Old Friends in Singapore

                                                     Cova at Paragon, Orchard Road

It is a real honour for me that my old friends who are so busy to always try make time for dinner or lunch with me whenever I go back to Singapore. Sometimes, regretfully, we can only have long chats over the phones but even then, these may not be so easy for them. Most are living very busy lives, some have children to supervise, dinner to cook, elderly parents to look after, sick family members to attend to, important meetings to attend, lectures to prepare, assignments and examination scripts to make, pets to take care of, companies to run, planes to catch and many, many more. What more, most of the food they stuff me with are delicious food, be it at fanciful restaurants or simple food courts.

                                               More Happy Faces   ..........

                        When desserts are unlimited, we tend to take more that we can chew...

                                              Yummy Dim-sum at Shaw Centre

  This photo was taken with a great deal of self-control. It was Sunday brunch and we were all starving and dying to stab our chopsticks into the food; yet here we are, all looking laid back and polite, but only for short second to snap the photo.

         

 A closer look at the food, of course this was not all, as is the case with dim-sum, we always ordered more as we went along, again with more than we can finish, the genetically inherited Chinese fear of starving always in our blood.

Going back to visit Singapore has always been an emotional affair with me, all the more so since Daddy passed away two years ago. The dizzy changes making it harder to find my way around, the increase in migrants with their many languages, the so many ever-changing latest craze, fads, fashion, trends, whatever ...  makes me feel like an foreign tourist in my birthplace. Yet an isolated reminder of the old days - a school uniform unchanged, a past favourite haunt which had escaped the bulldozer, a dusty book in a second-hand bookshop .. all these transport me back to times past making me feel uncomfortably nostalgic and old as I join the human waves in the tube.

My mind continues to churn out the thoughts, often wordlessly. Am I trying to hang on to what is no longer? Will these butterflies fluttering in my stomach ever cease? Am I clinging to shadows that exist only in my mind?

On such occasions, I wonder if I should just forget about this place called Singapore, sell my flat and never come back? After all, the place as I remember it, is no more and there are many other places I long to visit.

 Then something makes me feel still rooted to the ground in all that gentle turmoil - family and friends and food. To all of you, I say thank you! 

And I know that my memories continue to be created, not just mine but my daughter's too - lovely colourful young memories  flowing alongside in unity with the black and white ones .