Interviewed for a school project

Yesterday, I presented a copy of my book to this poly student, Aisyah who interviewed me about Gillman Barracks for her assignment. 

In fact, 2 weeks ago, another student interviewed me about Toa Payoh for the same assignment. He told me a third student wanted an interview about Beauty World. I told him if I said Yes, their lecturer would probably conclude that I do this for a living.

Lol. Thanks to all these poly and uni lecturers, who like to give assignments which require the students to interview oldees like me and Jerome Lim (actually he is much younger), I have been kept busy these past few years. I have lost count actually.

The most time-consuming ones are video projects; like the recent one by a team of Ngee Ann Poly students who filmed me at my home, Kallang Riverside Park and Chuan Lane – where my kampong house once stood.

I do not mind helping the students. But I have decided not to accept any more requests for tv documentaries. You spend hours with them, and in the end, you appear for a less than half a minute. The most disappointing experience was with a company called Oak Tree Films who came to my house to film me for an episode of Project Neighbourhood. After spending the whole morning with them, I appeared for just a few seconds in the final product. Makes you feel as if you are so hard-up to appear on tv.

Besides such assignments and projects, I have also given talks at Spore Poly, RI and recently, my alma mater, NJC.

Appearing on TV

Did you watch last night’s episode of On the Red Dot on Channel 5? If not, you can view it online here.

I was interviewed for this programme for my views on the demolition of the old National Library at Stamford Road as well as my views, in general, of conservation old buildings and what factors should be considered etc. etc.

As expected, in the final programme, I appeared only briefly for less than half a minute. Nevertheless, it was still much better than the episode of Project Neighbourhood on Jurong which was aired on Okto Channel in October last year. For that interview, the whole tv crew came to my home and set up camera, lights, sound etc. After spending practically the whole morning; plus an earlier meeting with the researcher, my appearance in the programme was just a flitting 5 or 6 seconds. I must confess that I felt quite let down.

Recently, I was put in charge of producing a video to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of my church. I interviewed many old timers including former pastors for that 15-minute video. In the end, I could only use a tiny segment of some of the interviews. I think some of my friends are going to be quite disappointed; but that, I have come to understand, is “part of the business”. Still I have a valid excuse. I am an amateur with no experience in this business.

Anyway, while they were filming me at my house, my wife did some filming of her own; and so I might as well not waste the footage and let my readers here in Good Morning Yesterday, have a rough glimpse of what they could have seen and heard that night. 

Although I never lived in Jurong, they were interested in my memories of my army days in Safti. At that time, we spent a lot of time training in the public areas like Hong Kah and Jurong (behind Nantah). I talked, among other things, of how the civilians used to sell food and drinks to us, and rushed to pick out the spent rifle cartridges (blanks of course) to sell as scrap. The interviewer was also quite interested to hear my stories of Peng Kang Hill and the famous, supposedly haunted Magazine Tower (#2?) at Safti.

Once bitten twice shy. No more Oak Trees for me.

Project Neighbourhood @ Okto Channel

Please tune in to Okto Channel tomorrow night at 10 pm to catch Episode 3 of Project Neighbourhood. Tomorrow’s episode is on Jurong. Previous episodes covered Geylang and Toa Payoh.


You will be able to see a snippet(s) of me narrating about my ‘army daze’ in Safti, Jurong in the early 1970s. Among other things, I will be describing what the landscape of Jurong was like in those days; for example, the places I saw on the way to camp along the route of Green Bus 175, as well during our topo training; such as the cemeteries and farms.

And yes, I would also share about the unforgettable feeling of seeing the lights of Jurong from Safti magazine tower 3 in the dead of the night, punctuated occasionally by the sound of live firing and the illumination from mortar flares behind me. And of course, what recollection of Safti is complete without the mention of Peng Kang Hill?

They interviewed me at my home last month …. on my birthday actually … haha.

The details again:
Programme: Project Neighbourhood (3) – Jurong
When: Thursday, 13 October 2011, 10 pm


Related posts:

1) What Melvin missed
2) A Jog down memory lane