The Road To Duku's Murtabak

This was one of those afternoons where we weren't going far, but at the same time, I didn't want to feel like I wasn't doing anything special, not going anywhere. 

It's funny how a person can be in the middle of what is a very popular heritage enclave and feel impoverished, unexcited, even nonchalant, about the surroundings you have there. 

That was how I felt.

And I didn't want to feel that way.

So for lunch this afternoon I brought out Chonkycam. 

A small picture is better than no picture at all. 

Sometimes I wonder if it has meaning taking the same shot of the same place over and over again, but then again I remind myself that nothing is stagnant- even when you don't feel it- and I can only wait till a more suitable time to do a compare and contrast and see what's changed. 

Trying not to get over philosophical here, so... 

The light here at East Coast Road this afternoon was lovely. 

From Roxy Square I crossed the overhead bridge, first taking picture of the road looking towards the former Odeon and Katong Shopping Center, then the other side of the bridge looking towards Joo Chiat Police Station, i12 Katong, and that very big heritage tree. On the opposite of the road stood the Red House Bakery, and the host of shop houses that included a nail salon, a board game store, and an ice cream parlor known for their interesting flavors and buttery waffles.

Down the stairs of the overhead bridge I went, but not before taking another picture of the blue rental bikes, the Joo Chiat Police Station itself, and the facade of Hotel Indigo right behind. 

The pedestrian path between The Flow and Roxy Square too caught my eye. 

It is not often that I get this particular angle of this pedestrian path right in the middle. 

Seeing it from this angle does make me wonder what this path once used to be, considering that the pale brown semicircle of Roxy I might not be the newest structure in recent years, that the red facade of Grand Mercure Singapore Roxy might once have been the seashore, and that the pale blue of Parkway Center in the distance was once the sea. 

It's interesting how this area has undergone so much development, yet, at the same time, there are buildings, and heritage which remain- more or less- the same. 

I should like to know how Joo Chiat Road was like during those days before this whole enclave got redeveloped. 

Or, like Kim Choo Kueh Chang, if they had always been here, at this shop house that today also serves as an icon of Peranakan heritage. 

I didn't manage to enter the bright, vibrant-looking Singapore Visitor Center. 

But, like a tourist, I did manage to take a picture of all the pretty kueh kuehs in their boxes, and the warm, cozy vibes of the dumpling chang hanging from the structure there. 

From the foot of the overhead bridge we headed towards Joo Chiat Road, walking under the five-foot way of the shop houses now housing a steak place, a Chagee, a gelato place, a Japanese izakaya, a taekwondo school, and an eatery called Alibaba that offers delicious fried Hokkien mee, dim sum and Mediterranean food. 

At the junction we turned left.

Somewhere close to here we crossed the road. 

I can't say for sure at which shop house we made our way across, but it might either have been the Italian restaurant, or if not, Sinpopo. Across the road from here stood Katong Point with the Little Farms grocery store on the ground floor. 

I didn't get a picture. 

What I did get a picture of was of the Joo Chiat Community Center. This center feels like it has been there a good season of time. Not that I have gone in a lot- there hasn't been much of a need to- but I have walked past it a fair bit on my way here, and there. 

Duku Road comes up not far from this community center on the same side. I'm not sure how to describe what lies between this pink colored building and the coffee shop. If I'm not wrong, it is a bit of an arts space and a wedding event space. Maybe it is also a private condominium- I don't actually know- private spaces are a place that I don't look at very much whenever I walk past. 

Perhaps I tend to be more keen on getting to my destination, wherever that may be, and in this case- the coffee shop on Duku Road with the distinctive yellow tables and bright lights illuminating the Indian rojak counter. 

New ChaletHouse Vibes

Looking at these pictures now, it is a nothing short of a miracle that all of them turned out well.

Because, I can tell you, the photographer was not in one of her best moods when all these pictures were taken. 

But it was one those afternoons where she felt Chonkycam had been out of action for far too long, so decided it better to let the lens do what it did best than to not do anything at all. 

What's more, the light happened to be exceptionally good, so out from her case she came, onto the balcony she went. 

The glowing gold of the weekend's late afternoon sun bathed the Holiday Inn Express building and apartment building opposite with a glorious light so mesmerizing such as I had all these months never seen before. 

Contrasted with the sky of pure blue, the clouds of clean cotton white, and the holographic tiles of the Roxy building on my side, it made for one of the most unique canvas of colors one could ever see. 

The scenery was surprising. 

I had not known the view would turn out looking this way, much less be in such a glorious wash of color to make a pleasant memory. 

It wasn't just this side facing Marine Parade Road that was beautiful. 

The side facing East Coast Road showed the reflection of clouds and sky on my window, and I decided to leave the screwdriver souvenir at the base of the window there. 

Home itself looked lived in; things here, things there, some things placed at odd angles, others seemingly like they had been just dumped at this corner or the other. 

But in this house nothing is random. 

At least, nothing is permanently random.  

We live in a space where aesthetics and color codes are not key, but neither are things chucked at spaces without purpose. No doubt, some parts of the house look like a mess, but step back, look at it with a different eye and you'll realize that in the chaos there exists an order. In the look of mess, there is categorization, and suddenly, everything- whilst not picture perfect, becomes comfortable, assuring, loved.   

One of the highlights of our home this season was the addition of a movie documentary postcard on the fridge. ITAM was released in Singapore around May or June this year. The timing of this postcard itself is a marker. Long after we've moved out I'll still have this picture of it up upon the fridge accompanied by a memory of how the rest of the house looked like then. 

It was also around this season- May, June- that we discovered it impossible a task to cook in the kitchen. The chef did not like the enclosure of space. He did not like the induction stove being in so near a line of the kitchen bathroom. He did not like the poor ventilation of the space as well. 

So back into the box the induction stove went. 

In place, out came Little Black Grill and Little Blue Pot- both of which we were not going to use in the kitchen, but in the hall, at the dining table, together with the packets of powders already placed there. 

It is 2026.

We have the gear that we don't have to stand inside a dimly-lit kitchen and make our meals. 

We have the gear that we don't have to compromise how we want to cook our food.

There is nothing left to compromise. 

If vegetables need cleaning and cutting, we'll do them in the hall sitting down.

If sauce and marination is needed, we'll mix them in the hall sitting down.

And if we want to fry those steaks that I call fat fat beef in tallow or whatever oil of choice, we'll spatula it in the hall at the dining table sitting down as well.

No need to stand.

That was the plan.

That is still the plan.

We've done a couple of great blue-plate meals using this method since then, and can I say that the food tastes so much better when the chef is more relaxed and happier? 

The rice with frozen minced chicken is seasoned better. 

The noodles bubbling away in the pot added with mixed herbs makes for a more relaxed moment of cooking when the chef doesn't have to keep popping into the kitchen to check on it.

And one can just chuck the tang yuan into the pot and leave it to bob about inside there. 

It wasn't just the Pot and the Grill that came along to make our lives easier. 

The seldom-used balcony also came in incredibly useful.

Not the most flattering nor aesthetic of pictures but, yes, this was the season where I began hanging a couple of T-shirts and trousers there. 

What's funny is that I had not thought I would actually figure out a way to hang these garments up by the balcony door, but having skinny hangers and a semi-sheltered space works and the hot sun, plus natural wind coming in all through morning and afternoon has worked wonders for all the random pieces of clothes that I hang up there. 

I've since learnt not to keep clothes there for too long, however.

Apparently it blocks the inflow of energies. 

Same way too now we have figured out that the best way to keep the space feeling airy and fresh is to open the balcony door when we go out and let the air in. Never mind if there is tropical heat and tropical sunshine. Never mind if there may be rains or winds in the afternoon. The door stays open whenever we're not around. 

At least we come back to a house of flowy energy, not a space of stagnated energy. 

Of course, not everything we've changed. 

There are some things that are still the same. 

Like my desk, which, by the looks of it, hasn't changed much, save for an additional black bag on the right side which I thought was always there, and the bottle of lavender scented SkinCalories face mist that has since shifted down. 

Other than that, nothing else has changed. 

The decor box of pink plastic flowers and the bottle of lavender essential oil spray we place right by the door behind the TV still remain there together with the bottle of cologne.

And we still have a whole lot of coffee and tea at the place in the kitchen where we put our coffee and tea. 

From Clementi to Orchard: 2022

This is another of what we usually would call a photo dump. 

Except that it not quite is, for the reason that I have actually written about it before but the pictures were edited differently at that time.

Let's just say it wasn't always that I used Adobe Photoshop Express.

So these pictures here are nicer. 

Much nicer. 

It would make sense if I were to begin this article from Clementi, which is where this bus journey started, but that would mean a whole lot of pictures and I don't know if I want to put everything up. 

Anyway here goes.

And let's see how it will be along the way. 

One thing about this journey that I can be very sure of is that it began in Clementi. 

Whether it began from the bus interchange, or from some random bus stop along the road, that, I don't know, but it was definitely in Clementi, and it was definitely on the side of Clementi leading down Pandan Valley towards Holland V and Holland Road.

I know it is Holland V because of this picture above. 

This was a time when Fosters was still there but I'm not sure if they are still there anymore.

If my memory of events serves me well, I don't think they're still at the same spot that they had been occupying for so many years prior. 

There was an outpouring of regret and nostalgia when they left the enclave, even though, I think they have reopened elsewhere. 

From here the bus went down Holland Road, first going past Dempsey Hill, and then finally it hit the Orchard belt.

You know, one of the reasons I wanted to write this post in 2026 was because some of the landmarks I had taken out the window that one particular day in November or December of 2022 are now no more. 

Tanglin Shopping Center- once a distinctive landmark building this side of the Orchard belt, is gone. No doubt, they had been quiet for a while before the building was demolished, but there were still people who went there, and there were still people who had memories there. 

I don't have much of a memory about the place. 

But there used to be a fair number of carpet stores facing the road, and there was a very homely, 80-ish feel Indonesian restaurant called Tambuah Mas where I once had a very nice dish of tahu telur- the Indonesian tofu omelet.

The one thing about these pictures that strikes me are the Christmas @ Orchard decorations.

Sometimes in the day to day, we just live, we just take the picture, and we don't think so much of what it is, but then comes a day when we look back and realize what a difference that one Christmas, and the years ahead, actually did make.

Hopefully this year I might get a chance to go down Orchard and see the lights again.

In that sense, perhaps, I am glad.

I am glad that everything else down the rest of the Orchard belt is going well, with Forum the Shopping Mall, ION, Ngee Ann City, Mandarin Gallery and 313 Somerset lining the entire stretch until one reaches the Istana Garden and the area of Dhoby Ghaut beyond. 

Bus to Hougang: 2022

Not going to lie, but these pictures of the bus ride I took from Geylang Serai to Hougang Bus Interchange were a little hard to see. 

It wasn't because they weren't well taken or that they weren't nice to look at, but simply because they were taken during a season that reminds me of a tragic time that came not too long after- resulting in a time I wish would end very soon. 

This bus ride had been on a Saturday afternoon. 

It was a trip that saw me go from Geylang to Hougang, take a letter out of the letter box, then make my way up to Yishun on an errand for Mr. Radioman. 

Actually, the pictures themselves are charming. 

Had early 2023 not taken place I probably would be able to appreciate them the same way I did back in 2022.

But life changes. 

It isn't the whole journey that makes me feel this way, however. 

I don't feel the rising bile when I see the blocks of flats at Ubi housing estate, the car showrooms that came after, even the entrance to Bartley Road East or the Kim Chuan Road area after. 

The feeling of bile comes somewhere around here at the blocks of Hougang Avenue 1, Hougang Avenue 3, and the turn between Hougang Avenue 2 and Upper Serangoon Road. 

Maybe because these blocks have been in my life most familiar with me.

It's a bit of a pity.

These pictures were beautiful. 

But the sight of them brings me a reminder of the life I have lived, the family that I have had, and the life I have to still live now. 

Actually the sight of those flats at Hougang Avenue 1 aren't that bad- they remind me of my childhood since my school was close by and I had friends on the school bus who lived in the blocks here. 

They also remind me of the time I walked here with Mr. Radioman in the wee hours and we went to the Prime supermarket and Molly's bakery and confectionery before making our way back.

These days however, I don't think of these pleasant times when I see these blocks.

I think of the (unpleasant) flat that still awaits me. 

You know, I wonder if it be possible for parts of my life to take themselves completely away.  

Or if there be parts of my life which, even in my memory, I do not wish to anymore see. 

I don't see why I should.

Those people whom used to live in Hougang and whom I care about have all gone. 

My grandmother who used to live in Hougang Avenue 3 has passed on. 

My aunt who used to live with her has since married to Australia. 

My aunt, who used to live on the opposite side of the stadium migrated, my cousins going along with her. 

Mr. Radioman is gone.

And my grandfather who used to live in the People's Garden estate behind this junction, has since passed on too. 

There's nobody left in Hougang whom I feel anything for. 

Perhaps this then is a cue. 

A reminder that it is time to close the gates on this estate (metaphorically), wish it a goodbye, walk away, and metaphorically never return.