Flashes in the Rain

Going around the neighborhood from my rented flat after a heavy afternoon down pour, I came to these four common structures that I regularly found or see in here. You are likely to discover these same structures co-existing in every community town council if you are staying in one of these buildings and are using these public amenities here in Singapore.

Singapore homes

HDB (Housing and Development Board)

If you are someone new in here, you could easily mistake these as commercial buildings but they're not. These tall building structures are home to most of the people here in Singapore. These are commonly termed as HDB. A term that was derived from the very government board under the Ministry of National Developments that takes care of the housing programs and the developments for the welfare of the Singaporeans in terms of providing quality homes and living environments.

In some other ways, they are called flats. Where options to own a 1-room, 2-rooms, 3-rooms types of flats and so on are being offered depending on the terms and conditions set by the Singapore government regulations that maintains the much needed cost effective approach that will allow each Singaporean family to own a decent house for themselves.

Singapore's version of the children's community playground

Children's playground

You will never miss these fancy colored structures around Singapore's community. They are like the usual TV sets where in every home is a must have.

Made of durable plastics, built to protect the safety of the children, these structures were designed to allow the kids to explore and have fun. The floor area is covered with rubber mats and some of the posts were enclosed in a rubber protective as well. 

Common to these playgrounds are the slides, bridge and ladders. Others may include small plastic rock climbing walls and some simple mind games like the tic-tac-toe.

So if you happened to plan to get your kid into one of McDonald's play areas, but failed to do so, don't fret, just head to one of these playgrounds near you.

Hawkers

Hawker Centers

These are the fast food equivalent of Singapore except that it offers wide varieties of local and even some western recipes in their menus.

Common home cooked local cuisines are the usual top priorities of these food stalls found in these hawker centers. Much like the western fast foods, all you need to do is to choose the menu of your liking, pay for it and then wait as it is being cooked at the same time.

Hawker centers are being graded according to their cleanliness and hygiene practices. Administered by NEA(National Environment Agency) of Singapore, the stalls are graded from A to D where grade A being the highest and grade D as the lowest mark. If you're not that finicky go ahead and try it out, the foods are simply nice.

Public Fitness Area

Fitness Area

With the Singapore government's effort to indulge every Singaporean into a program about keeping their health in tip top shape and a priority, they have built these public fitness areas to provide them with the much needed basic equipment to support them in their daily simple exercise routine. 

These include sit-up benches, pull-up bars, and chest presses just to name a few. So if you're looking for that Arnold Schwarzenegger's physique just drop by in one of these fitness areas and sweat your hearts out. Most importantly, these are free to use and no membership renewal to bug you ever.

There are many other icons and structures around other places that identifies them as uniquely Singapore, but these four areas in the community seem to stand out as quite "the common" when visiting this place.

Til next time :)