Initiated a photography-story project via a Facebook page @TheWorkingResident to capture the different facets of the hectic Singaporean life that most tend to overlook as ordinary.

Twilight but this is just the beginning.

 

 

I am but an insignificant figure in the obscure streets of forgotten places.

 

 

People are more than what they seem upon the first interaction. It takes a smile or a friendly question to chip past that cold facade we unknowingly put on.

 

 

Even to the people who make life miserable, she tries to see things in their perspective; to slip into their shoes even if it is of the wrong fit.

 

 

Well, she never thought she’d find anything interesting in the trains to snap but oh, how wrong and shallow she was! There is so much more to the superficial interpretation of buses and trains being only modes of transport from our homes to workplaces.

They facilitate the transition between our work mode to the relaxed and warmer state of ourselves, and are witnesses to our changing dreams and goals as the reflective panels of window opposite our seat show us the image of our contemplative and uncertain faces.

There is so much more to everything, and she is only beginning to learn of it.

 

 

Let the young enjoy their childhood.

 

 

The girl watched on as he busied himself behind the counter, snipping at the photograph  to its right dimension with his scissors  , when the paranoia of having someone’s eyes on her, kicked in.

She realised her cause for hysteria was unfounded for it was simply the many rigid rectangles of framed faces from behind the uncle, looking down on her.

She laughed in relief then felt her spirit take a plunge as she recalled a phrase from somewhere she read from, “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.”

 

 

The only thing you can do when meeting life’s toughest battles, is to laugh our hardest at it to deliver a matching blow.

 

 

Somehow in the girl’s unfounded desperation to get to her destination on time, she misses out on how blue the sky was or how the clouds; seemingly like brushstrokes on the blue canvas could  grant her more solace than that pint of alcohol she might order at her destination of a bar later on.

 

 

How nice it is to immerse ourselves in activities we would do when we retire and yet at the same time, be able to earn as if at the prime of our years, the girl thought.

 

 

“Where my older jie jie looks or treads, I will.” (Younger2016)

It isn’t easy being the older of the siblings. The girl have seen older ones struggle to be role models, and then try to take the helms and groom the youngers the way they were brought up.

But they forgot those ways worked, only during their time.

 

 

We talked in Chinese with a standard so poor, but they knew what we wanted to say.

 

 

She smiles inwardly as the girl realised that there before her was the exact pose she would stand in when’s she’s adamant that the effort she has invested into something, is indeed worthwhile in propelling herself closer to her goals.

 

 

We had lofty goals of ourselves when we were younger. As time caught up with us, reality chips away at those precious dreams.

 

 

We are tired of what we do, and we need a rest, anywhere.

 

 

The girl smiled, ‘Food brings us all together.’

 

 

In trying to keep up with the progress of everyone, the girl’s shoulders sagged and her frame crumbled into the person next to her.

 

 

The girl recognised beauty in the unfamiliar.

 

 

The girl moved away, abashed, as she tried to figure out which is more beautiful.. the majestic layers of the chocolate mille crepe cake or the sincerity with which the man’s fervent care for the confectionaries exudes.

 

 

The half-asleep girl peeked through her half-opened eyes and smiled at the words her alert mind came up with.

“You cramp my style.”

 

 

A temporary escape was all the girl needed.

 

 

Different people of varying aspirations, dreams, visions and vocations finding their way through the streets.