Sunday, December 21

Been meaning to write about this “phenomenon” for a long time, but it’s too nebulous and fleeting to put into words. And for all I know, everyone experiences it but never mentions it cos it’s perfectly ordinary.

There are times when I close my eyes, and near-photographic images of particular places would float before my eyes, without any conscious thoughts or emotions accompanying them.

For instance, when I was in London, I would suddenly have this clear impression of standing at the busy junction of Orchard Road, just outside Borders, waiting for the traffic lights to change. Or I’d be right in the middle of Plaza Singapura, with shoppers rushing by me in the atrium.

Now that I’m back, I’ve been struck with London images. Walking down New Cross Road to the train station, with the dodgy mini-cab, kebab and fish-and-chips shops along the way. The grey and bustling alley opposite Charing Cross with the Oscar Wilde memorial that always seems to have fresh flowers on it, even in winter.

If I close my eyes and try to hold on to these intangible thoughts, I imagine I can almost smell the air. But the uncanny part is that these are not places I have particularly fond or even specific memories of.

Nostalgia is a strange creature, and it is the ordinary which sticks in the mind long after the extraordinary has faded away.

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