“I’ve been playing in this area since I was a kid. Jordan seems to have stayed pretty much the same, apart from two or three new buildings. Decades ago, this side of Jordan was always crowded, because this is where the pier is. People would walk from here to where Elements mall is now. We used to play there a lot, hunting for crabs. One time, I was drenched from a ship trying to dock, I think I was only 10 years old. It was quite dangerous, and I don’t know how to swim, but we weren’t afraid of dying then. We would cook the crabs we caught in the evaporated milk tins used in cha chaan tengs, and eat them. That’s how kids play back then.
“We also played with marbles and kites. We made our own kites, including the string. We would pick up a glass bottle from the street, hammer it down to a fine powder, then coat the string with it. It was better than buying it from the stores. We would have kite battles, and if you had good quality string you can cut down other people’s kites. If not, yours would be the one being cut. It’s tough, making your own kites, but it didn’t matter because it was what we liked to do.”