This is the kindergarten which my daughter attended before she was enrolled in Jin Tai Primary School.

She was in the first intake when the kindergarten was newly opened.

With lots of new things to learn and kind, caring teachers, she enjoyed her early formative years at the kindergarten.

What is so special about the traffic light in the foreground of this picture?

Its the vertical traffic light, not the overhanging horizontal one.....

I remembered that so many years ago when I was having an evening stroll along West Coast Highway with my son, who was then about 5 or 6 years old, we stood at the same spot where I took this picture.

I then pointed to him the traffic light (can't tell whether its the same one) .....and taught him his first lesson in recognising color. Red, yellow, green and the basic traffic rules for motorists and pedestrians which different road users have to obey. He was so excited about learning something new that night. He kept pointing to objects and telling me their color, particularly red, yellow and green.

It comforts me to know that he is not color blind; and is keen to learn new things which will benefit him in the future. Life is a never ending journey in learning; until life itself ends.

I am sure this lesson was later reinforced by his teachers in primary school....but I think lessons learned in real life, beyond textbook learning outside school is equally important.

After crossing West Coast Road and walking through Clementi West St. 2, I hit the West Coast Highway.

I could remember this stretch of road very well.

West Coast Highway was still under construction when my family moved in over 20 years ago. I used to have my evening jog here after work. The sea was just a short distance away; and the peacefulness of the quiet coastal town, the gentle evening breeze from the sea....titillates the spirit and the soul.

The PSA has extended its port development from Pasir Panjang to the West Coast Highway area. The lovely view of the sea and the gentle sound of the lapping waves hitting the shoreline is now totally transformed.

The change in land use for economic development is inevitable. The port is the lifeline of Singapore.

The West Coast Highway is now hogged by container carriers and heavy, long-body trucks plying the Jurong industrial estates and Pasir Panjang PSA container port route.

The former Lady Jayne Kindergarten which my son attended when he was young is now taken over by the new owner, Genesis Kindergarten.

It is located at the corner of Jubilee Road off West Coast Road, just 2 blocks away from Blk 609 Clementi West St. 1

I used to send him to the kindergarten before I go off to work in the morning.

A great place for jogging, exercise and strolling.

Clementi Woods with its jogging tracks, exercise equipments and other sporting facilities , is popular among the residents of Clementi West and West Coast estates.

Most evenings after sundown and before it gets dark, you could see people, young and old, taking strolls or doing some physical exercise at the park.

It is located between West Coast Road and the sprawling National University of Singapore campus.

In the morning, the sound of chirping birds in the trees of Clementi Woods (just opposite our block) is a complete contrast from the hustle and bustle of the busy city areas.

The lush greenery of Clementi Woods and the beautiful view of the sea in the distant horizon was a sight to behold. I used to stand for long hours at the bedroom window of our former apartment at night to admire the beauty of the night scene.

It was truly therapeutic.....and helps to remove the stress at the workplace during the day.

The view from the window now is no longer the sea or Clementi Woods.

Its just the cold, concrete walls of Ginza Plaza; and the noisiness of the busy shoppers below.

Perhaps the residents there now find the convenience of shopping almost at their own doorstep a worthwhile trade-off; but give us the seaview anytime if we had a choice.



Please click on the image to enlarge

I am resuming my phlog for Dec 26 as the previous session was disrupted. I was unable to upload my updates yesterday....... and I'm doing it now from my .Mac account on the iMac (running MacOS 10.3.9) at home instead of using my Treo 650. If I procrastinate and do not complete the phlog update tonight, most likely I wouldn't get to do it this week. The phlog would then become stale....

The Phlog site was busy yesterday afternoon and I could not access it after transferring 7 files. I was left holding the Treo 650 and starring into the frozen screen showing file transfer in progress. The keyboard and touchscreen refuse to budge and there was no response when I press them.

I had to reset the Treo 650 after the system hangs and could not proceed with the wireless connection to the Phlog site.

After about half an hour and several failed attempts to establish connection, I got tired and decided to go home and sleep.

Please note that the following phlogs of my revisit to Clementi West, my old hometown, relates to events of yesterday Dec 26 and are not current.

Well, its one of those unexpected things that can happen.....be it traffic jam on the roads or clogging on the Internet information superhighway.

The phlog continues from the next entry....

Blk 609 Clementi West St. 1 is still there although the surrounding buildings have changed. The Ginza Plaza beside the block was formerly a warehouse for electronic goods.

There is also a new temple across the street which was built after we moved out some 20 years ago.

Both my children were bred at this heartland estate but I don't really know how much of their childhood memories they have stored or cherished of the place they grew up in. Both were born at Mount Alvernia Hospital in Singapore.

The changes in their lives would have overwhelmed them. The future is for them to build.

Sent from my Treo 650

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The Clementi West Food Centre and Wet Market is located at Clementi West St. 2 just across the road from where we used to live. It was so convenient for daily marketing or to buy food late at night when we need supper. The food stalls used to remain open till midnight.

Sent from my Treo 650

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This is my children's favorite pet shop located at Clementi West St. 2 just behind the West Coast C.C.

I was surprised that it is still there. According to the shop owner's wife with whom I had a short chat, the shop had existed for about 23 years and they are the original tenants when they initially rented the shop from the HDB (Housing & Development Board). Subsequently the shop was sold under the Sales Of Tenanted Shops Scheme and they opted to buy it from the HDB.

The shop sells many types of pet birds and domestic animals.

Whenever my children visit the shop when they were still young, they used to pluck grasses from the nearby field and feed them to the rabbits in the shop. I think they had lots of fun watching their favorite pets. They also learnt to love animals and develop some form of compassion from these activities.

Sent from my Treo 650

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