Thanks to Victor, and his "connection", I managed to get hold of a copy of the Singapore Encyclopedia at half the price sold in the market. But frankly, I've no idea why I bought it in the first place.
Why would I wanna blow more than $30 (discounted price) for a book about personalities and monuments I have never heard of in all my 42 years? Do I care enough to read about them?
Well, I suppose I would, if only I could find the time. But there's another reason why I bought the book, and it does not differ very much from the people who resorted to keeping a piece of the red brick of the National Library when it was torn down in the name of "advancement", ie to own a piece of Singapore history. Such sentimental fools that we are.
I haven't really got time to go through the encyclopedia but a cursory glance yielded some surprising finds.
For instance, I was pleasantly surprised to find the place where I grew up - Club Street - making it to the list. And the book offers reasons on how the name was derived, something that I've never known before.
The cinema where the Slim Lady and I went on our first movie date is also featured - The Orchard Cinema. That sure stirs up some sweet memories.....
My favourite local food, Chicken Rice, is in there, too.
So is my favourite local singer-composer, 梁文福.
Our fore-father, MM Lee is there.
And the one that really caught me off guard is the ubiquitous monkey (I searched in vain for the word Dragon). Yeah, the monkeys too made it to the book. I said ubiquitous because the monkeys have been making a great deal of news lately, especially in areas around Thomson. Besides, we seem to be on the topic of Monkeys quite often in the blogosphere of late. We see it here, in Chun See's blog and also in Victor (notice the absence of the apostrophe 'S'). They are always up to their mischief!
Of course, how could we miss out Victor's favourite pornstar - Annabel Chong in the book? (This joke is wearing thin, huh?) LOL
Category: Musings
7 comments:
On behalf of my "connections", I would like to thank you for your "blind" support.
Still can say you don't know why you bought the book and no time to read some more. On the contrary, you did a darn good review of the tome. I think I must hand the title of "The Contrarian" to you liao. As for me, the only entry I made was into Annabel Chong... er, I mean the article.
If you can't find any other use for the book, you can use it as a paper weight lor. Also can use it to crush that occasional crawling cockcroach that dare venture into your flat. At 3.2 kg, it performs both functions very well, I'm sure.
I guess, the dragons have not made their presence felt ):
Shall we call in the komodos???
Chris, the book got mention about lastic and kampong fruit trees or not?
From one dragon to another .. happy birthday brudder.
Thanks Chun See, you really waited 10 days huh? Haven't you heard? That "Aging is inevitable, but Growing old is optional?" So, for the record, I'm not afraid of growing old.
IML, thank goodness nobody liken us to the house Lizard, hor? Hee.
Chun, no mention of Lastic nor Kampong Fruit Trees. But the word "kampongs" made it to the list. Do u know the origin of the word "Lastic"? I can't find the word in the dict. If it didn't appear this time round, perhaps it will in the next edition; ie, if the word is truly unique to Singapore.
Oh Victor, that's crude! I mean that remark you made about "entry" and "A.Chong". She's now a web page designer, ok? So pse give the lady some respect!
Web page designer? For porn websites izit?
Our poor Tan Howe Liang, borned at the wrong time. I saw him doing some supervisor job in the National Stadium, riding a bicycle to work. Now his equivalents in Taiwan are given red-carpet welcomes wherever they go, not forgetting the huge montary gains they got.
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