Our Bedok Kampong House Singapore

Every once in a while, the family would make a trip to visit our maternal second aunt and her family at Jalan Khairuddin at Opera Estate, Singapore. What was interesting about that house was the music selection our cousin enjoyed, and played while we were there. While we (already 12 and 10 years old at this time) had been exposed to music that our father played at our Bedok kampong house with his LPs (33 1/3 rpm) and EPs (45rpm) vinyls, we heard different kinds of songs from her. Bread, America, Sergio Mendes, Carole King – unfamiliar sounds to us at that time.  But on this day in 1973 it was to celebrate our cousin’s 21 st birthday. To us boys it was a loud party! She and her friends were dancing in the living hall which had its main light turned off with some psychedelic lights to create the atmosphere. No rock’n’roll by now and we distinctly heard them play “I Feel The Earth Move” (1971) by Carole King and “Smoke On The Water” (1972) by Deep Purple! But after the party was over...

Going to Peninsular Malaya (not yet Malaysia then) in the 1950’s for a short holiday has always been a favoured option for many of us, and for our father and relatives it was no exception. And because he already has a car, his trusty Morris Minor, and despite the smaller roads, more complicated network and lack of highways as there are today, it was an adventure he would always cherish and talk frequently about. To ensure he gets to his destination was this 1956 Road Directory he purchased and kept all these years. We can tell from his road trips in 1957 and 1958 that he used it well!

On a recent walk to view the former Sungei Bedok, we noticed how much time has changed things. See this 1959 of our aunts enjoying the evening on the bridge (connecting Bedok Laut with Padang Terbakar and Koh Sek Lim estate..and then trying to get the same angle as that photo, is the same river (now canal)

‘Excavated’ from the family home a few months ago, this  Nestlé  Baby Weight Card, tracking the older of us, this writer until he was about 8 months old (March 1962)…  nice to juxtapose the information against an actual studio (some censorship!) photo of me at that same age.. interesting to note the printer was Tien Wah Press (which was just a few years in operation then) March 1962

Recently while doing housekeeping at our mother’s house, we found this precious large print 1940 photo of our late father's cousin, one of the “Four Beauties” mentioned in an earlier post. This was her wedding day, and she was dressed splendidly in traditional peranakan wedding attire. Sadly the marriage did not last long as she became a widow soon after (no information of the cause of the groom’s death). His will dictated that she was to remain unmarried for an extended period of years before his inheritance to her can materialise. She never remarried, had no children with him and with the eventually realised inheritance purchased two houses, side by side – lived in one (with her younger sis and niece) and rented out the other as her regular source of income. We always enjoyed her company and every year at Chinese New Year, father always made sure he brought the family to visit her (she was about a decade his senior, we call her Ko Ko) and is the 10-year old boy on the left in the...

Our late father had always been fascinated by the James Bond franchise, from the first movie in 1962. Even when we grew up into teenagers he would still make it a point to bring the family to watch the newest release at places like Shaw Lido. So as a family we watched as different actors took over the lead character and until we moved out of our Bedok kampong house in 1974 when ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’ premiered. So keen was he that when we went to Phuket for a holiday in 1987, he made sure we all went with him to James Bond Island (Phang Nga Bay, an entire day’s journey) to view the filming location of that movie! We are glad that up to the last few months of his life journey with us, he was able to watch the newest Bond#25 ‘No Time To Die’ on Prime Video streaming. Now that same fascination has also rubbed onto us. But ask him who his favourite Bond is and the reply will always be Sean Connery.