I took these pictures quite some time ago.
Late last year, I think.
I don't know what it was that I had been doing prior. I also don't know what it was that I was intending to do after.
Very likely I had just finished a late lunch at Suntec City with my friend who had then headed off somewhere else.
Maybe I was on my way home but didn't want to make a straight route from the Suntec City Bridge to the bus stop at the Bugis .
Whatever it was, there I moved, from one end of Suntec City to Marina Square, and eventually, to Bugis.
On hindsight it feels a little strange that the camera didn't come out when I was at the Suntec City side until after I'd crossed Millennia Walk, gone up the escalator and then onto the wide terrace that separates this shopping mall, and Marina Square.
Perhaps what had charmed me was the light.
It had been one of those moments when I happened to turn my head, and there it was, the glow of an evening sun upon the walls of the Pan Pacific Hotel.
It were the shadows that fascinated me, for whilst there was this golden glow upon the wall, the front of it, Raffles Boulevard and Marina Square, were in a shroud of shadow.
I didn't always get this view.
So out came Chonkycam.
First there was the golden glow of light shining bright not only on the name of the hotel, but also the floors of rooms above. Then there was the shroud of shadow this side of Marina Square and Mandarin Oriental, which, maybe on other days, wasn't so obvious you could see.
I must have then gone into Marina Square itself, because afterwards pictures of the other side show themselves.
If the first few pictures were from the space between Millennia Walk and Marina Square, these then, were the pictures from the bridge between Marina Square and Suntec City Convention Center.
You saw the road of Temasek Boulevard and the exterior of Suntec City Convention Center itself.
You saw the horticulture and the trees and the planted foliage that added a rich touch of green to the place.
And on the opposite side of the bridge facing Raffles Boulevard, you saw a little of the bluish-glass MBFC towers in the background, a corner of the Parkroyal Collection Hotel, and in the near distance, that golden glow of the sun again, now upon the dark green wall of Mandarin Oriental herself.
From here now I went into Suntec City itself, then came out on the other side facing Nicoll Highway.
Here I took another bunch of pictures.
The light was too good.
It isn't every day that I get to see the reflection of light upon skyscrapers like the Gateway Building, or the same golden glow get magnified as it shines its beauty upon the still-building Shaw Towers.
Neither is it every day that the same light illuminates the towers of Raffles Place in the distance, the glassy surface of the South Beach Tower, and even this Nicoll Highway side of the Suntec City Convention Center.
For some reason there was such deep saturation of color, such depth of structure, whether it was the glass, the tile, the tar of the road, or even the metal roof of the temporary bus stop, even when coupled with the snaking line of cars all waiting for the light to turn green.
It felt like the epitome of a weekend cityscape, the distinctive yet present-day charm of Downtown Singapore, filled with history, new developments, and energy.
It felt so alive.
And then, interestingly, almost immediately it all fell silent.
Like an escape not anticipated.
It wasn't because the place was far off or anything like that.
No, it was just the opposite side of the bridge.
But somehow, here, on the South Beach side in what was a former military camp, there was a different sort of space, a different sort of nostalgia, a different feeling, akin to timelessness, as if something had once been there but even in the intervening years, had never left.
After all the architecture of here, it suddenly felt like a different world when it came to Purvis Street after.
I don't mean that the street wasn't beautiful.
Neither do I mean that it held no meaning or no story of its own.
On the contrary, it did.
Very much, in fact, with unit after unit of dining establishments both Chinese, Asian, European and casual.
Indeed, if there's anything to know about Purvis Street (and Chin Chin Eating House), this too is incredibly beautiful, in its own way, its own heritage, its own time, its own tale.
