And old school, we were. The school being ACS Sitiawan. The location being the pool level of Mei Lin’s apartment building. Thanks for hosting the little gathering, Mei. ‘Twas fun times.
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At Woon Seong’s house
School buddies I know, some almost as long as I have been alive, and others not as long but still longer than when the sun was new…
Ashley’s Sister Emma Auspiciously Arrives
Let’s all welcome young Emma-Grace Ting ChangXin who was born on 26th October, at 3.555 kg and 51.5 cm. News has it her big sister Ashley-Joan has already requested to carry and help feed her. Congrats to Michelle and Teik Sing!
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Ashley and Her Parents Come for a Visit
Teik Sing, Michelle and adorable little Ashley took some time to come over for dinner with us on Friday. They fly back home next Saturday. Clear skies, guys. Check out the photos: By the way, Irfan is at the age where Teik Sing and I first met in Standard 1.
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Objects At Rest
Comrades, some since Standard 1 in ACS Sitiawan way back when the town had one main road running into it and there were swathes of rubber trees between small clusters of houses and stores and buildings. 20 years after I officially left the school, it’s time for another gathering in Sitiawan, this one precipitated by none other than Chinese New Year. Apart from Gnana, Sathya and Alvin, I haven’t seen this bunch for at least 18 years or so. Coincidentally Alvin and the Chipmunks was playing on Star Movies or Cinemax or whatever they had running on TV. When we arrived it was just beginning. We left just after the credits rolled. In between, we talked of old friends and old times, some of which shall not be reprinted her for posterity’s sake. 😉 There were lots of laughs too. Perhaps more gathering of the old crew should be planned.
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A Time of Reunion 2: The Sequel
Last year, we had a gathering up here at the Tenth Floor. This year we found some time to coordinate another, but this time it was after Aidilfitri. So it doubled as an Aidilfitri open house, although theoretically it was not. Starting from 1900 hours the roster started to fill, starting with Kok Soon, then Yu Hoe, Samsul, Laksh, Anson and finally Mei Lin. Last minute cancellations included Kanesh, Sathya and Ah Bau. Ain (aided by Cik Emma and Ciksu F) made rendang for lemang, kuah kacang for nasi himpit and a whole pot full of bihun goreng with tomyam paste. Our support troops, Kok Soon brought a bucket full of chicken and Mei brought dessert. Our just desserts. Will there be more photos next year? Stay tuned to find out… well, next year.
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Manjung District Scout House
Being in the 1st Troop Manjung of the Scouts was great. Some memorable experiences while there. A bunch of us sometimes went down to the district Scout House on Fridays to see if one of the other schools had a camping excursion there. Then we’d sign up to be the camp ground guardians, keeping watch on the campsite all weekend as the kids as they and their respective Scoutmasters went about their work. Last week I went for a quick drive into Kampung Sitiawan where the old Scout House stood, and was saddened by the fact that it stood no more. The camp warden’s house was totally gone. Even the “haunted” trees with the unknown talismans tied to them surrounding the camp ground behind the scout house had been long uprooted. I wonder where the district Scout Troops are based now. Below are photos of the Scout House from behind […]
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Chinese New Year, Sitiawan… Some Time Ago
The Nineties kind of rushed by me, as if I can’t wait to be somewhere but it looks more, as time goes by, like I will not be reaching there anytime soon. So a lot of the details of the time here were quite blurry. Take the following photos of the ACS gang balik kampung and gathering for Chinese New Year. What year did this occur? I can’t rightly remember. All I remember is that I picked up the gentlebeings in the first photo below, had some refreshment at Woon Seong’s house before we all went to Teik Sing’s house where the big daytime gathering was planned. The gathering was quiet enjoyable. As I remembered Teik Sing just got back from Austin… Hang on. I can’t remember if he’s back for vacation or for good. After the daytime gathering was over, we reconvened at Yu Hoe’s house that night for […]
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A New Baby For Hanim and Awie
Young Aisyah has a new brother! Abdul Qayyum bin Mohd Zawawi was born to Hanim and Awie at 0715 hours on the 22nd of April. We went a-visiting the newborn and his family and took a photo. Irfan tried to wink at the camera and he’s almost got the wink down pat. Almost.
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So what IS a Role-playing Game Anyway?
I have a Role-playing Games category right over there at the left sidebar on the front page of the site. I’m sure there’s a lot of visitors to this site that will probably shrug and say, “I dunno”, or half-heartedly answer, “Something like Dungeons and Dragons?” Well, Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game (RPG is the popular acronym attributed to it), true. But it’s more than just D&D and we’ll get to that later. If you ask ten gamers, you’d probably get ten different answers on the description of an RPG. So this is a description of a role-playing game as what it means to me. What Do You Do? A role-playing game (RPG) is a collaborative game where players take roles of characters in an interactive story which is planned out and refereed by a game master (GM). There needs to be at least two people in the […]
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The Return of Ashley Joan Ting… and Parents
On his birthday I got a call from Teik Sing. He’s back in town for the Chinese New Year, accompanied by Michelle and a nearly 1 year old Ashley Joan. We met up for lunch at a nasi daun pisang restaurant in Petaling Jaya and here are the photos of the occasion. They only had 2 weeks to visit Sitiawan, Melaka and KL, which is no time at all. Next year, Teik Sing hopes for a month’s vacation for CNY. Maybe there’ll be more time to plan activities and such. It was great to have them around for an hour or so, and Ashley is one awesome little lady. I can’t believe it’s been almost a year! They return to Australia next Saturday.
Continue readingPerth – Part 4
It’s now our third day in Perth, and it is one day before EJ and Indra’s wedding. We start off the day when EJ came to pick us up in a rental van. We then drive down to Cottesloe where Hsu and David are staying. [[image:oz45.jpg:EJ and Vin by the van:center:0]] [[image:oz46.jpg:View from the street:center:0]] [[image:oz50.jpg:Beautiful beach:center:0]] [[image:oz47.jpg:Pete, David and Hsu admiring the view:center:0]] [[image:oz48.jpg:EJ and Vin by the beach:center:0]] [[image:oz49.jpg:Group photo:center:0]] We did have to walk on the beach and feel the water (which was a little cold). [[image:oz51.jpg:Walking on the beach:center:0]] We decide to have lunch by the beach. Can you blame us? [[image:oz54.jpg:EJ and Hsu:center:0]] [[image:oz55.jpg:Pete and David:center:0]] [[image:oz56.jpg:Vin, EJ, David and Hsu relaxing after lunch:center:0]] [[image:oz53.jpg:Unexpected and rowdy guests:center:0]] I guess, Down Under, pine needles grow upwards for a reason? [[image:oz52.jpg:Pine tree:center:0]] This one is for Abah: [[image:oz57.jpg:Some kind of MG?:center:0]] After we hung out for […]
Continue readingPerth – Part 3
After our nice outing, we hung out some more with EJ until he dropped us off at Mei’s place – he was off to the airport to pick up some more people. Can you guess who they might be? 😉 In the evening, Mei, Colin, Vin and I piled into the mini and drove to EJ’s for dinner. BTW, when trying to fit Vin and 3 other people in the mini, always place Vin either in the front passenger seat in front of Mei, or behind the driver’s seat if Mei is driving. Everyone has plenty of room with this arrangement! 🙂 Here are the pictures at EJ and Indra’s place (please mouse over the pictures for captions): [[image:oz29.jpg:Vin and Colin:center:0]] [[image:oz28.jpg:Peter and a bit of Hsu-Yi:center:0]] [[image:oz44.jpg:Mei manning the barbecue:center:0]] [[image:oz30.jpg:Hsu doing the dishes:center:0]] [[image:oz31.jpg:EJ and Mei:center:0]] [[image:oz32.jpg:EJ gawking at the tomatoes:center:0]] [[image:oz33.jpg:Sasha and Boris:center:0]] [[image:oz34.jpg:Indra on tippy-toe and […]
Continue readingPerth – Part 2
After a good night’s sleep, Vin and I were ready to tackle the first full day in Perth. While poor Mei and Colin had to go to work, EJ picked us up and took us to see the sights. [[image:oz05.jpg:EJ and his car:center:0]] *Note – please mouse over the pictures for captions. [[image:oz06.jpg:Perth across the Swan River:center:0]] [[image:oz07.jpg:Perth Skyline from the Swan Brewery:center:0]] [[image:oz08.jpg:Vin and EJ:center:0]] [[image:oz09.jpg:Pretty Tree:center:0]] After lunch at the Swan Brewery, we headed to Kings Park. We decided to feel the wind in our hair, drive with the top down! [[image:oz10.jpg:EJ driving:center:0]] [[image:oz11.jpg:Vin enjoying the sun:center:0]] Here we are in Kings Park. Look at the lovely trees: [[image:oz12.jpg:Tree-lined road:center:0]] EJ pointed out some interesting Australian flora: [[image:oz13.jpg:Kangaroo Paw:center:0]] [[image:oz14.jpg:Blooming plant – I forget the name:center:0]] [[image:oz15.jpg:Vin and EJ with Perth Skyline in the background:center:0]] [[image:oz16.jpg:Cenotaph – A War Memorial:center:0]] [[image:oz17.jpg:Vin and EJ by the Cenotaph:center:0]] [[image:oz18.jpg:Inside the […]
Continue readingPerth – Part 1
Just a short entry on our arrival in Australia. We arrived in the late afternoon in Perth, and my best friend Mei picked us up from the airport. We stuffed the luggage and ourselves into the mini (Note: Vin fits quite nicely into a mini cooper!) and headed to Mei and Colin’s place. We settled in, and then met up with Eu-Jene, Indra, Colin and some of Mei’s work friends for drinks and then dinner at EJ’s favorite restaurant: Uncle Billy’s. [[image:oz04.jpg:Vin, EJ and me:center:0]] [[image:oz01.jpg:Vin and Colin:center:0]] [[image:oz02.jpg:Mei and EJ:center:0]] [[image:oz03.jpg:EJ and his (then) future bride Indra:center:0]] As you can see, Vin and I are looking a little rough – we’d flown from the US to KL just a couple of days ago, then another 6 hours on the plane to Perth. Whew! We needed a nap after our dinner. Tune in later for more adventures in Perth!
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ACS Kids at Aidilfitri
At Aidilfitri Irfan met and played with a whole bunch of kids of his generation whose parent(s) were former students of ACS Sitiawan. Here are some pics of Irfan and friends. Too bad we didn’t get photos of children of Lan, Dila and Gnana. Here’s Chris C’s (the other Chris C) daughter Aleyxia whom Irfan invited to play with the hamsters brought back from Kuala Lumpur by Irfan’s Opah Ngah. The small dark on is called Ciki and the big orange one is called Oren. Irfan loved to go upstairs and feed the little guys seeds and carrots, loudly and spiritedly commently on everything they do. Then, Irfan tries to escape the camera, to no avail Awi and Hanim came with young Aisyah. She found Tok Irfan’s fish pond and Irfan’s plastic toy car very intriguing. She was also very friendly with Ain, trying to get Ain to help her […]
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A Time of Reunion
We don’t get together that much these days, but when we do the survivors of the ACS Sitiawan, SPM 1990 batch, create one hell of a ruckus when we sit around the table talking about… well, anything that comes to mind. Earlier tonight, a bunch of them fell upon the Tenth Floor for a gathering and of course, to eat. There was also talk about peeing or hocking a loogie onto passers-by or the swimming pool below from the window and/or balcony. However, some sort of decorum was maintained since there were kids in the room. Apart from our household, the roll call included: Teik Sing (with Michelle and Baby Ashley-Joan), Shahar, Tern Lik, Nguk Lui, Alvin and family, Hudson and Kok Soon. Ain cooked two variations of bihun goreng, both of which were tasty. Teik Sing bought appetizers and desert, Shahar bought some kuih, Hudson brought chips and Kok […]
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