When I walked down to the coffeeshop downstairs my block back then, I see the friendly vegetable rice aunties, the grumpy fried kway teow uncle that used to bet against my dad over soccer matches and the malay stall that sells one of the tastiest mee rubus.
Now due to the increase in the rental stall all had left. Nowadays I walk down and there's only the prata stall and the western food stall left. There are also some new stalls with new faces, but their food doesn't taste as well.
Even though I don't know them well those people were involved in my life for the last 7-8 years. I get a strange feeling not seeing those faces anymore, like somehow my neighbourhood doesn't feel the same anymore.
When I think back of my primary school and it's surroundings, I thought of the school's eco-garden which was covered on the papers. I thought of the two blocks of one room flats (where lonely old people lived in), the shophouses, old market and the open spaces I would pass by when I walked to take the public bus home. I thought of the two school fields that me and my classmates would play soccer on during the break and even after school.
Now my school is no more, merged together with a few other neighbouring schools. The place is now deserted - the ecogarden is in ruins. Those one room flats were torn down and HDB flats now stood on those open spaces. The shophouses were also no more. The market is still standing, but it has been renovated and it doesn't feel the same anymore.
I missed the way of life back then where people walked more slowly, living a less stress-filled lifestyle, and more in tune with the intangible aspects of life. Where buildings are built more sparsely with more open spaces and where there's less vehicles around. Something like the village of Giancaldo in the great Italian film Cinema Paradiso.
I'm sucha sucker for nostalgic stuff.