FOYers lunch at my home

My friends, John and Ann Harper, are in town. Since they loved plant and flowers, I invited them to my home to see our collection carnivorous plants. I took the opportunity to organize a lunch gathering for the ‘senior’ FOYers (Friends of Yesterday.sg). Unfortunately some regulars like Peter Chan, Philip Chew, Dick Yip, YG Ong, Jerome, Shaik Kadir, Soh Kiak, Victor Yue, Char Lee and TC Lai could not make it. Still we had a grand time. Here are some photos.

Hurray! Here comes James (Thimbuktu) Seah with the famous Indian rojak with Andy (left).

The 3 James' (from left Tann, Seah and Kwok) at the same table; and Wee Kiat.

Victor with John and Ann Harper

 Andy and Hong Eng

Seow Ser (right) admiring our pitcher plants with my son

Friends of tomorrow?

From my Inbox – Phil Hall remembers Bukit Gombak

The photos of Bukit Gombak; especially this one, that I posted here brought back memories for Phil Hall who emailed me saying:

I was in the RAF at Bukit Gombak circa early sixties, before the large dishes in the photos were installed. Probably before many readers on this blog were born!

There was just a large rotating back to back radar to give bearing and distance and a nodding rotatable radar to give height. There was a radio building each side of the site. As per the photos the site was protected by double fencing the insides of which had to be cleared continuously.

Entrance was only by one gate with a guardroom. The operations room was the first building, with several admin rooms in a wing attached. Various other buildings were along a circuitous road leading to the top.

Two outstanding memories of the site were the strange secured door dug into the hill on the right hand of the road leading up from the dual carriageway: there was some suggestion of this being an arms dump. Not reassuring for us working on the top.

More importantly were the snakes on the hill!

Often we had to walk across the hill with just the moonlight. On one occasion I was with a colleague who was wearing flip flops and I happened to glance down and see his foot descending on a large cobra. All I could do was instinctively hit him out of the way, for which he berated me until he saw what I was pointing at.  At first light after a cooler night many snakes would be lying on the black tarmac of the road which had retained its heat overnight.

Official Launch of the C3A Portal

Earlier this month, I attended the official launch of the Council for Third Age web portal and their new logo. It was held at the National Library Building at Victoria Street. After the official speeches by the guest-of-honour, Senior Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Heng Chee How, and the Chairman of C3A, Mr Gerald Ee, and the explanation-cum-demonstration of the features of the new portal by Mr Paul Hidalgo, Senior Manager (Communications), myself and another guest from the National Library spoke briefly.

While Ms Valerie Siew, Assistant Direct, Public Library Services, spoke about the collaboration between the National Library and the C3A, I basically shared my views of the new portal and my experience in nostalgia/heritage blogging. I found this new portal very senior-friendly and encouraged the seniors present to share their memories there – which ultimately will also be deposited at the Singapore Memory Project, I suppose. I liked the very bright and cheerful appearance of the C3A site. The feature I liked most was the ability to increase the size of fonts with just 1 click. In fact, all the menus and buttons can be open with a single click. Check it out for yourselves here.

I met some old friends and made new ones at this event. Here are some photos.

This is the new logo of the Council for Third Age.

The two VIPs launching the new portal officially.

Me giving my presentation.

Me with Paul Hidalgo.

Met my good friend Dick Yip and we decided that the C3A Portal needed a ‘relaunch’ by 2 very thick-skinned FOYers (Friends of Yesterday.sg).

I chatted with the minister after the launch, and the first question he asked me was whether or not I knew James Seah. I told him that James was a fellow Foyer and Memory Ambassador of SMP. Those who have read my book, Good Morning Yesterday, would also know that he contributed three stories. Too bad he was not able to attend the event.

News reportof the event

SingPost's Posting Moments Photo Contest

To celebrate World Post Day on 9 October, SingPost has launched a photo contest on Facebook. The Posting Moment’s Photo Contest calls for Singaporeans to share their cherished postal moments on Facebook. You stand a chance to win an iPhone 5 amongst other attractive prizes.

It could be a pen pal letter that you’ve kept for 40 years, a stamp collection belonging to your grandfather, or the postcard you just received yesterday. Just take a photo and submit to the Facebook page with an accompanying caption (of not more than 200 characters).

This is the photo that I have submitted. It is a page from my half-century old stamp album. The stamps you see here are from a time when Singapore was part of Malaya.

I used to collect stamps as a kid. Whenever I received a letter, or greeting card from a friend, I would carefully remove the stamp and paste it to my album. What a thrill it was to receive a letter with a stamp that I did not already have.

I would also exchange stamps with my cousins, classmates, and an Indian boy from Bartley School who came around to our kampong to sell snacks in the afternoon. We became friends. But sadly we have lost touch over the years. How nice it would be if he could read this post. And then we can become friends again. But this time, we would not be exchanging stamps, but memories.

PS – Please vote for me here. Remember to “like” first. Cheers.

Bedok Rest House and Bedok Corner in 1952

Recently I received this email from Joe Elliott of Manchester, England.

“I’ve just found your website – it’s great. I was in Singapore in 1952 with Royal Signals at the Transmitter Station at 9.5 miles stone Changi Road. I went to the Bedok MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) at Padang Terbaker* and made many friends there and have many photographs. I could send you some if you're interested.”

To say I am interested would be the understatement of the year don’t you think? And so, here are some photos of the Bedok Rest House and the nearby famous Bedok Corner with more to come. Enjoy!

But first, this is a scan from the 1963 street directory to give you a better idea of the places in these photos.

1) Bedok Corner in 1952 and Oct 2012 (photo courtesy of Peter Chan)

2) Bedok Rest House in 1952 – viewed from entrance and from the beach.

3) Bedok Road near Bedok Police Station in 1952 and Oct 2012 (photo courtesy of Peter Chan)

Finally, here’s Joe and his buddies at the Bedok Rest House.

* According to Peter Chan, Padang Terbakar was a Malay kampong near Hole #1 of Laguna National Golf Club or entrance from Xilin Avenue into Laguna Green beside the Sungei Ketapang bend.

Related post by Peter Chan: Balek Kampong to Bedok Corner