30 Jan 2009 – Wilki & Patti

Yesterday, I met with cousin Wilki and wife Patti at the Peranakan Museum where we spent the whole morning in both the Peranakan sections and the Qingzhou Discovery-Serenity in Stone. I have seen them both but wonderful to learn more for each visit. Lunch at True Blue (upscale, price wise as well!) peranakan food with the ambiance and decor to match.

The last time Wilki was at the National Museum was probably when he left SIN in 1962. Should have served him his favourite drink before introducing him to the swinging red chandeliers! The walk from the museum thru’ Ft Canning Park to connect to Clarke Quay was quiet and peaceful with only a couple of people in our way. Ended the day with shopping and eating durians in Chinatown.

Thanks for a lovely visit, cousin. Will walk Changi Boardwalk and some of the Park Connectors for your next trip. You will be flying back home to Honolulu on Mon and I will be off to Kuching Sun. Safe journeys to us.

Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm

27 Jan 2009 – Back in SIN

After flying 2 n fr 4 diff airports MCO, DTW, NRT & SIN, I m finally in my HDB flat getting ready 4 2nd day of CNY celebrations. TTYL

My friend in Florida and I are trying to see how many abbreviations, chat lingo and acronyms we can fit into one sentence. Well Nancy, here is to you and hang in there. 

Spelt in full- After flying to and from four different airports Orlando (the name of the airport is McCoy), Detroit, Narita (Tokyo airport) and Singapore, I am finally in my Housing Developing Board (public housing in Singapore) flat getting ready for second day of Chinese New Year celebrations. Talk to you later.

FEAR is an acronym in the English language for False Evidence Appearing Real – Neale Donald Walsch

23 Jan 2009 – Choices Oh Choices

22 Jan: Happy 7th Bday to Katy, my first born grandchild/daughter. And it is exactly a year ago I started blogging! 

Shopping here in the USA is not as easy as one imagines. The choices and the varieties are just incredible and I do enjoy just looking without buying. Searching for an anti-perspiring deodorant branded as just scented was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Today they are no longer marketed as scented or unscented but there are at least 9 different kinds of scents, the different flowers including a water melon scent!

Ended up buying the scent on promotion at Target. Looking at the empty aisles, times must also be rough here. Walmart is still one of the stores I like and frequent. The prices are reasonable and the selection is good enough for me; their 24hr opening super store is certainly a plus.

Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choice –
Alfred Montapert

20 Jan 2009 – A History in Making

I did not travel to USA for the inauguration. It is happening right under my nose in cold temperatures with about 2 million people at the National Mall, National Monument in Washington DC waiting for Senator Barack H Obama to make his Inauguration speech. He will be swearing on the same bible as President Abraham Lincoln did in 1861 and has not been used since then.

What an exciting moment, when the first African American, 5th youngest, 44th US elected president and the world most powerful man takes his place in the White House as President Barack H Obama. Am completely touched and speechless here with my eyes glued on the TV screen.

I have a dream – Martin L King  
A dream come true – Virginia visitor among the 2 million people

19 Jan 2009 – OrlandoMCO

After over 27 hours in planes and at airports, how can one even think or see clearly? Watched 3 movies from SIN to TokyoNRT. Sat next to a young fellow Singaporean from NRT to Minneapolis St PaulMSP who was on her way to Wichita. What does one do in Wichita? By the time we started to chat, I was rushing to catch my flight to MCO. Joanne, thanks for sharing your gum, came in good time for the landing to prevent my ears from popping. 

From MSP (snow on the runways) to MCO, the preboarding announcement was with appropriate humour! Ladies & gentlemen, we do not preboard families with children. Everyone going to MCO are families with children! Memories of MCO from the late 1980s when I was working for Delta Airlines (now merged with Northwest), automatic flush toilets were just installed.  This kid in a cubicle commented with excitement… mommy, we are in Disney Land with the magic toilets.

Love can sometimes be magic but magic can sometimes just be an illusion – Javan

17 Jan 2009 – On route to the USA via Japan

A friend once told me that written words are less mind touching and that words straight from the mouth which carry warmth & feelings, thus cruder without refinement are closer to truth.

Words both spoken or written cannot be compared to actions which can reflect closer to truth or do they? But what is truth?? It would be impossible to survey all there is to say about truth, knowledge or love in any coherent way.  

Quite profound thoughts! One can debate and discuss until the end of time without ever fully understanding them!

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods – Albert Einstein

15 Jan 2009 – celebrating the last year of my 50s with humor!

Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time and with the right camera… I am still waiting for that moment where there are no need for words.

Enjoy the attachments from Kari, my Norwegian friend 🙂

Life is a succession of moments; to live each one is to succeed – Corita Kent

Edited 20Sep 2016: 7yrs later – just watched this movie Sully****do remember the news but did not remember that it happened on my Bday 2009. Tom Hanks stars in this thrilling portrait of heroic airline pilot Chesley Sully Sullenberger, re-enacting his incredible successful emergency landing of an Airbus A320 full of passengers on the Hudson River. A true gracious  and humble hero in every way.

13 Jan 2009 – Kwong Lee Mortgage&Remittance Co. to Kwong Lee Bank

1940 picture: in Chinese jeckets – grandfatherLAM SongKee and granduncleLAM JiChiew with their families in Singapore.

Wikipedia stated Mr Lam Ting Yeu (supposedly LAM TinYue, my father) as the founder of the KwongLeeMortgage&Remittance Company some years and it is incorrect and now (2017) it has been corrected and edited. Will be traveling to Sarawak after the Chinese New Year to learn more and hopefully to take some pictures. My granduncle, LAM JiChiew was the founder of the Kwong LeeMortgage&RemittanceCompany in 1905, not LAM TinYue (2nd row 1st right sitting crossed-legs in a white suit), my father who was born in 1911.

Began its operations in 1905 in Kuching/KCH, Sarawak, under the name of KwongLeeMortgage&RemittanceCompany, it granted loans against the security of export commodities such as pepper, rubber&other indigenous products. It provided the services of remitting money of migrant Chinese to their families in SE-China.

7Apr2021: appreciations&thanks to nieceSK for informing me that there were 2 other KLB in JB/Malaysia (where she worked in the 1980s) and another one in KL/Malaysia which I have no idea that even they existed??

16May2021: tkx to cousinKarenLIM(1966)- oh and of course google brought me to yr blog instantly and I saw that bank cheque …. my mum wld be able to verify that the logo was designed on our dining table by my father … I vaguely remembered that ….. ah memories are so powerful, we need to make more of them! 

3Jan1994, the HongLeongGroup/Malaysia acquired MUI BankBerhad through HongLeongCreditBerhad and renamed it as HongLeongBankBerhad/HLBB. The acquisition of MUI BankBerhad by HongLeongGroup/Malaysia (which is controlled by Malaysian business tycoon QUEK LengChan) followed shortly after an aborted takeover attempt of the MUI Group by another Malaysian tycoon TanSriDat VincentTanCheeYioun (through his vehicle BerjayaCorporation).

Thus HongLeongBank can claim that it started in 1905.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Leong_Bank

Bankers know that history is inflationary and that money is the last thing a wise man will hoard – Will Durant

13Dec2020: donated father’s LAM TinYue(1911-1996) old B/W photo albums (1920-1950s)+various original documents to SIN NationalLibraryBoard/NLB. Appreciations to MeiChenLEE&NLB-staff for taking care to preserve the LAM-Heritage for future generations who might have an interest – copyrights are still mine and NLB has been notified and they can be shared for research&educational purposes, NOT for monetary or for profit purposes.

22May2022: tkx to these interesting copies from auntieLAM KeiChan (LAM JiChiew’s branch), donated to NBL.

19Sep2025: could this be ~1923 Sibu-branch/Borneo? From uncleKhoon’s old B/W pix, it looks like it, tkx to cousinKaren for this share.

Found this old pix but have no clue which KLB branch or where or when??

Edited Fri19Sep2025: according to cousin Irene, this should be ~1937 Sarikei-first KLB-branch@WharfRd before moving to RepokRd,Sariket in 1973.

1958? KLB-WharfRd,Sariket/Borneo with uncleKhoon

1973: KLB-RepokRd,Sariket/Borneo with broLawrence in the beige-suit and uncleKhoon in the dark-suit next to him.

Aug1973: KLB-Binatang/Borneo with broLawrence&Mabel,auntieNgor,uncleKhoon in the middle; Karen the little girl in the white dress.

15Sep2025: appreciations with thanks to Karen for B/W pix of her father uncleKhoon who was in charge of the Sariket-KLB branch.

Present: Jalan KLB road in KCH,Sarawak/Borneo donated by the family.

9 Jan 2009 – Walking ECPC

Yesterday a friend left at 0640hrs back to HKG as his mother’s condition deteriorated in the hospital. He only arrived the day before and had to turn around in less than 24hrs. Got up early to see him off in overcast & breezy weather, befitting the mood for a long walk.

Started from Marine Crescent to East Coast Park, a good 8km walk to link with the Coastal Park Connector/PC 8km, Changi PC 1.6km, Loyang PC 3.5km, Pasir Ris PC 2.3km, Tampines PC 6km and Siglap PC 6.3km. The PCs are well-maintained and marked with PCN (Park Connector Network) on the concrete surfaces but they are hard on the feet & knees in spite of my cushion-arched Chaco sandals.

There was slight discomfort on the knees but on the whole, a good experience. Miss the real nature and peace; convenient with civilization always around the corner or across the road. The section most deafening to the ears was the Coastal PC where the path is parallel to the airport’s runways’ solo walker! Will now invest in a bicycle and a membership in the Katong Swimming Complex before exploring the other connectors.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body – Joseph Addison

5 Jan 2009 – Holidays over

It is peaceful that life is back to normal after the holiday season. Schools started today and I can be at the Marine Parade Library or walk by the East Coast Park without the crowd and noise; have been avoiding those places to keep sane. Shop as little as possible in Dec and when I have to do my grocery, will do it at the time when it is less crowded. How oh how am I going to survive in this maddening crowd?

Discovered that I could do a 36km walk on the eastern coastal park connector. Have to find out more about them and see if I will manage to walk that distant in this heat. On a weekday evenings, the lights go off at midnight for some of the connectors. And if I want to complete the 36km at one go, it will have to be in the weekend when all the connectors are lit all night. Knowing how I dislike the crowd and the heat, this will be questionable.

The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back to the crowd –
James Crook