Showing posts with label playground. Show all posts
Showing posts with label playground. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
When I first visited, this was the depressing sight that greeted me. I thought they were going to demolish the block of flats and along with it, the dragon.
Turns out I was wrong.
When I recently visited, an old auntie who lives in one of the flats asked me for help. She couldn't open her padlock. Her key was faulty and in the end, I had to walk her round the block to her back door.
She told me that the block had been turned into rental flats for low-income families, and she is paying around $400 per month for her apartment.
I had a peek into some of the flats. The living room and kitchen are small, the bedrooms tiny.
Toa Payoh is prime estate, and this block stands at the exit of the expressway, It is very near the MRT station, bus interchange and town centre. I wondered why they decided not to demolish. Renting out can't be as lucrative as rebuilding and don't tell me it's altruistic, I don't believe it.
They don't do altruistic on prime land.
My conclusion was the suspicion that it's for fengshui reasons. I imagine this block to be like a fortress. Its looming size is the first thing you see when you come off the highway to enter Toa Payoh. And the dragon is like the guard to the town.
Maybe it's just my imagination. For whatever reason, I'm just glad the playground survived. They seem to have cleaned it up, even the sand looks white and new. Hopefully, the dragon is here to stay.
Turns out I was wrong.
When I recently visited, an old auntie who lives in one of the flats asked me for help. She couldn't open her padlock. Her key was faulty and in the end, I had to walk her round the block to her back door.
She told me that the block had been turned into rental flats for low-income families, and she is paying around $400 per month for her apartment.
I had a peek into some of the flats. The living room and kitchen are small, the bedrooms tiny.
Toa Payoh is prime estate, and this block stands at the exit of the expressway, It is very near the MRT station, bus interchange and town centre. I wondered why they decided not to demolish. Renting out can't be as lucrative as rebuilding and don't tell me it's altruistic, I don't believe it.
They don't do altruistic on prime land.
My conclusion was the suspicion that it's for fengshui reasons. I imagine this block to be like a fortress. Its looming size is the first thing you see when you come off the highway to enter Toa Payoh. And the dragon is like the guard to the town.
Maybe it's just my imagination. For whatever reason, I'm just glad the playground survived. They seem to have cleaned it up, even the sand looks white and new. Hopefully, the dragon is here to stay.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Let you see first
This must be the happiest old playground. Maybe because it doesn't seem as neglected as the others, it seems to have a place in that neighbourhood, and kids still play there. Definitely also because it's so adorable. It's happiness-inducing.
It started to drizzle when I got there and the Holga wasn't equipped for overcast that day. I'll definitely go back again with film, but I can't resist showing it to you first. It's just too cute.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Lost
Haven't gone cycling since I took on some freelance writing work a week ago. Today I went again and for a while, it all felt better.
I have four or five rolls of undeveloped film sitting around. They contain explorations of various places and day to day happenings that I noticed. I haven't been particularly anxious about getting them processed. I think it's because I wasn't excited when I took those 180 odd shots. There wasn't that streak of adrenaline leading the impulse to snap. I just took them anyway because I set out to do so, or because I thought it might make a good picture. It was all very rational. I suppose you could call it a lack of inspiration?
That was how I felt when I was at these playgrounds. Photos were taken for the sake of taking photos and it shows. Which is why it took me so long to post them.
Perhaps it's film fatigue. Or perhaps it's an inevitable thing in life that you lose the initial giddiness that makes the unknown so exciting.
I think I expect too much from that giddiness.
I have four or five rolls of undeveloped film sitting around. They contain explorations of various places and day to day happenings that I noticed. I haven't been particularly anxious about getting them processed. I think it's because I wasn't excited when I took those 180 odd shots. There wasn't that streak of adrenaline leading the impulse to snap. I just took them anyway because I set out to do so, or because I thought it might make a good picture. It was all very rational. I suppose you could call it a lack of inspiration?
That was how I felt when I was at these playgrounds. Photos were taken for the sake of taking photos and it shows. Which is why it took me so long to post them.
Perhaps it's film fatigue. Or perhaps it's an inevitable thing in life that you lose the initial giddiness that makes the unknown so exciting.
I think I expect too much from that giddiness.
最近一直在逃避
知道不對 不好
卻好像跳進了一個很深很窄的洞
不想爬出來
反而想請哪位路過的先生好心把泥土堆回洞里
我不會叫不會哭
只會乖乖的靠在泥牆
等著一切消失。
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