23 Feb 2016 – With Friends From Early SIN & DUB Days

Mon: Welcome Richard from Sydney and tkx for dropping by for NasiLemak. Appreciate the wine from HongSze. Forgot to take pix this time round – B/W from 1950s, first reunion 2010 and 2015 where there is not much differences from then with the guys but many different shades of grey for me now 🙂

Safe journeys to Kat&Greg, Devon&Eliot (pix credits to Greg) and their nanny Amanda back to NY. Glad to be able to catch up.

Introducing one of the best playgrounds in MarineCove@EastCoastPark to Pauline&Tama, Ruben&Eva. Al fresco local picnic dinner on a pleasant breezy evening by the sea with brightly lit tankers views making them look like another island in the background. Tkx for the McD ice-cream.

Tue: tkx for dinner Calvin. Have always enjoyed the MeePok at the coffee shop near CC.

Appreciations to Yip Yew Chong for an educational & interesting evening@National Library.  He mentioned that TiongBahru is his favourite work. Will look forward for him to publishing a book on all his mural paintings.

https://amylamsg.com/2016/07/11/heritage-muralstiong-bahru/

His drawing of his childhood days at SagoLane@Chinatown is amazingly descriptive. Remember hearing that the funeral parlours there also served as hospice facilities then! As a kid and now as an adult wonder what were or are his thoughts being surrounded by such a harsh reminder of the inevitability of death daily then?

http://yipyc.com/blog/2015/08/31/memories-of-sago-lane-street-of-the-dead/

His works bring back memories of the bygone days for me and as he said so clearly that there are no messages or agendas hidden in them, they are just what you see, like his website, easy to remember: http://yipyc.com/

http://www.btrts.org.sg/history-of-sago-lane/

Wed: had breakfast and saw Lawrence off at the airport/T2. Olai would have liked this wall 🙂

MRT from airport to Tanjong Pagar took about 40mins to attend a free 2+hrs seminar on InnerQi by Tan Choon Kiang@International Plaza. Been a long while ago (early 2000s when H&H was down the street), since I set foot in this location. Engaging and interesting enough seminar but not enough to convince me to pay $3,000 for further training or workshop!

Thu: tourist-guiding Norwegian visitors thru’ Heritage sites. The building highlights tour@National Gallery was excellent today. Learnt some history from our guide.

https://amylamsg.com/2016/07/16/sin-national-gallery/

Skimmed thru’ Fullerton Hotel, Victoria Concert Hall&Theater, St Andrews Cathedral, CHIJMES (my old school CHIJ from 1962-65).

https://amylamsg.com/2014/07/29/chijmes-revisited/

Being surrounded by 4 different roads, CHIJ must be the only school which could actually have 4 different addresses then – Victoria St, Bras Basah Rd, N Bridge Rd and Stamford Rd.

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/peace-still-reigns-at-site-of-oldest-catholic-girls-school

The chapel and the corridors with the spiral staircases are beautifully restored. Caldwell House, Gate of Hope and the section walls along Bras Basah and N Bridge Rd are also done up nicely. Sad that the classrooms with the assembly hall has been replaced by the out-of-place! MRT concrete offices.

Raffles Hotel (mainly boarded up for renovations) and lunch@The Food Place@RafflesCity. 

1967 – 50yrs ago: Kathleen, me, cousin Yun, Josephine, Susan and Jennifer. Tkx for pix from Jen – The Malaysia Ball doing The Fan Dance in the school days when we were @Alexandra School&College Dublin/Ireland.

2017 – 50yrs later: sooo good to see Kat (Malaysia) and Jo (Canada) after 50yrs. Jen lives in SIN, so I do get to see her now&then! Cousin Yun (Toronto/Canada who was just visiting SIN in Oct/Nov last year) &Susan (Calgary/Canada) are missing in the present pix.

Edited Oct 2017: Yun&I (Nov2016)

Jo&Susan (Jun2017), pix credits to Susan.

We need old friends to help us grow old and new friends to help us stay young – Letty Pogrebin