Announcement on SHS 88-90 Reunion 2007

Dear all,

I am putting up this announcement on behalf of John Fam. Due to the recent arrival of a baby girl in his family, John is unable to go back to Sibu this year to organize the annual gathering as promised.

He is asking for volunteers to help take over this task :) Any takers, kindly contact him asap to make the arrangements, CNY is less than 3 weeks away!

New Template

Its been almost a year since I started this blog, so I thought I'll switch to a different template. Hope you guys like it.

I also took the opportunity to search back the SHS website again, and this time I seem to have found a newer version that was completed in 2001. It looks like its not been updated in a while, but it looks much nicer than the previous efforts. Have a look by going to the link on the right side of this blog.

Settling In Adelaide, Australia

Our dear friend William Lee moved to Adelaide, Australia recently and he has kindly wrote us an article about his experiences there. Here's his story:-

Settling in Adelaide, Australia

I finally returned to the Australian city of Adelaide where I studied between 1988 and 1994. A lot of people asked me why Adelaide, it's a small country town. I am from a small city and town like Kuching and Sibu and have not lived in big city life. Adelaide size is just fine for me. It's also known as 20 minutes city as you could go to any location in the city within 20 minutes. I like Adelaide because of its well planned streets, convenient public transportation system, good schools and universities for my kids and most importantly we are treated equally and fairly. Adelaide has a population of one million and enjoy Mediterranean climate.

I have temptation to migrate back to Australia since 2000 but the idea never put into action mainly due to my commitment to my family and also discouragement from my previous bosses. They had migrated to Australia before and could not settled in and therefore advised me not to go. According to one of my boss, life in Australia is very tough and he had to work as general worker. Around 2005, John Wong had a chat with me concerning his intention to migrate to Sydney. I told him that if I ever go back to Australia, I still will stay in Adelaide. However still no action taken. It was until end of 2005, I visited the South Australian Government Immigration booth during South Australia expo at Crown Plaza Hotel, Kuching. I was told that the state government is encouraging migration.

I went back at that night, browsed SA immigration website and fill out a on-line application form. After two weeks, I received a nomination letter from the SA Government. I then proceed to apply to DIMA and managed to get permanent resident visas by early 2006. Getting the visas and the final move to settle in Adelaide is a distance away. There are lots of planning like selling my property, car, searching for job and obtaining Australian professional engineer qualification. By September 2006, I have solved most of the problems and I quit my job and landed in Adelaide in October 2006.

I have to bring my whole family for the initial landing and we have to land before the dateline otherwise our visas are void. The state Government arranged for airport pick up and arranged a house for us at the beautiful suburb of Golden Grove.

My daughter in front of 5, Jupiter Street, Golden Grove

Golden Grove neighborhood

I spent the first two weeks bring my family for Adelaide city tour. We did not have a car at that moment and we traveled by public bus to all destinations. My children who had never catch a bus before enjoyed most of the trip. The bus here is punctual within 1 minutes of the schedule. If the trip is well planned, there is no problem. We visited a strawberry farm, Zoo, botanic garden, Glenelg beach and the busy shopping mall.

Waiting for bus

Strawberry farm

Rundle Mall

My wife and children returned to Kuching leaving me looking for jobs in Adelaide. I managed to get an Electrical Engineer job after my second interview starting one week later. I canceled my subsequent job interviews.

Since my family had left, I rent a room within walking distance to my office. I walked to work for almost a month until I get my Toyota Camry Vienta. It's a 2000 used car costing $8000.

Toyota Camry Vienta V6 3000cc

Initially working in Australia is not easy. Australia and Malaysia have the same system and standard inherited from the British. The only different is that there is strong enforcement of the standard in Australia regardless of who you are. The design work here has to meet higher standard than Malaysia and there are more regulations and laws governing the job. I was told by my management that I will be continued after my three months probation on this Thursday. With a permanent position, I could proceed with bank loan application to purchase a house.

My plan is to relocate my family to Australia before June this year. I thank God guidance during this time as he has blessed me making my planning possible. Our new church pastor is Pastor Ling Tiong Ting. I don't know if any of you could recall him. He is in the same year as us at Sacred Heart but in the art stream. If anybody interested to migrate over, I might be ever to offer some help. You can contact me on leechuching@gmail.com.

Gathering in Puchong

Stephen Yii, Eng Soon, Stephen Chung, Chuan Ming and myself had a small gathering at Chung Hua restaurant last Sunday.


After the dinner the wives and kids went back and we went to Kopikau in Bandar Puteri to chit chat some more!

We are planning to have another gathering on 1st February, so those of you who are in Klang Valley, feel free to call me if you wish to join us.

Happy New Year 2007 to All

Wishing all SHS 88-90 gang a very happy new year 2007! Its the year of the Golden Pig according to the Chinese calendar, an auspicious year for business and a year of prosperity.

I'm sure 2006 must have been a hectic year for most of us, what with family , work and social commitments. Recently I saw the movie Click starring Adam Sandler, and was reminded of the danger of living our lives in perpetual "Fast Forward".

For the year 2007, my wish for everyone is to be able to press the "Play" or even "Pause" button on their own lives, and to be able to spend more time enjoying the company of close friends and family. For those of us with living parents or grandparents, they are not getting any younger, why not spend more time with them this year? A friend shared with me her story of her parents staying with her for a month recently, and how she really cherished that month.

And last but not least, if anyone of you would like to be given access to this blog so that you can post articles, or would like me to post an article on your behalf, feel free to let me know via my Gmail account.

Take care and all the best.