The Trigger of the KL Meet

In the past, we had had a few classmates' gatherings that were all done in Penang.

This time around, on 18 March, this year, when Lawrence Beh generously offered two units of apartments in KL for us to stay in, we thought it would be a great opportunity to have our gathering done outside of Penang. As Penangites we thought we could now “take the back seats of the wagon” to relax and have the KL guys to plan the activities for our stay in KL.

Meanwhile, another classmate, Kang Kim Boon, thought that the apartments would be as big as the three-bedroom apartment we had stayed in Cameron Highlands, so he started to invite other classmates to join in the KL Meet.

Little did we realise, on 22 March, Laurence phoned to say he had only one apartment for us. On the same evening, Kim Boon posted on FB that there would be another six classmates from  Nibong Tebal who would be joining the KL Meet.( “高渊有六人去KL”)

The two pieces of news combined left me overcome with emotion, a feeling I have never experienced before in my life - the emotion of ‘whether to cry or to laugh’ (哭笑不得). This was because even without the addition six persons, we got to settle the accommodation of the existing members (4 men and 4 women) as we were now left with only one two-bedroom apartment to share.

After much discussion through our What'sapp group of ‘KL Meet’, we decided to book rooms at Hotel Wolo Bintang to house all the participants from North to South of the peninsula Malaysia. Initially, on March 24, we booked seven rooms in the hotel but the number was increased to eleven later with the number of participants increased.
The offer of the apartment stay by Lawrence Beh could be considered as the trigger of our KL Meet.

At around one o’clock in the afternoon on 9 April, we checked in at our hotel. I tried to  request from the hotel management whether I could upgrade my room to another one with windows. I was informed that it wasn't possible as all the rooms were fully booked.

However, the receptionist had suggested that we were allowed to merge two of our rooms into one big family room having windows. We duly agreed to that suggestion and we were assigned to Room 303.

As this room was big and spacious, it was conveniently used by our members as a chit chatting corner as well as a karaoke lounge.

In the evening, we had ‘the Battle of the Sexes’ after the buffet dinner.  Our Astro Queen, Miss Lily See Cheng Lee, who was challenged in the singing contest by our Karaoke King Mr. Stanley Khor Khai Hee.

Both of them could sing very well that all of us enjoyed the session that we let it dragged on into the wee hours of the night.

Days later, Guan Pheng made a comment on this, 

 “Without  Stanley and Cheng Lee entertaining us after the dinner that night, everyone of us would have to return to their rooms @ 9.45 pm to search for mosquitoes ( phak mang). So once again, "kam-siah" to Stanley and Cheng Lee. 👍👏"

 

Special mention has to be made here is that we were impressed by four ladies, Liau Ah Moy, Tan Swee Sim, Hooi Su Hung and See Cheng Lee, who came to stay with us in our hotel although they are residing in the surrounding areas of Kuala Lumpur. Ah Moy was so kind and generous to bring fried noodles and curry chicken for our lunch.

 

Kor Han Tong and Tan Gaik Tin were the two other classmates who sacrificed their precious weekend to stay on in our hotel so that we could all catch up on the latest news.

Gaik Tin treated us with a “welcoming lunch” on our arrival while Han Tong treated us a sumptuous “parting dinner” before we went our separate ways.

Our other meals were also been taken care of by Lawrence Beh and Beng Tuan so much so that we hardly spent any money on our food during this trip to KL.

Of course, the climax of our KL Meet was the buffet dinner at Hotel Royale Bintang in the evening of April 9, 2016. The arrangement for the dinner was well managed by Guan Pheng and Hoe Soon.

Thirty-seven people turned up for the dinner and many of them have never met one another since leaving school more than forty years ago.

As Ewe Jin put it in our What'sapp chat,

“Today is the youngest and happiest day of my life. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I think most of us did. I wish to thank the Organisers and all those present today making this event a great success. I managed to recall many childhood memories after seeing and knowing you.”

Another classmate of ours, Riani, had this to share with us,

“ To all the organising team, thank you very much and congratulation for such a warm, lovely and a memorable get together. I'm sure all of us enjoyed ourselves and everyone had at least one fond memory to share. God's willing I would like to suggest that we get together every 2 years. So I'm already looking forward to 2018 reunion. Warm regards to everyone and goodnight.”

This buffet dinner was really a sensational one as the attendees came from as far as Singapore and Penang.  All gathered in KL in high spirits. This was especially so with our friend, Gopal Krishnan, who reached KL by bus in the afternoon at around 3.00 pm and he went back to Bukit Mertajam the same evening after the dinner. I doubt many among us could match what our friend did. Kudos to Gopal Krishnan and we would not forget him if we ever have another gathering in the near future.

Until we meet again, Goodbye!

From Rumour to Reality

On hearing that my club was going to allow an external swimming  coach to train his students in the mornings, many members were very disturbed  as their daily routine of morning  swim would be upset by the interruption.  This had prompted me to write a text message via my ‘WhatsApp’ group to the management to get its clarification on the rumour that I had heard. My message was:

“Early every morning our club swimming pool is already fully utilized by our members. They enjoy their morning swim in peace and serenity. After the swimming session is over, many of them are fresh and energetically rejuvenated to go to work or to involve in other activities.
This could be a history if a rumour becomes a reality that very soon the club management would allow an outside swimming coach to train his students as early as seven o’clock in the morning.
If that were to be true, it would be a nightmare for the  members whose benefits are not really being taken care of by the club management.
Hope the rumour remains a rumour.
Can the management clarify on it?”

The reply I received was :

“Dear Mr. Liew,
Good Morning~☕
First of all, appreciated about your message.
As per your message, we would like to share with you about the Swimming arrangement.

1. The Reason we organize this swimming class, it is because we hope can  provide a better place for training to the local community and students. The students are from Jit Sin Primary A&B school.

2.Due to above reason, we had work together with a well known swimming Coach Mr. Ang.

3.Also, We had arranged the float divider during the training session to avoid serious swimmer.

4.Currently we already have 2 coaches in our club. And their operation still remain.

5.The new training schedule as below
Monday, Wednesday and Friday

8am to 11am
3pm to 6pm

Actually that is not much changes like what you had mentioned, all members will can enjoy club facilities and environment too. We are ensure that all the training session will be under control.
Thanks.

The Management”

My query and its reply were then forwarded by a club member to another ‘WhatsApp’ group of another forum which had triggered a wide spread of reactions and feedbacks.

The management was forced to have a lengthy discussion to reciprocate the uneasiness of the members.

In the end the club manager had issued a text message to the members via WhatsApp which reads:

“Sorry for the late as I was in the meeting. Next AGM will be in January 2017 for permanent members only.
Management have received members concern and we thank you for all comments. We will ensure all decisions make will be done with survey / discussion which will not jeopardise members interest for it is our responsibility to ensure member will be happy and BMCC will be a harmony club.

Thank you for your understanding

Club Manager”

This reply did not convince me as it was hollow and insubstantial.  Hence, I wrote another message to the manager,

“The BMCC Club Manager,

Good afternoon!
After your lengthy meeting today, I suppose you have a thorough discussion on our views or complaints.
Unfortunately, you still don't tell us  exactly what you all have decided on the issue of the swimming training programme conducted by Mr. Ang.
From your reply above, I still see empty promises without concrete measures to show that you have safeguard the interest of our members.
Anything that is beneficial to the members should be made known to the members in advance and not to keep them in the dark until they have to find out from the third  source.

Thank you very much!”

Immediately after my message was sent out,  a message was issued by the club manager which reads:

“Latest update to all members:
Training is now applicable Mon ,wed and Friday from 3-5pm. With special lane and not included public holiday and school holidays. Parents will drop and pick up their kids at the dropping point (lobby area ) and they are not allowed to enter to the sports area.

Club manager”

With this message received, many of our members were satisfied that the management had seriously reconsidered our plea and and it had not short-changed the interest of the members.