~The Road Less Taken~

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

it strikes me how fast things are changing sometimes.

ri has been changing ever since we sec 4s came in. from being the last batch to use the old canteen (which was sadly underutilised by me) to having a revamp in our curriculum (with ra and the change to a deadly single-paper-at-the-end-of-the-year format, giving rise to incredible levels of mugging and armathgeddon in those last few weekends.

change is the only constant. "A", "B", "c" and "k" are also very popular i hear.

(lame aren't i.)

but seriously the world is changing.

and i'm pretty sentimental and get all teary-eyed and boo-hooish when i see the old guard changing sometimes.

(if you're a golf fan and jack nicklaus waving on the swilcan bridge on the 18th at the home of golf while playing his last hole as a professional golfer with the sun shining down on him for that instant, and going on to make a birdie at the ripe old age of 65 doesn't arouse any feelings, you don't deserve to be one any longer.)

the change was evident as i went for dinner with my aunt.

we went to a small restaurant just away from the bedok town centre called segar, and although it was only a 10-minute walk, it looked different.

for one the area was undergoing a huge upgrading project to install lifts on every floor of almost every block in the estate (yes, the estate is old enough to warrant it) and so hoardings were up everywhere.

but two things rather struck me most.

two conflicting things.

as i walked through the estate with my aunt we went past garden hill park (something we don't do too often. it's been 4 months since we last went out for dinner together.) which has pretty much stood the test of time. still as serene as ever at the top of a small raised hill, sandwiched by 2 blocks of flats.

it brought back some memories - i still remember when i was young and restless (pun not intended) i used to come here once in a while.

running down the slopes to the end of the park (but not running out of it down to the flats - that would be way too steep and dangerous) was pretty nice.

it's always nice to run where your feet want to take you.

then later in my life my feet didn't want to take me anywhere. so i ballooned to a nice mini snowman-like figure in my later primary school years.

so during the holidays, in my vain attempts to slim down i resorted to getting more regular exercise. badminton, swimming, up and down flights of stairs... and running in garden hill park.

the name really tells you all you need to know about it. well, almost.

then after passing through the estate and going into the outskirts of the town centre on the way to the restaurant something felt different. like something had changed, but i couldn't tell what it was intuitively.

after a while i realised what it was - signs of construction work in that little carpark next to the restaurant. temporary kerbs, hoardings, minor rerouting, and a lack of greenery which had once silently embellished the area.

reminds me a little of the urban heat island we learnt about in geog for sec 2. concrete on many sides and a lack of trees (resulting in lots of light reflecting and shining down to ground level - which is what i felt was different at the start) is not the best way to go.

and the food at the restaurant, for the record, was pretty good and cheap ($30 for 2 people isn't too much to ask for). and the atmosphere just felt rather homely.

who says you need expensive food to be contented.

and one last thing i noticed as i returned to my aunt's house was that the kindergarten at the void deck of the block near the restaurant had been converted into an elderly care centre.

when i was passing by on the way to dinner there was an old lady sitting all by herself at the door of the centre, looking out at the world outside zoom past. one of her companions was just leaving the centre to be picked up by her children. the tv was on, but she wasn't really watching it - she was looking more outside the centre than inside. as i looked at her, she looked at me - and beyond me.

i couldn't decipher that look and what was behind it, but i felt (more in retrospect that anything to be honest) that it was a good photo-taking opportunity.

but i guess it was good i didn't. it would have been rather "幸灾乐祸".

more about the other things that have been occupying my mind another time.

I stopped to rest at 7:26 PM

Two roads diverged,and I-
took the one less taken...