Hang Tuah 2 Reunion

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wa barakatuh...

February will be a crazy month for me. All because my boss did not allowed me to work from KL..hehehe. I have planned to take leave during the CNY and did planned a family holiday. My batch from primary school has been contemplating to organize a reunion for quite some time, and finally we agreed to a date, 8th Feb 2015.

To cut long story short, I wanted to attend the reunion, but I also have limited leave days left, so I could not extend (or bring forward) my leave. Hence, I took the crazy decision to fly back for the weekend solely for the reunion. It was crazy, tiring but truly satisfactory. Last time we had a reunion was 2003, 10 years after we left primary school and now its 2015. Some could not join then, and not many can join this year as well, but we proceeded anyway.

I was elected as the chairperson (me, located all the way here, :), but not to let down my friends, I agreed anyway. They are a bunch of dedicated people, they just need somebody to lead and give direction, even if it means remotely. And boy was I glad when all went well and the event was a success! Alhamdulillah.

Cikgu Sehah bagi ucapan sebelum acara potong kek.

Penyambut tetamu yang manis-manis :)

With my English teacher, Miss Indra

With Cikgu Ariffin

Cikgu Ariffin is my class teacher when we were in standard 6. He was mentioning about the shirt that I gave him, he wore it until it can no longer be worn. Even I don't remember that....gosh! Then again, I don't remember most of the things that I gave to people, but I remembers what people gave to me. It goes both ways I guess :)

Buddies since standard 1, stuck in the same class till standard 6. 

The whole lot - 30+ out of maybe ~100 students in our batch

I didn't get to eat this cake, but I tapau-ed it :)

The loot : souvenir clock, name tag, key chain I AM and we made it compulsory for everybody to come with a gift so that we can exchange it :)

Meenachi, Premila, Alvin and me : 1Malaysia ek? :)

Something happen during the brief picture session here. I was holding the cup, and typical me being clumsy turned the cup over without realizing there were still water inside the cup, yes, I am a klutz. Of course my hand was wet. None of us the girls had anything to wipe it, and here comes Alvin handed me out his tissue (so sweet!!). Seeing that Premila teases him, saying how gentleman he was and why he is still not married. Premila then asked me where my family are. I say, what family? Then she got the idea that I am not married as well. She teased me, and I asked her to find a good man for me, she then turn the attention to Alvin, ni ada..? 

Alvin was taken aback, he quickly went back to claim the gift. I have never seen him backed down from a provocation like that. Alvin that I used to know quickly snap and lash back at any attack/ advances that he gets. This is Alvin is now a matured man, my oh my, this childhood friend of mine is all grown up, and I am all grown up as well, it gave a weird kinda feeling at that time, such ease to see him that way. 

I didn't get to talk much to Alvin, not as much as when we catch up last time in Singapore, I was busy running around, to make sure the event went smooth, we changed the flow as we go along, taking timing and people's reaction into consideration. I need more Alvin time. Maybe I will contact him once I am back in KL, that is if he's not running away from me. He has that reputation though...hehehe..

Ok then, till next time. Need to pack again, going back to Malaysia twice a month is probably the craziest thing I have ever done.Who would have thought? hehehe....

Wassalam..

Of Rosmah, Racism & Al Quran

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh....

For the past 2-3 weeks, I have been one of the only 2 Malaysian staffs left in the camp. The rest went back to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The other guy is an Iban, so he will go back to celebrate Gawai I guess.
Yesterday morning, I saw one of the guys returning back to work, excited to see a fellow Malaysian returning to work after holiday, I immediately asked, "How's Malaysia?" . His quick reaction was to open up the whole story of Malaysia is bad, government is corrupt, how people are being ridiculous in reacting to a certain video made by a certain somebody and the whole thing took what it seems to me like forever. I can't remember how, but later Rosmah's name got dragged into it, plus the story of back when the KLCC was built. I was dumbfounded.

Seriously I don't like to talk about things that has no end, where you will not get any positive outcome from it. Alhamdulillah I managed to divert the conversation into focusing with my latest challenge at work. The conversation seems not so interesting anymore, well, at least to him..hahaha..

Mental note, lain kali jangan tanya "How's Malaysia?" that would just open up a whole grandmother story. My initial intention was to ask the general condition, weather, traffic jam, sales, what they bring back from Malaysia, that's it. Who knew any questions about Malaysia has to be answered only with political response...hahahaha...seriously, get a life people :)

A friend shared this in FB, and to me its a joke, a point of sarcasm, if I may add somebody that came up with this definitely has a good sense of humor. So, without much thought, I shared that as well. It is true, in Malaysia, the sense that I get is, if you are a Malay, and you defend Islam and whatever things associated with Malay, you are definitely a racist. Dr M has been called racist many a times simply because he speaks up and call us Malay to work harder, he pointed out our weaknesses, he put policies to help us achieve what ever that can be achieved, and yet is being called a racist.

Do these people know what is the definition of a racist in the first place? According to :

Oxford dictionary : ra¦cist
(NOUN) a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another:
(ADJECTIVE) having or showing the belief that a particular race is superior to another:

dictionary.refence. com : rac·ist [rey-sist]
1. noun: a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that a certain human race is superior to any or all others.
2. adjective: of or like racists or racism: racist policies; racist attitudes.

Has Dr M made a statement that we Malays are better than the rest? NO, he keeps on pointing our weaknesses, and he made statements to make the Malay realized that we have to work harder, gain grounds in economics. If at all, he created policies that benefited Malays more than the rest, that is because he realized we need that extra push and help to excel, even more so emphasizing the point that indeed we are weak.

That is not racism, its favoritism, get your labeling correct people :) Racism is when you banned certain race from certain rights because you think your race is far better than the rest (apartheid in South Africa is one obvious example). Have we separated the seats in the park for Malays and non Malays? Do you have to use different transport, live on the other side of the town? or even can't access to just any public toilet when nature calls? You were not treated like that right? Racism leads to discrimination, where you get almost NOTHING. Don't tell me you did not get anything from Malaysia for the past 50 odd years. Joke!!

Indeed UiTM is only for Bumis, but how many other local public university that is open to all Malaysian? Do you say that because the rest are being denied the rights to study in UiTM, therefore, we Malays are racist? Weh..korang tak pandang pon ITM tu dulu. We only offer diploma courses to poor Malays back in the 70's, anybody who get accepted to ITM was deemed as second class. I've been there, I know that. Now that it has obtained the university status (Thanks Tun, I was there when it was declared, historic moment at Stadium UiTM), now you want you share? Go fly kite.

Ok fine, tutup cerita bab ni, as I said before, we are getting no where. Last but not least, the definitely the one and only book that we should be referring to. The noble Quranul Kareem. I have subscribed to this weekly installation of simple learning of Al-Quran from Quran Weekly , link updated on the top right hand corner. (Though its for daily dose, but no harm in going there on weekly basis :). Their video ranges from 6-10 minutes and sent every week on Tuesdays. Alhamdulillah, I like the way it is presented, simple enough for somebody that does not have memory like an elephant (that's me!!). Highly recommended for you to sign up as well.

I leave you with a hadith from the Prophet Muhammad SAW (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam - praise be upon him)

The Prophet Muhammad  said: O people!  Your God is one and your forefather (Adam) is one.  An Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, and a red (i.e. white tinged with red) person is not better than a black person and a black person is not better than a red person, except in piety [Narrated in Mosnad Ahmad, #22978] 

After 14 years!!

I got a message on Thursday, from an ex classmate that is back on short holiday, asking if I can spare some time for a meet up. I immediately said yes :)

So on Friday, I got off work slightly early and nervously driving myself to Mont Kiara. Nervous, because I have never been there, and I was scared that I would either get lost, stuck in the jam or could not find the place and missed the opportunity to see her :P

But in the end, I got there on time and stayed there till quite late. 

L-R : Yours truly, Haniza, Hwei Yen, Jacob, Ee Von, Elphine

Meet my classmate from Form 2 and 3. Only the last girl on the right wasn't. She was in S, all of us were in H. 

These girls (apart from Elphine) were my study group for PMR :) We used to rotate houses on the weekend and study together. There was another one girl in the group but she could not make it.

I last met Haniza in UiTM, where we stumbled in an exam hall. Elpine was in the last 10th year reunion. Both Ee Von and Hwei Yen, I last saw them in school....that was 14 years ago!! Both of them are now doctors, Hwei Yen is getting married and Ee Von is expecting a second one.

Elphine, Haniza and I are still in the same boat :D. We had a good chat as Hwei Yen was pouring her hearts out on wedding stuffs and all. It will be a while till we can have a get together again...

Small Wins!!

Remember the kids? Yes, they have graduated. In fact, out of the two parts of Design Project (we have DP1 and DP2) to be completed, the triumphed in DP2. In order to promote healthy competition, the faculty announced a winning group at the end of presentation day. This is not based on the presentation itself, but also content of the whole project throughout. The kids won DP2 last year. I was in the middle of TA and could not make it to their presentation.

This year, I took on another group of kids and start consulting for them in this sem's DP1. I met them twice, helped them a bit with the project and I was scheduled to attend their presentation last Saturday, but due to some reason, I could not make it. This morning I saw in my inbox an email from one of the kids, they won DP1 last Saturday!!!

The small things that makes me happy :D I will still continue with them till they completed DP2.
I am one happy alumni today, I hope these kids will graduate and continue to become a better engineer than I am!! ;)

After 17 years!!

Am in SG right now. Been here for the past few days attending meeting. Have not been going out at all. What I did was woke up, go meeting, got back, order room service and repeat the same cycle for 2 days. Today the meeting ended earlier at 2++pm and I got back to hotel around 3pm.

And I just got back from meeting him ;)

Us :)

Meet Mr Alvin Chew Seen Yi. He is my longest classmate ever. We were in the same class in 1A2, 2A1, 3A1, 4A1, 5A1, and 6A1 in SRK Jalan Hang Tuah (2) KL (1988-1993). We parted ways in high school. He went to VI and I went to BB. Last I saw him was when we were 13, I guess....after that no more.

When I found out that I'll be attending meeting in Singapore, I contacted him right away, lucky that he was on my FB!! At first we wanted to have a proper sit down dinner, but who knows S'pore city is so crowded on Friday night, we just have to lepak somewhere by the roadside and settle with some take away kebab.

Honestly, I was a bit nervous meeting him, seriously, after all these years!! At first we were both kinda lost for words, after some usual catch up questions, things start to warms up. We talked about daily life (both are singles at 30..hehehe..) so you know what the topic is about. After a while, I can pretty much hold a decent conversation with him :O

He walked me back to hotel and it was great that I get to meet him. Both of us still looks like how we used to look in Std 6. If I can find some old pics of me and him, I'll post it here :)

Down Memory Lane...Shah Alam pt 2

On Tuesday after work around 6pm I made way to Shah Alam. Already had plans to meet these kids at 9pm to discuss on the final presentation for DP1. After check in the hotel, I went straight to my school (yes we call it school!!). The kids were waiting and I can see nervousness in them. After going through their slides, I made them present once, and along the way I corrected few that I think would be relevant.

I gave them few pointers and also shared my pet peeves when it comes to presentation (things like pointing with finger, definitely a big NO). I can see there are few other groups that is getting ready as well. And my group's slide is only like 50% finished. Am a bit worried though, but I left at 11.30pm, still need my sleep right? ;) Stopped by Seksyen 2 to buy dinner..as I was waiting for my Nasi Goreng Pattaya, I texted few classmates.

"Salam, aku kt Shah Alam ni, volunteer jadi co-sv bdk design project,br abis discussion grp yg aku handle,sok dorang present,aku kt sek2,beli makanan ni,nostalgia betul....."

It was nostalgic, for UiTM student, sek2 is the main place for our food supply, and yes the daging merah that comes with nasi goreng pattaya still tasted the same!! could not get it anywhere else ;)

Some of the reply that I get :

E-kin: Asal ko ttiba tjebak jd volunteer ni? Ai,mmgla nostalgia....

Eza: Slm,wah bestnya.aku pon windu gila zaman belajar dulu...

Nisah (my groupmate for DP) : Yea ke? aku trkjut dpt msg ko. Mcm mana budak skrang buat design? aku dulu ingt lagi tumpg Hirda (another groupmate) naik skuter g kolej ko. dkt pg baru balik...

P-jal: mmg nostalgia....especially kalo esok ko gi skul jln kaki, pastu sampai je org wat ppt ko wat pose 'main snuker'!! Hahahaha.... 

Umai: Wah...best bangat! Aku rindu ms kt uitm. rindu kt environment dia...kalo dpt rase smula ms dl kn best ek..g kelas, mkn reramai...huhuhu...

I reached UiTM next morning at around 8 am. Went to school, saw the presentation schedule. Few familiar names on the panel. (Now they have Dr. with their names!!). First group start at 9am. The kids will be presenting at 11.30am. At first I was not in the panel, as I RSVP quite late, but upon seeing me, my lecturer Cik Noni, asked me to be in (she only taught me one class, yet she still remembers me (+my name)!!)

While waiting for the presentation to start, I tried to find those names that sees me before as this sleepy head with 'snuker pose' , who used to wear torn jeans to class and somehow managed to graduate. I went to their room but they were not in. I even bumped into my SV for DP and yes, he remembers me as well!! 

Later, I hang out at the foyer, where everybody is. One by one familiar faces came by. Our batch is among the first few batches, so most of the lecturers that I knew are the one that started their teaching as our class being the first student. And they still remember me + my name!! I don't know whether to feel flattered or to be overwhelmed.

I went in at 9am to be part of the panel. My group is the third group, the first two groups are OK, definitely their slides are better than what the kids showed me last night, now I am getting nervous!!! I slipped out during Q&A of the second group, had a chat with the kids who are anxiously waiting outside. Gave some last minute pep talk and off we went.

All in all they did well. All of them answered the questions posed, with at least some level of confidence, I was suprised by some of the answers given. They actually fare off better than I thought that they would, and I am proud of them ;) and I will be with them still for DP2!!

Currently listening to : Letto - Sebelum Cahaya

Can You Spot Me?

Those were the days!!!

Down Memory Lane...Shah Alam

The meeting went well. I meet the kids (well, kids to me..hahaha..) and hopefully I managed to clear some of their confusion and not add anymore to it ;)

A trip to Shah Alam has been somewhat giving me mixed feeling. That was the place where I spent my youth, falling down, got back up again, face some of the great challenge, experienced the years of daredevil inside of me. UiTM in particular is the place that moulded me to be this person, I owed so much to the place.

my school....we (my batch) were among the people yang 'merasmikan' this building

Hallway, lab on the left

lif canggih...press which floor you wants to go and it will direct you to which lif, was there during my time ;)

some exhibits of plant equipment, these kids are lucky, I didn't even know how a valve looks like back then

After the meeting, under the hot scorching sun, I decided to go to my used to be home away from home for 6 freaking years (1999-2005). Yup I stayed there throughout, all 6 years at the same level 3, only different rooms.

Teratai 1

This is the place where we had the morning parade every Wednesday morning. We did ketuk ketampi in those 1.5 inch shoes, we sings the 'Negaraku' while the civillians are still sound asleep and because of us, almost the whole of Teratai 1&2 had an early day comes Wednesday...hehehe...

In this college I have made the best of friends, I truly enjoyed my stay there, makan kat dining hall, plus, study at the TV room, panjat pagar time nak pi tengok millenium concert (Y2K la sangat..), singing our hearts out everytime we had PT..banyak lagi...I don't think I can list all of them. The best part is I lived my life there, really did.

the painted over the murals that we painstakingly drew!!! sangat tak best ok!!

There it is, a piece of me in the past. Will be making more frequent visit there, now that I have the extra comitment, surely enough, I will be walking down more of the memory lane...

 bus stop keramat....

What Have I Done..?

I just received a call from  a final year student, basically my super duper junior. Her intention is to get to know me and get advise on their ongoing project. We set up a meeting during this coming weekend. Suddenly I have this butterfly in the stomach thingy..I feel nervous, scared that I am not what they expect me to be. What have I done?

Falshback 2 months before, my ex-classmate, now a lecturer at my alma mater UiTM asked us a bunch of 'engineers' to volunteer being an allied supervisor to final year student. For engineering student, we did not produce thesis for our Degree, we have our final project that require us to built either a petrolchemical or oleochemical plant, from scratch...

So supposedly, we are the bunch of 'experienced' engineers will be able to give some insights on all these plant design and operation etc....So me being the forever volunteer (I don't know, since school days, I tend to volunteer in lots of things..I guess it becomes a habit..) eventhough I know I am not really a good engineer to begin with. Hence they assigned this group of students to me ;p

So come weekend, I have to face these young, up and coming engineers, probably put some straight face, confidently answer their question (or at least try to..)...

bole ke bagi nasihat camni?

p/s: my time we did not have this allied SV thingy, coz we are among the pioneer batch in the course, so not so much of industrial connection, so I basically have no clue what the uni is expecting of me...kuang..kuang..kuang.... 

Or I can just help them to 'edit'.....bole?

Open Letter to Bro Afdlin: Papadom

I watched this movie one week back but I don't have time to sit and write my response for the movie. I posted the same comment on his blog, but last count there is 240+ comment, I bet if he read all. So here goes....

Salam Bro Afdlin,

First of all congratulation on making one of the best movies in 2009. Am honoured that you have chosen my alma mater UiTM to be one of your prime location for this film. From here onwards I will continue in BM.

Saya tak pasti sama ada komen saya akan dibaca memandangkan betapa ramainya peminat Bro Afdlin di sini. Walaubagaimanapun, saya ingin menyatakan rasa tidak puas hati dengan cara imej UiTM digambarkan di dalam filem bro.

Pertama sekali berkenaan sahsiah rupa diri pelajar ketika hari pendaftaran. Semua maklum UiTM ialah satu-satunya universiti untuk Bumiputera. Sahsiah rupa diri yang kami junjung tidak tergambar sama sekali di dalam filem ini. Pada hari pendaftaran pelajar diingatkan untuk memakai pakaian yang sopan (baju kurung untuk siswi) dan kemeja + tali leher untuk siswa) . Bukanlah saya ini anti jeans dan T-shirt tetapi hari pendaftaran adalah awal mula imej kampus didedahkan. UiTM berimej barat kah? Kalau pendaftaran di Lim Kok Wing, mungkin ya, siswa dan siswi memakai pakaian mengikut trend terkini.

Sudah lah pelajar yang mendaftar memakai pakaian kebaratan, aturcara hari pendaftaran jugak agak tersasar (tiada orientasi?) . Mungkin saudara hendak mencipta kelainan maka adegan ini tidak dimasukkan.

Mahasiswa dan pensyarah juga tidak langsung mematuhi sahsiah rupa diri ketika di dalam kampus. Sila periksa balik poster-poster di sekitar UiTM yang mewar-warkan sahsiah rupa diri pelajar. Saya musykil tiada pihak dari UiTM yang menegur sepanjang pembikinan filem tentang imej UiTM.

Perkara kedua mengenai budaya hidup pelajar – pulang terlalu lewat malam (adegan Hisyam menghantar Miasara, keadaan sekeliling gelap gelita dan tiada orang lain lalu lalang. Kehidupan kampus bermaksud ada lagi kawalan dari pihak universiti dan kolej kediaman, bukanlah sebebas-bebasnya seperti yang digambarkan. (selalunya mereka ini akan ditahan di pintu pagar oleh Pak Guard)

Pelajar UiTM tidak dibenarkan menganjurkan parti di dalam kampus, apatah lagi yang tidak mematuhi sahsiah rupa diri pelajar. Saya yang menghabiskan masa hampir 7 tahun di kampus induk Shah Alam tidak pernah tahu akan mana-mana pihak yang diberi kebenaran mengadakan parti bersuka-ria seperti itu, tak tahulah kalau fakulti Farid Kamil membenarkan aktiviti sosial dalam kampus…

Perkara kecil sebiginilah yang menyebabkan industri filem kita masih agak sukar menembus pasaran luar. Saya akui, filem Papadom ada mesej tersendiri dan dari segi pembikinan saya tabik bro dan krew-krew yang telah menghasilkan cerita yang lain dari yang lain. Cuma apabila imej UiTM yang jadi taruhan, saya agak terkilan standard yang ditonjolkan agak rendah.

Selain dari itu, cinematography yang menarik telah mengeksploitasi beberapa tempat di UiTM contohnya kafe Menara dan PTAR, amat cantik dan menarik. Syabas.

Ini hanyalah pendapat saya, terpulang pada bro untuk dipertimbangkan atau tidak. Seperti yang saya katakan awal lagi, tak tahu sama ada coretan ini dibaca atau tidak.

Well done & wassalam.

My suggestion : go watch the movie, one of the best yet in terms of story line and the filmmaking goes. However as UiTM alumni, I strongly believed that justice was not done to reflect the image in campus, at least in Shah Alam.

My 2 cents ;p

p/s: my 100th post ;) gilela..2 post in a day, nampak sangat takde keje..hehehe...

Good things don't last

My Boss started this thing called 'weekly toolbox' to sort of serve as one stop discussion for all in the department. Its scheduled every Wednesday morning. This is the second week we are having this.

Things has been bad for a couple of months and will not recover anytime soon. Our counterparts in this region starts to slow down and 2 OU is going for total shutdown.

3 OU in Europe are being put on sale. These are the top quartile units, and even then they could not sell it off yet. Many people will lost the place that they started. Being in a plant is like the beginning of everything in my career, many other top notch people started of from here. I know how it feels to lost the place where you start your journey, its sad, I know because I've lost my high school.

Things are not the same though, because we are an operating unit that generate revenue, and nowadays its all about the money. We have to live to the fact that one day, all things must come to and end. I hope the company that I am working here is not that soon. We, for the time being are still save due to Malaysian market. So does the other 3 refineries in Malaysia.

So much for the work talk, must get back to actual work.

BBGS Gala Reunion

Went to the BBGS Gala Reunion last night. It was held at once stood our alma mater, Pavillion. From batch of '98 only less than 15 of us showed up. None of us won the temptatious lucky draws (kinda sour grape about this..hehehe..). But that's not the main thing, seeing the spirit lives on last night was memorable. I did not bring any camera, so now waiting for Shaz to post it.

My favorite has got to be the choir singing 'Centenary Song'. I remember when I was in Form 4, I couldn't sing that song, I will be quickly reduced to tears everytime I sang that song, I don't know why. And then we went for Interstate Choral Speaking (representing KL) and we won!!! After that I can sing the song without shedding any tears. I love the song so much that once during orientation week in UiTM, I was asked to sing any song just to get one of the seniors' signature. I couldn't decide what song to sing so I sang the 'Centenary Song' ;)

There were also slide shows of old pictures from the rest of the girls. But somehow we (at least Hasliza and I) felt a bit disconnected, probably because there were no pictures from our time. All of the pictures are from 70's and 80's. On my personal point of view, the montage that Lily did last year during our batch reunion was the BEST. I realised have not posted it anywhere yet. (Shaz posted in FB, but tagging limited to 30 peoples).

I tried uploading but it failed, the montage was too big....isk..will try some other means.

Ooowwww.......

This one just came in via Shaz, it was from Audrey (fellow BBGSians)

Girls,
As you know, this previously overworked (but now with the economic crisis, slightly more available) '98 alumni couldn't make it to the amazing reunion spearheaded by Azita, Shaz, and others last year. I just got back from Singapore this morning but managed to make it to the AGM of the (yes, long name) Bukit Bintang Girls School Old Girls Association. A group of our seniors, including those involved with Project Revive, have been very keen to have this society reincarnated in order to bring our girls together in a more concrete and consistent fashion. A primary objective will be a focus on an education fund (named after our most endearing and well loved headmistress, Ms. Elena Cooke) which the society will run under a trust.
Ideas have been mooted and details of proposed changes to the current constitution and the manner in which the association will be run, will be in the next extraordinary General Meeting, in the near future. I have to say, I don't usually have such a privilege nowadays since we're all in all our late twenties dah, but I was the youngest member present! A new committee has been voted in with:

Phang Sow Yoong (who is featured on the back2bbgs blog) as President
Cheong Wei Lee (VP)
Anniza Jamaluddin (Secretary)
Khim Goh (Treasurer)
(Gen Committee)
Joanna Yeoh
Izreen Fara Ismail
Winnie Tang
Izan Satrina
Lai Ying
Audrey Quay

Yours truly has been included in the gen comm, quite likely becos some of our kakaks figured it would be nice to have "young blood" injected in. Note that many of them are in their 30s - 50s. If anything, I would very much want to be representing all of you - I related to them how our class pulled off the great reunion last year (plus souvenirs etc), and that I knew many of the "younger" ones were just as true blue BBGSians who know how to raise funds, run events, and most of all, live and perpetuate the true spirit of BBGS! To ensure that we have a voice, I would invite all of you to join the association - it's been going at a RM3 per year membership but since that's quite leceh, its been proposed that RM100 for life membership for all former BBGS girls should be encouraged. Please let me know if you'd like to join and I'll let you have details of the next meeting soon and once the minutes are out for today's meeting, as much as possible about that.

I won't be able to attend the first part of the August 4th event at Pavilion as I have a court case on but I have committed to be there in the evening. Those of you going, please let me know or come up to me so we can meet up and talk about how we can stay in touch via the association. It's very exciting I think, that we can be part of a pretty major education fund project which will live on, even though our building itself is gone (have to say after seeing all the old schools in Singapore preserved as museums, shopping areas, etc, I just felt...)

Girls, August 4th will be the first time I am stepping into Pavilion, which everyone in my circle of influence knows I consider sacrilegeous. But hey, we need the site, we need to make it something, and we need everyone knows the ethos of the school to come together. You know, I was most touched by what one of the other general committee members, Lai Ying, said, when the nominees were invited to present a short intro speech. She said "I'm not a big shot by the way. I work for my father and we deal in spare parts in Sungei Besi. But I am grateful for what BBGS has done for me and I would like to give back. I miss those old days with my family." I think that truly captures the spirit of BBGS, which was started for girls (considered unworthy of education in the 1890s), including and especially those who were poor and underprivileged (who cared about them but our great teachers and heads, like Ms Cooke who used to go to students houses to help them), and to see the potential in every rough stone to become a berlian. We've never been elitist and always believed in including those whom for some reason or the other, may have been forgotten. Nothing and nobody should be left behind, and even in succeeding, we have been proud, not arrogant. Even though we were considered a premier secondary school for a long time, we never forgot our roots, and I always tell people that after BBGS, none of us ever came out the same - we were always, in whatever way we needed to be, shaped and changed for the better, made more humble, encouraged to be ever more confident, instilled with a sense of responsibility and duty, inspired to dream dreams.
I have to say I just ENJOYED being with BBGSians again - although today I was with other years - it's really a good and productive fellowship that we have with one another. I'm glad that can be now formalised into an active association focused on promoting the interests of education. I would like to share one more thing with my graduating class of '98. We are just as special as all the rest of the old girls, and I think by the continued efforts I see in this group, we should definitely be part of this revamped association. Please try to let us know about joining up as soon as possible.

I know most of us are active on email and FB - add me using xxxx@yyy.com or audreyquay@xxxx.com (but please try very hard not to spam my work address, although I am much more reachable there for urgent matters) and I want to hear from you!
~Audrey

.....oowwww.......Audrey mentioned my name ;) She and me were not even classmate and I don't recall having any sort of decent conversation with her back then. But she acknowledge the work that was done by yours truly....

I am going for the 4th Aug event, probably driving straight from PD..ffuuhhh....

BBGS 98 Reunion

It all started last year, when I voiced out to Shaz and Elaine. I say we need to do something that will remind us by our school days. Hence, the idea of a 10th yr Reunion came about. Things get really serious sometime March this year. At first there was only 3 of us. Later when words starts to get around, more are willing to help.

Ohh.. but lets not forget a bunch of fakes..yup, like what Shaz mentioned in her blog, there were few people that was REALLY excited at first, asking for MoM and such, later did not responded to any of our emails. Then come Zuien, Farrah Shamilla a.k.a Fasha, and Poova. Fasha did bring in lotsa sponsors and Zuien does create the hype and managed to get more attendees to come.
We started to draft the main stuffs for the event, goodie bags, where to have the dinner, how much to charge, how may ppl we expect to be there, etc, etc, etc...it takes a lot to get this done. With me being in PD and could not attend most of the meeting, I can only do so much. Shaz is the main force with all the contact info compilation and RSVP.

Did I mentioned that some of the ppl are just plain ignorant? No reply whatsoever to indicate whether or not they are coming. And mind you, these ppl are actively online every single day on Facebook and Friendster. That is simply annoying. We are making an effort to reunite Batch of 98 but apparently some just refuse to be re-connected.

Be as it may, we targeted if only 50 BBGS-ians willing to turn up, we are going to have it anyway, and we DID!!! Last Saturday, 1st Nov 2008, Class of 98 had our first reunion in 10 years!!! I can say the event went well. Everybody had a good time catching up and we did have lotsa fun. One memorable moment was when the montage was played...many were moved and big Thanks!! to Lili for putting it together in the most beautiful ways that I can imagine. No photos yet for the moment, as I didn't even took out my camera. We had a dedicated photographer throughout and still awating for the whole shot. Will have a moments by moments description later when I have it all with me.

Anyway, am still feeling bit tired after all the hardwork. Thanks to the committe for making it worth it to sweat our blood and tears for the event. Thanks to all the attendees for making time and not let our hardwork gone down the drain..thanks a lot you guys!! Although the building is no longer there, The Spirit Lives On..

BBGS 98 rocks!!! Nisi Dominus Frustra...without God all is in vain. :)


May there be a 100 years more.

I am a panel !!!

I am going to my alma mater tomorrow, UiTM. Was invited to be one of the panel for a forum. The topic would be "The Path of Chemical Engineering Students after Graduation". Not sure what to talk about. This is my second time doing this kind of talk. First was in UTP, but that was more of open session with the student. This time around, moderator is one of the lecturers. Man, I am going to expect some tough questions to be thrown on the floor.

Am nervous, have not prepared anything yet. Must be well prepared as I am bearing my company's name, which is not just a name, its a brand on its own. The forum will be in English, I hope I will not mumble in case I'm lost for words!! Will have to do some homework..aish...Plus I got a tip, that maybe they are interested in the company's efforts/works for biofuel..what the?? that means more reading for the rest of the day.....

Just when I thought going there as one of super duper senior is cool....anyway, hoping that I can do my best and would do the company no shame... :)