Swim like a dragon: Pasir Panjang Park

A canal now runs through where the shoreline used to be at Pasir Panjang Park. When I visited, due to the dry weather, there wasn't much water in the canal. It was a little after lunch time, so the food centre that is just next door was not at all crowded and I didn't have to queue for a plate of char kway teow at the stall that even TV actress, Zoe Tay was said to have patronised. Pictures: 28 March 2014.

If my so-called "photographic memory" serves me right, the railings have not changed.

The crumbling steps which led to the canal. Could these be the same ones which led to the sea once?

THANKS to blogs like Second Shot I found the place where dad used to praise my non-existent swimming skill. "Look, look, she's swimming like a dragon!" he shouted to mum and my brother who were looking from those concrete railings like the ones you see here.

Dad was holding me in the waters, and telling me to kick as hard as I could. So I did -- with a lot of splashing that made dragons proud.

That was in the 60s. But the green sea waters and the concrete railings where mum watched over us as we swam had stayed in my mind's eye all the while. I often wondered where this nice seaside could be. It definitely wasn't Changi beach as there was no such concrete fence at Changi. It wasn't Bedok where there were corals which we could walk on -- far out to sea -- when the tide was low (but no concrete fences). And it certainly wasn't Katong Park where dad said the waters were not very clean (so we wouldn't have swum there).

So now I know, it was the Pasir Panjang Park.