A Song for These Times

Turn up your speaker volume ... This is a beautiful and classic song by the Ray Conniff singers that's appropriate for this week, especially for those of us in and around Malaysia. May we never forget the words ...

Enjoy and do sing along ...

Memories: A Singapore Trip in 1976

Here's an old photograph of a group of buddies on holiday in Singapore. The year was 1976, and most of the guys in the picture were seventeen years old.  Perhaps JL, who sent me this picture (thanks John!), can share more about the dates, location and what the guys did in the Lion City.

I'll let you identify the six groovy* guys yourself. Alas not everyone in the picture is still with us. Which makes it an even fonder memory.

(*Whenever I use the word "groovy", my daughter usually cringes. However in this case, I do think it's the appropriate word to use, as we were (and ... ahem ... still are) groovy, hip and cool ......    :-)

The Mother of All Reunions - Part 8 (Gift Bag)

Initially I didn't think there would be a Part 8 for this series of posts, but several people have been nudging me to post pictures of the gift bag and souvenirs we all received on the evening.

So here they are:

Above you see the bag itself, which contained a customised NST front page (from the day we were born), personalised towel, the souvenir pen and the T-shirt (front). [Sorry, my NST copy was rolled up & in the bag itself, but you can see it in one of the folowing pictures]

The back of the T-Shirt is even more special as it features the names of all attendees.

Excellent design and production work by Standard Resources (BW's business) which specialises in souvenirs and premium gifts.

And a most priceless item is a copy of the front page from The Straits Times (back then it was still called that, before Malaysia and Singapore parted, and the publication in Singapore continued that name, while Malaysia went for New Straits Times). Thanks to Dato' AM and NSTP, each attendee had the page from the day of his birth in 1959 (or 1958 or 1960).

To those who couldn't attend, see what you missed ?

Kuching Scenes - Around the Museum Grounds

Its been a while since I did a posting of photos reflecting familiar Kuching scenes. I know these tend to be popular with the boys who are based overseas and may not have "balik kampong"-ed for some time.

Well, the pictures I have today were taken around the Sarawak Museum grounds. A favourite haunt for some of us during our younger days perhaps?

The first structure that caught my attention was the old band stand ...

This brought back for me memories from a time much earlier than the 70s. As a young boy - perhaps aged 7 or 8 - I remember going with my aunts to watch the Police band performing there on Sunday evenings around 4 or 5pm. I think these visits nurtured in me a liking for such band music, which I still enjoy listening to today. Of course, these weekly outings also included the added pleasure of savouring an ice cream cone - or ice cream tucked between two slices of bread - from the tricycled ice cream seller. Usually there would be many other kids around too. Nearby were the wooden swings and see-saws which we would all scramble onto (sometimes pushing and shoving to be first) and invariably I would end up soiling my clothing, much to the chagrin of my aunts. Nice memories ...

Then there was the famous "Pavilion" which in those days served great ang tau peng (or iced kacang). I'm sure they served other delicacies too, but I really can't remember any except for the ang tau peng. I guess everything else paled in comparison with their signature dessert. I didn't have a chance this time to go sample their current fare ... certainly an item to put on my "To do" list for the next trip home. Of course this was also the scene of a gruesome murder in the 60s which shocked Kuchingites.

On the other side of Reservoir Road (at least it used to be called that), I could see the site where St Michael's Club and Canteen once stood. Now it's a fenced off carpark area.

And towards the back of what used to be St Mike Canteen, there are some buildings which I believe used to be part of St Bernadette's School.

Now the buildings are used by the St Joseph's Parish Tuition Centre and St Jude Kindergarten.

Looking at the space in front of me, I recalled that back in the 70s, this was where rows of temporary little wooden sheds were erected every year to house various stalls (eg hoopla, mechanical horse racing, darts, fishing, etc) for the St Joseph's annual funfair. Those were happy days indeed.

Well, those are all the photos that I have for now. If any of you have nice pictures of the area, do send them to me (jslyong@hotmail.com) & I'll be sure to add them to this post.