Temple Eating Tree Quiz

Sadly, my first attempt at posing a quiz on my blog failed miserably. http://frankiekoh.blogspot.com/2010/09/temple-eating-tree.html
I still haven't received a single answer after 3 months. Is the subject not something that people would be much interested in? Too easy? Too difficult? I guess as a general practice quizzes should come with a prize for the winning entry, haha. Maybe one day I'll give out one for my quizzes. Anyway let me try and revive this by offering some hints and hope some kind readers is willing to help me with this one so as to maintain my ego.

• The tree is on the right side of this picture which is the rear gate of this building
• This whole building is now vacant.
• The road where is tree can be seen is now closed to traffic.

A wider angle picture.

Near this area but not those 2 street names mentioned on the signboard.

The most amazing Teh Tarik!

One uniquely Singapore past time is that of enjoying a nice cup of Teh Tarik at our neighborhood sarabat stall with friends at night. Of course some of us prefer ours with ginger juice - Teh Halia (ginger tea). Our fascination with the Indian tea brewer doing the "Teh Tarik" would have faded over time, but you have to watch this Teh Tarik from Thailand. Amazing feat!

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Teh tarik (literally "pulled tea" or 拉茶 in Mandarin) is a hot tea beverage which can be commonly found in restaurants, outdoor stalls and kopi tiams in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. Its name is derived from the pouring process of "pulling" the drink during preparation. It is made from black tea and condensed milk.

Chatuchak (or Jatujak; Thai: จตุจักร) weekend market in Bangkok is the largest market in Thailand. Frequently called J.J., it covers over 35 acres (1.13 km²) and contains upwards of 5,000 stalls. It is estimated that the market receives between 200,000 visitors each day.^[1] Most stalls only open on Saturdays and Sundays. The market offers a wide variety of products including household items, clothing, Thai handicrafts, religious artifacts, collectibles, foods, and live animals.

Old Gramophone at Sungei Road

I spent last Sunday afternoon at Sungei Road thieves/flea market. Every visit to Sungei Road is always fascinating browsing through the many old, odd, quirky and at times offbeat merchandise that could have come from somebody's discarded rubbish after a spring cleaning.

Photo credit: Wikipidia

On this occasion I striked out a conversation with a Mr Koh Ah Koon who sort of specialise in sound systems like gramophones, turntables, amplifiers and speakers besides other odds and ends. Mr Koh was an event organiser. Not the type that does conventions and exhibitions but "pasar malam" (night market) or what is sometimes referred to as trades fairs. Due to intense competition in the trade fair organising business he started to deal in secondhand goods.

Among the items on sales at his stall was an old gramophone. It was a familiar one because my family had an identical one when I was a child.  This was an early 1930s portable wind-up phonograph from His Master's Voice. The familiar trade mark of the picture of a Jack Russel Terrier listening intently to the sound coming out of the horn of the gramophone goes way back then. EMI and RCA used to own the trade mark. It is now the trade mark of HMV.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

An item like that attracts a lot of attention without fail. And to add to the excitement of the moment was the sound of an old familiar Cantonese song from a 78 rpm record being played. The casing had some dents, but other than that it works fine. A short while after I took this video clip a Eurasian looking gentlemen bought it. He seemed to be a regular and a familiar figure with the stall holders. As soon as he appeared a number of stall holders greeted him and started chattering.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;
The phonograph, record player, or gramophone is a device that was mostly commonly used from the late 1870s through the 1980s for playing sound recordings. Usage of these terms is not uniform across the English-speaking world (see below). In more modern usage, this device is often called a turntable, record player, or record changer. When used in conjunction with a mixer as part of a DJ set up, they are often called decks.