Members
Who is… Long Time Member Franciska Ho? By Eva Stein
Mrs Ho on the big change The big change was the swimming pool, and the children came to the Club for lessons during daytime. Even now she sees children whose mummies are having coffee and chitchat and are not noticing their offspring.
‘‘What exactly do you want to know from me?” is what Mrs Ho says when she resolutely walks towards me. It appears she can still speak Dutch.
vaart Maatschappij (Royal Packet Navigation Company) and went with colleagues to the Hollandse Club, when one of them asked me if I wanted to become a member there. Back then, you needed a sponsor and seconder. And that’s how it started.’ Later when she met her husband, he joined the Club as well, for only one year. ‘He was working for Shell and was encouraged to join the Island Club to play golf; good for business.’ She preferred to stay a member of the Hollandse Club so she visits both, though not to play golf. She preferred tennis and came for a swim sometimes, with the children. Mrs Ho on the Club ‘The Club was like a business club, not a family club. There were no children; they’d only come on Sunday afternoons to watch movies downstairs, have their dinner at 5:30pm and go home.’
Mrs Ho on her history She was born a Dutch national in what was the Dutch Indies (Indonesia) in Jakarta. She also lived in Cirebon. When the government changed, she became Indonesian. When she was 14 years old she left for Singapore where her father lived. Being an only child, she had a very protective father who suggested she handed in her British passport when she turned 21. And so she did; she has since then had a red Singapore passport. She married a Singaporean and has two children. She has been a member of the Hollandse Club for over 50 years. Mrs Ho on how it started ‘I worked for KPM – Koninklijke Pakket24 The Hollandse Club www.hollandseclub.org.sg
Mrs Ho on activities being organised at the Club ‘They used to have music nights in the bar and people would come over to listen. We could even hear it on the Terrace.’ The quiz nights were very popular, as they are still now. There were tennis tournaments with other Clubs. ‘Once we had a car rally, and we won the prize for the last position. My husband and I didn’t speak to each other, because we were fighting about a left turn he had missed.’ The rally went through Singapore, and they placed obstacles at the beer brewery car park. ‘The driver had to be blind folded and the passenger had to navigate him around the obstacles. It was great fun!’ Mrs Ho on Food & Beverage It used to be ‘fine dining with wine and what have you not’. Now she also likes the snacks; the ‘bitter balls and sandwiches. Bridge players like to have bitter balls, the traditional ones. The kroket should have its own taste and flavour, not be a “long bitter ball”’. Food is big competition in Singapore, so the Club ‘has to make sure that you can eat things here that you can’t get anywhere else.’ On Sundays there used to be a ‘Rijsttafel’, a Dutch style Indonesian dish of rice with many vegetables, meats and condiments. ‘Ask Boon and Edmund, they know all about it.’ Something to introduce again?
The swimming pool used to be the tennis court, and on the playground was the house of the General Manager who lived there. There was a miniature golf course on the green area between the hotel rooms and the Rotterdam Room. The Tennis Pavilion (now hotel & gymnasium) changing rooms were only a small building and the ‘kegelbanen’ or Dutch bowling was there. ‘Women didn’t join their business men in the bowling alley where they were telling jokes to each other.’ The Terrace was open-air and had two large Bougainvilleas. There were garden tables and chairs with an umbrella for some shade. The children’s room was a bar, the present Club Bar was the reading room. The Lounge was Juliana’s, a dining area without aircon, open old style. In the corner was the Amsterdam Room for fine dining, where ‘definitely no children were allowed. Men wore ties, perhaps no jacket, and the women were all done up.’
Mrs Ho on the Bridge Club ‘Bridge didn’t start until 20, 25 years ago when the players were Members only, and with eight tables.’ Now on Tuesday nights there may be about four tables, of which three people are Members. ‘It used to be only at the American and Hollandse Club, and NUS, but now people have a choice and can play everywhere, they do not need to come over.’