ygblog4

2012-01-02T16:01:00.001+08:00

lakes entrance in the gippsland

i first heard of 'lake entrance' when a returning student from melbourne was talking about some of the places she had visited during her university vacations. apparently, she liked the place very much. i had wondered why a lake would have a entrance when it was supposed to be a body of water surrounded by land. now, after visiting the place, i have a better idea of how the name was derived.

lakes entrance is a man-made channel - which is dredged regulary - that links the bass strait and the tasman sea to a number of lakes in the gippsland. the three main lakes are king lake, victoria lake and wellington lake. this part of victoria seems more popular with the locals than with the tourists. overseas tourists will rather go to phillip island, which is also in the same area, the gippsland, to watch the fairy penguins.

the cunninghame arm bridge (in the above picture) is a footbridge that takes you from the town of lakes entrance to the 90-mile beach. the actual length of the beach is slightly more than 90 miles (144km).

lakes entrance is popular with the locals because of its milder climate - it is warmer in winter and cooler in summer. the place is also known as the 'seafood capital' of victoria because of the many fishing trawlers operating in that area. you could go out in a hired boat to catch your own fish or you could buy the catch from the fishermen. with the abundance of fresh seafood, it is no surprise that there are a number of seafood restaurants in lakes entrance. we ate at one such restaurant.

we were looking forward to seeing some of the 50 bottlenose dolphins frolicking in the waters of the lakes but we did not spot any because of the rain. the rain was to dampen our spirit somewhat because we could not go cruising or fishing. however, we did see some birds like the pelicans, swans and lots of cormorants at the lake (king lake).

we stayed in this rented house on a hillock that overlooks the lake. it is indeed a wonderful getaway - quiet surroundings and good view of the scenic lake. i think we paid aud$275/night, shared out among 3 families, it came up slightly more than $91/night per family.

since we did not go fishing or cruising, we did some land tours, visiting the nicholson river winery and a brewery, where we had lunch. we had wanted to visit the buchan fairy cave but changed our mind because of the changeable weather.

2011-12-23T16:01:00.000+08:00

the panda research base in chengdu

the one place i enjoyed most in chengdu is the panda research centre. the centre started in 1987 is located some 10km from downtown chengdu. the best time to visit the place is in the morning, before 11.00 a.m., that is when the pandas are most active because it is also their feeding time.

although you do see a lot of bamboo clumps at the centre, the bamboos are not enough to feed all the pandas. the centre buys bamboos from the villagers who gather them from the forests.

the giant pandas like to climb trees and stay up there after they have had their meal. on some trees you can see as many as 6 or 7 pandas. pandas are actually quite shy animals; if the visitors make too much noise, they will move away from the edge of the enclosure. the panda population at the base has increased from 6 giant pandas rescued from the wild to more than 80 today.

besides the well-loved giant pandas, there are also other animals at the research base, including the red panda. the red panda is much smaller and it looks more like a raccoon than a bear. like the giant panda, it also has a black patch around each eye.

the enclosure that attracts a lot of young visiors is the baby panda station. if you like to cuddle one of these and have your picture taken with it, it will cost you 1000 yuan or around s$200 for the 5-minute experience. however, money cannot buy everything; if the panda is not in the mood, then even your 1000 yuan will not do the trick.

2011-12-16T16:01:00.001+08:00

huanglong and jiuzhaogou

anyone who has been to jiuzhaogou - the valley of nine (tibetan) villages - will sure to extol the splendour and beauty of the place. many of my singaporean friends who frequently visit china have been to jiuzhaogou. i had expected to meet someone i know or at least hear these words 'so clean like s'pore' uttered when i was there for the two full days. however, i did not see anyone who looked or who spoke like a singaporean except for the singaporeans in my group.

we had reached our hotel at 4.00 a.m. in the morning as our flight from xianyang was delayed by 12 hours because of the inclement weather. when we landed at jiuzhai huanglong airport, our pre-booked taxi was waiting for us. fortunately, our accommodation was the one nearest to the jiuzhaogou park. when i got up at 6.45 a.m., there was already a queue outside the visitors' centre.

jiuzhaogou is well-known for its multi-tier waterfalls and colourful lakes. the best time to visit jiuzhaoguo is mid october when it is most beautiful but it is also the time when it is most crowded. you must be prepared to tolerate the 'survival instinct' of the local people. there may be more than enough buses to cater to the huge crowds of visitors but the way the local people push to board the bus would give you the impression that 'that was the last bus to heaven'.

i would dare say that the park is better maintained than any in singapore. at any one time, there is an army of cleaners going around picking up litter from the ground and even from the water. the only thing that mars the cleanliness of the place and the water is the sputum from the local visitors.

it is not just the lakes and waterfalls that add to the beauty of the place. the autumn foliage in its various hues also makes the whole place scenic. although the digital cameras are handy and in vogue, you still see quite a number of serious photographers lugging their huge single-reflex lens camera and their telescopic lenses.

those who have done their tour planning will normally take the bus to the 'top', where the long lake is, and make their way down. on the second day, you could start from the primeval forest and cover the other side of the 'y'. for those who like to trek, there is a trail, with extensive boardwalks, that leads all the way from the top to the entrance gate, a distance of some 30km.

most visitors to jiuzhaogou would combine a visit to huanglong. it is a good idea to start with a visit to huanglong because if you have already seen jiuzhaogou, then huanglong is not going to make much of an impact. the attractions are quite similar except that those at huanglong seem less spectacular.

2011-12-11T16:01:00.002+08:00

the terracotta warriors & horses

the terracotta warriors and horses museum of xian is a must see for all visitors to this ancient city, formerly known as chang-an. after lunch on the day of our arrival in xian, we were on a mini-bus on our way to the lintong district to see the spirit army of emperor shi huang ti, the first emperor of china. a huge statue of the emperor greeted us as we arrived at the site.

the museum was built on the excavation site, which consists of 3 pits or vaults, covering an area of 16 300 square metres. when it was first open to the public on 1 oct 1979, the entrance fee was 10 yuan. today, it will cost you 110 yuan to gain admission into the museum premises.

the clay warriors had been buried for more than 2200 years before they were accidentally discovered in march 1974 by some farmers digging for a well. however, well before that other people living in that area had also stumbled upon broken pottery while they were clearing the land or digging wells.

in special glass-cases are the displays of the two miniature bronze chariots. i would not call them miniatures; they were actually scaled-down version of the emperor's personal chariots. the weapons and the adornments of the charioteers were painstakingly reproduced. there were even tiny arrows that could be shot from the functional crossbows.

many people are not aware that not one of the clay figures was found intact when they were unearthed. all the warriors on display at the various pits have undergone reconstruction and restoration. another thing that most people do not know is that the terracotta warriors were not always of that dull colour. once they were very colourful, being painted with laquer of different colours.

what is really remarkable about the terracotta warriors is that they are life-size and they are all unique. each warrior is different from the next; no two warriors look the same though most of them wear the moustache in the same style.

although thousands of warrior figures have been unearthed, very few of them have been taken out of china because they are considered priceless treasure of the nation. when i was in xian viewing the thousands of pieces, there was an exhibition in singapore at the asian civilisations museum featuring a few pieces of the terracotta warriors. i think the first exhibition outside china was held in europe. it was reported that the responses in europe were overwhelming.

only a few visiting heads of state have had the honour and privilege of viewing the famous clay warriors at close range. these few people, including queen elizabeth of england and president clinton of the usa, were taken down to pit one to be up close with the pottery soldiers.

what i find particularly mystifying about the uncovering of these artefacts is that according to some projections, there are more than 8000 of these figures but so far only about 2000 have been unearthed. why have they slowed down the excavation process?

according to some friends i have checked with, the authorities are waiting to acquire the technology to take out the figurines from an area that has been flooded with mercury. it has been reported that toxic mercury vapour is present in the area where the emperor was buried.

like everything else in china, not all the terracotta warriors that you see in china are authentic. there are a number of potteries that make these figurines for sale and they look very much like the ones on display at the museum in lintong.

i have seen terracotta warriors in the compound of a transport company in kranji.

2011-12-04T16:01:00.001+08:00

si sek pai - four-colour card game

your grandmothers or aunties would most probably have played this game. it used to be the favourite pastime of old folks, especially elderly ladies. i hardly see senior citizens playing this card game these days. it is a bit like mahjong and it has some of the characters of chinese chess. however, unlike mahjong, you cannot draw and keep a card; whatever is drawn must be shown to the other players.

a friend just told me that he had seen some aunties playing si sek pai at a void deck in ang mo kio.

i suppose like any card game, there is bound to be some modifications of the rules and there are variations to the game. if you have played gin rummy with different groups of friends, you may most probably have to adjust to the rules laid down by the different groups. with some groups, the first meld thrown down has to be four cards, although generally three cards is the rule. even when it comes to counting deadwood - those cards caught in your hand - when someone else has 'ginned', some count ace as 1 point, some, 10 points and yet others, count it as 20 points.

in si sek pai, the regular group of people would set their own rules to suit their playing style and to suit the circumstances.

in si sek pai, these 3 different characters of the same colour, green in this case, actually form a meld. this is a 3-card meld consisting of the chariot, the horseman and the cannon. a 3-card meld can also be made up of three identical cards, which in mahjong, is called a 'pong'. a meld which is in your hand or which you have drawn yourself is normally worth more than one which is displayed.

another 3-card meld that comprises three different characters is that of the general, adviser and elephant. in si sek pai, the general can form a meld even when it is by itself. this means you can have a one-card meld, something which does not happen in mahjong. in the game of mahjong, the smallest meld is the 2-card or 2-seed which is referred to as the 'eye'.

in si sek, the 4-card meld may be formed by the same character in four different colours or they can be the same character in one colour.

each si sek pack contains 112 cards, 28 of each of the 4 colours - green, white, yellow and red. again, different groups of players play with different number of cards. some play with two packs of cards while others play with one-and-a-half packs of cards. some even have jokers in their pack of cards.

this particular group which i was watching lay down the rule that you can 'game' only when you have a minimum of 20 points for the total of your melds. however, there are other groups which stipulate that 21 points is the least before declaring yourself a winner. why is there this disparity? as with other types of games, there are different ways in which they score and different scores for the same meld.

it would seem that the aunties play this game as a pastime as the stakes were small. even then you could hear arguments now and then and if your luck was bad, you could incur quite a substantial loss, say your one week of marketing money.

2011-11-28T16:01:00.002+08:00

food in the muslim quarters of xian

this china trip, covering xian, huanglong, jiuzhaogou, chengdu and beijing, was organised by sun jie who hails from xian and who studied in monash university (for her masters). she had some help from three others who also studied in monash but who have returned to china to work. all the members in the group also belong to the same church in melbourne. my elder daughter and my son-in-law attend this church. i had been on an earlier trip with 3 of the people in this group; in 2010, we successfully climbed mt kinabalu in sabah.

of the 8 of us on this china tour, 3 hold singapore citizenship, 3 malaysian, 1 australian and 1 china citizenship. there is no direct flight to xian from singapore. 6 of us flew china eastern airlines from s'pore to xianyang via yunnan. sun jie had returned to xian earlier and the last member of the group joined us one day later, flying from kuala lumpur to singapore, and thence to yunnan and xianyang.

our 4-star hotel was located within walking distance to the drum and bell towers. it was next to the muslim quarters of xian. we had three of our meals in different eating places within the quarters. if not for the caps and the head-scarves (worn by the women), it is difficult to tell that these people, the huis, are muslims. they speak mandarin and there does not seem to be any social or cultural barriers between them and the majority han chinese. even the 1269 years old great mosque of xian looks chinese in every way. i nearly mistook it for a temple.

for breakfast, instead of macdonalds, we opted to have this stuffed flatbread in one of the muslim eateries. the fried pancakes were stuffed with finely chopped meat, onion and chives. some of us also ate the popular and traditional yang rou pao mo. unlike the dish we had for dinner, this one we did not have to tear the hard bread into tiny pieces. it was already done for us. meat was either beef or mutton. there was chicken but it would seem that most of the chicken in shaanxi were underfed.

our first meal in xian was lunch in a muslim restaurant. one indication that the restaurant was islamic was the arabic words found on the signboard. when these dumplings appeared at our table, i had thought they were xiaolong bao. surely, they could not be as this was an islamic eating place. we found out that the dumplings were filled with either beef or mutton. like xiaolong bao, they were quite juicy. our 'host' ordered 10 trays of the dumplings. we also had cold noodles, kebabs, some vegetable dishes and black and white glutinous rices for dessert.

this is one dish that all visitors to xian should have a go at it. it is the yang rou pao mo (shredded bread soaked in mutton stew). there is a certain procedure to eating this dish. first, each of us was given a large porcelain bowl and a piece of flat round unleavened bread. we had to break or tear our own bread into small pieces so that it could absorb the flavour of the stew. when it was done, we handed the bowls of broken bread to the waiter. when he returned with the bowls of bread in mutton stew, he had to remember which bowl belonged to whom. we all enjoyed the dish.

2011-08-12T16:01:00.002+08:00

love never dies - sequel to the phantom

on july 9, we took the train from glen waverley station to the city. we got off at flinders station and walked to collin street to the regent theatre to watch the 2.00 p.m. matinee session of the andrew lloyd webber's musical 'love never dies'. the title reminds me of the very popular mandarin song 'love without end'. although the ticket was supposed to be cheaper, it still cost aud$125.

we had watched the phantom of the opera when it was staged at the kallang theatre in 1995. we were truly impressed by the props, the singing and we enjoyed the songs thoroughly. it cost us - a family of four - $500 in all, the tickets as well as buying the cd and the programme.

kallang theatre, the venue for various events, among which were the two former prime ministers' national day rallies, university of singapore convocation ceremonies and the sing singapore competitions. it was also at this venue where i watched my first musical - les miserables.

regent theatre reminds us of the english theatres where we watched 'miss saigon' and 'beauty and the beast'.

it is inevitable that people will compare the sequel to the first story. although i was not totally disappointed with the sequel, i must say it cannot measure up to the 'phantom of the opera' in terms of story-line and the songs. from the 'phantom', i can remember songs like 'music of the night' and ' all i ask of you'. i did not find any songs from the second musical outstanding even though i have purchased the cd.

it did not play to a full-house. the last time i watched a musical at the same theatre - regent - it was a sold-out performance but at the matinee show, there were a number of empty seats around me. at the end of the performance, there was some semblance of a standing ovation but it was a lukewarm one and it did not really take off.

will i watch it again when it come to singapore? no, not the sequel. although it was visually appealing, it did not captivate my interest as much as the 'phantom of the opera'.

2011-08-07T16:01:00.001+08:00

bicycle's dynamo and ring-lock

i wanted to use this picture (from the national archives of singapore) to show that in the past the lighting for bicycles was generated by a dynamo, usually located near the front wheel of the bicycle.

then the registration plate on the bicycle caught my attention. so, i will talk a bit about the registration of bicycles.

some bicycle owners have recently clamoured for the registration of bicycles to be re-introduced. registration of bicycles in singapore was stopped in 1981. the registry of vehicles (rov) decided to do away with registration because the $5 fee was not enough to cover the adminstrative cost. the main reason given for scrapping the registration was that only 2% of stolen bicycles were recovered.

registration of bicycles in singapore had been done before the war and it resumed after the war. during the japanese occupation, there was also some form of register for bicycle owners. at one time, owners had to renew the licence on a yearly basis, and when the ownership was transferred, a small fee was also charged for the new registration.

(mcs stands for municipal council of singapore)

this bottle dynamo or sidewall dynamo, which was affixed very close to the wheel, usually the front wheel, could be engaged by depressing a lever or catch. when engaged, the roller would be in contact with the tyre.

when the wheel was in motion and the dynamo roller was engaged, electricity was generated as the tyre spun the roller. this would translate into light for the headlight of the bicycle. the faster the wheel spun, the brighter would be the light.

however, even at its brightest, it was not very bright because the voltage was rather low. the bulb tended to blow once in a while, so it was necessary to have replacement bulbs on stand-by.

when engaged, however, there was some resistance, so the rider would have to pedal slightly harder than when the dynamo was disengaged.

this ring-lock used to be a standard item on ordinary bicycles in the past. when the lock was effected, the shaft would come between the spokes of the wheel. it would immobilise the rear wheel to prevent it from being moved. it was not a high security kind of lock as it could be broken or unlocked without the need for great force.

i had thought that these two items - the dynamo and the ring-lock - on the normal bicycle had gone out of fashion until i saw them on several bicycles in sweden.

in singapore, these two items are like antiques. i have not seen them around for a long time.

2011-08-02T16:01:00.001+08:00

frog porridge

in my previous posting, i had wondered if i would have attacked frogs the same way that we did the toads. i know i would if the frog came in a clay-pot and there was the porridge to go with it.

i do not think i will ever get to eat frog porridge in melbourne. the westerners - and australia is very much a westernised country - consider frog meat too exotic a dish. if i ever move here, this is one dish i will really miss.

back in singapore, the two better known places for eating frog porridge, as far as i know, are located in geylang. i have eaten at the one stall along lorong 9, opposite the popular beef kway teow shop. another frog porridge stall recommended by some friends is the eminent frog porridge at lorong 19. it seems to me that all the places that sell frog porridge cook the frog in the same way, with more or less the same ingredients.

the frog is invariably cooked kung pao style with ingredients like dried chilli, spring onion and ginger and condiments like dark sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil. it is always served in the single-handle clay-pot.

the soft and gluey porridge is sold separately. however, the two items are like pod and pea; they always go together. when you eat kung pao frog meat, it has to go with the porridge.

each frog costs $8 and each small pot of porridge costs $2. to make the porridge more flavourful, you have to add the sauce or gravy from the pot of frog meat.

many people say that frog meat tastes like chicken meat. i think frog meat is tenderer, smoother and sweeter than chicken meat.when i crave for frog porridge, i do not head for geylang. instead i go to one of the lorong 9 branches at 567 balestier road. it is in a coffee-shop at the base of the road leading to balestier hill primary school.

2011-07-29T16:01:00.000+08:00

toads never had a chance

when we were growing up in the kampong, we did a lot of cruel things which could have landed us in trouble with the law today and which would definitely incur the wrath of animal lovers. many a 'harmful' animals died in our hands and even not harmful ones like dogs and cats were not spared from our merciless acts.

the dogs in the kampong could hardly finish their mating act in peace. whenever they were joined, we would do everything and anything to put them asunder. we hit them with sticks and hurled stones at them. when this did not work, we got hot water and poured it on them, specifically, onto where the genitals were. cats were luckier, they were not abused in the same violent way but when the mother gave birth, sometimes the kindles were abandoned.

rats caught in cages were either scalded alive or drowned in the drain or by submerging the cage in a pail of water. mice were caught with the mouse-trap where they did not usually have a chance to survive. the grown-ups, especially men, ate new-born mice wrapped in preserved mustard (kiam chye). birds were either injured, maimed or killed by stones propelled from a catapult (the malay name for it is lastik) which is featured in this blogpost.

cockcroaches and lizards, which we rarely see nowadays, were all over the place. cockroaches were crushed or slammed with slippers or whatever we could lay our hands on. a lot of people, including grown-up men, were scared of cockroaches but that did not prevent people from trying to exterminate them. lizards were more difficult to catch but when caught, they were often burnt to death. often only their wriggling tails seemed to survive for sometime.

but i think one of the most abhorred creatures was the toad. we were led to believe that the toad was a poisonous animal, so we learnt to hate it like poison. being ugly did not help the toad at all. whenever one was spotted, it would be savagely attacked with stones or sticks as we wanted to keep our distance from the poison. we were actually scared when the toad puffed up because we feared that it would expel its poison.

incidentally, i did not come across a frog, the edible kind, all the years when i was living in a kampong. the first time i saw a frog in the wild happened only recently, about 5 years ago, at a run-off canal at the macritchie reservoir. would we have attacked a frog if we had seen one?

of course, i did not do all those things that i have mentioned. i can count cockroaches, lizards, rats and toads as having died by my hands.

2011-07-25T16:01:00.000+08:00

i admit to peeping in the past

in my blogpost on lovers' haunts and peeping toms i mentioned that those guilty of peeping on love-making couples at places like macritchie reservoir park, fort canning park and other popular spots were mostly old men and teenage boys. in that post, nowhere did i give any indication that i was also a voyeur.

i must confess here that when i was in my teens, i was also into peeping, but only occasionally, and when the opportunities presented themselves. i always did it on my own. as the lighting was not very good, i usually did not get a good look at what i was supposed to see. some of the time i had to rely on my imagination to decide what was actually going on.

although it happened nearly half a century ago, i can still show you where i did my peeping and how it was done.

this was the type of machine where i did my peeping. actually, those machines on which i watched some of the black-and-white images were not so sophiscated; they were improvised home-made machines which made use of the same principle.

the operator of the peep-show machine would come around on his bicycle with the machine strapped onto it. if i remember correctly, we had to pay 5 cents to view a filmlet on some cartoon show. of course, there was the more sleazy kind where you could see some images of scantily clad women or even of a naked woman running around.

this peep show machine shown above is called a mutoscope. in some places, they call it the 'what the butler saw' machine. it is a simple form of motion-picture machine in which a series of views, exhibiting the successive phases of a scene, are printed on paper and mounted around the perphery of a wheel. the rotation of the wheel brings them rapidly into sight one after another, and the blended effect gives a semblance of motion.

this type of machine which could have been found in an arcade was coin-operated but the viewer had to turn the handle continuously to watch the show. in the uk, this machine was called 'what the butler saw' because one of the most viewed shows had this title. the show was about a butler peeping through a key-hole to watch a woman undressing.

2011-07-22T16:01:00.005+08:00

towing a car with a rope

in the days when roads were not so congested and tow trucks were not in vogue, it was a normal practice to use a length of rope to tow stalled vehicles. it had to be a thick, sturdy rope, at least 3cm in circumference but not too long, about 2m. of course, there were some who thought incorrectly that the longer rope, the safer. the rope had to be secured to the front of the towed car and the rear of the towing car.

it was a tricky manoeuvre for both drivers - the one in the towing car and the other in the car being towed. they both had to maintain a slow and steady speed. the one in the towed car had to be particularly alert. the back car had to brake almost in tandem with the towing car. when taking a bend, they had to go slower and a bit wider than normal. the front car should never brake suddenly. the driver of the front car also had to check his mirrors constantly.

the towing car should preferably be bigger than the car being towed, at least of a bigger capacity. there should be some indication that a car was being towed, like leaving the hazard lights of the towed car on. for safety reasons, the car lights should be switched on when towing at night.

in those days, you could secure the rope to the frame of the car. in some cars, there was a special tow strap for the purpose. today's cars still come with these metal tow eyes, at the front and rear of the car chassis.

to get into the towing position, you had to back the second vehicle up to the car that was being towed. while in motion, the rope should be kept taut.

there had been incidents when the rope snapped and others when the rope came loose.

in the past, i also remember seeing some people using a tow bar - a long, flat metal piece - which was attached to the cars in the same way as the tow rope.

traffic laws are different in different countries. i understand that in the united states, the towed car should be unoccupied while it is being towed. this means that it will be not be possible to use the rope method.

i wonder if it is still legal to use a rope to tow a car in singapore. i have not seen anyone using this method for a long time.

2011-07-17T16:01:00.001+08:00

flooding: past and present

in my younger days, when it flooded, we accepted it as something natural. it was bound to happen, especially during the north-east monsoon season. in fact, we, the children, would all be looking forward for it to happen. during the monsoon season especially, when it poured continuously for at least half an hour, we would be looking out for all the tell-tale signs.

first, the colour of the running water in the drains would change to that of 'kopi susu'. then the low-lying area would start to fill up quickly as the water level could be seen creeping up by the minute. the water from the smaller drains would all be rushing to dump into the big drain that ran through the heart of the kampong.

when the rain had stopped, it seemed like the whole kampong, especially the men folks, would be out in full force to survey the situation. the younger ones would be enjoying themselves splashing water at one another or just wading or trying to swim in the water.

i wonder what youngsters think of when it rains and floods these days. in those bygone days, a flood meant swimming for free. the field, the drain, the road and sometimes the house became a playground, a swimming pool.

and we never thought of blaming anyone for the floods.

these days when it floods, it makes the news. people perceive it as something that is out of the ordinary; something that should not have happened at all. that is why they call it a flash flood.

i think something like a flood, which is a natural occurence, is sometimes beyond the control of us humans.

a flood is no more thought of as fun. i do not see children swimming in the flooded field or even wading in the water.

people start blaming the authorities for not being able to prevent flooding. however, we do have the right to get upset if they build a big dam and tell us that it will help to regulate the flow, thus giving the impression that flooding should be a thing of the past.

2011-07-13T16:01:00.001+08:00

berlin wall, brandenburg & check-point charlie

i will not be blogging about all the shore excursions on the cruise because not all of them have made a lasting impression on me. other than st petersburg, the other stop that has left a lasting impression on me is berlin. some friends would ask: why go all the way to germany to see the wall when we have a section of it in singapore? true, but nothing beats seeing the wall at its original site. we had to travel 3 hours by coach from the port to the city. some took the train. it was worth all the 6 hours of travelling because berlin is not on the popular tourist circuit.

i was actually more excited at seeing brandenburg gate than the remains of the berlin wall. the most famous landmark in berlin was built as a monument to prussian power and it embodied german unity, which it still does. bandenburg gate is today the symbol of the reunification of germany.

the statue, known as quadriga, sits at the top of the gate. during the napoleanic wars in 1806, it was taken to paris as a war trophy. however, in 1814, the prussian army managed to wrest it back from the french.

another reminder of world war ii and the divided germany is check-point charlie. what you see today - which is a tourist draw - is a replica of the american guardhouse. the original check-point charlie was removed on june 22 1990. it is now housed in the allied museum.

the main function of check-point charlie was to register and inform members of the western forces before entering east berlin.

2011-07-09T16:01:00.002+08:00

lovers' haunts and peeping toms

some blogger friends were reminiscing their courting days and they went on to name the lovers' haunts that they frequented. i have come up with a list of the places favoured by lovers in the past. actually, any place that is dark, quiet and secluded can be a lovers' choice. however, if a place is too secluded, you run the risk of being robbed or harmed.

most of the old timers mentioned macritchie reservoir park, king george v park, queen elizabeth walk (also referred to as the esplanade), katong park, changi beach and botanic gardens as their 'pak tor' places.

the other popular spots - some of which are still popular - included mt faber, fort canning park, lower peirce reservoir, upper seletar reservoir, marine parade, bedok and kallang park. some not so well known haunts were grace park and woodleigh park. a few, like east coast park, upper tanah merah and west coast park came onto the scene in the 80s.

i must state that i was never a 'pak tor king'. so, do not have the idea that i have been to all these places for any tight or steamy encounters. nevertheless, i hope the mention of certain places will evoke wonderful memories for some people.

in those days, while the lovers were deeply engaged in their love-making, there would be interested people lurking and prowling in the bushes. these people chose to refer to what they were doing as 'catching monkeys'. i sometimes wondered who the monkeys were. were the victims or the culprits, the monkeys? i suppose by saying that they were 'catching monkeys', they were trying to get acceptance for what they were doing, which was actually intruding into the privacy of the couples.

these 'uncover' voyeurs did not just work under the cover of darkness. as long as there were couples engaged in intimate activities, they would be around. although most couples wait to do their things at night, there were some who could not wait for the sun to set. so, this gave the peeping toms a chance to catch some actions in the day.

these peeping toms operated either alone or in a small group. to avoid detection, they would wear dark, usually black, clothing and they would move silently in the woods, hiding behind trees and crawling on the ground. regardless of whether alone or with accomplices, these 'pests' (as the lovers called them) were quite a cooperative lot.

if one of them came across some couples in compromising positions or when heavy actions were going on, he would signal or gesture to his fellow voyeurs to direct them to where the shows were taking place. some unsuspecting couples might not be aware of the kind of attention they were all getting.

generally, the peeping toms were either middle-age men or teenagers. some of the older men were married. among the younger ones, the teenagers, there were some who had girlfriends. i suspect they were not only doing it for just the excitement but also to pick up some tips (on lovemaking).

chun see, one of my blogger friends, talked about his experiences at macritchie reservoir park. no, he did not go there to catch monkeys; he went there to catch spiders.

does it mean that there is no more such 'catch monkey' activities these days? so long as there is 'monkey business' in the parks, there are bound to be 'monkey catchers'. but the number of people engaged in such spying activities is nowhere compared to that in the past.

2011-07-06T16:01:00.002+08:00

the high-point of our cruise

the high-point of our cruise shore excursions has to be the visit to st petersburg in russia. we not only spent two days in this wonderful city, we also had a great local guide in victoria. a russian, educated in the united states. she was not only knowledgeable but also a very dedicated and responsible guide.

before the cruise, i had heard about st petersburg from a friend who has gone on more than 10 fly-cruises. he had painted a glorious picture of the place and i must say i have not been disappointed.

st petersburg, the cultural heart of modern day russia, was renamed petrograd in 1904. from 1924 to 1991, it was known by the name leningrad. the city, built on swampland, was founded by the russian tsar peter the great.

at the hermitage - the largest art museum in the world - we had time only for the highlights of the highlights. if you plan to spend time viewing each and every object in the hermitage, you will need a number of years to complete the task. even for those wonderful art pieces, we managed to see only some of the works done by the world's greats like rembrandt, leonardo da vinci and caravaggio.

the russians are mainly orthodox christians and the domes of their churches are usually in the shape of an onion. you can afford to miss all the other churches but not this one - the church of our saviour on the spilled blood. the church was built on the spot where emperor alexander ii was assassinated in 1881. it is claimed that this church uses more mosaics than any other church in the world.

in the words of our tour guide: if you think the exterior is beautiful, wait till you see the inside. that increased our anticipation. however, although we find the interior breathtaking, many of us prefer the stunning outside view.

another must visit place in st petersburg is catherine palace. this palace was not built by catherine the great. it was actually named after catherine i, the wife of peter the great. our tour guide mentioned that the russians wasted a lot of gold. after our visit to peterhof and to this palace, we were inclined to agree. about 100kg of gold was used to decorate the exterior of this palace during the reign of elizabeth (catherine's daughter).

this place, peterhof, was literally glittering and glistening in gold, the metal. the buildings and the many statues in the park were plastered with gold. we had taken the hovercraft on the neva river to get to peterhof, which is located just outside st petersburg. most tourists arrive there in time, just before 11 a.m., to witness the spectacular fountain display, especially that of the grand cascade.

peterhof is well-known not just for its gardens and parks but also for its wide variety of fountains. apart from the grand cascade, there are others like the samson fountain and the chessboard cascade. there is even a trick fountain; many an unsuspecting visitor have been sprayed with jets of water when they stepped on a certain stone along a foot path. we were told by our guide that no mechanical pump was used to operate any of the fountains in peterhof.

another place of visit you should not miss when you are in st petersburg is the peter and paul fortress. inside the cathedral are the royal tombs of all the russian tsars from peter the great to nicholas ii.

2011-07-02T16:01:00.001+08:00

from copenhagen to malmo

in between our baby-sitting duties in melbourne - to take care of our first grandchild - we joined a fly-cruise to the baltic region. we had booked this trip to scandinavia a year before with a travel agency in kuching, sarawak. the final group comprised 29 from kuching, 6 from perth, 3 from miri, 2 from singapore and 1 from sydney.

from our respective departing points, we all rendezvoused in bangkok. it was an 11-hour flight from bangkok to copenhagen, where we would embark on our 11-day cruise. however, we did not spend our first night in copenhagen. instead, we crossed the oresund bridge, that links denmark to sweden, to malmo, the third largest city in sweden.

the 7845m oresund bridge, opened in july 2000, is the longest road and rail bridge in europe. there are toll booths but we did not have to get down from the coach for any customs or immigration clearance. in fact, during the entire trip, the only place where we had to carry our passport and have it stamped was in st petersburg, in russia.

in malmo, we stayed at the master johan hotel, right in the heart of the old town. the stone-cobbled streets and the many bicycles would be our constant reminders that we were in a scandinavian country. the cobbled streets inconvenienced those who are wheel-chair bound; there were three in our group and they found it bumpy, uncomfortable and tiring trying to navigate the uneven surface. i also saw some gadgets found on the bicycles in malmo, like the dynamo and the push lock, which have not been seen in singapore for quite sometime.

as is my practice, whenever i visit a foreign country, i wake up very early to explore the place when most of the locals (as well as visitors) are still in bed. as it was a sunday morning, there was hardly any traffic or people on the road. the central train station, which i had visited the day before, was closed. however, the hundreds of bicycles parked outside the station were still there.

i walked until i reached this church before making my way back to the hotel. i found out that this church - st petri kyrka or st peter's church - is the oldest building in the city. it was built in the 14th century.

our hotel, for which we were quite pleased with the service - there was free flow of coffee and internet connection was also free - was about 200 metre from this square known as the lilla torg. it seemed like a fun place. in the evenings, lots of locals visit the restaurants and cafes in this area. the old buildings were mostly built between 1600 and 1800. it was interesting to see the local people riding their bicycles to wine and dine at the sqaure. although most of them were casually dressed, some ladies came togged in dresses and high-heel shoes and some of the men were in business suits.

2011-06-04T16:01:00.000+08:00

unprecedented collapse of a 6-storey building

many young singaporeans - especially, those below 30 years of age - who drive or walk past this hotel and the many foreign visitors who stay in fortuna hotel are likely to be unaware of the tragedy that struck at this site on 15 march 1986. each time i go past this place, i will think of the event that took place some 25 years ago.

that saturday i was in school for some extra-curricular activity duty when i heard the shocking news from my colleague. the then prime minister lee kuan yew described this very tragic incident as 'an unprecedented building collapse'. it was something that could or would have happened in china, india or some undeveloped country. for it to happen here was 'truly unprecedented'.

this was what i saw when i reached serangoon road that afternoon. the whole area was cordoned off and we could just watch from across the road at serangoon plaza. at that time mustafa samsuddin had just taken over the serangoon plaza place from some russian company. the huge crowd watching the rescue operation was not noisy or rowdy. we just stood in awe watching the rumble and prayed silently that those entombed in that mess of rubble would be safe.

that evening and the evening after, i went back again to helplessly watch as rescue operation was carried on around the clock. i had not been into that building but i remembered there was a bank on the ground level. the name of the bank was icb - the industrial and commercial bank. i heard a lot of things while in the crowd - that a number of motorists and their passengers were trapped in the basement car-park and i also heard that mrt engineers were roped in to help with the rescue.

initially, many had imagined that there were hundreds of people trapped under the debris. rescue operation was called off eight days later, on 23 march. by then, the tally showed that 50 people had been trapped when the building collapsed. 17 people were rescued and 33 were killed. of the 33 who died, 23 were singaporeans and the rest, foreigners.

2011-05-31T16:01:00.003+08:00

steamed pumpkin kueh (cake)

when my younger daughter brought a pumpkin to my elder girl's place (in melbourne), i decided to use it to make a steamed pumpkin cake ('kim kuay kueh'). my late mother-in-law used to make this kueh, using a circular aluminium tray. we would usually cut the steamed kueh into rectangular pieces and fried them until they were golden brown and crispy. it is best eaten by dipping it in chilli sauce or the 'chee cheong fun' sauce.

the ingredients for making steamed pumpkin kueh include rice flour, dried shrimps (hae bee), shitake mushrooms, chinese sausages and fried shallots. you may opt to add a couple of spoonfuls of tapioca flour to the rice flour. the hae bee have to be softened by soaking them in warm water; and the chinese sausages and the mushrooms have to be sliced thinly.

instead of steaming the pumpkin before mashing it, i cooked it in boiling water until it became soft. the next step was to fry the dried shrimps, shitake mushooms and chinese sausages. i fried them until the fragrant aroma pervaded the kitchen.

the 400g of rice flour was poured into a pot. 5 cups of hot water was added to it, one cup at a time. after adding each cup of hot water, stirred the mixture ( the 400g of rice flour plus a spoonful of salt and two tablespoons of sugar) thoroughly. after all the water had been added, the mashed pumpkin was then poured into the pot. this was followed by the fried ingredients of shrimps, cut mushrooms and diced sausages.

when everything had been added, a low fire was turned on. i continued to stir the mixture well until it became almost dry.

then i tranferred the content into two shallow trays and steamed them for one hour in a multi-tier steamer.

i left the cake to dry overnight. the next day, i cut the cake into rectangular pieces and fried them until each piece was golden brown. my younger daughter's comment: good enough to be sold.

2011-05-27T16:01:00.003+08:00

wine from the peninsular winery

i know a few friends who bring home a lot of wine each time they visit melbourne. no, it's not that the wine is much cheaper here. according to one friend, it is because they enjoy that particular wine but cannot get the same brand in singapore. of course, there are those who take advantage of the comparatively lower cost of wine in australia.

a family of three just left for singapore with about 20 bottles of wine in their bags. now that the allowance for wine has been increased to 2 bottles (litres) per person, they can take home at least 6 bottles duty-free. however, most of the time they exceed the quota for each person. what about the extra 14 bottles? they declare them at the customs and pay the duties on them. i think if you take in more than 10 bottles per person, you may have to apply for an import permit.

in the state of victoria, the bigger vineyards, like chandon and yering, are at the yarra valley, which is about 45 minutes by car from where i am staying. there are smaller vineyards distributed all over victoria. we prefer to visit those on the mornington peninsula, which is actually futher away. it takes about an hour of driving to reach t'gallant, the one we visit more often.

the friends who took home 20 bottles of wine, had 12 bottles of the moscato wine. they were all bought from the t'gallant winery on the mornington peninsula. moscato (sometimes spelt as muscato) wine comes from the muscat grape, which is a sweet white grape.

moscato is a wine which will find favour with social drinkers like myself. ladies should not have a problem taking to this wine because of its low alcohol content (6%) and its sweet flavour.

2011-04-26T16:01:00.003+08:00

election day song

election fever is in the air. like i told some of my friends before i left for australia to babysit my grandson, this year's election will be interesting and more exciting than all the previous ones. people are more open and they are not so fearful. the electorate, especially, some of the younger ones, are openly declaring that they will vote for the opposition. those of my parents' generation actually kept their vote secret; they would not even reveal their choice to their own children.

in the late 50s or early 60s, when i was in primary school, i remembered singing the election day song. this song was intended to tell the people that voting was compulsory; that their vote was a secret (it still is); and that their choice could affect the future of the country.

our election day is on the 30th may

do please remember that you must vote

only you will know whom you voted for

do remember on our choice depends

the future trends of singapore

so go to the polls on 30th may

and cast your vote on election day

2011-04-06T16:01:00.005+08:00

thomson road hospital

b&w photos from national archives of singapore

my blogger friend chun see (of goodmorningyesterday) commented on my posting on tan tock seng hospital and made a suggestion that i write something about another hospital that was at one time located not far from tan tock seng hospital. i have nothing much to go by because i had visited that particular hospital only once or twice.

so for the sake of younger readers who may not be aware of the existence of thomson road hospital, i am going to provide some information on it. thomson road hospital was located along toa payoh rise, which is also the location of the school for the blind. today, that school is called the school for the visually handicapped.

thomson road hospital was opened in 1959 as a single ward hospital, served by two doctors and seven nursing staff. it was designated as a hospital for the chronic sick and for the people living in that area. soon it was taking in more patients, including those suffering from common diseases and illnesses.

in 1965, the extensions, which included an outpatient casualty ward and a surgery, were completed. as the hospital took on more responsibilities, its role as an acute hospital providing a range of medical services was recognised in 1968 when it was renamed the thomson road general hospital.

not long after this name change, it was renamed toa payoh general hospital to identify with the new satellite town.

toa payoh general hospital was closed down on 15 february 1997. the staff and patients were transferred to the new changi hospital at simei.

2011-04-02T16:01:00.000+08:00

eating 4 peking ducks at one sitting

in singapore and in most other countries, when you order peking duck, you will normally order one to be shared by all the diners at the table. not so in the case of this restaurant in boxhill, melbourne, australia. you are advised to order one duck for every 2 or 3 persons at each table. last sunday, there were 9 of us, so we pre-booked 4 ducks for the party. yes, you need to order the ducks one day in advance. i was told that there was one instance when a group of 14 ordered 3 ducks. the owner of the restaurant felt so slighted that he told them not to eat at his restaurant again.

the name of the restaurant is simon's peiking duck. it is named after the owner and chef, simon lay, who goes around serving the duck and chatting with customers. on that sunday when we were there, all the tables in the restaurants were filled but he still found time to exchange a few words with us at our table. he also instructed us on how to fold the pancake to hold the duck's skin and meat.

instructions on folding the thin pancake: spread one spoon of sauce, place one piece of cucumber and one piece of spring onion; fold up at 6 o'clock, 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. you can also do the 6 o'clock, 12 o'clock and 9 o'clock and get the same result.

on a notice-board outside the restaurant, you can find information on how the duck is prepared. stuff ginger, shallots, aniseed and 5-spice powder in its belly, sew it up using a long needle and pump air into it, between the body and the skin to separate them.

next, it is plunged into boiling water to shrink the skin. then it goes into a wok rolling with vinegar, maltose and soy and oyster sauces - this is the glaze that gives the skin its shine and flavour. the duck is then hung (up) for 6 hours to dry before roasting.

2011-03-29T16:01:00.006+08:00

soba noodles with sesame dressing

i am not particularly fond of japanese food but this is one japanese dish that i thoroughly enjoy - the cold soba noodles with sesame dressing. cook the soba noodles in rapid boiling water for about 15 minutes or until the noodles are tender. then drain and rinse the noodles under cold running water. rinse till the water is clear.

in a large mixing bowl, combine the soba noodles, fried tofu strips, cut soft-boiled egg pieces and baby spinach leaves. drizzle about half a bottle of the deep-roasted sesame dressing into the content and mix thoroughly. additionally, you can also sprinkle fried sesame seeds onto the top of the mixture.

soba noodles are made from buckwheat (soba) and they are as thick, or rather as thin, as spaghetti. here, in australia, you can get the soba noodles from most asian grocery stores. in singapore, they are available at most supermarkets, including the ntuc's. of course, you can get them at any supermarkets selling japanese food.

the deep-roasted sesame japanese dressing has a rich flavour and comes with a light aftertaste. it costs about aud$6.00 a bottle. the slightly bigger bottle, not of the same brand, costs aud$7.50 in the korean food store.

these baby spinach leaves are readily available in australian supermarkets. in singapore, you can get them from the cold storage supermarkets.

this is the inari (fried tofu) which we cut into strips before adding it to the noodles. you can get this inari from both the japanese and korean food stores. they come packed in a plastic bag.

there is one more ingredient i have not mentioned - that is the soft boiled eggs. cook four eggs in boiling water for exactly 8 minutes. put the eggs in when the water is boiling, not before. when they have cooled down, peel the shells and cut each egg into four of five slices.

2011-03-26T16:01:00.004+08:00

a discovery at lorong halus

on my second visit to the ponggol promenade and the lorong halus wetland reserve, i discovered something. i found out that coney island, also known as serangoon island, is now connected to the mainland by a road. we walked along the road behind the serangoon east dam to its end. a notice at the gate informed visitors that coney island was out of bounds as construction work was still in progress.

during our canoeing days, coney island was a popular stopover site for us. we would usually paddle from changi point to coney island, have a picnic there and paddle back. those days the channel between the island and the mainland was a popular site with water skiers. camping on the island was also possible but it was a bit inconvenient because you had to carry your own fresh water. i also remember swimming across the channel, from coney island to the mainland.

i had been checking out coney island from the western end, which is nearer to ponggol point, so i missed out on the reclamation work that had been done on the eastern end, which is nearer to lorong halus.

this is the serangoon east dam, one of the two which blocks the mouth of the serangoon river. lorong halus is on the right side of the river. a former landfill, it used to be a popular spot with weekend fishermen. according to my friend who had fished at this place, there were three ponds near the sea and at high tide, fish could be seen leaping out of the water.

i have seen similar tidal gates when i explored pulau ponggol barat last year. pulau punggol barat and pulau punggol timor are two other islands that are now linked to the mainland.

this is the new bridge across the river which is now part of the serangoon reservoir. crossing the river from lorong halus will lead you to the ponggol promenade. the riverside walk is popular with cyclists, joggers and walkers. on weekend evenings, the car-park at tebing lane can get quite crowded because of the many diners who patronise the eateries, two of which overlook the waters of the reservoir.

2011-03-23T16:01:00.002+08:00

the automobile association's car badge

this metal chrome badge of the automobile association (of singapore) has become a collector's item. it appears to be a rarity in singapore. i have been looking at old cars in car-parks and on the roads for this badge. i had been lucky to come across this one on the front grill of an old mercedes benz parked at sembawang park.

in the united kingdom where these badges were first issued in 1906, they were initially made of brass, and over time this metal was replaced by nickel, and then the white metal chrome.

according to one report, the square badge was made available in 1967. i might have seen it on some cars in the past but i have been trying very hard able to find one on a car but without success. however, i did manage to see a square emblem on the top of a singapore's automobile association's tow truck.

this is by far the one most commonly displayed by present members - the plastic decal. even then, not all members bother to get the vinyl decal for display. it is not a sought-after item like the old chrome badge.

2011-03-13T16:01:00.004+08:00

removing content without breaking egg-shell

first, you will need a long and sharp needle to break the shell of the fresh egg. you hold the needle with your thumb and fore-finger very close to the piercing end of the needle. gently but firmly, force the sharp end onto the shell. once it breaks, you will have created a hole which is about the diameter of the needle.

using a long syringe, pump air into the egg. as air is pumped into the egg, the content will slowly ooze out. continue pumping air into the egg until all the egg-white and the york are emptied from the shell.

next, to clean the inside of the egg, you fill the syringe with water and pump it into the egg. alternate this by pumping air into the shell. continue this process until the water that comes out of the egg is clear. you may have to do this 3 or 4 times before the water is thoroughly clear.

what do you do with the drained-out content? you should refrigerate it and consume it as soon as possible. do not keep it for more than two days.

so, what can you use this clean-out egg-shell for? most people would fill it with agar-gar (jelly) which should be a popular item at children's parties. i suppose you can also make easter eggs with these egg-shells. for decorative purposes, you can either hand-paint these empty egg-shells or use lacquered paper to cover them.

2011-03-10T16:01:00.000+08:00

tan tock seng hospital & tb

today, tan tock seng hospital is the second largest general hospital in singapore. the present image of tan tock seng hospital is so different from the tan tock seng in the 50s and 60s. after the war, tan tock seng hospital became known as the tuberculosis centre of singapore. when someone was admitted to tan tock seng, it had to be for the once dreaded disease - pulmonary tuberculosis. back in the 50s, tuberculosis (tb) or consumption was the number one killer in singapore.

the incidence of tuberculosis was so bad that some sufferers had to nurse themselves at home; there was just not enough beds at tan tock seng to cope with the large number of tb sufferers. the success of treatment was better when the disease was detected early. coupled with the fact that the disease was infectious, all government servants had to be x-rayed on a biennial basis. i remembered my visits to the villa on moulmein road to have my x-ray taken. there was also one instance when i had to report to sata (singapore anti-tuberculosis association) on palmer road to have my chest x-rayed.

today, this row of buildings have become part of the ren ci medical centre and the singapore christian home for the aged. back in the 60s, when i walked past these blocks of buildings, i used to see tb patients convalescing in the one-storey structures. i think there were similar blocks along mandalay road. the patients would usually be seen in their blue and white hospital clothes; most of them were skinny and frail and i imagined i could hear them coughing.

this was the tan tock seng i knew when i was growing up. kampong chia heng, where we lived, was separated from tan tock seng by the former jewish cemetery on thomson road. next to the hospital was another kampong known as kampong lorong sinaran. those days when someone had a persistent cough, we would say: " tb, ah? you better go to tan tock seng." living so close to the hospital also made us more aware of some of the symptoms of the disease, like loss of weight (nearly all the patients were skinny); a persistent cough and, in very severe cases, coughing out blood.

i think the dreaded disease was finally brought under control not just because of all the x-ray examinations and campaigns like the anti-tuberculosis week but because of the improvements in the country's general hygiene and housing.

the low buildings (compare photo 2 and photo 4) - they have not changed much over the years - are a reminder to us that tuberculosis was once the scourge of our society. i hope they do not demolish these buildings as they serve as a connector to the past.

2011-03-07T16:01:00.002+08:00

solitary prowling monkey

this long-tailed macaque monkey has been prowling the area around bukit panjang park for quite sometime already. it must have got separated from its troop. monkeys are gregarious and they do not normally move or operate alone. in the wild, when i see one monkey, i can be very sure that there are a few others around. but this lone wild monkey has moved from its natural habitat to an urban environment.

the same monkey has been spotted along the linkway that joins the newly opened senja-cashew community club to the bukit panjang plaza. it has also been seen at the bus-stop nearest to the community club, on the side of the pang sua storm-water retention pond. of course, it has also made its presence felt at the club; hence, the above notice. i have also seen some 'kind-hearted' people feeding the 'poor' monkey.

of late, it has been spotted along the parapets and corridors of the block of flats next to the community club. that was when we got concerned and worried. i remember last year there was a report in the local papers about a monkey that was a nuisance and a menace; it entered a flat in which there were two young children, and it messed up the place. this also took place in bukit panjang.

the other story from malaysia, also reported last year, was even more scary: a monkey killing a baby.

when i contacted the agri-food and veterinary authority (ava), the officer manning the helpline told me that if i lived in a landed or private property, they could lend me a trap to catch the monkey. how about hdb dwellers? sorry, there was nothing much they could do except to advise us (living in a public estate with no apparent owner) to be alert and, of course, not to feed the monkey.

i think the community club is still in the process of contacting the relevant agencies because the monkey is still moving around the place freely and i do not see any trap around.

2011-03-03T16:01:00.003+08:00

the harpers' visit to singapore 2011

this is not the harpers' first visit to singapore. since leaving singapore in the 50s, john harper and his family, including his now grown-up children, have visited singapore a few times. but this was my first time meeting john and his lovely wife ann. john is one of my more ardent blog followers. he has been making comments regularly in my blog and on facebook.

when john wrote to me earlier this year about his intended visit and his wanting to meet up with me, i racked my brain to think of places that may excite someone who had spent some years in singapore. however, my apprehension was needless because john had a list of the places he wanted to visit.

first, he wanted me to go with them to sungei buloh wetland reserve after having read about my several encounters with the smooth otters and the crocodiles. from the onset, i had to tell john that i could not guarantee that we would definitely see otters or crocodiles at the reserve. as it was high tide, i took him to the mangrove walk where i pointed out to him the tree-climbing crabs and the giant mudskippers.

as luck would have it, we came across a juvenile crocodile basking in the sun along one of the not so travelled tracks. this was also my first time seeing a crocodile on the track. in all my previous sightings, the reptile was in the water. we managed to get within 10 metres of the crocodile to take the picture.

on another day, we made a trip to the last surviving kampong in singapore - the one at lorong buangkok. nothing has changed much since my last visit to the place in 2010. we were fortunate to meet the lady who owned the piece of land on which the kampong is built. she was most accommodating and helpful, teaching us how to deal with the dog in one of the kampong houses.

the other place where i joined the harpers for a visit was the thow kwang dragon kiln at lorong tawas. we had to reach there by 8.00 pm that friday because there was a pre-tour briefing before the start of the wood firing. there was quite a crowd that night, with a festive mood in the air. again, we were privileged to have the owner of the kiln with us to give us a history of the place and to explain the firing process.

this was the farewell dinner john and ann hosted for some of the foyers (friends of yesterday.sg) at fatty weng's restaurant along guillemard road. chun see (of good morning yesterday) commented that one of us would blog about the place. victor koo (of taking up the challenge) would be the best person to blog about it because he used to live close to albert street. the other person who could blog about it is peter - a guest blogger of good morning yesterday.

that day was my first time eating at any fatty weng's restaurant. i had heard about fatty weng when it was at albert street in the 60s. i was also aware that it moved to guillemard road in the 70s and subsequently into the singapore badminton hall sometime in the 80s. today, it is back on the same place.

like chun see, i also wondered if it was the same one from albert street. when you have made a name for yourself, many others will latch onto the name. there is a fatty weng in the bencoolen street area and there is even one in a food centre at block 155a bukit batok avenue 8.

chun see, peter and victor all took time off to show john and his wife around places nostalgic to john. they were especially impressed by peter's knowledge of the changi area.

2011-02-27T16:01:00.002+08:00

bukit panjang 's heritage loss

most residents in bukit panjang, including the senior ones who inhabited the place when it was still a village, are unaware that a significant part of their heritage has disappeared forever in the name of development and progress. the structure built in the 1950s was demolished at the end of 2010 to make way for the downtown line's tunnel leading to the gali batu mrt depot. along with this building, the row of shop-houses facing the ten mile junction - to be renamed junction 10 - will also be wiped out from the bukit panjang scene soon.

i have blogged about this place previously. after it ceased operation as a child welfare clinic, it became a children learning centre (kindergarten) operated by the learning ladder.

the bukit panjang child welfare clinic was opened in august 1950. built on land provided by the government and at a cost of $32 000 - the money was raised and contributed by the residents of bukit panjang district - it was hailed as a monument of the communal efforts of the people of bukit panjang.

on 11 september 1951, the straits times reported "the bukit panjang clinic was the only one in singapore which has been built on funds subscribed by the local people".

advice on family planning matters was given at the clinic every friday. though not the largest maternity clinic, it was one of the busiest rural centres seeing between 150 and 200 chinese, malay and indian mothers. in those days, midwives from the clinic would go around the remote areas to help deliver babies.

although i did not grow up in zhenghua village, as a present resident of bukit panjang, i can feel of the loss of this heritage.

2011-02-23T16:01:00.000+08:00

fine toothed comb

some people refer to this as the 'kutu comb'. i do not know how effective it is at removing kutus (head lice) from the hair. it must have worked for some. according to one friend, she managed to catch some kutus this way. however, i do know that when it comes to removing cradle cap, it does work fine.

this nyonya fine toothed comb was handed down to us from my wife's paternal grandmother. she had used this to comb her hair meticulously every morning. it kept her hair straight and neat because of the closeness of the teeth.

to use this comb to scrape the cradle cap from the scalp, you will first have to rub olive oil onto the scalp. i do not know whether the extra virgin oil that is used for cooking will do. we use the 'olivin' fragrant olive oil to massage his scalp before shampooing his hair. after his bath, we used the comb to gently dislodge the cradle cap.

it is quite impossible to remove all the cradle cap on the head at one go. it may take months before the cradle cap finally disappear. one should not try to force the removal of the cradle cap although it may look unsightly.

wonder if you can still get this fine toothed comb from the chinese medical shop.

2011-02-15T16:01:00.001+08:00

bean sprout husk pillow

this traditional 'comforter' is now available commercially. you can buy it online or from the baby's section of departmental store. we paid $23.90 for the one above. in the past, most parents or grandparents will make their own for their child or grandchild.

babies are prone to be startled. i notice this again when i look after my grandson. asians, especially the chinese, believe in the effectiveness of the bean sprout husk pillow in soothing the baby. the elongated, narrow pillow is usually placed either over the chest or the tummy of the baby. it is believed that this provides some form of comfort and security to the baby.

most chinese believe that if you place this pillow across the chest or tummy of the baby, it helps to calm the baby and he or she will not experience those fitful frights that infants seem to have during the first few months of their life.

these are the kernels or husks of the bean sprouts that are sold at most wet markets and supermarkets. the husks (in the above picture) have been washed and dried in the sun. the tedious task is sorting out the husks from all the bits and pieces of bean sprouts.

first, we used a bamboo tray to filter the husks. the edible pieces of bean sprouts remained on the tray while the husks fell through small gaps in the tray. next we soaked the husks in water to remove further those bits that had slipped through the gaps in the tray. finally, we spread them on newspapers or trays to dry in the sun. when the husks are dry, it is easier to remove the rest of the unwanted remnants.

these are unsorted, uncleaned and not sun dried bean sprout husks. we managed to get two bags for free from the tofu seller at the wet market. we had offered to pay but the kind, elderly lady declined to accept payment for something she normally discards.

a bonus from these free husks is the two bowls of edible bean sprout which we managed to pick out. not all bean sprout sellers are so generous as to give you the husks which are useless to them. one stallholder we approached at toa payoh told us he did not have any.

the fact is i could easily get sacks of the husks from a friend's father who has a bean sprout farm at lim chu kang but i chose not to trouble him. i had got from him when my wife was working on a school project involving the use of the bean sprout husks.

a lot of work is involved in making the bean sprout husk pillow. we had one made for the baby but left it in melbourne. so we bought another one and decided to make one on our own.

2011-02-10T16:01:00.000+08:00

the pie chia/pek tor fish

in my growing up years i do not remember we having yusheng for our chinese new year celebrations but we did have another fish dish - the pek tor fish or pie chia fish. the pek tor is especially popular with the teochew during the chinese new year season. however, since all chinese share the view that whole steamed fish is the symbol of long life and good fortune, it is not surprising that other dialect groups also take to the fish.

the pek tor (white belly) fish is available all the year round but during the chinese new year season, it is special. that is when the fish start to spawn. the females are laden with roe and the males are laden with milt. at other times of the year, the fish is treated as an ordinary fish but comes chinese new year, the price of the fish skyrockets to as high as $80 a kilo. according to one friend, the best place to buy this fish is at jurong fishery port at 3.00 a.m. in the morning.

actually for me, one who does not eat the roe or the milt, it is a waste eating the fish at this time when the demand for it is so great and the price is so ridiculously high. another friend told me that i could get the frozen variety from ntuc supermarket at $4.90 for half a dozen pek tor.

according to some of my teochew friends, the chilli, garlic and salted soya beans are what make the dipping sauce special. i found out that there are as many ways for preparing the fish as there are types of sauce.

apart from steaming, you can also blanch the fish in boiling water. another way is to stir fry it with chinese leeks.

2011-02-08T16:01:00.000+08:00

sentosa boardwalk

the sentosa boardwalk is just a nice sounding name to entice visitors to take a stroll from vivocity to sentosa. if you are thinking of working out a sweat, like what you do at the boardwalks of macritchie reservoir park and lower peirce reservoir park, forget about it. this is not going to be the case. walking the less than 1km distance of the covered boardwalk will not make you perspire, even on a warm day. the sentosa boardwalk is not a npark boardwalk.

there are even travelators for those who find walking the short distance too much of a strain. it has a covered canopy all the way to the island of peace and tranquility. however, on the day of my visit, some sections of the travelators were not working. most visitors prefer use the travelators than the boardwalk.

you can choose to walk for free, without having to pay for admission charges into sentosa, if you stop at the turnstiles. if you want to continue onto the island, then tap your ez-link card and $1.00 will be deducted. you will find yourself in resort world sentosa. the new visitors' centre is also within the same area.

along the way, you enjoy a good view of the channel between sentosa and mainland singapore and cruise ships at the cruise centre. from now until 13 february, when the flower festival is still on, you can enjoy the delightful colours of the lunar new year flowers on display. at resort world, you will find the 12 animals of the chinese zodiac formed from flowers. there is also a gigantic fortune rabbit.

it's best to take the bus or train to harbourfront to begin your stroll from vivocity waterfront promenade. if you drive, you can park at seah imm car-park or vivocity. on a week-day, finding a parking space at vivocity should not be much of a problem.

2011-01-29T16:01:00.001+08:00

studley park boathouse, melbourne

in the winter of 2009 when i visited melbourne, my friend chris took me to one of the parks that adjoins the yarra river. i blogged about the warrandyte suburb here. there are quite a number of parks and parklands that are located along the length of the yarra river. the smaller parks have unsealed paths while the larger parks have sealed pathways suitable for walking as well as cycling. australians are fond of taking their dogs for a walk at the park. at most parks, dogs have to be leashed.

we did not go to walk the dogs. we went to the yarra bend park, near which the studley park boathouse is located, for a picnic. ida had gone to the park the day before, on australia day, and the scene she described was so vastly different. the day before, every corner of the park was taken up by australians celebrating their national day in their traditional way - a picnic and bbq in the park.

the studley park boathouse is the oldest operating boathouse in the state of victoria. it enjoys a nice location, at the bend of the yarra river. it has a restaurant and an indoor/outdoor cafe. row boats, kayaks and canoes are available for hire. the rate for the row boat is about $20 for half an hour. we did not row boats; instead, we fed the ducks and other birds on the bank and in the river.

you can sit at a picnic table and spend a quiet time by the bank of the river. although the sun was out, there was a cool breeze blowing. others were just happy to lie on the grass and be close to nature. now i understand why the australians love the outdoors.

this is the kane's bridge that spans the yarra river. the bridge originally built in 1929 was washed away by the 1934 floods. it was rebuilt in 1935. cyclists were advised to dismount and push the bike across the bridge. of the two cyclists i met, one dutifully got down and pushed his bike while the other cyclist just continued cycling across the bridge.

2011-01-26T16:01:00.001+08:00

conservation buildings quiz

these buildings are found in one of the more than 70 protected areas in singapore. they are considered protected because you cannot demolish the buildings or make any unauthorised alteration to the facade of the buildings.

this area covers five roads and i counted about 127 conserved buildings altogether, mostly for residential use but some for commercial purposes.

1 where is this area?

2 it used to be a residential stronghold for a certain group of people. what was this group?

3 where did this group move to?

(no, i am not back in singapore yet. i am still some 6000km away from home.)

2011-01-23T16:01:00.003+08:00

ang koo kueh in melbourne

when my elder daughter was expecting her first child, she had told me that she would like to have ang koo kueh and red eggs for her child's full moon celebration. i thought it would be a piece of cake because i had successfully made ang koo kueh at home in singapore. what i failed to reckon with was that not all asian things are readily available in melbourne. i hunted for the ang koo kueh mould in a number of asian enclaves like clayton, glen waverley and richmond in melbourne but could not find one. i even enlisted the help of my younger daughter, who is also here in melbourne, to try and get me one.

the other thing i had not considered was the cost of some of the requirements for making ang koo kueh. back in singapore i do not remember having to buy banana leaves to use as the base for placing the kueh. even if i had to buy, it would not cost more than a dollar. over here, unless you are in the state of queensland, banana trees are non-existent. so they have to be brought in from queensland or imported from some tropical countries. the packet of banana leaves, cut and folded, cost aus$7.50.

the first lot of ang koo kueh i made was the typical, round and flat type. somebody who saw them commented that they were not appropriate for a boy. we decided to make something more representative of a boy. my mother used to make ang koo kueh of this shape - the hokkien call it 'ang ee' and it did not require a mould. you can also buy this type of ang koo kueh, which is made for special occasions, from the confectioneries and some stalls at the market or food centre.

we made a total of about forty ang koo kueh, with two types of filling. the ones which appear darker (third photograph) were filled with peanut. the filling for the other lot was tau sar (mung bean). the peanut version was more popular with the guests. to make the dough, i used sweet potato and glutinous rice flour.

2011-01-20T16:01:00.002+08:00

ways of keeping cool

kampong days

the cheap and portable way is to use the straw fan (above) or the foldable paper or silk fan that can make a snapping sound, when folded or spread open. in those kampong days, when electricity was in short supply, this was the predominant way. in the past, at chinese funerals, these fans were given out to keep the mourners cool. in the present, at weddings in australia, especially those held in the open, i have seen the straw fans being presented to guests.

singapore today

the electric fan and the air-conditioner appear to be standard items in nearly every home in singapore. despite the widespread use of the air-conditioners, the electric fan still has a place in every home because it consumes less electricity.

in the 70s, the window-type of airconditioner was still the most common. its popularity declined from the 80s when the split and multi-split systems appeared on the scene. today, it is very rare to see the window-type installed in a flat, especially, in bigger flats.

melbourne, australia

i have seen this (above photo) on the roof-top of quite a number of homes here in melbourne. i had often wondered if it was meant for ventilation or it was some form of air-conditioning. i found out sometime ago that it is an alternative for air-conditioning. it is called an evaporative cooler.

an evaporative cooler is best suited for an environment with low humidity. so that rules out its use in humid singapore. its installation is relatively cheap compared to the traditional air-conditioners. it also costs much less to operate. the evaporative system is based simply on a water-pump and a fan.

so if it is cheaper to install and operate, why is there no rush to have it fixed in more homes? unlike air-conditioners which can be effective regardless of the level of humidity, the evaporative cooler depends on dry air to be effective. if humidity remains high for a few days, the moist pads (that make the evaporative coooler work) can begin to smell.

despite the fact that air-conditioners are not as environmentally friendly as the evaporative coolers, just as many people have opted to use them to keep themselves cool.

2011-01-16T16:01:00.005+08:00

stroller, then and now

this picture of a vintage stroller was sent to me by my blogger friend peter after he had read my blog posting on the birth of my grandson. i cannot recall seeing babies on strollers when i was young. however, seeing this photograph triggered my memory. i remember a movie in the 60s - a horror one, i believe - where a stroller or pram was prominently featured. can anyone remember the title of that movie?

if you compare today's stroller with the 1930 stroller, you will find that the modern stroller is made mainly of light-weight material. it may have more parts and more features but the weight may be lighter than the simple old stroller. the old stroller appears to be made mainly of metal and wood.

the modern stroller is collapsible; it can be folded with one hand for quick closing, so that it can be stored in the boot of a car for easy transportation. it is equipped with all-wheel suspension with a one-touch brake, just like central locking. the swivel front wheels make for better manoeuvrability. for the comfort of the baby, there is a four-position back-rest and two-position footrest. the stroller also comes with a multi-position hood with a storage pocket and a hinged front tray.

this baby car-seat which doubles as a carrier is sold as an optional item but it had to be bought because without a carrier, the baby could not be discharged from the hospital (in melbourne). just telling the hospital staff that you had a carrier in your car was not enough. you had to take it from your car and show it to the hospital adminsitration staff member. this carrier can be attached to the stroller. besides australia, i know of another country - the united states of america - where this is a requirement.

2011-01-14T16:01:00.006+08:00

something i learnt about dandelions

one of the reasons i enjoy blogging is that i am learning new things and re-learning old things all the time. blogging is not just about sharing experiences, knowledge and any information; it is about sharing the correct information. therefore, it is important to have the information we have gathered properly verified so that we do not perpetuate some inaccurate or wrong information.

for this blog posting, i got some help from my blogger friend john harper. i had not been sure if the picture below shows the flower or the seed head.

this is what john wrote: dandelion seed heads. the seed is carried on a puff of wind a long distance from the parent plant. the name dandelion derives from the french word 'dent te lion' meaning tooth of the lion. as is usual with words taken into english, the word starts to undergo a metamorphosis through slurring, laziness and mispronounciation. hence the transformation from dent de lion in french to dandelion in english. dandelions are considered a pernicious weed in the uk despite the flower being fairly attractive. it has a long tap root that breaks when you try to dig it up. it also exudes a milky white latex like fluid that stains your hand grey. as a child we called the seed heads dandelion clocks. you blew at the seed head and counted off the times as one o'clock for one puff, two o'clock for two, etc.

i have always been fascinated by the dandelion. it was featured in one of my primary school reading texts and mentioned more than once in more than one of the many enid blyton books that i devoured when i entered secondary school. when i was in primary school, i hardly read any book other than the text books. when i was in secondary one, i was told to read more to improve my english language.

on one of our travel trips overseas - i think it was on our first trip to new zealand, we came across some dandelions by the roadside. excitedly, i picked one and blew on it to show my daughters how the tiny 'parachutes' fly in the wind. i was just doing what i had seen in an illustration in my text-book many years ago.

i always thought that the globular seed head was the flower of the plant. although i often saw the yellow flowers together with the seed heads, i did not realise the connection until i started to read up about the dandelion and checked with john. the dandelion (the seed head) actually comes from the flower of the dandelion plant. i also found out that there are false dandelions. according to john, these are called catsears.

like the cherries which i blogged about earlier, the dandelion is also a harbinger of summer. they are to be found in abundance everywhere in summer although you do see them at other times of the year.

2011-01-11T16:01:00.001+08:00

grandson nathaniel song

of my over 20 trips to melbourne, this will be one when i will stay longest - from dec 13 2010 to jan 30 2011. i had come over on airasia, first flying to kuala lumpur low cost carrier terminal (lcct) and then connecting a flight on an airbus a330 to melbourne. it was a much more pleasant experience than the one i had on tiger airways, when i flew from singapore to darwin and from thence to melbourne. i am here for the birth of our first grandson. it is also the first grandson in the song family.

how different things are today compared to the time when we were babies. there was hardly any pre-birth purchases. my parents did not have to buy a pram or a car-seat from malaysia and carried it on a plane to melbourne. the only accessory, i can remember, we had as a baby, was the bamboo chair which we were confined in when we were about a few months old onwards.

we did not have a special bed all to ourselves. we slept on the same bed as our parents. the luckier ones might have this privilege. we did not have 'pampers', instead we used cloth diapers. change table? our bed doubled as a change table. nathaniel has 2 change tables. one in his parents' room and one downstairs, attached to the portable cot. there are also a host of other related baby stuff like a warmer for the milk, a steriliser for the bottles, a colourful gym mat, his own laundry bag and a special bath-tub.

then there are these musical mobiles to keep him entertained while he is having his feed, about to fall asleep or when he has to be left on his own for a while. all we had were the dialect lullabies that our mother or grandmother sang to us.

our mothers then did not have any resource to find out if they were pregnant. the sex of the baby was not known to the parents until the 'cart' was in their hands. today's mothers need only to administer a home pregnancy test where the result is known within minutes. a scan, carried out after the 10th week, will show quite distinctly the sex of the baby in the mother's womb.

during our time, as babies, we were confined to the house, together with our mother. nathaniel went with his parents to a shopping complex some 16km away from his home when he was barely 2 weeks old. at 2-week old, he attended his first church service. grandson nanthaniel will take his first plane flight when he is one month old, flying more than 6000km to singapore and then to kuching.

the benefits which my parents' generation did not have include pre-natal sessions for both parents and the many check-ups for the mother before the arrival of the baby. in those days, although we were breast-fed, our mothers did not have a device like the breast-pump to extract the milk, even though the pump had been invented earlier.

nathaniel was born on boxing day. he weighed 3.64kg (8.08lb) at birth.

2011-01-08T16:01:00.003+08:00

the 60s - the most exciting decade

on 12 april 1961, yuri gagarin became the first man to travel in space, orbiting the earth in the russian spaceship vostok 1. major gagarin became a worldwide celebrity after his 108 minute space flight. less than a year later, american astronaut john glenn made three orbits during his space voyage. then in june 1963, russian cosmonaut valentina tereshkova became the first woman to orbit the earth.

1962 saw the first appearance on the screen of the suave and multi-talented james bond. the film was a huge success. sean connery went on to star in four more james bond movies in the 60s: from russia with love (1962); goldfinger (1964); thunderball (1965); and you only live twice (1967).

in 1963, the world followed avidly the newspapers accounts of the profumo affair. the key figures were christine keeler (above picture) and john profumo, the british secretary of state for war. the scandal led to the downfall of the government of the day.

on 22 november 1963, the world was shocked by the news of the assassination of the 35th president of the united states of america, president john f kennedy. his brother robert kennedy suffered the same fate in 1968, shortly after winning the primary in his presidential campaign.

on 25 february 1964, 'the greatest' muhammad ali defeated sonny liston in a world heavyweight title fight held in miami. he was then known as cassius clay. ali described his fighting style in these words: float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. his two other well-known opponents were joe frazier and george foreman.

beatlemania swept the world in 1964. john, paul, george and ringo were mobbed everywhere they went. during their 1964 world tour, the beatles performed in hong kong but not in singapore. they did make a 55-minute stopover at paya lebar airport on 2 july 1964 en-route to london after their australia and new zealand tour.

in 1965, the united states of america sent more troops to vietnam despite mounting discontent at home. by 1968, the number of us troops in vietnam had ballooned to more than half a million.

in 1966, at the age of 73, chairman mao zedong swam in the yangtze river. at that time, he was engaged in a power struggle with lin piao and deng xiaoping. to show that he was still strong enough to lead his people, he performed this feat.

the end of the 60s saw the fulfillment of one of mankind's longest dream - to set foot on the moon. on 20 july 1969, one fifth of the world's population watched as buzz aldrin followed in neil armstrong's "giant leap" footsteps on the moon's sea of tranquility.

looking back, the 60s was indeed an exciting era. other momentous events and happenings of that decade include the march for jobs and freedom led by martin luther king jr, the hippies 'with flowers in their hair' strolling down the roads of san fancisco, the bay of pigs invasion and the woodstock festival. others may remember the death of marilyn monroe, elvis presley's marriage to priscilla beaulieu and twiggy's impact on the fashion scene.

all the above pictures came from a book i bought myself for christmas. the title of the book is 'the sixties in pictures'.

2011-01-06T16:01:00.003+08:00

collecting lala at venus bay

you do not always have to pay to pick or collect food in melbourne. the other day, 12 of ian's friends drove 160km to venus bay to collect the lala shellfish, which is called pipi by the local people. they came back with about 24 litres of the shellfish. venus bay is about 2 hours' drive from melbourne, heading south-east along the south gippsland highway.

a current recreational fishing licence is required by people taking or attempting to take pipis. you can apply for it on the spot, from a machine. each person is permitted to collect no more than 2 litres of pipi in the shell or half a litre without shells. harvesters have to use only their hands and feet. no form of digging implement is to be used. the pipis collected should be for personal use or consumption. some anglers use the pipi as bait.

owing to the increased levels of harvesting by recreational pipi collectors in the venus bay area, it was necessary to put in place a reduced limit. it used to be 5 litres until 2009; now, it is down to 2 litres per person.

i was told that in the past, some people would go as a group in a van and they would end up loading the van with as many as 5000 pipis or 100 litres (20 x 5l) of pipis.

lala (pipi) can be cooked in a number of ways. you can stir fry it with ginger and garlic or fry it with chilli and tomato sauce. ian's friends prepared it in a simple way - by making ginger soup.

it is advisable to soak the lala in water for sometime (say, about 15 minutes) before cooking them or you may end up eating some sediments (sand). this is especially so if you have collected the lala yourself from the surf beach.

this reminds me of the time - i think it was in the early 70s - when i visited my friend in penang and he took me to batu ferringhi beach to dig for 'siput' on the beach. i wonder if there are still 'siput' to be harvested.

2011-01-04T16:01:00.008+08:00

picking cherries at the farm

summer is cherry picking time and hordes of people descend upon the cherry farms at the mornington peninsula to experience the thrill and joy of picking and eating the ripe fruit off the trees. in temperate countries in the northern hemisphere, cherries ripen in june and july whereas in australia, the fruiting season is the months of november and december.

although i have taken friends and relatives to these cherry farms, i have not been inside one to pick the fruit. maybe it is because i have had enough of picking 'buah cherry' (jamaican cherry)when i was a boy. another reason could be that i am not particularly fond of cherries, sweet or sour. the third reason is the cost of picking.

different farms have different policies with regard to eating the fruit as you pick. some farms have no restriction on the amount consumed while you are on the farm while others advise that "you may taste some but it does not mean that you eat all you can". however, it is also not possible for the owner to deploy workers to check that this ruling is strictly adhered to.

for entry into the enclosed farm, most farms charge adults $10 and children, $5. the rate they charge for the amount you pick and take out depends on the prevailing market rate. at this particular farm, it was $12.90/kilo. before going to the farm to pick cherries, we had bought some at the market for $9.50/kilo. most of the cherry farms are open 7 days a week but there are some that are open for picking only on weekends.

upon payment of the entry fee you are given a pail with a plastic bag. i do not think there is a time limit. you then follow the signs to the trees which are available for picking. if the cherries are high up on the tree and beyond your reach, there are ladders around which you may use. you have to be quite gentle with cherries because they bruise easily.

what you are actually paying is for the novelty experience of picking your own cherries. you will not be likely to recoup your $10 by trying to eat as much as you can while in the process of picking the cherries. still, it makes for a good family outing in summer. anyway, children below 10 years of age are not charged any entry fee.

here are some tips on cherry picking: go to the farm early, before the crowd appears; don't wear a new shirt to go cherry picking because your shirt may get stained; look for heavy, firm cherries with a shiny skin and fresh stem; you should pick one cherry at a time and not pull down a whole bunch; pick those that are dark red or mahogany in colour - the darker the colour, the sweeter the cherry; and if you want the cherry to stay fresh longer, leave the stem intact.

2011-01-02T16:01:00.000+08:00

answers to old thing quiz

i came across this car at level 2 of autocare at sin ming. you can see the signal indicator called the trafficator between the two windows.

as this car was left at the workshop for either servicing or some repair work, i managed to take a picture of the large steering wheel.

this is the back view of the same car. i figure this car must have been manufactured in the late 50s or the beginning of the 60s. the vents at the rear are more the trademark of a volkswagen than a morris minor.

everybody who attempted seems to be able to identify the old thing but only don managed to get the correct term for the signal indicator. this was confirmed by victor.

2010-12-30T16:01:00.006+08:00

old thing quiz

looks like i will go with the flow. icemoon ends the year with a 'where is this building in s'pore' quiz, victor koo has his usual 'old building' quiz and chun see's is 'can you identify this place?'. my last posting for 2011 is a quiz based on something old.

senior citizens, with the exception of icemoon, should have no problem providing the answer to this quiz but those who belong to the post-65 generation may not have seen this device. it was in use between 1948 and 1961. of course, you can still see them but they are indeed rare.

quiz questions:

1 what is the almost rectangular shaped thing in that slot?

2 what is the proper name for it?

2010-12-28T16:01:00.004+08:00

unusual stuff we saw in hanoi

we came across this gas cylinder, topped with something that looked like a home-made rocket. there was a hose attached to somewhere near the base of the rocket. what do you think is this object standing by the roadside? is it a lamp? or is it a petrol pump? i had thought it was used to illuminate the roadside stall but my friend told me it was an illegal petrol pump. they sold petrol to motorcyclists mainly. there were a few of these pumps on that short stretch of road.

these bundles on the sidewalk look like chop-sticks. i do not think they are chop-sticks. they were outside a shop selling incense papers and joss-sticks. joss-sticks are made out of bamboo and covered with sawdust or sandalwood. those coated with sawdust tend to be more smoky.

this man was smoking the local tobacco (thuoc lao) using a bamboo pipe. it is commonly smoked immediately after a meal to 'aid in digestion'. it reminds me of the opium pipe which i had seen my former neighbour in the kampong used. the old man would recline on his bed to smoke his opium.

the vietnamese woman carrying two shallow trays of large water apples used an old fashioned weighing scale called a daching. a daching is a weighing scale used in the old days, and it is still being used in some chinese medical shops to weigh the herbs.

these are not half bras. these are masks which the vietnamese wear over their mouth and nose to protect themselves from the dust and dirt. they are especially popular with women on motorcycles. some pedestrians were also spotted wearing such masks on the streets. each mask costs around $0.60 - that was the amount we paid.

2010-12-26T16:01:00.001+08:00

fitzroy gardens in melbourne city

victoria is called the garden state, not for nothing; there are so many parks and gardens within the central business district of melbourne itself. besides the royal botanic gardens, there are, among others, the treasury and fitzroy gardens, king's domain, alexandra gardens, queen victoria gardens, flagstaff gardens and the royal park. i visited fitzroy gardens recently.

the most notable feature of fitzroy gardens is the wonderful trees that line the many pathways. in the above picture, you see an avenue of majestic trees lining one of the pathways in the gardens.

fitroy gardens are of historical, aesthetic, architectural, scientific and social significance to the state of victoria.

i had wondered why many of the trees in fitzroy gardens have this protective cover around part of its trunk. i was to learn later that it is to protect the bark from attack by possums. i looked around but did not see any possum. i was told that the possums normally appear after dark. some people do go at night to see and feed the possums.

the conservatory is open every day from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. there are five different displays each year. it is used by tourists, school students and families and anyone who wants to capture a moment of floral beauty.

the captain cook's cottage, originally in britain, was bought by a prominent melbournian and presented to the people of the state of victoria. in 1933, it was dismantled and shipped to melbourne in 253 packing cases. a site in fitzroy gardens, with large european trees, was selected to complement the cottage. you have to pay a small fee to see the inside of the cottage.

there is a small ornamental lake in this part of the gardens. actually, this part of the gardens is called the treasury gardens. if you go to larger parks, like albert park, you will come across hundreds of ducks, black swans, white swans and other kinds of birds.

the other attractions in fitzroy gardens include the fairies tree - a favourite with children, the tudor village and the sinclair's cottage.

"silver bells" christmas time in the city john denver

2010-12-24T17:25:00.001+08:00

merry x'mas and happy new year!

2010-12-24T16:01:00.008+08:00

tree-worshipping

tree worshipping had been in practice in ancient societies all over the world. ancient greeks, romans, egyptians, indians and chinese were some of the early people who regarded certain trees as sacred.

to the hindus, trees, like the coconut and banana, which have many uses are well regarded. the mango tree is also sacred to the indians. the peepal, sometimes spelt pipal, is revered by both the buddhists and the hindus. both indians and chinese also regard the banyan tree as a holy tree. in singapore, it is not unusual to see a huge yellow or orange cloth wrapped around the trunk of a mature banyan tree or bodhi tree.

some european trees that attained the sacred status included the oak tree, the cypress tree and the fig tree.

about three years ago, in september 2007, a tree, an african mahogany, in jurong west attracted a lot of attention. in fact, the 'magic monkey tree' was reported in the local papers as well as in some international papers. it arose from the discovery of a callus on a tree which appeared monkey-like. it drew large crowds to pray at the tree.

the belief that certain spirits inhabit trees is not new. when i was young, i dared not go near banana trees at night. this was because of the many stories i had heard related to the banana tree. some people even claimed to have seen the 'pontianak' that resided in these trees. according to these 'brave' people, to see the 'pontianak' you needed to tie a red string to the tree and, at midnight, the 'pontianak' would appear to you.

from what i have seen during my walks, any large or odd-shaped tree can be a subject of worship. i have seen taoist altars and idols of different deities left at the base of mature trees. i sometimes wonder why people who abandon their religion or religious beliefs choose to leave these objects at the such places.

in the past, in some societies, you could be punished for cutting down trees, especially large trees. come to think of it, today, in singapore, you can also be punished with a fine if you fell a tree - within the tree conservation areas - with a girth of more than one metre when measured 50cm from the ground. permission has to be sought from the national parks board even if the tree is in the compound of your house.

is this because of reverence for large trees?

2010-12-22T16:01:00.010+08:00

balestier walkies in hanoi

our 5-day trip to hanoi was conceived not long after our first overseas trip to melbourne. it was not possible to have a longer trip because although the former teachers in the group have all retired, the former students are still working. other than the city tour on the second day and the halong bay trip on the third, we were very much on our own. part of the city tour included an hour long segment when we were taken on a very interesting cyclo ride around the old quarters of hanoi. our accommodation was at the fraser suites, one set up by singapore's fraser and neave.

judging from all the happy faces of our tour participants, you can be sure that there will be more follow-up trips. our next trip is either to guangzhou in china or kuching in sarawak. our visit to the temple of literature coincided with a visit by a group of vietnamese male and female undergraduates who were there to pray for success in their university exam. the young girls were very obliging when approached by the men in our group to take pictures with them in their ao dai.

the men were not the only ones happily snapping away; the ladies also wanted to be in the thick of the action. we all took photographs at the various tourist attractions - ho chi minh's mausoleum, ho chi minh's stilt house, one pillar pagoda, tran quoc pagoda, quan thanh taoist temple and even at the water puppet theatre. the unique water puppet performance was quite interesting.

typical of singaporeans, we sought out the best local food. when we arrived on 4 december, our first vietnamese meal was room service style. the general manager of fraser suites arranged for lunch to be served in our duplex. that night we had local cuisine at a high-end restaurant called the ly. the next day, we had a very satisfying lunch at another vietnamese restaurant called wild rice.

on our 'free day' we went to buy dvd and vcd at one of the shops near the hoam kiem lake in the old quarters of hanoi. we also strolled along 'hang gai' (street of silk) where the ladies bought lots of silk clothing and embroidered materials.

in hanoi, vietnam we were literally millionaires (in dong). a japanese meal we had cost us about 3 million dong. the smallest unit in the vietnamese currency is 500 dong. i do not think there is any vietnamese coin. in singapore, the best exchange rate we could get was $1 to 14 800 dong; in hanoi, we managed to get $1 to 16 300 dong.

from friends who have been to vietnam, we heard about dog meat (thit cho) being sold on the streets. however, although we visited two markets and explored the old quarters, we did not come across any stall or shop selling dog meat.

playing chinese chess seems to be a favourite pastime among the man folks of hanoi. one of our group members, a chinese chess aficionado, was so tempted to play a game with the locals by the roadside.

of course, we were on the lookout for snatch thieves and pick pockets after being warned by well-meaning friends who have visited vietnam or who have heard of incidences of such petty thefts. the ladies had to secure their handbags while riding in the cyclos and the men made sure their wallets were inconspicuous at all times.

2010-12-20T16:01:00.007+08:00

give us cash, not household gifts

on our first saturday in melbourne, we were invited to a church wedding, followed by lunch in a function room of a hotel. nowadays, young people are so straight forward ...they ask for cash outright. the invitation card comes with an additional card on which was a poem spelling out very clearly what the bride and groom want as wedding gifts. i am sure you, young people, know about this site on the internet where they teach you how to write one of these poems (to ask for monetary gifts).

as if the rhyming verses is not a strong enough hint, there is also an empty red packet to go with it. some people may consider this tacky and low-class but i will compliment the couple for being honest and up front about it. who wants to end up with five sets of 20-piece fine bone china dinner sets or three oven toasters? i think most newly-weds will prefer cash as weddings are expensive affairs. a not so extravagant one held in singapore can easily set you back by $30k to $50k.

not very long ago, a gift list was considered distasteful but over time the gift list has become an acceptable thing. it is part and parcel of a wedding plan. over time, people may come around to accept that asking for cash is a practical thing.

even with a wedding gift registry, you could also end up with similar gifts or more gifts than you need. some relatives, colleagues or your parents' friends might have bought the gifts earlier, even before you sent out the invitation. these are the people who could present you with an item already picked on your gift list.

however, in asking for cash gifts, there is also a risk of you getting less than what you have bargained for. if everybody just drops the red packet into a box or slip in into a big envelope, there is a chance that someone may just put $2 into the ang pow or just stuff it with some neatly cut papers.

to pre-empt this and to identify the giver, i have seen people at wedding reception assigned to receive and mark each red packet or envelope as it is handed to them.

2010-12-18T16:01:00.005+08:00

singapore's last fishing 'village'

in my post on 'orang seletar', i had suggested that the stilt houses near the seletar dam could be the site where they were once settled from the 19th century onwards. during one of our saturday's walks, we decided to explore some of the existing huts. i do not think it can be considered a fishing 'village' because there are only about five huts on land and four floating ones some distance out in the sea. besides, most of the part-time fishermen do not live in those huts.

as with most rural people, the fishermen were very accommodating. they invited us to take a look around the huts and cautioned us to be careful as the planks of the wooden jetty were rather filmsy. although most of the huts were built on stilts over the water, some were on solid land. the fishermen told us that they did not live on the site because of the presence of pesky mosquitoes.

the first line of huts that we visited seem to specialise in catching flower crabs. the three men we met all had flower crabs. one of them wanted to sell us the live crabs at $9 a kilogram. he had a plastic bag of them which he offered to sell us for $15. catching crabs was not their full-time job. it was more to bring in some side income. it was also to connect with the past because some of them were fishermen when they were living near punggol point.

the second row of huts belonged to some malay families. we did not get to see the inside because we could not find the access to it. the third row of huts were occupied by hokkien fishermen. this was the information volunteered by the friendly teochew fisherman in the first hut. here, we were told that the catch had not come in yet. normally, the boats will bring in the fish, prawns and other live seafood at around 11 a.m. we did not that eager to get our hands on the fresh seafood, so we did not want to wait.

in the past, some anglers used to come here to hire a boat, with a boatman, to go fishing out in the sea. when we enquired about renting a boat, we were told that they were no longer allowed to do this kind of business anymore.

from the wooden jetties, you can see seletar island, where orang seletar once lived, and khatib bongsu on the mainland.

2010-12-16T16:01:00.016+08:00

integration in singapore?

we have the two much publicized integrated resorts, one at sentosa and the other at marina bay. these two places are drawing the crowds from within and around the region. they seem to be doing very well as far as ~~sucking~~ making money is concerned. when it comes to businesses, it is easy to decide if there is integration or not. the main attraction may be the casino but as long as there are recreation facilities, high-end shopping, hotels and convention halls, they can qualify as an integrated resort.

over at my public housing estate, there is this integrated sports complex. actually, it is a sports complex-cum-community club. the sports facilities include swimming pools, a fitness gymnasium, basketball-cum-badminton courts, tennis courts and a street soccer pitch. there are also other sporting activities like roller blading, silat, taekwondo and qigong. from my balcony, i can watch the goings-on at the street soccer pitch. i have made some interesting observations.

i came across this report which says: "the findings show that public housing has succeeded in reducing the intensity of the ethnic enclaves while increasing social integration." i wonder how they arrive at the conclusion of 'increasing social integration'.

this is my findings based on my observations of the several groups that have played at the street soccer pitch. out of the 10 times, 8 times there was no racial mixing at all. the malay teenagers would play among themselves and the chinese would play among themselves. there was hardly any interaction between the two different groups. while one group played, the other group would wait passively for their turn. so far, i have not seen any group of indian youths playing soccer at the pitch.

some of these groups are students from the neighbourhood schools like fajar secondary, zhenghua secondary and greenridge secondary. even among the students, the situation is the same. what does that tell us about integration at school level?

out of the 2 times when i saw a mix of chinese and malay boys playing together, once it involved children of primary school going age. the other time, i was quite heartened to watch three chinese teenage boys playing with eleven malay boys. however, the three chinese boys were in the same team. one of them played in the position of the goalkeeper. the three of them were heard communicating in mandarin.

even organised groups - those that were attired in soccer jerseys and proper shorts - were also racially grouped. so far, all the organised groups that played at this pitch were malay children belonging to some clubs or those who have been trained by the same soccer coach, who invariably is a malay.

needless to say, the silat group comprises malay participants only and the qigong, chinese. as for roller blading and taekwondo, the majority of the members are chinese, with a sprinkling of indian members.

back in those kampong days, we sometimes played soccer (we called it football then) with our malay and indian neighbours and we would interact with one another in our bazaar malay.

so, is there more integration today compared to our kampong days?

2010-12-14T16:01:00.000+08:00

guanyin, male or female?

when i visited the kong meng san phor kark see recently, i was puzzled to read on one of the information panels that guanyin bodhisattva was referred to as a 'he'. all along, i have seen guanyin protrayed in the female form, clad in a flowing white robe and holding a slim pitcher in one hand and a willow branch in the other. in fact, the usual name in english is 'the goddess of mercy' or 'the bodhisattva of compassion'.

i asked a buddhist friend if she knew the gender of guanyin. she told me that she had heard that guanyin was a buddha, meaning he was a man. another nominal buddhist friend told me that she knew that guanyin's origin was that of a male.

on checking wikipedia i found this: guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by east asian buddhists, usually as a female. it is generally accepted by buddhists that guanyin originated as avalokitesvara, which is her male form.

now, i have a clearer picture of things. i am enlightened to know that among the mahayana buddhists, the belief is that quanyin can manifest in many forms and either gender. to the taoists, however, guanyin has no other form than the feminine one. the taoist's version of the origin of guanyin differs from that of the buddhist's.

guanyin can assume many forms; guanyin is sometimes depicted as one having one thousand arms or one with as many eyes.

2010-12-12T16:01:00.000+08:00

halong bay (vietnam)

when my former colleague found out that i was visiting hanoi, she wrote in my facebook: "you must go to halong bay". so, on our third day in vietnam, we made the 3.5-hour (157km) drive to halong bay, journeying through the rich farmlands of the red river delta, observing vietnamese villagers working in their rice fields, taking pigs to market on their motorcycles and ploughing the fields with their water buffaloes.

our day-trip ticket entitled us a visit to one of the many caves. we chose to visit hang dau go (grotto of wooden stakes) known to the french as the grottes des merveilles (cave of marvels). it is a huge cave, comprising three chambers, which can be reached via 90 steps. the third chamber was said to have been used by vietnamese folk hero tran nung dao to store sharp bamboo stakes which were used against the mongolians led by kublai khan.

our junk sailed past one of the four floating villages in halong bay but we did not make a stop. the people who make these pontoons their homes spend most of their time fishing in the waters of the bay and cultivating some marine biota. some venture to grow some food crops on the nearby islands. their catches from the sea are usually sold to people who come in bigger boats that take the fresh fish to markets on the mainland.

we had the luxury of having the boat, which could accommodate up to 48 passengers, all to ourselves. according to our tour guide, there are about 1000 boats of varying sizes available to tourists in halong bay. we were served a basic seafood lunch, which included crabs, prawns and fish, on board the boat. we spent a large part of our time on the boat soaking in the atmosphere drinking in the beautiful sights around us, and taking lots of pictures.

we took the most number of pictures at halong bay. some of the pictures were taken on land but most of the pictures were taken when we were on the boat out in the bay.

when we mentioned that we would be visiting halong bay, a number of our friends cautioned us about the weather and the flooding in hanoi. "it is the monsoon season at the end of the year". on the contrary, we found out that december is part of the dry season and actually it is a good time to visit because of the cool weather. temperatures were in the low 20s.

one friend who has been to halong bay before recommended that we stay at least one night. we could opt to sleep on those boats with cabins or stay overnight at one of the hotels on the bigger islands in the bay. it was a pity our schedule did not permit us to do so.

in 1994, halong bay was designated as vietnam's second unesco world heritage site in recognition of its outstanding universal aesthetic value. visitors have compared the mystical scenery with thousands of limestone islands rising from the emerald waters to guilin in china

and krabi in thailand.

in 2009, halong bay was on the list of nominations as one of the world's 7 natural wonders.

2010-12-10T16:01:00.000+08:00

kissing cocks in halong bay

one of the most well-known limestone formations is called the kissing rocks. it is also called the ho ga troi (fighting cocks). a picture of it appears on the 200 000 dong note.

2010-12-09T16:01:00.004+08:00

tiu chiam - chinese fortune sticks

chinese fortune sticks or divination sticks are the flat, wide sticks that are usually stored in a cylindrical bamboo container. they are generally made of bamboo. they look like extended ice-cream sticks and are often painted red at one end. each stick carries a number written in chinese characters. the total number of sticks in a tube may vary between 60 and 78. in the past, its practice was more prevalent and you could 'tiu chiam' at any large buddhist or taoist temple. today, you can still do so. i was told that the kwan imm thong hood cho temple on bencoolen street is popular for its fortune stick prediction.

these are the prediction sheets that go hand in hand with the fortune stick. each printed slip is numbered to correspond to the number on the stick. suppose you toss out a valid stick and its number is 30, then you go to the counter to get prediction sheet number 30. the slip of paper contains a short poem or rhyme. interpretation of the it may not be definitive; at best, it gives you an indication of what lies ahead.

for a small fee, you could get a temple worker or a volunteer to do the interpretation. you could even take it home to get someone knowledgeable in such matter to interpret for you.

the chinese like to believe that opportunity exists for people to make the most of their lives by being more aware of the 'environmental conditions' that surround their lives.

here are two pairs of wooden moon blocks (jiaobei). they are used to decide the validity of a fortune stick that has been dislodged from the container. if both blocks fall on the same side - either flat or curved - then you do not accept the stick. the fortune stick is valid only if one lands on the flat side and the other ends up on the curved side.

here are the steps involved in this method of fortune telling:

first, kneel in front of the deity and think silently or whisper your question to the deity while holding the cylinder in your two hands.

next, shake the cylinder, which is usually tipped slightly forward, resulting in one stick dropping out of the cylinder. if more than one stick falls out, replace the sticks and repeat the procedure.

once a stick falls out, you pick up the two jiaobei blocks and toss them. you only accept the stick when one block lands on the flat side and the other is on the curved side.

take the valid stick to the counter where you will get a prediction slip corresponding to the number on your stick.

i remember my mother resorting to this method of fortune telling when i was very ill at one time. the other instance she did this was when she tried to find out how i would fare in the primary school leaving examination.

2010-12-07T16:01:00.004+08:00

motorcyclists in hanoi

before i visited vietnam i was told that the roads were swarming with motorcycles - that appeared to move in a haphazard way - and that it was a challenge to cross the road. so, when i came over to hanoi, i was looking out for motor-cyclists all the time. after a while, i discovered that crossing the streets of vietnam was not as life-threatening as back home because the traffic here moved at a much slower speed.

seems like anything and everything goes in hanoi, vietnam. wearing a crash helmet may be compulsory for motor-cyclists but not everyone complies. generally, most riders and their pillions put something on their head but it may not be a crash helmet. in fact, so long as it resembles a helmet, it seems to satisfy the requirement. i have seen baseball caps and construction workers' hats. it is as if wearing something on the head is a token gesture; sometimes, the strap is not even secured properly.

most riders were able to multi-task while riding. carrying on a conversation on the mobile phone was not something unusual here. some were even able to text and send a message while the bike was moving and, mind you, they were not pillion riders. the bike could be used like a four-wheel vehicle to transport more than one passenger and to carry bulky goods and heavy items. some carried both passenger and goods. while most pillions sat behind the rider, some, especially small kids, rode in front.

here are some tips on how to cross the noisy and 'crazy' streets of hanoi where you should not expect motorists and motorcyclists to stop at pedestrian crossings:

wait for a break in the traffic before stepping onto the road.
don't run; move at a steady pace
don't hold hands while crossing the road
do not stop and do not turn back because you will confuse the riders and drivers.
if you still cannot cross, then just depend on blind faith - close your eyes and just walk across.

2010-12-05T16:01:00.002+08:00

the japanese cemetery park

the japanese cemetery park has been around since the 19th century, long before the japanese invaded singapore. it was gazetted as a memorial park in 1987.

'japanese brothel owner tagajiro fukaki donated 7 acres of his rubber plantation at chuan hoe avenue, off yio chu kang road, to be used as a burial ground for young japanese women who died in destitution. the british colonial government granted permission for this use on 26 june 1891. since then, it was used to bury japanese residents. during world war ii, the cemetery was used to bury japanese civilians and soldiers who lost their lives in the battlefield or to illness.

no one has been buried here since 1973 as this was one of the 42 cemeteries where burials were prohibited by the government. the japanese association of singapore maintains the park which is often visited by japanese students, residents and tourists.'

this is the prayer hall within the cemetery park. i had thought it was a shinto shrine. although the prayer hall is closed most of the time, if you peep in, you can see some statues of buddha at the front of the hall.

the cemetery park is well-maintained and there are quite a number of mature trees, including some fruit trees. there is an old lychee tree - designated an heritage tree - next to the prayer hall. the lychee tree is not able to bear fruit here because of the unsuitable climatic conditions.

these three slabs of stones were erected in memory of those who lost their lives during the pacific war. behind this memorial, buried in a hole which was sealed with concrete, were the ashes of dead japanese soldiers collected from the destroyed syonan chureito at bukit batok.

this is a statue of the hinomoto guardian deity. this memorial was built in memory of 41 japanese civilains who died in the internment camp at jurong while waiting for repatriation after the japanese defeat in world war ii.

one surprise find at the japanese cemetery park is this chinese grave of a chinese man. although my mandarin is rather inadequate, i can make out certain characters like 'hokkien' and 'heng hwa' inscribed on the tombstone. i was told that the tomb had been refurbished. it belonged to the a former cemetery care-taker who died more than 70 years ago.

strangely, this chinese tomb is different from one i came across in another website. could there be more than one chinese grave within the japanese cemetery?

2010-12-03T16:01:00.002+08:00

tapioca bread

my 81-year old friend, who has lived through the 2nd world war and the japanese occupation, was lamenting on how wasteful the younger generation are when it comes to food. he was telling me that the edges of the bread that the young people discard would have been savoured by people of his generation. just the whiff of the gluten bread coming from the bakery was enough to set people of his generation dreaming of the actual stuff.

they could only dream of eating the wheat bread that we take for granted today. during the japanese occupation, while the conquerors ate the bread made from gluten flour, they had to make do with bread made from tapioca flour.

according to him, mashed corn was added to the dough. the bread was so hard, if you dropped it, it could bounce off the ground. it was not very palatable but for survival sake, they had to eat. sometimes, they would cut the unfinished bread into strips and fry them. then the bread strips would become 'keropok' or what we call crackers.

i have heard that during the war years and the occupation period, the diet of the local people consisted mainly of tapioca and sweet potato. what i did not know was that the tapioca flour could be used for making bread and even noodles.

but the hard times that he went through during the occupation has fortified him and taught him valuable life skills.

2010-12-01T16:01:00.015+08:00

the kon seletar of singapore

houses on stilts near the seletar dam - orang seletar lived here?

orang laut families, johor straits

seletar river, orang laut village

photos from national archives of singapore

today, i walked at the re-developed lower seletar reservoir park. not only was i pleased to find new additions at the park, like the heritage bridge and the family bay, but i was also being enriched to learn of the existence of a certain group of people who once lived in that area. i had not known or heard of the kon seletar who had settled in singapore long before sir stamford raffles landed on our shore.

kon seletar or orang seletar is now classified as an orang asli tribe in malaysia. they were named after the seletar area in singapore (or it could be the other way around), where about 800 of them once lived. these people could be considered sea gypsies or orang laut. however, they did not belong to the same group that raffles met when he stepped shore. the orang seletar were descendants of the orang laut from the spice islands of indonesia.

are there still orang seletar in singapore? i believe there are. some have assimilated into the malay community and some have even inter-married with the other races. i read about two orang seletar women who had chinese husbands. most, however, had migrated to sungai pulai in south-west johor.

at one time they lived on both sides of the johor straits, especially along the banks of the rivers. they also lived in boats or temporary huts in the mangrove swamps. they were happy-go-lucky people who were quite contented fishing, catching crabs and collecting bakau wood for making charcoal to eke out a living.

in the early days, this group of maritime people, being nomadic, used to move freely between johor and singapore. until 1967, there were still orang seletar living on the island of seletar.

the orang seletar did not speak malay and they were not muslims. they were animists who believed that spirits roam the world inhabiting trees, water and rocks.

i do not know if i have met any orang seletar in person but from the pictures that i have seen of them, they appear to have a slightly darker complexion than the malays and most of the men seem to have short, curly hair.

although the information panels about them are displayed at the redeveloped part of the lower seletar reservoir park, i think the orang seletar were, at one time, settled nearer to the seletar dam which i blogged about here in 2009.

two new developments at lower seletar reservoir park

the heritage bridge at lower seletar reservoir

the family bay - a nice place to cool down on a warm day

2010-11-29T16:01:00.002+08:00

the chureito at lorong sesuai

japanese soldiers leading some german soldiers to the chureito

(photo courtesy of my blogger friend peter)

a smaller version of the memorial at the japanese cemetery park

the 135 concrete steps

the bukit batok memorial

once in a while, when i am at bukit batok nature park, i will see a bus-load of japanese tourists alighting at the foot of the 135 concrete steps. if you do not know the history of the place, you may wonder: what is the attraction for this whole bus-load of tourists? are they here to see the mediacorp transmission towers at the top of the hill? or are they here to see the 'big book' - the bukit batok memorial? no, they are there for another reason.

after the war, the japanese consigned 500 australian prisoners of war to build a memorial to the japanese soldiers who died in the malayan campaign. the japanese commander lieutenant-general yamashita had chosen this site for the memorial because the fiercest battle in singapore was fought there, somewhere near the ford motor works.

the japanese memorial was known as the syonan chureito (syonan war memorial). it was a 13m high cylindrical wooden pylon with a brass cone at the top. the ashes of the japanese soldiers who died in the battle of bukit timah were buried there. not far behind it, there was another memorial - a 3m high wooden cross - dedicated to british soldiers who died in the same battle. there was also a small japanese shrine near the chureito.

what happened to the two memorials and the shrine? when the japanese surrendered in 1945, the returning british forces demolished the memorials and the shrine. according to one report, the wooden cross was destroyed inadvertently. another report said that the wooden memorial failed to withstand the elements of nature and the passage of time. today, if you go to the site, beyond the fence, you cannot see any trace of them.

my friend, who was a teenager during the occupation, had seen both the chureito and the wooden cross. he was working for the japanese military command then. every year, on new year's day and on the anniversary, he would be taken to the site to pay his respect - by bowing three times - in the direction of the chureito.

it was customary for japanese employers to take their local civilian staff to pay their respect at the chureito. in fact, the japanese authorities made it compulsory for the leaders of all the communities to pay homage at the chureito.

today, the 135 steps are the only reminder that at one time the presence of the japanese conquerors was very evident in this area. the original steps were rough and not so well aligned. today, there is an information panel, put up by singapore tourist promotion board, that gives a bit of history of the place.

the 13m obelisk was so high that it could almost been seen from bukit timah road. these days when the tourists visit the spot, it is only their imagination that will enable them to see the obelisk.

dahil sa'yo (because of you)

2010-11-27T16:37:00.008+08:00

who was the singer? no, not obama. this great american singer sang it in 1961 when he made a visit to the philippines.

english translation of the song:

long have i endured in my life
the pain and sorrows from love arise
then you came and redeemed me, my dear
my only hope in my darkest fears

because of you, there's joy in living
because of you, till death (you) must realize
in my heart i know there is only you
and ask my heart, you'll know that this is true

because of you, i found happiness
that to you i offer this love that is so blessed
though indeed i may be a slave for loving you so true
it matters not to me, 'cause everything's because of you.

the original song was written by miguel 'mike' velarde jr. it was written in 1938 for the movie 'bituing marikit' and sung by rogelio de la rosa.

2010-11-27T16:01:00.001+08:00

my first abode

when it came to housing, most people would upgrade but we actually down-graded. that is, if you consider moving from an urban area to a rural one as some kind of retrogression. when i was born, we lived in a brick house at upper dickson road. a few years later, we moved to an attap house in the now defunct kampong chia heng. the above picture shows the 2-storey house in which we stayed for a few years.

today, the area has not changed much but the ownership and occupancy have changed hands. in the 60s, there were more chinese households in this area. quite a number of them were stall-holders at the nearby old tekka market. today, most of the owners and occupants of the houses are indians. back in those days, we did have indian neighbours but they were in the minority.

my earliest memories of this place include eating durians that came in a big basket. the owner of the house would buy durians by the basket to be shared by his family and friends. the other thing i remember about my stay there was being awakened very early in the morning. every morning, at around 5 a.m., even before sunrise, you could hear a cacophony of noises as the stallholders pushed their carts and trolleys to the market.

i remember this cul-de-sac and the run-down 60-year old coffee-shop at the corner of clive street and upper weld road. i learnt that this coffee-shop was featured in a local documentary entitled " old places". back in those days, i would see elderly men reading the sin chew jit poh or the nanyang siang pau chinese newspapers in this coffee-shop. in those good old days, you could buy coffee 'takeaway' in your own container.

during a certain time of the year, a wayang stage would be erected at this road end and the wayang shows, which lasted 2 or 3 days, would attract both children and adults from around the kampong kapor area. the people who came to watch, both young and old, would take their own stools and chairs to the site.

i think this house, on the same row as the coffee-shop used to house a temple. it was this temple that sponsored the chinese wayang, usually teochew but some years, hokkien. the wayang would run for 2 or 3 days. on these days, hawkers would set up food stalls by the side of the roads.

2010-11-25T16:01:00.002+08:00

ulu sembawang park connector

while driving along mandai road on sunday, i was excited on seeing a new signboard announcing the ulu sembawang park connector. i have been wanting to re-explore this area for sometime but i could not because it is a protected area - a military training area. according to my blogger friend chun see, wild boars have been sighted in this area. protected or not, during the durian season, it is not uncommon to see trespassers in this area. i recall enjoying my visits to this farming area back in the 70s. i wanted to see if there were still some vestiges of the past.

my first attempt to walk the trail failed because i had driven there and i could not find a parking space. the nearest parking space was 1km away and my walking kaki was not up to it - walking the extra 1km that day. the next day, i took a public bus (service 171) that stops near the entrance to the park connector. the first part of the track was the old road that led to the ulu sembawang village. there are some farms on the right side of the track. i think these farms are part of the mandai agrotechnology park where the access to them is via lorong lada hitam.

from the mandai road entrance, it is some 4.8km to the admiralty park, the one next to the republic polytechnic. however, some sections of the connector at woodlands avenue 12 are still under construction. from admiralty park, you can make your way to the woodlands waterfront and the two other parks in woodlands.

besides other flora, the nparks have planted lantanas by the side of the track and their beautiful flowers are attracting lots of butterflies. i am learning to identify butterflies and if i am not wrong, this one belongs to the crow species.

i ended my walk at the point where there is a road crossing to woodlands avenue 12 and from there i backtracked to mandai road. again, the same story - i did not meet any other walker along the route but i did come across two cyclists.

so, did i manage to see remnants of the ulu sembawang village? the tracks or roads that served the village are still around and i think the soldiers are making use of them. however, i did not venture far enough for me to see old structures like abnadoned buildings and so on.

2010-11-23T16:01:00.002+08:00

old coffee-shop quiz

my blogger friend stumbled upon an old gun and based a quiz on it. however, without any clue, it was almost impossible to tell where he had stumbled. all the help he would give was to tell us that 'cannon' in cantonese or mandarin has the same meaning as 'to lie'.

today, i re-visited this old coffee-shop. my quiz is based on this old run-down building. to help you along, i can tell you that this coffee-shop is as old as i, if not older. i used to live in a house just across the road.

looks like this coffee-shop has attained some kind of celebrity status. the day when i was there, there were other photographers taking pictures of the shop. i did not drink or eat at the shop. it looks dingy. it looks like it belongs to another era. time seems to have stopped moving here but the old clock on the wall was still ticking away.

quiz questions:

1 how old is this coffee-shop?

2 it was featured in a local documentary. what's the documentary?

3 where did i use to live? (the type of question my blogger friend, the cannon stumbler likes to pose)

2010-11-21T16:01:00.003+08:00

sengkang riverside walk

when my group picked it as the venue for this saturday's walk, i realised that it would be my first visit to the place. ever looking for new terrain to cover, we decided to explore the newly opened sengkang riverside park. as with all new parks, which do not have mature trees to offer the protection from the elements, especially the sun, it is best to have the walk early in the morning or in the later part of the evening.

if you drive, it is not a big problem to get to anchorvale street where the visitors' centre is located. a discovery for me is that you could get to punggol by way of jalan kayu. when you are on jalan kayu, after passing the ubin thai temple on your right, look out for the turning into sengkang east way. a short distance into sengkang east way, turn left at the junction into fernvale street. you will drive past two light rail transit (lrt) stations - thanggam and kupang - before you reach the visitors' centre on the left.

this is the visitors' centre with the free public car-park next to it. you can opt to coupon park at the anchorvale community club, which is located across the road from the centre. we toured the community club and the sports and recreation centre. the swimming complex has the usual children's pool with slides and tubes. what really make us envious of the residents of punggol and sengkang are two olympic-sized pools - one outdoor and one indoor. the adjacent sports complex has poligras olympia hockey pitches.

the sengkang park is the one where nparks has set aside one parcel of land for planting fruit trees. we could identify most of the fruit trees like the mango, durian, banana, dragonfruit, breadfruit, starfruit and jackfruit. but there were some we could not, like the one shown in the picture above.

of course, we could not miss out on the floating wetland, one of the unique features in this park. the wetland was recently declared open by the prime minister. there is this giant mangosteen which is actually a shelter. we did not see any heron, kingfisher or tern but we did come across two snakes - one dead and one slithering - at the park.

a nice and quiet park for walkers, joggers and cyclists. i was told by my friend that in the evening, there are lots of kite flyers. at the moment, it is not well served by public transport. the lrt does not seem to be frequent or as well used as the one at bukit panjang.

2010-11-19T16:01:00.008+08:00

does food cooked over a

charcoal fire taste better?

picture from national archives of singapore

a lot of people will attest to it: that certain food cooked over a charcoal fire definitely tastes better than if it was cooked in other ways. besides the satay seller, there are still a number of food-vendors that use charcoal to cook their food. think of the sungei road laksa, the clay-pot rice at geylang and clementi, the hokkien mee at the junction of telok kurau and changi roads, some bak kwa stalls and the stalls selling ikan bakar or ikan panggang. will the food taste the same if they switch to using gas or electric grills?

when i was a student, i used to think that charcoal was the local name for coal, the substance that is mined. coal is a readily combustile black or brownish black sedimentary rock found in the earth whereas charcoal is usually made from the stems of trees. this website gives a good and comprehensive account of how charcoal is made from the mangrove tree, specifically, the bakau minyak.

actually, any variety of natural wood can be used to create charcoal. hardwood charcoal is preferred for cooking.

if the charcoal is not fully dried - the one that is slightly brownish black in colour - it will release more smoke when burned.

nowadays, we do not use charcoal in our kitchens. some do use it once in a while, like when they are brewing some herbal concoction or when cooking dumplings during the dragon boat festival or baking love letters for the lunar new year.

i think most of our charcoal comes from indonesia. the picture above (3rd) shows one of the rare shops in singapore that sells charcoal only. each time, we needed to buy lots of charcoal for a bbq in the camp, we would go to this shop on serangoon road.

if you buy your charcoal from the supermarkets or shops for your bbq, it can come in two forms - lump charcoal and charcoal briquettes. from the serangoon road's shop, you get lump charcoal but those that come in sealed packets are usually charcoal briquettes.

2010-11-17T16:01:00.001+08:00

vintage tea - pu'erh

i am not a serious or regular drinker of chinese tea. my interest in chinese tea was perked after i heard a friend extolling its benefits; no, not the health kind but the monetary kind. he was telling us about how someone made a bundle from selling his old collection of chinese tea. he had bought it many years ago for $20 a piece and recently sold it for $500 a piece.

according to him, the value of a certain type of tea has increased by as much as 25-folds over the years. i have heard of vintage wine fetching astronomical sum of money, but vintage tea? it was the first time i was hearing about it. it seems tea connoisseurs and speculators, especially those from china, are willing to pay premium prices for old pu-erh tea.

i decided to visit some of the better known tea-houses in the chinatown area to find out more about chinese tea. the tea chapter on neil road sells a wide variety of tea, including pu'erh which it classifies as a black tea. the pu'erh is sold in the form of a brick or a cake. a piece of raw pu'erh tea brick dated 1980 costs around $880. this tea house also conducts tea appreciation lessons for individuals as well as groups.

i have always thought that tea is best consumed fresh, shortly after production. but, no, here is a case of a tea that matures and mellows with age. it seems that pu'erh tea can be drunk immediately or allowed to age for many years.

at yixing xuan tea-house, which i visited on the same day, there was a school group attending a tea art session. you can get a variety of chinese tea from this shop. it sells four types of pu-erh tea. the costliest is 18-year old pu-erh which is sold at $60 per 100gm.

pu-erh tea comes from yunnan, a province in china. it has a strong earthy flavour. it is processed using an ancient technique - which used to be a state secret - that involves aging the leaves. it is often formed into bricks although you can also get pu-erh in a loose form. some prized pu-erh can be as old as 50 years.

in a country like china when something commands a high price, what do you think will happen? yes, the counterfeits started appearing on the market. unscrupulous tea manufacturers started producing adulterated versions and some added chemical to the tea to hasten the fermentation process. just like in the milk powder scam, these greedy people did not care if the chemical was toxic or harmful to the drinkers.

the same friend also told me that not only is the pu'erh tea sought after, the sticker (nei fei) which is usually embedded into the brick during pressing is also valued. the sticker is seen as a proof of the authenticity of the tea. the sticker usually states the factory where it is produced.

so, if you are thinking of buying pu'erh tea, it is best to get it from a reliable source and you have to look out for the sticker.

2010-11-15T16:01:00.003+08:00

see it in our own backyard

i know a friend who travelled all the way to india to see a tree which can be found in our own backyard - in our nature parks. he had gone with his wife on a conducted tour to india. the tourist guide took them to see this fascinating tree, which is quite a common tree in india. he had not known that such a tree could be found in singapore until he joined me for a walk at west coast park.

it is the cannonball tree which can be found in some of our nature parks. i have seen them at west coast park, fort canning park and the botanic gardens.

the flowers and the fruit, which is the size of a coconut without its husk, grow from the trunk of this evergreen tree.

it is hard to miss the cannonball tree. if the attractive flowers or the unusual fruits do not catch your attention, the aromatic smell, which the flowers exude, will surely draw you to the tree.

the orange, red and pink flowers give off a smell which is quite overpowering. however, it is not an unpleasant smell. in fact, it smells like some perfume.

on the other hand, the fruit, which usually cracks open upon falling to the ground, has a smell that puts people off. in other countries, some animals, including domestic animals, like chicken and pigs, have been seen eating the fruit.

2010-11-13T16:01:00.001+08:00

short trip (1) - kuching

kuching, the capital city of sarawak, has always been an hour flight from singapore. however, with the advent of budget airlines, it now seems nearer, more affordable and convenient to visit this place in east malaysia, which is just a hop away. to make sure that you will have a pleasant and an enjoyable visit, it is best to do some homework to find out more about the place before embarking on the trip.

we should not assume that things and systems will be the same. in kuching, for example, you can hardly flag down a taxi on the street. it is not that there are no taxis in kuching; there are, but they are usually stationed outside the main hotels and the airport. the bus service is also not as frequent and the network is not as well connected as ours.

if you are planning a weekend trip, i would suggest you do the kuching heritage walk around the waterfront, take a 50-sen sampan ride across the sarawak river to kampong boyan and enjoy some of the local delicacies.

in a previous posting, i have mentioned some of the food unique to kuching. i realise that you also need to tell readers where to find the food. so, in this post, i am going to introduce some of these makan places. after my last visit, someone asked if i had eaten seafood at topspot. i told him i had been to the spot but i went there only to see the food.

topspot is located on the sixth level of a car-park complex next to the standard chartered bank and two blocks away from the 5-star hilton hotel. this place is popular with both locals and tourists. when you are there, you should try the midin with belachan or garlic, bamboo clams, black pepper crabs and the giant prawns.

another place listed in the official travel brochure as a top place to go for local cuisine is the lao ya keng hawker centre. it is located on carpenter street, just opposite the huang thian siang temple, a teochew temple dating back to the 19th century. the food centre can get quite crowded from lunch time onwards.

if you want to try the sarawak laksa, kway chap and pork porridge, you have to be there in the morning. other recommended dishes are kolo mee, yong tau foo and the satay. the sarawak variety of laksa is different from ours.

when you are in kuching, you have to try the local teh-c peng special. it is quite distinctive. there are three distinct layers - the layer of tea floating on top, in the middle is the layer of evaporated milk and at the base, a layer of gula melaka. the drink is available from the drinks stall at the same (lau ya keng) hawker centre.

in kuching, every coffee shop seems to offer kolo mee, laksa and tomato mee/kueh tiaw. if you stay near the waterfront, you should have no problem accessing the two makan places i have mentioned. if your stay is at harbour view hotel (rm$175/night), which i did on my last visit, there is a popular makan shop called the green hill corner on the row as the hotel. the beef noodle/kway teow is usually sold out by noon.

another popular makan place is the song kheng hai food court located in the padungan area, a mere 15 minutes walk from the main bazaar area. most people go there for the local snacks and drinks including the teh c peng special.

if, like some sarawakians and even singaporeans, you want to 'tar pau' the kolo mee, try getting it from this stall along jalan palm. the stall is located in 'sister coffee shop'. they have had so many requests for 'take-away' that they know exactly how to pack the food for you.

bringing other food back? how about sarawak pepper and the kek lapis? you can get sarawak pepper and kek (kueh) lapis from the many souvenir shops along the main bazaar. there are also some shops on the other side of the river which sell this local delight.

one local told me that the only 'souvenir' worth buying at the touristy stretch of main bazaar is the pepper.

another thing you can do, if you are there on a weekend, is to visit the very popular sunday market at jalan sartok. although it is called 'the sunday market', a better time to visit the market is on saturday evening. this market is about 25 minutes' walk from the harbour view hotel.

2010-11-11T16:01:00.012+08:00

dondang sayang and ronggeng

in my posting on malay weddings past and present, i mentioned that in the past, the music was mainly the traditional type, like kroncong. another form of traditional music that was popular at both malay and peranakan weddings was the dondang sayang.

dondang sayang is a traditional malay form of entertainment which involves a repartee of witty verses in a lighthearted and sometimes humorous style. to the peranakans, dondang sayang is referred to as 'musical debating'. it involves the singing of pantun or four line verses set to music. the chief musician is the violonist, providing the counter melody to the vocal melody.

when it first started, there was no music accompaniment. then came the malay musical instruments - the rebab, rebana and tenawak. it was the portuguese in melaka who added the violin and accordion.

normally two singers exchange pantun during a dondang sayang session. one sells the pantun and the other one buys. it thus follows a question and answer format. however, there were some unwritten rules pertaining to common sense, rhyme, language and decency. even with this understanding, there were occasions when some participants got so worked up that it led to tension and animosity. when you had a number of exponents wanting to show off their wit and skill, these sessions could drag for hours.

the music (from the violin) is slow and hypnotic (from the drum beat) enough to induce some spectators to dance to it. ronggeng is usually associated with dondang sayang. in ronggeng, there is no physical contact between the two dancers. it is not unusual to see members of the same sex dancing with each other.

in the days when men paid $1 for 3 dances with the 'taxi-girls' at new world amusement park, the ronggeng was one type of dances that was enjoyed.

photo from the national archives of singapore

here we see our minister mentor (then our first prime minister) dancing the 'ronggeng' during the launch of 'minggu berjaya kebangsaan (national solidarity week) dinner hosted by the malay cultural organisation. i think this was in 1964.

2010-11-08T16:01:00.010+08:00

eyebrow threading

in an earlier blog post, i talked about men using two coins to remove facial hair. i have not seen women using coins but i have seen them using a length of thread to pull out hair.

i once accompanied my younger daughter to buffalo road in little india to have her eyebrows trimmed. there are a few shops - mostly located upstairs - along this stretch of road that offer this eyebrow threading service. a mere 5-minute job, it costs about $5 and a full face hair removal job costs twice as much. no expensive tools or equipment is involved; only a length of cotton thread and the skill of the threader. although i was the only man in the shop, they did not chase me away. i had wondered: do men go for threading? i guess some kind of men do.

threading is different from tweezing or plucking. in tweezing or plucking, a single strand is pulled out each time; threading can remove an entire row of hair, resulting in a straight line. threading can be used to remove other facial and body hair.

the threader anchors one end of the thread to her teeth or around her neck. the piece of thread is twisted into a double strand. this double strand thread is used to pick up a line of hair and then remove it.

is it painful? for the price of vanity, any pain can be endured. "no, it feels like an ant's bite." "slightly painful." in the hands of a skilful threader, it should be quite a pleasant experience.

as a result of its popularity, you do not have to go to little india to have it done. you can find threaders in the heartlands like yishun, marsiling and clementi or even in upmarket places like orchard road and tanglin mall.

is threading exclusive to the indians in singapore? as far as i know, all the professional threaders are indians but i have seen chinese women doing it. in her younger days, my mother used to have her facial hair removed, once a year, just before the chinese new year, by a neighbour using a reel of cotton thread.

it was not a 5-minute session. it was more like an hour session or longer. i cannot really remember. my mother would sit on a stool and the threader neighbour would stand opposite her with a length of thread, with one end held to her teeth. she would work on the whole face, not just the eyebrows. in the course of it, she would use up a few lengths of string. i also remember that she would spread generous amount of the face powder to ensure that the experience was a smooth and painless one.

on checking with my daughter, i was told that the indian lady who did the threading also apply the same face powder (the one shown in the photo above) to the area which she wanted to work on.

2010-11-06T16:01:00.005+08:00

left high and dry since 2001

like the river valley swimming complex, the yan kit swimming complex has been left high and dry since 2001. according to the records, the first public swimming pool in singapore is the one that used to be at mount emily park and yan kit followed soon after. actually, before yan kit was opened, there was another swimming pool - although a privately owned one - which was open to the public. i have blogged about it here. it was the haw par pool at pasir panjang.

a fellow blogger wrote about his memories of yan kit swimming pool here.

in fact, when haw par pool closed down, its waterpolo team, the tiger swimming club, sought and got permission to train at yan kit swimming pool. when i visited the disused swimming complex last week, i could three troughs - a deep one, with a three-metre diving platform, near the main entrance, a standard one in the middle and a shallow one, which must have been the wading pool, at the other end.

according to my friend who had his waterpolo training at yan kit, the place was packed with bathers and swimmers on weekends. some of the pool users from the nearby chinatown area were literally bathing in the pools. they would have a towel around their neck and all the time they would be rubbing their body with the towel. it was a good and cheap, though not hygienic, way to get a decent bath, which was something they could not get in their crammed cubicles in chinatown. the initial admission charge was 15 cents; just before it closed in 2001, the charge was $1.00.

just like mt emily swimming pool, there was one day each week set aside for the modest ladies who did not like to be seen in their swim costumes in public. however, on such tuesdays, the taking was usually much lower.

when attendances at public swimming pools started to dwindle in the late 70s, a number of public pools had to be closed down because of the high maintenance cost. besides river valley and yan kit, the others that were closed include bukit merah, jurong town and pandan garden. farrer park is now a private swimming pool. mt emily has disappeared totally.

however, that does not mean that the singapore sports council has stopped building swimming pools. there is a brand new one next to my block at the bukit panjang sports complex cum community centre. the admission charge is $1.50 for adults. i have yet to step into it.

2010-11-04T16:01:00.008+08:00

what can you do with 2 ten-cent coins?

today, while riding on the mrt train, i saw this elderly man (who am i calling another man, elderly?) plucking his facial hair with two coins. i assumed they were ten-cent coins. it reminded me of my dad who never owned a shaver his entire life. i think the only times he had a clean shave was when he visited the barber, which would have been about once a month.

those days, the barber used a shaving blade which he sharpened by sliding it up and down a piece of black leather. the old shaving blade was one with a handle and the knife could be folded up when not in use. the barber would apply lots of cool lather on your chin, above your upper lip and the side-burns before he started removing the hair.

at home, whenever my dad was idle, he would use two coins, usually the ten-cent one, to pull at his sparse facial hair and stubbly chin hair. it was a practice not uncommon among men in the past but a rarity nowadays. when i was older and i had strands of rough hair on my chin, i tried to do it my dad's way but i gave up because i could not make much progress. i suppose to be deft at it comes with lots of practice. it is not unlike using a pair of tweezers to do the job.

however, not all who have to resort to using coins to do the removal job do not own a shaver. for some, it was something to do to pass their time, like while waiting for a friend to show up or like the taxi driver waiting to pick up his passenger/s.

where did they keep these 'tools'? some kept them in the normal place - the pocket of their trousers. there were others who carried the two coins in a very handy place - tucked in their ear, usually one ear only.

will this practice make a comeback like eyebrow threading for women?

2010-11-02T16:01:00.003+08:00

where is albert winsemius lane?

my blogger friend victor goes to great length to keep the readers from getting to the answer/s of his quiz. using all the applications at his disposal, he will either remove certain iconic or familiar landmarks from the background/foreground or blank out certain words, signs or characters that may lead the readers to the answers.

as for me, i have neither the software ( i believe it is called 'photoshop') nor the expertise to ensure that the quiz is not a giveaway. so, i will show it as it is and i will ask direct questions based on the pictures.

first, a bit of information about the man after whom this road (or lane) is named.

albert winsemius, a dutch economist, was singapore's long-time economic adviser from 1961 to 1984. he led the united nations survey mission to singapore, and was to play a major role in the formulation of singapore's national economic development strategy.

for his contributions to singapore's economic development , he was conferred several honours. in 1967, president yusof bin ishak awarded him the distinguished service medal. in 1970, he was conferred an honorary degree by the national university of singapore. in 9176, he recieved the national trade union congress' may day gold medal of honour.

in 1997, national technological university established the albert winsemius professorship as a lasting tribute to dr albert winsemius for his significant contributions to the economic development of singapore. (source: wikipedia)

on oct 23, 2009, dr balkenende, the prime minister of the kingdom of netherlands unveiled the albert winsemius lane.

quiz question: where is albert winsemius lane? (answer must be specific; 'somewhere in the west' is not acceptable.)

2010-10-31T16:01:00.001+08:00

peacock - pictorial blog

you normally see frontview of the peacock spreading its magnificent feathers. the whole spread of feathers is called the train. have you seen the train from the back?

this view of the back of the peacock was captured at the sri arasakesari sivan temple on sungei kadut avenue.

2010-10-29T16:01:00.003+08:00

exclusive foochow temple

on the day we visited the award winning temple at mohamed sultan road, we also visited another temple in the vicinity. its name does not suggest that it is a temple but the structure does. it is called the nanyang sacred union. i took photographs of this temple from across the road some two years ago when i was at hotdog, a place which provides dog grooming services. until then i had not stepped into this temple because the gate appears to be perpetually shut.

i know there are chinese temples started by the different dialect groups, especially the major ones, in singapore, like the hokkien, teochew, cantonese and hainanese but i did not know that the foochows also have a temple. although, we had intruded into the temple compound, we were not chased away. actually, the two persons around at that time extended a cordial welcome to us. we were told that we were free to move around and to take pictures.

i am quite surprised to find out that admission to this temple is exclusive to members. the only time, the door is open to members of the public is on the day they celebrate confucius' birthday which usually falls between late september and october. the main deities in this temple are confucius, lao tse and the goddess of mercy, kuan yin.

most temples in singapore welcome visitors because it is from them that they get the extra donations and revenue to maintain the place.

2010-10-27T16:01:00.008+08:00

'bengali' jute bed

picture from national archives of s'pore

i was exploring the mandai industrial estate when i caught sight of this bed. the last time i saw this type of bed was more than 35 years ago. in those days when schools still had watchmen, the sikh 'jaga' in the school, where i started my teaching career, had one of these beds. although the material used is different, the frame and structure have not changed much. in the days when such beds were more common, the ropes were made of jute. the bed frame i saw today was fashioned out of nylon ropes.

the owner of this bed told me that during the japanese occupation, the simple jute bed was not exclusive to the sikhs. it was used by people of all races - chinese, malays, indians and others. according to him, the jute bed was cheap and easy to construct. it was even portable and it could be stored away in some corner when it was not in use. i remember we called it 'bengali bed'. the proper name for it is charpoy.

do you use a mattress with this bed? the person told me that he does. however, if he is just resting on it for a while, then he does not need the mattress. in the past, i have not seen anyone placing a mattress on top of the rope frame.

this reminds me of a kind of game we used to play as kids. we would manipulate a length of string, secured at the two ends, to eventually form a 'bengali' bed. this game of sort involved two players. you could not play it alone because it involved transferring the pattern formed by the string from one player to the other.

2010-10-25T16:01:00.006+08:00

unesco 2010 heritage award temple

i used to think that hong san see was some mixed-up version of leong san see and that they were one and the same temple. today, armed with a straits times feature article, my walking buddy took me to visit one of the two temples in singapore that have won the unesco awards for cultural heritage conservation. i found out that although hong san see and leong san see were both started by hokkien groups, they are two distinct temples: one is at mohamed sultan road while the other is at race course road. hong san see received the award of excellence this year while thian hock keng, another temple started by hokkiens, was given honourable mention in 2001.

some people tend to give the name of the temple as hong san see temple. i think the word 'see' or 'sze' is chinese for temple. so, adding the word 'temple' may be superfluous. it is the same with some places with a malay name, like sungei buloh river, gunong tahan mountain, bukit timah hill and masjid sultan mosque. it is like saying 'jalan besar road' when 'jalan besar' will suffice.

hong san see had its beginning on tras street (second picture) in tanjong pagar. the original temple was built in 1829. according to a plaque at the present site, the year is 1836. it was the gathering place for immigrants from the hokkien province of nanan or lam ann. the temple at tras street had to make way for a road-widening project. it was relocated to its present site on mohamed sultan road.

the award winning temple in the river valley area was built between 1908 and 1912. it was built on a hillock that once overlooked the sea. today, this view is blocked by all the high-rise buildings around it. the temple has undergone renovations at least three times. the last renovation was started in 2006 and it was only completed this year.

one feature unique to this temple is the electric lift chair meant for handicapped visitors. it can be used to help the physically disabled move from the base to the hill top where the temple is sited. however, when we visited yesterday, the chair was all wrapped up. the caretaker of the temple explained that the chair was hardly used because it was very slow moving. it would take about half an hour to complete the short distance.

as with all the other chinese temples, like thian hock keng and shuang lin temple, that were elaborately and skilfully renovated, the artisans and craftsmen were brought in from china. i think we do not have the expertise to do that kind of restoration work. most, if not all, of these imported workers are experienced and old.

i had driven past this temple before my friend took me there, but that day i thought i was seeing it for the first time. on reviewing some old photographs, i realised that i had failed to recognise it because the yellow paint on the retaining wall had been removed.

hong san see was designated a national monument in 1978.

una paloma blanca

2010-10-23T16:35:00.000+08:00

2010-10-22T16:01:00.005+08:00

why the name umar pulavar?

where is the umar pulavar tamil language centre, today? for many years, it was tugged away in serangoon road, occupying the premises of the former beatty secondary school. prior to that, the language centre was at st george's road. i have often wondered why the name 'umar pulavar' for a tamil language centre. i found the answer from reading an article about it in the book 'singapore's heritage through places of historical interest' by dhoraisingam s samuel.

the umar pulavar tamil school had a humble beginning at tras street in tanjong pagar. it was established by a group of tamil muslim peons in a shophouse in 1946. in 1950, it moved to a proper building. the chief minister tun lim yew hock laid the foundation stone for the then new school building in april 1959. however, the school was officially declared open in 1960 by the people's action party's minister of education, mr yong nyuk lin. it was the first tamil school in singapore.

by 1960, it had become the umar pulavar tamil high school. i think the new building was on maxwell road, on the site adjacent to the present national development building. the maxwell road school was a 3-storey building with 11 classrooms and one hall. because of dwindling enrolment, the school stopped functioning in 1982.

by the 70s, indian students could offer tamil as a second language in english schools. in fact, the school started english-medium classes in the late 70s.

to remember the school, which was set up by ordinary indians from kadayanullar, the tamil language centre, which started at st george's road, was renamed umar pulavar tamil language centre.

who was umar pulavar? he was a famous tamil poet who lived in the 17th century. the title 'pulavar' is given to poets who are famous.

where is the centre today? it is somewhere between victoria street and kallang road. it occupies the former premises of hong wen school, which has relocated to mcnair road.

2010-10-19T16:01:00.011+08:00

my first published work

pictures taken by peter - blogger with no blog

in a blog posting last month, my blogger friend lam chun see of goodmorning yesterday, mentioned that out of the six persons in the photo accompanying the posting, four of them were published authors. if i had been there, chun see would have mentioned that i would be part of that group soon. i was supposed to be there but i could not make it because i had to lead a small group of friends to melbourne. at that time, the above book, which i co-authored with wee kiat and ivan chew, was in the printing stage. with ivan also away, wee kiat was left alone to go through the final draft with the printer.

last saturday, my group of blogger friends (friends of yesterday.sg) met again at singapore post headquarters at paya lebar for a 'soft' launch of our stamp book. i asked wee kiat what a 'soft launch' was. as usual, his wry sense of humour showed when he explained that it was a meeting to present autographed copies to the other bloggers, with 'soft' drinks going around. actually, most of us had either coffee or tea.

like ivan, the other co-author, i am grateful to wee kiat for giving me the opportunity to work with him and ivan on this project. both ivan and i, being new to this area, played a supporting role. wee kiat did the bulk of the work. he did the many drafts, applied for the printing permit, liaised with the printer and the sponsors. he also coordinated the writing of the different topics and he roped in victor and his other friends to critique the work.

although i managed to secure a major sponsor in osim international, it was wee kiat who, through his contacts, got the national education branch of the ministry of education (moe) to sponsor the first 1000 copies of the book. i think the moe sponsorship is a significant endorsement of our work.

like james - the one in the second photo holding two books - i also distributed copies of the book to my neighbours and friends. those with school going children gave me the feedback that their children liked the book. this is the reward and satisfaction that comes after working on the project for about a year. incidentally, james has publicized this stamp book in his blog.

when wee kiat first approached me to work with him and ivan on this, his latest book, i had thought that it would entail nothing more than writing something on the assigned topics. what i did not anticipate was the numerous rounds of editing and refining so that the book would be suited for our target readers - upper primary and lower secondary students. victor koo - one of the book advisers -,with an eagle eye for lots of things, was most helpful in spotting a number of minor errors.

when the hard copies were out, wee kiat's work was not over. he still had a lot of legwork to do. he had to send copies to the sponsors, moe and osim. he also distributed copies to the national institute of education, the singapore philatelic museum and the national library board. he was the one who deposited two copies with the legal deposit.

we do not have the intention to sell this book to the general public but i understand you can get a copy for $8.80 at the singapore philatelic museum. many of those whom i gave the book to have asked me if i was a stamp collector. i like wee kiat's answer to this question: i am just an ordinary collector and my stamps are stored in shoe boxes; the serious collectors are called philatelists. i am not a philatelist.

this is wee kiat's 11th children book. on those occasions when he could not find a sponsor for his books, he had dug into his own - not very deep - pocket to pay for the printing. wee kiat has a blog in which the stamps that he has written about are featured.

thank you wee kiat and ivan for the successful completion of this project.

2010-10-15T16:01:00.013+08:00

markets of the past

market a

market b

market c

market d

market e

market f

market g

recently, i blogged about the people's park market. the hokkiens referred to it as 'chin choo pa sat'. in the 50s and 60s, there were a number of markets which were better known by their chinese or hokkien names.

most of the markets in the above pictures have disappeared from the singapore scene. some are still around but they are no longer playing their original role. more than one has been replaced and relocated. can you match and give the proper names - not the hokkien names of these markets?

their hokkien names, not in order of appearance, are tang leng pa sat; tih pa sat; sin pa sat; lau pa sat; gu chia chwee pa sat; tek kah pa sat; and pek kio pa sat.

in the past i used to hear the name 'tih pa sat' being mentioned but i had not actually seen the place, except in oldhotographs. i am familiar with tek kah pa sat because a close relative used to have a stall in that market. in those days, the market was confined to the building proper; it spilled onto the roads around it. i had been to gu chia chwee pa sat, just for the cooked food; i still visit the place for cooked food. when i was a school-boy, i used to walk past and sometimes visit pek kio p sat. i remember the cows and the dungs outside the market area. i know that tang leng pa sat, sin pa sat and lau pa sat existed but i had not visited these places when they were wet markets.

market a is a giveaway. the answer is clyde terrace market. what about markets b, c, d, e, f and g?

all photos from national archives of singapore

2010-10-13T16:01:00.003+08:00

malay weddings - past and present

black and white photo from national archives of s'pore

the arrival of the bridegroom is still heralded by the hadrah troupe. the group will beat the hand-held kompang and sing verses from the koran. the groom is flanked by the two bunga mangga carriers, friends and relatives. in the past, they used colour crepe papers to fold the bunga mangga. these days, they use shining aluminium-like papers. bmw and mpv have replaced the modest japanese cars as wedding cars.

in my kampong days, aside from the troupe beating the kompang, there were some who dressed up as warriors and they 'rode' on cardboard horses (kuda kepang). there would also be a small group who performed the malay art of self defence, silat. i also remember watching one performance where the exponents each used a kris. this kind of performances is rarely seen nowadays.

generally, malay weddings were noisy and lively affairs and in this respect, they still are. usually, a malay band would be in attendance. nowadays, instead of kroncongs, you hear more of malay pop songs. if i recall correctly, there were also joget sessions at these weddings during those kampong days. today, some have done away with the malay band. they just hire a deejay to play cds on a karaoke or sound system. all the noise is to add to the merriment for the day.

i have always admired the gotong royong spirit of the malays. friends, neighbours and relatives would all help in the preparations for the big day. they would camp overnight at the venue of the wedding ceremony. the cooking of the food for the wedding feast actually started the day before, usually on a friday or saturday night. even the decorations for the 'banquet' were done by amateurs. nowadays, some make use of the services of event companies to give it that elegant touch and they also use caterers to provide the restaurant type of food. the caterers will come on the morning of the kenduri to cook the food.

though most continue to use the void decks of the hdb block or the community halls as venues for the bersanding, some have moved on to community clubs, restaurants and hotels. in those kampong days, as we, the guests, were leaving, we would be presented with a red egg placed in a small cup or container and a stalk of artificial flower. the name for it is bunga telur. these days, most gifts are commercially prepared and may take the form of a miniature vase, a few pieces of chocolates, a small towel, a piece of fruit cake, miniature cutlery, rolled up handkerchief, an ornamental display set, a glass cup, a crystal plate or a cake of soap. i know a friend who made a trip to bangkok to buy these small gifts for her wedding. the more traditional malays still retain the practice of giving away boiled eggs, some with no colouring. these eggs are restricted to relatives and close friends of the families.

most chinese or indians, when invited to a malay wedding, will normally give the host or hostess an ang pow. back in those kampong days, we would normally wrap a small ang pow, usually not exceeding $5. when i was working and when invited to my malay colleagues' weddings, i normally gave between $10 and $20. today's a reasonable amount would be between $30 and $50, especially if the food is catered and the ceremony is held in a community club or restaurant.

2010-10-11T16:01:00.003+08:00

from beauty world town

to beauty world centre/plaza

photos from national archives of singapore

i remember reading about the old beauty world in this blog posting. in the 70s, when my wife was teaching at pei hwa presbyterian school nearby, i visited beauty world town a few times. it was like a maze, and therefore a fire-trap; however, in this place you could find stalls selling all kinds of stuff, much like chin choo pa sat (people's park market).

after the last fire in 1977, the old stallholders at the gutted site were offered shop units or food stalls at bukit world centre and the beauty world plaza and bukit timah food centre. those who moved out earlier had moved to clementi and west coast road. beauty world town had been plagued by at least five outbreaks of fire in the 60s. the attap shacks not only housed hawkers but also gambling stalls.

some of the stalls and shops that moved to beauty world centre and beauty world plaza are still in these two complexes. i rarely go to beauty world plaza but i visit the food centre at beauty world centre quite often.

i had heard about the char kway teow stall at the fourth level food court of the beauty world centre. i have always been eating from the stall that faces the stall that sells tarts, tau sar piah and kueh. a check with my friend, who has lived in that area for more than 30 years, made me realise that i should be eating from the other stall. however, it does not matter because i like the char kway teow from the 'wrong' stall.

the same friend who seems to keep a tab on some of the former hawkers at old beauty world tells me that some of the small-time businessmen and hawkers are quite well-off. some of them own more than one private property and some of their children have gone overseas for their higher education.

the site of the former beauty world town will, in a few years' time, become one of the stations for the downtown line 2.