“过那边”。。。(Cross over there...)

When I was young, I would always heard my mum tell my father, “过那边” (in Hokkien which literally means - Cross over there). Normally, when my mum said that it was to tell us that we would be heading to Sing Ming Road, where my maternal grandfather's house was.

This is the bus stop where we used to take "137" to Upper Thomson Road

If my father was not able to drive us there, my mum and the three of us would take a bus along Braddell Road to the private housing estate, located at Upper Thomson area.

The "137" bus would cruised along Braddell Road, before making its turn on the right to enter Upper Thomson and the bus stop (pictured above) was our "port-of-call".

We had to cross the Upper Thomson Road, before making our way to my grandfather's house by walking along the road (that road in the middle pictured above).

So, this was where my late maternal grandfather used to stay (the third unit from the left) till I was 12 years of age when he decided to sell it away. I remember my mum once asked him if he had any regret to sell away the house he slogged so hard to buy for it, my grandfather said, "Not at all...".

It sure brings back a lot of memories, whenever I passed by this place...

The "kopitiam" at the corner of this housing block (pictured above) facing the house served one of the best "zi char" fried rice I ever sampled (but not sure if it's the case now).

In case we ran of any grocery, we would head to this place (pictured above) where there used to be a big market and look for “阿吴” (Ah Goh, as the grocery was affectionately called by his surname).

But nothing beat the thrill to walk along this road called "Soo Chow Walk" (pictured above), as I remembered one of the highlights while at this part of the island was to pay a visit to "Thomson Yaohan"(because the anchor tenant of the shopping mall - Thomson Plaza, was the defunct Japanese retailer - Yaohan).

Thomson Plaza - snapped this from the bridge.

Inside Thomson Plaza - the Christmas deco is still visible.

Although, the interior and facade cannot compared with those much trendier we would saw in downtown area, this shopping used to be THE MALL in this part of the island.