Half Day Outing

17 Oct 2009 - Sat.

Firstly, here's wishing all Hindus: A Very Happy Diwali.

Secondly, daddy finally completed most of his projects & has the time to bring us all out on another outing. The night before, he had already suggested to mummy to see the Central Fire Station, along Hill Street. On every Sat, there will be a 2 hour tour & interactive activities for the public; 9-11am.

We reached the station ard 10am as we all thot it will only be open @ 10am. We saw the sign & realised that the activities has already started abt an hr ago. Nervertheless, we managed to complete our guide & proceeded to the indoor gallery.

The Central Fire Station

Both of us having a feel as to how the firemen handle the water hose & realised hw powerful the jets of water are. You can even select the level of spray.

mummy: daddy playfully requested the fireman to aim a gentle spray at me, without my knowledge, thus i ended up being wet.

We also has a taste of hw the fireman felt inside their fire fighting, heat resistant protection clothings.

I love all sorts of vehicles, especially ambulances, fire engines, army trucks, etc. This is a lucky chance for me to sit inside an ambulance. ( for photography sake)

The boomlift attached to one of the fire engines, going higher & higher. This was the most popular interactive highlight & the longest q for it. We q'ed for abt half an hour, under the scorching hot sun before we gt a ride on it. The boomlift lifted us high abt 3 storeys high. The fire man personnel told us usually it will go higher during fire evacuation.

Inside the gallery. We has a look at all the different fire engines, from olden days till the present.
We also saw the various destructions in Singapore, example: The collapse of the New World Hotel in the 80s & the fire distruction of Bukit Ho Swee, where a major fire destroyed everything.

"On 25 May 1961, flames originating from the Tiong Bahru area spread rapidly to Bukit Ho Swee , a kampong (village) cluttered with thatched houses. Six fire engines, upon receiving the first call at 3.15pm, arrived to find a sea of cars & spectators.

Pandemonium reigned supreme throughout the operation - groups fled the burning scene, volunteers obstructed the firemen & looters took advantage of the mayhem. A total of 22 engines were deployed and firemen continued turning the embers over & over again for three days to prevent re-ignition.

The infamous fire devastated 250 acres of land (approx 1001 soccer fields) & destroyed 2200 attap houses. Four lives were lost & 85 persons injured. The estimated damage was $25,000"

After the tour, we wanted to head for lunch when we passed by The Stamp Museum. Daddy saw the admission fee & thinking to bypass when we saw a sign indicating: "Today Free Admission"

The Singapore Philatelic Museum. What is philately? It is the hobby of collecting & learning about postage stamps.

We saw the various stamps & some collectibles, from vintage to present day. For those of you whose daddies & mummies ever lived in 5 foot ways (五脚基) - 1960s ~ 1980s, you should remember the ever familiar mini "ah pu neh neh" shop ( indian provision), selling cigarettes, sweets, newspaper & magazines, similar to our current 7-11 or Cheers.

The coffeeshop with the big bowl of sugar, marble tables & wooden chairs, Jacob & Co's Cream Crackers Metal Container ( our ah gongs & ah mas loved hiding their valuables & keeping it safetly under the bed).

The wooden clog maker, red with green strips, where u see some aunties wearing those to market every morning, making the sound: clog clog clog...

And even the spice grinder shop. You can still see that in Little India. Big sacks of sugar, flour, all sort of spices, from curry powder to cinnamon to pepper.

We had lunch & head back home. After an afternoon nap, we had dinner with many many people. Its is actually a birthday celebration for 3 people whose birthdays falls in October. "一次过"..hehe

p/s: Something terrible happened to one of our family member today. 破财消灾 - u can tell from this clue.

Some video events of the day: