Here's a photo of me in our back garden at Jalan Wijaya in 1966. I'm sitting in front of my tree which, as I mentioned earlier, had just been a branch I'd found in the road and stuck in the garden. This photo probably wasn't taken too long after I'd planted it. It was to grow a lot bigger though and I'd climb it regularly and I think we even tried to build a tree house in it once.
From this picture, it's hard to imagine how fast it grew. I remember one year, that we had a hornet's nest in it and I can't quite remember how we got rid of it. There seemed to be a lot of biting and stinging insects around. This was by the back door and I'd regularly get bitten by large ants there, that's probably why I'm wearing flip-flops.
I don't look too happy in this photo. Perhaps my brother was off playing Samurai with other kids on the estate. The house behind me belonged to the Websters. It was Gordon Webster who sorted out our snake in the house (it ended up in the bin after being hit by a broom). They had three children - David, Judith and Carol. David was my age and we'd play together though it looks like everyone was out on this day!
Incidentally, when I revisited in 1990, it looked like the tree had been chopped down.
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