Cemetery no more at Jalan Tanah Puteh

In land-scarce Singapore, exhumation is the norm and not exception for cemeteries. Post independence, tracts of cemeteries were cleared and what was once house for the dead became home for the living. The clearing is ongoing and gone will be for my subject of fascination. On Day 2 of Chinese New Year, I visited one such plot, where headstones could still be seen some months ago.

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Chilli Crab and Palm Trees from Palm Beach Seafood

I had a reunion dinner of sorts late last month. Call that premature but since Ah Tiong had to return home for Chinese New Year, it was then or never. It was a double occasion as Ah Tiong got his pay increment and to ride on his happiness give the team a treat, I suggested we have the celebratory dinner at Roland Restaurant.

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On the Quest for Immortality at the National Museum

NHB had the customary Chinese New Year Open House on Tuesday, which marked the end of the long weekend Chinese New Year holidays. While people were stuffing themselves silly with bak kwa, pineapple tarts and their pocket with red packets, I took to the streets on Monday and Tuesday brandishing my camera ready for action mission. I had a "field day" looking for trees, walls, buildings and cemeteries. The National Museum I visited with this mentality, that the imaginary crowd were still chewing on their tarts at home.

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2nd Shot: Air Crash at Upper East Coast Road

The Singapore Airshow at Changi Exhibition Centre drew 71,000 people over the weekend. Many must have came for the heart-stopping flying displays by the display teams. Unfortunately, this year's displays were a letdown as they featured mainly single aircraft. On Thursday, an aerial display was aborted in front of hundreds of trade visitors after safety was breached - The T-50 Golden Eagle's flight this afternoon was observed to have infringed the safety boundaries and the pilot was instructed to terminate his flying display as a precaution.

At $20 a ticket, the air show was not a free event of course. Now imagine you could watch one free outside your home. Some East Coast Road residents had this "privilege" in 1951, of seeing an aircraft performing aerial stunts over their house. Unfortunately the "performance" did not end with applause nor disappointment, but shock and horror as the aircraft ended in scattered debris with fatalities.

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