Sinpopo Brand

Came across this quaint looking place at Joo Chiat and finally decided to walk in and sample the fares.

But first something about the place. It was designed to look like a place from the Seventies. Even the music that was playing were Chinese music from that era. Incidentally, the name Sinpopo if my memory serves me correctly is more well known in Geylang than Joo Chiat.

The other inhabitants of Bukit Brown

Before the bulldozer goes in next month, a few of us went back for another visit. This time round I decided to capture the images of the other "inhabitants" of Bukit Brown. Non-living creatures like those they are supposed to "protect" but only difference is they were never living. Never have and never will be unless.......

Lions to chase away intruders

A little puppy - companion to a little kid buried in the tomb

Soldiers, warriors and Sikh guards

Deity and even angels to watch over the deceased

And last but not least, maids and possibly concubines to keep those living underground well served

Jurong Bird Park

Singapore has some very world class parks and animal parks. One of the most unique is the Jurong Bird Park. Unfortunately, after seeing 1bird, 2 birds and 3 birds, all the birds start looking alike. So unlike the Zoo where we go more often, we hardly go to the bird park. The other deterrent of course is the cost. But since the Princess was volunteering there, we decided to pay her a visit.

One thing about the birds are that they are mainly in cages abide big cages but with the bars, it wasn't easy to take photograph. But there were a few walk in aviary  like the Waterfall, the Jewels, the Lory Loft etc where there are free ranging birds flying all over us.

Here are some of the birds that we saw.

Margaret Close

Finally after a long search, I found it! Photographs of my old block of flat at Margaret Close.

We stayed on the fourth floor and I used to sit on the staircase landing ledge to wait for Mother to come home from work or to watch the soccer matches at the Queensway Secondary School field across the road. I can't imagine doing that now - sitting on the ledge. I think somebody would have called the police and post it on Stomp but in those days nobody care.

Behind the flat is a small hill where we used to go to catch fighting spiders. We also go there to catch grasshoppers which we will give to some of the  neighbours who rear birds. I remembered there was this time somebody gave us a custard apple to eat. After that, I took the seed and ran up to the hill and planted it, hoping that a custard apple tree will grow from it. Did it?

For the next picture, it was supposed to be in Margaret Close too but for the live of me, I cannot recall them. I don't really think they are part of Margaret Close maybe Tanglin Halt or Stirling Road?

10 Stories Queenstown Through the Year

While I was looking for information on Margaret Close and Queenstown, I came across this book, 10 Stories through the Year by Loh Kah Seng and Calvin Loh. Unfortunately, there was nothing on Margaret Close, a forgotten area in Queenstown off Margaret Drive. But there were lot of gems like this place.

Old residents of Queenstown will know this  place very well as it was probably the tallest building in Queenstown during its time. In fact, it was infamous for the number of jumpers. Apparently, in the early days,  a lot of the folks who were resettled in the flats from their farms and couldn't settle down, choose this block to end their lives. Anyway, this was the famous Forfar House or the block that gives the place the local name "14 stories".

Not so familiar is this next picture. 

True be told, I am, at 50 still too young to remember exactly where is this market.  According to the book, this was Queens's Crescent. The hill and forest behind was known as Boh Beh Kang, loosely translated as river with no end. How I wish the hill was still around but I guess all that is there now are rows and rows of HDB flats.

There are more gems in the books, like this one which I posted earlier. There are lot of photos of places in Queenstown which are no longer around like the Blue Glass flats; the Setron and Van Houten factories. Unfortunately, there appears to be a gap in the book which mainly covers the areas that were there before the Seventies but did not have anything on the areas that were demolished in the late eighties and early nineties. Area like Margaret Drive, Block 6A & 6B, the estate in front of the Remand Prison and the shophouses across the road from the library and between the market and Margaret Drive. Also no mention of my school, the Birkhall Primary School or even Hua Yi Secondary School.

So while there are indeed many glimmers and gems in the book, somehow it left me wanting more. Perhaps the renewed interest in Queenstown recently will be able to provide more.

Pawnshop and Money Lenders

How things have changed. In the past, there were few pawnshop. Most of them like this one here are imposing looking with iron bars, high counter and old man peering down at the customers. 

I have walked past many of these pawnshop and thank goodness, despite our family situation when we were young, we never had to resort to them to get money. Over time, the number of pawnshops went down as young people shun them because of the stigma and turned to easy bank loans.

Then in the past few years, a new breed of pawnshops have sprouted. No longer confined to the older city neighbourhood of Chinatown, Jalan Besar and Geylang, these new breed of pawnshops are in the HDB heartlands and shopping malls.

These pawnshops have glitzy shopfront more like jewellery store and are fronted by celebrities making it sound cool to pawn things. And judging by the number of them mushrooming all over, it is very profitable too. At least for the pawnshop owner.

Along with the pawnshops there are now a new breed of money lenders. Money lenders used to be just a small little cubicle in a shopping mall in Chinatown or Geylang and do not advertise their services. But in recent years with the relaxation of the Money Lending Act, illegal money lenders hiding under the cloak of a licence are openly touting their services and getting away with obscene interest rates.

And what is the real reasons for the rise of these new fanged pawnshops and money lenders? In the past, the people who goes to such places usually do so as a last resort - to borrow money to tide over the month or to pay for some urgent unplanned for expenses.

But according to a friend who works in a pawnshop, the new breed of customers are not the old people who are not comfortable in such glitzy places but the PMEBs. And why are these people going to such places? Clue: these places started sprouting only in recent years after the opening of? Why, the 2 "integrated resorts". Yes our 2 world famous casinos are the sole factor behind the rise of these places. According to my friend who works in the pawnshop, their busiest time are Thursday and Friday where customers walked in to hock their jewellery and of there to the casino. If they win, they come back and redeem their stuff and if not, it is a drive to the money lenders to borrow some money to tide over until their next winning!

National Stadium lives on...

Most of us Singaporean remember the old National Stadium - the beautiful field, the 4 lights at the corners, the row and row of seats and of course National Day parade.

Well the stadium is gone now but there is a project to save some part of it. The wooden benches have been recycled and made into various designs although I am not sure whether this is just a once off project or a commercial project. Anyway, here are some of the interesting ideas:

Some of the design are real nice, some are plain impractical and some are kinda simple. The benches are currently on display at the URA Centre at Maxwell Road.