fly away from here

this little piggy went to the market...

"This little piggy went to the market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef.
This little piggy had none.
This little piggy cried 'Wee, wee, wee, wee!'
All the way home."

okae so i'm not a "piggy", and neither do i particular fancy being called one..
but i did go to the wet market today with my mom =)
it's been a couple of years since i've ventured out to the wet market at ghim moh.. and much to my boyfriend's amazement, i quite enjoyed it =)

i used to follow my mom to the wet market when i was much younger.. and this trip brought back a few childhood memories.. the entire place almost seemed to have been preserved in some sort of time capsule and was released to me when i stepped in..

the man who sells fishes and terapins as pets is still there.. i used to spend most of my time at his stall, looking at all the colourful little fishes whilst my mother went off marketing.. over the years, i've bought quite a few fishes from him.. all of which have travelled the route of my water pipe leading from my toilet bowl to the mysterious unknown.. i've gotten a few terapins too.. one ran away (i'm serious.. those little guys can run real fast).. the rest are happily swimming in the ponds at botanic gardens =)

then there's the man who sells vegetables.. at his stall, he's is surrounded 360 degrees with vegetables.. literally.. he's in the centre of his stall and all around him there are vegetables.. and it takes quite a bit of maneuvering for him to get out of his little vegetable barricade.. i remember him because of that.. i always found it kinda amusing.. and i saw him today again.. back in his little vegetable barricade.. just the way he was years ago..

and today i met an old man that somehow hasn't found his place in my memory before.. he sells eggs with his wife.. when i reached his stall.. he was sorting out eggs.. yup.. you read it right.. he was sorting out eggs.. now not like blatantly different eggs.. say centry eggs versus salted eggs versus duck eggs versus chicken eggs etc.. as far as i could tell, they were all normal looking chicken eggs.. he'd pick out a few eggs.. put them in this tray.. pick out a few more eggs.. and then put them on that tray.. at first i just thought he was arranging the eggs on the tray.. but he was really sorting them out.. his actions had a rhythm to them.. and this little scene just reminded me of how it's said that as a young boy, leonardo da vinci's art teacher told him to do life study drawings of eggs.. the point of it was that no two eggs are exactly the same and to capture that difference down in paper.. my father suggested i try doing that when i was younger.. er didn't work out too well.. they all looked the same to me.. i was never big on details.. and just as about i was to leave his egg stall.. i noticed that he was missing his right arm and it was just a stump.. yet he was working just fine.. i don't quite understan why i don't remember him.. or maybe it's like what they say.. about the innocence of children to not really notice anything different or odd about a man like that.. still.. i should have remembered him..

there's this line from the movie samurai (great movie by the way, ken watanabe was excellent in it whilst tom cruise.. well he should have "died" instead of ken watanabe...) and i don't quite remember it word for word, but it was said by tom cruise's character as he studied the people working in the japanaese village.. something along the lines of "...from the moment they wake up, they set out to perfect that which is their craft.." this came to mind as i saw the egg seller at work..

there was this family, which consisted of two parents and their son, selling fruits.. the son, who is in about his twenties i think? kept trying to get my mom to buy this rock melon fruit and kept letting her try little samples of it.. haha it was quite amusing.. especially since my mom kept saying no..

a lot of the stalls are family run and you just get this warm feeling looking at them work together.. the egg seller and his wife.. then there was this cute old couple that sold fish together.. and another couple who sold meat.. the husband of that pair, upon realising that i was my mom's daughter addressed me in chinese as "lao da".. and correct me if i'm wrong (i'm not known for my prowess in chinese), it sorta means elder one.. and he did a little bow towards me before moving on to this toddler in a stroller.. the man spoke to the little boy in hokkien, " tow kay! simi tai ji?" which means "big boss! what's the probelm?" i was quite tickled by this =)

oh and there was something a little different today! there was some guy, who worked for the government, asking one of the vegetable stall holders how much his prices of his goods were (i know, my syntax is a little off).. it was for some weekly price survey.. and the stall holder was just standing there proudly listing off by heart how much each item cost.. you could kinda sense the pride in his voice as he answered all the questions of the government-service guy..

that coupled with these two men setting up fresh new "no-smoking" posters on the pillars along the eating area just felt very "singaporean" to me =)

the whole experience, though not entirely new, just felt really "singaporean" to me.. this is what i grew up on when i was really young, living at balestier.. i used to frequent the wet market over there with my maid and i remember buying those "cottage chips".. i use to love them! ah i still do actually.. yummy stuff =)

and i've always quite fancied the idea of living in apartment in town.. but i think i would want my future kids to have the sort of environment that i grew up in when i was really young.. the wet markets round the corner, with all their sights and smells =)

i think wet markets are quite the essence of singapore..

posted by -xin` @ 01:42