Selfies @ A S**tty Time

One thing about me not known to many people is that the s**ttier life is for me, the more selfies I take.

Most people take a selfie when they feel good, when they feel confident, when life is good and well.

I am the opposite.

I take selfies when life is tired, when life is exhausting, when certain aspects of life seem to run in a loop that never seem to end. 

That don't mean I take pictures that have me look dowdy, haggard, unkempt, exhausted, or frumpy. 

It just means that I take selfies of the warpaint that I have on despite the situation I am in. 

Let's just say it is a self encouragement.

Or that it is a reminder that I still have resources and am still trying my best to not spiral, give up and go down. 

I have to admit that it can be hard. 

That life can make it hard to smile, even if it be at yourself, in your own camera, your own lens. 

I have had many, many selfies taken in the first three and a half months this year. In three months the number of selfies I took almost rival the entire collection I took for the whole of last year. 

That's how it has been.

All these pictures you see here now were taken after I'd gone to cut my hair. 

Some I don't look as good, some I look better.

In all of them I tried my best.

Work goes on, life goes on, no matter how you feel, and better that one keep things moving forward- at least there is a feeling of hope (and faith)- than to stagnate. 

Yet sometimes I have to quietly wonder. 

It is a miracle, I tell you, that I look the way I look in these pictures. 

The hair, especially. 

For the longest time I have left it alone, just wash, comb and let it air dry. But now that it has been cut this style from a random salon downstairs- in a poufff way that the lady tells me I am supposed to blow dry- I've got to use one of them Lucido hair waxes to style the tresses.

Took me a bit of a while to figure out how wax is applied but eventually I got it that I wasn't supposed to run the wax through the strands using my fingers but to pull it straight down flat, with water to assist, before, and after. 

The first picture I took when at an office tower in the CBD. We were there as sponsors for a sort of a cooking competition that would be screened online and maybe for TV as well. 

The next few pictures are of a music showcase that I attended at Scape. What's funny is that all through the bus journey there I had attempted nonstop to take a selfie- natural light and all- but failed. It was only after I got to Scape, seated on a bench waiting for the doors to open, that I managed to take these lovely pictures. 

Hair a little frizzy but I'm glad they turned out well. 

There was a picture at the MRT station of Marine Parade.

And then another whole bunch of pictures that I took at the Coffee Bean of Bugis+ whilst waiting for a prospect to come. 

I love the look of these few. 

They were unexpected. Not only had the lights around Coffee Bean cast a beautiful purplish glow over my (greasy, post-caregiving) hair, they had illuminated my (made-up) face with a lovely, smooth glow, making me look prettier and fresher than I actually felt. 

So thankful. 

I'm glad the glitter eyeshadow brightened my look way more than what I felt. 

I'm also glad the long-used concealer still served its purpose. 

Sometimes life really does turn out better when unplanned. 

People always say you should try and try and try until you get it. 

But that hasn't always been the case for me.

On the contrary it is when I give up, stop trying, and do it again at a most unexpected time that the results actually show. 

Maybe this whole selfie thing is a lesson. 

A lesson on giving up, on letting go, on not trying to persevere over and over again when nothing's happening. 

Of course, one never knows when the results will show.

Sometimes you might be in an environment with the same sort of light, but because you don't have the same makeup or the same sort of space, the desired results won't come. 

Tuk Tuk Cha had the lights.

But I was trying to avoid the background of dishes and serving paraphernalia.

So yeah, same same but different. 

Mi BiBimBap

This place here is fast becoming one of my favorite go-to places for 2026. 

What's surprising is that I had not, never, expected it to be.

See, persons like me are generally neutral, okay okay, when it comes to Mainland Chinese food. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't like the food. It just means that I tend not to have any particular craving for it unless I have a craving for it. 

Which, to date, I gotta say, doesn't happen very often. 

Why that is, I don't especially know. 

Maybe because I haven't fully explored the presence of Mainland food yet.

And maybe I already have a couple of favorites and I kinda like going back to them again and again.

One thing about Mainland Chinese food is how large the portions are.

They really do mean it when they say that a meal is not meant to be just necessity, or sustenance, but a reward, something to anticipate, something to plan, something to look forward to. 

It is very difficult to feel shortchanged when it comes to having a meal at them Mainland Chinese places, no less too, when you eat at a place like Mi Bibimbap where the menu is Mainland Chinese, but also not quite Mainland Chinese at the same time. 

They have a lot of dishes to choose from. 

I've seen groups and diners order their favorites, whether it be the Bibimbap with the varieties of chicken, beef or pork, whether it be the stir-fried of Braised Deep Sea Cod, the Classic Sanbei Chicken, or the Braised Chicken with Potatoes. 

One thing about the menu here is that it has been planned for solo diners. 

And solo diners there are, plenty, too. 

What makes this place most charming, let me just say, is the unlimited service of rice, kimchi, and seaweed soup. 

Some people will love the unlimited servings of seaweed soup. 

Some people will love the unlimited servings of rice. 

And then some people, like me, love the unlimited kimchi. 

On some days the unlimited kimchi might not mean a lot, but more often than not, it does.

I have come to appreciate the kimchi on days when I want more bang for my buck.

I also have come to appreciate the kimchi on (caregiving) days when I need an amount of spicy kick in my meal but I don't know just how much. 

The unlimited portion thus comes in very helpful. 

One of the earliest times where I had this meal was at Bugis+. I hadn't quite come to appreciate the food there yet at that time. 

So, no pictures.

But now, whether it is at NEX or at Bugis+, yes, this place has become a pleasant choice of mine. 

One thing though, the pictures don't always look aesthetic. 

Like this first one here that looks more like a mushed up bowl of rice rather than a dish and a meal but that's because I had on that day decided not to eat my rice, kimchi and meat separately but to have them together on the spoon, so, yes, onions, angus beef slices, tang hoon, kimchi all, went into the rice bowl and I scooped them up spoon by spoon. 

Thankfully, the other two pictures look prettier, especially the pot of angus beef slices, which, by the way, has become my favorite order here at Mi Bibimbap.

The Angus Beef Bulgogi pot here is visually arresting (big), the beef slices are tender, there is smooth silky tang hoon right at the bottom, and can I say, the sauce is so fantastic that I sometimes want to just tapao it home. 

So good is t that I have not bothered at any other dish, whether it be the Mapo Tofu, the Steamed Egg or the Fish with Pickled Cabbage (which in all honesty I actually do like and want to try). 

But these be times where my money needs to stay safe, and so it is that I just go for that dish that I like. 

Maybe one day I'll go for the Fish, or the Braised Chicken with Potatoes (that sound a little like what my late grandma used to make), but as of now, when my stomach is hungry and my brain doesn't want to think, it just be the Angus Beef Bulgogi I go for. 

I'm happy that way. 

Around The Roxy

One thing I have come to understand about life is that whilst you think you might know a place, sometimes- as you dive deep- you find yourself not quite knowing as much as you thought you did, at all. 

That's how it was for me with this side of East Coast Road.

I thought I knew this place. 

East Coast Road is, after all, not new to me, having come by here many times before where I used to cycle along Ceylon Road to this stretch, or take the pedestrian pathway from Dunman Road to the back of Katong Shopping Center close to Haig Road. 

Yet, today, a slower, more scenic walk peeled back everything I thought I remembered, and I found myself seeing things in a light which I had previously not seen before. 

Could it be that I was coming from this side of the road? 

That, instead of the east-bound side where all the shop houses are, I was on the opposite side where Roxy Square is, where The Flow is, where the taller buildings stand. 

How is it that everything looks the same, yet looks so different? 

How is it that you can be standing at a spot that you used to walk past, and yet, feel something completely different from what you used to feel before? 

I thought I would feel a bit of nostalgia. 

But, I didn't. 

I didn't know what I was looking at.

I also didn't know what I was looking for. 

Yet, here I was, standing at the junction of Brooke Road and East Coast Road, looking across to the row of shop houses across the traffic barrier of green, with no plan, no idea where I wanted to go, no idea even where I was going to begin.

See, you must know that East Coast Road is a long road. 

It is also an old road, beginning from the junction where Amber Road and Haig Road meet, all the way, until you get to Siglap Road- after which it becomes Upper East Coast Road. 

How the whole road used to be- last time- I don't know- but it begins from where the landmark of Katong Shopping Center is today. 

I didn't take a picture of the shopping center this afternoon. 

What I did take, however, is of the building right beside it- Odeon Katong.

To be honest I don't know if her official name is Odeon Katong. 

What I do know is that she's not the newest building on the block, and she's called such because she used to be the Odeon cinema, and the place where the theater used to be is (likely) now Cornerstone Community Church, whose sign you will see on the exterior when standing on East Coast Road. 

By the way, I wasn't standing anywhere near Odeon Katong when I took the picture.

On the contrary, I was opposite, on the other side, at the car park outside the building called Katong V, that today has a hotel on the upper floors, eateries on the second floor, and a supermarket on the first floor.

I have no idea what this Katong V building used to be. 

But like many a building on this road, pretty sure she has a heritage story of her own.

East Coast Road gets progressively more vintage as one heads eastward.

That is, to the very least, until you hit the enclave of Joo Chiat and Joo Chiat Road, which is where this row of shophouses leads straight to.

The pictures of these shop houses are not very close, nor very clear.

My focus had been on the overhead bridge. 

That doesn't mean I'm not interested in the shop houses.

It just means that one day I shall do a more intimate walk-through of this entire stretch hosting a variety of eateries that fit nearly every palate and every appetite, that it doesn't matter if you're craving for a bowl of Katong Laksa rich with coconut milk, wanting a plate of pasta, a piece of tenderloin steak, a bowl of butter chicken, a bowl of palak paneer, a good, butter-rich strawberry muffin, or a slice of banana pie.

If there's one thing I've noticed, however, it is that there're plenty of snacks to be sold from these shop houses here.

To the left of this bridge there is a bakery that offers pastries, muffins and pies, to the right of this bridge, further on, there's Kim Choo with their Nyonya kuehs, Dona Manis with their banana pies and chocolate pies, and right as you descend, an ice cream parlor so known for their buttery waffle cones that there're long queues whenever I walk past anytime. 

What makes this section a cool place is that as much as there is to see on the east-bound side, the west-bound side doesn't lose out too.

No doubt there isn't much of a shop house here- the properties have moved in, revamped once, twice even- but there is heritage in the form of the Joo Chiat Police Station where Starbucks has now conquered and taken over. 

It is a little difficult to see just how the interior of the police station once used to be- we can only use our imagination- but with the Hotel Indigo and the Holiday Inn Express located just behind, one can say, I guess, that this structure will not be going away anywhere anytime. 

Same too, I should say, for the rest of the buildings this side of the road.

It don't matter whether the building has been recently revamped aka i12 Katong, or if the building hosts a group of tuition centers and enrichment centers. 

It also don't matter if the building has been there since the 90s and serves the community clientele with their plethora of nail salons, hairdressing salons, TCM clinics, health foods, and specialized services. 

All of these ain't going anywhere. 

You know, it was no coincidence that I happened to be at the walkway bordering between Roxy Square, and the Starbucks of Old Joo Chiat Police Station. 

It was also no coincidence, I too say, that the light from the setting sun hit the staircase just at the right time, illuminating the tiles that, on close discovery, shone with holographic, iridescent colors giving off glamorous, glossy, funky unicorn vibes.