Melissa de Waard
1978-1980
Years 7.1, 8.1, 9.1
Email: melissa.dewaard@act.gov.au
Isn't it funny how simple conversations can lead you
in directions you'd never even thought about! Well a conversation with my boss
bought me to this website (he went to RSP in the sixties)- fantastic.
Ok - so here is my trip down memory lane..........
My first memory of Malaysia was stepping off the plane late at night in Butterworth after a trip that seem to take forever, the heat, the stench, the unknown! Being herded like cattle onto the buses to be taken over to the island and then onto the good old E&O hotel for a few weeks before being allocated our married quarter back on the base (OMQ 291 - funny how somethings just stay with you), and meeting our amah Ah Lun, the house dog, Banjo and cat Mischief.
I can honestly say that the years I spent in Butterworth were some of the best years of my life - freedom and so much fun to be had swimming - Dolphins Swimming club - racing people like Jaffa, Kate Mayne, the de Brabander girls, Joanne and Alison Dickie, the Wilkinsons, the list goes on and on, basketball with everyone, the duke box in the swimming hall - all of those army guys, red fanta and doughnuts, and then the disco's held up near the basketball courts, going across the road trying our best to dodge the traffic in order to get to the movie theatre, playing endless games of golf trying to avoid the snakes in the trees. Movies at the Officers mess on a Sunday night along with a smorgasbord - yummo.
Catching the school bus used to be so much fun, up at 6am, at the bus stop by 6.30am onto the bus for that long ride, the queues for the ferry and then trip across the straits the frivolity and fun we all had on those trips, the bus races we had egging the bus drivers on once we were on the island. Finishing schhol at 2pm and doing the bus races in reverse it was always a hoot!
I remember the ice cream parlour in Georgetown, a place we used to go to get away from the oppressive heat, the temples and markets, the snake temple, Kek Lok Si the trishaws and the monie(sp?)drains, the manic traffic, I don't know how our parents didn't manage to kill the motorbike riders in that place. Swimming at Batu Ferringhi and Casaurina Sands, the Monkey gardens and the numerous festivals including Chinese New Year (remember the red ang pow envelopes, Tipusum (sp?).
The incessant wailing from the mosque across the fence (who can forget what we used to call "white bum"), the smells from the Kampong over the back security fence - dogs and scraggy cats everywhere, and the trips to the NAAFI to buy what we could from our old lives (I've not been able to stomach long life milk since leaving Malaysia). I remember going to the local tailor to have our pristine white school uniforms made and then later the majority of our clothes. Off to the boot maker for those oh so white school shoes (they must have been a bugger for the amah to clean).
The smell of rambutans and duran - enough to make you hold your breath for long periods of time, the makan carts with chilli crab, satays and murtabahs to name a few.
I have to admit that to this day I miss the noise and smell of the mirages! Thought I don't miss the low level fly bys down the main street of the base.
The monsoonal rain - when was the last time you ran around in the rain with gay abandon as we did back then.
School was so much fun, the opportunities we were presented with, the calibre of the teachers, the environment - assemblies on Monday morning with our freshly pressed white uniforms, the excursions to some of the most amazing places. Does anyone else remember the punishment for hitting someone who has just had there jabs - corporal punishment to the hilt! The annual race up Penang Hill and the miriade of sports we did. Doing our homework on the bus on the way home so that as soon as the bus dropped us off we'd race into the house get changed and be in the pool within 15 minutes! The list is endless as are the memories.
Regular holidays in Singapore - just jump on the Dakota and hitch a ride for the day, or grab the milk run up to Phuket - what a scary experience, in those days there was no international airport or hotels in Phuket, we used to stay at the Phuket Cabana's and walk up the beach to the makan carts along Patong Beach every mealtime, diving, swimming and water skiing. Watching baby turtles hatching and making there way to the sea - a pity to think that so much of this beauty was destroyed in the recent Tsunami.
I must admit the one thing I always hated was being pawed at by the locals and with them constantly touching my blonde hair, apart from that what an experience!
I only wish that my own children could experience what I did.
Since returning to Australia I completed year 12 in the ACT, studied Interior Design, married and then divorced. I am currently in the process of raising three great children, running my own Interior Decorating and Styling business in Canberra as well as working in the public sector,living life and loving it.