Caption time again ...

Here's another picture from the past ....

The place is London, UK.  The year is either 1977 or 78.

What in the world were these five dashing young men from Borneo up to?

Anyway, here's another opportunity for you to suggest the best caption for this photo.

A Historical Detour: The Sarawak Story in Sheepstor

Today this blog gets a bit more serious and sophisticated as we make an interesting historical detour, courtesy of our surgeon friend James Kuo.
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James lives in Plymouth, in the county of Devon in southern UK. This is not far from a certain small town called Sheepstor, a beautiful little village set in lovely countryside on the western edge of Dartmoor.
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The picture below shows Sheepstor Church.

So why are we so fixated on this little town? Hold on, it'll become clearer in a minute. First put on your glasses and look at the tiny reddish rectangular object on the right side of the church grounds, near to the further wall. Do you see it?

Well, here's the same reddish object at close range ...

Can you guess yet? Well, these are the graves of James Brooke (1803-1868), Charles Brooke (1829-1917) & Charles Vyner Brooke (1874-1963), the three White Rajahs of Sarawak. [Kuo, I know the red grave is James Brooke's final resting place. Can you remind me again which one is Charles' and which Charles Vyner's]. Boys & girls, remember your Sarawak history lessons back in school?
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After returning to England in 1863, Sir James Brooke bought a home in Sheepstor. His house was called Burrator House. Here's the front gate. Pity we can show it to you as it is now private property.


Hanging prominently inside Sheepstor Church is a "Pua Kumbu" or ceremonial blanket, which was presented in 1996 by Dr James Masing, then Asst Minister of Tourism, as a gift from the people of Sarawak. Indeed many Sarawakian names can be seen in the visitors book at the church, as they pay their respects to the three generations of Brooke who were so influential in the early development of Sarawak.





Well, I hope you enjoyed that historical journey. Thanks again to James Kuo for making the trip to Sheepstor and supplying these photos. Kuo, your former history teachers would've been proud of you. They might even excuse you for those warm afternoons when you dozed off in their class.

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A Micro-Reunion in Cambridge, UK

Just received news from James Kuo about a micro-reunion they had in the UK last week. I'll let JK describe the event in his own words ...
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"On the morning of the 18th April 09, we set off on a long 5 hours drive to Cambridge to pay a visit to the 'Brain' of Form 5 1976 (Mr Ho Boon Chiang).

For those of you who may be suffering from early onset dementia, Mr HBC is the guy who owned a crappy old bike and whose official residence was at The Library, St Joseph's School. He held on stubbornly/greedily to the No 1 position in the Class year after year. While he remained 100% focused on his work, most of the others (ha ha, me excluded) would be focusing on the beauties across the road. Now who is missing out then? Well boys, he has finally met his match. He was discussing statistics with his better half (IN) and it was obvious who the winner was. Mr BC, let me remind you of the 2 golden rules. No 1: never argue with a Cambridge Professor, No 2: even if you are right, admit defeat to keep the peace at home, right???

The long journey was well worth it as we were treated to a feast of local Malaysian food: Sarawak Laksa, Belacan Bee Hoon, home made kaya etc. Yum yum. Compliments to the Chef esp the daughter, EH, who prepared the delicious belacan bee hoon. Thank you.

Most of the conversations were centered on our 'old' classmates back at the Kampung. It was a great evening overall and we set off back home at 9.30pm and arriving back home the following day at 7 pm (OK, that was with a stopover in Birmingham). "


Now for the photos ...

Left to right: Khim (Mrs Kuo), James, Boon Chiang, SH, Irene (Mrs Ho), EH

Wow! We managed to get BC to smile!

Thanks for the update. From the looks of it, a wonderful feast and reunion. The first of many such gatherings I'm sure ... next time, make sure we are invited too, ok? :-)

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James & James - Meet-up after 15 Years

Two James' from Form 5Sc, namely James Kuo and James Yong, met up in London in December 2008. After St Joseph's, both James' did their A-levels at Sevenoaks School in Kent, UK, before proceeding to university. The previous time they met was some 15 years ago. James Kuo is now a heart surgeon with Plymouth Hospitals, Devon, UK. James Yong is a regional director & writer, with Cisco Systems and based in Singapore.