"I want to linger here,
A little longer here..."
I couldn't get to sleep. So i read the book of the time, Final Notes from a Great Island by Neil Humphreys. It came out last year, so i'm a bit late, but...
And i couldn't get to sleep even MORE after reading one or two chapters. And i'm inspired to go back to Toa Payoh. Yes. It is settled. I shall go back to my home of my childhood next Saturday(and i can't wait!). Neil knows more about Toa Payoh then i ever did.
Hmm.
Memories.
WARNING: The next part is gonna be very boring because they are written for my own reference only!!! (And which i don't think you'll understand anyway...)
1. Bus interchange
It's all flashy and air-conditioned now... i'm trying to focus on how the old bus interchange looks like but i can't! (this old photo with a dark murky background suddenly comes to mind...) And what was at the place where the row of shops and HDB Hub now meet?
2. Toa Payoh Town Park
The place where the whole BIG family celebrated my ah ma's birthday at the viewing tower. I can't remember how it looks like!!! Then there was some restaurant?! And i think, if my brain of that time allows me, that there used to be a lot of people there... And i remember that a couple of years ago we had crossed the road from Central to visit there once more... the dirty waters...
3. Toa Payoh Entertainment Centre
Which is the building with numbers painted on the exterior. Come to think of it, it nows remind me of a ulu small-scale shopping centre in AMK... Jubilee? AHA the last few years we went to catch movies there(mostly Jack Neo's cause mama support) then papa would fetch us from there. Meanwhile we would stand on the circles "benches" with trees in the middle or the middle "stage" or visit McD and we once saw a very unique dog there... Quite new actually, but also quite old...
4. Popular
The old one, not the one at the Hub. It's big, spacious, cosy, at the second/third floor, and there was a tuition centre on the same floor... A couple couple(more than a couple=couple couple) years ago we went there for the annual $20 discount but we no longer buy a lot of stuff from Popular now... No more buying stationery with mama, kids in toll...
5. Random ATM
This random ATM always pops up in my head... background a wet market...
6. NTUC Fairprice
Now it has two storeys... The old one, small and cute and has everything. In the past we still went there quite frequently after we moved, but now, no...
7. Emporium
It was all the rage when i was young... and i once hid a Barbie doll that i wanted to buy there. And i got a Power Rangers Kimberly toy there. And my Kitty soft toy(supposed to have two, but mama returned one of them[she brought bro to the chinese physician and papa brought didi and i there to buy toys] when she came to meet us after that)
8. Shop 'N' Save
Long replaced by Fairprice, even before we moved... Green replaced by the red and blue.
9. Library
Painted a deep red long ago, originally white. AH! I remember buying a chocolate eclair from the Delifrance there... Eons ago, there was a fair or something... we went to get books, and met someone we know at the stairwell...
8. Lorong 7
HAHA! The good old... Where we walked from home every weekend to have the delicious dry prawn mee, all the prawns to bro. And the youtiao, the bak chor mee which i abhorred after a bite... the popiah my papa and bro and didi ate, mian jian kueh, the laksa my papa had with the quail egg, a huat kueh stall... leading to the end of the hawker, where there's a coffeshop behind, and where a stall sells lots of kueh... and a whole lot of shops in the area; once i saw a cat on the roof(the buildings were shophouse-like and there was a roof above the ground floor)... the salon which i had never gone to... and the MARKET! which we cut through everytime get to the hawker. And bought beancurd and saw kitties... all the red bricks... and behind it was another row of shops, fish shop with the 20cents card turning machine which bro and i had a fetish of. Dragonball, Sailormoon... the road where i got off the car... and the staircase i climbed over the giant canal...
Similarly we used to go back, until the last time we went by in the car, and i saw that it has all changed... to a weird state.
9. Pasar Malam
A random REDDISH pasar malam in the centre of Toa Payoh Central... same as the random ATM, which i ain't sure if they really existed/once existed or if they were just fragments of a dream.
9. Block 33
MY HOME! Where all the beautiful memories lie. Three-room flat, a living room, a kitchen(boasting separate toilet and bathroom). Bro and i being the living room's "captains", the old tv set which i foolishly thought would go with us to the new house. Papa and mama and baby didi in one room, with a super old mini tv. The other room had a bunk but nobody slept in it, we had two tables which my papa brought back from work(yes we were very poor then), and i placed all my precious barbie dolls under my table. I think some Transformers as well HAHA...
And the next place i'm gonna go, perhaps the next next Saturday: SENTOSA!
WARNING: The next part is gonna be very boring because they are written for my own reference only!!! (And which i think you'll understand better anyway...)
I'm having a kinda cluttered impression of Sentosa. It was old-ish and weird and mysterious and breaking-down in my memory, but having revisited it briefly in semi-darkness most of the time during my freshie camp, it looks/feels different. A perfect beach which i never knew existed, endless lengths of sand... and the occasional neon light-bursting bar or party?! The last time i actually went was the year when they had the SAND-SATIONAL event. All the sand pyramids and stuff. BEAUTIFUL. A sand tunnel with fake toy scarab beetles, a fake King Tut tomb, a giant mummy case... and the Scorpion King walk... those kinda haunted castles where you get creeped out by other living creatures such as humans! HAHA. But it wasn't creepy at all cause i tried to scare them off instead. Then there was a weird stage whereby there wasn't any performances and people were sitting down in makeshift white chairs and wooden tables and eating something.
The Asian thingy(no, not the museum!), a very big thingy. I DON'T KNOW, I FORGOT! Ah, and from an even previous visit, some volcano thingy with things/tubes sprouting from the ground. I DON'T KNOW, I FORGOT! And the latest visit, a western food restaurant somehere, very posh, and a where a family of five shared a plate of Fish and Chips.
Then we walked along some wacky Bougainvillea path and took some photos in an Istana-like stone-covered place. And the Underwater World, nothing much, we didn't go to the dolphins due to time constraints...
And the centuries old Sentosa Food Centre. In my memory it looks wooden, two storeyed... and i don't remember going there before. AHA i remember the cable cars. From the WTC to some middle place which was pretty ulu and then to Sentosa which was pretty ulu and which i couldn't remember how it looks lke... all from the very very previous previous visit mah... Nope i don't remember visiting any museum thingy... AHA i remember going up the Merlion during the last visit. COOL~
But there was this long fountain thingy stretching down the in front of the Merlion, which was barely sprouting any water. NO! I think there wasn't any water in the shit at all. The pipes all rusty and the like... And we sat there for a rest, last stop or sth...
Yes, i watched the show about three magical girls made up of light or something with an ending of light/water coming out from the Merlion. And we sat on newspaper cause it was raining.
And my mind still can't make up its mind to decide for itself how Sentosa should be described/ categorised.
Cartoons, Places of Interest, School....
...coming up next...
LOST IN MEMORIES AND I CAN'T GET BACK!!!
HERE COMES THE NEWSPAPER MAN AGAIN!
Better catch some sleep...
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