Surprises of all surprises, my estate looks almost exactly the same. Almost. Recently, there is some crazy neighborhood renovation going on. They are removing grass where no grass was needed and replacing in with good old concrete. Who needs greenery when you can have expand the pavement so that the occasional passerby would have space to walk. Actually, it is not too bad, it does make the place look much clearer and to a certain extent more modern. I noticed that street lights have spawned too. Not the lamp post for the cars to drive at night without ramming onto the curbs every five seconds. A real street light where detectives can put their hands in the pockets of their brown trench coat while wondering who killed Tim, or where passionate couples could make out in the middle of the night while still being visible enough for everyone to watch.

Besides the extended pavements and street lights, the shops have changed too. A few months ago, the florist disappeared into oblivion. How a florist cum cafe dissipate into darkness I would never understand, but economics tells me that they are unable to even cover their variable cost. That must suck for them. Now the only type of flowers I can buy around here is back to flowers for prayers. And I am not even remotely religious. I guess even the income from selling sandwiches and orange juice is not great enough to cover the loss from growing roses and sunflowers. No wonder flowers are so expensive when they are in demand, it seems like it is really hard to be a florist. The profits you get from Valentines day, Mothers day and Teachers day had better get you through the rest of the year.

As the old shops goes, some new shops comes too. Apparently there is another clinic opening nearby. The third one within 200 meters radius actually, and the fourth one if you are willing to walk down a little more. With four doctors so close to my house, I can get different medical certificates from different clinics if I ever need to feign sickness to skip anything. That means I can skip four days in a row without having them recognise me from before. I still have to pay four times the consultation fees to do that though, not really worth it.

The shop in the Cursed Corner is also finally gearing up for business. This shop is located in a place with the worst Feng Shui in the neighborhood. Many businesses have came and gone, I cannot even remember what it was five years ago. I vaguely remember a Indian restaurant there a few years back, but it was not making enough money. Proof that it is really the location of the store that caused its down fall is that there is currently an Indian coffee shop thriving right beside where it used to be. Hmmm, fishy. Anyway, this space has been up for rent for months now, and now some brave (or uninformed) soul has decided to take up the challenge. The for sale signs has been torn down and some equipment can be seen though the glass panels. It looks like we will be getting another bakery. Any bets on how long the new bakery is going to survive?

I also noticed that construction is happening at the mysterious plot of land between the NTUC and the lemon chicken rice coffee shop (the coffee shop selling lemon chicken rice, for those who are unable to tell from the name). This plot of land has under gone construction works over and over again. The first time it got fenced up, we all wondered what was going to be built. Tada! It was a playground. Not long after that, it was fenced up again and boom, the playground was gone. Every time it underwent construction from then, they were just building paths. Not better paths, different paths. I do not even know what is the point of continuously changing the paths you are going to have there. Just let the humans walk out a path on the grass for goodness sakes, stop inconveniencing us and wasting tax payer's money. This time, it looks a little more promising. They have summoned the big monstrous ground digging machines that would strike fear even in Bob's (the builder) heart. Only time will tell what happens to the plot of land now, since the magic eight ball can only answer yes-no questions.