It was one of those afternoons where, after having a most wonderful brunch at one of the nicest brunch places in town, I decided it a kind of waste to just head home straight.
So, what with us being in the heart of Raffles Place, what with it being a quiet weekend during the annual end-year holiday season, I thought it cool to just take a lovely gander around the 'hood.
You know, it's interesting how a place can feel entirely different when filled with alternate energies, and since I'd been curious about Raffles Place- and her surroundings- minus the (endless) rushing and the crowds for a very long time, today was an opportunity I didn't want to miss.
There was no definite destination where I wanted to go, so, coming out the lift from CapitaSpring, we simply strolled along the length of the airy ground floor lobby towards Chulia Street separating Market Street Hawker Center with the towers of UOB opposite.
It wasn't my plan to walk along Chulia Street- I'm pretty much familiar with where it goes- so along Circular Road I went, happily standing in the middle of the nearly empty road for a couple of pictures which on busier days I would never have done.
It isn't every day I have the freedom to stand in the middle of this road, turn 360 degrees to take pictures of my surroundings and have no vehicle honk its horn at me.
So, yes, glad I was to see the row of shop houses looking so vintage after the short burst of rains, glad I was to see the towers of United Overseas Bank rise high above the same (heritage) shop houses, and glad I was to take pictures of what I feel Circular Road is really like.
Over here we had to decide.
Ought we to walk down towards South Bridge Road then Clarke Quay, or ought we to make a U-turn and go further down towards Raffles Place and the Singapore River?
The latter won.
Perhaps it felt apt (somehow) that on the last day of the year 2023 I should stop by the waters of the Singapore River (and smile).
So we did.
Again this might be a very familiar sight to those who work in the area or whom often pass by, but all this (thank God) is still somewhat fresh to me and today, away from the people and the passersby, I thought she seemed quieter.
Very much like how the Singapore River- when seen in her full natural force- ought to be.
I don't know how it is, though.
It might have been the wide ripples of water streaking across her surface.
It might also have been the color of the waters today that surprisingly were an algae green.
I decided not to stay too long here, however.
There's a limit to how contemplative a person makes themselves out to be.
So, back up towards the entrance of Raffles Place MRT we went, across the open space with the pigeons and the swings, and towards the corner where I took a picture of a classic-looking building yet ironically whose name I do not know.
It might have been One Finlayson Green.
It might have been AIA Singapore or the Asia Insurance Building or something within the block.
But it wasn't the building that holds present-day Ascott.
That much I knew.
Was it a kind of a farewell that I was saying?
Maybe.
But also with a breath of thankfulness because, regardless of what it were, there had been the place, there had been the resources, there had been the resource to pay the resources and there had been the arguments that finally settled it all.
There were a good number of things to be thankful for.
To have come through the year, for instance, even though my memory very clearly still saw January's me sitting at the bench outside this Prudential Tower listening to John Denver's Take Me Home Country Road.
Perhaps thinking of a person who lived 70 over years of age put me in a bit of a timeless mood.
But onwards I decided to admire the heritage buildings of Robinson Road, so right opposite the Prudential Tower across the road, I took a picture of this building (it used to be a restaurant called Swan something) and further down, past Lau Pa Sat, the old Cable & Wireless Building that is now Hotel Telegraph and whose name I think suits the place well.
