Nexxx
The place you are brought up in really influences you.
While on my last leg home from a solo visit to NEX, a spanking modern mall in Serangoon, I sat on the bus wondering and contemplating life… nowadays, I do it far and few, basically to evaluate what’s been happening so far. Ever since I started work, it has been a truly whirlwind ride, and if you don’t stop and think about it, I could just keep going on and on, until I realize that I’ve been missing the other finer aspects of life, such as friends and erm, friends.
At first, I didn’t bother about my fellow passengers. A group of ordinary-looking guys had boarded the bus, and took their seats behind me and began discussing about poker and LAN gaming, which I guess for 17-year old JC kids, was the appropriate thing to do. Their quintessentially JC-English was occasionally injected with local phrases like “wah-lau”, and they even spoke abit of Mandarin spoken sparingly… then they broke into speaking Korean about 3 bus-stops from mine, and it really surprised me! Shockingly, it’s not the first time I’ve experienced this. A few weekends ago, a French mother and son were carrying their conversation in typical French until a point of time where I guess they decided they needed to speak English for whatever reason, and spoke English with a Singapore accent!
Well, times are changing… some things for the better, some for the worse.
I decided that a visit to NEX was in order, particularly since I heard so much about it at work – invitations to new store openings for the beauty team. Originally, I was supposed to go with my mother to have lunch there since she too, had heard so much about it from her colleagues, and was curious too. Afterall, NEX is twice larger than its nearest mall, Junction 8. However, the cool and wet weather changed her mind, preferring to relax at home instead. I still went, partly because of the need to smoke, and the need to go out… and just do something. Plus, I wanted to deposit my cheque, to make sure I actually did it. Work keeps me up till late, and often, I just want to have my dinner, then go straight home to rest sufficiently for the next day. I know it sounds dreary and difficult but the fact that I’m doing something that I love, that I’ve always dreamed of, REALLY keeps me going day after day, week after week.
First impressions: well, considering that the entire population of Singapore was in the mall, the first thing I wanted to do once I stepped into the mall was to get out of it. For a suburban mall, it’s ambitious and vast but it’s shockingly uninspiring, essentially a clone of Causeway Point and Jurong Point. Retail fashion is shockingly poor, the only saving grace being the existence of an Isetan department store; there is an Espirit but it’s so small that I can hardly consider it; the other major retail fashion stores are G2000, Hang Ten, Bossini and Giordano. The mall is also confusing to navigate around, and therefore not user-friendly; I believe malls should be designed to be user-friendly, with floor directory plans a last resort… I walked the entire mall and I’d still get lost if I go back for a second visit and I’m the guy who’s good at directions!
But where NEX truly shines is the food mix; with McDonald’s, KFC, Yoshinoya, Texas Chicken, Putien, BreadTalk, The Icing Room, Ramen Play, Toast Box, Food Junction, Food Republic, Shokutsu 10, Ajisen gourmet town, Spinelli, Nanxiang Express, Paradise Inn, Freshness Burger, Qiji and so much more!
