Thanks for the elephantine compliments. Likewise your recall powers, I might add. :)

Interesting that you met Leong Seng Por, whom I met a couple of times, too. Don't laugh (too hard) now ... but I still listen to Canto-operas these days, especially those performed by Sun Ma Jai, Tham Pik Wan, Pak Suet Sin, etc. Do you remember the cute and very popular HK songstress/actress Foong Bo-Bo who used to frequent Ipoh quite a bit and perform minor opera gigs with her dad, Foong-Foong, throughout the late 60s and early 70s?

Re the old authentic way of shaving smaller ice rocks, my late dad did keep just such a rudimentary gadget, which was one of several trade tools of my long-passed-on grandfather, who ran the only "leong fun" (grass jelly) ice stall in Manong, several kms out of KK, back in the 40s/50s. Dad also kept the actual proper ice-shaving machine (for ice blocks) with a wheel and push-handle that I used to think slightly resembled Mum's then trusty old Raleigh sewing machine.

Such warm memories of the bygones ...