Spent my Sunday evening lounging at The Book Café. It's at the end of Mohd Sultan Road, and isn't exactly accessible without a car, but it was well-worth the effort. The decor was simple and generally understated, save for a few chichi modern touches here and there. Had a decent cheesecake sprinkled with cocoa powder on top, and hot cocoa with marshmallows. Lazed on a velvety couch with a few mags; just like everyone else. Will make it a point to go down for their breakfast one day.

You know sometimes you can have one of those barely noticeable, slightly disconcerting experiences that just serve to tip over all your previously accumulated experiences, and push you into a new mode of thinking or way of seeing the world? Much like those old type cartoons where you had those someone attempting furiously to hold up a huge boulder, and someone drops a feather on it, and it flattens him?

I had that when I crossed over a bridge near the café, to reach the nearest bus-stop. I just stopped and stared cos an oddly familiar but alien city-scape was before me. It was the road where River Valley led into the CBD, with its attendant ERP gantries, but somehow it seemed like I'd been pushed back maybe 10 or so years back in time - some of the buildings and the flats there gave me that feeling (okay, they probably are 10 or so years old, but you know what I mean). And then looking back there was the new Singapore. I don't know how else to put it, save that I've not seen or felt something like this before.