Allow me to introduce myself, The Only Ang Mo On The Bus.

The idea of the name for the blog as The Only Ang Mo On The Bus (I know it is a bit of a mouthful) came to me while I was travelling from Singapore's main shopping street, Orchard Road, to a neighbourhood I had decided to have a look around Katong, despite the fierce heat that day.

I am Ang Mo. If you do not know the term. the link to Wikipedia may help. Not only that, I am British. My father was stationed at RAF Changi for a time in the 1950s when he was 26 and my mother was 28. Although I was very young (I was only about 18 months my mother told me when we arrived), I still have some memories and a small number of photographs.

I have travelled several times by bus before on visits to Singapore and enjoyed seeing the island at ground level. It makes for a more interesting experience than the interior of a series of tunnels, station platforms, and so on.

Now I have given you a bit of an explanation it is time to return to the subject of the first paragraph. I have observed that, more often than not, I was The Only Ang Mo On The Bus.

I never tire of telling victims who foolishly ask me about my childhood, that I grew up a minority white face surrounded by, though we hardly mixed with, the varied local population of Chinese, Malays, and Indians. I do not feel that much out of place whenever I return to Singapore, surrounded by all these other races and others now, and I certainly do not feel out of place as The Only Ang Mo On The Bus.

These two photographs, now nearly some sixty years old (can it really be that long ago?) are among the mementos I have, photos sent by my parents to my maternal grandparents who lived in Churchdown, Gloucester. They never put these into a photo album.

On the reverse of the photograph is written

The local bus which runs between Changi and S'pore town. Taken between here + town, along the Changi Road 

The lovely lady is my mother. The devastatingly handsome, suave sophisticate about town accompanying her is yours truly.

The reverse of the photo bears the legend

He went thataway!

Gwailo Ang Mo

鬼佬紅毛