BHJS 1967

Christmas and New Year Greetings

2011-12-24T18:51:00.003+08:00

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas and a Healthy Happy New Year!!

Sharing with you the Christmas message of caring for others from Archbishop Paul Kwong. Please click here to read.

BHJS Open Day

2011-11-27T20:28:00.001+08:00

十二月二日及三日為銀禧中學開放日，設有展覽及攤位，並有售賣五十周年紀念品，請校友相約回校參觀。時間: 10.00am-4.00pm(星期五) 9.30am-4.00pm(星期六)

另銀禧中學特約專輯已於十一月二十四日刊登在明報，各校友可於www.bhjs.edu.hk瀏覽。

Machu Piccu and the Darwin Islands

2011-11-24T01:12:00.005+08:00

Pauline Cheng continues her exploration of exotic sites around the globe and we are grateful for her sharing with us, in this article, her recent exciting trip to Machu Picchu and the Galápagos.

I once more had the opportunity to test my endurance, by taking a moderately difficult but exciting trip in South America. We went as a group of eight at first but later on ten people whose ages range from sixty to seventy plus. Our 1967 BHJS alumni, Betty Gong, Au Bik Wan and her hubby Alan happened to be part of the group.

The trip covered a lot of mileages as we had to fly at least seven times inland, back and forth between Lima and Cusco (Peru) and Quito (Ecuador). The major attractions we saw included Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Tequila Island and Galápagos Islands. The ruins of Machu Picchu, rediscovered in 1911, are one of the most beautiful and intriguing ancient sites in the world. Although there is still not yet a unanimous conclusion about the origin of these Inca ruins, we could not help marvelling at the existence of this self-contained city, with its systematic surrounding agricultural terraces and efficient water system generated from natural springs. The ruins of these architectural and aesthetic structures, built of grey stones on top of the mountain which is over 9,000 feet above sea level, consisted of palaces, baths, temples, storage rooms and some 150 houses.

At Lake Titicaca, also part of Cusco, we were amazed by the communities who dwell on the floating islands built of masses of aquatic plants, mud and peat. We visited one of these islands and were welcome with warm hospitality by the natives.

However, we did have to pay a small price for all the magnificent views we saw at Cusco. The high altitude, (the highest point at 12,400 feet) surely took a toll on us but to different degrees. The common symptoms were headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, internal nose bleeding, and loss of appetite. Although most of us took the high altitude pills as precaution, we still could not escape the adverse experiences of some of these symptoms.

I guess the high point was our seven-day cruise and visit to Galápagos Islands in Ecuador. The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador. The islands are renowned for its vast numbers of endemic species, which were studied by Charles Darwin whose observations led to the generation of his Theory of Evolution by natural selection.

Almost every day on the cruise ship, we had to travel twice to the islands by zodiac (rubber boat). Half of the time we had to wade through water to reach the land when the water was too shallow for the zodiac to dock. We went to different parts of these islands each time, where we encountered all kinds of unique animals and plants. We could see sea lions and big iguanas almost everywhere, but the rest were more localised. To name some, there are the giant tortoises some of which are more than 150 years old; the blue-footed boobies; the flightless birds cormorants; the frigate bird, the male counterpart of which inflates the flap of bright-red skin found under his beak during courtship; and the waved albatross.

Despite some small challenges, we had an awesome trip as a group during the three weeks being together. We got to know one another better through sightseeing, shopping, enjoying eating the local food, or relaxing on the cruise ship. Above all, we have brought our understanding of different cultures and gained knowledge of other countries to a new horizon. The last but not least, we have defied the general perception that we are too old for this kind of trip.

Pauline Cheng

Calgary

BHJS Thanksgiving dinner Dec 17, 2011

2011-11-06T21:53:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone: The 50th anniversary thanksgiving dinner of our mother school will be held on Dec 17, 2011. I will be attending the dinner with Lau Bay, Susan Yu, To Shuk Fun, Fiona Wong, Martin Kwong Hoi Chau, Wong Yih Sy, Li Lai King, Cheung Kwok Ying, Lin Por. Seating availability is limited, please reserve your seat soon and hope to see lots of you on Dec 17.
I will be in HK from Dec 16 to Jan 1. If you can't make it to the dinner, perhaps we can have a drink or lunch.
My email address is maybartram@rogers.com

May Ho

懷舊 The Way We were - by Chan Oi Man

2011-01-31T13:58:00.003+08:00

Introduction: Chan Oi Man a.k.a. 柳文, was from Class A. He left BHJS in Form III and currently resides in New York. Below is an excerpt from an email he shared with a bunch of classmates and friends about his memories of HK. So vivid, so close, just the way we were.

就係因爲我離開香港比你地早，呢個分別就令到我地有些少文化代溝。我走嗰陣，香港好落後，我更落後，住喺紅磡春田街，呢種地方你地唔會識，街口有個修車師傅叫“池記”，佢講一句話，就吐一篤口水，我住嗰度係台山阿伯買畀兩個仔嘅樓，兩兄弟返咗工，兩個老婆成日嗌交，嘩，嗰啲台山粗口，“你過海！你過海！”我嗰陣踢住對拖鞋就敢去行彌敦道㗎，但去尖沙嘴見到鬼佬又恨又怕又唔識講。銀禧中學個 Miss Chu 想幫我補英文，仲同校長個女（黑黑地，好靚女㗎）借啲英文書畀我睇，但補鬼補馬咩，嘥氣，"Tom Sawyer", 我識讀個 Tom 字。最記得有次放學唔識執柜桶，第二日被 Margaret Kwok 教訓，我真係好感動，但到今日都唔知佢講乜。Miss Irene ，我淨係聼"落街冇錢買麵包"，"伶淋六，長衫六，高腳七，一個大頭六" 之類，呢啲歌到咗你地出身嗰陣就冇人聼啦。我睇戱係去土瓜灣華樂戯院睇“琴挑誤”、“薔薇之戀”、“教子逆君皇”，睇西片要靠字幕，記得有次同銀禧幾個“柳字”輩去睇莎莉麥蓮嘅“花街神女”，睇冇幾耐，突然見到一個字，幾個人不約而同大聲叫：“雞！”。又有次去睇 "碧血長天"，冇錢只可坐第一行，寬銀幕，幾個鐘頭愕高個頭望住啲飛機飛來飛去，睇完一個禮拜未見過自己啲腳趾. 我地呢批早走嘅人係粗魯啲嘅，有怪莫怪怪，真係細路仔唔識撈世界，你地如果有日同我傾偈就知，口音唔同，講嘢出嚟，人地係出口成文，我係出口不文。

代溝就喺呢十幾年之間出現，香港經濟起步時我已經唔響度，你地有HKU、中文大學，廉政公署，屋企有電視， "網中人"，“阿燦”，一班舊底明星變咗叫做甘草演員，聼歌係"萬水千山總是情"，而唔叫"萬水千山總係情"。人人開始進步斯文，差佬警察講究禮貌，開始 friend，住嘅地方也開始變好，上巴士排隊，街邊多咗“唔該”，少咗“X你”，香港、香港人真唔同哂，Heng Sang Index，好 impressive，而我亦覺得自慚形穢，又覺得好冇癮，哋七、八十年代出嚟嘅香港人，就係冇咗啲街坊味，但當我有次帶細路去唐人街戯院睇電影，突然電影預告出現鄭則仕被人騎住躉下躉下做愛，嚇得我立即揞住佢地雙眼，暗罵乜香港搞成咁樣？我開始懷舊，真係好舊個舊，唔再想返去今日之香港。
我同香港係再結過緣。我慳慳埋埋有幾個錢，93年帶老婆仔女返去探親，識咗個女人，Ahem！係我老婆嘅舊同學啫，呢個師奶見我懷舊，就介紹我睇小思（盧瑋鑾）嘅懷舊作品，一本又一本書介紹我睇，我番去美國之後佢都剪報又寫信解釋，等我從頭經歷過，從舊唐樓到新屋邨，依達到林燕妮，任劍輝到阮兆輝，大會堂到文化中心，"浪奔！浪流！" 代替 "輸完又嚟賭過" ，時光隧道從頭越，慢慢地我開始熟落，開始好熟落羅文、徐小鳳、梅艷芳、周星馳，開始知道點解越來越少人睇本地足球，我連講話亦開始“喎喎”聲。最後，偶然一次睇錄影帶見到一個鏡頭，新馬仔唱“萬惡淫為首”籌款，到深夜時觀衆已經走咗一大半，年輕嘅徐小鳳仲坐響度跟住拍子 hum，才猛然醒覺，原來斷咗線嘅係我，唔係香港，原來 "兒童相見不相識，笑問客從何處來"，錯的唔係個細路。
真正夢碎係到97之後，今日六張幾，唔通仲有命等過條隧道咩？
夠啦，免得被你地放入spam。

Merry Christmas

2010-12-21T21:14:00.004+08:00

Wishing you a joyful Christmas!

Christmas is also a time of love and caring. Just want to share with you Archbishop Paul Kwong's Christmas message. Please click here to read.

Jubilian Newsletter Issue 14

2010-10-22T12:30:00.001+08:00

Have you read the latest issue of the Jubilian Newsletter? If not, please click here to access it. It will keep you informed of the latest news intended for all BHJS alumni.

訃告

2010-08-30T23:36:00.006+08:00

我們親愛的陳南珍同學於本月二十三日因病辭世，在主懷安息。

陳南珍同學的喪禮日期，時間，地點如下:
(1) 守夜祈禱--8月31日 (星期二) 晚八時紅磡萬國殯儀館501室 (鄧慶年同學講道)
(2) 安息禮拜--9月 1日 (星期三) 下午一時紅磡萬國殯儀館地下大禮堂 (鄧慶年同學講道)
(3) 火葬禮儀--9月 1日 (星期三) 下午三時斧山火葬場。

謹此向她致以懇切的懷念，並向她的家人獻上親切的慰問!

BHJS 1967 Bursary Fund

2010-04-02T22:43:00.010+08:00

At the 40th anniversary reunion in August 2007 at the School, some of our classmates initiated a campaign to raise a bursary fund to help students to enrich their education at BHJS. Generous contributions from the Class of 1967 and friends have been made to this fund during and after the reunion. A total amount of HK$167,185 collected so far has been transferred to the School in March 2010.

This BHJS 1967 Bursary Fund will be used to help students to gain Other Learning Experiences (OLE) under the new secondary school curriculum. It may be used to subsidize needy students to participate in OLE activities or be used directly by the school to organize such activities.

The Fund is open for contribution and you may quote the BHJS 1967 Bursary Fund and make your donation directly to the School. We hope that, with new contributions, the Fund will run for many years to benefit many many students.

May Ho Visit to NY at Easter

2010-04-02T12:33:00.002+08:00

Hello everyone: I will be visiting friends of BHJS in NY this weekend and thanks to Mui Lai Yee and Brenda Kan for hosting my visit. We will be having a dinner in China Town on Saturday nignt and we are expecting over 15 alumni from different classes to attend. As president of the BHJS Canada Alumni, no dobut, I will be recruiting those fish that escaped the alumni net in the past.

We will have a report with pictures on the gathering later.

Happy Easter.

May Ho

Season's Greetings

2009-12-22T12:04:00.002+08:00

Wishing You All

A Peaceful Christmas

and

A Healthy & Happy New Year!

The World Has Become Smaller (Part 2)

2009-11-10T14:56:00.002+08:00

Reporting from Toronto by your seasoned veteran Form 1C classmate, Irene Tsai

It’s funny how even after exchanging our current faces among our good old classmates, my brain is still acting stubborn, it keeps bouncing back, remembering them by their Form 1 faces instead, time after time. Didn’t they say it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks?! Aahh, the boys are always the boys with the clean crew cuts and the girls are always the girls with the tidy short hair or little pony tails in my nostalgic mind. You know, nobody is able to steal those innocent days we’ve had together from us when we were so pure, so young, so naïve, and so free.

Good old friends are forever good old friends despite how many lost years have rolled by. It was certainly one of the most awesome weekends for me in more than 4 decades. Naturally, we couldn’t wait to get caught up. We yakked about our good old Form 1C days. Then our conversations jumped back and forth between our early North American days and our present lifestyles. There was never a dull moment throughout our luncheon together. Brenda and I had a great time checking out downtown Seattle, including the famous Pike Place Market, the Seattle Aquarium, Space Needle, the Smith Tower and we also ate our hearts out at the one-of-a-kind seafood restaurants by the piers. When the waiter came to tempt us for sinful desserts at the end of our seafood dinner, I told him no because we’re too full. But then I also jokingly said to him that may be we should order some cake simply because it was my birthday. Two minutes later, he returned with an awesome birthday cake with a glowing candle on top and a big bowl of ice cream on the side, and said to us that it’s on the house. Boy, that really made me feel very welcome to downtown Seattle. As a teen, have I ever dreamed that I would be celebrating my birthday unexpectedly in Seattle with Brenda?! How life is so full of all kinds of nice surprises for us, and how the world has become smaller and smaller even though all of us have become bigger and bigger. Haha!!

Life is like a dream. Forty plus very busy years have surely slipped by, and suddenly all of us are blessed with some spare time in our hands. We are not as young as before, yet much wiser now. Let’s face it; we are all seasoned sailors who have each bravely sailed the open sea of life! The world has suddenly become smaller and smaller in front of our eyes and we are becoming more and more accessible to each other. When we were in high school, did we ever think we would be writing each other in English? Not even in our wildest dream we had dreamed that the minute we send a letter to our friends, they would receive it within the next couple of minutes worldwide. No more aerogrammes, envelopes, stamps and letter openers needed. What excuse do we have not to be in touch with our good old friends? Entering our golden years means that we can say what we were afraid to say when we were young, and it also means we can do what we really want to do. I hope staying in touch with your old friends is one of the things on your “Want to Do” list. We need the lifelines and stories of our good old friends to excite us and to inspire us as we each can bring an array of amazing past and present life experiences and insights from far and near to share with each other. I treasure every passing moment of every passing day I have in my hands to be part of our fundamental friendship dated almost half a century ago. There are all kinds daily non-stop flights between HKG and the rest of the world now. Alas! A whole brand new world has come to all of us!!!! Folks, let’s all stay in touch and prepare ourselves for our next bigger and louder 45th Anniversary Reunion which will also mark our 50th Anniversary from our Form 1 kiddie days!!!

To read Part 1 of this post, please click here.

The World Has Become Smaller (Part 1)

2009-11-10T14:50:00.004+08:00

Reporting from Toronto by your seasoned veteran Form 1C classmate, Irene Tsai

When I was in Primary 1, my teacher said to the class in Cantonese that her daughters were studying in New York. She stopped fanning herself for a minute and twisted her tongue to say New York in English to the best of her ability. I whispered to my little friend next to me, “What’s she talking about? What is “Liew Yolk”? And who cares, not unless it is some hidden place in Hong Kong”.

In high school, whenever I heard someone’s leaving for USA or Canada, I thought to myself that life’s not fair! Why couldn’t I also say goodbye to homework, and not having to say hello to the School Certificate and Matriculation Exams. I envied those lucky runaways to death. I had always believed that I would never see them ever again in my life. The world just seemed so big and unreachable to me as I stood there waving that big ship goodbye, carrying Brenda, Kan Yu Tung and Joshua Wu, slowly disappearing in front of our eyes at the Ocean Terminal over 40 years ago. I remember emptying out my piggy bank to buy a Japanese letter opener from Daimaru Department Store to give to Brenda as a farewell gift. In my simple little mind, she was going to write me and I was going to write her back. Guess what? That never materialized as little did we know that life just got busier and busier beyond high school.

Last weekend, I made a side trip to Seattle to meet up with Brenda Kan for the weekend after both of us had finished some business and errands. She currently lives in New York City and I live in Toronto. Over our after dinner tea and desserts, we decided to call up a long lost Form 1C classmate to make our weekend more exciting and memorable. The next morning, sure enough, I heard a gentle door knock. I opened the door quickly without a doubt. A nice looking tall guy standing there with a winning smile said to me, “Hi, are you Irene???” I held the door wide open with one hand and shouted back into the room, “Brenda, guess who’s here!” Brenda zoomed over to the door. I mean I almost froze when the door swung open. We must have shocked each other. It was our first hello after 46 years!!! And how very cool’s that!!!!

To read Part 2 of this post, please click here.

Jubilian Newsletter Issue 13

2009-10-22T21:13:00.005+08:00

Have you read the latest issue of the Jubilian Newsletter? If not, please click here to access it. It will keep you informed of the latest news intended for all BHJS alumni.

October Visitors

2009-10-20T23:56:00.007+08:00

We welcomed our October visitors from North America with a dinner at 翠亨村 at the Mirama in Tsim Sha Tsui on the 2oth. Wendy and Janning from LA, Stephen and Fidelia from Toronto, and Tina from Kansas City have been to different places in China using Hong Kong as a base. We are delighted to have them shared the fun of their travelling and life overseas with us. Joining the dinner were friends from classes A, B and C. Can you recognize all of them?
Thanks to Lee Chee Keung (Sui Keung) for organizing the dinner and sending in the photograph.

Jiuzhaigou and Zhangjinjie

2009-10-16T12:29:00.006+08:00

Thanks to Pauline Cheng for sharing with us her trip to two of the most beautiful places on earth:

Barely three months after our West Coast tour in US in June with a dozen of BHJS friends, Fred and I have just returned from another expedition to Jiuzhaigou and Zhangjinjie. This time we were invited to join the tour organized by one of my UA friends.
All I could say is “Wow!” to all I saw and experienced, and I was tempted to say that we did not have to go far to see the great wonders of the world. The Five Colored Pool, the Tianzi Mountain, and Huanglong Cave are just some of the many magnificent and unique features we sight saw along the way. Be it be mountain, waterfall, stream, forest and flower, everywhere we went just echoes God’s praises and tells of His power.
I took another opportunity to challenge my aged body. I made to the Tianmen Cave at Zhangjinjie, by climbing up and going down 999 steps each way. Our group (18 people) was all amazed at the three crazy people who made this endeavor. Going by Fred’s motto, we just have to do what we physically can at any given moment. At our delicate ages, who knows what we will be up to the next time.
We are now anticipating our next big trips - to New Zealand next March and Peru in June, hopefully with the bunch of our BHJS travel buddies again.
Pauline Cheng, Calgary

Mr. Dennis Lin Ying-Shui

2009-10-10T21:43:00.004+08:00

We are sorry to hear the following sad news from Mr. Wong Hin-Shing:

"One of our former colleagues at BHJS, Mr. Dennis Lin Ying-Shui, passed away about 4 years ago.

When we were both teaching at BHJS, he and I were very close. We shared our teaching experiences together, and we were both avid lovers of classical music and movies. Before I left Hong Kong, I even shared a room with him at Caratus near BHJS. (By that time, my parents had already left for Canada and I had to move out of our apartment building then.)

Some of you may remember him...

I will always miss him."

More Cruise Report

2009-10-05T23:06:00.008+08:00

This time from Tony Pow in Boston:
Hi folks,

It is a great treat for me to see my old, good-looking, and cheerful classmates in 40 years when their cruise ship docked in Boston. We are all older but hopefully wiser. I did have a great time and here are some new photos on old faces. Try to see whether you can match the faces with their backs (see pictures). Have a great day!

Tony AKA Tony Wai-Man

Early October Arrival

2009-10-05T09:57:00.002+08:00

Guess who?

Click here to find out.

Cruise Interim Report

2009-10-02T17:45:00.012+08:00

Irene Tsai sent us the following on 1 Oct from the cruise trip off the New England coast: I am currently at sea, having loads of fun with your other seasoned veteran classmates. We docked every morning and off we got onshore to a new port to explore. We cracked crazy jokes and dined together as if we have no tomorrows, really sumptuous food and sinful desserts coming out from our ears with live music each evening at A1 restaurants and bistros, going to shows, concerts and dances,oh,casinos also right before bed time :-)

Everybody was crawling or stumbling into the cabin beyond 2 a.m. to put their head down on their pillow to grab the much needed few sleep hours before the show on the road again on the next day!! Haha!!!! Perhaps, we should celebrate our 45th Reunion in the fun Cruise Ship format? It is such a no brainer for all. That way, nobody will be stuck with the tedious planning or preparation work. It was 50 years ago when we first met up in Form 1. Good grief!!!!
Got to go back to the ship now. Folks, have a great group dinner in HKG!
Ciao,
Irene Tsai

P.S. Tony Pow Wai Man will come to meet us up when we dock in Boston.

October 1 Gathering

2009-10-02T17:06:00.008+08:00

We are happy to receive many visiting class 1967 alumni from overseas this Sep/Oct. To share time with the Sep arrivals, Mok Kwok Yum organized a reunion dinner on 1 Oct at 富聲 Restaurant in Wanchai , close to where the National Day firework was displayed. Having fun with the locals at this dinner were Chui Tak Shing & Lau Yuk Hing from Toronto and Hally Wong, Irene Li and Victor & Lisa Chan from Sydney. We also welcomed Yeung Po Shan and Tsui Ka Tsuen who we have missed for a long long time. It was really a cosy and enjoyable dinner (we squeezed all 20 of us around one table) with delicious food and good company.

We look forward to meeting the Oct arrivals soon!

Photo courtesy Victor Chan Kin Wai

New England and Eastern Canada Cruise

2009-09-24T12:23:00.003+08:00

Who: Au Bik Wan and Alan Chiu, Brenda Kan Yu Tung, Irene Tsai Yan Ying, Ho Kit May, Angie Mui Lai Yee, her sister Wendy Moy, her friend Mee Wong

What: Norwegian Cruise Line - Dawn

Where: From New York, to Halifax, St. John (N.B.), Bar Harbour, Boston, Newport

When: September 27 to October 4, 2009
Alumni dinner on September 26, 2009 in Flushing

Tony Pow will be our tour guide in Boston

Report and pictures to follow.

Email Scam recently experienced by May Ho

2009-08-12T09:35:00.004+08:00

Dear friends: Christie and I had a wonderful Baltic Cruise recently. Shortly after we came back to work, a very scarry thing happened. Here's the story....

If you have exchanged emails with me, you would have received an email from me (not really me) two weeks ago asking for help. That email scam was initiated at 3:30 am and by 4:30 am, I received the first phone call from my brother in Hong Kong, alerting me about it. At that time, I still did not realize that it was my email that had been hacked. I thought my brother's email was hacked. By 9 am, we were receiving numerous calls from our friends, that's when Christie realized my email account had been compromised. The scam was quickly shut down and their secret "forward" function was disabled so that any one that replied to my plea would not be intercepted by the scammer.

One of my friends by then had exchanged a few emails with "me" and was given an account at Western Union to bail me out. I was supposedly staying at The Farmers Hotel in Birmingham, England. The scammer even gave her the address and telephone number for contact and urged my friend to send money "quick".

To make a long story short, no one send money to "me". Thank God. But I did get email replies from my travel agent, my nurse, quite a few unsuspecting friends who wants to find out how to send money to me.

I am taking this opportunity to tell and warn my friends how the scam happened. I replied to an very authentically looking email from Rogers/Yahoo, requesting that I authenticate my email account within 24 hours or else the account will be shut down. As an experienced user, I have repeatedly resist the request for the past month by deleting the request, but I was very tired one day and was in a hurry to answer the hundreds of emails in my inbox after a long vacation, I gave them my email address, my PIN and my birthdate.

Never, never give out your PIN to any company requesting it. I still cannot believe that I fell for the scam. I can only blamed it on my super exhaustion (worked 10 hours first day back to work) and jet lag (six hours difference) the day after I returned from my vacation.

I did learn a great lesson from this scarry experience....I have many friends who would come forward to lend me a helping hand if I am in need. To my friends and family, I am forever grateful for your caring support.

My email account is now secured again with the same email address but the account has to start all over again. I lost all my email addresses and past emails. Please send me an email so that I can add you back to my address book. Mok Kwok Yum has already helped me put a lot of BHJS friends back to my address book by sending out a mass email for me, thank you, John.

Beware of scammers, and don't do what I did. I am sorry for any inconvenience this incident may have caused you.

Regards,

May Ho

US Western Coast Reunion

2009-06-04T21:10:00.008+08:00

As a sequel to the Calgary Reunion last year, 15 of our classmates (from HK, Canada and US) and spouses will join the whole or part of our US Western Coast Reunion from 5 to 24 June. Thanks again to Pauline and Fred for organizing this trip to LA, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and San Diego. Our hospitable classmate hosts in LA and San Diego have already been busy making plans for us for the time we are going to be in their cities.

Watch this blog for more reports of this Western Coast Reunion.

The Sydney Group in Hong Kong

2009-05-28T12:20:00.005+08:00

We welcomed Helen and Spencer in Hong Kong amid their ambitious travel plans to Tibet, Sanya and Macau using Hong Kong as their springboard. The dinner at the Tsui Hang Village restaurant on 25 May was well attended by other Sydney alums as they also happened to be here. Victor and Lisa had been back to Australia since our last gathering and Peter was whipping up his appetite for a mussel meal with Kwong Ming in Syndey in the coming week. It is always nice to meet up with old friends whether at home or overseas.

Photo courtesy Victor Chan

S America - Agentna

2009-05-01T10:55:00.010+08:00

This is the last of three parts of Fiona and Walter's trip to South America. If you want to read the earlier parts, please click here.

Buenos Aires marks the end of our South American trip. We spent 3 full days in this capital of Argentina which appears to be very prosperous and densely populated. Roads are congested with domestic cars and buses. The main avenues are very wide. The widest road in the heart of the city has 8 lanes on each side. There are monuments in every district. There are trees in squares where a monument stands. There are lots of sculptures in parks. It has very much an European touch. The old buildings each has their own design join together to form a block. Odd new buildings in the historic built up area blends in well. We visited the cemetery in the district of Recoleta which has French culture. It is accessible to the public free of charge. In it are stunningly huge burial sites of the rich and prominent families which look like mini chapels. We peeked through some of these structures that have doors and could see coffins stacked up on one side and an alter in the far end. Among those rested in the cemetery was Eva Peron, the beloved "Evita” of Argentina who got her fame by helping her husband to run the presidency giving moving speeches and was very much loved and missed by the Argentineans.

Talking about Argentina, I must mention their Tango. It is different from the ballroom Tango. The Argentineans dance their Tango with passion and emotion, not only on stage in grand after dinner shows, in the streets and also on pavements at restaurants which has outdoor tables and chairs in Caminita in the district of La Boca. An Argentinean BBQ meal is sumptuous. One portion of meat on the plate is big enough for both of us. Argentineans eat rice too. Their rice is short grain but not sticky like the Japanese rice. We did not mind eating in what they call themselves a "restaurant” in the shade under the trees in the back yard of a house where the BBQ stove and the stewing wok are out in the open. The food was authentic Argentinean, delicious and inexpensive. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
Overall, our trip was an eye opener for us.

Once again, we would like to thank Fiona for sharing with us their South America experience. If you have befriended Fiona at Facebook, you can of course see many more of her photos taken during the trip.

S America - Falklands & Uruguay

2009-04-29T21:43:00.011+08:00

Fiona and Walter continued their South America trip with port calls at the Falkland Islands and Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. Below is what they have experienced. To read about the first part of their trip, please click here.

Stanley in the Falkland Islands, to us who have lived under the British rule, is an interesting port of call. Their red letter boxes and the public telephone stands remind us of what Hong Kong had when we were young. The island has sharp thin spike like rocks on land with moss like vegetation and short thorny vegetation. The local tourist bus driver refers the unique looking rocks to be rocks from the moon. The 2,500 people living on the island own about 600,000 sheep. The fruits and vegetables are all expensive imports. All the shops, churches, government offices, monuments and restaurants are not surprisingly located in the road along the shore. We passed by the war memorial monument honouring the military service who gave their lives during the war with Argentina some twenty years ago. On one of the plagues displaying the deceased servicemen were names of 6 Chinese from Hong Kong who were employed by the British to work on board the warship which sank off the coast when it was attacked by the Argentineans. The Falkland Islands being some 300 odd miles out in the sea off the continent are homes of penguins, dolphins, killer whales with black back and white belly, sea birds and marine life. It is very quiet until a cruise ship arrives. Not only the people on the island welcome visitors but also the dolphins along the coast are excited, popping up from the water around the catamaran with tourists on board.

The cruise ship called at Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. The old city is within walking distance from the pier. It was Saturday afternoon and the historic downtown area was quiet. "Tourist Police" patrol in the main square with the monument of the country's hero which brought the Uruguay independence. Uruguay people, mainly of Spanish or Italian origin, are fond of antiques. There are hawkers selling antiques and among these antiques are silverware, silver cutlery, pistols, guns, ammunitions and equipments for cleaning and maintaining the firearms like what you see in the American cowboy movies made when we were in BHJS. Uruguay people keep antique cars and vans and use them if the engine runs. Montevideo does not appear to be as rich as the parts of Chile and Argentina which we saw in this trip. A lot of the historical houses need maintenance. Leather jackets and other leather goods are of top quality and pretty stylish. They cost a fraction of those better ones made in Europe. They are cheaper and better than those made in China.

Please click here to continue.

Merry Get Together

2009-04-29T18:27:00.003+08:00

We had a great time chatting with visiting classmates Victor Chan (Lao Wai) and wife Lisa from Sydney and Wong Ping Lam from Vancouver over dinner at the Maxim Palace Restaurant in Shatin New Town Plaza on 28 April 2009. They shared with us their fond memories of the good old BHJS days and interestig life experiences in Hong Kong and overseas since graduation. It is always nice to reconnect with friends of old and we were already talking about a dinner with Helen Lai when she returns for a visit in May.

Photo courtesy Victor Chan.

S America - Chile

2009-04-27T12:16:00.005+08:00

I have asked Fiona to share with us the delights of the trip she made recently with her husband Walter to South America . She has graciously sent us an excellent article with some impressive photos capturing the highlights of their visit to this great continent . Here is Part 1 of her article. I enjoy reading it very much and I am sure you'll like it too.

This was the first visit to South America made by me and my husband. Our first stop was Chile. At Santiago airport, we could tell Chile has good relationship with which countries just by looking at the airport entry taxes chart posted high up showing the respective amounts to be paid by Americans, Australians, European community passport holders and Canadians ranging from US$30 per head to US$132 per head though no visa is required for citizens of those countries to visit into Chile. There is no charge for Chinese. Chile produces large quantity of seaweed which is sold to China and Japan. China is an important buyer of Chilean crude oil. Inside the Chilean fjords, there are a lot of salmon farms in the quiet waters. No wonder Chile does not seem to be too hard hit by the economic turmoil.
Chilean people are friendly and seem to be pretty down to earth. I spent 4 days in total in Santiago going around the city on our own in taxis and underground trains, strolling down main roads and side streets on foot and yet I did not see any European cars made by BMW, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, or Japanese cars like Lexus, Accura, and Infiniti. The Chilean people use their own domestic small and mid-size sedans. The underground trains are not air-conditioned and windows are left half open. The military police with armoured vehicles station in the historical and shopping downtown districts. On weekdays during lunch hour, lots of neatly dressed men either in suits or smart casual wear gether around the main historical square downtown to play chess. The city government labourers arrange chess tables and chairs for people to play under a huge gazebo in the historical square downtown and when all the tables are occupied, they push more tables and chairs out and put them in the shade under the palm trees. I estimate there were no less than one hundred people involved in chess in the square. It was quite a unique sight. Strange enough I found only one old lady chess player. The cruise along the channels along the southern Chilean coast and Strait of Megellan and the Beagle channel between Chile and Argentina was very pleasant. This part of South America is scarcely populated. The landscape still is natural, an undisturbed art of the creator of the Earth. The Andes with snow capped mountains run down to the coast to meet the water. The ship cruised along the mouths of many fjords. Though the hills along the fjords are not as high as those along the Yangtze three gorges, the scenery gave me tranquility and a very comfortable feeling. Sailing close to the glaciers which run to the sea is the highlight. But of the 6 glaciers we passed by, only one remains to end at the coast and the rest has retreated a little distance up the valley.

Click here to continue.

Happy Easter

2009-04-11T23:28:00.004+08:00

Wishing you a Happy Easter with a refreshed outlook on life!

Dear Phantom Oiman

2009-03-23T22:04:00.008+08:00

A hearty welcome and thank you for joining us at our Thursday night dinner in Flushing after your utmost long sabbatical leave from us. Even though it was our first meet or your first re-appearance after over 4 decades, unlike others, I did not feel myself, ourselves or your presence at the restaurant as strangers sharing the same table (like what they do at some Chinatown restaurants - 撘檯). Not at all. In fact, I felt joy, warmth and togetherness as we went down the memory lane collectively over the icewine and the sumptuous Chinese dishes.

We must not forget to thank Mui Por for her efforts, planning and organising such a perky social event for all. Let me also take this opportunity to thank Ha Man Kit for teaching me the real and/or the hidden meanings of the word "柳" and liasing one of the original "柳's" to the 花旗 bunch. The inquisitive moir, being only an hour away from NYC, that was enough excuse for me to pop into the Big Apple for some good fun with all of my friends from our yester years. Here are the photo proofs that we were not strangers in the night or strangers at the big round table at all. Enjoy them!

Good night all.

Irene Tsai

Guilin and Huangshan Tours

2009-03-19T21:39:00.012+08:00

Once again, we are grateful to our high school chums for their royal treatment to Fred and me while we were in Hong Kong. We were spoiled with all kinds of good food and other stuff. We are also indebted to the group who accompanied us to Guilin and Huangshan.
Once we landed in Guilin, we were instantly fascinated by the unique mountainous view surrounding the city. We felt we were one of the characters in those scenic Chinese paintings or Kungfu movies. Personally I felt a sense of closeness in Guilin as it was one of the areas to where my late mom and my elder sister fled during the war.

Despite the miserably wet and chilly weather, we were able to enjoy sightseeing, eating and chatting in one another’s good company. The day trip to cruise on the famous Li River was our highlight. In a more serene environment, we were able to admire Guilin’s best sceneries and spectacular features in a relaxing way.

Huangshan offers another marvelous view different from Guilin’s. The mountains are awe-inspiring and breathtaking beyond description. Apart from the missing mist to compose the perfect picture of Huangshan, we were blessed with the one-in-four chances to have a sunny and reasonably warm day. The favorable weather condition permitted Ha Kit and Fred to produce their masterpieces of sunrise

at Huangshan. The four to five hours’ walk in one day could be exhausting, but we were able to subside that negative feeling while were surrounded by the magnificent nature and in each other’s company. Going through all those tough regimes, we are able to brag that we are still reasonably young and physically fit.

We concluded our Huangshan tour by walking through the Old Street. We decided to re-civilize ourselves by each purchasing a set of writing brushes from a recommended store. I have to say that visiting China this second time has definitely changed my impression of our mother country and gave me desire to go back for more visits in future.

We are now looking forward to another reunion along the West Coast of US in the coming June. We are hoping to reunite with a bunch of BHJS alumni at LA. If any of you are interested, you are more than welcome to join us for the trip.

Pauline Cheng from Calgary
Photo courtesy Ha Man Kit

Classic Guilin

2009-03-18T12:39:00.004+08:00

Before visiting Huangshan, Pauline and Fred were acompanied by some of the Hong Kong alumni to tour Guilin.

Here are the very nice photos Hakit is sharing with us. To see the whole album, please click here.

Have you seen Guilin in black and white? Hakit chooses to show us this most impressive scenery of China in shades of black and white. To many, colour is superfluous for Guilin.

The Enchanting Beauty of Huangshan

2009-03-14T23:19:00.009+08:00

When Pauline and Fred were looking for suggestions of two most scenic attractions in China they might visit during their trip to Hong Kong, some of us determined that these should be Guilin and Huangshan. Hence two trips were arranged. Mankit sent us the photos he took during the Huangshan trip so that we can also share with the touring group the enchantingbeauty of this mountain range from sun-rise to moon-rise. Please click here to enjoy these very good photos.
We look forward to seeing their photos of the Guilin trip soon.

Regaining a Sense of History

2009-03-13T11:08:00.003+08:00

Our alum Yau Lop Poon has written an excellent editorial about Hong Kong regaining its sense of history in Yazhou Zhoukan. Please click here to enjoy.

訃告

2009-03-09T11:58:00.006+08:00

We have received the following message from Edward Liong, Hon. Secretary of the BHJS Alumni Association:

"我們敬愛的冼大鵬老師於本年三月三日與世長辭。冼家將於本月廿九日(星期日)晚上八時在九龍世界殯儀館舉行追悼會。冼老師畢生致力於教育事業，春風化雨，桃李滿門。謹代表校友會全體仝人向他致最後的敬禮！並向其遺孀及家人獻上深切的問候!"

We deeply regret the passing away of 冼大鵬老師 who had inspired so many of us about life and send our sincere condolences to his family.

Please click here to read a document produced in memoriam of Mr. Sen by his colleagues, friends and students.

The Maldives - A Pardise in the Sea

2009-02-20T18:26:00.015+08:00

In their spring odyssey, Malcolm and Vickie travelled to the Maldives, very much a garden of Eden in the sea. They share with us below what it is like staying in a water bungalow there through an excerpt from an email they wrote to their friend who did their booking.

"Staying in Maldives is like living on top of a tropical fish tank and there was never a dull moment. Looking out the window one can see baby sharks nosing around, stingrays sneaked in like a stealth airplane, colorful tropical fishes lining up doing fashion shows and octopus chasing away intruders.

"I have just described what one can see from the window of the water bungalow, not to mention the great scenes when one is doing snorkeling or diving. Before we arrived, Vicki was a little worried that the location although is beautiful and pristine but it could be boring. It turned out that she wanted to stay a few more days as we found out how much fun we can have just by walking around and doing snorkeling.

"The only criticism was the food. I wish some of the coral fish could be served as steamed fish with ginger and soy sauce. Of course I am kidding, the fishes should be left alone wandering around the corals."

The Maldives is of course one of the low lying countries threatened by the rise of sea levels caused by global warming. If we do not want to see this beautiful place being submerged soon, we must all do our part to sustain it.

To see the charm of the Maldives as photographed by Malcolm, please click here.

Welcoming Lau Wai & Lau Man

2009-02-15T01:20:00.006+08:00

You may choose to have a candle-light dinner with your Valentine on 14 Feb. Some of our classmates decided it was even more important to meet up with long lost friends especially when their stay here is only brief.

CHAN Kin-wai from Sidney and CHAN Oi-man from New York are in town and wish to see old friends. Ha Man-kit sent us this photo taken after their dinner together at the Pacific Club in Tsim Sha Tsui " for those who have not seen them for a long time & for those who can't recall them".

Persia then Iran now a Great Civilization always

2009-02-14T11:43:00.016+08:00

Malcolm Au continues his globe trotting this time to Iran, a dreamland for many of us. He sends us this report:

Vicki and I spend 10 days in Iran. We traveled to Shiraz, Kerman, Yazd, Esfahan, Abiyanet, Qom and Tehren. I have taken 3,000 pictures and have kept 800. I want to share some of my pictures with you and our schoolmates.

I was a little apprehensive and Vicki was a great deal apprehensive before we went. A lot of friends offer their condolences when they heard that we are going to Iran. It turns out that Iran is a beautiful country and it is not a bit like the portrait painted by the western media. I don't know about the Iranian government but the people were first rate. I don't think there is any pretense as their friendly reaction were very spontaneous. The people are extremely friendly. Normally when my subjects found out that I was taking pictures of them they will either show their disapproval/annoyance or they will come over to ask for money. Almost without fail, the Iranian people will smile back, some shook my hand and one pretty lady even came over to offer me her address so that I can send her the picture. (fortunately Vicki was there).

The places we went to, even small cities, are clean and we do not feel in any way being in danger, intimidated or being uncomfortable. Even Vicki, our Christian spiritual leader, feel comfortable about them.

I think Iran will become a very powerful nation once they have found a path of their choice to open up. They have vast mineral resources, talented and educated people and, most of all, they have about 3,000,000 overseas Iranians that can link them to the rest of the world quickly.

Please click here to enjoy the very nice pictures Malcolm is generously sharing with us.

Calgary Reunion 2008

2009-02-12T22:31:00.021+08:00

In June/July 2008, some of us met in Calgary for a mini-reunion organized by Pauline and Fred as a sequel to our grand 40th anniversary reunion in Kong Kong. We kicked off the reunion by travelling to the Yellowstone Park, then the Glacier and Waterton National Parks. The natural beauty in these parks was just awe-inspiring. We had eleven amazing days of fun and laughter together on this trip.
After retuning to Calgary, we were joined by Fiona (also our Calgary host), Irene from Toronto and Angela and Brenda from New York for an excursion to the serene Banff National Park after immersing ourselves in the Stampede festivities.

We were most happy to have even more classmates joining us, Janette, Portia & Sun and Catherine & Milton all from Edmonton, for a reunion dinner in Calgary and a delightful evening at Joshua and Christina's lovely house.
We all enjoyed the reunion very much and are most thankful to Pauline & Fred, Fiona & Walter and Joshua & Christina, our Calgary hosts, for making it possible.

As a memento of this reunion, we have produced a 40-page album which you can preview the first third of it by clicking here. If you would like a copy, you can order directly through the same web page.

The photos in this post and many in the album were taken by Fred Cheng

Malcolm Au and family in Toronto

2009-01-28T11:18:00.004+08:00

The Toronto gang entertained Malcolm Au and his family on Saturday, January 24. We started with an early lunch of dim sum at the Dragon Dynasty Restaurant in Scarborough. The table for 14 was fully packed with Malcolm, his lovely wife Vicki, his elderly mom Auntie Au, Mr. Wong Hin Shing, Stephen and Fidelia Lau, Cheung Kwok Ying, Irene Tsai, Chui Tak Shing and Lau Yuk Hing, May Ho and her daughter Christie, and 1966 classmates Vincent Ching Man Sun and his wife Agnes Lee Tak Yung. Malcolm preordered half a roasted suckling pig which was delicious and crispy. We spent 3 hours at the restaurant eating, laughing and reminiscing. After lunch, some of us went to Sun Tsui's home for Karaoke and dinner. Malcolm sent his mom home and then picked up his daughter Juliana and her fiance Jason from the airport in the afternoon and without missing a beat came to Sun's home to join the party. Well, the rest of the story will be told by Malcolm:

Hi Everybody,

My family and I had a wonderful day yesterday.

I was so happy to see Wong sir at the lunch. He looked real good and all those trips to the toilet must have created an opportunity for a good refill. Wong sir, thank you so much for coming, next time we want to hear you sing.

Christie is getting prettier every time I see her. Delighted to hear that she will be getting married in 2010. The story she told about the marriage proposal in Tuscany with May being there was fascinating. These days young people are a lot more creative than us old folks. I don't even remember whether I proposed to Vicki. My recollection was that we both feel that it was about time and we just went ahead to get married.

It was great to see Vincent Ching Man Sun and his wife. The last time I saw them was probably 45 years ago. May, thanks, you sure know how to find the missing souls.

Irene was bubbly as ever and she spend all her time entertaining my Mom. My mom told me that she was really at ease with the younger people. I think we should always invite some folks older than us to join so that we can be young for a while, at least over lunch. Too bad that Irene cannot stay for the reception at the Sun's residence but all of us can understand. Irene, Happy birthday to your mom, please bring her to our gathering next time.

Stephen's Leather tux was very eye catching. I was wondering how come he has the good taste to pick the color and style until Fidelia explained that the blazer was picked by her. It proves that what all men need to do is to have good taste once in his life, just pick a good wife. Stephen lucked out. He he.

Cheung Kwok Ying and Ah Mah was singing and dancing for us in Sun's Multi-media basement until Stephen and I started to sing. As the karaoke was finally getting into the groove, Sun announced dinner. We have to do better next time. Need to get more singers.

Chui Tak Sing looks happy and out of the four times I saw him since we held these gatherings he is the most active this time. Great to see that he looked so happy. Ah MAh must have done something right.

Well, the big applause went to Josephine and Sun. They are wonderful hosts. (we want to be invited back) Josephine was laboring away at the kitchen all afternoon and Sun was laboring in front of the coffee machine making a variety of specialty coffees. Watch out Starbucks. The dinner was so sumptuous, the Au's favorite dishes was a tie between the fried shrimp stick and the veggie "Jai" 素食. Josephine and Sun, a big big big thanks. You are truly great hosts.

The big surprise was definitely calls from So Wai Yip in LA and Mui Por from the Big Apple. It was great to have heard from them and to wish them happy CNY.

Let me represent my Mom, Vicki, Juliana and Jason to express our gratitude for the great day and we hope we can do it again in the not too distant future.

Cheers and Happy CNY.

Malcolm

恭賀新禧

2009-01-25T15:03:00.004+08:00

Wishing everyone a Happy, Hearty and Healthy Year of the Ox!

Tsukiji Fish Market

2009-01-21T19:41:00.012+08:00

Malcolm Au continues his Tokyo exploration with an early morning visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market which has only just been reopened to visitors during the dawn trading sessions. Please click here to see again the very nice album he is sharing with us before he will show it to the Toronto schoolmates when he is over there during the Chinese New Year.
We also went to the Tsukiji Fish Market during our 2004 visit to Tokyo. We had to get up at 4:30am to catch the first metro to go there in time for the trading. The visit was a highlight of our trip not only because of the interesting tuna bidding but also because of the freshness of the breakfast sushi we had there.

Sumo Enlightening

2009-01-19T23:19:00.012+08:00

Malcolm Au Man Chung sent us his very nice album of a grand sumo tournament in Tokyo. The photos are absolutely facinating. Please click here to enjoy. Sumo is very much the national sport of Japan. When Jackie, Robin and I were visiting Tokyo in 2004, we went to a sumo training stable and found it really interesting especially learning about the life of the budding wrestlers being fed-to-size and trained there. We also visited the sumo museum and the Sumo Hall and were just intrigued by the sport. Incidentally, I also watched in Tianjin through the NKK channel the very tournament Malcolm captured here in his camera.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-01-01T13:26:00.002+08:00

Goodbye 2008, hello 2009

May 2009 bring us joy, health and happiness. Enjoy your family, friends and life.

May Ho

Boxing Day Dim Sum Lunch in Toronto

2008-12-29T01:05:00.005+08:00

The Toronto alumni entertained Ha Man Kit and his wife, Alice on Boxing Day while they were visiting family. We had the honour presence of two teachers, Mr. Wong Hin Shing and Ms Irene Fong as well as Cheung Kwok Ying, Chui Tak Shing, Lau Yuk Hing, Stephen and Fidelia Lau, May Ho and Irene Tsai. Below is the recap written by Irene:

Dear friends from far and near,

Fa-la-la-la-la, La-la-la-la!!!!! Christmas has come and gone! I hope all of you had a very blessed and jolly Christmas! If not, what was your excuse?! Haha!

Boxing Day morning, the weather was doom and gloom with sub-zero temperature and snow falling hard again in TO, creating slippery driving conditions all over the city. Needless to say, there were multi-vehicle accidents on the highways one after another as people were rushing out in the early morning hours to take advantage of the blow-out Boxing Day sales everywhere. The Toronto Gang also got out early from different parts of the city, fighting the tricky and potentially dangerous roads, but they were not heading to any of the one day sales out there. More importantly, they have prioritized, and were all destined for Dragon Dynasty Chinese Restaurant to do Dim Sum brunch with Ha Man Kit and his wife who have just arrived town. Lucky me was pre-assigned to be their chauffeur that morning. In my zombie state after 3 hours of sleep the night before, I had pulled up in front of two wrong buildings to wait for them before I finally hit the right spot in front of the 3rd building. Fortunately, the screw up only took away 10 minutes or so. Phew!

As I pulled away from the right building with MK and his better half in my little coupe on our way to the restaurant, I started to confess to MK that I was really, really busy lately and had absolutely run out of time to send the TO Gang a kind reminder of the special luncheon get-together. In my heart, I was suddenly all worried that perhaps nobody would remember something we had brainstormed and talked about on emails over a month or weeks ago, or people simply may not want to be bothered to come out to stuff their faces with Chinese food on such a yucky winter day. Man, into the restaurant, what a nice big surprise to see the warmest smilie faces, graciously awaiting at the spacious table reserved by Lau Bok via his backdoor connection. President Ho Kit May arrived late, but she drove all the way from Whitby on such treacherous road conditions, two thumbs up for her. Even our darling Ms. Fong and lovely Wong Sir have seriously bookmarked this occasion and taken the extra bumpy miles just to share the intense fun hours with us. Honestly, they have impressed the hell out of me. Folks, what can I say?! I have taken a group picture just to show you how we spent our Boxing Day together to keep ourselves warm and connected in the big alumni family.

Happy New Year to all!

Greetings from Melbourne

2008-12-26T18:35:00.006+08:00

Irene Li sent her greetings from Australia

Wishing you all the possible and impossible blessings from our Lord in the coming year.
She also attached the above photo taken at the dinner last week she had with Fiona & Walter and Mr. & Mrs. K.W.Wong. Mr. Wong is our beloved geography teacher.

Snowy Christmas in TO

2008-12-24T17:53:00.007+08:00

Hello! Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen!

For those who live in Toronto, or anywhere throughout Canada, Santa has already endorsed a very pretty white Christmas for us! Here's an all time Christmas favorite, wishing everyone, far and near, a very merry Christmas, a warm and joyous Holiday Season, plus a healthy, prosperous 2009!!!! Year of the Ox? Hey, all those lucky oxen among us, eh! Ha ha!

Cheers,Irene :-)

When I asked Irene Tsai to snap one or two pictures of the snow-clad TO to accompany her message above, she took the assignment very seriously and sent me the following:

I walked on the heavy padded snow-covered sidewalks and streets of downtown tonight with my camera. Mind you, it wasn't an easy job at all as the dense falling snow just wouldn't leave my camera alone.

This picture is a quick shot of Yonge Street (Yonge & College), specifically College Park area, which is looking quite festive right now. I love walking outside on snowy nights as everywhere looks so fresh, pure and beautiful.

I even walked over to City Hall, if you remember how it looks like. In the summer, you see flowers, fountains and water in the pond. In the winter, it becomes a big public skating rink.
Well, his one shows you how Torontonians enjoy free outdoor ice skating even on a snowy night like this. Hey, I was out there on the skating rink very frequently with my friends back in my university days. Too bad, I was at the skating rink tonight with my camera instead of my skates.

Thanks Irene for your warm greetings and letting us have a taste of the whitest TO Christmas since 1971.

Christmas Greetings

2008-12-24T11:04:00.003+08:00

At this time of the year, let us remember the birth of Christ who brought us peace, love and hope.

Wishing you all a Healthy, Happy and Fulfilling Christmas and New Year!

Angela's Hong Kong Stop-over

2008-12-15T16:56:00.010+08:00

Angela Mui Lai Yee accompanied by sister Wendy had a Hong Kong stop-over in October after a trip to Yunnan with her university alums. She took this opportunity to treat us to a sumptuous dinner on 24/10 at the Chui Chow restaurant in the Jardine House (or Connaught Centre for those who have been away from Hong Kong for some time).

Unbeknown to us at the time, the dinner was also a birthday celebration for Angela. It was a delightful evening with some who seldom turned up in previous gatherings attending as you can see from these photos.

Some of us took Angela and Wendy out in the following week to a river-food restaurant at Wesley Road to make up for the missing cake and song on Angela’s big day.

Photo coutesy Mok Kok Yum and Ha Man Kit

Fiona Back in Hong Kong, Only Briefly

2008-09-22T13:54:00.008+08:00

A group of classmates mostly those who took part in the Calgary reunion this July invited Fiona and Walter for a mini-reunion dinner on 20.9.08 at the Jade Garden Restaurant in the Star House prior to their departure for a New Zealand holiday. As always when our class meet, those sweet memories of more than 40 years old kept popping up and gave us a lot of fun and much to share.

Photo by courtesy of HA Man-kit

Ms Downie visit to Toronto July 14 08

2008-07-22T12:57:00.005+08:00

Ms Joyce Downie was the Form Mistress of Form IIC in 1963. She was only 21 years old then. She left BHJS in 1966 and was the Form Mistress of Form VA that year. She met her husband, Peter Chapman, at Christ Church and got married in Brisbane, Australia in 1967. She has 3 grown children. Joyce and Peter live in Queensland, Australia. Here is a journal by Irene Tsai describing our dinner with the Chapmans.

Hi guys,
One good thing after another. Well, July must be a lucky month as there will be yet another fun day to look forward to when Mui Lai Yee and Kwong Hoi Chau get into town on Wed, only 2 days from now. Hey, we will be doing lunch, dinner, karaoke with a live band after dinner with them. Good food, great company and fantastic summer weather is here now. Boys and girls, please bear in mind that Toronto is a damn good place to visit especially during summer and autumn months.

I just got back from the special dinner with Ms. Downie and her hubby, Peter Chapman. They are a wonderful couple and it was a real piece of cake to entertain them as they are such easy going folks, very appreciative, well travelled and definitely young at heart. Naturally, we took them to a nice Chinese restaurant (Asian Legends) to enjoy the spicey northern dishes and to yak about our yester years. May Ho brought her b/w Jubilee photo album along and Ms. Downie also came prepared with her family pictures to show and tell at the table. It was a fun dinner gathering even though there were only 6 of us in total. Geeze, I wish there had been more people there with us tonight, but understanding summer months are very busy months for all with numerous family excursions and earlier commitments. Anyway, I am attaching a picture for everyone to take a good look at our not-much changed former English teacher, Ms. Downie.

Have a good one!
Ciao,
Irene Tsai

After dinner, I escorted the Chapmans back to their hotel via subway. We had a nice chat on the way and it was such a nice summer evening that I wished the weather can stay like that all year round. The Chapmans flew back to Milwaukee the next morning to continue their vacation with their family. Until the next time, take care everybody, and have fun.

May Ho

Mui & Kwong Hit Toronto

2008-07-18T05:58:00.012+08:00

Just a couple of random pictures of the party animals tonight in Toronto for your perusal. We had abundant sumptuous food and drinks (courtesy of Ms. Microsoft from NYC, Mui Lai Yee, a.k.a. Mui-Por) with an ongoing live band in the background. I was having so much fun yakking the whole time that I had almost lost sight of my favourite dessert which was just sitting right in front of my eyes! No, I wasn't stoned, but admittedly got a bit carried away by the fun and dynamic conversations between the happy party animals at the long table. And, upon popular demand, Cheung Kwok Ying finally went up to the podium to sing karaoke for us. What was that song called again? [Was it Anne Murray's I just fall in love again?]

Haha! Tsui Sun Man promised to be the fat lady at our next gathering. Hey, I've bookmarked it already.
Irene Tsai, Toronto 16 July 2008

Calgary Reunion

2008-07-12T14:52:00.005+08:00

This reunion picture is taken by Fred Cheng at the home of Joshua & Christina on 11 July 2008. Can you recognize all the jolly classmates and their spouses coming from Hong Kong, New York, Toronto and Edmonton to take part in this reunion organized by Pauline and co-hosted by Fiona and Joshua in Calgary?

Reaching New Horizons

2008-04-25T22:27:00.006+08:00

In this post, Pauline Cheng shares with us the experience of the trip she had with husband Fred to South America where she finds a new outlook for life of being forever young at heart and active in spirit.

We were back from our fantastic trip to South America on 17 April. The views there are wonderful and unique beyond imagination. Certainly this trip has changed our preconception of S America. We can't wait to share with you all our wonderful experiences, although what we saw was only the tip of an iceberg. Fred and I already talked about taking another trip there. How about having it as a spot for our future reunion?

I would say I did get by marginally with my spoken Spanish, but I couldn't help freaking out when people spoke too fast. There is still a lot of work to do. I intend to set it as a priority to work towards mastering this language before my next trip to S. America.

I surprised myself by doing a daring thing during the trip. I played the zipline (L'accrobranche en Francais; la tirolesa en espanol). Basically you hang yourself (with only some secure devices

attached to the hip) from a wire cable and slide yourself a great distance from points A to B.

This particular one is about 1.5 km long (with 2 stations in between), which is high above the treetops of a rain forest situated near the Iguazu Waterfalls in Argentina.

Although I am still not sure how I could be so gutsy, I am glad I did it and I will certainly do it again when another opportunity comes. From this experience, I can't help wondering if I did miss a lot in life just because I used to become self-defeated too soon.

Talking about keeping our mind positive and energized, I have to share an inspiring story with you. On the cruise ship, we met a couple in their late nineties (the husband is 95 and the wife is 98). They traveled by themselves. Despite all their outward signs of old age - slow paces, very wrinkled faces, crooked backs and rheumatic hands, they were able to take everything in stride. They have been traveling continuously and intend to keep on exploring the world. The Inca in Peru (over 12,000 feet sea level) is one of their destinations in near future. Instead of retreating themselves to a nursing home where their life may be comfortable but not self-fulfilling, this couple made a choice to make the best out of their limited time on earth. Their great spirit and positive outlooks certainly inspired every single person they came in contact with. The encounter with them would surely serve as my constant reminder that there is always a new horizon for us to reach.

Well, there will only be a bit more than two months before we meet. In the next while, Fred will work out the routes and the points of interest for our Yellowstone trip. Let's keep in touch.

Pauline Cheng from Calgary

Last Call For BHJS Canada Alumni AGM

2008-03-12T21:45:00.002+08:00

Dear All:

Hello, this is the President of BHJS Canada Alumni speaking. "Di Ga Ho"

On March 15, 2008, the BHJS Canada Alumni will be holding its 5th Annual General Meeting and dinner in Toronto. We have 67 registered so far and need three more to make up 7 tables. Any last minute stragglers?
If any one happens to be visiting Toronto this weekend, you are very welcome to join us. Call me any time to register, my cell phone is 416 725 3581. We have a very full program for the evening and we are paying special tribute to the class of 1968. The class of 67 in Toronto will be represented by Stephen Lau, Cheung Kwok Ying, Li Lai Chu, Lau Yuk Hing, Tsui Sun Man, Kot Kong Ping and May Ho.
We hope to see more people coming to join us. It is never too late.

May Ho

Pauline Wong Wai Lai visited HK Feb 08

2008-03-09T12:10:00.005+08:00

In accompanying Fred to attend a conference in Tai Pei, I had another opportunity to revisit Hong Kong en route to go there. We were in Hong Kong on Feb 23 and left on 27th, merely 6 months after our summer reunion.

Once again, I was overwhelmed and touched by the hospitality of our BHJS classmates. Ten of us (pic. 1, with May missing) had a delicious lunch and wonderful time together on Feb 24. I appreciate that Mark Tang made it in the midst of his busy Sunday schedules. .

On Feb 26, five of us (pic. 2) went on a short excursion along the West Rail. We did not really have a purpose except to kill some time together. We chatted, joked and said silly things just like old time. We felt simple joy and rejuvenated just by doing that.

To maximise the benefit from our day passes, we made a few stops along the rail line. One of them was Nan Sun Wei where we once had a class picnic. Strolling relaxingly along the road in the middle of the field, we couldn’t help reminiscing our more youthful era and the good time we spent together. At the end of the day, our friends spoiled us even more by treating us to a delicious dinner.

Now we are looking forward to the summer mini-reunion and excursion down south to Yellowstone Park, with a group of twelve people, and then reunite with some additional BHJS alumni before wrapping up our whole trip. I cannot wait to report to you all the joy and fun we will share and the adventures we will experience when it is over.

Pauline Cheng from Calgary
March 6, 2008

Au Bik Wan revisit Hong Kong

2008-02-22T13:55:00.002+08:00

Dear Folks,

It was soooo good to see you all again last Monday, just like in a dream. The convenience of easy transport really brought us closer together. You guys make HK the best place to come back to. There is so much love and hospitality. We enjoyed it very much. Thank you for the great lunch. Be sure to let me know when you guys are visiting California - love to see you here! It is always a blast to see old folks. Our friendship developed over time is really irreplaceable. Have a good day!

Au Bik Wan

CNY Luncheon in Toronto Part 2 of 2

2008-02-18T22:14:00.009+08:00

Oink! Oink! Toronto Pig Lovers celebrating Year of the Rat
A 5-hour Pot Luck Lunch-a-thon! (Part 2 of 2)
As you can all see here from the picture that the Toronto ‘true’ pig lovers have indeed happily enjoyed Fay Lo and Vicki’s hearty treat, except Lau Bok’s having a bit of problem here. Help! He fell deeply in love with that pig, and just couldn’t let go of the pig! Haha! With our happy, full tummies, we‘re now ready to move into Part II of our Chinese New Year Party.

One floor below us, we walked into Sun’s home entertainment centre. I tell you, nobody’s going to find a better home theatre in town. There’s a spacious wet bar on one side, the stereo sound system on the other side, the Mah Chong table is forever ready in the hidden corner room, and the home theatre is second to none with a wall size screen and a professional projector hanging down accurately from the ceiling. When it comes to home entertainment, Sun doesn’t fool around. He pays full attention to little details and goes for the best. I suspect he is an artistic and musical man we are not aware of. Fay Lo took the director’s chair with his laptop hooked up to the projector. Sun killed the lights and we all either sank into our comfy big seats or parked ourselves in the couch to let Fay Lo take us away to the most isolated parts of the world, basically to the fantasy lands where he has just returned from. First, he pleasured our tummies, then he opened up our eyes and put dreams into our dreams. His powerpoint started up with his cool island flight, showing us what it’s like in the 1st Class cabin. It’s amazing that the cabin’s so luxurious, considering it’s only a domestic flight happening in a small local airport. Now, off to the world’s most isolated island we went, to the Strange and the Unexplained…….the Easter Island. The shots’re just mind-boggling, how the hell the ancient settlers managed to move and put those big rocks and statues there? It remains a forever ongoing mystery. We’re talking about a whole island of gigantic monsters! Very cool and unique stuff!!!! The Antarctica’s just so tranquil and beautiful. Fay Lo was able to capture some National Geographic quality pictures with his camera to spoil our eyes, him being the narrator with a great sense of down to earth humour throughout his ppt. was such a bonus. He showed us the cutest penguins’ movements (from sleeping to shitting), the leopard seals and the streamline whales. It’s the purest of the purest paradise and heaven on earth, with the cleanest and calmest water one would die to see it once in their entire life time. He showed us his deep sea fishing trip in Perth and the oyster excavation off the remote islands off Perth, where he was living and eating oysters off the rocks like Robinson Crusoe, and that was just so unbelieveable. Then, he switched us over to the Cuban cigar making factories, the mansion-like hotels, where he has just spent a short time there with his Hong Kong buddies before showing himself up in Toronto. I have completely forgotten to ask him to show us his cool Russia trip he took many years ago as I was virtually swept away by the extreme beauty of the utmost innocent beauty of nature. We were able to enjoy viewing such exotic parts of the world all because of that forever adventurous, innovative, resourceful and the risk taker, Fay Lo, who just rolled the dice, packed his bag and off he went and risked it all out there, he often had to dry clean himself for a number of days, getting up in the middle of the night to catch his connections to seek his one-of-a-kind target destinations and he was always unselfish to educate us and happy to share his travel extravaganzas with us. He’s our proud ambassador to the exotic world. One perfect shot after another kept popping up on that king size screen. Man, what a way to spend quality time on a deep frozen Sunday afternoon.

Coming back up from the home theatre again, we were pleasantly surprised by Sun and Josephine’s repeated hospitality. Without a word, they had quietly put out a lovely afternoon delight for us, serving the best Columbian coffee from Harrods, the nostalgic Hong Kong style English tea, fancy chocolate mousse cake and all sorts of French pastries. So much food, fun and humour to share with and yet so much mutual respect and caring side by side after so many lost years. It’s hard to believe that we had split up open-endedly 40+ years ago, and after decades of very, very busy years in our own lives, we could miraculously get back together from far and near to take it up from where we had left off when we were still kids at Jubilee. Like in a big, happy family, with a lot of enthusiasm and good wishes, we all had so much borderless topics from our old days to joke around and talk about. It was just sheer awesome. But, we’ve got to go out to still look for that lost “Big Rock” which had rolled away from us in Toronto or Alberta, just like that. This was definitely a real CNY party you guys have sorely missed.

On a frozen day like such, the impeccable warm couple did such a perfect hosting job that I felt as if they had quietly put a warm cashmere blanket around our shoulders to keep us away from the horrible chill. Sun, do me a favor, I need you to steal the HAR DOR SEE recipe from your wife. I haven’t had it since my Jubilee days at Duck Gay Store behind Ying Wah Boys’. Haha!

Fay Lo and Sun, we honestly thank you two for being the catalysts of such a magical CNY party. We all have truly enjoyed ourselves throughout the entire afternoon. Fay Lo and Vicki, once again, we thank you for bringing us the incredibly edible pig, your love and laughters all the way from Shanghai. When are you coming back to visit us again?

Sun, since nobody’s broken a glass or plate at your house, do you think we could have a rain cheque to get back into your door the next time Fay Lo comes to town? The best part is not over yet, because when he comes in again, we will add karaoke to our next party, for sure. And, perhaps you can all guess who will be our main entertainer for that. Haha!

As usual, I never look at my Chinese gold Rolex when I am having a good time. But, when I got home, it was almost pitch-black. Ho Kit May and Fay Lo emailed us later to tell us that it’s been an awesome 5-hour long pot luck lunch!!! Now, who can beat that top of the world, winterlicious lunch-a-thon of ours?!

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY TO YOU ALL!

Irene Tsai Yan Ying, reporting from Toronto, Feb 16, 2008

CNY Luncheon in Toronto Part 1 of 2

2008-02-18T01:48:00.005+08:00

Oink! Oink! Toronto Pig Lovers celebrating Year of the Rat
A 5-hour Pot Luck Lunch-a-thon! (Part 1 of 2)

On the freezing cold Sunday morning of February 10, 2008, I found myself racing up north on the city’s busiest highways heading to the hottest pot luck luncheon in town. With my left eye on the crazy winter driving, my right eye constantly glued onto the big glass bowl of just-made jiggling, colourful agar dessert (filled right up to the rim). I finally located a cosy mansion in the burbs, 25 Earl Grey Court in Richmond Hill. A gem mansion with the cleanest driveway?? I called Tsui Sun Man on my cell, “Hello, Sun, is that you? If so, can I please park on your driveway?” “Oh, yes! Absolutely, where about are you now?” “Hey, I’m right here, sitting on your driveway!” Before I flipped my cell down, in the chilly cold air, Sun stuck his neck out of his big front doors for a quick second to welcome me in.

Baby, baby, one more time! Lo and behold, he did it again! Fay Lo and his family’s surely in town, hidding in Sun’s cozy living room among the familiar Toronto faces (Ho Kit May, Cheung Kwok Ying, Lau Yuk Hing and Chui Tak Shing). “GUNG HAY, GUNG HAY, GUNG HAY FAT CHOY”, said everyone! Fay Lo got up from his comfy seat, all smiles on his HO SIC HO JU baby sun-tanned face; his beautiful wife, Vicki, and cutie-pie daughter, Juliana, all standing around him to exchange Chinese New Year greetings.* Time flies, it has been exactly a year since they last paid the Toronto gang a fun visit.

Bright red Chinese lanterns hanging down the ceilings and walls, beautiful table displays, Sun and his sweet sixteen wife, Josephine, were busy popping back and forth the kitchen and the living room in a remarkably harmonious manner. They’re such superb host and hostess. There’s fine red wine from Australia, pina colada with the touch of the tropics, the aroma of awesome freshly prepared Chinese food, such as Ho Kit May and her daughter, Christe’s best tasting Budha’s Delight, Taro Cake and Water Chestnut Cake, Red Bean Cake; Cheung Kwok Ying’s healthy stir-fried Choy Sum, my modest contribution of of partially home-made colourful agar pudding dessert, Josephine’s genuine home-made miniature shrimp cakes (HAR DOR SEE), the top-notch Form 1B student couple’s soy duck (LO SHUI duck). Lau Yuk Hing spent her whole evening defrosting and cooking that duck, and hubby Chui Tak Shing had gotten up in the middle of the night to do his theatrical carving on that famous duck. No joking, he took pride in his carving job and certainly gained his reputation on that day. As I continued to lay my eyes on the awesome dishes…………Rring! Rring! Door bell! “Will someone go get the door, please!”

“Excuse us, we are coming through!”, Lau Ki Chun’s wife, Fedelia, said softly as they walked into the house. The couple were bundled up like 2 little Eskimos, arriving with such charming smiles, delivering a hot, sizzling suckling roast pig to the party animals. “Slow, slow……..take it EEE-Zay, take it EEE-Zay..”, Fedelia, being the driver, kept talking to herself throughout her entire trip on the highways, protecting and making sure the crispy, chopped up suckling roast pig would arrive intact and still piping hot for us. Apparently, Lau Bok and wife had picked up a secret contract from Fay Lo to be his faithful, trustworthy delivery agents while he was cruising in the Antarctica. The couple did a superb job, picking up Fay Lo’s order, transporting that yummy baby from the oven of the best Toronto Chinese restaurant to Sun’s fine dining table. Somehow, that smart cookie, Fay Lo, could tell that the Toronto Gang’s made up of ‘real’ pig lovers. No kidding, we are CSA (Canadian Standards Association) certified ‘true’ pig lovers!!! Haha! We were so thrilled that he had pampered us with such a welcoming huge sizzling tasty dish. You know, when it comes to entertaining, Fay Lo and Vicki have always been utmost sincere, stylish and super generous. Lau Bok was also bringing his honest home-cooked veggie dishes to the party. I heard through the grapevine on that day that he would only cook for his Jubilee buddies, and zitch for others. What an obnoxious guy, eh? But, we’re so proud of his attitude.

The ‘real’ pig lovers kicked off their party upon the arrival of the sizzling hot suckling pig . No time wasted on introduction of such dish. All 14 of us gathered around Sun’s long table relaxingly to enjoy the most delicious hot dishes. Surprising, we were not crammed but experiencing the sincerity and intimate timeless friendship among us. Over the delicious food and drinks, we talked about everything, you name it. We didn’t really have an agenda, it was funny random talks, but millions of things popped up, spontaneously one after another. We turned Sun’s quiet kitchen into a colourful, noisy marketplace, filled with non-stop laughters for hours. Two seconds of pause followed by the next 3 min of loud laughters, that seemed to be the set pattern all afternoon. I was surprised that nobody had a dislocated jaw from opening their mouths so wide, showing all teeth and no eyes for such long hours. Obviously, we covered topics inside and beyond the old classroom doors. We were little history buffs who were busy cracking jokes, re-learning old facts and re-living the good old times. Fay Lo took us down the memory lane. He innocently served Lau Bok a few simple questions pertaining to the highlights of his Jubilee daily rituals. Stories after stories,……….Lau Bok’s frequent trips to Temple Street with the boys, Fay Lo’s unrecorded Hit and Run incident in Gym class. All the girls could remember Fay Lo’s famous sweaty white shirt spilling out of his uniform pants everyday, and how he had totally ignored the girls but had his eyes only on his orange baby in his hands all day long. Ho Kit May commented that Fay Lo was so cleverly ahead of his time, leading the fashion trend even some 45 years back with his all time wet, untugged uniform shirt. Fay Lo tried to unlock the mysteries of Lau’s interesting past, but poor Lau had to handle his fragile answers with great care, taking all kinds of detours from point A to point B, because….. Baby On Board (his wife was sitting next to him!). Haha! Mind you, we were the common thread throughout all the distinctive dialogues and vivid funny stories of the past. Everyone laughed so much that afternoon. We were engrossed in our own unique fun world of the past and our carefree happy present. As Fay Lo got more and more inquisitive about Lau’s old school days (everything you have always wanted to know but were afraid to ask), Lau chuckled, nodded and ducked his head behind his half full glass of red wine, tried to straighten his already flawless pressed shirt, his shoulders slumped at times, then stared up and down his drink, tried to come up with a decent answer. It was totally funny. He then rubbed his bare forehead to begin talking again, but Fay Lo kept on serving him with more funny scenarios and questions. Poor Lau had such a hard time to organizie and reorganize his words before they safely came out of his mouth. Again, he had to leave something unsaid because once again, Baby On Board. Haha! We just loved our class clown. He then re-routed his answer to Lee Wing Shek’s Taekwondo skills by tilting his chin to show us LWS’s endorsement on it. Surely, under his chin, we saw Lee’s engraved name, “Big Stone”. Hahaha! Then, out of the blue he started to tell us he’s got it all figured out…. the real age of one of our Jubliee’s teachers. And by doing so, he has successfully won the MAA Award (Mathematical Association of America Award). You asked me how so? Well, for more than 5 consecutive stubborn minutes, he strongly believed and even did a substantial illustration to convince us of how 57 (our average age) + 3 = 68 !!! Haha! He could actually get himself stoned before he even took a first sip of Fay Jai’s fine wine. Hey, Lau Bok, Ho Yeh! Ho Yeh! We truly knew how to have fun with our friends. It was a magic Chinese New Year party, platefuls and platefuls of good food, great company and happy hours all afternoon.

Folks, don’t go away!!. I will continue to report the other juicy half of our fun-filled 5-hr lunch-a-thon from Toronto to you. Part 2 should come out momentarily. Thanks for tuning in so far.

Picture of Toronto Pig Lovers will be shown on Part 2

Irene Tsai Yan Ying, reporting from Toronto, Feb 16, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR 恭喜發財!

2008-02-07T23:07:00.000+08:00

BEST WISHES TO THE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF BHJS ALUMNI FOR A PROSPEROUS AND HEALTHY YEAR OF THE RAT

KUNG HEI FAT CHOY

恭喜發財! 謹祝各位新年健康,快樂,萬事如意!

COME TO THE AGM -BHJS CANADA ALUMNI

2008-01-27T22:14:00.000+08:00

You are cordially invited to join us at our 6th Annual General Meeting cum Dinner on March 15, 2008 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is an event open to all BHJS alumni, we welcome out of town schoolmates and will assist in transportation and accomodation if needed. Last year we had over 100 people attended. We hope to see lots of friends from the class of 67.

Date: March 15, 2008 Saturday
Venue: Dragon Dynasty Chinese Cuisine 龍騰金閣高級粵菜
Chartwell Shopping Centre, Unit 128 2301 Brimley Rd., Scarborough

Time: 6:00 p.m.- registration 7:00 p.m. sharp -meeting
Program: Annual General Meeting
Chinese cuisine, games, slide show, entertainment , door prizes
Fee: $35.00 per adult, $18.00 age 12 and under
Registration: Rosita Ho email: rositacamacho@yahoo.ca or phone: cell # 416-616-6191
Payment: Cheque payable to BHJS Canada Alumni to be mailed together with the reply slip to: Rosita Ho, 60 Michener Crescent, Markham, Ont. L3P 6Z3
Deadline for registration: February 28, 2008

Early-bird draw –one free admission for those who register and paid by February 21, 2008
We welcome sponsorship and donation of merchandises for door prizes and raffle draw
If you have a talent and wish to entertain us at the AGM, please call Rosita

Mark your calendar, plan to come. It would be our pleasure to see you.

May Ho

President of BHJS Canada Alumni

Lunch with Pauline and Fred Cheng in Toronto

2008-01-21T11:44:00.000+08:00

January 12, 2008 – Mini Reunion in Toronto, Canada - Pauline Wong Wai Lai wrote this from Calgary, Alberta:

It was at the spur of a moment that Fred and I booked our tickets to fly to Toronto. Although our primary goal was to visit an ailing friend, we had been equally looking forward to revisit our BHJS classmates from 1967.

With May’s appealing abilities, we were able to join her, Cheung Kwok Ying, Stephen Lau, Fidelia (Stephen’s wife), Chui Tak Shing and Lau Yuk Hing for a delicious lunch. We were once welcome with warm reception. It was nice to see everyone again especially just shortly after our encounter in last August. It was also nice to see Chui Tak Shing for the first time since we were in the same class in 1966. Lucky him, his look hasn’t changed much.

Fred and I had a wonderful visit with the group. We chatted and joked just like old friends although I was never in the same class with most of them. After all we once shared our youthful past together, and it was a great joy to be able to sit together to have great conversation after more than four decades. The reunion we had in last summer has definitely brought us even closer together. I hope we will be able to see one another more in future.

Pauline Cheng

LA luncheon with BHJS alumni

2008-01-14T06:23:00.000+08:00

Place: Princess Seafood Restaurant, Cerritos, Calif.

Date: January 5, 2008

Time: 12:00 Noon

Attendees: Wendy (Fung) & Janning Chan, Weena (Au) Chiu, May Ho & frend,Jackie, Esther (Yu) & Ed Peckham, their niece, Holly, Wai Yip So, Patrick & Melissa Sum, Mildred & Min Szeto

The North America BHJS Alumni kicked off the new year with a wonderful gathering in Cerritos, California. This was to welcome May Ho and her daughter Christie who won the People's Choice Award - the Sole representative of Canada. Congratulations, Christie. Many of us were seeing each other for the first time in 40 years. We sang our School Hymn to reminisce our Morning Assembly and recited our 40th reunion poem. It was hilarious and awesome. We laughed a lot. May brought us Canada Alumni directories and we thank her for that. We were very happy to see Wendy again. Thank you Wendy, for sharing the latest development in cord-blood storage and stemcell research. This great luncheon lasted for 4 hours and we all voted to have more gatherings this year. May, we truly enjoyed your friendship. Wishing you a great AGM in March.

Au Bik Wan

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2007-12-23T14:24:00.000+08:00

May the blessing of the Christmas infant be upon you and your family this day and evermore.

TANG Hing Lin (The Revd)

Viva BHJS! Viva Forty Years!

2007-11-29T17:38:00.000+08:00

Thanks to Fred Cheng for taking this photo of joyful Jubileans to commemorate our Grand Reunion at the new school hall in August. The posting of it also marks the 5,000th visit to our blog.

BHJS History Quiz

2007-11-25T21:08:00.000+08:00

In the coach of our Macau tour on 17 August during the Grand Reunion, we were quizzed about the following ten items of the BHJS history. Do you know the answers? If you want to have a go at them, please reply as a comment to this post.

1. What is the name of the school that we held classes until the school was built in Oxford Road?
2. What year did we have the first class of Form 5 graduates?
3. In 1962, how many Form 1 and CM1 classes did we have?
4. Who was the vice principal in 1967?
5. How much was the monthly tuition fee in 1967?
6. In 1962, who taught Biblical Knowledge?
7. Who designed the girl’s uniform?
8. What nationality was our founding principal?
9. What are the colors of the 4 Houses on Sports Day?
10. What was the significant event during our school cert exams in May 1967?

The photo is by courtesy of Mok Kok Yum

Happy Mini-Reunions

2007-11-20T14:33:00.000+08:00

Since our Grand Reunion in August, we have had a number of mini-reunions. Chui Tak Shing and Lau Yuk Hing went to New York to meet up with May Ho and our Big Apple Trio on their return from the Grand Reunion in Hong Kong and had a great party there. Cheung Kwok Ying came to Hong Kong in September and we had a nice gathering at the 湘川滬酒樓 in Mong Kok with Tina Yeung '68, Au Yan '68 and Wong Sai Lun '69 joining us (see photo above). Kwong Hoi Chau met up with some of our Toronto mates in October during his visit there to attend his nephew's wedding. Pow Wai Man and and wife Poi were in Hong Kong in early November after their trip to Thailand (see photo at right). Stephen and Fidelia Lau were back to Hong Kong in mid-November after their visits to Cambodia and Japan. It is nice to have so many happy mini-reunions!

The photos are by courtesy of S L Wong and Cheng Yat Hei.

Our Reunion Band

2007-11-15T20:54:00.000+08:00

We had a wonderful Band at our Reunion Dinner at the new BHJS School Hall on 18 August led by our alumnus David Chung Ping Kuen. The band members took their performance at our reunion celebration very seriously and had put in a tremendously amount of rehearsing time of the songs of our high school days, some being requested by our classmates. Their presence and their music made our grand reunion so much more lively, colourful, sweet and memorable. Our heartfelt thanks to the Band members:
Solo guitarist - Simon Lau

Rythem guitarist - Edmund Lau
Bass guitarist - Lester Leung
Organist - Paul Tang
Drummer - David Chung

The songs they played according to order in that evening were:-

Apache, Central Park, The Rise and Fall of Flingel Bunt, Walk Don't Run, Mid-night, The Wedding, Yellow Bird, Maria My Own, Magic is the Moonlight, 舊歡如夢, Born to be Wild, To Love Somebody, I Started a Joke, Diana and Sunshine of Your Love.

The photos are by courtesy of Fred Cheng

Canadian Thanksgivng

2007-10-07T03:09:00.000+08:00

Dear friends:

Happy Thanksgiving from Canada. I am making roast Turkey with all the trimmings on Monday to celebrate Thanksgivng with family and close friends.

Hope you have a great weekend too.

May Ho

Reunion on the Yangtze

2007-09-30T22:05:00.000+08:00

We were extremely honoured to have Ms Ng and Arne & Molly (Miss Batchelder) Solbak joining us on the Yangtze Cruise to celebrate our 40th Graduation Anniversary, and are most grateful to Molly for the following article in which she shares with us her thoughts of the trip.

The river narrows and the mountains become steeper. They are high and sometimes there are huge boulders with vegetation on them piled on top of what are already mountain tops. They are cut into with deep crevices. Some crevices are so deep they become caves where nobody is permitted to go due to danger or historic or natural treasury designation. There are burial sites cut into the sides of the walls of the mountains. Much of the beauty of the nature along the hilly gorge sides is covered with green vegetation, but hardly a bird or animal could be seen by us; it was probably too hot on that sunny day when we passed by and they were hiding amongst the cool lush growth. Our cruise vessel carefully navigated its way through the three gorges at a speed that cut a frothy trail behind us. This is a beautiful sight and one we will not forget anytime soon.

Steep mountain sides, craggy rocks, and high high peaks have often been painted on silk screens, scrolls and illustrated in books. They always looked so imaginary, so mythological to me, but now I have actually seen them in their true form and I understand better the paintings, pen and ink drawings and needle art where they are depicted. They are not imaginary but are very real and exist along the narrow gorges of the Yangtze River. This is the real beauty of the river and the beauty we came to see. I had no idea it would be so magnificent a sight. The narration along the river route helped us to understand what we were seeing. Our grandchildren will love the photos we took of the trackers who pulled our boat up the Shennong streambed.

Our trip was wonderful. I would not have wanted to change any part of it. We visited Erling Park in Chungqing, Fengdu, the “City of Ghosts,” and The White King Town. We saw the city of Wu Han from the top of the Yellow Crane tower. We outdid and surprised ourselves by climbing oh so many many steps to see the marvels at the tops of them. And we visited the fantastic Three Gorges Dam where we learned about its construction and the changes that have come to the lives of millions of people along the river.

The accommodations on the cruise boat were very satisfactory and the staff very hospitable and charming. We enjoyed the demonstrations of Chinese art and the tea ceremony. My husband and I loved the fact that we had so much Chinese food, both the usual and the unusual tastes were delightful for us. We like it hot and we like it spicy and we like it even when we do not exactly know what it is we are eating. Our tour guides were very accommodating when we did not understand their chatter and helped us with some special words of encouragement in our own language.

But we tell everyone that the best part of the trip were the people with whom we were traveling. Being with Miss Ng, the BHJS students and their spouses, friends and children MADE the trip so wonderful for us. They were very helpful by giving us translation when we seemed lost while listening to the guides and filling us in with the descriptions of the stories. For this we are very grateful. It enhanced our trip and our understanding. We enjoyed their laughter, their personalities, and their conversations. Even when we did not always understand all of what they were saying we could tell by the smiles and liveliness of the chatter that they were having fun and therefore we did too. Had we had any other travel companions, the trip would not have been as exciting and as much fun for us. We are so grateful to you all for allowing us to be with you on this trip and we hope to see you all again sometime soon.

The photos were taken by Fiona Wong and Fred & Pauline Cheng.

銀記生涯

2007-09-24T17:02:00.000+08:00

During our Grand Reunion Banquet on 18 August 2007 in the School Hall, classmates coming back from overseas entertained us with a recital of our good old school days at BHJS in the form of a lighthearted poem entitled "銀記生涯" written by Mui Lai Yee with contributions from May Ho, Stephen Lau and Irene Tsai. Here is the cheerful poem for you to enjoy:

唧唧復唧唧集體來回憶
不聞老校聲大家都嘆息
上堂咋唔識肥豬在休息
自修一樣識葉棟好得戚
除了區文中個個裙褲鬆
有個漏水樽放學週圍終
英文頂呱呱 MsLin笑哈哈
數學唔及格同Supposese唔夾
國文唔及格彭彭都冇法
考試考得好大家合作好
考試考唔好通水通唔到
番學等放學踢波係娛樂
日日返學愁更愁最驚會考係光頭
檯底公仔亂咁油紙仔飛到TamSir頭
功課多到似報仇抄到冬菇側側頭
阿靚長衫件件正髮型高到上屋頂
劉生唔教扭腰舞學生揚名民族舞
Bio有個CYChan 嚇到我地面青青
另外一個CYChan 碰到都唔駛心驚
轉眼四十年大家意相連
連婆大點兵在座八十丁
千里路迢迢相見把手搖
老師同學好我地番黎SAY HELLO!!!!
Photos by courtesy of Mok Kwok Yum & Fred Cheng

Burning Out Too Early

2007-09-19T17:46:00.000+08:00

公共知識分子之死 /邱立本

我的朋友小周說，他人到中年，往往有一種難以言說的焦慮感，不知道自己會不會和很多的中國公共知識分子一樣，因為心力交瘁，很早就一命嗚呼。

我說這有點杞人憂天，生死由命，豈能在滾滾紅塵中陷入無邊的煩惱。

小周說，話可不能這樣講，人不能被動地看自己的生命；以史為鑒，梁啟超天資聰敏，如文化界的明燈，但卻活不過六十歲就明燈熄滅；殷海光是中國自由主義的先驅，力抗左翼和右翼的專制主義，影響了台灣一代人，但他卻壽命很短，約五十歲開外就因胃癌去世；另一個例子是胡適之，雖然名滿天下，權跨知識界與政界，但卻在中央研究院的酒會中因心臟病而倒下，愴然揮別他熱愛的文學與政治。

小周說，也許公共知識分子以天下為己任，燃燒自己，以為可以照亮全世界，卻先把自己的身體燃燒掉。

我說這也許是因為過去醫療信息不發達，讓公共知識分子早死，像梁啟超據說就是死於庸醫之手；殷海光則是因為被國民黨的特務欺凌，長期承受巨大的壓力而致出現胃癌；胡適之則是對自己的心血管病的危機毫無警覺，才會在酒會中突然去世。

小周說，這也是歷史的巨大諷刺，對政治健康信息特別敏銳的公共知識分子，卻對自己身體健康信息毫不敏銳，結果心不甘情不願地倒下，空留歷史的嘆息。

2007-09-04

Reflections of Our Vietnam Trip (Part 2)

2007-09-09T16:19:00.000+08:00

Irene Tsai continues her refection on our friendship and our reunion trip to Vietnam in this post. To read Part 1 of this report, please click here.

After spending 2 days and 2 nights in northern Vietnam, we departed for Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), once again on Vietnam Airlines. Northern Vietnam is a lot quieter as compared to Saigon, where one encounters hustles and bustles everywhere. I felt there’s a touch of communist air walking around Hanoi. Funny enough, I got the exact same strange feeling walking on the streets of East Berlin the year the Wall came down. Like West Berlin, Saigon’s a lot more crowded, vibrant and colourful. But, one can see the French style buildings all over the country though. Lots of things caught my eyes in north Vietnam, but apart from the scenic Ha Long Bay districts, I was more at home in Saigon because my personality fits in better down south. I’ll let you see some of the local buildings I came across.

We walked through wide and narrow streets of Saigon, visited the War Museum, Former President Palace, City Theatre, City Hall Square, Notre Dame Cathedral and the sparkling French style Post Office with Ho Chi Minh’s Portrait high up on the main wall. I was glad that we had a chance to view some of the war time brutal military traps and the amazing experience of crawling inside the tight, dark Cu Chi Tunnels. That was an exciting experience of a life time. Thank God nobody had beans for lunch before we squeezed our lean bodies into the narrow dusty tunnel as we were four-legged, crawling very intimately one after another in the stuffy darkness. Can you just imagine what it would have been like for the rest of us if someone had the need to get rid of his/her excess stomach gas because of the curried beans they ate earlier!!! Potential Danger Zone indeed!

We were well fed throughout the week in Vietnam. Vietnamese cuisine is colourful, tasty and delightful. Towards the end of our trip, we had a dinner boat cruise with professional singers and performers entertaining us right at the dinner table. We also went down the famous Mekong River, checked out Coconut Island and Orchard Island. Our flimsy little boats, filled with water inside, constantly rubbing against the tall lush tropical greens on both sides as we were paddled through by the local old women. I took a picture of a very interesting outdoor meal with the world’s biggest JEAN DUI (they call it the Dinosaur Egg) and the Stand Up Fish. Watch it, Kan Yu Tung, it’s about time you take a little break from it. Wasn’t that gigantic JEAN DUI so toothsome? Folks, here’s a shot to get your saliva gland going. Well, some of us fell in love with the Vietnamese language. Some fell in love with the local cuisine. Some men quietly fell in love with the pretty Vietnamese women. Others fell in love with the Vietnamese customs and culture. All in all, we had a great time in Vietnam. I was fascinated, bewildered and got blown away at times. It was great that we were able to let our hair down. A pack of us sitting at the back of the bus, joking and laughing our heads off the whole time. Mind you, we were never pretentious, our laughters did not come in subtle tints at all. I have to admit that we were borderline to out of control most of the time. Lin Jeh would have told us to double rinse our mouths with Listerine as a daily ritual had he been on that bus. Hey, we were just learning some simple, innocent everyday conversations in Vietnamese, which incidentally or unfortunately sounded like some graphic swearing in Cantonese. And that’s just the beginning of the fun parts throughout the trip. On a serious note…. Yes, there’s definitely room for growth in Vietnam, but for at least now, there’s peace and quiet and everyday normal life for the people in general. No more daily meaningless bombings, merciless death tolls, heartbreaking gun shot wounds everywhere, and no more crazy spraying of deadly herbicide in the skies all over the forests. You can see Vietnamese men relaxing, laughing, drinking, playing chess and sitting around lazily on the streets these days. Here’s a picture of the awesome Vietnam crew - our grand finale as we were making our victory exit at our hotel in Saigon, heading to the airport for our outbound flight back to Hong Kong on Day 6.

Finally, my dear friends:
Let us not forget that our 40th Grand Reunion was here to confirm and remind us of the great legacy which we all are part. And let the end of our Vietnam Trip not mark the end of our Grand Reunion, but the beginning of our endless creative friendship renewals for many, many more happy and healthy years to come. Like Lin Jeh always says, “May God Bless us all!”

Reporting from Toronto, Irene Tsai of 1C, August, 2007

Together on the Yangtze

2007-09-08T20:25:00.000+08:00

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To view more group photos of our Yangtze Reunion Cruise, please click here. Thanks to Fred and Pauline Cheng for these photos.
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Reflections of Our Vietnam Trip (Part 1)

2007-09-08T16:03:00.000+08:00

Irene Tsai refects on our friendship and our reunion trip to Vietnam and sends this report from Toronto which will appear in this Blog in two parts. Please enjoy.

Back on the Canadian soil, I am sipping my first cup of genuine Vietnamese coffee, reflecting how lucky I’ve been.

My first job after university wasn’t my high school teaching job. I started out with a very cushy job with Ontario Hydro (now Hydro One) as I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into teaching yet. With my first few pay cheques, I bought myself a decent stereo system. It was Sansui G4700 with two big loudspeakers, 200W each. Music was very important to me in the ‘70s. While hooking up my new stereo system in my living room, I suddenly heard the shocking 6 o’clock breaking news, the American exodus in Vietnam!!! I dropped everything, glued my face to the monitor, watching the desperate crowds hanging onto the swinging ropes hanging down the ascending helicopters, massive chaos, screaming and shouting. That was an unforgetable evening, April of 1975. Visiting Vietnam one day had always been on my mind since. I was living downtown at the time, leading a carefree single life, no husband, no kids, no responsibilities. Thirty-two busy years later, not only I’ve changed job, I have also retired from my high school teaching job, my curriculum leader job, have even gone two-third into my second career, been divorced for 15 years, my daughter has just turned 29, leading a happy life of her own in Geneva. And I myself have moved back to the city from the suburb consciously and subconsciously, living on the Yonge subway line the second round, feeling young and free all over again.

I must say life is good and mother nature has been pretty kind to us all. Hey, life is just so full of charming and strange surprises and happenings. ‘This is the best time of our lives, you better enjoy it’ as pointed out to me by that insightful Fay Lo Au Man Chung awhile ago. How time has changed many things for us, and how our lives have evolved from doing ok, to good, and then to really good, over the last 40 years. I just can’t believe that not only I’ve finally made it to Vietnam, I have also made it there with my dear old friends from far and near, pals from 40+ years ago!!!! And the strangest thing is that I do NOT feel 40+ years older whenever I am with them. Unlike Yau Lop Poon and Martin Kwong, I glanced left to right, up and down, puzzled and looked close and around, I just don’t see the same things they see. I don’t see people with gray hair, I don’t see faces with wrinkles, I don’t see anyone wearing bifocals either. Sitting next to La Bay and Sammy Leung, I don’t remember them as doctors, chatting to Ng Man Tung, I don’t remember her as a pharmacist. Talking to Fay Lo or laughing hysterically with Kan Yu Tung, I don’t remember these are some God damn international entrepreneurs. Joking with Ho Kit May or burning Lau Ki Chun, I don’t remember them as some smart or shrewd accountants, and naturally I never ever remember my role being an educator either. Well, you can tell me I’ve failed my eye test alright. I could only see the sameness of my good old friends. Chan Hing Wah is the same Chan Hing Wah, talks and walks the same way as before. Chi Sin Mei’s the same calm and cool chick except I couldn’t find her chubby cheeks this time. Mok Lo Gwoy had only changed his glasses, still the same Lo Gwoy… no more, no less. I seem to still see the humble-looking model scholar from 1B, Martin, leaning at the door of our 1C classroom during the morning breaks, signalling the tiny La Bay or that little smart ass Sammy Leung to come out for their regular private chats. The trios had always looked very suspicious to me. Frankly, everyone is still very unique and original, fun and inspiring to me after 40+ years. Like what they say, “Once acquainted, never forgotten”.

August in Vietnam? There weren’t a whole lot of options weatherwise. By default, we were all YUET NAM SIU JU (sizzling roast pigs). We were all sun-kissed and sun-hugged to death. Our daily walking sauna baths were indeed quite challenging, especially the ones who have lived in the cold countries for the past 40 years, Needless to say, sweating bullets all day is just an understatement, we were literally drenched in our own sweat every minute of the day. Pretty gross, eh? Some were covering their necks up with wet Ho Chi Minh towels walking around town with bright red cheeks, we were definitely making a fashion statement on the streets of Vietnam. Nobody would have recognized us anyway behind those huge dark sun glasses and our very Gucci and sure Georgio Armani outfits. But, despite the intolerable heat, we were all having tremendous fun throughout the entire trip. Hey, Yau Lop Poon, you should have come along. There were no mosquitoes, and no childhood bullies the whole trip, because 50% of that team had returned to the windy city and the other half was too busy getting drunk and stuffing his face with duckling eggs, Vietnamese style! Hehehe!

We flew into Hanoi, did a city tour relaxingly, checking out some old temples, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Museum, President Palace, City Park, etc. before we took a boat cruise out to the beautiful Ha Long Bay, which is about 170 km east of Hanoi, near the Chinese border. It is one of the world’s most spectacular natural wonders, over 1,600 islands and islets, forming stunning seascape of limestone pillars. Ah Ping (our 1st tourist guide) said that people consider Ha Long Bay more scenic than the famous Guilin in China. What do you think of that?

Click here to read Part 2 of the report.

越南之旅

2007-09-05T00:51:00.000+08:00

四十年的闊別，豈是一頓飯間可以交待得來。所以有三峽的雲霧，也有安南的熱情，來讓這四十年的光景，盡情的展示在同學的心靈之間。

本是二十二人的越南之旅，遺憾的是Ms Ng身體欠安，提前回紐約去了。這團是挺國際化的。有澳洲來的張潔文，美國的靳羽東，梅麗儀姊妹，區碧雲一家，加拿大的蔡恩瑩，黃慧梨兩口，劉紀榛兩口，何潔美毋女，香港的夏文傑，劉鈞澤兩口，曹禮信兩口以及鄺海疇兩口。

下龍灣像海上的桂林。買了沿船邊兜售的柚子，香蕉，龍眼，山竹，繞過鬥雞島，吃著船上的海鮮宴，話題總是離不了往昔銀記的日子。下龍灣最引人的倒是赫斯特鐘乳石巖洞的涼快。

河內漾溢著革命的浪漫，最法國的也是最胡志明的。紅河之內，有水淹的里巷，也有茁壯的生機。我們無緣在胡主席的陵寢向他頷首，卻在他的博物館被他不撓的精神感染。

水中木偶，本不是在行程之內，但我們看了，是很不一樣的木偶戲。小小人兒，火龍，彩鳳，神龜，由半浸水中的幕後匠人操控，隨著鑼鼓和伴唱，以水面作舞台，演出一幕一幕的精彩。

從河內到胡志明市，一個半小時的飛機。遊輪夜宴，慶祝了Alan，Fred和Hudson的生日。導遊Stephen和領隊Billy送來一個大蛋糕。May加了鮮蝦和蟹煲。在歡愉中，遊船已再泊岸，好像誰也不曾留意西貢河的夜色。回到Renaissance，意還未盡，謝謝曹公解囊，讓我們暢飲幾達子夜。

古芝地道，對許多同學是這次行程的高潮。爬進去嗎？爬多遠？煞費思量。A4紙大小的地道入口，Fred和Jackie居然鑽了進去，引來所有相機的對焦。今天為遊人修復整潔的地道，容易使人忘了它是昔日你死我活的幽暗戰場。

越南的土產特別多，但同學也不用到處張羅。北越導遊亞平給我們安排了咖啡，腰果和龍眼肉。南越的Stephen則有扎肉，九層糕，果乾和老婆餅。這些手信為我們把這六天越南之旅帶給一些沒有同行的同學和美加澳的親友。

老同學一起旅行真好。

Nostalgic for the Future

2007-08-31T22:14:00.000+08:00

懷舊是為了未來 /邱立本

最近參與初中時期銀禧中學的同學會聚會，在香港與一些分別了四十多年的老同學重逢，很多來自美國、加拿大、澳洲的老同學，第一次重返九龍塘牛津道的校園，看到彼此鬢髮已白，滿臉風霜，再對照看當時的照片，一一指認那些同學的名字（當然還有他們的外號），感受到時空交錯，疑幻疑真的威力。

我在銀禧中學只念了三年，後來轉到李求恩中學。而這一屆參與一九六七年的中學會考，用中國大陸的「參考系」，是文革時的「老三屆」。這其實是冷戰的高峰，也是中國巨變的時刻。我們當時在殖民地的教育體制下，唯一的出路就是拚命考試，爭取更高的分數。老師的教學方法，大多是高壓與背誦。我在這種氣氛中，總覺得格格不入，也有一種不斷想衝出網羅的衝動。

因而，踢球和打架是當時發洩衝動的常見方式。如今重逢，我不禁要去找那些曾經和我一塊踢球及打架的玩伴，笑談昔日下課後踢著石頭回家的往事，追憶當年彼此莫名地扭打成一團，但很快又摟在一起的鏡頭。

四十年來的第一次大聚會，在大家享受回憶的亢奮時，還有不少同學思考當年教育制度的成敗，如何培養了我們這一代人？我們在懷念那些老師的特色和學校的氛圍，也思考為什麼當時的教育方法是如此僵硬與無情？在精英主義的氛圍中，似乎很多學生的個性和天賦都被輕易地抹殺。銀禧中學的加拿大校友會會長何潔美，在這次聚會中組織了一項回港海外校友的朗誦，念出紐約同學梅麗儀的打油詩，既懷念昔日的溫馨，又諷刺當年的僵硬，引起大家爆笑，但笑中有淚，淚中有笑，反思我們成長的日子。

校友會之後還捐出支票給母校來添置器材，展現那種血濃於水的感情。懷念過去，是為了更好的未來。讓那些綿綿不斷的懷舊，成為今日生生不息的靈感。回憶不再是感情的沉溺，而是生命的新動力，超越昔日的美麗與哀愁，衝出青春歲月的定格，開創更有創意的未來。

原載美國《世界日報》香港副刊邱立本的"感情前線"專欄。Photo by courtsy of Mok Kwok Yum. The author is shown first right in the front row with his Class C teacher and mates.

Heydenshore Park (Whitby) 燒烤郊遊 28-7-07

2007-08-06T23:31:00.000+08:00

年初忙碌完校友會的週年聚餐，夏日的另一節目又要上場。今次真要多謝何潔美 (1967) 會長一盡地主之誼，在她居住的Whitby市，找到了這風景優美兼設施完善的公園，供一眾校友及其親朋戚友作一日之遊。猶記得去年在 Lake Simcoe 的旅行，各人飽受狂風暴雨侵襲，固此今次也不敢輕忽。何會長處事真有一手，為了這次安排，眠乾睡濕，呵護備至。她竟然在當天早上七時還不到，便在這湖邊公園佔據了一所不用收費的涼亭，還給為數六十多人安放好檯椅! 作為校友的你又怎可吝嗇給她一個thumbs-up呢!

涼亭就近湖灘，燒烤爐則安放在旁邊的樹蔭下，無論你是在忙於準備食物或是聚舊歡談，心曠神怡的環境又夫復何求! 美味食物全由數位執行委員用愛心炮製，加上由何會長女兒Christie和外藉 '候任家廚' Ryan主領燒烤，再經陳榮基牧師(1966)祈禱祝謝，各人又怎捨得將肚腹勒住，惟有 '食' 而後矣! 甜品有梁志超(1973)預備的紫心番薯，其色澤比銀禧校徽中紫色部份還深，色味香俱佳當然大受歡迎。西瓜是少不得的生果。選購一職由高秋霞(1974)負責，以其獨到眼光，命中律也不俗。要甜有甜，要淡有淡，恐糖者也吃得稱心滿意。

飽暖思肥肉。不用怕。看負責遊戲的張國英(1967)的苖條身材和陳梅君(1974)的活潑好動，便知好戲在後頭。呼拉圈一出，肥膏休想谷。她們的示範正說明這方法的可行，因此吸引眾多參賽者落力參予，也使旁觀者大飽眼福。可惜得獎的參賽者可能工虧一匱，他們得到的竟是零食一包! 還是參加極速排版遊戲所得的獎品吸引得多，649一注就可能是一生的轉捩點，是福是禍，校友會執行委員會慨不負責。

值得必題的是兩位婦唱夫隨的幕前者，陳梅君的丈夫Steve除了在校友會的網頁付上很多心力外，今次還當上攝影師，為是次活動留下美好回憶。至於場地上安放的大幅校友會橫額，從開始至完結，都多得高大威猛的何佩儀(1974)的丈夫黎先生以其身高優勢，幫忙掛上和除下。要向他倆致謝的，當然要拜托校友委員陳太和黎太了！至於如何向整個負責籌備的校友會執行委員會致意已不大需要，因為從參加的人數和天公之造美，已使我們放下心頭大石，安享睡眠了。

Written by 趙善榮(1965)

伍翠瓊校長七十五歲生日會

2007-08-06T23:27:00.000+08:00

自銀禧中五畢業至今超過四十年，與伍翠瓊校長重聚是一種驚喜。她居於美國，年中有三數次奔跑美中港三地，很難想像她能以七五高齡，連續三年參加了多倫多校友會的週年聚餐。我對她的印像原已很模糊，卻因近年參予校友會的活動，再重新認識她。從她怎樣與己離校三數十年的舊生聯繫，如何為校友會提出寶貴意見，都能觸摸到她那份關愛之情。坦白地說，對她以前的教誨，我沒有一點刻骨銘心的回憶。然而，近期每次與她相聚，卻加深了對她的一份敬佩。我會問自已，如果我到了她這般年紀，能否有她一樣的精神和体力去關愛別人 ?

七月廾二日她在多倫多舉行了一個生日會，既慶祝她七十五歲壽辰，又為她蒙恩事主五十五年而感恩，我和一眾校友有幸被邀出席參加。細節花絮或可從蔡恩瑩校友另文略知一二。在數位年長牧師和眾賓客面前，她分享內心的感恩，述說這多年來如何為家鄉五邑台山等地，在艱苦境況中傳揚福音和興建教堂。從她瘦弱的身軀看來，如沒有上帝賜予力量，她如何能擔負這些使命。當晚她講話時聲音清亮，精神飽滿，興之所至更聞歌而大跳扭腰舞。

為了表達對她的敬佩，我嘗試以詩寄意，更願她能為主成就更大的事。

百年樹木十年人
有教無類解疑問
昔日學子前途繫
翠苗幼枝已成蔭
七五年華志未沉
終生無悔顯愛心
天國神家終極盼
瓊樓玉殿享天音

Written by Winston Chiu (1965) Toronto

Ms. Ng’s 75th Birthday Party (22-7-2007) Two thumbs up! A hard act to follow!

2007-08-06T23:21:00.000+08:00

Ms. Ng did it again! Under the superb directions of the Chief Commander (Ms. Ng), the elite team (Rev. Maak, Deacon Leung, Rev. Mak and Ho Kit May), carried out Ms. Ng’s ultimate birthday plans and wishes in the most pleasant, organized and smoothest manner. It was such a great birthday party one can’t ask for more.

Has it really been that long since we were first taught by Ms. Ng? She was one of our best and unforgettable Math and History teachers at Jubilee. But, how is it possible that 45 noisy and quiet years later, Ms. Ng still looks very much the same. Her pretty face, slim figure and her crystal clear girlish voice have not left her a bit. She talks and walks the same way, except some of us are starting to look older than her now and physically of no match to her. She’s one of the very few who are participating in all of our upcoming 40th Hong Kong Reunion, which will include the School Chapel Ceremony, the Dinner & Dance at our school assembly hall, the Yangtze River Cruise, the Hong Kong Island Tour, the Macau Tour and the holistic Vietnam Tour. She’s just dynamite, second to none! One can’t stop wondering what secrets she has to her youthfulness and wisdom. She is also a Chinese Mother Teresa who brings the Gospel of God, joy, hope and love to the poor who are struggling, suffering or dying in different parts of China. At 75, no job is too big and no job is too small. Everything’s possible or feasible. She’s not afraid of hardships or self-sacrifice. She devotes her time, energy and wealth whole-heartedly to both our Hong Kong Alumni and Canada Alumni. Ms. Ng sings and dances like a pro, and when she talks, she’s vibrant, full of life and great humours. She continues to open our eyes, teaching us all sorts of new things and tricks in life. Needless to say, she is a walking encyclopaedia wherever her little, pretty feet take her.

Ms. Ng, thank you for inviting us to such a memorable birthday feast of celebrations and thanksgiving to the Lord. You’ve put us to shame with the meaningful life you lead and your admirable contributions to mankind. You are a real special delight to be around. You’re our mentor, our friend, our true role model and inspiration. We all had a ball at your birthday party and our token of appreciation and love for you is immense. We are all looking forward to your 100th birthday celebrations many, many more prosperous years to come. See you in Hong Kong very soon!

Irene Tsai Yan Ying, reporting from Toronto

The Grand Reunion in August

2007-06-19T11:04:00.000+08:00

The following activities have been planned for the 40th year of graduation reunion:

Aug 10-16 Yangtze River Cruise
Aug 17 Macau Tour - $750
Aug 18 Dinner Reception and Tour of School - $300
Aug 19 Hong Kong Tour - $250
Aug 20-25 Vietnam Tour

Please advise Tang Hing Lin as soon as possible if you plan to join the functions from Aug 17 to 19. He will advise later as to the payment method.
The deadline for the trips were June 15 for the Cruise and June 13 for Vietnam. Chris Chong of Travelex is the travel agent appointed for the Cruise and Vietnam, her phone number is 852-2270-7698 or email chris.chong@travelex.com.hk Please contact her for detail of the trips and payment terms.

We hope to see many classmates and teachers in August.

記加拿大校友會週年晚宴

2007-04-10T01:02:00.000+08:00

梅麗儀同學於二月三日出席在多倫多舉行的銀譆中學加拿大校友會週年晚宴, 以下是她的手記:

一年一度的加拿大銀禧校友會的AGM於二月三日在Toronto 之龍騰金閣酒樓歡聚, 出席人數踴躍, 有一百零二人之眾, 出席的老師計有伍翠瓊, 黃顯誠, 黃冠球, Ms. Irene Fong, 及梁超明.

晚會在Annie Odom (Tsai)伴奏, 大家唱校歌中開始, 跟着為英年而逝的两位同學 -—陳定宇(1966)及吳國强(1967)默禱, 随着是由何潔美會長作會務報告, 其後有猜燈謎比賽, 得冠軍的一組只十題中六. 看來Sin Sir要嘆句 “吾不欲觀之矣”, Ms. Ng席間更大展歌喉, 清唱賀歲歌為母校購LCD籌欵, 對Ms. Ng的熱誠和愛心, 能不感動? 請大家慷慨解囊, 為下一代的學友盡一點棉力.

是次晚會特別向畢業四十週年的同學們致意, 即我們1967年這屆的同學. 到會的有Toronto的張國英, 何潔美, 蔡恩瑩, 劉紀榛, 劉玉卿, 崔德成, 徐新民, 葛港萍, Calgary 的黄鳳玲和New York的梅麗儀. Ms Ng 更向各同學致送紀念品. 而Irene就風趣幽默地介紹各人輝煌和窩囊的歷史, 張國英用她的美妙歌喉, 唱出一段”Five Hundred Miles”, 把我們帶回六零年代去. 一塲短劇記述銀記的一天, 是編自何潔美的一篇陳年日記, 真人真事在湮设的記憶中一一浮現出來, 有老師的名字被提到, 也有同學的趣事披露出來, 區文中, 張潔文, 葉棟, 林子瑩, 靳羽東, 蔡恩瑩, 陳佩瑛, 知道嗎?你們也出現在何潔美的這一天呢! 劉紀榛的真情短歌和說話, 令人感動, 郭校長和余麗瓊的電郵, Ms Batchelder的電話訪問, 一段輕鬆的山地舞, 壓軸的是仿参加音樂節的朗誦, 令人會心大笑, 當晚的節目, 再次令人想起”我們一起走過的日子”, 我希望更多同學今年能重聚一堂, 把酒(茶)話舊, 共同歡樂, 此期不遠, 夏天在香港見.

梅麗儀

如欲收看以上的片段, 可上網頁: http://www.bhjscanada.com/

K K Kong's Flying Visit to HK

2007-04-04T11:54:00.000+08:00

KK visited HK breifly at the end of March. A few of us met up with him at the Peking Garden, Pacific Place. Cheng Yat Hei sends this report and the photos after the dinner:

It was surely a lovely dinner and the conversation was around the 'good old' days at BHJS and catch up on each other.

We left at around ten thirty which was way over my bedtime, but it was worth it.

KKK will leave Hong Kong tonight and we all look forward to the BIG reunion in August this year.

The Past Is Too Heavy

2007-03-03T23:29:00.000+08:00

換一種活法 /邱立本

我的朋友小張是「八十後一代」，也就是中國大陸通稱在八十年代之後出生的一代。他說他們這一代人最近在網上被攻擊，說成是「自我中心，沒有責任心」，他說這些批評都不對，也搔不到癢處。

我說「八十後一代」的特色是什麼？他說其實這一代人都要努力擺脫上代甚至前幾代中國人的沉重心理，不要在「感時憂國」和憂患意識中生活。他們放眼世界，發現老中比其他人活得辛苦，不僅在物質生活上要打拚，在精神生活上也太痛苦。

小張說他們大多在一個比較富裕的環境長大，從來沒有挨過餓，而在精神生活上，從小就在一個豐富的「盜版文化」中長大，家裡有逾千張的光碟，聽遍了古典音樂的經典版本，從貝多芬到拉赫曼尼諾夫，都如數家珍。对好萊塢電影的认识，從《亂世佳人》到《巴別塔》，都比美國不少老百姓還熟。他們毋寧是在一種全球化的氛圍中長大，厭倦那些黨八股和官僚習慣。

當他們的父輩還在權力面前「裝孫子」之際，今日領導層的「孫子」已經成長，他們決心要让中國人換一種活法，叫中國人不要太沉重了。

When Old Friends Meet

2007-02-25T16:58:00.000+08:00

Just returned from my first trip to South Island of New Zealand.

Kwong Ming happened to be in Dunedin and we spent a day together sightseeing and dining. Attached is a picture to let you see how 'young and handsome' we are.

Cheng Yat Hei

The Internet: For Better or For Worse

2007-02-20T17:39:00.000+08:00

We are delighted to have our classmate Yau Lop Poon contributing to our blog again. His articles are most valued by our classmates and have often provided us with food for thought about where we have come from since our BHJS days and where we are going from here and now.

幸福生活vs.囚徒生活 /邱立本

不知道從什麼時候開始，手提電腦放在桌上都是二十四小時開著，連接著無線上網，全年無休。種種的資訊，就像水龍頭的自來水一樣，自由地、毫無拘束地，流到你的腦袋。

這是二十一世紀初葉開始的幸福生活？彈指之間，一切都變得那麼唾手而得。報紙雜誌总会灰飛煙滅，網上的新聞資訊，每一秒鐘都是截稿時間。九一一恐怖襲擊，最先發佈新聞的就是互聯網，而不是電台廣播或電視。

網上的資訊還可以互動，彼此交流、深化，而不是被動地接受。當然，在手提電腦上，還可免費打長途電話，彼此skype或 MSN，無論天涯海角，都不用花一毛錢，加上攝錄鏡頭，還可以聞其聲，也看其人。

但這是否也是另一種囚徒生活的開始？人成了電腦的奴隸，不可須臾離開。免費長途影音電話出現，更使不少人失去了隱私權，只要電腦開著，就彷彿進入了乔治。奧威爾的《一九八四》，每個人都被老大哥看得死死的。

有這樣的互聯網，人還需要敵人嗎？

Kung Hei Fat Choy & Our Grand Reunion

2007-02-19T01:00:00.000+08:00

Wishing you all a healthy and prosperous Year of the Pig.

Our grand reunion has taken a concrete step forward. We have now fixed our August dates as follows:

Aug 10-16 Yangzijiang cruise (six days)
Aug 17 Macau tour
Aug 18 Reunion party at BHJS
Aug 19 Hong Kong tour
Aug 20-25 Vietnam tour (five days)

For teachers and classmates from overseas who can only come back in September 2007, we will arrange separate reunion functions for them.

Please fill out the registration form to book your place for any or all of the reunion functions. To obtain more details and the registration form, please e-mail me at martin.kwong@yahoo.com.hk.

Memories of Ng Kwok Keung

2007-01-17T22:25:00.000+08:00

The sad news of Ng Kwok Keung's passing touched our hearts and a few classmates had written their memories about him:

Au Bik Wan: I am saddened and shocked to hear about Ng Kwok Keung's passing. He was a kind, quiet and friendly classmate. His smiley and boyish face will always be remembered. In the summer of 1995, I saw him and his family at the Statute of Liberty in New York. We both stopped, looking at each other for a minute before yelling out our names. It was such a happy moment, seeing for the first time after 1967. We found out that we were taking the same bus trip from Toronto to New York coincidently.
After our return to Toronto, we gathered with Cheung Kwok Ying and went Yum Cha. We went to visit him at his house in Scarborough too. Remember this, Cheung Kwok Ying? He loved music. His living room was filled with CD racks wall to wall. His wife is very nice and their baby daughter was about one year old then. We exchanged X'mas cards for 2 years and lost touch ever since. I realized that his family had moved back to HK.

Tang Hing Lin: I am sorry that we do not have the chance to get in touch with NKK on the NET. During the BHJS days NKK and WONG Ming Chun somtimes came to my tiny flat to play Bridge cards with my younger brother. Peace be with NKK.

Irene Tsai: For somebody who can’t shut up most of the time, I am virtually speehless @ the very shocking sad news of our good old classmate Ng Kwok Keung. He was always a very quiet gentleman who would never tell anybody off let alone picking a fight with anyone in class. I remember how tiny he was in Form 1C, and when he grew taller, he changed his glasses to some heavy, dark frame with thicker lenses naturally. Those new glasses took up more than half of his face, luckily they did not quite cover up his unintimidating, smilie lips. No boys in class could imitate or replace his disposition. To me, he was the male Mui Lai Yee back in our yester years, you know what I mean. ......

Au Man Chung: Ng Kwok Keung was not the athletic type but he like playing soccer. He has a very disarming smile especially after winning a Chinese chess game. Unfortunately, I have witnessed too many of those smiles first hand after playing him.
He was my bridge partner at many games. The one incident that I can still remember vividly was that we were happily playing bridge at Lee Wing Shek's home next to BHJS the night before the Form 5 government math exam thinking that the exam will be canceled the next day due to the bombs. We played until 11pm until Shek's mother came out and told us that the exam will be held on schedule. We had to scramble to go home by walking as all the buses had stopped running.
Life is too short and I wish we could have done more of those memorable and crazy things together.

Kwong Hoi Chau: Kwok Keung was a keen football and bridge player in our school days. As a classmate, he is always friendly, modest, discreet and positive. We'll dearly miss him in our forth-coming reunion. May he rest in peace.

Time is precious, life is short, let's do everything we can to come to the reunion this year and share, one more time, our good old days and memories of BHJS.

God bless,
Ho Kit May

In memory of Ng Kwok Keung

2007-01-17T15:17:00.000+08:00

We have just been informed by Kwong Ming that our classmate from F1C to F5C, Ng Kwok Keung, has passed away in December.
Our prayers are with his family and we sent our condolences to his wife and children.
A few of us remembered Ng Kwok Keung as a quiet and gentleman, never cause troubles in the class. He loved to play chess and bridge and when he won a chess game would smile ever so slightly.
I have a picture of him when we went on a field trip in Form 4, led by Mr. So. There he was, in the front row, first left. And that is the Ng Kwok Keung that I can remember.
Good bye, my friend, rest in peace.

Ho Kit May

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T01:10:00.000+08:00

Wishing you all a healthy, happy and fulfilling year in 2007!

Of course, 2007 is the 40th Anniversary of our graduation from BHJS. Looking forward to the grand re-union in August/September when we'll see each other again, some after a long long time.

又快要唱ＡｕＬａｎｇＳｉ啦!

2006-12-28T23:01:00.000+08:00

2006年己接近尾声, 新的一年又將快到臨, 我們在blog上交流也有六个月了, 無數的你都曾瀏覧這个blog, 雖然很少人有回覆, 但统計數字顯視這个blog每天都有人瀏覽, 是值得繼續下去的.

2007就是我們這一群銀禧校友在1967年中學畢業的四十週年, 在九月中我們將會有一連串的活动, 希望在香港的母校能見到你, 詳情會在此公佈.

於此謹祝大家新年快樂, May your 2007 be heathy, safe and prosperous.

何潔美 May Ho

A memoriam for Timothy Chan

2006-12-28T22:56:00.000+08:00

A very close friend and classmate, Anita Kwan, wrote this for Timothy:

Dear All, sharing with you the 輓聯 I have written in memory of Timothy. I was away from Toronto and missed his funeral. May our Lord's comfort be with Teresa, Brian, Samantha and Tim's mother these days, and His blessings be with them always. May the sweet memories we have shared in the recent Zhuhai reunion remain in our hearts forever. My X'mas greetings to you all. Anita
銀禧同學畢業四十週年慶定宇魂歸天國

愛主愛家定宇主懷安息音容宛在
同研同習銀禧同學重逢友愛長存

錦嫦少銳敬輓

Merry Christmas

2006-12-23T19:34:00.000+08:00

May the peace of the Lord be with you as well as your family in the blessed Christmas season and throughout the year ahead.

The Rev TANG Hing Lin

The fall of an Alumnae

2006-12-17T23:55:00.000+08:00

One of the classmates from 1966, Timothy Chan 陳定宇 had succumbed to a long time battle of cancer on Wednesday December 13 at Rochester, New York. A memorial service in Toronto will be held on Monday, December 18. Please pray for Timothy and his families.

I remembered Timothy as an alumnae who valued friendship and family. A great supporter of the Canada Alumni, he drove through an ice storm in February 2006 from Rochester to Toronto with his wife, Teresa, in order to attend the special tribute for the 40th year graduates at the Annual General Meeting of the BHJS Canada Alumni. Although we had to delay the start of the meeting to wait for him, it was worthwhile to us because we knew how little precious time he has left. When he was in Toronto in August to visit his family, I joined other classmates and had lunch with him and he was still very optimistic about the upcoming surgery and treatment. Enthusiatically he was inviting us to go and visit him in his home, apparently his classmates have been frequent guests in his home in Rochester. Although we are sad of his passing and will miss him very much, I am sure he is in a better place now and his spirit will be still with us.

May Ho

BHJS Canada Alumni AGM 2007

2006-12-16T14:50:00.000+08:00

As President of the BHJS Canada Alumni, I am extending a special invitation to the class of 1967 to attend its 4th Annual General Meeting Cum Annual Dinner on Feb 3, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are approaching the sixth year since the Alumni was incorporated on February 18, 2002. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this function. We are very excited about it and hope to see many of you and your family, because you will be our honor guests for a special tribute. Details of the AGM can be found in our website: www.BHJScanada.com

It is not limited to those who lives in North America, in fact, we welcome other 1967 alumni from all over the world to come to Toronto to join us. I promise it will be a memorable evening for you. Out of town guests who need transportation and accommodation can email me and I can help to find host families.
I hope to see lots of you in February. I hope you will have a happy and safe holiday season.

May Ho 何潔美

BHJS Canada Alumni Website

2006-12-16T14:22:00.000+08:00

I am very pleased to announce that the BHJS Canada Alumni has finally completed the design of a new website and it is available for access. Please visit it and tell others about it. The website is: www.BHJScanada.com

Keeping Young Lao Bay's Way

2006-11-01T21:18:00.000+08:00

While we are envious of how age does not affect our teachers like Ms Lin, Ms Ng and Mrs Peggy Wong, Lau Daifu offers the following to keep us young:

1) Brain & skin are embryonically related, if you look young, your mind is also young.
2) Cut down sweet things, bad carbohydrates.
3) Do not overfeed yourself, eat only 70-80% full each time.
4) Some daily supplements & skin local application.
5) Drink 6-8 glasses of water everyday.
6) Diet is very important: good carbohydrates, protein and essential fat.
7) Exercise.
8) Mental- yes, young thinking.
9) Detox.
10)Prevent and treat age-related diseases, e.g., hypertension, diabetes, high lipids.

Oh! if I go on talking, I' ll have to charge you ....

Breakfast at Four Seasons

2006-10-16T21:55:00.001+08:00

Paulette Yu Lai King records the visit to Vancouver by Malcolm Au & wife Vicki from Shanghai on their way to see the American bald eagles, Helen Lai & daughter Hestor from Australia and Janet Tsang from Edmonton:

From left, Helen's MD daughter Hestor, Paulette, Helen, Malcolm, Janet & M's wife Vicki met at the Four Seasons' Garden Terrace Restaurant, Vancouver, on Oct. 9th for breakfast. It's a brief but animated gathering esp. when Malcolm re-traced for us his past entrepreneurial foot steps. All is well that ends well, we could say.

We look forward to seeing Malcolm's nice photos of this expedition in due course.

Laughs & Love from Shanghai to Toronto Part 2

2006-10-08T15:58:00.000+08:00

Irene Tsai continues her report on the hearty gathering with Malcolm & Vicki Au in Toronto.
For Part 1 of the report, please click here.

Fay Lo gave us his reviews on the Cultural Revolution, Shanghai’s past, now and the future, long live Chairman Mao and his finished and unfinished works, the importance of literacy to all in China, therefore, the Simplified Chinese, Entrepreneurial Skills in China, and even how to raise up a champion daughter in the modern world. Naturally, with his LARD LARD SANG Mandarin, he taught us PINYIN (Chinese phonetic translation and proper pronunciation), using examples to convey to us its proper connotation, for example the word Qu as in the Dragon Boat Qu Yuan in the Simplified version sounds like Go and is the same word in writing in Mandarin. It all makes good sense after all.

Then, pulling out his IBM Think Pad, this Chemical Engineer is also an artistic, feverish wildlife biologist and photographer, who showed us some of his most impressive drive-by shootings (guys, not what Toronto was famous for awhile ago on a daily or weekly basis on the news) in Africa, in the Galapogos, and where else, guys? Pardon me for being such an ADD. I wish I had brought my portable projector with me to the restaurant if I had known about the oncoming slides Fay Lo had brought along. I have to admit I was really behaving, prim and proper the whole time at the dinner table in front of respectful non-Jubilean wives. Fay Lo, I hope we were not an embarrassment in front of your classy wife who we had the privilege to meet for the first time. But, I have to warn you guys that you will have to expect a pretty “dean” me @ our ’07 reunion among us, the Jubileans.

Fay Lo even showed us the precise details of the survival habits in the animal kingdom, he even captured the reflection of his 4 x 4 inside the iris of an ultimate wild baby. I opened my big mouth to ask FAY LO what make of camera he was using for those exotic images. I had to HUT TWO (spit it out), meaning ask another question again. Apparently, I asked the wrong question. The correct question should have been, “So, who was the photographer and how did he take such great shots?” Hahaha!!!! This FAY LO is multibrained and HO YAU BARN FAT in everything he does. He’s a self-taught artist, what can I say? Hey, Fay Lo, that was the best dessert you fed us that night. With unblinking eyes and little faces all glued to the laptop screen, I felt that all of us (like Dai Heung Lay Chute Sheng) have travelled to Africa with Fay Lo back and forth after our Peking Duck dinner. No kidding! I had dreams of those cute cubs that night, just like in the movie “Born Free” from many, many years ago.

Oh, incidentally, two agenda items were brought up and discussed at the dinner table. We (all 8 of us) have unanimously recognized the importance and the true meaning of setting up a scholarship fund instead of spending big bucks on some stupid 40th anniversary coffee mugs, pens and pins. Therefore, let’s just scrap that idea now. And once again, the anticipated sizzling August weather in Asia seems to be still causing many of us our ongoing worries and headaches. Leaving the other celebrating events and dates untouched (including the cruise and the 40th banquet), we now would like to modify the dates of our land tour to Vietnam, seriously looking at the possibility of any week(s) in October or at worst even the last week in September. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger!!!

Our lovely rendezvous had to come to a happy pause as we were the only patrons left in the restaurant plus the warm, generous, and utterly charming couple had to get up @ 4 a.m. to catch their Vancouver flight to chase after another hearty project or engagement. I asked the happy wanderer at the end of the evening, ”Where’s the best place to retire to?”, which was the same question I had asked Kwong Hoi Chau @ our August meet. I was given a whole bunch of workable possibilities, an array of nice places on different Pacific Rims. But, Fay Lo’s answer was very instant, short and dandy. He said that the best palce to retire to is to be next to his pretty wife. Guys, go figure! Hahaha!

I don’t know about you guys, but I could totally go for another Fay Lo’s party any day, any time and any place. Fay Lo, if you can only point me out, teach me to say a few down to earth potent expressions in Mandarin, I’ll fly into Shanghai for just a day to sightsee the city and to visit your unique Shanghai Tarn . How cool.

Fay Lo, you’re truly a one of a kind. Bless your heart! You have the wisdom, the endurance, the passion, time and resources to do anything and everything to protect the endangered species. Please, do not forget to protect yourself next time you’re out there in the wilderness, for I think you definitely belong to the endangered species category in our class of ’67. Come visit us soon! Happy Thanksgiving to all!