Toronto Welcomes Malcolm & Vickie Back

                           
It’s always a real wow whenever Malcolm makes a stopover in our city.  Two weeks before Malcolm’s arrival, Toronto was suddenly attacked by a horrific summer heavy downpour. Our city was totally stranded one evening from around 5 p.m. on for almost 12 continuous hrs due to the awful flooding. Within a couple of hours, Pearson International measured 126 mm of rain (the heaviest recorded rainfall since 1954 in Toronto)!!!  Our runways, tarmac, computer servers were all flooded, flights could not land and were all rerouted to either Ottawa or Montreal for the night. The lower Don Valley Parkway suddenly became a mad river, flooded city streets, sink holes, power outages, etc. for 24+ hrs after that serious downpour in certain parts of the city.  People were trapped inside elevators of tall downtown commercial buildings after work for hours, hundreds and hundreds were stranded inside dark subway tunnels when the trains lost power with signal issues. And some 1,400 stranded GO train passengers (commuters) were rescued out one by one by city police, the marine unit and firefighters, using canoes working exhaustively throughout the night, into the wee morning hours.  Water rose up to the windows!!! Tens of thousands of households were facing horrific flooding problems in their basements, suffering permanent property damages that were not covered by their home insurance.  Before the city was totally caught up with the clean-up jobs, there came a week of unbearable sweltering summer temperatures.  The city once again was stressed.  Heat alerts were issued and Hydro people had serious concerns over repeated power outages due to the over consumption of air-conditioning.  Just when we were down and all fed up with angry mother nature, our Shanghai tycoon, Malcolm, suddenly showed his happy face in town with beautiful Vicki, bringing us a week of blissful seasonal weather, treating us to the yummiest world-class Yorkville fine dining experience, sparkling up streams of fun conversations which could be traced back to some 50 years ago when the word “menstruation” was still a foreign word to both the innocent boys and girls, including Stephen Lau (believe it or not??!!)  Funny enough, 50 years later, the same word “menstruation” is once again a foreign word among Class of ’67.  Been there, done that. What goes around comes around, eh!  Haha!

The lovely couple, is as classy, generous, kind and stylish as ever.  I don’t know how Malcolm did it 50 years ago and he’s still doing it right today.  Remember he was the one who always had the correct answers for our Math teacher, Mrs. Betty Lee?  No wonder he was her ultimate favorite.  50 years later, he remains our great problem solver, totally 好有辦法.  Somehow he’s always at the right place, at the right time and living his life to its fullest, career-wise and leisure-wise.  All in all, it’s been a fun and invigorating eventful week for all.  Even our “quiet” Wong Sir was showing all teeth the whole time.  He didn’t want to go home at the end of our 4-hour sumptuous dinner in Markham and even suggested to go for late night coffee next.  We were all mature audience, relaxingly sharing the same agenda:  eating, browsing Mal’s e-albums, laughing and yakking whole-heartedly over the jumbo East Coast Lobsters Cantonese Style and the House Specialty Deep Fried Vancouver Crabs Stephen and Fidelia had pre-arranged with the chef under the table, if you know what I mean.
  
Voila, I am just SO bloody glad that despite my on-the-run 24/7 lifestyle, I did not allow myself to 走雞 and made it to both memorable socials to enjoy  the happy hours and the super fine dining experiences.  Malcolm, you and Vicki have indeed perked us up. Toronto has been less vibrant since the couple left to continue their travel adventures to the East Coast, the Canadian Rockies, Banff, Lake Louise, Northern Alberta and the West Coast before they return to their home sweet home in Shanghai.  I am sure there will be more happy faces rolling out the red carpet upon this lovely couple’s next Toronto visit  
 

Irene Tsai sent in the above photo and message to share with us the fun some of our Toronto classmates had with visitors Malcolm and Vicki.   Since that visit, May Ho has become our newest proud grandma with Baby Hudson arriving on 30 July and Pauline Cheng has added another grandchild.  Our warmest congratulations to them and the parents of the newborns!