Fiery bike

Tsk tsk tsk. Now the rider should have known better that a fire (water) hydrant is not for securing a bicycle. I believe this is illegal. Not only that, it may be fatal in a fire. I don't care about fatality to the bicycle. It's human fatality that I am concerned about.

This cyclist obviously thinks of his/her own convenience at the expense of risk to others. This person should be banned from owning a bicycle, or any vehicle, for that matter. No telling that he/she will not chain his/her car to a fire/water hydrant next.

Beefy meal

I don't know what the Physics is behind this. but the beef is being cooked - yes cooked. The beef is placed on a leaf, which in turn is held in a gauze container which in turn is being cooked in a 'live' flame. At first, the meat was tough - really rare, but as the cooking progressed, it became medium to well done, depending on when you want to eat it. Really tasty too.
Get it at Sakae Sushi.

p.s. You need to 'refuel' to get the mean cooked really well. Don't to shy to ask.

Scruffy the dog

Read this notice last Saturday. It was pasted at a Bus Stop just above Serangoon MRT station. I can't credit the English - its bloody awful, but I think the owner of the dog must have something more important on his/her mind.

Find the dog, please.

Lip on a teacup

A human was here. Notice the lip mark on the cup. Yes, this is your regular morning cup of tea in the Heartlands of Singapore. Retails for 90 Singapore cents, circa 2008.

Nothing less

Fashion is really exciting nowadays. Young teenagers walk around in anything and almost nothing. Some are confusing - you don't know if they are wearing anything or not. Is this a mini-blouse or is there a mini-skirt, or anything under? With that plunging sleeve-line, it is a very bold statement that swings heads.

Lovey dovey

Here's a teenage couple who insists on being in tandem, hopefully, all their lives. Both have on sweaters that are matchingly the same. They even have on the same footwear, which are flip-flops, but I could not take a clear picture because of the crowd.

Love is in the bus

You just cannot help not noticing when a teenage couple plays with each other on a bus. You are a captive audience, so to speak since it's not yet your stop, nor theirs. So I had some fun watching even though 'Just for Laughs' was simultaneously playing on the mobile TV in the bus. Lacking anything else to do, I recorded it for posterity.

Chain-locked

When you travel out of Singapore, you have to drop your expectations about service, efficiency, etc., quite a bit and hope that nothing untoward happens. The picture shows the holding area for departing passengers on Bintan Island's harbour. Way after the 'final call', passengers were trapped because the door leading to the boats was simply chain-locked. What made things worse was that the air-con had broken down, so everybody was literally hot and bothered. I just prayed that a fire would not break out. Otherwise, my companions and I will be on the front pages of regional newspapers.

Wanted in Indonesia

Mas Selamat Bin Kastari remains at large. Wanted posters of him are spread all over Singapore Island. Although not as pervasive as in Singapore, the Indonesia island of Bintan, which is 5 times bigger than Singapore, also has 'Wanted' posters for him, amongst others.

What is not is

A self-contradictory phrase, if there ever was one! How can something that is fresh be frozen, or vice versa? But in an effort to get people to buy frozen products (because really fresh ones are scarce and expensive), retailers, with the backing of the Singapore government, has turned vocabulary on its head.

Bread Talks

A foreigner reading this sign will be puzzled by Singapore's much vaunted educational standards. The sign reads deceptively correct, but students of English grammar will cringe. We never write that there is 1 bread or 2 breads, rather we write "1 loaf of bread or 2 loaves" of bread. However, in case of smaller items of bread such as buns, we do write, "1 bun or 2 buns". Remember 'Hot cross Buns'? Breads is used when you write 'types of breads', not otherwise.

Of course, practical people couldn't care less about the finer points of grammar. They understand what the sign means - a good bargain - and that's all they need to know, proper grammar notwithstanding.

p.s. I have written before, elsewhere, on this same subject, if you are interested, that is.

Read the rules

What is this? A government department or office? That's usually where signboards like these appear.

But no, this is in a Foodcourt run by Kopitiam.

Sometimes, I wonder if anybody reads all those rules displayed in front of a Kopitiam outlet's Card Top-up counter. If nobody reads it, why display it? To protect Kopitiam's behind in case of a dispute, I guess. In any case, its looks intimidating.

Eye for an eye

Gee, grandma, what long eyelashes you have.

The better to hoodwink you, my child.

I starred and starred and starred.

But she didn't look up.

So I snapped this.

Care with kids

There are many Childcare Centres in Singapore, primarily because society, lifestyle and the government want both parents to be economically active. That often means placing the child's care into 3rd party care. But I doubt anyone looking for 3-party Childcare would be enthusiastic about this one.

Blind-sided

Who is the daft person who allowed this window advertisement sticker to be put up on every glass window in this MRT (subway) train. This person must never have taken the train before, or if he/she did, could always find a seat that could comfortably see through this transparent 'binocular' holes.

For the rest of us long-suffering commuters, especially those who are tall and standing, we just cannot see outside the signs in the train station that tells us which station we are at. We'd have to bend, stoop, peep and whatever else necessary to find out where we are. And given that we tend to stand so close to people who are seated, there is a high chance that we would be sticking our asses into these people's faces as we try desperately to find out whether we have reached our destination.

Why am I seeing a lot of these things which shows that the people responsible are rather unthinking?

Extremely ripe

I understand what 'Ripe for eating' means. But 'Ripe for good eating?' This grocer must be very anxious to make a sale, even to the extend of mangling the English language. Truly you'd do anything to make a sale.

For a moment there, I thought I wasn't in Singapore, such is the language on public display.

Half dressed

Youth - its really a great age to be because you get to try everything and anything and not be labeled immature or unbecoming for your age. Of course, one of the most obvious things about youth is the way they dress and the things dangling from or wrapped around their bodies. However, I do sometimes get a bit uncomfortable when I see someone who, I suspect is half dressed. But of course, she isn't, so long as she dares to step out in public and believe in what she is wearing, or not.

The Slouch Ouch

Young girls like to doll up and be pretty. That is natural and makes life for the opposite sex more interesting. But once in a while, the dolling up leave much to be desired, especially when you slouch in a bus, taking up two seats at a go. Tsk tsk tsk.

English as is it broken

Broken English is becoming common place on this lsland, especially in the restaurant business environment. This is all the more shocking because Singapore has a law that compels every child to undergo at least 6 years' of Primary education. And the primary language of instruction (i.e. the first language) is English. So after all that stringent instruction and learning, we still get broken English proudly displayed in public. Are taxpayers wasting their money on education?

Well, the sign shows that this restaurant needs to improve in more ways than one.