Chit-chats

One thing that sticks in my mind about our home in Jalan Wijaya were the chit-chats running up and down the walls. They never bothered us and I used to like seeing them. They also came in very handy for polishing off the mozzies! People had various names for them including geckos, house lizards, cicaks or cecaks and chik-chaks but everyone that we knew just called them chit-chats. I think that their proper name was 'flat-tailed gecko'. I loved watching the chit-chats run up the side of the wall of our house. Once it was dark, they'd wait beside a light for any moths or flies and jump out and quickly eat the lot. The only predator they had were the small birds in the garden but they had a defence system. If a bird caught them by their tail, it would drop off so that the chit-chat could get away. They later re-grew it and were soon catching more flies, ants, moths and other bugs. When I said that their only predator was birds, I don't really remember there being many birds in our garden. You would imagine them all to be very exotic but the only birds I remember seeing were sparrows. The only time I can remember not being very happy about chit-chats is when one got in my bed and wriggled over my legs. I made my mum check the bed for weeks after that before I'd get in again! I mentioned it before but when we went to restaurants, particularly George's Steak House, ants would take away all the crumbs from your food and there would be a big long line of them travelling up the wall. Once they got near a picture frame, a chit-chat would dart out and eat the lot. It's probably against health and safety regulations in Singapore now to have ants and chit-chats running around everywhere but then it was just a way of life and never seemed to do us any harm.

Easter

I don't remember much about Easter in Singapore and Malaya. It probably wouldn't have been celebrated by the locals but it seemed that all schools in the 1960s had religion taught in some form or other. I loved listening to the Bible stories in the infants although to me, at the time, they would have been no different from any other storybook tale. Kebun teh Royal Naval School would have definitely been the first place I heard about Jesus and Easter, not that I was religious then and I'm still not now. Easter probably was celebrated at school in some way or other but I can't remember how. Harvest Festival was definitely celebrated, I think in September, and we were all asked to bring in food. I can't remember where it all ended up going though! Nativity and Christmas, of course, were celebrated but it's funny that I remember nothing about Easter at school. To me then, aged 5, it probably just meant a good story and then a spell off for holidays!Although there probably wasn't any Easter Eggs in Singapore (was there?), my gran used to send them over to us from Seaham in England. Of course, they would always come broken but I think that we probably thought that that was how they were meant to be and they all tasted the same anyway. I remember my gran sending over sherbet but I'd totally forgotten about the Easter Eggs until Alan reminded me recently.So, there you are, that's what Easter meant to a 5 year old - a good story, a holiday and a broken Easter Egg!

More adverts from the 1960s

Here's a few more adverts from Singapore and Malaya from the 1960s. The first one advertises all the goods you could get back then, tax free. We had a tape recorder, a transistor radio and my dad had a Philishave but I can't remember us ever having a record player until we came back to England. Of course, everything was a lot cheaper in Singapore than it was in Malaya but when you crossed the causeway, you were meant to pay duty on anything that you'd bought. I'm sure that this would have been avoided a lot of the time though!

The second advert is for the Orchard Store on Orchard Road. It looks like it used to stock all the toys a boy like me would have loved at the time. I don't remember it at all though. Does anyone else?

I think that Little's was near Robinsons at Raffles Place. Everything was marked in Malayan currency for some reason. They had a tourist office and 'cool arcades to enjoy the fascinating display of goods from all over the world.' It was certainly a place to go in and escape from the humidity of the city especially for many English families who weren't used to the heat.

The next advert features a very 1960s traveller advertising Travel and Transportation Ltd who organised air and steamship travel. The man in the picture certainly has bought a lot for his money and looks happy to cart it all back home.

The last advert features the Cathay Hotel. Many people will remember the Cathay not just for its hotel and restaurant but also for its cinema. It was one of the tallest buildings in Singapore at the time and had views all over Singapore harbour. It also featured a shopping arcade, was air-conditioned and the rooms were advertised as having their own baths and telephones. Incidentally, I can't remember anyone having their own phone in Singapore and Malaya at the time. I've lots more old adverts like these and hope to feature a few more sometime in the near future.

I hope that these ones bring back a few memories.

My books about Singapore and Malaya in the 1960s

Many people reading this blog will have read my three books about life in Singapore and Malaya in the 1960s. However, for those of you who haven't read the books, I thought that I would write a bit about them here in case you wanted to seek them out.

The first book, 'Sampans, Banyans and Rambutans : A Childhood in Singapore and Malaya' features our life living there between 1965 and 1968. There are many family photos and chapters include our homes, amahs, Navy life, chit-chats, Bombay runners and mosquitoes, Tiger Balm Gardens, shopping and CK Tang's, toys, school, Naval Base parties, television, wildlife, the Sandycroft Leave Centre in Penang, banyans, Christmas and coming home.

The book was very popular and many people sent me their own memories and photos which seemed too interesting to discard

so I included them all in a new book called, 'Memories of Singapore and Malaya'. This book features chapters on leaving England, the journey, arriving, our new homes, around Singapore, the people, Tiger Balm Gardens, the Botanic Gardens, amahs and amah's markets, the Woodlands Naval Base and HMS Terror, RAF Tengah, banyans, school, Malaya, Johore Bahru, Johore zoo, Kota Tinggi waterfalls, Jason's Bay, around Malaya, Penang, Christmas and heading home.

Both books sold worldwide and soon I found that I was receiving letters and emails from people every day, who all had the same memories as myself. After a couple of years, I decided to compile all these new memories and photos into another book, 'More Memories of Singapore and Malaya'.

All of the books can be bought online bookstores such as Amazon. In the UK, they can be ordered through all major bookstores and in Singapore, they're available through Select Books.

I hope that you'll enjoy reading them and I hope that they'll bring back many happy memories.

Kebun teh Royal Naval School, Johore

Both Alan and me attended the Royal Naval School at Kebun teh. The school can't have been very far away but we always got the school bus in every morning. These two photos both feature Alan's class in about 1966 or 1967. The photos were taken by Mr Lee who used to take all of the photos of classes and other events. I don't really remember him but he had a photo

studio at Admiralty Road, West HM Naval Base, Singapore. Apparently, he's still around and has a vast archive of old photos of Singapore. If you were in Singapore at the time and had your photo taken, I've no doubt he's still got the negative. I don't remember too much about the school at Kebun teh other than what I've written before. The whole area is famous for one other event though and I would imagine that a lot of the pupils who

attended the school in the 1960s know nothing about it. On 4th December 1977,Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 was on route from Singapore to Penang when it was hijacked once it reached cruise altitude. The plane crashed at Tanjung Kupang killing all 93 passengers and 7 crew instantly. The mystery of the hijack has never been solved. It was the country's worst air disaster and the victims of the crash buried at Kebun teh where a memorial now stands. 

The road beside the crash site was named Jalan Kapal Terbang Terhempas (Air Crash Road), the only reminder that the tragedy occurred there. More recently, I was sent photos of Kebun teh School by Margaret Howells that show the school it is was two years ago. As in a lot of Johore, much has changed. The school looks closed off and there are many high rise buildings nearby. It's certainly changed over the years and it seems a very long time ago that Alan and me attended the school, learned how to read and write and drank chocolate flavoured milk!

The Cold Store

Reading James Seah's latest blog post on supermarket shopping (and the cold store) in the 1960s, reminded me of the cold store we used to visit in Singapore. Although we went there for our shopping, I think one of the main reasons for going inside was just to cool down from the heat and humidity outside! The cold stores were air conditioned and seemed at the time like the only place where you could cool down in those days. I don't remember any houses having air conditioning, ours certainly didn't.Another thing that Alan and me found fascinating about the cold store was that when you approached it (I think that the store was Fitzpatricks) the doors flew open to let you in. I'd only ever seen anything like this in Star Trek and usually, you'd have to open the doors yourself. Of course, nowadays, all supermarkets and stores have self-opening doors but, at the time, it seemed very space age!

Somewhere near the coldstore, was a shop that had the first escalator in Singapore. I can't remember what the shop was called but I remember going on it just before we came back to England in 1968. All these things are taken for granted now but were fascinating to small boys back in the 1960s. I remember we stayed in a hotel on the way back and the thing we enjoyed about it the most was going up and down in the lift! We were easily pleased.

Anyway, I don't really remember what we bought in the cold store, all I remember is the Star Trek technology and being able to get away from the heat of the sun (and the smell) of the Singapore streets!

Penang in the 1960s

Penang in the 1960s was very much like Singapore at the time, with plenty of market stalls, hawkers, tri-shaws and a large Forces presence. Here's some photos from that time which will perhaps bring back happy memories. The first photo shows the Magnolia Man delivering ice cream to a Forces family. There's something about the people in this photo that makes me think that they're British although there were also a lot of Australian families living in Penang at the time. I remember the tubs of Magnolia ice cream that we used to get from the van. It didn't taste much like the ice cream you get today and it had a sort of sweet, watery milky sort of flavour. It always melted as you ate it with the sun and humidity!

The second photo shows a market stall and I've a feeling that this photo was taken at the village of Ayer Itam. I remember going to the market there when we were on holiday at Sandycroft. I was about 5 at the time and the reason I remember the market is because my mum bought me a white monkey puppet! It's strange what stays in your mind. Most people stopped here before heading off to see the pagoda at the Ayer Itam Temple.

The third photo shows what appears to be a shoe repair stall. A mother is waiting with her small son. This photo must have been taken a bit later because I can see that 'The Exorcist' is being shown at the cinema in the background. It's funny that this film was banned all over the UK but was shown freely in Penang at the time!

The fourth photo shows a basket maker selling his wares, which includes all sorts of rattan work. There seemed to be someone, complete with all their goods, selling everything you could possibly want, up and down your street in those days. These included hot food sellers (remember the Satay man?), balloon men, gully gully men, fruit and vegetable sellers and even people selling live chickens. I hope to post more photos and memories of Penang here at a later date.