Goodbye KAP

As the week drew to a close, the chapter closed on another of my memories as King Albert Park (or KAP, as we knew it) shut its doors for the last time.

Smiling perhaps a little too brightly for how I was really feeling.

My acquaintance with KAP is fairly recent, but there is still much sentiment. Our very first home was walking distance to KAP and its presence, with the access it provided to Cold Storage and Macs was one of the factors in our decision to buy the place. So it came to be that during our time there, KAP was our neighbourhood hangout. We came by for the occasional Maccers breakfast and guilty supper, and made many many grocery runs at Cold Storage. We popped by Bengawan Solo when it was still there to buy pandan cake for church, and we were regulars at the Video-Ezy with that was still there, borrowing latest releases and buying ex-rental discs.

It was part of what made home, well, home. I treasure it most for the outlet it provided me during Noey’s newborn days when I just needed to get out of the house and go somewhere — anywhere. Many a time I packed him into his stroller and the two of us would make the slow walk to KAP where I would buy a drink or some random item from Cold Storage, just getting a breather. It bore witness to my frazzled moments. I needed the space and this place provided me a purpose and destination, and for that I was grateful. This besides the fact that it was my regular grocery stop. There were many instances when I would make the to-and-fro trip on foot just to pick up groceries with Noey, conveniently carting everything back in the basket of my trusty stroller.

I remember the day I heard the news that KAP had been sold and would be torn down. That familiar resigned feeling that no building or space is ever safe in this country. It happened with the beloved National Library, it happened with the National Stadium. Here it is, happening to another building that mattered to me. I still find it incredulous that of the many educational institutions that I’ve studied in, only one remains in the same location that it was in when I studied there. And for the one remaining school, it wouldn’t be for long before its buildings are no more as a deadline has already been drawn up for its move. If people feel a sense of dislocation with this land, this surely is one of the reasons.

Anyway.

I almost missed the fact that KAP was about to close but for the photos that started popping up on my social media feeds. I couldn’t let it go without a final walk through to say goodbye, so when the husband had a morning off last week, I persuaded him to drop by to have breakfast there one last time. We ate, we reminisced. We smelt the familiar smell of the rotisserie wafting through the carpark and we did a last grocery run at Cold Storage.

The ramp down to the carpark, which is the kids’ fav: running or just hanging on in a ‘runaway’ trolley. Fun times.