A Journalism Undergraduate Who Didn't Want To Graduate

Many years ago when I was young, I'd known a full-time university student, majoring in Journalism, who'd transferred from university to university almost every year by signing up for only 18 semester hours per year. 

In other words, he was doing only half the usual course work in school.

Instead of carrying a backpack of books for classes, he would sling a  Nikon SLR camera around his neck and carry a backpack full of camera equipment.    

He didn't want to graduate and leave his college life. 

He had a nickname called Peter Pan.

A Homeless Person Living In An Airport

Several years ago, a newspaper reporter had discovered a supposedly homeless woman living inside an airport, making free use of bathroom and WiFi facilities.

She was found to be renting out her downtown apartment and collecting monthly rental income of about $2,000 and having a bank savings account of more than $100,000.

 

Anchorage Airport & A Slice of Watermelon

In 1986 while traveling on a flight going from New York to Seoul, South Korea, I'd got to know a young college student who was sitting two or three seats away from me. 

The airplane had a short stopover at Anchorage Airport, Alaska. 

This student bought a thin slice of watermelon from a food outlet inside the airport lounge and he paid US$5 for it. 

He told me he was dying to eat some watermelon, and I thought he was insane to pay that kind of money for a thin slice of fruit.

(At that time, the currency exchange rate of US$1 was equivalent to about S$2.15) 

A Story About Penang Char Kway Teow

When I'd visited Penang many years ago in 1975, I came across an elderly pushcart Char-Kway-Teow hawker nearby a street named Anson Road.

He'd used firewood to heat the wok and he'd cooked my order of Char-Kway-Teow with a big duck egg. 

He'd served the food on a plate for me to eat by the side of the street. 

That was the best plate of Char-Kway-Teow I'd eaten ever since.

Old Singapore Passport

The very first design of a Singapore passport (hardcover bound with high quality silk cloth) issued in the mid-1960s right after independence.

1967 Advertisement

A b/w advertisement found in a 1967 magazine.

What has that background image of the National Theater (demolished in 1986) got to do with selling suitcases?

Angpow Red Packets from Johor Baru

2009 Year of the Ox.

Not every large Malaysian commercial bank gives out angpow or hongbao red packets that early before this Lunar New Year of 2009.

The staff at MayBank and EON Bank said that their red packets are only available next week.

However, Hong Leong Bank and Public Bank already have angpow red packets available when I'd requested for them on my visit to Johor Baru this morning.

I like those packets printed by Hong Leong Bank showing the running bull.

Johor Baru

Italy, Telephone Tokens

In the mid-1980s, public telephones in Rome, Italy required brass tokens for calling.

Nowadays many people around the world carry cellphones around, and I wonder this kind of novelty idea of using tokens to make telephone calls is still relevant.

I guess these tokens are history and good mementos now.

tokens

Peruvian Baskers along Orchard Road

The weather was cool and a little windy in the afternoon of December 22, as I went to Orchard Road, the shopping district of Singapore.

I saw this great outfit from Peru basking along the walkway in front of Wisma Atria, across Orchard Road from CK Tang department store.

With some luck, I had my digital camera with me and I'd shot a few photographs.

Here are two nice pictures of this group of musicians entertaining the crowd with some cool music of the Andes.

Singapore

Penang Hill 1975, My Adventure

This old faded color photograph was shot on a fine sunny afternoon in January 1975.

On that day, I rode a cable tramcar up Penang Hill in the morning and soaked in the nice and cool atmosphere on top of this beautiful tourist resort.

Being young and adventurous back then, I'd decided to hike down Penang Hill instead of riding the usual tramcar.

I'd figured out that by starting my journey at around midday and walking along the footpath winding down the slope, I should reach that nice and pleasant Botanic Gardens at the bottom of the hill before sundown. I had a manual Minolta camera with me and that was how I'd managed to shoot several photographs along the way, including this photograph on display here.

I'd never known how many hours it would take to hike along that long footpath, but after more than an hour, I felt thirsty but had no portable drinking water. Miracles do happen if you believe in them, and when I'd wished for something cool to drink, a tiny spring just popped out from the side of a hill slope, very much like a zamzam, a small sprout of cool and clean water to quench my thirst.

Feeling much refreshed after that drink, I could then walked down for another hour and a half to reach civilization at last, indeed before sundown, to find that nice and pleasant Botanic Gardens, and a gentle stream of water flowing by that place.

I'd asked a passerby to shoot a photograph (above) of me wading in that cool stream of water. As you know, water flows down from the top of the hill and it's always found somewhere at the bottom of the hill. As for that zamzam, well, I don't know 'coz I haven't gone back there for the past 30 years.

Penang