Transport Ministry - some suggestions for improvement

 

2 Million Views !

 

                                                             In Philippines in 1975 

Thank you readers ! I am thoroughly humbled and awed by the reach of this blog. I will continue to scribe and curate my life experiences as long and as best as I can.

2,000,000 views.

I am slowly letting this number sink in. 

Carpe Diem. 

Are we a bunch of 'Karens" ? Too many foreigners in our midst ?

                                   With a school mate Faizal in Shenzhen recently.

This is the question I want to ask, in the wake of the incident whereby an enraged parent roughly pushed an old man to the ground when he merely patted the little girl's head. The old gent meant no harm, and he was the proprietor of the stall and had trouble walking as was shown by the CCTV video slowly making his way across the coffeeshop, and needed to hold on to the tables for balance.

When he walked by the little girl, all he did was pat her head, as is wont of many people of my era (above 50 years of age). First the mother got all protective and rushed to hug her 'baby', and then the father walked over, got all angry and shoved the old man to the ground.

True, the video only cut off at that juncture, but the father realized he overreacted, and helped the old man up and offered to buy him a drink.  

The fact of the issue that the father or the angry perpetrator was from Australia, had led me to question this basic behavior. Maybe in Australia, it is not 'on' to pat children on the head ? Or are the current crop of Singaporean parents too overprotective of their princes and princesses ?

Perhaps in many countries outside of Asia, it is rather rude or dangerous to touch children anywhere unless the adults happen to be kindergarten teachers, maids or trained child minders. 

So it begs the question, are there more and more foreign born people in our midst ? The sheer numbers of people of Asian origin who are here either as permanent residents, and natuzalised citizens are in the millions. The Singapore 'core' is fast shrinking as Singaporeans are reproducing themselves only 0.87 or less than 1 per Singaporean. Hence the need for immigrants, that we are fully aware of. 

A large percentage of them assimilate  into Singapore society and try to integrate. However, there is a significant minority who live and socialize in expatriate bubbles. Many different cultures coming and residing so close to each other, something will bound to happen and people with differences in child raising, social behavior and practices will always challenge the norm and incidents and misunderstandings like these will continue to happen.

What is the solution ?

 

 

Athletic Chamber Details - proudly presented by QRA International

 

Tong Shian Frog Porridge Chinatown - So Good.

 

I recently ate one of my all time Singapore created foods at the Kheong Saik Coffeeshop alongside Kheong Saik street in Chinatown.

For 10.50 SGD, I get a claypot of steaming boiled frog in black sauce, with ginger and garlic.

Together with porridge, fired dough fritters or You Tiao, this forms my essential breakfast at least once a month.

It is really something of a treat and not expensive too.

Frog or Tian Ju (padi chicken) is reared in farms in Malaysia and then shipped to Singapore. It is a delicacy of the Chinese citizenry in both Singapore and Malaysia.

One day when i get around it, I must do a piece on my all time top 10 or 20 Singaporean food dishes. That will take some time as there is always a debate within my mind and my choices changes on my mood, the weather sometimes and also whether I am mildly hungry or very hungry.

Tong Shian Porridge

265 New Birdge Road (junction with Kheong Siak Street)

S'pore 088745

(serves all kinds of porridge from claypots and some other Chinese cuisine)

Food : 5 / 5

Ambience : 3 / 5 (its by the roadside, so bear with the fumes if cars pass by)

Value  : 5 / 5

Service : 4 / 5 (no fuss, prompt if you go in the mornings). 

Seize the Day. 

Heading for 2 Million Views Total in August 2026

 

                                                                     Seriously ? 

In July I had indicated that this blog had hit 1,000,000 views. Now barely a month has passed and we are on the cusp of 2,000,000 views. A total of 1,000,000 views per month.

I am mystified, exhilerated and grateful for attention and interest and will continue to post meaningful content on this page.

Thank you readers and friends.

Carpe Diem. 

15th August 2026

Canberra University - Chamber for Hypoxic and Environmental Controls - by QRA

 

At the lobby of University of Canberra Research on Sports Exercise 

QRA was first commissioned to upgrade the gym room for the University of Canberra way back in 2017. It was on the second floor of a standalone building on the west side of the campus in Bruce, a suburb in the capital city of Canberra, Australia. 

The old evaporator system was broken down, and our initial design team came over to understand the requirements, work out the facilities, and floor plans and finally come up with a proposal to decommission, deliver and set up a completely new  temperature and humidity in a record time of 4 months

There were ample challenges from the get go. 

> Our supplier was from China, and there were some difficulties obtaining visas for the engineers from China to come over and do the installation and commissioning. In the end, we had to be creative and urgently seek the help of local refrigeration experts to assist in the wiring, piping layout, compressor installation and part of the final commissioning 

> The shipment of the equipment was also with some incident, thankfully we also managed to clear the paperwork and deliver the complete system on time. 

> The humidity uniformity was uneven, and we had to procure an extra humidifier / dehumidifier system to ensure some semblance of humidity control within the room.

                                                      Additional Humidifier System 

The job requirement in a nutshell. The client, UCRISE or the University of Canberra Research for Sports Exercise had an existing room which needed an upgrade to have temperature and humidity control to achieve the following conditions :

15 C 40%

18 C 40 %

25 C 40%

35 C 40%

40 C 40%  - trying environment

45 C 50 %

50 C 50%   - very trying environment. 

                                        Downtown Canberra is as pretty as a picture. 

The rectangular exhaust box (bottom centre inside the room beside the treadmill) is the magic box providing all the various temperature and humidity setpoints. The other 19 inch box at bottom right is the control box where the settings are done.

The is also the compressor which is located on another level on the ground floor, and there must be enough standstill pressure for the compressor to provide the ample refrigerant onto the second floor for the cooling to actually happen.

The Temperature and Humidity Controller Installed Outside with the Portable Unit inside. 

                                    VO2 Max Test ongoing with participants and researchers. 

The researchers are seeking to find out the best means to acclimatize the trainees with heat stress so that they can perform even better than their personal bests when it is time for competition.  

The ultimate goal for all sports scientists would be to enhance the athletic performance legitimately of their national and regional athletes and one of the key regimes which has been tried and tested for decades is the below :

> Live High and Train Low and High (altitude) regimen

> Live High and Train High

The reasons why altitude training is so important will be revealed in greater detail in the next post. UCRISE institutions and sports research is THE most advanced center in Australia for the enhancement of elite athletes in the last decade.

                       Participants on  Stationary Bicycles with Heart Rate Monitors 

I will give a more detailed writeup in the next post. QRA International is only one of 4 brands worldwide providing athletic chambers and sports chambers to national associations worldwide. For more information, please write in :

> Subject : Athletic Chamber  / Sports Chamber / Human Performance Chamber

> Environments Controlled : Temperature

                                              Humidity

                                              Sunlight

                                              Altitude

                                              Rain

> Please email or visit  

   Website : www.qra.com.sg

   Email     : qrasales@qra.com.sg

and our friendly consultants will get back to you pronto.