If I recall correctly, the buses we could take to school were 66, 170, 171, 175, 180, 182

This is where most of us would take the buses to go home.

This is a new bridge. The one we walked on was really crappy; it initially had wooden floors which were later replaced with a concrete one. We must've walked across that bridge more than a thousand times...

As viewed from the overhead bridge, road going towards the city.

There used to be a stretch of florists/nurseries along the Bt. Timah canal. The original overhead bridge also had stairs in the middle, leading down towards the nursery. Also, can you remember an A&W restaurant along the canal, opposide Novotel Orchid Inn (now called Copthorne)?

Foreground - where many hours of NPCC/SJAB footdrills were practiced. Just beyond that is the basketball court where we'd have our PE lessons under Mr. Saifuddin. In the background used to be were our playing field was, which of course is where the humongous SCGS now stands.

The exercise fixtures weren't there when we were. We did however have a Swiss Adventure Centre on the top of that slope. Open with big fanfare with press and TV coverage, too. I think it kinda fell apart within a year.

Just between the hall and the slope was our eco-pond. I think there were stories about how one of our classmates was tricked into drinking the pond-water when he was told it was sugar-cane juice.

Where we'd get off to go to school, or on weekends, where we'd take the bus to go to town. As a teenager, going to town with friends was such a big deal then.

Leading up to the Swiss Art Centre.

Hey! It's still Swiss Cottage! Balestier Hill Sec, ACS and Henderson Sec used the premises as an interim location when their own premises were under renovation.

Another view of the school compound. Actually, that's quite a large parade square/carpark we've got. Many of the new schools these days don't seem to have this kind of outdoor space anymore.

The buildings just visible on the slope are the Science lab block, and the ECA rooms like The Prefects, NPCC and Scouts rooms.

Here's where the prefects would greet the latecomers. And at any one time, there were many of these Nazis on guard gleefully waiting to book you. I outsmarted them by coming in from across the field, entering from Whitley Secondary School side. :)

Another view - the SCSS hall. Used to have wooden swing-doors that you'd lock in place with a 2+m long wood piece. I smashed my middle finger good between those doors once.

From across the field.

Our NAPFA 2.4km route. We had to turn into Whitley Road where we'd enter the main gate of Whitley Sec, past their canteen, then out through their side gate before hitting the public pavement along Dunearn Road again.

This is the view as we were headed back to school.

How can anybody not remember this place? Still as sleepy (or Serene) as before. That was its charm, I guess.

Inside Serene Centre

McDonald's is still there, but this is what has become of its second floor - Now Tierny's Gourmet Supermarket (used to occupy the ground floor).

A&W used to be here.

This is new. In the late 80s/early 90s, used to be a row of old shophouses there. I still remember the fruit shop and another selling fresh live fish.

I remember when this station had its operating license suspended because they had incense burning within the safety zone. So they drew up huge banners protesting against that decision.

The Bt. Timah area was a flood-prone area during those days, before the Bt. Timah canal was widened. The basement car-park was completely flooded once. We actually had 2 days of school cancelled in 1989. I don't think anyone ever has had school cancelled due to floods ever since then.

Inside Coronation Shopping Plaza.

Inside Coronation Shopping Plaza.

Where to get cheap & good eats - My Cozy Corner.

This was the bus-stop to hang out as students from many other schools would get off here to transfer bus. Schools like SCGS, St. Margarets, NYGHS (when they still all had short hair) and occasionally RGS and Crescent Girls' School. :)

During those days, the Adam Flyover was parallel to Bt. Timah Road. The Adam Road/Bt. Timah Road junction was notorious for its traffic jams during peak hours. They've since taken down that flyover, dug a tunnel under Adam road, and built another flyover perpendicular to Bt. Timah Road.

Amazing.

Yup, I've walked across this bridge quite a number of times, too.

This was THE new place to hang out, opening in 1991, I think. It had a model train running inside the restaurant, the tracks high up near the ceiling. It's not there anymore.

The big Yeo Hiap Seng complex used to be a significant landmark for that area.

This flyover wasn't there in 1991.

This is opposite the Shell station along Upper Bt. Timah Road.

This place has been here since forever. Used to be much more happening, though.

I think besides Luck Plaza, this was the only other place I can recall that had glass elevators when I was a kid. On the bottom left of the pic was where the Strawberry Shortcake shop used to be.

That tall fountain with the copper animals, of course! Wishbone Restaurant is still there (best gula melaka ANYWHERE), but Waffletown USA shifted out quite some years ago.

Gallen Sports has been around for a long time. That was one of my fave shops. There was also Yaohan, and does anybody remember People's Emporium on the top floor?

Where it used to be anyway. I remember it to be some small colonial-style building, raised above the ground (due to floods, I guess).

And of course, it's not there anymore. This is near the junction of Upper Bt. Timah Road and Jalan Jurong Kechil.

Or what the elder folk still refer to as "7th Mile" (Chit-gor).

We'd often come here for the food centre on the top floor.

The inside hasn't changed much. It's as if time stood still here. Totally retro.

When you're near the top of the escalators, it gets considerable warmer all of a sudden. The non air-conditioned part of the shopping centre's up there.

The non-airconditioned shopping deck. This shop has been there since the place came into existence (1986, I think?)

Yeah, we were here pretty often...

This is Bt. Timah Shopping Centre. But some of my friends called it "Ugly World", and not just because it was beside Beautyworld. It was really dingy even then. The URA had plans to develop the stretch in front of these two shopping centres into a "second Holland Village" of sorts, with street cafes, etc. But it never materialised and the whole place looks very run-down now.

Cross over for great prata.

This is where I bought my first pirated PC game CD-ROM. And the game was "Crusader: No Remorse", and isometric-view shooter that kicked ass in 1995. Then there was the Gala cinema at the top floor, which I remember watching "Commando" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in 1985. That was the first time in my life I heard the word "fuck" uttered on the big screen. I thought that was hilarious.

View of the 7th-Mile area, with Bt. Timah Hill in the background.

Jalan Jurong Kechil, with Bt. Batok in the background.