Monkey business

This was probably taken in the Botanical Gardens in Penang. I sent this picture to friends, jokingly entitled Me Getting Pocket Money from Dad.

Those monkeys (probably macaques) could be audacious. My mother used to tell how when I just a small kid, I once had something, a sweet or a piece of fruit perhaps, snatched out my hands, leaving me to wail. I don't remember that episode, I was probably too young.

An adventure with my dad

A seemingly mundane photo of buildings and hills in the distance. But I believe these are the photos I took when my dad allowed me to accompany him on an outstation trip to Taiping, a small town about 250km from Kuala Lumpur to conduct some business, I think to do with a tin mine.

I looked up the train station on Street View. I think the station is still where it used to be, but modernised of course. It would be too much to expect the buildings (I'm guessing a school) to be standing after 50 years, but I can still see the hills in the distance.

We took the overnight train from Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth. Since this arrived at Butterworth early in the morning and Taiping being only 2/3rds of the way there, the train deposited us in Taiping sometime before sunrise. So we had to wait for daylight before proceeding to the town centre a few km away. I don't remember if we walked. Most likely we got a trishaw.

I think my dad is listening to the news on his pocket transistor radio.

I think I was quite adept at using my dad's 35mm camera by then, there is only one underexposed shot before the first good one. But it must have had a light meter, as dawn and indoor scenes are difficult to judge for exposure.

And I think these are the offices where I waited while he talked with the people he needed to.

Why do I remember all this after half a century? I remember being excited at being allowed to accompany my dad on an overnight trip with the frisson of arriving at an early hour. It was an adventure for me. I know some people have missed having a dad in their life. I didn't appreciate my dad enough when he was alive, but I'm not the only child who does this. I realise now that the most important thing was that he was there for me when I was growing up. He'd be surprised I remember all this. More important than toys or presents is doing things together with kids.

Another blog?

Well yes, the material doesn't fit into the existing blogs.

I've been scanning old photos and many of them bring back old memories of people and incidents. I've been bothering people with snippets by email and messaging and it's occurred to me that I should set them down in a blog. Hence this.