Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Memories! More photos Sibu trip

I visited my friend in Sibu. In his sitting room, they still have this beautiful clock hanging there... 100% functional and it is some 50 years old! The only problem is that the golden horse has become a black horse!

This reminded me that we used to have such a clock also but the spring was broken many years ago. I have no idea where is the clock now. This type of clock used to be purchased for newly wed, ie, my friend's parents wedding gift!

Talking about latex pressing machines, I visited one of the scrape metal company in Sibu. I saw this array of latex pressing machines. They were made in Singapore and Sibu! Raw latex sheet was pressed by the 3rd machine (black ones) from the right with smooth drum. After it was pressed to a thin sheet, it was finally passed thru those with "flower" drum. By the way, the reason to press the latex into thin sheet was to get the water out. After that, the white rubber sheet was hang out for drying. Eventually they were smoked dry and the colour changed to light brown.

Remember I talked about the old fashion kitchen cooking stove in my previous blog? The huge wok was fired from below by firewood... and I remember that in the smothering burning charcoal, we used to bury sweet potatoes in the ashes with red hot charcoal above (see pic above). While dinner was done, the fragrant "roasted" sweet potatoes were also cook.

ok, the wok above is now used to cook food for domesticated animals, eg, pig. The yam leaves are a source of food for them.

See, firewood is being pushed in from below if a bigger fire is needed.

When I visited St. Anthony school in Sarikei, I saw this skeleton. On a closer look, I was convinced that this skeleton is as old as me and if I am not mistaken, it was the same skeleton used to teach biology to us!
p/s: The skeleton is still in reasonable condition. There are some loose "bones".

4 comments:

FM Luder said...

The guy shovelling firewood reminds me of my Dad! My Dad's family owned a bakery many moons ago... and he complained to me that every morning at 4am when he was 12 or 13 years old (1965ish) he used to have to shovel coal into the furnace to get it going! Of course, coal is banned now.

I would have loved to work in that bakery, though - a local, one-off, non-chain bakery - rare to come by these days. I miss my Gran's pasties and cakes - she always used to bake more than necessary whenever we visited =(

Anonymous said...

william, that skeleton still in the good condition? everytime i passed by the lab, i was so scared to see that. a kind of phobia to me.

Anonymous said...

the fire place, i used to help my grandma to start up fire by blowing through the iron pipe. sounded like trumpet. have to blow slowly otherwise the ashes will spot on the face and everywhere. there is a kind of water scoop made up of old pumpkin skin. i hope u can blog if u have one.

William said...

Phil, ya, it brought back fond memories of yesteryears! Sometimes we take things for granted and forgot how it was done before.

Flower: That skeleton is in reasonable condition.
You reminded me of the time when the only thing we could do was to help blowing the fire. So, cooking became a family affair!
I saw that scoop not long ago. I must look for it. I think it was not made from pumkin but from the "bai boo".