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.
xx

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 ...
xx




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.
xxx


xxx

(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.

xxx

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 ... :-)
xxx

Mini Reunion in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur

On the evening of 2nd April 2009, seven members of the Form 5 Sc class of 1976 met up at Bangsar Shopping Centre, KL. We were at a place called La Bodega. Lots of wine, finger food, conversation and laughter. It was the first meeting after 33 years for some of us.

KCK was there early, waiting for us as PC picked two of us from around the KL Sentral area, and quickly got us to Bangsar around 7:30pm, albeit with some unsure navigation :-) About half an hour later CM joined us. For me, as one who hasn't seen my friends since Form 5 days, I must say that KCK has probably changed most in appearance, less so for the others. But when we got down to chatting, we quickly found out that the core of everyone had not changed at all.

KCK works for computer giant HP. Both PC and CM say they are semi-retired. Geez, some people are lucky, while others still have to slog away...

Left to right: PC, CK & JY

Another shot of us + CM who just joined us

After while, LC in a bright red shirt joined us, looking very fit and healthy. Been keeping up his gym cardio workouts, I am told. He has been working in the IT industry for many years, and is a senior executive in FSBM.

JY & LC

Later still, RZ dropped by - even excusing himself from a Petronas corporate function. I can still see the old Roney grin, although the top of the head is a little smoother and shinier. But the lanky look kinda suits Roney, who looks hip in his dark t-shirt.

JY & RZ

Good conversation lubricated by good wine

Look at the animated discussions (even from the back!)

Checking out old photos on the PC ... hey, i knew that gal!

RZ listening pensively ...

Three bottles of south american Carbernet Sauvignon and many plates of snacks later, we all stumbled to say goodbye for the night. Most of us can be seen in this group photo ....

Left to right: PC, LC's son, LC, RZ, KCK, CM & JY

Certainly a great evening. So, so much to catch up on. Hilarious stories from Kuching and Australia and New Zealand and UK, career recollections, ups and downs and twists of life, stories of who got hitched to who, family updates, perusing old photos from JY's notebook .... Six and half hours flew by without our feeling it. It was almost 2am by the time we left.

As Cyril later remarked "I've not laughed so much for a long while. Good for the soul ..." . I've no doubt that ALL present would agree with him. I hope this is just the first of a series of more regular mini-reunions, possibly with a bigger reunion later in the year.

[Cameraman's post-script: Apologies for the poor quality of the original set of shots. My old 10 mega-pixel camera obviously cannot compare with PC's 12.1 mega-pixel number, which generated most of this second batch of photos. Good stuff Philip. Thanks mate ...]