baa baa black sheep

I was born on the 24^th of November 1967 in Singapore’s Kandang Kerbau Hospital to David and Kimmy Lien.  Dad was a high-flying tv entertainment producer and Mum was a school teacher and just 19.  It took 24 hours for my delivery and I finally arrived at 8:50 am.  Mum was spent by the time she delivered me judging from a black and white photo that Dad had taken of her lying there in the hospital bed…thin, pale and tired but smiling…holding me, this black wavy toss of hair…swathed in white cloth diapers.  Po-Po (grandma in Hokkien), my maternal grandmother always reminded me how difficult the birth was.  

Mum named me Sabine and Dad gave me my Chinese name, Su-Lin.  Mum fed me loads of Heinz, KLIM milk and eggs!  And my favourite treat that I would suck right off the spoon was Woodward’s Celebrated Gripe Water.  At 6 months old, I was more than a handful.  Chubby cheeks that made everyone go “Oh so cute” and pinch ma cheeks.  Mum was very proud of my more-than-cherubic proportions.  I reckon I looked like a Michelin Man.

I remember the taste of my cot.  That was my earliest memory.  I must have been teething then... crawling and bumping up against the rose-coloured wooden-panelled cot.  Must have pulled myself up with my Michelin-like arms to the top rung probably trying to make a valiant exit out of my wooden prison and in my frustration gnawed my itching drooling gums on my “prison bars”.  Till today, the woody taste is a familiar memory.

My early childhood memories till I was 6 were photographed by trigger-happy Dad with his Black & White camera.   I was his favourite muse judging from the stacks of Black and White photos I had come to inherit.  I especially liked the ones where the photo prints had floral-etched edges.  It had such a romantic nostalgic feel to it.  I only wish I had them all now. Now, I have but 2 of the hundreds of  photographs.  How I lost the rest is another story. 

The only pictures I could recall seeing Mum and Dad together was of my first birthday party. I was in a dress and Mum was hanging on to me as I tottered in every direction.   Dad was watching on and laughing.  It was a happy picture no doubt.

 
I always wondered about why my birth was so difficult.  Did it have anything to do with what Aunty Catherine (Dad's ex girlfriend) said at Yih Hann's wedding?  Over the Chinese wedding dinner of my cousin brother, she revealed to me how my Mum used to carry a knife under her pillow at night whilst my Dad was out till the wee hours of the morning probably at nightclubs and such. 

It was no wonder then when I was 2, Mum just upped and left one day with me in tow and headed straight for Po-Po's house at Still Road.  Not long after that, Mum decided to leave Singapore and set out to start a new life in Hong Kong.  With S$500 in her pocket, she ventured forth into her new life without me.

I was 8 when I took my first flight out to Hong Kong to visit Dad.  For some reason,  Mum & Dad would not be coming home for their annual visit this Chinese New Year .  Dad had arranged for me to travel to Hong Kong to see him. For this trip, Dad had posted a huge parcel to me.   I could hardly contain my excitement as I saw the huge package landing with a soft thud before my nose on the counter.  I hugged the brown parcel under my arm preciously all the way home.   I always looked forward to letters and best of all, parcels sent from Dad.  For my last birthday, he had sent me a Wrangler denim jacket and jeans with even a red bandanna thrown in.  I was really miffed!  Dad sure had me sussed.

I unwrapped the parcel carefully when grandma and i got home.  In it lay a brown tweed three-piece suit tailored just for me.  And my first necktie too!  I loved it.  Thought it was pretty swell to look smart and dandy like Dad.

I could hardly contain myself right up to the day when it was time to make  the trip.  I felt so adult and important in my 3-piece suit, I felt no fear in flying alone.  In fact, I welcomed the adventure.  So I happily waved goodbye to grandma and grandpa as I was escorted like a real right VIP to board the plane.

It was heaven in the sky.  I was attended to by a bevy of air-stewardess beauties that took turns cooing and caring for me.  One of them bent over me and I could smell her sweet feminine scent.  She tickled me under my chin with her finely red-painted nails and told me what a cute boy I was.  I thoroughly enjoyed the attention from the girls.  I was floating on cloud 10...being so pampered by so many beautiful women at the same time.  It was too much for my 8 year old heart to bear.  Perhaps this is where my love affair with women and air-stewardesses began…in the sky amongst the clouds.

When the plane finally touched down, I was ushered to the door by my beautiful lady attendants.  As I walked towards the door, my air ticket fell out of my hands and the lady who had earlier tickled my chin picked it up for me.  She looked at the name printed on my ticket quizzically as she put it in my jacket pocket and I smiled cheekily at her as I stepped off the plane. 

Yep, I am Sabine Lien, daughter of David Lien.  And thank YOU for flying with Singapore Airlines.