50 years on, and back to school!

Following the email Teck Yong (aka Jerry) sent on 29 May 2006 regarding our 50th Anniversary Reunion next year, the response has been very positive and most encouraging.

For the benefit of all, here's a summary of mails exchanged (in chronicle order):

Jimmy Ho Chee Meng wrote (29 May 2006, 1410 hours):

Pleased to learn that a kick start to the planning is under way. I believe many will give a helping hand to this task, I would if I am in Singapore. I will fly out from London to attend the Reunion.

Another suggestion is to have a page in the booklet of all teachers who taught us throughout our entire school life as a way of honouring them.

Kang Hai Chiew wrote (30 May 2006, 0725 hours):

Thanks for the effort, you can count me in. Hai Chiew.

Norman Wee wrote (30 May 2006, 1240 hours):

Come rain or shine, I will be there!

Robert Chin wrote (31 May 2006, 1655 hours):

God willing, I will attend. Thank you so much for initiating this happening.

Incidentally spoke to Tan Tuan Seng today and make mentioned of event which strangely he has no idea of despite
his address appearing in the mail list. Please count him in.

Bill Tan Peck Seng wrote (02 June 2006, 0511 hours):

Splendid effort. Will be there. But must fix a return date for the flight. Will there be a second event and when?

Apologies for delayed reply. Just returned from touring the North of Scotland. Experienced horizontal rain and freezing gales but with periods of bright sunshine. There is a saying in Scotland: 'When the sun comes out all is forgiven'. Scotland is well know for its very dynamic weather. Some years ago while having dinner at a Barra (Island in the Hebrides) hotel there appeared in the western sky the letters O J formed fleetingly by patches of cloud. Was the Genome Organising Device saying that O J Simpson was guilty after all? No, on reflection the message was quite clear: 'Take your Orange Juice!' Unless some of you Aramaic scholars have a different interpretation?

Found 18 new emails. Out of the blue came one from a wealthy Norwegian 'merchant' (obsolete use of the term....must have been a Shakespeare scholar .. you know 'Merchant of Venice' etc). He is dying of oesophagus cancer and would like to appoint a person to oversee the gifting of $23M!

I smell a rat but suggested he tries Avastin (a drug not a person, silly). Uniquely among the cancer drugs it cuts off the supply of blood to and only to cancerous cells. Since approved by the FDA last year there has been a voracious demand. Not cheap but then if effective the patient only needs it for a few weeks or months. Should be effective for tissue malignancies and especially CRC (ColoRectal Cancer). Swee Hoo please note. You floored me once. Keep alive so I can have the pleasure of returning the compliment.

P.S. Does anyone knows the whereabouts of Ho Mun Yoke

Yap Swee Hoo wrote (02 June 2006, 0946 hours)

I'll be at our reunion if I'm still alive to meet Bill for our return round. Reminds me of the time I was beating up Gilbert despite his bigger size, and was caught by Yap Ah Chuan in the act! He was totally amazed and said he always thought I was the one who was bullied, rather than that I was the bully! Of course, he followed up with a tight slap on my face.

In a real sense, he was right to think I was the one who was always bullied. With school-mates like Norman, Gilbert included among many others, who were always teasing me over my physical defect, I learned to be a street fighter very quick in my reflexes to deflect blows and to throw them with rather stunning effect. I took on Gilbert in another incident in class and punched him hard in the temple that his whole face was flushed red! It frightened me and I stopped the fight immediately. Then there was another fight with Tan Chong Beng, when I 'chick-ked' him by the neck that, I think, Chee Yoong among others told us to break up as I was strangling him. Leong Tuck Yin, if some of you remember him, ended my fighting spree when he floored me in Std 6. It made me realise that with my malformed limbs, I would not be much of a match with my class-mates and I stopped fighting thereafter. Chwee Lee was the kind soul he's always been, and avoided any fight with me despite our tiffs. So were Winston and Teddy.

Btw, there was an American boy, Nolan Shipman, for some time with us in secondary school. Anyone knows anything about him?

Btw again, I'm still undergoing medical checkups following my colon cancer surgery. My weight has stayed constant, which my surgeon said may not be good as it should go up. But my blood test shows I'm fine. Not too consoling as my nephew-in-law just passed away from a rare cancerous condition which manifested itself as a fibroid skin condition whereas everything else was normal, eg, blood tests, colonoscope, endoscope, whatever.

So, Bill, you'll be taking on a very much reduced version of the old Tyson-Swee Hoo when we meet next. If I can make it.

Yap Swee Hoo wrote (02 June 2006, 1134 hours)

Hi, Bill, Teck Yong just emailed me in a separate email that he's looking forward to our re-match. You better watch out, you better not cry, I'm coming with both chin and shin guards! Plus breast-plates and armour - and lance! As they say, if you can't beat them, just cheat them! There's still a lot of street-fighting spirit in me!!

Norman Wee wrote (02 June 2006, 1745 hours)

Shucks, my name mentioned in Swee Hoo's mail!

PLEASE! PLEASE!, CAN YOU FORGIVE ME, AND GIVE ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO SHAKE YOUR claw Oops your HAND AT THE REUNION, AND DON'T YOU DARE, TELL ME, AND FOR THAT MATTER ALL OF US YOU MAY NOT MAKE IT. WE EXPECT YOU AT THE FOLLOWING REUNION TOO, WHEN MOST OF US TURN 80 + -.

ALSO, CAN YOU ADD A FEW MORE NAMES, SO I AM NOT SINGLED OUT, DON'T WANT YOUR GRANDMA, UP THERE TO BE REMINDED. If you add a few more names, she may not be able to single me out.

Re. Gilbert, he has disappeared , used to call me almost every day in the late 90's, think he is in Myanmar. If anyone sees him, please remind him I still have his bag of sapphires or is it rubies, or is it a lot of coloured glass????

SWEE HOO, HAVE YOU AGREED TO SPEAK AT WIFE, MING'S OFFICE BIBLE GROUP??

Bill Tan Peck Seng wrote (02 June 2006, 1902 hours)

Many thanks for your delightfully humorous account. Thank goodness you remember the event. Keng Yong don't remember meeting me at Greenwich Village when I drove over from Pittsburgh in 1964 and Ping Wen don't remember me attending his wedding in London in 1970 (despite the fact that I was his best man...no, that was a joke). I was beginning to think I was living in a parallel universe and may even be made of anti-matter. So don't shake hands with me or both of us could vanish in a blinding flash of gamma rays.

Looking forward to our return match. Who volunteers to be the referee?

Winston Choo wrote (03 June 2006, 1054 hours)

Count me in. I will attend by the grace of God.

Joseph Pichamuthu wrote (05 June 2006, 0004 hours)

Yes indeed, I have contacted many of our old friends, but many more remain.

Another very touching aspect of the "ball" you have set rolling is the support offered by ACSians to their "cohorts" (as you call them) when they are discouraged or depressed. I fact I can't place some of those who studied in sections other than B.

I shall make every effort to come to the reunion. Barring only force majeure contingencies, I shall be there.