Ian On The Red Dot

I will always have fond memories of Island Creamery. My gf and I first discovered the place when it was just a little corner shop in Serene Center. We had just started dating at that time or in the lingo of this generation, we had just gotten attached. The first flavor I tried from Island Creamery was Apple Crumble and I was hooked. Hooked!

But liking the ice-cream was just one reason why I used to like the place. I would even say it was the least important reason.

The main reason was it fitted into a nice narrative that I told myself about my relationship with the gf and that period of our lives. We had just made the decision to date officially and were starting to learn more about each other as individuals. We were in an exploratory phase and had stumbled across a small growing store which had delicious ice-cream. It was our little secret (not really, but at that time, not many people knew about the place so … ), a place far from the madding crowd where we could share an ice-cream, talk and at least on my part, gaze at her with dopey puppy eyes.

Then they moved to occupy a bigger space.

Things didn’t immediately change. The place was still quiet, still felt like our little secret.

Then, for want of a better phrase, the tipping point came.

Students flocked there. Families descended on it. Couples drove down to get ice-cream.

I knew it was over once a NUS friend who stayed in the East said she had gone there with other course-mates and it was one of their favorite hang-out places.

Island Creamery was no longer a little secret that just belonged to us and to the people who lived around the area.

Recently, another place I like feels like it is changing. This place is slightly different. I haven’t been going there until recently but in the space of 7 months, there seems to be a change in the demographics of the patrons.

This time I have contributed to the ‘problem’. I’ve been inviting my friends to go down to that place.

I know it is silly. It is so conflicting. You want a place to do well. You like a place so much that you want to share its food and the experience with your friends. Yet you still don’t want it to be so mainstream.

You want it to stay the way it was - cosy, intimate and not have it become some place where every time you go, it is a ‘reunion’ with other people.

You don’t want people you hate to be associated with or those who you loathe to find any similarities with to start identifying with a treasured haunt.

You want a place far from the madding crowd.