Up until my teens, Singapore was like a second home to me. Not only was I born there, due to my father's work, my family were visiting almost every other week, or at least once a month.
We used to live in the Mandarin Oriental, and from there, we could easily go to the Marina Square shopping mall, either for the food court, for the bookshops, for the video game shops, the cinemas and the like. My childhood memories of the place are quite vivid. My nostalgia is tinged with bittersweetness, not because I yearn for it again, but because I marvel at the child who was myself, who did not expect the many things that he would live through in the future.
Therefore, during these short days in Singapore, my father would usually drive from the Marina area to Orchard Road, to visit the places we liked, like the now-gone Borders bookshop, or HMV, or Ngee Ann city and its trustworthy Kinokuniya.
From the window of my hotel room, or within the car, I was very familiar with the skyline of Singapore. At that time, in my earliest recollection, the OUB Centre (now known as the One Raffles Place) and Westin Stamford Hotel (now known as Swissôtel The Stamford) were the tallest buildings, towering over the rest. A few years later, it was joined by the OUB Plaza. These three tall buildings dominated my consciousness for a very long time, and had remained the Singapore skyline of my mind.
