建筑物 Concrete building

高耸坚立，即将竣工的钢筋水泥建筑物，如雨后春笋般，出现在我住家附近。

在夕阳的笼罩下，也另有一番姿色。

public housing

private property

private property

public housing

Next to where I stay, concrete buildings are sprouting out - they are due for completion soon.

One belongs to public housing (prices ranging from SGD 200k - 600K), another one is a private residential property (1 million SGD onwards).

Private residential property comes with facilities (eg. swimming pool, gym facilities), with 24 hours security surveillance; which means a monthly service charge is incurred.

Not that public housing is free of service charge - one also needs to pay for town council fees (that serves to spruce up /clean up the neighbourhood, maintain lift services etc). If parking is needed, additional monthly parking fee is needed as well.

In Singapore, 80% of Singaporeans stay in public housing facility. Some eventually will "upgrade" from public housing to private residential property as financial status improves.

鸟 Bird

我并非故意捕捉鸟的踪迹，只是在提着长焦相机随意抓拍时，不远处就有鸟儿孤身寡人屹立在眼前。

Not that I am into bird photography. I chanced upon birds that perched themselves on some beams while walking randomly along the exercise path near my residence.

I like the bright colors on display in the 2nd photo. I was about 100 m away from it. It just sat there and relaxed... watching the world went by...

Day and night 昼夜

Colors and lights abound throughout the day; the latter being more conspicuous at night for obvious reason.

Took the following photos while stopping for traffic lights (from my car).

白天，在阳光的照耀下，颜色显得较夺目。

夜里，五彩缤纷的霓虹灯，在阴影的衬托下，又是另一种味道。

Weekend morning walk 周末，晨运

It is one of those weekends where I don't have any inpatient to visit in the morning (i.e no morning rounds).

Woke up early in the morning, went for a walk along Geylang River, walking pass Decathlon (there is some event there, many people are jogging along the exercise path) and then Tanjung Rhu Bridge, making a loop back to Tanjung Rhu Hawker Centre (to buy breakfast).

It was hazy that morning. Air quality wasn't the best for the day. 

Managed to take some photos nevertheless.

 

Hawker centre.. many people were queueing for food

colourful decors

Morning walk

Walking the dog

Tanjung Rhu Lookout Tower

Tanjung Rhu Bridge

making way from my condominium

周末，没有住院病人，不用去巡房。

早上六点半左右，便起身沿着住家外的河道走走拍拍；这河道能直通不远处的体育场。

天不作美，当天的空气指数不佳，雾霾蛮严重。尽管如此，还是有一群人在跑步（好像是某个竞跑节目正在进行当中）。

沿途拍了几张照片（划龙舟，晨运，遛狗），然后绕去小贩中心买早餐。

中午时分，便来了一场倾盆大雨。。。

新闻报道，因为这两天连续下雨之故，曼谷泛滥，而临近的柔佛居然又再发生地震。。。看来天要反啦！

renting car when doing self driving tours oversea - lesson learnt 外国租车注意事项

My family likes self driving when travelling overseas (holidays). Since I have set the precedence, my sons also prefer to self drive when they are travelling overseas.

I have done self driving tours in various countries (starting initially in Australia, then New Zealand, California, followed by Canada, Alaska, South Korea, Greece, Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Taiwan and Japan.

For peace of mind, I will always purchase comprehensive insurance coverage when renting cars oversea. 

Common problems that I have encountered so far when driving a rental car overseas are -

1. flat tire 

In Vienna

In Switzerland

Waiting for mechanic to replace the tire

2. chips on windscreen (from flying pebbles when driving along a highway)

3. scratches on bumper

Managed to get refund from auto-insurance for rental excess

While driving in Iceland during winter, my car was stuck on the roadside ice/snow - need to engaged the service of a tow truck to pull the car out - it cost me EUR 300. (but as the saying goes - any problem that can be solved by money is not a problem!?)

Without comprehensive cover, I will probably have to foot the rental excess of ~SGD $500-750 before basic coverage kicks in.

BUT please note that not all comprehensive cover pays for flat tire.

One thing I learnt when renting a car in Japan is that even for minor scratches on car (not caused by road traffic accidents), a police report may be needed for insurance reimbursement.

We had such an encounter in our recent trip to Wakayama, Osaka - the right front bumper was grazed without any apparent reason ( We only noticed it the next morning when driving our car) - after numerous to-and-fro whatsapp communications with my rental company - it was finally agreed that no police report was necessary because 1. there was no accident involved, and 2. our comprehensive insurance cover is an international company (i.e. not local Japanese company). I have submitted the necessary documents for reimbursement yesterday -- lets see how it goes.

外国旅游，如果环境允许的话， 我比较喜欢自驾游。

自驾游须要事先安排行程，住宿，机票，然后预定车。

一般上，外国租车， 我会选全保， 以防万一/也买一个心安， 不用为有可能发生的意外事项，以及所导致的高额消费发愁。

我已经自驾好多趟，前几年都相安没事；但最近几年却碰到了车辆爆胎，挡风镜被迎面飞来的碎石撞开了一个芝麻小裂口，及右前方的汽车保险杆被剐蹭 (也不知是何时/如何发生的）。

需要注意的是不是所有全保都包含车轮爆胎事项 - 在瑞士那回，爆胎索赔成功；但奥地利那次就不行。刚刚才呈上汽车保险杠被剐蹭（在日本熊野县自驾时发生）的索赔，希望能成功。

自驾游的好处是可以根据自己的喜好停停走走。当然，有时也得因为突发状况而临时改变行程应急。

Switzerland

Nara, Japan

Canada

Wakayama, Japan

North-east Japan

Austria

unfinished task 还没完成的任务

The painting job was paused halfway, for reason unknown, leaving the pale of paint along the paved corridor. Nobody was there.

I walked pass the narrow corridor separating the HDB apartment (On the left) from my condominium (on the right) almost daily when I brought Mantis (our pet dog) for evening walk.

隔壁的政府组屋正在做些收尾工程。之前的比较高的围墙看来要拆掉；最近围起了一道较矮的外墙，正在涂上油漆。不过，这油漆工程还没做完，油漆停摆在路边，人却不知所踪。

原本的高围墙如下图（左边）所示。。。新建的政府组屋被围墙遮挡住，我家公寓坐落于右边。每天傍晚遛狗时都会经过。

This is how the double wall looks like now...

护身符Amulet

Not only mankind needs amulet to fence off bad luck or evil staff, even pets also have amulet.

CJ bought this amulet for our pet dog, Mantis, when we were in JISON-IN Temple.

 

现在挂在我家毛孩颈部的护身符，是靖捷从日本慈尊寺那里物色到的。乍看之下，还蛮有东洋气味。若是这东洋护身符在中国被仇日者发现，那还了得！不但不能护身，反而惹祸上身！