SQ1 flight from SFO to HK

Not having travelled on SIA for a while, I was pleasantly surprised at the service when compared to other airlines on international flights. Many US based carriers now charge for alcoholic beverages served during the flight. Beer, wine, and other spirits are offered free on the flight, as well as a little pack with a pair of light slippers (sockettes) and a disposable toothbrush with a tiny tube of toothpaste. Also in the restrooms, in the amenities drawers, are individual packs of disposable shavers and shaving cream, and of combs so that weary travellers can freshen themselves before leaving the plane.

As usual, the food was good, but note that on Singapore airlines there is a wide variety of special meals available, to accomodate all diets to accomodate regligious, medical, allergy, and personal dietary restrictions. In fact the number of special meals put together outnumber the number of regular meals - and it is remarkable how the special meals manage to find their correct destination in the friendly skies. And if you are traveling on Business or First Class, it appears you can preorder your meals ahead of time.

And of course, the flight attendants are all well groomed, easy on the eyes, solicitious of the comfort of the passengers, and pleasant and friendly to talk to.

In-flight entertainment is certainly plenitful, and multiple movies and TV on demand programs. Entertainment is plentiful, and for comparison, we will compare side by side the enternatinment programs on SIA and UA (on which another of our cohorts travelled) to illustrate the variety of entertainment. What is most impressive is the number of movies and TV programs on demand, which ire truly on demand so that it is possible to watch what is going on or pausing at any time, rather than waiting for the 2 hour or so cycle on which each program starts individually.

I stayed on the the aircraft while in transit, and found myself, in the company of the pretty and friendly flight attendants, many of whom took the excellent service as a given. They are not above doing the unpleasant job of cleaning the lavatories when required, and found it inconceivable that on such long flights on other airlines this was not done. I confirmed that alcoholic drinks were served at no charge on the flight.

As I write this, I find a lot of activity going on with the ground staff cleaning the plane. This is in addition to the flight attendants coming around and collecting papers and wrapping before the customers deplaned. The ground cleaning crew drag large plastic garbage bags behind them, and go from seat to seat cleaning them, and doing whatever else is necessary to refresh them, loading and unloading all the meal packs in boxes.and running. Blankets are plentyful, and in sealed clean plastic bags to show they are fresh, and replace the used blankets. The ground crew removes any of old blankets, and replaces them with new blankets, and wipes tray tables, and vacuum the floor.

The flight attendant stay in the plane as long as any passengers stay on board. A ground staff came in to check my boarding pass and passport to make sure they accounted for me, and tagged with the green sticker saying "transit". This is differnt from other situations where transit passengers leave the plane with all their belongings and go through security all over again coming on to the plane. Passengers were told they could leave their carryon baggage on the plane, carrying only their valuables with them. I chose to stay on board to avoid the inconvenience of the security checkpoints and lining up again to board.

written on wed morning Jul 30, 2008 in the plane in Hong Kong during transit and posted later .. the post date and time is approximately when it was written.

kuti kuti....

· "when we used to play during recess 'kuti kuti' to see whose kuti jumped over the other to win the 'kuti'
· When we used to play 'hantam bola' and ran around the school
· When we could buy "kanchang puteh' for 10 cents from the mama guy with a box on his head
· when we could get milk for 20 cents and plate of mee for 15 cents at the school tuck shop durig recess
· when we say a bayee walking under the cana with a soap box to stand up on it to perform tricks on a cow
· when we wore little fake gold rings with a lion's head to school
· when we carried small brown school bags to class with two snap locks on either side the first day we could ride a bicycle to school and it had a speedometer on it
· when we would assemble behind the old scout building across the street from Coleman Street school to witness fights between many of our famous contemporise
· when we would drop little pencil sharpeners with mirrors on it to check the lady teachers' legs and panties if any
· when Ms Christina Loh was the sexiest and sauciest teacher we ever had at Coleman Street
· when some of us had to parade around the school as part of the 'late comers parade' for being 5 minutes to school

Welcome to visitors from around the world!

Wow, it is impressive to note through clustrmaps and FEEDJIT we can see where people come from. Florida, Bellevue,Washington Cleveland,Ohio Bristol,Bristol Manchester,Manchester Houston,Texas San Jose,California.

Yet to see some visitors from Singapore......

Yardley Brilliantine Pomade ...

· Yardley Brilliantine Pomade - the green sticky stuff for hair thats in a small low round glass jar with gold-colour metal cap. Years later came Tancho from Japan. Also that time Brylcream and Vaseline were figthing for market share, of course Brylcream was the market leader.
· Yea, for trousers, the tigther the better, must be no pleats, remember I proudly owned a pair of and-coloured stretch levis jeans which I wore and wore and wore.
· Milk Bars - Magnolia milk bar at the old cold storage in Orchard Road, Capitol Cinema, Mont Dor at Ngee Ann flats where the original Mazda showroom was opposite FitzPatricks.
· Yes, tea dance at Princess Hotel Garni and Golden Venus, where the richer had babycham and the less endowed ordered bacardi coke, the guys drank the bacardi and the girls the coke to save money.
· Talentime - Remember Andrew Liew participated and came very close to winning. Then there were the 3 chubby girls, think they called themselves Petals, and the guy with the Tom Jones, Engelbert Hum pa lang tak voice who won 1 year, can't remember his name though.
· Thunderbirds, Flybaits, Crescendo, Naomi & The Boys (sixteen Candles).
· Monthly Movie News and weekly Students World newspaper that I just can't wait to lay my hands on.
· Kept fishes, bred them to sell to fish-shops for pocket money, kau-hoong or live worms which you coiuld get for 5cts or go to longkang use thread to catch.
· Redifusion, and the famous Lay Tai Sor story-teller. Pavilion cinema in Orchard Road, see Sunday matinee for 50cts.
· Hantam bola, badminton, basketball for me. Volleyball at ACS which I never got to play.
· Bicycle racing around the circuit surrounding ACS Barker Road quadrangle, and John King for his magnificent size always outraced everyone. That time Robin Hood brand bicycle and Shimano never heard of.
· Catching big black ants in school by sticking thin blade of grass in anthole, pull off their feelers and let them fight to the death.
· Chinese New Year firecrackers, WALAU really the bestest. Shoot rockets at each others house and frigthening the girls with the little round bomb that explodes loudly when you throw it hard against the floor.

Brylcreem

· Brylcreem; teenagers (and adults) plastered Brylcreem on their hair, shiny hair with not one strand out of place!!! There was a pre-occupation with combing one's hair. Just about everybody had a comb in the pocket!!
· tight trousers, there was a time when teenagers wore very tight narrow pants (and walked with difficulty! explains the high-pitched singing !); it wasn't cool to wear loose pants then.
· "milk bars"; for a short period (early days of rock'n'roll) milk bars sprung up all around; it was cool to be seen in a milk bar with one's mates; yup, milkshakes was the "in thing" to drink, and "floats" was also "in" !!!
· "fighting fish"; those living closer to or in rural areas will remember catching "fighting fish" which were kept in glass containers; the "fighting fish" developed striking bright colours when kept in a dark environment and appeared to be more fierce than those kept in a bright place. Mates would pit their fighting fish against others
· "talent time" - the local/national live-on-stage radio precursor to today's TV American Idol
· "tick tock" - a game
· "shuttle cock" (or some other name which I can't remember), a game where a feather is stuck in the centre of a bottle cap and the idea is to keep the "device" in the air for as long as possible with one's foot.
· rounders - a sport similar to baseball
· pointed shoes; ouch! caused many an ingrown toenail!
· collecting photos of movie stars; in the early fifties, publicity for new movies were in the form of illustrated pamphlets accompanied by autographed copies of photos of movie stars. These photos were collectibles and often exchanged.
· the Elvis Presley hairstyle
- martial arts movies......... Wong Fei Hoong etc
- comics
- raiding neighbours' mango, rambutan, langsat, etc during the fruit season
- writing in to radio stations to play our "requests" i.e. popular songs (pre-TV days when radio was king)

In Days of Yore

I heard our school Anthem had the same tune as the Canadian National Anthem but never checked it out until now to see if this was true. A google search found that the word phrasing appears similar, but the melody itself sounds different from a song called "The Maple Leaf Forever"

Anyone with additional insight into this matter would do us all a favor by sharing such knowledge.