Our Memories

You know you are an ANZMBOS Brat when you ...

• ...pay attention to anything you hear or read with the word 'Singapore' in it
• ...remember Monsoon Drains and hook worms after the rain
• ...hate the thought of the taste of quinine (malaria tablets) still and will run a mile before enduring the dreaded 'needle'
• ...chased after the 'Mozzie Man' so you could run through the 'fog' (later learning words like 'toxic')
• ...remember the amah markets at night after a meal at your favourite restaurant or makan stall
• ...find yourself always saying that nothing tastes quite as good as it did in Singapore
• ...never seem to find anything that comes close to the tastes of Singapore (especially satay!) yet you still search in hope
• ...remember the yum yum man, the icey-icey man, the magnolia man
• ...wondered the past 20 or 30 years why you were in such a hurry to get 'home' and have wanted to return to Singapore ever since
• ...returned 'home' to more of a culture shock than the one you experienced 2 years prior
• ... you loved juicy sweet rambutans, and slimy tart mangosteens and know what durians smell like (and still don't understand how the locals could possibly like them!)
• ...have people look at you strangely as you tell them you drank coke out of a plastic bag with a straw
• ...would die for a plate of hot chips after a nice cool swim, sharing them with your friends...of course
• ...have visited the Tiger Balm Gardens, a few times
• ...saw ginger drying in the sun
• ...aren't bothered by the sight of plucked chooks hanging from their still attached feet (you are over the nightmares you had as a child now... finally)
• ...wish the shops in your area gave bottled soft drinks (green spot, 7up and kick-a-poo juice) and a stool to sit your restless children on while you looked around the shop. (and wished they sat as still as you Had to at the same age!)
• ...remember the sounds of mahjong tiles clicking as you walked through the kampongs
• ...tell your children every December that you had Christmas Dinner at the Raffles Hotel
• ...see building sites it reminds you of the noisy pole-drivers pounding in the foundations for more hotels, they were everywhere
• ...remember the refreshing taste of freshly squeezed sugar cane juice
• ...long so much to return to a time and place you know will never be experienced again and wish you had realised it back then
• ...take every opportunity to slip in somewhere during a conversation, even to strangers, that you lived in Singapore only to be met with a blank stare and you wondered why you bothered, how could they possibly understand what that means to you