Shenton Way - Financial Business District

This is CPF Building where most Singaporeans would come when they retired. CPF Board stands for Central Provident Fund Board. The board was created to safeguard Singaporean's money.

Every month, we need to deduct a certain percentage of our salary and our employers has to contribute a certain percentage of our salary to our account. The percentage varies for different age group.

Our CPF Account operates with three accounts i.e. Ordinary Account, Medisave Account and Special/Retirement Account.

We can used money from the CPF ordinary Account to purchase our home or investment (only those approved by the government), Medisave Account are used to pay part of our hospital bills and Retirement Account can only be used when we retired.

It used to be we can withdraw all the money in our ordinary account when we reach 55 years old but there are many who spend all the money they withdrawn on holidays, gambling and some even get a mistress in a neighbouring country. Some man even get cheated of their CPF money by pretty young lass from other country.

These are real news that we get to read daily in the papers.

So the government do not want this to be a social problem to the nation and now there is limit to how much we can withdraw from the ordinary account and the balance will be transferred to the Retirement Account and when we reach 62 years old, we get a monthly allowance of few hundred dollars (more for those who earn higher salary) for the next twenty years. Not many are happy with this rule but in long term, I think it is good so that retirees wont spend their hard earned savings of their CPF unwisely nor would they be cheated by young pretty lass from other country.

So dont expect a windfall when we reach 55 years old...sigh...our money are locked up. :( Either you like this new rule or you hate it.

A short video showing a small part of the financial district in Shenton Way.

Bus Ride 2 - PSA

Continuing from my bus ride, I saw these giant cranes. Yes, this is PSA Singapore.

It handles about one-fifth of the world's total container transhipment throughput. In 2008, PSA Singapore Terminals handled 29.0 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUS) of containers. PSA operates 4 container terminals and 2 multi-purpose terminals in Singapore, and links shippers to an excellent network of 200 shipping lines with connections to 600 ports in 123 countries. You read more about our port from source.

A short video of the port from my bus.

My World Tuesday-Taking a Bus Ride 1-Train Station

OK, enough of walking for my friends and me. After the long walk from Henderson Waves to Alexandra Arch, my friends and I decided to reward ourselves with a meal...lol. We decided to take a bus ride from Alexandra Road to Shenton Way.

A double decker bus came along, so we boarded it and went to the upper deck. It is so comfortable with the nice air conditioned and clean bus and with mobile TV on both decks, better and cheaper than taking a taxi...lol

Sorry about the darkness in the bus, as I did not want my camera''s flash to disturb some snoozing passengers.

This is the first time that I am taking this bus route and was surprised to see so many beautiful scenery on the way.

I managed to take a photo of the train station when the bus was slowing down and stop. As if the driver knew I wanted to take photo of the station...lol.

Tanjong Pagar railway station also called Keppel Road railway station or Singapore railway station, is a railway terminus owned by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), the main railway operator in Malaysia. The land on which the station and the KTM railway tracks in Singapore are situated is held by KTM on a 999-year lease.


There are so many problems with this train station as the train tracks was taking up so much land in Singapore. You might like to read the disputes between Singapore and Malaysia from wikipedia.

Two short videos of the train station and trains. Warning, it might cause you to have a headache cause the video is quite shaky...lol




Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

National Day - Singapore 44th Birthday

August 9th is Singapore National Day, which means Singapore is 44 years old. Geez, I am five years older than Singapore...hehehe

Seen across the island are flags hang out by homeowners to celebrate the occasion.

Decorations for national day can be seen across the island.

I spotted these cardboard cut out of the cows. Wondered why they only painted one side of the cardboard.



This year something big is happening. At 8.22 pm on 9th August 2009, Singaporeans at home and abroad are urged to recite the pledge together at the same time.

Siblings and I thought it is a good idea. After all, siblings and I have seen Singapore struggled from a poor country to be a branded country. During our childhood, most Singaporean are poor or very poor but today the poor still have a roof over their head and they own their own home and only a handful dont own their home.

The words of the National Pledge are:

We, the citizens of Singapore pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE

My Walking Trip Part 11 - Skywatch Friday-Alexandra Arch

Today, my walking trip has come to an end with skywatch. :) Hope those that been cyberwalking on this trip with me, have a good time looking at the photos.

This is another bridge that is very lovely, although Henderson Waves looked so much prettier. This bridge is known as Alexandra Arch and it looked like part of a leaf. The bridge also form part of the connector that forms the southern ridge.

After Alexandra Arch, there is the famous Hort Park, but my two friends are too tired to continue the walk, so we did not proceed to Hort Park.

Hort Park is a gardening hub for those who love gardening.

A short video showing Alexandra Arch.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.