Relax ,Take It Easy

This guy(Mika) seems so gay to me but he has such a nice catchy song with a fantastic music video to boot!

So Relax, take it easy on Merdeka Day and enjoy the video!

Anthony meets long lost friends

Anthony visited Singapore last week. He sent an email about his visit and we only got connected by mobile on Thursday. He had 2 more evenings in Spore & we quickly arranged a little get together on Friday. Anthony has a prior appointment for Saturday. Deb managed to get long lost friend Will, who is very busy with his new job & very luckily was back in Singapore that week. Edward & Rita could not join us that evening but Edward met Anthony & his family on Saturday.

Anthony escorted his wife & children to the Night Safari & left them there to venture on their own. He must meet up these 2 friends whom he has not seen for years - since leaving St Thomas in 1975, he claimed! He had to endured 2 hours of standing in the MRT before he met up with us. It's the peak hours of course so, MRT is pack!! But its a trip he will not miss.

Dr Philip Bong's Father 81st Birthday Dinner Celebration

Big birthday cake for the big birthday celebration!

Birthday boy, Mr Bong Kim Chong flanked by Adeline and Dr Philip Bong

Dr Philip Bong and siblings celebrated their father's 81st birthday on the 12th August 2007, Sunday night with a big dinner celebration with songs and dances.

A toast for life, health and longevity

I was kindly invited by Philip and was on the same table as a few of his doctor friends, Dorothy (wife of Bernard Loh Foh Min) and Lim Lian Kee, his wife and daughter.

All the "Bongs" on stage

Donations to various charities and organisations

It was a very nice dinner with lots of delicious chinese food and drinks. Birthday boy, Mr Bong Kim Chong with so many children - all 14 of them (!); lots of guests were invited and the only venue big enough to accommodate them all was a Church hall (Christian Ecumenical Worship Centre) ! I am lazy to write more as I am nursing a slight flu and cough and the weather of late in Kuching has been very very HOT - so here are the pictures! And here's wishing that all of us will celebrate our 81st birthday in the future! What an accomplishment! Be well.

Dr Philip Bong and lovely wife Adeline

Occupying the entire hall of the Christian Ecumenical Worship Centre

I Am Here!

Change is the only constant and moving with the flow of things, you can update yourself with the status of yours truly here where I had taken up this new challenge since mid March this year.

Although I would very much have preferred that they'd use this photo instead. Cheers!

18 August 2007
NOTE: I inserted the 'wrong' picture actually. I meant this one below!

Shit Happens (but life must go on)

Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur

AL is my childhood friend and though he has worked in Kuching most of his life, I had worked in a number of countries which had kept us apart, but somehow we had always kept in touch with all the changes that has taken part in both our lives and sharing our aspirations, dreams and heartaches over the past 5 decades.

We are both quite different, personality wise and the years apart had accentuated our differences in religious persuasions, interests and other pursuits but despite this, our friendship had stood the test of time and we had remained good and sincere friends.

And so I was quite distressed to learn that he was recently involved in a horrific bus accident in Iran while on the way to the airport last month. He was part of a consortium doing some projects there. Emergency surgeries were preformed there to stabilize his condition before he was evacuated for further medical attention at Gleneagles Intan Medical Center in KL where he received further surgery to his left arm. To put it mildly he was pretty much smashed up with broken thigh bones, arms, jaw and about half of his teeth had also been knocked off. He was lucky to be alive.

I flew to KL to see him and to see how I can help. He was so glad to see me and I have to hold back my tears to see him like this. His wife has to fight back her tears too when she recapped her traumatic experience of the past over 2 weeks of learning about the accident, her flight there with their eldest son (who flew back from Perth) to bring AL back. She was grateful for the help of her church friends and that though AL had previously bought travel and medical insurances it was just recently that he had upgraded it to include travel to Iran. It was God's grace she said.

He has only just been able to take solid food in the past 2 days and receiving daily physiotherapy. Luckily the worst is now over and AL is in good spirits and firmly focused on his recovery which understandably considering the injuries, would take a while.

AL thought that the visitors must be pulling his legs when they told him that you get a wonderful view of KL skyline from the window - and so I took this photo to show him.

Yeah, shit happens; but life must go on. You all take care you hear.

The Petronas Twin Towers from the room where AL is warded.

NOTE: I do not want to identify AL at the request of his wife as AL being the youngest and favourite in the family does not want his ailing mother to know of his condition as her health is quite frail and she might not be able to handle the shock of learning this. AL will let her know when he has recovered enough to be able to let her know himself. I trust my friends who is able to identify AL from my post would do the decent thing and respect their wishes.

Baobab Tree

Saw a photo in the newspaper yesterday which prompted me to do a search on the Baobab tree, usually found in the African Savannah. Here's a photo of it, which I found on the web




It's also known as the upside down tree, the Tree of Life and the Monkey Bread Tree. This tree is leafless for 9 months of the year. Other than providing shelter, this is a tree where nothing is wasted. The bark is used to make baskets, mats, cloth and paper. The flowers last for only 24 hours, and when dropped provide food for animals. The fruits and leaves are also eaten, and the seeds can be made into a coffee like drink.

Apart from wikipedia, this site has a few interesting things about it.

This African legend is one of the few about the Baobab (extracted from The Times):
'When the baobab tree saw the palm tree, it wanted to be taller. When it saw the flame tree, it was envious for blossoms. When it saw the fig tree, it prayed for fruit. So the gods became angry, pulled it up by its roots, then replanted it upside down to keep it quiet.'

Now those of you who live in or near or are going to Penang, might be interested to know that there is or was a baobab tree which has/had been there for over a century at the Macalister Road - Residency Road roundabout. More information about this Penang oldie can be found here. Does anyone know whether this tree is still there?