Cards Game

There was a cosy corner for the residents at the void deck. However, these elderly people sat around a round granite stone table with the same matching stone seats. These were the elderly Chinese, consisting of an old woman and two old men. They were so engrossed in their games of cards. These were not ordinary cards that we can see in modern time. My mother was so surprised to see this unusual sight. She stopped to take photographs of this people, seeking permission from them at first.


Two men and a woman playing Four Colours Cards (四色牌) Game at the void deck of a flat.


This is a stack of cards face down for the players to draw their card and a yellow card was being thrown(discarded) on the table.


This photograph shows the cards on the hand of the old man sitting on the left of the above picture.

I had no idea at all how to play this game. My mother does not know how to play them either. However, it was a game played by the last generations. My mother saw her parents played the games with their relatives. But as for me, that was my first time -- and I have no interest with such a game at all!!! Internet has more fun games than this!

However, playing this game is not easy I supposed. There are Chinese Characters written on the cards. And according to the title of the game, "Four Colours" (四色) you would have guessed correctly that there are basically four different coloured cards in the deck of cards -- white, yellow, green and red. I really have no idea what they are playing and who has invented this game in the olden days when there were no computer games available for them at all. It is a pity that such hobbies is a scene disappearing from our society.

Coincidentally, my paternal great-grandmother loves this game! An information which my mother learned recently from my paternal grandfather, who loves to go Casino! And guess what! It was my father who brought my mum to the Casino, with me in the womb of my mother, when I was barely 4 months old! That made my first 'official' visit to the Casino at Las Vegas...haha :))

So if you want to know the origin of gambling, it is the Chinese, the 'adventurous' Chinese Spirit. A fabulous website about Casino, contains a comprehensive range of Casino games information is none other than Online Casino Edition. From the website, I had learned that the word "Casino" is actually came from the Italian word "casa", which meant a building built on the property of a bigger villa, and which is used for pleasure. This included gambling and other sports. From these, it was inferred that the birthplace of the casinos is Italy. However, as far back as the BC years, China already has records that show the existence of gambling -- though there was no account of casinos. According to Casino history offered by online casino edition, the earliest casinos originated in Europe and later on found its place in the United States and other nations of the world.

Better Bathrooms

In the early days of Singapore, people do not have proper sanitation at all. As shown in the photograph below, night soil was the term people used to refer to human waste in early Singapore. Back then, buckets were used to collect and dispose of human waste. There were no flushing system at all. Human labour need to be employed. In the photograph below, you can see a man holding on to a bucket. He might be removing the bucket from the toilet for disposal.

Toilets in early Singapore was very unsightly also. I had not seen toilets of early Singapore time. But I had learned about this from the library. The photograph below shows a typical toilet in early Singapore.

Living conditions had improved so much over the decades. Today, there are no need for disposal of night soil and we have so much better toilets. Singapore's sanitation development was such a success now. Every household and every shopping complexes can have modern toilet facilities. Our living condition is so much cleaner and healthier as compared to last time. Back in the early days of Singapore, waste products were collected in buckets daily by manual labour. These buckets would then be transferred by special vehicles to disposal stations where the buckets were washed and reused again the next day!

Today, every families can have betterbathrooms and another 'playland' for children at home. During my younger days, I would 'swim' in the bath tub at our old house. During bath time, I would play in the bath tub. It was such a fun time to play with water. Take a look at Betterbathrooms.com and you can see all the modern toilet furniture and accessories. At my home now, we only have shower enclosures. We do not have any more bath tub. At the website, you can find different types of bath tubs -- some examples as shown below. I like the whirlpool baths!