Here's a note from a former 76 brother, now living Down Under ...
Dear brothers of class 76,
First, I have to thank Sky Sim Kuan Yang, none other than another class of '76 who is also another resident of Canberra for ringing me up excitely yesterday (7 June 2011 4:50pm) about finding James's blog. What a timing and coincidence - 7/6/ '76. Is there anything significant there? I have yet to go through the whole blog and already I am finding heaps of treasures one of which is all your email addresses. I also realise that some of us have decided to leave us early and to them, I shall say, we will meet again in the second life.
Yes, we were not there but it is never never too late to turn up for the roll call, so "Greetings from Canberra, Australia - Class '76)!"
Please feel free to drop me a line and if I could response in enough short tome, please accept my apology.
Best regards,
Anthony Tiong
Form 5 Arts 1 - '76
Canberra, Australia
Anthony Tiong,are you related to Peter Tiong now living in Bangkok ?
ReplyDeleteHi Kay Poh,
ReplyDeleteNo, I am not or at least that I am aware of. We could be the only Tiongs in Kuching then. I don't believe Peter and myself knows each really that well. Unfortunately that is just the way it is when you have big classes and students forming little groups.
We need to go buy 4-D ... 7676 !!!!
ReplyDeleteTell us your story, Anthony ... How you ended up Down Under, what you are doing, family, past times?
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't think my story would be much different with everybody else who have gone overseas. Every family wanting their children to further their education if possible. I did my lower 6 briefly at st joseph. I am no Einstein unlike a few brothers here who could go to local university. In those days, Australia has a policy of recruiting third world overseas students as a form of foreign aid, I think. It was also at the time when the new Labour government was in power and they abolished the school fees unlike now. It was indeed a period of rock and roll. With my brother already here, btw, who is also a ex-josephian ('75), coming down under was just a logical choice. So, that is the guts of how I ended down here.
ReplyDeleteI have 2 children. My son is doing his 2nd year at Sydney Uni and my daughter has a couple more years before uni.
I am currently working for the Australia Government in the Department Human Services as one of the technical IT specialists there.
I am no different to everybody - trying my best to raise a family and of course with an eye to retirement in the near future - hopefully sooner rather than later.
I enjoy reading and catching up with friends is not my forte. I have to say over the last couple years, thinking about the class of '76 was a recurring theme. That class photo was what I have been thinking about for a long, long time so to see that photo was wonderful. Still trying to work out who is who.
As I told James, his blog is like that British series called - "Seven up" where the lives of a number of British kids were interviewed over 7 years interval. Every person has their own unique story of trials, successes, failures and experiences to tell.
I hope I have answered some of your questions there....
Thanks bro. Indeed Malaysia has lost many talented sons and daughters due to its ill-conceived policies.
ReplyDeleteCan't really recall how he looked like in 1974 or in 1976.....any photos boh?
ReplyDeleteI must say the photo above looks like Dato' Anthony a little..no? Yes la...'tam pok' ada la.
Anthony, can you send a photo of yourself in 1976 to WJ, to do a "Before and After" posting
ReplyDeleteAny comments from Sky? We'd all love to hear from another old Josephian from the 70s
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I am not sure if I have one in Canberra. There may be one in Kuching. Will have to wait until I make a trip home.
ReplyDeleteAnthony
Ha, Ha, Looking like Dato' Anthony. Yes, I shall take his title but not his good looks though.
ReplyDeleteAnthony
btw, Sky Sim and myself will probably catching up for our own mini reunion in a couple of weeks time. Both our children are on holidays soon so we will catch up. I don't get to meet Sky that much except bumping into each other at a music concert or something. I shall ask him to post something here as well.
ReplyDeleteAnthony
Also a big thank you to those who have responded to my emails. I heard from John Lee from UK, Ben Wong, Robert Chin, Lawrence Chin, Bartholomew from Cambodia. Please, I would love to hear from more... Some of you may not even know who I am in a class '76 of ~120.
ReplyDeleteAnthony
Refugees is such a big issue in Australia right now. A tv program started tonight - "go back to where u come from" brings 6 aussi with racist attitudes together to go through that experience. Their next surprise trip is to Malaysia. I have no idea that it has 100,000+ refugees in the country. What is the feeling of most Malaysians about the refugees there?
ReplyDeletewhy no word from Sky yet?
ReplyDelete