Clik here to view.
A view down the Strait
The view northwestwards down the Straits of Johor from Kampong Wak Hassan is one which would have once looked across to the part of the strait where the huge naval base which was completed in 1938 by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The swastika at the tenth mile
One very distinct memory from a childhood of many wonderful moments to remember is of the red swastika at Somapah Village. The village was one I had many encounters with in the late 1960s and very...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Bench through the rain
A view of The Bench through the rain with the colours of the rising of the sun in the backdrop at 7.06 am on 9 July 2013. The Bench is very much a part of the scene along the top of an old seawall that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The ‘Tombs of Malayan Princes’
Lying somewhat obscurely and hidden at Jalan Kubor off Victoria Street is the Old Malay Cemetery. The cemetery, which is across Jalan Kubor from the Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah Cemetery, another old...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Monoscapes: Dawn of a new world
Seen against the light of dawn by the Tebrau or Johor Strait is a fence at the beach in Sembawang. More recently erected, it marked, for some reason, a long discarded boundary between what used to be a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dawn in the new world
6.38 am on 23 July 2013. The colours of the breaking day illuminate the icons of the new Singapore, which the Merlion probably best represents. The body of water, Marina Bay, now a reservoir of fresh...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Singapore’s northern lights
6.42 am 27 July 2013. The lightening sky at dawn is coloured by the bright lights cast from Sembawang Shipyard at which ship repair work goes on through the night. The two rows of ships and floating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rooms with more than a view
Tucked away on a hill some 38 metres above street level in an obscure corner of Singapore, is a building with a reputation for being one of the scariest places in Singapore. The building, better known...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The dragons live on
It is indeed wonderful news that the last of the two dragon kilns in Singapore will see an extension to their tenure which should add at least nine more years to their lives. The future of the kilns,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A picture from the past
Looking through old photographs of what perhaps was a lost decade for me, the 1980s, I stumbled upon a rare one of Changi Beach, taken some time in 1987. The beach, one on which I have had many...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Colours of independent Singapore’s 48th birthday
Colours of the new day breaking at 6.51 am on the occasion of independent Singapore’s 48th birthday. Happy National Day Singapore! Filed under: Forgotten Places, Quiet Moments, Sembawang, Singapore
View ArticleClik here to view.
A dove that’s dying
One of possibly two of a kind left in Singapore, the dove, is one in danger of extinction. Wearing the look of having been used, probably abused, and possibly neglected, it lies forgotten, unwanted by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Final days for the dove?
It does look as if the dove, on which I put in an entry on just last week (see: A dove that’s dying), may be in its final days. Work is commencing on a Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP)in the area...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Critically endangered
With the recent death of the neglected but beautiful dove in the island’s west, there is only one that’s left to remember one of several terrazzo and mosaic creations that many who grew up in the 1980s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kampong Wak Hassan: Memories of Times Past
“It is sad to see that all that remains of it is just a road sign”, sighs Yunos Osman about the village of his birth, where he lived for the first three decades of his life. The sign bears the name...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Motoring Heritage Day at Tanjong Pagar
Motoring Heritage Day is back once again at the former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. This year’s event will be held on Sunday 15 September 2013 from 10 am to 5 pm. Besides a rare display of some 50...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don’t miss the boat
A bumboat sits high and dry, resting on a bed of sand in Pasir Ris, seemingly out of place in a sea not of water, but one of the concrete structures which now dominate much of Singapore’s suburban...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The ‘sunken temple’ of Toa Payoh
A curious sight that greeted anyone travelling down Lorong 6 close to the Temple / Kim Keat Estate area of Toa Payoh in its early days and one I well remember was a temple that at road level, appeared...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The lost waterfront
The former waterfront at Collyer Quay is certainly one place which exemplifies how Singapore has transformed over the years, discarding much of what made Singapore a Singapore which was full of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A light where there was only darkness: The Changi Murals
It an air of quiet calm that greeted me as I stepped into a room where the ghosts of a time we may otherwise have forgotten continue to haunt us. The room, bathed in the glow of light painted gold by...
View Article