Old Gramophone at Sungei Road

I spent last Sunday afternoon at Sungei Road thieves/flea market. Every visit to Sungei Road is always fascinating browsing through the many old, odd, quirky and at times offbeat merchandise that could have come from somebody's discarded rubbish after a spring cleaning.

Photo credit: Wikipidia

On this occasion I striked out a conversation with a Mr Koh Ah Koon who sort of specialise in sound systems like gramophones, turntables, amplifiers and speakers besides other odds and ends. Mr Koh was an event organiser. Not the type that does conventions and exhibitions but "pasar malam" (night market) or what is sometimes referred to as trades fairs. Due to intense competition in the trade fair organising business he started to deal in secondhand goods.

Among the items on sales at his stall was an old gramophone. It was a familiar one because my family had an identical one when I was a child.  This was an early 1930s portable wind-up phonograph from His Master's Voice. The familiar trade mark of the picture of a Jack Russel Terrier listening intently to the sound coming out of the horn of the gramophone goes way back then. EMI and RCA used to own the trade mark. It is now the trade mark of HMV.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

An item like that attracts a lot of attention without fail. And to add to the excitement of the moment was the sound of an old familiar Cantonese song from a 78 rpm record being played. The casing had some dents, but other than that it works fine. A short while after I took this video clip a Eurasian looking gentlemen bought it. He seemed to be a regular and a familiar figure with the stall holders. As soon as he appeared a number of stall holders greeted him and started chattering.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;
The phonograph, record player, or gramophone is a device that was mostly commonly used from the late 1870s through the 1980s for playing sound recordings. Usage of these terms is not uniform across the English-speaking world (see below). In more modern usage, this device is often called a turntable, record player, or record changer. When used in conjunction with a mixer as part of a DJ set up, they are often called decks.

Grandma sunning baby with Jaundice

I was on my way to my usual Sunday morning Tai Chi class at Clementi Community Club when I caught sight of this lady sunning her grandchild at the foot of a HDB flat nearby. It was 9.30am and out in the open. I was concerned that baby may be over exposed to the sunlight, so have I to kaypoh (singlish for busybody) as I always am. I casually remarked "baby having Jaundice huh?". And then I asked the lady if she may be over-exposing baby avoiding sounding too intrusive. She replied that because of overcast sky earlier in the morning the sun wasn't shinning.

It common practice among many Singaporeans to sun baby with Jaundice. In fact our elders recommends a little morning sun helps keep Jaundice away; and that what we did for our daughter when she was a baby. We took care to exposed only very short duration in early morning sun that shine through the window. I read with great surprise when I goggled on this subject to find on SingHealth website (http://www.singhealth.com.sg/PatientCare/ConditionsAndTreatments/Pages/Jaundice%28Baby%29.aspx) that such a practice is NOT recommended.

What's your experience with your children?

Singapore Wonder Girls - "Nobody but you"

I was at the SAFRA AGM 2010 on Sunday 31 October 2010 at SAFRA Mt Faber. In the entertainment segment after the meeting a cute version of  the Korean Wonder Girls song "Nobody but you" was presented in Mandarin/Hokkien dialect by Singapore's Wonder Girls "BIG" - Big, Intelligent and Glamorous. Pay attention to the chorus - everybody mei you (mandarin=do not have) bak chew (Hokkien=eyes).



For those of you who likes this catchy tune, here's a pretty cools cover version done by a Vietnamese boy living in Singapore. Enjoy : )