sightseeing in my own backyard

After church today i went to meet up with two old choir friends. There was Denise Fam, who just came back from U Nottingham (i know there's a forest and a sherriff there somewhere) on holiday, and whom i haven't seen in a year, and Victor who has been back from McGill, also on holiday, and whom i had not seen for at least two years, up until recently, when i saw him at NUS (twice) cos he's now attached to East Asia Institute, which is located on campus.

So we met up and went to eat at Simply Bread, which is owned by the Fambot's sister... Never eaten there before, but now i wish i had, cos the food there was really delicious. The grilled ham and cheese sandwich was, i think, the best i've ever tasted, and the bread was so well toasted that it even managed to burn the roof of my mouth (but since it was so good i kept on eating, letting my mouth burn some more)...

Then after that, we decided to walk down the Singapore River (we were originally at Robertson Quay) all the way to City Hall. On the way we passed by the Armenian Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator... Of course, with it being such an important tourist attraction, since it is the oldest church in Singapore, i still have to admit that i have never stepped foot in the place before... Quite an interesting and quaint place, actually...

Which now gets me thinking, isn't it the case so often that it's the things that are nearest you that you never get to experience? Just like how all those tourists visit attractions such as the zoo and birdpark etc, which many Singaproeans haven't seen in years (myself included). Or even when it comes to stuff like good food. I always cite the example of myself only eating the real Katong Laksa twice in my life, although it is all of two minutes from my house, once being when i first moved in, and the other being when VCF Arts Comm held a meeting at my house and wanted to eat something famous... Or when i was still in Seletar Camp, how i only ate the Jalan Kayu Prata, just at the camp's doorstep, once in all my one and three quarter years there.

But of course, this isn't a phenomenon limited to Singaporeans. When i was in San Francisco last month, there was i taking a ferry to Alcatraz with my parents (who had already been there once before), while just before that on the Greyhound up to San Francisco, my mother was talking to a sixtyish year old woman who lives just a couple of hours away (near by American standards) but has never been to Alcatraz in her life (of course, her lifetime also included the time when it still was a notorious prison, so maybe that isn't entirely a bad thing haha)