Wednesday, April 30, 2008

陋巷之春
人间有天堂
天堂在陋巷
春光无偏私
布满了温暖网
树上有小鸟
小鸟在歌唱
唱出赞美诗
赞美这春浩荡

每一回走过桥南路,这个路口时,看到陋巷之景,必会想起周漩的那首陋巷之春!只是我们这巷子,白天可五顔六色,夜里更是声色犬馬。不可和数十年前的周女相比。只是有时自已的思维若天 馬行空,时空跳跃。站在这巷口,不禁會联想到每个窗户内,各自的動人故事。
走过这日食堂前,看到其布置,恍若回到若干年前游过的大阪小街。

这幢屋子的建築格式,十分欧陆化,本地其他地方应该难以看到。

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

我家鄰近的奇花异物
Things around where I stay



住在德曼花園,不经不觉己有十多二十年了。常见到一些奇花异物,一时兴起,遂拧了个摄影机,猎下这些镜头,和大家分享。
I have been staying at Teban Gardens for almost twenty years. I used to see many beautiful little things happening in this neighborhood. The following photographs are the evidence that I have captured and sharing with all of you.

这隻猫,最近被阉了。整隻猫变得呆呆的。完全没有一点猫性。但他的毛色銀白,非常迷人。
This poor cat recently got castrated. It losts its characters as a cat. Daily it stones around and stare into the air to pass time! But it has beautiful silvery fur, I believed it has the bloodline from some Siamese cat.

拍下图时,确实令我有点意外,第一眼看到它时,根本認不出是那门子的路!我还以为是有人故意做假,来戲弄人。後来經主人出来印证一番,才确認它是仙人掌的果实!我告诉主人,算自己是見識淺漏,这是我生平第一次見識。
This is something new to me. It is the fruit of a kind of cactus. It is the first time I witnessed this type of plant bears fruit. I have a chat with the owner, he told me it only flower in the early morning; from 2am to 5am only.


我家附近的这种树,吾不知其多,但每当它發出嫩葉時,它的嫩叶,就像日本紅枫!特此摄下为证,
I like maple leaf. One type of trees would have it new shoots of leaf in red. It looks like the maple that I have seen in Autumn Japan! I am referring to it color only.

走过这棵矮椰時,看到阳光在黄椰上投下斑斓美景,煞是好看。就像一幅天然布置的静物畫。
The light and shades of these coconuts is a piece of Still Life by nature.

最近,常在報章上,看到多名知名人物,人说鳥話,现在出现在眼前的景像,你説像不像鳥説人話!
There are lots of people talking cock these days, I captured this shot: Don't you think this resembles 'These birds talking Human!"

看到这尊盆栽竹下的观音,一派安祥入定的样子,真羡煞人。什么米價高漲,油價騰飞,收入縮水等,一慨与我無关。可不是吗,他是不食人间烟火的呀。
Guan Yin under the Bonsai bamboos. Peaceful and calm. Who cares about the inflation, the hike of food price!

树老了,皮色斑烂。人老了呢?
When the tree turn aged, the bark turns colourful, what about ourself? A piece of rubbish?!

在組屋区,看到如许盛开的大红花,真是一种意外的收获。
Discover this Hibiscus in my neighborhood is a surprise to me too. It so big and so red!

这朵形似玟瑰的小花,就开在我日夜走过的电梯走道旁,默然自賞。
An unknown little flower blooming at the front walkway of my block.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

诗一首

Saturday, April 19, 2008

It is a small small world

Sometimes, if we really pay some attention to the things that surround us, we would see the hidden beauties in them. Macrophotography is one way to explore this area.

Recently, due to the heavy studying loads, I need to reduce my mental stress, I resolved to photography. I took a number of macro shots by making use of whatever available at hands. These are some of the shots that I have taken:This is a sandal wood sculpture of an Eyptian Cat. I bought it in Nepal years ago.


A macro shot of Malaysian Coin

A close-up of one part of the white fungus, which we used to make desert.

This is the Di Zhang bronze sculpture. One of my own collections.

Usually, in macro-photography, the depth of field is extremely shallow. I still need more experience to overcome this issue.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My Old Memory 我的古早记忆

When I was young, I stay at Selegie Road those three storey type of old houses. We were staying at the top floor. My mother was very strict on me and my younger brother. Both of us were not allowed to go out of the house whole day. Only when she needed to get something from the shops nearby, she would bring us along. Therefore, our past time activity was to sit near the windows and watch things past by. I spent lots of time at gazing at the scene downstairs, and notice one of the transport vehicles was with two long polling attached to the wire on top of them, and when it made a left turn into Magazine Road, the the two poles must be manual pulled away and attached to another set of wires, at the moment, sparks were jumped out when they got disconnected or connected again.
小时候住在实里基路,俗称七馬路。我们住在旧式的三层楼店屋。我们一家住在三楼。母亲那时管得我们很严。往往整天都被困在楼上。只有当她須要去附近买一些日用品时,才带我们兄弟俩同行。我们一天的活动就是对着窗口觀望。成天看着世界在自己眼前流轉。在观望的过程中,就發现这种交通工具。它有两条長長的柱子長在头上。每次从实里基路向左轉时,兩根柱子都要費人力将它拉下转道。那时就会看到电光闪出。这是我们当时惟一的視觉享受!


The following photograph I believed the photographer must have taken it at the junction of North Bridge Road and Hock Lam Street (This street already not existing). The location where Funan Centre is now. You can identify the distant light house tower at Fort Canning.
下图可能是在小坡大馬路和福南街交界处拍的.你还可以看到远处福康宁山上的灯塔.可能是现今的福南中心所在地吧.

This was the oldest bus model I could remember. It was like a bone shaker, and very smoky! Used to operate in the rural areas. By looking at this photo, it could look like Chai Chee. But I am not very sure, as I was not the one who took this photo. Anyway, most of the rural areas looked like this during my time. The coconut farms were charming.
这是我记忆中最古老的巴士.它常川行于鄉村小道.从像片的背景看耒,它好像是在漳宜菜市一带的郊区拍的.因为像片不是我拍的,所以我不能肯定.但看到巴士後面的那片椰林,就开心了.何時我们再有如此青葱且熱带的风景?

Great World, one of the famous amusement parks in our time. The other two were New World and Happy World. I still remember when mother brought us there, it must be a big deal, as we need to hire a trishaw from Selegie Road to here. I still remember once entered it main gate, on the right side, you would find Flamingo Cabaret and Sky Theatre. Walked straight on from the main gain, at the centre of the park, you will find lots of games store and small shops.
大世界,是其中一个有名的娱乐中心.其他两个是:新世界和快乐世界.对我们兄弟俩来说,每次母亲带我们去都成一件大事.因为我们得坐三轮车从七马路去.我还记得从大世界正门进入之後,往右走不久,就会看到红鶴夜总会和青天大戲院.如果不向右走,而直线前行,就会看到许多游戲小摊和一些卖百貨的店子.

Cathy Cinema, one of my favourite theatres. I used to patronize it on Saturday or Sunday morning shows. The other theatre will be Rex Theatre. That time the front stall ticket was only 50 cents. Lots of John Wayne's show were watched during that time. Gone were all these majestic theatres.
國泰戲院,我小时常去光顧的一间戲院。当我十二三岁时,我常到国泰或丽士戲院看周末的早場。那時早場的前座门票才五角钱。在那里,我看了好多铁漢莊榮的牛仔戲。


This is the nearest photo I could find from a old photography stores, it shows the palm garden of Sea View Hotel. You can imagine how beautiful it was at Katong beach.
这是我惟一从旧貨摊找到,最接近我迷恋致今的加東海滩的像片。这是旧海景酒店的園景。加東海滩的美景比它还要绮丽的多呢!呵!我那失去的海滩!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

My School Days 我的学子生活

I believed my happiest days were in school. There were no much worries except for the weaker subjects. I spent most of my time in the basket ball activities. So much so, that few of us in the class formed our own basket ball team, and compete with other schools basket ball team. We name our team as 'Si Fei 四非', it was from the Chinese character 'Sin' (罪), we broke the character into two parts and gotten the name for our team. The photograph below depicts our group shot at our school basketball court with our famous PE teacher Mr. Zhiang (蒋才沅老师) at the center.




Most of the Saturday afternoon, after our lesson time, we used to stroll bedok beach. The sand is fine, and the breeze is soothing. I specially like the silhouette of the coconut trees. They were so poetic. This photo was taken at Simpan Bedok beach, where the Army Camps are now situated. We were still wearing our school uniforms, Anglican High School.

In 1964, during my secondary 4, I took the top prize in Poster Competition from Minister of Education Mr. Ong Pong Boon during the Speech Day. It was the first recognition for my painting skill in my life. From there onwards, it inspired me continue my search in creative art form for the rest of my life.

School Funfair is really fun for me, most of the classmates spent the night before the actual day in school and prepared for it. The next day everyone put in their best efforts to get the most income for the school fun raising project. The response that year was fantastic.

During my upper secondary days, these three classmates became my best friends. They are Sim Kok Kin (Second from the left), Ho Kam Chiew (Second from the right) and Yang Liang Yuen (Extreme right). Sim has the best knowledge in science and maths, he became our tutor in these two subjects. We used to stay in Sim's house during the examination periods to study. He stayed in the rural Chai Chee Village, where pig farms and vegetable farms were.

The following portrait was taken at Raffles Studio at Bras Brasah Road in 1964. I used it for my graduation magazine.
My Old Singapore Sceneries

I was interested in photography as young as 13 of age. At the age of 14, I managed to save up and bought a China made Seagull twin lens box camera, and started to capture the scenery around me. These are the photographs that I found in my oldest black and white album. I decided to post them here to share with my generation as well as the younger ones. With friends around my age, I believe some of the scenes captured here would stir up lots of old memories of your own.


For the younger generation, I believe you would never see this building, as it was demolished in the early 70s. This is the Van Cleef Aquarium, one of the biggest aquarium in Singapore at that time. It collected most of the South East Asia fish species, big and small. It is also one of the famous past time location for Singaporeans.

Victoria Memorial Hall. This was the place for main stream Art Exhibitions. It was also the centre of the performing arts at our time, before National Theatre was built.

National Theatre. It was built to be one of the largest open air theatre in this region. Lots of great performance were presented there. Unfortunately, it was demolished due to structural failure. It was one of the landmarks in Singapore.

This was the taken at Fort Canning Park in the late 60s. The back ground was Tank Road, you still see the low building these days, it is the Teo Chew Hui Guan (Clan Association). The tall building behind was demolished, and turned into Emperor Hotel, but was demolished and rebuilt into service apartment. The young fellow in front is me at my 18s.

Clifford Pier at the old days, you see the water boat anchor there.

This was the famous General Post Office Head Office, now turn into one of the world class hotel and named as 'Fullerton One'.

Most of these photographs were taken between 1963 to 1969. The actual dates were unable to located.


The followings were taken sometimes in the mid 70s. At that time, Shears Bridge was built, as you can see it from a distance from this photo.

Taken this shot from Columbo Court top floor.


Sungei Kudut was a beautiful place then, look at this photo, the scene was so calm and peaceful.

Monday, April 14, 2008


The Principle

When I was young, my dear teacher taught me: As a person, we must do things with a principle. From there onwards, I stick to this simple rule: I will do things with my principle. My principle is very simple, do things with my conscience and do not harm others. If better, bring happiness to everyone around you.

As I grew older, I have noticed that most of the people around me do not value 'Conscience' at all. They will only abide to the benefits they could get. With benefits they gotten, they could sell away their friendships, their trust and themselves. When a society developed to such a stage, it is really sad!

If you asked me who they are, then I should ask you to look around; especially read the newspaper. You will not hard to figure out, who are these people. If we have conscience, we should not allow old folks die in their flats and get rotten. If we are caring, we should not see so many young and middle age people committing suicide.

We are named as developed nation, if we have conscience, we should have all these unhappy incidents erased from our life!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Friday, April 11, 2008


My Long Lost Memories

By chance or accident, I flipped through my bookshelves, and found two aged-old postcards. One of which is a photograph of Katong Beach, the other is the Bedok Simpan Beach.

I believed these photographs were taken in the late sixties. At that time, I was a secondary school student then. I still can remember on every
Saturday afternoon, after my school curriculum time (We had lessons on Saturday's morning!), I used to go out with a group of school mates and roam these areas.

To what I could recall, the company were Paul Ho, Young Y. L., Chu Y.K. and Lau H.C. We used to go to Katong Beach, strolled along the sandy beach, ate Ice Kachang in the shades of the coconut trees, then went for a Chinese Movie at Roxy Theatre 乐斯戏院 or New Palace Theatre 丽宫戏院 (May be the name is not correct!).

Otherwise, we would take a short trip by bus to Simpan Bedok Beach (Where SAF 3rd Guards Camp is now), and waited for the tide to subside, then walked around the stretch of long, flat beach and picked up shells along the way. We used to capture blue sky, white cloud and warm breeze in the late afternoon. With the coconut farms around, it was almost the same scenery as in Hawaii beach, but of course, without the high rise hotels.


As time goes by, the nation developed into a metropolitan; all these lovely scenes were replaced by man-made concrete jungles. Our younger generations lost all these luxuries of enjoyment.
There goes my Bedok and Katong sweet memories, as well as songs from Connie Francis, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richards. Most of all, my youth!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

独立桥上的石狮子


璧浩兄在他的博客中,怀疑馬里士他路小販中心的两头石狮子,可能是独立桥上的那一对。我看了他所刊載的照片,左看右看,都觉得不像。便上網去寻找有关的旧照。结果给我找到了这两張。仔细比較一番,你便會看到他们之间的差异。

馬里士他路的一对座該是仿造的吧!




微观世界

很多时候,我们总是粗心大意的去看我们的周圍世物,很多时候我们都忽略一切美好的身邊事物。其实,如果我们只要稍为用心观察,不难觉察到,我们四周都充满着令人驚讶的美事。

今早见阳光普照,随手提起摄影器材,往飞禽公園直去。花了一个早晨的汗水,遂捕捉到这些令人心醉的细小景物。若您能靜下匆忙的心态,用心仔细的看看这些景物,或許您的心境遂变得更加安祥,世界看来会更加美好


The Macro World

Many times we tend to look at the world at a glance, therefore, we missed lots of beautiful things that are around us. We use to look but no see, hear but not listen. In fact, if we would spend some time and use our mind or heart to look at the world around us, we will be surprise by those little beautiful things around us.

This morning, the weather was extremely good, it inspired me to take my photographic tools and rushed straight to the Bird Park. I spent the whole morning and captured these beautiful scenes. Some of the photos surprised me, as a took a closer look at them. If we could really stop down at some point of our life, and take a good look at our surroundings, we may see lots of beautiful things happening around us silently, we might get inspired and may see the world in another positive perspectives; life could be less miserable and dreadful.