farewell, Bukit Merah Public Library

today marks the final day of operations at the Bukit Merah Public Library. I have many happy memories of using this library – from reading storybooks on the weekends when I was a kid, to grading work there as a working adult, and more recently, bringing my niece and nephew there to borrow books before letting them play at the playground next to the library.

I approve of NLB’s strategy to situate the libraries where there will be greater footfall, but last week, as the day of closure loomed close, I couldn’t help but weep for the memories past. I paid a few farewell visits to soak in the place and say goodbye.

here’s the children’s section that allowed me to be that auntie associated with books and reading

and look how the niece has grown! I no longer have to read to her; she looks for me when she needs help with a word or two.

the adult section is upstairs. see the fantastic Singapore Collection in the corner – these shelves were indispensable when I prepared GP lessons based on Singapore.

on one of the visits, a familiar logo caught the nephew’s eye and he snatched it up excitedly.

the fictional aisles that gave me tomes of agatha christie and elif safak.

and the mandarin section that usually sank into the blind spot

I am also deeply indebted to the travel section where I did much of my travel research before free-falling into a new country.

and lastly, the loan counter, which has seen many many iterations. frequently, I would hurry through this section because sambal would be waiting for me in the carpark outside, and then he would frown at all the books I’m laden under, and shake his head because it’s obvious I wouldn’t be able to read all that within 3 weeks.

thank you for the services and memories you provided, dear bukit merah library. I didn’t think I would be this attached to you, but I guess it is a case of 日久情深. I will miss having you around, and miss exploring your depths full of mystery and adventure and profound sadness.

farewell.

WEP Challenge: Spectacular Settings

Here’s the first part of the challenge for Spectacular Settings

1. Firstly share a paragraph from a novel, or an extract from a poem, or a photograph that stopped your heart with a spectacular setting etc.
2. Describe how your chosen ‘setting’ spoke to you. Why did you like it?

(A still frame from a video clip) Welcome to My Home, Singapore

I was on a study abroad programme to the UK when this National Day Parade was aired. I streamed it live over in London so that I could watch it “with” my family, 8 hours apart, and my breath was literally taken away at the skyline of Singapore. Being in London at the time, I revelled daily in the history and architectural marvels of England, always feeling regretful that Singapore had chosen to rid ourselves of many a heritage marker in order to build the modern city. At that moment, though, the glitz and glamour of our Central Business District (CBD) stopped my heart. The irony of me learning in the land of our (ex-)colonisers was not lost on me – sometimes, decades on, we have yet to lose the flawed perspective that the colonial masters are better, even though we have since proven ourselves to be as capable (or more). This video remains one of my top choices whenever foreign friends ask me for a quick introduction to this mysterious land called Singapore (which is NOT in China, by the way. We are a tiny but proud independent nation.) and it usually takes their breath away too.

* * * * *

Part 2 of the challenge
Then you have the option to:
a) write your own ‘setting’ piece in any genre, or share a ‘setting’ from your WIP, or…
b) write your own poem which highlights ‘setting’, or
c) share a photograph that blows you away every time you look at it and tell us why.
d) share an artwork that shows a ‘setting’ you love and tell us why you love it.
e) write a small playscript which highlights ‘setting’.

This is a supremely incomplete piece for options a&e (hurhurhur) – I was gunning for travel writing, but I also imagined it as a conversation between two people, and thus it became a dialogue-heavy play. Have mercy, and here goes –

For two.
A bare stage, with a backdrop of a forest.
A road-end, during a jog.

Dan: Where to, next?
En: Follow the pony tracks!
Dan: But that goes…into a forest. We are going to a forest?
En: Yes!
Dan: Oh. I didn’t expect that. I thought you said a cemetery.
En: It is the cemetery. Straight ahead, I think.
Dan: I was kinda expecting tombstones, not the woods.
En: This was before they realised that land is scarce in Singapore.
Dan: By the way, Google Maps says we are standing in a random grey patch. Big random grey patch. You’re the boss now.
En: Uh, I’ve only been here twice. I followed wherever the experienced guide went. Hehe.
Dan: Now you tell me! You bring me to a cemetery during the seventh month and you don’t even know the place well!
En: Heehee.
Dan: Wahlau seventh month leh. Other times I don’t care, but this month the spirits are up and about…
En: Don’t worry, just be friendly! After all, these are our forefathers. They won’t harm us. Hehe.
Dan: Oh please, take a look at yourself. They will probably think you are incompetent and destroying their hard work.
En: Ah. Good point. It’s ok. Just don’t step on any incense or food offerings and don’t step on the graves themselves and it should be alright.

* * * * *

Some background information:
I used some Singlish vocabulary and grammar structure in this for authenticity.
The seventh month refers to theHungry Ghost Festival, where the realm between the spirit world and ours is open, and the deceased are believed to visit the living. We are in the eleventh day of the seventh month as I write. Thanks for reading!

Word Count: 669 words
MPA: Minor Points Acceptable

What is Arcadia, anyway?

From Ben Okri’s In Arcadia

“Arcadia is our secular Eden…A place of dreaming, and songs, an oasis, a refuge from the corrupting cities, a semi-ideal landscape, a qualified paradise. A place with the quietly troubling presence of death, and exile, and stony mountains, and suicide, and sinister shadows, a place that cannot be dwelt in for ever. Then, with the passing of centuries, something happened to Virgil’s Arcadia. It became transformed into a terrain of the mind, a terrestrial paradise, a place of tranquility and rural calm, the domain of the yearning spirit.”

* * * * *

The images that the phrases ‘terrain of the mind’ and ‘a place of tranquility’ suggest to me is that of church, followed closely by the sea, and then, quite oddly, a hotel room. Prayer and meditation sometimes bring peace – i am no stranger to kneeling in a pew and crying to God in desperation and loneliness. The seaside always feels romantic and relaxing; there’s something about the swish of the water that brings balm to the troubled soul. The hotel room, well, I love staycations. I live with a lot of clutter, and a hotel stay is a reprieve from my mess, even if just for a day.

What is your earthly Eden, your secular Arcadia?

Holidays of the Spirit / The Arcadian Dream

From Ben Okri’s In Arcadia

“‘Even if we don’t believe in it, we need the Arcadian dream,’ Lao said suddenly. ‘If only as a place where the spirit can rest. In life the body can have many holidays, but the spirit has so few. The body’s holidays are simple: sex, sun, beach, sea, sleep. But the spirit’s holidays are rarer: they are ideas, inspiration, Arcadias. The holidays of the spirit are more important than those of the body. The body has lots of holidays while it’s alive, and a long one when dead. The spirit has few holidays when in life. The holiday of the spirit replenishes civilisations, makes spiritual evolution effortless, and makes it possible for us to go up to the higher levels that we despair of reaching. Holidays of the spirit help us assimilate faster and more thoroughly all that we are and have been, they help the inner distillation, and they make us grow faster, greater and more organically. Holidays of the spirit are what bring about our true transformation from chrysalis to butterfly, from weakness to wisdom, from saplinghood to strength. We need Arcadia, for without it we will die of our neuroses.'”

* * * * *

Holidays of the body are sometimes already lacking in our frantic, hectic lives. It was merely a month ago that I was on holiday, and already I am tired and in need of another. But it is true that vacations also make me restless, feeling rather like I am wasting time when I could be catching up on some reading or personal projects.

Perhaps it is the holiday of the spirit that I am looking for during the holidays. The practical question for us, then, is how to experience a holiday of the spirit. Reading and meditation come to mind. Possibly attending workshops or conferences where the exchange of ideas happen, poetry slams and book recitals, or indulging in a fine arts performance, ruminating over something watched at the theatre. Furthering one’s studies.

Noting even as I create this list that these will likely interfere with the ‘holiday of the body’; case-in-point being that the most satisfying or thought-provoking reads are rarely ever easy, popular page-turners.

Bookshopping in China

You can’t miss the (mega) Xinhua Bookstore whenever you’re in any half-major Chinese city. It’s a huge bookstore chain which, as with any self-respecting communist country, is government-owned. It usually occupies several stories of a mall. 7 stories of books is somewhat unthinkable in the light of brick-and-mortar bookstore closures across the Western world.

There are two outlets of Xinhua ShuDian in Urumqi that I know of, the smaller one just off the Grand Bazaar at Erdaoqiao, the larger outlet at Youhao ShangChang.

I usually enjoy browsing bookstores, but seeing tiny Chinese characters marching relentlessly across the pages gives me a headache. I don’t read Chinese fiction. This time though, I had a niece to shop for, and I don’t mind illustrated childrens’ books!

The above are all translated from English. I’m sorry to say that the Chinese don’t do children’s fiction very well – rehashing stories of ancient heroes, simplified versions of the four great classics (Water Margin, Journey to the West etc), or fables and moral stories describing how an idiom came into being. The staple of Chinese lessons, even in Singapore!

(Here’s what’s worse: I heard that with Mother Tongue becoming simplified in primary schools, they’ve taken even the above out…what then do they read to learn a language huh? And the standard of Mandarin in Singapore is sliding steadily.)

I bought some books for myself too – the SAT book for Literature has the foreword and instructions in Chinese, and practices in the original English. Hoping to learn how to set multiple choice questions for Lit!

Choice quotes from Ben Aaronovitch: Foxglove Summer

I chanced upon the Rivers of London series while browsing the stacks; the cover art attracted my attention (fascinating map!) as did, of course, memories of London. This series accompanied me through my break up, and indeed the snarky writing was one of those rare things that made me laugh during those dark days. I think these books deserve way more attention than it is currently receiving, so I’m sharing my favourite quotes here. Enjoy!
(Genre: Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural)

From Book Five: Foxglove Summer
(the latest, where the protagonist takes a break from London)

On the Theory of Evolution:

“Above and behind me the unicorn snorted its frustration and stamped the ground. I was fairly certain it wasn’t going to attempt such a steep slope.

This is where the whole ape-descended thing reveals its worth, I thought madly, sucks to be you, quadruped. Opposable thumbs – don’t leave home without them.”

* * *
On the [mis]use of Latin phrases and the allusion to The Game of Thrones:

“Hail the conquering hero,” said Beverley and held up her bottle to clink.

“sic transit Gloria mundi,” I said, because it was the first thing that came into my head – we clinked and drank. It could have been worse.

I could have said “Valar Morghulis” instead.

* * *
My personal favourite, experienced daily as a civil servant…on Official-Speak:

“I made a mental note to wheedle the list of old codgers out of Nightingale and get it properly sorted into a database. Hugh’s “grapevine” might be a useful source of information. If I’d been about four ranks higher up the hierarchy I’d have regarded it as an opportunity to realise additional intelligence assets through enhanced stakeholder engagement. But I’m just a constable so I didn’t.”

Choice quotes from Ben Aaronovitch: Broken Homes

I chanced upon the Rivers of London series while browsing the stacks; the cover art attracted my attention (fascinating map!) as did, of course, memories of London. This series accompanied me through my break up, and indeed the snarky writing was one of those rare things that made me laugh during those dark days. I think these books deserve way more attention than it is currently receiving, so I’m sharing my favourite quotes here. Enjoy!
(Genre: Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural)

From Book Four: Broken Homes

A commentary on the state of surveillance:

“The problem with the so-called bloody surveillance state is that it’s hard work trying to track someone’s movements using CCTV – especially if they’re on foot. Part of the problem is that the cameras all belong to different people for different reasons. Westminster Council has a network for traffic violations, the Oxford Street Trading Association has a huge network aimed at shoplifters and pickpockets, individual shops have their own systems, as do pubs, clubs and buses. When you walk around London it is important to remember that Big Brother may be watching you, or he could be having a piss, or reading the paper or helping redirect traffic around a car accident or maybe he’s just forgotten to turn the bloody thing on.”

* * *
Elephant and Castle: most people know it as the location of the Imperial War Museum, or, more likely, the Ministry of Sound, but I knew it first as the address of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. If Mettab is unfamiliar to you, perhaps the names of the late preacher Charles Spurgeon, or the incumbent Peter Masters, would ring a bell. Prolific Christian writers they are – stocked up my Christian bookshelf with a number of their books upon visiting the Mettab in-house book store.

(I realise it is rather incongruous to speak of Christian writing in light of fangirling over a book on magic so i shall stop here.)

My salient memory of Elephant and Castle is not the church though, but the seemingly endless tunnels one trudges through in order to get to your destination. Odd, but better this than waiting for the lights to turn in your favour.

Choice quotes from Ben Aaronovitch: Whispers Underground

I chanced upon the Rivers of London series while browsing the stacks; the cover art attracted my attention (fascinating map!) as did, of course, memories of London. This series accompanied me through my break up, and indeed the snarky writing was one of those rare things that made me laugh during those dark days. I think these books deserve way more attention than it is currently receiving, so I’m sharing my favourite quotes here. Enjoy!
(Genre: Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural)

From Book Three: Whispers Underground

This book focuses on the tube, and was actually the first book of the series that i came across.

The classic English complaint about the weather:

“The media response to unusual weather is as ritualized and predictable as the stages of grief.

First comes denial: “I can’t believe there’s so much snow.”

Then anger: “Why can’t I drive my car, why are the trains not running?”

Then blame: “Why haven’t the local authorities sanded the roads, where are the snowplows, and how come the Canadians can deal with this and we can’t?”

This last stage goes on the longest and tends to trail off into a mumbled grumbling background moan, enlivened by occasional ‘illegals ate my snowplow’ headlines from the Daily Mail, which continues until the weather clears up.”

Choice quotes from Ben Aaronovitch: Moon Over Soho

I chanced upon the Rivers of London series while browsing the stacks; the cover art attracted my attention (fascinating map!) as did, of course, memories of London. This series accompanied me through my break up, and indeed the snarky writing was one of those rare things that made me laugh during those dark days. I think these books deserve way more attention than it is currently receiving, so I’m sharing my favourite quotes here. Enjoy!
(Genre: Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural)

From Book Two: Moon Over Soho

The snarky commentary on English history that make the series such a joy to read:

“Jason Dunlop lived in the half-basement flat of a converted early-Victorian terrace on Barnsbury Road. In previous eras the servants’ quarters would be fully underground, but the Victorians, being the great social improvers they were, had decided that even the lowly should be able to see the feet of the people walking past the grand houses of their masters – hence the half basement. That and the increased daylight saved on candles, a penny saved is a penny earned and all that.”

* * *

On the change of word connotations:

“Nightingale said, “It never occurred to me that the old days [of magic] might come back. Besides, we have Dunlop’s books so we know his teacher wasn’t from some foreign tradition – this is a home-grown black magician.”

“You can’t call them black magicians,” I said.

“You realise that we’re using black in its metaphorical sense here,” said Nightingale.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Words change what they mean, don’t they? Some people would call me a black magician.”

“You’re not a magician,” he said. “You’re barely even an apprentice.”

“You’re changing the subject,” I said.

“What should we call them?” he asked patiently.

“Ethically challenged magical practitioners,” I said.”

* * *

Aaronovitch’s take on the Trocadero Centre (the basement of which I visited periodically back while I was on exchange just to watch some awesome street dancing. I have just found out that it has since closed and is now being refurbished into a hotel)

“The central atrium at the Trocadero Centre is four stories high with an open basement that added another story to the fall. The space is crisscrossed at random intervals by escalators, presumably because the architects felt that disorientation and an inability to find the toilets were integral parts of the shopping experience.”

* * *

A particularly mournful song plays a huge role in this book – here’s Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse singing Body and Soul.

Choice quotes from Ben Aaronovitch: Rivers of London

I chanced upon the Rivers of London series while browsing the stacks; the cover art attracted my attention (fascinating map!) as did, of course, memories of London. This series accompanied me through my break up, and indeed the snarky writing was one of those rare things that made me laugh during those dark days. I think these books deserve way more attention than it is currently receiving, so I’m sharing my favourite quotes here. Enjoy!
(Genre: Urban Fantasy, Police Procedural)

From Book 1: Rivers of London (or, Midnight Riot in the US)

The reader’s introduction to the Folly:

“The address I wanted had a noticeably grander flight of stairs than its neighbours, leading to double mahogany doors with brass fittings. Carved above the lintel were the words SCIENTIA POTESTAS EST.

Science points east, I wondered. Science is portentous, yes? Science protests too much. Scientific potatoes rule. Had I stumbled on the lair of dangerous plant geneticists?”

* * *
Some relationship advice from PC Peter Grant:

“I wanted to watch her tuck her long legs under the dash, but I figured the temperature was high enough already. My dad had once told me that the secret to a happy life was never to start something with a girl unless you were willing to follow wherever it leads. It’s the best piece of advice he’s ever given me and probably the reason I was born.”