There we have it, the return of the Mizuno Wave Run 2008. The first few races from 2004-2005 were great, but last year’s one was really terrible. Looks like it’s deja-vu again this year as the 2008 run will take place exactly at the same venue and route. Here are some off-hand details of the Mizuno Wave Run 2008

Race Date: Sunday 27nd July 2008
Venue (Start/End Point): Temasek Poly (TP) Sports Stadium
Distance: 10km
Reporting Time: 0630hrs
Race Start Time: 0730 hrs

Categories and Pricing
(Prices are up from $20 last year)
Mens open
Womens open
Mens veteran
Womens veteran
(All Categories rates $30 before 6 June 2008, $35 thereafter)
There will be no on-Competitive Fun run this year
Part of proceeds will be donated to selected charities

Runner Entitlements
(For all categories)

• Runners Bib
• iTags for Electronic Timing (we have timings this year!)
• Mizuno Shoe Bag (Worth $35.90)
• Mizuno Event Running Jerey (Sizes S to XL, worth $32.90)
• Lucky draw coupon
• 30% discount on all regular Mizuno items (from the listed stores above) from point of registration

Race Route
Similar to last year’s race, distance about 10km, mostly flat terrain, trail and road. But expect very muddy routes on the Trail loop if it rained beforehand, so prepared to get dirty and wear shoes and running attire you don’t mind getting muddy in.

Route Explanation: TP Stadium - Out TP East Road Gate (To main road) - Bedok Reservoir Loop - North along TP Main Road - TP Stadium (Yellow Line)

Registration Details
Registration closing date: Sunday 6th july 2008
Register personally at the following Mizuno & World of Sports outlets (VGO Corp):

• Mizuno Paragon
• Mizuno Marina Square
• Mizuno AMK Hub
• Mizuno Vivocity
• WOS Plaza Singapura
• WOS Jurong Point
• WOS Toa Payoh
• WOS Heartland Mall
• WOS Takashimaya
• WOS Velocity @ Novena Square
• WOS Parkway Parade
• Feder Sports
• N-zone @ Queensway Shopping Center
• Running Lab at Funan IT Mall
• Running Lab at Velocity

Race day conduct
Reporting time: 0630
(Recommended time for ample warm up time, there is no need for pre-race registrations)
Race start: 0730
There is baggage deposit at the stadium itself, be sure to come really as the stadium will be very packed and will be hard to find your way around.

Getting there

Other nice to know stuff
Guest of honour (flag off): George Yeo, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Official drink: H-Two-O
Official timer: Sunnto

Run at your own risk and be prepared for the finishing line appearing how of nowhere! LOL! See you at the Race!

Canopy walk
Coming from Hortpark, will bring you along the path to the next line of attraction of this park connector- The tree top canopy walk. The name itself should suggest a bit or two on your following route up to the attraction, involving quite alot of climbing from the bottom of Kent Ridge hill, leading up to Kent ridge park. You should be about 2 1/2 hours into your walk since Mt Faber and would have completed about half of the 9km southern ridge route by here. There is still quite a long way from here.

The canopy walk actually sits on the north facing side of the hill facing roughly north east, which the span of the walkway runs perpendicularly from. The design of the walkway takes full advantage of the natural vegetation and topography of the site, constructed on tubular steel supports anchored to various sloping relief areas of the hill. with wooden floor which bear quite a resemblance to the Macritchie and Pasir-ris park mangrove walk platforms which can be accessed from the walkway access upon cresting the hill, that too provided after you’ve climbed up to the top of the hill.

The start of the canopy walk

The canopy walk area

Here we are at Kent Ridge park!

Personally speaking, there is nothing really great about the tree-top canopy walk, true you get to walk with mature greenery all round you, but the path itself is a short blunty 280m which links Kent Ridge Park to the museum Reflections of Bukit Chandu- something which can’t really justify itself as an attraction in comparison to the Henderson arch or forest walk which dwarfs it completely. The “Reflections” museum itself is accessible to the public, especially the elderly and disabled, but not the canopy walk if you are coming from Hortpark. The walkway don’t sound as scenic as it sounds and don’t really offer any fresh new views of the area, it’s only the face of the vegetated hill behind you even the observation decks are obscured by the crowns of the trees in the area.This don’t seem to justify the need to climb to the top for the walk itself. see sunbirds, doves, squirrels, lizards, and white-crested laughing thrushes. There are regular signages along the route similar to those found on the Telok Blangah hill forest walk, that provide educational information on the various plants at the park, there is also a shelter for visitors to take a short break.

Kent Ridge Park
Kent ridge park is very much the park as it always be, surrounding immediate vegetation are mostly secondary forests, which dominates the most natural vegetation on the hill, with groves of Dillenias, Acacias and Tembusu species. You will be told of all these species on the various informational stands lined along the paths. You can also hear the sounds and buzzes of birds and insects breaking the silence and serenity of the park, which in strack comparison is not as frequented by people in contrast to the other attractions.

Kent Ridge park is now mainly frequented by people who intend to drop by to Hortpark, free parking is available at the hill top carparks and a short walk down the hill will allow you to enjoy the highlights. Like Mt Faber and Labrador park, this park are also one of the few with a looming war torn part- One of the few last battles in Singapore was fought on Kent Ridge which dominated the harbour and the British military depots around the Ayer Rajah area. This park is part of the Army’s adoption of tthe Army Green Park with two decommissioned M114 Artillery Guns and an AMX-13 Light Tank are displayed in the park reminding visitors of it’s history. There is even a plaque was installed near Carpark B in the commemorative 50th Anniversary of the end of World War II.

The best views from park will definitely be past the around the Kent Ridge carpark area on the long straight slined by palm trees, on the other hand various look-out points offer visitors magnificent views of the off-shore islands like Pulau Duran Darat.

There are quite a number of fitness stations (about 20) lined all along Kent Ridge Park, so if you are a fitness enthusiast this is the place to be. After going through the park, I can label the park as one more quiet ones in the southern route- More for those who prefer and appreciate serenity and lack of crowds. You can stroll through the area and enjoy the peaceful ambiance away from the hustle and bustle of city living. Nature groups will enjoy the nature trail located near Carpark A, with some rather interesting tropical plants such as pitcher plants and wild orchids littered along this trail. Here you will have the option of the main tarmac route or the off road dirt trail specially made for mountain biking or trekking. Taking the meandering tarmac route down to the park will bring you to the main water features of the park- Two ponds can be found at the foot of the ridge located on the eastern side of the park. This natural pond is home to some turtles and Japanese koi just to name afew.

Nice airy areas of Kent Ridge

Science park I

Kent Ridge Heritage trail

Kent ridge heritage trail
Kent ridge heritage trail is a short walk past the pond area from Kent Ridge park itself, thereafter comes the “rubbish part” of the trek having you to walk right into the urban confines of Science Park I itself. Noticeably are the imprinted leaves patterns on the pathways lined throughout Science park I. You can even chance upon few drink machines dispensing soft drinks at 40 cents a cup for a thirst quencher if may. You have to cross South Buona Vista road (The road from the university flyover) over to the slip route behind NUH before coming right to Prince George Park road which will point your on towards Kent ridge road, a sign there will greet you at the start of Kent ridge road leading into NUS.

The Heritage trail is not exactly a trial but rather a hilly road running along the upper ridges of Ken Ridge hill itself, passing through few NUS research facilitates and dormitories. Throughout the trail you can encounter several small rows of linkways and flights of staircases connecting the route to NUH or the various Tertiary facilitates around the area such as the Temasek life sciences laboratories and the institute for mathematical sciences. The road is completely quiet and empty and I did not even encounter any vehicles throughout the whole route at all, a strack contrast to the bussles of the earlier Mt Faber road. You will pass by a marine research facility before a PUB walkworks facility . The route will terminate right in the NUS campus itself, near the Campus central library where you have to walk from the Kent Ridge Crescent past the computer center before meeting and crossing Clementi road where a short climb of the hill will bring us to our next park just before the Japanese supplementary school.

Clementi Woods
Clementi woods is a small park situated between West Coast road and Clementi road, it runs parallel along West Coast Road itself. It’s also quite an old park with it’s design and layout more of less untouched for almost 20 years, spotting a rather old school red-tiled pavement which runs throughout the park. Despite it being a Saturday, the park is living in the shadow of it’s formal self, completely empty and neglected of park visitors. The park itself used to be situated in a mangrove swamp area, before surrounding neighborhood got reclaimed and developed, therefore still spotting some mangrove plants in certain areas of the park, which all seem to go quite out of place now.

The winding hill roads of the Heritage Trail

Here we are at Clementi Woods!

Leaving Clementi Woods

Many of the old playgrounds I remember of there are all now replaced by rather common simple modern fitness corners. There are few small shelter huts lined along the park together with a park restaurant on the top of the hill. The park is ok for runners who do not demand much of a distance to jog. The hills which the park is built on is home to some rather nice long flights of steps for hill training especially strengthening muscles required for static jumps such as standing board jumps. Otherwise, you can (like most runners) use this park as part of their planned running route and not a specific training ground itself given the rather conducive running areas within the neighborhood. For bikes, few parts of the route are out of bounds for cyclists because of runnings steps, unless you don’t mind demounting and pushing your bike up the slopes. It will be quite a pain to rollerblade in this park as well given the uneven and pothole laden brick walkway. No wonder this park is not so friendly as a whole after all.

West coast park
West coast park, just like Clementi woods both have their relatively long past since they were all introduced as parks to complement the residents living in the first few western HDB projects around the area. However, west coast park is presently received rather differently from the public- The place is a direct contrast to the emptiness of Clementi woods. Crossing West Coast Road and making your way along West Coast Link towards West Coast Highway will bring us to this last and final stretch of the 9km southern park ridges connector walk.

West Coast park is very unlike the old park it was before, since then it had almost it’s entire coastline destroyed by the introduction of the new west side Harbour drive and the Pasir Panjang terminal container ports. I still remember the old days when I frequented the area when I was a kid- a large bright open park with children playgrounds glittering in the windy seaside park with rolling sandy beaches lined all along it’s side along West Coast Highway (where you can build seaside sandcastles and pick lots of seashells). There was a lagoon area together with few fishermen huts and sampans lined along the beaches, a walk further into the park will be a shaded turtle pond area shaded and covered by large tall mature fir-looking trees efforts. The park was very much left desolated after the construction of the container ports, where only a few years after where plans and construction work done up to rebuild the area into the current West coast park it is today, still utilizing much of the old relief, vegetation and pond water features.

Now west coast park is alive and bustling as a weekend family outing park. Spotting large sandpit playgrounds and picnic areas, if the always full carpark weekends don’t give you a clue of how popular it is, then the packed playgrounds and picnic fields might give into you how frequented the place is now, so that’s where everyone in the west are now!

West coast park was built on reclaimed land, so the relief s pretty much flat- ideal for bicycles and roller blading activities alike. The crowds near the carpark and playground area might be a turn off for runners who have to constantly put up with pedestrians and cyclists, so maybe running further inside the park may be more of your cup of tea. The park also spots their own Macdonald’s restaurant and dog run area as well.

West coast park is packed!

with it’s own Macdonald’s!

That is all for now!

Final Verdict- Wonderful! but forgot everything beyond Kent Ridge Park
West coast park is the last and final park, concluding the southern ridges park connector review I have so far. It was definitely an interesting 9km and running from Mt Faber all the way to West Coast park. However, in all what I can say that the highlights of the route will mainly be the Henderson Waves, Forest walk, Arch and Hortpark, ending at most the treetop Canopy Walk at Kent Ridge Park. After that, everything is almost rubbish- The route after Canopy walk will see you through major roads and built up areas.

Even though if you have ground knowledge of the area, it won’t provide the full park-connector experience with nature, having to suddenly find yourself with office buildings (e.g science park) and main roads with no clear signage or debarkation to proceed on next in the route. This problem plagues many park connectors all round Singapore as well.

Given that, you can start off from Telok Blangah hill making your way to Kent Ridge (and vice versa) which will keep you busy with uninterrupted with nature for about 3 hours, thereafter you can take bus service 175 back to where you’ve started, the bus serves between Pasir-Panjang to Depot road allowing you to recap the attractions you’ve walked on the way (as it actually passes by few of the connector route on the way back). Do note you can also take the same service 175 from West coast highway (opposite west coast park) if you were to follow the whole route to the end as well. If you are driving, you can park at either Mt faber park or Kent Ridge park where parking is free and you can make your way from either end and back.

The southern park connector is not only a big jump in the efforts of beatifying and bringing up Horticulture in Singapore, but putting Singapore further into labeling itself as a garden city. if only where the links between the parks be more seamless where the dream and ideology of an island-wide park connector will become a reality.

Return Home

The Forest walk
The forest walk consist of a series of interlinking grated steel walkways joined together to form a continuous linked hilltop walkway towering over the tree canopy tops. One end starts off at the peak of Telok Blangah hill park, slowly descending down the hill as it goes before ending at Alexandra road with the Alexandra Arch Bridge. Likewise, starting in the reverse direction from Alexandra road will be very much like a shortcut up Telok Blangah park as well.

The walk itself is an attraction of the area offering some rather good breathtaking views of the surrounding tropical secondary forest and hills. You can even chance upon few full forest views with no buildings or urban structures in sight- views we never thought exist smacked right in the middle of urban southern Singapore, looks like Sungei Buloh will have some competition!

The only few grasps of nature you can get here will only be the array of trees and plant life lined along the route, elaborated with an occasional plant species informational guide placed at regular intervals throughout the walkway. Laughingly, few of the plants along the route all look miserable and distraught, it’s like they are being invaded and touched during the linkway construction, however, given time they will recover. The guide in the Straits Times states that you can meet monkeys along the route as well, though I didn’t encounter any through my trip (nor I had enough with them at Bt Timah either). This could be due to the disturbances created during the linkway construction and the large crowds of people who frequent the area now- possibly scaring them further into the forest.

Nice clean views of the forest walk

The Earth Trail

Some of the nice viewing spots

Running along with the forest walk is the old earth trail, which as the name suggest runs on the forest floor as a dirt trail track which leads out the same way as well. Is is usually a quick alternative out of the area for those who can do away with the zig-zagging inter-twining linkways, opting for a more “back to nature” walk with dirt on your shoes and the trees and sounds of nature engulfing all round you.

Given that comparatively with nature delivered in supermarket convenience, the cleaner the forest walk linkway not only keeps your shoes clean or head free from jungle spiders, but also smart in design as well- The walkway constantly spots a floor made of of triangle metal grates, similarly found those covering our drains, these in nature not only very easy to mass produce and maintain but also prevents rainwater and leaves from collecting on the walkway itself.

The taller areas of the walkway are reinforced with cross braces, which I believe anyone who own Swedish flat-packed storage shelves will find a hint of resemblance to. Discreetly hidden in every one or two handrails is a night lighting lamp which illuminated the floors of the walkway in the night, allowing you to see the trail leading through the night jungle, resembling a scene like little twinkle dots in the hills, a sight rather impressive by itself.

The forest walk weighs in about 2km in total length and run parallel to Depot road upon reaching the foot of the hill. Lined throughout the course are access stairwells allowing you to get off onto the earth trail anytime. The route crawls on past the ISS Preston Campus before cutting across the Lock road (a side lane from Depot Road) and eventually terminating at The Alexandra Arch Bridge.

The Alexandra Arch Bridge
Spanning across Alexandra road, The Arch Bridge seamlessly links the forest walk to the phase of the park connector walk- Hortpark. So far the park connector linkage from Mt Faber has been rather flawless- there were no big obstacles or scenarios involving pedestrians having to put up with major road crossings by themselves without any crossing, well unlike few other park connectors I’ve seen around Singapore.

While most people will label it as the “comb bridge” it is actually a very solid and heavy bridge. The bridge itself is perched on top of two giant steel arms embedded into the ground which connects one end of a parabolic loop to another. These loops in nature are structurally very sound and stable, able to take on huge loads with ease without buckling or having the need of an additional mid-span support at the central road dividers. No wonder the bridge is lavishly ladened with heavy concrete and floor tiling which reflects the setting sun dully under sunlight- adding much to the posh factor of the rather iconic bridge itself.

Some high areas of the forest walk

The Arch Bridge

The tiled floor of the Alexandra Arch

Noticeably is the presence of a single arch and not two on both longitudinal sides, the 45 degree angle of the arch also allows the bridge’s center of mass to be balanced over the span of the bridge, for those who appreciate this, the bridge itself is a structure showcase of engineering excellence.

For us runners and cyclists, its nice to know that steps are an option on this bridge as well, your transition from Telok Blangah hill park to Hortpark will be a smooth one, provided you are able to put up with the crowds and narrow passageways coming from or to the forest walk itself. A short walk from the Arch following the concrete garden walkway further into the Alexandra technopark will bring you to the Hortpark.

Hyderabad’s Hort Park
The hort in “hortpark” stands for horticulture, which derives from the Latin hortus meaning a ‘garden’ space. Opened on the 10th May 2008 and located at 33 Hyderabad road around the hussle and bussle of the Alexandra technopark, it’s amazing how they managed to squeeze in a descent-sized 23 Hectare park here in the given confines next to an industrial neighborhood.

Hortpark was developed with a cost of S$13.1 million by the National Parks Board as a South East Asia’s first gardening lifestyle hub which will see the harmonic fusion and thinning the line between research/educational related objectives and recreational/commercial activities, all under one roof. The park is like the modern and urban equivalent of the botanical gardens, (despite being only about half it’s size). It spots not only it’s own automated 155 lot carpark system (with 3 Wheelchair Parking Lots) but a multi-purpose visitor center as well, with it’s own food & beverage outlets such as a restaurant and grounds exhibition areas, which are all open for booking.

Small public gardens prior Hortpark

Welcome to the Hort’s!

Views from the Hort central visitor center

Flaunting the front of the visitor center and drop off point is the Hort’s water garden, welcoming you in pure uncluttered Zen style, which resonates in the interior of the building as well. You won’t miss the sounds of running water, fishes, and the floating aquatic plants from the entrance and car park. That is too on top of the park’s open setting and the surrounding water elements (in and outdoor) and the restaurant overlooking the center’s vast manicured lawn. Here you can catch the sky and surrounding scapes all painted as beautiful water reflection, a sight to behold.

Hortpark is also home to an assortment of specially themed gardens, about 20 of them to be exalt, each with their own unique intentions and meanings to bring forward a point or artistic concept with plants.

The restaurant water feature

The visitor center open lawn

Reduce reuse recycle

Few notable ones will be the fantasy garden, the recycling garden, the living green wall (6 meters), herb & spice garden, the tree climbing corner as well as the bamboo labyrinth, which are known to have meditative and healing qualities embodied by ancient beliefs- confrontation, convergence and closure. Some of the displays are out of the ordinary, such as some spotting baby cradles/walker and normal household appliances/parts used in aid of the creation of these gardens.

The recycling garden a melting pot for recycling ideas in gardening, painting the fact that old and defunct items can find a second life as re-usable decorative items on your lawn. Some garden accessories accessories on display will include old PCK-styled yellow boots, bottles, tires, hats, and even your rice cooker and bathtub.

Fantasy garden

few of the interesting displays

overview of the children playground and the displays

The fantasy garden is a family orientated garden and if you are fans of The Wizard of Oz you are in luck- you’ll find the characters such as Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man, the Lion and Scarecrow. Children will have fun in together with the nearby playground which blends into together with the garden rather well with it’s plant theming and colour schemes.

The herb and spice garden are one of the “try-learn” exhibits, allowing you not only to view, but go hands-on with the herbs themselves encouraging you to cultivate them back at home.

The gardens are all wireless hot-spots as well, allowing you to stream informational data of each display straight at the site you are on. You can do so if you have a HP wifi/GPS enabled PDA or smart phone, or loan a HP 612 Business Navigator from the visitor center.

The phones which uses GPS and wi-fi together with installed software will not only pop up welcome and data messages when you enter the range of these hot-spots but provide exhibit related info as well (say for instance a whole list of the herbs at the herb and spice garden when you are there). Kids will love the fairy tale “The Enchanted Kingdom” game in the PDA which is an interactive GPS treasure hunt, putting them on a series of activities and quests which paints a storyline on recovering 5 stolen elements throughout the park to restore the flora and fauna of the park (which starts off “barren” in the game).

There are plenty of sitting and sheltered areas, only if you know where to find them. The thing which impresses me is how all these displays all come together as a whole, including the park benches which all blend in or can be part of a display. So there is no clear demarcation whether some chairs or shelters are actually part of the display and can be used by visitors. But the open nature of the displays reassures you that even if you were to take a seat here or there, just move them back into their original positions and it will be all set perfectly again. So you can say that everything here is largely dependent on the responsibilities of the visitors.

Hortpark is also the home of a few integrated plant nurseries which we can see are largely involved in a variety of island-wide NEA projects based on their capacities. Hortpark runs along the back areas of the surrounding technopark and industrial areas which paints and reiterates the park’s urban neighborhood, the distant horizon is all backed by the distant rolling Kent ridge hills.

You will meet a small lifestyle corner, and the HortMart towards the near end of the park. The mart is which is a small built up open area which not only serves as a rest food area located further into the park.

The prototype glasshouses

Exiting Hort park by it’s rear gate

Entering kent ridge park

By the end of your walk at HortPark, you’ll see six prototype glasshouses clad in a modern finish of white concrete, glass and steel. A peek inside greets you with a myriad of coloured plants and flowers. The green houses here are built to serve as research centers for the upcoming Singapore Gardens at the Bay, so you can be rather expectant of what’s blooming there when the time comes.

Despite that wow factor, Hortpark is not your typical public neighborhood garden- the place is actually enclosed and is only open daily 6.00am to 10.00pm. Admission is free though, but this means no late night runs through the park especially you are one of the few runners and cyclists who enjoy exercising through in the middle of the wee hours of the night, you need to find a detour here at Hort’s after opening hours.

There is a linkway gate at the rear end of the park right after the greenhouses with a pathway running up along side more of Hortpark’s plant nursery areas before leading you up towards Kent Ridge park where the tree top canopy walk resides.

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The southern park ridges is part of the newly constructed park connectors which aims to completely link all the various parks in Singapore in a continuous round island loop, taking you from ends such as Choa Chu Kang to Changi coast road.

This southern portion of the island loop (also known as the Southern ridges) spans a total distance of 9km from Mt Faber via Harbour Front and ending at West Coast Park, well that is so as claimed by the May 11th 2008 Straits Times article and takes about 3-5 hours to complete. However, with so much publicity how interlinked these routes are realistically, such routes are actually and awkward attempt to link various segmented and nucleated parks, often with not so seemlessly- runners have to cross major roads, bridges, highways, etc to get from one park to another not only posting a safety hazard to runners but do not offer much of the integrated and inter-connected feel. So is this park connector 9km route comparable to that of dedicated running route or simply just a claim? well lets find out.

The whole 9km route will see you from Harbour Front MRT- Mount Faber Hill- Henderson Waves- Telok Blangah Hill- Alexandra Arch- Hortpark- Kent Ridge- Clementi Woods and finally, West Coast Park, you can do the route in reverse, but I will be covering this review from Harbour Front itself. You can view the full photo walkthrough of the walk in it’s own photo gallery here (152 images).

The Marang Trail
The route starts from the base of Mt Faber up the Marang Trail from Harbour Front area, alternatively you can take the old conventional road way up the hill roads from the Faber lodge area. Either way, both areas are pedestrian and runner friendly with a setback for each- you will encounter quite alot of uphill steps on the Marang trial which is a big no-no for cyclists, but the air is fresher and paths shaded.

Mount Faber hill
The old road way up is more inclined towards hill work runners and cyclists, but you get quite alot of vehicles passing by which can not only be dangerous but makes you having to put up with the occasional blast of exhaust fumes from the cars and tour buses climbing up. There are also the other existing stair routes/treks up to Faber Point as well (such as the route from Safra Mt Faber and Telok Blangah market etc) all being upgraded as well. You will be greeted by the park map at the top where are able to get your directions and orientations from there.

Marang Trail to Mt Faber from Harbour Front Area

The old way up the hill, besides the Marang trail route

Here we are are Mt faber in mappy goodness!

A walk through the covered Faber walk along side the roads will bring you pass few prominent landmarks of Faber hill, such as the 2 communication towers as well as the Jewel box (aka cable care station). It will be quite a fool-proof walk through the tourist-laden walkways offering few rather good views of the surrounding Telok Blangah residences, Keppel port as well as the distant view of the central business district, it will be not long before finding yourself past round the Faber loop towards the first highlight of our trek- The Henderson waves.

Henderson Waves bridge
The southern park connector prides itself as being Singapore’s only integrated “high attitude” park ridge walk. With the Henderson Waves bridge taking the honor as Singapore’s tallest “over head bridge” or pedestrian bridge if you correctly address it. The bridge spans the top most peaks of Mt Faber and Telok Blangah hill and peaks at a maximum height of about 77.18m above sealevel based on the various labeled markers lined on the bridge decks.

one of the highlights of route!

few of the many park maps

ontop the henderson “sinusoidal” waves

Where most engineers will usually not disclose the array of complex scientific equations involved in designing a bridge, the wave bridge on the other hand flaunts them with it’s distinct sinusoidal waveform design, which theoretically have not only function in keeping the bridge rigid over it’s entire span but giving the bridge it’s curvy and distinctive wave look, hence the rather generic name, Henderson Waves.

The bridge have wooden timber floor panels lined all along the whole span and going all up the guardrails as well, where they are all seated and bolted on the contorted exposed main glider steel structure, which waves in and out from the bridge deck, protruding in and out at regular intervals above the walking deck.

some of the few deck resting spots

man it does look high up from here!

partial shades on a sunny day

The part of the super structure which sticks above deck serves as partial sun shades, which did quite a good job in partially blocking out sunlight on the sunny day of my visit. The open shelter-less concept makes the bridge very airy as well, so staying there for prolonged period is largely bearable in the sun as well- there were even few families having a picnic in few of these resting areas, which goes to show the effectiveness of the shade, though all these are useless in the event of a downpour.

There is no rule forbidding bicycles and skate scooters on the bridge, though it will generally be recommend for riders to dismount and push for the whole span given the rather narrow confines on the bridge deck itself- also so you won’t be much of a nuisance (to our rather complaintive people), as well as allowing you to appreciate the views from the bridge itself.

Across the bridge is Telok Blangah Hill’s mini forest walk which is a short mini connector path to the hill top carpark which can be accessed from Henderson road itself towards the all familiar Alkaff Mansion landmark, which sadly too also lies in the shadows of it’s past given the array of family-friendly facilities littered all around the hill, such as multipurpose event areas and children playgrounds.

Telok Blangah Hill forest walk

More winding hill roads

The start of the forest walk

Following the road further on Telok Blangah Hill into the Telok Blangah Hill Park (along Telok Blangah green) past Alkaff Mansion will bring you to the Terrace gardens. We won’t be visiting the Terrace gardens for now as it’s not part of the connector, so we will be giving this one a miss. Taking the loop out of the gardens and moving on North-west will bring you along more winding hillside roads before meeting your next highlight of the walk- the Forest Walk as well as the Alexandra Arch which lies beyond it.

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There we have it, my graduation at the 48th Singapore Polytechnic Graduation Ceremony 2008. The opening of the first session was witnessed by our guest of honor, RAdm Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State Ministry of Education and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, who also presented the institution prizes (3 Lee Kuan Yew Awards, The Toh Chin Chye Gold Medal, The Low Guan Onn Gold Medal, The Chua Chor Teck Gold Medal and The Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal) to the 7 award winners as well. This ceremony was also held in same session where the Chemical and Life Sciences diplomas were presented as well.

After the institutional awards, I was rather fortunate to have my diploma award ceremony at the second session, in other words right at the next slot, so that beats having to come back later or another day for the 2nd half of my graduation. It was during my second session in the afternoon where I received my other remaining awards, namely the Shell, Micron Semiconductor, Institution of Engineers, MMI Holdings and the OCBC prizes.

I was touched and moved by the response of the crowd when I was last on stage for the award- after the speaker went through my whole list of awards before saying my name (the cue to move forward to collect your diploma), I was greeted by the loud cheers, applause and classmates/aquantinces calling out my name, which thundered throughout the convention center.

It was almost an unreal moment, despite it being just a moment across the stage, it felt like an eternal symphony through a sea of camera flashes as I made my way towards our smiling and overjoyed guest of honor. He congratulated me with a short question about my future plans on-stage before handling me my award file, medal and both of us turning to the cameras. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and a big THANK YOU to everyone attending the session today for your great support!

Every session ends with an air-conditioned reception above the auditorium where we get to mingle with the guest of honor for that session, the principal, board of directors as well as lecturers. A hot topic there will be much on our future plans, let be national service or plans to further our studies, thats besides the on-going photo session with all the VIPs as well. The press was there as well who did an article on the 6 groups of twins graduating as well.

I believe today will be one of the few very memorable days of my life- I never thought I would come so far in my chosen path in Polytechnic, let be excelling in the dragon baby year/cohort. I believe I would never had gotten so far without my family, my lecturers and my friends who were always there for me and behind me when I needed them. Many thanks to all the guest of honors, directors, lecturers, classmates and even ex-course mates who sent their well wishes and congrats. You rock!

I was not able to get any good photos to date, but they will be sent by the official photographers of the event. Those photos taken by my parents are rather distant from where they were sitting in the convention center, so I will post the better ones once I get hold of them.

On a sidenote, interestingly, each of all the 7 institution medalists have a life-sized cardboard print out, showing us welding a red circle disc listing our awards within. We were amazed when we first saw that and didn’t saw that coming from our group photo-shoot few weeks ago. Personally I found that was rather neat idea our media department went out in creating, we were honored. Laughingly we were so amazed at looking at each others cutouts, I remembered one of the marshals jokingly telling us that maybe we could take “ourselves” back at the end of the whole graduation.

Without further ado, here is my media writeup, as also featured in the graduation booklet, campus fullstop publication as well as the alumni SPAN magazine:
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I believe graduation day will be the day everyone in SP for the 2005 batch is looking forward to. You’ve came a long way to witness this final day and to receive your Diploma. Give yourself a pat on back for you’ve made it, there is a whole lot more awaiting for you ahead after graduation.

I will in campus from the morning throughout the afternoon with 2 sessions to attend in all. for the day. Will I have lots to catch up with my classmates tomorrow. Will update more of the ceremony tomorrow.

After months of research and price hunting, I was considering a new Harddisk player and recorder at Carrefour yesterday, one by the name of AC Ryan, with time based recording. But apparently upon reaching there, they seem to have a better recorder in store now known as the Emtec Movie Cube which not only boosts everything the AC Ryan recorder has but comes as a network attached storage besides the nicer looks. The low down is that it costs about $100 more ($399) with a smaller 250GB Harddisk (compared to 320GB in the $288 AC Ryan one). There were few more finer things I would like to know about it then, technical things not shown on the box, such as price (no labels) as well as the type of hardisk (IDE, SATA) as I intended to upgrade the harddisk myself, so I needed staff assistance.

The ulgy yet good side of Carrefour service in one experience
For starters, finding the player was already quite a pain initially in the Carrefour computer and TV department, there were no staff tend to you when you need one and upon finding one, I approached the TV-AV section staff (in red polo shirts) only to be kindly referred to the computer section for assistance (as they are not in-charge of the harddisk player despite it being displayed and running their Plasma displays). However, upon reaching there, the staff at the computer section were too busy chatting among themselves (it was this girl in red polo and another chinese staff in white at the computer printer and fax section), despite the display boxes just beside them, an interruption of their conversation about the player details and price was rudely turned off by them and I was told to go and look for a man in white back in the TV-AV section (it’s like a cannot be bothered can’t you see I am talking? kind of attitude).

So tolerantly I went back to the TV section again thinking that maybe I missed a staff when I was there (while they went back to their conversation). There I found a Malay staff in a white buttoned shirt, who promptly tended to me though he is with some other TV section staff at that time. I directed him few aisles back to the harddisk displays, upon asking him about the players, he told me that he is actually not in-charge of it as well. But remarkably he tries the very best he can in explaining the various functions he knows of it by the information on the box, (such as it being 250GB compared to the other 320GB) and even went off to get the promoter for the section, who I was informed was away at that time and would be coming here as soon as he can.

I was amazed in the contrast of the service this staff displayed despite not being well versed of the product features, despite telling me things I actually already knew all about, but I went with the flow anyway and acknowledged the features he told me, not turning him off beside fluming inside at the previous staff members. He even opened up the package to check the manual and technical specifications when he didn’t know about the harddisk type. When the promoter finally arrived the he just told me to go with the promoter while he cleans and packs up the package we had ransacked, he promptly rejected my offer to help him pack it, I couldn’t stop thanking him for his job well done.

It was with the official promoter where I had all my technical questions answered, rather well versed to even calling up his boss on his mobile about details he didn’t know as well. I was rather pleased about the contrasting enthusiasm of these few staff compared to the other lowly staff in the section- it’s just a strack opposite of the many which just gives you a rather muddled overall feel of the service offered in Carrefour- it’s very bad, just as very good- go figure, especially if people were ask me to rate the service standards there, you can just say it’s just complicated.

Got to chomp onto some of these little Pandas over the last weekday, but didn’t get to talk about them or take a picture of them in their natural habitat after catching some of them at Breaktalk again yesterday. Interestingly, these little bread buns, priced at $2 each is part of a charity effort by Breadtalk themselves in aid of the China earthquake relief efforts, with 100% of the proceeds going to the relief fund itself, so grab one of these if you feel like it or around the neighborhood.

However, given the recent spade of the relief efforts towards Myanmar and China, please do have responsibility to check the authority any possible flag or fund raiser you meet on the streets, as everywhere in Singapore are all saturated with people asking for donations- many possibilities for exploitation. It’s wise to check whether the collectors are officially affiliated with established and registered charitable organization or registered with a valid collection permit.

Great Singapore sale, whee!
Yesterday too was very much shopping time, and whoa it’s the great Singapore sale right? Literally shopped all the way from Orchard all the way to Suntec. But got myself only a new black blazer suit from G2000 while I am at it, seems that the quality of G2000 blazers beats those I’ve found in Robinsons or even Topshop, with and 40% discount off it’s really a great buy! This would be perfect for prize presentations!