Couple of months ago (somewhere during Chinese New Year, actually) I went for a short little walk around Roxy I and Roxy II.
It wasn't on impulse.
The idea of it had been sitting in my head for a while but (with moving in and getting used to everything) hadn't yet gotten down to looking about and looking around.
What clinched the decision this afternoon, however, wasn't just the fact that I had time.
It was also the fact that it being the first day of Chinese New Year, there would hardly be anyone at the mall, and the absence of both crowd and store owners was just what I needed.
Some photographers are skilled at capturing eyes and cheekbones and foreheads or a person's cranial features which (I believe) determine personality.
I, however, simply prefer to see things in slightly different angles, in a slightly different light.
Locals born and bred are familiar with the heritage of Roxy as a cinema in Katong when they hear her name.
Does Roxy retain any part of the cinema?
Technically, no.
But there is a fairly large (glamorous looking) event space up on one of the upper floors, and there are a couple of drinking places evenly distributed throughout the mall on the first floor below.
You know, before coming to this area I had hardly known anything about Roxy. It just hadn't been in my zone.
And so whilst I had heard of the name, I had had no idea what it was like, no idea of its history, or anything much about the place at all.
What's more, besides the photocopy shop, there hadn't been much of a reason to enter, and so, most of the time, other than a very quick walk-through, I had hardly paid much attention to it at all.
Life changes, however, and this afternoon I found myself standing somewhat curiously at the staircase landing of one of their staircases.
Don't laugh.
Service lift landings and staircase landings- especially those meant for emergency exits- those you don't normally see- are often the ones that don't get aesthetic treatment whenever a mall does a makeover.
And because they just need to function, one gets to see how they were as far back as when they were first constructed.
I'm not sure if the aesthetic of Roxy's emergency staircase and regular staircase looks more or less the same, but because Roxy seems to have retained much of its original atmosphere, I'm sensing it to be at least close to how it were all those years ago.
That doesn't mean that the staircase is old.
It just means that one gest the atmosphere of the 90s just by standing on i, or looking at it.
I got a bit fascinated by this staircase in the middle of the mall though.
The decoration behind it gave me a vibe like I had seen it somewhere before.
Maybe a hotel here in Singapore.
Maybe a hotel in Bangkok.
Or maybe one in Hong Kong.
Along the stretch of Roxy II I went now, going past a corridor of shops and stores that seemed to be mostly service-based offerings. Here there were a couple of employment agencies, a couple of enrichment centers, several music schools, an antique shop or two, a clothing shop or two, and then a host of hair salons and nail polish salons, all of which were not open this afternoon.
The number of hair salons here at Roxy II are a little surprise.
Then again, they are not.
I wonder how it is they manage to get their customers. Do they depend on walk-ins, do they depend on their pool of regulars, or do they extend their skillsets beyond the salon?
I haven't counted just how many hair salons there are here on this one corridor, but there's one on the first floor right near the entrance opposite the Janggut Laksa kopitiam, there's one here on the second floor that looks kind of similar to the one opposite. Then there's one that does a bit of hair oil treatment and leans towards the ayurvedic sort. It's been one that I've been wanting to try.
This afternoon I lingered around on the 2nd floor of this II building, going around on the other corridor until I came to the intersection between Roxy I and II.
Two shops dominate this middle area.
One is a optical shop that I feel has been there a fairly long time. What's distinctive about this store would be the posters that they place right outside the store, and the pretty white stools they have for customers whilst they sit and wait.
The other shop is a TCM place that provides consultations, treatments and medication. On regular days I tend to just walk past it- the sign of the place is quite unobtrusive- but from time to time I've looked up from the escalator on the first floor, and noticed it there.
From here I went on to Roxy I, first passing through another (quiet) corridor of shops that housed a skincare salon on one side, and a hair spa or is it a wellness- massage place on the other side. The skincare salon is one that has been here a long time, and which I distinctly remember for the very reason that it caters (exclusively) to the gentlemen.
After this, one comes out to Roxy I on the second floor.
At first glance there doesn't seem to have much to see.
But take a round (amidst a few more nail salons, a wellness center, and an enrichment center at the back) and you'll end up at the area directly opposite on the Stage Left side of the big wall.
This is what I looked out to.
And the picture below that is said big wall.
I wasn't sure what I was going to see here.
I think there was a dance studio on the other side of the escalator.
Or was it a dress shop that I saw?
I, for some reason, now cannot remember.
What there are, however, are a couple more hair salons up here on the second floor- all of which look like they have been established for a while- and then there is a foot reflexology place of the traditional sort that looks like it will work out the meridian points from the soles of your feet.
Over here I didn't spend much time walking around and about.
Instead i just stood by one corner looking around and about.
Something about this space interested me.
I don't really know what.
A part of me found myself looking over at the escalator seeing the height as it led from the first floor to the second and then the third, but same time too I was interested in the lifts.
There aren't many bubble lifts left in Singapore.
Altogether maybe about 10, or 15, at most?
In which buildings they are, well, there must be a list somewhere, but here be one of the quiet ones that people don't normally think about, and perhaps, may not know.
Maybe more attention should be granted to bubble lifts like these.
Sure, they're petite and little, even a little retro, not like other bubble lifts that run up and down twenty floors on the exterior of a Downtown hotel, but this is the Eastern part of the island, and if this be the only bubble lift this side of town on the East Coast Road side, oy, why not?
I stood a while just looking at the lifts, and the place where it stood, then headed off the exit facing Marine Parade Central.
A long time ago there used to be an overhead bridge at this very spot.
It began, if I'm not wrong, from this floor, and stretched all the way across Marine Parade Road. Where exactly the other end of the bridge reached- if my memory serves me well- it would have been the building right across the road where a Maybank branch still stands.
It's been a long time.
For what reason they demolished the bridge, well, I don't quite know.
Maybe they widened the road for the sake of the Marine Parade MRT.
Marine Parade Road now has trees, plants, and lots more shrubs than it used to.
In any case we have now an underpass where it enters about 20m from where the bridge used to be on the Roxy side of the road, coming out about 20m from where the bridge used to end.