Night Explorations
All photos property of www.urbandecayz.blogspot.com
I'm a sucker for good surprises and spontaneity..and how events precipitated by these two can have a significant impact on the way I view things. As I ponder over my recent revival of interest in history, heritage and nostalgia, I remember the night when the few of us went on an exploration drive.
It was a night of reliving the nights of the spontaneous era.
The clock was ticking closer to 12 midnight and I was waiting for my brother to come back from his friend's party...and then I heard voices outside..one of which was my brother's. When he came in and said "There's a mob flash outside...and they're here for you!!" I almost didn't believe him but it turned out that one of my friends had brought a little entourage with him.
So began our night of excitement. We were deciding between interesting places to go...when the driver suggested Mathilda House @ Punggol, which according to rumours is a old haunted house that the authorities couldn't tear down. Maybe it was the night and the cold, but standing at the edge of a large abandoned field overtaken by wilderness and trying to catch a glimpse of the fabled house nestled in the midst of the overgrown grass and darkness, the feeling was kinda creepy. J spotted a snake and the poor thing got tormented by the others. A family of wild dogs started a series of miserable howling that echoed from the equally deserted field opposite.
Destination 2. Punggol Beach Point which I discovered is a World War Two site where about 400 Chinese civilians lost their lives during the Sook Ching Massacre. It is now marked as a heritage site along with the beaches of Changi and Sentosa where similar exterminations took place during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. There was a tiny police post followed by a small jetty leading out into the sea. Some opportunistic anglers were fishing and some guy caught a squid. I think its my first time seeing a live squid! One of the reasons for going there was that S wanted to show me the refineries across the strait and try to explain the flaming phenomenon in the sky that I witnessed earlier.
Before heading to Jalan Kayu for late supper/early breakie, we passed by the Seletar area and I chanced upon the very familiar and cute sounding Piccadilly Circus! which I recalled to be a place in the UK. Further fact-checking revealed that Piccadilly Circus is actually a famous road junction and public space of London's West End, in the city of Westminster. There is also a Piccadilly Circus Tube station. Apparently, Seletar camp used to be a former British army camp, hence the all the British-sounding street names. I read somewhere there's also an Oxford street, a Baker street, a Brompton road, a Haymarket, an Edgeware, a Regent and even a Hyde Park! (reserved for future explorations). Speaking of Seletar, another friend of mine has been telling me about this cafe @ Seletar base that sells really good buffalo wings which we have yet to check out.
For more information on the area, do visit http://postcardsfromseletar.com/ , which is a research project to record the history, happenings and memories of the place.
