i don't know what i was looking for that somehow led me to click on wikipedia's page on tanjong pagar - where i saw these pictures of spiral staircases - quite a jolt to the memory - so very pre-war singapore! i had a great aunt who lived in tiong bahru - so of course she had these too. i was very little then of course - and they were marvellously precarious, and you could go round and round, down and down, and pass a lot of people's kitchens on the way. oh! she had the tiong bahru style round balconies too, and i remember she had thin, beige, painted metal grills. i don't have clearer memories - she died when i was 12 and they sold off the flat, and even before then that were the branch of the family we only saw during chinese new year (they all pronounced my name meng zi - huh! no need to cook ah? that's nice! i suppose that implied marrying well in those days - having underlings to do the cooking. maybe this i why i never learnt to cook and secretly want to be a tai-tai.)

though what i would really like is to live in a restored traditional shophouse. i think shutters are very lovely things.

also, i want to read this book: toponymics: a study of singapore street names by victor savage and brenda yeoh.