Photo History

Monday, April 27, 2009

Lo-ving-this-place

Toa Payoh.What so great about it. Well, Everything.. This is where i live half of my life. I used to live in Tampines but shift to Toa Payoh when my sister was born. This is where all my childhood memories took place. Toa Payoh is filled with warmth and love, and don't forget happiness.

Time passes but the atmosphere around it still remain the same. Despite that, the memoirs still kept tightly in my heart. Nothing can cause me to forget Toa Payoh. There is so many interesting places that remind me of Toa Payoh. Most of the places was filled with countless good memories. Places of interest for me is the Toa Payoh Central. Its where one can find their necessary needs. There the Toa Payoh library where you can spend your after school time to borrow books for self-reading or school purposes.

Weekend was always filled with fun and happiness. This happiness was shared with families and childhood friends. I can still remember the day when and my close cousins and some adult, venturing through an old school in Toa Payoh. Its an ordinary school but was believed to be haunted. I was once a mischievous child with mind filled with curiosity and questions about everything I encountered. Every time we reminisced about that incident, laughter would fill the air. We were like little kids of Toa Payoh searching for fun but ended up in an old,haunted school.

Well, fun wasn't the only thing that is in Toa Payoh.. Its Food... It can be found all around Toa Payoh. Local food to western food. It can be found anywhere. Where ever you turn, there's a food court that sells your choice food or other unrecognized food that may be drool over.

Even though Toa Payoh is small, it is big in its content. Toa Payoh its a hall of fame filled with memories that is imprinted on the heartlanders heart forever.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Toa Payoh..Love It

Toa payoh have always been the place i loved. It was a swamp before but became a beautiful city as years goes by and becoming the favourite hotspot for the young and old heartlanders. Toa Payoh is always been the place i've belong, where i live and also the start of my primary school education till now being in secondary3.

Toa Payoh is my heartland where i hang out and also the place which i spent with my parents for the past 15 years. I've always anticipated the weekend as it is the only day i can enjoy the moment with families and friends around. I love going to my previous primary school that is the 'Pei Chun Public School' which is located at lorong6. That is the place where my education got serious but also the best moment spent with all my new friends.

The moment was unforgettable. I remember always going to the fish pond with my friends during recess just to chit-chat and i remember there was a piano there for students to play. Once, someone i don't know fell into the fish pond while a student was playing the piano. Everyone was initially enjoying the piece till that moment, it was chaotic as people were laughing, pointing fingers at that particular guy. It was really a unforgettable experience for me and my friends.

Now, in secondary school, it is a fun experience for me as i get to know friends of different characters and personality.i learn to communicate with different kinds of people and also trains me to use different tone to different people. life in Toa Payoh is fun and exciting. it is full of memories and fun things to do. People around are amiable and great. i love Toa Payoh.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Once it is a swamp..

As we can see how toa payoh has developed from a swamp to such a populated area with all the HDB flats and so on, like a interchange and so many changes. Now its a area buzzing with people shopping for their daily needs and stuff.

I grew up in toa payoh, this place has kept alot memories of me growing up. I feel very contended to live here as the Toa payoh provides me almost all the facilities i need. Entertainment facilities, all the nice foods, sports facilities like the basketball courts, swimming pool, badminton courts and alot others, you name it!

We have fast-food restaurants like Mac Donalds, KFCs, Mos burger, burger king , Swensen and pizza hut in toa payoh central, there are also Food courts like Kofu which is situated in the interchange. Fork and Spoon for the halal food near entertainment centre. Toa payoh will never let you down when it comes to food. The lorong 8 market with large variety of choices for you. Foreigners whom came and eaten our local dishes sometime came back for more. My dad's oversea friends felled in love with our local dishes and asked for take-away so that he can eat it on the plane when he is heading back to china.

The entertainment centre in toa payoh seems to be some reason why alot people is heading to Toa payoh central, the entertainment centre consist of a arcade, where gamers pit their skills against each other from, racing on cars to dancing on the virtual dance floor. The entertainment centre also includes a movie theatre which includes 6 halls. Besides the entertainment centre, there is also SAFRA, with its facilities like a smaller swimming pool compared to the toa payoh swimming complex and they have a LAN-shop , a KTV for karaoke and also a cafe to relax yourself.


I grown up playing basketball in the different basketball courts in toa payoh, such like the south Community Club with all the friendly people, which i came to know and some even became my close friends ever since, the west community club with all the very strong players, you might not really want to mess with them. There are other courts like the one near block 229 and the one near block 12, the one you need the key to open the gate. I remember climbing into the gate and getting caught while playing basketball by policeman and ended up getting reprimanded by my parents. Those are the days...

I started learning swimming at the age of 10, and it all started from paddling in the baby pool of Toa payoh swimming complex with my parent to supervising to taking on tests which is suppose to boost your rank from bronze to silver to gold to gold star and finally to honour. With my parents cheering for me.The people in the pools are very friendly but watch it when you are in the pool. Sometime when people can't control their bladders. they end up peeing in the water and there is one occasion i swallowed the water with a weird taste, i guess it is sour, and it makes your mouth have the feeling that its dried up. Totally disgusted, i climbed out of the pool and dare not waddle in the pool until next week.

Want to take a walk? You can go down to Toa Payoh Garden with all the places to slack off with your mates and perhaps bring your drinks there with a newspaper, as you sit in the park and feel the wind blow against you as your take a sip from your drink.

Any Hotspots? Why not in toa payoh!? The tree temple in toa payoh is one of those place which is believed to be spiritual,and the residents later than build a little shrine since 1969 with their offerings. Legend states that in the early 1960s,when land had to be cleared to make way for the New Town,an engineer who attempted to remove the tree crushed to death under his own vehicle.

With that, i will end my Post Aven =D
3E2

Toa Payoh

Hi

Lets see how to start. As you can see other people have already writen so many things about the blog already. I can start by saying that Toa Payoh have many fascinating places like the NTUCs, the pasar malam(night market)and i really feel happy living in here as there are so many good places. There are also places like interchange and many shopping areas and some fast food restraunts like MacDonald and KFCs.

Besides the places mentioned above, there is also a entertainment center which is also situated in Toa Payoh Central. The entertainment center consists of MacDonalds(all time favourite for kids), the arcade(all time favourite for teenagers), a 6-halls cinema and of course, restaurants such as Swensens and Sakae Sushi. It's quite lucky to have facilities near the place i stay as i can get everything i need in such a short period of time.

What will you think of when people ask you about Toa Payoh? Alot of people would just talk about Toa Payoh Central which my fellow schoolmates have done. Other than the Toa Payoh Centre, there are other places that i think people ought to know such as the Community Centres(South, East, West, Central), the stadium, swimming complex, and most importantly the neighbourhood. Apart from gourmets found in Toa Payoh Centre, there delicious food to be found around the neighbourhood such as in the markets and hawker centres. Let's give a brief history about Toa Payoh. The word 'Payoh' is originated from the malay word 'paya' which means swap.
Toa Payoh is simply means ' big swamp land' It was an extensive and notorious squatter district. Most squatters were engaged in farming and rearing pigs. (^oo^) The others were hawkers, factory workers, mechanics or domestic helpers. The squatters started moving out in1962. Clearance work was able to commence and the redevelopement project started in early 1964.

The Toa Payoh New Town, HDB's 2nd satellite town, was built in 1970. The housing estate was self-contained and had a town centre acting as a focal point for the shopping and entertainment needs of the resident. Industrial developemens were also built within the town to provide residents with job opportunities close to home while schoold were built within the neighbourhood.

Toa Payoh was the largest town in Singapore at that time as the first HDB town. The 12-storey structures of the standard blocks in Toa Payoh were then typical of the new apartment blacks built by the HDB, the new housing authority formed in 1960 to give a growing population an adequate shelther.

Most importantly, Toa Payoh has the honoured of having the visit by the Britain's queen, Queen ElizabethII. She is a distinguished dignitary who have visited Toa Payoh. She was here on 18 Feburary 1972, with the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Anne. On the day of their visit, thousands of Singaporeans lined the streets outside Block 53 and 54 to welcome the royal party. The visitors made their way through the red-carpeted lift up the 19th floor roof-top to see the view before the residents.'

This is the end of my blog post.
Hope you enjoy and thank you.