German Market Place

The other day I wanted to see how Erich's bread is accepted at the German Market place. When I went there around lunch time the shelf was almost empty, 2 loaves of bread and some Dinkelspitz where left. I was told bey the shop owner:
If you want to see the full variety of Erich's bread make sure you're here by 9:30 because an hour later you might only see some pieces left on the shelf.

To make sure to get some shots of his bread I went there at 9:15 am next day and ran into the delivery guy, just in time......

To make sure the bread of your choice is available you can also pre order over the phone.

Give them a buzz at 6466 4044

Open times: Mon-Sat 10am-7pm

ADDRESS

609 Bukit Timah Road
Bus Lines: 74, 151, 170, 171, 174

Erich's bread comes closer to your home!

Great news for Erich's bread lovers. An assortment of Erich's bread from his renown Backstube is available now not only at his Kiosk in Chinatown but also at the 

German Market Place on Bukit Timah Road.

Open times: Mon-Sat 10am-7pm

ADDRESS

609 Bukit Timah Road
Phone: 6466 4044
Bus Lines: 74, 151, 170, 171, 174

 

Click here to see a bigger flyer image

Let me guess! Something's happened!

Are those "brown Bags" and people BYO? Well, it looks like. 

The fact is this weak economy is also taking its toll in the Chinatown businesses. Shop owners have enough time to look around how others are doing, some get seriously jealous if someone else is has more customers! ..........and suddenly they remember laws and rules which have never been enforced before that say:

"You have to consume your drink wherever you've purchased it!" It's the stall owner who has to make sure everything is in order. Anyone who doesn't follow that rule will be reported!

It's as simple as that!

By the way, you can get beer for reasonable prices right next to Erich in the food street and even enjoy Erich's sausages there.

Fruit juices from Stanley next door you can drink at Erich's. No problem at all!

 

However no rule disallows to bring your own, just cover up, nosy neighbours might watch!

Erich is "the" man

Look at that! Female customers or should I say FANS are placing themselves right in front of the counter to get Erich's full attention. Some worship him almost like a rock star!!

Lucky it was a slow night or other cutomers would not have been able to place their orders ;)

But I'm not gonna comment on his facial expression?

  

And The Winner Of The H1N1 Flu Crisis Is: The Pharmaceutical Industry

"Governments, hospitals and people are rushing to get supply of Tamiflu and Relenza", 

"Drugs, masks and thermometers out of stock" 

Major player Smitech (ASia) sold 250,000 digital thermometers here last week, five times more than last year. Another, Futron Electronics, ordered half a million digital thermometers last week. 'Everyone the world over is buying a thermometer now,' said Smitech managing director Christopher Koh.

Wow, that really sounds scary, doesn't it? 

First of all, let me make it very clear: There is no room for complacency and we have to retain certain measures to contain a potential outbreak!

Having said that, I got a feeling that some officials are over reacting also. Sure this is a novel disease in its first days and we don't know how it's going to turn out. However let me just give you some facts for comparison: 

The H1H1 virus has 1269 confirmed cases and so far 26 died in Mexico. 2 people died in the US. Just an hour ago a second US death was confirmed. 

The SARS virus between Nov 2002 and July 2003 had 8437 known infected cases and 813 deaths. 

Now lets compare these numbers with the annual "common" flu which is a big killer every year with our without a pandemic. WHO estimates upward of 250,000 to 500,000 people are killed year after year and 3 to 5 million a year are 

infected.

Even in Singapore which doesn't have a clear flu season one person dies every 15 hours due to the "normal" flu! 

These are numbers that scare me way more than the Swine flu.

What are the measurements governments are taking against these numbers besides flu vaccine promotions? Only now they are making noise and ask people to conduct good hygiene in washing hands or ordering more "spring cleaning" in hawker centres.

Shouldn't that be done on a regular base since we know this is at least one step to prevent flu? What about restarting another campaign to stop spitting in public! Yup you hear right, I still see cabbies (other folks as well) stopping at red lights opening the door and spitting it out!

There would be so much more we all could do but that would take a day to write about.

Well finally, to be "fair and balanced", not just the 

Pharma industry but medical supply companies (masks, thermometers, etc) as well and not to forget all the online pharmacies with many of them selling fake drugs to people that have been scared by the media hype are making lots of money!

Of course exaggerated headlines in media reports do scare people, but who cares as long as you can get folks listen or buy! 

Yes these viruses sell!

7-steps To Wash Your Hands

Can you believe it? We needed the swine flu to learn how to wash our hands! There is no doubt about the importance of proper hygiene...but not only when there is the thread of a pandemic on our globe. Shouldn't we always conduct good hygiene? Like....daily? I consider this a tragedy that adult people need a step by step instruction how to wash hands! That's the responsibility of parents to teach kids and later in Kindergarten or Primary Schools there should be a continuation of this process.
Do Singaporeans really need to win a car and other prizes to start thinking about washing their hands correctly?
I do think it should be common sense and interest for everyone to do their best in a situation like that! 


Oh and did I mention one hospital will be on the spy during hand washing demonstrations held at its atrium on weekdays and lucky draw coupons will be given to those spotted washing their hands. But it has to be done the right way. That is using the 7-step hand washing technique. 
These demonstrations will even be brought to locations outside the hospital. Videos showing the hand washing technique are available on YouTube as well.
In my humble opinion this is a very sad state of a country that experienced SARS only a couple of years ago and still doesn't know how to conduct a proper daily hygiene.