![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4zxfZ25qpVpNnoUxY78WcLsEXl6YmI6RwcVcjmOfXmLXc0ZYuif-5iqvA4adokO8Xg0HRVaqGoB1LdkQv-yefh_XIIGqWTcvcAy-rr4ev0StAqx8iGE_CNUEjpqdGpBYBaSypOBlSOqkX/s640/Dad-1981.jpg)
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When I was 12 my brother Lanny bought me a cockatoo which I promptly named Kiki, after the cockatoo that often appeared in Enid Blyton's Famous Five stories. In the early 1970s I bought a 1948 BSA from a friend and often rode it to work (although it was a bitch to kickstart). A friend named Arthur Lam gave me his drum kit and I used to bang away on it, driving the neighbors crazy. Another friend donated an ancient alto sax to me and I was able to play avant-garde jazz stylings on it (à la John Coltrane).
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Dad always wore his hair short and greased it down with Brylcreem. As soon as I could, I let my hair grow long and hated the feel of greasy kid stuff.
Like my dad, I can sit in one spot quite contentedly for hours. But unlike him, I'm not particularly handy with tools and household repairs.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfYe14flM7gxAXKQHrPVPRojS3QU3e4Pkmq-kho-tV-rYAkD5RZEKlD12OStG5miSDt8ed9qmXm7JhEE0EZ_2Rwkutbmy3ZaEQA4YhmU97vzaW6AhM546_5446u8Ht2zt7cQt3Y-IyLw65/s320/Dad2.jpg)
"Where did you find the time to date so many women?" was all I could ask, marveling at how my dad had mastered the art of "camwhoring" 50 years before digital cameras became the rage.
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Lee Hong Wah was a simple down-to-earth man who enjoyed life and good food and beautiful women. Even on his deathbed, he was flirting with the nurses - and with one of his nieces-in-law who visited him almost daily in hospital. Yet he managed to stay happily married to my mother for nearly 60 years.
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[First posted 1 May 2010, reposted 2 May 2014 & 1 May 2016]