The proud Singaporean in Malaysia

OK will start by turning Shingot’s slogan upside down.

So we went to my father’s vacation home. He didn’t want to pay the toll for the 2nd link, but we also had some stuff to do in JB. Anyway I was wondering why he was burning another $8 worth of petrol so that he could save on $10 of toll.

I drove to the border, and then we changed places. Then he showed me this bridge they were building across the Sekudai river that would eventually provide a faster way to get from the older JB to the Iskandar region. After a couple of hours of driving, we arrived at Gelang Patah, which was the town nearest to the house. It was a former commie town. Had breakfast. Then over to the house, where to my father’s consternation, the contractor who was supposed to deliver 2 trees failed to turn up.

Later on, over to Pekan Nanas (I just googled the place on a map – wtf, it really was in the middle of nowhere!) To get some cheap groceries. Yeh well the old folks get really excited about cheap groceries. The stuff was OK, fresh farm produce. Although I haven’t really seen a wet market with so many flies buzzing around the carcasses for quite some time.

After that, back to the house, where armed with a newly acquired garden hoe and a wicker basket, I was about to engage in my great adventure of planting 2 pomelo trees. At the same time, we were expecting my uncle to visit and lend some much-needed advice to the renovation of the place. The storm clouds were gathering, so my father and I each dug a ditch for the two trees. This was the first time I was digging something since that trench I dug somewhere in Jurong for NS. Crappy (but hardly traumatic) experience, that.

As was to be expected, my father was much more of an expert at that than me. There was good advice, of course. You hold the hoe above your head, and let the weight of the hoe fall. I know that. But when I do that, the hoe doesn’t land where I want it to land. So most of the time, instead of methodically carving out lumps of soil (which is what you are supposed to do) I ended up pulverizing everything and having to scoop out sand (which is a great waste of effort).

My uncle was watching, and he chuckled and said, “ah, reliving the good old days.” (The two brothers were farmers when they were young.)

Anyway, they were all dug out already. So we did the rest: mixing the sand, some loam (bought this from a roadside nursery) and the clay-y soil, and dumping in 2 trees for good measure. Might have been the first time this city boy is planting a tree.

Doesn't this all remind you of all those old PAP cheap PR stunts called "tree planting day?" I don't suppose we have lots of them anymore because the amount of green spaces you find in newer HDB flats these days are a fucking embarrassment. But while I was digging a hole for the tree, I wondered if LKY ever dug the hole himself, or he had somebody dig the hole for him first, and then he did the relatively light work of filling it in with a sapling?

After that, more cheap groceries from wet markets, and then home.

Yes, I suppose it’s nice that the older generation want to introduce the charms of the rustic Singapore they knew from their childhood because it’s all disappeared. But it’s eluding me somewhat.