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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.