This past Saturday, Newcastle United Football Club observed a minute’s applause in tribute to Jordan Thompson, a 15-year-old star in the Academy, who sadly passed away after a long fight with cancer.

This represents a welcome departure from the traditional minute’s silence that has been observed globally in memory of those who have left us.

Click through to discover why I think a minute’s applause should replace the traditional minute’s silence, and view a video of the minute’s applause, taken by a Newcastle supporter from the terraces

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I was weary after waking up at 3am, to track Newcastle’s progress on the Web, only to be hugely disappointed as they succumbed to botton-of-the-table Derby, 1-0. An expected 3 points had just vanished. Newcastle, back to their old habit of inflating expectations, only to leave them unfulfilled. Now, I had to report back to camp for work. What a day, and it had barely begun.

As I boarded the cab, I was greeted by a cheery “Good Morning!”
I muttered back an almost incoherent reply, “Morning.”
Unperturbed by my lack of enthusiasm, the cabby asked, “Where to, sir?”
“Bedok Camp,” I replied nonchalantly.

As he made a U-turn to head towards KJE, he queried, “Bedok Camp… 3SIR or 4SIR camp right?”
“Err. No. Guards camp now,” I responded.
“Eh, not 3SIR or 4SIR anymore, ah? I was from 3SIR, at Bedok Camp. That place used to have a lot of good food, Malay food, by the road.”

Hmm. Interesting. I wanted to know more, so I asked, “Wow. Which year ah?”

He answered,

“Wow. Long ago man. 1967. That time, before they reclaim the land, used to be a beach there. Many ang mor (Caucasian) zha bor (girls). Wha, then the men always never do area cleaning. Because the zha bor always half-naked, on the beach. The officers, very hard to get the man to do area cleaning.”

Click through to read all the hilarious accounts as narrated by the cabby

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