Refreshing [Friday My Town Shoot Out Link-Up]
What refreshes you during summer? What makes the heat go away. Share with us!
Monday, August 10, 2015
Friday, August 7, 2015
Happy Birthday Singapore. 50 years old.
These Chinese structures are icons in Singapore. For a long time, Malaysians were not allowed to visit China. Coming to these Yunnan Garden served to kill two birds with one stone. They were in the university they funded, and they got a feel of China. I felt the same too, as I am 4th generations removed from China, and this is the closest I been to China.
NTU, Nanyang Technological University was originally privately raised by the Chinese people of South East Asia, including my grand parents. When I was growing up in Borneo, my grand parents and parents donated to build the Chinese University outside China. I was told that many of our Chinese ancestors owned a brick. We teased our grand dad if they gave him a number and the coordinates of his brick.
The Nanyang university of Singapore transitioned from a Chinese University to an ultra modern one funded by the Government.
When the Water Engineer went to teach in the University in 1990, it became NTI and then NTU, a fully fledged university and he became an associate professor. To date, of all the children in the Chan clan, only my daughter D attended the university.
In 1990, just before the birthday, I arrived in Singapore to live. I am thankful that I was able to live in comfort as a faculty wife. I spent sixteen of my adult years here, and the best thing is I made many friends from all over the world.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
ABC Wednesday: Letter D,
A lookalike Japanese hat.
Rōmusha (労務者) is a Japanese language word for "laborer", but has come to specifically denote forced laborers during the Japanese occupation
My
Dad was a 17 year old teenager when he was forced to work for the
Japanese during the war. He was a civilian worker accompanying the
Japanese to the villages to demand rice from them. While the work was
not physical, in hind sight, he realised what a dangerous job it was. He
could have been killed if the local villagers revolted and he was
caught in the cross fire.A year before the end of the war, Mum and Dad were forced to marry. Women were forcefully taken as comfort women, and men as Japanese conscript soldiers. In desperation, such demand led to many hurried marriages of convenience. Mum was only 15. They wed in March. In August, the bombs were dropped. Too late for Mum and Dad. They never had a proper wedding and she didn't have a wedding photo.
A uranium gun-type atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium implosion-type bomb (Fat Man) on the city of Nagasaki on August 9. Little Boy exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city (wiki)
Though the Japanese surrendered on 15th August, the War Crimes Trial of Japanese officers was held only in December 1945, in Labuan. None of my people went to testify against the Japanese.
http://abcwednesday-mrsnesbitt.blogspot.co.nz/
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Yellow: Jackfruit
Jackfruit tree at the compound of the Malaysian Railway station in Paloh. In most places, I see the grower "saronging" or wrapping the fruit with a sack to prevent insects from attacking the fruits.
Another reason for "saronging" the fruit is to tell people that the tree is mine, not everyone's. It seems in the old days, especially if you grow your fruit tree on public land, everyone is allowed to harvest the fruit.
I do not eat this fruit. It has a very strong aroma and it makes me dizzy.
http://mondaymellowyellows.blogspot.com.au/
http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/
Monkeys and humans.
This is my niece Ruth. Recently, it was reported on National TV, that a monkey worked as a waiter in Japan.
Friends in West Malaysia are having trouble with monkeys raiding her kitchen. When I was living in Singapore, we had our fun when Monkeys came to our house. The management got animal catches and shot darts at the alpha male. The rest went away.
It is a sad case of humans encroaching the monkey habitat and they monkeys have no place to go.
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