I particularly enjoy taking a walk down Victoria St in Richmond. Today I was there on a hunt for pig’s skin (production shoot..gross…).
It wasn’t the most joyous of activities so I welcomed any distraction. I love the smell of victoria street. It smells like home. It smells like Toa Payoh where my mum’s provision shop is. The weather was kind, I could smell the sweat of the old hunched vietnamese grannys amongst the sour foul odour of meat from the butcheries. And then there was the dry provision stock smell.
I followed that familiar scent into a shop. And immediately, I was transported back into ’96.
They had dried packet food packed to the ceiling and handwritten price tags. The boss speaks only viet and canto and little english.
I can do english, manadarin and almost no canto. With some caricaturing and pointing, smiling, thumbs up, nodding excessively, I managed to convinced him to let me take a photo of him.

Melbourne is a funny place. Everyday I find something not so new about this place, makes me question ‘where am i?’
I remember watching Sophie’s first film last year and telling her that her grandma has the same plates as my grandma.
And then there was that day when I walked into a Chinese takeaway and they were playing xiaobazhi and shixiaolong!!!
It was the same old Cantonese movie, dubbed over in crappy Chinese with even crappier English subtitles! Just like the way it was!
Then when ariel and I went opshopping for crockeries for her shoot, I found my favourite dinner bowl! The teddy bear one!
Madness. Melbourne comprises of snippets of my childhood but involving people of different races and speaking languages.
It feels slightly nightmarish but not quite. Like the memories are warped but not quite.. Very strange and very moving at the same time.
So here I am, 2011, in a vietnamese provision shop which reminds me of my mum’s before the upgrading authorities made her renovate.

We used to play hide and seek between the shelves. If you’re wearing a red t-shirt, you can easily camouflage with the dried spices.
Don’t you think the edges of the packets look like sleeves?
I used to be really slow at finding the boys.

Then my sister told me that I could use to mirrors to see where everyone’s hiding. Because they’re meant for spotting thieves and thieves hide too.

decorations from 14083204983209428 new years ago..
I guess when I talk about home, I don’t mean Singapore.. I don’t mean the country or the place.
It’s the lazy sunday mornings I’m talking about. Lazing in bed till the afternoon, stretching my legs over to my sister’s side of the bed.
My father making ham and eggs. My sisters chatting about big girls stuff. And every part of the house being very noisy.
I love the smells and the noises of the chaos, of being part of a big family.
And knowing comfortably that while all these madness is going on, I’m safe to drift in and out of sleep, in between consciousness.
22 birthdays had came and go. Somehow the world had changed and I grew up.
And I’m in a new world of chaos too quick for me to grasp. please slow down!!!