This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Friday, November 03, 2006 |
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I'll make it no secret: my family just upgraded from a HDB apartment to a condo in June earlier this year. But since some of my lessons haven't changed and are still at the HDB estate, i still have to go back there one a week. And so today, having to attend my wushu lesson back at Tech Ghee CC, i went back to the Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 estate as usual. But i had to pick up something from my previous neighbour first, so i ahd to go up to her apartment. it's only then that i realised all the stuff which i've taken for granted back then when i was still staying in the HDB flat. The estate was one of the older ones in Singapore, so the design was such that all the residents in the entire flat (ill estimate the figure at around a few hundred) had to share 3 lifts which were right in the centre column of the flat. And the lifts would only stop at 3 floors, the first, sixth, and eleventh, and they were extremely sloooowww. I timed it b4, and it took 8 secs to go up one level. So from my neighbour's house, i had to walk down the stairs and along a long corridor to the sixth storey lift landing. You don't get such "inconveniences" in a condominium, for the lifts there stop on every level and just outside your home. And its a corridor full of sight and smell, where you can smell the whiff of fragrant bak ku teh or the strong spicy smell of belachan curry from the homes along the corridor. Not to mention the potted planets of the residents which line it on one side, and you get to see stuff ranging from bonsais to chilli planets to unripe pessimons. Not to mention the backdrop of sunset (or the lack of it, due to the haze that is engulfing Singapore) amidst the rows of squat flats painted in bright colours. And then, when you get to the lift landing you're probably going to meet some residents in your one minute wait for the lift to arrive. But these heartland aunties and uncles are very friendly and (overly?) chatty. In fact, chances are that you'll be sharing the lift with someone else. Today, i met an anutie (a complete stranger) who chatted me up in the lift, and even thought i was going fishing (for i was holding this long pole in a black cover, which could be easily mistaken for a fishing rod, for my wushu lesson.) You don't get such interaction in condos. In fact, i don't even know my neighbour who stays opposite me well, and i've only talked to two other residents in my few months of staying here, one of which was the mother of another boy also attending the wushu lessons whom i recognised, and the other was a family of Australians, who migrated to Singapore, living in the apartment directly above mine. Yep, Aussies are very friendly, and i bet the people who went for the Adelaide exchange programme in Australia can attest to that. The communities in condos are definitely not as tight-knit as those in heartland HDB estates. Some of the residents of the HDB flat where i used to stay knew each other so well, they knew the other residents usually stopped when using the lift. (But then again, since it only stopped at 3 levels, its only a 50/50 chance that you will press the right button...) Yeah, condos might have all the facilities - the swimming pools, barbeque pits, gymnasium - and also all the well-off people and the foreginers, especially those ang moh females who likes to suntan beside the pool while reading their copy of Times, but you just can't beat the warmth you get in HDB estates. But most of the HDB estates are already going upgrading, with lifts which stop on every floor, and becomign mroe like executive apartments, so i do hope that won't weaken the bonds between residents in any way. |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:18 pm.
