Sunday, June 04, 2006
Me and my parents couldn't decide on the location to have our dinner yesterday evening because of many reasons. I didn't want to go too far cause I was kinda tired and a simple dinner would have been enough. My parents on the other hand, wanted something and somewhere different. I can't be selfish and just tell my parents, "Any takeaway will do". I spent most of my time in camp and it isn't often that I get to sit down and have a simple meal with them, regardless of whether it's at home or outside. My dad wanted to try zhi char at a new location, not just at the usual places that we've always been eating. There's a new coffeeshop at Jurong East, near IMM where say the zhi char there is not bad. It turned out to be a false alarm because they don't really sell the zhi char we had in mind. It was simply a stall which sells dishes that goes along with rice.
After that it was basically deciding where's the next possible destination for our dinner. IMM was really out of the option because parking would have been a nightmare. It was a weekend and the parking lots outside of IMM are all gone due to construction and it meant we had to go to the multi-storey carpark to look for a lot. That wasn't very inviting. My dad suggested going to Thomson but I was like saying do we have to drive all the way there just for dinner? So we finally agreed on going to West Coast. Upon reaching there, it was the same nightmare yet again. Too many cars, too messy, too many people and parking was a nightmare etc.
So I suggested going to this zhi char stall near acs(I), the place where my secondary school used to be and have our dinner. Ok, ask any ac people out there where's Jumbo and they probably won't hesitate and give you an answer right away. I've not been to the Dover area for ages and I'm quite ashamed to say that I gave the wrong directions to my dad.The old old Jumbo used to just directly across acs(I) and it was located in this pretty old and dirty coffeeshop. Houseflies swarmed the place. I still remembered Wongz and Kwok Ley getting their heads shaved in a saloon there because they wanted a different look and which makes them cooler literally. It moved to another coffeeshop near the market which is opposite of fairfield secondary. There could have been a change of management or whatever but the food remains good and satisfactory. The service was a good as well. It sure beats eating in a crowded area where it's smoky and hot. At the new Jumbo, it's crowded but it's certainly cooler.
Dover looks so different now with all the upgrading going on. There's gonna be a new market that currently being constructed and once it's done, the old one plus all the food stalls will move into it. The market and food stalls directly opposite fairfield will be gone. While waiting for the food to arrive, I took a walk down memory lane but somehow the scenes that I saw were so different. I still recognize Dover Park View aka the condo but I just don't remember the other stuff. It's just been too many changes.
There's been so many changes there. Everything is changing but have I caught up with the changes? Sad to say no. I told Paul before that I wanna go back to acs(I) one day after I ord with a large group of friends to see the teachers. To see how the teachers are and let them know we're doing fine as well. There's no point going back now really, all of us are preoccupied with ns and it's hard to find time to gather everyone. Wongz still in the States while the majority of us are still serving ns and the poly guys are enlisting soon. I'm not joking when I said that I felt like a tourist yesterday at Dover. I asked quite alot of questions from the zhi char stall auntie about the latest developments in the area. She probably think that I stay in the east and seldom come to this area.
We are all growing up too fast for our own liking. In a way whether we like it or not, we've to learn to adapt to the rapidly changing world around us. I'm already 20 this year, 21 when I ord and by the time I'm done with university, I'll be 25. Time to start working, time to embark on my career.
