Saturday, 7 June 2008 will be fondly remembered by those who attended a wonderful and memorable gathering at my house to celebrate the 60th birthday of a beloved teacher, Mr Chow and reunion of schoolmates from BPES II.
It was not an easy task to gather almost twenty people who have not met one another since leaving our primary school in 1970 (except for some who went to the same secondary school). Janet, the main organiser through her resourcefulness and Bon, through his superb memories of names and faces, managed to track down at least half of those who turned up.
The highlight of the evening was during the flashback video session. Kim Chuan had painstakingly collated some old black and white photos gathered from few of us who really treasured those precious possessions. Whatever evidence we had of our BPES days were scanned and sent to him. When these photos and authographs were projected onto the screen, there was full attentiveness. No one other than those who shared those childhood days in BPES could appreciate more and identify themselves with the pictures. There was also much fun in attempting to identify some schoolmates in the photos.
The evening was well spent with Bon Hian being the excellent MC who kept everything in order. Here are some mails sent by some of us after the gathering.
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Hi all,
I have put some pictures from yesterday's great evening on picasaweb.
URL is
http://picasaweb.google.com/bpes65. Please visit to view the photos.
Thanks to everyone for putting together the wonderful evening. Bigs thanks to Ai Lay for hosting and the good food and coffee,
Poh Gek and Janet for organising, Kim Chuan for the flashback video, Bon Hain for testing our brains with catch phrases,
Mageret and Sien Chi for mental health knowledge...
Rgds
Leong Keong
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All,Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone for making last Saturday night gathering and reunion happen. Really wonderful to see so many of us again and I am sure it evoked many warm memories of nostalgia for all of us.
Special thanks and heart-felt appreciation to Ai Lay and Janet for all their efforts planning and organising the entire occasion.
Let's continue to reach out to other ex-schoolmates and ex-teachers of BPES and keep our own blog alive and well.
Rgds,
Bon
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The party is over and now it's time for a review? No, it's time to express our great appreciations to Ai Lay, Janet, Kim Chuan, Bon and all the rest who have put in a nice place, a wonderful spread of food and drink, a casual and warm welcome for Mr Chow to celebrate his 60th birthday with all of us.
I have a special "Thank you" to Ai Lay who has given us a hand-written card and a gift set to mark the occasion.
Cheers/ Kian Seng
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Saturday was indeed a wonderful and memorable evening to see so many old friends including Mr Chow. It was my pleasure offering my place for the gathering and helping Janet in organising this meaningful event. In fact I had a fun time organising it. I truly enjoyed working with Janet and Bon who had also helped in planning the program.
Of course the success of this gathering wouldn't be possible without the people who attended it. Special thanks must also be given to Poh Gek who contributed the bouquets and birthday card, and Kim Chuan who had painstakingly gathered our old photos for the flashback video.
For those who did not turn up, I would say they have missed something which can never be replayed - the atmosphere of nostalgia, the recollections of old times and the surprise look on everyone's face when Margaret appeared. We had not expected to see a Bollywood star look alike!
Freddie has kindly volunteered to host our next gathering - either at Christmas or Chinese New Year. We shall all send him reminders when it gets closer. In the meantime we shall all keep in touch with one another and continue to post to the blog. Thanks to Leong Keong and Way Seng who have beaten everyone to it immediately after our reunion.
Regards
Ai Lay
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Hi dear friends,
All has been said, but A BIG thanks to all of you who made it possible. I have spoken to a current teacher from BPPS. I may be able to get MR.Murthi no. Will keep you all update. Till than May GOD bless us with peace and harmony. Regards.
Velaisamy Suppaiyya
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Hi All,
It was great that we were able to meet up again and also with the rest of our classmates to celebrate Mr Chow's 60th Birthday. I enjoyed the flashback video the most, bringing back fond memories & recalling some faces.. It is a pity that most of us could not find all our old photos & autographs. Mine went missing after shifting out of my parent's house.
Many thanks to
1. Ai Lay for her generosity & graciously open up her house for our gathering. She's such a warm & hospitable host.
2. Kim Chuan who painstakingly (Ai Lay's words) collating all the photos & getting the software just for this occasion, and burnt midnight oil JUST FOR US! You should see his face when the program did not work on Ai Lay's TV & the projector was a low-end model, and it jumbled up all the icons on his desktop! And that was 2days before our gathering..haha.. Thank God we managed to get it worked somehow.. Phew!!
3. Bala for volunteering to frame up our 1st group photo for Mr Chow
4. Our MC, Bon, saying the right thing at the right time..
5. Poh Gek taking her initiative to get the bouquets for Chow & Ai Lay,
and of course, YOU & ALL WHO CAME, making this gathering a meaningful & memorable one.
I am wondering if you could share with me some of your thoughts of our class gathering and the old days.. Can you recall after that night of recollections, any incidents or persons during the BPES days that leave great impressions on you?
How do you feel after that night of reunion? Anyone among us made a particular impression? Was it a waste of your time? Some of them had to cancel their other functions to attend this.. Would you want to keep in touch and gather again? Any other suggestion?
Personally, I wish we had more time to sit around and talk, recalling the good old days, hearing all the secret "puppy love" stories..You never know, some girls may be eyeing at some of you guys..haha.
Hopefully we can have another great gathering again some time.. Arh..I thought someone is inviting us to his house...sometime Christmas or Chinese New Year??
I will be developing the group photo & post it to you for it to be framed onto the photo frame (door gift) from Ai Lay.
I WANT YOUR FEEDBACK & SHARINGS..... Else will send you a yellow card, Reminder... haha :)
regards, Janet
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Hi Mr Chow,
We are so glad to have you celebrating your birthday with us, your 50yrs old students. There is no other great perfect moments as this.. You have made such great impact on most of us, though the deeds at times may not seem too significant. However small it may be, it sure has been deeply etched in our memories & thoughts. Thank you!
God bless you,
janet
