An Eulogy concerning the Reunion of MSS NT 1969 et al [This is the “long essay as promised” by our friend, H’ng Siew Sim relating the events before and after the reunion gathering at the Penang Copthorne Hotel on October 24,2010]

June 2008 was the time of sowing the seed to the culmination of the Weekend of 23/24th October. Little was I to know of the success of the event that followed. For this I have to give great acknowledgement to:

A. Shirley Loo nee Koay
B. Liew Sin Kong
C. Chin Phaik Hooi Many thanks for organising,updating and collating information and researching the venue for the reunion. As with all planning, even the best can go wrong! Sorry Shirley….

Email from Shirley Koay:
Sent: 19 August 2010 12:17:25

"SORRY EVERYBODY ....... THE DATES SHOULD BE

23,24,25 OCT 2010"

as the email sent earlier on by her on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 10:54:40 PM
on the subject: MSS1969 gathering was:

Dear friends,

It's almost 41 years since we left Methodist Secondary School,Nibong Tebal.

Some of us have kept in touch through the years or have recently met up.

Our dear 'old' friend,opposite the school, who used to be up the 'pak kieh' tree
has always been very keen to meet up with EVERYBODY whenever she is in
this part of the world. It would be great if we can achieve this goal this year!

So in this modern technology age, we hope to be able to reach out to all our friends
far and near.

A 3D/2N gathering is being planned. We hope everyone will make a special effort
to attend. To those who know of others who are not in the link, we hope
you will help us to contact.

Details are as follows :
Date : 30,31Oct,1Nov
Venue : Pantai Sri Motel, Tanjong Bungah,Penang.
Cost : RM 50 per person per night

Since it would be a time for us to catch up with each other, no programs have been
planned except to have a lunch with our teachers on Sunday 31oct.

Lunch with teachers will be at Coptone Hotel
cost --- approximately RM30

Please feel free to give any comments or suggestions.

We would appreciate a reply before 30sept.
Please reply by email or contact :

Liew Sin Kong
Chin Phaik Hooi
Shirley Koay

We look forward to seeing all of you.

cheerio!

The planning went on for over 2 years to coincide with my next return visit on 22/10/2010. This was how accommodating my school mates were; great patience and consideration.

Email sent out by me to the others was:

Subject: MSS 1969

"Dear all,
It is less than 2 months before our proposed Grand Reunion. I am so looking forward to it. I have a mail from Ah Nia saying that she isn't able to make it with the present schedule of hers. I am so sorry to hear that and hope to catch up with her if we can coordinate our timetable.
I arrive at KLIA on 22nd October at 1400. My usual 'Ahmed' is away and so I shall make my way to my sister's place in PJ. I have mailed those in KL area much earlier to see if it is possible to hitch a lift to PG on that day or the next and the request is still on. Plan 'B' is that I take a night train to arrive in BM on Saturday 23rd morning. I shall be in PG until 5th November when I leave for Kl to fly back on 8th.
I do hope to see many of you and spend time reminiscing of the good old times of yore. I count myself very fortunate to have this opportunity to still have contacts with fellow pupils after ahem! 40 years.
I have changed in the physical sense but at heart I am much the same ie wild and mad. I challenge you to prove me wrong....... I bet I can still shin up most trees without grazing my knees, pick the best 'pak kiah' from the furthest branch before you could open a durian!!!!!!!
So much of this silly talk. I must now get on with planning my itinerary and gathering things to put in my suitcase. Generally, it is all food bar a pair of knickers and a toothbrush. I come back with a nearly empty suitcase which my family try their damnest to fill up and failed miserably. I try to avoid full luggage but can't help the outgoing trip as I have a big family to cater for.
With that in mind I bid you all au revoir and hasta la vista!
Much love, Siew Sim.

PS: Be with you from 23rd to 25th October,2010"

Email from Shirley Koay to me :

"wow wow!!!!! hope your mail can stir some ripples if not create a storm!

i've been checking facebook and there's been no takers except the 5.

well.... we'll do with the small group and can still bring the roof down and get kicked
out ..... hahaha!

will let you know if and when i get in touch with Sue.

be seeing you. Love to all S "

Overloading the cyberspace with ideas and detective work to seek out fellow pupils of 1969 we managed to locate all but a few. For reasons best known to them they had remained illusive/shy to reconnect. But BEWARE the scouts are always on the lookout for you!

Sadly we have lost a few to the other side. They were:
1. Ng Soo Choo
2. Khor Seow Lek (fondly known as Kang Chooi Goo)
3. Teng Chang Hua
4. Teoh Yang Hoi

Was it really nearly 41 years since we left school to venture out into this wide world of ours to seek our future and fortune? And haven’t we done well!!!!!!!! The best I took away from this occasion was the contentment with life of those who were at the Sunday Lunch along with our other MSS pupils and teachers.This attitude is the essence of our well being for which no amount of money can buy. We weren’t doing too badly with our health either. Grey/ receding hair and other distinguishing features just go to show our true nature- like good vintage wine. Not for consumption but for laying down to mature slowly.
I am sure we all have many stories to tell of our formative years. The ups and downs but those challenges only enhanced our character and for that I am personally grateful although some were painful at the time. I have too many people to thank for my provenance .BUT I must and will mention my devoted and late Mother who was instrumental in the happy state I am now in.

Can’t imagine that ‘pak kia’ climbing monkey girl could end up in UK with a Psychiatric history, ahem! qualilfication, my post graduate general nursing fortunately kept me on an even keel. For my sins I still play at working in the Accident and Emergency department until something better comes along. Any offers?????
I digress.

What a wonderful and memorable occasion we had on Sunday 24th. I didn’t think anyone of us could envisage such a delightful and happy day we all had. Personally I thought the teachers were gobsmacked to be invited. Weren’t we a happy and grateful bunch?? To prove it here is an insert of an appreciative letter;
Re: PENANG GATHERING ON 24TH OCTOBER 2010
12/11/2010

Hello everyone,

It was such a pleasure to meet all of you again after so many years. Thank you all for remembering us and inviting us to your gathering. I think we spent more time catching up than on the food.

Seeing you all brought back memories of when we were young teachers facing students of all kinds; the eager, the reluctant, the mischievous, the cheerful, the rebellious, oh so many that make up a class. I don't know whether you enjoyed being in my classes, but I really enjoyed teaching you both in the classroom as well as outside, especially the guides. Thank you all for being my students then.

It is good that you made the effort to keep in contact and I look forward to hearing from you all.

Thank you Kim Beng for the photos - they'll be treasured.

Love to all,
Ms Yee

The location was excellent for view and accommodation for our big crowd of 45. The pictures taken by our happy snappy photographer the darling Chan Kim Beng was evidence to this point. This pictoral memorabilia will be treasured forever.

"Hi Kim Beng,

You are a darling to take all those candid shots.
The happy moments captured in camera for eternity.
We will always look at them with fond memories.

Thanks again. God bless "
Pek Sim

Foodwise it was as good as it comes with mass catering but I doubt if anyone of us were sincerely interested in that. This was no criticism of Hotel Copthorne. The staff did a brilliant job of looking after us so pleasantly and to assist us in our cake cutting and the toast with the Port that I brought (smuggled)! According to Sin Kong, the happiest person that day was Kim Boon whose birthday happened to be the same day. I believe he was interrogated for factual evidence which resulted in a few red faces! Sin Kong was responsible for that, possibly others too. This show of power is the other face of our ‘chicken heart’ friend!

I had many thanks for the forethought of bringing the Port for the toast. It was so kind of you all and I thank you so much. I guess I had 1st class and personal tuition from my long suffering husband, Peter, on such matters. Incidentally, he was left holding the fort in my absence, chicken-sitting, house-sitting and at times catering for our thoughtful children who in their loving nature came home to see him during my absence!

I had great apprehension as to the viability of making and transporting the cake to the event. My skill in sugar-flower making was not the best but I made what I hope will give Shirley a curl on her lips whenever she happens to look at it. I could but apologise for the imperfection of the icing. In my credit I don’t think there was ever a cake that had travelled so far and triggered so much conversation amongst my friends and family here in UK and in M’sia.

My sympathy went to our fellow diners who had to put up with our hilarity and lethal level of sound. They must think we were a bunch of nut cases that Tanjong Rambutan is not large enough to house! So my apologies to them and the staff if we had upset anyone, although unintentionally.

So much to say and yet so confused as to what to put down in words. Not only was I lost for words I lost weight too. I was so deliciously happy that I survived very well on fresh air, happy faces and tales of yore. This brought me to the night before.

6 rooms were booked for Saturday night ( I was heartbroken to miss the second night stay). Pek Sim and I shared one, Shirley, Su Hung and Phaik Hooi two, Sin Kong and Lee Choo three, Song Hooi four, Kim Beng five and Beng Tuan six.

That day and evening we had a lot of toing and froing of friends. Khor Hoe Soon made an enormous effort to spend a few hours with us. Unfortunately that young man had to work in the morning, aarrrh. Om Prakash joined us too. Guess whose room we all ended up in?????
It was surprising that we weren’t thrown out of the establishment for the noise we made. You could just imagine the chitter chatter that went with looking at photos of our young days. I believe only the girls brought their collection. This set Sin Kong in the mode of photographing missing ones to add to his blog and facebook to be shared by the savvy IT geeks which I am not yet. Promise Sir I will do so!!

I had a chance visit from Margaret Goh when she was visiting her daughter in Oxford this year in July. She kindly sent me a photo that was taken with her. So it was quite a talking point as only Su Hung was the only one to recognise her having seen her recently. In real life she looked very young. I would like to know which elixir of life was she taking because I could do with some! She now resides in Melbourne, Australia and I did my level best to tempt her to join us which she could have done. I gave her snippets of news with promises of the rest when we see her. Alas, to no avail! So my friends we just had to carry on with our attempts to put names and events to the photos that were in the various albums.

In the midst of all this I requested a knife and plate from the Housekeeper to be sent to Room 1118. This odd request must have sent an alarm bell going. In due course the request was granted but it came accompanied by two members of staff. There would only be one guess as to what they were thinking………

As it was autumn in UK, it was the time of harvest. So I brought along a few homegrown apples to tickle the taste buds of the mates present. Not the sweetest apples but flavoursome and juicy. To cap the good life I lead I had with me a few fresh walnuts from my garden. Could I find a suitable tool to crack them? Like Heck! I just hadn’t the nerve to request any further gadget for fear of being on the street for the night! But survival instinct will overcome. I remembered watching someone accessing the nut. I proceeded to do so. One holds two nuts between the palms of the hands and squeeze until one cracks. The skinned kernels were consumed with trepidation and all survived to tell the tale the next day. Needless to say I didn’t crack that many nuts with my increasing sore palms. Boys, you are allowed to cross your legs as a means of showing your chivalry!!

It wasn’t surprising that we were as late as 1am before disbanding. Pek Sim and I went on until 2am or so as we did spend some time together in UK back in 1971/72

This reunion didn’t stop at Hotel Copthorne. I proceeded to travel south to Johor Bharu in the company of Kim Beng ( I took a liberty and hitched a ride)

There I troubled Ah Nia to get the southern contingent to meet up. She succeeded in recruiting Guan Peng, Dr Siva, Mr Maniam and Betty Liang (Bak Ti). It was a jolly evening with lots of reminiscenes and relaying the events of Sunday past. I hadn’t seen the girls since leaving school (possibly Ah Nia in ’72). I felt so priviledged to have such an opportunity to meet so many on this short trip to M’sia. As usual I disgraced myself with my exuberance.

Email from Guan Peng:

Hi everyone,

Beng Tuan, thanks very much for updating us on your great reunion at Copthorne Hotel. Wish I had been there to join in the fun.

You know what, our small group of Old Boys and Girls of MSSNT in Johor Bahru did manage to cheer ourself up when Siew Sim paid us a surprise visit. We had an enjoyable dinner at the New Lucky Restaurant last night. Apart from Siew Sim and myself, the others who attended were Betty Liang( came and return to S'pore the same evening), Kang Ah Nia, Dr Siva and his elder brother, Mr Maniam (yes, the discipline teacher who is now a permanent resident in JB). And our thoughtful Siew Sim has not forgotten us, the southerners. She brought for us fruitcake, all the way from UK. Very good, its moist and not too sweet.

It is quite remarkable that some of us could still remember the full name of some ex 69 mates who have never join any of the past reunions. And Mr Maniam has such good memories of the naughty ones and those quiet and low profile ones that you wonder whether they did really come from MSSNT.

As usual, time flies when you are enjoying each others company and having a good time.

Beng Tuan, thanks for the information on the Sabah trip in June next year. Keeping my finger crossed.

To all my friends who have been keeping the spirit of Batch 69 MSSNT going, WELL DONE !.

Thank you.

Warmest Regards,
LGP

Luck would have it that our friend Lau Beh made himself available to take me out to breakfast before I flew back to UK. I believe he was sorely tempted to make the Sunday Reunion if not for a very pressing engagement. I gave him a good ticking off for not accessing his inbox. He now admitted he is IT illiterate which beggars belief that he gave us his email address at all! He would like to join us in the future but the message will need to be via the earpiece.

Very soon after my return I had an email out of the blue from a Cathy Carnell. She is the Khoh Ah Chia that Kim Boon’s successful detective work accomplished. This connection looked strong. So watch this space. Now that I had time to reflect, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you all for this irreplacable visit. With my fondest memories of you all I can but hope that it won’t be too long to my seeing you again.

My voicebox took a good bashing with my incessant rabbiting on topics from the ridiculous to the sublime. I sincerely apologised if I contribute to anyone’s deafness! Just like the saying; you can take Siew Sim out of Nibong Tebal but you can’t take Nibong Tebal out of her!

My Stay at Pangkor Laut Resort

It had never occurred to me that the day would come for me to set foot on Pangkor Laut Resort.
Eight years ago,while I was having a course in Pangkor Island, we would take time off to walk along the beach in the evening before dinner to look across the sea, at a distant island. I was amazed to see a succession of yellow lighted bulbs lining the wooden houses which were built on stilts above the sea water at the waterfront. It was the Sea Villas which was the signature feature of the resort.

My classmate told me that it was a restrictive area known as Pangkor Laut Resort and it was owned by YTL Hotels & Resorts , built exclusively for the rich and famous to stay in luxurious suites. At that time it was inconceivable for us to even dream about staying there.

Recently,my elder daughter chanced upon an offer from AF Travel Sdn Bhd of a holiday package for a three-day two-night’s stay for Malaysian residents.The offer came with different tiers of accommodation rates; the cheapest one was RM 800 per person with a twin sharing unit at the Garden Villas of the resort and the packages came with full board meals in selected restaurants. Under normal circumstances it would be rather expensive for ordinary people like us to stay in the resort．With the RM 800 we had paid, it would only pay for a person to have FOUR meals at the restort without accommodation.

We reached the front office of the resort, opposite of Lumut Jetty at one on Sunday, 14 November 2010. Upon registration, we were served with a welcoming drink while our luggage was being handled by the staff. It was to be transported straight to our apartments at the resort . We were then ferried by a speed-boat to the resort jetty. The ride took twenty five minutes。Waiting at the jetty to greet us were the Rooms Division manager，Mr。Von Go and his staff. After a short briefing by Mr. Von Go at the Reception, we were ushered to our apartment units at the Garden Villas before we adjourned for our lunch at the Royal Bay Beach Club. In the evening we went for a swim at the pool and had our dinner at UNCLE LIM’S KITCHEN at 8.00 pm. Next morning, after our breakfast at the Feast Village, we went for a dip at the Emerald Bay.

Emerald Bay is “a beautiful half- mile long beach with emerald clear waters”. ‘It is surrounded by 300 acres of tranquil tropical rain forest with white sandy beaches.’ I could see very few tourists and not a single motor boat within the vicinity of the bay. One would feel the quietness, peacefulness and serenity either resting at the beach reading books, or immersing in the water under the tropical sun when the bay was not infested with tourists or motor boats. It was no wonder people would prefer to pay more for the exclusiveness of the surroundings.
At noon,we had lunch at the Chapman’s Bar at Emerald Bay before we retired in our room for a nap. That evening we headed to the pool site to enjoy a session of water spa. In the evening, we once again opted to have our second dinner of our stay at UNCLE LIM’S KITCHEN.
On the third day morning we check-out at 11.30 am and reached home four hours later. It is quite true that “Dining at Pangkor Laut is a culinary adventure across cultures.” The four restaurants that we patronised, namely, Feast Village, Royal Bay Beach Club, Chapman’s Bar and Uncle Lim’s Kitchen, provided us with either Western or Eastern dishes of excellent quality; I would say it was “ a class of itself, second to none.”
You would not be surprised that many of the staff have worked here for a long time, with Uncle Lim being the longest serving staff, who has worked here since the inception of the resort twenty five years ago. He is still holding the staff registration number of ‘0001’. It seems there are more than twenty people who has worked here for more than twenty years and Mr.Megeswaran of the Chapman’s Bar being one of them. Even our Malay friend, Mr.Sham, a van driver for the shuttle service, has been working in the island for more than eight years, driving eight hours a day, along the narrow trails of this small island. The high staff retention rate of this resort speaks volumes of how much the employees cherish their job. I believe this is due to the fact that they are well paid and their welfare are well taken care of by the management.

Indeed, I share the sentiment of one of the tourists in his customer review that, “ I can’t wait to come back again!”. And this is especially so if I can get someone “to sponsor” for the trip when there is a holiday package for Malaysian residents.