Me: Auntie, can I have chicken rice, don’t want chicken, but have duck and noodles?
Auntie 1: Eh siao eh, that’s called duck noodles lah, you boh tak chek is it? How come can come NTU one?
Me: Uncle, why just now I order Kopi Peng Gao Si Siew Dai, the Kopi like not Gao enough, the taste like not Si enough, and the Dai like not Siew enough?
Uncle 1: Boy ar, go loh go, go complain. But I tell you, complain also no use, now must write in then can withdraw CPF at 65. You think I care about your complaint?
Khiam Pak
When I was in NTU, these were the kind of conversations that framed my episodic days between lectures and tutorials.
Somehow or rather, in some Magical Book On How Everything Works, it must state that hawkers and food assistants are by and large, nasty people.
So imagine my surprise when I came across The New Paper‘s “KFC uncle’s encouraging notes to students”.
In NTU no less.
According to the report, Mr Philip Chong, 64, a cashier at the NTU North Spine KFC outlet, routinely gives us handwritten notes of encouragement to students.
NTU KFC & Mr Philip Chong
Mr Chong, who joined NTU KFC in 2015, observed that students were “very stressed about their studies and looked like they needed encouragement, especially during their exam period” according to the article.
To this tune, Mr Chong begin handing out hand-written notes containing succinct messages of encouragement such as “Have a great day ahead!” and “Wish you great success in your studies!”
According to the report, Mr Chong had previously dished out such words of encouragements too at the Gek Poh KFC outlet where he was employed prior.
A married man with two children, Mr Chong told TNP that he writes these notes in the evening after work, and typically writes about 50 a day.
At least from 2015 till 2018
If you’ve noticed though, the TNP article is dated October 10 2016 and Mr Chong had shared that he started this practice somewhere late in 2015.
According to a 2018 Mothership article,a reader of theirs had submitted one of Mr Chong’s collectible handwritten note dating back as recently to January 2018.
Here’s the picture of it:
What about in 2019?
That was then and it was in 2018.
Curious to know the state of affairs in 2019, my editor and I did a quick sweep on the internet to check if “Uncle Philip” – as NTU peeps affectionately called him-was still indeed giving out notes in 2019.
Lo and behold, this came up:
Redditor, u/xevolucent, had uploaded this onto the site on 20 Jan 2019, alongside the caption “This cashier makes my day today at KFC@NTU”.
It has since garnered 1,200 upvotes and attracted various acknowledgements from ex-students who had the good fortune of receiving Mr Chong’s notes.
It does seem to appear that Uncle Philip is still indeed serving em’ notes up.
So folks at NTU or really anywhere else in Singapore for that matter, if you would like some KFC with some encouraging notes to go along, why not head down to NTU KFC?
Maybe leave a note too for Uncle Philip in return?
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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