Wink Wink! Living life with Meaning and Inspiration
Colours that I spotted in street corners of Joo Chiat.
Red – Standing at the junction of Marshall Lane, along Joo Chiat Road, is a 3 storey shophouse, a private art gallery which specializes in oriental art.
Yellow – Walking a few streets down Joo Chiat Road, I see splashes of vibrant happy shades on the facade of these pre-war terrace houses.
Look out for upcoming posts on this area in Joo Chiat, where you will see the finest examples of Peranakan architecture in Singapore.
What does Singapore’s culture mean to a 5-6 year old?
From our heritage walks of Arab Street, Chinatown, Little India and Dec 2012 visit to the Peranakan Museum, the children have learnt that the country they live in is a melting pot of diverse cultures and languages.
Amongst the 4 cultures that the kids experienced from our walkabouts of the ethnic areas in Singapore, we didn’t get to complete our walkabout for the Peranankan area. Our plans for a Katong/Joo Chiat walkabout was thwarted by heavy rains that particular day after the visit to the Peranakan Museum.
The Peranakan Museum was an intriguing place for the kids to learn more about the Peranakan culture, with its artifacts, intricate beadwork and collection of Peranakan objects.
To complete my series on The Accidental Tourists (Singapore), I will be doing walkabouts in the next few weeks exploring the ethnic enclave of Peranakan culture, the Katong/Joo Chiat area. Which incidentally, is the stretch of road that I travel at least twice daily, sending K to and fro school in the mornings and evenings.
Look out for my upcoming series of posts; The Accidental Tourist (me lah!) takes a Peranakan tour in Katong and Joo Chiat.
This was the first time that we played at the beach in Singapore (after moving to the east during the week), where K got to build his first ‘sandcastle’ with a trench.
We explore the area around Playground@Big Splash where there were plenty of food establishments, a small recreational centre for bikes and Kanjoo jumps shoes for rental and a prawning and longkang fishing area (for the kids).
East Coast seemed to have lost the charm that I remembered it as a child.
I had fond memories of the water slides of Big Splash in the 80s, and when the sand was still clean enough to be buried to the neck in sand 
Now East Coast beach waters are filthy, I was quite concerned that we would walk away with some skin allergies after dipping our feet in the water to get some water for our sandcastle. Looking at the big ships that are peppering the coastline in the distance, swimming in the sea will probably mean submerging your bodies in other people’s waste (from the ships)…yuck…
Nonetheless, we made the most of our first beach experience at East Coast and still had fun. But will probably be avoiding the sand and the sea at East Coast unless the boy requests for it again…
