Singapore MRT's red line
Last year, I wrote a blog post sharing some memories I had of various places in Singapore's red line, but I didn't really finish writing that post because it was way too long. So, I'm going to finish it up now.

Toa Payoh
This was a place where my family and I always went when I was in secondary school. It's a beautiful neighbourhood with nearly nothing. The only reasons I can think of for ever coming here is to eat or to utilise the rooftop garden of some HDB flats.

There was this breakfast kopitiam-esque shop hidden in between two buildings that had, in my opinion, really good laksa, but no one in my family really liked it. When I was a kid, I would bug my parents to come here for breakfast so we could have the laksa, along with half-boiled egg, bread, and hot milo.

Another memory of this place includes counting down to the end of some years at a rooftop garden with the mehmehs. There was once we sat in a circle and talked about our new year's resolutions. I mentioned wanting to find inner peace. Lol. Now, I'm the epitome of repressed inner chaos.

Novena
Moving on: Novena. It's where Tan Tock Seng hospital is. When my grandfather got hospitalised for the first time, which was when I was in primary school, I enjoyed visiting him. Kids take pleasure in weird stuff, but I guess there's a certain comfort in bonding through "difficult times". But, when my grandmother was on the verge of passing away, my family came here everyday, and it was sad because everyone was sad. We would visit her, and then head over for meals in the nearby malls and stuff. I would watch how sad my brother was and wondered why I wasn't as sad. By now, I've realised that people feel emotions at different timings.

This is also a place where Artika, Man Kit, and I came to for some reason. I don't remember. I only remember it was a pretty good day.

There was once when I came here shopping for props for 'Scrum!'.

There was also once when I got pretty depressed and my parents brought me out to breathe the fresh air. Jeanette happened to be working here at that time and I came over for a job interview. It was a pretty bleak period of time. Novena is a rather sad place. That's what draws me sometimes.

Newton
After poly ended, everyone was trying to find jobs. I had a year's break before army, so I wanted to do production-related stuff. Joey suddenly had a PA job for The Amazing Race, which was coming over to Singapore, so a number of us went over for the "interview", which was in some hotel at Newton. I was pretty excited when they asked me to go over for a "job briefing", which just turned out to be a small talk session with one of the producers, who decided he didn't need my help after all. It was a disappointment, but I guess it doesn't even matter anymore.

I also remember coming to the same hotel for the premiere of 'Scrum!' and being kind of impressed with the first episode because when I read it on the script, it felt really different.

Orchard
One of the first times I've been to Orchard, I came with my siblings and cousin, Ping Cheng. He was pretty well-versed with the place, especially compared to stay-at-homers like me. It was a day after we went to Sentosa, and it was one of the best days of my life at that point, just sitting by the fountains outside Ngee Ann City and taking photos.

Years later, at the same place, I paid $30 to participate in a green event which I thought was free. When they asked for the participation fee, I couldn't say no, because I was a yes-man. I was so angry at myself, and I projected that anger at everyone else.

Somerset
During secondary school, there would be many Christians who would try to convince their classmates to go to church with them in the weekends. I went with this guy called Kelvin, and it wasn't what I expected. The people there tried to psycho me to join their group, believe in God, and pray with them every morning. Being the passive guy that I was, I just went along until the next morning, during my first praying session, I took the courage to say I didn't want to do it. It is not difficult, but it was. Oh, by the way, the church was in Somerset. That's why I mentioned it.

Dhoby Ghaut
At the same period of time as my first paragraph under 'Orchard', my cousin introduced my siblings and me to this place called 'Just Acia', which sold decent food and free flow of ice cream and was located in Dhoby Ghaut.

Maybe the more prominent memories include coming here during Christmas with my family to look at the Christmas lights, as well as one period of time when my brother was getting his first MP3 player, which kept spoiling. I was really young, so I don't remember much, but leaving the usual places (Bishan, Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh) was always a good experience.

I guess that's about it. I would probably not write about any other stations because it's kind of tedious. The memories I had in the areas nearer to Bishan were more prominent.

Labels: places, reliving those days