There’s something about A Tinge of Regret

I happen to drop by Toa Payoh a few weeks back for some errands, and ended up staying longer than intended. Having lived the better part of my life there (24 years, to be exact), it’s a place of warm and usually fond remembrance for me.

Despite the upgrading and new buildings, there were a lot of things that didn’t change. For example, the pasar malam was still packed. They still have those kiddie rides (scooter or car for you?) at I-don’t-know-how-many cents per ride. And there were still a lot of uncles playing checkers at the void deck near what used to be the central fountain.

About the only thing that was different, yet uniquely congruent to the communal spirit of Toa Payoh, was the many line dancers sashaying at the pavements, seemingly obviously to the stares of curious passer-bys.





To me, there is another constant in Toa Payoh: there is this old ice cream uncle whom I’ve bought ice cream from since I was in secondary school. He would always be there, regardless of the weather, three hundred and sixty five days a year barring Chinese New Year. I witnessed the price of the ice cream more than tripled from 30 cents to the current $1, witnessed how the number of ice cream sellers increased from the original one to god-knows-how-many-now, and also witnessed how the poor uncle developed a limp over the years.

I always make it a point to get a cone from him whenever I’m in Toa Payoh, and that night was no exception. Our conversations were always the same: 你吃饱了吗？你要不要榴莲味的？一定要问因为有些人不喜欢榴莲味。

I have no idea why, but I had a sudden urge to take a picture with Uncle that night. But I refrained because I’ve heard that old folks are not really into pictures because it’s deemed as inauspicious. As I walked away though, I couldn’t resist it, and went back to take a shot of him in the distance without him knowing.





I was back in Toa Payoh again last night, but failed to get my usual ice cream because Uncle was not around. In fact, he wasn’t around last week either. For want of a better description, my imagination went wild. My hand in hers, B3 comforted me by saying he has probably retired, and is probably enjoying a warm dinner with his family now. I hope with my heart that she is right.

I never did find out his name all these years.

Signing off,
Barneysaurus