a long time ago, in the neighborhood of Serangoon, in the borderlands of Marine Parade GRC & Aljunied GRC, there lived a piece of green grassland upon which nothing but air was built
and today it is nex (shopping mall)!
not a single time i am there in which i do not feel buffeted like a bobbing styrofoam box in whitewater rapids — that place has very antagonistic human traffic patterns
if i were a tourist like me (does this make fast sense), i would want to go to Toa Payoh, Serangoon, and maybe Ang Mo Kio at night, to get past touristic artifacts and into quotidian drama
if i properly maximized my time-in-Singapore like a tourist with limited time, i would be kayaking a lot more, watching a lot more film at The Projector, cycling a lot more, doing work/”work” in WiFi+air-con enabled cafés — and yet, i am staying home most days unless someone who magically knows i am present in my country of citizenship hounds me out: twenty-two years of my life i have been under my parents’ household, which also includes my paternal grandparents, and when i am in Singapore, staying home is one way to have my dutiful presence be dutifully held
also, these words are being written on AUGUST 17 (7 days before i leave SG), so writing about “being here but not advertising the irrelevant fact of being here” is not self-sabotage
(i’m writing this on AUGUST 17, scheduling the post to appear for JULY 19)
we biked from East Coast Park to Marina Barrage through Gardens by the Bay to Raffles Place/Market Street for lunch
because of the Hari Raya holiday, the bike shop was nearly out of bikes; we managed to get a bunch of 6~8$/hr bikes, only because we were…faster than fast
the bike ride itself is very doable with little elevation — you even have amazing public bathrooms along the way if you want to splash a little water on your sweat-stained face, or get some H2O past your lips
and today, for the first time in my life, i tried to ride my bike without handlebars
and for the first time in my life, i rode my bike without handlebars
YOU JUST HAVE TO LET GO AND GO
i felt so happy with that brimming, private sense of accomplishment, that i didn’t really notice i was grinding my groin into the bike seat
i think that is inevitable
once i had marveled at tan little secondary school boys, sitting on their hands while their slippered feet paddled away; and now i am riding over humps and bumps, turning mild curves, avoiding 6-person family bikes and toddlers on trikes, without my hands keeping me anchored and safe
the feeling can rival the elation of surprising myself with my first pull-up (which happened by accident when i was showing S how one could use the climbing gym hangboards…to hang, or to pull yourself up and lock it)
I Have Never Ordered A Bowl Of Laksa this is true
ok that was end of Bike Morning
my youngest sister splits her time between scooping sugar and serving seafood — tertiary education, for her, begins in Feb 2016
every Sat since forever, dad’s only brother’s two children come over and we all eat our shared-grandmother’s homecooked food (granny cooks everyday, every lunch and every dinner…even if the dining table isn’t in full attendance)
sometimes, our other close relatives come over too, and then we have a food fest (and lots of tea after)
grandma will cook a soup, vegetables, and fish, for sure
sometimes we’ll add to the table boxes of char siew shao rou chicken/duck from Kim Heng, across the street from Serangoon Stadium; sometimes it’s satay, sometimes it’s popiah (from Qiji?)
at full attendance, we are 8 cousins (7 female 1 male), 4 families, 2 sets of grandparents (maternal + paternal)
and one cat one dog
if you’re on the island this July 2016, you’ll know about the ‘abundant abundance’ of the king of fruit
one night we went to eat ‘bingsu’, an unconscionable extravagance at nearly 13-17 dollars each
maybe the cost price is 13$ each (doubt it), and so a selling price of 15.90$ is understandable: but regardless of how much it is worth, i don’t think spending what you could buy so many kosong pratas with, on such little yumminess (oh right i don’t think it tastes good at all), is not an appetizing idea
such a killjoy
—}•|•|•|•{— 