Back to strengthen family bond

25th November 2009 Wednesday.

   Josephine’s eldest brother’s daughter Pei Woon, getting married and therefore we were cordially invited. Well in order to remain as a true ‘brother-in-law’ and not ‘outlaw’ I have no choice but to make this trip even in my physically handicap condition to strengthen the family bond. Josephine and I arrived at Changi Airport, Budget Terminal, a low cost, no frills with only basic amenities; even no aero-bridge and have to walk to the aircraft at the parking bay. We checked in at  Tiger Air ways counter and were allowed first preference owing to my physical deficiency ( leg-brace). We boarded the two jet-engine Airbus aircraft and were ushered to be seated at the first row. I had settled down comfortably when a stewardess came up and informed me that according to emergency regulation I could not be seated at the first row as I am a disable person. At first I refused to budge and fully intended to  exercise my consumer’s right; I had paid extra for sufficient leg-room to enable myself to stretch comfortably. And now being told to give up my seat to shift elsewhere. We were really upset because how is that the ticketing is not aware of such a ruling and went ahead to accept payment and issuing of electronic tickets. The stewardess went to the cockpit I supposed to check with the captain and returned to inform us that I had no alternative but to move. To avoid further undue attention I got up and went to the third row in exchange with Jo’s nephew Deryx. It was quite an embarrassment as I limped slowly out of the first row to hobble behind; all eyes zeroing on to me as the centre of attraction.

   1830 hrs: Our flight No. TR426 departed slightly behind schedule and arrived at  Penang after a smooth uneventful flight that took about an hour. According to history Capt. Francis Light landed in Penang on 11th August 1786 and named it as the ‘Prince of Wales Island’. It became a colonial outpost for the British East India Company to protect their sphere of influence in this region.

Jo’s fifth sister Bee Kim and her hubby Ah Hwah were there to meet us and fetched straight to Mount Erskine for dinner. We enjoyed our first delicious dinner and it consisted of oyster mee, horfan, spring rolls and roasted red fermented pork.

   After that we were driven to their two storey terrace house located at a quiet residential area. It has four bed-rooms up-stairs; downstairs a large sitting-room with an antique  grandfather clock, a computer/study-room and kitchen. We used the upstairs back room which was spacious, long and air-conditioned. 

   Standing outside the house, before me appear a view of Penang Hill rising up to the peak; high mountains has a pull of fascination.  Our hills in Singapore are just small moulds and Mount Faber where the cable car is connected to Sentosa is lesser than Bukit Timah which is 166m high. Therefore it is misleading in using of the word ‘Mount’ meaning mountain. In most religion or culture, mountains are revered as sacred places. In Biblical text just to mention some places like where Moses received the 10 commandments at Mount Sinai. Noah’s Ark rested on Mount Ararat after the flood subsided. King Solomon built his Temple on Mount Moriah. Jesus encounter with Satan at Mount Temptation, his preaching at the Mount of Beatitudes, his transfiguration at Mount Tabor, his ascension at Mount of Olives and his crucifixion at Calvary (Golgatha, hill of skull in the Aramaic language).

 

No.1 is the shop-house but we stayed at No.5

Josephine in front of No.5

 

Part view of Penang Hill

 

26th November, Thursday

   Penang is without doubt a food paradise especially for the glutton, those who live to eat and not eat to live. I read that the famous “Penang Char Kway Teow” received top nomination by the Penang State Tourism website; followed by Penang Laksa. The others like hokkien mee, oyster omelet also enjoy top ranking. In the morning I did a blood-test to check my sugar level and had a shock when it registered 15.9 which is very high. So to console myself I assume that my monitor gadget is not working and reading shown in error. Ah Hwah brought us to have duck kway teow soup and char kway teow for breakfast at Carnavon Street. That evening Jo’s fourth brother Ah Pang gave us a dinner treat at the Dragon Gate Restaurant. After an absence of 3 years since I last came in February 2006 for my son’s wedding reception held in Penang. There is so much to talk to make up for lost time and the food was delicious. We had fish curry that was their specialty, fried pork, Bangkok chicken, torfu in clay-pot and vegetable. Anyway I got carried away by the event and forgot to take pictures even though I had a digital camera with me. What a silly waste missing to capture the event in camera.

 

27th November, Friday

   With Bee Kim we went for breakfast and had the famous hokkien prawn noodle  soup (hay mee) at Swatow Lane. It was a festive day ‘Hari Raya Haji’ and saw many Malay families visiting the cemetery to pay homage to their loved ones that had gone before them. Since it was on our way we stopped at the heritage site ‘rumah P. Ramlee’, the famous Malay actor, singer, song-writer and film producer who made his fortune in film industry in Singapore.

 

Heritage site:  Rumah P. Ramli

   For lunch Ah Hwah took us to a popular beef stall at the junction of Chulia x Carnavon Streets and we had steaming hot bowls of delicious beef noodles. Jo had wanton mee. Talking of wanton mee made me recollect an incident I had when flying with my pilot colleagues to an airfield called Jendarata. On landing in the afternoon, we got a ride to the town for lunch and there nothing left except wanton mee. So myself and this pilot colleague, a Swiss guy we called ‘Monty’ settled down to eat. Half way through I tasted the char siew and felt that it was bad so I set it aside. My fellow pilot Monty gobbled down everything and upon finishing we returned to the airfield. On reaching the airfield, Monty complained of acute stomach-ache and had to practically run to the nearest toilet. After a while he reappeared in cold sweat and with a sad look. He remarked, ‘Wow! terrible, I eat wanton and  discharged two tons’  We all had a good laugh, luckily it was on the ground, imagine what will happen if  he was airborne. Our training aircraft are two-seaters and no toilet; therefore it could be very, very messy and smelly business!  

 

 

A bowl of Beef noodles

Yu Fang is Jo’s niece and she took us to new food court called the “New World” where I tried the “ice-kachang”.

The New World, the food court.

New World, the shops

New World, the shops, outlets.

Ice kachang

In the evening Ah Hwah went to buy back the popular Penang dish Char Kway Teow for us to enjoy.

Char Kway Teow

   For our dinner Jo’s second brother Hai Thean arranged ‘Tambuan’ seafood restaurant located by the beach at Telok Kumbar. At first the weather seemed threatening with black clouds building up and we were afraid that it might rain but fortunately it held out. We had chilly crab, black pepper crab, big prawns, fish, taufu, for vegetable dow miao, cauliflower and also satay

 

Ah Hwah, Bee Kim and Jo.

 

2nd sister-in-law with son and his wife

Ah Khoon with his elder son.

 

Ah Khoon’s cute youngest boy.

28th Novenber, Saturday

Since I lavish for beef noodles, Ah Hwah went to buy it from the famous Chulia and Carnavon Street and Jo had pork knuckles for breakfast.

Beef noodles

Pork knuckles

   This time Jo’s nephew Chok Hao doing the driving and went to fetch his sister Yu Fang at her in-law’s place. We went to Tanjung Bungah to see Yu Fang’s new condominium from the outside since she has not collected her keys yet. Since Yu Fang have not eaten breakfast we went to Hai Onn coffee-shop at Burmah Road to eat. Yu Fung ate chee cheong fun while we sampled fried carrot cake and delicious otah. The woman tried to promote her otak and distribute small slip printed ‘Mummy otak, very top otak in Penang. Nyonya, authentic. Advance booking with h/p: 016-47130. Super best.

 

Carrot cake pushcart.

Fried carrot cake and otah

Chee Cheong Fun

   Chok Hao took us to the United Hokkien Cemetery to pay respect to Jo’s father the late Lim Chin Wah. We had to search for the tomb as the grass had overgrown and obscured some of the tombs. The grass was stone dried and a simple spark can set the whole cemetery ablaze. So they had to exercise extra care in burning paper and joss sticks which was done at lower level by the road. In the Old Testament we are called in Exodus 20: 12  ‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that Yahweh your God has given you” In my heart I am saying ‘Hi! father-in-law, your ‘pai-ka son-in-law has come  a long way to pay respect.’ We also visited the niche of 3rd brother Hai Ghee and 1st sister Lian Heow.

 

The gateway United Hokkien Cemetary

Paying respect to Jo’s father

3rd brother niche top left.

1st sister niche.

   For lunch we were at Farlim to sample the island’s most popular dish “Penang Laksa”; it was a long queue and we did not mind waiting. The stall employing high technology by installation of CCTV to monitor on the progress. The gravy has already been prepared by the boss and the Indonesian workers does the dishing out.

 

Front view Penang laksa stall at Farlin

Inside the coffee shop view

The popular delicious Penang Laksa.

We went to pay a short visit Jo’s 3rd sister at Burmah Road

Jo, Chok Hao, Yu Fang and 3rd sister.

   Jo had contracted a bout of influenza; her throat pain and had a lot of flam. That night we had to attend Pei Woon wedding dinner held at the Jade Restaurant in town. Even though Jo had lost her voice and had to use sign language to communicate, we had to fulfill our obligation.  As usual Chinese dinner everywhere started late around 2100hrs. The newly wed couple walked in to the tune of music to take their place at the table of honour, seated together were both parents. It was followed by announcements, the cutting of the cake and pouring of champagne upon the pyramid of glasses. The shouts of ‘yam seng’ ringing loudly throughout the hall as the guests raise their glasses to toast. There were no shortage of singers going on stage to sing. The ragging on the stage I personally felt was a bit overdoing, somebody showing off by taking off his shirt in a public display of his masculine form. I think it is not amusing nor appealing or pleasing to the older generation which should be shown more respect. It is more  to offending and disgusting, fortunately everything ended up smoothly without any unruly incident.

 

The couple pouring Champagne over the pyramid of glass

The couple cutting the wedding cake

Why so late? we are starving

 

It’s time for ‘yam seng’

 

Brothers and sisters, Lims’ family.

The SUV that took us to the wedding dinner

29th November, Sunday

   By 0900hrs we left for the house of 1st brother for the Chinese traditional tea ceremony. Tables were laid outside in the corridors of the flat and filled with nyonya cakes, drinks. When the groom arrived there was much teasing before the groom was finally allowed in. Then the tea ceremony commenced according seniority. Later  adjourned to the groom’s house for the final tea ceremony. There were buffet lunch served at both places, with traditional local laksa, chicken curry, sweet and sour fish, pineapple rice, horfun etc…

 

 

Waiting for the pouring of tea

Posing with the newly weds

   In the evening we went to attend 6.00pm Mass at the Church of the ‘Immaculate Conception’ at Burmah Road. This traditional Catholic Church was built in 1810 that means the church already existed 9 years before Sir Stamford Raffles discovered the island of Singapore. Within the compound there is a statue of St. James Chastan, a French Missionary priest who was martyred for his faith in 1839.

 

The Church of Immaculate Conception.

The statue of St. Chastan.

The Memorial plague

After church service we returned to the house for a short rest before going for dinner arranged by Ah Hwah.  We left before 8.00pm for Chin Bee Tea Restaurant at No. 124 Noordin Street. A small restaurant with about 7 or 8 tables but have to place booking in advance owing to it’s popularity. Ah Hwah knows the chef and they have been together on China tour. The food was sumptuous, we had pork-ribs with green pepper, pig trotters, steamed fish, steamed eggs, a dish of mussels, crabs-meat, scallops and vegetables. Washed down constantly by continuous flow of Chinese tea.

 

Bee Kim, Ah Hwah and Yu Hang

Self and wife Josephine

Michael and wife Yu Fang

Chok Hao, his girl friend and cousin

 

Pork-ribs with green pepper

Pig trotters

 A seafood dish

 

Steamed fish

 Mixed vegetable dish

Steamed egg

 

30th November Monday

   For breakfast I had just plain ‘roti jala’ and Jo had Chee Cheong Fun brought over by Jo’s sister Nancy. I drank my favourite Old Town white coffee and I love it. For lunch Ah Hwah whom we accept as a full-fledged chef for his culinary skill (kung hu) as he prepared home-cooked food. Our self-claimed Service Apartment “Raja Gopal No.5” is the best and most of all free of charge. Believe it or not, where else can you get?  We had a wonderful stay,treated like a VIP housed in air-conditioned comfort and driven around everywhere. In the meantime while waiting for our food we were being entertained by a 7 year old girl named Miss Tan (Jo Jo). She was keying away on the electric organ like a celebrity. However we admit that we had been unfair to her by teasing her with a nick-name of ‘Pang Jiak Khoon’ (shit, eat, sleep) but she took it sportingly without any outcry.

   Meantime Ah Hwah produced some delicious dishes like the sweet-sour pork, mango-flavour chicken, fish with ginger, chicken fried with salted egg and steamed egg with century and salted egg. By then my blood sugar had shot up to extremely high reading of 17.0 way beyond accepted level. If in Singapore I should report to a hospital and maybe detained for observation. I had to take drastic corrective measures by abstaining which is not easy as delicious food is so hard to resists.

 

Sweet and sour pork

 

Mango- flavour pork

 

 Fried chicken with salted egg

Mixed vegetable dish

 Steamed egg with salted and century egg

 

Jo Jo like a celebrity on the organ

   Later in the afternoon, we had the opportunity to watch some cooking lessons by Ah Hwah working on chicken, frying in sambal or shrimp-paste. By 1700hrs we had to leave for airport, a mixed feeling befell upon us; sad to be leaving behind relatives but at the same time glad to be heading back home. Ah Hwah drove us to the airport to catch our Tiger Airways flight No. TR427 departing at 2015hrs. We passed through the initial security check-point for baggage and proceeded to the counter for our boarding pass.

   We stopped for a snack at the Airport Coffee Bean before entering departure hall. There was another baggage-check and this time the woman customs officer asked to open my bag. In it we had about 10 packages of rempah curry-powder. We were told that it was prohibited as hand carried item; we tried to reason out that we are within our 7 kg allowance but were unsuccessful. I do not really understand such a ruling; we are not bringing the item into the country but instead bringing it out.  It is mere curry-powder for self consumption; what is it dutiable or presenting a security risk?  I am in search of answers, anyway no reasonable explanation given, just an abrupt no and was told that I could re-check in as luggage or face confiscation. In the end all was duly confiscated, so we walk off with bitterness inside. Sad to say that I had encountered un-pleasant experience both at Singapore departure with the Tiger aircrew  and the departure from Penang with that woman customs officer. So it had a sour ending.

Testimony on a miracle by St. Anthony

19th November 2009 Thursday.

Sharing with Senior Citizens group of St. Mary of the Angels/Bukit Batok.

First of all,I would like to thank the organizers for arranging and the sponsors in providing the tickets for the Zoo trip on 12/11/09. For me it had been more than a recreational trip, it had awakened me as I am coup up indoor most of the time. It was a chance going outdoor to appreciate the wonders of God’s creation. He had created animals, the flora and fauna; the birds, the bees which most of us had taken it for granted.

You know St. Anthony talked to the birds and often uses animals to express as symbols of saints or sinners, virtues or vices. He uses spiders as a symbol of pride that spins web network of intricate design. The Serpent symbolizes Satan, somewhat evil, deceptive, crafty that creeps up to a person to tempt as what happened to our first parent Eve in Genesis. The Lion as strong, fearless, King of the beasts and Christ is described as ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered.’

Things of exquisite beauty, flowers, plants

Bengal white Tigers

For me my two favourite animals are the tigers and elephants. I was born in 1938 so it relates me to the tiger according to Chinese zodiac. I went to the rare Bengal white tiger’s enclosure and admiring this magnificent beast that God created. The tiger symbolises bravery, strength, mentally and physically alert, agile, bold, independent, courageous and at the same time gracious. The largest of the three was restless, pacing up and down looking at us menacingly. Face to face the real tiger on the opposite side and myself the symbolic tiger; I was wondering what was the tiger thinking. Probably saying ‘Hi! lame duck, cannot run ah! so how about having you for my dinner. Fortunately our safety being guaranteed by a separation of a moat and the wall.

The elephant is the largest land mammal, a gentle giant; owing to its’ enormous size does not have any natural enemy. Elephants travel by herd as family-oriented and led by a matriarch. They are caring and concern for safety by positioning their young in the inner circle and the adult at the outer. When I was at St. Patrick’s there was a private zoo across the road and I used to spend time after school watching a baby elephant. It was really fun, just watching brought me much joy.

Elephants, the gentle giants

Now on to my testimony, one morning after breakfast, I got to my motor-cycle at the car-park. I secured my bag to the seat by a bungee-strap before mounting on and ride off to office. Half-way I sensed something wrong, so I stretched my hand behind to feel for my bag; I was ‘shocked’ when I realized that it was no longer there and stopped immediately. I found that it was missing so made a ‘U’ turn to return home. at the same time keeping a watchful eye on the opposite side (dual carriage way) hoping to spot my bag.

On reaching home I searched once again just to satisfy myself but result was negative. I remembered from school days my mother had always prayed to St. Anthony when she had misplaced her things. She told me that St. Anthony is the ‘Patron Saint of lost things’, so believe, have faith, trust and you will find.

The implication and seriousness of losing my bag was enormous as it contained some very important and vital ship’s documents issued by a foreign country. They were as follows:-

(1) Ship’s Certificate (Russian refer as ‘sudo-voy passport’)

(2) Ship;s Tonnage Certificate.

(3) Ship’s Load-line Certificate.

(4) Ship;s Safety Construction Certificate.

(5) Ship’s Safety Equipment Certificate.

(6)Ship's Safety Radio Certificate
(7) Ship’s De-ratization Certificate.

(8) Last Port Clearance.

(9) Ship’s Crew-list.

One thing for sure losing all these documents through a negligent act simply would spell the end of my career; my head was on the chopping block. The situation was that without the documents, the Port Authority of Singapore simply could not verify in order to issue Port Clearance to allow the vessel to sail.

I was really desperate and asked my wife Josephine to light the altar. Besides having the statues of the Holy Family, Jesus, his mother Mary; I also had St. Anthony. We both went down on our knees and prayed fervently from the bottom of our hearts asking for Divine intervention through St. Anthony to help find my missing bag. At that time in question the delay in sailing the ship (GRT:10,000 tons)would cost about US$ 5,000.00 per day (running costs: Port dues,crew salary, bunkers, loss of earnings etc…) How could I be so careless, not checking my bungee-strap, probably the elasticity had slacken and gave way. I felt very depressed and my spirit sank to rock bottom. I mounted my bike and rode slowly to office as if in a daze to face the consequences.

However half-way through my pager rang and I responded by calling back home. My wife was excited and broke the news that some kind hearted, honest container-driver had picked up my bag. He had checked through the contents, traced my identity and called the house. My wife Josephine gave his contact number and I immediately called him. It was a miracle when he said that all documents intact and that we could meet at PSA gate No,2 before he enters the port. The voice message reverberated sweetly in my ears as I sigh with relief.

St. Anthony had answered to my calling and I am truly grateful. Finally we met and he handed over to me that precious bag and I thanked him for it: of course I rewarded him. So it came true what my mother had told me when as a young boy the legend of St. Anthony as the Patron Saint for lost things.

Thank you St. Anthony, many, many thanks.

In 1995 my wife and I went on a 19-day pilgrimage tour to Europe by coach, beginning from Fatima (Portugal) travelled through Spain and to Lourdes (France). Then continued on North into Italy; we had the opportunity to visit and prayed over the Tomb of St. Anthony at Padua. For guidance, St. Anthony was executed by Titian at the age of 40 and St, Boniventure discovered surprisingly that St. Anthony’s vocal cord was incorrupt. It is preserved up to this day.

We had a statue of St. Anthony sent to us from Padua as we also subscribe to the issue of their publication entitle ‘The Messenger’.

Statue of St. Anthony

In Italy we also visited St. Francis of Assisi, had seen the incorrupt remains of St. Clare kept in a glass casket and also visited the Tomb of Padre Pio at Rotondo. Finally and fortunately our journey ended in Rome in time to celebrate the birthday of late Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s square.The crowd was really huge from many nations and some brought along their musical instruments. As the name of the country was announced they acknowledged by shouting or playing their instruments. A Malaysian group were standing before us was represented by native ‘Kadazans’ who brought their home-made drums. They were drumming away, singing and dancing.

We were extremely happy again to see our Holy Father for the second time; the first occasion we saw Pope John Paul II was when he visited Singapore in November 1986.

Praise the Lord, Alleluia!

Afraid of the resurrection ?

 

Relaxing in cozy hotel after a frightful event.

Holy Land, Nazareth / April 2006

   At Nazareth, we checked in our hotel called the ‘Plaza’ a modern building that stood on a hilltop. We stepped out of the hotel for photography, I being the cameraman and my wife the subject. I wanted to capture with a good view of the hotel as the background; so I had to back-step on to the main road.  Not realizing that the traffic system is different from Singapore as we adapt the English pattern. To me they are all crazy and appeared to be driving on the wrong side of the road.

Unfortunately or fortunately I had back-stepped into the path of a speeding car and missed by mere inches. The young Israeli male driver slammed on the brakes and his girl friend besides him gave out a loud hysterical scream. The car stopped abruptly with both occupants, as white as if they had seen a ghost. They were terribly shaken but remained calm and silent; trying to recover from their fright. I went over and sincerely apologized, admitting that it was my fault. In fact both of us were in the state of shock. as it was really unexpected; I could have been killed. They accepted my humble apology as they knew I was a foreigner, a stupid tourist jay-walking and drove off without making a fuss.

I then remembered a story about resurrection as told by a priest and it went something like this. A couple went on pilgrimage to Holy Land and was accompanied by her mother-in-law. She was unlikable as in general with mother-in-laws; in fact she was a pain in the butt.

It happened that she had a heart-attack and died without recovering. The couple were left in a dilemma concerning the final rites and burial. The husband suggested burial in Holy Land as it was a privilege to die on pilgrimage and also to save enormous costs for repatriation.  However his wife objected strongly and insisted that the remains be exported back to their native land as quick as possible.

The husband was not only puzzled but also curious and wanted to know why his wife was insistent as it would have cost a ‘bomb-shell’. At first she was reluctant to reply but finally gave in, admitting that she was afraid taking into account the biblical story. That if her mother-in-law was buried in Holy Land; she would be resurrected on the third day. And of course it would not be in the best of her  interest as it would simply mean that she would have to put up with her monster-in-law all over again.

Recollecting our CNG Christmas Party 2003

Let me introduce our group, we originated as "Home Mission" in 1982 organised by Fr. Ho from the Church of St. Francis of Assisi at Boon Lay. At that time some of us at Teban Gardens attended that Parish. Well that is to say we existed before the formation of Catholic Neighbourhood Group (CNG) set up in 1985 by Fr. Nicolas Chia of Holy Cross Church at Clementi Ave 1. Presently Nicolas Chia is the Archbishop of Singapore; the Shepherd of the Catholic flock. However at that time we had given Fr. Ho a title of 'OMO' one-man-operator as he had to lock up his church to come to our group prayer meeting. Later on as we switched over to Holy Cross, mostly for convenient sake and became involved with the CNG. In the early days we even had priests for our spiritual director but later dropped off; probably owing to pressure of work and shortage of priests. Therefore it gave us reason to pray harder for more priestly vocations as the profession not appealing to our young generation. However we believe that our CNG must carry on and that if we are doing God's work, we shall survive or if not our grouping will simply die a natural death. It was during our weekly Fridays prayer meeting when we decided to hold the next Christmas party on a much larger scale as our group had grown. And accommodating in individual house became too small, so it had to be held at our nearby Community ‘Multi-purpose hall’ behind of Block No.62 Teban Gardens. As a CNG we are a small community of believers gathered together sharing the same faith.

In our neighbourhood, we are the little church and gathered weekly for prayers, offering for the intentions of our Holy Father the Pope, to strengthen our faith, to pray for one another, for others that have no one to pray for them and most important for peace in our world. Our world that is filled besides natural disasters with wars from earliest times, from simple bows and arrows graduated to present time push-button sophisticated missiles. Mankind have perfected the art of killing creating new inventions, improving the techniques and so the world has not known real peace. True peace comes only from our Lord, Jesus Christ if we follow him as he is the Prince of Peace.

We were celebrating his 2003 rd Birthday and it shows that how God loves us that he gave us his only begotten son. Born into this world in a lowly manner, a humble manger, as the inns were full; just to be like us in everything except sin. To redeem us for our sinfulness, by dying for us on the cross; an undignified death. For what ? for our salvation, he laid down his life so what more can we ask for? So on for this occasion we want to proclaim the good news by inviting not only our neighbourhood but also non- Christian friends in order to spread the message of ‘good will’ to all men. We lived in our multi-religious Singapore where we have other religions like Buddhism, Islam, Hindu, Taoism, Sikhism, Judaism…So we must learn to live with each other, not to impose our beliefs on others but to accept what they are with respect and tolerance; to be at peace with one another. Remember what Christ had said in Matt 19:19 ‘you must love your neighbour as yourself’.

We had picked the date as 13th December in advanced as later most of us would be busy ourselves as Christmas draw closer to prepare our own individual celebration. So we arranged ‘pot-luck’ that meant each family to contribute their share of food as according to their numbers attending. As assigned Gilbert went to the Town Council and booked the multi-purpose hall. Someone was appointed co-ordinator so as not to have the food duplicated, we wanted variety.

When the day came, there was a slight drizzle but it did not worry us for this time we had a roof over our heads. The previous year we held our ‘Christmas Barbecue Party’ in the open, down at our garden and the weather was threatening with black clouds building up: a tell-tale sign that a storm was approaching.

Our function to start at 5.00pm, but after lunch we were down to put the decorations for the entrance and hall, the props, buntings; Sam and Jennifer came over to assist. At first I thought of bringing down my audio sound system but owing to the mess of criss-crossed wiring and many plugs we changed our minds. Sam proposed a way out by using his set instead which was more straight forward and simple; so went for it.

I borrowed a trolley to cart away the bulky stuffs, like TV, amplifier and speakers from the flat to the hall and set it up. The entrance we had a banner with the wordings “Welcome Teban Garden CNG X’mas party'”, hollies spread across with balloons, lace-cloths wrapped the post and two lighted candle-stand. Another lighted stand stood outside in a conspicuous location to be seen by motorist driving into the car-park. The naked ‘Light’ symbolise ‘Christ’ as the light of the world that shines into the darkness; darkness is associated with evil, untruth, lies, not forgetting that we too at times have our dark side.

Inside the multi-purpose hall another banner wishing all a ‘Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. Including a small Christmas tree all decorated and lighted up. A little later Gilbert came along with his barang-barang, barbecue set, stools and followed by Ah Moey and her hubby Joseph with food, a big table and more stools.

Dinner is ready, it is self-service so help yourself.

As things settled down I made an announcement for attention; to pray the ‘Grace before meals’ asking our good Lord to bless our food. After that I gave a loud ‘battle cry’ the magic word for the hungry “attack” and the assault on the food was on. We thank God that we are blessed with abundant food and many good friends. My pilot friends came to join us in our celebration, one guy from New Zealand and was surprised that we had a close knitted community. We set aside a big table for our senior citizens, the old and the feeble; my elderly mother still mobile and could even dance with Kim. Simon’s mother in a wheel-chair, Kim’s wife Estelle and myself settled down to enjoy the food silently and seriously.

Lawrence,Flora, James and Cynthia

From left: Lucy, Dolly, Gilbert and Lawrence

From left: Felicity,Elizabeth, Sydney and Simon.

Felicity is daughter of Sydney, Elizabeth his wife. Sydney, Simon were our old guards.

Joseph and his family

Sam our non-Christian neighbour, together with Kim started the ball rolling by opening up. Sam with Chinese numbers and Kim with some old sentimental songs. watched by my pilot friends. I sang my favourites from the ‘Bee Gee’s album like, ‘I started a Joke’ and ‘Words’

Sam and Kim singing for their supper.

From left: Flora, Sunarti and Sam

My God-daughter Flora, looking on as our maid Sunarti singing Christmas Carols in Indonesian (Batak language). Sam checking on something, I think VCD.

From left: Meg, Lucy, Dolly,Mary's son, Mary and my mum.

Jennifer and Sam

Show time, Jennifer and Sam a husband and wife team gave a ‘cha-cha’ demonstration.

Jennifer and Dolly doing Line-dancing

My mum getting lesson from the Champion.

We are proud to make known that amongst us, that Kim and Estelle won the World Ballroom Championship 1972 in New York and 1978 in London.

Anyway all good things must come to an end, so by 10.00pm some of those living far away left earlier while other still lingering along. It had been a wonderful evening, well spent in sharing and in the spirit of fellowship.

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi ringing in my ears.

‘Lord make me an instrument of thy peace

When there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy’

We celebrate Jesus' birth because it is an important event in the history of human race. His birth was a turning point by being born and coming amongst us, he brought salvation to the whole world. The message of Christmas is to rejoice and be glad for in

Lk 2:11 ‘Today in the Town of David a Saviour has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord’.

Group photo Teban Garden CNG Christmas party 2003

End