S$144.6m contract awarded for Punggol redevelopment

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has awarded a S$144.6 million contract to Koh Brothers Building and Civil Engineering Contractor to develop Punggol estate into a premier waterfront town. Plans to revamp Punggol were announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the National Day Rally in August 2007. They include the construction of a 4.2-kilometre waterway which will be connected to Sungei Punggol. Construction of the waterway is scheduled to start in February and complete by the fourth quarter of 2010. Residents in Punggol can look forward to various recreational activities that range from water sports to walks on landscaped promenades along the banks of the waterway. More than 4,000 public flats have already been launched in Punggol. By end-2011, there will be about 23,000 completed flats in the estate. In the longer term, another 21,000 units of public and private housing will be built along the waterway for residents to enjoy waterfront housing in Singapore's latest town.

Densha Otoko

Densha Otoko is a very funny Japanese show that's supposed to be based on a true story. A bit of intro from wikipedia:

Densha Otoko (電車男, translated as Train Man) is a Japanese movie, television series, manga, novel, and other media, all based on the purportedly true story of a 23-year-old otaku (Japanese geek) who intervened when a drunk man was harassing several women on a train. The otaku ultimately begins dating one of the women.

The event, and the man's subsequent dates with the woman, who became known as "Hermès" (エルメス, Erumesu), was chronicled on the Japanese mega-BBS 2channel. This led to the compilation of the relevant threads in a book, followed by several manga versions, a movie, a theatrical play later released as a DVD, and finally a TV series.

Densha Otoko is a popular example of the "nice guy" class of Japanese geeks who wish to lead normal lives, but are too shy to find a girlfriend, or speak openly anywhere but online. The television series uses a large number of computer-bound extras.

There's a movie and a drama version. I'm watching the drama version now. Here's the starting part of Episode 1 to get you going.