I'm pretty sure you do. I've never really thought about sheltered linkways in an appreciative manner cos they're just so much a part of our landscape.
And then you read a story titled Chiam fulfils walkway promise made at 2006 polls and you see before your eyes a proud sign that reads:
COVERED LINKWAY
FULLY FUNDED BY THE TOWN COUNCIL POTONG PASIR
OFFICIALLY OPENED BY
MR CHIAM SEE TONG
MP FOR POTONG PASIR
2008
and something stirs.
I was curious about Potong Pasir. In my search for old playgrounds, Potong Pasir was a name that was suggested to me most because it's "opposition" land and un-upgraded land. Well, the truth is, all the playgrounds I saw there are of the new variety. There was even one near the town council that has a huge climbing rope-web climbing structure somewhat like the one at Pasir Ris, I believe.
But anyway, I was curious about Potong Pasir. Excerpts.
Potong Pasir has lots of coffee shops, wet markets and people congregating everywhere. Chatting, eating, playing. There are makeshift gardens and random papaya trees and what-not plants shooting out of nowhere, as if everyone is growing their own vegetable garden.
In view of Mid-Autumn, red lanterns were strung everywhere. There were signs of a big celebration that was going to happen and there was even a under-the-block flea market, where I bought old Ladybird versions of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood from a mother who told the young daughter, "Jiejie buying for herself."
Paint jobs were aged and there were potholes in the carpark. (I was initially puzzled over why the sight of puddles all over felt so unusual to me and then I realised that I wasn't that used to uneven roads with holes in them.)
An uncle talking to his friend outside his shop saw me taking pictures of the other uncle stroking a ccat, waved wildly at me and asked me to snap one of him. Another man I tried to steal a shot of - he looked very scruffy and relaxed sitting outside a closed clinic - found me out and wanted to help me take a picture of myself instead.
It felt like a neighbourhood, a concept I'd all but forgotten ever since I moved from an ageing population estate to this "new town" sort of place almost a decade ago. What I miss most are provision shops. Rows and rows of shops under HDB blocks that you can walk by and peer into. The mini-mart near my place is in this vault-like space, run by a bitchy auntie and sells expired snacks. I buy everything from NTUC.
I mean, despite everything, I quite like it here. Still, I could see Potong Pasir's charm and why the majority have no need for "upgrading".
In view of Mid-Autumn, red lanterns were strung everywhere. There were signs of a big celebration that was going to happen and there was even a under-the-block flea market, where I bought old Ladybird versions of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood from a mother who told the young daughter, "Jiejie buying for herself."
Paint jobs were aged and there were potholes in the carpark. (I was initially puzzled over why the sight of puddles all over felt so unusual to me and then I realised that I wasn't that used to uneven roads with holes in them.)
An uncle talking to his friend outside his shop saw me taking pictures of the other uncle stroking a ccat, waved wildly at me and asked me to snap one of him. Another man I tried to steal a shot of - he looked very scruffy and relaxed sitting outside a closed clinic - found me out and wanted to help me take a picture of myself instead.
It felt like a neighbourhood, a concept I'd all but forgotten ever since I moved from an ageing population estate to this "new town" sort of place almost a decade ago. What I miss most are provision shops. Rows and rows of shops under HDB blocks that you can walk by and peer into. The mini-mart near my place is in this vault-like space, run by a bitchy auntie and sells expired snacks. I buy everything from NTUC.
I mean, despite everything, I quite like it here. Still, I could see Potong Pasir's charm and why the majority have no need for "upgrading".
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