Half past six? If you think it just means 6.30, you are so half past six, lah!

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I had sometimes heard my father and brothers use the expression "half past six". Having learnt what it meant in popular usage, I am sure I too must have since used it. So I knew what Mr Abdullah Badawi (a former one-term Malaysian prime minister; his predecessor was Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his successor is the incumbent, Najib Abdul Razak) meant when he used it in a recent interview:

  
I decided to poll some people. As I expected, some of the younger ones said, "Six-thirty, right?" One said "(the subject in question is) not all there" and another said "not mentally stable". A few others used words like "incompetence" or "lousy work output/effort". One said "Time to seek help from a urologist" to which I inquired: "So, you think 3.15 is just about right?" He replied, "I'm more of a 2.10!" The most complete answer was: "I guess it depends on whether you are telling the time, or quality of work, or referring to someone's sexual prowess".

Now let's see what's said online:

singlishdictionary.com

half past six a. [Eng., origin uncertain; poss. f. the appearance of a flaccid penis: see quot. 2006]  Careless, shoddy; incompetent, screwed up.
2006 Carolyn Hong (quoting Mahathir Mohamad) The Straits Times (from Straits Times Interactive), 12 June. Tun Dr Mahathir described the [Malaysian] government as ‘half-past six’ with no guts after it scrapped a project to build a bridge to replace the Causeway because it could not secure the agreement of Singapore.  2006 Neil Humphreys Final Notes from a Great Island 16–17 “.. When your son makes you proud, it’s the best. When your son is an idiot, it’s the worst. Don't have a ‘half-past six’ son.” I adore that expression. A popular, and unique, Singlish turn of phase, it loosely means “incompetent” or “screwed up”, but “half-past-six” is much more creative. Its origin is supposedly sexual and refers to the angle of the penis. Naturally, half-past-six is droopy, while midnight is impressive.

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talkingcock.com

HALF PAST SIX  (Contributed by 12 O'Cock)
Describing something or someone as being half-baked or incompetent, the term is actually a sexual reference to the angle of the dangle of the male organ. Half past six is weak, but quarter past three or 9:45 is very strong!.
"Wah piang eh, why your company so half past six one, this sort of easy thing also can cock-up."
See also: Chap Sar Tiam  Kucing Kurap

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http://www.waywordradio.org/half_past_six/

"bad, shoddy, slipshod" (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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I also learnt that the Brits use expressions like "half seven". Is that 6.30 or 7.30?, someone asked in this interesting poser below:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/32678/what-does-the-phrase-half-seven-mean

Some other intriguing time-related variations were aired in the discussions above.

Which brings me to this poser: When do you call someone Sar Suku (or in Malay, Tiga Suku)?

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Finally, I had posted a while back that I had Sex on the Beach (but, alas, all to myself). Well, this time, Angie and I had Sex on the Beach right after dinner at the Grandstand! Here's proof:

For the record, Sex on the Beach has orange, peach, cranberry and vodka. Yum!