You know, I've never really thought about it, but if there be one thing about Chonkycam that makes my life more interesting, it is that she forces me to see familiar things with new eyes.
It's like, I can be heading up and down the same old route with the same old scenery week on week on week without feeling anything out of the ordinary but once Chonkycam there, somehow that same old building, that same familiar scene, will appear a bit different.
No wonder they say that life does have change.
It's only whether you look hard enough, or look not at all.
I had thought I knew all that I wanted to know about this neighborhood.
That, because I'd come here nearly every week without fail from the age of six till the age of fifteen; that, because from the looks of it, nothing about this neighborhood seemed to have changed, there was nothing more I needed to know, nothing more I needed to see.
But the light that afternoon was good.
It was a kind of light that, may I say, I had never- not once- on this side of Toa Payoh seen before.
Perhaps I hadn't hung around here long enough.
Perhaps I didn't use to be here around this time of 5pm either.
There's a difference between the fleeting perspective of a visitor and a deep perspective of a dweller.
Mine- as familiar as I thought I was- had all along been that of a visitor.
It still is.
It didn't matter that this block of Lorong 7 still looked more or less the same after thirty years.
The light shining on her walls and her corridors was different.
Something about this entire area was different.
It could be the sheltered walkway in front of the block.
It could also be this hut-like structure behind this block that I didn't at first notice and not sure if it were ever there before.
But there seemed to be more grass on the slopes, and more paths in the park than what I used to remember.
To be honest I don't have much of a memory about the park.
Not only was it thirty years ago that I last came here, I used to merely walk through the park in passing from the bus stop of Lorong 6 to the blocks of Lorong 7.
Back then I didn't stop to see.
I didn't stop to observe either.
But today I looked at the area a little bit more.
There were pavilions.
There were seating benches.
There was a sheltered stage for community events.
And if I'm not wrong, from the looks of it, there seemed to be more trees.
I, however, didn't go down the steps to the park-playground area today.
We had a destination to go, an appointment to meet, a box of cake in our hands.
So along the circumference of the park towards the petrol station further on Lorong 6 we went.
It's kind of strange, but I hadn't realized this side of Lorong 6 had this many trees.
Not small petite ones, mind, but rain trees, with large tree trunks, heavy branches and spreading canopies.
They looked like they had been here many years.
How was it that I had never noticed them before?
It wasn't even limited to this side of Lorong 6.
Even at near the zebra crossing traffic junction that turned from Lorong 6 into Lorong 1, where you would stand facing the Toa Payoh Seu Teck Sean Tong Chinese Temple, there was a tree.
Walking along this side of Lorong 6, I felt this area to be more scenic than I actually thought it would be.
And I'm pretty sure it had something to do with all them trees.
Seriously, how is it that until this afternoon I have never known just how much greenery and how much foliage this side of Toa Payoh has?
The shades these canopies provided were dramatic, astounding.
Here and there were huge ferns nestled between the crook of tree trunks and the sturdy branches above.
Then below them, by the concrete pedestrian path, there were rich, leafy shrubs by the roadside looking like they'd burst out of their neatly pruned shapes anytime.
The abundance of greenery this side of Lorong 6 was unbelievable.
I would not have imagined seeing a banyan tree (hanging roots and all) by the side of the pedestrian path amidst present-day infrastructure.
I would also not have imagined the presence of all these walking paths and carefully spaced out young trees planted on the slopes of bright grassy green.
I mean, in my memory, I had impressions of this place as minimalistic bare.
But no, how wrong can one be?
There were flowers peeping out amongst the carefully planted shrubs in the park-playground space.
And, most interesting of all, so close to the blocks were some of the trees that I could almost imagine residents on higher floors reaching out of their kitchen windows to touch the dew on the leaves.