Changi - ECP ride with Pedal Ubin guides

Some of us Pedal Ubin guides enjoyed a day of just pedalling last Saturday. We rode Changi to ECP and back on a very hot and sunny morning.

Cheng Puay blogged about his miserable crash which saw him crashing into a railing. Joelle crashed with a nine-year old kid at ECP the way to the ride. Apparently he made a sudden right turn that took her out. But smiles all around in both cases. We have had several years free of accidents on Ubin so it seems we are less careful when on our own. Well, at least we got to use the first aid kit. And come Brave Soldier.

The heat got to me - I only drank 3L+ so I bailed on the Sunday ride. Some bits of the the bike are making scrunchy noises so I think I did not completely clear gunk out of the hub despite my best efforts after the last ride. Time for servicing by a pro. Since we rode from HV (met Adrian at Pasir Ris) we clocked dst 63km, Tms 3:34:50, Avs 16.9km/h, Mxs 49.5km/h.

“Cats and Dogs living together”

Photos from Sue are coming in, heh-heh.

For Dawn: yeah, cats and dogs can get along

In response to Meep and River on Dawn’s blog. Sue and VJ have more photos; I’ll get ‘em!

Skype kills iChat

When all else fails, John Larkin resorts to pen and paper…

New touched-up logo on Mac Meetup page

Thanks to LooseBrick, we have a larger, bolder logo for the mac meetup page. He did it up for the facebook page and at 197 pixels-wide, it fits nicely into the 200 pixel-wide sidebar.

it’s not a page we visit regularly except around a meetup, so on the rare occasions that we do, its nice to receive a shout out!

I like!

This is the old one:

LHam in Qatar

LHam is has just finished his first week of three years in Qatar for an engineering job. He’s blogging, so we’ll be kept updated and learn about Qatar in the process. He has inserted google map links so you can see where exactly he’s located at.

Lizard in the desert

Dan speaks to marine volunteers

Dan Ritttschof spoke to marine volunteers mainly about pheromones and sex in marine organisms. The responsive crowd had a good time with a lot of lovely stories delivered with wonderful pace. I realised too the influence he must have had on me, from more than a decade ago, for my bit on chemical communication in the animal behaviour class is easily the largest section under animal communication.

See Ria’s post at the Wildfilms blog

Seeing how he has decades of investigation, reading and teaching, it was as fun as I had expected it to be. He targetted delivery for the layman so it was a relaxing talk for the bunch who turned up after work.

Inter-tidal volunteers are resourceful and even at a seminar, so two brought loads of food so I abandoned my day-old coffee and cold sandwich.

After that we sat around chatting with Jon Siggurdsson and after Ladybug burnt the keys off Cyn’s keyboard, I learnt wee were heading to “far west coast” to makan. We dropped off the well fed speaker before heading home. That mood and conversation was reminiscent of the 90’s for me so it was very pleasant!

And Dan was happy he got to deliver a helpful towards more story-telling amongst his fellow shore-lovers!

Dan and his aposematic mee goreng! (Photo by Cynthia Lee)

Dan Rittschof and the Duke University Urban Tropical Ecology field course, 2005-2008

Dan Rittschof has had a long association with Singapore and NUS, dating back to the early 90’s. I first met him at a seminar in which he talked about the hundreds of fiddler crabs in the inter-tidal habitats at North Carolina.

Amongst his many activities is an annual field trip with the small Urban Ecology class from Duke University. Each year I take the students to the mangrove at night in a conspirational exercise with Dan. The experience provides a dramatic contrast to the things the students have seen in the rest of Singapore. It has always been fruitful, as was last night.

Here is a roundup of most of the blog posts. We might need this for something later on. My favourite is “Bucket Boy.”

Duke University: Department of Biology: Graduate Level Biology Course 216. Sojourn in Singapore: Urban Tropical Ecology. The mix of human ecology, tropical diversity, disturbed habitats and invasive species in Singapore. How Singapore maintains and enhances the quality of life of its citizens while radically modifying its environment. Research on politics, management or biology. Travel to Singapore required. Taught in Beaufort. Consent of instructor required. Instructor: Dan Rittschof. 3 units.

2008

• “Mandai Mangroves with Dan Rittschof’s Urban Ecology class,” by N. Sivasothi. Otterman speaks, 21 Mar 2008.
• “Singapore,” by Stan Rule, M.D. Mar 2008.

2007

• “MacRitchie to Bukit Timah today,” by N. Sivasothi. Otterman speaks, 18 Feb 2007.
• “Sisters with Dan & Gang,” by tidechaser. tHE tiDE cHAsER, 21 Feb 2007.
• “Sisters Island with Dr Dan,” by Ria Tan. Wildfilms, 20 Feb 2007.
• “Trip to Big Sisters,” by Siyang. Urban Forest, 20 Feb 2007.
• “Soujourn to Singapore and MORE.” Blog by Ais Kachang or “the Gang” (Duke students), Feb - Apr, 2007.
• “Dr Dan in Singapore.” By Dan Rittschof, Feb-Mar 2007.

2006

• “Mandai mangroves,” by N. Sivasothi. Otterman speaks, 04 Mar 2006.
• “Selatium brocki eating a caterpillar,” by N. Sivasothi. Otterman speaks, 04 Mar 2006.
• “More than 100 horsehoe crabs rescued from gill net at Mandai,” by N. Sivasothi. Habitatnews, 13 Mar 2005.
• “A day out at Kusu Island (1 March 2006),” by Loh Tse Lynn. Blue Water Volunteers, 04 Apr 2006.

2005

• “Bucket Boy,” by N. Sivasothi. Otterman speaks, 13 Mar 2005.
• “Talking to Duke students,” by N. Sivasothi. Raffles Museum news, 17 Mar 2005.
• “CJ with Prof Dan…Dr. Dan!” By Ria Tan, 15 Mar 2005.

Mandai Mangroves with Dan Rittschof’s Urban Ecology class

20 Mar 2008 - It was time for my annual trek with Dan’s students to introduce Mandai mangroves. Some tales later, for I must go crash now. And then there are students reports to read when I wake…

Dog-faced water snake

Episesarma singaporense

Selatium brocki

Mangrove huntsman

A huntsmen spider up on an Avicennia sp. tree

Dan pondering; we had the students lead them out after that

Students figured their way out under watchful eyes

The Traffic jam at Woodlands Road stretched past Kranji MRT

Briskwalked out to Kranji MRT and just in time for the bus too!

Regrouped at the Woodlands Road junction - had to check I still had everyone

Mission accomplished with no casualties…

Can’t keep a good man down…

Kevin bounces back, the front of the house looks good already while the insides and sidebar shenanigans are still under construction! Heh-heh, can’t keep a good man down!

So who’s worried?