Thursday, March 3, 2011

HOW TIME FLIES: On the way back from IKEA, a cab driver gave me a glimpse of some of the changes he's seen over the past decades. He remembered when a 20-story building was the tallest one in Singapore. He pointed it out.
I turned quickly and in a knee-jerk reaction took a street-level photo as we whizzed past. (That photo taken today is above.) The building, Rahmat told me, was the Asia Insurance Building. So, I dutifully Googled and Blinged it. The Wikipedia entry bore his tale out. The building was opened in 1955. It was the tallest building at the time not only in Singapore, but also in Southeast Asia.
The driver marveled at the pace of building in the city, "Jokingly, I say Singapore might tip over into the sea." The frenzied building has left this once-formidable 20-story building deep in the shadows. "Now it's just a dwarf," he said with a smile. And now it's called Ascott Raffles Place, a serviced apartment residence. We know someone who lives there--with a dishwasher and daily cleaning but no oven.
As we drove farther along Marina Boulevard, he wheeled toward our building. "This place was formerly the sea," he added. He seemed rueful. Not bad. Not good. Just massive change. On the plus side, of course, it's now a much easier place to pick up a fare.

CRANE UPDATE: Here's the latest Singapore Crane Index Limited Economic Indicator. I don't think anyone has ever done this before, but I have to acknowledge that I might have sort of kind of in a way fudged the numbers for my March 4. I was unable to monitor the crane status at 8:30. The best I could do is 10 a.m. I believe a couple of "ships came in" so to speak, thereby raising the lowered-crane number. Hope that's OK.
Date: March 4
Time: 10:00 a.m. (Singapore time)
Cranes Up (bad): 11
Cranes Down (good): 15
CRANES MISSING (unknown degree of goodness/badness): 2