Deja Vu

You came to this magical place and you see some strange creatures. You fell in love with this beautiful lady and you fought for their lives and land. You seemed to be like in the Last Samurai or The Last of The Mohicans or simply John Smith in Pocahontas. The folks were tall and blue. Are you dreaming or you really have come to this place before. Wake up! You have just seen it in the Avatar. This is like Deja Vu. If you are John Smith then the below pix could be that of your father-in-law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5BeJ7j1Fj4 (Last Samurai)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMZtQhhS14w&feature=fvw (Last Of The Mohicans)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q1QF8G47oU (Pocahontas)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdxXPV9GNQ (Avatar)

If you tell me now that you do not know any of these, please go get a life because a dinosaur like me can know why won't you?
What Is Deja Vu?

Deja Vu is an impression of having seen or experienced something before. Maybe it's a person or a place you visited and you have such a strong sense of having been there before even though it was your first time but you are uncertain and it could even have been your imgaination. It is such a compelling sense of familiarity that it evokes a feel of strangeness, eeriness and weirdness. It is so uncanny. Or was it just merely from a dream? Deja Vu is French for "already seen". Inna - Deja Vu (feat. Bob Taylor) Official New Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr_c5rqvSg4

I am sure we have this experience before and you would have tried to recall but just could not put in finger to it. For a lady, perhaps it was a handsome guy and vice versa for a guy, a beautiful lady. Did you see him or her in your dreams? For those who believe in a previous life, there is added mystique. In my time, I have my fair share of deja vu situation.

Here's Seals & Croft's My Fair Share: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VOeZrz_jtE

Sometimes I ran out of deja vu I create my own. I go back to the glorious past, the simple childhood places and the memories will flood in. Not just childhood places but places you have been and have fond memories of and not just places but faces and people. It will just flow where even the sight, the smell and the noise of yesteryear returned but it must retain at least some of the history only you know. Nostalgia.

This is along Balestier Road where my maternal grandma lived. I have some of the fondest memories of childhood here. I like to do weekend sleepover here and wake up to the aroma of fresh bread and dark sauce fried carrot cake from the nearby market as all my aunts would be up early and prepared all the food. Together with grandma they would whip up a storm in the huge kitchen for lunch and dinner.

The store is below the wooden plank floor and you do not know what lurks there. Behind the house is a stretch of garden where you plant you own pandan leaves and other simple plants. I used to catch some fighting spiders there. I could even keep fishes in a huge urn but when it floods, it can be a border as the fishes would escaped and common to find huge scary brownish centipedes in the house. Our fourth uncle would practise from the gymnastic rings he installed and when free would give us free haircuts. The third uncle could even cook for us food like mee goreng.

Deja Vu (Freemasons Mix)- Beyonce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epb6SLHnydM

Grandma's home was where the white five-storey apartment stood now and it used to be a stretch comprising four houses. Along the side wall here (below) used to be a mamak shop and behind that wall was a very old styled provision shop but all you see now is a coffee shop. Sometimes there can be fights as there are bars along the main road. There was a little hut towards the main road that used to sell the most authentic wanton noodle at night.

Dionne Warwick - Deja vu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhS-JeZBms

My aunt's house was just next to this (on the left) and I would climb up the verandah's railings and use a stick or something to try to pull some star fruits and pick them to give to grandma but I was badly hurt once when I slipped and fell while playing and glided the the flight of stairs from some 8-10 feet up and blacked out. All I remembered was that when I awoke all faces were looking at me with my third uncle nearby as he was the first to react and carried me back up. I thought I could have died as the excruciating pain that followed for weeks to the head and neck was quite unbearable. We don't even have x-rays those days so thank God I'm still alive! This was where the star fruit tree was, beside the fence.

This is a stretch of low-lying houses further in. Unique type of homes with not many left today.

From here on when you walked to the end, there is a canal that is parallel to the PIE opposite Toa Payoh. I liked to walk from primary school to grandma's place sometimes to soak in interesting sights. Many children have drowned at this canal but at the lower end near Jalan Tenteram and I have witnessed them. I nearly fell in too when I slipped accidentally and at that time I could not swim. Mum would have caned me if she knew - for not knowing how to swim. She can be a Tiger mum. Thank God I'm alive.

Along the road on the other side, you will still find this free herbal drink shed placed there by a Buddhist temple. I was curious and tried it when young. Those days around this neighbourhood there were actually a lot of mental people out there. Watching movies on Sunday was fabulous at the nearby Hoover Theatre where they sometimes offer two movies for one price and you can take a break by going to the opposite street where you find some of the best foods where some of them can still be found at the Whampoa market and food centre. I prowled the street shops to buy all Bruce Lee magazines.

Jalan Besar and Tyrwhitt Road has a hold on me as for some of us those were the formative years of youthful exuberance. This was where I learned of the colour khaki, music, soccer, friendship, buses so full that we stood at the doorstep of an unclosed door and nobody died (do not even mention air-con) then at the next stop you have to come down to let others out and then re-board and if you have to walked further to take a bus home some aunties of a certain vice among the world's oldest profession beckoned you as you passed some back streets. We could have been the original back street boys.

This was the School Hall but now PA ground.

I am sure many of you never really got the spelling right. It's Tyrwhitt. Now pronounce it.

A special feature of Singapore is clearly seen here - a temple next to a church.

Explore The Questions Of Life . . . have you?

Don't you love these circular staircases? How many of you have actually used them? The best circular staircase experts are those uncles who were running away from illegal gambling dens when the police paid a visit. I bet they could even leap from building to building like X-Men mutants.

This was once where the New World Amusement Park stood.

That's the corner where a convenience stall was selling newspapers, magazines, combs, "kueh chee (melon seeds)" and cigarettes and almost everything you need including plastic soccer balls. In those days, it was common for even school teachers to smoke. They even sent me out to buy some for them. See how times have changed. Seasons change, people change, feelings change - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcWfpPgeAP4 (Expose)

I have friends who lived nearby the school a couple of them were just so very near like across the street. I can imagine how nice it would have been for me to live near too. You see we clamour for things who do not have and when we have we may not treasure. Those who have grandfathers may not talk to them but I have grandfathers I never saw or too young to know so I would never know what it is like. It's real in life isn't it? So why won't more folks treasure what we have? Fathers of the free world - Unite! Come on!

Where's these curvy stuffs from? It sells everything you can imagine 24/7 and even cars at one time but only short of Chatuchak in Bangkok with no live animals.

These used to be offices of trading companies but now Hotel 81. How many of you have stepped into the Jalan Besar Stadium? Come on, "kana sai", support the S-League man! What EPL??

I did many times from those days till now. Most recently, I was there to witnessed a veterans tourney where many pot-bellied uncles wobbled around. Look at the pix, it said: "Lion City 1980" which means members of the Lion City Cup team (we called cubs). When you see this in 1980 then this fellow is a spring chicken but hey this was in 2010. You see Singapore's FAS created and hosted the world's first under-16 soccer tournament called the Lion City Cup.

In my usual stumble, I came across this exquisite shop take cuts you whatever timber you like. After a few occasions, I decided to change or add on the racks in my store room. A fool and his money is soon parted.

Laksa is a signature in Singapore along other favourites like Chicken Rice, Satay, etc. we have the famous Katong Laksa but how many of you know the Sungei Road Laksa? This old man was working from a push cart back in those good old days when dad brought me along that was when I first tried it. Mr. Wong is still around, strong and active just that the hair has turned grey.

So what is so special about this laksa? Look carefuly at the pix and did you see an amber glow? That is charcoal. Charcoal fire when frying or charcoal boil gives a different kind of warmth that is really hot. They will also pour gravy over the noodle till it is simmering hot then serve. From your first mouthful to the last, the laksa is piping hot throughout. The coconut gravy is light so it is a less dangerous version of cloggin your heart. Do not miss this. If you are a foreigner, do not leave Singapore without trying it. All the best and top chefs of fine food cuisines fell in love with laksa.

Amazingly, I found an old style barber. If the mafia brings you here then you worry. I learned it from "Eastern Promises" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq_M8EOC4zA just a flash of the barber part. David Cronenberg movies are quite unique but could be violent.
















Mustafa Centre - a cultural icon here.

So when was the last you have experienced deja vu? Or are you dog-tired everyday to even dream? Or remember anything? Even Rambo has flashback from Nam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Suvo3O9w8