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Articles Tagged ‘grandpa’s stories’

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"I don’t blame her"

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Driving across town with uncle, discussing the dismal state of Americans’ health (and agreeing that one of the major causes is diet, in particular the trans-fats and refined foods they readily consume….big discussion about palm oil and coconut oil ensues), discussing Malaysian politics (50 years one party has ruled here, although the recent elections saw the first five upsets ever!!!!), discussing economic ramifications of public transport systems (a country with a car manufacturing industry does not invest much in public transport), when suddenly uncle blurted out, “I don’t blame her you know. I can understand how she fell in love with him. He was  a damn handsome young man. Damn fine he was. I can understand, I don’t blame her at all. And look at him now. Still a gentleman.”

It can’t have been easy for a family to have their daughter-and-sister whisked away to the other side of the world by a near-stranger. Not easy at all.

We’ll have to get the stranger’s take on the situation too!

I understand

Posted in grandpa's stories, postcard: Malaysia, quote | 1 Comment »

Jurong – the Singapore posting

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Rob writing…

Today was another little trip back in time. The six older kids and I took the MRT with Grandpa Bear out to Jurong – in part to go and visit the Singapore Science Centre, and also to see where he was posted whilst in the air force – the RAF no less, old chap!

jurong

He was based there from ’54 through to ’57, and worked as a radio technician attached to the Changi transmitter station. Changi was the major radio centre for the Empire’s Far East reach, and Grandpa spent his time changing frequencies for the large transmitters and receivers used. Keep in mind that these were the days when you couldn’t just punch in a new frequency on a digital keypad – but had to manually remove large tuning coils and condensers to match the new frequency requested by the top brass at Changi, replace them with the correct components, then manually tune up the different stages of the radios.

We didn’t get to see the base or any part of the actual buildings  – but we did get a couple of stories about his time there. Stories about why he chose to be a three-year bonded recruit instead of two years (so he could choose to be posted to an exotic place….Singapore), and how “destiny” would have it that he would meet his future wife up in Penang while there on RnR (they only “courted” for two weeks before he proposed – love at first sight?!), and other tales like the private who slept in the bed next to Grandpa with his eyes wide open (the kids loved that one!)… and the story about the man who was ” a perfectly nice guy when he was either fully awake or fully asleep, but rather violent in the transition period!”. They used to wake him up for his shift by prodding him with the end of a broom handle! (the kids really were rolling about laughing now!)

So, another link to my heritage identified….

As for the Science Centre, I will let the pictures speak for themselves – suffice to say we SHOULD have spent the whole day there and MUST take togs next time so the kids can play in the interactive water park that is part of the Centre. You could easily spend a couple of days there – with so many really thoughtful varied displays that Grandpa and I had just as much fun with!

science museum
                                                                          K9 is the Queen of the Ice Cube.

J14: I liked that there were a lot of things to do and see. My favourite thing was the giant marble run that you powered with handles and levers.
L7: I liked the dinosaur at the entrance, because it made sounds and moved about.
M6: I enjoyed digging for bones.
J12: I’ll always remember hammering my finger between the big metal banging plate and the handle, although I still don’t know HOW it happened. Pity we’re not at home to be able to show off my swollen bruised finger!
K9: There was a drum that you had to bang and the vibrations would go through the air and if you had got it right they would hit a sheet of ribbons and the ribbons would move. One of my favourites was the computerised machine that showed what you might look like when you are old. We’ll all be shrivelled peas!

Posted in grandpa's stories, history, postcard: Singapore, quote | 2 Comments »

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