Old neighborhoods

The first item in our agenda was to visit the neighborshoods where we used to live and work, both of which have undergone quite a few changes. This is the Pasir Panjang village (in 2012) as we remember it when most of the businesses had already closed because of the upcoming renovation. The village used to be much livelier, when we moved to the neighborhood.

This is the village today — new (and the former) businesses are yet to find it, and we wonder if they ever will:

On the other hand, some things never change. Haw Par Villa is as bizarre as it has always been.

One North, where we both used to work, had certainly changed a lot. While the area was practically a huge constructions site then, it is mostly completed today. Fusionopolis 1 was the first and the only building in the area when Tei started working there in 2008.

The old JTC food center across the Ayer Rajah Avenue had been replaced by Timbre+, a trendy food center built from shipping containers.

One day you’ll be happy that it is not 59 meters.

Another impeccably clean Singaporean restroom at Timbre+:

And then to some new commercial buildings, some of which also host research facilities. Galaxis @One North.

Sandcrawler – a regional headquarters of Lucasfilm.

Nexus @One North. The green area on the left is actually a small (man-made) nature reserve

When working there the area was quite dead (if you don’t count the construction noise), and there were few interesting places to eat. Now there is an abundance of food and coffee choices, but the area is so tightly constructed that it is almost opressive.

While the new One North left us overwhelmed, the changes on the NUS campus and the new University Town were more or less positive.
Recycling at NUS.

NUS seems to have all sorts of extra-curricular activities going on at all times:

The new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum on (the main) NUS campus.

Even the main library had received a bit of a facelift.