I Love Foam

Because my mama loves foam too.

There Goes Mama's Beloved Block 16

Straits Times
April 22, 2005
Holland Drive to get 40-storey blocks
Area to be redeveloped, but residents left out complain to MP
By Tan Hui Yee

THREE 40-storey blocks are set to rise in Holland Drive as part of a redevelopment plan involving some 800 households near Holland Village.
But home owners in two nearby blocks left out of the redevelopment have complained to their Member of Parliament Lim Swee Say. They are worried that the value of their flats will go down when the new blocks come up and want to be included in the programme.
The redevelopment, announced yesterday by the Housing Board, involves three-, four- and five-room flats as well as shops in blocks 14 to 17, 22 and 23 there. The blocks are about 31 years old.
People living in these blocks will be relocated to the four spanking new high-rise blocks just across Holland Drive, three of which will be 40 storeys high. The project should be complete by 2010.
But residents from blocks 20 and 21 in Holland Drive, just next to where the new 40-storey blocks will be sited, were upset yesterday when they learnt they were being excluded.
More than 100 residents packed an activity room in Buona Vista Community Club last night to ask Mr Lim if he could persuade the Housing Board to reconsider its plans.
Mr Lim later told The Straits Times that he would do his best to convey their concerns and request to the HDB.
One resident, Ms Jacinta Tan, 50, described the moment she was told her block had been excluded: 'It felt like they had dropped a bomb on us.'
The news to redevelop the Holland Drive precinct comes just one month after the HDB announced its plan for a massive redevelopment of the Clementi town centre, which will get a 40-storey complex with a shopping mall, library, town council office and air-conditioned bus interchange linked to the MRT station.
Under the Selective En-Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers), old flats are demolished to make way for new ones nearby, in order to maximise land use. The Holland Drive precinct is the 56th that has been identified for redevelopment since the scheme began 10 years ago.
As part of the Holland Drive plan, the current Buona Vista Community Club will be relocated to the site currently occupied by Block 36, where a HDB branch office is located now. The new club will be housed in an integrated complex comprising HDB shops.
The Singapore Sports Council, meanwhile, is looking into a suitable replacement for the Buona Vista Swimming Complex, which will be phased out after 2010.
Eligible home owners affected by the redevelopment plans will be guaranteed new flats nearby at a discount.
The HDB will also compensate home owners and shop owners according to the prevailing market value for their properties.
Homeowner C.S Yee, a 40-year-old manager, welcomed the plan as it would give him a new flat nearby without much of a hassle.
He said: 'I don't want the inconvenience for the two years when my flat is upgraded.'

I am Manja King

'The current case is rather different as it doesn't involve the brain. The patients could still do a lot with their lives.'

That's A/P Lee again.

As expected, her forum letter caused much reaction. What's more interesting to me, however, is what her family, especially her must esteemed papa, think.

Ok, I admit I'm kpo.

EastSouthWestNorth

Since Auntie Shark has demanded that I link to "some brainy need to know stuff...like the eswn blog", here it is.

It's generally about media, culture and politics in Greater China and the Americas.

Friends of my brother and my girlfriend, read brainy stuff to improve your GP score!

Hur hur hur. Or shud I sae, lolx?

Picnic at the Park

I saw Mr Lee. Oops, PM Lee. Or BG (NS) Lee. At the above event, as described by mrbrown.

This is him conducting the ceremonial opening tip for the friendly between a local club and the Malaysian youth team. My brother doesn't have steady hands. Maybe Olympus is lousy. But my mama would never agree with the latter because of the fortune she invested.



The day ended with yours truly exhausted from being baked in the sun the whole afternoon watching game after game of grouchy people scrambling after an orange ball.



My mama wasn't very happy that there was no free food, no goodie bag and no prize money for the tournament she was stupid enough to be enticed into taking part by the promise of free ice cream, 800 sticks of it.

Speaking of PM Lee, his sister A/P Lee contributed a very interesting piece to the forum pages today. Since it is general consensus that nobody should pay for ST Interactive, I shall reproduce it here.

April 13, 2005
PLIGHT OF NEPALESE TWINS
'Successful' operation was a mistake

THE sad predicament of the Nepalese twins 'successfully' operated on in Singapore General Hospital (SGH) in 2001 could be predicted even before the operation.

They would have died soon if the operation was not carried out, and the young parents, after a period of grieving, could have carried on with life and probably would have more children who are normal.

Instead, the family is now broken up, and the mother, as is usually the case, is left with two lifelong burdens.

My neurosurgeon in the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) was approached to assist in that operation. (At that time, the neurosurgery departments of NNI and SGH had not merged.)

I advised him against it on the basis that even if the operation were a technical success and he gained worldwide fame, his responsibility was the ultimate welfare of the patients.

As a neurologist, I knew that both twins would be significantly disabled. I was told by the SGH doctors that the parents were informed of this but still insisted that everything possible be done.
As a paediatric neurologist with more than 20 years' experience, I know that no parent can ever give a truly informed consent when first confronted with the news that their child, if he or she survives, will be disabled.

A handicapped baby is 'cute'. A handicapped adult is a burden. The Nepalese twins' family has discovered this even now when the twins are only five years old. The mother's statement, 'Many times I think I want to die with Ganga', says it all.

The situation can only get worse as they grow bigger and become more difficult to feed, bathe and carry.

The operation put Singapore on the world map, and the members of the surgical team were hailed as heroes. But at the end of the day, to me and to the family, the operation was a mistake.

Associate Professor Lee Wei Ling
Senior Consultant
Paediatric Neurology
National Neuroscience Institute

So, what do you think?

Sin Kee and Siglap to Relegation Playoffs

Sin Kee did turn up for the rematch, contrary to rumours that they wouldn't bother. And boy did they take it out on Siglap.

全国甲组篮球重赛 信记快攻 轻取实讫纳
● 郭嘉惠 , 联合早报，4月11日
　　信记铆足了劲，在昨晚于新加坡篮球中心举行的全国甲组篮球重赛中，以80比67打败实讫纳，拿下第二场胜利。
　　在昨晚之后，崇义、信记和实讫纳三队同获9分。比较三队之间的交手记录，崇义打败信记和实讫纳，以第6名得以保级。信记先输崇义，跟着在昨晚击败实讫纳，排名第七。实讫纳先后不敌崇义和信记，名列第八。信记对实讫纳和乙组赛首两队田川和荣达90s之间的比赛成绩获得保留。这四队将进行单循环附加赛，排名前二的球队参加甲组赛，其余两队参与乙组赛的角逐。
　　或许是心中憋了很久的怨气使然，信记昨晚毫不留情地压着对手打。在采取快攻的同时，信记也展开全场紧逼，不让对手有机反扑。这招非常奏效，信记在首节6分钟以14比2遥遥领先。实讫纳努力尝试拉近两队的差距，但无奈信记队长曾维龙犹如神助，两次外围出手命中，以22比12结束此节比赛。
　　次节，信记依旧采用相同的方式抗敌，实讫纳力挽狂澜，一度将两队的分差缩小至9分，但很快又让信记赶上。曾维龙次节结束前1分多钟连取5分，使信记以10分之优进入最后两节的争夺。
　　第三节出现一面倒的情况，实讫纳在投取三个3分球后，开始迷失了方向，信记趁机节节挺进，以64比44、20分的优势继续领先实讫纳。
　　眼看胜券在握，信记稍微放松，让球员轮番上阵，但仍然建立25分的领先优势。实讫纳此时军心涣散，球员们打来显得力不从心，直到完场前1分多钟才进入状况。由孙伟海和杨育松合力投得三个3分球，但仍无法扭转劣势，只能看着该队以17分之差落败。

Play for Peace

I have watched two Saturdays' worth of NBL Division 2 games. That's 8 games. My goodness. If I were a paying spectator, I'd sue for a refund. The only "entertainment" so far was all the fighting. Almost every game had some form of fracas. All Ron Artests should be banned for life. All Lee Bowyers should go to jail, and stay there until they're too old to play. Even non-contact sports like athletics have all the ugly mudslinging. It's no wonder nobody associated with sports ever won a Nobel peace prize, even though the Olympic Games are meant to bring people together in peace to respect universal moral principles.

Back to the NBL games, at (or just a few seconds before) the final buzzer in the game which White had already certainly won, a White player (who happens to be a cop, or so I was told) aimed the ball at an Orange player, presumably in response to a previous altercation between the teams that had caused the game to be stopped for several minutes. Orange players emptied the bench and charged at Mr White, who fled humjily.

To understand what happened, you must first understand the poor design of the spanking-new-pride-of-BAS-but-does-not-conform-to-FIBA-standards Singapore Basketball Centre. FIBA has 3 competition levels for its equipment approval program. SBC has to meet the requirements for level 2, which includes high level competitions of the national federations. The main problem with SBC is the backboard support structure, which has to be at a distance of at least 2,000 mm, including padding, from the outer edge of the endline and of a bright colour, contrasting with the background, so that it is clearly visible to the players.

Forget about the bright colour, does this look like 2 metres to you? Notice also how close the structure is to the wall. There is no gap in between at all.



The game on this court was still in progress. Mr White, in escaping his pursuers, chose to leap over the base of the green support structure. Not a very smart move, for some Orangemen simply ran in front of the structure and got him cornered. Of course, some other Orangemen leapt after him. Bounded by the structure, the wall and numerous Orangemen, Mr White was kicked and beaten.

Being highly amused, I decided to kick my lil' brother as well. Heh. Poor Polar fell off the advertisement board.



Anyway, the next morning, my carb deprived mama decided to binge on freeflow bread. So I got to cream the foam off Mama's cappucino, which didn't please her at all. Bleah.