After alighting, I walked to Tanjong Katong Complex, not much change. The major occupants of tt building like Shop n Save and 2nd Chance were still ard.
I thn crossed over to City Plaza. Major changes in shops there. Swensens was over taken by a small Muslim food court. There was a bubble tea stall. The stall selling tidbits had lesser variety, corn-on-the-cob no more, only corn-in-a-cup with Daisy margarine instead of Planta margarine. Oriental Emporium on the 4th floor is now Yun Nam Haircare. Most of the shops are wholesales n retailers of female clothes now. Compared to the large variety of shops in the past. Boys n Girls, where I bought clothes in the past was still ard. Sinma and a few jewellers are still ard. So is the money changer cum 4D, Toto stall. The open space opposite to tidbits stall is now converted to Mr Bean n A & W. Standard Chartered is still ard too!
After drawing money, I crossed over to Lion City Hotel, using the pedestrian crossing as usual. Although there's a bridge, I dun use it. Not because I'm lazy to climb up the steps, although the up-going escalator was still in operation years ago. It was because I once fell down thr... My mum's cousin, my aunt, was carrying me, say abt more thn 18 years ago. We were crossing the bridge over to the Mcdonalds for a ice cream treat at Lion CIty Hotel. I heard from my mum tt she had missed a step n fell down the stairs. Although nothing happened to us, I was dazed n didn't eat my ice-cream. Bad memories, so I dun use the bridge... Hehe...
Mcdonalds at Lion City Hotel seemed smaller in size and there was a KFC n Slimming Sactuary there. The cinema which always showed Bollywood films is now Giant Supermart. Oriental Emporium is now Bestway, Starhub and Old Chang Kee. 7-11 now occupys a space along tis stretch too.
I walked further down to Haig Road Food Centre. I walked one round before deciding to buy chicken rice from a very familiar stall. It has a big display area, hanging all the chickens, roast pork and char siew. Behind the display area, stands the "chopping man", who prepares the plates of rice and cutting up pieces of meat. Tis whole display area is flush to the left hand side of the stall, leaving a small entrance on the right. Thr's an auntie who would stand sideways at this small entrance of the stall and take down orders. She'll write the orders down on paper and hook thm on a hook placed on her right which is stuck on the display area's side panel. Now she no longers write as thy have printed pieces of paper and all she has to do is the circle thm. When I was younger, I remembered thr was once a long queue. Tis auntie was writing more n more orders till the hook was full. She had to placed the order slips on the writing area instead. As I watched the chopping man extract the order slip, I kept wondering if the slip he was holding was mine. Hehe...
Lunch was bought and I walked over to the bus stop to take a bus down to Chris place. I boarded the bus and as the bus turned at the junction near the MRT, I looked over to my left, staring at my grandma's ex-place. The corner shop carries bicycles instead of fruits, although the hampers are still ard, thy took over a medical shop tt was beside too. The drinks vending machine thy had in the past is gone. My grandma's ex-place, a hair salon and a bank was over taken by a lighting shop now. The coffeeshop at the corner is now a shop selling office chairs. Memories of me in tis area flooded my mind n i held back my tears...
Neighbours in the area calling me "chili-padi" cos I was small size n skinny. Always getting coins frm my mum to get drinks at the vending machine. Running into the salon to look for my mum who's washing her hair. Running down to the next block of shops to get chalk so I could play hopscotch outside my grandma's place. Drawing "samples" of clothes and standing at the front area (whr customers bring n collect clothes for my grandma to wash, my grandparents were in the laundry business), pretending to sell thm, sliding open n shutting the wardrobe (hanging grandma's customers clothes) letting my imaginary customers choose. Kitchen area whr I helped to wash the floor, see my grandma n mum cook and tried to help, opening n closing the fridge to get drinks, throwing away n refilling a dish of water so the condensed milk would not flood with ants, sit on the HUGE washing machine, HUGE ironing table (whr my uncle pratices pool) and a HUGE table whr clothes are laid out, placing empty metal hangers (rust free) on the rods in the backyard pretending to dry clothes, soaking myself in a water tank (those china-type told in the story of Sima Guang), soaking myself in another huge water tank in the bathroom (this one is made out of concrete) constructed in a corner, taking out the plug at the bottom of tis tank n letting the water gush out (hehe...) n running halfway up a stairway tt leads to the occupant upstairs which is blocked n locked. Last but not least, the corner coffeeshop where we would carry a huge metal mug to buy coffee.
So much memories, can't finish writing all of thm down...
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