untended places

i picked this unit because of the view. on the left, i see tips of jurong port lighting the horizon at dusk, reminding me of old ports, grey coasts and distant lighthouses that haunted my earliest impressions of childhood. my 21st floor bedroom window opens up to much of the northwest...safti, kranji, choa and lim chu kang and jb further afield.

i've spent much of my life in the west; born, bred, educated and will probably die here. there was little appeal for the east when friends invited me to hunt for an apartment that would always receive alot of summer breeze from the sea. i enjoy staying in the west for the quiet it offers and the large swathes of green that seem to remind us of our jungle past. providence permitted another childhood fantasy to come true; to be near to the sound and comfort of railway lines, a tangible reminder, an assuring spiritual metaphor indicating a direction sought and gained...a path on which to travel on. i don't always find it completely and have sometimes even been denied of it. but this line of trains outside my window imparts a firm imprint of a past catching up with me, to validate what i've always felt from childhood and my teenage years...

i'll probably be in debt for life when i made the decision to purchase this flat. in this present state, the hacked walls, loosened wires and pristine floor tiles are a contradiction of sorts- laying an uneasy vision of a home to come. you need to work hard to peel the most out of a limited budget and remain unseduced by cheap buys. do i hold a neat dream or a huge mess on my hands?

  i have to wait patiently for this place to be completed between now and november. in time to come, i can look longer at spells of coming rain (not anymore on these globalwarming days) drenching the albizia and raintree beyond the window...