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.

Changi Point revisited

Changi beach on New Year/s Eve, late afternoon. Weather (though the sky was overcast)  was perfect for a leisurely walk.No crowds here, except for one or two couples, and a few family outings. The crowds were at the Village food centre, long queue at the nasi lemak store, the outermost stall facing the row of shops. The other one was still setting up. Chicken wings not fried yet :)

CHANGI Point is very different from the one I knew as a child  where there were lots of canvas deck chairs for you to sit as you drink your Green Spot (or Sinalco?) and gaze out to sea.  However, it is not too different from my teenage memories. Especially the bus terminus which has been at the exact spot since time immemorial. And if I am not wrong, the same pavement stones skirting one end of the terminus!The shops have retained their flavours too.

There was a  fishery station or something by the Primary Production Deparatment which is now gone from the spot. The link bridge is still there. The waters are much cleaner than what I remember. The beach  as well. The new (new to me, but has been around for some time) boardwalk is great!

The old jetty has of course, been spruced up years ago. You can catch a boat to Pulau Ubin, and if you have your passport with you, to Pengerang for seafood :)

I still like Changi and prefer it to the East Coast Park (though of course, East Coast Park is very nice too.) In my childhood days, the beach at Bedok was a great contender to Changi, as I remember we could walk far out into the sea during low tide and stand among its corals and watch tiny waves lapping by our feet. There were nice beaches at Pasir Ris and Pasir Panjang too, but the beach we visited most during my childhood was Changi Point.

Postnote: A little trivia on the area, which I got from the Net: Originally called Tanjung Rusa in the 1600s, the name was later changed to Tanjung Changi two centuries later. The area was a low-lying mangrove swamp and the name Changi most likely came from changi ular, a climbing shrub, or from a tree called chengai. Even as late as the 1900s, tigers came to Changi Hill to deliver their cubs. This hill was totally flattened to provide the soil for reclamation that created the land on which Changi Airport is built.

Nice  stone benches instead of those old canvas deck chairs of my childhood. I vote Changi as the No. 1 beach in Singapore.