Cameron HIghlands 1973 with Prof Chao, Mrs. Lee and Other Friends

 

L to R : Mrs. Chao, Arnold Lee, Prof Chao, Mrs. Lee,June Lim, John and Mum. 

Here are more pictures of the trip to Cameron Highlands in 1973 with her best friend, Prof Chao Hsi Ching and his wife, Mrs. Chao.

There was also another close family friend, Mrs. Lee and her son, Arnold Lee who is now a doctor based in the US.

L to R : Mrs. Chao, Mum, Mrs. Lee, John 

My Mum, bless her soul, seldom flew intercontinental trips. Her job was the personal assistant to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health and she was very dedicated to her work.However, she seldom flew with my father on his trips to England, where his studied at the Grays Inn of London back in the post war late 1940s and early 1950s.

My Dad Geoffrey had many friends and he almost always did a 'pilgrimage' to his adopted 'Motherland' every 1 to 2 years. I remember when growing up, we kids played with many of the children of Geoffrey's friends from England, and I recall even visiting a family with my father in 1974 (before I turned 12) and having some curry cooked by the wife of our host.

Mum with Unnamed Colleague

Mum however, did all the regional trips with us, during our swimming days at the Singapore Swimming Club in the early to late 1970s. To the best of my recollection, we travelled to Bangkok (1973), Penang (1974), Manila (1975) and Jakarta (1976). I will dig up those unforgettable photos - mainly for my recollection but they were really the 'salad' days of my youth.  

                                                         Mum with Colleagues 1975. 

I've always maintained that I am a much better runner than I am a swimmer. At best, I am an above average swimmer but not I'm not at national level. However, I was good enough to be the Swim Captain for my House in Sec 2 till Sec 4. I swam also for the Mechanical Department during my Undergraduate days and we won 3 Gold Medals. 

I was also selected as the Boys Swim Captain for my Swimming Team from 1975 till 1977, taking over from Adrian Tan in 1974. 

I will try to recall the lovely memories from 1974 till 1974 which had some really nice 'war stories'.

Wait for the Next Post, readers. 

Teen Years Cameron HIghlands 1973 ; John, Mum and Por Por

 

                        L to R : Por Por, Anna (Mum), John (Brother) and 2 Female Colleagues 

I'm posting some of these priceless pictures of my Mum, Anna, my maternal Grandmother (Por Por) and my Brother John of some visit they went in 1973. In those days, Singapore was pretty backward, and if my memory serves me right, I did not go for this trip in 1973. My mother, my Por Por and my brother went to Cameron Highlands with some of her office colleagues from the Ministry of Health. I believe the year was 1973. 

Mum with John outside Hotel in Cameron Highlands. 

All Smiles for a Group Wifie. Pity about the lady Covering Her Face. 

I believe I did not go for this trip as I was already slated to travel in 1974 with my Dad Geoffrey in June 1974 to Greece and England.

I will dig up those set of pictures and post them on the next few posts. 

Early Teenage Years 1974 till 1976

 

Travelled to London in June 1974

This is one segment of my life which I believe was one of the happiest. The early teen years, between 12 and 16 years of age. I will try to delve into my picture archives to see if I can find the years when we (my brother John and I) were actively swimming at the Swimming Club.

I recall, I was made the Boys Swim Captain as early as 1975, and we competed in the regional meets called the Sanya Samaki Swim meets with other clubs from South East Asia.

We travelled and swam in Penang, Bangkok Thailand, Jakarta Indonesia and Manila Philippines at the end of each calendar year, under the Team Captain of  Mr. Henry Chan

In June 1974, my father Geoffrey bought 2 tickets, one for me as a child (below 12 years of age) and one for himself, and we set out to Greece and England. Greece was the choice he chose because he wanted me to understand that Western civilization and the birth of Government was formed in the Greek empire, some 5000 years ago.

         Sitting Atop one of the Columns of the Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens, June 1974

We visited the Parthenon in Acropolis, Athens in June 1974. After one week, we went to London England and that is where he took this picture of me at the famous Tower Bridge. 

At the Swimming Club with John and my maternal cousins, Angela and Wendy  

(Dec 1974)

My parents joined the Singapore Swimming Club around 1972, when I was about 10 years old. My brother John (above) was 7 years old then. Those were really fun times, when we first learned to swim under the legendary coach Mr. Neo Chwee Kok (called the 'Flying Fish', as he represented Singapore under the Federation of Malaya during the 1956 Olympic Games). I was a late entry into the boys swim team, but I recall the other boys and girls game me the nickname 'Tarzan' (I'm not sure why maybe I was rather a devil prankster with a lot of mischief in me). John was given the nickname 'Teddy Bear' and these 2 nicknames stuck with us till we 'retired' from swimming sometime in  late 1979.

Bus Pass Photo 1975 (14 years of age)

We had training at least 4 to 5 times a week, most times in the evening, and when school was in the afternoon session, then we went for training in the mornings. On Sundays, we would skip Sunday School (tsk tsk) and go for waterpolo games after our training. The waterpolo games were really rough and a lot of underwater punching and scratching was going on. While this was a boy's tough game, I took it all in my stride, and came out unscathed. 

We participated in the inaugural Inter Team meet, where I was one of the 4 captains who led a co-ed team of  swimmers one week per month for 12 months. I recall my team was called the Barracuda Bravados and we won the inaugural (first of many) Team Championships. The other captains as I recall were as listed below. I was the weakest swimming captain of the 4, so I was given the first cut of choosing the swimmers for my Barracuda team. 

a) Sng Tong Hoe

b) Audrey Tan

c) Khoo Teng Cheong. 

1977 Inter Team Swim Meet.

Champions : Barracuda Bravados

Captain : Yours Truly.

I was incredibly proud of that first achievement !

I believe I have the team trophy somewhere in the recesses of my house. 

Leaf Blower - totally useless machinery when an ordinary broom sweep would do.

 

Let me tell you a secret. Some years ago, in our neighborhood, there were these 2 morning sweeper men who came and swept the roads, tied up the garbage bags and cleared any litter stuck in the drains outside our house.

They did their jobs well and I was grateful for their service. I still am. 

One day, they started using this leaf blower - the function is to dislodge any leaves and blow them into a heap before they would sweep into their garbage bags. 

The only thing was, they did their jobs daily at the crack of dawn, right outside our house at roughly 6.30 to 6.45 am. The leaf blower created a right 'racket' of a noise, and I would wake up to this mechanical maniacal sound, rather than the sweet chirping sounds of birds which would be the normal daily wake up call for me.

Now, if this sounds rather 'elitist' or 'entitled', do drop me a comment in the comment section below.

However, we (my wife and I) are rather late risers (around 7.15 to 7.30 am) and the leaf blower emnates a sound which I would call 'noise pollution' - something which would register around 75 to 80dB early in the morning.

I wrote in to NEA, and complained about this, saying we are hard working people and deserve to sleep a bit more rather than be awakened by this awful racket amounting to noise pollution and causing me distress and possibly insomnia from the time I am awakened.

Well, the authorities, listened and within a week, they asked the cleaning men to use broomsweeps for their work.

I had my small victory to this day and get to wake up at 7.15 am or another half hour every day.

There is a semblance that the authorities DO listen to public feedback, if the feedback is indeed justified for the greater good of the community. 

Kudos to the NEA.

Involution - Running Harder just to stay in the Same Place

 A close friend of mine is watching a mini series on Netflix. It shows the trials and tribulations of the younger Millenials, Gen X and Gen Z in China working so hard to get wealthy or at least stay in the same socioeconomic level as the rest of their cohort.This sense of 'involution' or compete and succeed at all costs can be very troubling for society, in my honest opinion.

Involution - an inward turning or rolling back of 

Its application in the following :

a) Mathematics :   - (-x) = x  (I can hear the audible 'ah ha's from the logical and STEM readers).

b) Biology :The shrinking or the return of the  organ back to its original size, like the shrinking of the uterus back to its original size after childbirth.

c) General : A process of becoming more complex, inward or entangled.

d) Social / economic use : Excessive internal competition where people work harder but do not proportionally get the expected or better results. This normally applies to China society today with regards to its education, the rat race, and workplace culture.

> An example sentece is this. "The company suffered from involution, with teams competing internally with each other instead of creating real growth".

This can be applied our Government of the day. In Singapore too. Are our civil service sectors operating in silos and adopting an 'hands-off' approach and going all out to boost only their performance at the expense of other social  and community responsibilities ?

500,000 Views - Humbled and Grateful

 

My readers. I am grateful and humbled that this blog of mine, called Seize the Day, where this small business owner, husband and parent of 2 grown men living in Singapore, never thought that I would see the day where the total views of this blog reached 500, 000.

Its the magic (similar to compound interest), where the longer you are in the game, the more people trust your 'brand' and flock to read whatever (rubbish erh) that comes to my mind.

I steer clear of partisan politics, religion to a large extent and just post stuff relating to my company QRA International Pte Ltd and the day to day goings on in my life.

Its like I am a scribe. I pen my thoughts at different stages in my life. How the events around me, affect my thinking and my opinion and how it affects the world around me. It is a personal diary of sorts, so my readers can delve into my world so to speak.

A curator. 

Long may this blog live and prosper in providing the readers some respite from this corner of South East Asia.

I will NEVER use ChatGPT or AI to pen my thoughts. That is sacrilege. 

It will always as long as I live, I intend it to be my gift to my future generations. They can chose to delete it when I am no longer around.  

 

How to incorporate AI into the business ?

 

This is the challenge facing all companies large and small from 2026 onwards. We need to reduce costs and the one sure way to reduce it is to jump on the bandwagon called AI and incorporate solutions into the business. 

I am all for keeping good employees as the human touch and interaction puts people more at ease than dealing with automation, at least for now.  

There will come a point, where I believe companies sink or swim if AI is not embedded into the corporate DNA.

I hope I am wrong, but that reality is becoming more apparent with each passing year.

I guess the way forward is to peer review businesses in like minded industries and see which ones incorporate AI successfully and which have not and see how well they perform.

China is ahead of the AI game, yet, it is still struggling to come to terms with robots and artificial software being part of daily life.

I guess, if dinosaurs like me, can adapt to Claude, ChatGPT and even earlier, the use of Microsoft Pilot and Microsoft Office, why not AI ?