You know, if there be something that I have only recently come to realize, it is that I actually become more observant of my surroundings whenever Chonkycam is around.
The difference had not occurred to me before.
That is, not until one weekend afternoon when we were walking from Toa Payoh Lorong 6 to Toa Payoh Central did I realize there was much around me which I hadn't been seeing, hadn't been paying attention to.
Tis a pity.
I should be more curious of what I do and where I am, even if it be routine, even if it be something that I've done plenty a time.
This early evening we headed out from Toa Payoh Lorong 6, first passing by the SPC petrol station, then turning into the common open air area in front of what I think is Blk 38. At other places, the common open air space might be just a pathway and nothing more, but the residents here seemed to have turned it into some sort of a community garden of which I know not what plants they have, but are very well watered, very well kept, neat in their little plots, and which attract flocks of adorable looking little sparrows.
It had not occurred to me that there would be sparrows here at Lorong 6, but there they were, plenty of them!
Not just one or two (like how crows mostly are) but flocks of them, all flying together from one spot to another.
From this community garden, up a little flight of stairs I went, crossed a car park, and out onto Toa Payoh East.
Along the way I took a picture of the playground.
Now this might seem common to some people, like what's the big deal, it is just a playground.
But, see, a playground is a communal place.
At least in a country like ours where most of us are flat dwellers and where common spaces become the one place where everyone, more or less, will pass by.
The playground is a place where kids gather, where caregivers- be it parents or helpers or elders- sit around and watch them play, or play with them. This is a spot normally full of giggles and chuckles and happy screams.
But in the early dawn or in the dark night, a quiet spell falls.
Residents out for early morning walks might have a seat at one of the benches by the playground before the sun fully rises.
Residents out of their flats in the evenings or late nights might also find themselves a seat here.
At times there are couples chatting.
At times too small groups of friends hang out at the playground, sitting underneath the shelter chilling and chatting with each other.
The playground is, generally, a convivial place. Whether or not you're born and bred, whether or not you're here from elsewhere, this space is one you will surely recognize, and pass by.
From here, I headed out and found myself on Toa Payoh East.
Now, this is one road that surprises me.
Rather, this is one stretch that surprises me.
Because, how is it that this side of the road can be Toa Payoh East when just further up it is Toa Payoh Lorong 5?
I mean, did this road not exist during the time when they were doing up all them Lorongs?
How is it that this road of a stretch transformed from a Toa Payoh Lorong 5 to a Toa Payoh East immediately after the junction of Toa Payoh Lorong 7?
But here it was I stood- and here be the blocks of Toa Payoh East looking towards the direction of Lorong 7.
What's more interesting is that on the other side of this short Toa Payoh East stretch- my left, actually- there are these yellow and orange blocks of a completely different architecture.
The corridors of Blk 46 don't look out onto the main road.
The corridors of this block Blk 34 do.
It's a pity I didn't take a picture of the big field opposite the road.
Especially since it didn't always use to be a field.
See, what looks like now a big space of grass- with one marker tree- used to be an estate housing blocks of flats ranging from one-room to three. I don't know when it was the three room flats got demolished, but the last one standing was the one-room, and it held space there for a very long time until one day it disappeared too.
Perhaps one day I might just take a detour there for the sake of the picture.
But not today.
Today I crossed this road that is Toa Payoh East on one side, Lorong 5 Toa Payoh on the other, opposite which, of course, is the single-story, low-lying Blk 75 Toa Payoh Food Center behind them trees.
I wasn't going that direction this evening, so all you see are the blocks that make for a landmark of the food center.
I think they're Blk 61 or 59, or they might well have been Blk 64 and 61, with 64 in front and 61 behind.
Blk 64 is L-shaped after all.
Whilst crossing the road I managed to take a picture of Blk 68, from where I were, half hidden behind the trees of the Toa Payoh Sensory Park.
It was a most unusual place- this park.
I don't know what a sensory park actually is, but this one, definitely, was atmospheric, and immersive.
It didn't matter that the flats behind were so close to the shrubs and trees and plants. Here the presence of concrete didn't make a difference (although the park being so near to the flats made me think of this particular housing estate in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong)
What struck me most was the immersive, different-world atmosphere.
It might have been the fact that it had earlier rained.
But still, it is not often that a park brings to you feels of a wet, damp tropical jungle after the rains. Neither is it often that a park as small as this makes you think of shadows, shelter and dark, wet, misty green after you've stepped in.
Entering the park from the Blk 68 side I thought I was stepping into another world- a piece of natural history that our country's development has somewhat- over the course of decades- has gradually erased.
I found myself gazing, mesmerized, at the trees with their narrow trunks and huge canopies.
I also found myself looking at the well-worn bark, the green, wet, refreshing moss on the trunks, and the grass, different from the regular roadside cow grass we normally see.
This sensory park seemed... so different.
Maybe it was meant to evoke some sort of a memory.
Maybe it was meant to make you think of another place, another time.
It is no secret that Toa Payoh was once an agricultural sort of place with mud and swamps and plenty of rain.
It is no secret too that the place remains very heartlander after all these years, and one can only imagine just how this side of Toa Payoh once used to look like before all these blocks got built, and flats came in.
Do the residents here wonder?
Do they remember?
Will they think of the jungle they left when the estate got built, and people began moving in?
There are not many of the generation that still remember.
But this one will make new memory for those who now still dwell there, or maybe those that move in.