St Joe Form 5 (1976) - Grand Reunion - Bro Columba's Message

Yesterday (16/10), George wrote to Bro Columba in Ireland to invite him to come to our Grand Reunion. His email in reply is reproduced below.


Dear George,

Thanks for the email and to all concerned for the kind and generous invitation to your coming Grand Reunion of the '76 Form 5 Class. The invitation is greatly appreciated but unfortunately I will not be able to travel at that time, and am informing you immediately so that you can proceed with your arrangements for the Big Night.

As some of the class will know, I was in Kuching for 3 weeks in January of this year, and even if I were free to travel, a second trip in one year would probably be a bit much!

I have greatly enjoyed browsing through the contributions to James Yong's blog and am delighted that so many are registering for the reunion. The names bring back so many happy memories, even if I have difficulty associating 'faces' with some of the names; probably ones who were neither 'famous' nor 'infamous' in school!!

I am particularly happy to note that the Reunion incorporates the 3 classes and reflects the multi ethnic/religious composition of your society.

I find it difficult to believe that 33 years have slipped by since we campaigned together and that most of the class have passed 'Batu 50' on life's journey this year! Makes me feel ancient!

I hope you get a realy big turn out for the occasion. Thanks again for the invitation, for offers of sponsorship and to Anthony for his contacts with Air Asia, all deeply appreciated.

Please convey my very best wishes to all. My thoughts will be with you across the miles on 23rd. Have a lovely evening, enjoy it to the full, and God bless all.




Warmest regards,


Brother Columba.


October 17, 2009.

Reunion 2009

The purpose of this post is to help us organise our next Reunion Celebration in 2009. It will be 33 years since we were all in Form 5 in 1976. Furthermore all of us will be hitting (or have hit) the Big 5 in terms of age. We might even use the tagline "Life Begins at Fifty" (only a suggestion, lah! Other inputs are of course welcome.)

We need to first agree on two key things - WHERE and WHEN.

WHERE
There have been a few locations suggested:

(A) Mr Sinos proposes the exotic location of Siem Reap, Cambodia. Imagine dining and dancing with the famous and historic Angkor Wat in the background. As Sinos is based there, he is familiar with the place and can help advise us on travel and accomodation. A few others have already expressed interest in this option.

(B) Kuala Lumpur is another suggestion, as a number of old boys are based there, and KL does have a lot of shopping malls, eateries and drinking spots to amuse us.

(C) Of course, the default venue is our home town Kuching, which is convenient for many who are still living there. For those flying in, we can take the opportunity to visit relatives, and perhaps also make a visit to our old alma mater.

We are still open for other venues, so do give your suggestions.

WHEN
Instead of pinning down the exact date now, which might be difficult, I suggest we first decide on the month. Since it is already March, I don't think it's practical to expect that the reunion can happen until the second half of the year, perhaps no earlier than August. What do you guys think?

So I suggest to you after reading this to give us at least two things in your comments - which venue you prefer (either A, B, C or somewhere else that you suggest), and which month would be better for you? And for this feedback, try not to be anonymous, ok?

Any other feedback or ideas relating to this reunion are most welcome. Over to you ...

In the News: Chinese get ready for the Year of the Ox

Here's a piece by Katie Campling in the "Huddersfield Daily Examiner" newspaper on Jan 14, 2009, which features our old friend John Lee, now living in the UK ...

An extravaganza of traditional celebrations will see in the Chinese New Year later this month.

Huddersfield Chinese Community Centre has organised a day of entertainment to celebrate the dawn of the Year of the Ox.

The event will be on Saturday January 24 at the National Children’s Centre at New North Parade – although Chinese New Year does not officially start until January 26.

The day of fun will start with a traditional Chinese lion dance at 11.30am, followed by demonstrations of martial art tai chi and a children’s music and dance performance.

A more energetic martial arts display of Taekwondo will take place after lunch, followed by a Chinese music performance and magic show.

There will also be a variety of stalls offering arts and crafts, food, jewellery, herbs and medicines and calligraphy.

It costs £1 for adults to visit the event and entry is free for under 12s.

Last year’s event at the start of the Year of the Rat attracted 600 people and the Association is hoping for a big attendance this year.

The Chinese New Year event is one of the highlight of the calendar for the Chinese Community Association, which is based at Cambridge Road.

John Lee, the new chairman of the Association’s board of trustees, said events like this helped attract people of all cultures to the association.

He said: “There will be something for everyone. People don’t have to be Chinese. The group is for anyone interested in the culture and history or in learning language such as Mandarin.

“It’s a chance to meet people and gain skills or join in activities. For instance, older people like to come and meet to play mah jong.”

Mr Lee is keen to promote the different activities the Association offers.

They include translation services, Mandarin language classes, tai chi classes, English classes and Chinese catering services for people in their homes.

Mr Lee said: “There are quite a number of Chinese origin people who don’t know we exist or what we offer.

“Chinese people tend to be quite spread around, we don’t all live the same community. So it’s good to have the group as a focal point.

“We do offer a wide range of things for all kinds of people.”

Way to go, John !

The original website can be found at http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2009/01/14/chinese-get-ready-for-the-year-of-the-ox-86081-22685416/

Our Teachers of 1976

Here are the teachers who moulded our academic, sports & extra-curricular lives in those formative Form 4 & 5 years.

We'd like to invite YOU (yes, YOU who is reading this right now!) to add some comments on what you remembered about some of them ...

Bro Adrian - English

Bro Mark - Scripture, English

Mrs Lau - English

Mr Nicholas Jee - Literature

Mr William Chan - Mathematics

Mr Clarence - Additional Mathematics

Mrs Bugo - General Science

Mr Joseph - Physics

Mr Sebastian - Chemistry

Mr Matthai - Biology

Mrs A. Tan - Geography

Mrs Minos - History

Mr Augustine Ong - Commerce

Mr Matthias Lee - Scripture

Mr Simon Lo - Woodwork

Mr Lee Hock Kia - Arts & Crafts

Cikgu Bujang Mol - Bahasa Malaysia


I will be looking for photographs to accompany these names. If you have some, do send them to me at jslyong@hotmail.com .

Class Photos from "Ad Astra" 1976

I'm sure you'll agree that here are the three most important pages from the St Joseph's Secondary School magazine "Ad Astra" in the year 1976 :-)

Scanned images courtesy of Lawrence Chin.

A 2006 Reunion in Kuching

In December 2006, members of the three classes of Form 5 (1976) organized a 30 year get-together at the Meisan restaurant, Holiday Inn Kuching.

By courtesy of our friend Lawrence Chin, here are some photos from the occasion. See how many people you can recognise !

Who were in Form 5 Arts 2 ?

Here is the class list for Form 5 Arts 2 (1976).

Please help to update what you've been up to & your current contact details by sending to the Website Jaga (jslyong@hotmail.com) or adding into the comments for this post.


GRAND REUNION 2009
Colour of name: Green=registered; Red=not attending; Blue=yet to be registered


Suhiri Affendi

Alhadi

Chan Siew Chin

Chang Kok Cheng

David S C Chieng

Edward Chin (chinngianhock@yahoo.com.sg) is a senior executive with InterCargo (Kuching) Sdn Bhd.

Mark Chin is based in Mongolia (lucky fella!)


Robert Chin (robertjfc@gmail.com) runs his own business, and is based in Kuching.

Peter Foo

Willie Foo



Ricardo Gunter

Simon Heng

Datuk Justine Jinggut (justinejinggut@gmail.com) is a political leader with SNAP in Sarawak

Ronald Kueh (ronald_kueh@yahoo.com) is in Sarawak.

Aaron Kong

Peter Lam

Januarius Liew 

Hendrich Edward Mitop

Poh Chuan Hoe

Png Thiam Chai

Subramaniam is a senior officer in Bukit Aman, KL.

Frederick Tan

Norman Tan

Patrick Then


Wilson Tambil

Peter Tiong Khun Tzan (peter@magnusprojects.com) runs his own architectural & design firm in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sim Sian Kwang


Loh Siaw Boon

Musadad Sazall

Bartholomew Sinos (sinos0505@yahoo.com ) is an executive in the aviation industry, and based at Siem Reap, Kingdom of Cambodia.

Patrick Unpau

Norazian Abdul Wadzil

Wee Ek Hock (wehjj@xtra.co.nz) lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Benjamin Wong (myben868@yahoo.com) is with Standard Resources (http://www.resourcefulname.com/) based in Kuching. His business specialises in souvenirs and premium gifts.

Stephen Yeo
.
Robert Ong

Alexius Reggie

Lim Soon Huat

Lim Cho Chua

Purpose of this Website

This is a Class Reconnection Blog. It is one of the steps being taken to work towards a reunion of the members of the three Form 5 classes (5 Sc, 5 Arts 1, 5 Arts 2) of St Joseph's School, Kuching in 1976. So if YOU are part of that select group, or linked to the group in any way (eg spouses, partners, children), this website is for YOU.

It's been more than three decades since those wonderful times of 1976. We were 17 then; most of us will be be pushing 50 this year. High time for another reunion? As more time passes, it'll take a lot more detective work to track down the many members of Form 5 (1976) spread all over the world. This blog can serve as a virtual reunion and repository of memories as we work towards the less frequent physical reunions.

For this website to come alive, we need names. We need contact details. We need anything that brings back memories (photos, scanned documents, articles, notes, websites, videos, etc) related to that cohort of students. For now, send them to me & I will update this website so more can enjoy them. If you have pictures from meetings with classmates somewhere, please do share them.

My contact details are

email: jslyong@hotmail.com
mobile: +65 96678155

Finally I welcome any comments, ideas and offers of help.

A very happy, healthy, prosperous & meaningful 2009 to all of you!

--- James Yong