Wushu Performance

I attended a wushu performance put up by my 'former' school. Though I am no longer taking lessons, I still have a keen interest in wushu. The photo above shows the curtain call with the trainers in white (after their finale taiji performance). The gentleman on stage-left in a black jacket with a bouquet of flowers is Mr Di Guang-Wen, Chief Coach and former all-round wushu champion. He also acted in the series 'The Legend of Bruce Lee' which is showing on Channel 8 now. He plays Bruce Lee's Wing-Chun senior Guo Xin-Li.

Actually, before I stopped lessons, I was to be involved in one of the items for the performance and trained for 3 lessons but had to give it up in the end because the training clashed with my weekly Saturday badminton game.

If I had carried on, I would be clad in the yellow jumpsuit Bruce Lee made famous and my guess is I may not look very flattering in it.

Hey Jude (Beatles in colour)

Beatles: In My Life

First Grade Animal Science

I was channel surfing yesterday and watched a snippet of the variety show "Who is Smarter than a Fifth Grader". The contestant chose the category "First Grade Animal Science" and the resulting question was something like: A doe is a female species of which animal?

Ha! I know the answer from the song from the movie The Sound of Music. Bet you did too. You could probably sing it as well: Doe, a dear, a female dear.

For me, I heard the song when I was in Primary 1 or 2, but not from The Sound of Music. My mum had told me then there was a fantastic movie called The Sound of Music and she herself had only watched it once or twice. Those were the days before VCDs/DVDs were available so the only opportunity to watch such movies was when SBC broadcasted it.

I remember the scene vividly. It was a singing lesson and our teacher offered the opportunity to anyone in the class who would sing. One of my classmates, a girl, I remember her name, Chen Xingping, a Malaysian girl who commuted to Singapore daily to school, sang this song.

I was mesmerised by the song, because of the simplicity, the intuitiveness in teaching the listener about music notes. When I finally saw the movie a few years later, I loved the movie as well and subsequently bought the soundtrack and the VCD (it was still before the DVD era).

Anyway, back to Xingping. I remembered she had a best friend (don't we all have best friends then) called Peiqi whom, in later years, someone mentioned she took part in the Miss Singapore competition. Although a group of us from primary school still keep in touch, we have not been able to contact Xingping or Peiqi, even in this Facebook and Google age.

Mad World

Office Running Group

It is not easy to sustain a chore like running, although it is essentially a good thing to do. Come to think of it, good things like eating healthy etc. is always not easy to start and to continue doing.

So, the turnout for the second run was unsurprisingly not as good as the first. But the important thing was some of us perservered. For me, I enjoyed running with a group because I would never have ran the full 40 mins if I had done it at home. And I could see the benefits of my improved fitness and stamina when I played my weekly badminton. Against more skilful players like Mr O, my only edge over him is my superior fitness.

Keong smsed me the other day. He said he was inspired by our 40min running group that he started running 40 mins daily. Good for him. And he should! haha

Office running group

Colleague and I trying to start a running group in the office. First run today for 40 mins. Not bad, a little tired.

Keong back in Pek Kio

Keong, you trying too hard to push your chin out lah...your jaw line isn't natural.

That plastic bag is a little distracting.

Celebrating the Glorious Career of Seetoh C

It was his day today and he didn't dissappoint. First, he brought business cards for distribution promoting his new career (never mind he is 65 already) as a swimming coach. Second, he had a speech prepared and thanked all his bosses (never mind he is retiring). Lastly, he made everybody do a yam seng for him, well almost. You see, he did all the "Yams" and we all had to do the "Seng"s. See video below.

Well, it was his day and no one can begrudge his moment of attention after more than 40 years in this organisation. As a young engineer almost a decade ago, I had already heard of him and his professionalism and the discipline he demanded from his subordinates.

In his speech, he shared that he held 3 jobs before joining the present organisation. First, as a char siew bao seller at Kampung Telok Blangah who was slapped by a gangster because he dared ask the gangster to pay for two siew mais. He recalled those were the days before independence and shop owners had to pay protection money. This practice stopped in the late 60s.

His second job was a (re)-bar bender. No mechanisation in those days. Your muscles were all that you had.

His third job was as a plumber in a factory and he was the only one in the entire factory!

Despite his advancing age, he enrolled himself to be certified as a NROC swimming coach. The demands are exacting and only a small percentage pass every time. Yet, he made it.

So, to wish him well in his next career, the gift we got for him was a full body suit, with the word "TEACHER" printed in front and the NROC logo on the two sleeves. I think it is a fitting tribute to the man.

Chee Keong back in SIngapore

Meeting up with the man for lunch (he says his dinner slots are all taken up) this Thurs. So busy meh?