When I returned to Singapore after two years away working in Taiwan, three Singaporean friends arranged a steamboat(1) dinner out. As it’s not a Western dining style and also benefits from having more people, I invited along Dave, a Scottish engineer who worked for one of Conoco Taiwan’s oilfield service companies.
After the meal, Dave suggested we go to the piano bar of one of the big hotels for a drink. It was there that Dave’s fellow-Scot housemate Dougie turned up with his Singaporean (Chinese) girlfriend, so Dave invited him to join us.
A bit of background here: in the Singapore of the 60s and 70s, white men were trophy boyfriend material, so any local girl with a white man (long term relationship or otherwise) would strut around looking like a cat that’s got the double cream.
Just before Dougie and his female companion appeared on the scene, I was showing my three Singaporean friends the puzzle ring(2) I’d been given in Taiwan. We were all having fun, laughing as they each tried to put it back together without success.
Dougie’s woman gave us a disgusted look, and said, “Stupid!”
I told my friends and all three of them bristled.
The pianist then started to play the tune for Oh Danny Boy.
Dougie’s bird, trying to win brownie points with the two Scottish men, said, “Ah! A Scottish tune.”
I retorted, without thinking, “No, it’s not. It’s from Londonderry.”
Then, my brain thought, “Where did that information come from?!?”
Obviously from my primary and secondary convent school days, when we’d sing all sorts of Western songs (e.g., English, Irish, Scottish, American, Australian) in addition to those from our region (S.E.Asia and the Far East).
I must’ve remembered “Londonderry Air” from those days then.
(1) Steamboat is what we call it in S.E.Asia. Other regions call it hotpot (火锅 huǒguō / “fire cooking-pot”). The Japanese call it shabu shabu. It’s the Oriental version of Swiss fondue, but the ingredients are thinly sliced meat, seafood and vegetables, which are dunked into a boiling broth.
(2) Puzzle rings are multiple rings interconnected in various ways which fall apart once removed from the finger. Said to have originated in the Crusades, given to the wife by the husband going off to war. The only reason the woman would take off the ring would be to hide the fact that she was married — when dallying with another man.
