Lost keys

Twice, I saw them -- resting on the bus stop seat -- forlornly. Both times, people were sitting respectfully about a foot away from the keys, with expressions that said "Nope, not mine." The first time, at the bus stop near the Zion Road food centre, it was a singular key with no chain or anything else attached (looked to me like a house key, oh dear). The second time, at the bus stop near my house, it was a bunch, including something that looked like a key to a cabinet.

What do you do with them? Take them to the nearest police station? But would they find their owners? I had vision of the police testing the key on all the households in the vicinity and finally exclaiming, "Aha! This one fits! Yoohoo, come and get your lost key, ye occupant of the house!"

Maybe should take the key and place an ad in the papers: "Please claim your key from.... Found at..."

The elderly couple who was seated at the Zion Road bus stop said wisely, "Leave it here. The owner may come back and look for it."

Anyway, it is always better to lose a key than to lose a wallet. You can always call the locksmith. Some are on service 24 hours. But they charge a bomb.

Service!

Singer, actor, entrepreneur...Chef  Nic. His kitchen is one of the most delightful places on earth. Creativity and re-engineering is the name of his game. His determination though, must be the biggest factor. 

WHEN watching Chef Nic on YouTube, I always look forward to hearing Nicholas Tse's "service!" as yet another dish in his kitchen is ready to roll.

No other chefs I know (in cooking shows which I have watched) say this with such an air of confidence and authority -- even the way he slams the service bell -- is unique.

I am talking about the son of Hong Kong star Patrick Tse, who has his own cook shows. I am a great fan of the father and watched all his movies on YouTube. Now in his 80s, he still holds his charms. But I must say his son absolutely beats him in this department, and I guess in many other departments as well.

It's such a pity that McDonald's doesn't sell his designer burgers here. And one can't find Chef Nic's packet noodles here as well, alas! And worst of all, one can't find his cooking shows on TV here except on YouTube -- and most of those are bits and pieces -- precious excerpts :(

But still, am so glad the kind folks uploaded them. An interesting aspects of the series is the Chef taking his celebrity guests through a gamut of experiences all over the world weathering sun, snow, slush, rain -- the works.  Too bad, Nicholas' Chinese name being Ting Fung (which in Cantonese sounds like "stop wind") -- sun, rain or snow is outside his jurisdiction -- as he used to joke in the shows.

A sense of humour, a very important ingredient too. Cheers, Chef!

My earlier post on the father: https://bitspiece.blogspot.com/2015/06/something-about-patrick-tse.html

Pearl of a hill

On a cool evening, it may be very nice to sit here and watch the home bound traffic below. In days of yore,  you might perhaps be able to see the Chinese Pauper Hospital (which was moved to Balestier and became Tan Tock Seng Hospital), the Seamen's Hospital which moved to Kendang Kerbau -- and Outram Prison which wasn't demolished till the late 1960s to make way for Outram Park which was in turn pulled down, along with the char kway teow stall that everyone loved. 

Pearl's Hill is one hill I have never climbed until recently. I have climbed almost all the hills in Singapore, from Bukit Batok, Bukit Timah to Mt Faber -- but I have never been to Pearl's.

It was not at all difficult, a mere 147 ft. (It used to be higher but the top was sliced off with the help of Chinese coolies because there was fear that the enemies might attack Fort Canning from Pearl's Hill as it overlooked the fort). So, all it needed was plain walking. I took the path from where the old Police HQ used to be in Chinatown.

I was almost at the top when a strange figure in the distance grabbed my attention. He seemed to be doing some kind of strange exercise which reminded me of the gait of a dang-ki (Chinese temple medium) -- swaying from side to side. This guy was in exercise gear and even had a Good Morning towel round his neck -- so I thought he was probably practising some newfangled walking exercise.

Then he stopped and definitely did a Monkey God pose -- I have seen many mediums doing this when they were seemingly possessed by this deity. I quickly side stepped to let him pass and he proceeded to sway peacefully on his way.

Maybe it was indeed a new form of workout. These days who knows.

This is the path that leads to the top where the Pearl's Hill reservoir still provides water to Chinatown.  

Anyway, just a bit of background on Pearl's Hill. It was owned by Captain James Pearl, commander of Indiana, the ship which carried Raffles to Singapore. In honour of Raffles, Captain Pearl named the hill Mount Stamford. But Captain Pearl decided to name the hill after himself when Raffles got upset with him for acquiring the hill without his consent.

Just as well, as Pearl's Hill sounds rather nice -- there are so many things in Singapore already named after Raffles.

 Preservation is apparently not on the cards for Pearl's Apartments -- probably reduced to rubble soon as a new project is slated to take their place at the foot of Pearl's Hill in 2019. Picture taken from Keong Saik Road, August 2018. The Sri Layan Sithi Vinayagar Temple, a vastly popular temple for all races and tourists, is in the foreground.

Who's that elephant running along the corridor?

This was what my primary school looked like. Schools are no longer built like this. Signboard pointing to this building says MOE Adventure Training School but it doesn't look like this building is in use.
 Picture taken out of a bus window.
(May 2018).

MY old primary school, Serangoon Garden South School looks pretty much like this -- three storeys with nice long corridors for running up and down when waiting for the bell to ring. Teachers would pop their heads out of the saloon doors to ask who was that elephant outside? (The doors were made of wood and painted a light blue -- and yes, they did swing.)

And on the top floor, right at the end of the corridor, was Nature Corner. The most exciting thing here was a snake in a bottle. There were some dried up insects of course. But the snake in its murky bath was what we always wanted to see when we ran up to Nature Corner.

The canteen was on one end of the ground floor with long wooden benches for seats and long tables with tops protected by metal sheets for easy cleaning. My favourite food was a small bowl of fish ball noodles (plump yellow ones) laced in ketchup, with a small bowl of soup on the side. 

My other favourite food was mee siam -- the dry sort with very little gravy -- sold by an Indian who was so skinny that they said he was actually lifted up from the floor a few inches when strong wind blew.

Another favourite food was ice popsicles. After you finished it, you could use the stick to draw patterns on the sand patch near the canteen. This small patch was not intended as a play area. Somehow no grass was able to grow here -- so it became a sandy patch. But it was great for playing tit tat toe using ice cream sticks to draw the notch and crosses.

A grass field separated Serangoon Garden South School from Serangoon Garden North School. There was some invisible division I think. It was a thrill to cross this "line" -- as there were talks that if you were caught "on the other side" you would be hauled off to the principal of the "other side" and then you "will gena".