F word: Flood and Fallen trees

Times have changed and flooding looked to be a thing of the past.

But in November 2009, something unheard of took place.

Flooding affected the upper Bukit Timah Road stretch between Sixth Avenue and Blackmore Drive.

Although it is fair to say that the November 2009 incident was a “freak event that happens once in 50 years” according to a government minister, I am sure when you are the victim who owns a property or an expensive Masserati this is not quite on.

Fallen trees crashing down on a house or a landslide is a nightmare for many people.

Who likes to get involved in litigation?

Any motorist can tell you that once a car gets submerged in water, there is extensive damage to engine and transmission.

Not only you face expensive repair bills from the car workshop, your vehicle will not perform as normal as before.

Flood:ION Orchard

remember the former park next to Orchard MRT station where Filippina maids used to gather during weekends when they had their day off.

The flooding at Orchard/Paterson junction is unusual.

Prior to construction of ION,

the piece of empty land was a big sponge allowing rainwater to flow into the ground.

However, heavy rain falling on the entire complex now cannot flow into the ground directly would naturally

pond at the lowest point

ie. the Orchard/Paterson junction.

suggestions for your next step:

Sell your property

if it is in low lying areas to unassuming FTs who have decided to come here to participate in the gold rush.

Even new properties with basement carparks have not been spared eg.

Gentle Reflections at Gentle Road was hit.

The value will drop if everyone follows this trend.

Even if you can get insurance coverage for floods, the premiums will be higher.

The recurring floods has tarnished our image of having 1st class infrastructure. There needs to some answers to these all too frequent 50-year freak events.

Over

Over again.
Don't make me change my mind.
Do i deserve to be the second option? i think i deserve better,

please prove me wrong.

If you dare to be right,

try to wake me up from the reality you have shown and created!

playing god : marina barrage

The Marina Barrage was meant to help alleviate floods.

Yet it may have been the cause of floods.

In theory, the barrage's crest gate can be opened to lower the level of water in the canal system when the water level rises.

there will take time for the 70-tonne's crest gates to open between opening the barrage at Marina Bay and for the water to flow out from Bukit Timah or Stamford Canals.

Given our climate where we get extremely heavy downpours in

60 – 120 minutes,

The flooding at Orchard/Paterson junction is unusual.
Prior to construction of ION, the piece of empty land was a big sponge allowing rainwater to flow into the ground.

However, heavy rain falling on the entire complex now cannot flow into the ground directly would naturally pond at the lowest point ie. the Orchard/Paterson junction.

our canals may not be able to cope with the sudden rush of rain water while the marina barrage's crest gates are still opening to lower the level of water.

If water is to be retained in marina reservoir, then water will flow back into the canal system feeding into the Singapore River ie. Bukit Timah etc. rendering these canals to be much less effective as they are already half full before any heavy downpour.

Furthermore the water table will rise which means that our soil will be less porous to soak in the rainwater during a heavy downpour.

If our precious water reserves were to be released at the barrage before any downpour, it would probably take 10 hours before water level at Bukit Timah canal to be lowered. And what if the downpour was not that heavy?

Why release precious water reserves so that there will not be floods?


so smile as tomorrow will get worse.

Often

Often times,wishful thinking gives you perception of things that would or might have been if you can twist and turn back the time.

that's why it is called "wishful" it reminds you of what reality is and how some things wouldn't work if it wasn't yours in the first place--anonymous

Flood: they said it was stamford canal, but we say it was The Marina Barrage

When you have massive floods on Singapore’s main shopping street, it cannot be blamed on unusually heavy downpour.

There is something not right in our drainage system. Since embarking on many infrastructure projects to transform Singapore, we have become more flood prone especially in areas which were never flood prone before.

This is worrying!

It cannot be that the more we develop our city, the more flood prone we become.

While being no experts compared to the PUB, one cannot help but make certain casual observations:

The Marina Barrage is a dam in Singapore built across the mouth of the bay, between Marina East and Marina South. It was officially opened on 1 November 2008.

1. The Marina Barrage was meant to help alleviate floods. Yet it may have been the cause of floods. In theory, the barrage can be opened to lower the level of water in the canal system. However there will be several hours between opening the barrage at Marina Bay and for the water to flow out from Bukit Timah or Stamford Canals.

Given our climate where we get heavy downpours in 1 – 2 hours, our canals may not be able to cope with the sudden rush of rain water and therefore overflow which resulted in the floods.

2. The flooding at Orchard/Paterson junction is unusual. Prior to construction of ION, the piece of empty land was a big sponge allowing rainwater to flow into the ground.

However, heavy rain falling on the entire complex now cannot flow into the ground directly would naturally pond at the lowest point ie. the Orchard/Paterson junction.

3. Flooding at Balmoral Road which was thought to be eliminated has now re- emerged. Could it be due to the construction of the tunnels of the Downtown line where again rainwater cannot flow directly into the ground and thus flooding the area?

The recurring floods has tarnished our image of having 1st class infrastructure. There needs to some answers to these all too frequent 50-year freak events.

Many parts of Singapore eg. Balmoral, Newton have been largely flood free for the last 15 years until .... 2009 when the Marina Barrage started operating.

If water is to be retained in marina reservoir, then water will flow back into the canal system feeding into the Singapore River ie. Bukit Timah etc. rendering these canals to be much less effective as they are already half full before any heavy downpour.

Furthermore the water table will rise which means that our soil will be less porous to soak in the rainwater during a heavy downpour.

If our precious water reserves were to be released at the barrage before any downpour, it would probably take 10 hours before water level at Bukit Timah canal to be lowered. And what if the downpour was not that heavy?

Why release precious water reserves so that there will not be floods?

Why not put up with floods after all it would be only 1 - 2 hours of incovenience.

Therefore the government cannot tell us the truth and PUB, the scape goat, will continue to give us hundreds of excuses from leaves to sensors to flaw in computer software to new flood alleviation programmes etc etc.

The truth is that IF THE MARINA BARRAGE CONTINUES TO BE OPERATIONAL SINGAPORE WILL ENTER INTO A NEW ERA OF BEING FLOOD PRONE IN MANY AREAS.

outsourcing is one of the ways of "racing to the bottom

Those who are in IT industry will know that outsourcing is one of the ways of "racing to the bottom", just like why companies are relocating to low cost countries for production.
Outsourcing is beneficial to those IT Big boys as they can offer breadth and depth, and they increasingly are playing the role of main contractor and re-source again to secondary vendor.

With so many hands involved, there is definitely a drop in product and service standards, but now we have a tier-service standard, as long as the VIP users are not affected, then it is ok.

The sad state of affairs arise because IT is the classic example of more sellers than buyers.

If you flood the workplace market with a lot of cheap supply, "race to the bottom" will happen and the buyers will gleefully get the cheapest supply to derive maximum benefits.
Such short-term view will definitely haunt the buyer in future, as again with a lot of changing of hands (due to resignation, re-appointment of secondary vendor etc), it will result in documentation not updated or contain errors, and thus mistakes will happen, more so for those complex systems.Those who are in IT industry will know that outsourcing is one of the ways of "racing to the bottom", just like why companies are relocating to low cost countries for production.

Outsourcing is beneficial to those IT Big boys as they can offer breadth and depth, and they increasingly are playing the role of main contractor and re-source again to secondary vendor. With so many hands involved, there is definitely a drop in product and service standards, but now we have a tier-service standard, as long as the VIP users are not affected, then it is ok.

The sad state of affairs arise because IT is the classic example of more sellers than buyers. If you flood the workplace market with a lot of cheap supply, "race to the bottom" will happen and the buyers will gleefully get the cheapest supply to derive maximum benefits.

Such short-term view will definitely haunt the buyer in future, as again with a lot of changing of hands (due to resignation, re-appointment of secondary vendor etc), it will result in documentation not updated or contain errors, and thus mistakes will happen, more so for those complex systems.

It is all about GDP.

The cost of outsourcing to IBM adds to the GDP, which otherwise would have disappear under wage expenses if it is done in-house.

This is just one of the many ways of cooking up GDP numbers.

Murphy Law II

3 days ago, i just wrote about DBS Bank has failed us.
3 days later, again the flood cameback to orchard road, one more time.
one month before, Orchard Road was flooded and they blamed on the debris.
one month late, it came back, yet again

.

just like Murphy Law:

Murphy's Original Law
If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.

Murphy's Law
If anything can go wrong -- it will.

Murphy's First Corollary
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

Murphy's Second Corollary
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

Quantized Revision of Murphy's Law
Everything goes wrong all at once.

Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value.

The Murphy Philosophy
Smile... tomorrow will be worse.

so,again let smile for tomorrow will get worse

Murphy Law

Recently, DBS, Singapore's biggest bank and the one with the widest network of ATMs, suffered a system outage that brought their ATMs and Internet banking to a grinding halt island-wide.

From around 3am Monday morning till about 10am that same day, folks could not do Internet and phone banking, draw cash from ATM machines, or pay with their debit cards.


The first thing that i do is to check the account whether it has increased to another zero or several zeros, but dang,it was the still same.


like Singapore Power where we had power failure not long ago.
Like PUB, where we had floods in orchard road.
like SMRT, trains are disrupted due to maintainance vehicle breakdown,also not long ago

just like Murphy's Laws:

* If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.

* If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.

* If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.

* If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

* Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.

* Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.

* Every solution breeds new problems.

* Enough research will tend to support your theory.

* When there is a very long road upon which there is a one-way bridge placed at random, and there are only two cars on that road, it follows that: (1) the two cars are going in opposite directions, and (2) they will always meet at the bridge.

* Smile... tomorrow will be worse.

* Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.

* You never run out of things that can go wrong.


so, just smile as tomorrow will be worse

New Zealand and singapore

New Zealand entered this World Cup for the first time with the tags of whipping boys, but they were far from it.

Surviving in a group consisting of world champions Italy, in-form Paraguay and a Slovakian side qualifying top of their European qualifying group is no mean feat.

Yet, against all odds, New Zealand managed to hold every one of those teams to a draw.

An extremely credible performance, underlined by the fact that they were the only unbeaten team in the tournament.

Now beat that.

consider singapore, a nation of foreigner in which one minister hailed singapore soccer team will be in this 2010 world cup.

consider our position in the world ranking, who would dare to dream, not even to talk about it.

but he did.

Now beat that.

a simple walk

i walked with my bestfriend today.
i have never thought that a simple walk will take us back from the scars of the past.
things have been said and done.
and it can't be undone.
we are surprised to find ourself smiling and laughing in our short nostalgic memory.
i am glad the rain was over.

forgive and forget as what they say=)

world cup 2010

comes tomorrow will be the semi-final of the world cup 2010.
three european countries andone south american are competing for one prize asset: world cup 2010.

we remembered that there was one minister telling us that singapore's soocer team will be in the final 32 countries of this 2010 world cup.
how comes he can say things that we knew it was impossible, and he dared to say.

disgrace, a big disgrace.

sad

it is so sad hat my friend treated me this way.
yes, very sad.
but what can i do?

nothing actually.
the way i see it in different perception that it reveals the truth character of my friend.
it meant that she has been using me all along the while, for her purposes.
alas.
man..i am so naive, so believing in her.
i have loved her all our hearts, all of our minds and all of ours souls.

well, in this case, i tended to forget what she has dones to us, and let the things goes past us and i move on, letting it go.

still, i am walking the narrow path which i have been believing and trusting in myself.

it does not change our thinking, i just move on.

it is a good lesson that i have learned.

just because of her, i will change my perception on others?
no way.

i am still the same, yesterday, today and tommorrow.

friends

friends are there to help you, especialy in times of troubles difficulties.
i need friends, but the critical part is to have good friends who really saved you over and over.
i met a friend, and just a few problems comes, she shows her disgusted face to me.
very sad.
but i get over over soon.
i let the things passed through us.
the buck stopped here.

i am still the same as ever, yesterday, today and even tomorrow.

so, i move on.
my heart is empty once again.
i have seen people praising me and also people despise me.
she is just one of them.
who liked me yesterday and now she hated me.

i just nodded my head.
and smiled back.
i would like to laugh my heart out, really.

thought III

i have seen something shocking recently.
i have seen her walking anxiously with the head tilted low and spoke to one of our male colleagues.
it was one of the strangest smile that she worn on her face fascinated us.
she was flirting with him,although she was a mother of two.
amazing.
such a lowly woman.
disgusting.

i do not know she really liked her perferred races other than her own.
now i know, at least it is not too late.

i may called myself a fool, but in fact, i laughed at myself at my stupil error and my trusts in her.
she has taught me a excellent lesson.
she likes to use man as her means and she has many boyfriends although she was married.
alas.

CHC: a New Chapter

i believe after the latest saga, City Harvest Church will take a different path,a new direction.
and a new chapter.

thought II

i feel like tearing my clothes.
i feel like ripping my chest, grab my heart.

auughhh..

i was really sad when the things get tougher and harder.
no one to talk, just myself.
those dark days.

when i glanced back those painful days now, i feel like laughing, smiling away.
yes, we did it.
oh! yes!

so, instead of carrying a sad faces in times of darkest valley and difficulties, the only i can do is to smile back.
just smile and everything will change.
cheers!

a thought.

when i heard a very old song,"are you lonesome tonight?" my heart is full of empptiness.
just as the song lyric.
i am hoping the things will change, change for the better.

but i know it will not be possible.
as both of our hearts are dead.

we are just like total strangers.

loner

loner.
choice or destiny.
i simply had no answer.
just lived with it.
be contented with what i have at present.

i have been thinking of getting a wife, but i knew there will be a price that i have to pay.
something got to give.
this, make me uncomfortable and i am going on,like the usual.
as i have been living like this for so many years,

the recent heartaching breakup was just an excuse, i knew.

however, when there is an opportunity, i will seize it as i knew it will never come back, again.

have been thinking lately and certain things are clear-cut that i needed not to think too much.

case closed.

i am trying not to think too much, talk too much as i discover many things which i do not fully aware of them,only until recently.

it has been a eye opener,but i forget it, let it go and move on.

flood in orchard road:back to future?welcome the sixties

remember the sixties?
where we have floods often and the monsoon drains would flood to knee-high level.
i recalled seeing one person mistaken the drain as a pavement and fell.
he was totally wet.

forty years later, we still see the same thing.
this time in orchard road.
it is like seeing our past.

welcome to the sixties..