MacRitchie Reservoir

The phrase "So near yet so far" springs to mind when I think of how, despite the very small size of our island, it is actually possible to seldom (or never) venture to places that lie beyond the sphere of our life, and lifestyle. 

This is a pattern I hope to change. 

This is a pattern I realize I have to change. 

Because sometimes time doesn't wait for you. 

An elderly man (of late) whom I know drove a taxi for many years, and even though he must have fetched many a passenger to the Singapore Zoo, never got to visit it himself except for this very one (and, unfortunately, last) time. 

In the same way, I too, had, via the buses, gone past the outskirts of MacRitchie Reservoir for many years- the first time was almost two decades ago- and in the years past I have also been to countries across the Pacific - and yet, since childhood had never even gone inside. 

So it was that a few months ago I decided to drop in. 

Given that I hadn't been back to MacRitchie in what must be more than three decades (so far back that I don't even remember whether I'd been there in the first place) I decided that, instead of being adventurous and going on paths unknown, I would a) not go alone and b) stick to the easy path. 

I think there're a couple of entrances to MacRitchie. 

I chose the most popular one. 

Entering the park from where Lornie Road meets Thomson Road (opposite Mt. Alvernia Hospital), we took a left, going on a little path lined with trees until we got to a slope that overlooked the landmark pavilion. Along the way there were a family of macaques, but heading the advice of the State Park Rangers, we left them well alone. 

From this path we entered the park area and then towards the first boardwalk we saw. 

What name it was I don't know, which direction it was heading to I also don't know- we were literally playing by ear and going where our feet led- but there were others coming from the opposite direction, so I figured we'd be good. 

I think the path went around one (small) part of the reservoir, in between which there was one path where you could head off through the trees towards Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (a good distance away) and another path which also through the trees led you to another part of the reservoir. 

Along the way at an intersection there was the Ranger's Hut (or something like that) for water breaks and snack feeds. 

This is no tourist-book description. 

It is not intended to be. 

I'm writing this just to remember that the weather was good, that the light was gorgeous, that there were hidden surprises here and there, and that the waters were as calm and still like the sheen of a mirror. 

I'm also writing this to remember the Moments.

Moments that sprung themselves upon me which I would never have expected whilst being on a regular, easy hike in MacRitchie.

There were Moments where I felt like I were looking out of a cave. 

There were Moments that made me feel like there were faeries dancing amongst the leaves.  

And there were Moments where the Reservoir herself gave off so many different vibes.  

Everything was magical.

At some places I felt like I were in a forest. 

At some places I felt like I were elsewhere on this Earth. 

And at some places I felt the water looked so clear I thought I could peer through the waters to the bed of the reservoir. 

Was it just me, and my imagination? 

I don't know. 

Perhaps another day I shall make another trip there and see if I receive from Nature the same magical vibes.

But at least for this day- for just a few short hours- I really did forget that I was on a small island, I really did forget that a short distance away were the bustling heartlands of Thomson, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan and Toa Payoh, and I simply let myself dwell in a space where two worlds mirrored each other, locking me into their harmonious embrace. 

Happy Easter @ Home

The Family holds an Easter celebration every year at home. 

New Life, Resurrection, Freedom, Eternal Peace, Spring- we celebrate it all.

It is something we've done for over a decade now.

There's always lively music on the player. 

Sometimes it is the Evergreens of the 60s and 70s, sometimes it is the Cantonese music of Samuel Hui and Kenny Bee, on occasion we throw on the Christmas CD for good measure, and sometimes it is the music from Broadway. 

It varies. 

This Easter we decided to have the music from Broadway. 

So, Cats, Technicolor Dreamcoat and Phantom it was. 

We always have beautiful homemade decor to celebrate Easter and the Spring Season. This year, like years past, we had out on the dining table the bright yellow flowers, the little gold streamers which we pull from the Christmas bag, and the homemade paper decor sitting in its designated pewter vase. 

Below the decor were hardboiled eggs for the occasion, and right next to it were the foods that we had prepared, and the foods that we had bought. 

There were noodles- mine- in their wide dish- with the additions of fried wantons, fried seafood balls, halved tomatoes, vegetables, fish balls, cuttlefish balls, mushroom balls, and little round beef balls. 

Then there was the platter of fried wantons and fried seafood balls that, instead of refrying them, we'd decided to have them thrown into the rice cooker to steam. 

There were the dishes which we'd bought from the coffee shop downstairs. 

One Parent decided on the dishes. 

The Other Parent went down to buy. 

And I placed them nicely on the platters.

Of course, there was the platter of beautifully-arranged siew mais. 

One of the dishes that I look forward to every time a celebration rolls around, these store-bought, simple-looking siew mais have a flavor and a texture which appeal greatly to me and so make one of my favorites, especially when it reminds me of the occasion, and when we have it with ketchup, chili sauce and mayonnaise. 

The Parents prefer the chili and the ketchup. 

I go straight for the mayonnaise.

It is often late afternoon when our lunch finishes, but there can be no celebration meal without the presence of dessert, and for this year we had bananas, coffee, cups of chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, and a bag of Cadbury chocolate mini eggs specially bought because it is Easter.  

Dian Xiao Er

There was a time when I would buy an entire roast duck from this place especially during special occasions.

And then one day I stopped. 

No reason why. 

It just happened. 

But Dian Xiao Er has always stayed on my horizon, and so it was only a matter of time that I would revisit the restaurant again. 

A friend re-introduced me to them a while ago. 

"They've changed quite a bit," I was told. 

So we went. 

And yes, my friend was right. 

Dian Xiao Er has indeed changed. 

Gone are the red lamps, the elaborate decor, and the dark wallpapered walls. 

Gone too are the heavy carved dark wood tables and the heavier-still carved dark wood  stools. 

Now the place is brighter. 

Strategically placed lights, furniture with clean lines, cushioned booths and light-colored tables make it a much more casual, much more welcoming place than what it used to be. 

Service, thankfully, remained the same. 

If it was swift before then, it is as swift now. 

Maybe it was nearing the end of the lunch hour, or maybe because there were enough places in the restaurant- we were shown to a table very quickly and handed a menu with equivalent speed. 

There are many dishes that Dian Xiao Er has on their menu.

You have the soups, the vegetables, the meats, the poultry, the noodles, the rice and the desserts, but there are signature dishes which they are  synonymous with, and which is what we got.

Amongst some of their signature dishes is the roast duck with two (or is it three) different types of herbal sauce- one of which is the angelica, and the other, the tang kwei. 

Usually I tend to go for the angelica, but today we deliberated and decided on the tang kwei. 

It was rather lovely to have the duck again. 

I liked the sauce.

A tad different from the angelica herb which is rounder, richer and more mellow in taste, the tang kwei is tart, slightly tangy and has a very light hint of the root's natural bitterness.

If the angelica herb sauce blended with the deep flavors of the duck meat to make it a singular, rounded taste, the tang kwei sauce lightened the deep duck meat flavors to enable both the sauce and the meat to balance out the differences on their own. 

It's like, if the angelica herb brought the flavors of both sauce and meat into one, the tang kwei kept the flavors of both sauce and meat independent.  

Dian Xiao Er offered their diners a good roasted duck too.

You'd think that roast duck is roast duck is roast duck and it is all the same. 

No.

There is a difference when it comes to the plumpness of the duck, the fat of the skin and the technique in which it is roasted. 

I can't make judgment on the technique which they had to have the duck roasted, but I can at least say that the duck was plump and fat. :) 

The meat was tender enough- no dryness there- and there was a hint of moistness from the oil which made every bite particularly enjoyable. 

The best part, of course, was the skin. 

There is no point having roast duck if you are not going to eat the skin. 

So eat it we did.

Fight over the larger parts of the skin we did too. 

And because we thought it was a fair fight- it got close to a stage where we were going to lay out the pieces of skin on our plate and count them individually, considering size- we ate up our portions and settled it over a dessert. 

There were differences here too.

I wanted almond jelly. 

My friend wanted peach gum. 

"Peach gum harder to make, and you don't have time to double boil, triple boil.." 

So peach gum it was. :D

It was good. 

Very light on the palate, there were chewy parts, there were boing boing parts, there were boiled longans hidden somewhere at the bottom of the bowl, and there were those parts that slid smoothly down the throat. 

I loved it. 

Logic wins...  sometimes. 

Greenery to the Airport

It is no question that the scenery on the expressways towards Changi International Airport has to be some of the most scenic on this island. 

Call it an STB (our Tourism people) thing. 

Call it an LTA (our transport people) thing. 

Whatever it is... the route leaving the airport will give you a glimpse of what to expect, and the route towards the airport will leave you the memories of the Garden City (they) hope you will miss. 

I think the route I took this day was on Bus 27. 

Can't quite recall- afraid it's been a while- but likely it is that I took the bus from one end to the other-going from Hougang Bus Interchange all the way to Changi Airport. 

Much of the route runs along the housing estates of Hougang, Sengkang, part of the TPE, then Tampines. 

From Tampines, the bus then makes a couple of turns until it hits the expressway- either the PIE or the ECP- but it is somewhere around here that I found the view outside the bus window very lovely.

And so I took pictures. 

Bus Ride Sights: Choa Chu Kang to Boon Lay

The other day I wrote that I'd come to Choa Chu Kang from Orchard Road on Bus 190. 

If you're wondering what I did after arriving at the bus interchange, well, I wandered around Lot One for a while, browsing, seeing the shops, trying to decide between heading straight back to the east on Bus 67 or hop onto another bus to continue the West Side circuit a little bit more. 

Well, the latter won. 

I mean, I'd come all the way here anyway!

So, up Bus 172 I went. 

The route this bus takes is an interesting one. 

At least that's how it seemed to me- having had Westie school mates talk about this bus route all the time yet never having taken it before.

From the interchange the bus turns out, going down Choa Chu Kang Drive, then Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1. I sat up when the bus turned into Avenue 1, because whilst I wouldn't pay much attention to the road on other days- Avenue 1 I had come before- from another direction. 

There had been a time in my life where I used to come to this place at Hong San Terrace, and 172 has a stop directly opposite. 

I too used to come to some of the shops- I even had a meal of salted egg sotong and char siew rice with a father and son duo- but I'd only seen the shops from inside, and didn't know that it looked like this- like a little village of sorts. 

Admittedly it was a bit poignant seeing this area, even as the bus zipped by, but there was just a little inner smile, a breath of thanks, and as soon as the bus trundled down Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 into Brickland Road, the poignancy was no more.

For one, I hadn't known this side of Choa Chu Kang being so close to the nursery and Old Choa Chu Kang Road. 

How is it that one can make a right and find themselves leaving the blocks and blocks of flats behind to a view of trees, more trees, and sky. 

It was amazing, I tell you, seeing how the scenery rapidly changed.

It might have been better if I'd sat on the left side of the bus- I could have taken pictures of the camps' entrances- ALB, Keat Hong and Tengah Air Base- but the right side was more rustic- and spacious- trees, trees, lots of trees- and I needed more of such a view anyway. 

All along the entire stretch of Old Choa Chu Kang Road I was captivated by the scenery, and the fact that all this land had been untouched (I think) for the longest time since pre-war days. 

Yes, there's that sense of timelessness when you're on Old Choa Chu Kang Road. 

Old roads- they capture more than the living. They capture life. 

The same can be said of Jalan Bahar. 

Even though the timelessness there is perhaps more of a permanent nature. 

In any case, it was lovely passing through Jalan Bahar again. 

I'm not new to this road. 

I used to cycle on here, coming from Jalan Boon Lay along this very road towards Lim Chu Kang Road towards Neo Tiew and Kranji, but it has been quite some time since I've been here, and it was strangely calming seeing the serenity and the restfulness of the road once again. 

I don't think I took many pictures of Jalan Bahar- maybe just one or two- of the area after the Civil Defence Academy and near Nanyang Avenue. 

Some places I didn't think I needed pictures. :)

And then that was more or less it- back to the urban view of homes and flats and traffic lights and landscaped trees before the bus turned into Boon Lay Avenue and Jalan Boon Lay.