Stability wins.

Haste vs stability; white vs red beans. The white beans clearly triumph in their growth progress and was slightly earlier to flower.

Since the previous bean update, both the families of beans have made much progress. But the white beans made a bigger, more rapid growth. It stayed with 2 sets for some time, before the 3rd sprang up suddenly, followed closely by the 4th and 5th. the white bean plants are currently much bigger than the red beans, in terms of stem and leaf sizes. The red beans are more like vines while the white beans grew tall and upright to claim more space for its canopy.

as seen in comparison, the white bean plants are very much bigger than the green beans. about 50% taller, 2 to 3 times thicker stems, and up to 4 times bigger leaves. both the green and white bean plants stop at 5 sets of leaves, though. the red bean plants grow between 4 to 7 sets of leaves.

With such wide leaves, the plants are competing fiercely for space to spread their leaves, made much better by reaching upwards. Just 10 white bean plants create a large canopy which act as a single shield from the sunlight. I like the way they cleverly shift to position their stem and leaves such that it gathers as much sinlight as possible.

I guess even 9 white bean plants to a big container is alr too much, compared to 12 green beans to a small container and the canopy doesnt cover.


Both the white n red bean plants have a creeper feature; a long, thin outgrowth that has very tiny hooks to catch onto a support, then curl around it. as no supportive structure was given, they cling on to their peer's branches or creepers. (mutual support.) this feature is absent in green beans. the creepers may have leaves and flowers too.

one of the white bean plants is similar to the legendary champion plant. Bigger, taller and wider influence than its peers. It could be due to its good location. Each leaf can almost cover my palm. but despite its excellent growth, it has yet to bear any flowers. i guess it would come soon, abundantly.



Flowers for both species are already springing up one by one, some alr turned into fruit. red beans bore yellow flowers, slghtly deeper yellow than green bean's. white beans bore light purple flowers. white n green bean flowers drop off a day after opening. red bean's stay for a while longer.

1st pod of Gen 2 white beans are due in about 2 weeks time. red beans.. maybe 3. That means, time to fruit = 2 months. for both species. so much better than green beans which take 3 months, are smaller in size and bear less fruit per plant. But another factor has been inconsistent: density. Perhaps the green ben plants could grow much better than it did if given more space per plant. But it could never beat the white beans. theyre genetically like that.

Expedition: Kranji

Yesterday (12 sep), I set off on an exploration trip to the little known part of Singapore - kranji. I have rarely been to the northern half of Singapore. Much less to the northwest part. The trip was inspired by looking at google satellite images of kranji. There I saw that it was something different from other places and expected to find some interesting sights. In the end, I wasn’t disappointed. That was a really useful and important tool. It helped me to have an idea of whats the place like, mark out checkpoints, plan the routes to take, directions to go, even measure the distance between the checkpoints.

I tried to find ppl to go with me, but noone could or wanted to. Nvm.. traveling alone give me more freedom. Own schedule, own targets.

Away from the hustle and bustle of the city or heartlands, and into the hustle and bustle of industry.

STARTING POINT - Kranji station

armed with a few dollars, a camera and a small bottle, i set off at 10+ and reached kranji mrt station before noon. on the way, the train went pass the middle of an area full of cramped industrial warehouses and factories so i knew i was in for treat. there was this really huge stadium-like structure nearby that i found out to be the race course for singapore turf club. too bad i couldnt go in or find some place where i can view the race course.

I first had lunch at the munch house before going out into the area that would probably have no place for food and drinks. well if i known there was, i would have gone there instead. but i didnt wanna risk. where theres no residence, theres few of any other amenities for F&B, entertainment and education. food at munch house was nice, but laden with lotsa msg.

my muscles were still acheing from the very strenuous rollerblading + bowling 2 days ago. i was worried i couldnt walk such long distance as planned. but the ache became ignorable after awhile.

this is the kranji water reclaimation plant. the facility that churns out all the NeWater out of sewage. those 3 egg shape things must be the water storage tanks.


CHECK POINT 1 - Kranji road junction

it was vital that i took this route instead of the other road nearer to the station which leads to the woodlands causeway. lotsa traffic around this area. probably heading towards the causeway.
along kranji rd, leading to the area of warehouses ahead. i was surprised at the amount of traffic here. the traffic jam extends to a long way in front. the LTA or whoever builds roads should consider opening another lane. i also din expect so many cars. all this place needs is trucks n lorries cos like theres no residence n hardly any offices. some of the cars were malaysian, but some were expensive n new SG cars.

further in, i came across this muslim cemetery, guarded by a lizard. part of it is hidden under a thick undergrowth. what a place to have a cemetery. the dead cant rest in peace with all the heavy vehicles creating air n noise pollution few metres away.

CHECKPOINT 2 - the altar of tides

making a short detour, i reached the end of the road instead of turning, and i came to this point . The first sightings of the sea from here, and some coastal parts of JB. i didnt know the coastal parts of JB was so well built with nice, tall n fanciful buildings along the shoreline, creating a beautiful scenery. i thought it would be just kampung and vegetation.

as u can see, theres also a huge altar at the left side full of idols, joss stick burners and offerings. red candle wax stained the whole area. praying to their gods of the sea so it wont flood on them? Theres even a pedestal in the middle, like as if for conducting rituals to summon creatures from the depths. somewhere to the right there was a big statue of sth like sang nila utama. dont know what these industrial workers are up to.

this is one of the office building i saw along the way, belonging to Tong Seng Huat engineering pte ltd. even then its not really an office but probably more of a HQ. Plus it looks more like a resort or entertainment centre.
proceeding on, i came to a hawker centre with provision shops nearby. indeed there was no restaurants or food courts, but industrial workers need to eat too. this could have saved my life. The miserable small bottle i brought was almost empty by the time i reached here. i bought a 600ml bottle of water, which still wasnt enough to last my journey ahead.

CHECKPOINT 3 - Kranji reservoir

after a long walk past more warehouses and places like scrap metal junkyards, excavator terminals and dry boat docks, i emerged into another part of kranji. out of the hustle and bustle of industry, into the serenity of the nature around kranji reservoir.

a long land bridge acts as a dam to separate kranji reservoir on the left and the sea on the right. can get a wide view of JB from the middle of this bridge. at the 4 corners of the land bridge, there are small parks with playground structures like swings n seesaw. really nice place to rest and relax.

how about a nice rest on a bench overlooking vast greenery?

indeed, GREENERY. This is what the waters of kranji reservoir looks like. The water that go to the taps of residences. Theres a sign that says: "strictly no fishing or swimming. Fine $500." Such a redundant signpost. I dont think anyone really would swim in this kind of water. I doubt the survival of fish here either.

this is the biggest park of the 4, on the right side of the opposite end of the land bridge. really peaceful and shady, great place to retreat into or have a picnic (if not for some red ants around). This place also has some historical significance as the site of the battle of kranji beach in WW2. Theres a tablet in the middle of the park that tells of it. The aussie troops supposedly won a flawless victory by burning alive the landing jap troops who got trapped in the mud and oil. haha.

further ahead i reached a bus terminal with only bus 925. the road ahead had no bus services, suggesting its a not very populated route. the next checkpoint was far away and inaccessible, so i thought of turning back and heading home. I initially intended to turn back after reaching checkpoint 5. In the end i decided to try taking another route home. It was a risky venture cos i was unable to mark routes after that point due to the satellite images of that area being blurry. plus my water was running out.. not even enough to last my trip back... and i was also tired. But i thought, with some luck i may find a route that would lead me along the other side of the kranji reservior and come out somewhere around choa chu kang and yew tee.

CHECKPOINT 4 - the mysterious station

theres this very high tech looking structures, like some space station. It is a protected area, with a very wide perimeter surrounded by chainlink fences, so couldnt get near it. There were 4 weird towers on the field looking like some kind of alien radars, as shown in the pic... the ones with the fishbone-like thing on top.

Going along the road, i found the entrance to the station. it had large gates and 2 long straight roads leading into it. it was a very nice view of it and i was just about to take photo of it when i was then distracted by this female dog that suddenly appeared outta nowhere and circled around me. i started taking photos of her instead... and saved me from potentially big trouble.

There was a security shack just behind the gates with tinted glass windows. i had to look carefully before i realised there was a guard inside, staring at me. And at a corner of the gate, there was a sign saying "no photography." i realised these things only after i took photos of the dog. Thank you, bitch. haha.

so i had no choice but to give up my nice picture opportunity and carry on. after walking for awhile, suddenly this brown thing followed up beside me. It was the dog! She actually followed me around. i dont know why. not cos it liked me as it didnt show any form of affection. not for food or water cos it ignored me when i laid down my bag of stuff. She just followed for the sake of stalking. she stopped when i stopped, ran when i ran. I accepted her after awhile as my travelling companion.

I decided to skip checkpoint 5 which turned out to be sungei buloh wetlands, because it would take a long detour. So i just kept walking on along neo tiew road, with the bitch. But all i came across was vegetable farms, aeroponics, flower farms, and more weird buildings. The road kept going straight. If it keeps that way, it would lead to sarimbun area... even further from civilisation. So i decided to turn back... and take the same route back to kranji station. the dog continued to follow me until somehwere near the bridge of kranji reservoir, when she suddenly stopped following and went to the other side of the road. Must have been tired out or reached unfamiliar territory. She had followed me for almost 2km.


on the way back, i visited the altar of tides again. not to pray, of course. but because it was now low tide, so i could go onto the marshy beach and have better view of malaysia.

I also revisited the hawker centre to buy another drink. I was already dehydrating when i reached. cant imagine how worse it would be without that 1st extra bottle.

Reached kranji station feeling i had a good exercise and my legs started to ache again. the aircon of the train felt so good. After reaching my stop, i decided to walk even more, from there to home. tiredness crept in after i arrived home.

dunno if i would go on another such expedition. only if i can find a place worth going.

out with sem1

my exams had been over for 2 weeks already, and from there on is holiday until start sem2 in 2 weeks time. semester 1 is oficially over. never again will i have to study on dreaded economics, boring & complicated business IT applications, mug-till-u-drop principles of tourism n hospitality, goody-2-shoe's character development (sth like CME from sec sch =.=) ... and also a module that i quite liked - effective communication.

i guess the teacher played a big part in making me like the module. shes understanding, lighthearted n constantly jokes along with us despite her strict looks. makes learning fun n effecient. EC is a rather stress-free subject in the 1st place. its just like english lessons without compres n compos.

heres a little something from my EC texts. i find it a very good example of a text using just broken english and singlish terms. nowadays ppl r either speaking standard angmoh english or rojak singlish consisting of words from other languages thrown in. so its time we learn our singaporean language properly. haha. but can make do without the broken english.

Once upon a time hor, got one girl Litter Led Liding Hoot. She want go Ah Mah house. Morning oreddy she got go out one, got take come one basket put flower. She dowan walk long-long so go take shot cut. Wah!! She donno ah, got one animal follow her one leh! Then just happy-happy walk until she come Ah Mah house.

“Ah Mah! Ah Mah! I come oreddy, open the door leh!” she talk.
Ah Mah talk back, “Come in lah I never rock the door.”
Then Litter Led Liding Hoot open the door and go inside the house, she got see her Ah Mah on top of the bed. She go ask Ah Mah.

“Ah Mah, how come your the eyes vely big one hah?”
“So I can see you battle maahhhh!!!” Ah Mah say back.
“Ah Mah, how come your the year vely long one har?”
“So vely easy hear you one laah!!!”
“Ah Mah, how come …”
“Aiyah!!! You very a lot of question one ah you …
no die before isit?”
“Sollylah Ah Mah, I donno mah that why I
ask.”
“What solly-solly! Now I want eat you… I
not Ah Mah, I animal hor!”

Wah! Litter Led Liding Hoot vely scared one, she
scleam vely loud but late oreddy, the animal oreddy
eat her.

if it were to use rojak english, the next part would be sth like this

Litter led liding hoot think, "walao.. si beh suay sia. kena sai until like this. this jian wolf so many thing to eat pian pian mus eat me. you wait, later ah ma take u buat curry!" The wolf eat her liao jiu say, "wa shiok ah! this cha bor si beh ho sek, machiam best! i go around sumore, see got anyone to blanjah me dinner."

anyway, my results are coming out in 3 days time. really hope ill do well and gimme a good start in my poly education. i doubt ill have to repeat modules, though ITAB result is sure to pull my GPA down. sheesh ill rather do PTH or econs twice again than ITAB. 2 of my modules are 1 year long: accounting and business statistics. accounts i got background so its a good headstart. but i didnt do A math, giving many others headstart over me in stats. i hate stats too. but at least better than ITAB.

its definitely not totally the end of econs and PTH. theres related modules fundamentals of marketing n geography of global tourism respectively next semester to follow up. theres also more general modules like EC, such as IDEA and Critical reasoning skills. still rather general business stuff till next year. i expect semester 2 to definitely be harder. but i guess ill adapt anyhow.

Class outing/bbq

i was either out or not feeling like blogging the past week so now this post is on a week ago event. (talking about recounts.. another day of CADCFOC has been posted.. after a real long time. mus finish it by this hols.)

27 aug - class bbq event organised and hosted by my classmate shane. shceduled to meet at 4pm at yew tee mrt. i gave too little time for travel. it was only the 3rd time in my life i been on the NS line. the previous time also at yew tee, going to my pas henry house. arrived late, reaching at about 4.30. i tot alot of ppl r waiting for me. but only shane, ronnie and si ting was thr. the rest of the ppl came later, meeting at the house or bbq pits. the latest arrival was at around 10pm. altogether 17 ppl from my class came, including sum1 who transferred to SIM.

the fire was started by 6. some other ppl were present, like shane's marist clasmates and neighbours. but it took some time before they actually get to cooking. i went out for awhile to visit henry staying just nearby. so happens he was just outside the house so i didnt have to make an awkward appearance in front of his family. the previus time i went thr was at night, so this time i was able to see, the building just opposite his house was actually regent sec... jolene heng's sec school.

when i came back ppl were alr eating chicken wings and mushmallows in rich chocolate. i joined in and coated mine with lots of chocolate. heh heh. how nice to be able to eat without feeling guilty, while tempting the girls around to go against their vanity conscience. shane's mom made potato salad (tho nothings raw) for us, and it was the best one ive ever eaten. the bbq variety was rather limited, with some usual bbq food like chicken wings and satay, and an uncommon bbq food; hamburger patties. i expected to see sausages, and otak. and maybe some not so common food like squids, wrapped fish, kebabs, etc. so i decided to add to the variety by introducing my foil-wrapped chicken wing. it had succeeded b4 and i say it was good. but this time somehow my chickens were all burnt to ash despite proper wrapping. But i tried again, giving special attention, and it was success! even so, nobody really believed in my chicken and didnt want to try it. theyre all such psychocentric ppl.

after eating our fill (9), we went to play basketball for a while, then spent hours at the bench and the playground, chatting on everything under the moon, drinking wine, sodas and some kind of alcoholic coffee. some were playing cards and skating. its an awfully long time spent in idle chatter. but its a really nice place to pass time, overlooking a big canal with forest on the other side. at night, the whole place outside the compound is lighted only by the moon.. and yes the moon was bright and beautiful. i even got to see a rainbow beside the moon. rainbows at night are rare occurences.

but there was also some things to spoil the nice ambience, especially a group of ppl who burnt tons of hell notes nearby over many hours, polluting the air and instills creepiness. too peaceful can become creepy too. there was occasional disturbance of the peace by the passing malaysian train on the railway. to add to the creepiness, i think i saw things that aint normal on 2 instances. no i wasnt drunk.

at 1+ we went up to the house. a whole tray of unfinished bbq food was left behind. shanes mom wanted to throw it away but i wanted to bring it home. she was reluctant at first, but after much coaxing she relented. (she would rather give nice food to the dustbin than to me.) it was kept in the freezer till i went home. after clearing all the stuff at the bbq area and putting i at the house, some went home, while the rest, except one who was tired, accompanied jolene in her walk home quite nearby. while it may be unsafe for a girl walking home alone at that time, there was certainly no need or a gang of 11 ppl to follow. but i just went for exercise and exploration.

we came back by 2.30. i was the first to bathe in the yard toilet which was very small and had no hot water or place for hanging clothes. there were about 9 who stayed over. all those staying over took turns to bathe while the rest waited in 1 room. 4 ppl kept playing bridge and the rest had nothing to do but watch or use the laptop. i sat there watching for over an hour and got so bored and tired so i went to the living room to sleep. the living room was peaceful and dark enough for me to sleep, and i found the couch rather comfortable as a bed. soon after lying down i fell asleep but was awoken again before 7.

the fellows had just finished their business in shane's room and came out to the living room. only then did they realise i had been there all the while. it was raining and the weather chilly. the sky was just starting to light up. some wanted to go alr, inc sum1 who had driving test at 8. the rest of us hang around, watch mtv. i watched little kids stream into yew tee primary in the rain and to their clasrooms. reminded me of my first 10 yrs of education.

we wanted to wait for the rain to stop, but it seemed endless. so slightly b4 8 we decided to brave the rain and dash our way around to the mcdonalds near the mrt for breakfast. there were many students there, at a time when school should have started. mainly white top maroon bottom uniform ppl. blew $5+ on big breakfast. wanted to stay longer to exploit free coffee but they wanted to go alr. aloy went home and the remaining 5 of us went back shane's room to slack.

watched some mtv first, then spent the whole morning in the room in front of the PS, playing DBZ. the whole time i kept hearing the characters yelling, "kamehamehaaa!!!". its strange why a jap game names sth after a hawaiian person.
at noon we went to book the pool table and played until about 2. then we went back, got our stuff and headed home.

though there was much time spent together, i felt there was hardly any bonding. this is due to the activites being not inclusive of everyone. i do not feel that i have gained much from this event. few fond memories to bring back, but at least i get to bring back nice bbq leftovers.