Trash and Treasure

Your face has great value’.

This might just be the best line I’ve heard from a salesman anywhere!

Wandering round Singapore’s Chinatown, past the myriad stalls on Trengannu and Pagoda Streets selling mostly junk, the kinds of things you only buy the first time you go to Asia and never know what to do with when you get home – chopsticks, fans, calligraphy brushes and tea sets, we came across a small antique shop that looked promising.

Opium paraphernalia

There’s something characterful about antiques dealers; a dash of charm, necessarily an eye for quality, an ability to feign indifference and outrage in equal measure – all combined with a touch of the snake oil seller.

The Singaporean traders I’ve come across so far are no exception; if anything they have more charm and a less visible desire to sell you anything. It really does seem to be a pleasant game. Buy if you really want to, but I’m happy either way…

I’m afraid I don’t offer them much sport – if I like something and there aren’t too many digits in the price, they can see the delight in my eyes..

So in East Inspirations I discovered a beautiful jade green wall tile, formerly used for ventilation in the external walls of the traditional houses; it was really just a matter of choosing which one as being handmade they are all quite unique.

Money exchanged and the tile carefully wrapped, my friend asked to take a picture – Dave insisted I be in it with him. I tried to decline and that’s when Dave came out with the gem about my face having great value. I think the value he was referring to was the certainty he felt that I’d be back for other treasures in the not too distant future!

Later the same day wandering around Duxton Hill I came across a chaotically packed shop-house with this sign over the door:

Who could resist!

Inside the shop was crammed floor to ceiling with dusty saxophones, birdcages, sculptures, lamps, fans, porcelain, furniture, tools… an old rickshaw suspended from the ceiling completed the visual and physical chaos.