(1st & 2nd October 2008)
Venue: Batu Gajah
At Zaharah's house:
seated in front from left: Ong Eng Choo and grandchild, Palmini, Selvi and Zaharah.
standing behind: Ah Kam, Oi Leng, Bernice and Siew Heong
I can imagine- Everyone talking at the same time, as always....
Here is the account of what happened from Palmini:
"Wonderful meeting up after 32 lo....ong years with Ah Kam who is ever so witty, Bernice who knows not the word humility or modesty but prancing around like a sweet seductive 17 year old (Sorry Bernice if you are reading this!!), Zaharah - very sexy still who pushed her chests out a wee bit too much when Guna said "Smile, stomach in, chests out" for photography; Eng Choo who stumped us with her grand child in tow, Siew Heong who has become so demure and sweet natured; evergreen Oi Leng and Selvi."
"Wonderful meeting up after 32 lo....ong years with Ah Kam who is ever so witty, Bernice who knows not the word humility or modesty but prancing around like a sweet seductive 17 year old (Sorry Bernice if you are reading this!!), Zaharah - very sexy still who pushed her chests out a wee bit too much when Guna said "Smile, stomach in, chests out" for photography; Eng Choo who stumped us with her grand child in tow, Siew Heong who has become so demure and sweet natured; evergreen Oi Leng and Selvi."
Not to be outdone, this is Zaharah's account:
"As what Ah Kam, Oi Leng & Mini have related.... it was indeed fun for all of us! The best Hari Raya that I ever have had in a long time! Even my family members reminisced with Selvi & Eng Choo about old times. They still clearly remember the good olde days when both of them visited my home (more frequent then the rest). Too bad Kooi Choo was not around. Eng Choo had a mini reunion with my brother. Eng Choo reminded him of the time when he accidently sat on a cactus & had to painfully pull out the thorns from his butt! He had a good laugh & retorted that his secrets are not safe anymore. Eng Choo is a mother of 4 grown children (2 girls & 2boys) and a proud grandma of 2 girls. She lives in Setapak now with her daughter & she takes care of her lovely grandchild. She does have a house in BG and comes back once in a while. She will sat up her own e-mail very soon and will be talking to us! I have even volunteered to give a quick simple lesson for her. BTW...she has an impecable memory! A big Thanks to Ah Kam and Bernice who "arranged everything" with Mini so that she can visit us and happily go to Cameron Highlands soon after. Bernice loudly proclaimed that she has to wake up at 5.30am! Mini brought along her witty, sporting & charming husband, Guna & her teenage daughter, Derwina. As we all know, he is a Plastic Surgeon. There was some funny stories that he related to us on his experience with his patients. He was indeed "one of us" in no time.
Siew Heong looks so good and even appear taller than before! She has a 9-year old son, Stanley, a sporting young man. BTW... another "Ipoh Mali" girl, Lim Swee Yin did sms me. She was out of town. Oi Leng, a big thanks for travelling all those extra miles and you even sacrifice another day to visit Cikgu Yaacob!"
Yes, girls, they gatecrashed into Normah's house! Ya, we know, when the girls are in big numbers, they will be up to mischief!
At Normah Harun's House:
from left: Zaharah, Bernice, Selvi, Normah, Eng Choo, Siew Heong and Ah Kam.
from left: Zaharah, Bernice, Selvi, Normah, Eng Choo, Siew Heong and Ah Kam.
Look at the goodies: lemang, biskut...air hijau, orang hijau (evergreens..) and mata kita pun hijau (envy)....
Here are the details of what happened from Zaharah:
"After all the food, picture taking etc. we left to seek Raihatul Jani's home. All we had was a memory of a "unique house on stilts". Selvi patiently (with 2 other cars in tow) asked "around" but we had little luck. Finally, when we were about to give up hope, Ah Kam stopped by a bright, pretty yellow house. It turns out to be Normah Harun's house (our classmate in Arts class & she is now a BM teacher in Convent BG). Of course, she invited us in and we had another go with the rendang, lemang etc. Later, with her leading the tow, she led us to Raihatul's home. She was not back yet from Shah Alam (due that evening) & Selvi dutifully took her mobile no. down. Obviously, we were still excited and feeling exuberant from our near success, so we decided to search for Puteri Norita Bin Megat Abdul Rahman. It was an easy quest this time around. As the photo shows (from OiLeng earlier pix), she is married to this nice & friendly guy, Salleh (used to work in a Bank but has retired) & has 4 tall & pretty girls & a boy. The eldest girl is 21. She lives in Kajang. Takes 2 commuter train to work in AMBank, Jalan Pudu (near Tun Shin Hospital). Norita's younger sister, Puteri Norida (Convent alumni too), is a Teacher in Convent BG. 3 teachers have passed away (God bless their souls) : Mrs. Gill, Cikgu Maimun & Cikgu Maimunah or Azizah (primary school ugama teacher). Done for the day.... we happily bade goodbye (for the moment) & parted ways"
At Puteri Norita's house:
from left, seated: Selvi, Puteri Norita, Bernice and Ah Kam.
standing: Eng Choo and her granddaughter, Zahara and Oi Leng.
ai yo-yoh, who is suffering from shaky hands syndrome?
(forgot what u call that disease....)
at least we know the one who took this pic still ok!
Ah, the highlight of the Raya gathering culminated at Encik Yaacob's house. Here's Zaharah's continuation:
"The next day we gathered again (our meeting place) at the Old Railway station for Cikgu Yaacob's home at 10am. Raihatul was with us. (She left for U.K. after her M.C.E. to study Chemistry in Scotland & soon after returned to work in Petronas in Labuan. She moved back to KLCC office in year 2000 to head the HSC unit. She now works/leads the HSC lab in Shah Alam & resides there at Section 9, behind Concorde Hotel. She has 2 college-going boys and another 16 year-old child.) Our highlight of the day was visiting Cikgu Yaacob. He was indeed beaming with pride and looking good for his age. Only 62! I brought our Form Five Science class pix for easy indentification. He has a good memory & we reminisced & updated him on our old colleagues & seniors/juniors. There was a lot of laughter & conversation. He asked each of us for our"profile". He introduced us to his wife, kak Jamaliah & he has 3 grown up boys & 2 girls. The eldest is a Lawyer & the 3rd boy is back on vacation from the UK or US (?). Another daughter is a Doctor in Bahrain & the youngest girl works as Head of Department (BlueRay) at Disneyland in LA. After he left Convent, he was heading several departmental positions in the Education ministry. His last position before he retired was with SYS."
At Encik Yaakub house's:
front row squatting, from left: Ah kam, Siew Heong, Eng Choo, Oi Leng, Bernice, Raihatul and Cikgu Yaakub.
Back row: Normah Harun, Zaharah and Selvi.
A youthful looking Encik Yaacob with his ex-students, Zaharah and Bernice (obviously no match for him in looking young-he holds the evergreen record!)
Normah and Raihatul, meeting them again is a memorable event, welcome aboard!
