Ok, it wasn’t a rock concert. But the speakers were certainly rocking!

If elections were based on rally attendance, speaker charisma and audience participation, the Workers’ Party would win by a landslide.

Their candidates seem aware of this. A few mentioned that they are glad that Singaporeans have come out in force to listen to them speak. Most importantly, they urged the crowd to go the full distance by voting for WP.

So, to my observations:

1. The pull of WP
   The Workers’ Party seems to have the attention of Singaporeans far and wide, young and old. A couple of uncles were chatting in the bus in Hokkien. The Geekess translated. (Hokkien is similar to Teochew, she says.) Apparently, they didn’t know each other before today because they asked each other where they were from. One of them said Bukit Batok.
   
   Bukit Batok.
   
   WP is not contesting any seat west of Bukit Timah Expressway. And yet this man has seen fit to travel from Bukit Batok for the WP rally. The cynics will say, it’s because the WP puts up a good show. Indeed, they do. Others might point out that the concentration of all WP’s big guns is the reason the entire nation is focused on Aljunied GRC.
   
   I’m not sure. See point 3.




2. Young voters are interested
   Say what you want about young Singaporeans being apathetic. They are attending, listening, responding, tweeting and facebooking this election.
   
   At very least, it’s a start.




3. Singaporeans seem really disgruntled with the PAP
   I am not privy to what goes on in the PAP. Perhaps they are aware that Singaporeans are unhappy. Maybe they think it’s just Singaporeans doing what Singaporeans do best – complain. (The story of a deaf frog comes to mind.)
   
   But on the streets, in the buses, on the trains, at the hawker centres and of course, online – I’ve heard nothing but praise for the Opposition and criticism of the PAP. And this all came to a head at the WP rally. Compared to a 2006 WP rally I attended, there seemed to be a lot more bile directed at the PAP.
   
   A lot more.




4. The absurdity of GRCs
   One of the main WP themes was that GRCs and re-drawing of electoral boundaries are designed to keep the PAP firmed entrenched while purportedly being a means to ensure minority representation in Parliament.
   
   As if to prove the point, we chanced upon Nicole Seah NSP posters on the way to Serangoon MRT Station from Serangoon Stadium.
   
   NSP? Nicole Seah? When did we walk into Marine Parade GRC?
   
   Apparently, when we crossed Boundary Road from the stadium! Refer to the screenshot below, taken from SG Electoral Map 2011 by torty3.
   
   I don’t know about you, but I associate Marine Parade with the sea. And I don’t live near the sea.

I attended the Reform Party’s rally at Clementi Stadium for West Coast GRC earlier.

It had not dawned on me that this was the party’s first ever election rally. The party was founded in 2008, after the last General Election in 2006.

I’ll just give some brief personal impressions. I’m assuming the mainstream and social will take care of reporting the content.

1. The Quiet Rally
   I was quite underwhelmed. At most rallies, there is a dedicated core of party supporters in front of the stage making a huge racket. None here. Initially, there were just a few people at the front. I suspect some were members of the press. It didn’t help that this rally was held at a stadium. The stage was on the field, then a huge gap to the stands, where the early birds were seated. It was only when latecomers came in, after the stands were full, that a crowd started forming in directly in front of the speaker. The RP’s lack of manpower meant there wasn’t a group of people to get the crowd going. There was polite applause and the occasional shout of support, but most of the noise came from the speakers and the very boisterous emcee.
2. Mr Speaker, Sir
   Kenneth Jeyaretnam needs to  speak more like a Singaporean. It needn’t be broken English or Singlish. His British accent is a bit too atas. I heard murmurs of “he’s like B B See” (if you don’t know who I’m talking about, please start watching The Noose), and I heard some people saying that they couldn’t understand him. As for the others, most of them were too monotonous or spoke with too much fire and brimstone. For me, the best speaker was Osman Bin Sulaiman, who is an RP candidate at… Ang Mo Kio GRC. He spoke clearly, with good variation in tone and pace. He made a few good points and didn’t get carried away when he did hammer a point home. (Apologies for the Workers’ Party reference.)
3. Similarity of ideas
   Just like Singapore Democratic Party, RP also wants to cut NS to one year. Just like many Opposition parties, they want to introduce minimum wage. Similarly, they want to cut GST and remove it for essential goods. Sometimes, you have to wonder why the Opposition parties won’t just join each other.

This morning, I checked out the Circle Line Discovery event, ahead of the opening of the long-overdue Stage 1 & 2 of the CCL.

If I were Darth Vader, surveying the new stations, I would say (in my wannabe-James Earl Jones voice), “Impressive… Most impressive.”

And which station gives me the greatest sense of awe?

Stadium Station.

It is simply magnificent.

The skylight takes full advantage of natural light. Yet it does not end up roasting the station because it is placed high up.

Very high up.

The station is big.

It is one of the few stations that allows you to look from one end to the other. There are no obstructions. Just massive space.

The only similar station is Changi Airport. But that’s the thing, Changi Airport station is so large that you lose perspective. I’m not sure how to explain this.

Sometimes, something is so big that you don’t know the scale of it. A good example is the ground we stand on – Earth. We rarely get to see the horizon. And even when we do, there is no frame of reference. We know it is big, but we can’t put it in perspective.

Stadium Station is big enough let you feel that sense of size, yet small enough for you to put it in context.

Step outside and you’ll get a real feel for the scale. On either end of the station are two cavernous entrances.

I can imagine a match day. People streaming out of that station. Thousands of supporters decked in red disgorging from this massive structure.

And thousands of people heading into the station once the game is over.

Which leads to my only criticism of the station.

Two escalators at each entrance? (And there are only two entrances, not including the elevator access.)

Let’s do the math. About 50,000 people pack the stadium. Assuming only half are taking the train from Stadium Station, that’s 25,000 people who are going to cram onto four escalators – further assuming that all four will be down-riding after a big game – and the central staircase on either end.

Not a pretty sight.

In a strange way, this may be the intention. I am not sure how frequent the trains will be after a big game, but even at 2 minute intervals, it will take time to clear the platform of passengers. So, the bottleneck will be at the escalator instead – in order not to overcrowd the platform. (Remember that the CCL trains are only 3 cars long, not 6 like those on the NSL, EWL and NEL, so they have only half the carrying capacity.)

But all this is speculation. We will not know for sure until our next big game at the National Stadium our Sports Hub is finally ready.

In the interim, you can use Stadium Station to get to Singapore Indoor Stadium (and the Brewerkz located there) and… err… Kallang Leisure Park.

More photos of the Circle Line Discovery (mostly of Stadium Station)

Cycling: One of the few types of exercise I can do now without my joints and muscles screaming out for mercy. 40km is do-able, so I signed up again for OCBC Cycle Singapore.

Last year, I did the distance in 2 hours 13 minutes, which is slow. This was supposed to be the impetus to train harder and go sub-2 hours.

Naturally, things didn’t go as I planned. My training was limited – mostly by sheer laziness – to three short rides at Ubin – and an attempt at the Kallang Park Connector.

Nevertheless, I managed to achieve my timing goal. This morning, I clocked myself at an hour and 38 minutes. Almost half an hour better.

Not that I can put this down to training. I probably knew how to pace myself better this time round. Perhaps, the earlier start this year helped too. Despite the recent hot weather, it was a relatively cool morning. And with cycling, you always feel a breeze. Although when you’re tired, you feel like the same breeze is conspiring to slow you down.

During the ride, I was looking out for @gadgetygirl and @sivasothi (and friends). While I didn’t manage to spot them, I did bump into a friend from secondary school days. Audrey D’cotta was a prefect I knew from CHIJ (Toa Payoh). She now runs her own pilates studio: The Moving Body.

Meeting fellow foldie-owners is always a treat too. I think I saw a Dahon guy that I saw last year, on his distinctive yellow-orche bike with matching tyres. As we whizzed past me, he hollered, “Go, bro!”. And the support staff are always generous with their cheers for guys on small bikes (read: supposedly inferior equipment).

The ride itself – I preferred last year’s route. The organisers seemed to have switched the start and end sectors, which meant that this year, we headed towards the finish, then headed away from the finish… several times.

All in all, I enjoyed myself. The rest area after the ride was much better too. Last year, there wasn’t much. This time, there were a few booths, the most important of which was NPark’s Park Connector booth. They had maps showing the Park Connector Networks, which included park connectors being built and in planning. Picked up a couple of brochures and got myself a nice PCN cap.

Oh yes, the goodie bag includes items that I might actually use!

I finally got around to using my free museum pass. Back then, I said that the Peranakan Museum would be the first on my list. And so, it was.

Now, I know that all things Peranakan are very hip-and-happening now, but that’s not why I wanted to check out the museum. A number of my closest friends are of Peranakan descent, so I figured this was a good way to get to know their culture.

As for the Singapore Philatelic Museum, I’ve visited it before. However, they have a range of constantly updated exhibitions on the upper level. My friend, Shaun, curated one of the current exhibitions there. It is about Comics and Superheros!

Peranakan Museum

Three words encapsulate my reaction to the Peranakan Museum: friends, ornate and identity.

It is no surprise that some of my friends were part of the museum exhibits. No, the museum didn’t freeze dry my friends, silly. They were either captured in photographs or in interviews on video.

There was Pearlyn, a friend from Mass Comm at Ngee Ann.

I bumped into my primary school Principal, Mr Tan Hye San. He was listed as Clement Tan, and I almost didn’t recognise him as it’s been almost 20 years since I last saw him!

Then there was Stella, the Pasir Panjang Guide! She appeared with her hubby, Darren, in a video about Peranakan couplehood on the 2nd Level. She also appears in a video installation on the 3rd Level about Peranakan identity.

The museum features various aspects of Peranakan life. Nearly an entire floor is devoted to Peranakan weddings. It’s obviously a big thing in their culture. Peranakan weddings were so elaborate.

And everything was just superbly ornate.

Besides weddings, the museum featured Peranakan food, clothes, embroidery, and religious inclinations.

But what struck me most was the video interviews about Peranakan identity.

If you go to the Peranakan Museum, you absolutely must sit through these interviews. I was quite surprised as the interviewees were very candid. Some even questioned the Singapore paradigm of race and language, in that Peranakans have lost a fair bit of their culture due to the Mother Tongue policy. The Straits Chinese were classified as Chinese, thus had to learn Mandarin.

And as we all know – despite The Little Nyonya – Straits Chinese generally do not speak Mandarin.

The interviewees *ahem* problematized (this is not a dictionary word, but it was used by practically every lecturer I encountered in Melbourne University) matters of hybridity and identity, which are applicable to Eurasians too.

Speaking of which, we should have a Eurasian Museum.

And the perfect place would be the old St. Anthony’s Boys’ School at Victoria Street. After all, the school and the church next to is (St. Joseph’s) are intricately tied to the Portuguese Eurasian community here.

That’s another story though… on to the stamps.

Singapore Philatelic Museum

After typing ‘stamps’, I realised that I didn’t see many, if any, stamps in the Comics and Superheroes exhibition! Well, we were there more to see Shaun’s collection of toys. Ok, a small part of Shaun’s immense collection of toys. One day, he will own his very own toy gallery. I am sure of it.

Having cable and HD means that I hardly ever watch Channel 5. However, this new series about old buildings, Listen to our walls, is reason for me to stomach the free-to-air English station for half an hour every week.

Today’s episode covered mixed use buildings, particularly housing/shopping mixes. The show began with shophouses, covering some of the periods of shophouses in Singapore – never knew there was such a thing as Chinese Baroque. Dr Victor Savage, from NUS, who co-authored the Topynymics book about Singapore street names, gave his insights about shophouses. The segment zoomed in on Ellenborough Building, one of Singapore’s earliest shophouses.

To the young ones, that’s where Clarke Quay MRT and the monstrous Central stand today. Yes, nothing like old photos and archival film juxtaposed against yet another shopping mall to bring out the indignant anti-progress pro-conservation armchair-activist in me.

Dr Savage laments the loss of this shophouse (as well as the name – Central, he points out, has absolutely no link to Ellenborough) but also balances it by pointing out that these issues are never easy to deal with.

The next segment covered People’s Park Complex. I’ve no affinity for the place, so I was surprised that this show managed to get a modicum of response out of me. (And that response was… I think I got my first Atari set there…) By now, it was obvious that the show’s researchers seemed to have put quite a bit of effort into learning about architecture. All three segments of the show attempted to set the stage by highlighting the architectural influences of the buildings’ design. In fact, the latter two segments involved interviews by the architects of the buildings themselves.

The final (actually, not quite final) segment dealt with the love-it-or-hate-it-there’s-no-in-between Golden Mile Complex. The architect seems quite attached to this building, and hopes it doesn’t go the way of the dinosaur. In truth, it is a unique building – it’s a bloody eyesore. Which is why we should keep it. All our high-rises are neat little pigeon holes. Let this one anomaly stand.

The real final segment, if you can call it that, was a short plug for the Marina Bay Sands IR.

Pardon me but, wtf? Okay, I understand this show is supposed to cover contemporary buildings too. Still, that building doesn’t bring to mind mixed use. And it was all of two minutes too. Didn’t see the point – the show would have been complete without this part.

Still, overall a very well researched, narrated (by Timothy Nga) and produced show. Looking forward to the next episode!

Catch Listen to our walls on Tuesdays at 7.30 p.m. on Channel 5.

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. Kiwis (the people) are very friendly
   This is something most polynesian cultures are famous for. New Zealanders are just very nice people.
2. Kiwis (the birds) are endangered
   Yup, those famous flightless birds are in danger of dying out.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. North and South divide
   Yes, there seems to be some sort of rivalry between north and south islands. The southerners are supposedly more ‘country’.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.