Jiak hong

Posted by layyoong under Reflections
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I’m not the sort to fall in love easily. Or at least the years of growing up have made me far less sentimental and more detached. I’ve never cared for photographs to capture people, places and moments in time. Until they were gone, that is. But as my last of the twenties birthday looms near, I find myself looking back and in my trawl through my memories, I find gaps where I should easily recall.

So this is my first attempt to put down in writing the patches of memories of growing up in Singapore as a child of the 80s. The things that have etched themselves deepest in my somewhat shallow memory, but to have remained over the years, I must have loved these memories most.

In the 80s, one popular activity was going to “jiak hong” (literal translation: eat air). And one needn’t hop on a plane to Bangkok or Hong Kong to do that. jiak hong was as simple as getting into the car with your family and driving aimlessly around Singapore. And that’s what I did alot of growing up. Sitting in our sea-green Toyota Corolla station wagon with its grey cloth-covered seats and driving around the island as a past-time for the family. Driving through the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road. Cruising on the Nicoll Highway, Benjamin Sheares Bridge and the like.

The 80s as I remember it was also a heady, dizzy time of one of its kind shops. I remember I wanted to be a Toys ‘R’ Us kid when the first Toys ‘R’ Us (shown above) opened in Marine Parade Central just opposite Parkway Parade. It was so so big, two stories’ worth and had the latest toys from the US of A. I remember there was a store policy that children under the age of 12 had to be accompanied by an adult and it was only if you had a special card signed by your parents that you could roam free alone.

And then there was Yokoso…Singapore’s first round the clock supermarket and department store in dodgy Tanjong Katong Complex near Geylang Serai. I have vague memories of going there with much excitement with my mother. Sadly, Yokoso bit the dust soon after. Perhaps it was ahead of its time…

Across the street from Yokoso is the Lion City Hotel. But what I remember most is the cinema that was next to it but which now houses Sheng Siong supermarket. I remember going to that cinema only once, probably 15 years ago. With a male classmate from my guitar class. I guess it was my childish interpretation of a date. Obviously it wasn’t memorable since I can’t even remember what movie we watched!

But what I do remember is the satay and wanton stalls behind the cinema. A saturday treat with my aunt and grandmother. A piping bowl of wanton mee soup and sticks of juicy satay.

A short drive down Tanjong Katong Road was the old Seaview Hotel at Amber. My memories of it centre around the Cold Storage on the ground floor where my parents would drive to for their groceries, where if you parked for under an hour, parking was free. And of course there was our first IKEA on the second floor above the Cold Storage. Nothing like the huge standalone building at Alexandra today.

It bore an uncanny resemblance to another hotel near Orchard Road, the Cockpit Hotel, which has since given way to a new condo development:

I’m sure there are more bits and pieces of growing up in Singapore as I see it, buried somewhere in my memory. And when they eventually surface, I’ll be blogging about them with sweet nostalgia.

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