I wrote about Toa Payoh Lorong 8 here in Oct 2007.
Yesterday, I was back at the same place for a revisit. The place did not look very different. The food centre still looked the same as it was before, except that some stalls had increased their prices. For example, the fishball stall which I mentioned in the earlier post was selling its noodles at a minimum of $2.50 per bowl instead of $2.00 previously.
I noticed that the seats around the trees in the courtyard had been removed:
Above: Photo taken in Sep 07
Above: Photo taken yesterday
I wonder why? Could it be that some people have been caught sleeping on the seats?
In addition, the rooster I saw previously was white in colour. This time round, a black-and-brown one seemed to have taken over the territory:
He even started a family, possibly with even more chicks still being hatched by the hen:
At a nearby fruit stall, a fruit that I thought was the buah su su (passion fruit) was on sale:
(Chun See and YG recently blogged about the passion fruit here and here respectively.)
My eyes chanced upon a poster at the food centre. It was only then that I realised why this part of Toa Payoh had remained largely unchanged since the town was built:
You see, Lorong 8 Toa Payoh is part of the Potong Pasir Single Member Constituency, an opposition ward served by Mr Chiam See Tong since 1984. Come to think of it, we should thank Mr Chiam for leaving us some nostalgic places to reminisce about.
Posts
12 comments:
Heh, it is also the reason why the flats across the street which belong to Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC were among the earliest to be upgraded.
Supposed to be some sort of temptation for people to switch allegiance.
Heh, I don't think it has been too effective.
I wonder how the residents there feel about being left behind in the upgrading stakes.
Kenneth, it is indeed fortunate that you and I are not living in opposition wards. Having said that, I feel that the Government should not forget the following points:
1. Opposition wards have Government supporters as well, although they may be a minority group.
2. Funds for upgrading come from taxpayers' money and should not be apportioned based on the political allegiance of the constituency's residents.
victor, seems to me you are not so passionate when it comes to (small)fruit. the fruit, shown in your photo, is not buah susu (passionfruit), it is the mini mango from thailand.
opposition ward or not, i like to eat at the food court but up now, still have yet to taste the kway chap. each time i go there, it is either closed or the kway chap is sold out.
Good points, Victor.
Maybe Potong Pasir should be given status(or promote themselves) as a Heritage Estate. See HDB flats and environs before upgrading!
the fruit may be mistaken for loquat which looks like this
Pinto - Good suggestion.
Yg - Oops, my apologies about the mistaken identity. I remember eating a fruit of similar shape, size, colour and texture when I was a kid and it certainly didn't taste like a mango or loquat but more like a passion fruit. Do you know what fruit was that? In Cantonese, it was called 老鼠拉龜 lo shee lai gwai which means "mouse pulling the tortoise".
victor, you are referring to this one, the yellow passionfruit
I didn't know that Toa Payoh Lor 8 was part of Potong Pasir! I lived there for 10 years long time back and it was part of Kim Keat Constituency with Ong Teng Cheong as MP. Looks like there has been some gerrymandering since then.
Another way to be forgotten by the gahmen is to live in an area where there are always walkovers.
Thanks Yg, but it looked more like this one.
Fuzzoo, I didn't know that the same area was once under Kim Keat constituency with Mr Ong Teng Cheong as MP. Thanks for the info.
LCS, feeling neglected? :p
Post a Comment