The Kaspersky Commonwealth Women's Antarctic Expedition

This year, the 52 member states of the Commonwealth with a total of nearly 2 billion people, will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding. The celebrations have already begun in Britain where Queen Elizabeth II is the nominal head of this organisation. On a smaller scale a British geologist and adventurer...Felicity Aston, age 31, has taken upon herself to initiate and organise an all women expedition to the South Pole. The team comprising members selected from more than 800 applicants worldwide finally settled on one woman from each of the following countries...Brunei, Cyprus, Ghana, India, Jamaica, New Zealand, Singapore and Britain.
.

The latest news I have as I'm typing this from the team's live website is that the selected rep from Ghana will not be able to make it as she is down with malaria and will not recover in time. In her place will be a substitute from UK.

Singapore's representative is none other than SOPHIA PANG selected from more than 80 local applicants.

This 36 year old mother of 3 kids, a freelance IT as well as fitness instructor has all the attributes to make such an arduous journey.

She is a resident of Aljunied GRC and had approached Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in PMO and MP for Serangoon Gardens to be her official patron. Thus on Thursday 29 October 2009, unk Dicko and other GROs were at Terminal 3 Changi Airport to bid her a "Bon Voyage" as she took the night SIA flight to London. From there, the team will proceed to Argentina before setting off for the Antartic on November 10.

Others who came to send her off included her special team of medical and physical trainers from the Changi Sports Medicine and Research Centre headed by Dr Ben Tan.
Photo:

Unk Dicko with Sophia and her 2 personal trainers. I had a chat with them about the kind of training she had undergone for such a challenge.

From the description given, I can tell you it is no joke...not for the ordinary man or woman.

Sophia has the physical and mental toughness to remain on top of this very tough 40 day ski-trek into the heart of the Antartic iceland.

Btw, Dr Ben Tan ( our Asian Games Gold medal winning sailor) was a former student from HCJC...around 84/85.

Many of you may not know how hard Sophia had to work at getting funding. The entire expedition was at one stage in danger of being dropped as no major sponsor could be found...that was not until Sophia herself managed to get a Singapore company Byteworks, a local distributor for Kaspersky Lab, a Russian computer security firm to agree to sponsor the entire team to the tune of US$500,000 ( S$711,201 ). It was an unbelievable achievement by itself!

Read the full story, with more details in the two accompanying links below.
Next post ...more pics!

http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20090916-168099.html

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_430020.html

Singaporean aiming for South Pole history!

Photo: map of the South Pole

There are 3 extreme points on our planet which have always beckoned to be conquered...the North Pole, the South Pole and Mt Everest - the highest mountain on earth. The geographical North Pole actually lies over a portion of frozen ocean ice that can shift. The South Pole lies about 93o km from the Ross Ice Shelf in the heart of Antartica itself.
All 3 extreme points have been first conquered by bold men who have since left their footprints in history.
Everest, earth's highest point was first scaled by SirEdmund Hillary(New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay(Nepal) on 29 May 1953.
The North Pole was by American Navy engineer Robert Peary, Matthew Henson and 4 Inuit men on 6 April 1909..although some disputed this, the event has mainly remained.
About two years later, the race to be the first to conquer the South Pole began with 2 different teams...one from Norway and the other from Britain that would result in fame for the history-making team and great tragedy for the other.
The polar expedition to the South Pole led by Roald Amundsen and 4 other fellow Norwegians reached their objective on 14 December 1911.
Photo: The Norway team and the flag they planted in 1911.

The British expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott managed to reach the South Pole...34 days after Amundsen. They were greatly disappointed to see the Norway flag and Amundsen's tent fluttering at the spot. While Amundsen and his team made it back safely to a hero's welcome, it was not to be for Captain Scott and his 4 other team members. They perished in the return leg, caught up by blizzards, extreme weariness, the bitter cold, lack of food and all their horses had died. Yes, they made the fatal mistake of using horses which were not suited to the extreme cold and conditions. Amundsen used polar dogs.
However, the irony remains that in their tragic South Pole trek, Robert Scott and his ill-fated team became even more famous and well-known than the survivors..to the world at large. Unk Dicko remembers reading that famous book ' Captain Scott's Last Expedition' from end to end several times.

Photo: Captain Scott and his men...

Oates, Wilson, Evans and Henry Bowers who took the picture. The tent belonged to Amundsen's team with the Norway flag fluttering.





Photo: Captain Scott and his team after planting the British flag.

Photo: The London Herald announced the death of Scott and his expedition members in February 1913.

The news of the tragedy was kept under wraps from the public for certain reasons in 1912.


In the years since then, many adventurers have landed at the south pole...including our very own from Singapore -intrepid Khoo Swee Chiow in 1999 and followed by Edwin Siew and Robert Goh in 2000.

The Antartica is no ordinary adventure playground!

It requires a tremendous amount of preparation, skill

and funding to launch an expedition to the pole.

So...WHO is this latest SINGAPOREAN aiming to be the first Singaporean (-----) to reach one of the three ultimate geographical spots on earth?

To find out ,don't miss my next blogpost with many photos of this most truly inspiring and remarkable adventurer newbie! First person report and pics by Unk Dicko.

Siang Lim Park - 1950's to 1970's, part 4

30 At the junction of Lorong 40 and Geylang Road were 2 coffee shops, one on the left and on the right. Ref # 30 was one of the most famous coffeeshops
in the whole of Geylang. Why? What was the main attraction back then?
Probably the best “hor fun” or “ yi mee” or “chow fun” on our island.Thaaat…GOOD? Ask any old-timer about this famous cook nick-named “ malai kai “....whose hor fun would be the standard used as a measure against
all other similar fare down through the years.
In all my years of eating this dish everywhere, no one has come close to the original “malai kai” version.
I will do a separate post about him and his food. His customers come from all over, many in big cars of old.

31 The other coffeeshop on the left. It had a few stalls but could not pull in the crowds without a magnet like “malai kai”. But during the night, there was a tricycle stall that was a permanent feature parked by the side of this coffeeshop. Gentle apek and his equally gentle son, sold all sorts of cut fruits and their most popular drink...a homemade "buah lai" mixture turned into a drink. It was unlike any of today's canned drinks...which I would not rate highly. D2 and I would give apek's buah lai drink a 9/10 rating. No one knew his secret concoction, saved himself.

32 This was the coffeeshop along Lor 44 and Geylang Road, in front of Queen’s
Theatre. It was quite famous in Geylang for 2 stalls…the Indian prata and
nasi briyani and the more well-known “Mee Rebus”. On Sundays, there were
queues and the place was packed. You can see part of this coffeeshop in the 1956 photo below
on the left of the picture.

33 The site of Queen’s Theatre. When a popular movie was showing, the "black market"syndicate got into action. They would get their members to queue for tickets.These boys and young men were recruited to re-sell the cinema tickets to patrons...at a higher price than listed. It was easy money for these black marketeers as we used to call them. The situation was quite fluid with not one but a few syndicates muscling in on this lucrative but illegal business.
But genuine cinema goers were livid and always at their mercy, pricewise!
Most times they made money. Some days they lost when they held many tickets that were unsold.

34 Right portion of Siang Lim Park had a quandrangular field that was never maintained
at all. So weeds and at times lallang grew. But there were some concrete
benches for folks to relax in. For football, our kampong folks played it daily
at Ref# 35, the Lor 40 field.

35 This was the field bounded by Lor 40, Lor 38 ( dead end towards the River ) and the river itself. It was the home territory of all living around there. On most evenings, our kampong boys and youths will be playing their favourite game….soccer. Once in a while, the ball sailed over and into the smelly river and whoever kicked it had to go retrieve the ball. Most times, the bulrushes and lallang helped to trap the runaway ball. There were swings and see-saws for the younger children. As kids, many of us made our own camps and hideouts among the thick bushes and wild trees that adorned the sides of that gentle-flowing river. Smelly or not, it was “our” river…a favourite place for catching fishes, ( guppies, tiger barbs, ikan sepat ) tortoises, monitor lizards.

36 Home of Henry, another of my childhood friends. He was a true blue
Peranakan who spoke Hokkien, English and pasar malay.

37 Home of Mr Neo Yam Koon, my Primary 4 form teacher from GES.

The photos below were sent to me by Peter my online blogger kawan.
Thanks Peter!
This is the Queens Theatre as it was in 1956 and today, 2009.
There was a Muslim cemetery behind the theatre stretching along the river past Lor 42. As kids, after watching a malay movie like Pontianak, Orang Minyak or Hantu Jelangkong together with my kampong friends, we would deliberately walk home by the cemetery way (the backlane behind the shophouses ) knowing full well it gave us the creeps...especially after such haunted movies. Then we promised ourselves no one was to run. When someone shouted "HANTU!" ...everyone ran for dear life, promise or no promise! Haha!
What fun we had in our childhood.
Sometimes, I do wonder where all my childhood kampong friends are today.
It would be wonderful if I could track them down and relive
our childhood days again over some good music, food and drinks.

Gunfight at Siang Lim Park...August 1965

The famous gunfight at Siang Lim Park took place on Thurday 5 August 1965. Those interested in the full details of that unforgettable episode can access the Straits Times report of 6 August 1965 under the heading, " The Bravest Act of all in Siang Lim Park " and an accompanying article titled " Inspector and thug die and 4 houses gutted ". The archived reports are only available at certain libraries including the National Library. They are not accessible online.
For Unk Dicko's story, join me as I try to recall what I saw and experienced that fateful day in Siang Lim Park's history.

Eyewitness account...Unk Dicko
In mid July 1965, I went to work for the first time in my life as a Public Health Inspector. Training for the exciting and challenging job began immediately after I reported to the Ministry of Health Hqrs in Palmer Road. Some days we had a few hours of lectures at No: 2 College Road Training Centre, followed by attachment training at Havelock Road Cleansing Depot. Much, much later, I went through the whole gamut of attachments at various Govt agencies.
On 4 August 1965, in the pre-dawn hours I was on an observation field attachment. I had left home in the middle of night. Those days, I had 4 means of transport to and from work. If it was nearby, I could use my old Raleigh bicycle. If in the city or further away, I took the bus or taxi.
Sometimes I got a lift from one or two senior Health Inspectors living in Geylang.

That morning of 5 August, my training was over for the day. As I crossed Geylang Road over to Lorong 40 side, the junction was guarded by fully armed policeman and Gurkhas. They stopped me from going into my own Lorong without saying why. It was still dark. The sun wasn't up yet.
It was between 6 and 6.30 am. I told the officers I live at 94 Siang Lim Park and produced my
NRIC as proof. After a short while and some consultation, they let me through telling me to go straight home and not wander about. I asked what was all the fuss about as there was a sizeable number of policemen present. I had the right to ask as my family was living there. That was first time I learnt they were conducting a dangerous operation. I had no idea against whom or the number of criminals involved. But I knew roughly where as they told me to avoid the left side as I walked slowly home.
On reaching home, I found some of my family members were already awake. I asked my late mother if she was aware of the situation "outside". She told me that "something is happening at
Bibik's side but wasn't sure what". I decided to check things out for myself.
Changing into some comfortable home clothes, I went out through our backdoor which led to our backlane. There were no policemen around. They were mostly scattered and positioned at the other side ( Today the Waterina side ). The furthest I could proceed was near the house along our same row with the huge Jambu Ayer tree. That junction was blocked off by officers.

A number of my fellow kampongers were just like me eager and dying to find out what was developing. I went to a friend's house opposite the corner house and there watched the proceedings. Unknown to me earlier, the police had received a tip-off that the most wanted gunman Morgan Teo aka Morgan the Kidnapper was holed up in a house near Ref#29 on map,
together with some of his henchmen. They responded quickly by surrounding the identified unit while quietly informing nearby affected houses to evacuate. It was fortunate they did that as the subsequent firefight showed.
When the area was secured, the police ambush party identified themselves and asked the occupants within to surrender and come outside. No response after repeated calls. Orders were issued to fire tear gas canisters inside. Sounds of explosions could be heard, followed by smoke.
At least 2 of his henchmen, overcomed by the choking gas, ran out to surrender. But there was still no sign of Morgan the terror.
Inspector Allan Lim Kim Sai, from the CID, then acted. Drawing his gun, he approached the front door. Just as he was stepping forward, a single shot rang out from within. Morgan Teo had fired and the bullet hit the Inspector on his head. All the other officers backed off when 2 grenades were thrown by the elusive gunman. Two policemen were injured by the blasts.
Amidst the confusion and mayhem of the fatal shooting of Insp Allan Lim, Morgan Teo managed to elude capture by climbing through the roofs of the neighbouring houses...until the last house. 

He was still at the ceiling and refused to surrender.

The Police teams then decided to end the stalemate by surrounding that last house and attacked from

the front door and rear door aiming at the ceiling..using guns, smoke grenades.

The house soon caught fire and was burning.

All firing stopped.

It took some time before it was ascertained that there were no other gunmen left in the by then burning house ( fire was put out later by firemen ).

Officers went into the house and found the burnt body of Morgan on the floor.

 He had a gold necklace with his name engraved on it on his neck.

The whole area was swarming with police and CID officers.

 An ambulance took the injured to hospital but the brave Inspector could not be saved. 

He was only 28 when he died.
Days later, we took a closer look at the scene of the famous gunfight. 

The roof of that house was damaged and part of the interior gutted.

More about Morgan Teo the most wanted gunman and kidnapper soon.

Find out in the next post.

Siang Lim Park - 1950's to 1970's part 3.

22. The house of a leading Malay musician. He had 3 sons. The youngest Ahmad, was a close childhood friend of mine. The 2nd son was Dahlan.

23. This corner terrace was the home of an Indian Muslim family. The two sons Salim and Mat were family friends. Salim was one of the naughtiest kids living there. He often got into all sorts of trouble and
disappeared from the scene. His older brother Mat was just like “baba” Ref#15 and we treated him almost like a family member. Baba and Mat ( nicknamed Tikus) used to play mahjong with my parents and other family members, myself included. They learnt how to
play really well from the two old masters. As they played, they spoke in either Pasar Malay or in Cantonese! That’s how to learn a language…through a game situation or commom pastime.
24. This house facing Guillemard Road was the home of my dear friend and one of the most colourful characters that lived in Siang Lim Park. His name Charlie Tan Boon Seng..the late. I have blogged a little about him in my post titled” One day when we were younger”. Read the post HERE. This larger than life figure deserves a major blogpost dedicated to his memory. He led an exciting life. Whenever our kampong people saw him approaching they would whisper..." Tua kow lai liao ! Tua kow lai liao! " Why did they refer to him as "Tua kow" ( big dog - hokkien connotation for someone holding an important, senior post or a person with powerful authority )? Was it his 2 meter height and size or was there more than meets the eye? Find out in my special post about this special man. He had a younger brother Ben who was also a teacher like him. I knew Ben too.

25. The house where some supposedly “ bapoks” lived. One was called " Jeffrey ". 

26. House of another kampong friend Milan Loh. Milan, in modern times, rose to be President of the S'pore Tae Kwon Do Federation. The Adviser for the TKD federation is my good friend Dr Lau Teik Soon, former S’goon Gardens MP.
27. Have you heard of a politician named Mak Pak Shee in the 50’s and early 60's? This was where he used to live. In the 1955 General Elections, he won the Geylang seat under the Labour Front (LF) led by David Marshal. The PAP only contested 4 seats winning 3. LF went on to form the Government with David Marshal becoming the 1st Chief Minister of Singapore. Mak Pak Shee was appointed Asst Minister for Labour and Social Welfare. I was aquainted with his sons Kok Weng and Kok Kay.

28. In our kampong, many of the families knew my mother well. Perhaps, because of our strategic location, housewives and grandmas on their daily walk to the nearby makeshift “market” ( Ref “M” ), would stop by to chat or gossip with my mum. She had many friends. One of them lived here…the house of a genuine Bibik who spoke Cantonese and Baba Malay. Bibik’s son was Kok Poh, a studious boy who was not allowed to mix with other kampong kids. There were other kids in similar straits too. Bibik was a very good “See-sek” and mahjong player and she, as well as a few others, were regular visitors to our home. I will remember her fondly as she always had good words and a soft spot for unk Dicko…from when I was a kiddo!

29. This is the “Big “ one! See the red star on the map? It was along this row of houses that the biggest Gunfight in Siang Lim Park history erupted on Thursday, 5 August 1965. Did you notice the date?

It was only 4 days after this major incident that Singapore separated from Malaysia ...on Monday, 9th August 1965! What a momentous and unforgettable week that was.

Anyway, what really happened on that fateful day of August 5 1965?

The full report was in the Straits Times papers the day after ie..6 August. I have been searching among my original archives but have not found the clips yet. Certainly some of my files could have been misplaced or lost over the years or even inadvertently sold to karang guni men by family members or by my previous maids. My home has undergone major renovation several times. I can't blame any of them if they had done that as the old papers were not labelled or organised properly at that time. 1965 to today 2009 is a 45 year timespan and most people would have thrown out such "junk" anyway! Fortunately...not me ! Otherwise readers will not be able to enjoy the ' tons' of interesting and captivating articles and pictures I have lovingly saved. Another resource I have are my personal diaries from those early years.For a personal eye-witness account of that day...check out my next post tomorrow.

Siang Lim Park - 1950's to 1970's, part 2.

11 House facing Guillemard Road where Agnes lived. She was a family friend and was a regular at our home.

12 Albert Liew, another old family friend and regular visitor, lived here. In his compound he had some very good guava trees of the red variety and a most tempting “buah kedong-dong” tree with lovely fruits. His kampong nickname, which still sticks till this day ( we remain in touch ), is “buah long long ". Yes..that's what we all fondly called him.

13 This was the home of a well-known Malay film actor Aziz Jaafar.He starred in many Malay films from the 50’s, 60's onward. When he wasn’t acting, he was just like anyone of us ordinary folks in the kampong.
We kampong folks were very proud that we had him in our midst. His home was just a minute walk from ours. This legendary actor passed away in 2005, aged 73. I will do a separate post about him.

14 An Indian family lived here. Yaswant and Yanti the two sons were our childhood kampong friends. Their home had a very fragrant jambu mawar tree.

15 Another Indian family lived here. The son, Terun Kumar, whom we fondly call “baba” till today ( we are still in touch) is about my younger brother’s age. Of all the kampong kids, he was the closest to us and was treated almost like an adopted son of our family. My late parents, and that included all of us, were very fond of him. So, a major blogpost huh?

16 A very loving chinese couple lived here with their two young kids. He was a driver of a private school bus and she a good homemaker.Tragedy struck one day when they went to a picnic at Pasir Ris.He got into difficulty in the sea and drowned. The devastated poor wife took it
upon herself to bring up the family after that heart-rending event. She learnt driving and took over the role of the late husband. Not many women could pass driving in those days.

17 The house of Mr Seow Cheng Fong who lived with his wife and a pretty daughter. Later, he lived all alone when mum and daughter moved out. Mr Seow or “old man Seow” was one of the most respected figures of our kampong. He was an educationist, lecturer in Literature, theatre and drama and a Shakespearean expert. One of his very dear comrade in politics and close friend was none other than C V DEVAN NAIR, our late former President. Seow Cheng Fong was a founder-member of the Malayan Democratic Union ( MDU) around 1946. Unk Dicko was close to him. He will be covered in some upcoming major posts.

18 This was the corner house at the other end of our same row. My fellow residents of our kampong will remember they had the largest red Jambu Ayer tree which covered the whole compound and outside. Many of us used to climb the tree to pluck the plentiful fruits.. without permission. The family members would sometimes yell weakly and all would descend. But they allowed us to pluck with bamboo poles tied with hooks.

19 Home of my childhood friend William, about a year or two younger than me. He was a gentle giant, good-natured and mild mannered. I received shocking news that he passed away ( sudden illness ) when I was away at OBS in 1969. We were still living there then. Next to his home lived some women of whom my late mother and others referred to in Cantonese as ”tah pow por”. Know what that is? Don't know? Time to learn some Cantonese...haha.

20 There were only two shops in the whole of Siang Lim Park. This was the Indian “mamak” provision shop. The owner and boss was very close to us as we were just opposite him.

21 This was the other provision shop owned by a Chinese family. They were not as popular as “mamak” because of two reasons:- their prices were slightly higher and they were not as friendly.

[ Don't miss part 3...next post ]

Siang Lim Park - My Early Kampong Days ( 50's -70's )

INDEX TO PLACES IN SIANG LIM PARK ( circa 1950’s-1970’s)
This is based on Dick Yip’s recollections as of 24 Oct 2009 on the amended
location map drawn by hand. It shows the layout as it roughly was in the 1950’s
onwards.

Y = Corner house # 94. That was the home of our Yippie family from long before W W 2. It was strategically located. Everyone seemed to know us, especially my dear mother whom they respectfully called “ ah Yee ”.

1.  This is not not the number of the house. It’s my own simple code to identify certain interesting spots. This was the home of our long-time opposite neighbour who dealt in watches.
2. Home of a rich retired towkay who was the Godfather of my younger
Sister, Flo. We called him “ Kai Yeh”. He had a son named Steven.
When his old wife passed away, he lived on with his 3rd wife .
She had an adopted daughter named Rose who studied at Tg Katong Girls School.
She requested me to tutor her in English for $10 a month ( 1965-66 ).
Rose was my first ever pupil in tuition and I wasn't a teacher yet. Only qualification....
Unk Dicko had scored an A1 for English in Cambridge O level Exams, one of only two

who achieved that in my year, out of a few hundred who sat. It was rare in those days.

 

3. Diagonally opposite was this corner unit located next to the Malay
keramat. Ownership changed hands many times. This was reputedly
the most haunted house in Siang Lim Park…and I personally saw
some of the most eerie and scariest things to justify that label.
( Will require a full blogpost to tell the story ).

4. The Malay keramat behind and next to the haunted unit. This
keramat was related to the other one at Reference # 10. Both the
keramats had a very long, early history and pre-dated the pre-war
houses in our kampong.

5. This was also the house next to the keramat but suffered no spirit
or ghostly problem.

6. Home of my former Primary school classmate Tang Yew Kay. By sheer
coincidence or whatever, we both won the GES PTA Scholarship
Award for Best all round student …only 2 top Awards, in 1960. Both
his older brothers were teachers while a sister was a nurse.

7. On this corner unit lived a beautiful Eurasian lady named Jeannete.

She was one of the best dressed and best looking ladies in our kampong,
with birdnest hairdo, nice outfit and makeup. 

I remember saying "Hi Janet !" when we kids were playing near her unit and

she would  always "Hi -----" back to me and us. She was very friendly

and had a sweet disposition.

8. This was the house of my elder brother’s good friend and school mate,
Sum Peng Kong. He was a very good athlete and footballer in GES.
He later became a traffic cop, looking resplendent as he rode his
Police Norton bike into our kampong lane ( sand, earth, broken stones ).

9 Here lived Eddie, my childhood kampong friend. We used to play
marbles, used homemade catapults to shoot birds, fly kites etc.
He recently retired as a primary school principal. He is a true-blue Peranakan.

10. This was the other keramat linked to Ref # 4. It will take a major
blogpost to talk about these two historical Malay tombs and some
of the strange happenings connected with them.
[ Much more to come..... ]