Scenic Sunday/Sunday bridge: Singapore

The Water Engineer went to Singapore on work assignment. He bought himself a nice camera, which operates like a mobile phone.

I shall be posting his photos. This is a new bridge on the Singapore river. I don't remember seeing it when I last lived there in 2006.






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Auckland Harbor Bridge- Clip-ons

I drove over our famous bridge "overseas" to North shore so my son can buy his used surf board. Right beneath this very spot, my second daughter "jumped" the bridge. I was there to see her bungy jump twice.

The bridge was originally built with four lanes for traffic. Owing to the rapid expansion of suburbs on the North Shore and increasing traffic levels it was soon necessary to increase the capacity of the bridge - by 1965, the annual use was about 10 million vehicles, three times the original forecast.[13]

In 1969, only ten years after opening, two-lane box girder clip-on sections were added to each side, doubling the number of lanes to eight. The sections were manufactured by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries of Japan, which led to the nickname 'Nippon clip-ons'. The selection of the company was considered a bold move at the time, barely 20 years after WWII and with some considerable anti-Japanese sentiment still existing in the country.[22] The costs of the additions were noted as having been much higher than had the extra lanes been provided initially.[13]

While doubling the vehicle lanes of the bridge, the clip-ons have been plagued by significant issues. In 1987 cracks required major repair works,[23] and in 2006, further cracks and signs of material fatigue were found. The clip-ons were originally to have a life expectancy of 50 years.[citation needed] Auckland City Council's Transport Committee requested Transit New Zealand to investigate the future of the clip-on lanes as part of its 10-year plan. Transit noted in this context that the plan already includes some funding for bridge maintenance.

My cousin L is a chemical engineer, and he climbs into the brdige to check it's well being every year.


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sunday bridge/scenic sunday: Mediterrean

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My Cousin Bart Ngieng is the Travel Manager with Wah Tung Travel Service Sdn Bhd. in Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia. www.wahtung.travel
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Rialto Bridge, the first bridge that was build across the Grand Canal, Venice. A must visit site on Venice Island.

scenic sunday/sunday bridge: Southport Australia

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Running out of photos of bridges. This was taken when I went to Southport during one of my holidays. My sister Helen took us to a park. It was dusk, the lights were not very good.



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Vote for my story, you may vote once a day. Voting finishes on Nov 15th.

Sunday Bridge, Charlies' story

The tracks are like bridges that criss-cross the little island state of Singapore. Sometimes, they go underground in tunnels.

In Charlies' bed room, his Dad tried to make rail way tracks near the ceiling because Charlie likes trains and tracks.



http://youtu.be/1g_qfR56F9s

Charles's story deserves to be told on all my four blogs. Charlie likes trains, Thomas the Tank. Here, Charlie are the real tracks and trains of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit trains MRT for you.


http://youtu.be/OHrxLfwAdsk

http://tnchicks.wordpress.com/



I first posted this story in my book blog. I think it is appropriate it to post it here so more people can read it.



http://www.designgivesback.com/2011/08/welcome-to-miracle-makeover-reveal-charlies-room-video-august-12-18-leave-comments-and-design-gives-.html#comments

My fellow blogger and bereaved mother Marydon has lots in common with me. We both lost our sons. Today, she did a post and invited me to comment.

Mary featured on ~ Charlie Grady aka Charlie Santa ~
www.designgivesback.com I invite you to check this out to watch this incredible and awesome boy.

We are sharing the story of a little boy who is probably a lot like your son, grandson or nephew; he loves cars, trucks & trains. Charlie loves riding his bicycle, also. He is different than most 8 yr. olds in two ways: he has brain tumors & he leads a toy drive to help kids in chemotherapy to have happier holidays. "Charlie Santa" was founded when he was just five & in his first round of chemotherapy. This is one of the reasons he was chosen to be an ambassador for kids with Neurofibromatosis Type 1, & a recipient of a Miracle Makeover.


I have another friend Linda, who is wearing the same shoes as Charlies' mum. Shoes that are too small and pinching her feet causing great pain in their heart.

Designgives back is not screened in New Zealand, but what a great job they are doing,

In my book, I wrote a poem about shoes.

I modify it here,

The hole in the heart is bigger than life,
The hole never mends.
My child has cancer.
Life is never the same again.
Only a fellow mum who has a child with cancer,
will understand another mum's pain
For she wears the same pair of shoes,
For she feels the pinching at the toes.



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Sunday Bridge: Australia

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Some of my Australian photos are my husband's when he went on work assignment. You have to click to enlarge to see the jetty.

Sunday Bridge: Bridge in Auckland

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A new bridge in South Auckland

Sunday Bridges : Auckland

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An
overhead bridge in Downtown Auckland

Sunday bridge: Roy clements park

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This bridge/walkway crosses a small creek, but spans over a long stretch of swampy patch. Without this, it would be difficult to appreciate the fauna and native bush and ducks swimming in the creek. This place is named after Roy Clements, a teacher of Mt Albert grammar who spearheaded the tree planting and cleaning up of this area. Now, the students get a short cut to the school.

Sunday Bridges:Grafton

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Grafton Bridge is a road bridge spanning Grafton Gully in Auckland City, New Zealand. Built of reinforced concrete in 1910, it connects the Auckland CBD with the Grafton suburb. Grafton Bridge spans about 97.6 metres (320 feet), rises 25.6 metres (84 feet) above the abutments and to a height of around 43 metres (142 feet) over the Grafton Gully.

The bridge is on the NZ Historic Places listing and the IPENZ Engineering Heritage Register. In a 2006 poll amongst 600 alumni of the University of Auckland School of Engineering, the bridge placed 3rd on the list of New Zealands' engineering achievements, after the Manapouri Power Station and Black Magic.

The footpaths are covered with an aesthetically curved glass screen, which serves to prevent people from falling or jumping off the bridge as well as providing unobstrusive weather cover (the bridge already had suicide prevention barriers from 1992 to 1996 (and extra safety fencing from as early as 1936), but after the removal, suicide rates on the bridge jumped fivefold, leading to a quiet re-installation in 2002).[4] There have been no suicides from the bridge since then as of 2009, and the feature has been called an example of best practice of preventing such acts

Since 2009, the bridge forms a core part of the Central Connector public transport route between the Auckland CBD and Newmarket, and is closed to private vehicles during daytime hours. New bus-only lanes on Grafton Bridge have helped swell Auckland City Council coffers by $1.7 million since they were introduced in December.

More than 11,000 drivers have been stung for using the bridge between 7am and 7pm, when both lanes of the central city bridge are reserved for buses. There was someone on the bridge taking photos of cars travelling across the bridge.

Sunday Bridges: Carrington

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This is one of the bridges I travel everyday to work. Auckland had volcanoes which erupted luckily once upon a time, so our land is up and down with ridges, valleys and plateaus.

You won't notice that this is a bridge, and think that it is just a 4 lane road. But when you stop at the lights here, you look down on the motorway. Very often it is jammed with traffic going into the city. When this happens, I am glad I don't work in the city.

By the rails, a lot of students from UNITEC walk to the university. They come in all shapes and sizes, and attire. Some dress very smartly, and some very casually. Sometimes, when it rain, and they are not dressed for the rain. I almost feel sorry for them.

Sunday bridges and spring flowering trees

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All through Auckland, this week, trees dote the road sides showing their beautiful spring flowers. Sorry I don't know it's name.
Do you know?
For cherry flowers, please go to this link.
http://ann-mythoughtsandphotos.blogspot.com/2010/08/sakura-cherry-blossom.html

This is a very old bridge in Mt Roskill leading to park at the opposite side of Wesley.

Sunday bridges: in Mulu, Borneo

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Much of Sarawak, Borneo is low lying and swampy. Many of the houses are built with stilts which my British teen aged pen friend exclaimed," Your house has legs." This is actually a clever way, when it floods, the house is safe from water.

We were in Mulu, and the resort was in the highlands. Still the buildings were built on stilts. I looked down and realised why. It was very muddy, and there were lots of roots ready to trip you. The stilts were very high, and bridges link one building to another.

We had our lunch, a soya chicken, with vegetables and a clear soup served all at the same time. We ate the Malaysian way, a spoon and a fork. The spoon we use to scoop our rice. Instead of dessert, we had fresh fruit. Sam was very happy as he loves water melon and coming from winter in New Zealand, he didn't get to eat a lot of that here. Besides water melons are very expensive in Auckland, and mean me, I don't buy often.

Sunday Bridges: Xena Park

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Out in Henderson, in West Auckland, there are many foot bridges. This place is called Xena park. Do you remember Xena, warrior princess?

We used to watch all her TV shows. You see, Xena aka Lucy Lawless is from New Zealand, the show was filmed here, and her side kick is Gabrielle. My second daughter shares the same name.

Xena no longer roam here, civilization has taken over. Modern housing has replaced the walled villages and rural hamlets. Cars taken over carts. However, there are still feral geese and the Lake Panorama.

You can see the Ponga fern trees, native flax, the Toi Toi and cabbage tree. It is this lush green, mountainous landscape that attracts many American film makers to come to New Zealand. There is a small exercise playground for Xena.

Passing train

This is for Louis la Vache.
«Louis» would like to stand on that bridge as a train was passing below. It might make a fun photo.
Louis, this was taken on the bridge just before I boarded the train at Mt Albert Station. The bridge is a solid road. You can still feel the vibration. I was on the bridge when the train passed below. Here you are, just for you.
I had a cup of cappuccino with my quiche.