This used to be my playground. (so says Madonna..)

Well, she isn't the only one who had a playground.  All of us would have a place where we played, tumbled, fell, and got up again. Then played yet again until we grew up suddenly one fine day.  Yes, that's what we all did, so don't deny it.

My playground wasn't anything special, but it was special to me because that was where I soaked life in and basked in the follies of youth.  And why not?  I was young, and I was beautiful (well, sort of..), so like they say the world was at my feet.  Didn't you feel that way when you were at your playground?  Don't lie now.

The name of my playground was Peirce Reservoir (aka Kallang River Reservoir), right about in the very centre of the island of Singapore.  We moved there in the 60's after my father was transferred from Johor where I was born.  He worked with the Singapore Waterworks (now known as Public Utilities Board) as he was a Singaporean by birth.  I seem to recall I was just about 6 years old then.  Unfortunately, I couldn't recall much of what or who I was prior to that age: only snatches here and there.

Being a water catchment area, it was rather isolated from the hustle bustle of mainstream Singapore even then. There were manicured lawns and flower beds and matured trees all over the big area, much like a botanical garden.  And of course there was the reservoir, a calm and serence body of water with lots of thriving aquatic life in it.  My father used to bring me on boat rides to the far ends of the reservoir when he went on a working tour of the place.

Our nearest neighbour was perhaps a kilometer away, so I was pretty much alone most of the time: my older brother always hanging out with his schoolmates away from home.  I learned about the birds and the bees right at my playground as there were plenty of birds and bees (even wasps).  And also from the courting couples who frequented the place at night and left tell-tale evidences the next morning strewn all over the roadside. Sometimes when I walked to school I would count how many used condoms I spotted along the way...

I miss the playground of my early life.  Sometimes I still dream I am there, even though the house we stayed in is no longer in existence.  I guess my deepest memories are there.  It was there I discovered my orientation and the path to my life's journey.  It was there I had my early infatuations which shaped my outlook until today.  And it was there that I made a decision to explore the world far away from home and be on my own...

 (all the pictures above were taken by my older brother a couple of years back)