Memories of Sago Lane: Part 1: The Sounds of Childhood

Memories of Sago Lane: Part 1: The Sounds of Childhood

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In the heart of Chinatown today stand the less exciting remains of Sago Lane, “the Street of Dead People,” or “sei yan kai” in Cantonese. Originally a 250-metre-long street stretching from South Bridge Road to Keong Siak Road, it was cut into two in a massive do-over in the 1970s. Unfortunately, only the duller part of the street, the one leading to South Bridge Road, survived. The life and soul of Sago Lane, near to Keong Saik Road, was completely…

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Dreaming Up Music

Dreaming Up Music

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There are diagrams that explain how things work, diagrams that show the lay of the land, diagrams that explain complex ideas quickly when words fail, diagrams that give you sudden insight, and many others. But there is one type of diagram that stirs up a lot of joy and imagination in me—the orchestral seating plan. When I started playing music in my school band as a teenager, I became fascinated by the variety and complexity of sound produced by large…

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FOG & MUD IN SCENIC SA PA

FOG & MUD IN SCENIC SA PA

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Uncooperative weather is one of the constant enemies of the camera-toting occasional traveller. It roared down mercilessly on our half-day trek through the rice fields of Sa Pa in Vietnam. And they say March is a good time to travel there. It was 2023. Perhaps climate change has something to do with this. Thick milky boundless fog enveloped the town as we walked miserably towards the meeting point. We could not even see the sky and there seemed to be…

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Joy of Parks

Joy of Parks

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Near my home, there used to be a stretch of thick green trees and dark undergrowth lining up one side of a two-way road. It was probably not more than 100 meters long. Sometimes I take my early morning walk this way, and I always make it a point to slow down at this stretch to enjoy the invigorating cool oxygenated air emanating from it. It is remarkable that even in a small plot of land, nature is adept at…

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Every day is Sunday

Every day is Sunday

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It has been 5 years since I left gainful employment. The last day at my office was on Mid-Autumn Festival in 2016, shortly after my sixty-first birthday. Although I left my job suddenly in dramatic circumstances, I had thoughts of retirement a few years before that. I had planned my post-work finances and expected to ease out of working life gradually as I still enjoyed my work tremendously. In fact, when I was in my prime, I could not imagine…

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Discovering Chopin

Discovering Chopin

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Recently, while browsing the cache of digital photos I accumulated over the years, I found a picture of the Frédéric Chopin Museum in Warsaw, which I visited in 2011. The photo was not well taken, probably a surreptitious shot as there were no other pictures of the Museum except one on the external signage. I remember making a trip to the Museum while attending a conference in Warsaw. I wasn’t particularly keen on Chopin then, but it would be inexcusable…

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The Night Sky and our Well-Being

The Night Sky and our Well-Being

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Most of the time, whether we are moving or staying still, our eyes focus on what is in front. We are continuously preoccupied with the busyness that surrounds us and behaves as if we are the centre of everything. But now and then, if we tilt our heads up to the sky at night long enough, we might sink into oblivion pondering the vastness of what is above. The Night Sky When the sky is clear, I can see with…

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Four-character wisdom

Four-character wisdom

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In my last post, I mentioned in passing some Japanese aphorisms which are worthy of more than a moment’s reflection. Closer to home ground, for people who speak Chinese, we take for granted the abundant formulaic expressions used in the Chinese language. The ancient Chinese are of course masters in pithy sayings which are pregnant with meaning and wisdom. In particular, the four-character idioms, chenyu (成语) are compact embodiments of centuries of human experience available to every Chinese speaker at…

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Kiso valley to Kairakuen: The rest of my Japan trip

Kiso valley to Kairakuen: The rest of my Japan trip

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Life without work deadlines and schedule is blissful. So, I have been taking my own sweet time in writing about the spring 2019 trip to Japan. With half the journey written up and my energy for writing about travel somewhat sagging now, it is time to wrap up the rest. It is like the ending of an overly long drama series where the plot is suddenly speeded up in the last episode. With more time stuck at home under the…

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Four pieces on Kyoto

Four pieces on Kyoto

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Kyoto looks like any crowded city with the usual traffic and thronging pedestrians until you step into the grounds and gardens of its temples and shrines, whereupon you will be transported into a different world of peace and calm. Having visited many of these gardens in our last few trips to Kyoto, we decided to look at other facets of the city this time in the two days we were there in Spring 2019. Kyoto street scene: the allure of…

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