The newspaper on Chinese New Year's Eve was awfully (in an archaic sense) interesting to read and I had a revelling time doing so. From cover to cover, memories came flooding into my mind as I lapped up detail after detail of days gone by.
Bras Basah Complex was the place where I flocked to when I wanted to find my literature texts for my degree. I did books that were on the Canon list and thus not popular with most people, since those that are, are usually 'trashy'. The hard-to-come-by gems of reading were also obtained cheap and I managed to find some guide books as well. Cliff's Notes with its signature yellow and black striped cover was the norm. They are inexpensive, expansive and good to refer to.
Cameron Restaurant has wooden booth seats for its patrons to sit at while eating. I remember eating at Swee Kee Chicken Rice as a child and if I'm not mistaken, there were booth seats there. I enjoyed the fragrant rice that came with the chicken. It is now brought back in the form of Rui Kee. I also remember sitting at such seats at coffeeshops I frequented when much younger. The banging and squeaky sounds made when I moved in to sit on them are still clear in my mind. The marble top tables with their wooden legs are still firmly etched in my mind's eye.
Dr Wu's house was featured and a picture of his living room brought me back to my younger days. I remember my grandauntie's house which had a glass showcase of ornaments. I was always fascinated with the ornaments inside the case but I could only gawk at them because I was forbidden to touch the fragile intricacies.
I also remember a black storage cupboard I had in my house. There was a shelf on top of a cabinet. On the shelf were banned items like Quality Sweets in its circular tin as well as plastic deep and round containers filled with either raw 'keropok' or freshly fried ones. I was a greedy child and used to steal lots of them to eat when no one was around. There was also a blue circular tin of butter cookies made in Denmark. I used to eat them in their various designs, one of each, after giving in to the temptation of opening the tin. In the cabinet were boxes of biscuits like Ritz crackers, the big ones, and Chicken in a Biscuit, the darker green package as well as the 'terong saji' used to cover food with.
One of the articles was on Chinese New Year of long ago. Happy Families was one of the card games played by children then. I remember playing this game when I was a child and it taught me to be polite in the process. I had to ask for the members of the families I lacked from other players in this manner: "May I please have Mrs.../ Do you have Mrs..." That was one of the childhood games I enjoyed playing.
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