I am back

Right, runeatgossip.com running since 2015 is kaput. For some inexplicable reason, we have allowed the hosting to run out without ensuring that the posts are backed up. So 9 years of posts are gone. And I don't know how to move the contents from there to a new domain. Any suggestions anyone reading this? In the meantime, I will continue to post my travel adventures, sightings of birds and other wildlife at runeatgossip.wordpress. Maybe a few running posts every now and then. Until then keep safe and stay happy.

You litter I litter Everybody Litter

The current debate here is of course the littering problem. Some people are asking why after many years of successfully keeping Singapore clean, it has gotten so bad. Actually, in my opinion, the littering problem has always been there. It just got swept away (pun intended) by a task force of cleaners.

When the PM first talked about the littering problem at the recent Laneway concert at the Garden by the Bay, a lot of fingers were pointed at foreigners. But really, is it really the foreigners that are contributing to all the litters here. I sorry and sad to admit that it is likely not so. The way I see it, most of the litters here except for certain specific areas where foreigners of similar nationality hang out, most of the litters are generated by us local.

I talked about the smoking and littering problem outside my office previously. The people who hangs around there and smoke are from the 2 office buildings next to it. Some of them are my colleagues as well. And 99% of them are locals. In fact, I once saw the security guard at my building dump his breakfast bag there! Beats me why he couldn't throw it into the bins in the building?

On my runs during the weekend, I often see litters left behind by people who had appeared to stay overnight at the park. One time there was a whole lot of Macdonalds wrappers and cups at the Punggol Waterway. Then there is the perpetual lot of rubbish at Alexandra Arch. Beside it being featured prominently in the papers, on the 2 occasions that I was there over the last 2 weekends, the litters were at the same place. Obviously somebody must have decided to have a overnight picnic there. Foreigners? I don't think so. The domestic maids will have to go back to their owners' place. The construction workers all have curfew and definitely have no money to drink so much. And even if they do, they are at Little India, Beach Rd, Tanjong Katong but not the neighbour parks. Rich expatriates? I don't see people like them hanging out on a overhead bridge in the middle of the night. A good example is the void deck of HDB flats. Who hangs out there overnight talking and drinking until the wee hours? And leave everything on the table for someone to clean up thereafter? Foreigners? I think most Singaporean know the answer to that.

And it is the same scene everywhere. At the beaches, at the bus stops, in the cinemas, in the parks and even in the trails. I think the big problem we people here have is not, contrary to what the press is saying, that we have this thinking that somebody will clean up after us, but is that we are by and large selfish and inconsiderate and ill bred. The littering problem persists because us Singaporean do not care. Simply bochap about the environment. Just wait at the bus stop and observe. See the student drinking? Watch when the bus comes along, just leave it on the bench and board the bus. Same with the uncle fisherman at the beach. Catch the fish and leave the small fish, newspaper, drink bottles behind. Same with the kids who drinks at Clark Quay and Alexandra Arch. And after every movie, look at the amount of trash left on the seat and floor. At my place here, there is a resident who will leave his/her trash in the corridor! And the central rubbish bin is like another 10 steps away! Fact is we have a first class economy but a third class mindset.

To lick the littering problem, another round of campaign is not going to work. People are too well educated nowadays for this type of goosebumps inducing campaign. What we need is more enforcement, heavier fines and more prominent Corrective Work Order. The only way to nit the problem. Fine them and shame them. Sad but the only way to go.  

Bidadari Park

Not exactly a park. Just a patch of forest land that is soon going to go the way of the dodo bird. So thought before it disappear forever, to go down there and try to take a shot at the birds that abound there. And I wasn't disappeared. Could hear many different type of bird call. But Uncle's eyes not so good and has to rely on friends and other photographers who were there to spot them.

One thing I long realised is that a 70-200 lens is not enough to take photos of little birds perched high up in the trees or far away. So while other photographers with the tokong lens captured beautiful close up, all I managed to do was get many blur blur shots of little birds. Fortunately, some cropping helped and I didn't go away empty handed though the quality could be better. Oh well....

White Throated Kingfisher

Spotted Flycatcher, I think

Rusty Breasted Cuckoo

Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo

Joe's Kitchen

Went to this little Thai place at Alexandra. It wasn't as crowded as we feared after reading the reviews in HGW. But maybe it is because we were there around 2 pm. Well after lunch. 

We ordered our usual staples of Thai food.

Mango salad. This come comes with lot of mango, peanuts and onion. A bit too spicy for me but M loves it. But then again, she always like this dish everywhere.

Clear tom yum soup. M wasn't really impressed with it though. I thought the portion could have been bigger but then again it is for 2 so it wasn't that little.

Olive Rice. It comes with a separate dish of parsley, onion and cashew nuts to mix into the rice. The rice was topped up with fried egg. The portion was too big for the 2 of us but this was the dish that I really enjoyed.

Sambal long beans.

Stuffed chicken wing. Supposed to be their house special. At $2.50 each, it was kinda expensive but man, this is like damn shiok! I could have more than 1 except that I have been over eating for the past few days.

Plus drinks, the total was slightly over $40.00 which was really value for money. This is the place to go for cheap, home cooked Thai food.