Fantasy Route Amendment for Service 106 and 968A

This amendment occurs in the direction towards Bukit Batok for service 106 and Woodlands for service 968A.

Fantasy Route Withdrawal of 700

With the introduction of service 968, service 700 seems to duplicate too much onto service 968. Thus, it will be withdrawn with effect from Monday.

Old Airport Rd / Dunman Rd Reopened

Finally, the section linking Old Airport Rd and Dunman Rd is going to be opened. This will cut down travelling time for bus services plying that area. For more info regarding the changes in bus routes, click on the poster by SBS Transit. Visit www.sbstransit.com.sg for more updates.

Fantasy Bus Services affected: 84

Things about me.

If she didn't write in my chatbox, I would have known later that I just got tagged.
"According to your age, list down the number of things that most people don't know about you. And then tag 5 people."

Let me start then.
Things that about me that most people don’t know.
1.I only know how to call Mum and Dad when I was 7 years old.
2.I prefer to “stone” when faced with a crowd of strangers to mix around with them.
3.I love to eat bitter gourd.
4.I am rather anti-social.
5.I enjoy looking at books which talks about different types of diseases and the mechanisms.
6.At times, I ponder about my existence when the outcome is back to square one.
7.Coming to my hobby, I like bus routes and it starts from reading Transitlink Bus Guides at my grandma’s house since the age of 6.
8.I start to watch buses just outside my grandma’s house one year after.
9.“It is like learning how to walk or learning how to ride a bicycle.” I guess that’s the description on how I gradually know some bus routes in my mind.
10.This hobby of mine is the major reason why I love numbers and number pattern, like the divisibility tests of different prime numbers.
11.I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint recently. This mindset of mine is spurred by watching a nice documentary called “Earth from Above.”
12.I like to play computer games provided that my computer is able to support it.
13.My eyes hurt when I play computer games for more than three hours.
14.I hate eating cheese, any spicy stuffs and drinking milk and alcohol.
15.I prefer things that are more durable to things that look nice.
16.I am actually very lazy.
17.I like to play Reversi.
18.I can get unexpected stomachache after meals.
19.I am colour blind but it doesn’t mean that my world consists of black and white only.
20.I am quite content with what I have.
21.I like to keep things to myself rather than spilling it out.

Regarding to tagging, I only have two people in mind.
Jing Chong
Jayden/Steven Ho.

Extension of Operating Hours of SMRT services

Poster is taken from SMRT official website www.smrt.com

Is global warming really happening?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11383

Is global warming really happening? It seems to have been embroiled with politics.

Bus Fan Amazing Race

A candid shot by one of the fellow bus enthusiast.

I went to the Amazing Race organized specially for bus fans on Saturday. Did I just mention “for bus fans only?” I think I just did. Hmm, I don’t think I am a bus fan since it is defined to be a person who is proficient about the information of buses and I am not sensitive to the bus type and their specifications. So, I am neither here nor there. Without the usage of bus guides and street directories, this race tests my proficiency of my bus routes and my knowledge of “popular landmark” in Singapore. As expected, there are landmarks which I don’t know and I have realized that my searching skill is terrible.

First, and foremost, the meeting place is at a “tower” in Toa Payoh Town Park. This is my first time venturing into this town park and as usual, I am bitten by some mosquitoes. I take 73 from my house to Toa Payoh. The weather is good and scenery looks fine except that the water in a small pond there looks like it is infested with bits of algae. Faint sounds of cars and buses can be heard from Toa Payoh Interchange and the Pan-Island expressway. Many people arrived late for the event as the weather was conductive for resting. Hence, the introduction part was sort of “cut” and the race commenced a few minutes before 10.

My team and I went to the newly built HDB block at Blk 79. Photos are given to us and we are expected to find the same spot in Blks 79A to 79E and produce the exact same replica. As mentioned earlier, I was very terrible in my searching skills for spots which produce this photo from the camera’s perspective. In the end, we were quite behind time and so we proceed to the next destination at CCK.

We took 105 and transfer to 190. All of us knew what we were looking for – a Shop N Save outlet. However, it is a NTUC Fairprice outlet in Lot 1 Shoppers Mall. So, it was later found that the place we were seeking for was at Sunshine Place since the clue given to us had a picture of a loaf of Sunshine Bread and CCK and 172.

We took some time to complete the assigned tasks over there and one of my teammates decided to try his luck onto fishing. This was my first time in seeing a “fishing farm” at a shop which is just a vending machine containing a pump and water and some “light fishes” that is circulating about. After all this “distractions”, we finally proceed to our next destination at Sembawang Shopping Centre. Our choice of route is 975 to Bukit Panjang, 187 to Woodlands, 169 to Admiralty Road West and 856 to Sembawang Shop Ctr. In my opinion, taking 171 from Bukit Panjang to Sembawang Road and transfer to 167 or 980 to Sembawang Shop Centre may be a faster alternative. Halfway through the journey, we are told to proceed to SMRT Ang Mo Kio Depot.

Thus, we took 854 to Yio Chu Kang Rd and walk from there. From there, we consumed our lunch and proceeded from there to Thanggam LRT station near Jalan Kayu. Again, a set of tasks were assigned to us. So, we went around the place to search for 15 members of the public for their signatures. It requires us to be more proactive and luckily the many members of the public were very helpful in leaving their signatures to help us complete our activity. At this point in time, I was already quite exhausted as I sprinted 600 metres from Jalan Kayu Prata House to the LRT station to and forth. The reason is we failed to read the instructions for our tasks carefully and made several mistakes in it.

Next, we proceed to Ruman Tinggi, a place where 63 bus is parked near a rubbish dump. This is also my first time to the previous Ruman Tinggi terminal. We take LRT to Sengkang, transfer to 80 and next to 63. Same thing as in the previous stations, we did some tasks again and proceeded to Vivocity afterwards to conduct a “search hunt.” Never did I expect finding 5 people out of the thousands or ten thousands people already in Vivocity will be that hard. The whole event ended at around 2100 hrs and all bus fans including me the neither here nor there one went for supper.

Anyway, though many of them are bus fans, some of them are very proficient in bus routes as well as perhaps it is related to buses too. For me, I think I just remain at who I am unless I am influenced by them one day. It is rather interesting to interact with them as they provide with new views and perspectives and mostly are about buses. Hehe. However, it is interesting to note that all the bus fans that have attended the event are all males. Hmm, I am not being bias here but from here, I infer that this interest is catered more towards the males.

Holidays

Its holidays now. Unfortunately, I have numerous regrets about my exams. Thoughts have been flooding my mind like "Why didn't I study this tutorial qn?" and so on. I guess time is still ticking away and life continues to go on as usual.

I have just turned 21 but I am not "mentally" prepared for this symbolic number. Although 21 symbolises more freedom and less restriction, it represents more responsbilities, more factors to consider, more relationships and social network to be built as I enter into the interdependent world.

In addition, I will like to thank the animals (The Family of Bears and a unique flying fish)for the b day present. I will try to utilise less often so that the bag remains presentable at the next time I meet u guys. Cos, I tend to put heavy stuffs in my bags. :)

Sores and itchy bumps are starting to come out of my arms and thighs one day after the mangrove cleanup. I am not exactly sure what is happening but I presume that some forest flies have sucked my blood incessently for their afternoon tea.

Holidays are coming but I am at a loss at what to do. Do I study my modules for the next semester? Or do I study more about diseases? Or do I play more dota? Or do I catch up the current affairs in the world? Oh man, I am at a loss. I just hope that this holiday can recharge my battery to the fullest by the time a new semester starts.

Some fantasy routes amendments

Oh yea. Some of my fantasy route amendments as my hobby. Drawing still seem to look terrible.

Mangrove cleanup at Pasir Ris Pk.

Yesterday was the day that I got myself really dirty with several mud stains on my Tee shirt.

I went to Pasir Ris Park together with some passionate "environmentalists" to clean up the mangrove swamps there. It was more of a physical challenge as I have to do some "aerobatics" inside there. Trees and twigs are some of the numerous impedences to locations where artificial rubbbish can be found. There are several instances where my whole body is stepping onto a thick wood branch hanging in the air and it cracks as soon as I move. As a result, I fell into the muddy pool of water. The next obstacle will be the soft mud. Since it is soft, my boots are easily stuck inside it and thus my walking speed is further slowed.
Though there are not a lot of rubbish, I have found many plastic bottles lying in the mangrove swamps especially Vitagen and Yakult bottles enough to fill up two black trash bags. Although it is tiring and exhausting, at least this is one thing that I can do to repay to the environment for me causing harm to it.

Exams are pretty much over. Sigh!!! I have many regrets pertaining to this exams but I can't do much now. My last paper is chemistry and I am still wondering how I can study effectively and score well in the exams. I hope that I won't have any regrets for the last paper.

160 & 170 call at a new bus stop

Click on the poster to view the enlarged version. Visit www.sbstransit.com.sg for further details.

Services 160 and 170 will call at a bus stop along Jalan Tun Abdul Razak which is located outside JB Sentral with effect fom 2nd December 2008.

Minor fantasy route amendments

Service 144 will be renumbered to 84.
Services 43, 62, 80, 84 will call at the pair of bus stop along Punggol Place.

Fewer seats in trains?

I was amazed when I saw this in the newspapers. The first thing in my mind is what a waste of money in implementing this new initiative. This new initiative in my option has a limit to its effectiveness in curbing the "human congestion" in trains. Perhaps the cost of removing the seats are low and profits can be further maximised by housing more people in the trains.

In beginning year 2002, some seats in buses have their seats removed. In year 2006, new buses rolled out into the roads with even fewer seats so as to house the PIWs as can be seen in the newest WAB buses. Now the trend is extended to trains. Will it make a cycle back to buses again?

Fantasy Route Amendments

This is a very minor route amendment for service 167 and 852 to ply Sembawang Way and Sembawang Dr instead of Canberra Rd. This will benefit residents of Sembawang greatly in terms of proximity of these two services to the nearest bus stops.

Overseas trip to Outwards Bound of Singapore

It was a fun filled trip to OBS. This event in my opinion was similar to the interactive courses conducted at NACLI in Buona Vista. Instead of the boring lectures, more outdoor activities were conducted and more discussions were done with the theme “Community Engagement Programme.” In the end, it ended up in a discussion about racial issues. Nevertheless, it was my first time visiting Outward Bound of Singapore, and my first time venturing into the end part of Punggol where bus service 82 plies.


I never had expected that the end part of Punggol Rd is a narrow one lane road since double decker buses were deployed on service 82 before the North East Line rationalisation exercise conducted at June 2003. I heard that there were many famous seafood restaurants and eateries situated in that area but unfortunately, I still had no idea where they were currently. So inside OBS, the participants participated in several activities like punching the keys, crossing the rivers, solving the puzzle and stop moving. Many of these games entailed teamwork, cooperation and trust. These three words seem to be mentioned frequently throughout the one day course.


However, the most memorable game that I had played was solving the puzzle. Initially, the participants were broken up into seven groups. These seven groups had their own “hula hoops” and in each of these “hula hoops”, there was an empty jigsaw puzzle board. Thereafter, each group gets an envelope each containing the pieces of the puzzle inside. After that, in the first round, the timings for each of the groups were recorded. Therefore, we were expected to complete the puzzle at the fastest time.


Several assumptions were made. When the group opened up the envelope, it was assumed that the pieces of puzzle inside were the pieces of puzzle of our own jigsaw puzzle board. In the end, the puzzle pieces of the seven jigsaw puzzles were all mixed up. I think that created an impetus to search frantically for the puzzle pieces for the respective jigsaw puzzle. Some of the groups were searching for their puzzle pieces while other groups conveniently took the puzzle pieces from other groups, assuming that some of them were in their jigsaw puzzle board. For our group, we had pieced some of the “possible” puzzle pieces together but later discovered that this group of puzzle pieces do not belong to this jigsaw puzzle board. In the end, the fastest timing is 3 minutes and 31 seconds and the slowest timing is 8 minutes and 55 seconds.


For the second round, instead of taking the timings for the individual groups, the leaders of the seven groups met together and set target timing for the slowest group to complete. The target timing is set at 5 minutes but in the end, the slowest group took 2 minutes and 30 seconds. There were several factors for that. First, many of us had already familiarised with the layout and content of our respective puzzle pieces. Experience does count in doing things efficiently. Second, it seems that cooperation is more efficient in getting things done in this case since we were interdependent of each other.


I will like to take this opportunity to thank the trainers for making their weekend in imparting us the knowledge through interactive games and the linking to the application of the knowledge learnt back to the society. Several issues such as venturing towards racial harmony instead of stopping at racial tolerance and so on were identified during the course. Although no concrete solutions have been drafted out, at least more people are aware of the problem. I hope that a good solution for this issue can “appear” in due time.

Fantasy route amendments

Click on the image to view the route details.
New fantasy route service 126 from Ang Mo Kio to Boon Lay.
This service 126 serves to act like the role of service 151, connecting NTU to other parts of Singapore.

However, when service 126 is introduced, the purpose of connecting Ang Mo Kio to Boon Lay is met, hence, service 104 is withdrawn and service 52 is reintroduced which the route is the same as Transitlink Bus Guide 2008.

Do and don'ts of recycling

It is preferable that the thing is rinsed with water before it should be recycled and things containing oil stains such as used utensils shouldn't be recycled.



Lol. In primary school, I am used to be taught about the 3Rs, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. So, I thought that recycling is a good thing and everything should be recycled as far as possible. However, until I have joined NUSSU Save, I have learnt more things regarding the don'ts of recycling. This simple poster shown above are some information about the dos and don'ts of recycling though it is not made in Singapore.

The topic on my Critical Thinking and Writing is on the environment. This has prompted me to ruminate about the reasons why people don't recycle as much in Singapore as in other European countries according to one of the groups which is doing about recycling. One of the reasons is due to the lack of awareness about the full details of recycling. Paper can be recycled but are used paper plates recycable? Plastic bottles are recycable but are disposable plastic cups recycable?

Hope to share this info to everyone more about recycling especially to those that frequently recycle. It is not that we shouldn't recycle from then on, it is that we should take note of the finer details in recycling so that things are really "recycled".

And finally, Good luck to the tests coming up and good health too.

Withdrawal and amendments of Niteowl and Cityshopper Bus services.

For the Niteowls, 1N and 6N's route does not change with effect from 31st October 2008. 2N to 5N's route have been changed while 7N and 8N's route have been withdrawn. In addition, the operating times of the Niteowls have been changed to 12am to 2am.

For the Cityshopper Services, service 576 have been withdrawn with effect from 31st October 2008. In addition, the operating times of the Cityshopper services have been changed to 1200 to 1630 hrs on weekdays and 1000 to 2100 hrs on weekends and public holidays. They operate as a one-directional service from 1000 to 1200 hrs and as a bi-directional service from 1200 hrs onwards.

For more details, click on the posters or visit SBS Transit official website.



In my opinion, Cityshopper Bus services are introduced as an initiative to attract more consumers to utilise public transport by providing direct and express links from HDB Heartlands to the city. However, the demand of the cityshopper services cause them to be rather unprofitable and hence some amendments are to be made. In my opinion, perhaps the fares for these type of services can be reduced to the same as express services except that standing is now allowed. This will certainly allure more people to utilise public transport.
Regarding about the amendments of Niteowls, I will certainly choose SMRT Nightriders over SBST Niteowls becuase of their longer operating hours and the routes that they ply.

Some Transport News

1. SMRT Nightrider bus services will not be operating on next Friday 26th October 2008.

2. 2 bus stops in Marina Bay will be abolished and hence there are some minor changes to the service 400. Click on the image to view the exact details.

3. From 26th October 2008, service 33 will call upon the bus stop just opposite Kent Ridge Terminal travelling in the direction towards Bedok.

All the information obtained are from SBS Transit and SMRT official websites.

Fantasy Route Amendment service 160

Click on the image to view the enlarged version.
Service 160 will be amended to ply Bukit Panjang as suggested by a fellow forumer. This amendment will serve to provide direct links from Bukit Panjang to Jurong East and to Kranji MRT. In addition, Bukit Panjang residents now have a direct link to Johor.