If you remember me…

If you do remember me, I am indeed thankful for that and believe you me, I do appreciate it a lot. Over the years, I have taught so many boys and girls. Some I do remember, others vaguely or not at all. Some, I may recall the faces…while others, the names may ring the bell. There have been some even whom I could not remember at that point in time but a day or two later, it all came back to me as clear as day!

Well, last Friday night, two of them, Andrew and Hang Yuh, invited me out for dinner. Andrew’s a pharmacist in Christchurch, New Zealand…and would always get in touch with me everytime he comes home with his wife, Michelle. Hang Yuh’s a SHELL engineer in Miri, still very eligible and available…and he too would always contact me without fail, should he happen to be dropping by.

It was Friday in the season of Lent, so I was not having any meat…and Hang Yuh seemed to have developed an allergy for crustaceans – even though once, when I was in Miri, he took me for a feast of crabs and did not have any problem at all at the time. So, we just had fish…

It was very fresh. As a matter of fact, the restaurant boss said that it was still swimming in the kitchen! They call this type of fish – “Soon Hock“, so hopefully, in the Tiger Year, everything will be “soon-soon” (smooth) for all of us and with a lot of “hock” (good luck)…

We also had vegetables including cangkok manis with egg and this asparagus dish with mushrooms…

…and this plate of very nice homemade tofu…

The boss was describing to me one egg dish but I could not make head or tail out of it. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try and it turned out to be some omelette dish with thinly sliced vegetables inside…

Thanks so much for the dinner treat, Hang Yuh…and thanks to you too, Andrew and Michelle for bringing me this all the way from New Zealand…

To get back to what I was talking about, that evening, at the next table, there was this guy who came to greet me. I just guessed that he was a student in the late 70s or early 80s in Kanowit…and I was right. He was with his family and now has 3 daughters! There were also some people at another table and we heard them saying “lao tze” (teacher) and when I looked, a girl smiled and waved…but I was not too sure whether she was from one of my tuition classes or from one of the schools where I had taught before. Another one greeted me while we were leaving and I thought his name was Kelvin but he said he was William! Blush! Blush! LOL!!!

Earlier, while we were still eating and chatting, one approached my table. By George, what a pleasant surprise! It was Soon Yiew – now a doctor in Singapore after he had graduated from NUS there, married and has a son. When in secondary school, he used to take part in those public speaking competitions of which I was the teacher advisor…and after he finished Form 6, before he left for his further studies, he gave me this…

I still have it and shall always cherish it, along with the memory of those sweet moments that I have had…as a teacher.