A Toast To My Friends Whom I Value Dearly

From right, Nary, Faridah, Datuk Josie & I used to golf together

Two years ago, I wrote about the importance of having friends and keeping them in our lives. Friendships nurture us in many ways and contribute to our well-being.

My former Brinsford colleagues celebrate my 72nd birthday

Roslyn (center) from Australia visited in 2010. Nest to her is Grace Gan, a former colleague

With some of my class of '59 classmates in Kuala Lumpur

Some friends come and go, depending on the stage of life we’re at. Sometimes we outgrow the friendships that we have, sometimes we fall out and never get back together again, sometimes we lose friends because of death.

Celebrating Nary's birthday last year

Lunching at Mother India with Dr. Shelley

 While these are happening, we also make new friends.  New people come into our lives, whether at work, or through social networking or even through social media. So, we may have many Facebook friends. We see them only on Facebook as they are from different parts of the world and it is highly unlikely that we will meet in person.

Some of these friends are Joo Randal, Bobby Brooks, Stacey Adam, Darrel Tenter, Scott Allan, Ndeye Labadens, Gregory EK Goh,  Mimi Emmanuel, Gertrude Tai and many more.

My spouse standing next to Andrew, a good friend & my classmate Siew Khim

Despite the distance and different time zones, it is possible to build friendships with people we don’t know as Facebook brings many people together. Some of my former students whom I taught in the early ‘70s managed to locate me through FB and we had a great reunion in 2015 as they had returned from far flung places across the globe. 

With Former La Sallian Students of early '70s

 I would like to share pictures of my friends, former colleagues and former students here.

With Julia (standing) a former student who became Principal of La Salle School & Su Cheng

With my sister Doris & friends who paid a courtesy call to our past SWEPA president who is now the President of the Malaysia Friendship And trade Center Taipeh

With Datuk Adeline Leong, President of the Malaysia Friendship And Trade Center Taipeh

With some of my class '59 classmates in Kuala Lumpur

With Faridah & Jude

On the Left is Prof. Danny Wong, my former student from La Salle

Jennifer, Myself & Datin Yu Ling, former colleagues at La Salle

With Datin Yu Ling & Datin Carol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Power Of Prayer

God is good and He is good all the time. He answers prayers so long as we are in a close relationship with him.  Last month when my sister was to join me for a visit to Taipeh, two things happened.

She lives in Kuala Lumpur while I live across the South China Sea. Just as I was going to fetch her from the airport, she texted that she had missed her flight!  My heart sank! We were to fly out to Taipeh very early the next morning. Would she be able to get here in time?

Apparently, the airlines had changed the boarding gate. She wasn’t aware of this and she said she never heard any announcement either.

Anyway, her luggage had been off loaded. She asked for the next flight but all flights were fully booked! She could wait on standby but because that was a long weekend ( Labor Day weekend ), chances of anyone getting off a flight were dim. 

She prayed to God to give her a flight to my place. I also prayed for her to come in so that we could go together to Taipeh. Eventually, she found a flight which had only ONE seat left, so she grabbed that seat. 

Then she looked for her luggage and made her way to the other terminal from where the flight would take off. Praise the Lord my sister got in after 11 p.m. that night. By the time we got home it was past midnight. 

Our flight was at 6:10 a.m. so we had to be at the airport by 4 a.m. It was a sleepless night for us as we were afraid that we would not be able to wake up in time.

The next morning, we arrived at the airport, checked in our luggage and proceeded to clear Immigration so that we could board our flight.

Horror of horrors!! The immigration officer declared that my sister could not leave the state. Why? 

We were shocked! She had forgotten to bring along the slip of paper given by Immigration when she entered the state. All non-residents were given a slip of paper upon entry and had to relinquish it on departure.

So we asked what we had to do in order to board our flight? The immigration officer said we had to make a police report. I panicked! We would never get to a police station in time to make a report as the flight was due to take off within half an hour. 

Where’s the police station, we asked? He said there was a police base at the other end of the building. So, we took to our heels and ran all the way to the other end of the building, praying all the while to our Lord.

When we reached the end of the building, it was dark! The Customs office was locked and in darkness.  It was 5:30 a.m. so they wouldn’t be on duty. Then I saw the office which had the word “Police” above the door! But the office was in darkness!!

Desperate, I banged on the door and shook the handles.

“Anyone in there? Hello, hello, anyone in there?” 

Then, praise the Lord, a sleepy policeman came to the door and opened it.  We rushed in and said we needed to make a police report so that we could catch our flight.

He calmly asked us, “What time is your flight?”

We told him. We prayed to God to let us have the police report in time so that we could catch our flight.

The police officer was very kind and he rushed the report for us. We thanked him and ran all the way back to the Immigration counter. 

My sister submitted the report and was allowed to go through.  We found all the ladies in our group waiting for us. They told us that they were waiting for us to arrive before boarding. They were confident we would be able to make the flight. Indeed, we did, by the skin of our teeth as everyone else had already boarded. 

God is so good! He had answered our prayers.   

So long as we have a close relationship with God, so long as we have Him in our lives and communicate with Him regularly through prayer, He will never fail us. Without His Hand in waking up the police officer, getting him to quickly write the report for us, we would never have made the flight! 

Thank you Lord, thank you, for making our trip possible. This was a very precious week for my sister and I as we live so far away from each other and this trip was meant for us to have time together.

My sister and I

Entrance of Jui Fen Old Street

Waiting for the train to Hua Lian

Waiting for our coach to take us back to the hotel

 Both of us will never forget this trip and how eventful it was for my sister, first missing her plane and then, nearly couldn’t board for our flight to Taipeh.

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Baby Boomers....as Time Goes By

Time seems to fly past ever so quickly. It doesn’t seem too long ago that we ushered in the new year with parties and fireworks. It is already mid-March.

The older we are, the faster time seems to fly by. Most of us baby boomers are now in the late autumn of our lives, if we have survived so far.  Some of us are now into early winter.

                                                            Lunch at the Lake Club

                                                          Lunch at a Chinese Restaurant
As for me and my chums, the most important issue for us now is our health. All of us are familiar with age-related health issues, namely high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, cataract, etc. So, for us it is now a matter of maintenance, to remain at the level that we’re at and not to let the condition deteriorate.

                       The Lake Club is a preferred venue as we do not need to climb up the stairs

We share news over lunch or tea and we often laugh and giggle like overaged teens! You see, we’ve been in school together since elementary school and we’ve kept up our friendships even though we do not stay close to one another. Some of us live across the seas, as far away as New Zealand, the UK and myself in Borneo. We try to meet up a few times a year, especially those of us who aren’t too far away. I’m a two and a half hour flight away so that’s not too bad. The faraway ones come back once a year so we all get together for lunch.

                                                   Lunch at another Chinese Restaurant

We keep contact through apps such as Whatsapp.  What will we do without our smart phones?? One thing though, which others may find strange, is that we carry two phones, a “dumb” or dinosaur phone (no internet) and a smartphone. Whichever is the easier to use for the moment, we’ll use it.  Strange people , we are!! 

                                                          We prefer Chinese food

Meanwhile, we do keep ourselves informed of what to do and not to do.  We need to walk slowly and carefully to avoid falls as fractures could immobilize us for a long time. The healing process takes longer the older one is.  We need to make healthier food choices, to eat more fruit and vegetables and to cut down on meat.

                                              Chinese New Year Lunch with the Lion Feb 2017

We always part with the next date confirmed and the venue to be determined later. There’s always an animated discussion when it comes to the choice of venue but we do manage to reach a final consensus. There are usually 12 of us but not everyone turns up each time we meet. Who knows whether all of us will make it the next time round? Our number could be called at any time to return to the Lord.

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Parents Going For Tuition?

I almost did a double take when I came across a news article reporting that in a neighboring country, parents are going for tuition classes! 

It had always been the norm for school going children to go for tuition classes in subjects they are not good in so that they will be able to perform better in school.

Thus, tuition centers mushroomed and sadly, one finds that such centers have 20 or more students in each class. How much attention will a student get from his or her tuition teacher? The scenario will be a repeat of what is in schools. 

Some teachers give private tuition in their homes but their students are of different levels and grouped together. So, again how much can a teacher coach the students when they are from different classes?

The latest as reported in the newspaper, is the parents themselves are going for tuition. The rationale is that they will then be able to understand what their children are learning and they will be able to help the children when problems arise, especially in mathematics and science.

The centers offer workshops and crash courses and they charge a handsome fee depending on the level in the elementary school. If your child is in a higher class, the parent is charged more.

In mathematics, parents are taught how to apply the various concepts to different questions so that they will be able to coach their children effectively.

The parents are also given examination tips. They are made aware of the common mistakes made by pupils and the concepts that are likely to be tested in the examinations.

This is parenting  going the extra mile and I wonder really, given the work-oriented society we live in, how much time the parents actually have and can make available to help their children with their school work, after office hours?

Our Asian society is still too exam-oriented and too focused on academic achievements to the extent that parents are now competing among themselves, to arm themselves with knowledge that they think will help them to help their children perform better in school.

If only they will focus on character development, inculcating good values, good manners and a sense of humanity instead. Many children today are growing up without a sense of direction, are ill-mannered, arrogant and incapable of interacting with others, glued as they are to their latest gadgets.

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