I have been 65 for 6 days and I am already an expert? One of the first things I realized is I won’t be listening to The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four” sung by the MonaLisa Twins, at least not as often as before. The MonaLisa Twins are a great singing duo – follow them on their YouTube Channel

Yeah, yeah… I know many of you are dying to get here. However (instead of “but”), the preferred mode of getting here (65) is by living it through. Shortcuts not necessary.

July 10th…seems so long ago.😂 My morning began with me writing and publishing the article “64 GOING ON 65”. I started working on it on Sunday night, minutes before midnight.

Once that was done, we did a couple of quick errands in Taipan(USJ 10). Jeannie and Laura took the day off from work, to spend it with me. My choice of bag accompaniment for the day why of course, was the “Crumpler Day-To-Day”. Splendid choice!

Jeannie suggested we go to MyBurgerLab for lunch. They are well known for their out of the ordinary yet tasty, burgers. I wanted to go to the restaurant in Seapark. I thought we’d go for dessert to The Ice Cream Bar which was a couple of doors away.

True to their name, MyBurgerLab did serve up some great burgers:
Laura had the Cheesy Chicken with Awesome Fries.
Jeannie had the Ayam Kau Hijau (O?) with Salsa Nachos; and,
I had the B. Blazing Hula (P?) with Awesome Fries. I thought I was going to hear some Hawaiian noise with Dire Straits kicking in with “Money For Nothing)…no such thing. Can’t blame a 65 year old for hoping for the out of the ordinary.

The food was scrumptious. The spicy dip they served with the Awesome fries was….”Awesome!”. Mukesh, the Store Manager, and his team provided great service. Anytime you are looking for a great meal, nice ambience and around the area or are in Seapark, Petaling Jaya; look up Mukesh and his team at MyBurgerLab.

We moseyed along to The Ice Cream Bar once we were done with MyBurgerLab. Jeannie had the Baileys Brownies; while I had the Crunchy Coffee Whiskey. Laura gave it a miss this time. Both the alcoholic tainted ice-creams were top notch. And both of them have excellent reviews. Now, they can add our reviews to their collection of more than satisfied reviews.

After lunch, when I was asked what I wanted to do next; I suggested we go on a tour to some of the houses I (including the rest of my family) lived in my early childhood years. We visited four houses, not in the time order we stayed in but according to the route from where we were at The Ice Cream Bar.

However, for the purpose of this essay, I will place them in the order according to my age I remembered growing up in.

Our first stop was our home in Jalan Cantek (pronounced as “Chantek” as in chocolate). This was the time when I was about 3 – 5 years old. Looking at this house, everything remains almost the same, as though time stood still over the last 60 over years. The same curved wall of the living room, the same dark green window glass, the brick flower bed that lined the outside of the curved wall, the same gate.

Our next stop, was Uncle Anton’s house. My dad rented this house from a man we kids use to refer to as “Uncle Anton”. I remember this house because it had one big room upstairs and the rest of the house was downstairs. It was a large, steep wedge-shaped house with a very big garden.

A few memories of this house: on one Christmas season (which I take to be in 1964); dad and a few others went out and came back with a huge life size Christmas tree. I am not sure of the name of the tree. It was the one with needle-type leaves. It comes off in segments when you pull these “leaves”

Here, again; we used to dress up every evening. I remember Uncle Ronnie Weller, wife and 4 children, stayed with us for a while. He took us, older children; for evening walks. I remember there was a park / playground nearby, too.

The Section 12 house was our next stop. It looked pretty much stock standard now as it was back then in the mid-1960s.

One of my most vivid memories of this house was when Mrs. Lee, my Standard One (Year One) school teacher; came to our house to complain to mum that I was slow in school. I remember her in her traditional Nyonya Kebaya, looking fierce with her spectacles on ( even when they were off). She looked prehistoric. Haha. Bless her soul.

Another memory was one day, I somehow managed to get hold of a box of matches. In my bedroom, next to the window; I lighted a match and put it against one of my toy soldiers. The toy melted, with the melted drop falling on my right thigh. I assure you it was more than painful, leaving a permanent scar, right up to today on my thigh.

One other memory was that Dad and mum, together with some friends, had formed a singing group (they were excellent singers) called “Focus 5”. They were backed by the sensational band from Klang, “The Yellow Jackets”. I remember them practicing in this house for their television performance.

Our last house visit was in 71C, Jalan Carey. I did not take any pictures as this house was renovated until it was beyond recognition from the original.

I have a picture of me, taken in this house garden, just after my First Holy Communion in 1966.

This was a sightseeing tour of sorts, for Jeannie and Laura. It was going down memory lane for me. We made our way home, getting back by about 3.30pm.

Laura wanted to work out at the gym for a while. This saw us going to Empire Gallery Shopping Mall. We had a quick simple dinner at the mall after her workout as we had to rush home. We were having guests come over for some coffee and pastries.

My youngest brother, Malcolm and his wife, Uma; our close and dear friends Patrick and Hazel Archibald, Richard Kok, Sharon Ehler and her sister, Loraine Waterson come over.

It was a very warm and pleasant evening filled with loads of stories and laughter.

Now looking forward to the next 65 years.