Unk Dicko heading to Europe for 2 weeks ...Winter holiday

Just to update all my regular visitors, tonight I'll be heading to Europe with my dear wifey.
This is a "no work" just plain relaxing (hopefully ) winter holiday.
Though we've been travelling to many different places in the world together, somehow we
have never been in Europe as one.
3 decades ago, while I was in Rome at the famous Fontana de Trevi ( featured in the movie 3 Coins in the Fountain ), I actually threw 3 coins into that fountain....and made 3 silent wishes which legend says " will come to pass".
Well, the legend must be really powerful for all my 3 wishes have come true.

For newer readers of my blog...you can find lots of TRUE stories under Blog Archives.
Check out some of these:-

# Gunung Tahan..S'pore's very 1st Expedition
# Heaven and Hell...almost!
# Meeting Princess Gunung Ledang ...face to face!
# My 1st train journey
# and many other exciting posts.

It is not likely that I will be able to post while travelling as we'll be on the move.
Until you hear from me again,
Best wishes to all for this holiday season...take care.

Unk Dicko

The SILVER Photo Contest ...details all here!

Calling on all you Hawaii - Five Os. Yes, the seniors out there! Here's a chance for you to do something so simple and in the process stand to WIN a huge LCD-TV set and also a Nintendo

Wii game set.

What do you have to do?

Simply submit your photos on the chosen theme " A Happy Memorable Moment " online.

To participate click on the flyer here for details or visit the Infocomm 123 Facebook site....at

http://www.facebook.com/infocomm123.sg/

Notice the dates. Submit between December 3 and 31 December 2009.

That's it ! Good Luck!

Oh, one other thing...this contest is meant for senior citizens only.

And they have to be Hawaii 5-0 at least! 50 years and above.

But if you are much younger why not help someone older register?

Unk Dicko

Silver Infocomm Ambassador

Gaming at Libraries? WHY not!

Unk Dicko was interviewed by The New Paper on Monday by reporter Liew Hanqing. The interview took place at the 14th floor of the National Library.
The subject of the interview was to get my views and feedback about video gaming and in particular the session that I attended at the Jurong Regional Library, last month. The article appeared in the paper on Tuesday 24 Nov 2009, page 9.

On the Saturday morning of 24 October, I drove my wife, 3 grand kids and their maid to the venue. On arrival, I was happy to meet up with James Seah ( Blog to Express ) who had forwarded me the invite and Ivan Chew ( the Rambling Librarian blogger) who was the host.
It is really wonderful to meet and speak to fellow blogger friends in person.

Photo: James Seah and us.

Photo:

Young and old enjoying themselves at the Games station.

Photo:

Unk Dicko trying out the game of Bowling on Wii Sports with others.


Photo:

James enjoying playing a Board game.

Photo:

Unk Dicko playing a Board game with cards. It was fun as it required not just luck but some semblance of good memory.

Photo: The little ones enjoying their game of Mario Kart.
After the session ended at about 1 pm, we adjourned for a prepared lunch.

Overall the session was very successful and served its purpose. I think this is certainly a step in the right direction to make a library " more alive". We need to move with the times. We who have tried it out are all for this innovative move!

Thanks James. Thanks Ivan.

Jingle Bell ...Bhangra style!

Unk Dicko has always had a special liking for Punjabi Bhangra. The music and rhythm is so lively, with the drumbeats, ankle bells and all adding to an unbeatable, heady dance mixture.

In 1988, when I led the Serangoon Gardens Sing Singapore group to emerge Champions of the island-wide inter-constituency Sing S'pore championships...one of my key strategy was to have 2 lead Bhangra dancers, male and female...whom I knew would not fail to captivate the crowd.

They not only did not fail but were simply superb. One was the daughter of our friend in Sg Gardens and the other my very good friend, Max Singh... a bespectacled young men then.

So in tribute to their "bhangra prowess" of 1988 and sending you all my early Christmas greetings in a non-traditional way.... enjoy " Nickmas with Bhangra!"

ps: Remember to switch off the JANGO Jukebox music which plays automatically.

What happened to Adrian Lim's flat?

Adrian Lim, Tan and Hoe were arrested and detained for the purpose of investigation into the Toa Payoh cult murder in 1981. Subsequently, the "unholy trinity" were tried in open court in 1983, found guilty and sentenced to death. They remained on death row until their eventual execution on 25 November 1988 when all legal appeals failed.

What happened to Adrian Lim's 3 room flat in T Payoh?

It was vacant for 5 years after his arrest.

Then a Catholic family bought over the flat. They were interviewed by the Straits Times in this

report of 26 November 1988.

I truly admire their stand. They showed no fear, no qualms, no queasiness about making it their peaceful home despite knowing the nightmarish history and background of what occured there.

That as I said, was in 1988 when this news report appeared.

More than 2 decades have since flown by and I have no idea and no updates about the place.

I presume no news is good news.

As a matter of fact, many buyers of properties never really check the history of their intended

purchase. It was only when reporters or other interested parties approached them long after the crime for permission to film, photograph, interview etc...that they discovered the truth.

Quite a few homes which were scenes of brutal crime and murder have been sold to new buyers

who apparently were unaware of their dark history.

The agents may have known but chose not to divulge.

All traces of Siang Lim Park gone forever!

This post is a continuation of the previous post on the new Siang Lim Park.

I walked to the end of Lorong 40 joining a T junction with Guillemard Road.

Direction of camera - facing directly south in this photo. Opposite Lorong 40, across Guillemard Road is the Versailles Mansions (condos). If you look at my map Ref#24, I indicated that this was where my very good friend the late Charlie Tan Boon Seng used to live in...a row of single storey terrace houses. Further back was just nothing but open bushland where we could go hunting for tasty birds like the "burung ayam ayam" among others. Many of us were adept at using homemade catapults for hunting...accuracy pretty deadly. We made a small fire and had our own backwoods cooking right there. To us and for us, it was like Red Indian country at the bushland.

This corner of the Waterina used to be the home of my friend " Mat Tikus" Ref# 23 on my map.

I was facing east.

There were no road barriers in the middle rof the road and no traffic lights here in the past. Traffic was very light in the early days.

At the end of the Versailles condos is Hemmant Road...which used to have a row of very old dilapidated houses occupied by squatters. In one of these dwellings lived an old couple and an only son. He was the most famous rojak seller in our kampong. Using a tricycle as his pushcart stall, he stationed himself permanently at the Lorong 40 bridge. I never knew his real name as everyone respectfully called him "Apek rojak". He operated daily from the late afternoon till the night. His devoted and loving wife or son will bring dinner for him. Tragedy struck one day when a huge fire engulfed the small colony at Hemmant Road burning it to the ground. Many of us kampong folks, including myself, rushed there hoping to pitch in some help. We only managed to help them carry away some miserable household and personal belongings. The fire had spread too quickly, aided by strong winds. They were devastated and so were we.

In one swoop, all the squatters were gone. That place was never reoccupied by squatters again. It later became the Police logistics Depot.


As I turned to the west, this is the scene. The Sunny Spring is to the right of photo. Further down the road, on the left is the Singapore Badminton Hall.

This is the Sunny Spring Condo. Just where you see a lady walking on the pavement was once the home of another family friend, Agnes. See Ref# 11 on my map. Their front door faced Guillemard Road.

This is the present entrance to the Condos. A friend of mine used to live here at the corner house. And it was from here that we watched the gunfight at Siang Lim Park across the other side ( the Waterina ), back in August 1965.

I did not have access inside this estate. However by eyeballing, if you walk straight ahead through the entrance, keeping slightly to the left...that would be where the 2nd ancient keramat used to be. Map Ref# 10 on my map.

Adrian Lim the Cult Murderer...part 2.

What kind of people go to a court of
law?
Well it depends....on your purpose of going there in the first place. Some are obviously working there within the judicial system.
Some are compelled to be there by the law as accused persons or defendents or witnesses.
The majority of those who turned up for the Adrian Lim trial were members of the public who came in large numbers. There were long queues for the limited seats in the public gallery of the court. People started queueing hours before the court convened each day...and still more came.
One reason for this other than the mere curiosity factor was the chief accused himself...Adrian Lim. As the trial proceeded, he was "enjoying" playing to the gallery more and more. Unafraid to describe in gruesome details the debauchery and the slaughter, he kept the courtroom engrossed and captivated with the very lively descriptions and answers to questions that were put to him.
The media and press coverage provided explicit reports of the day to day happening in the courtroom.
This kind of story is every newspaper's dream...it sells!
Just look at the photo with the large crowd of onlookers outside the courthouse. Every nearby road was filled with people and more people. Unbelievable!
Where you normally buy only one, many bought 2 or 3 different dailies to get more info and pictures or a different slant to the side stories.

Both these newsclips are dated 26 November 1988, Straits Times, page 21.
More to come...unk Dicko.