Good Bye and Rest In Peace, Frankie

It is with much regret and sadness that I inform everyone of the passing on of our dear friend Frankie. He passed away in Labuan on 2 May 2007 after complaining of chest pains.

Thadeus broke the news to us via a comment on the previous post.

Frankie and myself were classmates, we became close during the days when we were involved in the SHS Computer Club, together with Stephen Chung, Wong Yii Chiong, Kong Lieng Tee and Paul Ting.

I remember him as a happy go lucky guy, always ready with a joke and mischievious. Since he was pretty good at computers, I never thought he would end up doing law. But back in 1998 he called me up and told me he was working as a lawyer in Klang.

I lost touch with him after that and only got in contact with him last year via this blog. Frankie was a pretty avid blogger, and at the last count he had at least 5 going at the same time. You can see the blogs by going to his main blog.

His passing on was really a shock to me, I was looking forward to inviting him for the SHS88-90 20th anniversary reunion next year.

My condolences to his wife and his family, may God bless his soul.

Rest in peace, dear friend.

Keeping In Touch

Time really flies as I could observe my 6 months HO secondment pass through without "much waiting" as fast as it started in Oct 2006 and now I back in my Kuching continuing with my battle.

Probably, this may be due to my eagerness of looking forward each day to keep in touch with my loved ones, family and friends back at home and also those old pals in KL or maybe I am just fast-forwarding the events...Every other week, either I am looking forward to board MAS/Airasia flight back to Kuching or eagerly waiting for a nice weekend outing with old friends.

So far, I am glad that I have managed to meet up at least 4X with our old pals namely Ah Chiong, Stephen C, Lieng Tee, Chuan Yew, Eng Soon at one time or the other...and the last round was having a nice Bahkuteh in Klang on the courtesy of Lieng Tee.

Meeting old friends will really can speed up the waiting period as we plan our time and place way in advance, then just keep looking out for the day to come by...Exchanging updating ideas/latest figures/recalling old times are good detoxification of our fast moving life or boringness..maybe.

KL life is very different as compared to local Sarawak as in my opinion though I am sure many of you would agree. Everything seems to be measured by speed, time and distance not only need to consider family/personal agendas in moving on your life. Whatever appointment need to be planned first as timing/distance is crucial. In Kuching, I can just call and make easier decision as the distance to places around city/home is just 15 minutes away...then no traffic jams, so fast to go and coming back.

Then, again...of course, it depends on the importance of the matter, we will always make ourself best available to the appointment especially in terms of meeting girlfriends/boyfriends/old pals. For this, I must mentioned that I am touched by the care of Ah Chiong/Stephen whom had been very nice to pick me all the way from/to Flamingo Hotel Ampang (my home for 6 months) whenever we have set out appointment at Bandar Puteri...Just imagine it took 1 hour minimum and can be drag to 2 hours if there is accident along the highway.

I guess they are also eager to keep in touch with me and others...what do you think ? :)

When was the last time you have keep in touch with your old pals ? especially those whom you have not met or talk for more than 6 months and above? Anyone ? May be we should share with one another on our long time pals whom we recently met especially the lost ones...

P/S Last night, Seng Yaw, Anthony Ting and myself have supper with Chuan Yew, who was in Kuching from Bintulu.

So, the next time, any of you are in Kuching, please contact me...let me be your host..and keep our friendship flame burning. Cheers !

Remember This?

Remember this? This is the cover of SHS Annual Magazine 1988, with a picture of St. John Baptist De La Salle on it. It was the year we all graduated from Form 5.


And remember this? Click on the play button to listen:-

Sacred Heart School Rally

Students of Sacred Heart, a voice is resounding
Promptly respond to your duty sweet call
Answer you all for the trumpet is sounding
Your school is proclaiming her motto to all

Forward her children dear, ever with hearts sincere
Do with a will what your school asks of you
All that is wrong, reject
Heaven will e'er protect
Students of Sacred Heart courageous and true

"Prayer and labour", your motto to cherish
Forward with courage in ways that are just
True to your standard , be doing and daring
As Sacred Heart students in Heaven you trust!

Forward her children dear, ever with hearts sincere
Do with a will what your school asks of you
All that is wrong, reject
Heaven will e'er protect
Students of Sacred Heart courageous and true

2ND EDITION "FRIENDSHIP CONTACT BOOK"

The 1st Edition was created and distributed to those who attended the Reunion Dinner in 2002. It was the first ever contact lists of our classmates or school mates for year 88 (Form 5) and year 90 (Form 6) and compiled by me and Stephen Yii with our classmates' help such as John Wong , Patrick Ling and others.

In the beginning stage at that moment, we were faced some problem as some of our classmates or school mates were not comfortable to publish their contact in the contact lists. Therefore, we have no choice but just put their name and the area they are currently situated at in the book. In actual fact, the content which we put in the contact book are the general information such as name, address, contact number, email address, occupation, marital status and some minor info.

As for the 2nd Edition, I sincerely urge all of our classmates or school mates, please do your part to give your current info or who you know and get their consent to publish in the contact book and give to me, Patrick, Stephen, John, Eng Soon, Joseph or others who are willing to help. We hope to gather all the necessary info as soon as possible.

Should anyone of you would like to give your view on the 2nd Edition "Friendship Contact Book", please feel free to do so and comment in this blog.

Regards.

YEAR 2007 REUNION POSTPONED

First of all, Happy New Year to all of you.

The reason I put up this post is to let all of you know that our 2007 reunion had been postponed for this year as informed by John Fam and seconded by Eng Soon. Patrick had mistaken that John is looking for a volunteer to take over his task as John had tried his best effort to find one but to no avail. The reunion had become an annual event to us when come to Chinese New Year while most of our classmates are coming back to Sibu once a year. Unfortunately, most of us are not going back to Sibu during CNY due to family commitment or others. Furthermore, those who stayed in Sibu even not turned up for the reunion and only those who stayed outstation support our annual event. The most sad part is our reunion had been simplified from dinner based to a gathering starting last year if I am not mistaken. From the turned up rate last year, whats the reason our attendance became lesser and lesser? If thats continued on and I could say that our annual reunion will come to an end one day. Now the question is should we organised annually? Maybe Patrick, John, Eng Soon, Stephen or those who read this post, please do give your precious view on this issue. Another thing is should we ask those who stayed in Sibu to organise this annual event as those who worked outstation had lack of time to organise when they come back to Sibu. I think all of us had tried our very best to keep our precious annual reunion to continue on every year but unfortunely this year 2007 had missed the event due to unforseen circumstances. We should proud that our reunion had been carried on for about 17 or 18 years already.

Last but not the least, wish all of you all the best in your personal life, career and health.

Chinese New Year Photos and News Please!

Dear friends, you are invited to share your CNY experiences, feel free to send in photos, news, etc!

I'm not sure whether the reunion gathering was held this year or not, if anyone knows, do update us.

Chinese New Year celebration in Australia

Dear friends, William in Adelaide has kindly contributed another article about the CNY celebration in Adelaide.

Chinese New Year celebration in Australia

You must be interested in how Chinese New Year celebration is in Australia. Unlike Malaysia where everybody is busy decorating, cleaning the house and preparation for the new year eve dinner, there is no such culture here among the Chinese. The Chinese who stayed long here might have forgotten the traditional Chinese New Year. Last December, I experience the Christmas celebration in Australia and I found it very similar to how we celebrate Chinese New Year. Some people are taking three weeks leave for the Christmas and shopping centres are open until mid night in the week before Christmas. Family members came back for the Christmas eve dinner like we are having the new year eve reunion dinner.

I am lonely this year as my family is still in Malaysia. The new year eve morning happens to be Saturday morning and I visited the Adelaide Convention Centre as I read from a news article that Sarawak Government sent a group of developers (CMSB), Architect (KDI) and Engineer (Minsar) to visit Adelaide Convention centre in 2004 while they are planning for the Sarawak Convention Centre. Below is a photo of Adelaide Convention Centre that I took from River Torrens and a black swan which swim in the river. Is the proposed Sarawak Convention Centre resemble Adelaide Convention Centre?

I called up Pastor Ling who is same year as us in Sacred Heart Last Friday stating my intention to participate in the Church New Year Eve dinner on Saturday night. I brought two pizzas as everyone has to contribute one dish. The weather inside the hall is very hot and I believe it is above 40 degree Celcius. About half the members who participate are from Sibu. The rest are from China, Singapore etc. A church member who run a restaurant here donated two big plates of “Lau Seng”. The restaurant owner name is Ah Loke and he is three or four years our senior at Sacred Heart. There were good food and interesting sharing. Instead of celebrating a family based reunion dinner, we have a group reunion dinner.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo as I took it with my hand phone. There was an introduction to the history of Chinese New Year and Pastor Ling talked about “God of fortune” and “Why nobody every see the wife of God of fortune” which was very interesting. The dinner and sharing section after that were good but the heat was unbearable. I left the party earlier as it was getting really too hot.

The weather on Sunday is getting chiller following a cool change in the afternoon. I was having dinner with my principle engineer who is a Singaporean and his Singaporean Malay friend. Singaporean Malay are open and we shared our view on regional politics, culture etc which was very interesting. There were Lion dance inside the restaurant as well as in the street of China Town. The Lion dance performers are not Chinese. They are Aussie! The Lion was collecting Ang Poh from the patrons.

Well, this is my little story on my Chinese New Year experience. Tell me yours.

Happy Chinese New Year 2007!

Dear SHS friends, wherever you are, wishing all of you a very happy Chinese New Year of the Golden Boar!

May all peace, health and wealth be yours this year.

Regards, Sie Chiong

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.

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?