Where is everyone now?

Met up with Paul Ting the other day when he was down in KL, and I started wondering where everyone is at the moment.

Here's a rundown of the people that I know at the moment:-

Klang Valley - Stephen Chung, Liu Chuan Ming, me, Eng Soon, Peter Yii, David Hii, Ngu Sia Hook, Lieng Tee......who else?

Kuching - Stephen Yii, Paul Ting, Kok Sey (aka Eric Phang), Anthony Ting, John Wong, Yii Chiong......who else?

Sibu - David Kuok, Ching Chai, Joseph Sia, Tiong Kuong Siong........who else?

UK - Simon Ting

Beijing - Chua Hock Lim

USA - Gerald Lim ----- hey Gerald, where's the post you promised earlier this year? :)

Labuan - Frankie Jeffrey

Sorry for lack of postings

Dear all,
My apologies for not updating the blog regularly since April. But I really appreciate all who have made the effort to post comments - keep them coming!

Recently I met Liu Chuan Ming, who had been staying in my Taman for the past three years but I never bumped into him! He works overseas quite often, so I guess that's why I never saw him.

Eng Soon has also moved to my Taman earlier this month and he's now busy doing up his house.

I will ask these two guys whether they are willing to be profiled for this blog to let everyone know how they've been.

On another note, I'm glad to see Stephen Yii, John Fam, David Kuok and Sii Jing joining the blog as well. Welcome! Please feel free to log in to blogger.com and post your own articles.

I would also like to welcome warhammer, although I'm not sure who you are, though I have my guesses :) Thanks for the lyrics to the Vitamin C song, it really reminded me of the olden days.

With election fever going on in Sarawak, perhaps those of us in Sarawak can post some articles about what is going on over there for the benefit of those in other places. Some pictures would be nice, too.

Sarawak Elections are here again ....

The elections for the Sarawak State Assembly are upon us again. The Sarawak election is unique in that it is the only one among all the Malaysian states to be held outside of the Parliamentary elections.

As in the past, the opposition doesn't stand much of a chance to win more than a seat or two, let alone wrest the state from BN. The only question would be the margin of the victory.

The most memorable for me was the 1991 one, when PBDS mounted a strong challenge as the opposition. Unfortunately, things fizzled out in the end, and PBDS was never the same after that.

I've never had a chance to vote in Sibu before, because I registered as a voter in PJ back in 1996.

Anyone going back to their hometowns to cast their votes this time around? Any interesting stories to tell? :)

Of people who made a difference in our lives

With the recent release of SPM and STPM results, my thoughts went back to 20 years ago, when I was in Form 3 and going to sit for SRP (equivalent of PMR nowadays).

My class, 3A8, was not in a good shape and Bro. Albinus was a bit concerned. So, he decided to force the entire class to come to the school at night to study. I still remember cycling to school via Tiong Hua road every night after dinner.

Bro. Albinus visited the classroom every night to make sure we were all there. At the end of the year, the results spoke for themselves - almost everyone got decent results, including myself.

To this day, I always remembered what Bro. Albinus did that year, and what a difference it made for all of us in 3A8.

News on Eng Soon

Our friend Pui Eng Soon called me up a few weeks ago. He's moving to KL from Shanghai, and by coincidence he bought a house in the same Taman as me! The first thing he said when he found out was, "Yay, got mah jong kaki!" LOL


He'll back in KL at the end of March, so when I catch up with him I'll update you guys :)

Sie Chiong

Paths Crossed

Sometimes, no matter how big the world is, its always small enough for you to bump into your old friends :)

In 1989, when I was at Taylor's college, Ting Siik Siew and Eng Kia Hock were in the same college. During that time, Stephen Chung and Peter Yii were my mahjong kakis during weekends. Kong Lieng Tee went to my uni in UK in 1992.

When I came back to KL in '96 I met Stephen Yii and Anthony Ting again. Later Eric Phang came to KL to work and stayed with me for a few years.

David Hii married one of the girls from my church, and soon I'll be working for him :)

And various times in my 10 years in KL, I met Dennis Chua Hock Lim, Liu Chuan Ming , and Ngu Sia Hook.

Who did you bump into since you left SHS (not counting reunion lah :) )?

Roaring 80's (Our Wonder Years)

Each generation will usually remember the most the decade that they grew up in, and for us it was the roaring 80's.

It was the time of the 2M era (Mahathir and Musa), Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Challenger disaster, the Philippines People Power (20th anniversary this year!), Rubik's cube (still remember how to solve it?)

It was also the time of the rise of the PC, though in those days they ran at 16 Mhz (!) and had 640 kb (!!) of memory.

And who could forget the video games - Pac Man, Frogger, Space Invaders, pinball; though they were later banned by the government.

And most of all, it was the time of the golden era of pop. Though I also love listening to the edgier stuff of the 90's and beyond, nothing could compare to the sheer purity of pop of the 80's. I mean, do you guys remember Madonna (Like A Virgin, Crazy For You, Live To Tell, Papa Don't Preach), Michael Jackson (Beat It, Bad, Billie Jean, Thriller), Lionel Ritchie (All Night Long, Say You Say Me)?

And I remember doing my homework to the following songs that my neighbour used to blast out at night - Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears), Brother Louie (Modern Talking), Within You'll Remain (Tokyo Square), Wild Boys (Duran Duran), Glory of Love (Peter Cetera), How Will I Know (Whitney Houston).

And of course, there's also Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls), A-Ha (Take On Me), Johnny Hates Jazz (Turn Back The Clock is one of my most favourite song ever!).

And due to the wonderful world of the Internet, you can relive those glorious days! I trawled around a bit on Google and found numerous sites dedicated to the 80's. Here's a selection of the ones I found interesting:-

80's Nostalgia - an especially comphrehensive site that covers 80's music, TV, movies, and memories.

80's Movies - a site with an exhaustive list of all movies made in the 80's.

80's Music Site - as the name implies, everything you could possibly want on 80's music.


What do you guys remember most from that era? What were your favourite songs and movies?

Frankie's Profile

Dear SHS friends,

Frankie has kindly agreed to be the first to be profiled on this blog, three cheers for him!

Frankie, if anything not accurate please let me know :)

Frankie went to UiTM after SHS and graduated with a law degree in 1997. He then worked in a few law firms before going to Labuan in 2003 to work for EC Trust (Labuan) Bhd as Chief Legal Counsel. Here's a current photo of him hard at work :-


Frankie's happily married to Cornelia E Tahing (Sino-Kadazan, in case you're wondering) since December 2002 (just 4 months after me and 2 months after Anthony Ting :) ). Cornelia's working at Nexus Karambunai Resort, Sabah (a lovely place that I've always wanted to visit) Here's a photo of Cornelia and Frankie:


Anyone wants to keep in touch with Frankie, just leave message on this blog or you can go to his blog (see link on the right) and leave a message there.

Thanks again, Frankie! Really glad to hear from you and find out how you're doing. Hope to visit you guys in Sabah/Labuan one day :)

Friends, anyone has our photos took during our school day?.

Anyone who has our old photos took during our school day, please email to patrick in order to enable everyone to view and refresh their memory during the younger days......it would be fun and excited for those who like to see our friends' face some 15++ years ago...don't be selfish to share the photos ok.....cheers....

eric pks.

Found a long lost friend! - Frankie Jeffrey

Frankie Jeffrey emailed me recently, after losing touch with him for eight years :) The last time I spoke to him was 1998 when he was working in Klang. He's now working in duty free heaven - Labuan. Take a look at his personal blog here. Good to hear from you, Frankie!

Sie Chiong

Where are our former teachers now?

I was just wandering around on the Net last night, when I suddenly thought of using Google to look up where our teachers are nowadays.

In the end, not much results, but I did manage to find out that Mr. Ong Chin Kim (the maths and physics teacher) is now in Penang, in SMK Raja Tun Uda in Bayan Lepas.

I tried Mr. Yong Choo Tiong, but didn't get any hits, but someone told me he's now the principal of SMK Methodist in Sibu.

Apart from that, I heard Bro. Albinus is in Kuching, while Bro. Hillary has passed away.

Anyone knows where our other teachers are?

Come and Participate!

First of all, many thanks to all who wrote to me and your words of encouragement.

While I don't mind continuing to keep putting up articles by myself, I think it'll definitely be more fun if everyone participates as well. This means putting your comments on the blog, contributing posts, sending me news and photos to post, etc.

A blog is just another way for us to keep in touch with one another, but the communication can't be just one way, right? So, come, participate! :)

I've set the comments to allow anonymous, so you don't need to be a blogger member to post your comments. Just select "Anonymous" when you post your comment. Forgot how to comment? Just click on the Comments link at the bottom of each post and go from there :)

Eric, I'm still waiting for your first post! You can write on anything you want.

Regards,
Sie Chiong

Gathering in Kuching December 2005

Dear friends,
Paul Ting sent me this photo of a gathering held in Kuching in December last year. He promised me a write-up on that will be coming soon :)

More photos from CNY 2006

Dear SHS friends,
Paul Ting sent me the photos he took during the gathering:-

Chinese New Year Gathering 2006 (Update)

Hi ex-SHS friends,
Our friend William Lee has sent me an update on the gathering. Below are two photos that he took, can you recognize everyone in them :)


William also informed that John Fam has set next year's gathering to also be a lunch on the second day of CNY at the Tanahmas Lounge. FYI, next year's CNY will be on 18th Feb (Sun), so that means the gathering will be on 19th Feb (Mon).

Creating a Post (Article) for this blog

Hi all ex-SHS friends,
After you have accepted the email invitation to be a member of this blog, you can contribute posts (i.e. articles) to the blog. Here's how:-

1. Log on to www.blogger.com using your account:-


2. After you have signed in, you should see the Dashboard with the SHS blog listed. Click on the SHS blog's name.


3. A list of posts will then be shown. Click on Create New Post.


4. There are basically three types of content that can be put into a post – text, web links and images.


5. To add text, just type in the text in the box provided. You can edit the text like a normal Word document, but with some limitations.

6. To add a web link, highlight the word(s) to be used as the link and click on the link button:-


7. Then enter the web address in the pop-up box:-


8. You also add images by clicking on the image link:-

9. In the pop-up box, select the image you want to upload:-


Well, I hope this gives you a good start in creating posts, do email me if you have any problems :)

Sie Chiong

Creating a Blogger Account

Hi all ex-SHS friends,
If you would like to contribute articles or posts to this blog, you need to create a Blogger account. Here's how:-

1. Go to www.blogger.com and click on the Create Your Blog Now link:-
2. Enter you account details. The user name must be unique, i.e. someone must not already be using it, but the display name does not need to be unique.
3. After you click Continue, enter a name for your blog and the blog address. You must do this even though you only want to create an account for now.

4. You will then reach the Choose Template page. At this stage the account has been successfully created, if you do not wish to create your personal blog you can choose to stop here, i.e. just close your browser window.

Once your account is created, send me your email address and I will invite you to join the as a member of the blog.

SHS 88-90 Alumni Directory

A few years ago, our good friend Stephen Yii did an excellent job compiling a directory of SHS 88-90 alumni and distributing it at the annual CNY reunion dinner.

I've asked Stephen to send the softcopy of the directory to me so that it can be redistributed on this blog. I won't publish the directory, but will only send it out on request. Once I get the file from Stephen, I'll try to get everyone to update their details.

Links to Personal Blogs

Hi all ex-SHS friends,
If you have a personal blog or website and would like to share it, please send me the web address and I will add it to the blog. My personal one (A Place In The Sun) is shown on the Links list.

If you have any other Internet resources which you think will be of interest to everyone, you're welcome to send them, too :)

SHS 1990 Yearbook

Dear ex-SHS alumni,
Does anyone have a copy of the 1990 SHS Yearbook that I can borrow? I only have the 1988 one (since I left in 1988) . I'm planning to scan the class photos from the yearbooks and publish them on the blog.

Sie Chiong

Posting Comments To Blog Articles

Dear all,
After an article has been posted, anyone may post comments to the article by clicking on the Comments link at the bottom of the article.

Two types of comments can be posted - anonymous or verified. Anonymous comments can be posted by anyone (without having to set up a Blogger account). The problem with anonymous comments is that after a while some people in the US will start sending spam comments, so for the long term it would be better to block anonymous comments and allow only verified ones. For the moment, I will allow anonymous comments (but please let us know who are also lah :) ), and I will try to delete any spam comments.

Verified comments can be posted by anyone with a Blogger account. I think Eric Phang (Kok Sey) was the first one to set up his account after I created this blog :) I am in Kluang at the moment (my wife's hometown), when I go back to KL tomorrow, I will write a simple tutorial on how to set up a Blogger account.

You also need to set up a Blogger account if you want to contribute articles to the blog.

I will also write a tutorial on how to create articles on the blog in the next few days.

Many thanks to Eric for sending the blog details to our friends. Feel free to forward the info to anyone else who are in the class of SHS 88-90. Happy blogging!

Sie Chiong

Chinese New Year Gathering 2006

This year's gathering was an informal lunch held at the Tanahmas Hotel lounge on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year (30th January). William Lee Chu Ching was our organizer. Those who came were Jimmy Ting, How Hui, Lieng Tee, Paul Ting, Kuong Siong, Stephen Yii, Sie Chiong, Joseph Sia, Ngi Chuong, Chu Ching, John Fam and a few others whose names I have forgotten (my apologies!).

John Fam was elected to be the organizer for next year.

There was a suggestion to make the 2008 gathering a grand affair to mark the 20th anniversary of the Form Five class of 1988, but this will depend on the response of everyone.

Hello

Dear ex-students of Sacred Heart School Sibu (88-90 batch),

I am starting this blog as a means to network with everyone of you who were once ex-SHS students (Form 5 1988 and Form 6 1990). Over the years, we have had many Chinese New Year gatherings but the last few years the attendance has been poor due to people settling down in other places and family and work commitments.

If you would like to contribute to this blog, please drop me an email at plingsc@gmail.com

Patrick Ling Sie Chiong,
31st January 2006