I've heard a lot about Tessensohn Road.
But I've never actually been there.
Tessensohn Road is a little stretch that comes right after Race Course Road, opening onto Balestier Road.
It's difficult for me to define what exactly it is that on this little stretch I hoped to see, but, having heard about it for so long, what with me being in the area today, I decided it good to drop in there.
My route this afternoon took me from the edge of Race Course Road.
There're a couple of public housing flats here.
There's also what I think is a religious institution- a well known Chinese temple whose main entrance is accessed from Serangoon Road and whose back sits on Tessensohn Road.
Right after the Chinese temple (or the religious institution) was the row of shop houses that I had come specially to see.
I shan't detail what it was I looking for, but let's just say that some things don't necessarily change.
Like how if some units on this stretch once housed the offices of a heavy machinery hardware distributor and supplier, today the same units look like they still deal with machinery.
Some units still look like they belong to commercial offices.
Others, however, have been converted into offices for organizations, associations and dwelling-like homes.
One thing that hasn't changed over the years is the presence of this association.
From what I hear, they've been sitting at this very same spot since the early 80s- that's about 40 years- and once upon a time staff from the offices (in the shop houses) opposite would order coffee, snacks and hot drinks from the in-house cafeteria within.
Relationships got so familiar that the "Kopi-soh" working in the in-house cafeteria would pop over during her break time to these offices, sit down, and chat with the young office girls.
I don't know if the staff there still do that now.
Perhaps our society really has changed.
Perhaps things don't seem as simple, or sufficient as before.
We've all evolved.
Deeper and further into spaces of our own, longer into solitude (or vice versa), and more discerning about the communities and groups we now belong.