George Yeo ex- PAP Minister's speech at Beijing Forum 2013 ; an eerie prediction come true today

Some recollections of my childhood days at Adis Road.

Me at 12 

I was born on 27th November (no year) I believe it was 6.42 pm in the evening. The day was a Wednesday.  Strange with all these new smart phones, you can determine the exact day of your birth from the Calendar function on your Andriod phone.

I was born in Kandang Kerbau Hospital (at Middle Road), I believe Prof. Salmon (Yvonne Salmon's father) delivered me. Nothing special to mark the occasion but I do know my early years (since cognizance or mindful recollection) started around 5 to 6 years of age.

My parents owned a bungalow house at 6 Adis Road, Singapore 9 (those days the postcode was only a single digit). I was the elder of 2 boys by 3 years. John's birth month is September. My father told me that the bungalow house was the family house and he bought it. During the second world war, the Japanese occupiers used the house as a command post as it was midway up the Mt Sophia Hill and overlooked all the smaller houses and Malay kampung. If you followed the road to the end at Adis Road, it was the mansion of Lee Kong Chian, the renowned businessman of the early 20th century Singapore. Flanking our house were 2 schools for young girls, namely Nan Hua Primary and Secondary and Methodist Girls School. Our house was right smack in the middle of both these fine girls schools.   

The first floor of the house had a driveway for the car (Simca was the first car I recall) and the porch area was brick stone with both sides leading to a rather run-down drab garden.

All the memories come flooding back at the sight of our old house. It had long been sold in 1976, and currently. the plot is part of a condominium estate

Our house did not have the nicely kept lawns of the US in those days (60s to early 70s). When you reached the top of the driveway and upon entry to the left side of the first floor, you would come into the the main outer hall (where we played our football) and then enter into the ante room leading to the upstairs living and dining rooms. The entire bungalow had10 rooms and a huge hall both upstairs and downstair. For the downstairs area, the darkened hall kept my father's law files, and there was a line phone with poor electrical connectivity. I remember getting electric shocks whenever my ears touched the phone headset ! 

Those days (60s till early 70s) people were dirt poor. The average salary of a common secretary or teacher would be approximately $200 - 300 per month. People had no proper acess to running water, sewage, housing and medical facilities. Poverty and crime was rife in those days, so I was indeed extremely fortunate as a child, living with my brother, kakak (malay name for sister, she was infact our family maid),my parents and the tenants living in the back shacks.

London June 1974 

My father Geoffrey was a top lawyer in the late 60s and 70s and we recall the many nights when he had very tough criminal cases in the day he would come home to our family and at night had pretty nightmarish 'screaming matches' as if he were in high court !  We dared not to wake him during those stressful periods.

My kindergarten (nursery) years were delightful and full of play. I was the 'king of the playgorund' as I recall. (I will leave it at that). The church and kindergarten are still there at Prinsep Street (Presbytarian Church and Kindergarten) and they do indeed hold fond memories for me. I was quite the tough guy in those days, as I recall. My father once dropped by and saw me wrestling or thumping 3 boys in the sandpit. I even had all the kids pushing my go - kart in the palyground !  

Bully me ? Maybe or maybe not.  

One of my earliest recollections happened when I was just 6 years of age. I was barely in Primary 1. We used to watch this series every week called the Flying Nun starring Sally Field. So one day while I was at the back of the house on the steps, I saw the pipe which was extending from one wall to the next and decided that I could 'fly'. So at the top of the steps, I decided to 'have a go' and leapt (totally brainless thing to do) from the top of the steps and try to catch the pipe some good 6 feet away and perhaps 10 feet from the ground.

I failed miseralbly and tumbled down the steps with multiple knocks going down. I could have been on the main selection list for the Darwin Awards (ultimate stupidity) for that year.

I tumbled hit, bashed, and thrashed myself all the 10 or so steps down. I cried like a baby and I blacked out.

The story (from what I heard from my Dad) was that, fortunately we had a Japanese tenant called Ken Omemuri and he heard my cries and came rushing out. He brought me straight into a taxi and called my Dad at work.

I woke up in my Dad's car on the way to the hospital. I had blacked out and my head was a bloody mess. The legend then went on like this. Upon arriving at the Singapore General Hospital, my father called (more like bellowed) the nurse to call Dr. Yayha Cohen the top surgeon in Singapore then. The nurse gave him the sarcastic response that even the President of Singapore could not get that kind of attention from Dr. Cohen.

My father and Dr Cohen were best friends and my Dad told her off to metion his name and she quickly obliged. Dr. Cohen came running and I was immediately put into the operating theatre and given general anaesthesia and I saw the entire operation while being fully lucid but in no pain ! It was surreal watching the needle going through the top of my head and coming out. 

It took 6 stitches on my left forehead and in about 2 hours, I was back at home sitting at the top of the steps and all the neighbourhood boys, girls, uncles, aunties came to visit me, and marvel at the brown patch above my left eye.

at Swimming Club with my brother and cousins 

I am so grateful to my father, Dr. Cohen, Ken Omemuri and the numerous others who came to my aid. A stupid young kid who was so full of himself and thought that he could 'fly' like the Flying Nun at 6 years of age.

The folly of youth ! 

Remembering Anna Abisheganaden nee Wen my Mum this Mother's Day

My Mum  (extreme Left) Anna with Dr Kwa Soon Bee (2nd Right) 

My Mum Anna was an amazing woman. She was born 30th Novmeber 1930 and first lived in Guangzhou China, before moving to Hong Kong, then Penang and finally Singapore. The eldest of 4 sisters and 1 youngest brother, she was a very loving and strong mother to me and my brother John.

She met my father in the 50s and while she was married once before, she took care of both John and I with her usual dominant matriachial style. Stern, yet loving. I don't think we turned out too badly in life. Though I still need to aspire to greater achievements in the business front, John is very established in the medical fraternity.

Visit by K.M. Byrne, Mum was the Girl Guide Troop Leader (extreme Left in White)

As a young woman, she showed tremendous leadership and was the Troop Leader for the Singapore Girl Guides in the 1950s and had the privilege of meeting Prince Philip during one of the National Days and K.M. Byrne in the photo above.  

When I was cognizant enough, I realised that she was a very gregarious person and loved to meet with plenty of people in her line of work and play. She joined the Singapore Swimming Club together with my father in 1973 (I was 11 then) and made us 2 'monkeys' take up swimming under the late Mr. Neo Chwee Kok (aka Flying Fish). Mr. Neo was one of the first Olympians to swim for Singapore way back in the 1950s. 

Alas he passed away in the late 1980s - still a youngish man in his early 50s.  

Mum took part in many activities first with the Swimming Club, then with her workplace and was active in Badminton, Swimming, Kong Qian (martial art), tennis and squash to name a few. 

We as young tweens went to the club most days after school, Monday to Friday with the exception of Wednesday (pool cleaning) most times in the afternoon. The swimming times were from 5.30 to 7.15 pm. 

I really look back to those days with absolute joy and longing as they were so carefree !

Mum at the SBTS 50th Anniversary dinner on 1st September 1996, 
York Hotel, Carlton Room

She always could make 'arrangements' for John and myself if we happened to be sick, to visit the best specialists back in those days. Her forte was her people skills and she relished meeting many people from most humble to the most privileged backgrounds.

With her 'team' (she is in the colourful dress.) 

Mum made it a point to have 2 events each year at our house from the late 1980s till the time of her demise in 2011 so thats over 25 years. Each year, she would host 1 party during Chinese New Year and 1 party during Christmas and there would be up to 50 people coming and celebrating the occasions with us.

Those were truly memorable days and certainly happy memories for me.

Carpe Diem  

Geoffrey Abisheganaden 19th August 2003 St Andrew's Cathedral Performance

My late father Geoffrey Abisheganaden's performance at St Andrew's Cathedral 19th August 2003.

He was 83 years of age, still sprightly and had all his faculties intact, especially his voice. 

Here he sings a German song 

For those who remembered him well, he was a perfect gentleman and excellent father to both John, myself and our families. 

A Paradigm Shift 7th Dec 2018

Main Entrance to Casino 

I first went to Europe with my father in June 1974, I was just 11 years of age, and was very privileged to fly with him to his 'Fatherland' (England) or where he studied for 5 years in the late 1940s till early 1950s. Our Europe trip covered as I recall Italy, Greece and England and we had a great time together staying in his good friend's houses, eating their home cooked curries and visiting the ruins of Athens. 

I have not had the opportunity to visit Greece again, sad to say. I've back to the UK I believe 5 times or so, once in the 1980's during my Undergraduate days (we stayed for 7 days), twice in the 1990s (the tail end of our honeymoon was in England) and once for work. In 2016, I then visited London for several days for holidays.  

Monaco, and Nice I first visited these places as a poor student undergraduate in the late 1980s or 1987 to be exact. We had a bus tour and spent a total of half a day and 1 evening being awed at the splendour of the Cote D'Azur (Blue Coast) and the cramped Monaco where the rich and wealthy park their monies and citizenship in the banks and properties.

Entrance to the Casino 

I last went back in December 2018, on 7th December to be exact and I must say that I experienced a paradigm shift. Something in my mind had me thinking with a frame of reference that Singapore the island state was still economically and socially behind that of Monaco. There and then I had a shift in mindset. 

When we stayed those 5 days in Nice and visited Canne, Monaco and Monte Carlo, I realised that in fact, Singapore had moved by leaps and bounds economically, had raised its standard of living and the so called finer things in life like good French food, casinos and the flashy cars are all in abundance in our island state.

Singapore had indeed arrived on the world stage. We are no longer a place for cheap manufactured goods (20 years or more they have been long gone) or a stopover to Australia.

We are a destination in itself. People all over the world look forward to come to our island state to play in the casinos, swim in the infinity pool on the 58th floor of Marina Bay Sands and experience the Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park and Underwater World. We even have Universal Studios in our Sentosa Island.

  

Throwback from the Past ; Anna and Geoffrey Abisheganaden 1978

with Aunt Alice, and friends from 196 East Coast Road.

My Mum and Dad led very active lives, both in work and also in social and volunteering activities. These are the memories which I would choose to remember them by, at their prime (Mum in her early to mid 50s and Papa in his Mid 60s). 

Mum as the personal assistant to 4 Permanent Secretary of Health since the late 60s till the late 90s. Papa was a lawyer who had his own law firm and then helped out many organizations as legal adviser and school such as the Bible Society, YMCA, Anglican Council of Churches, NUSS Society Alumni (he was President on 2 separate occasions),St Andrew's School (board of governors) and St Andrew's Junior College, Singapore Swimming Club, the list just went on and on.  

What everyone does with his life is purely his decision only. At the end of his or her life, if he gets a chance to reflect on it, he must have as little regrets and rather,  reminisce about all the joyous and satisfying occasions that have dotted his life and experiences.

Living in a huge bungalow, driving the fastest supercars or visiting all the glamorous places the world over just doesn't impress me like when I was younger. I am cognizant of my limitations in life both physically, mentally and spiritually. I do whatever I can with my abilities and small gifts bestowed upon me to traverse through life, raise a family and mingle with friends and people who mean much to me. Helping others out is also an option I am more focussed nowadays.

Robin Williams (the late great comedian) in his standout movie "Dead Poets Society" told his young students to "gather ye rosebuds while ye may.." a sonnet by Robert Herrick.

Gather ye Rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a flying

And this same flower that smiles today

Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamps of heaven, the Sun

The Higher he's a getting

The sooner will his race be run

And nearer he's to setting.

That age is best which is the first

When youth and blood are warmer

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time

And while ye may, go marry,

For having lost but once your prime

You may forever tarry.

"To the Virgins, Make Much of Time" 

Robert Herrick - 1591 - 1674.

  

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