Happy in my very own Eden

Jessica Cheam Straits Times 18 Jul 10;

At a work party recently, a colleague who writes on transport raised this question while we sat around feasting on local food: What is happiness?

Happiness, according to him, is living near your workplace. His reason? Because commuting is the bane of urban life, resulting in stress, anger and wasted time. People who live near their workplaces are happier, he declared.

Another colleague who lives near town then defined happiness as living near Orchard Road. 'So near all that shopping.'

Then I ventured: How about living near trees? I got blank stares all around the table for a long five seconds before everyone burst into laughter.

'Er, not unless you're Tarzan?' joked one colleague. 'What do trees have to do with happiness?' asked another.

Well, a lot, if you ask me. I have to admit that after moving into my cosy new home late last year in the depths of 'ulu' Hillview residential estate, I have been frustrated by long commutes to work.

The bus journey from Hillview to Toa Payoh requires 11/2 hours, two bus changes and being packed like sardines, with dubious smells from my fellow commuters' armpits.

The MRT line going through Upper Bukit Timah is not due to be completed till 2015 and, in the meantime, is causing severe jams due to building works.

If you drive, you escape the sardinesin-a-can situation, but you'll also likely be uttering expletives at your fellow drivers - most of whom are Those Who Have No Concept Of Signalling Before Changing Lanes.

Traffic would be chock-a-block until you reach your final destination, at which point you are already exhausted even before you begin your work day.

At this point, my colleague is now smugly thinking: I told you so.

Living near trees, I concede, is not going to help the long commute but there are other unquantifiable benefits.

My apartment may be in what others consider an 'ulu' location, on top of a hill, but it is surrounded with evergreen foliage. Lots of it.

When I walk up the hill, there are tall palm trees that line the pavements on both sides, making me feel like I'm retreating to a resort which doubles as a home.

The kitchen, living and dining room windows in my apartment look out to a rainforest. I have neither human nor concrete neighbours and, if anyone so wished, he or she could walk around naked in my home like Adam or Eve in the Garden of Eden and there would be no witnesses.

The view was the deal-clincher for my partner and me when we bought the home. It was what set the apartment apart from the other shoeboxes in the sky in the city where, yes, you may be closer to work but there is also the incessant traffic noise and exhausting crowds of urban living.

Every morning when I get up to turn on my coffee machine before work, I have only to look out of my window and feel a strange serenity. Some call that happiness.

The sea of green that greets my eyes at the start of each day puts me in a great mood and helps me cope with Those Who Have No Concept Of Signalling Before Changing Lanes.

When I come home from work, the unwavering presence of the solid trees outside my window provides an inexplicable sense of much-needed peace.

Living near the city or 'town', I have decided, is overrated.

So many of us go on holiday to beach resorts on remote islands to 'get away' from the city and its trappings but you'd be surprised at the spots all over Singapore that offer that style of living. You just have to look for them.

Somehow, I find that being plugged into the rat race of the 'competitive, global city' makes you forget that there are sometimes simpler pleasures that remind us of humanity's connection with nature.

Just the other day, on a perfectly ordinary Saturday morning, a pair of peculiar, tiny birds perched right on my windowsill, tweeting feverishly - and not of the online type - in a sing-song conversation.

We were enraptured by these beautiful little things (yes, seriously, this was a 'You had to be there' moment) and did not speak for a full minute, staring in amazement at how close they were to us.

We felt strangely blessed that the little creatures thought to 'visit' our window and that ordinary Saturday suddenly felt special.

But we wouldn't have had the chance of these rare glimpses of nature if we were not living near it.

So there, despite the golden property rule to look for homes based on location, location, location, I'd add that happiness can be found in a home surrounded by trees, trees and more trees.