Thursday, May 18, 2006
wessex paradise - bohemian bro
I live in a magical garden in the middle of a concrete jungle.
It's called, rather boringly, wessex estate, and the name gives absolutely no hint of what this beautiful place is like.
Wessex gardens consists of a collection of "black and white" walk-up three story apartment blocks and houses which date back to pre-second world war.
They were built during the British rule of Singapore and the blocks and houses are surrounded and shaded by 200 year old trees with wide, long branches .... which are also home to families of squirrels, birds, strange looking chamelions with orange heads, lizards, insects (ok the mozzies arent that attractive) ... yes a few snakes... and a host of symbiotic plants which have nestled themselves along hteir lenght.
I look out of my window every day and I see greeen... my favourite colour - the colour of life and balance and calm.
Wessex is such an oddity in singapore as most of the island is modern and accommodation is in the form of high rise apartments - be they governement or private condominiums. Indeed there have been rumours about the demolition of wessex for more than a decade - according to my neighbour who has lived on the estate for about 18 years.
You see the land on which wessex is built (it is situated towards the west of the island) is very valuable and there is a lot of it. The apartments were built in a time when it was not necessary to squeeze as many people into a small area as possible. There are several "unused" football sized fields around the estate. Most chinese locals (chinese make up 80 per cent of the population) dont like living in hte apartments because they are old and you cant get cable. Most of the residents are either expat, malay, indian ... although there are a few chinese.
There was talk of demolishing it and putting up condos, there was talk of building horrible government flats on the "football fields" - god onlyknows what hell that would be...
but for the moment we are safe.
Somebody high up in the government decision making offices decided that singapore needed to nurture more creativity amongst its peoples. So as a result Wessex has now been classified "Bohemian" and for that reason alone ... the arent messing with us at the moment.
Mind you, my friend is a speech therapist, and the other neighbour sells washing machines at Harvey Norman ... although there is an artist downstairs who grinds away on funny looking monolithic scultures which she leaves on her patio ... so we are all hoping she will carry the Bohemian torch for all of us.
I am doing my bit by burning loads of incense and hanging chimes in the entrance way...
Boho rules !
It's called, rather boringly, wessex estate, and the name gives absolutely no hint of what this beautiful place is like.
Wessex gardens consists of a collection of "black and white" walk-up three story apartment blocks and houses which date back to pre-second world war.
They were built during the British rule of Singapore and the blocks and houses are surrounded and shaded by 200 year old trees with wide, long branches .... which are also home to families of squirrels, birds, strange looking chamelions with orange heads, lizards, insects (ok the mozzies arent that attractive) ... yes a few snakes... and a host of symbiotic plants which have nestled themselves along hteir lenght.
I look out of my window every day and I see greeen... my favourite colour - the colour of life and balance and calm.
Wessex is such an oddity in singapore as most of the island is modern and accommodation is in the form of high rise apartments - be they governement or private condominiums. Indeed there have been rumours about the demolition of wessex for more than a decade - according to my neighbour who has lived on the estate for about 18 years.
You see the land on which wessex is built (it is situated towards the west of the island) is very valuable and there is a lot of it. The apartments were built in a time when it was not necessary to squeeze as many people into a small area as possible. There are several "unused" football sized fields around the estate. Most chinese locals (chinese make up 80 per cent of the population) dont like living in hte apartments because they are old and you cant get cable. Most of the residents are either expat, malay, indian ... although there are a few chinese.
There was talk of demolishing it and putting up condos, there was talk of building horrible government flats on the "football fields" - god onlyknows what hell that would be...
but for the moment we are safe.
Somebody high up in the government decision making offices decided that singapore needed to nurture more creativity amongst its peoples. So as a result Wessex has now been classified "Bohemian" and for that reason alone ... the arent messing with us at the moment.
Mind you, my friend is a speech therapist, and the other neighbour sells washing machines at Harvey Norman ... although there is an artist downstairs who grinds away on funny looking monolithic scultures which she leaves on her patio ... so we are all hoping she will carry the Bohemian torch for all of us.
I am doing my bit by burning loads of incense and hanging chimes in the entrance way...
Boho rules !
# posted by Karen @ 1:47 AM 
