Composition in blue and yellow

No, I wasn't trying for abstract art. At the time I just wanted to finish the roll of film so that I could see the earlier photos. This was taken soon after the kitten and raffia photo, sometime in late 1974.

 The bananas are Pisang Rastali (often contracted to Tali by the Chinese and just called Tali Jiew), a variety hardly seen in Australia because they don't transport well, so are local to an area. More's the pity because there are so many varieties of bananas beyond Cavendish and Lady Finger, each with distinctive taste. These are my favourite variety.

The gas cylinder contained cooking gas, probably a mix of propane and butane. They were supplied by the Esso company. It seems its assets were acquired by Petron in 2013 so this brand no longer exists. The usual scheme was you had two cylinders at home and when one ran out you swapped in the full one and called Esso to exchange the empty cylinder for a full one. This was the cooking fuel for most households. There was no gas line network and the electricity network wasn't up to the load. So it was either gas or the older polluting and dangerous charcoal burners.

I've got a tiger in my tank

One of the most successful marketing campaigns by Esso was the use of a tiger as a mascot and the line I've Got A Tiger In My Tank. This photo was taken at a school day where a budding comedian plays a boxer having a match with a roly-poly inflatable tiger.

Besides this toy, other merchandise included T-shirts. I have a picture of me wearing one. Also "tiger tails" which were attached to petrol tank caps to give the impression one had a captive tiger in the tank.

There were also bumper stickers to get free advertising. Some alteratists discarded the T and edited the E to an L to make the slogan I'VE GOT A GIRL IN MY TANK.

Not surprisingly, the match ended in a KO win by the tiger.

A pretty woman

This picture was taken at a Malaysian Agricultural Fair in the early or mid-1970s. She was a publicity rep for Esso as you can see from the sash.

In fact the fair exhibited more than just agricultural products. I remember that the Malaysian Consumer Association had its launch here. They had a display of counterfeit washing powders. FAB was a well-known brand then, and the counterfeit products sported names like F4B and FAR with similar graphic designs. These days counterfeits are more subtle.

The fair also exhibited industrial products. Here is a booth by an electronics factory showing a range of variable resistors and electrolytic capacitors. Many US and European electronics manufacturers set up factories and assembly plants in Malaysia due to the wage advantage. They all relocated to lower wage countries many years ago.