Well here I am back in Old Blighty and the winter weather. I had a great 30 days in Singapore and loved every minute of it.
As I reported in the last blog I had a trip round some of our old haunts and things have changed quite a lot. The old camp at Seletar has shrunk to about a 16th of it old size. Part of the old runway is used as a small airfield but most of the land has been taken over by civilian firms for various enterprises. Around the area of the old C of E Church is a country club with a swimming pool.
The old RAF headquarters is still standing and will be kept as part of the heritage programme as will the old Guard room. The remaining bit of the camp still has a few of the old blocks and a few of the old buildings like the Sgts Mess, the NAFFI with the cookhouse below and the Malcolm Club. The Cookhouse is still used by the Singapore Engineers who are billeted there.
The trip to Serangoon Gardens was a bit of a disappointment in some ways as new development seems to be creeping in at a fast rate but it is still recognisable.
The top part of Jalan Kayu nearest the camp has gone to make way for new Road works. However the bottom part remains and is still more or less the same.
I will be making a page with all the new pictures sometime this week so you will get a better idea of the changes from them.
I met up with Keith Thomas and his wife Anne who was on a three-day stopover on his way to Bali. We took a trip to the Kanji War memorial and the old ford factory where the British signed their surrender in WW2.
I also met up with Gareth (Taff) Davies and his wife in China town. Gareth is on a nine-month posting after coming out of retirement for the third time.
A trip to Changi proved to be a bit of a disappointment as it is now called Changi Village and is used to milk tourists of their hard earned cash. It is quite pleasant to walk round the place and sit down to the kind of meals we used to have after a night on the booze in the old days.
Most of the coastline of Singapore has changed because of land reclamation projects and I reckon there is growth in land area of about 10%. The east coast has changed but it has been made into a long beautiful beach where you can take walks or bike rides and stop at food areas for some wonderful Makan.
There are now a total of three causeways into Malaya and discussions for another some time in the future. Singapore does not have to rely on Malaya for water now as they have built several new reservoirs and are even using desalination plants.
Overall it was a very nice stay in Singapore and at the end of it we were reluctant to come home. In the end though its nice to have your own bed back and the family round you.
Beef
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