guess it will be fun to know how the infrasstructure looks like, the buildings that are located in the vicinity. In addition to that, I will like to witness the types of buses that are deployed on service 172 and 975 which passes by ALB and also the respective passenger loads in the afternoon so as to gauge the demand of my newly created service 974 from Bukit Batok to Lim Chu Kang (Loop). Many events will be lined up as we say gd bye to October and welcome the month of November. In my household, there will be 3 persons including me who will celebrate their birthdays this month alone. So, wish us Happy Birthday.

I also have some thoughts regarding about the rerouting of some bus routes when Circle Line opens in 2010 or 2012. I guess that I talk about that tomorrow judging from the number of words that I have written today. Enjoy my day and wish everybody gd health.

Driving Lesson

My driving is still noobish if there is such a word. I still can't control the clutch and will get nervous if anything goes wrong. I am still paranoid about one day, I will crash into a car if I am carless.

As of now, my brother is having his exams. O levels have commenced and he still presents himself as a rather slacked person to me. I infer this impression from the way he studies and the way he got so easily distracted by my sis mini gameboy games. lol.
Anyway, wish him luck for his upcoming exams and anyone else for their A and O levels.

Enhancement of service 372

adapted from SBS Transit website.

Just to make things clearer, the earlier posts are all my fantasy routes amendments while this post is happening in reality with effect from 28th of October 2007.

Some minor route amendments for 963

Details of 963 route amendments:
1. 963 will be amended to cover Clementi Rd, Clementi MRT Stn instead of covering Clementi Ave 6
2. It is amended for the purpose of covering some deleted sectors of 146 and to reduce duplication of 188 which also provides a direct link from Harbourfront to Clementi Ave 6.
3. It enables a direct link from ITE (Dover) or NUS (Lower Kent Ridge Rd) to go to Clementi Stn besides the only sole service 95.

Shortened 146 route Hougang - Harbourfront

New 146 Hougang to Harbourfront

Total of 31 stages per trip.
Reasons for the shortening my one of the longest fantasy routes:
1. Fare stages too long. (47 stages)
2. Lots of bus services duplication between Harbourfront to Bukit Batok.
166, 188, 963 runs parallel with the deleted sectors of 146.

Route change of 986 wef 14th Oct 2007.

Details: 986 will be plying Hougang Ave 2, 10 instead of Upp S'goon Rd.

Commuters who are taking buses to Ubi or CCK at Upp S'goon Rd can take 51, 72 to Hougang Ave 3 and transfer to 986.