National Art Gallery Open House – From where did our PM see the Cows?

As I stood dejected in City Hall, having missed out the goodie bag and the organized tour despite being an early bird, I resigned to fate, became my own tour guide and found my way to the Chamber. Alas, it was darkened for some architectural video screening. Then it hit me that I am now lost, wandering along the corridors of City Hall and not knowing what is my objective. At this moment, my mind recalled a photo in Dr Tan’s stamp book and instantly my interest in City Hall was re-aroused.

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Thank You for the Stamp Book - Singapore Stamps: Anniversaries & Milestones

I decided to put off writing this until I could produce something more exciting than …. words.

Two Saturdays ago, I attended an oldies gathering at a food court. Now, if you read what yg and thimbuktu blogged about the session, it was supposed to be a soft launch for Dr Tan Wee Kiat’s new stamp book at SingPost Paya Lebar HQ. Confused? Well, turned out none of the attendees were below 50 (I was the youngest), the venue for the launch was the food court and the soft launch was actually a "soft launch" – a meeting to present autographed copies with "soft drinks" going around. That’s really funny, Dr Tan! Except that we did not order soft drinks – I had teh peng, a treat from yg and others drank mostly coffee or tea.

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National Art Gallery Open House - Gather Moments While You May

To be honest, I have not heard of the song that has in its lyrics my title for today (I’m not that old, hor). Incidentally the two most famous heritage bloggers in Singapore - Chun See and Laokokok – got their blog names from the song. Which reminds me, maybe I should change my blog to "The Memories You Left Behind" or "Do you remember, baby" to ride on the good name of the song, heh. My title was inspired by Chun See when he blogged, using the same title, about fast disappearing scenes in Queenstown. I will do the same today but for "fast disappearing scenes" in our future National Art Gallery.

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National Art Gallery Open House - I was in the Chamber

I have to admit I am not a person who likes going to art galleries, which explains why after so many years I have not stepped into the Singapore Art Museum at former SJI. However when the future National Art Gallery had its Open House last weekend, it was a different matter. Visitors like me flocked to the former Supreme Court and City Hall, not to look at artworks, but to learn about the rich history of the two grand national monuments. Quite literally the Open House was a last chance for the public to visit before the two monuments close for redevelopment into the National Art Gallery.

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2nd Shot: The Last Tiger of Singapore

Since I was in school, this photo of a tiger and its hunters along a country road is a familiar one in textbooks and references on local history, used to illustrate the early days when Singapore was plagued by tiger menace. A signpost in the photo tells us it was taken at Choa Chu Kang Village. In fact if you step into Choa Chu Kang Library today, you can see it proudly displayed as a "pictorial artifact" of the new town (see here). Before the library was renovated it was displayed even more prominently, behind the information counter. After I started this blog, I took a closer look at the photo and asked myself - would I be able to do a second shot?

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