This morning I sent our maid off to the airport. She’s been with us for six years so the least I could do was to get up at 5 something in the morning to drive her to the airport myself. She asked me to inspect her bags last night and this morning, but I refused, because I trust her. We are going to miss her.
One good thing about going to Changi airport is having the chance to drive down the East Coast Parkway (ECP), because it is the most beautiful expressway in Singapore. Lined by trees on either side, with flowering bushes, the Singapore cityscape on one side, and on the other, our booms. In one glance, I was reminded of our position as a financial centre and port.
“Look, this is where I work,” I pointed at a building, while trying to continue driving in a straight line. “Very far [away from home],” was all she could say.
The ECP is also a road I remember fondly, for many years before I was born, a young man, barely seventeen (which was the legal age for driving then) would take this same expressway to visit his girlfriend who lived, for a period of time, in Katong. That young man was my father, and of course the young lady was my mother.
The ECP is also the route I take to visit my good friend Aimin, who throws great BBQ parties, and my bestest friend Van Heng, who is returning from the States soon. Of course there are bittersweet memories – how I used to cycle at East Coast Park with ex-colleagues who, after the closure of our newspaper, were no longer in the mood to meet up every weekend. Passing by my old music school gave me the shivers – because that was where I and other students, as children, were sometimes scolded and even beaten for not performing well.
But all in all, it was a good drive, and now I am too awake to go back to sleep again. I have a wedding to attend later in the morning, but for now, it’s time I did some … housework.
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I think seeing the world early in the morning makes it different somehow. Still quiet from the night, just on the brink of bursting into life and sound again. I’m glad you had a nice drive. ECP is a lovely highway to drive. I’ll be back to using it soon!
it was the last highway i was on, before i left singapore last aug. soon it will be the first highway i’ll see when i take a trip home. my parents have also moved back to the east, after starting out living there when first married.
it’s good you have those memories.
hey vanessa, it’s davinia! yeah i get that weird shivery feeling when i pass meyer/fort road on the ecp. scoldings – hell, yes! but *beatings*? girl ah – we went same music school or not? 🙂
Davinia dear, you were the one student that our teachers wished we were, super talented in everything, and hardworking too (serious)! … yes, I got my hair pulled, knuckles crunched, head knocked about – and it happened to smaller kids, too … I still don’t know what to say should I ever meet my teacher again. A true test of forgiveness.
Oh, have a good Hari Raya Puasa!
thanks; hope you enjoyed your public holiday. i wouldn’t know what to say to my old piano teachers either – old man’s daughter-in-law and old man both – but for different reasons! i haven’t touched my piano in maybe two years, and i doubt i could play anything coherent if i tried now. quite sad really…
Hello my dear P.I.G – you will always be welcome at my BBQ parties. I promise to vary the menu next time. I love living in the East, waking up in the morning and seeing the day break over the small stretch of water we call “the sea”. I never appreciated the beach till I started working – getting out there can lift one’s mood so easily. Simple pleasures eh. Just good music, friends, and quiet time. See you soon.
Minmin! Was there quiet time? At all? Hahaha… not with your colleagues. As for appreciating the beach now – well, I never missed living next to Orchard Road until I relocated, so I can sort of relate to that.