A Short Break in Changi

27th - 29th June 2012

I just took a little break in the quaint part of Singapore a few days ago with a few of my friends including one who has returned from the US after about half a year or so. Unfortunately Weixiang, Mu Yao, Calvin and Hayden weren’t able to join us due to work leaving only Andrew, Yanjie, Andre and I at the chalet.

Before I continue with my post, I would like to point out how ridiculous it was when a simple, personal chalet was suddenly and breathlessly unashamedly labelled as some silly gathering supporting this faction or another. It is just plain silly….it is like blaming Thai honey mangoes for being Yellow Shirt supporters and granny smith apples as Pan-Green supporters.

Regardless, I picked Changi for its village-like setting filled with historical buildings and for its strong sentimental value. I had a great time revisiting the familiar routes along Nicoll Drive and for Andre who was a commando during his NS days.

The Netheravon Road was particularly memorable as it was part of his daily running route (which ends at Marina Bay). We, including Andrew and Yanjie who ORDed this year even saw a group of commandos having their route march past our chalet early in the morning. Haaaa… the army days.

Changi has changed significantly since I visited the place with Weixiang last year, the Command House is no longer open to outsiders and it is in the process of becoming part of a upcoming hotel and the Old Changi Hospital is now fenced up…..what a pity.

We gathered at the chalet for another reason, to do some photographing and sketching. Andre himself has some pretty impressive sketches of boats along Changi Jetty and Mei Hung, another talented artist who joined us on the second day did a pretty solemn piece of novel.

At night, we were joined by several friends invited by Andre, Andrew and Yan Jie and it happened that we knew each other as all of us came from the same Art Elective Programme or NUS Architecture some of them are from Art, Design and Media school in NTU so despite each of us coming from different cohorts, we pretty much knew each other.

For such a joyous occasion, I prepared some Mussels cooked with Sauvignon Blanc, French shallots, garlic, cherry tomatoes and fresh Italian parsley. It was really addictive. You could find the recipe here. The sauce goes really well with pasta and bread.

I also prepared some spaghetti with a tomato-based sauce, found it too sour. Last but not least, nothing beats ending a meal with some Dreyers Vanilla Ice Cream.

It was a short 3 days break, but I thoroughly enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of Changi, it wasn’t crowded like Downtown East or East Coast and there were plenty of food around the area. The chalet wasn’t too bad too although some of the kitchen fixtures and toilets needs some fixing.