September Project Test Embed View Larger Map Ivan, it works! Commonly Confused Words Test And I thought I was going to score 100%. Extremely respectable doesn’t cut it. Serves me right for second guessing the questions in the Advanced section. Back to school for me. Your result for The Commonly Confused Words Test… Advanced You scored 93% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 67% Expert! You have an extremely good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels’ questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don’t use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score. Thank you so much for taking my test. I hope you enjoyed it! For the complete Answer Key, visit my blog: http://shortredhead78.blogspot.com/. Take The Commonly Confused Words Test at HelloQuizzy Seen on Lisey’s blog. Sweet Exchange Sometimes Often, I read stuff in the papers that makes my eyes roll. On Saturday, I came across yet another example. (I’ve quoted the relevant bit.) Making friends or making out? … In one game, female students were made to exchange sweets with male students using their mouths as they sat in a circle. … Oh no, the end of civilisation is near. This type of thing has never happened before. Now, our youths are going to become decadent degenerates. Let’s take a step back and consider this: If you have had a good upbringing, are such games going to unleash a torrent of horniness in you? If the games can induce such behaviour, I suggest that it is the youths’ parents who are at fault. Anyway, all this is not new. Maybe our parents, aunties or uncles might have played this game in their youth. I don’t think they turned out for the worse.Screenshot from Phillip Chew’s blog. About Singapore On Saturday, I went on a mini shopping spree. I came back with a few treasures - books and DVDs about Singapore. None of these are likely to become required reading or viewing as part of National Indoctrination Education. Nevertheless (or is it ‘Because of’?), this unlikely quintet are more authentic than most of what you see on Channel 5 and 8. Ah, actually, there is something to be said about that - the Channel 8 reference - particularly regarding The Resident Tourist series. I think the graphic novels will strike a chord with many English-educated Chinese here. Troy Chin’s observations, experiences and asides about Singapore will have you nodding and laughing in agreement. Troy is The Resident Tourist. He details his return to Singapore from New York, where he worked as a music executive. Having been away, he plays tourist in Singapore since he is busy being a bum illustrating and writing a comic about himself - The Resident Tourist. Very meta. I read Part 1 online, after finding out about it via Tomorrow.sg. Even before I was halfway through, I decided to buy the book. Troy (and Adrian Teo, the publisher), if you are reading this, please publish Part 3! Moving on to the DVDs. Remember Chek Jawa, by Eric Lin, documents the journey of ordinary Singaporeans in their valiant effort to survey and ultimately save Chek Jawa from the threat of destruction. If you believe our gahmen doesn’t listen - and I often do - then this documentary will at least make you think twice about that sentiment. Though I still think that on balance, the gahmen generally doesn’t. Think IR and others. The documentary reveals that we do have natural resources. Perhaps non-exploitable, but they exist. The Tan Pin Pin Collection is a compilation of three documentaries by Tan Pin Pin - Moving House, Singapore GaGa and Invisible City. Moving House explores the theme of displacement and development through the exhumation of the director’s great grandfather’s grave. Singapore GaGa is a documentary about the sounds that make up Singapore. Sounds that we take for granted. Sounds that we might not even notice. There is an interview with the Old Voice of MRT. And you’ll discover why you had to learn to play the recorder in school. Finally, there is Invisible City, a study of the hidden histories of our land. If Remember Chek Jawa reminds us that we have natural heritage, Invisible City highlights that we have many alternative historical narratives besides the grand story of how we got kicked out of Malaysia and eventually made good. The common thread that binds these books and DVDs is that they all touch on our identity as Singaporeans. None provide answers. What they serve to do is to make us reflect and to question truisms. The books and DVDs open our eyes to different and sometimes hidden aspects of our existence as Singaporeans. Happy 43rd Another year. Another National Day coming up. But this year, the feeling is just not there. In this place where the one sure thing is change, I am feeling displaced for the first time. Mind you, belonging to the minority of minorities in Singapore, I would well have felt out of place years ago. I didn’t. But something has changed fundamentally in Singapore over the past few years. What is it exactly? I can’t put my finger on it. Still, it’s there. Like the heat you feel from a rash that’s about to break out. I tell people that I chose not to stay in Australia after university because Singapore is home. Truth is, Australia has more than enough Arts graduates and wouldn’t accept me unless I have half a million invested in the land Down Under. If I were an accountant, baker or hairstylist (I am not kidding), they’d beg me to stay. But I’d still say: “Singapore is home.” I am beginning to question that. Is this strange, unrecognisable, crowded place home? The place where I grew up? The people that I grew up with? Democracy, justice, equality, happiness, prosperity, progress. Onward Singapore, let’s move on. Thank Your Teacher (in six words) http://teachersday.sg/ Thank your teacher(s) in six words. You know you can do it. My ‘thanks’ note is being moderated. My thank you note is here. Can’t believe it’s almost five years. FOUR layer chocolate cake I don’t blame my mum for my size. She makes fantastic cakes and other goodies. I… just… cannot… resist. Stuck It’s been quiet around here. July has been a busy month. Didn’t help that I was ill two weekends ago. That’s the third time I’ve fallen ill during the weekend this year. I’m also gaining weight, as one of my colleagues never fails to point out. It’s time to get moving. Miss Earth Singapore contestants at Lim Chu Kang mangrove cleanup Let it not be said that the Miss Earth Singapore contestants are all talk and no action. From what Siva observed, the girls were not afraid to get their hands dirty. The landfill which is a nature haven View Larger Map Last Saturday, I visited Singapore’s one and only landfill. Yes, all our trash has to go somewhere, even though it is incinerated. Since we don’t have any space for landfills on the mainland, the incinerated waste is shipped to Pulau Semakau, which you can see in the map above (the island with lots of holes, just below Pulau Bukom). Far from being a wasteland, the island is home to a wide range of plants and animals. Check out the photos of the wildlife I encountered. And if you want to find out about some of these strange and colourful creatures, do pop over to Ron Yeo’s blog. We Are Media Project Came across the We Are Media Project, a wiki aimed at “build[ing] a toolkit and instructional guides about how social media strategies and tools can enable nonprofit organizations to create, compile, and distribute their stories and change the world”. It’s in the process of being built, but it already looks promising. The first module compiles some very nice resources for a range of non-profit groups, including social media in education. A good starting point for most people. Via George Siemens. Pasir Panjang Heritage Trail - Registration open! Mark down Saturday 19 July 2008 in your calendar - that’s when the Pasir Panjang Heritage Trail is on! Held in support of Singapore HeritageFest, this year the Pasir Panjang Guides will be conducting two walks on that day. We’ll be focusing on the question: who’s your hero? We’ll start at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research in NUS, make our way to Kent Ridge Park and end at Reflections at Bukit Chandu. Of course, if you’ve got the time and energy, you can continue through the Southern Ridges! As we walk, you’ll hear about who (and what!) the guides find heroic (or maybe even villainous..) in the Pasir Panjang area. Join us for the walk! More details and registration information at http://heritagefest.rafflesmuseum.net/. Vote for Good Morning Yesterday in omy’s Singapore Blog Awards One of the blogs I enjoy reading most is Lam Chun See’s Good Morning Yesterday. His blog has been nominated among the Top 10 individual blogs in omy’s (as in ‘Oh my!’, I think) Singapore Blog Awards 2008. If you enjoy reading his blog, as I do, show your support! Vote for him* at the Singapore Blog Awards website. You can vote once a day for a blogger in each category. If you’ve never checked out his blog before, what are you waiting for? He and his guest bloggers will tell you lots of things about Singapore in days of yore which you never knew. It’s chock full of stories and photos. Someone else who deserves to be among the Top 10 individual blogs is LaoKokok. He blogs at Times of My Life. (Another heritage blog with a Paul Anka inspired title.) He’s kept lots of stuff from his younger days and shares them with his readers. Even though you can’t vote for him, you might want to read his blog. If you like Good Morning Yesterday, you’ll probably enjoy Times of My Life. * For accountability (I suppose), you have to give up your personal information like your IC number. A small price to pay for making sure that the online voting is fair. Posterous: blog via email, and then some The idea behind Posterous is preposterously simple: blog by email. (hat tip to Michele Martin). Anyone who can email can now blog. Just send a email to post@posterous.com from your regular email address. (Hmmm… wonder how they filter out spam!) You’ll get a reply which tells you that you’ve posted successfully. The first time you get this reply, you’ll be asked to click a link to create a password. With that, you’ve created your account. Easy peasy. Each time you email/post on posterous, after the initial one, you’ll get a confirmation email saying that you’ve successfully posted. This is to prevent someone from spoofing your email and posting stuff to your blog without your knowledge. Ok, those in the know are probably saying, “But you can also email blog posts via Blogger.” But that still requires account creation to begin with. Besides, Posterous has a few tricks up its sleeve. You can email word docs, powerpoints, pdfs, photos, links, and Posterous will automatically try to present it in the nicest way it knows. For example: Post one photo, and Posterous resizes it to fit the blog. Post a bunch of photos, Posterous creates a mini gallery. Post a document, spreadsheet or pdf, Posterous embeds it in the post using Scribd’s iPaper (don’t worry what this is, the process is entirely invisible - you just email the attachment). Post a YouTube URL, Posterous automatically embed the video. Post an mp3 file, Posterous creates an embedded mp3 player in the post for the file. Just by clicking Send. Check out the FAQ, which shows some of these features in action: http://posterous.com/faq Apparently, comments are also handled entirely through email. I haven’t tested it out though. Check out Siva’s post. Looks like normal comments but they were posted via email, except the first one. I suspect if I subscribe to Siva’s Posterous site, I will probably be able to email/post a comment to his blog without even visiting it. I tried embedding a PDF, but that didn’t go too well. All the text ended up as gibberish. Also, they claim to have some ways to determine if the email really originated from you, so less worries about security. Posterous is pretty new, so no bells-and-whistles yet. I suppose they want to get the basic features working properly before adding things like different themes, sidebar customization etc. Well, they’ve said there’ll always be a free basic service but they’ll have premium features for which they will charge. But right now, it’s dirt simple. Just the thing to get people who’ve been holding out on blogging to start. EnviroFest & NParks website redesign The photo above shows Saving Gaia winner and fellow Toddycat Marcus Tay talking to kids about Pangolins this morning at EnviroFest. The pangolin was there, among other animals specimens, at the Toddycats booth. Most visitors to our booth are surprised to find out that all the specimens on display can be found in Singapore! The booth is definitely a hit among the kids, who drag their parents along sometimes. The location of EnviroFest - in front of Toa Payoh Community Library - lends itself to being a kid-rich environment. Heh. Check out the photos here. While annotating the photos of the respective organisations’ booths, I found out that NParks has redesigned its website. Much nicer than the old one. I was going to pan the navigation though, as there seemed to be more steps to get to the individual park pages. Parks > North/South/East/West/Offshore Islands (or use the embedded Google Map!) > then click on the park. Then I realised there are quick links to the parks if you scroll down. Hmmm… that should be right above on the website! One more thing, if you’ve ever linked to anything on their website, it is quite likely that the link is now broken. Oh, anyone recognise the lady in the photo on the website? UPDATE I’ve been exploring NParks use of Google Maps. The Green Map is quite nice. The Park Connectors can be improved though. It doesn’t show the full connections, especially for the Eastern Coastal Park Connector. And get this, they’ve linked to my Google Map from their Southern Ridges page! I hate Math, but I am open to persuasion If the lady above looks sort of familiar, she’s the actress who played Winnie Cooper in The Wonder Years. I was aware she is some sort of maths whiz, but I didn’t know she had a book out. The question is, who is going to buy her book? *scratch chin* Definitely not Singaporean students. “Fractions, decimals and percents”? Our primary school students eat those (unfortunately) for recess. Perhaps I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. While I have no idea what’s in the book, maybe something like this would have gotten me interested in mathematics. Sine, cosine, tangent, what? Differentiation? Integration? Proving this equals that? Could never see how it was applicable in my life, and I still wonder how knowing (or at least, trying to know) all that helped me. The exception was statistics, which was mildly intriguing and probably the only reason I didn’t fail both O and A Level Mathematics. Thanks, Kevin - incidentally, the male lead character’s name in The Wonder Years - for this (reminder of Danica McKellar, not Mathematics) little blast from the past. =) Original photo by Kevin Lim, from here, reproduced under a cc by-nc-sa 2.0 license. My F1 tickets I finally got my hands on the tickets for Singapore’s first Formula 1 race. Yes, I realise the irony of a post about Formula 1 just after one about Envirofest, but I don’t claim to be an environmental saint. Unfortunately, the tickets came in a big box, meant for 10 sets - the maximum any individual can buy. Inside, mostly empty space, since I bought two sets of tickets. The actual ticket holder: still lots of paper being used. Inside, a pass for each day of the race: Friday (practice), Saturday (qualifying) and Sunday (race day). Now, I feel I need to do some penance for my participation in this environmental monstrosity… Envirofest 2008 this weekend Envirofest 2008 is on this weekend. It will be held in the open area in front of Toa Payoh Community Library from 11am to 8pm on Sat 28 and Sun 29 June. Lots of nature and environment groups will be there! Me? I’m going to be at the Toddycats booth from opening to 2pm on both days. Hmmm… what’s this SWITCH mentioned in the banner? Apparently, it stands for Simple Ways I can Take to Change my Habits. Firefox 3 - 8,414 downloads in Singapore and counting UPDATE - 3 July 2008 A World Record! 8,002,530 downloads in 24 hours. Have you grabbed Firefox 3 yet? What are you waiting for? Download it now! As at 1058hrs (Singapore time), 8,414 people have downloaded Firefox 3. I account for three: home PC, office PC and MacBook. =) Total downloads are 2.8 million and counting! If you’ve installed Firefox 3 and want to leverage on its full power, check out: Official Firefox Tips & Tricks Lifehackers’ Power Users Guide to Firefox 3 Firefox Download Day is tomorrow (Singapore time) I have been using Firefox since its first release in late 2004. I was fed up with Internet Explorer (i.e. the Blue E) as it was clunky. I never liked how it handled bookmarks (or favourites, in IE-speak). There wasn’t much I could customise or extend. Most of all, it’s just plain unsafe. The number of security issues that arise from the combination of Windows and IE is astounding. I have no hard data on this, but I reckon that switching to an alternative browser is a major step to safer browsing. Firefox is a joy to use. It has tabbed browsing. No more opening multiple windows. This really helps as I rarely browse with just one window open. Firefox has extensions, which I use a lot to tailor the browser to my needs (perhaps a blog post on this another time). It’s not perfect though. Like other users, I’ve noticed that Firefox 2 (about to be defunct), hogs RAM. And it just gets worse over time. Thankfully, Firefox 3 doesn’t seem to suffer from this problem. I’ve been using it on my MacBook, and it is really fast and responsive. I hope Firefox 3 solves another issue. It’s okay to visit a site using Java (such as some internet banking sites) but visiting another site which uses Java later on in the same session (lets say I go to a government e-service site which uses SingPass) results in Java not working. It’s a bit of a pain as I have to quit Firefox to get the Java engine to close, then restart Firefox. Whatever the case, Firefox is a better browser overall. If you haven’t gotten rid of that Microsoft junk that passes for a browser (tell me you love IE 7’s upside down interface and I’ll be speechless), help set a world record tomorrow - Wednesday, July 18, 1am to Thursday, July 19, 1am according to Otterman - by downloading and trying Firefox 3. You won’t look back. Where I go, fires seem to follow I’m not sure how many people have been to places which have burnt down or caught on fire. Admittedly, having lived in Australia for two years made the chances of that higher as bushfires are common there. Still, I think it’s a little unusual to have been to a number of places that have been ravaged by fire. The kitchen in my house, Bishan, SingaporeOn fire: Ash Wednesday (the irony) early to mid 90s.Cause: Stove fire.Remarks: My grandmother left cooking unattended while she was on the phone. I was the only other person who was at home. I was supposed to be at church when the fire happened, but I had decided to go for a later mass. I managed to put out the fire before it got really big. The kitchen had to be renovated as the fire destroyed the hob, stove and part of the cabinets. Mount Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, Australia | articleVisited: July 2001.On fire: 18 January 2003.Cause: Bushfire.Remarks: Not many people visit Mount Stromlo (or Canberra, for that matter), so I was shocked to find out one morning that the observatory fell victim to a massive bush fire. Victoria Ranges Indoor Rock Climbing Centre and Pistol Range, Melbourne, Australia | articleVisited: Various occasions in 2002 and 2003.On fire: 12 November 2004.Cause: I believe it was an accident. Can’t seem to find an article which confirms the cause.Remarks: This place, next to a paper warehouse, was entirely gutted. Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria, Australia | articleOn fire: 1 April 2005.Visited: Just a week or two before the fire.Cause: Out of control back-burningRemarks: I went to Melbourne for a short break in 2005. Not long after my first-ever visit to Wilsons Prom, a major fire (apparently due to back-burning gone wrong) wiped out a lot of the vegetation. Universal Studios, Los Angeles, USA | articleVisited: December 1995.On fire: 2 June 2008.Cause: Apparently, an accident.Remarks: The animatronic King Kong that scared my brother is now no more. So, beware if I’ve ever been to your house… Singapore 3 Uzbekistan 7 Not the kind of scoreline you see every day. I made my way down to the National Stadium for what will probably be the second-last time. (The last time should be Singapore v Saudi Arabia two Saturdays from now, by which time the game might be inconsequential to our qualifying hopes.) A colleague, my boss’ kid (I kid you not) and I missed the bulk of the action in the first half. By the time we got in, it was already 2-3 to the Uzbeks. Judging from the cheering we heard just as we were walking towards the stadium, Singapore were the most recent scorers. (We got in free. Primary school kids and below get free entry. And some random guy passed complimentary tickets to my colleague and I as we were walking up the stairs.) Anyway, in the next few minutes, everything fell apart. Here’s the odd thing. I felt we could still fight back. Even after we eventually went 2-6 down. The Lions performed admirably but were let down by some seriously naive defending, especially at set-pieces. Daniel Bennett, normally solid, had a topsy-turvy night. Precious (I won’t even try spelling his surname) was given a torrid time. His lack of pace was totally exposed by the short-passing Uzbeks. Our defensive organisation was horrid. Besides the defending, we were creating chances. Not as many as the Uzbeks, who could easily have won this game by double-digits if not for some unbelievable misses from close and the fingertips of Lionel Lewis. But we still created chances. We still fought. Which is why there were no boos, no jeers for the Lions, even though we conceded more than I can remember in any recent game. Even though we were beaten by four goals. I remember the last major embarrassing scoreline we had. That infamous trashing by Malaysia in the Tiger Cup a few years back. That night, the crowd turned on the Lions, and almost justifiably so. We just let them trample all over us. Tonight, we took a severe beating, still got up and tried to give as good as we got. For that, I applaud our Lions. Clean your keyboard… today I apologise for the disturbing photo. Perhaps it is enough to convince you to clean your keyboard. Otterman mentioned this recently, around the same time that I had other warnings that I should clean my keyboards thoroughly. I was convinced, but I put it off. Today, I levered out some keys from a spare keyboard that I need to use for photography. Seeing the gunk for myself reminded me that I should get to this sooner rather than later. All the more since I’m recovering from a bad cold. It’s been a week. My office keyboard definitely needs to be cleaned. So too, my desktop keyboard at home. My MacBook is protected by a silicone sheet, so it’s not that bad. I wouldn’t try popping out the keys of my MacBook anyway. How often will I have to do this? I’ve even thought of buying a flexible, washable keyboard. (The price on that website is a rip off though. IIRC you can get it for under that price in Singapore dollars at Funan or Sim Lim shops.) M.I.A. Trail - Fully booked! (updated 29 May) UPDATE - 29 May The M.I.A. Trail is fully booked! Thanks for your support. =) The ever-popular M.I.A. Trail (that’s Missing in Action), held in conjunction with International Museum Day, happens on Saturday, 31 May 2008. There are two tours, led by the Pasir Panjang Heritage Guides, at 5.15pm and 6.15 pm. The first tour is already Both tours are fully booked! The trail introduces participants to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research’s Public Gallery, Kent Ridge Park and Reflections at Bukit Chandu. If you’re game for an evening of discovering what has gone missing in Pasir Panjang, visit imd.rafflesmuseum.net and sign up for the 6.15 pm tour. M.I.A. Trail - First bus full! The ever-popular M.I.A. Trail (that’s Missing in Action), held in conjunction with International Museum Day, happens on Saturday, 31 May 2008. There are two tours, led by the Pasir Panjang Heritage Guides, at 5.15pm and 6.15 pm. The first tour is already fully booked! The trail introduces participants to the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research’s Public Gallery, Kent Ridge Park and Reflections at Bukit Chandu. If you’re game for an evening of discovering what has gone missing in Pasir Panjang, visit imd.rafflesmuseum.net and sign up for the 6.15 pm tour. Hull - A Premier City I took a rather unremarkable shot of Chun See’s shoes during the Inter-school Dragon Boat Competition in April. (View the original photo here.) Looking at his shoes, I thought to myself, “Wah, not bad, Chun See supports a non-Premier League club.” Another thought occurred almost immediately, “I didn’t know Chun See watches football! Perhaps he studied at the University of Hull?” Hmmmm… Well, Chun See, looks like your team is going to be facing the likes of Manchester United next season. Can we have our loan player back? =) Hull - A Premier City I took a rather unremarkable shot of Chun See’s shoes during the Inter-school Dragon Boat Competition in April. (View the original photo here.) Looking at his shoes, I thought to myself, “Wah, not bad, Chun See supports a non-Premier League club.” Another thought occurred almost immediately, “I didn’t know Chun See watches football! Perhaps he studied at the University of Hull?” Hmmmm… Well, Chun See, looks like your team is going to be facing the likes of Manchester United next season. Can we have our loan player back? =) Chinook lands in NUS! Otterman gets a tip off about unusual activity on Kent Ridge. He then discovers the reason: a Chinook landed on the multi-purpose field in NUS. Check out keropokman’s photo!. For the uninitiated, the Chinook is a huge tandem-rotor troop/transport helicopter. I got to sit in one during in-camp training a couple of years back. Man, it was loud… New Zealand Retrospective A documentary I watched yesterday about whales brought to mind my family’s trip to New Zealand last year. We went on a whale watching trip with Whale Watch Kaikoura - which was featured in the film- towards the end of the trip. I had fully intended to write about my New Zealand experience when I returned to Singapore. Two things kept me from doing so. The first was that I was too tired after the end of each day to put down my thoughts. Meaning that I did not take copious notes. Also, I slept early as I needed plenty of rest to keep fresh while driving. That leads on to the second reason… The accident. Anyway, I did write down a few points that I can mention here: Kiwis (the people) are very friendly This is something most polynesian cultures are famous for. New Zealanders are just very nice people. Kiwis (the birds) are endangered Yup, those famous flightless birds are in danger of dying out. Distance to… New Zealanders, as a people, seem to be acutely aware of their remoteness. In almost every city and town, you will find one of those signposts which show the direction and distance to different cities around the world. Narrow roads and strange road rules The former may apply only to the South Island. Outside of Christchurch, almost all the roads are single lanes in both directions. Some of the roads get very narrow and there seems to be endless road works to repair damaged roads. There is also a very unusual rule about who has right of way at a junction. North and South divide Yes, there seems to be some sort of rivalry between north and south islands. The southerners are supposedly more ‘country’. Kiwis make fantastic beer (Three Boys) I am making a generalisation here. I was lucky to stumble upon a boutique beer called Three Boys. (So boutique that their website does not list their exact address.) They make a white beer that is simply marvellous. If you like Hoegaarden, you’ll love Three Boys witbeir. There are many places where photography is not allowed This is either by design or by enforcement. Most of the adventure activities get you wet or jolted around. Not good for cameras. And/or they want to sell their photo packs of your group at the end of the tour/activity/show. Disclaimer forms Many activities in New Zealand are considered hazardous. I’ve never signed so many “I will not claim damages” forms in my life. Horse riding, river rafting, quad biking… Hmmm… thinking about it, I’m surprised I didn’t have to sign one for the luge in Queenstown. I scoffed at the luge as my only experience of it was on Sentosa. Even though the same company designed and built the one in Queenstown, the luge there is much, much, much more of a thrill. All Blacks Everywhere I know that rugby is a national passion in New Zealand. I never expected that they would be so commercialized. Every corner, you will find some sort of All Blacks merchandise. Every other media mention is about the All Blacks. Having only won the inaugural Rugby World Cup has got to hurt. Backtrax Quad Biking in Hanmer Springs This was the most fun and value-for-money thing I did in New Zealand. Simon, who took the photo above, runs a very personal, informative and entertaining quad bike experience. Quad biking is thoroughly enjoyable and exhilarating. Exclusive ride (it was just my brother and I with Simon guiding), a picnic break stop overlooking nice scenery, photos of the trip on CD (part of the package unlike most other activities where photos are made available at a price). If you are ever in Hanmer Springs and you want to go quad biking, go with Backtrax! Take that, Gregan! This particular van rental company paints their vehicles with nice murals. The (in)famous Queenstown Sofitel toilet. I should have put the camera on timer and posed at a urinal. Southern Ridges Visual Guide (West Coast Park to Harbourfront) Click ‘+’ to zoom in and ‘-’ to zoom out. You can click and drag the map to move around. Mount Faber path can be seen in the larger map. I decided to try the full-length Southern Ridges walk one morning with Steel Wool. We started from West Coast Park after breakfast. (No prizes for guessing where we ate.) The walk took us through five parks (West Coast Park not included as it was just the start point), one university and a science park. The press said that this walk is about 9km. My GPS logger listed the distance travelled as almost 15km. I think 9km is the map distance, not taking into account elevation. We were more or less alone from West Coast to NUS. Around the South Bouna Vista/Kent Ridge junction, we met a couple, a pair of ladies and a father-son duo - all clutching maps of some sort! It turned out they all needed some help with directions. At Kent Ridge Park, there were even more couples as well as family groups. HortPark, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Mount Faber Park were full of couples, groups and families, all eager to experience Alexandra Arch and Henderson Waves. It seems that Singaporeans are quite keen on this new trail. So, I’ve compiled a visual guide of the Southern Ridges from West Coast Park to Harbourfront. Why not the other way, as suggested in ST’s infographic? A few reasons (some are personal): Prefer to walk towards a place with more food choices. Prefer to walk to an end point where it’s easier to get home. Prefer to walk away from my workplace. Prefer an easier incline to start (I cannot verify until I’ve tried the opposite route though). Familiarity: the NUS/Kent Ridge sector is in the same direction as Pasir Panjang Heritage Walk. My suggestions: Start early! It gets really hot, really fast. So start early while it’s a little cooler. Set aside three four hours to complete the whole walk at a moderate pace. More if you want to take in the sights. Please bring: water (I needed 3 litres but I’m a water barrel), snacks, sunblock, a cap. Wear good walking shoes and clothes you can perspire in. Remember: You can choose to stop any time. There are many places where you can deviate from the route and get public transport. Feel free to explore: My route is not the ‘correct’ route. This is not a definitive guide. There are many alternatives, especially within each park. So, explore the options. Don’t worry about getting lost. It’s part of the fun. =) Ok, enough preamble, let’s get to the guide. The guide is available in different sections as individual sets in Flickr. Click the links or the photo to get to the set. Each set explains the route using photographs of major landmarks along the way and comes with relevant maps and information panels. Maps and Info Panels These were mostly taken during the walk from the many panels available along the walk. The Bridging Ridges infographic is a terrific overview. Unfortunately, it glosses over road names, which are essential for certain parts of the walk. You can also get maps of the parks from Nparks website. West Coast Park to Clementi Woods Park Getting to West Coast Park - Buses 175 and 176. This short starting stretch is mainly on pavement. It involves walking from West Coast Highway via West Coast Link to West Coast Road, where Clementi Woods Park is located. Clementi Woods Park to NUS Clementi Woods Park is a small park bounded by West Coast Road and Clementi Road. The is a gradual uphill slope towards Clementi Road. There are two options here: come out by the car park or take the walking path that will lead you straight to the overhead bridge. You will have to cross this bridge to NUS. NUS to Kent Ridge Park (via Science Park 1) This is probably the most tricky part of the entire route. At the top of Kent Ridge Crescent in NUS, you will have to take the red-brick stairs up to Kent Ridge Road, which is partially hidden behind a lecture theatre. At the other end of Kent Ridge Road, you have to turn to South Buona Vista Road and then cross the road to walk along Science Park Drive towards Kent Ridge Park. Here, there are two options. This guide shows the shortcut. The other way is to walk to the end of Science Park Drive, where there is a path which will lead you to Kent Ridge Park. Kent Ridge Park to HortPark At Kent Ridge Park, there are a few ways to get to Car Park B, where you will continue walking to the canopy walk. At the end of the canopy walk, there is a connector leading to HortPark. HortPark to Telok Blangah Hill Park via Alexandra Arch From Kent Ridge Park, you will reach the rear of HortPark. You can choose to explore HortPark on your way to Alexandra Arch or you can walk along Hyderabad Road, which is surprisingly the more shady option. This guide goes via HortPark. Telok Blangah Hill Park to Mount Faber Park via Henderson Waves Once across Alexandra Arch, you will be on the forest walk. There is just one main elevated pathway, with options for earth trail detours. At the end of the forest walk, you will see Car Park 1. Walk to Car Park 3 where there is a small ramp leading to Henderson Waves. Mount Faber Park to Harbourfront MRT From Henderson Waves, keep on walking uphill to the top of Mount Faber. You will then find Marang Trail which is a downhill section leading to one of the Harbourfront MRT entrances. Of course, you can cross the road to VivoCity or Harbourfront for a nice meal. Enjoy the walk! Southern Ridges walk KML file (right click, save as) | for Google Earth