Petronas - Tabungkan lah duit kamu

When we got back to Leicester in August this year, we were so happy to discover that ......

.......... the price of our favourite frozen fast food had not gone up at all.

We took out a couple of packets to boil for our dinner.  The spouse also made mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.  We sat down, snipped the packet and what dropped out of it were indeed cod steaks in parsley sauce ... but much reduced in size - by nearly a quarter - compared to a few months ago.

Once back in Kuala Lumpur, we bought a fresh tank of gas - the price had gone up from MYR $25 to $29.  But who are we to grumble?  There are millions of others living under much more straitened circumstances, with children to feed, to clothe and to educate.

I cannot bear to think what our children from deprived families have to do without.  I can remember a time when we used to come home after school to a lunch of just rice, kicap and fried ikan bilis.  Our Abah was paying off a loan to our taukeh kedai because he had been diddled by his 'manager' and customers when he was running a a sundry shop - "Malay Trading" at 5 milestone Pasir Panjang Road.

See: http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2011/06/tuberculosis-teapot-and-tears-csh.html

And even when life got better, we had to limit our demands and desires for the fancy stuff of life. When I was in Secondary school, I insisted on getting a pair of  top of the range Bata Badminton Masters canvas shoes.  When the join between the rubber frontal end and the canvas fell apart, I dared not ask for a new pair.  So I sewed the two parts together - several times - as they kept on splitting apart.  I did not ask for a new pair until the soles got worn out as well.

A pair of  Bata Badminton Masters.  This image is taken from http://media.straitstimes.com/50things2/#image-5

When my Crescent Girls' School blouse became threadbare on the back - mainly because of heavy sweating - my mother sewed a light yellowish square patch on the inside to enable me to keep on wearing the blouse.  My sister and I were allowed only 2 blouses per year.  You see, that yellow cotton material could be bought from only one approved supplier - Heap Hin at Cecil Street I think. The material for both the peacock blue skirt and the yellow blouse were priced at $3.50 per yard - and that was a lot of money then!

The habit of savings was very much encouraged during our schooling days - by both our parents and our primary schools.

Report in the Co-Ed, Pasir Panjang English School 1956

Report in the Co-Ed, Pasir Panjang Primary School, 1955

At home, Abah would get us a cute little savings box, shaped like a house.

To retrieve your savings, simply twist and separate the house from the base!

The above image was not my original "National Savings Bank'.  I bought this from a car-boot sale at Saddington, Leicester about 15 years ago.  And it cost me all of 20p!  I was in ecstasy for days and days after that acquisition.  This phone-box savings tin was probably from the 1940s .  It was a treat for 10p.

My ten-pence box.

I wonder if  parents encourage and practise the art of savings for their children in this hi-tech 21st century.  Do the young ones physically place their coins in little savings boxes?  Maybe they do it online or perhaps their parents set up trusts in all kinds of funds and stocks and shares???

The fun in savings was to hear the rattle of the coins, to feel the growing weight and then to pour it all on a table, count them and take them to the Post Office Savings Counter to be transferred into your own account.  But of course there had to be the mandatory deduction for an ice cream - my favourite was an ice-cream tucked in a slice of bread!

"Tabungkan Duitmu " is taken from a 78 rpm record, probably during the 1940s/1950s. 

This song, like all the remembrances and values noted above, comes from a bygone age.   Of course, some may regard them as out-of-date and irrelevant.   In this age of excessive and almost obscene consumerism, I think people have to take a step back and re-evaluate the way they devour and squander the world's resources, and their own as well!  But I'm grumbling and I have to stop.

                                                            **************************

But now, let's come down to earth and ponder our present  and disquieting reality.

In today's NST

A few days ago Petronas warned about a 12% drop in net profit.  Malaysia has been riding on a wave of rising prices of gas and crude oil.   As a result,  Petronas  has been used and abused as  the 'goose that laid the golden eggs'  to subsidise and bail out  profligacy in Malaysia.

See:  http://themalaysianreserve.com/new/story/petronas-declares-12-drop-3q14-net-profit-rm15b

But the ways and purpose of the world's economy are never as straightforward as they are made out to be. You have to look beyond the  dollars and (non)sense.

Firstly the IMF regards this as good news.    Read ;www.nst.com.my/node/58413 about the view expressed  by Christine Lagarde , IMF's Managing Director at a conference of corporation chief executives sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

Secondly I would suggest looking at another scenario.

Read:  www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/01/defending-dollar-imperialism/ 

Here's an exract.

USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia - strange bedfellows!

Also look at :

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2014/nov/09/us-iran-russia-oil-prices-shale


When the elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.

BUDI

Let me take you back as I'm going to ........

1.  1972/1973.  While going through my 'junk' in Leicester a few weeks ago, I found this poem in Sekolah Menengah Yusof Ishak's School Magazine.

As they say:  from the mouth of babes (well, from a 14/15 year old) -  you read an expression of such despair from over 40 years ago!

 "Puas di asoh dan di didek, Dengan tenaga yang tiada bersukat, Tapi tiada datang budi,  Dengan pimpinan yang dulu2 itu.
Begini-lah hidup,  Lantaran tak punya asohan budi. "


Dr Mahathir's despondency over the Malays as  'knowing no shame' -  ( Read :  https://my.news.yahoo.com/dr-m-look-east-policy-faltered-malays-still-095400553.html ) has more to do with the near collapse of the old Malay values of  Budi.  As 14/15 year old Norziah had concluded - the Malays  " tak punya asohan budi".

Asohan Ugama has jumped by leaps and bounds since Norziah's teenage years.  Pilgrimages for Haj and Umrah proliferate.  Levels (though not necessarily standards) of education are claimed to be (nearly) world-class.  Universities and number of academics and  PhDs have mushroomed. But in the mad rush for more and more manna on earth and a place in heaven after earth, the Malays - unlike the Japanese - have not been true to their forefathers' and foremothers' wisdom and prescience.

My unschooled ( both religious and secular) mother brought us up on sayings from pantun pantun Melayu.

At Kampung Chantek 1948, (from left to right), Maznoor, Mak, Mustapha and Maznah.  Mustakim was to arrive later in 1949

Pisang emas bawa belayar,
Masak sa-biji di-atas peti;
Hutang emas boleh di-bayar,
Hutang budi di-bawa mati.

Pulau Pandan jauh ke-tengah,
Gunong Daik berchabang tiga;
Hanchor badan di-kandong tanah,
Budi yang baik di-kenang juga.

Bunga melati bunga di-darat,
Bunga seroja di-tepi kali;
Hina besi kerana karat,
Hina manusia tidak berbudi.

While we live to offer budi, we have to accept that:

Puas aku bertanam padi, 
Beras maseh datang seberang;
Puas aku berbuat budi,
Emas juga di-pandang orang.

But this stricture was drummed into us from childhood to adulthood. Buat baik berpada-pada.  Buat jahat jangan sekali.  

Anyway, the absence of shame is not the monopoly of  Malays.  All other racial groups in Malaysia (or anyone one else in the world for that matter) are guilty of that - it all depends on how the nature of the 'shame' is displayed or disguised.

Furthermore these miscreants are located not only among the dregs of Malaysian society (like the Mat Rempit and petty thieves); they also thrive among the upper and middle echelons of the Civil Service, the educated professionals, the business tycoons and taukehs, the directors of multi-national companies, the politicians and political leaders and even among the religious bureaucracy.

And just look at the shenanigans going on in the land of the Mother of Parliament, in Britain.


2.  1961.  In 1961, at Crescent Girls' School, a group of Malay-medium students had to 'park' at our school because there weren't any Malay Secondary School in Singapore then.

And this was one of their contributions ......

...... to the School Magazine.

My take on all these?   Wither the Malays.  Whither the Malays?

                                                    ******************************

Here are some other aspects of  Malay  'ways and purpose' as related to budi.  There have been studies and dissertations written on Budi in Malay culture. For instance ....

Abstract of  "Budi as the Malay Mind" by Lim Kin Hai 2003

The following aspects of 'Budi' are from my collection of dictionaries that hark back to the 1960s.

1. From

1957

2.

1963 - 5th Edition

3.

1976

4.

1966

What is missing among present-day Malays is " bangsa Melayu yang budiman".

                                                           **********************
Let me conclude with a personal touch.

Pisang nangka di-masak pengat, 
Kait2 banyak duri-nya;
Macham mana saya ta'ingat,
Orang baik dengan budi-nya.

When in September 1982 my youngest brother Akim, passed away,  this  'manusia baik budi'  from Leicester was doing his fieldwork in a remote Adivasi village near Kashele, India.  He walked one mile to get the bus for an hour-long trip to the small town of Karjat.  This was followed by a two-hour train journey from Karjat to Bombay and from here he flew to Singapore to comfort my mother.  (Even today, he is petrified of  plane travel.)  After a day or so, he took another plane journey to Bandar Seri Begawan where I was working.

His was a comforting shoulder to cry on.

The Dynamic Duo - many, many, years later - December 2013.

I taped this song "Serunai Malam" by the Sumatran singer Hasnah Tahar  (orkest Saiful Bahri) in 1983 from this album.

I treasured the cassette tape and in winter 2013 I sat down to load all of these songs from tape to cassette player and onto my own clumsy video.  In this way, I can keep on listening to them without causing wear and tear on the tapes and the Irama vinyl album.

These lines from "Serunai Malam'  sum up the relevance and significance of Budi for this Malay.

Dari mana datang rasa kasih sayang,
Dari mata ke hati lalu di kenang.
Kerana budi menjadi tunangan, sayang,
Sumpah setia disaksikan bintang.
Bercerai  mati  batas nya di dunia, sayang.
Di akhirat kita berjumpa pula.

NOTE:  All the pantun are taken from Kalong Bunga, Buku 1 - oleh Za'ba , 1964.

Six Geese a Laying or The Sixth Day of Christmas

As part of the treatment for his battered discs and his osteo-arthritis, the spouse has been doing his walking exercise - about 2 kms each day and every day - at Victoria Park, whatever the weather.  The weather today was chilly and blowy but the spouse kept his feet firmly on the ground.

Daft and Dodgy  DIB   (Donald Iain Buchanan)

This morning I kept him company - to walk off the great dinner  I cooked the night before for our good friend Jack.

 Despite the cold and the wind, the day was gloriously sunny and  bright.  Such cheerful light always makes me a bit loopy and dopey.  I thought a photo of AsH cuddling a tree would prove my green credentials.

Buchanan's Daft  Green Malay Wife

I could not miss this photo opportunity of a  female Malay OAP  (Old Age Pensioner)  sunbathing on a bench in sunny Leicester!

Buchanan's Daft Malay Wife

But all that morning I could not keep out this Christmas Carol  "God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, for Jesus Christ our saviour, was born on Christmas day"  which kept on ringing in my head.  In fact for the past two weeks a barrage of Carols has been inundating my waking world - in the City Centre and on the radio and TV ... together with all the advertisements for Christmas and New Year Sales!     It's to be expected in this secular and Christian country at this time of year.

But Iain would shake his head in dismay at the breakfast and lunch table (when the radio is on), - not only at the endless Carols but - especially when his wife breaks into a song with each ( or most) of  the Carols.
I could warble for him Good King Wenceslas, Silent Night Holy Night, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, Away in a Manger, The first Noel, God Bless ye Merry Gentlemen etc, etc.

He asked, "Where did you learn all that?  I don't even know the lyrics to most of those carols."  He shuddered when I replied, "In Pasir Panjang  Primary School during Music Periods!  We also learned them on our Recorder ( somewhat like a flute). "

For good measure I elucidated on the nature of my Music Education in Secondary School.  Other than the usual repertoire of traditional English songs like The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies, The Grand Old Duke of York, I Vow to Thee My Country and God Save the King and God Save the Queen, (when the King died in 1953), we had a jolly old time raucously singing Christmas Carols.  But we were not happy when Miss Scharenguivel our music teacher threw in  a couple of Gospel songs -  too sombre and dirge-like for us red blooded teenagers.

I revel in seeing the spouse's look of disgust when I 'entertain'  him with :

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
Nobody knows but Jesus.
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.  Glory Hallelujah.

I  like to sing this when I'm doing my housework chores - giving him a nudge, nudge, wink, wink at the same time.

A few days ago I looked up this particular Gospel Song on YouTube.  Paul Robeson,  Sam Cooke and Louis Armstrong sang the second line as "Nobody knows my sorrow"and not "Nobody knows but Jesus" as we were taught by Miss Scharenguivel.  I reckon they had to water down the Jesus factor for public consumption.  But oh boy, we learned the genuine article!  All part of the British (secular?)  Colonial Education.

Was I deracinated by this English language Colonial Education?  I don't think so.  Thanks to my English educated father and my  unschooled mother.  It's ironic that the younger generation of Malay-Muslims in Singapore and Malaysia are more anglicised/americanised despite their uncolonial education.  They are being colonised by the seductive onslaught of western music, culture, food and fashion and the imported media.  When, years ago, I saw this copy-cat   popular art -caption :

......  I  cringed.  Enough's said.

Here's another Gospel song I was taught in school.

All night, all day, angels watching over me my Lord
All night, all day, angels watching over me.

As angels seem to abound at this time of year, - other than night and day - why not listen to the Dawn?




One  thing my education taught me.  Search and discover and learn.

The Romance of History (CsH)

I hated History.  When you were in the Arts Stream, history was a must to make up the 8 subjects required for the Cambridge School Certificate and the 4 subjects for the Higher School Certificate.

This Examination Time Table shows the nature of the History Papers for the School Certificate. very telling of the times.  They were History of the British Empire and Commonwealth and History for Candidates in Malaya.

Earlier Primary School history was mainly made up of the history of English Kings and Queens and the achievers in the British Empire.   I recall how my my history and geography lessons throughout Primary and  Secondary School referred to the Peninsula -  what is now  West Malaysia -  as Malaya.

 It was in fact a term manufactured by the British to 'create' an image of  a single political entity of the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and the Unfederated Malay States.  Malaya not only referred to the indigenous Malays but also the non-Malay immigrants.  In this way the British did not have to account for the  nefarious (or otherwise) tactics and subterfuge they employed to take over the Peninsula and its resources - in the guise of bringing peace and prosperity to the country.  The 'treaties' they made with the Malay Rulers in their bid to expand their political control became mere details in this larger picture of developing Malaya for the 'benefit' of all.  Also their cynical policy of promoting the entry of millions (from China and India) of what in today's terms would be described as 'foreign workers' to 'develop' and enhance the Imperial coffers would be rationalised and  legitimised.

If the climate had been agreeable to them as in Zimbabwe (the old Southern Rhodesia named after the arch-Imperialist Cecil Rhodes) they might have set up permanent settlements in all the choice spots on the hills, in the most fertile areas or by the seaside and renamed the Malay Peninsula Rafflesia  or  Edwardia!

I have spent all week reading and digging into versions of the History of 'Malaya' from the 1920s to post-World War Two.  What a minefield it was. 

The earlier narrators were mostly British and Australians; more recently they have included a number of non-Malays, some Malays, more Australians and now the addition of some colourful Malay fashionistas  (most  of them, it seems, emanating from institutions in Singapore).  With copious footnotes and citations and reference lists, they excel in presenting a linear history of pre-War and post-War British 'possessions' in the region.  Instead of Kings and Queens  it was all about Sultans ( emasculated and compromised - my description), Residents and Governors and High Commisioners.  There were the European Captains of Industry and Agriculture and Merchant Houses and their immigrant counterparts and the tale of how these were the people who made Malaya then and Malaysia what it is today. 

They hold the view that  'the Malays might have lived in it (the Peninsula) longer, but no one had done as much to develop it as the Chinese'.  This point however, has to be considered.  Although "the vast majority (the Chinese) arrived as labourers, many soon found in the stability and order of  Malaya opportunities for demonstrating their entrepreunerial talents.  Becoming the largest element first in the urban centres and then in the country as a whole,they came to dominate the retail and commercial life of Malaya".  There were no barriers, no competitors , no hazards - success was almost handed on a plate.

As for the natives,  left on their own, the Malays would have remained backward serfs - a sweet but sorry looking lot of  Mats and Minahs who would happily dive into the sea for coins thrown into the water by the wealthy and civilized Others.  The context of Malay culture, political suzerainty, economic activity and  sustenance -  the existence of  Malay peasants and fishermen, small Malay craftwork and industry as well as regional and localised forms of political organisations were marginalised and ignored.  It seemed that the  Malays contributed almost nothing except to allow all and sundry to exploit and profit from the resources in  their homeland while they remained protected  and 'nurtured on subsistence-level' paternalism. Keep them quiet and sedated - that was the ploy.

Words like immigrants, bandits, terrorists, Emergency, communists, nationalists, freedom fighters and liberators  pepper the texts.  The 'left-wing intelligentsia' have done a good job in questioning the choice of words used by the British to describe the post-war insurrection by the Communist Party of Malaysia. Terms like 'bandits' to describe the Communists were later discarded because they give the connotation of MCP guerillas as being 'small fry' like pesky flies that can be easily swatted and worse, that could make them seem almost semi- heroic, like the Robin Hoods of Malaya. Certainly the ambitions of the MCP were stronger than that.

Now the word 'Emergency" was regarded as a typical British understatement of a critical situation.  It's a nifty word because it promises only a temporary hiccup. It also enabled  the owners of the plantations and tin-mines  to claim insurance  for their temporary losses.

But, most of all, this word 'immigrant' fascinates me. Here are its various meanings.

1. a person who comes to a country where they were not born to settle there.
2. one who comes to a foreign country to live there permanently.
3. someone who leaves one country to settle permanently in another and
4. a plant or animal that establishes itself in an area where it previously did not exist.

But the term 'immigrant', as used in texts concerning the history of Malaysia from the 1920s, is a misnomer.

In the first place, the large scale movement of Chinese (and Indians) into Malaya and Singapore was orchestrated  by the imperialists' hunger for cheap labour to work the tin mines and plantations, to construct the buildings, roads, railways and ports, to clear the jungles and later to be the clerks and petty bureaucrats (after a good dose of education in schools run by missionaries) and more importantly to play the role of middlemen traders and conveyancers of lucrative exports (especially) and imports with the cosmopolitan hub, to lubricate the wheels of imperialism.

Secondly they came as transients.  They did not come to settle permanently and  were not, for the most part, immigrants. They were foreign workers allowed entry and permit to make a living and for some fortunate ones, a fortune, by the British Colonial Rulers.  They were sojourners - making a temporary stay in a foreign country amongst people who were not of their culture.  They came to escape  poverty and unrest in their own country.  To 'balek Tongsua ' was a common attribute of the Chinese attitude when I was growing up in the Fifties.

Throughout the 1920s to the 1950s, and even after Independence, the Chinese ( except for some of the Peranakan) did not regard these British outposts as home.  China was their Motherland.  Up to 1948, the 2 million Chinese, many second generation born in Malaya gave their loyalty to their family, their clan and to China. The land of the Malai Kwai  (Malay devil) had no significance for them except as the goose that laid the golden egg.  Furthermore, China allowed them Dual Nationality enabling them to eat their cake and keep it as well.

The concept of "Dimana bumi di pijak, disitu langit di junjung" remained primarily a Malay folly.

Given such a background, it would be very glib to suggest that racially based politics began with the Alliance of UMNO, MCA and the MIC as of the 1957 Independence.  One could safely claim that it started between the 1920s and 1950s when the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party competed for finance and support from Chinese coolies and taukehs and nationalists in Singapore, Penang and Malaya.

Among the notable personalities of this period was Sun  Yat Sen, memorialised as the Father of modern China in the Sun Yat Sen Museum at 65, Macalister Road, Penang and in the previously named Nanyang University at Wan Qing Yuan which 'has been preserved and renamed the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, and gazetted as a national monument of Singapore on October 28, 1994'.

Another notable personality is Lim Chin Peng.  Now there's a cry and a campaign to remember him as a kind of Father of Modern Malaya.

And this will be the subject of my next post.

Tasha's Day - 16 September 2011

Merdeka and Malaysia Day Celebration - Two Happy Participants,  Tasha (right) and friend.

My Dear Tasha,

Your mama asked me to look out for you on TV on Friday 16 September.  But there were so many happy looking Malaysian schoolkids hopping about, I just could not make you out.  It was ONE big mass of kids enjoying themselves that day, that Merdeka and Malaysia Day.

So I wrote to your mama asking  how you fared that day.  This was her answer.

My dear Mak Ngah,

Am glad that she is having fun during her school days.  Am not really sure that she understands the meaning of Merdeka in the sense that we want her to.  But I'm pretty sure she understands the meaning of hardship, sacrifice and teamwork  in preparing for that big day.  She now knows that nothing comes easy.  Their training started on the 3rd week of Ramadhan and most of the time she carried on with school in the afternoon.

One day, Tasha, you will understand  the significance of Merdeka and why you did what you did on 16 September 2011.

When tok ngah was just a little older than you ( that would be during the dinosaur period, in your eyes!), our school, Crescent Girls' School was selected to take part in a Mass Drill to celebrate Singapore's National Day in 1959.

We were taken by bus to  Jalan Besar Stadium for practice.  We all had to wear white shirts and white shorts.  I must say we girls had a lot of fun during practice and rehearsals.  But tok ngah also recalled  the many quarrels we had with the boys from Victoria School.  The booing and the yellings did not stop until we got back on the bus.

But these words I shall never forget.  EEK, ERR, SAN, SER, - OOK, LIU, CHIK, PARK,  meaning one, two, three, four - five, six, seven, eight.  The Mass Drill Instructor stood on a raised platform and taught us the various motions of the drill in Mandarin!!  We were stunned when we first heard this. Why Mandarin?  But ours is not to ask why.  And the rhythm of numbers 1 to 8 in Mandarin would echo in the school canteen and classroom whenever we felt like it.

On 3 June 1959 Singapore was given self-governing status,  Sir William Goode became the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara ( not  Governor as before) and Mr Lee Kuan Yew was the first Prime Minister.  During the  general election of 1959 to elect 51 Representatives for the first fully elected Legislative Assembly, Mr Lee's PAP  won 43 seats.  Mr Lee's PAP won the majority in a coalition with the Communists to get rid of the British colonialists  (tok Iain's people).

The last sentence in the above paragraph partly explained our query.  Chinese schools and Chinese schoolboys were very active in the Communist movement then and Mass performances like  Mass Drill were part of their  'extra-curricular' activities.

However this partnership was short-lived when Barisan Sosialis was formed in 1961.  It was also in this year (a coincidence?) when talks began about a merger of Singapore with the Federation of  Malaya,  as part of Malaysia.

On 16 September (recognise the date?) 1963,  Malaysia , made up of the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak, was formed.

Then on 9 August 1965, Singapore was separated from Malaysia and became an independent nation.

Not long after that, the PAP Singapore Government slowly but surely dismantled  the Chinese language schools, as well as the  Malay and Tamil language schools  to create a one-system multi-racial school based on English.  However, even the mighty PAP Government could not ignore the  voice (or demands?) of the 70+% Chinese majority.  It was not just EEK,  ERR, SAN, SER, OOK, LIU, CHIK, PARK.

In the 1980s ( I can't be precise here), we woke up to this.

What do you do?  If you're Malay or Indian or Eurasian ?

Then the Emperor put on another set of clothes - sometime about 5-6 years ago?

Above is the image of another new concept for Singapore :  EASTERN ROOTS,  WESTERN WINDS.

My dear Tasha, you must be wondering what on earth is tok ngah rabbitting about?

I shall quote what your mama wrote.  "Am not really sure she understands the meaning of Merdeka in the sense that we want her to."

When you grow up - really, really grow up - your world and well-being will depend on how you relate  Merdeka with responsibility and hard work for all Malaysians. The study of History, untainted and factual will be as essential as Accountancy and IT. To chart your future, you have to know the past.

The issues of race and language have always blighted Malaysia's polity and  will always be manipulated  by opportunists and troublemakers in this country - maybe, but hopefully not, until you reach my age!

 Tasha's Day on 16 September 2011 should be the way for every day in Malaysia and not just for Merdeka and Malaysia Day.

Salam and Loads of Love,
tok ngah.

Prelude to 'The Fire of Love' (CsH)

It's April, me duck!  It's that time of year when romance and love and weddings, though not necessarily in that order, fill the air.  Everybody loves a wedding, nobody can resist a romantic story.

This is my contribution to complement the hype of the Royal Wedding.  It's an old story of an old couple but if you brush away the dust of  past years, it can be quite enthralling -  like watching a kettle boil.  Here goes!

Once upon a time, in the era of   "zaman nought belum"  (that's how my nephew Mahzan would describe it) there was this boy-twit  from Paekakariki, New Zealand ........  


The boy-twit in 1960

.......and this nerdy girl from Pasir Panjang, Singapore.


My dear ole mum was so pleased to see her tomboy daughter dressed up like a real girl.  But it didn't last very long.

 They were as different as chalk and cheese.  But, if I may say so, she had more brains between her ears (it comes naturally with us girls)  and  her sporting prowess was unbelievable.

Just compare their School Report Cards .......



HIS - Total is 80.2 %



HERS - Total 90.5 %

Furthermore, she loves the outdoor life, being one of the early pioneers of the Marathon  from Shenton Way to West Point, Pasir Panjang.



She's the one in front with her best left leg forward

As far as I know he spent most of his youth fishing in the Bay of Plenty, North Island with his mates.  I was often persuaded to ooh and aah at the big scar on his big toe.  It was almost chopped off because of a misdirected axe - he still has a poor sense of direction!  His other achievement was when he won the  rock 'n' roll competition in his little village.  His partner was his sister Jane.  No other girl wanted to dance with him.  His prize - a carton of cigarettes.

Kate Middleton finally met her Prince Charming.  As for these two,  they pursued their very different callings but  somehow landed with each other as of the 1980s.

There was no grand wedding, no exchange of goats and cattle (as dowry), no gold and diamond jewellery.  It was just a simple nikah at Masjid Jurong followed by doa selamat with the family and within 6 hours he whisked her off in the big Silver Bird to his home in Leicester.

It was , and still is a junk marriage - collecting junk I mean - and a love of travelling kept them on their toes.  Because of his Scots ancestry, travel was never a three-star affair - it was rucksacks and budget hotels all the way.  I love it too, living and travelling dangerously!

They lived a modest life like the Stone Age hunters and gatherers.  He hunted for books and old garden tools. She gathered old embroidery , old postcards, old Geography textbooks, old cutlery as well as sampler materials for her patchwork, gramaphones etc etc.  Her junk took up almost two-thirds of their living space and he had to make do with less.  But despite this unequal sharing of territory their eccentricities kept them together .......

Some husbands buy their wives expensive material gifts but I have no desire or use for such fripperies.    Instead I receive brilliant offerings in the shape of  this magnum opus ........

Such is his devotion - and all because she gives him such adulation and such care.... like this conferment of his status in our house.

Before "Fatimah's Kampung" there were other stories, one of which I have posted on September 24 2009.

This year we celebrate our Silver Anniversary and I shall launch another mini opus by the spouse ........

This is just the "gazek" .... like we used to say in the old days before they screen the big movie in the cinema.

The rest is yet to come.  Barbara Cartland, eat your heart out!

Undomesticated Dropout (CsH)

A Report Book like this has been the bane of my life.Note the way my name is recorded, - Hamid, Maznor bte.

[My father's name became the surname. When I came to England to study, the bank and the University indicated my name in exactly the same manner. They have problems with foreigners who have no surnames or family names. In fact they describe your name as a 'Christian' name! Also,as a Muslim you never tag on your husband's name - you keep your birth name and your status as your father's daughter.]

I enjoyed my time at Crescent Girls' School. I made many great friends and had a lot of fun during those years. In an all-girls' school you can be as uninhibited, as sloppy and mischievous as you like. You don't have to behave like a Miss Goody Two-Shoes. There's no need to look pretty and demure because there are no boys around to impress. Anyway it is not easy to look sweet when you're spotty. But who cares as we're all of the same ilk!!

We were introduced to a new subject - Domestic Science - when we started secondary school. It was merely old wine in a new bottle - which is actually just plain Sewing and Cooking.
During our first Cookery lesson we had to learn to make a hot beverage like tea and coffee. We were warned that if we spilled even a drop of milk (condensed) while doing this, we had to lick it off the table. Some of us did. Luckily I was saved that humiliation.

Next we had to light the oven to bake our first rock bun. Very, very few of us had even seen an oven, much less to use one. We were so scared of this D.S. teacher from Hell to the point where, in trying to co-ordinate the oven control and lighting the oven we burnt the fringe of our hair. I was one of them. I still remember the acrid smell of burning hair. This time we were not punished because Miss Tyrant feared the repercussion if we complained to our parents.

One day, Molly Quek, the lovable tomboy in our class who lived at 6 MS (milestone) Pasir Panjang Road, devised a plan to puncture 2 of Miss Evil's tyres. We lent her our blessings and connivance. After school was over, we watched with glee as Miss Nasty spluttered and screamed with anger when she discovered the state of her tyres. Aaaah, that was sweet revenge.
They could not find the culprits - not a peep from anybody. Anyway, by today, we are protected by the Statute of Limitation and I shall never squeal on my comrades and neither will Molly. By the way our tomboy was the first one to get married when we finished secondary school. I bet she is now surrounded by 4-5 grown-up children and 20 grandchildren.
Hip, hip, hurray for Molly Quek.!!!

The upshot of this tale was - I got thrown out of Domestic Science classes. I remained happily undomesticated and slightly wild. I was so happy to be a dropout that I shall now publicise my miscreant credentials.
Hip, hip, hurray for Maznoor Hamid!!!


It was tough trying to explain the two red marks to Abah but he was not a tyrannical dad. I managed to convince him that I was 'promoted' and not 'transferred' and that was not bad, despite the colourful bits in my Report Card. As for the Form Mistress's Reports, I got hell!

This is the photograph of the school leavers of 1961. Molly and AsH are in there somewhere.

Cooking to me is more of an art, not really a domestic science. That is why men have cornered the market for haute cuisine. With time I learned to love cooking. My only concession to it being a science is because I like experimenting with new recipes. I was told by the spouse that the first chapati I made could be used as a tool for wall-demolition.