Old Singapore Quiz (9) - Answers

The photo for the last quiz was taken from here. It was uploaded by someone called Steffen Rohner.

Q1. What is the name of the road in the foreground of the photo?

A1. Middle Road

Q2. Outside what building was this photo taken from?

A2. St Anthony's Convent (Secondary) School. Later, it was one of the campuses of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts or NAFA. Now it looks vacant. The following photo shows this building as viewed from the location of the "BAR" in the old photo:


Q3. Name 2 landmarks in the photo. (To make the quiz more challenging, I have erased the name from the facade of the tall building on the left edge of the photo.)

A3a. Waterloo Girls' School. My sister was a student of this school from 1959-64. (She'll kill me for indirectly revealing her age. :p Nevertheless, I still remember that the school uniform was a brown pinafore over a white blouse.) Later, the building was occupied by Stamford Primary School as this 1986 photo from our National Archives shows:


So PChew was right in that "Waterloo Girls School was later changed to Stamford Girls School". (See his comment here.)

Today, the school building is no longer there and there is an empty plot of land in its place. Hence you can see Stamford School quite clearly in this photo:


A3b. Selegie Complex. See this blow-up of the building at the left edge of the photo:


Compare the above photo with the Selegie Complex in the background of this 1986 NAS photo of David Elias Building and you can see the similarity:

(You could also see Prince Room Restaurant in the background.)

Q4. Name the model of the car with the plate "SE1614". (This car model was quite commonly seen on our roads in the 1960-70s.)

A4. Well, I am not 100% sure about this one. I thought the car looked like an Austin 1300 GT - compare the blow-up of the car in the above photo to one that I got here and judge for yourself:


Q5. What is the name of the street near the passenger side of the car with the plate "SE1614", i.e. near the shop where you see the "BAR" and no-entry signs.

A5. I am 100% sure that the answer for this is "Queen Street".

For good measure, here is a 1963 map of the area. The red arrow shows the direction of the camera lens in the old photo. I have inserted the locations of Selegie Complex and Selegie School, the primary school which I attended.


And here is a "second shot" of the same area. Notice how much the scene has changed - it is a complete transformation.


Results:

So how did all of you fare? Not too bad for some of you, especially Peter, YG, Icemoon and Anonymous of 18 July. But none got full marks as I think the car model was not correct. However, this is still open for debate. But one thing is for sure - if YG was not so grumpy about having to answer so many questions, he might have got a distinction, if not for all correct answers then for an "all right" attitude.

Further Reading:

The following links contain more information about the Middle Road area:

1. Infopedia entry on Queen Street

2. Wikipedia entry on Middle Road

3. Chun See's article

4. YG's article

Old Singapore Quiz (9)

The above photo was not taken by me. For the moment, I shall not reveal its source as doing so might reveal the answers to the quiz.

The owner of the photo had labelled it as a scene from Penang's Georgetown around the year 1970. I have no doubt over the purported date of the photo but I am very certain that the place was a part of old Singapore and not Penang. I am familiar with this area as I used to stay around here from birth till the mid-1970s. (Now that's a BIG clue for readers who have been following this blog since it started in 2005 or for those of you who know me personally. If you need more evidence that this is indeed an old Singapore photo, you should download and closely examine the enlarged photo. Then you might be able to see that the car facing the camera has a registration number plate that shows "SE1614". (According to this Wikipedia link, the 2-letter "S" series of vehicle registration plates ended in Jan 1972 and was replaced by the "E" series.)

If you need another clue, I can tell you that none of the buildings that you see in the photo is still standing today, if that is of any help.

Here are the quiz questions:

1. What is the name of the road in the foreground of the photo?

2. Outside what building was this photo taken from?

3. Name 2 landmarks in the photo. (To make the quiz more challenging, I have erased the name from the facade of the tall building on the left edge of the photo.)

4. Name the model of the car with the plate "SE1614". (This car model was quite commonly seen on our roads in the 1960-70s.)

5. What is the name of the street near the passenger side of the car with the plate "SE1614", i.e. near the shop where you see the "BAR" and no-entry signs.

Results and answers will be published in my blog in a week's time.

A Bird On Top And One Below

Standing here without a stitch
Forbidden to make one twitch
Been here since don't know when
Yet never could I get a tan

Some say I might be David
Yes I could be him indeed
But why was I made by Michelangelo
I guess I will never know


Was it to depict my manhood
For admiration by the neighbourhood?
Or how tiny it should not be
So the average man would be happy?

In 1991 a mad man hammered me
Hit my toes but spared my "wee wee"
It still hurts don't you know?
Now there's David on top and imposter below
Now there's a bird on top and one below

Is there more of this humiliation?
How much longer of such frustration?
It's not easy being a sculpture
Rain, shine and stares to endure

So you think there's nothing to that?
Just not moving can make you fat
It happened in the museum
I became obese ad nauseum