More walks down memory lane.

Taken in 1972 when Yours Sincerely and his better half were trainees in Maktab Perguruan Temenggung Ibrahim, Johore Bahru. Those were care free days where 4 square meals were provided daily and trainees were given monthly pocket money of RM40.00 which was able to stretch to as far as the Woodlands night market across the straits in Singapore. Apples, oranges and pears were 10 for RM2.00. A long sleeve short for RM5.00. Nice pair of leather shoes for RM8.00. "Char Keow Teow" for 50 sen. Ah.....those were the days..........................

Our favourite college song was, " They say that life in college is mighty fine. You ask for Marilyn Monroe, they give you Frankenstein. They give you forty dollars and take back thirty nine. Pa pa I wanna go home. Ma Ma I wanna go home. Chye Chye ( The principal's name) I wanna go home......." Freshies were made to sing the song over and over again.

Taken on 15 December, 2009, 37 years down memory lane, after 34 years of teaching career, 2 children, one son-in-law and 33 years of marital life. We have lived through a lot !

Y S and better half stood at the exact spot where the first photo was taken. Y S stood with the same posture. The tree is not there anymore. The hostel had been repainted. There are some plants at the place where the tree once stood. The staircase in the background was the short cut to the bus stop to get to town. The green bus fare to Jalan Ah Fook was 15 sen!!!

See how the years have added so many things in and on us !

Souvenirs are perishable; fortunately memories are not. According to Georges Duhamel, " The Heart's Domain" , we do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Remember that today's beautiful moments are tomorrow's beautiful memories. Seize the day. Create the moments. They will be yours to cherish.

.....of old friends

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) met up with an old friend after 38 years. From the left, Mr and Mrs Chau, followed by Y S and family. We did several meals together, lunches and dinners throughout the few days. There were so much to catch up on. So much memories to recall.

This is the facade of the hostel we stayed 38 years ago. The steps were like an auditorium where we used to sit and chat till the wee hours of the morning.

This one is for our album. Two buddies met after 38 years. A little grayed and wrinkled but the spiritual bond is as fresh as spring.

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) drove to JayBee to walk down memory lane. This is the only part of Malaysia where I have not driven through. All because of the multitudes of urban tales on car hijacking, kidnaps, robberies ( especially at Air Hitam ) etc. etc. As you grow more senior, you tend to reminisce more than see vision, and for this reason the good book says that "young people see visions and old people dream dreams." Ar........but then...what is wrong with a bit of reminiscing.

For that reason, Y S took a long drive to JB and checked into Crystal Crown. From there Y S looked up a long lost and very dear friend who was Y S' teacher training college mate in 1972. Sounds ancient ya ....... This is one old friend who remembered my birthday and called me on the morning of my birthday, the day I retired.

He was delighted to hear my voice after 37 long years. Good friends, so they say, are like stars. You may not see them but they are there. When we met face to face at the hotel lobby, 37 years of memories surged up from with us. We hugged and studied each other's physical features. We have had come a long way. We had grayed and wrinkled. He was amazed with my black crown but was readily assured that it is ICI weather shield painted, dyed, and nothing to envy about.

We had a glorious time bonding and filling in each other's gaps of the so many years that rolled by. It was done over many lunches and dinners which he insisted on being the host.

Virginia Woolf once said, "I have lost friends, some by death, others through sheer inability to cross the street." Make it a point to keep up with old friends. Cross the street and meet them. For you may never know when you could see them again since life is so uncertain these days. Don't live with regrets.

W. Somerset Maugham must have wrongly said, " It's no good trying to keep up old friends. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is too face it."

..... of Eunuchs of Ancient Imperial China

Yours Sincerely ( YS)'s visit to the Forbidden City was highly spiced up with tales of Eunuchs who served the royal families for 2000 over years. With the emperor having so many expresses and concubines, and to to mention palace maids, and not all eunuchs were totally incapacitated, not wonder the imperial palace had to be a forbidden place! And in spite of it being forbidden, the local tour guide spun out countless ludicrous, lurid and lewd tales from behind the walls of the Forbidden City.

Naturally Y S' curiosity was aroused and this led to the purchase of " The Last Eunuch of China - the life of Sun Yaoting" by Jia Yinghua.

Brutally castrated by his own father, Sun Yaoting, cherished the dream of serving the emperor in order to upgrade his family. Before his wound fully healed, he learnt that the last Emperor Pu Yi had abdicated the throne! The Japanese had over run China.

It is also Sun Yaoting's biography and how he managed to get into the web of the eunuch in order to get closer and closer to the imperial palace. The cruelty he suffered in the hands of his fellow eunuchs and his imperial masters filled many chapters of the book.

Sun also lived through China's civil wars and the eventual victory of the Communist Party in 1949, the Cultural revolution (1966-1976) and the subsequent "opening up" policy from which China emerged as a leading economic and political power worldwide.

It is a book to read to take a peep into life in the Forbidden City before the fall of the Qing Dynasty.

....of foot massaging in Beijing

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) promised to write on off beaten things in China. So, a particularly hilarious incident happened on the last day, just a few hours before we boarded the flight home. The China Tour Guide, typical of people in his trade, had to wring the last few Reminbis (Chinese currency) left from our pockets. " Ni men lei ma?" (Are you people tired ?) Of course, there was the resonance affirmation.

So, the group was taken to a centre for foot reflexologycum medical research centre, as it claimed to be . The visit started off with a long and dry lecture on Eastern Medicinal Practices. Illness and sicknesses seem to be visually identifiable by the look of one's palms and facial features. ( I wonder what are all those scanners and X-rays for in Western hospitals?) Of course, free diagnosis was readily available. There were teams of "doctors" on standby to diagnose any volunteers and if there were none, then the "doctors" would descend on the "patients" aggressively. And from a long array of sicknesses they muttered out at you
, there would sure be one or two that fitted yours snugly. LOL

This was the "doctor-lecturer" who claimed to have taken time off his busy schedule to lecture us and SAVE us . A lot of psychology was used and many from among our group were super gullible.

The strong sale tactic hit a high note when it was mentioned that his company donated millions to the construction of the Bird Nest Olympic Stadium of 2008. So, a substantial amount of any purchases made on that day would go to the stadium. As such, Chinese sentiment was forcibly aroused.


Before the sales were made, there was this free foot reflexology. We wasted no time to strip our feet naked. Warm water was poured into this plastic basin and herbs added. After 8 days of walking around the imperial gardens and climbing of the Great wall, the treatment was soothingly refreshing. The delicate fingers of the foot masseur was ecstatic.

As the masseur ran his fingers through your left foot, he would stop at certain strategic places to exert pressure with his knuckle. This was where you let out faint cries of delight, and this was also where he would pin point your trouble (s) - weak bladder; unbalanced kidneys, gastritis stomach, overburdened liver and other crabs. Then herbal medicines were recommended for you with the cost quotation. Each complete "dosage" would run into thousands of Reminbis. Health or wealth?

By this time, another personnel descended with all the medication prescribed. The foot massaging had gone into the first half hour!. Syiok! Pleasurable ! Sale talk started. Lots of pushing for Y S to buy. Psychology and philosophy were exhaustively exploited. Health or wealth? Wealth or health?

NOW the masseur shifted to the right foot. Wah! More pleasure to balance up with the already massaged left foot. Sale talk was then at the crescendo. The right foot had just gone through 5 minutes of massaging. Y S opened his big mouth and said, " I don't need any medicine. I'm a healthy man. I DON"T WANT TO BUY!" The massage on the right foot was instantly stopped like drivers stepping on the emergency brakes. " Hau liow" ( Your massage is over!!!) Imagine having only one foot massaged ? Y S had to hobble and limb on his left foot out of the place. LOL

The art of ear digging.

My second sister went to one corner in China and this is what she got for me. Something dirt cheap !!! A bamboo ear digger !!! But it brings a wealth of sweet memories of our childhood. So, thoughtful of her. They say that young men see visions and old men dream dreams. It has some truths. Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) seems to reminisce more and more despite telling himself that "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. That's why we call it the present." Anyway, what's wrong with a wee bit of reminiscing.

Ear digging was our favourite childhood pastime. This was years before "Johnson & Johnson" marketed the sophisticated cotton bud for ear cleaning. The "ENT Doctor" who was none other than beloved MUM who did it for all of us siblings on a monthly basis. We gleefully looked forward to the routine and had to practically queue up for it.

In her younger days, Mum dressed in " batek" sarong "Java" and see-through "Baju Bandung." Of course, the "see-through" part was visually blocked off by her thick over sized cotton brasseries, always white, and not the bikini types with thin plastic spaghetti, "beehon," "tanghoon," ( glass noodle) or " meesua" ( rice noodle ), in the descending order of thinness, straps which young girls parade around these day. Mum would sit on a low stool and her "patient" sat in between her thighs , on the cold cement floor, with the back facing her. Y S would tilt his head and positioned one side of his face on her thigh. The ear to be "excavated" was always facing the sky to get the light into it. Then, the "excavation" started.

Mum had a gold ear digger which she kept, of all places, in the bun of her hair. Y S wonders which sister of his inherited this special instrument from Mum. It seemed that a gold digger did not have sharp edges which would hurt the tender inner ear . With her left hand gently pressing down Y S' head, her right hand started the excavation. She did it with the deft and precision of an experienced surgeon. Each and every move of her hand sent tingling sensations right to the core of Y S' soul. The pleasure was so unsatiating that begged for more and more. Just as Y S pleasurably cringed at each movement of the golden ear digger, Mum seized the opportunity to reprimand, correct and advise. Under such circumstances, her counseling seeped deep into the soul and you just had to agreed with everything. She was millimetres away from your ear drum!

The excavated debris (wax) was gathered on Y S' index finger and among us siblings we used to compete to see who had the most. LOL. Y S being the naughtiest one, would fling his debris at his unsuspecting siblings or had it rubbed on their clothes. This had caused lots of "fights" but it was all an intimate part of growing up.

So, thanks sis for the small gift that brings such a big memory.

.... of my primary school days

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) has very few photos of his younger days since cameras were not easy to come by those days. Photography was a rare threat which you got when your rich uncles or cousins visited you and agreed to take one shot for you. Y S has no photograph of his babyhood and childhood, only boyhood!

Y S remembers that for formal occasions like marriages the service of the so-called "Photograph man" was procured. He would come with his box camera which was set up on a tripod. The bride and groom and the whole entourage which included the parents, grand parents, siblings, uncles, unties, nephews and nieces would be posited according to hierarchy. So, the elder ones got to sit while the younger ones formed a line behind them. Then, the youngest would have to sit in front of those who were seated. The arrangement took a long time because the participants were camera shy and more often than not the older uncles and aunties had to be invited repeatedly. They would always throw in excuses: " Oh! I don't need to be in the picture."' " Go ahead without me.", " I'm not so ready. My hair is not properly done" etc. etc.etc. What ever the excuse, you better not missed them out, or else you would be branded as despising them. LOL

The photographer would then hide under a black cloth with his hand holding the flash jutting out of it. Then, it was the count down, " 1 ,2 , 3" and no "Cheese" or "Konika". While this was going on, Y S would grimace while waiting for an explosion of light from the bulb of the flash. " Pooop" and everyone sighed and smiled.

This is the oldest photograph I managed to salvage from the attic of my family house before it was burnt down some years ago. You can see Y S, second roll, fifth from the left. It was a very multi-racial Standard Two way back in 1960.

Y S had three of his cousins studying with him in the same class ; a neighbour and two male friends. As the years moved on, his cousins and friends moved on to better school in Kota Bahru and Y S was left with only two miserable Chinese friends. But , it was really the age of innocence those days. My Malay female classmates as you can see were dressed like their Chinese or Indian friends. No segregation. No polarisation. No segmentation. No "Ketuanan" this or that.
How this innocence has been poisoned by pugnacious and nefarious politicians for their own gains
is very sad. Walls are being built and not bridges. Is there new hope in 1Malaysia?

Y S had a very difficult Standard One. His initiation took three weeks. ( Y S' daughters went to Standard One in 1990 unaccompanied ) Y S' elder brother pillion carried him on a bicycle and rode several kilometres to reach the school. His poor brother had to position himself at a visible location from outside the classroom for Y S to catch occasional glimpses of him. Once, he hid himself to test Y S' initiation. Hell broke loose. Y S ran out of the class without his school bag and wailed on top of his voice, looking for his brother. The teacher went pale. The class was amused. This went on for several weeks!

Y S was thrown into a totally new world and never had the advantage of going to kindergarten. Kindergarten? What kindergarten in 1960? So, Y S learnt his "A,B, C ......" and " One, Two, Three.... . " " London bridge is falling down ...... " for the first time in his life. Fancy how parents spend a fortune to push their children so hard these day and many go to Standard One already knowing their alphabets and numbers, and have sung almost all the nursery rhymes. " Oh, my four-year-old is into book six of The Lady Bird series, " prided the mothers. No wonder these children feel bored in school.

Being the first child to enrolled at an English school, there was no one to coach him at home.
Y S had to struggle on his own. For attending an English school, his siblings nick named him , " Ang More Beh" or " English horse/ educated." Secrets were exchanged in Mandarin among Y S' siblings so as to fool Y S. Most of the time, Y S was also scolded in Mandarin. That was also the time Y S started to pick up a lot of scolding words in Mandarin.

Y S was never outstanding in his studies, very average. However, Y S was physically outstanding, always head and shoulders above his classmates. For this, Y S was always made to sit and line up in the last row in every Form. Y S' officially duty as far as he can remember is the class blackboard cleaner. This he faithfully did until Form Five, and later as a teacher himself. He could reach the top edges and corners.

Six years went in a whizz. One day in 1964, the teachers were delighted because the Standard Six Examination was abolished. It was automatic promotion to Form One. What a relief ! Y S often wonders whether he could make through the examination!