Saturday, April 18, 2009

画蛇添足

I was walking around the Tiong Bahru Estate this afternoon when something caught my eye.

There is a metal barrier protruding out from the roofs of the HDB’s flats!

Almost 60 uneventful years has gone by without any incidents and suddenly there is this realization that something has to be done to make it safe for the maintenance people.

So I can only assume that the quality of the maintenance workers has deteriorated to the “blur” standard while those in the past were probably rated “gold”.

But if we do have “blur” workers, having a small barrier there will not help.

We ought to child-proof the entire roof to make it super safe for them.

And to think that people from one or two generations ago could even fly their kites up there without any problems.

I’m just thinking why resources are allocated for these “not so important” barriers while nothing much has been invested on improving the design of the rubbish bin at the Pre-War side.

It is strange that residents don’t seems to get what they want while things that they do not deemed as important are thrown onto their plate.

And by the way, since the metal structure is now the tallest thing on the roof, it will certainly replace the current lightning rods.

I think those living below these structures will have a roaring good time during a thunder storm.

I cannot wait to find out during the next big one.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

If there's anything they want to do to the root, I only hope to have it modified to a /\ [gentle] slope. Flat roof is unnecessarily problematic.

sh said...

About children flying kites from the roof tops: that was exactly what my primary school classmate, KKH, did forty plus years ago. And he died when he fell off. (We found out when he did not come back to school after the long December holidays). We were at Tiong Bahru Primary School.

SGalf said...

Choonkeat : You mean like those found at Blk 17 and 19? Is there any problems with teh roof right now? (ust curious)

SH : Sad to hear that someone fell off the roof. I've never heard this from the pioneer residents.

And the way they reminisce about those kite flying days seems like harmless fun....just like me getting into the monsoon drains to catch fishes.

Kids will be kids, we were once young and reckless and have little sense of danger when it comes to fun.

SGalf said...

SH,

I found this article in ST's archive :

Boy falls to death, The Straits Times, 21 December 1960, Page 9

Boy falls to death SINGAPORE. A nine-year-old school boy, Khong Kong Huat, fell more than 70 feet to his death from a fourth storey flat in Moh Guan Terrace In Tiong Bahru this afternoon. He was playing with three other children when he slipped.