the greatest impact of all

finally managed to get tye thong to meet up with his former student wing nam. when wing nam joined balestier hill secondary in 1973, tye thong was his form teacher in secondary 2/21. our 'hong kong boy' remembers mr tan (tye thong) as the teacher who introduced him to race walking.

some of our former students from balestier hill secondary who still keep in touch with us or who have made the effort to contact us and meet up with us, after all these years, have never been taught by us in the formal classroom. in fact, all of them remember us not because of our classroom teaching - that must say something about our class lessons - but what we imparted to them or did with them outside the classroom.

the extra-curricular activities (eca) that we conducted for them apparently have far greater impact than all the formal lessons in the classroom. in those days, we were the ones who initiated the eca; it was something we were passionate about, something that we wanted to do and enjoyed doing. much unlike today, where co-curricular activities (cca) are 'farmed out' to outside instructors or assigned to teachers who may deem it as extraneous to their teaching responsibilities.

it is the same testimony that we hear each time we meet our ex-students: being involved in oac (outdoor activities club) has helped to shape my character and prepared me well for life. when i asked one of our most successful ex-students what has helped him to be where he is today. his reply was: the one takeaway that has been etched in my mind was the lifeskills that i picked up at the 10-day leadership training camp.

many of the students who are doing well in their careers attribute an important part of their success to the training and the experiences that they had when they were members of oac. the programmes that we provided included hiking, canoeing, overnight camp, canoe expedition around pulau ubin, field cooking, sing-a-long and opportunities to lead.

the two teachers who worked very hard to make sure that the oac activities were meaningful to the students were sng thai soon and kwan tuck hong. khoo boo sun and i played a supporting role only. at one time, oac was so popular that more than one-quarter of the school population were enrolled as members.

countryside living in singapore














































tucked away in different corners in bustling singapore are a number of black and white bungalows which are very popular with the expatriate community. these single or double-storey bungalows have white walls and black wood exteriors and are tudor in style. while some have been converted into restaurants and offices, most are still residential in nature.

one lot of such houses are so well-hidden that they are not known to most singaporeans. they are located behind the media corp transmission towers at lorong sesuai at bukit batok nature park. most of us are aware of the colonial houses at seletar, sembawang and lornie road because the buildings are visible from the main road.

however, in the case of the houses at hume heights as well as those at canterbury road, berkshire road and cornwall road, not many people have seen these houses except the happy wanderers and the people whose work take them to these places, like the grass cutters, the delivery men and the meter readers.

this place at hume heights has such a rustic charm that some of the tenants have been staying - should say, living - there for as long as fifteen years. there is no sound of traffic; the only sounds that you will hear are the chirping of birds and the calls of insects. quite a number of the tenants have planted fruit trees and food crops in their spacious garden.

battle at kruger - buffalo rescued from lions

came to know about this video clip from the lifestyle's section of today's straits times.

meeting up with wing nam after 33 years


wing nam and his wife on the upper deck of the yacht























met up my former student wing nam who is back here on a visit. since leaving singapore, after completing his 'o' level, he has been working as a policeman in hong kong. he is here with his wife. he took leave from work to attend the wedding of the daughter of one of his classmates.

we all met at keppel marina as another of his classmate, herman, owns a yacht which was moored at the marina. twelve of us went for a spin and splash in the 4-year old million dollar cabin cruiser. the boat ride took us from keppel bay to kusu island and back.

back at the marina, we gathered at the wine bar for a drink. we were joined by another two former teachers of theirs, wendy syn and lilian kwek. a smaller group of us then adjourned to lau pa sat to let wing nam enjoy local favourite dishes like satay, rojak, ikan bakar, juihee eng cai and otar.

the former bukit merah safra

i did not serve in the army and so was not privileged to use the facilities in this 2nd clubhouse built in 1982 for national servicemen who had served in the armed forces. (safra stands for singapore armed forces reservists association)

the clubhouse was closed in october 2004 and its replacement is the safra mount faber.

i used to visit this place because there was a dimsum restaurant which was open to the public.

there are plans to build a 540-room hotel on this site.