My East Side Story
My dad and an infant me at our Blk 46 Bedok South Ave 3 home
My mum and a toddler me at our Blk 46 Bedok South home. The Blk 60 Point Block of New Upper Changi Road in the background still exists today
Me (red t-shirt) and my cousins at my grandparents house at Blk 150 Tampines St 12
Primary 5 me (with glasses) with Bedok View Primary School (now defunct) on school trip
First few house photos at our new Tampines flat at Blk 936 Tampines Ave 5. Retro tv times!
Meeting my idol David Lee at Parkway Parade. Note: Emperor Optics is still around today!
Year 1979 Bedok New Town - where it all began..
Blk 46 Bedok South Ave 3 is where it all began. It was my parent's first new home after getting married. It was where my sister and me were born. Life wasn't easy in the 80s - my dad was an account assistant at F&N by day and drove the night taxi shift whereas my mum was a home maker. As a child with busy parents, I was introduced to the kampung spirit early on, my next door elderly Chinese aunty became my minder, and my far end elderly Malay uncle watching over us at the corridor.
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My childhood days saw countless hours at the Pelican playground and big metal merry-go-round of that era. My favourite food was the "you-tiao" and bak chor mee at the hawker centre of Blk 58. Drama was seeing the fish hawker uncle draw his chopper against the vegetable uncle during an altercation. Saviour is the female doctor of the "New Town Clinic" when I fell of my tricycle and broke my chin. Awesome was the Bedok Swimming Pool canteen aunty who gave me an extra fishball as I was cute.
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These vivid memories all relate because of one common factor - people. The heartlands people who made this neighbourhood what it is and defined our growing up years may not know it, but they shaped us significantly. Today, Blk 46 is no longer around, being part of the SERS (Selective En-Bloc Redevelopment) Program, but the vivid memories still carries on.
1989 Tampines New Town, my significant other
Right around Primary 5, when we were growing older, my parents decide to move to 936 Tampines Ave 5. As I was still studying in Bedok View Primary (now defunct), I had to take the 5am school bus to school. I did reasonably well for my PSLE and entered Anglican High Secondary School before moving on to Temasek JC. While Tampines is now my new home, Bedok had continued in education.
My favourite Tampines place has got to be the Tampines Round Market Food Centre. Till today, the Chai Chee Porridge, Carrot Cake, Xing Ji Wanton Mee, Nasi Lemak stall & Sarawak Kolo Mee just to name a few, are stalls that evoke a familiar and heart-warming routine. For the teenage me, who can forget the KFC located within the heartlands - one of the first of its kind in those times. Another vivid memory was taking a photo with our national goalkeeper David Lee at the old Parkway Parade as part of Gallen Sports (very popular sports shop) event. You can even see the retro "Emperor Optics Shop" (which still exists today!) in the background!
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Tampines is very close to my heart. A fair bit of my relatives stay there. My paternal grandparents resided in Blk 150 Tampines St 12, my uncles stayed at Blk 857 Tampines St 83 and Blk 450 Tampines St 42. We cousins played at the playgrounds and big field in front of Tampines Secondary School and gathered at my grandparents house every weekend. Those were fun times.
I also remembered when we first moved to Tampines in 1989, Tampines MRT had not been built and we had to stop at Tanah Merah MRT and take bus 31 back home. Today, Tampines boasts the OTH, a host of amenities, plenty of malls and a network of high grade offices. How far it has come since!
While Bedok and Tampines have changed quite a lot over the years till today, one thing remains unchanged - the flavour and heartbeat of these two mature neighbourhoods, the community-like residents and the nostalgic architecture of the flats remain in passionate spirit. It is with this affinity that I am equally committed to serve residents of Bedok and Tampines as a Real Estate Salesperson from Propnex. Today, 43 years on, I am still residing in the East, along another rustic neighbourhood - Dakota/Old Airport Rd.
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My passion to serve the residents of Bedok, Tampines, Kallang and the lovely east side, is what keeps me going. Let me, Benjamin, your Bedok and Tampines born, homemade and bred agent, represent you in your home journey needs! I am happy to receive any queries or needs you have.
