Christmas Gift Idea

Christmas is just around the corner. And if you are pondering over what to get for someone who, like me, is from the baby-boomer generation, why not get him a copy of my book, Good Morning Yesterday. So far, many of my friends who have read the book have thoroughly enjoyed the trip down memory.

My book should be available at Popular, Times and Kinokuniya (best to call first). It was last seen on the shelves at the following outlets:

• Popular @ Clementi Mall (Tel: 6514-6710)
• Popular @ Toa Payoh (Tel: 6358-1700)
• Popular @ United Square (Tel: 6478-2318)
• Kinokuniya @ Ngee Ann City (Tel: 6737-5021)
• Times @ Centrepoint (Tel: 6734-9022)
• Times @ Plaza Singapura (Tel: 6336-8861)
• Times @ Tampines (Tel: 6782-7017)

Besides these book stores, you can also purchase them at Haf Box and Betel Box. Haf Box deals mainly with lifestyle products for what they call “active agers”. Betel Box, on the other hand, runs a hostel and Bistro in Joo Chiat Road and also conducts heritage tours. Their details are as follows:

HAF Box Pte Ltd

19 Tanglin Road #03-32 Tanglin Shopping Centre, Singapore 247909

Tel: 6235-4560

www.hafbox.com

Betel Box Hostel, Bistro & Tours in Singapore

200 Joo Chiat Road, #01-01, Singapore 427471.

Tel: 6247-7340

www.betelbox.com

Thanks to Catherine Ling for this photo.

Incidentally, the restaurant at Betel Box serves great Peranakan food in a traditional Singaporean ambience. They even have a special corner where you can browse and purchase Singapore heritage-related merchandise like books, dvds and heritage items.

Recently a group of us, heritage and food bloggers, were hosted to a Peranakan lunch by Betel Box’s boss, Tony Tan. Although I am not much of a ‘foodie’ – whenever I go to a food court or hawker centre, I just go for the stall with the shortest queue – I could tell that the Peranakan cuisine here was very good …. at least my fellow bloggers thought so. We were served dishes like botol kacang, ikan sumbat, ngo hiang, hae cho, asam pedas red snapper, nonya yong tau hu and laksa goreng. My favourites were the botol kacang (salad), ikan sumbat and laksa goreng. 

With Tony Tan. Behind us are display shelves of heritage merchandise, including Good Morning Yesterday the book.

Tony giving an introduction to his business and their food

Notice that only Philip Chew and I not taking any photos of the food. We were waiting for the young people to finish their obligatory shots before we could sink our teeth into this delicious salad call Botol Kacang.

Can you guess where this shot was taken? That's me in the toilet mirror. Photo courtesy of Juria T

Back to my book. If you have difficulty getting it from the above places, or if you want to get several copies, you can contact me directly at: cslam@hoshin.com.sg and we will work something out.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Information on Popular’s outlets and locations here.

Information on Times’ outlets and location here.

Singapore Childhood: Our Stories Then and Now - Sharing Session

Recently, the Singapore Children’s Society published a book titled, Singapore Childhood: Our Stories Then and Now. This book traces the political, economic and social changes that have taken place over the past six decades and how they have transformed the childhood of children in Singapore. It comes in both an English and a Chinese version. The author of the English version is Ms Jaime Koh. 

I attended the launch of the book on 11 August at the National Library Building in Victoria Street.

This coming Saturday, I will participate in a Sharing Session to help to promote this book. Details are as follows:

Date/Time:   Saturday, 25 August, 11am to 1pm

Venure:   Woodlands Regional Library Programme Zone (Level 1), 900 South Woodlands Drive, Woodlands Civic Centre #01-03

Together with two other panellists, Mrs Elizabeth Peeris, a retired nurse, and Ms Zhang Tingjun, Director & Co-Founder of The Chain Reaction Project, we will be sharing sections of the book and relating them to our own experience of our childhood. The moderator is Channel News Asia’s Mr Steven Chia.

Do hope that you can attend this event which is open to the public. In the afternoon, there will be a similar session in Mandarin for the Chinese version of this book.

Gift Ideas for your parents

Don’t know what to get for your parent’s birthday? Instead of adding to his calories with chocolates or an expensive meal, why not take him on a stroll down memory lane?

Get him a copy Good Morning Yesterday. Available at Times, Kinokuniya and Popular at only $18.65.

PS – If you cannot find my book at the book stores, please let me know so that I can feedback to the distributor. Send me an email, and I will do something about it. Anybody who wants GMY should be able to get one!

Facebook fan page

Dear friends,

I have set up a Facebook Fan Page for my book Good Morning Yesterday. I will collate and centralize all information and updates about my book there. Do drop by and share your views and suggestions - but remember to "Like" it first. Greatly appreciate if you would recommend it to your friends.

This photo was taken during the ACS Great 60th Birthday Bash held at the SICC Grand Ball Room on the 10th of March 2012. My cohort of ACS old boys from 1968 as well as some old girls from 1970 held a combined 60th birthday gathering. Most of us would be 60 this year. I set up a station to promote and sell by book. To my pleasant surprise this gentleman who was attending a dinner function in the next room came over to purchase a copy. What a pleasant surprise.

Here's the link to the Facebook Page.

Tugboat adventure stories off Singapore (Brian Mitchell)

Chun See’s blog on Enid Blyton and other authors he read as a child reminded me of my search for children’s books set in Singapore. In late 1959, with my family about to depart from the UK for Changi, I wondered what Singapore would really be like. All I had as a guide was a thin pamphlet for British forces which rather horrified me with warnings about the heat, humidity and a long list of insects, snakes, and diseases I might now encounter!

So what could I expect to experience in 1960 Singapore? I looked for stories set in Singapore and came across a series of adventure books. When I remembered this a couple of years ago all I could recall was that the books (I had read several of them) featured a tugboat. So I simply googled ‘tugboat Singapore’ and instantly had my answer (what a wonderful thing the internet is).

My almost forgotten books turned out to be by an equally largely forgotten author, Arthur Catherall. The website I found told me that I had read Catherall’s ‘Bulldog’ series of novels which are;

‘all about battles of wits between a two groups of characters who crop up regularly in nearly all of the books. The main setting is the South China Seas for the tugboat "Bulldog" has the Lion City of Singapore as its home harbour.’

I found the novels in my local public library in south London. I could have read only the first four or five adventures which were published before I left for Singapore as the series of 11 novels continued up until 1968.


Good as the books were I probably learned more about deep sea diving, salvage and running a tugboat than I did about Singapore – the adventures took place on and under the high seas and among islands often far from Singapore’s kampongs and city streets.


But the website did reassure me in one respect – these books do not display the ‘colonial’ attitude of so many stories, whether for adults or children, set in the then British Empire. In Catherall’s ‘Bulldog’ books, with its hero seventeen year old Jack Frodsham;


‘the reader is exposed to the behaviour of men from several different races. As Jack operates in this subterranean world his fellow divers are usually Malayan or Chinese and again and again we see examples of their courage, loyalty, endurance and dignity…..

The mutual respect and teamwork shown by the good people of all races is what ultimately sticks in the memory. …… A mere ten years have passed since the end of the Second World War and Catherall is encouraging his readers to look beyond the stereotypical picture of old enemies and to go forward in a spirit of reconciliation.’

I wonder if Catherall’s books are held by Singapore’s National Library or are known in today’s Singapore? Today’s children in Singapore are, I expect, fortunate in having access to a variety of books written by local writers and set in their own island, reflecting their own culture and communities.


Brian G Mitchell

Enid Blyton

Like many English-educated Singaporeans of my generation, I loved to read books by Enid Blyton when I was in primary school. I think I borrowed these books from our school library. At that time, I was in Braddell Rise School. I remember four series; The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, the ‘Mystery’ series and the ‘Adventure’ series. My favourites were books from the ‘Adventure’ series. I found them so exciting. I can recall only three titles; The Island of Adventure, The Mountain of Adventure and The Castle of Adventure. How about you? Do you have any favourite Enid Blyton stories?

As far as I remember, our National Library did not keep any books by Enid Blyton. Can anyone remember the reason for this?


Besides the Enid Blyton books, I remember reading one other book from our library. The title was, The Book of Parables. Of course, at that time, I did not know that these were actually stories from the New Testament Gospels. I remember seeing a picture of shepherd with a lamb.


Another series of books that I enjoyed reading at that age were simplified versions of English classics like Lorna Doone, The Black Tulip and The Count of Monti Cristo. My father borrowed these books from a place called Lembaga. I believe it was the Adult Education Department of the Ministry of Education.


Special Fives


My friend from BRS, Lee Sock Geck, used to love Enid Blyton’s Famous Five stories. In fact she and her girl friends formed a group called The Special Fives, just like in the books. Let me quote her account as recorded in my book, Good Morning Yesterday.


For me, we had our "Special Fives". The leader of our gang was Jane Ittogi. We met every Friday at her house which was in Thomson Ridge, two bus-stops from where I lived. We had meticulously set up an ‘organisation chart’ showing the group leader (Jane), Deputy (me) and members (three other girls from Braddell Rise School). And we even composed this song:

“We are, we are the Special Fives,
You know me and I know you,
When you're in trouble, I'll help you,
We are, we are the Special Fives.”


Our favourite activity was to walk to the Friday Night Pasar Malam near Jalan Isnin, eat sweets and tidbits, talk about boys (of course) and then lie in Jane's garden looking at the stars, and wondering what the future held for us.”

PS - I wonder what have become of Sock Geck's "special five" members. Where are they today? Perhaps I can persuade her to write another piece for us, about what her buddies at Thomson Road have become today.

UPDATE (15/2/2012)

I was at a neighbourhood clinic and saw these 3 old Enid Blyton books. At times like this, we appreciate the handphone camera. I think I have read no. 3.

Can you remember the procedure for borrowing books at the old National Library?

When I last visited the National Library at Victoria Street, I saw some exhibits of the old library cards. I am trying to recall the system for borrowing and returning books. Hope older readers can confirm if I remember correctly.

1) Each registered member is given a number of library cards like the one in the photo above.
2) When you want to borrow a book, the librarian will take out the card from a pocket mounted on the back cover of the book and slot in your membership card and place it in a wooden box with the cards arranged in alphabetical order.
3) She will stamp the due date on the Due Date slip pasted on the back cover of the book.
4) When you return the book, she would look for your card and take out the book card, slot it back into the pocket in the back of the book and return your card to you.

(Photo credit: Above black and white photo is from the National Library Board's CD; MOMENTS & MEMORIES)

Recently, I received an email from an architectural student asking me if I could recall what used be on the grassy patch of land at the junction of Armenian Street and Stamford Road. See photo below; and here’s my reply. I wonder if older readers can confirm if I remember correctly.

Below is a map of from my 1981 street directory for reference.


"If my memory serves me, it used to be a sort of make-shift, single storey open coffee shop; i.e. without walls. Stalls may be a better word. So as the bus rounded the bend from Armenian Street and turns left into Stamford Rd, immediately there is bus stop. This coffee shop is directly behind the bus stop. Immediately after the bus stop is the entrance (for cars) to the Nat Lib. Further down is the exit, and after that is the National Museum.

Behind this coffee shop would be an open car park. I think part of it is still there. Many users of the library would take their meals here. Across the road at Waterloo Street were several very famous Indian sarabak stalls selling Indian Rojak and Mee Rebus. When we want to get to the library, we take a bus and alight at Bras Basah Rd and walk along Waterloo Street. We were bound to be accosted by the hawkers.

What I remember most about the coffee shop at the Library was the ice kacang. They had these jars of multi-colour syrup and there were always some bees hovering around them. Even when you were not going to the library, the bus always stopped at this bus stop and if you were sitting in the aisle seat, you could see these syrup and bees.

What are my thoughts when I pass this place? The green patch itself - not much except for the bees and syrup. My other thought is; "No life".

But this area as a whole; especially the tunnel entrance make me fell a sense of resentment that the government refused to listen to the people and insisted on destroying something so dear to our memories of our childhood; in spite of strong objections from many people."

I remember our PM saying at one of his National Rally speeches that the government wanted to redevelop this area into a ‘hip’ and happening place where young people can hangout etc. etc. But when I see this place now, it looks so deserted and lifeless. During our time, it was truly full of life. Even the MPH building was always crowded with students and young people.

One more question for the oldies. According to my 1981 street directory, there was CPIB (Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau) building next to the library. I don’t have any recollections of this building. I always thought the CPIB building was at Cantonment Road?


Related posts;

1) Armenian Street

2) Victor’s recent post about the National Library

3) James Seah’s Reminiscence of the National Library

Of Mice and Men

No. I am not blogging about John Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men. Too many years have passed since I read that book, and all I remember is that it had something to do with two men; one very big size and the other very small.

It’s just that Victor’s latest post on the New Paper article about durian hunters in Singapore raised the question of why people would take the trouble to travel and camp out in the woods, contending with mosquitoes and fellow durian hunters for something they can easily buy at the nearby market.

This reminds me of something I read in the Readers Digest years ago. I like to read those snippets and annecdotes in Readers Digest. This one was about a study on motivation. Scientists experimented with rats by offering them two sources of food. In one side of their cage was food which was freely available. In the other there was a lever. which they had to push in order to activate the delivery of a piece of food.

The scientists discovered that the rats prefered to get the food from activating the lever. In other words they prefered to work for their food. The scientists then gradually increased the number of times the lever had to be pushed before the rats were rewarded. Initially the rats still prefered to work for their food. But finally, a number was reached when they decided that it was not worth the trouble and they went back to the ‘free’ food.

So maybe the gahmen should follow the example of the Mowbray Camp RSM which sgporc mentioned and put up some triple-concertina wires. :)

It’s the 25th Hour, not 11th

This morning I saw a review on Channel News Asia by Melanie Oliveiro of the new movie, The Eleventh Hour. It reminded me of a wonderful movie with a similar name which I saw many years ago. That movie was The 25th Hour.

Once in a while you come across a movie that pricks your heart and causes you to think about it long after you walk out of the theatre, and which you can remember for years. The 25th Hour is one such movie. I think, my friend Kenneth who seems to like this genre of movie would have enjoyed it. But I doubt he has seen it because it is such an old movie. I saw it when it was first released in 1967 when I was still in secondary school. I liked it so much that some years later, in 1979, I borrowed a copy of the book from the National Library and read it. The movie starred the late Anthony Quinn and the author of the book was C. Virgil Gheorghiu,

The story is about the tragic events that happened to a simple Romanian peasant, Johann Moritz during World War II. Moritz’s misfortune began because he was blessed with a beautiful wife. A local captain who coveted his wife reported him to the authorities as a Jew. He was sent to a work camp but was subsequently "rescued" by a Nazi officer who thought that he was a perfect Aryan specimen. He was forced to serve as a model for the German propaganda. After the war, he was imprisoned and severely beaten by his Russian captors. As a final irony, he was charged with war crimes by the Allied forces for his role in assisting the Nazis, while all along he has been nothing but a victim.

If my memory serves me, I think the story ends when Moritz returns to his villge to find he has become the father of a boy who was the result of his wife being raped by a German soldier. Hope somebody will read the book and confirm if I remembered correctly.

++ Chew of this interesting line from the book: “God made so many things of no practical value, and yet they are the most beautiful of all”.

++ Melanie Oliveiro said this of the movie The 11th Hour; “You have a moral obligation to watch it”. Now that I qualify to watch movies at a discount (half price?) during week days, I think I will fulfill my moral obligation next week.

Let’s Talk About Books

All that discussion about Nevil Shute stirs up memories of some of the wonderful books that I have read aeons ago. Up to about 12 years ago, I read a lot of fiction.

When I started working, I used to get my books from a second hand book store called Saints located at Bukit Timah Plaza. They had two prices stamped on the book. You paid the higher price printed on top and when you returned the book, they refunded you the amount printed at the bottom. Do they still have this practice?

My preferences tended to be influenced by the author. Once I have a liking for a particular author, I would go on to read most of his books. My earliest favourite, of course was Nevil Shute. This was followed later by Herman Wouk. More ‘recent’ additions were Arthur Hailey, Frederick Forsyth and James Mitchener.

Arthur Hailey’s stories have this unique focus on a particular industry or profession. For example, Wheels took place in the automobile industry, Strong Medicine was on the drugs industry, Money Changers was on banking industry and Hotel was obviously from the hotel industry. My favourite was Strong Medicine. I remember reading it during my slow and arduous train ride back from Ipoh after my first visit there to meet my (then) girl friend’s parents and then returned alone by train. (She stayed on as it was the school holidays.)

My two favourite Frederick Forsyth books were No Comebacks and The Fourth Protocol. The first was actually a compilation of short stories. The second had to do with nuclear weapons I think.

I liked James Mitchener too, but his books are very thick, and so it was a challenge to read all his books. I think I read Poland, Space and The Source. I liked the last one most because he touched on many events depicted in the Old Testament.

But my favourite authors are still Nevil Shute and Herman Wouk. Maybe it’s a case of ‘first love’.

Nevil Shute has written more than twenty novels and I have read most of them. His ‘heroes’ tended to be very simple people – maybe that’s the attraction to common people like me. Speaking of common people, I saw a Taiwanese movie about a writer who wrote a book entitled， “一个平凡人的故事” or An Ordinary Man’s Story. But anyway, I have digressed. The three books by Nevil Shute that I enjoyed most are, No Highway, An Old Captivity and Requiem for a Wren.

No Highway was the text for our O-level literature, and so I remember the story well. It’s about an eccentric metalurgist at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Theodore Honey, who believed the company’s plane, the Reindeer had a problem with metal fatigue which causes it to fail after 1,440 hours of flight. He was sent to Labrador to investigate one such plane crash. But midway, he discovered that the very plane he was traveling in, also a Reindeer, had already flown more than 1,440 hours. He was unable to convince the pilot to turn back, and so in desperation, when the plane landed in transit, he forcefully grounded it by lowering the undercarriage (or something equally dramatic). Of course that created a huge row. Another team was sent to Labrador to investigate the first plane crash. Meantime, Honey got to know and fall in love with one of the plane’s air stewardesses, Marjorie Corder who not only took good care of him, but also his daughter Elspeth. He was a widower. Of course, you get no prizes for guessing the ending of this story.

An Old Captivity was about a pilot who was hired by a professor to carry out an aerial survey of Greenland. During the expedition he fell ill and had strange dreams of himself as a slave on a Norse long ship of about a thousand years before.

Requiem for a Wren is rather sad story of Janet Prentice a navy girl whose fiance, an Australian marine sergeant by the name of Bill Duncan was killed in the war. (A Wren by the way, is not a bird but an employee of the Women's Royal Naval Service). Troubled by all the death, violence and destruction in which she had played a part, she found her way to Australia after the war, and took up the position of a parlour maid in the home of her fiancé, without their knowledge. She became very close to Bill’s mother. Meantime, Bill’s brother, Alan, the only person in the Duncan family who has met her before, was searching for her. He was a pilot who had lost both his feet in the war and was depressed and was returning to Australia. Unable to face the prospect of Alan's imminent return, Janet commits suicide.

But my all-time favourite books were Winds of War and its sequel War and Remembrance by Heman Wouk. Both were voluminous books exceeding one thousand pages. I read Winds in 1977 and eagerly waited three years for its sequel which came out in 1980. These were historical novels, but the events recorded were real. Winds traced the 2nd World War from September 1939 to the bombing of Pearl Harbour. Remembrance continued till the end of the war. History was told through the eyes of one Victor Henry and his family who were somehow present at all the big events of the war.

History was never so exciting as told in these two books. I particularly relished the detailed and spellbinding description of the Battle of Midway in Remembrance. In between the narration, the author inserts segments of the war diary of a fictitious German general, thus giving the war a different perspective.

If you have an appetite for such epics, I would highly recommend these two books. After all, history is just as relevant today as it was to the young man who read them more than a quarter century ago. But, if you don’t have the patience, you can still get the dvds because both these books were made into television mini-series starring Robert Mitchum as Victor Henry. As for me, I think I still have the books somewhere in my store room. I plan to reread and savour them one day. When I can find the time. When I am retired maybe.

I promised my librarian friend, Ivan Chew to do a book review of a couple of books from a quarter of a century ago. I think I have ‘gone the extra mile’ here, if I may borrow a favoured tag line from our government.

But the pleasure is all mine.