My Most Memorable Olympic Star

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All of us have probably watched many Olympics Games over the years, the most recent likely to be the impressive Beijing Olympics of 2008. There have been many athletes who have impressed us with their various skills in swimming, running, jumping, lifting, and so on ...


For me however, the most memorable athlete was one pint-sized lass who competed in the Montreal Olympic Games of 1976. Do you know who I'm talking about?


Yup, she's none other than Nadia Comaneci of Romania, who at age 14 scored the first-ever perfect 10.0 with her routine in the uneven bars section of the gymnastics event. It was the first time in modern Olympic gymnastics history that the score had ever been awarded. The scoreboards were not even equipped to display scores of 10.0 — so Nadia's perfect marks were reported on the boards as 1.00 instead !


In fact she scored 10.0 six more times during that Olympics. The world applauded and fell in love with her.

Here are two videoclips that will surely bring back memories ...

I remember there was even a "Nadia's Theme" music which did quite well in the pop charts after the Olympics.


Nadia also went on to win two more golds at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.


But have you ever wondered what happened to Nadia Comaneci after those Olympic highlights?


Well, this is what Nadia looks like now ...

Obviously still a big star in her own right !


Anyway what I learnt was that Nadia went through some difficult years in the 80s. Her first attempt to defect resulted in her being closely monitored by the Romanian authorities. Eventually she did move to the US and holds dual citizenship (US and Romania).


In 1996, Nadia married US Olympic gymnast Bart Connor, himself a gold-medal winner. Together they run the Bart Connor Gymnastics Academy in Norman, Oklahoma. Their first child Dylan Connor was born in 2006.


In December 2003, Nadia published "Letters To A Young Gymnast", a combination of mentoring book and memoir. She has also been the subject of several unofficial biographies, TV documentaries and a made-for-television film, Nadia, that was broadcast in the United States just before the 1984 Olympics
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End of Road for the Sony Walkman

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This innovation started during the 70s and I think many of us grew up using cassette tapes ... So I reckoned some would feel a tinge of sadness at the discontinuation of this device.

The Sony Walkman, 1979 to 2010
Associated Press / October 26, 2010

NEW YORK — The Walkman, the Sony cassette device that forever changed music listening before becoming outdated by digital MP3 players and iPods, has died. It was 31 years old.


Sony has ceased production of the classic Walkman in Japan, the company said yesterday.

The Walkman is survived by the Discman (clinging to life) and by listeners who think a Walkman is charmingly out of touch.


It will continue to be produced in China and distributed in the United States, Europe, and some Asian countries. Digital Walkmans are also being made, with models that display lyrics and have improved noise-canceling technology.


Some 220 million Walkmans have been sold since 1979.

It was developed under the stewardship of Sony founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. Morita insisted the device not be focused on recording but on playback, an odd notion then.

© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.

Share your memories of early life with the humble cassette tape recorder.
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Condolences to Chris Sim Kay Guan

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Deepest condolences to our friend Christopher Sim Kay Guan (Form 5Sc, 1976) on the passing of his beloved father early this morning.

Our thoughts are with you and your family at this difficult time.


May he rest in peace.
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News : St Joseph's going PRIVATE ??

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Have you heard that St Joseph's School is going PRIVATE ? What I learnt is that it will be privatised, with the Church having majority ownership, and run as a private institution from year 2012.

I certainly don't have all the full details, and some of you will know much more than me. Please do share.

Ever Played with These 2 Balls ?

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Ha! I knew that would get your attention! I won't be surprised if my visitor count rises sharply over the next few days. 


Take a look at this picture ...

Look familiar ? Does it trigger some memories ?


These are the Klacker balls (also called Klik-Klaks, Ker-Bangers and a variety of other brand names), a toy first introduced onto the market in the late 1960's and lasted into the early 1970's. They consisted of two balls attached to a string. Most of the time, in the middle of the string, was a Ring for the user to hold onto. This was really a very simple idea. The balls looked like they were made of glass, but were really made of acrylic, which is a very dense, hard, plastic. The object of this game was to get the two balls going and have them 'CLICK' against each other. The user would build up momentum until the two balls were hitting each other on the top and on the bottom in an arc. This was challenging. Once you got it going, the balls would make a 'Click-Clack' sound, thus giving the game its name.


If you still cannot recall, maybe this video will help ...

Eventually these toys were removed from the shelves because it was reported that if they were hit the wrong way, they would shatter on impact. However I doubt anyone in Kuching ever saw that actually happening. It was probably just a safety precaution.

FoodFinder : Best Tu Kar around KL

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I'd like to restart the gourmet series that we had in the "St Joe Class of 76" blog for our wider audience ... (apologies to our Muslim friends that this first item is non-halal)

Recently I was in KL and asked Pip to bring me back for the tastiest Tu Kar rice around the area (yeah, I've eaten at this place before, and it now features regularly in my gastronomic dreams !). Of course, I know that excessive tu kar isn't exactly best for one's health, but hey, you only live once... In fact I would put this on my list of "100 Things You Need to Eat Before You Die", my culinary Bucket List if you like.

Well, photo above shows Pip with the boss and wife. Although the sign says "Claypot Bak Kut Teh" and that dish is good, I really think their secret weapon is the "Tu Kar" so don't forget to order both.

Me with my first morsel of tu kar. Note the smile of gastronomic bliss ...

How to get there? Here are the directions from Pip: "The place is actually in Petaling Jaya. It's between Taman Megah and Taman Bahagia LRT station, about 100 yards from the main traffic lights which are under the LDP flyover. Specifically it's on Jalan SS 2/4A and the shop is behind another corner kopitiam that faces Jalan SS 4A/1."

For those who read Chinese, here's their business card with the boss' contact number.

Be sure to tell the boss you learnt about his place from the blog. You might not get a discount, but he may throw in a few extra morsels in the claypot :-)

If any of you guys and gals out there have a favourite foodie place that you'd like to share - and it can be anywhere in the world - just send me the details (preferably with photos), and I'll try to post it up for all to enjoy !
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Hot Report : LOBO Concert in Singapore

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Earlier this evening, we just attended the Lobo concert in the Max Pavilion at the Singapore EXPO. A majority of the audience were in their forties and fifties, but there were also a number of younger people, including small children - obviously brought along by their parents. It was very entertaining, and the music transported us back to the 70s.

It started around 8:20pm (only twenty minutes late :-)  The opening act was a local duo of brothers, Mel and Joe, who sang a combination of country and rock-and-roll. They also did a good rendition of "Imagine". Apparently these two were quite well known as child singers, having made waves when they won the (Radio Television Singapore) Talentime singing contest in the Singapore of the 70s. Later they were also part of the band Gypsy.

Then Lobo came on. He looked older and somewhat more frail this time round, but his voice was still pitch perfect, and sounded exactly like in all his recordings. His delivery seemed effortless.

He sang almost all the popular songs we knew - "A Simple Man", "Don't Expect Me To Be Your Friend", "It Sure Took A Long, Long Time":, "Universal Soldier", "Love Me for What I Am", "Rock and Roll Days", "Rings", "Who Will Stop The Rain ","Yellow River" and of course "Me and You and a Dog named Boo" (and he assured the audience there really was a dog named Boo, someone's Alsation which was fortunately passing by when Lobo was mulling over what rhymed with "you" as he was penning the song).

In one part of the show, his partner went down among the audience and cajoled members of the audience to sing the chorus of "Stoney". Here's one of them ...

"Stoney, happy all the time, Stoney, life's a summertime ..."

There was also a cute little boy who bravely sang the Stoney song - a little out of tune, which made it even more adorable - and this brought a huge smile to Lobo's face. Clearly his music can transcend generations.

Here' a view of the audience ...

Something new about Lobo that we learnt tonight was that he has been married for 34 years, and that his son (shown below) is the drummer for the band.

The show ended around 11pm, with one of his signature songs "How Can I Tell Her".

A most nostalgic night indeed ...
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Historical Diversion: Revisiting Sheepstor, Devon UK

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Some of you who are new to this blog and its predecessor may not have heard of Sheepstor. I suggest you check one of the May 2009 postings of the Form 5 (1976) blog, where we had James Kuo (Form 5Sc, 1976) updating us on the little village of Sheepstor in the county of Devon in southern UK. You can read that posting for yourself on ...

http://stjoe-form5in1976.blogspot.com/2009/05/historical-detour-sarawak-story-in.html


A few days ago, I received an unexpected but very interesting email from a Mr Michael Williams from the UK. You can read the full email below


Subject: St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor, Devon UK
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:27:42 +0100


Dear Mr Yong,

Have just stumbled on your St. Jo's blog while trolling around the Sheepstor Church web sites and was very interested to see the contents.  I have a special interest in St Leonard's and Sarawak as not only do I now live in retirement very near the church, but I am a committee member of the newly-formed 'Friends of St Leonard's Church, Sheepstor'.  (Try our web site which you can Google under that name - part of the West Devon Benefice site).  I lived in Sarawak from 1963-67, working as a civil engineer for the Sarawak Government JKR (PWD) and on return to UK, for 25 years I was the Secretary (later President) of the UK based Sarawak Association, which has a world-wide membership, including many Sarawakians, resident and abroad, as well as all those expats like myself who have fallen under the spell of your wonderful country and its people and wish to maintain their friendships and contacts.  With that background I jumped at the chance of joining in the formation of the 'Friends' and became a committee member with responsibilty of fostering the links between the 'Friends', The Sarawak Association and Sarawak itself.

Sorry about the lengthy intro, but it seemed a good idea to explain my background and good intentions!

How interesting to see James Kuo's article on St Leonard's and what's more, to see that he lives in Plymouth.  We'd love to make contact and maybe introduce him to some of our local Sarawakian friends.  As it happens, it won't be long before the next 'Brooke Anniversary Lunch' which I organise in South Devon in the Spring on behalf of the Sarawak Association.  We had a very good get-together last April which was held at the mediaeval Dartington Hall in Devon.

Returning to St Leonard's - As evidenced by the visitors' book, we have many visitors to the church from all over the world, including Sarawak of course, similarly fascinated by the 'Brooke Connection' and I have been fortunate to meet quite a few of them.  Now that the 'Friends' Society has been established, we are holding all sorts of events, the first of which will be a folk music concert next Sunday.  Last week we had the pleasure of entertaining a group of former teachers and missionaries who had lived and worked in Sarawak for many years who were holding a reunion in Cornwall.  Very nostalgic for us all!  Also, some time ago, we had a visit from Lord Tanlaw, the grandson of the Third Rajah, when he came with his family to lay commemorative wreaths on the tombs of the three Rajahs.  Lord Tanlaw has since become the Patron of the 'Friends' Society.

That's probably about enough for the moment, but couldn't resist contacting you to and comment on the remarkable co-incidence of an ex-St Joseph's school alumnus dropping his anchor so close to us!  If any of your group or friends are in UK and are likely to visit Devon, please contact me and if at all possible, I'll be glad to meet them and show them around.

Very best wishes to you and your year group and look forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely,

Michael Williams JBS

I have also put James Kuo in touch with Mr Williams.

In a follow-up email, Mr Wiliams also clarified - for me at least - how the "tor" part of the village name "Sheepstor". This is what he had to say ...

"In answer to a question posed by one of your blog correspondents, the village of 'Sheepstor' gets its name from an adjacent mountain, the 'tor' part of it comes from the geological formation of eroded and exposed granite rock that's, typical of our SW England area.  The First Rajah bought a country estate in Sheepstor village in 1863 and that's called Burrator after the (rather small) 'tor' in its territory.  I've attached a photo which includes the church with Sheepstor in the background.  Some of our Sarawak friends are quite surprised at how wild our part of Engalnd is, as there are huge areas of high open moorland on which wild horses and cattle roam.  It's getting quite famous as we've just had Stephen Spielberg (the Hollywood film director) near here making another of his films - it's to be called 'War Horse' - look out for it later on!  M."

Here's the photo he attached.

How fascinating. Thanks Mr Williams. I'm sure you'll have many more Sarawakians wishing to contact you to find out more about the Brooke history they did not learn in school.

Remembering John Lennon

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Each year fans celebrate 9th October as the birthday anniversary of John Lennon, arguably one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. John was born in 1940 and would have been 70 today  had his life not been abruptly ended by a gunman just outside Lennon's Manhattan residence on 8th December 1980.

John Lennon was born is Liverpool, England in 1940. He formed his first band, a skiffle group called The Quarrymen, in 1956 with future Beatles members, George Harrison and Paul McCartney.

This post won't go into the phenomenal success of the Beatles, but the Fab Four lasted the entire decade of the 60s, and split up somewhere around 1970. John Lennon, with his second wife Yoko Ono, began a solo career and that was when he released his classic songs "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance". John was a fervent peace activist, and was very much against the Vietnam War.

I believe many of us Josephians of the Seventies love and can identify with the music of John Lennon, especially "Imagine". Here's a videoclip to trigger those memories ...

Thank you to John Lennon for his music. May he rest in peace
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Catch-up of four Form 5Sc (76) classmates in Singapore

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Look at this picture of a happy reunion of old friends ...

 L to R : Chen Liang Fang, Richard Lim Ngee Hong, Edmund Tan Cho Jueh, Jimmy Kho Khoon How

On 27 September 2010, the four old classmates met for a light supper and drinks at the Macpherson Night Stall in Singapore. According to Liang Fang, they met at 10pm and
talked about old days, present times and all the changes over the years. They had such a good conversation that they lost track of time, and the happy session only ended at 0030.

Liang Fang, Richard and Edmond all reside in Singapore. Liang Fang works with the Land Transport Authority in Singapore, while Richard is with HP Singapore. Edmond Tan  is a Veterinarian with his own business at Ang Mo Kio estate in Singapore. Jimmy Kho is working in Shanghai, and was on his way back to Kuching for a break.

Liang Fang had not met Edmond and Jimmy for 24 years. He commented that if any of our
classmates want to know more about the business tricks of working in China, Jimmy Kho certainly had a lot of humorous jokes and tips to share.


Contact info
Chen Liang Fang (liang_fang_chen@lta.gov.sg)
Richard Lim Ngee Hong (richard.limnh@gmail.com)
Edmond Tan (edmondtan@live.com)
Jimmy Kho Khoon Haw (jkhokh@yahoo.com)
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Random Shots from St Joe (Part 1)

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There was a recent request to post some photos of St Joe. I think there may be many Josephians who are now living away from Kuching, and perhaps have not 'balik kampong' for a while ... so these photos may be of interest to them too.

Here's the main building and statue of St Joseph ...

Fig 1

There's a saying that "The way to a man's heart is through the stomach" (ok, ok, no wisecracks now !!! :-) and so next we see the school canteen. I must say it hasn't changed that significantly since I was there.

Fig 2

Going up the stairs from the canteen, we see the rest of what we used to call the Science Block in the mid 70s, but now it's named the La Salle Block

Fig 3

Here's another view of the La Salle Block  ...

Fig 4

The block on the right did not exist in the mid 70s. Does anyone know when it was built? Anyway it's called the Josephian Block.

Fig 5

Next we see the Old Boys Block. I know this one well, having spent my 3rd, 4th and 5th Forms in the classrooms here.

Fig 6

Here's the familiar corridor in that same block ...

Fig 7

Here's the car park area behind the main block.

Fig 8

On the other side is of course the William Tan Auditorium ...

Here are some of the Form 5 (76) chaps visiting the auditorium ...

Fig 9a

Fig 9b

Here's the Datuk Polycarp Sim sports stadium ...

Fig 10

Let me stop here for now.  I reckon these photos should be enough to trigger some fond memories.

I'll continue the tour in Part 2 on another day.

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A Mini-Gathering in Kuching

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Recently, a small group of former Josephians - mostly from Form 5 (1976) - were invited by Dato' Anthony & Datin Jenna to a pre-launch cocktail party at the premises of Kuching Chiropractic Centre, located next to OneTJ Shopping Mall opposite the Stutong Roundabout (hmmm ... I guess at our age, we are just the right target customer segment for such services. LOL)

Here are some of the photos taken by Ben Wong during that evening ...

Fig 1: Band of Brothers

Fig 2: Datin Jenna explains?

Fig 3: Guess who's who?

Fig 4: What's the joke ?

Fig 5: Can't wait to eat ?

Seems like everyone had a good time, drinking, eating, chatting .... now that's what life is about.

Apologies for the slight graininess of some of the photos. Our buddy Ben obviously needs a new camera :-)
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Roll Call

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Remember when the teacher came into class and started calling out from the register. Well, we're going to do this roll call online this time. So let us know

*  Your name

*  Which years(s) you were at St Joe
     (or if you are connected to a Josephian, let us know how)

*  Where you are now living

*   Something interesting about you :-)

The School Prefects and Class Monitors will be on the lookout for anyone playing truant ("main ular").

Over to you.
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Welcome to "Josephians of the Seventies"

WELCOME to this new blog. As the name suggests, this blog is for all former Josephians of the 1970s (and their friends). So if you attended St Joseph's Secondary School, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia any time between 1970 and 1979, you should find the content of this blog relevant to you (I hope). Although the years may have been slightly different, during that decade I reckon we went through some common and enriching experiences at our alma mater.

This blog evolved from another blog "St Joe - Form 5 in 1976", which I created almost two years ago, and which has been quite successful reconnecting the boy who were in the three classes of Form 5, 1976. We have had a lot of fun updating each other, commenting on various topics of mutual interest, reminiscing on those good ol' days when we were teenagers and generally engaging in good natured banter. The blog also made possible a Grand Reunion on 23 Dec 2009 at Merdeka Palace, Kuching where almost seventy old boys and ten former teachers turned up for a memorable night. More recently the cohort also gave something back to the school. For those interested, check out the postings of that blog by clicking THIS and feel free to add your comments.

Well, how this blog develops will depend largely on you. What do you want to see? What memories, photos and articles will you contribute? What comments will you make? I will do my best to post most of the content you submit to me (subject to some edits, if they don't meet normal guidelines of decency in language and image). My email contact is jslyong@hotmail.com.

So I hope you'll start by telling all the Josephians of the 70s that you know about this blog, and encourage them to come by, contribute and comment. With that, Sons of St Joseph's, let the fun begin ....
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