Chapter 24: Jobs I did

Promotional material is normally rare in our housing estate. Yesterday, I saw this advertisement hung at one of the road junctions in our housing estate - tuition teacher is available to come to the house to conduct tuition. These days when tuition centres are popping up all over the place where parents or carers have to send and pick up the kids, this may sound attractive to some!

I had done a variety of works in my younger days. I have talked about one of them - odd job worker in graveyard construction and tombstone restoration in Chapter 14. I had also worked as tuition teacher when I was an A-Level student and during the post-A Level period before I went to the university. Those were all part-time works to earn extra pocket money.

 

******************************

I had gone to student's home doing one-to-one tuition. I had also coached group of students. Since I did not have a tuition centre and my old house was just not suitable for such purpose, I started using the library of the British Council at KK Town centre as my tuition centre. It started well initially when the staff and library users just considered us to be a group of students doing group study and revision. However, when the staff observed the frequency of our visits and the occasional loud noises emitting from the "study", we were gently advised either to cut down the talking or move to other place. At the end, I had no choice but asked one of the students to use his house as the tuition centre. His house was one among the rows of stilted houses in Kampong Air (Water Village) - the sea had since been reclaimed and now occupied by Asia City. 

Houses on stilts in Kampong Air, KK.

******************************

Work which I did and considered "prestigious" was when I worked in Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) as a part time Hakka news reader in 1972 to early 1973. I had to go through an audition to check my voice quality before final acceptance by the producer. News could not be pre-taped, it had to be read live. This was very stressful in the beginning and I had to read the text a few times to make sure I knew every word before I read it live at the designated time slot. The news was translated from English to Chinese for Mandarin reading. I had to read the same text but in Hakka. It was not easy as some of the words would not sound right if read in Hakka. Many times, I had to quickly come up with the correct equivalent in Hakka in the very short time I had. I was paid RM7.50 for each 10-minute session.

Letter from Radio Malaysia asking for a voice test.

A payment voucher for payment of RM22.50
for three sessions done in March 1972.

******************************

When I took up the part time job as a news reader, my full time work then was working as a draftsman in PWD. PWD office was in the Jesselton town centre (now renamed Kota Kinabalu) in a building now occupied by the Chartered Bank. Once the office hours ended at 4.15 pm, I had to rush off to take a bus that plied the Tuaran Road to go to the RTM station which currently is next to Komplek Karamunsing. If I was lucky, I would reach the station around 5.00 pm leaving just about half an hour to be familiar with the text to be read live at 5.30 pm sharp. At one time, I could not make it in time to read the news and the slot was replaced by light music. The next day, I received a call from the producer who was obviously crossed and did not hesitate to give me a piece of his mind. I was asked to write a report to explain why I did not turn up to read the news. It's a serious matter if the air went blank without the usual news being read!

The news reading always began with "This is Radio Malaysia Sabah, this is news time by Lee Teck Kiong....". Though my job as a part time news reader was a short one, many among the local Hakka populace still recall the name of this reader because they had heard me reading news before. Many Chinese liked to listen to the news read in their mother tongue in those days.

Technical Pens & Lettering Guides

 

My job as a draftsman was a short one as well. I was working in the Structural Section at PWD Hqs. This experience proved to be very useful when I did my third year university design project when I needed to complete the structural design of a building followed by the drafting work. 

The initial period of the draftsman's job was not so glamorous liked the news reader. For the whole first week as a trainee draftsman, I as a freshie had to practice hand writing skill on alphabets, numbers and words in pages and pages of papers using the technical pen. Next, I was asked to learn to trace words and sentences using the Rotring Lettering Guides. When my boss was finally sufficiently satisfied with the hand writing, I was only then given the task of amending old drawings. My job as a draftsman ended when I left KK to pursue a degree course in Civil Engineering in April 1973 at the Malaya University.

These days, good hand writing skill is no longer a requirement for draftsman. With all drafting work done by computers, you will be labelled a "have been" if you try to sell your drafting credential based on your good writing skill! As far as technical pens and lettering guides, they are all museum items now!

Chapter 23: Celebrating CNY in the 50's & Early 60's

In the recent celebration of the CNY, it was heartening to see members of the family and the extended family gathered together to do some of the preparations for the new year reunion dinner.

 

Getting barbeque sets ready

Shopping for food ingredients

These days, the main focus of CNY is to have at least a family reunion to feast together. If time permits, family members might arrange to visit some new places together.

Back in the 1950's and early 1960's, celebrating CNY was a serious matter. Planning and preparation work began a couple of days or even weeks before the actual new year.

Foremost on the list, my mother would go to the shops in the town (no supermarket then) to buy a pair of new clothes and new shoes for each member of the family. Haircut was a must and in our case, all the kids' hair were cut by my father as it was considered too expensive to have it done in the barber shop. My father would have his done in the barber shop while my mother would have her hair done up in a lady saloon.

 

For the numerous dishes to be served during CNY eve, all necessary ingredients would need to be purchased. The shopping list also included goodies and tit-bits for kids and visitors. My mother also bought packages of goodies and tit-bits, tins of biscuits, Chinese sausages, wax ducks etc which would be wrapped up as gifts to be given to our neighbours.

 

Once the gifts were ready, the older kids would be asked to deliver them to the neighbours. In reciprocating our gesture, gifts which were similar in content would be given by our neighbours to us. I had asked my mother the rationale of such practice when in the end, every house got back practically what they started out with. Her usual response was, "It's our traditional practice". It's only in very recent time that I realized how such "illogical" gesture had contributed to the neighbourly bond and friendship which was so evident among neighbours in those days but very much lacking today!

Chinese sausages & wax ducks

 

Nian Kau

Nian Kau was usually one of the items to be included in the gift package. This was of course one item that we ate once a year. As it would be beyond the family budget to buy so many pieces of Nian Kau. They were usually made by my mother. The process started with soaking the glutinous rice grains. Then we would take the bag of soaked rice grains to my grand uncle's house a short distance from our house to use their stone rice grinder to grind the rice grains. My grand uncle had a stone rice grinder or hand-powered flour mill installed in one of the two kitchens. To convert rice grains to become flour, the process involved continuous grinding of the soaked rice grains. My mother would push to rotate the grinder while I helped to add the soaked rice grains into the little opening on top of the grinder. It was a tricky exercise. I needed to quickly stand up with a spoon of rice grains next to the grinder, dropped the content into the hole and returned to a squatting position before the rotating arm came back to hit me if I was still in a standing position.

We found a similar unit of this stone grinder in one little museum in Jonker Street in Malacca in 2012.

 

Large leaves of tarap tree

Next is the house cleaning. Spider webs were to be removed and curtains and mosquito netting were to be washed. A long pole with one end tied with a few twits would be used to clear the spider webs found at all corners of the house. Curtains and all mosquito netting would be taken down and put into a empty biscuit tin container filled with water and washing powder and boiled, washed clean and hung to dry. The timber floor would be scrubbed with brushes but most often using leaves plucked from tarap tree. These leaves which cost nothing were easily obtained from the tarap trees planted at the back of our house. Tarap leaves which are large and covered with minute hairy spikes were ideal to serve as "sand paper" to scrub the floor.

 

In one of the afternoons after school, the older kids would be instructed to walk through the trail starting from our house at the valley all the way to Harrington Road (now renamed Jalan Istana) higher up. Any overgrown vegetation, tall grass which encroached into the path would be cut and cleared to make sure the path was neat. Any slope which might cause someone to fall or slip would be levelled and proper steps formed. This was done in anticipation of relatives who might drop by to visit us during CNY.

 

Every year, a day before the new year eve starting from 4pm till the next morning, the wet market and fish market in town would be opened selling all kinds of stuff needed as food ingredients for new year eve reunion dinner. The road around the market would be closed off from vehicular traffic. The road pavement and all empty space around the market would be filled with temporary stores selling stuff and new year merchandise. My mother would normally go to this night market in the early evening to buy items she would need for all the dishes. Some of us kids would tag along to act as little coolies to carry the stuff.

Pre-CNY Eve Night Market in Kota Kinabalu

Pomelo

Once a year during CNY eve, we took our bath with water boiled with leaves of Pomelo tree. We had no difficulty in getting these leaves as there were a number of Pomelo trees planted around our house. This bathing practice was meant to wash off all bad things accumulated over the year!

 

My father would stop work on the new year eve to take up the role of a chef. He would prepare and cook his specialty - the Hakka Kel Nyuk (Yam stewed with pork belly) which we could only eat once a year.

First day of the new year started early at 5.30am when the kids were all up on the balcony to light the fire crackers. Once the first sound was heard, it triggered a chain reaction when all neighbouring houses in the village would also start lighting the fire crackers non-stop. The sound of explosion would persist for at least the next half an hour.

Breakfast that followed would consist of Nian Kau, Mandarin oranges and goodies. Soon after, my mother would call for the kids to receive the Angpau. In those days, Angpau packages like those given out by banks nowadays were unheard of. Angpau were simply money wrapped in sheets of red papers.

 

First day of the year was a "sacred" day. We were warned by our parents the night before not to utter any word deemed bad or improper. Words like "dead", "bad" or those associated with negativity should not be uttered. In fact, words with pronunciation that sounded like them should not be said as well. Any house fly or cockroach that happened to be found on dining table or in the house would enjoy amnesty because no killing was allowed. No sweeping was also done that day to ensure goodwill, wealth and prosperity would not be accidentally swept away. That probably was the only day of the year that foul language was not heard uttered in all Chinese homes!

 

The Church traditionally held worship service in the morning of the first day of the new year - a tradition which is still being maintained up to these days. For that occasion, we were all in our best with new clothes and new shoes.

 

After the worship service, my father would take us to the fun fair or to watch a movie. In those days, some Chinese schools always took advantage of the new year season to organise a fun fair with the aim of raising fund for their school projects and to provide an avenue for people to have a good time.

 

For the other free time during the new year holidays, kids in the village would come together to light fire crackers and play some of their favourite games.

 

All good time had to come to an end. New year was soon over and school resumed on the third day of the CNY. Much to our disappointment, we had to force ourselves to go back to school and to go through the routine and stress of study while trying hard to recuperate from the hangover of the good time of the new year!

Chapter 22: A Glimpse of My Old House

Finally from among the many old photo's given by my sister, I was able to find some that show a bit of the house I once stayed in the village.

 

A family photo taken in 1965 in front of the old house. Blogger is at right in back row.

 

A photo of the siblings taken in 1965.

 

The living room in the middle of the house was accessed via a 5-step timber staircase. The initial step was in fact the front bonnet of an abandoned old land rover - a genius idea indeed!

 

The opening at the right was the entrance to the dirt-floored kitchen. The board nailed together from pieces of timber planks and placed against the wall at the side of this opening was occasionally used to block off chicken, ducks and dogs from entering the kitchen.

 

Behind hidden from the family members in the photo, there was this little hand rail-free balcony of 4ft x 6ft size. That was probably one part of the house where I have many fond memories. That was where my mother told many of her old tales and stories. In the evening after dinner, we kids used to lie down face up to gaze at the cloud and watch the birds, eagles and bats flew passed by. At dawn of the first day of every CNY, we kids would wake up early, light up and throw the fire crackers onto the dirt compound. The mood of CNY was really felt when the compound turned red with exploded bits and pieces of the fire crackers!

The sewing machine was placed next to the window above this balcony. I used to stand on the balcony and watched my father through the window doing his tailoring work for many hours at week-ends. This has enabled me to know the machine and do some basic sewing up to this very day!

This family photo taken probably in 1967 gives a glimpse of what it was liked in front of the house. The background is the foot of the hill where the Istana (Governor's House) now stands.

Though the house was of a simple design and built of inferior materials in today's standard, it was still a home where I had spent considerable time of my childhood and teenage years. I still have many fond memories whenever I think of this first home of mine.

Chapter 21: If Only We Can Change History?

The renovation of my parents' house in Likas was finally completed in late last year. Soon after the death of my mother in April 2012, the family decided to renovate the house. Now, it is occupied by the family of my youngest brother and my sister.

 

In the course of preparing for the house renovation, many old stuffs were gone through to decide whether to keep or to throw away. I was very happy to be given some old photographs kept in the house which I had almost forgotten.

 

Left to right: My cousin, blogger, 2nd brother and eldest brother.

 

One photo which was given to me is this old photo taken in 1954 when I was just 3 years old (second from left) - the oldest photo of me that I now have. This was taken with my eldest brother (who is deceased), my second brother and a cousin of mine.

 

This cousin of mine called Joseph Yee is of similar age to me. He is the eldest son of my maternal uncle whom I talked about in Chapter 16. He once worked as an architectural draftsman with my second brother. He gave that up quite a long time ago and now operates a coffee shop in Inanam.

 

While it is a fact that this cousin of mine has many more step-brothers and step-sisters born from relationships of his father with other women, he had however opted to exclude all these other family ties other than siblings bored by his mother in the genealogy of the Gomorun. I have said that his family's well-being began to turn for the worse when the father began his indulgence in more women than one.

 

I remember what Neson Mandella said in his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom" when he wrote about a classmate he once had in Clarkebury Institute. Quote "She was an extraordinarily clever and gifted person, whose potential was limited because of her family's meagre resources. This was an all too typical South African story. It was not lack of ability that limited my people, but lack of opportunity. Unquote.

When he was asked to prepare the genealogy, was there still "bitterness" when he recalled those incidences and history that may have changed the course of his life?

Today, when I read "The Purpose of History" in the devotional material, I was reminded of what impact history can have on us. History provides many wonderful and practical examples, sharing with us the experience of those who have gone on the journey before us.

 

A slip in one's judgment or a casual unwarranted indulgence in pleasure may change the course of one's life journey.

Loo with a Difference

The French Restaurant booked by the Tew's sisters and their spouses to celebrate their mom's  birthday has at least one unique thing - the entrance signs to the loo.

 

Happy belated Valentine Day!

Meeting Up Old Classmates

Some of my former classmates of Class 67 (Form 3) of Lok Yuk School, KK met up for brunch on 12 February 2014 for a small reunion with a couple, Frankie and Teresa who came back from Vancouver, Canada.

Clearly, the love bugs of these two people developed early. They fell in love when they were students in Form 3! The marriage somehow turns out well and they are still happily married.

It has been 46 years since I last saw them! That's really a very long time.

From left around the table: Johnny Loo, Jeannie Teo, Grace Chin, Lee Nyuk Jin, 
Teresa Chee, Frankie Chee, Eddie Chow, Yap Kim Tong & Alfred Lee

Colourized photo.
I am at left of 2nd row partially hidden behind the Form Teacher, Ruth Moody.

Original b/w photo.

Class of 1967

CNY 2014 in KK

After spending CNY in BP, we came home on 3 February to welcome Junshi's second visit to Sabah. Beside taking a short break for CNY, she was here to do some exploratory work for the big day.

 

It is normal for people who have gone overseas to work to hunt for some of the well known food in KK whenever they are back. One of the sought after food is predictably the Tuaran Fried Mee.

 

The Swing Teams Story

This swing is at least 36 years old and is part of the history of the Lim's family heritage. It has seen some of it's patrons growing up from infancy to becoming proud parents.  The swing has also undergone many rounds of repainting to make sure the wear and tear would not cause problem to its load bearing capacity.

For most of the year, the grand old patriarch sat on this swing, probably pondering and reflecting over the many days, weeks, months and years that have gone by........ CNY is one occasion when the swing team members meet up again.

We look back with nostalgia how the team members have grown since the 80's.

What some of the original swing team looks like in 2014.

*****************************************

This is reckoned to be the oldest swing team, probably taken in 1981!

Swing Team 1984.

The expanded original swing team.

***************************************

This is a good illustration of the age difference between the swing team members. Paul was carrying his cousin Wan Yi.

*****************************************

Nathan joined the swing team in 2012.

****************************************

Latest swing team - younger 3rd generation + 4th generation.

Clockwise: Yang Yang (in red), Wei Yi (red), Wan Yi (blue), Ziyan, Aaron, Alyssa, Ryan (green) and middle Tze Yi (white)

Ushering the Year of the Horse - 2014

Lau Sang

 

Ang Pau Session.

 

I could not remember the last time I received an ang pau during CNY. This came as a surprise!

 

The boys were busy getting the barbecue sets assembled minutes before the sets were put into use.

 

I was surprised that the charcoal took so long to be fired up. Reason: bits and pieces of old newspaper were used. Finally, I got them the charcoal lighters to speed up the process.

 

Barbeque was something new to the Lim's family. The Lee's had to do some demo's and coaching to get the process going. At the end, the barbecue turned out to be a success.

 

The new generation knew the importance of PR work. The uncle and cousin were enjoying the massage before meal!

1st, 3rd and 4th generations.

For the album.