Good old KE Hall

Good Old KE Haall

Good Old KE Hall

KE is the bestest Hall

the greatest of them all......

Run that by me again. Bestest? Greatest? wahahahahaha.... Poor old King Edward VII Hall (KE for short), who in my time would come last or second last in IHG (Inter-Hall Games) and the butt of jokes during Orientation Float competition. But what do I care? To me, it is still good old KE hall and yes, I had some of my best times in Uni there.

On hindsight, maybe I should have done more research before choosing a Hall of Residence. Not only did I chose a hostel which was the furthest you can get to the Arts Faculty, it was crammed with Science and Medic students and only a very light sprinkling of Arts students and seniors. But I was seduced by a well put together brochure, you see... a beautiful pic of the buildings at dusk with twinkling lights and a harlot tagline of "All rooms faces the sea".

Little did I know that the nearest bus stop is a good 20 minutes walk down a secluded road, another 20 minutes walk the other way to the Arts Faculty down a scary secluded road and if you want to get to BizAd Faculty, it's a good half hour with a trek through a bit of jungle. There are 127 steps down and up to reach NUH for the internal bus.Yes, all rooms did face the sea but that does not guarantee that all rooms HAVE a sea view! More likely than not, you'll get a lovely view of the weird guy in the next block, scratching his bum on his way to the toilet.

Nevertheless, you don't spend years living at close proximity with other people without forming bonds and harbouring countless memories so I'm going to do some postings on my hall life starting with.....

Freshie Orientation

My introduction to Hall Life was the Orientation Programme; three weeks of relentless planned activities from gotong-royong sessions to 5km. runs to preparing for the Float competition. It was like Army boot camp. Fall in at 7.30am, dismiss for classes, fall in back again at 5pm, more activities, dismiss for dinner, fall back in, more activities, exercises, talk to seniors sessions where they made you do ridiculous things; ending in the wee hours of the night before you can collapse to bed only to wake up again a couple of hours later. They can always tell which ones are hostel students during the first few weeks- we were the ones who were falling asleep at the back of the lecture theatres.

Talk to Senior sessions can either be great bonding/advice sessions or pointless ones if you are unlucky enough to get seniors hell-bent on a power-trip. Not only you have to talk to seniors on allocated evening sessions but during breakfast, tea and dinner and woe betide those who tried to "siam".

The trick is of course, to know which ones are the "good" seniors and to head to them quickly once you are dismissed. Get a garang senior and good luck to you... more than once a poor, too-tired, overwhelmed freshie was reduced to tears. On the other end of the scale is the gatal senior who were keen to check out the "talent"; good-looking freshettes were often singled out and some of these seniors tend to be the good tah-kor (big brother) in order to worm themselves into their affections.

One of the hardest challenge in Orientation is keeping a straight serious face. Points (which later you have to work off during Physical Training sessions) are given to those who laugh or even crack a smile. So seniors will fool around with ridiculous jokes just to make sure you earn bad points. Sadistic right? Who can forget Kuan Chee Keong, dentist senior, coming in full dental regalia which will not look out of place in a Hannibal Lecter movie? You just had to separate yourself from your earthly body to deal with stuff like that.

Points were awarded for latecomers and also if you fail to come back to the hall in PE attire within a sadistic 7 minutes. Woe betide those who leave on the 6th floor (no lift) Block E which is the furthest away. Points were awarded for not being a teamplayer; for putting up your hand to answer a question which no one else know. Better fail as a team rather than being a smart alec. Points are deducted for good team behaviour, of course.

PT sessions run the gamut from calisthentics to runs to Kent Ridge Park cumulating in the final 5km. run from our hall to West Coast Park and back. It was punishing but now recalling it, it was rather funny. The lovebirds making out (some already on top of each other) at West Coast Park didn't know what hit them. There they were canoodling and then some, in the dark when suddenly this mass of 80 joggers ran past, with torchlights and seniors screaming like banshees. Sure mood killer.

An activity they no longer have in Orientation nowadays is the Song Fight. Each hall will have a proud tradition of Hall songs or cheers which any true-blue hall resident would know by heart. Song fights are basically halls shouting these songs to each other until one concede defeat. Sounds easy but it is murder to keep on track as a group with the other hall screaming discordant tunes at you and trying not to faint as you were squashed in a tight mass of sweaty bodies. Once in my year, we had another hall coming stealthily at something like 12am challenging us to a Song Fight but the real event was at the Science Faculty Sports Stadium. Kwang Hsien were hoisted on the shoulders of two tallest freshies as the Time Keeper and we yelled and sang to a respectable second place.

What is Orientation without the Float Competition? Every Hall are required to present a Float and intrepretive dance to the VIP which is usually the President of Singapore. So during my year, it was President Wee Kim Wee. Since Kitaro was so hot that time, we had a dance based on his music. I cannot remember much about the float in our year except that there was a dragon.

Why did I remember the dragon? Because I had to freaking sew that stupid thing night after night. It was not too bad on some nights because we got to chat and most importantly, sit down but running up to the day, our nights were getting later and later. Yoke Yeen and I were yet again sewing countless sequins onto that dastard dragon in the Hall. It was dark and cool and I could not help but fell asleep. I remember being woken up by a sympathetic senior, who dismissed me to bed. Yoke Yeen was also curled up next to the dragon fast asleep.

Harsh though it was, Orientation was a great bonding exercise. Nothing bonds a group faster than a common enemy : the dreaded senior. And we were dying to get to the finishing line because there was going to be a role reversal! For one night and one night only, we will get to be the bullying senior and they will have to take the crap from us. We had secret freshie meetings to think up gleeful reprisal punishments. Oooo..the excitement!

On the last night, after the Backwards Change (you have to put your clothes on inside out and backwards, including tying your ponytail the other way round) and the dreaded Square Meal (you have to time your feeding movements into a square and gobbled up your meal in seconds), we were finally ready.

Dressed in our best, as instructed, we trooped to the Basketball court ready to mete our punishment. The seniors were not listening, however much we shout and then out of nowhere, water bombs started flying. It was nothing but a sham and we had to walk through a tunnel of interlinking arms with well aimed kicks to our rears; just to complete the humiliation. After that, they shook our hands and welcomed us as true blue KEVIIans.

London's famous markets : Camden

Prologue :

It is inevitable that you will get Singaporean mates or friend of a friend coming down to stay for a few days when you are in London. For the past 7 years, we were play hosts to countless friends, bunking on the sofa or inflatable bed. That bed was the honeymoon bed for two couples at least! We don't mind the slighest at the constant parade of guests ~ nay, this was the chance for us to get them to transport essential rempahs or spices from Singapore. My newest project is to document the wonderful places that we enjoyed in London.

What is London without its markets? There are plenty of markets to choose from; some mediocre mostly visited by locals in search of daily essentials while others are that little bit more special and known the world over. Who can forget references to London's famous markets like Portobello, shown in its full glory in films such as Notting Hill or Borough Market, the focal point of gourmands and foodies akin to Melbourne's Victoria Market?

The first ever market that we went to when we came here was Camden. And I was hooked. Gothic clothes stores cheek by jowl with vintage clothes stores, alternative medicine with tatoo and piercings, coffee chains with falafel stores, bean bags sofas and Indonesian carvings next to old antiques. The range of merchandise is staggering and when you mixed it all together, the atmosphere is electric.

On weekends, it can get so crowded that the Tube only allows outgoing passengers. Exit from the station and you are on Camden High Street with shops selling tshirts galore and bongs. Across the road, next to the Superdrug store is The Works, a great discount bookstore worth a nip into.

Walk down Camden High Street and check out the amusing decorations on the store fronts.

Also the famous Electric Ballroom, the infamous venue where bands as diverse as Sid Vicious and the Vicious Kids to Catatonia had played.

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There are small markets to the left and right but don't be fooled. Go the big Camden Lock Market right at the end. The entrance is right under the bridge as shown in the main picture above - you can't miss it.

Camden Lock market is a warren. I absolutely love exploring the two sides. It has changed a lot from how it looked 7 years ago but what hasn't? From the orange juice stall at the entrance, you can veer to the right - towards the food stalls. Beyond the food stalls are more shops and the "antique" or second hand clothes shops.

Go through this tunnel with its majestic-looking chandelier .....

..and you will find Cyberdog fashion store extraodinaire for the hard partying house music, techno loving groovers out there. With its strobing lights, loud music and smoke machine with a bar right smack at the entrance, I am sure many a tourists would have thought it is nightclub in full swing. Wander it and you'll find a store with many bizarre clothes and fashion accessories that are designed to glow or pulsate in the dark. A black tight t-shirt with a LED display on the chest is the tamest thing you can get.

The range of merchandise available has grown over the years that I have been there. No longer will you find just purveyors of second hand winter coats (cheaper in summer) or German Army uniforms. You'll be hard pressed to find genuine antiques too but there are a growing number of furniture and furnishing stores.



.. so yes, you can get Indonesian and Thailand produced furnishings right in the middle of London. The Thai store is amusingly called Farang, although I do not know how many English people would understand that it is Thai for caucasians.



I simply love this retro looking table and chairs, complete with the fake shrubbery. I wish I can magically teleport this to Singapore, along with a Smeg fridge which I covet so much.

You can spend a good few hours browsing through the shops. Retrace back your steps, stop to have a hot drink, lunch or a quick bite of freshly fried doughnuts and you can explore the other side of Camden. From the entrance, it is the fork to the left, into the courtyard. The stalls here sell anything from new Pop-Art print bags, to Orgasmatron head massager and on hot summer days, they sometimes sell strawberries with cream or chocolate.



Here's the barges that ply along Regent's Canal. Walk up the stairs to the indoor market where again you will find a cornucopia of goods on sale. I personally thought the lovely large prints of London sold at one of the stalls there are a wonderful souvenir but not cheap though.




..view of the shops in the indoor market from the first floor. The strings of fairly lighst are a festive touch for the Christmas season. So have a lovely time in Camden. You may not buy anything in the end but revel in the atmosphere.


Camden Market
Camden tube station on the Northern Line

Tips :

For families, it is advisable to go there earlier in the day to avoid the crush.

For those you wandered in later in the evening, the food stalls will reduced their prices to £1.50 per portion instead of the usual price of £4.50.

I have had mixed results from my visitors when I bring them. I once brought a family with makcik and pakcik (aunt and uncle) who were far more used to clean, sterile Singapore shopping centres. They spent a total of 5 minutes at the second hand clothes stores complaining of the "smell". They were happier in the souvenir shop, buying fake Chelsea and Man Utd beanies and magnets which you could find elsewhere in London. To each its own.