Funny or not?

I USED to make everyone roar with laughter each time I told these jokes:

Motorcyclist with pillion rider stopped at red light. Halfway, pillion rider stood up to heave pants. Green light. Motorcyclist revved and zoomed ahead eager to be the first to go at green. Pillion rider got left behind, standing at the junction. (Based on a true story, can't remember which traffic light though..)

Prisoners told jokes to each other to pass the time. After a while, their repertoire ran out and was repeated so often that someone would just have to say "Joke Number Three" or "Number 10" and everybody would laugh hysterically.

Starving prisoners stared at tattered and torn picture of a salted fish and rubbed their tummies. Suddenly, one prisoner smacked another on the head and said,  "Oui, you stared twice!"

If cars can park at a parking lot, where can a dog park? A barking lot. (This was from a kid's book. I told that to kids at the library, but they didn't find it funny. My adult friends roared with laughter each time, slapping their thighs.)

Funnily, I don't find them funny now. Wonder why they were so hilarious in the first place. Of course, that was some 30 years ago when I regaled my friends with such jokes. Always well received.

A great childhood joy

COME, lick this pot clean! And I would gallop to the table. It would be a pot that mum had just finished scraping clean of its agar agar mixture. So, the leftover in the pot would still be warm.

Or, it could be licking a can of condensed milk after mum had emptied it into a container. Mind the tin lid edge, she would remind me.

The milk cans were especially nice, but  not much left in there. I would complain jokingly to mum that she could have left more in the can for me to lick, and scrape. That would set mum off on a tirade on the many unfortunate souls who would not have even tasted a drop of condensed milk.

Today, I followed a YouTube recipe on making ice cream without machine and churning. Just mix cream whipped till thick with condensed milk and put into freezer. How simple. There was a marvellous mixing bowl to lick, as well as an emptied can of condensed milk. Still a great joy.

Scavengers of the rubble

What "treasures' are there for the scavenger of time among the rubble of this demolished shophouse?

THEY are of course, not as glam as your raiders of the lost ark. But they do take away, some treasures -- from sites of demolished shophouses. Well. not all the time, but  often enough to make their efforts worthwhile.

One of my friends, was such a "raider". He would comb through the rubble each time the iron ball had done its work. What were his finds? An old coin or two, an old movie poster (if fortunate), some broken Peranakan wall tiles... some old crockeries. Won't you take me with you the next time you go scavenging, I would plead with him.

That was in the 80s, I haven't received one invitation to go scavenging. And now, this friend has hung up his gloves. He lives happily with his wife, two cats, and the spoils of his labour -- one tattered and torn movie poster of a 60s movie siren (Li Li Hua, I think), a few "antique" coins dating back to the Colonial era, and some old tiles.

A scavenger of time... was he.

The old banyan tree at Prinsep Street

The old banyan tree that is the only tree in a fenced compound next to the Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church (no. 77 Prinsep Street). Perhaps the place should be called One Tree Field (like One Tree Hill near Grange Road). Pic taken 4 Jan 2015.

NEED a tree expert to gauge how old this tree is. Banyan trees can live to a ripe old age. The one in the Indian Botanical Gardens is more than 200 years old, according to the Wikipedia. And there are others which reached 300 years. So they can live to a splendid age, providing much needed shade in this equatorial region of ours. The Hindus believe that its leaves provided shade for Lord Krishna.

I wish I can ascertain that this is the same tree which helped to provide support and shade for  the communal kitchen of the villagers at a kampung (no longer around) off Bencoolen Street? Below is the picture of that tree, taken in 1982. I am also not sure whether the present compound is actually the cleared space of part of the old kampung? But the tree is probably within the vicinity of the kampung.I blogged about earlier.  If it is the same tree, I would hazard a guess that it is at least 100 years old -- or more.

My memory is not as good as I believe it to be. This pic was taken in 1982, but I do not quite remember which little alley off Bencoolen \Street (that leads to a kampung each) I have taken this picture from. It could be Lorong Serai, or Lorong Sakai...Sigh.