Odd little incidents helped to break up the monotony. At the top of the padang, by the road, there was a complicated series of drains to take the heavy storm water away from the tents. One day, a man new to the job, when cleaning the drains out, thought it a good idea to cut a connection through from the main road malarial drain into one of our little tent drains. That afternoon we had a real ‘Sumatra’ of a storm and half the water in the Changi area poured through our tent drains, and cascaded over the padang in a solid sheet until it was quite covered, then rushed through our tents and into the gardens below and beyond.

Then we had a plague of wild cats trying to raid our larder, and old Gutty became crazy to catch cats. We got hold of a cat-trap, made out of a soap box with a false side, and a little wire netting. We caught several cats which were drowned, dissected professionally by Bill, and then buried under various papaya trees. One night the trap clanged down about midnight, and old Gutty grasped his stick and trotted off to investigate. It turned out to be a particularly wild brute that kept leaping up against the pane of wire netting in the top of the trap. Every time it leapt up it loosened the wire and received a bat over the head from Gutty, but still at about the sixth spring, it broke through the wire and was away like a flash. We never found any body, and if that wretched cat survived, it certainly deserved it.

Several plays were produced and excellently acted. The system was that a run lasted until everyone had seen the show. Variety and classical concerts also took place, one of the best performances being of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, arranged for violin and piano. Henry and I also continued to use our neighbours’ Mess which was still situated in a little Malay house some eight feet above ground. It was music, books and talks which brought us there, and Ian White was a member of that battalion. Sitting out listening to the gramophone, and looking at the giant yellow moon staring boldly at us over the tops of the palm trees was a good way to spend an evening, and many of the troops were attracted by the music and used to sit around.