My Tengah CCS Is Leaking Like a Waterfall

tengah ccs leaking

When my wife and I first learned about the Centralised Cooling System (CCS) for Tengah from the HDB e-brochures, we were excited. At HDB Hub, we were invited to the second floor, where CCS was introduced to us in greater detail. We bought into the dream of eco-friendliness and a promised 30% cost saving. With HDB, SP Services (linked to Temasek Holdings and GIC), and Daikin—an established air-conditioning company—behind the project, we believed nothing could go wrong. How naïve we were.

Swallowing the Bitter Pill of Ugly Trunking
When news broke about the bulky, unsightly trunking snaking through the living room, we were disappointed. Still, we accepted it, trusting the CCS was worth the trade-off for an energy-efficient and cost-saving cooling system. This decision was the first misstep on a long and painful journey.

Trouble at the Start
After we received our keys, we noticed the CCS trunking had been poorly installed. The Building Service Centre (BSC) told us SP Services was responsible for the touch-up work. I made arrangements for them to fix it, sacrificing my time travelling over to open the new empty house just for this.

When we finally moved in, condensation issues emerged, turning excitement into exasperation. Despite giving SP multiple opportunities to fix the problem, they consistently failed us. Worse, communication was an absolute disaster.

Workers, Missteps, and Miscommunication
The first team of workers arrived clueless. They thought their job was to touch up the trunking’s surface, not address condensation. Language barriers compounded the frustration. Their foreign accents and frustrated faces were intimidating for my wife and me, who are both small-sized.

When the supervisor finally arrived, I mentioned PU injection—a solution many neighbours had received early on. Instead, he dismissed it, citing “SOP” and opting to “upgrade” the black insulator. He left without instructions on the next steps, stress testing, or whether SP would waive the chilled water bill during testing.

Our home was left in a mess. My attempts to follow up with SP led to confusion: one officer claimed Daikin had to inform SP about waiving the bill. Neither side communicated properly.

Chaos, Cleaning, and Unending Visits
On one Friday, I bumped into the supervisor by chance. He apologised, pleaded for another chance and arranged a visit for next Tuesday, but on Saturday, his team unexpectedly called to visit my flat within around 30 minutes. I declined, explaining I was out. They didn’t confirm the time with me and showed up unannounced.

Each visit, including examination of trunking and small talks, turned into an ordeal. We had to pack away belongings, including clothing and kitchenware (for repair work). Without knowing when repairs would end, dinner plans were disrupted as we weren’t even sure we should defrost the meal—we often resorted to late meals far from home since the nearby Plantation Plaza wasn’t ready.

Post-repair cleanups were equally exhausting—sweeping, vacuuming, mopping, and wiping dust off power sockets, skirtings, and handles. Once, workers stayed until nearly 11 pm, adding to our frustration and exhaustion.

Under Pressure: Intimidation and Insults
After the fifth failed repair, SP sent a group of five to my house to convince me not to cancel CCS. Their presence felt overwhelming and intimidating. The conversation dragged on for 1.5 hours, but I held firm. Still, SP continued to call and visit, wearing down my resolve.

After weeks of delays, I learned—shockingly—that I needed to email the Tengah CCS support team directly to cancel. Their team leader had previously promised to handle this, but clearly, I’d been misled.

When I sent the email, the response was insultingly generic. They didn’t even address me by name, using my email address instead. Nobody signed off, showcasing a lack of professionalism for such a large organisation.

A Catastrophic Failure Waiting to Happen

tengah ccs waterfall

tengah ccs waterfall


On 31 October 2024, at nearly midnight, the CCS failed spectacularly. Water poured from the living room FCU like a waterfall. My photography equipment, worth nearly $10,000, was nearby. The leak threatened not only my livelihood but also my safety—it could have caused an electrical shock or a fire.

SP sent workers again to pester us into allowing further repairs as if they were saints and I was the devil for rejecting them to violate me, but they still offered no guarantee of a final solution. It was an unbearable situation.

The Human Side of the Nightmare
Throughout this ordeal, my wife and I treated SP workers with kindness. We cooked dinner for a Bangladeshi worker, knowing he’d finish late. I offered drinks to their team, believing they were doing their best despite management’s incompetence.

With supervisors and SP’s so-called “engagement team”, I was courteous and understanding. Even when they dodged questions or changed topics, I didn’t expose them. After every failed repair, I expressed concern for them and their workers, hoping their management wouldn’t punish them. In hindsight, my kindness was exploited.

Our Marriage Plan was Disrupted
Despite five attempts to fix the CCS, SP couldn’t guarantee a permanent solution. Their approach seemed like guesswork. Exhausted, we gave up. This decision wasn’t easy; the chaos had already derailed our lives.

We had dreamed of hosting our ROM at home, but with the mess, we opted for a simple ceremony at Fort Canning Park. My work suffered too. As a photographer, I couldn’t set up my home studio or focus on projects. Once, I accepted a booking for a studio shoot after SP reassured me that repairs would resolve the issue. But condensation returned, and I almost broke down as it would affect my hard-earned reputation.

Despite their failures, SP refused a full refund, offering a “goodwill” 50%—the same compensation given to users with no issues.

A Heavy Toll on My Health and Dreams
The CCS nightmare didn’t just disrupt my home; it invaded my mind and body. Ever since the first signs of condensation, I’ve struggled with sleepless nights. Worry gnawed at me, keeping me awake as I imagined the cascading effects on my work and livelihood. Even after dozing off, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night, consumed by frustration and anxiety, unable to fall asleep again.

The stress didn’t stop there. I’ve always had a weak stomach, and my TCM physicians repeatedly advised me to avoid stress to manage it. But this ordeal worsened my condition, pushing me to seek acupuncture sessions despite my fear of needles. Once, the experience was so overwhelming that I nearly fainted, and I haven’t been able to go back since.

Years ago, when my wife and I discussed starting a family, she made it clear I needed a stable income first. I’d pinned my hopes on the new house to set up a home photo studio, seeing it as the key to increasing and stabilising my monthly earnings. But this CCS issue derailed everything. Not only was I unable to set up my studio, but the emotional toll left me mentally drained, making it difficult even to respond to job inquiries. Time has been slipping through our fingers—my wife isn’t young anymore, and her health is fragile. This delay has robbed us of the chance to have children, a dream that now feels forever out of reach.

The weight of these compounded losses has been immeasurable. What was meant to be our fresh start has instead become a source of endless regret.

A Plea for Accountability
SP failed to deliver a working CCS from the start. Their repeated failures, poor communication, and lack of accountability caused immense stress and disruption.

This isn’t just a personal struggle—it’s a cautionary tale. I hope my experience pushes for greater accountability and better service standards from SP Services. No one should endure what we have.

Review: Shenton Family Medical Clinic – Duxton

I was looking for the operating hours for the clinic of my family doctor, Dr Phua and I saw that the view was poor. I thought that was unfair for him and thus I wrote a review for him. To be fair, all the rest of the clinic in Tanjong Pagar have very poor ratings.

Here it goes:

From my personal experience with Dr Phua, he’s a very friendly, detailed, patient, witty and straightforward doctor.

I appreciate a doctor who spends time to diagnose my health and tries to find out more. I believe this greatly increases the waiting time for every patient but it’s definitely worth it. Unfortunately, if any patient is so sick that he/she can’t wait, I would suggest he/she to rush to SGH’s A&E straightaway – they will have the equipment to save you.

Dr Phua will find ways to reduce the medical bill when he knows the patient is not well to do, such as not charging the consultation fee (of course, medicine has to be paid). It’s clear that he’s not a doctor who’s solely interested in making money.

I have seen many other reviews here that give negative rating due to the “rude” lady at the counter and the waiting time. From my past experience, she’s just straightforward. If you try to provoke her, then don’t blame her for retaliating? As for the long waiting time, it’s their usual practice that the lady would open the clinic earlier and take registration but Dr Phua would only come in later – nothing is wrong with that unless patients prefer to queue outside the clinic and registering at the time the doctor arrives. Do also note that it’s a private clinic. Even at the polyclinic the doctors don’t go to their consultation rooms at “8am” sharp. Another point to note is that from my past experience visiting other clinics around Tanjong Pagar, the waiting time may reach an hour or even longer.

Therefore, most of the one-star reviews here are way too biased. For example, if one is unhappy with the registration, just give a four-star (5-1=4) is really fairer.

As mentioned by another reviewer here, together with my mum’s testimony, Dr Phua is negative with TCM but that’s his personal view. If you visit a western doctor and keep telling him about what this TCM physician says, I think it’s very nice of him to not chase you away. There are many old people staying in Tanjong Pagar and imagine many of them have experience with TCM and have talked to him about it, I don’t think it’s fair to him. My mum is one of them.

By the way, I usually visit the nearby TCM instead because it’s cheap. Moreover, I dislike the taste of Western medicine, which will also make me drowsy. If necessary (fever), I would visit the Outram Park polyclinic instead because of the lower medical bill. However, if I want to have a speedy recovery and is too weak to travel further, the first and only GP I have in mind is always Dr Phua.

The most important thing about a doctor is his passion. He puts the health of his patients above money and that deserves our full admiration.

Reviews on The Residence @ Bintan resort stay by Gilbert

Gilbert has saved me lots of time to write about the stay! Here’s his review on the stay, which he has posted onto TripAdvisor.

Please ignore the typo errors!

I seldom write hotel reviews, but this place was really one of the exceptionally good resorts that I have been. Me and my 2 friends stayed 3 days 2 nights at a Deluxe beachfront villa with our own private pool on a weekday and we really had a good relaxing getaway. Budget for spending for 3 days should be around USD170 to USD200 including some paid activities but excluding wine or spa/massage, and we felt it was really worth the whole experience from start to end.

ROOM:
– Room was big, spacious, comfortable and very clean, everything was new as the resort is only around 1.5years old.
– Private pool was very clean as well, including the daybeds and the surrounding area and the plants were big enough to have sufficient privacy without prying eyes from our neighbors, leaving a small opening at the front to have an opening to see the sea from our pool.
– Living room was big and could easily sit 8 person and had a bay window sofa which was really cosy. The hotel booklet and table fruits also had small fresh flowers on it.
– Bedroom had 2 big wardrobes and they also provided 3 bathrobes as there were 3 of us.
– Toilet was also very big and had 2 basins, a bathtub, standing shower area and also my favorite amenity which is a plugged-in hairdryer in a drawer.
– There were also big umbrellas and bicycles provided for each villa and their bathroom slippers are also of very good quality. Every single light was working too, as I have a habit of checking all light switches and test how good is the hotel. Other than 2 mosquitoes on the 2nd day, 1st day and 3rd day didn’t have any, perhaps they can increase their frequency of fogging.

SERVICE:
– Housekeeping was good and refilled the bottled water in the room and toilet even arranged our shoes neatly and refilled the tissue in the toilet to full.
– The staff were all very friendly including the cleaners and gardeners and beach staff and you would feel very welcome as they greet you when you roam around the resort.
– Reception at main lobby was very good too as they would usher you to the sofa during check in and check out and bring the documents to you as you sit down comfortably while they explain the details.
– Room service arrived within 5 minutes each time when we ordered for bottled water. When I requested for extra room key, the reception staff delivered to me while I was roaming the gardens, this I consider exceptional service! Not sure is it because we were there on a weekday when there is less crowd.
– I felt that they really extended their service when they asked me on the day before departure on my ferry time and they automatically arranged late checkout for us knowing that our ferry was much later in the evening and picked up our luggage from the villa.
– The bus journey though was 1.5hrs long from ferry terminal to the resort, but when we first boarded they handed us nice lemongrass scented hand towels and served us a small pack of their cookies and a bottle of water. For departure on our last day they also served us ginger which could avoid car sickness and waved us goodbye when the bus left the reception area. When we arrived at the ferry terminal for departure, they staff even got ready our boarding pass and handed to us!

HOTEL GROUNDS:
– Beautiful greenery is all round and the design of the resort is very modern. The toilets all around the resort are all very clean with hand lotion and hand towels and tissue provided too.

RESTAURANT:
– Breakfast which was included in the hotel package at the main Dining Room had a good selection of Asian and Western dishes from eggs and noodles stations to cereals to salad and pastries. Their omelette was really good and I was pleasantly surprised by their pumpkin coconut pudding and avocado chocolate pudding, as well as their quinoa fruits salad with kiwi strawberry apples oranges dragonfruit. Their grilled fish with tomato and olives was great too! They also had papaya and pineapple fruit jams.
– Lunch and Dinner at the main Dining Room also had a long selection of food from grill to Japanese food to burgers and other western and Indonesian food, though it is restaurant price from around USD13 to USD30 per meal, but the quality of the food is also restaurant standard and quality including their wagyu burger and unagi with rice and miso soup. Their grilled snapper even had fish roe on top.
– The restaurant staff would pause and chat with you and they also bothered to find out from the chef when I asked them for the ingredients to their carrot gravy. They also provided nice lemongrass scented hand towels before each meal and also served a complimentary basket of different types of bread together with butter.
– Indonesian Restaurant which was the only other restaurant in the resort, served very delicious Indonesian food and they adhered to my request of changing some of the dishes to non-spicy. I was pleasantly surprised by their lemongrass creme brulee and also a complimentary taster drink which was a concoction of ginger and some other ingredients, also a complimentary small cubes of fruits. We ordered wine and they delivered to our room so that we can enjoy later at the comfort of our villa.

ACTIVITIES:
– Catamaran was fun and they extended the time to almost an hour as there were no other guests and let us sailed longer at sea though we only purchased a 30min package with instructor at USD55. The staff also introduced the various parts of the catamaran and taught us how to maneuver. The catamaran was very new and clean.
– Pool bar was clean and comfortable, and the staff were also very friendly and they provided complimentary popcorn. There was live band duo in the evening for acoustic music and singing and I have to say that they singer was really powerful as she could sing all the latest songs from The Greatest Showman to other classic songs and even Disney numbers. The staff would dry up the daybeds every time after the rain or drizzle.
– Yoga class which is free is also quite interesting and the instructor was very friendly too and they provided water and towel.
– Beach front water is really shallow so you can walk out to the sea to a structure with 2 swings and other structures with hammocks. There was a very shallow ankle deep sandbar 30 meters out in the sea which you could walk front the beach in waters around waist deep. The seabed had some small stones so you have to walk slowly out to sea to take pictures with the above. The beach had cleaners constantly removing leaves and trash that washed up ashore from the ocean which was never ending and I would suggest for the resort to find a more efficient way to clean the beach or hire more workers or increase the frequency of cleaning.
– Fireflies trip was also very relaxing, they handed out water before we boarded. If you fancy a boat ride to see tropical mangroves and some fireflies, can consider purchasing this trip around USD42 per person.
– Due to monsoon season, the weather did not allow us to have island hopping or snorkelin. However, they are also many other activities that you can purchase such as jet ski, ATV, paintball, banana boat etc

Computer Issue Solved

I bought a new computer… not.

During last year’s March, I left my computer for a while to take a break from work and I returned to my computer being restarted. The windows 10’s updates did the ridiculous restart and it had probably given me a few minutes to halt the action while I was away.

Anyway, what happened next was hell. My automation software started becoming lagging and I had to restart my computer in order to put it back to normal. It couldn’t last for a couple of hours before the software became unresponsive. My internet browsers gave way as well.

Instead of restarting my computer once in a few weeks or months, I had to restart it a few times per day. There were times when I didn’t go home, my automation software was as good as on strike. The only blessing was that Photoshop continued to run normally. I was able to play the online game Team Fortress 2 (TF2) and the issue didn’t seem to pose any problem to the game.

Another ridiculous thing was that my computer was a working beast with 32GB of RAM and running on Solid State Drive (SSD). The CPU and RAM usage had been staying comfortably way below 30%. My internet was running on fibre optical network. I ran speed test for the internet bandwidth when my software were unresponsive and it showed that my internet was actually stable.

I went online to search high and low for solutions. I configured the settings of my Windows 10 (including registries), downloaded special software to update all the drivers (some newer drivers weren’t detected by Windows 10), installed software to detect for errors in both my hardware and software, defragmented my disk drives, ran virus and malware scans, and even opened up my CPU to clear away the dust physically. Eventually, I reformatted my Windows 10. I also consulted some IT experts. Nothing worked.

Having to spend long hours in front of the computer everyday, it was hell for me, especially when I was someone who couldn’t stand inefficiency. For example, I would always try my best to use my computer to reply messages because it was much faster than typing on the tiny soft keyboard of my phone.

Although I kept telling myself to focus on my work, every few weeks or month, I would try to go online to search for solutions for hours. I was trained to find solution since young and I had the never-give-up attitude, or some people would say “stubborn”.

After my elder brother bought a new laptop, I installed my automation software on it and I was amazed that it was running smoothly on the Windows 10 operating system. So, I was able to confirm that it wasn’t the software’s fault (lazy programmers).

I tried “playing” around with some software as recommended in websites/forums, including Microsoft’s. Then, I even changed the LANs cable. I had probably exhausted all the testing and had little luck. The frustration thing was that every changes I made, I had to restart the computer and wait for a couple of hours in order to determine if it was the solution.

Out of desperation, I made a drastic move to uninstall my antivirus instead of temporary disabling it, which I had done before. An hour later, I was very hopeful that my software remained very responsive without gradually slowing down. It was near dawn and I left the computer alone without doing the usual rebooting before going to bed.

How I would describe my feeling was that I seemed to have recovered from nine months of constipation.

Change of Webhost

One of the most recent challenges I had faced was to change the server of my personal blog. The old server was hosting more than just the blog but also other directories.

I bought the package around 10 years ago. It cost slightly over 200 bucks and had unlimited space and bandwidth. I wasn’t sure if the server was old or because the geographical location was far away, loading speed was slow. Anyway, since the renewal price was costly and rather redundant, I decided to give it up.

I didn’t expect it to be hassle-free but neither did I expect it to be so much more complicated.

Initially, it was the back-up of the blog. I had quite a minimum dealing with WordPress and it had always be a maze to me. Exporting and importing the contents alone wasn’t enough. I had to spend some extra time working on some errors.

Next, I had also my own database for some internet marketing and SEO stuff, which I wasn’t even sure was still working. I had to backup the database via phpMyAdmin and then create the new database and user via the Cpanel.

I also got to shift my non-profit website – Smoke For What. I felt lousy because I finally realised that I didn’t update the site properly previously and the database wasn’t connected – some features weren’t displayed for the past few years.

Overall, I got so stressed up more than I had anticipated. There were too many unforeseeable issues.

吳克群 – 像傻子般爱着

人们说爱情是什么
无悔无怨 付出
以前我不太懂
但自从遇见你那刻
心跳 呼吸
全都不由我掌控
像个傻子般的爱着
你的眼神 一举一动 牵动着我
也许我不会是 最后 那个人
也要 化作恒星 守护你左右
爱有多重 伤就多痛 这道理我都懂
你的眼泪 你的难过 全都由我来拯救
我只要你能快乐 的过
剩下的 伤痛 交给我
像个傻子般的爱着
你的眼神 一举一动 牵动着我
我会像是港口 在这 等你停泊
我要 化作恒星 守护你左右
爱有多重 伤就多痛 这道理我都懂
你的眼泪 你的难过 全都由我来拯救
我只要你能快乐 的过
剩下的 伤痛 交给我
爱有多重 伤就多痛 这道理我都懂
你的眼泪 你的难过 全都由我来拯救
我只要你能快乐 的过
剩下的 伤痛 交给我
像傻子一般的 爱着

Charlie Puth – Attention


[Verse 1]
You’ve been runnin’ round, runnin’ round, runnin’ round throwin’ that dirt all on my name
‘Cause you knew that I, knew that I, knew that I’d call you up
You’ve been going round, going round, going round every party in LA
‘Cause you knew that I, knew that I, knew that I’d be at one
[Pre-Chorus]
I know that dress is karma, perfume regret
You got me thinking ’bout when you were mine
And now I’m all up on ya, what you expect
But you’re not coming home with me tonight
[Chorus]
You just want attention
You don’t want my heart
Maybe you just hate the thought of me with someone new
Yeah, you just want attention
I knew from the start
You’re just making sure I’m never gettin’ over you
[Verse 2]
You’ve been runnin’ round, runnin’ round, runnin’ round throwing that dirt all on my name
‘Cause you knew that I, knew that I, knew that I’d call you up
Baby, now that we’re, now that we’re, now that we’re right here standing face to face
You already know, already know, already know that you won
Ohh
[Pre-Chorus]
I know that dress is karma (dress is karma), perfume regret
You got me thinking ’bout when you were mine
(you got me thinking ’bout when you were mine)
And now I’m all up on ya (all up on ya), what you expect
(oh baby)
But you’re not coming home with me tonight (oh no)
[Chorus]
You just want attention
You don’t want my heart
Maybe you just hate the thought of me with someone new
Yeah, you just want attention
I knew from the start
You’re just making sure I’m never gettin’ over you
Ohh
[Hook]
What are you doin’ to me?
What are you doin’, huh? (What are you doin’?)
What are you doin’ to me?
What are you doin’, huh? (What are you doin’?)
What are you doin’ to me?
What are you doin’, huh? (What are you doin’?)
What are you doin’ to me?
What are you doin’, huh?
[Pre-Chorus]
I know that dress is karma, perfume regret
You got me thinking ’bout when you were mine
And now I’m all up on ya, what you expect
But you’re not coming home with me tonight
[Chorus]
You just want attention
You don’t want my heart
Maybe you just hate the thought of me with someone new
Yeah, you just want attention
I knew from the start
You’re just making sure I’m never gettin’ over you
(over you)
[Outro]
What are you doin’ to me? (heyy)
What are you doin’, huh? (What are you doin’, what?)
What are you doin’ to me?
What are you doin’, huh? (Yeah, you just want attention)
What are you doin’ to me? (I knew from the start)
What are you doin’ huh?
(You’re just making sure I’m never gettin’ over you)
What are you doin’ to me?
What are you doin’, huh?

Spread the Love – June 2017

Luckie’s birthday fell in June. My elder brother and wife took the trouble to prepare for the mini party. Initially, I was supposed to help to collect Luckie’s cake but my sister-in-law settled it. My mum and younger brother took the train over with me and happened to encounter a terrible train “delay”. Although we didn’t stay for long, I was glad to have the mini family gathering over there.
I tried my first “massage” from “ah hun”, and she helped to relieve a lot of pain from my right shoulder. The improvement was significant.
Nancy hosted the volunteers gang a gathering at her place. She fed us well. Yonghao was generous with his new dimsum making skill. As I wasn’t feeling well, Huiting prepared porridge for me – she prepared extra for me while cooking for her mum.
Gilbert and I gave Wanling a belated birthday celebration. Gilbert was the chauffeur again and also planned the dinner.
During Joy’s book launch, she gave me a two copies of her book.
Since the venue of Gold’s Gym outlet at Lim Teck Kim Road was going to be handed back to the landlord, Bobby suggested lending me a space in the Joo Chiat outlet. He picked me up from my place and sent me over. He also treated me to early supper over there.
I had an implied nude yoga shoot with Karina and I was flattered by the trust she gave me.