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2015.12.07 | 電話號碼

[Volume 10 Issue 12, #2080]
(Remembering) Telephone Numbers
Old School Phone Book
我唔肯定依家係唔係仲有人用緊手寫電話簿, 但我可以確定我哋都曾經擁有過如上圖嗰啲可以擺入銀包嘅迷你電話簿.. 兩片有磁石嘅面, 中間係一張好長但折得好企理嘅紙, 紙上印有數百行任你寫低親朋好友嘅電話號碼.. 係, 你完全記得!! 哈哈.. 老實講, 仲用緊呢本嘢(真係我仲收到依家嘅實物呀!!)嘅時候, 都係為咗一紙紀錄啫, 因為我都記得晒當中好多嘅電話號碼, 完全都唔駛打開本嘢嚟睇㗎..

家陣當然就唔同啦, 可能係年紀及科技發達嘅原因, 邊有需要, 或者更正確嚟講係邊有能力, 去記埋啲電話號碼?? 有邊位個腦中可以記得超過五個電話號碼嘅, 請舉手!! 呵呵.. 你話喇, 直接喺個屏幕上面㩒一㩒, 又或者用聲控噏咗個名就可以打電話, 幾易!! 以往經常都會喺Facelook見到類似「唔見咗個手機, 請發短訊讓我重獲你的號碼」嘅訊息, 但係呢啲都逐漸被淘汰啦, 因為依家全部都存晒入雲端啦.. 其實咁樣係幫緊我哋, 定還是害緊我哋呢?? 正如冇咗自己部電話, 要你用其他電話打俾朋友, 應該都有點難度呀呵?? 哈哈..
while i am uncertain if anyone is still using a handwritten phonebook now, i am very sure we all did have this type of mini phonebook we put in our wallet like the one in the picture above.. two magnetic covers holding a folded long piece of paper with hundreds of two-column rows for you to write down the numbers of your friends and relatives.. yes, you remember that!! haha.. frankly, during that time i was using this phonebook (yes, this was what i had and i am still keeping it!!), it was merely for record because i could remember the numbers of many in the list in my mind, i didn't even need to refer to the phonebook at all..

of course now, probably due to age as well as the convenience of technology, i don't bother, or to be precise, am unable, to even remember any numbers in my mind.. hands up if you can remember 5 numbers in your mind!! haha.. agree or not, it is so easy to just tap on the screen the person in your call list or phonebook, or even use voice control by just saying the name.. we used to always see messages on Facelook like "lost my phone, please message me so that i get your number again", but even this is already obsolete since everything is backed-up to the cloud now.. is this actually helping us, or is it not?? when we do not have our phones with us, it seems we may have difficulties making calls from another phone huh?? haha..

73 comments:

  1. Eh, this reminds me of that movie, did you watch that movie named [our times]?? This was inside the movie though, can't remember where was my one last time and I still remember the one I had is hello kitty cover one.

    I still remember phone number, my family one of course, if that counts I've more than five already and also one of my BFF, because her number just one number different than mine, hahaha, very you yuan fen.

    Talking about remember phone number...my father does, he has the phone list in his phone, easy to direct synchronize with What's app, LINE and Wechat. But besides that, when he wants to call, he can right away dial the number, no need like us go scroll scroll and search for the name then get the number to dial.

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    1. Wow, your dad is the most efficient one. As for us, we need to look at the phone list to get the number.

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    2. haha, i watched that movie but cannot remember seeing this phonebook in the movie.. anyway, i am still keeping this phonebook which i started using since 1990, OMG, it's 25 years old!! were you born then already?? hahahaha~~

      i think we are too used to just pressing buttons on our phone, now it would be nice to be able to remember at least 5 most important phone numbers :)

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    3. Got le, let me remind you, is the actress want to look for the actor then she use this to look for the phone number to ask his friend about him, hahaha....

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  2. I remember this, last time, i used this too, i wrote down every telephone number, but not now, if i lost my handphone, i will be like what you have written, pls message me your number...

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    1. I hope I don't ever lost my phone.

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    2. nowadays contacts can be stored in the cloud, if you change to a new phone, can just retrieve the contacts and it is so seamless :)

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    3. touch wood if now lost handphone it is not only hilang the ability or contacts of friends but also lost many lovely phones, schedules, appointment and etc. loads of things are programmed into the handphone.

      Last time , if ,lost the phonebook then at have the"previous" phone book as back up. Just need o copy the phone numbers again only


      what is cloud ah? I tau is dropbox only. tu pun tak pandai guna dropbox. dropbox i put my ebooks

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  3. Whoa! Another lost treasures unearthed from SK Thambee's antique chests. I have totally forgotten about this type of flat address & telephone book. I remembered getting them for free from advertisers who printed their business advertisements on the covers with names, addresses and telephones. However, I never used them as the lines were too few lah. You know this Anay used to be a party animal during his young days with so many friends and animals from the clubbing joints! I would need 5 books to jot them all. So I actually used a manual typewriter to type out my who list of triad gang members onto a full A4 paper! Ahem! Wasei!

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    1. Initially, I kept a list of phone numbers just in case. But it has gone missing since I rely on my phone.

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    2. i remember i bought this from Popular and if not mistaken, at RM2.90 in 1990, hahahaha!! now that's how good i can keep things actually, they really become precious stuffs after decades.. so Anay you have 5 huge phonebooks that you always carry in your briefcase?? holy~~ :p

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  4. Why you blurred all the names in your phone books? You should proudly show us all the ladies and one night stands of yours!
    I squinted my eyes and could see names like Kamala, Devi, Ah Mei, Ah Lan, Ah Fah, Elizabeth, Gaga, Annabelle, Suhaila, Mariam and who are they?? Tsk! Tsk! I guess they were your childhood friends who played masak-masak with you. Muahahaha

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    1. well well well, i have to say those numbers in that book are still 7-digit, hahaha!! that explains how old this phonebook is.. errr, i think i have already lost contact with more than 80% in the list already, how sad~~

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  5. These days we dare not store too much info of friends except just names and mobile contacts for fear of hackers and thieves who might bring harm to others. When we carried those old address books of your posted photo, we were never worried of hackers or getting it lost. We had so much peace and freedom when we were young. The world is getting sick la as the cyber hackers are too smart. One guy gave a public talk yesterday about cyber safety and my wife was stunned to hear that many hackers would offer FREE WI-FI and gullible users would jump to log in for free. After keying in to enjoy the free usage, the hackers have a device to read all the info inside the user's mobile phones. This is horrible and scary lah as I used so many FREE WI-FIs in Tokyo. I hope no yakuza stole my info!

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    1. But free wifi is so tempting.

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    2. you know celebrities will name their other celebrities friends otherwise rather than putting their real names in their phonebook?? this is actually to prevent exposing their numbers just in case they phones got hacked..

      well, you are right about that.. once we are connected to Wifi and internet, or even your own mobile data, we are actually totally naked and exposed..

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    3. Thanks for sharing this. I used free WiFi too, be it in the airport, hotel, train or bus. OK, i must change SK's name to Sherman Khan. Sound like Bollywood celebrity.

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  6. Yes, I remember writing phone numbers in a little book too. And you are so right, nowadays due to the convenience of storing phone numbers in our phone, we have lost the ability to remember numbers hah..hah...

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    1. But it's good to remember at least one just in case we need it.

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    2. i think we have to at least remember 5 most important numbers.. without our phonebook, we can still spurt out the numbers in a snap..

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  7. I did own the two magnetic covers with a piece of paper to write phone numbers in it but I just kept it at home and not in my wallet because in the olden days, I have no handphone so no need to carry the phone lists with me. You have a very good memory to remember all the phone numbers. Nowadays I really depend on the phone book in hp but luckily I can still remember one number so the other day I left my hp in the office and could still call someone to pick me up from the lrt station using the payphone at the lrt station. Luckily the lrt station still have payphones using coins and I have some coins with me at that time. I know Bangsar Shopping complex does not have any payphones. The other day I forgot my hp again and searched the whole BSC but no payphone. At last I asked the customer service counter at BSC and they allow me to use their landline phone foc because there is really no payphone in BSC. Seems that payphones are going to be obsolete soon as everyone has hp nowadays but if no computer or smartphone to access cloud to get the phone numbers, having payphone is no use if no one can remember the phone numbers so your post is a good reminder for us to remember at least one phone number by heart in case we lost our hp and have no way to access the cloud and need someone to pick us up somewhere. No problem if you are just driving to get back home and lost your hp.

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    1. A very good reminder. I only remember my hubby's number very well. He himself forgets his own number!

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    2. when i was using this phonebook, i carry it with me.. the purpose of carrying the phonebook is because i may need to call friends using public payphones, and i would need to search for the numbers from the phonebook..

      when i had my handphone, i did away with the phonebook because all numbers are stored in my phone.. i did not need to refer to the papers and then dial the numbers on my phone, haha!!

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  8. Now... If I lost my handphone or if it malfunctioned somehow; I die wor.

    I only can remember key numbers. Office. Hubby's. Son's.

    Can't even recall my siblings phone number. ^^!

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    1. Guess, I need to write down those important numbers.

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    2. i guess that's good enough to remember your office and hubby's and son's number.. it's actually necessarily to remember at least 3 most important numbers huh??

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  9. oh, oh.. I am the guilty one... but I didn't lost my hp but only it conks out so now all my contacts are still inside my old hp and the one I am using now have no more phone numbers except for a few which I managed to retrieve... Yes, yours also is not with me anymore... but my son has promised to do it for me when he comes back for CNY!! sigh...

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    1. It's so troublesome when we need to ask for phone numbers again. Hope you can retrieve all the numbers.

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    2. i thought with your phones, all your contacts are actually backed up in the cloud, and when you use a new phone, you just sign-in and able to retrieve them back into your new phone??

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  10. Last time I can remember many numbers in my mind but now I rely heavily on handphone so I don't remember any number any more

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    1. Not only you but practically all of us rely on our phone.

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    2. yeah, maybe it's aging, and maybe we are too dependent on digital phonebook already, haha!!

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  11. Yes, those were the days when I kept telephone numbers in that small booklet. Guess I don't keep it anymore.

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    1. Very true, I can't remember most phone numbers but I can recognise one when I see it. But it's sad should we lost our phone.

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    2. i guess even if my missed call just shows the number and not name, i would not be able to remember, hahaha!! that is how bad i am :p

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  12. Can, I can remember more than 5 numbers still. My KL home, my mom's handphone, my dad's handphone, my brother's handphone, my sister's handphone, and my office cubicle direct dial. That's 6 hahaha!

    But seriously, I never had such a nice book leh, I use those small 555 (or is it 666) book to record phone numbers last time...

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    1. maybe you are still young, haha, uncle think i cannot remember more than 5 leh.. eih, you still use paper phonebook meh?? i thought for your generation, you right away started with digital phonebook already??

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    2. I only started using handphone when I was in college lah. Before that, the Morotola TAC 2 and the dai kor dai still ruled our mobile world leh..

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    3. you won!! i only started using handphone when i started working~~

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  13. I believe nothing beats the black-and-white because at the end of the day when all gadgets fail either thru breakdown, loss, dropped into the bucket, etc., the hardware of the written form (if you can call it that) still prevails or is the one thing that can save the day. Which explains why people still buy good old-fashioned books/reading material (me included)... but I digress...

    Good morning!

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    1. yeah, that was yesterday, i guess now we actually have back-ups and that actually saves the day, agree?? probably we also need a back-up in black & white, two copies to be secure, just in case one is lost.. haha!!

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  14. yer, I used to have this type of phonebook too, LOL
    Sign of aging =.="

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    1. hehe, but i think yours already MIA lah.. me still keeping it for decades leh~~

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  15. 果然記唔到五個以上喔; 再加上啲朋友耐不耐就換電話號碼,邊會去記啊?算吧啦,忘記它~~~

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    1. 係呀係呀!! 好可能好多朋友換咗N次電話, 我都仲係收住佢哋第一個號碼~~ :D

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  16. Oh, this is antique! Now I recalled my childhood and teen years. I always kept a lot of these phone books, some in the form of a small diary, and when I got a new diary, I will re-write all the details onto the new diary. Then, I bought the phonebook that was similar to yours, which have two hard aluminum covers and you can pull out the paper which was kinda long. I guess I kept this phonebook the longest, where I record down mostly phone numbers of girls. muahashahaha... Some are penpals, some are friends intro to me as well as classmates. It was a treasure to me then. I always refer to it whenever I feel like calling someone of the opposite sex for a long chat. Of course, for those special ones, I can memorized la...hahaha..

    The phonebook is very convenient as it can be roll back and it became one hard small notebook, thanks to the aluminium covers. I can put in my wallet, in case I needed to make a phone call outside, using those public phones operated by Uniphone cards.

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    1. yeah, it's actually a long list and this phonebook is already fully occupied with numbers.. actually there is no sorting and i wonder how i would actually go and scan through all numbers to find the one i needed, haha!! :D

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  17. I also recalled having a more slightly hi-tech phonebook where there are markers of alphabets from A-Z , and all you needed to do is adjust the marker to , say, B, and press a button so that the phonebook will go to the names list that start with 'B'. Well, of course, we write the names and phone no. based on the phonebook while that hi-tech phonebook simply helps us to locate the names.

    This is one of those innovative phonebooks then and it was very handy! However, it can also spoilt easily and we have to re-write the numbers on a new phonebook...muahahaha..

    And, usually, most folks put an exercise book near the phone so that they can scribble down the notes on the book, as well as numbers. These books can be messy as it will contains everything all rojak. It's a pain trying to search for numbers!!

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    1. oh, i remember that, hahaha!! that one considered very high tech already at that time, haha.. but in terms of mobility, that one has to stay at home and cannot be brought along with us lah, haha!!

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  18. During those times, most of us will have our own phonebooks, like how we owned our own address database in our phone. Of course we need that as for young folks, all the names of their potential boyfriends and girlfriends are stored there. For adults, the phone no. of the provision shop to send gas canister, phone no. of relatives, friends, schools, tuition centres and etc are stored. For working adults, its either the namecard album and another diary to kept the names of their business asssociates and clients.

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    1. haha, you have a good analysis what type of numbers we have during different stage of life huh?? :p

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  19. As things got more advanced, we will have phones that can programmed a limited no. of phone numbers into it. Just press a button to search the database and press call will do. I remember I also owned a address book gadget in the 90s, which is a name card size but can stored up hundreds of phone no. and names. It can also acted as a calculator as well as a limited space notebook.

    Anyway, it's in monochrome black and white lcd display but it's something I can show off then. muahahahha..

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    1. oh, got such thing ah?? i have never come across this leh.. probably because it must be more expensive and out of my affordable range.. would be nice to have one instead of the handwritten one since the digital one provide easy searching :)

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  20. I realised when I was keeping a phonebook, somehow it's easier to remember the phone numbers we usually called. Perhaps I guess it's due to the lookup by us and then dial the numbers on the phone. The more we do it, the easier for us to memorise the numbers.

    And, not forgetting I used to rewrite the numbers all over again when I migrate the phone book to another book. It even makes memorising numbers easier.

    yeah, like you mentioned, nowadays, all of our numbers are kept in the phone SIM card, phone memory banks as well as on the cloud. It's so easy to retrieve the name of a person to call but we cannot recall what is the number, even it is stored in our phone for donkey years!! Some folks can't even remember their own number!!

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    1. yeah, you get the point.. because we use to read out the numbers and then press the number one by one on the phone, so we remember them easily.. but now, it's all by names and the number automatically comes out, we don't actually bother with the number as long as the name is right..

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  21. Nowadays, there are so many Cloud based storage offered by the service providers. Google can easily transfer your phone and address book from one Android phone to another. It can also transfer to different OS, like IOS with a little hiccups. When I change phone from Android to IOS, initially I thought it's a lot of work to transfer the phone and address database. Well, I didn't know it is so simple. And, if you are using iPhone, the iCloud makes it even easier to transfer to another iPhone.

    And, there are also third party apps around to help us managed the phonebook! Even if we lost our phones, we still able to retrieve the numbers easily and hassled free.

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    1. yeah, last time used to have problems with backing up to the SIM card with limited storage, and then copied from SIM card to new phone, and then have to tidy up due to the format problem.. but now with cloud base contact, i actually have seamless transfer of the contacts to my new phone..

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  22. Wah wah wah, this is so antique already lo!! I wonder nowadays still can find similar phonebook?
    I used to have this type of phonebook when I was schooling, but now I totally cannot recall where it is, haha~

    Nowadays everything also go into phones/tablets/computers la, I doubt so if anyone is still using physical phonebook... Unless elderly people who is buta huruf ba? Like my mum... She still keeps a phonebook, but in her handphone still got a few important contacts also la.

    Ask if I can remember any 5 numbers? Yes I can, erm more than 5 la, hehe! My parents one, my brother, my husband, my mum in law, sister in law and 2 close friends =)

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    1. hehehe, if not mistaken i bought this in 1990, it's 25 years already leh, so were you born then?? hahaha.. of course now everyone is using digital phonebook, probably the elderly are still using the handwritten ones i guess :p

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    2. Of course I was born already, but I was 6 years old then, wakakaka!

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  23. But ho actually storing contacts in phonebook in our phones got pros and cons also... Pros is of course convenient la, as we can just search and call.
    But sometimes must remember about the setting to save contacts in SIM card or phone. I don't know about others but yes if for Apple, we can get them at iCloud if we change device. Not sure about Android or others.... Sometimes if forgotten can be quite troublesome.

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    1. last time yalor, transfer to SIM card but limited spaces, then from SIM card transfer to new phone, the format gets messy, quite troublesome.. but now got the cloud base contacts, i have no problem at all.. the contacts are transferred to my new phone seamlessly leh..

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  24. I had this type of phone books too. I had two. Because it was so precious back then, I must backup all the phone numbers into another phone book. One I put in my wallet, one I keep at home. If I lost one, I still have another one. I wrote friends' phone number, address and Date of Birth in there.

    I used that so frequent until the phone book got torn apart. Hehehe! Luckily I always had backup copy.

    I also can't remember more than 5, as of now, I remember 4 phone numbers only. They are actually a running number from my own phone number. That's why I can remember.

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    1. Aiyo! Now I look at the picture in this post clearer, I had the same Garfield phone book like you, SK. What a coincident! I had that in my wallet and another one I got it free from my ex-company.

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    2. Yeah! This phone book told that we are all 70s babies, because when 90s, we already 20+- years old, and we used this type of phone books the most frequent.

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    3. Those were the days, we had so many public phone everywhere, we just need to put in coins and dial the number that we found in the phone books. I did that the most when I was in my uni. I needed to line up for very long, as UM campus has only one public phone booth.

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    4. hmmm, that is actually a very good idea to have two copies of phonebooks of which one serves as a backup, smart Yannie.. i always only have one, and i will only "migrate" when the current one is almost torn apart, haha..yeah, last time very "hing" right, bring along the phonebook and make calls from public payphones.. hahaha!! i wonder now if there is anyone who is still using a paper phonebook??

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  25. oh i have written phone book.. i keep it on my wallet for emergency especially if I lose the phone.. it comes handy all the time!

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    1. oh, so you are one of those who are still using written phonebook?? and i wonder how often will you update the numbers in that paper phonebook??

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  26. Good morning SK. Am late this month ya...half month late. You know the reason la. BBW and hospital thingy

    anyway... this photo does brings back memories for me la. SO old the phonebook. you still keeping ah... wait let me see the watermark first...yup it's your phonebook.

    My phonebook back then is different from yours. This Garfield type I had before and found that maybe am too rough la...it end up tear in half or more pieces. Instead, i used to have mini note book. similar to the Garfield phonebook size la.

    there not onoy i have the phone number but als the address of friend. Usually at the end of a school year wil ask friend to write down their Biodata there . Usually consist of name. Date of birth , phone number and address.

    those days we dont have facebook reminder so have to checkj through the phonebook see friend birth date and then get pressie ready for them lo.

    Those days we all stay nearby only. around your office area ...so we write address also coz at times we go visiting our friends.

    But usually ui can remember my friend's phone number. Those close ones la i can still remember. Not all the friends la. If nowadays ask me to call out somebody's phone number ..i sure cannot remember. Old already la.

    You remember last time phone number was 6 digits? or was that before your time. Mine was ngum ngum changing from 6 digits to 7 digits. That time have to all the phone number add a number in the 2nd digit. Had to find out area by area. hahaha...betul betul tedious. By the time phone numbers changed from 7 numbers to 8 numbers...no need to use phonebook liao lo

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  27. I don't know whether you remember or not...last time apart from buying all these phone book...banks and some companies used to give out these mini phone book cum diary. That time every year will go to the bank and at the counter perform some transactions then ask the teller for the address /phone/diary book.


    Did you do this before? hahaha,,,, i did that before. The bank still giving out these until recent 2-3 years ago. but then by this time nobody want it any more. it became obsolete liao. Give me also i lazy to take coz it would contribute to the clutter the place only leh.

    now everything computerised...very easy la. one click kau tim. no need all these liao

    wah you challenge me to recall 5 telephone numbers ah? hmmm ...okay la i can recall off hand 5 numbers without refering la. Errr...old office phone number counted in the list or not leh? Hahaha...if handphone number i think max only kaldip number and my own number la. the rest i did not bother to remember la.


    yes...as you have said i have back up the phone numbers but sometimes i dont know i back up wrong or something...last round my phone gone to heaven...i managed to retrieve a portion only of the phone number from the storage.

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  28. Nowadays if without my phone with me it felt like not complete. like kurang pakai 1 baju . Too depended on the phone coz now phone not only for phone calls but also for instants message and for work .

    Yeah blogging is like work....have to have data to check the blog see if any comments need to moderate and then also see if got any $$ coming in from advertisers leh muhahaha

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  29. 沒有用這種,太小了,我的字太大寫不下。
    以前幾乎記得所有重要的電話號碼,現在?完全不記得了,都Online call, whatsapp啦!科技真的改變了我們的生活習慣。

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