trisected

Tag: Jalan Minyak Life

  • Soundtrack of Life

    There was this period of COVID lockdown where I would watch night time routine videos, made by the Japanese home and lifestyle YouTubers. They would always play this same soundtrack, and it would always involve this process of relaxing in warm lighting, as they sorted out their homes, or made themselves a midnight snack.

    The other day, I changed upon a video using that same song, and It used to be a lot more calming than I remembered it to be. For some reason, I recall more of the anxiety and panic I had about work and other things.

    Today, as I was keeping up the house, and winding down on my own, a little part of me wanted to try and watch a wind down routine video, with the same soundtrack. Is it because I’m feeling anxious about work again? Or perhaps I am indeed in a different place, and I feel like revisiting the concept of wind down videos as part of my own wind down?

    I remember wishing I had a calm room to wind down into, because we were staying in a very hot and small apartment. Our fridge was smaller, our working spaces were smaller. There was no air conditioning, and in Singapore, that’s tough.

    I feel like I’m living my wind down routine life in some ways, being able to make drinks and just chill in the living room comfortably.

    Maybe I want to watch a night time routine video to see if it would match my own life now.

  • Just a Year Ago

    Maybe a little over a year; I stayed in the middle of the city. I lived in an old apartment, without air conditioning. With no hot water for my shower, and yet close to some of the most expensive land in Singapore. With stray cats climbing into my apartment, and luxury dogs taking their evening strolls along the river side. In the midst of a complete disparity of wealth.

    It really felt like a fever dream. When I travel into the city, and the buses go past cafes, bars, hotels, and offices, I just remember the afternoons strolling through. I remember walking home to clear my mind, and enjoying the views of the city.

    I don’t think I understood what the wealth gap really meant until I stayed in Jalan Minyak, and I don’t think many people will ever have a chance of understanding it properly. It’s not just about helping out on the weekends, or donating to the cause. It’s about a systemic issue of privilege, and the desperation of those who have not. It’s about heritage, both for and against.

    I’m not either, I’m the big grey tasteless middle in the steak of capitalist Singapore. I’m the middle class, who can’t afford to be poor, and also can’t afford to be rich.

    So I reminiscence the years when I was able to see both at the same time. Wood fired pizza for dinner one night, and charity donated canned foods the next.

    Now, we’re making do with 菜贩, (small dishes with white rice) middle Singapore’s standard meal. Having Prata breakfast, at coffee shops below our apartment housing.

    I still miss living in the middle of the city.

  • A return to Jalan Minyak for a minute

    Today we ran around a bit; I had forgotten to update my residential address, and ended up having to go to Jalan Minyak once again to do my voting. I saw my ex-neighbour’s son, the neighbours were in the hospital, because Uncle had some medical issues.

    Going back to Jalan Minyak, it really hit me how much I missed this area and the joys of living in a smaller place, with less luxury. We had no air con, no heated water, namely because it just didn’t make sense to install the things with the idea that we were moving soon. But still it gave some reference to how the rest of our neighbours lived. At least we had space, which was also another luxury. Less space than what we have now, but still more space the people around us.

    It sounds horrible, and it doesn’t make sense why I would miss any of it, but it was a quite a uniting thought to know that the people next to you weren’t in the best state and everyone was just trying to get by. It’s quite something when humans live through tough times together, due to whatever circumstances we’ve been put through. I don’t have that same uniting point with my neighbours currently. It doesn’t feel like we’re in hardship, other than just being absolutely far from the city center. We are united in that, and yet, no one talks on the train or the bus on the way to work.

    But I remember the strolls from the supermarket back home with the aunties in the evening. I’d have my hands full of food for the dinner soon to be made, and the aunties also with their trolleys. I’d offer to help carry, but they would just shoo me away, and ask me to just walk with them and to let them carry it. We would walk up the hill step by step, and talk about life, talk about the next few days, maybe share tips about what we would cook for dinner and why.

    I don’t have that here, maybe not yet.

    Today’s consumption: Playing tons of Nier Automata, but also a lot of talking with parents. F1 weekend too, so that’s what’s going on in the background, along with the presidential election sample count.

  • Updates on Life after Junah

    It’s been a week since, and I thought to update everyone how things have been on the pet side of things.

    I’m still sad, but I think many of my friends have comforted me. I have had people to talk to, and other friends who have also lost pets have grieved alongside in the past few days. I personally think that just being able to share about my sadness and to have people understand it was greatly comforting.

    I think one of the first things that gave me the most comfort was the funeral. I wasn’t in attendance of course, but the aunty next door showed me the pictures of the funeral. I saw how well loved Junah was taken care of, and I really felt a certain sense of peace and rest. It was really a lot more mentally for me to let go of. I could just see her resting, and then there was a cremation, but it seemed peaceful in that sense still? I’ve been for so many cremations, that I think life just happens that way for sure. But it was still comforting to see the ceremony before they cremated her. I still cried, but at least there was comfort in the passing.

    Over the week, I’ve been more concerned for the uncle next door. He’s not very mobile, so it takes some effort for him to move around. He only goes out of the house for hospital visits, and Junah was really his best friend for the past nine years. I’ve been feeling his sadness the most now.

    I was worried that he might not have had a time to talk it out, to just say whatever was on his heart, so I actually made quite a bit of effort to stick my head there and ask him if things were okay.

    Junah used to bark at every single one that walked by their house, including Clarice and myself. This really gave some sort of life to the house, and also gave him a sense of activity. So I commented to the uncle that our houses have been so quiet with her gone. He reminded me that she would bark, and then run out of the house to hang out at my house every time I came home. It still pains me a bit to type this part of the story out, because it was really as if Junah had two houses for the past three years. I feel as if I’ve had a pet dog over the past three years too.

    Uncle shared about how he took care of Junah at the start, and how he had cared for her through and through. There were other things we ended up talking about, but I told him that I’ve been praying for him this whole time. I wanted him to know that I also know how he feels, because I feel similar. I am sure he feels it so much more, but hopefully knowing that I share that little bit with him would help him find some little bit of comfort too.

    Anyway, tonight, one of their son’s dogs has come for a short stay over – her name is Coco, and she is a very cute poodle. Hopefully that helps Uncle for tonight. I had my time with Bobby (my family dog) and I’m sure that helped me in a large way too.

    Although, I am really not looking forward to Bobby’s passing. It will be hard for all of us for sure.

    Thanks for caring everyone, it truly means the world to me.

  • Growing up Part 982345897234

    I don’t think anyone ever prepares you for the multiple times that you have to go through different changes, learning different things and different parts of your life. I guess some people warn you, like your parents, or family members who are concerned enough to say something. But it’s not like we actually listen to what they’re saying, we just think that they’re raining on our parade.

    I’m not going through any bad patch right now, but I was just thinking about the things we’re told to look out for when we’re growing up. In Singapore, we’re always told to make sure that we eat right, that we take care of our money well, and to be careful whenever we move around. That’s the simple stuff. The harder and more intimate ones are about how we need to look out for people who are trying to make buck out of us, to remember to care for our parents and family members, or maybe just to learn how to be a human being.

    I’m going to receive my BTO keys tomorrow. For those who are not from Singapore, these are the Built To Order housing units. Most Singaporeans live in a HDB Apartment, standing for Housing Development Board. It’s public housing, but because of how it’s made, it’s the standard form of living for us. A BTO would mean that I’ve got to put a downpayment of a certain amount of money, and then wait for the apartment buildings to be built. Considering it’s public housing, we’re encouraged to use our government reserved money, and that is under the care of the CPF — Central Provident Fund. This basically takes a portion of our pay, and places it into a government owned banking system. Every citizen has their CPF, as employers need to also pay a certain amount into their employees CPF.

    So after all the acronyms, what basically happens is that they will take our CPF to pay for our HDB apartment BTO. I don’t physically have to pay a cent, but instead the government sorts out the money on their end, based on these amounts that are transacted into the different funds. Thus, public housing.

    It takes an average of about 2-3 years to build a BTO apartment, but because of the pandemic, we’re hitting the 3-5 year mark for some apartment buildings. I had signed the downpayment in 2019, and now we’re at the 2022 mark, which gives us about three years of waiting so far. I’ve grown quite accustomed to where I currently live, because it’s really central, and there will definitely be another range of posts about moving away from where I live. After all, all my keyboard videos and this entire journey started from this room, in this space.

    But yeah, moving, leaving spaces, owning my own space, that’s really part of growing up nothing can really prepare you for. I feel just at a weird state of uncertainty that I’m quite cautious about, not fearful, just sad to leave.

    How would I prepare myself to move? The emotional separations and change, not so much for the actual shifting. Those things are easy to do. It’s always the heart things that take a lot more from me that I prepared for.

    It’s tough to grow up.

  • Cool Days for Cool People

    I keep thinking if I should have a better scheme, or a better content plan for my blog. My own answers to myself are: No, it is a blog, and the spontaneity is part of who I am. Secondly, I do have some specific content that I want people to read, and that’s on my pages. So I will always write as I feel like, and if it stretches over a series of posts, then good for you, the reader who is looking for specific content that is only that one single strain of things. I am, unfortunately, not a very one tracked person, and I am also unapologetic about it, as my life is increasingly varied.

    I am learning more and more about the effects of denim on myself, on cold days like today. Today it finally rained cats and dogs, and maybe guinea pigs too. There was a pure sheet of white over the cityscape as I looked out, and the day kept its cool til the night. But my denim jacket on me started to lose its point, and I started to become this mix of cold and hot at the same time. I think something similar happens to me when I wear hoodies, but I think it happens differently then. I need to figure out what that difference is.

    Also, I am realising that I really need to air my denim jacket often. I failed to do so last week, and today I smelled the jacket, and it smelt as a damp denim jacket should smell: Sweaty.

    So my jacket is now currently airing, next to my jeans, and hopefully it clears itself out of my sweaty smells.

    On a cool day like this, I remained the cool guy who decided not to wear his mask as he walked home from the clubbing districts of Singapore. I decided that I would embrace the cold air of the night, and just enjoy my walk home, after an evening of clearing up work. It was a nice walk, but I saw so many younger people just wearing their masks in packs. I was held my uncertainty within me, as I strode against their direction. They were going to club, but I was going home. And then it hit me. I am not a cool guy unmasked, but I’m the not cool guy unmasked not going out on a Tuesday night.

    This is all sarcasm, in case it is misread and taken that I think myself not cool. But okay, whether you decide to wear your mask or not outdoors, I really can’t. Personally, I get too sweaty, and it just bugs me and makes me really uncomfortable. Don’t judge me, I was just telling a joke. It’s a prank bro.

    Okay, gonna go do some laundry, good night world.

  • More Minyak Memories

    In the past few years, I think one of the key things that really marked my time here was my time in the army, as I lived here. It’s a very accessible location, and I think it really was quite nice moving to and fro, from this place. My army gear was always in an accessible spot, and it seemed easier to wash my army stuff, maybe because the whole house is mine (and clarice’s), and everything would just be hanging all over the place.

    I do miss the ease of travel, from home to camp. Like it takes me 15 minutes to get from here to Clementi Camp. In Singapore, the travel usually ranges from about half an hour to an hour to most places. Traveling within 15 minutes is usually time taken from our apartment houses to the train stations. I am counting my travel time to camp by a car drive, and the travel time towards stations in the time it takes on a bus.

    In any case, the convenience of this place is definitely something I will miss, along with my army fatigues hanging out in different parts of the home.

    We had another nice night out today, walking from Great World City back home. Great World City is a mall in Singapore, that used to be really popular years ago. It still caters to a lot of people who stay near the city shopping districts, but it’s not one of the super big malls with everything inside.

    The walk home from Great World is usually along the riverside, and its full of exercise enthusiasts, or weekend bicycling warriors. As we’re walking, we’re assailed by cyclists who have gotten lost along the way, or families with kids that run as their eyes please, and sometimes the sweaty runners, who were hoping for a change of scenery. Then there’s Clarice and me, and other people, full from their dinners or meals and walking to their homes, or along the river. Full of food, we walk along the river, enjoying the breeze and the lights. And after about 10 minutes, it gets old, and I want to go home.

    I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to live this way again in Singapore. Its something I definitely treasure, and something that I really have enjoyed. Maybe in the years to come, the stories to tell would be of the other parts of Singapore life. But right now, it’s this snazzy one, along a river, with a lot of bright lights, night life, and food.

  • Raining Cats and Dogs

    One of the deepest memories I’ve formed living in this area is the amount of cats and dogs that have been coming to my house. We’ve gotten visited by at least 3-4 cats, and one consistent dog (my neighbour’s). I really enjoyed it, and I think it makes me think a lot about taking care of the animals around me, the environment around me. Literally, because they will jump into all the things that I have.

    Myself, Juna, and Coco

    This is a usual constant scene in our place. The dog that’s closer to me is the one that usually runs over, or opens my gate on her own. She’ll run around, trying to figure out where we are and get her belly rubs, or head pets. After about 5 minutes of this, we’ll walk her back to my neighbour’s and say bye.

    Little Kitty on the Ledge

    This little cat was the one that really broke my heart. I saw it stuck on the ledge, and I was wondering why it was there. I spent the morning trying to call out to it, and trying to get it to come into my house, but it didn’t want to.

    Clarice (my wife) with the cat in front of her

    Clarice had to get out on the ledge to carry it back home. And it stayed with us for the whole day. But it was at night that we found out that Clarice really could not handle a cat in the room. She had such a bad allergy and we had to put the cat to sleep outside our house. The trouble was that the dog next door would bark at it, and it kept getting scared and jumping back out onto the ledge again.

    Kitty sleeping on my hand

    It stayed with us for all of another day. I’m allergic to dogs, so I’ve never had another animal nuzzle me because of that fear, but the cat nuzzled me and demanded to sleep in my arms. I had no allergies, so it was totally fine for me.

    But man, letting the cat go at night, I cried so much. I really felt so bad for letting it just go out into the night, and I couldn’t take care of it.

    Right now, we think that the cat was picked up by the neighbors on the first floor. And good for them, because at least they could take care of it without any worries.

    We also learnt how to welcome cats into our house, and bring them down to feed them, so that they don’t come back just for food and get in trouble with the dog next door. It’s tough, really tough, but we’re hoping to own our own pets when we move into our new apartment. That’s due to be ready mid year, and we just hope to get a place this year anyway.

  • Night Scenes

    When Instagram was first starting out, everyone was trying their best to get these really cool artistic photos. It was all these really high saturation, high contrast, tonnes of grain type of photos. Then the whole tilt shift lens thing came in and everyone wanted their places to look mini and small.

    It was at that time, that I decided I would attempt to overthrow the photography overlords, and post a bunch of night scenes. The only thing is, no one can see what on earth is going on in a night scene. It just looks dark and some spots of light just shining out. What does that even mean for someone looking?

    In any case, here’s a recent night scene that I’ve been enjoying, as part of my memories of living here.

    It’s been a good three years since moving into this neighbourhood. We used to walk back from Outram park station, thinking to ourselves that we would be moving away from the area by the time the North East Line comes up. Eventually, COVID hit, and we realised that maybe we would be here longer than we expected. Then another year passed, and we’re still in the middle of it. And now, the North East Line is opening up soon, and we’re still here.

    The building in construction isn’t part of the Outram Park station at all. It’s actually a condominium that’s being built slowly, and has been around since. It’s just fun to have this picture on, as one of the things that we would always walk by when we’re on our way back home from the MRT station.

    One of the key things I need to highlight for the sake of the international audience that might be watching/reading this post after watching my YouTube Videos:

    1. Constant construction is a large part of Singaporean life. Living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, if not the most, comes with a constant change to improve and to build better, sleeker looking buildings. These condominiums are the size of two or three bedrooms put together, and will ring you up for a few million Singapore Dollars (current conversion rate’s about 1.34USD per 1SGD).
    2. We do have people driving, but cars are another huge cost, so a lot of us rely on public transport to get around. These systems are called MRT – Mass Rapid Transit. They’re trains that are sometimes driven and sometimes automatic. There’s a location stop every 2-4km in Singapore, so the nation is pretty well covered. The closest station to my house is called Outram Park station (Here’s the wiki page)
    3. Everyone is quite very tech savvy in Singapore, and most if not all our elderly have to deal with tech one way or another. Currently all public mall access requires vaccinations and digital identification via our government based identification systems (maybe I should write a scifi post about this just for the fun of it).

    All these are fun things to know, if you’re a fellow keyboard enthusiast, and interested to find out more things about other keyboard people around the world. There’s quite a few of us in Singapore, and it’s better that you know now that we’re not a part of China at all. Hopefully this helps to educate, and shed light into learning some new things.

    If you’re a personal friend of mine and reading this, please bear with me. It says on my stats that a lot of people who visit my site aren’t from Singapore, so this is just to help them understand our Sunny Singapore better.

  • The Bump of Excitement at the End of the Day.

    Today seemed to progress about just nice. I was all ready to give another memory of this place, with the rain and all that.

    But lo and behold, the day has a bump of excitement, with a rush of sudden things to think through. I would say, the scene that I’m currently working from has seen many of these sudden changes, and decision making on last minute reactionary measures.

    The Messy Table

    In any case, my place in this room, in this house, has changed multiple times. I’ve had a work space in my bedroom, in another corner of the study, and finally, after three years, I’ve gotten myself where the picture above shows.

    It’s a set up with two computers running actually. The other screen links to my really old MacBook Pro, that’s standing behind my iMac. It’s got a Realforce fullsized attached to it, and it’s happy, because there’s also a mouse, and other needed things stuck to it. I really wanted to have a text only computer running separately to write story ideas down immediately. However, that plan has not been working well. Mostly because there’s too many things on my desk and pulling out another keyboard just to type requires some movements, some shifting around.

    Anyway, this workspace, as with any workspace, has the memories of the times attached to it. If there’s one key memory of this place, is me yelling at my screen, which faces the window outside. Yelling because I talk Really Loudly when I’m on zoom, or when I did my Twitch Streams. I get enthusiastic, and I can’t hear myself very well. The whole COVID work period was formed with myself in this one corner.

    It’s a nice memory, no history attached to it, but just me and my COVID Work From Home situations.

    Back to solving the problem on hand now… See ya.

  • Too Many Memories

    Around the place I live, there are a ton of historical locations. There are places of Chinese heritage, tourist attractions, colonial monuments, everything of that sort.

    The thing is that now, many of my own memories of the locations are tied together with the stories that they hold. Nearby, down the street where I live, where the road meets the river, that’s where the Chinese coolies used to live, and that’s where they had many opium houses of old. Now, its full of pubs, and where people go to rest after a hard day’s work. My memory with it is linked as my running route, and I just remember the tired people trying to look happy, sitting next to historical buildings where The Man used to tell them how to live.

    This area is also known as Boat Quay. I do intend to write a bit more about this but here’s just a sample picture for an idea.

    The Beautifully Slavish Boat Quay

    All these things are really scenic, really nice to look at, and to live near. It’s just really sad when you think about the hamster wheel life that they live, to quote Emma Chamberlain’s recent rant on what YouTube life was for her. The people move in, and try to work hard for what they think life should be, and they spend day and night trying to make it happen. It’s not fun, they lose their lives, and they just end up unhappy, and alone.

    But maybe some do make it, and that gives the rest hope. Maybe that’s what’s the glimmer is for many who do strive for that 1% of Singapore’s top bracket. But it’s expensive to live as the 1% in the World’s Most Expensive country. It also makes sense that we’re not the happiest people in the world. Clear proof that money doesn’t make you happy. I wish there were better statistical correlations that people could objectively look at to see this, but I guess many won’t even think too hard about what that would mean for them. That’s really the sad bit of it too.

    Anyway, my memories of my current carefree life, lived next to these modern day coolies are now intertwined. I hope one day someone bans the modern day opium of self made success.