So as this is a wander down memory lane:
I don’t remember the trip out to Singapore, I was only 5 at the time, but apparently we left London Airport in an RAF Britannia in 1959 and reached Singapore in 1960.
My first memory was waking up in what turned out to be a hotel room, being served breakfast in bed by someone dressed in white and wearing a turban. He opened the veranda doors and I can clearly remember the bright, sharp light and the colour. From my bed I could see the green of the grass the white of the sand and the blue of the sea and sky.
We eventually moved into a brand new bungalow hiring at 4 Jalang Ketumbit, Seletar Hills Estate. It was at the bottom of a hill and there was a long row of shops and main road. There was a storm drain between the shops and car park where we used to play chase the flip flop. During the rainy season and water was flowing through them, drop a flip flop at one end and race down to the other to catch it before it disappeared into the system.
Went to a school that was right next to a golf course, finish lunch time and meet dad for walk round the course while he played golf, down to a beach to meet mum and brother. Don’t know about chocolate milk but I do remember milk in triangular cartons. We also went to school in an RAF coach, called a ‘Gary’, with 2 armed policemen on board. 2 rifles next to the steps and policemen wearing white webbing with revolvers. Found our years later that it had been 6 months since the communists (‘War of the Running Dogs’?) had surrendered and there were still ‘incidents’ going on.
Can remember frequently going to a Chinese market at night with the propane lamps hissing away, and when parents went off shopping on a Saturday morning, my brother and I would be dumped in a cinema to watch Chinese Kung Fu films before any one in the west had even heard of them. Loved it when they went flying through the air and bouncing off buildings during sword play. Only downside was that half the screen was taken up with white subtitles. Can also remember going to a swimming pool that was only open to RAF people and my dad had to show his ID card before we could get in.
Tiger Balm Gardens was a bit scary for a 5/6 year old but I liked my visits to the botanical gardens. At the gates would be vendors selling paper cones of peanuts to feed the monkeys with. Tough. By the time the monkeys had turned up, my brother and I had eaten them all.
Can remember being taken several times to Seletar airfield by my dad while he was working and remember sitting in the co-pilots seat as a Hastings was doing engine runs. Can remember Whirlwinds and Belverderes formation flying but can’t for the life of me remember any aeroplanes flying. Just helicopters.
After 2 years we flew back to the UK in an RAF Britannia with a stop at Bombay where we were sprayed with an aerosol by 2 Indians as we stepped off the aircraft and down the steps. At the Ankara, Turkey, stop there was nearly a riot as there was no fresh milk for the tea. They were having to use watered down condensed milk from the aircraft. On reaching the UK there was a nose wheel failure and we had to circle as they hand wound down the wheel. My first taste of airsickness.
We then went to RAF Acklington, in Northumberland, just in time for the winter of 1963.
Brian
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