Fighting spiders, my childhood favourite pastime

In the old days we do not have computers or any of today's social media gadgets. In fact, during my childhood days, television didn't even exist in Singapore. I am talking about the 1950s. As kids, our playthings were kites, fighting spiders, tops, rubber bands, marbles etc.
Today, I want to talk about one my favourite hobbies, fighting spiders.
Catching fighting spiders and letting them fight with other boys' spiders were one of the most thrilling pastimes for me. Besides, if your spider was a good fighter, it might even earn the title of "King Spider" in the kampong (village). To be the "King", your spider must be victorious in all the fights against spiders owned by other boys.
I used to catch the spiders in the bushes. Only male spiders fight so we did not catch the female spiders. The male ones had faces that were white in colour and the female black. We looked for leaves that were stuck together and in between them you might spot the spiders. We would use our hands and cupped the leaves and spread them on the roadside and the spider would jump out. We would then place it in an empty match box or a small container.
A "King" spider could fetch as much as 50 cents in my kampong. 50 cents was a lot of money back then especially for kids like us. 50 cents could buy us 5 plates of fried noodles in the school tuck shop. Besides, we would be very proud to be the owner of the "King".
Above is the video of the intense fighting between 2 spiders that I was talking about.

Bak chor mee (minced meat vinegar noodles)

Bak chor mee is a type of noodle dish that is served with minced pork. Bak chor mee means minced meat noodles with a bit of vinegar in Hokkien. This yummy mee is being sold in a coffee shop at block 446A, along Jalan Kayu (next to a Buddhist temple).
We had the above for breakfast.

A big disappointment with satay at Chong Pang

Had satay while we  were at the Chong Pang hawker center. Ordered 15 sticks of mutton,chicken and pork and a ketupat (rice). This stall's satay used to be good but has now joined the other stall whose satay was below par. At least 3 sticks of the satay were tiny (60c each) and some were badly burnt. There are only 2 stalls selling satay and I think I will not patronize them anymore.

A nice cool morning

Woke up to a wet and cool morning. The outside temperature is about 27.3 C which is cool by Singapore standard.
I thought to myself how fortunate we are as we do not have to go out and work.
I just heard on the radio that one of MRT (train) lines has been disrupted causing some inconvenience to the passengers who were going to work. The train breakdowns are frequent compared to those in some other countries like London, New York, Tokyo etc. Singapore train networks are relatively new when compared to those in countries that I've mentioned.
Driving to work can be frustrating too. The roads or so called expressways are usually jammed with all sorts of vehicles. There are about 1 million vehicles in this tiny island of Singapore.
Therefore, we are glad and lucky not having to travel to work.

Lunch at home

We had our lunch at home. It's a simple lunch comprising of nikujaga, fried chicken and a small bowl of Japanese rice.

Today's meals

After a plateful of watermelon and black coffee from Toast Box for breakfast, lunch was the prawn mee which was cooked by my beloved wife. Sssh...the soup wasn't as delicious as when I cooked it. It was mild and does not have sufficient salt in it. Not much kick but healthy.
Dinner was char siew, siew yok and roasted duck rice ($5.50 each plate) at a coffee shop stall near our place (quite good). After dinner, we decided to visit the 7-11 convenience store for the Magnum ice cream ($4.20).

Papaya and Oyakodon

Had half a papaya for my breakfast and home prepared Oyakodon or Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl for late lunch. No dinner for today because I had two McDonald's double cheese burger for last night's dinner. Just have to discipline myself otherwise my weight will shoot up.

Crayfish bee hoon and fruits

The clam and crayfish bee hoon at Blessing Seafood stall isn't too bad. The place is at the Chong Pang hawker center. The one we ordered for our lunch was for 2 people. It cost $15. They served a variety of dishes like clam and sliced fish bee hoon, flower crab bee hoon etc.
The fruits are much better than the ones at our place so we would drive to Chong Pang market twice a week to get our fruits.

President Elect Donald Trump and wife Melania

Donald Trump once considered an underdog for the White House has today, won convincingly to become America's next president. He has beaten the favorite contender, Hillary Clinton.
Picture showing Mr Trump and wife Melania.
Picture courtesy of Stuart Ramson/AP

Sayorana Pasar Malam, see you again next year

The pasar malam stalls will be moving out to another place by tomorrow. We are gonna miss them especially the food they are selling. Yesterday, my wife bought a small hand bag from one of the stalls. We also bought fish and prawn balls and takoyaki (ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special moulded pan) for our afternoon tea.
Heard that a small stall cost the stall operator anywhere from $150 to $200 a day in rental. Some are even charged at $500 per day especially for those popular stalls selling burgers. Wonder how these hawkers make money with such high rents.

Dolly Parton - Rockin' Years

Dolly Parton is one of my favourite female singers. Listen to her singing " Rockin Years" with Ricky Van Shelton and I am sure you will like it.