For those who don’t know, the hawker centre near my house, the circuit road one, closed at the beginning of this month for major upgrading works. It’s quite a big hawker centre and it’s been there for as long as I can remember. Fond memories of walking home from school along it. When it’s in the evening, I’d see the TV screens at the shops all tuned to the same channel and the same show. You could walk the length of the place and not miss a scene.
A lot of people say the hawker centre here’s really good. I don’t know. It was just there. But when I tell people I live here, they always say, “oh yeah, that hawker centre etc etc.” Of course, now there’s the ‘oh no hawker centre, no food’ feeling. Not sure where we’re going to get food now. Geylang East is kind of far away and the coffee shop downstairs, I heard he’s getting complacent given that he’s the only food store around now. Tsk.
Lately, cos choir always ends so late, I tend to be walking home along that road quite late at night, like 11pm plus. And it would still be bustling with bright lights, traffic and the noise of people getting supper or buying a really late dinner or just hanging out. But today, I went back and that stretch of road was like a ghost town. Everything was so quiet and still. There was no bustle in the air, no lights, no sounds, no body around. It was SO different. Even back when I would be walking home after midnight mass or something, there would still be some activity. It’s all gone now.
I don’t know. I guess I feel kind of sad. Like something’s missing. It’s clearly the end of an era, the closing of the hawker centre. I never realised how central it was, how much it was like the heart of the sleepy little Macpherson estate. Now that it’s gone, there’s a different vibe in the air. It feels weird. Like a different place. I’d never thought I’d see that hawker centre close. It feels abandoned, when I see the empty stalls and the half dismantled tables and chairs and the half put up construction barriers.
Oh well, goodbye to the hawker centre as I knew it. Goodbye to the estate as I knew it. I already miss that place.
