March 20, 2008

i’m famous!

Posted by eelainee under Daily happenings, Random thoughts, Rantings | Tags: , , , |
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As you may have already notice, I have been on the news for the past couple of days. And I heard there has been an overwhelming response…

No? You haven’t heard?

That’s because you do not know my Chinese name!

A Perfect Blend of Serenity and Vibrancy

HDB’s Latest Build-to-Order Project is now launched! Jade Spring @ Yishun is back with 5 brand new blocks.

Nestled beside Yishun Park, Jade Spring @ Yishun is a picture of serenity, your perfect retreat after a hectic day at work. While enjoying the freshness of the great outdoors, you can also delight in the vibrance of established conveniences all around. With plans for a bazaar place, town plaza, a new shopping complex integrated with housing, new bus interchange and more, be prepared for even more exhilarating activities in time to come.

Grab this chance to apply for a stylish 2-room, 3-room or 4-room flat in this beautiful development.

Check out details and APPLY ONLINE at http://www.hdb.gov.sg/esales  Visit our exhibition at Habitat Forum, BizFour 3rd Storey, HDB Hub, Toa Payoh.

Application period: 18 Mar to 31 Mar 2008 (2 weeks). 

Jade Spring. That is the literal translation of my chinese name. And my best friend had a field day teasing me. Just check out the shout box. ———————————————————————————————>

I watched the Chinese news on Channel 8 last night wanting to find out what Jade Spring would be translated into. Thankfully,  there wasn’t! They just used the English version of it.

And I hope it remains that way.  It is just plain weird.

Do you think this may grant me some advantage if I want to apply for an unit?

 

March 13, 2008

Taxi woes!

Posted by eelainee under Random thoughts, Rantings, Say it with pictures | Tags: , , , , , |
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Just in one day alone, I came across not one, but two weird taxi drivers.

1. Taxi uncle number 1 aka Crazy Taxi

During the 20 minutes taxi ride, he was honked by fellow drivers, mounted a kerb (!) and he braked like nobody’s business.

2. Taxi uncle number 2 aka Ancient Vehicle

The driver was quite old and so was the taxi. It was those kind of taxi I would have rode on when I was in primary school. There was even a small fan mounted on the dashboard. It smelt musky as well. It is like the kind of taxi you might find on Pulau Ubin. Really old looking. The license plate began with SH. So you can see how old the taxi really is. And to sum it all up, the ride was quite jerky. :(

So some taxis drivers in Singapore are weird. And we are always greeted by the familiar colours and LED display on top of the car to indicate its availability to take passengers. Like this……

Taxi

In Japan, it is much more interesting! They look like this:

Taxi 1taxi2

taxi3

Photos from PingMag - read full article here

The best thing is, those are not advertisements but rather logos or names of the respective transport companies. The star thingy on the last photo actually indicate that the driver is a master driver, meaning that he had not had a traffic violation or accident for at least a year. Talking about a safe trip home!

 

March 7, 2008

rodent proof store and a braille inscripted toilet

Posted by eelainee under Just for fun, Play time~, Random thoughts, Say it with pictures | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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here’s a small collection of weird and interesting photos I took……

braille

I know it is probably weird to take a picture in the toilet cubicle. it is probably weirder to take a picture of the automatic flush sensor or whatever you call it. But this one at Jurong Point really caught my eye. Can you tell what it is?

braille close up

It’s Braille! On the flush sensor. No wonder the toilets at Jurong Point actually won the happy toilets award (no, i’m not kidding) given out by the Restroom Association (no, seriously! not kidding!) in Singapore. I tried to figure out what it says using this chart but I couldn’t. I think it probably says press here, push this, or something along that line. If you can figure it out, let me know. very curious.

On a random bus trip, i saw this……..

give up your seat

Yes, I see, the usual public notice to give up your seat to the elderly, also to the lady with a child, and … huh?! A person holding a bag or something? What’s that?! So I took a closer look.

man

My initial thought was why would SBS do that? Giving up your seat to someone with a laptop!? You must be kidding me! I paid so much to get on the bus and you want me to give up my seat to someone with a laptop? Maybe I should just bring my laptop everywhere I go then!

But it turns out that it was not some public notice but an advertisement by M1 promoting its wireless services. I must say that it is quite clever of them to come up with this concept.

On another bus trip, I took a double take when I saw a strange man……

the man at the shop

Not the man in the foreground la.

man_closeup

It was this that caught my attention! My first reaction was why did they have to put a red towel over the manikin/mannequin? It looked quite funny, at least to me. I think it was some traditional chinese medicine clinic. But still, the golden manikin and red towel combination looked kind of weird to me. Weird or not, probably the owners there feel it is also necessary to protect the modesty of the manikin. :P

Manikin - another weird word. why must they have two words to describe what is essentially the same thing?

Manikin - a jointed model of the human body, used in anatomy or as an artist’s lay figure.

Mannequin - a dummy used to display clothes in a shop window.

Almost the same right? Anyway……

Last but not the least, I discovered a little known place/room in NTU.

rodent proof

Rodent proof store! This was near Canteen A if I did not remembered wrongly. So does it mean that there are a lot of rats in that area and therefore they had to have such a room to store food? But still, it is quite funny to name a room like that. Imagine if all food stores were rodent proof stores, then Pixar would not have been able to produce Ratatouille. (okay, not funny)

By the way, I found out that the working title for Ratatouille was Untitled Rodent Project. Sounds like some criminal thriller! haha… And in Japanese, it is Remî no oishî resutoran (Remy’s Delicious Restaurant). Very different from Ratatouille I must say.

I realise i take note of the most ridiculous things around me. weird.