Scenes from Sentosa

When I took the beach tram from Beach station heading towards Tanjong Beach, something happened which shocked me. There was a mother and son seating besides me on the adjacent bench. Going by their accent, they are certainly not native. They should either be Taiwanese or PRCs, but after the incident, I am guessing PRCs.

I was sitting on the tram, thinking of what a chore it is to travel to Tanjong beach just to put some plaster balls, when the corner of my eye caught a white object flying out of the tram. I instinctively looked at the mother and son on my left. I didn't know what had happened. Then the mother and son rehearsed the whole scene for me again. The son was just finishing his sandwich and the mother folded the wrapper. She then took aim at the rubbish bin located at the tram stop and threw the wrapper out of the tram. Of course, she missed the target. No ordinary mortal could have nailed that shot. I was momentarily stunned. She was blatantly littering in front of her son. What kind of example is she setting? I gave her a disapproving stare but did not take further action. Thinking back, maybe I should have done more. This kind of behaviour is really appalling. No wonder our streets are increasingly littered with rubbish these days.

Maybe I didn't notice it before or maybe it is a new directive, but I noticed while taking the Sentosa Express that the staff are acting more friendly now. There are staff posted at every station platform and they have to wave their hands to welcome new arrivals and repeat the waving to say goodbye to those departing. Most of them do not have smiles on their faces while waving and I can understand why. It must be one of the most unpleasant jobs on the island. They must be waving a few hundred times each day and they have to repeat it everyday. Furthermore, they must say with enthusiasm "Welcome to Sentosa" and "Goodbye, see you again" everytime. And it's quite demoralising when many people ignore them. I am one of those who didn't respond to them. It seems quite weird to me as I am a local. And what's more, I have been visiting Sentosa so many times in the past few months. All these friendly gestures are meant for people going to enjoy themselves. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.

FYP

I have just finished putting in the last of my plants on my seawall. This is the second time I am putting them in as there were too many plants washed away in the first try. Some improvements were made to the design and an additional seawall which was sheltered was used. I believe and I hope that this time around, my efforts will be rewarded and more plants will survive. I do not expect 100% survival. The waves at the site are ferocious and I have learned to respect the wrath of the seas.

In just slightly over two months, the whole project will be over. One year back, I would never have imagined working with plants as I searched for a supervisor. I had intentionally approached only professors who dealt with animals. Life is difficult to predict and circumstances made me change supervisors in June. Hugh Tan was never my choice as the name of his lab, Plant Systematics Lab, turned me off. Plants were boring enough on their own and Systematics made it worse. It conjured an image of me working on identifying species of plants with a microscope. It is definitely not how I would like to spend the final year of my university life.

It was probably fate that he had just one half-slot left when I approached him. I was the fifth and final Honours student. He had just gotten a request from Surbana to research ways of greening seawalls. The project sounded all right, and I thought the project would be very useful if it was successful. Then, the project was very different from what it has come to now. The methods involve only plants growing behind the seawall and the site was supposed to be on Pulau Tekong. I visited the site on Pulau Tekong and getting there was quite a chore. So, it was my good fortune that Sentosa got interested in the project and provided a study site.

A senior's thesis on growing mangroves on different substrates was found and she had tried growing them on seawalls. So the idea was given to me to try to grow mangroves on seawalls also. I tried out her methods but they were no match for the pounding waves on the site. My site was far more exposed than hers. I experimented and constantly improved until I found a fairly successful method.

Working on the seawall was physically demanding and dangerous. One slip could be fatal. It was slippery and the rocks had sharp edges. The walls were steep and I constantly had to be on all fours to avoid falling off. Furthermore, I have to carry heavy objects as I maneuver around the walls. I was always exhausted at the end of each planting session at the seawall. Sticky, dirty and spent, I could not wait to get home, bath and collapse on bed every time.

It is not easy working on a FYP. Countless hours were spent, much more than studying for modules. Along the way, I had to endure failures and got into some trouble as well. Constantly asking people for help was not a pleasant experience also. But I had learned a lot as well. Searching for products on the net, buying hardware, learning to use drills and cutters, coordinating things, planning experiments, relying on tide tables, working with various people. I can't say it's all worth it and I feel like just taking modules alone sometimes. FYP just gave me the opportunity to experience things beyond my usual boundaries.