A Roaring New Year 2012

Happy New Year Everyone ...

Interesting Resolutions for 2012 ?

A very brief posting today ... 'cos you are supposed to weigh in with many, many comments :)

At the end of each year, it is traditional to sit back, reflect on the year's achievements and challenges, hits and misses, wins and losses .... and also make new year resolutions - what you want to achieve, areas of improvement, things to avoid, habits to develop or break .... Are there any interesting resolutions you have made, and wish to share?

Merry Christmas 2011

To all my friends who celebrate this feast day, a Very Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. And to all others, do have a great holiday.

In this holiday season, a few reminders: If you drink, please don't drive. If you drive, don't speed or be distracted by pretty things along the road. Stay safe.

Any Movies You Wanna Watch?

It's the Christmas season again ... and office productivity invariably takes a nosedive as people get into the holiday mood, and start planning their downtime activities. For me, it's vacation time, eating time and movie time.

In today's posting, I want to talk about movies. Especially a couple of  movies I'm keen to watch. Perhaps you can share yours too ...

While on the London Underground last week, I kept coming across the poster ads for two movies I'm looking forward to watching. It seems this is a season of strong ladies on the silver screen. .

Fig 1: This movie about the Burmese Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is
particularly relevant in recent times as US State Secretary Hillary Clinton made
a historic visit to the country & met Suu Kyi. There are now speculations on
the lifting of US trade sanctions.

Fig 2

A third movie I want to watch is the latest in the Mission Impossible series ...

Fig 3

Well, those are my choices. What are yours? Do share and let's have a nice holiday chat over some booze or soft drinks ... Ho ho ho ... Merry Christmas.

Cross Ref: The Story of Sarawak

If you are interested in Sarawak history, do click on the following two new postings on Sheepstor ...

http://story-of-sarawak.blogspot.com/2011/12/memorable-visit-to-sheepstor-part-1.html

and

http://story-of-sarawak.blogspot.com/2011/12/memorable-visit-to-sheepstor-part-2.html

Find out what this little village in the county of Devon, south-western England has to do with Sarawak history.

Interesting iPod / iPhone / iPad / Android Apps

Over the past few years, many of us have succumbed to the temptation of Apple IOS or Android devices and so are likely to have spent many hours downloading and fiddling with different apps on our various gadgets.

I admit I'm one of this growing number. Although a relative latecomer to the iPod/iPhone world, I admit to playing a bit of "catchup" with popular apps, and the iTunes Store is now a familiar place for me. Some of you will probably be very adept with the Android equivalent.

So today's posting will be about such apps .. those which are popular and those which are obscure, but especially those you have found particularly useful or enjoyable. What apps do you have on your device? What do you find most useful? Most entertaining? Most interesting?

C'mon .... join us and share your digital adventures ...

Ideas for Year End Holidays

2011 is drawing to a close and the year-end holiday season is almost here again. I've had some suggestions for a blog posting for us to discuss holiday plans and give each other some ideas where to go, what to see, how to grab the best deals, how to get there, etcetra etcetra ...  Who knows ... perhaps a few families might decide to get together for a joint holiday. After all it has been some time since the last class trip :)

So today, our "Josephians of the Seventies" blog will try to play the role of holiday planner.

Let me start by listing some questions, just to trigger discussions ...

*  Family holiday or solo trip?
*  What do you look for in an ideal holiday?
*  Are "guided tours" better or do you prefer "free and easy"?
*  Do you have an overall multi-year holiday plan (on where you'd like to go)?
*  Where did you go last year?
*  Where are you considering this year?
*  When and where was your all-time best holiday, and why?

Okay, let the conversations begin ...

Bro Columba in Singapore

Last evening, a group of around twenty Josephians from different years hosted Bro Columba to dinner in Singapore. Ta Ker is on his way back to Sarawak.

Here are a few photos from the evening. See who you can identify ...

Fig 1a

Fig 1b

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Fig 6

Fig 7

Fig 8

Perhaps I'll add more photos later  ...

An interesting CNNGo article

Hello lads, apart from you guys and gals, it seems someone else has come across this blog. Last week, an Associate Editor from CNNGo asked me for permission to use one of the photos on the blog for an upcoming article.

Well, the article is entitled

Asia: Where the ghosts of the West's forgotten bands live on

and here's the link ...

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/play/asia-ghosts-wests-bad-bands-live-433150?page=0,0

Check it out.

Did you spot the photo?

Great Dates this Year

From the title of this post, I suspect some of you are thinking of other things. C'mon now, don't let your imagination run away with you.

I'm referring to calendar dates, many of which have been quite interesting and special in this year 2011.

This posting will examine some of these dates ...

First there were the dates containing all 1's

1st Jan 2011 (1.1.11)

11th Jan 2011 (11.1.11)

1st Nov (1.11.11) and

11th Nov (11..11.11) ... this one is seen to be especially auspicious.

Then there were the so-called "binary dates" - binary meaning 1 and 0, as anyone with a bit of computer knowledge knows. So these dates were

10th Jan (10.1.11)

1st Oct (1.10.11)

10th Oct (10.10.11) and

11th Oct (11.10.11)

Then there were what I like to call "double barrel" dates, which mirrors or repeats the numeric sequence in an interesting way, like

11th Feb (11.02.2011) 

and today .....  20th Nov (20.11.2011)

Dates like 11.1.11, 11.11.11, 11.02.2011 are symmetrical dates, because you can read the digits from left or right. Sentences with the same properties are called palindromes. Some famous ones are "Able was I ere I saw Elba" (supposedly said by Napolean after he was exiled to the Island of Elba) and "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama" (about the  chap, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who developed the Panama Canal) ...

But I'm digressing. We were talking about calendar dates. Dates have been studied by astrologers, historians, numerologists, and feng shui consultants over the ages. I'm not a believer in any special significance of these numbers, but I realise that a proportion of the world's population do, and mass behaviour have a certain way of making things happen. Those of you who dabble in the stock market will know something about this ...

Anyway, today's a very nice date. So let me wish all of you an absolutely nice day.

Musical Interlude: Old Songs I'd Almost Forgotten

This posting simply pulls together a few old, nice-sounding songs I liked during the 70s. I haven't heard them for a long time and it's really nostalgic to listen to them again after such a long time ...So sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy !

The first song "Funny, Funny" is one I heard countless times from the radio, but I didn't imagine the band members of  Sweet looked like this. No MTV channel back then lah ....





This next hit from the Bay City Rollers came out during 1974 when I was in Form 3 ... now where are my old tartan pants?




I never thought of it back then, but this next song from the early 70s is all about desertion ... Have a listen and tell me if you agree with me  :)




I am willing to bet that you won't be able to listen to this next song without thinking of a certain brand of softdrink. Any takers?




Although the Seventies was three decades ago, it still seems like Only Yesterday ...




And that of course was the incomparable voice of the late  Karen Carpenter.

Hope this little selection transported you back to the Swinging 70s for a while ...

Be Prepared

Many of our schoolmates were Boy Scouts back at St Joe. The Scout movement was started by Robert Baden-Powell in UK in 1907, and has spread to more than 200 countries around the world, with some 38 million members. Scouting in Malaysia started with the state of Sabah in 1913. Sarawak followed in 1915. "Be prepared", the motto of the international scout movement, has always been a good reminder for facing the vicissitudes of life.

Here's a photo, courtesy of Pierce Chow, showing the IX Kuching Scout Group of 1978.

Fig 1

See how many individuals you can name.


Further Additions

Sky Sim (Form 5 in 1976) just sent me another old  photo. I'll leave it to Sky to tell you the year and occasion. He was the Group Leader then.

Fig 2

Here are a few more from Sky. Unfortunately some of these are not as clear as the first one. We're trying to get a better scan, but in the meantime you'll just have to squint a bit  :-)

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Fig 6

Fig 7

Don't get all knotted now ... share any photos and stories from your scouting days ...

Boys in Blue

A happy mini-reunion in Kuala Lumpur ... All three are from the Class of 76.

And no reunion is complete without good foooood .....

JK, JY & PC

And KL is certainly a foodie paradise ... 

Yummy Sarawak fare in KL

Hmmm ... how did Kuo get to be so tall?

Tu Kar and Glass Noodles

Ahhhhhhhh .... BURP !

Selamat Hari Raya Haji

How time flies. Another year has passed ...

To all Muslim friends, have a blessed celebration. To all others, have a great holiday.

SKY comes home

LIVE Pictures ... Posted probably while it is still happening ... 950pm

The gang at the Badger Bar, Sarawak Club with visiting buddy Sim Kuan Yang (aka SKY), who is based Down Under.

See if you can name everyone in the photo

Looks like all having a good time, boys of 1976 !

Best Food Checklist (Kuching)

Many Sarawakians who live outside of the state and don't come back frequently will often crave the local food. I know that for me and many others I know, each trip back to Kuching is like a culinary pilgrimage ... we rush here, there and everywhere to stuff ourselves with our favourite fare - be it kolo mee, laksa, rojak or dozens of others.

So I've always wanted to make a checklist of where to get THE BEST of each kind of popular dishes. This posting is going to be very interactive, as I'm going to ask you guys and gals in Kuching to tell me where in town you think the best of each of the dishes can be found. I will simply provide some of the categories, and fill them in based on your comments and suggestions. So please give as many comments as you like.

Kolo Mee
* Sin Lian Shin, Green Road

Sarawak Laksa
*  Foody Goody, Stutong
*  Choon Choon
*  Mega One Food Court, Kings Centre (just outside Smart Supermarket)
*  Thompson Corner, Tabuan Road

Tomato Fried Mee
* Open Air Market
* Sarawak Club, main hall

Fishhead Bee Hoon
*  Lee Cafe, Stutong

Char Kueh Teow (with beansprouts)
* Merry Park
* Kenyalang Park market

Gu Bak Mee (Beef Noodles)
*  Open Air Market (opposite Electra House)
*  Corner coffeeshop opposite Rex (night only)
*  Foodcentre at Spring Foodcourt

Mee Rebus
*  Court House canteen (to get in, either commit a crime or get Uncle George to bring you in :-)

Rojak
*  Open Market
*  Coffeeshop at King's Centre near GL's office (which block George?)

Satay
*  Lau Ya Keng

Hay Pia
*  Da-Light Foodcourt, just next to King's Centre
*  Peterson's Corner, next to Satok jungle produce market
*  Coffeeshop (on corner) opposite former Rex cinema (now cineplex)


Lui Cha
* Next stall to above Hay Pia stall at Da-Light
*  Big Mouth at Jln Dogan


Poh Piah
*  Choon Hui (near Hotel Grand Continental)
*  Kwong Hup, Jalan Keretapi
*  BDC

Kueh Chap
* Lau Ya Keng, Carpenter Street

Bak Moi
* Lau Ya Keng, Carpenter Street (morning & evening)
* Ling Loong, entrance to King's Centre

Curry Rice
* Nam Kwang, 3rd Mile Bazaar

Roast Chicken with Ginger Rice
*  Corner coffeeshop opposite Rex

Ayam Penyet
*  Eating area next to Old Mosque in town

Pork Leg Rice (aka Tu Kar Peng)
*  Lee Cafe (near Heritage Restaurant, off Song Thian Cheok Rd & Ban Hock Road)

Bak Kut Teh
* Mega One Food Court, Kings Centre (just outside Smart Supermarket)

Kachang Ma
* ????

You can also suggest other food that I might have left out.

If this interactive posting works out for popular food in Kuching, we may do Sibu and Miri also ...

Musical Interlude from the 70s

Time for some music. Turn up the volume and enjoy these cool hits from the 70s ...

This one has some cute animations ...





This next one was big too ... hmmm, I suddenly feel like having an Iced Lemon Tea ...





And who could forget the Bay City Rollers? Bring out your tartan outfits ...





I don't think I ever saw this cartoon version, but the song was certainly a favourite at St Mike's ...





Well, hope you enjoyed those. Any other songs you remember from those days?

Happy Halloween !

To all those who celebrate this ...

Boo !

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !

Josephians Mini-Gathering in Singapore

Last evening, my family and I had a very nice dinner with two other  Josephians, both of whom were also at St Joe in the Seventies. They were Ignatius Lee (living in Singapore) and Ken Lai (living in Australia).

L to R: Ignatius, James & Ken

To make things more interesting, here's a little quiz for you (total 20 points)

Q1.   For 2 points, can you put them in the order they attended St Joe (earlier to later)?

Q2.   For 3 points, can you roughly guess the years each person was at St Joe?

Q3.   For 4 points, can you name 2 products/services being shown in the photo?

Q4.   For 11 points, can you comment who is the most good looking? Ha ha ha ha .....

Attractive "no prizes" for the one with highest score ....

Class of 76: Chance Meeting

Here's what our roving photographer Ben Wong caught on camera, in front of Sarawak Club around noon today.

These boys from Form 5 (1976), N. Subra and Raymond Goh Boon Phin, have not met each other for many, many years. Perhaps since their days at St Joe?

Looking good, guys.

Always nice to witness such reunions ...

Happy Deepavali 2011

In a few days time, our Hindu friends will celebrate Deepavali (also called Devali or Diwali). Popularly known as "The Festival of Lights", this is a very important festival in Hinduism.

The word "Diwali" translates into a "row of lamps". The festival involves the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.

To my friends who celebrate the occasion, have a Happy Deepavali, and to all others have a good holiday.

Bro Columba's Upcoming Visit

Here's an email sent out by fellow Josephian, Ruth Wong, who is now working in Singapore. The message is targeted at Josephians based in Singapore. I guess those of you in Sarawak may want to make your own arrangements for dinner or meeting with "Ta Ker" ...

From: WONG Yeang Lam Ruth (ELL) [mailto:ruth.wong@nie.edu.sg]
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 7:53 AM
Subject: Bro Columba's visit 2011

Dear all

As some of you know, Bro Columba will be passing this way in Nov, on his tri-annual visit to the Land of the Hornbill. He has expressed a preference for meeting up with smaller groups for more meaningful interaction. However, he stressed that if that is not possible, then he’s ok with meeting up with a big group as we did in the past. He understands that we are all busy working people J

I have drawn up his itinerary and indicated the available makan slots (available from Ruth). The plan is that you gather some friends and “chope” a slot. I wld appreciate the “coordinator” of each slot providing the following information:

1.      Coordinator’s name (Year in Form 5 or Form 6 – just to help Bro C place your group)

2.      Contact no.

3.      Suggested venue

4.      Start time of gathering

I am happy to coordinate the dinner for 25 Nov (Fri), and welcome all those who’d like to join me in this slot. Just let me know and I’ll contact you again nearer the time re the venue.

Thank you.

Regards

ruth

National Institute of Education (Singapore)
http://www.nie.edu.sg




Those in Singapore who are interested in participating, please contact Ruth directly. I'll probably join Ruth and the others for the dinner on Nov 25th, provided I don't have any last minute travel.


I believe Bro Columba will be in Sarawak between 28th Nov to 12th Dec 2011.

The Secret Sanctuary

On my recent trip back to good ol' Kuching, I was introduced to this awesome place called The Secret Sanctuary. In the marketing pamphlet it is positioned as a boutique cottage .... in reality it is a mini-hotel, a restaurant, a showcase of Sarawak architectural design, a chill out joint and a place to get connected to nature. Filled with rustic furnishings, native designs and much greenery, it is certainly a good place to relax and meditate.

Fig 1: I love the hammock

The place is located off that big roundabout near Stutong Market, Kuching Specialist Hospital and ICAT College. You should take the road which leads to ICAT College, near the Nissan showroom.  Anyway I think there's a little map in the pamphlet which I'll take a picture of ...

Well, here's one of the attractions ...

Fig 2: The Pool ... Isn't the water inviting?

We had a delicious dinner here - an eclectic blend of native and Chinese food, so appropriate for Borneo. This is obviously quite a popular place. That evening we were there, there was a big Halloween Function in one of the halls, and we could also see quite a few tables with diners and in addition, there were other Japanese or Korean tourists strolling around the place.

Here's the pamphlet giving more details of the place ...

Fig 3: Pamphlet

Finally there's a cute little doggy named Barry and a couple of fat cats, belonging to the owner.

Fig 4: Cute doggy named Barry

I recommend you guys check out the place - either to stay, have dinner or as a venue for parties or corporate functions. Call Cyril Lim at +6019 888 8986 or email him at cyril@thesecretsanctuary.com.

I think I may come back and stay a few days at The Secret Sanctuary to work on my next book.

Scenes from the Sunday Market, Kuching

For those of you who are living away from Sarawak, these are some colourful and heartwarming scenes from the Sunday market at Satok Road, Kuching. Enjoy but be careful ... they may also make you hungry!

Fig 1: Chillies and other hot stuff

Fig 2: Roots and shoots

Fig 3: Reminds me of the "Banana Boat" song ... Day-O ...

Fig 4: Lemang and friends

Fig 5: "Very fresh, very cheap ..."

If you have other nice photos from this fascinating place, send them to me at jslyong@hotmail.com .

The Sarawak River

One of my favourite views of Kuching is that of the Sarawak River. The familiar image of the "teh si" coloured waterway meandering gracefully through downtown Kuching, with the Matang or Santubong mountains in the background, is one that evokes feelings of peace and tranquility (for me at least).

In the old days, boatmen used to row their little "tambangs" to ferry people across the river for as little as 5 cents per passenger. These days, the boats are more often than not motor powered and I'm sure the price is a lot more than 5 cents.

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

I can even imagine that much of this broad scenery (apart from that DUN monstrosity) remaining relatively unchanged since the day when the adventurer James Brooke sailed down the river in "The Royalist".back in 1839, about 170 years ago ...

Just look at this painting from the early 1800s ...

Fig 4

I also like the look of Fort Margherita, nestled among the foliage. This fort was built in 1879 by the Second White Rajah, Sir Charles Brooke, and named after his wife, the Ranee Margaret. It was supposed to protect Kuching from marauding pirates and other enemies. Fort Margherita is also where during my childhood n the sixties, the 8 o'clock cannon was fired every night without fail.

Fig 5

Added later

I also took a tambang trip across to the kampong side of the Sarawak River. Here are some more photos ...

Fig 6

Fig 7

Fig 8

Fig 9

Fig 10

Fig 11

Fig 12

Well, enjoy the pictures. I'll add a few more once I get them.

Whether you are living in Kuching or staying overseas, do share your recollections of the sights and sounds of this lovely place.