Punggol for Dummies

For most of you who do not know, Punggol is located between Seng Kang New Town and the southern peninsula of the black lands of Mordor.

My cousin from Australia was standing at the LRT station and he thought he saw a cow.

We're not that backward okay... It's not a cow, it's a water tank in the middle of Punggol field. People in a civilized province like Punggol have access to drinking water. Who wouldn't know that!

Anyway if you look to the background you can see another barrage being built in Punggol. See, we're not lagging behind the rest of technologically advanced Singapore.

In other news, residents of Punggol celebrated the opening of the estate's first 7-11 store. The grand opening of the popular chain of convenience store's flagship in the estate was attended by over half of the province's population. The festivities were reminiscent of the opening of the province's first fast food outlet, Kentucky Fried Chicken, back in November last year. Many residents have been living in the area since 2001, thus the opening of such joints in recent years has been greeted with great jubilation and sighs of relief.

Technically, the 7-11 store is not in the residential area but located several kilometers from the nearest housing block. It made more economic sense to build it in a rural place for lower rent. After all, it being the only big convenience store in the area, it could choose where it wanted to be, and people would have no choice but to come to it for supplies. We sent our on the scene reporter to check out the biggest convenience store to be built in Punggol.

Signboards were put up very kindly leading travelers out of the residential area right to the store, which was located in a much more rural area.

After passing 3 signboards like the ones above and a very big banner closer to the store, our reporter finally arrived at the 7-11, and the carpark to the Marina Country Club where it was located was packed full of Punggol vehicles. Before this, the carpark had been consistently empty and was more a place for couples looking for a secluded place.

"7-11 has really brought in business to this area," said Mr Chan, the carpark warden. "We used to have free parking and no one would come, but now with the store we can charge people per hour for use of our carpark."

A comparison to other estates show that no other 7-11 has close to as many signboards pointing to it.

Skeptics (most of whom from SengKang New Town) have said that the 7-11 located off Punggol is still smaller than the one in SengKang. But to the local optimistic population, a little is better than nothing and they are still are feeling the euphoria of finally being seen as worthy of a 7-11 in their neighbourhood.

Punggol still does not have a McDonalds, even after letters to the editor, the management of McDonalds, and the province Member of Parliament. KFC still remains the only fast food joint in the area.