the last 24 hours...

Don't cry for me Argentina
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance

From the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Tim Rice

No, no, this isn't another post about the pros and cons of the death penalty...

It's about the last 24 hours that I will spend in this apartment before moving on to another place. At lost for words as many thoughts run through my head earlier this morning. Maybe this photo essay of the final 24 hours of living here will be the catharsis I need to get this move over and done with.


@7.05am, Wifey getting ready for work

The significance of it will slowly dawn on me in the later days. It's funny how I've always thought of the old 2-room rented flat in Queenstown as my original home.


the lime green dining room
i'll miss the 20+ yr-old round table

Then as I brushed my teeth this morning I suddenly realized that this apartment, which my dead father left to my granny, was my original home all along. I had spent the first 2 years of my life here before being more or less kidnapped to live with my granny's family in Queenstown for the next 9 years. The MRT project in the 80s forced the family to relocate and since my dad had already transferred the title of this apartment to granny, she took all of us here.


kitchen, where I whipped up inedible stuff...

And here was where I spent the rest of my life.

Apple II computers, Centrepoint Kids, Michael Jackson's "Beat It", flirting with IJ girls, rugby competitions, National Service, Med School, getting married, expecting a kid. All the major milestones of my life so far happened here. Perhaps it's poetic that the first home Faith returns to from hospital will be the new flat. A new lease of life in more ways than one.


cosy corner of the living room

From 150 sq. metres to 85, there's going to be less room for crazy running antics. Well, the good thing is, this place will be around for a while before the en bloc sale formally goes through. As I jokingly told Wifey, people go to ulu places like Downtown East for frenzied weekend chalet vacations, we get to come to town for prata and nasi goreng pataya...