ROLL CALL

Here in Singapore where I am based, this is the first week of another school term. In the morning, I could see little kids going to the schools near to my place. It gave me the idea that since we are also trying to determine who's been accessing this website, I thought it might be a good idea to "take attendance" and conduct a simple online ROLL CALL.

Simply use the Comments box to let us know your presence by indicating:

• your name
• which class you were from (or which school, if not from St Joe), and
• where in the world you are located

Optionally you might want to include a brief message to everyone.

Simple enough? Hope everyone is sporting and cooperates.

OK, over to you ...

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London Times (late 70s / early 80s)

A number of Josephians and Teresians from our cohort spent time in London in the late 70s and early 80s. Here's a sample of photos from those times. I'm not sure of the exact years or occasions, but some of you who were there might be able to help.
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I'm also trying to include photos that are .. ahem ... "non-incriminating" ... goodness knows what some of us might have been up to thirty years ago. Hey, we were all hardly twenty yet. Ha ha ha !

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Five "musketeers" at a rented flat in West London, where we stayed during a school vacation. I'm sure the neighbours were relieved when the vacation break was over.

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We missed local food, and there was this Malaysian restaurant named Rasa Sayang, near Leicester Square that we occasionally visited. Five guys, three ladies, infinite possibilities.
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Judging from the glasses on the table, this was probably a weekend night out at a pub or the West End or something. Or maybe it was Disco Night ... but why isn't CLK(m) in his John Travolta outfit? Does he have other things on his mind?

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The lads having a good time at someone's flat. Nice to see the Chung brothers. Hope they drop by this blog and say hi.
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Take note of future designer PT (leftmost) with the fashionable outfit and slingbag. Also note my equally fashionable goggles (as Pip calls them) ... which WILL COME BACK IN FASHION ... you mark my words.
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LKF (rightmost) tells me that the photo above was taken at Heathrow Airport, but neither of us remember who was sending who off, when or why ... But I say, weren't some of us dressed up like dandies back then ? LOLxxx

I invite any others who were in London during those days to send me old photos they might have for adding on to this post.

In the meantime, enjoy walking down Memory Lane, London town ...
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Update from Website Jaga (June 2009)

Dear friends,
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When I first started this blog in January 2009, the goal was to try to see how many of our old mates in the three St Joe Form 5 classes of 1976 I could reach, and to attempt to rebuild the community we had - first in cyberspace, and hopefully through a series of mini-reunions, build up towards a grand physical reunion. It is now almost 6 months since the project began, and I thought it would be good to share the modest progress we've made together on this journey.
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Take a look at the following chart, which gives a snapshot of where we are (as far as I can ascertain).
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Allow me to explain how I came up with the chart. I've been keeping track of who we have connected with through this blog. This would include former classmates who have made comments on the blog or who have sent me emails, and also a few who have told me they have accessed the blog but not "said" anything (why so shy lah :-)
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So this is indicated by the blue bar, for each of the classes as well as a consolidated one. In other words, we have reached 25 of the members of Five Science, 4 of Five Arts1 and 8 in Five Arts2. Of course this is just an approximation, as there may be others who have accessed but never said anything or told me. These numbers also do not include the increasing numbers of people from other years than 1976, classmates who left prior to Form 5, as well as from various sister schools ... many of whom have been active in the blog conversations and made it even more interesting. I hope they continue to participate actively and spread the word to others as well.
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Then there is a very slim purple bar, which sadly indicates those in our cohort who have passed on - two in Five Science, two in Five Arts 1, none (as far as I know) in Five Arts 2.
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And the yellow bar indicates the total numbers of students in each of the classes.
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So you can see that we have reached 54% of Five Science, 11% of Five Arts 1 and 21% of Five Arts 2. Taking all three classes as a whole, we have reached 30% of the entire cohort, or 37 old boys.
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I'd say this is a reasonable number - it is, after all, numerically almost one whole class. It is a small achievement, considering that most of us have separated for 33 years and many of us are dotted all over the world.
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However I think we can do better, and I'd like to urge each of you to take a look at the lists of names of our classmates in the early January postings (i.e. "Who were in Form 5 Science? 5 Arts 1? 5 Arts 2?") . You can probably recognise those who are already active visitors of this site and I have (for most of them) also indicated their email id's too. If each of you can try to contact a couple of people who are NOT on yet, pass them the website address and encourage them to take a look and better still drop a comment or two, I think we'll be able to expand our community even further.
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Finally, thanks for all your active participation, your contribution of news , info and photos ... do keep it up. We are almost reaching 30,000 visits when I last checked! I will try to post interesting material to keep the buzz going. By all means, send me suggestions on what you want to see, call up your other friends and together let's try to hit 60% of our cohort before the end of 2009.
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Have a good weekend & best wishes
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--- James aka Jimmy aka Website Jaga
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Old, Old Kuching - Part 2

I'm going to make this "Old, Old Kuching" post an ongoing series. Hopefully over time and with all your contributions, we will build up a rich online portfolio of historic Sarawak photographs. Thanks to Robert Chin, for sharing this first set of pictures around the Padungan area.

The first one shows the junction of Padungan Road joining Thompson (now Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman) and Mathies Roads. You can see Odeon cinema (top, middle), Capitol cinema (extreme left), and an Austin car showroom & service centre on the front right. Both Odeon and Capitol are gone. At the location of the Austin showroom now stands the Standard Chartered Bank building and the Riverside hotel.

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Next we have another picture of the Odeon cinema in an even earlier time, before the building was expanded to accomodate a restaurant and retail area. Odeon was declared open on 16th June, 1955 by Mrs. A.R Snelus, wife of the Acting Deputy Chief Secretary.

And here is the former Borneo Company Limited building, at the site of the current Hilton Kuching. Interesting to see that a boat race seems to be in progress on the Sarawak River. You can make out the letterings on Speedboat No. 11.

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Ahh, images of history ...

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Goodbye Farrah, Goodbye Michael

Two media icons died yesterday. Both have brought joy and excitement to countless millions around the world. Those of us who were teenagers growing up in the 70s certainly enjoyed the original "Charlie's Angels" series, and of course "Thriller" was a global phenomenon.

Farrah Fawcett

(1947 - 2009)

Michael Jackson

(1958 - 2009)

Thank you Farrah. Thank you Michael.

May you both rest in peace.
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Then and Now - Part 7

In this rendition of "Then & Now", we feature three old friends whom I've had the good fortune to meet recently.

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First we have LKF, who was my classmate since Primary 1 or 2 if I'm not mistaken. One of the most steady and friendly chaps I've known, with a ready smile and a helping hand. He's now based in KL, and is running his own business dealing with the chemicals. The "Then" shots came from Pri 6 and Form 3 school photos, while "Now" was at the recent gathering at Bangsar where we met for the first time in three decades.

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Next is CSKG whom I met early this month. I remember him as the Red Cross-er and sportsman. As someone commented in one of the other entries, he looks exactly the same, except for the hair colour. He has been with Shell for a number of years, and is now managing their plant at Port Dickson. The "Then" shots are from the 70's - from school and extra-curricular activities - and the "Now" shot is from our recent catch-up in Singapore.

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Coming right up, we have VK, also another early primary school classmate. I remember him as a very bright chap, always among top of the class. Others apparently remember him as the kid with short, spiky hair :) I met VK again recently after 37 years, as he had left St Joe after Pri 6 to take up a scholarship to continue his studies in Peninsula Malaysia. Today he is a senior executive in a firm investing in renewable energy projects, after a long career in banking. "Then" is from Pri 6 class photo. "Now" is in June 2009.

What wonderful memories ... All looking very good, chaps !

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The Hunt for Harry

He was a real hard one to pin down - always busy and often on the move - but with brilliant facilitation by CLK (f), we finally met Harry earlier this evening in Singapore and had a nice dinner at Tony Roma's restaurant.

More than twenty years have passed since we last met each other in Kuching. My old friend hasn't changed much, except for a few extra pounds in the middle. Still looking pretty good, he's now an executive with a large US conglomerate, and based in KL. His area of expertise is in healthcare systems.

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We didn't waste any time getting down to old stories from London and Canada and Kuching. A great laughter-filled evening. Good to see you, Harry! Now don't be a stranger and join us sometime in the website chat. If you don't, we might send CLK(f) after you again ... ha ha ha!
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Old, Old Kuching - Part 1

Here are some old buildings in Kuching that you may or may not remember. Most of them are already gone while others have been renovated.

The first one is Lillian Theatre. I'm told that this was THE theatre in Kuching during its hey days, which was probably way before we were born. Ask your parents or older relatives about it.

The next picture is one some of you might remember. It is the old St Joseph's Cathedral, constructed in 1891 and demolished in 1969 after the new cathedral was built. The location of this classic old building is where the church bell tower now stands.

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If you are interested in viewing pictures of the new St Joseph's Cathedral, check out the blog of Daniel Liew, a fellow Kuchingite. This new cathedral was consecrated on 19 March 1969 (The feast day of St Joseph) by the late Bishop Charles Reiterer, Vicar Apostolic of Kuching. It underwent major renovation and extension works in 1994.

Next we have a shot of the original St Joseph's School building. I reckon that the current main administrative block is an basically an extension of this structure.

And the following photo is of the Sarawak Steamship Company building, along Main Bazaar. It was built in 1930, and previously served as the offices and warehouse of the Sarawak Steamship company. These days, I think the structure houses some eateries and a convenience store.

Well, that's it for now. If I come across any more old photos of Kuching buildings, I'll add them on. And in the meantime, if you guys and gals find any in your dusty archives, do scan them in and send to me.

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Snapshots around St Joe (Part 4)

Thought I'd share a few more shots from around the old alma mater.
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This one came from GL who spotted a St Joe school bus plying the streets of Kuching these days. Hmm, obvious progress in the transportation area at least! I wonder what's next - a St Joe boat? a St Joe plane?
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The next two shots were taken when I briefly visited the school on my last trip. The first one is in our old Form 5Sc classroom, and the other is at the upstairs corridor.
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Here are a few more shots, contributed by Leo a while ago ... first the walkway between the old classroom block and the science block. I think this was around even in our time, but obviously a bit spruced up.
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And this one is of a new Stadium building, named after the well-loved late teacher Datuk Polycarp Sim ...

and finally a shot of a very important building .. the toilet block .. hahaha!

Happy reminiscing ...

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Zooming in on St Teresa's School

This entry focuses on that school across the road, the one that has held the fascination of many a St Joe boy then and now.

First, we have the view from across the road ...

Then, using St Joe's ultra-powerful telescope, we zoom in further ...

And we zoom in further still ....

And even further ...

and finally bringing the image into clear focus, we see ...

and

Wow, I knew those Physics lessons on lenses & magnification would come in useful some day ;-)

I'll leave you to identify the beauties ...

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Men in Uniform

Is it true that girls go for men in uniform? Well, a long time ago some of our friends certainly believed so and went all out trying that strategy. Here are some of the pictures. If you happen to have more, just send them to me & I'll add them on.
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The first picture is of our friend John Lee, the Police Cadet. This was during one of the Sports Days, when the uniformed boys were "on duty". Sorry the photo isn't very clear. I've done whatever photo editing I can to sharpen it, but it looks like they used some primitive pinhole camera from Ah Chui's Physics lab ...
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The next photo shows four smart looking Police Cadets - not sure who's the one leftmost, but I can see Sinos Bartholomew, Harry Goh and John. I also can't recognise the two other boys who are trying to muscle their way into the picture.

What's the point of being a Police Cadet without playing with guns? In the next picture, we have Wilson Chao and John Lee on a Police Cadet exercise trip to Sematan. According to John (who supplied these Cadet pictures) they all had a go with shooting targets (mostly coconuts) using 1.22 rifles.
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(Spot Philip Hii & Koon Teck in photo above)

We mustn't forget the other important uniformed group, the Red Cross or Red Crescent (I can't remember exactly which year the name change came about). Anyway, the next picture shows Cyril "Si Tiaw Mo" (seated, middle) and Leo Sia (seated 2nd from right, who also contributed this picture), among many others whom I'll leave you to identify.

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So the big question remains - do girls really go for men in uniform? Three decades on, I hope some of the ladies looking at this posting will tell them the truth on whether this strategy worked or not ... :-)
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"What & Where in Kuching is This?" Challenge

In the previous Random Photo Album posting, there seemed to be some interest in the exercise of identifying familiar places in Kuching, from photos taken from unusual angles. Well friends, if you thought that was easy, you're probably right ... because it was simply a teaser to THIS challenge.

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NOW, let's see how well you really know our old hometown. There are 10 spots, and the winner is the one who gets all 10 right first. Remember you need to say WHAT it is, and also WHERE it is. There will be a prize, but I'm not telling you what it is yet. (Emmmm, just a note to CLK(f) : it's not an MB box!!!). Anyway submit your final answer by email to your friendly Website Jaga at jslyong@hotmail.com.
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Nothing to stop you making suggestions or having discussions with others via the "Comments" function (in fact I hope you do, to make it interesting) ... but you also run the risk of someone "leveraging" on your right identifications. Then again, you can also drop "red herrings" to send people off on the wrong paths .. like some of my clues ... hehehe.

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(1) Purfect Curl

(2) Slopey Shade

(3) Room with a View?

(4) Peaceful Rant

(5) Electrically-powered Thirst Quencher

(6) Old Signage

(7) What's the Point?

(8) House of Many "Eyes"

(9) If you like Bunnies ...

(10) Glassy gallery

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Good luck. Deadline for submissions is midnight on 30th June 2009 (MY/SG time).
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