April 12, 2009
THE EX-PAT FILES
No happy returns for me
By Linda Collins
It's the Big Five-O. Not as in five decades of self-rule, which Singapore will celebrate this year. But as in my age. I have turned xx - see, I can't even bear to type the figure.
While Singapore can look forward to continued growth and change, the same cannot be said of me, now that I have seen out half a century and face the prospect of being that tragic creature, an ageing expat.
Amid such grim thoughts, it is comforting to look back and remember people and places when they were at their best: The Beatles before Yoko Ono and Elvis pre-Las Vegas, for example.
My optimum Singapore was the Singapore of 2004, post-Sars and when the economy was on the up, but before the integrated resorts and Formula One glitz loomed large.
Much has changed since, but mercifully, I have yet to see it.
That's because I have a blacklist of no-go areas in Singapore that I refuse to visit nowadays because it would be too upsetting to see how they have changed.
No disrespect is meant for those of you who can't wait for the next mall to open.
Just indulge me now that I am 50 - okay, I admit to this age - with my list of seven places to avoid before I die (or am repatriated).
The Bras Basah area
I last went there about five years ago before the Singapore Management University (SMU) was built. There were green spaces and trees, a wonderful oasis in the city.
Then, seemingly overnight, it was a construction site.
I have no idea what the finished SMU looks like. It's probably fantastic, but the curmudgeon in me does not want to know.
The Fullerton
Yes, it is a grand hotel, and apparently there are nice bars. But I liked it when it was a post office.
Parkway Parade
I used to go to this shopping mall about 13 years ago when I lived in an HDB flat at Marine Parade.
It had a Delifrance outlet which at the time was the height of sophistication in cafe culture.
You could even ask for - gasp - an espresso. (Well, you could ask for it, but whether the bitter, watery stuff served up was the real java was questionable.)
No doubt the mall is awash with swanky cafes now, but I miss the innocence of those latte-less days.
Dempsey Road, the trendy dining destination
When I last wandered around this lush area of old army barracks, it was to buy outdoor chairs.
You could also buy Persian carpets and Chinese furniture, but there wasn't a cocktail or coffee to be had.
The nearest eatery was Samy's Curry, where you ate fish head curry on the open-air balcony of the former Civil Service Club and marvelled at how some things never changed.
Is it still there? I dare not look.
Swettenham Road, the enclave of multi-million-dollar houses, not far from Dempsey Park
Years ago, I used to go for walks around what seemed to be vast tracts of forgotten, overgrown land, presumably the estates of old money.
In my ignorance, I did not know these would become 'landbanks' on which developers would one day build strikingly designed, minimalist-style houses, turning it into an urbane jungle.
Orchard Road, the old John Little department store
Yes, there is a new mall arising where Specialists' Centre used to be. However, I avert my eyes from it as I duck into Robinsons. The old John Little never had nice clothes in my size, nor was the cookware section as diverse as that across the road, but the narrow escalator drawing one upwards from the road created a sense of anticipation out of all proportion to the actual experience.
Sure, the new mall will cater to hipsters who want to see and be seen. But what about those of us who merely want to dash in unseen and buy something without fear of being outed as being too ancient?
The old National Library
I am told this lovely brick building no longer exists.
I refuse to believe it.
And I think that as long as I do not actually go down and visit it, I will not know for sure whether it is there or not.
The writer is a copy editor with The Straits Times and has lived here for 15 years.
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