Thursday, February 15, 2007
Favours & Remembrances (2)
Hi,
More of the things my friends did for me.
When I began my permanent employment in the Engineers Department of the Singapore City Council I assumed that that was going to be my career. As such I wanted a special personal drawing table. My new colleague, S..L....K...., at the Bridges & Drainage Section, took me to a furniture shop in the Kallang Basin area. For two hundred dollars, this Shanghainese carpenter made this desk cum drawing table exactly according to the design drawing I gave him. This four by two and a half feet beautiful and lasting desk was made of solid teak with a quarter inch thick crown glass top, a sliding glass door bookcase at the front and a hinged instrument panel on the right side. It is the only desk I need to have, it is still in perfect condition for nearly half a century.
I had a Volvo 122S saloon car in the 1960s. Its 1800 cc engine was fed by twin carburetors. It had no air conditioner but a ventilation fan. Its consumption was over thirty miles per gallon in normal urban traffic. It was the most treasured car I ever had. Its brake pump unit developed a tiny leak after twelve years. A colleague, G..Y..T.., who was good at fiddling gadgets offered to do a transplant for it as opportunely another friend of mine was scrapping his car, a similar model. This colleague spent a good part of the day doing the transplant, having had to travel from Mandai where he stayed to the Mt. Sinai estate where the scrap car was. It was work done on a sweaty afternoon in the open.
When my colleague, L..S...C..., celebrated his sixtieth birthday, he invited me and another friend to his school anniversary dinner in Seremban besides golfing at Seremban and Kuala Lumpur where he lives, having arranged the accommodation at both these places. He was aware that my stomach needed particular attention at the time. The dinner was late and the catering was not that generous. To my surprise he casually forked his piece of chicken onto my plate and joked away with the party, drawing attention away from his sacrifice. I was sure he had to snack when he returned home.
After I retired I subscribed to NTUC Fairprice; there are advantages being a member here. Once day I got a surprise telephone call from a colleague, I... O.., from out of the blue. He informed me that I was eligible for a special lower subscription fee because I had served at least two terms in the Executive Committee while being a member of the union when I was employed at SIA. I had already left my last employment, and became a retiree, a nobody.
Colleagues are a goldmine of good friends; good friends need no reward.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
More of the things my friends did for me.
When I began my permanent employment in the Engineers Department of the Singapore City Council I assumed that that was going to be my career. As such I wanted a special personal drawing table. My new colleague, S..L....K...., at the Bridges & Drainage Section, took me to a furniture shop in the Kallang Basin area. For two hundred dollars, this Shanghainese carpenter made this desk cum drawing table exactly according to the design drawing I gave him. This four by two and a half feet beautiful and lasting desk was made of solid teak with a quarter inch thick crown glass top, a sliding glass door bookcase at the front and a hinged instrument panel on the right side. It is the only desk I need to have, it is still in perfect condition for nearly half a century.
I had a Volvo 122S saloon car in the 1960s. Its 1800 cc engine was fed by twin carburetors. It had no air conditioner but a ventilation fan. Its consumption was over thirty miles per gallon in normal urban traffic. It was the most treasured car I ever had. Its brake pump unit developed a tiny leak after twelve years. A colleague, G..Y..T.., who was good at fiddling gadgets offered to do a transplant for it as opportunely another friend of mine was scrapping his car, a similar model. This colleague spent a good part of the day doing the transplant, having had to travel from Mandai where he stayed to the Mt. Sinai estate where the scrap car was. It was work done on a sweaty afternoon in the open.
When my colleague, L..S...C..., celebrated his sixtieth birthday, he invited me and another friend to his school anniversary dinner in Seremban besides golfing at Seremban and Kuala Lumpur where he lives, having arranged the accommodation at both these places. He was aware that my stomach needed particular attention at the time. The dinner was late and the catering was not that generous. To my surprise he casually forked his piece of chicken onto my plate and joked away with the party, drawing attention away from his sacrifice. I was sure he had to snack when he returned home.
After I retired I subscribed to NTUC Fairprice; there are advantages being a member here. Once day I got a surprise telephone call from a colleague, I... O.., from out of the blue. He informed me that I was eligible for a special lower subscription fee because I had served at least two terms in the Executive Committee while being a member of the union when I was employed at SIA. I had already left my last employment, and became a retiree, a nobody.
Colleagues are a goldmine of good friends; good friends need no reward.
Have a nice day,
Ronald
# posted by chunmu @ 7:17 PM 
