Old Yet New

(Parliament Hill, Ottawa, last Saturday. The sky was a perfect blue without a cloud in sight!)

Someone in Ottawa asked me what was the first thing I'd want to do back in Singapore. I didn't have an answer, even after thinking for a while. I've been back for about 3 days now (and jet lag is wearing off slowly), and I don't find myself rushing to eat anything in particular that I've missed. In fact, I find myself craving for a number of things back in Ottawa that I know I can't find here! ...I think about Ottawa a lot. It's natural I guess. I hope.

Been busy again since coming back. Things to put in place and lists of to-dos to prepare so that it's a little clearer what tasks need to be completed - in and outside of work. I'd admit it's not easy getting back into the swing of things here. A small part of it feels like "picking up where I left off". But mostly it feels like "old & comfortable, yet new & unfamiliar". Like today - I took the MRT to Novena to get my regular clinical tests done. The MRT stations looked different - the makeover work has progressed well. Yet, almost without thinking, I knew exactly where to go. It felt strange. So is it new or not? Even at the hospital, the faces have changed too. Yet the whole routine was familiar... Two evenings back, took a walk down Orchard Road (yes, less than 24 hours after landing - celebrating my parents' 31st wedding anniversary lah) - and yes, it felt familiar yet not. I found myself thinking about the main Rideau street in Ottawa and how we'd get cool piped Christmas jazz over the air in the morning as the chilling winds blew!

Well, I guess in part things in Singapore have changed. After all, we always have so much construction and other works going on everywhere. But I think it's also because I have changed. Because of what I have seen, heard and lived in Ottawa, I see things back in Singapore differently, no matter how unchanged they may be. That can be a good place to be in - being able to see the new in the old, and the old in the new. One is a powerful way to relook and reframe what exists; the other is a powerful way of connecting the dots across time and space. Both involve embracing the past and its traditions as much as the present/future and its possibilities.

Old yet new - another chapter begins.

(Playing with food at RSVP at Park Hotel along Orchard Road)