A Miracle wedding of Jaslin and Dave

It is a nice sat evening. Huimin and I were walking along Beach Road on our way to the wedding of Jaslin and Dave's at Raffles' Hotel. The time had finally come. While I was away from Singapore due training, Jaslin had linked up with Huimin to ask if the both of us can make it. I would be a heartless soul to reject such sincerity from a close friend like her. Now, the miracle is going to happen soon at the Lawn, Raffles Hotel.

The Lawn is a rectangular yard whereby Jaslin and Dave are going to exchange their vows to become husband and wife. Though I had alreadi been a married personnel for a year plus, I can still feel the excitement of getting married (as if mine had just happened the day before) - the atmosphere, the love, everybody talking abt Jaslin and Dave, challanging Jaslin to be demure, asking Dave not to shave his moustache, seeing Jeffrey panic button pressed, seeing my dear ODAC friends, etc. Weddings are such a joy to attend that I am quite sure that your live span would be lengthen if you attend more weddings. (putting the Hongbao money aside...haahahah)
The sequence went like this : seating of the guest, invitation of the Justice of Peace to be seated, walking in of 3 pairs of brothers and sisters, the ring bearer, jaslin and father, transferring her to Dave, vow taking, exchanging the rings, declared husband and wife, petal throwing and fire crackers, photo taking. It feelsssss so good to be able to see Jaslin in the good hands of Dave. FYI, they had known each other for 2 decades, and Dave had loved her since primary school days. Arrgh!!! Man, all the women in the world would die to have him as their husband. But am I glad that Fate had put jaslin and dave in good hands together, forever and ever.

During the dinner, I managed to meet up with more of my ODAC friends - Gina, Ginny, Kim Lan, Ah Hong, Aloy, Julian and Betty. As I caught up with them, vivid memories of us going to expeditions of Berkelah Falls, Mt Kinabalu flashed back within mi. I always believe that good friends are always met in the hard way. Though many had stopped trekking, the forged friendship remained strong in all of us. [eg, Ginny is now busy taking care of Carriane (carry - ann), others in no particular order choir, chionging, teaching, construction, HR, etc] You can see that wedding also serves as a centre stage for all of us to put aside time and meet up as purely friends.

Last, but not least, my most heartiest congrats to Jaslin and Dave on their marriage and I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Eng Wei, Chong / Yingwei

Back to the Swiss old days

Got inside information that my Swiss Cottage Secondary School Form teacher Mrs Lee Ji Pang as well as one of my most beloved teacher Mrs Chin are going to retire from teaching today. I told myself down down must make an effort to make my way down to school to meet them. True enough, I arrived at Swiss Cottage (Bukit Batok) at 1530hrs LMT to hook up with Ben.

Man, it had been a long 11 years since I graduate from secondary school. There is so much changes to the building, to the kids, to the layout, to the atmosphere. But some things do not change - the same cheerful uncle Charlie who sells drinks, the friendly Auntie who had gone through thick and thin with him. We chatted for a while, talking abt the new layout of the canteen (more stifling now), how the new malay vendors sabo him, his son coming back from Hong Kong due overseas attachment. Even though I am not of close terms with Uncle Charlie, we spoke as if we were close friends. We belong to what we say the era of 1991~1994. :-)

Finally got to meet Mrs Chin and Mrs Lee after their contact time. Not very sure what do they mean by contact time, but I think it is something like shooting all the arrows b4 school reopens. Finally they came out and I am so happy to be able to see them again. Mrs Chin hugged mi so tightly as if her son is back to see her. Believe mi, the feeling is soooo good. I still remembered when I was young, we learned so much intangible things from her in all aspects of life. Foolish I am, but I dare to dream. Leadership I was taught the hard way. Determination I was to make sure that the objective were met at the end of the day. Results though important, it is the process that moulds a person.

I was greeted by a young female lady which I later realise that she is a vice princpal. Man, I was honoured!!! Ben, Daniel and myself were even introduced to the Principal, Ms Tay and we had a chat. I guess in the eyes of all teachers, seeing their former students coming is indeed a proud achievement for them. Mrs Lee was close to tears and we talked abt the good old days that we had. I updated her abt the status of our class,like Tingxui married last year and Dharma had a son. She showed mi the teachers day present that we gave to her 11 years ago, all in good condition.

Really had a good chat with Mrs Chin b4 we left. Retirement is not the end of the day. More good times will come, I assure them.

Eng Wei, Chong / Yingwei

Off for today!!!

The time now is 1100hrsLMT. Feelssss so good to be given a day off to rest at home and explore more on my newly found blog. Had been wanting to type some journals since this blogging thing pops up say 2 years ago, but the lame excuse of mine is LAZY!! But I am glad that this task had been shot down from my ultra big "list of things to do when I come back to Singapore and before I leave Singapore list". Just to share with you some of the things that I had drafted up:

List of things to do when I come back to Singapore and before I leave Singapore list
1. Spend time with my loved ones, eat dinner, watch movie, go Zoo, etc
2. Repair my shoes
3. A new pair of specs
4. A watch
5. Start a blog
6. Settle my work related stuff (that is a big subtree of another list of things to do...)
7. Redeem my freebies from credit cards b4 it expires
8. Fix up my brother desktop which is U/S for the last nine months.
9. Watch Initial D with the "Chong aka Chiong" family
10. Celebrate Father's day with my family
11. Meet up with Huijing and Xinyi, Meiting, Jacqueline, Jianfeng, Kok Kim, .....

Yesterday, I met up with my sec school guys - Ben, youtian and Daniel. Kudos to Daniel for making the extra effort to meet up with us despite the fact that he only touched down in Singapore today from Bangkok. The gathering was kind of a last min, and I was just organising it given the slim chance...The results are satisfying. 5 came /8 possible. To quote what a friend of mine, Ben Poon KK, told mi "got try then got chance, no try confirm no chance one lah!" Most of then are fine. One is a teacher, one is a chemist and one is an engineer. But we are bounded by the fact that we had known each other for more than 15 years. Oops, I think I had just revealed my age to all of you out there. :-)

My wife Min met up with us later in the second stage and all of us went to view Youtian's new house in Yew Tee. Good stuff! HDB 5A, 110sqm, renovation thrown in with a human touch and you have a home of your own. It is amazing what are the topics that we talked abt throughout the years of friendship - from which girl to chase, NS chiong Peng Kang Hill, the most hated lecturer in NUS/NTU to the everlasting FYP.. Now we are talking abt which contractor to look for, marble or homogeneous flooring, which venue to host the wedding, etc.....Time flies, I say....

So after this entry, I am going to :
1. Fix up the second PC which I had damaged while troubleshooting the first one
2. Animation Time
3. Research on my current "project 2006"
4. Meet up with my NUS classmates, 9pm, Holland V

Good day, mate!
Eng Wei, Chong / Yingwei

NUS classmates, my ME Class 2A, 2B(1999-2003)

Going to meet my NUS classmates for the first time soon eversince i am back from Perth, WA. Really really excited to be able to see them soon cos when we meet, we "Ta!" or chill out!. For those who do not know what is "Ta!", all you have to do is open up a can of beer / have a glass of merlot/ a shot of Famous Grouse, Tequila pop, Chivas neat, then you drink from the tip to the bottom, then I will tell you what is the meaning of "Ta!" :-)

We were fortunate to have classes forged in NUS Mechanical Engineering (ME). Hardly surprising, most of them broke up when one graduates, starting to work, based overseas or simply too busy to catch up with due clash of schedule. Yes, my class faces the same prob, but yet, everyone in my dear class are still willing to meet up when the notorious class outing arises from the bottom of the earth. Everyone is striding well in their own wide and varied fields right now (We graduated 2 years ago, you know??) - from mad scientists, financial planner, "mountain of doom" specialist, mountaineer, heavy transport operator, communication analyst, army regular, bio researcher awaiting to transform himself into Darth Vader, engine master so that he can be the first Asian to be in the F1 chief engineer, pneumatic pumpers, teacher, "everything also do" engineers, etc.... Even though all of us are busy, they are all very willing to put aside time to have a class outing. FYI, I go by the rule of at least 1 class outing every 3 months. And I am proud to mention that our class had been achieving that since the year 2000. Kudos to my class!!

Who are the hearts and souls in my class? In my own words, it is all the very single individuals in the class. Though it takes a simple and normal guy to organise a class outing, it takes everybody to make a class outing a success. "Class outing" - defined as a gathering of 2 or more people to eat, drink,"Ta!", relax, chill out, gossip, talk abt the good old days and think abt the good new days ahead.

With so much benefits in hand, isn't it time to have a class outing for you?

Eng Wei Chong / Yingwei