today i could not bear to be in the city and in lectures anymore, and escaped to the tranquility of everton park. i love this neighbourhood (which is not yet yuppified as tiong bahru) — the beautiful shophouses (‘straits eclectic’ is apparently the official name of the style), the arch over the carpark entrance proclaiming its name, its village feel. it has its own special silence, and i am less conscious of time passing here.
went in to the provision shop hoping the chilled somen special was still on the menu but it had disappeared along with most of the summer items. even the pierogis were out, and i am offered today’s tart, which is pumpkin chunks, caramelised onions, kale, crab meat, on filo pastry. the tart was indifferent (tasted more assembled than made) but came with a quite tasty side of cabbage salad (not quite sauerkraut) with small, dark mushrooms in (tasty, and they looked like escargots.) afterwards everton creamery being unnaturally full of office-shirted men (it’s a monday, for goodness sake. people who work ought be cooped up in their cubicles feeling blue and bitter, and not crowd ice-cream shops for aimless layabouts like me!) i circle the blocks and end up at just want coffee, and find space on a green sofa which puts me in mind of parrot feathers and wallace stevens, and it felt like a thursday afternoon, and the work i had to get through seemed a little more bearable.
Best of the Transparent Hummingbird