re-uniting over the years

2006

2007

2009

i think this is our 12th annual gathering. we have been doing this even before we moved to bukit panjang. we had started inviting my indian friends over for chinese new year dinner when we lived at towner road.

the composition of the group has remained more or less unchanged. the original members were victor and helen samuel, mr and mrs balendra, mr and mrs nara and ramachandran. sethi joined us about three years later, when we shifted to bukit panjang.

practically every year, for the past eleven years, by some coincidence, we would meet on the day of the chingay procession. after the makan, we would adjourn to watch the show on tv. this year, we decided on a change of day but it still fell within the 15-day celebration of the chinese new year.

the food, has over the years, evolved to become the healthier kind. these days, we have more vegetable than meat dishes. what has not changed is the 'lo hei' at the start of the dinner.

this year, even the yu sheng was different. for the past decade, we would buy our yu sheng from someone who prepared it at home. this year, we bought the commercially packed type, shredded our own carrot, radish and cucumber and added in smoked salmon bought from the supermarket.

mr and mrs nara could not join us because of some preparation for thaipusam.

7th day of lunar new year & yusheng

the seventh day of the lunar new year is renri or yan-yat (meaning "birthday of man", "day of man", "day of humanity" or "everyman's birthday"). in early times, the urban chinese based their forecast of the country's condition for the year on this day's weather. customs in celebrating the day vary from place to place. the people from the fujian province are fond of preparing a special soup with seven health-promoting ingredients to counteract ill health, while those in chekiang eat peace dumplings to bring peace to the country. in singapore and malaysia, yu sheng or "raw fish" is served.

yu sheng is served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year and is usually eaten on renri. in a celebration known as "lo hei", families and friends gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks, while saying auspicious wishes aloud to mark the start of a prosperous new year. the belief is that the higher you toss, the greater will be your fortune!

typical ingredients include: fresh salmon, daikon (white radish), carrot, red pepper (capsicum), ginger, daun limau nipis (lime tree leaves), chinese parsley, ground peanuts, roasted sesame seeds, chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder. the dressing is made primarily from plum sauce.

today, we fish-head steamboat dinner at hong kong cuisine restaurant at 7th mile upper bukit timah road. we had the yusheng (raw fish salad) as a starter. some side dishes we had included the pig trotters with mantou and the speciality of the restaurant, "chow tarr (burnt) bee hoon".

reunion dinner - to usher in the ox

this year's reunion dinner is more complete than last year's and previous years'; this year, after a lapse of five years, ivy is able to stay on for the reunion dinner. except for her first year of studies when she managed to spend the lunar new year with us, all the other years she had either visited in june or, if she visited at the end of the year, she would have to rush back to melbourne because of her studies. now that she has started working, she is able to take leave.

as has been the practice over the years, my brother's family of five and my youngest sister lynn join us at the reunion table with my mother. my 86-year old mother, who stays with one of my sisters, will spend the last day of the old lunar year and the first day of the new year at my place.

we have been having steamboat dinner for a number of years. this year, we cut down on the amount and number of food items because the year before we had quite a lot of leftovers. the stock for the steamboat soup came from pork ribs which was bought from ben's. not all ingredients were raw; some like the quail eggs and the fish balls - bought fresh - were pre-cooked.

these days, you can get thinly sliced meat done the shabu style from the supermarket. this makes preparation much easier. we do not marinate the raw meat at all. other items that ended up in the hot pot included chicken meat, prawns, scallops, fresh squids, prawnballs, shrimp wonton, stuffed tofu balls and cheese sausages.

the vegetables that went into the soup were tung oh, local leaf, long cabbage and inoki mushroom.

another 'tradition' of sort is the cleaning of the gaps between the tiles in my flat. my brother's family members and my sister would get down on their fours, use the wonder sponge to whiten the gaps.

birthday celebration at spom

the balestier group met again this month at the senior police officers' mess at mt pleasant road to celebrate seck yeong's birthday. i have visited the former junior police officers' mess at ladyhill a few times but this was my first visit to the mess for senior officers. the mess is in a very secluded location, quite close to the old police academy and the onraet road's detention centre.

hiang kwang, who is based in sydney most of the time, was supposed to be there but he could not get on a flight on 19 dec, the date he had planned to fly back. wing choy could not make it as he had a wedding dinner to attend. the welcomed surprise was the presence of khoo boo sun, who has kept away from the group for quite some time. we congratulated him on his esteemed appointment as an international race officer - the highest level of running and managing sailing races.

before the commencement of the dinner, we were taken on a tour of the mess by teck seng. we were shown the spa, the jackpot room, the billiard room, the hall - where christmas parties used to be held - and the photo gallery where the photographs of all the police commissioners were on display.

i do not know how many courses there were for dinner but we had a lot to eat. after eating the birthday cake, we adjourned to the karaoke lounge and room. my wife must have let my former students in on my 'croaking' at home, so they were trying to get me to 'start the ball rolling' by singing the first song. cheng hong sang the first song, a mandarin one.

there was some discussion on the next gathering before we left the place just before 11 p.m.

surprise! surprise! surprise!

the birthday cake -from secret recipe - was supposed to be part of the surprise

the traditional chinese birthday buns

with my siblings - four of my sisters with their children and grandchild

my family with ian, his grandma and brother and my brother's family

my balestier colleagues kwan, tye thong, sng thai soon and gee peng with my 4th sister's family and my youngest sister lynn.

lay bee's small group members( sabrina, james, choi chin and stella) , nah, victor, helen, mdm ow and mr and mrs soon boon eng.

my former students from balestier hill technical school and now my monthly walking kakis

it was supposed to be a night of surprises.

the first surprise actually came earlier in the day. when i went to the airport to meet ida, my younger girl, who was returning from melbourne immediately after she had sat for the last paper so that she could be in time to celebrate my birthday, i was pleasantly surprised to see ivy, my elder girl and her boyfriend ian at the arrival lounge. they were not supposed to be in singapore till january 2009. which meant they had spent $1200 each (on airfare) so that they could be here for a few days to join in the bash.

the second surprise was presence of ian's grandmother and brother at the dinner. they flew here from kuching and stayed at the royal park on scott.

the next surprise was seeing my siblings and their children at the birthday dinner. my siblings took up nearly three tables.

then more surprises awaited me. my friends and former colleagues were also there. so were the members of lay bee's farrer park small group. laybee's former principal ms ow was also at the dinner.

to round up the surprises was seeing my former students from balestier and now my monthly walking kakis occupying one table.

however, there were a number of tell-tale signs which dull these surprises. first, the business card of the restaurant was left lying around after a call was made to it. then i stumbled upon a guest list which puzzled me - it included the names of ivy, ian, his grandmother and brother. prior to my birthday, i received messages from more than the usual number of well-wishers.

surprise or no surprise, it was a wonderful gathering of old friends, colleagues, students and kins.

those were the days

when you have not met your former colleagues for nearly thirty years, the things that would dominate all conversations would be the good old days. actually, the rest of us in the pictures have been meeting quite regularly; it is only lai wenko - seated on the extreme right - who has been missing from the picture for about thirty years.

lai was with us in balestier hill technical for ten years before he got a transfer to kim seng technical. soon after that, he resigned from teaching and left for the states to further his education.

i always remember him as the st john's ambulance brigade officer who would be the only one around conducting drills and other activities for the sjab members on a saturday afternoon. at least one misconception was cleared up at today's meeting. i always imagined seeing him in his white sjab uniform. he verified that it was light brown (khaki) uniform that he wore for ten years.

there was a lot of laughter as we recalled those youthful days when we were full of zest and we devoted our time unquestioningly to the school and the students. in retrospect, someone commented that we were quite naive compared to the present lot of teachers. nevertheless, we enjoyed such a tremendous sense of camaradie that after all these years, even after we had moved on to different schools and different jobs, we still keep in touch.

lai is still managing his own business. what puzzled him most was: how come, out of the eight of us (myself, the photographer, included), seven retired prematurely. one retired at age 54, one, 55, two, 57, two, 58 and one, 59.

we told him that if he had not resigned from teaching, he would have also been in the same boat - retiring before he could reach 60.

the present lot of 60 years old do not look as old as those one generation before them. with better medical care, personal care (no botox, but got botak) and hair care (dye), they look as though they are in their 40s or 50s.

we chose an appropriate meeting place - the coffee-shop, located in balestier complex, where we used to have meals between breaks about thirty years ago.

gathering of ttc campers and instructors

two camp instructors - clarence lim and sng thai soon - who have not met each other since the 70s.

amateur magician (mr magic) lim kay heng entertaining the crowd. he always has something up his sleeve; performing his magic anywhere and everywhere.

natahar bava (former national rugby coach) relating his meeting with gerry de silva (one of the camp instructors) in perth.

combined age of these four former physical education lecturers (tan eng yoon, lau teng chuan, yap boon chuan and tan hwee hock) - around 320 years. i meet tan hwee hock regularly at bukit batok nature park.


last night, a gathering of campers, instructors and physical education lecturers from the 60s and 70s was held at the moe recreation club at evans road.

some well-known sports personalities from the past were there. they include kunalan, natahar bava, lau teng chuan, tan hwee hock and tan eng yoon.

apart from drinking and eating, included in the planned programme were a magic show, speeches, slide presentations of the old days and the present and crooning of oldies like ramona, bye bye love and the young ones - someone quipped that it should be called 'the young once' - by some of those present. music and accompaniment was provided by the band from seletar country club.

the presentation of the black and white photographs brought back memories of those 'you can do it' days.

the activity that i had found most challenging at the camp was canoeing. actually, it should be termed 'sampaning'. instead of the fibre-glass canoes, we used wooden sampans for our canoeing activities.

when you were a first-time canoeist and the boat, out in the sea, did not seem to go in the direction you wanted it to go, it could be really trying. your arms were as heavy as lead and whatever energy you had (from the hurried lunch) all expended, it was very tempting to just throw in the paddles (towel) and just quit.

somehow, the camp spirit pushed you on and at the end of it, you learn more about your own physical and mental strengths.

you can read more about it in the old wise owl's blog.

jennifer's birthday dinner @ craig rd

jennifer celebrated her half-century birthday at xi yan restaurant, an exclusive restaurant at 38a craig road.

the menu is not the run-of-the mill type. we started with their signature dish - greenhouse tomatoes in sesame sauce. this was followed by three other appetisers: grilled thai pork cheek, japanese cucumber rosettes and spicy shishamo with xo terayaki sauce.

the main course started with marinated drunken prawns. the other dishes were hakka marinated duck, braised beef brisket in sichuan hot and spicy sauce, stir fried spicy bean curd crabs, intermezzo of chrysanthemum tea sorbet with sugarcane crystals, chinese cabbage consomme (soup) and stir fried mushrooms with pickled cucumber.

to round off everything, we had a piece of the birthday cake each and coconut and durian sauce on sea coconut and attap seed pudding.

durian feast for birthday

today bought 7 golden phoenix (kim hong) and 2 cat mountain king (mao shan wang) durians for around $100 from my regular vendor at woodgrove. yesterday, i had gone there with the intention of placing today's order with him but at 7.00 p.m., he was nowhere to be found. today, he explained to me that his whole lorry-load of durians had been bought over by someone on saturday.

we actually had a proper home-cooked dinner and so the durians were part of the after-meal dessert. we had chicken curry, chap chye, honey pork ribs and kong bak with tau pok. these could go with either the steamed rice or the toasted garlic bread.

pei ling bought a cake for her father's birthday.

the eight of us managed to finish about four durians, both the mao shan wang and about two of the golden phoenix. i say about two because we opened four of the golden phoenix durians but not all the segments. so, they ended up having to tar pau durians and other unfinished food home.

i think these were about the best durians we had tasted for a long time.

meeting up with old friends

there are friends who pass like ships in the night,

who meet for a moment then sail out of sight,

with never a backwards glance of regret,

friends we know briefly, then quickly forget.

then there are friends that sail together,

through quiet waters and stormy weather.

helping each other through joy and strife,

these are the friends who bring meaning to life.

author unknown

60th birthday bash at laguna golf club

the former teachers and principals who turned up included mr e wijeysingha, mr a k sigamoney, mr foo don wan, ms d thambaiyah, mr hector chee, cikgu alias marzuki, mr john tan, mrs sigamoney, mr lee fong seng, mrs wee heng tin, mr mk sharma, mr moses tay, mr ng kim beng, mr patrick pestana, mr s puhaindran, mr tan kim cheng, dr tan wee kiat and mr vincent gomez.


last night about half the 62 -65/67 cohort of rafflesians and twenty of our teachers gathered at the eagle ballroom of laguna national golf and country club to celebrate a common 60th birthday as the majority of us would be this age this year. some of us have not seen one another since we parted way after our senior cambridge examinations some 43 years ago.

the organisers started planning for the reunion more than a year ago. some of our former schoolmates who are based or settled in countries like malaysia, hong kong, china, australia, new zealand and usa made the special effort to be back for this nostalgic get-together.

as expected, some of us took quite a while to place faces and figures that have been reshaped over the years. while a few have grown slimmer, most of us have blossomed, with a prominent 'centre forward'. that was how mr puhaindran, one of our former teachers, described his paunch.

the evening's entertainment programme featured our own home-grown talents like ho ping chan, georgie chia and benny low. dr tan wee kiat, who taught science in ri, gave a rendition of two songs that we sang when we were in school, on his tiny harmonica.

to round off the evening, the two hundred of us and the twenty teachers trooped into a room to have a group photograph.

i was glad to catch up with farhan (middle) whom i have not met since 1965. he is the proud grandfather of five children while sapuan, who was also a teacher like me, has two grand children.

seafood dinner @ jumbo east coast

many years ago, i ate at a jumbo restaurant in a country club at serangoon garden; though i was aware that there was another restaurant by the same name at east coast park, i had never visited it until last night. in fact, it was my first visit to east coast seafood centre. so many overseas visitors have raved about the seafood served at the centre and yet some singaporeans like me have not stepped foot there.

this is like a week of meeting up with former students i had lost touch with since i left balestier for ghim moh. the gathering was primarily a farewell dinner for wing nam, who flies back to hong kong tomorrow, but it was also a chance for me to meet other two former students whom i have not seen since 1975. they are johnny tan and cheng yan.

kim seng, a sia pilot, flies the airbus 380 to sydney and london. each month, he flies twice to sydney and once to london. also found out that he is a buddy of p james, the president of the air lines pilot association - singapore (alpa-s) whom i meet at least once a month. cheng yan, who once worked in lam soon and then seagate, is now the vice-president of an american company manufacturing modems for singtel.

also at the dinner were swee hee, kum lay and his wife, soon leong, simon, ron sim, herman ho, kwan, thai soon and, of course, wing nam and his wife. we were there from about 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.

there was much talk about organising a big get-together of oac members. the proposal was to hold it at a resturant owned by one of the former oac members, belinda. wing nam told me that he would definitely be back if swee hee was to organise this big bash in 2010.

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.

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.