Lockdown in Singapore in 2020
Its the third day of the Circuit Breaker measures in Singapore for Singaporeans to stay home so as to contain the Covid-19.
As I shared with many of my friends, it is like a bad nightmare. Like watching a movie. However watching this movie you do not have the right to even switch it off because it goes on playing and playing. My walks to the beach, my rides to East Coast are all put on hold. How I wish we can turn back the clock again!
This blog is to share some great memories of myself when I was little. I remember when I was little maybe 7 years old, I had to feed my little sister who was four years younger. She doesn't like to eat. So to make things exciting, I had to shape cooked rice into a ball, add a sliver of fried fish and black sauce and feed it to her.
I lived in Siang Lim Park and near Queens Theatre, there was this coffee shop that sold the best Nasi Bryani in the whole world. But because money was scarce, we bought only fish curry. We would carry our own tingkat to this stall, and order fish curry for 60 cents. And just as he scooped the final curry gravy into our tingkat, I would quickly add "Mah, kuah lebeh sikit" and he would unwillingly, reluctantly and with a not so happy face add another dollop of fish curry gravy. Those were exciting days, We never felt poor, on the contrary we were happy and we never had needs or dreams about wanting to have plenty. My father would fry a slice of ikan tenggiri and we would share a piece each and eat it with rice and black sauce. Yes, that was life. No wonder I had skinny arms then.
My favourite dish was fish cutlet which my father would cook for us. Mashed potatoes and bits of boiled fish rolled up in a patty, covered with pound crackers and dipped in egg and fried. I still get my helper to make this dish using canned tuna.
We have two ladies who comes to our house to wash our clothes. One was Ah Sim and the other was her elder sister Boh Twah. They both shared the same husband. Ah Sim was the strong one. She was the pretty one with black long hair plaited and twirled in a bun. She would look at me, called out my name, "Ah Litah, ho boh?" and smiled showing off her gold teeth. I was so young then, and the thoughts in my mind was she smells a little, she is so strong and cheerful and yes, she really has a huge appetite. My grandmother and grandaunt would keep food and rice that were leftovers and she would sit on the floor and just ate and ate the leftover cold rice with the remaining dishes laid on a clean newspaper. The rice could be a day old, some were burnt a little, but she just ate. I would watch her i guess out of curiosity. During that time I never knew that was real poverty. Her sister would also carry buckets full of food that could not be consumed she would carry them and walked all the way to where she lived in Geylang to feed the pigs. That's real poverty. So what are we complaining about? Even when we are taking circuit breaking measures for a month, we still have food on the table.
There's this kacang puteh man who would carry his wares and walked around Siang Lim Park, crying out, "Lai la, lai la, kacang puteh lai la". We would rushed out and buy from him. He would whipped out his paper cones and with his bare hands, pour the kacang into the paper cones. My favourite was the peanuts encrusted with sugar. He had a round smiley face. I will end with the old cliche, "those were the days my friend" when things were simpler and happiness is not a diamond ring or a huge buffet meal. It was a simple smile of a kacang puteh man making a leaving by selling peanuts and a happy greeting from Ah Sim, a poor and hungry washerwoman with a set of gold teeth.
As I shared with many of my friends, it is like a bad nightmare. Like watching a movie. However watching this movie you do not have the right to even switch it off because it goes on playing and playing. My walks to the beach, my rides to East Coast are all put on hold. How I wish we can turn back the clock again!
This blog is to share some great memories of myself when I was little. I remember when I was little maybe 7 years old, I had to feed my little sister who was four years younger. She doesn't like to eat. So to make things exciting, I had to shape cooked rice into a ball, add a sliver of fried fish and black sauce and feed it to her.
I lived in Siang Lim Park and near Queens Theatre, there was this coffee shop that sold the best Nasi Bryani in the whole world. But because money was scarce, we bought only fish curry. We would carry our own tingkat to this stall, and order fish curry for 60 cents. And just as he scooped the final curry gravy into our tingkat, I would quickly add "Mah, kuah lebeh sikit" and he would unwillingly, reluctantly and with a not so happy face add another dollop of fish curry gravy. Those were exciting days, We never felt poor, on the contrary we were happy and we never had needs or dreams about wanting to have plenty. My father would fry a slice of ikan tenggiri and we would share a piece each and eat it with rice and black sauce. Yes, that was life. No wonder I had skinny arms then.
My favourite dish was fish cutlet which my father would cook for us. Mashed potatoes and bits of boiled fish rolled up in a patty, covered with pound crackers and dipped in egg and fried. I still get my helper to make this dish using canned tuna.
We have two ladies who comes to our house to wash our clothes. One was Ah Sim and the other was her elder sister Boh Twah. They both shared the same husband. Ah Sim was the strong one. She was the pretty one with black long hair plaited and twirled in a bun. She would look at me, called out my name, "Ah Litah, ho boh?" and smiled showing off her gold teeth. I was so young then, and the thoughts in my mind was she smells a little, she is so strong and cheerful and yes, she really has a huge appetite. My grandmother and grandaunt would keep food and rice that were leftovers and she would sit on the floor and just ate and ate the leftover cold rice with the remaining dishes laid on a clean newspaper. The rice could be a day old, some were burnt a little, but she just ate. I would watch her i guess out of curiosity. During that time I never knew that was real poverty. Her sister would also carry buckets full of food that could not be consumed she would carry them and walked all the way to where she lived in Geylang to feed the pigs. That's real poverty. So what are we complaining about? Even when we are taking circuit breaking measures for a month, we still have food on the table.
There's this kacang puteh man who would carry his wares and walked around Siang Lim Park, crying out, "Lai la, lai la, kacang puteh lai la". We would rushed out and buy from him. He would whipped out his paper cones and with his bare hands, pour the kacang into the paper cones. My favourite was the peanuts encrusted with sugar. He had a round smiley face. I will end with the old cliche, "those were the days my friend" when things were simpler and happiness is not a diamond ring or a huge buffet meal. It was a simple smile of a kacang puteh man making a leaving by selling peanuts and a happy greeting from Ah Sim, a poor and hungry washerwoman with a set of gold teeth.
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