The Golden Years

Star Cruise - Nov 2009

2010-10-31T21:30:00.003+08:00

Video
Star Cruise - Nov 2009

Trip to Melbourne March 2010

2010-10-31T14:47:00.008+08:00

Video
Part 1
Part 2

Holidaying at Resorts World Sentosa

2010-10-31T14:00:00.003+08:00

Video
Part 1
Part 2

Tembusu Alumni - Awards, Activities & Projects

2010-10-30T19:59:00.010+08:00

Videos -
1. Life Inspiration Awards 2002
2. To Shanghai 2002
3. Life Inspiration Awards 2004
4. To Xiamen 2004
5. To Hakka Tulou (客家土楼)
6. Xiamen - More Places to Visit
7. Tembusu Alumni (Activities & Projects) Part 1
8. Tembusu Alumni (Activities & Projects) Part 2

Video Clips

2008-01-12T18:52:00.000+08:00

My latest video clips posted to YouTube

1. Computer Class for the Elderly : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVfIbKHvFkA

2. Retirees Lunch Group Singapore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ2tTCzPaTI

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Video Clips Taken in Shanghai - April & May 2006

2006-08-16T14:04:00.000+08:00

During my visit to Shanghai in April and May, photos and video clips were taken, showing Yu Yuan 豫园, Lujiazui 陆家嘴, Xiangyang shopping stalls (襄阳路商场), etc. Here are some of them for you viewing pleasure.

Xiangyang Mart

Yu Garden

Cafe near Regalia ----Bookshop with no door

Regalia Apartment

Lujiazui

The videos are on YouTube. To view them please click the link below:
( The downloading of the video will take some time. Please be patient.)

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPsFISbvtmY

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVN3PQ039JM

My Apartment in Shanghai

2006-08-04T12:44:00.000+08:00

I bought a two-bedroom apartment in Lujiazui, the trade and financial district in Pudong, Shanghai.

The Regalia
I bought it in 1994. I was one of those naive Singaporeans who thought money could be made in China's red-hot property market. We were wrong....so very wrong! Many of us ended up without even seeing a brick on the buidling site, and worse ... losing every dollar that was invested! I was one of the luckier ones who finally managed to sell off my apartment after about 12 years and get back the capital. But if I included the costs of spending months fighting for the title deed and the return of stamp fee the developer had overcharged us (about Sing $10,000), and the many problems with the developer, the management office, rental agents and tenants, then my little venture into China property market was a big mistake.

When Deng Xiaoping was in charge, China opened its door wider and welcomed foreign investments. And building luxury condos and commercial buildings and selling them to foreigners was one sure way of attracting foreign funds into China. So property developers in China and Hong Kong joined forces and easily acquired lands in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to build condos and commercial buildings for foreign investors. Most of these property developers from Hong Kong and China had very ambitious plans, so ambitious that they threw all cautions aside. Many did not deal only with one or two projects at one time. Without much control by the govt on land acquisition and bank loan approvals, they just went ahead with several building projects all at one go. Reason? If they could make tons of money by borrowing money easily from the banks and if there were a lot of ready buyers, especially from wealthy overseas Chinese, why not?

Singapore in the 90s was doing very well economically and its citizens were eager to invest their money in properties; but as the costs of buying properties in Singapore escalated, they looked for properties elsewhere, such as Malaysia, Australia and China. Of course, the property developers overseas could somehow smell our Singaporean money. So they came to exhibit their "wares". On weekends you could see many of them displaying their project plans and distributing glossy brochures in exhibition halls and 5-star hotels. And Singaporeans, flushed with money, came in droves to see the exhibitions. They were impressed by the project plans and the building models on display. Moreover, compared with the houses in Singapore, they were so very cheap, cheap, cheap! Of course, "kiasu" Singaporeans were afraid to lose out to others; so they came in large numbers and queued up to buy.

I remember going to one of the exhibitions at the World Trade Centre. I queued for nearly an hour, and when it was my turn to choose a unit in a mega housing project in Qingdao, China. I found to my dismay ( on hindsight I should say: fortunately) that all the good ones had already been booked, leaving only those that were either too big or small or facing the wrong directions. So I left without booking one, blaming myself for not coming earlier.

A few years later I learnt from the newspapers that the mega housing project in Qingdao was a failure. Most of the buyers did not even see a brick on the building site, and, worse still, did not get back the money they had paid as downpayment.

The Shanghai Pudong apartment I bought in 1994 was in a condominium with a grand name: The Regalia. It was being developed by Hong Kong's Golden Horse Group, which by 1994 (according to its first Newsletter published on 28.02.1995) had grossed a turnover of 5 billion in Sing dollars. We were also told by this Newsletter that the rental returns in 1994 in Shanghai were: Monthly Rent: USD 3.74 - 5.95 per sq ft, and Investment Yield (%): 18 - 23 . It also predicted that the monthly returns in the following year (1995) would be more: Monthly Rent: USD 4.18 - 6.41 per sq ft, and Investment Yield (%): 22 - 23. In other words, buyers of properties in Shanghai would be able to get back their capital in a few years' time!

After a few weeks of media blitz, the Regalia project was officially launched in Singapore on 03.06.1994. In the showroom, there were photos of The Regalia under construction, showing that it had gone up as high as the 14th level. We were also told that the project would be completed by the end of 1995. All very impressive!

I gained greater confidence in Golden Horse on learning that Guthrie GTS, a listed company of Singapore, had joint forces with the Group to build The Regalia. Besides, we also learnt that Mr Lee Khoon Choy, a respected Singaporean, was a Vice Chairman of Golden Horse Group and chairman of its Singapore branch named Golden Horse Overseas Estate Service.

Two days later, I went to the office of Golden Horse Overseas Estate Services Pte Ltd at Chinatown Point with my wife and daughter and paid a deposit of $500 to book a unit priced at US$174,000.

After the booking, all that we buyers of The Regalia had to do was to wait eagerly for the monthly progress report, pay the legal fees and installments when asked to. We paid willingly, for we were pleased that everything was according to schedule. Golden Horse even threw a party for the buyers at Amara Hotel on 27.01.2005 and called it the Shanghai Night to welcome the Lunar New Year. This party boosted our confidence that Golden Horse was doing well and that we would be able to take possession of our apartments in early 1996.

My first trip to Shanghai to see Regalia for the first time was in March 1996. Three representatives of Golden Horse were at the airport to receive me and another buyer. The next day we took a taxi from our hotel to The Regalia. We were however not very impressed by the building because it was not as grand as the building shown in the brochure. Neither were we happy with the fittings in the apartments as there were tiny cracks in the main door, the parquet flooring was poorly polished and the cables of the air-conditioners were glaringly exposed. Further inspection of the building revealed that the common area facilities such as the basement carpark, the covered swimming pool, the karaoke lounge and the gym were still under construction! How could we rent out our units when these facilities were not ready? And the management insisted that we owners had to pay the monthly maintenance fee of RMB610.00 (about S$110) even when these common facilities were not ready!

We had suspected for some time that Golden Horse was in financial trouble soon after the lunar new year party. The banks in China had stopped lending money on easy terms to property developers because they had already built too many condos. With the source of money drying up, these developers with several mega projects half completed could hardly carry on. Unfortunately for the buyers of Regalia, only about three quarters the project had been completed. That was why the developer had to cut costs by reducing the work force and using poor-quality materials, 偷工减料! We were really disappointed because we thought we had a good bargain.

You really have to believe the saying: Man proposes, God disposes. 谋事在人，成事在天。

Quietly Golden Horse branch office in Singapore closed down some time in the later part of 1997 or early 1998. Those of us who had paid for our properties with cash demanded that we be given the title deed. We were told that we had to ask the main officce in Shanghai to attend to any of our demands. We were very worried.

Another complaint of ours was that we had already paid the 6% stamp fee to the developer for prosessing the title deed. But when the govt had later reduced it to 3%, the developer took no action to refund us the extra 3% it had received from us. The excuse given was that they were short of monay and would try to refund us later. They were now playing "Taiji", an art of gently parrying with opponents.

Meanwhile I also faced the problem of finding a tenant for my apartment. And the sooner I got one the better because, whether my apartment was occupied or not, I had to pay the monthly maintenance fee of RMB610 (about 120 Sing dollars).

Regalia's Indoor Swimming Pool

The big Sitting Room

It was not until one year later (1997) that the facilities in the common areas, such as the swimming pool, the tennis court and the carpark, had been completed. With the completion, I managed to get a tenant through a rental agency. This first tenant of mine was a Korean businessman running a Korean restaurant in Pudong, Shanghai. The monthly rental was USD1,200. The first monthly rental I received went to the rental agency as commission; and the second and third were used to pay for furnishing the apartment. Thus not until the 4th month was the rental money credited into my bank account.

Meanwhile, I continued to press the developer for my apartment title deed and the refund of the extra 3% stamp fee by regularly phoning its main office in Shanghai and sending registered letters to its boss. At last, after a few months of persistent phone calls and letters, I received a fax message from the main office that the title deed was ready and that I should go to Shanghai to collect it. I flew to Shanghai the following week and received the important document, which legally acknowledged me and my second daughter as joint owners of the apartment. But the developer refused to refund me the 3% stamp fee.

I was quite relieved that I had got the title deed. But many Singaporean buyers were still waiting patiently, trusting that the developer would one day get the title deed for them.

Soon after I had got back from Shanghai, one Mr Lim (who had two Regalia apartments) somehow managed to get from Regalia Management Office a list of Singaporean buyers (and their tel numbers) many of whom had yet to receive the title deed. He wanted to inform these owners to quickly go to Shanghai to press the developer for the document. As he could not speak English, he approached me for help to inform these owners. I agreed and spent nearly two days trying to contact these owners. I managed to contact about 70% of them. Then a few days later, we received another bad news from Regalia Management Office: 13 apartments bought by Singaporeans would soon be auctioned off. You see, ownership of these apartments had not been transferred to the buyers. So the developer could easily mortgage them to a financial company to get a loan. And in the event that the developer defaulted, the loan company could auction off these properties to recover the loan.

To help these owners ( about 30 of them) who had yet to get their titles and those whose properties would soon be auctioned off, we invited all Singaporean owners of The regalia to meet at the conference room in a community club to try to find ways and means of tackling the problems. We met several times, during which we even attempted to form the owners association. But this is another story....

Now let me go back to the story about my apartment. Just as I was getting some returns for my investment in China, the Asian Financial Crisis came like a bombshell. Businesses in China were of course badly affected. My Korean tenant's restuarant closed down and he and his family returned to Korean. The next tenant was a Greek in ship buildidng industry. The rental was reduced to USD600.

From 1999 to 2005, the rental money I received varied from S$800 to 1,000 per month. And when the apartment was vacant I would take the opportunity to visit Shanghai with my family or friends and stay at my apartment for one to two weeks. The stay was always a pleasant one as the metro station was not far away from Regalia, and there were a supermarket, restaurants and shops s stone's throw away. Besides, to us Singaporeans, Shanghai is a shopping paradise and we enjoyed shopping at places such as Nanjing Lu Pedestrian Mall and Yu Gardens.

The Asian financial crisis and the glut of houses in Shanghai caused the property market to be in the doldrums for a number of years. Then it turned around, albeit slowly at first, but the pace quickened noticeably from 2004 onwards.

I had since early 2004 made up my mind to sell the apartment. Why? Because we owners had no control over the management of the Regalia. Rediculous, but true! And as we lived far away from Shanghai, we always had endless problems dealing with untrustworthy rental agents and tenants who were often not punctual in paying rent. I asked myself: Why should I in my twilight years be burdened with these problems?

Since the beginning of last year (2005), property prices of apartments like mine had gone up unbelievingly high. And I had numerous phone calls from property agents telling me that there were ready buyers willing to pay as high as RMB13,500 psm for my apartment. This was the highest price offered after the financial crash. But I had no confidence in these Shanghainese agents who were strangers to me; and despite the warning that the property bubble would soon burst, I thought I should go to Shanghai to find out for myself the true market situation. So, my wife and I flew to Shanghai in the middle of April. But a few days before we left for Shanghai, the bubble burst: the central govt of China had, with immediate effect, imposed much greater restrictions on bank loans and property tranactions to stop rampant speculation. The new rules effectively brought down the prices by 20-30 %. When I arrived in Shanghai, I was asked if I would sell at RMB12,000 psm, I refused and asked for 12,500. But by then many buyers had disappeared. They were now waiting for the prices to go down some more. So I came back without making a sale.

Now the speculators holding one or more properties were in dire straits. Many had bought when the price was at its peak. Those who could not sevice the bank loans had to sell cheaply, some even at below RMB10,000.

The big Sitting Room

The small kitchen

What comes down is always at a faster speed than what goes up! True or not?

I think it is true especially in the property market in Shanghai: it took just one day for the property price to tumble 10-20% but a year or so to move up 10 %.

Towards the end of 2005, the price inched up from 10,000 to 11,000 psm. I told my property agent to let me know when it reached 11,500. Then in early April this year he informed me that there was a prospective buyer who would pay cash if I would sell it for 11,300. Tired of holding on to a property that had been without a tenant for a year and fed up with paying the monthly maintenance fee of RMB 610, I gave in and accepted the offer.

Worried that in a foreign country I might be deceived or fleeced by the property agency, I thought I should engage somebody to assist me in going through the transactions and to give me legal advice, I contacted through my daughter-in-law a Singaporean working in Shanghai and asked for his advice. He in turn introduced me to a Shanghainese lady who had worked as a property consultant. I contacted her and found her to be pleasant and very knowledgeable in matters pertaining property transactions; and she was willing to take two days off so as to accompany me during the notarization of documents and the final transaction at the Land Office. I told her I would pay her RMB2,000 for her services. ( In fact I paid her RMB500 more as tip for giving me very satisfactory service.)

My wife and I arrived in Shanghai in the last week of April and stayed at our apartment. The next morning I met this Shanghainese lady, Ms He, and together we went to the property agent's office. The Notary Republic came, checked and certified all the relevant documents. The title deed was then handed over to the agency for safekeeping. When the notary republic had left, we proceeded to the buyer's bank. There I opened a savings account. Within a few minutes, the buyer transferred the 10% deposit into my account.

We were not able to complete the final transaction in the following week because of China's special public holiday week known as Golden Week from May 1 to 7 , during which all the government offices were closed. So the final property transfer had to be done after the holiday, on 10.05.2006.

Thus my wife and I had a week of free time. On May 5, Andrew and Veron (my son and daughter-in- law) came from Singapore to join us. Together we went shopping and visited places of interest such as Jin Mao Tower, the tallest building in China, and Xiangyang Lu shopping mart, well-known for its imitation branded goods.

On the morning of May 10, we went to the land office in Pudong. The office was very crowded with buyers, sellers and property agents milling around, more than 100 of them. There were long queues at every counter. My assistant Ms He and the 3 property agents accopanying us were not at all flustered by the crowd and the noise as they had been there many times before. They moved from one counter to another without any problem; and all that the buyer and I had to do was to sign documents and pay whatever fees they asked us to pay. And believe me or not, the final transfer of the property was done within one hour! To me from Singapore, the office was too small to accommodate so many people, but somehow they got the transactions done efficiently and quickly.

Then the buyer gave us a lunch treat at a restaurant before going with us to his bank to transfer the balance of the money ( 90%) from his account into mine. And the transfer was done in just one hour. The next thing to do at the bank was to transfer the 2% commission from my account into the agent's account. There were no hitches and everything was done in a jiffy.

The next morning, I went to this local bank and transferred all my money into my savings account with our Singapore's DBS branch in Pudong. With all the money in my DBS account, I felt vey relieved, and that night I slept soundly.

My little venture into China's property market has come to a happy ending. Thank God for that. I did not get my fingers burnt, but neither did I make any profit. Later, I managed to transfer all my money back to Singapore.

On hindsight, I shouldn't have bought the property in China. It had given me many sleepless nights. Is it wise to venture into China again? Yes, if you are young and have millions of dollars for investment, and if you have trustworthy lawyers and advisors to assist you. No, definitely Not if you are like me with only some savings for old age, for it will only bring you endless trouble. You see, as law-abiding Singporeans, we are no match for these xxxx developers based in China or Hong Kong.

Which one is the Oriental Pearl TV Tower of Shanghai?

那一座是东方明珠塔?

Jin Mao Tower, the tallest building in China

Visiting Tu Lou - Hakka's Earth Buildings

2006-01-07T15:40:00.018+08:00

A group of us, consisting of 20 High Five Youth awardees, 10 Life Inspiration Award winners and 7 officials from Central Singapore CDC, went to the city of Xiamen ( 厦门 ), China on an exchange programme in June 2004. I went with them as one of the officials.

City of Xiaman .........First Dinner In City

@ S'pore Consulate... Meeting Deputy Mayor

With S'pore Club M'bers

Besides visiting Singapore's Consulate in Xiamen, community centres, an
orphanage, a home for the elderly, YMCA, the University for the Elderly (老人大学) and some 3-generation families, we also visited the inimitable Hakka Tu Lou (客家土楼) in Yongding County ( 永定县). Tulou is a Chinese name meaning Earth Building.

The bus journey from the city of Xiamen to the earth buildings in Yongding County took about 5 hours. Travelling along the fertile plains of south Fujian (福建), we saw endless stretches of vegetable and fruit farms, dotted with well-built wooden and brick houses. But as we entered the mountainous region of Yongding, the farms gave way to rugged and rocky terrains, and the roads were narrow and winding.

During the long bus ride, the local tour guide entertained us with interesting stories about the province of Fujian, particularly about the wars over Taiwan, the conflicts and intrigues among the warlords towards the end of Manchu Dynasty. We were also fascinated by his narration of how the Hakkas (客家人), as early as 1,000 years ago, due to wars and persecutions, started to migrate from the central regions of China to Fujian and Guandong (广东) in the south. As poor migrants they had to work extremely hard to survive and build their new homes. Life was hard for them because the good and fertile plains had already been occupied by the locals who of course resented their intrusion. Being unwelcome, they had no alternative but to move into the mountains. To survive, they banded together and devised ways to defend and protect themselves. The earth buildings were therefore designed not for aesthetic reasons, but for protection from the elements, and for defence against wild animals, thieves and bandits

The tour guide also told us that some years ago, some American satellite photos picked up the pictures of these Hakka Tulous and thought that they were China's nuclear reactors hidden in the mountainous regions of Fujian. Greatly alarmed, some US military liaison officers stationed at the American Embassy in Beijing were sent down to Yongding to investigate. They found to their relief and embarrassment that what they thought were nuclear reactors or missile silos were in fact harmless earth buildings where the Hakkas had been living for centuries!

Since the discovery of the earth buildings by the American satellite, word of these unique buildings began to spread far and wide, resulting in thousands of tourists from all over the world coming to Fujian to take a look at the buildings, particularly the Japanese tourists.

We arrived at our destination: Zhencheng Lou (振成楼) at about 3.00pm. I was given a small room on the top (4th) floor with a wooden bed. Furnishings were less than basic: a very thin mattress, a blanket, a pillow and a stool. There were no tables, mirror or wardrobe, and water can only be found on the ground floor. I found a small plastic pail in a corner and later I was told that it was meant for me to use at night so that I need not have to go down all the way from the fourth level to the first level, open the big door and grope my way to the toilets located a distance away.

I did not have a bath that day except to clean myself with a pail of well water and a face towel. Some who wanted to have a bath had to queue up for their turn outside the bathroom ( there was only one decent one). In the bathroom, they had to wait a long time to fill up your small wooden tub with water!. Was there hot water for bathing? Hot water? You must be joking!

The owner of this Tulou doubled as our tour guide. He gave us a short description of his Earth Building named Zhencheng Lou. It was built in 1912 by a rich Hakka for his clan. The walls of the Tulou were made impregnable with rammed earth and sandstone mixed with bamboo, brown sugar and sticky rice. Each wall is 1 metre thick and about 18 metres tall. There is only one door and the windows are small and found only on the higher floors. Most of the Tulous are round, square or rectangular.

The big ones are as large as a football field and can accommodate more than 600 people. The bedrooms are at the 3rd and 4th levels while the second level is a granary. The first level is for communal activities such as cooking, dining, washing, meetings, ancestor worship, games, rearing fowls, goats and pigs.

While on the ground floor chit-chatting with the residents, I saw some chickens wandering in the open space looking for scraps of food. I did not find any pigs. The residents had either kept them out of sight or stopped rearing them.

I also noticed that the residents were either old or very young.

"Where are those in between the age groups?" I asked the Tulou owner.

He told me that there were no job opportunities in the village, so the young ones had to find work in the city. Most of the married ones leave their children behind for their parents to take care of.
After dinner our tour bus took us to Zhongchuan Cun (中川村), a Hakka village, to meet the residents there for a get-together. We were warmly received with firecrackers and by a village brass band and a women's band of Chinese flutes and cymbals. There were speeches, more band performances, singing and dancing. The highlight was a fashion show staged by us from Singapore. The grand finale of the show was the singing in unison of our favourite song: The Moon Represents My Heart ( 月亮代表我的心) by the village children and us the visitors.

We returned to our "Tulou Hotel" at about 9.30pm. Most of us elderly members retired to our rooms early. As the young ones were still full of energy, the place was not quiet until well after midnight.
My room was hot and stuffy but as I used to sleep on planks without mattress in my younger days, I managed to sleep well. I was tired anyway.
I was awakened early in the morning by roosters crowing and thrushes singing lustily. I enjoyed listening to these birds breaking the morning silence.. They reminded me of the two years on a vegetable farm during the Japanese Occupation.
After breakfast, we went to Zhongchuan Village again. Besides visiting Aw Boon Haw ( Tiger Balm King) Memorial Hall, we also visited homes of some local residents to learn first hand how they lived their lives in such a mountainous region so far away from the city.

We left the Hakka village for Xiamen after lunch and arrived in the city at about 7.00pm.

I think the Tulou experience is good for our youths. On hindsight, however, I think the organisers should have given us seniors better accommodation. Why? Well, we had already gone through a lot of rough-and- tough life experiences. Do you still need to train oldsters like us to become tougher? Besides, most of us were already in our 60s and 70s, the oldest 76. And those with painful knees (osteoarthritis) found climbing up and down two or three flights of steep wooden staircase a torture. I think the organisers had only the youths in mind most of the time when planning the trip. The idea was to toughen up these future leaders. But they forgot that the awardees of the Life Inspiration Award were senior citizens, some of whom in their 70s and having knee problems. They were given the award because of their outstanding community service. So was it necessary that they should also be toughened up?
It is easier to organise group activities for either the young or the old, but much harder for both the young as well as the old.

Note: Videos showing our visits to Xiamen and Hakka Tulou are available.
To view them, please click the links below:

1.   To Xiamen
2.   To Hakka Tulou 客家土楼
3.   Xiamen - More Places to Visit

On Wedding Dinners and Honeymoons

2006-01-03T22:31:00.000+08:00

Last night I attended a grand wedding dinner at a posh golf club. I arrived there at 7.30pm, but the lounge for the cocktail reception was less than half full. I knew, and other guests knew too, that dinner would not start punctually at 7.30 as stated on the invitation card. True enough, it was not until 8 that we were ushered into the hall and seated at our tables, and not until 8.45 were we served the first course!

I don't want to comment further about the rubber time for Chinese wedding dinners. I was thinking of somthing else.

While waiting for the dinner to start, my thought was about the grandeur of this wedding dinner.

It is not an exaggeration to say that nowadays would-be brides and bridegrooms and their parents would think nothing of spending lavishly on wedding dinners! And the amount of time they would have to spend to prepare for the event!

You want to have your son's wedding dinner at a 5-star hotel? Well, you have to plan it early, most likely one year in advance. Of course you also have to agree to the terms and charges dictated by the hotel management. Then your son will definitely want to engage a professional photographer to take all the wedding photos before and during the wedding day. Not satisfied with just taking wedding photos, he and the photographer would create a video show for the wedding dinner, showing his and his bride's childhood days, how they met, how the romance blossomed, etc, etc. But I think they are unlikely to bother whether their guests will enjoy watching the show or not.

Then who do you invite to the dinner? Most likely, you want to invite all your friends and relatives, especially those who can give you big angpows to help you defray the high cost of a grand wedding. You would expect them to be generous because you have always been generous in giving big angpows on occasions like this. You accept that it's the Chinese custom and tradition to hold a grand wedding dinner for your son. Right? No?

Back to the dinner. As I looked around the large ballroom with 70 tables filled with guests, I was impressed. This friend of mine is not rich,... works hard all his life; yet he had invited all his friends an relatives, even an MP (Member of Parliament) and a cabinet minister!

Undoubtedly, his son's wedding would cost him thousands of dollars. Was he worried about the total cost? I don't think so. He appeared happy, and confident that the angpows he would collect would help him defray all the costs, including a honeymoon trip for the newly wed at a holiday resort overseas.

.......................

My thought then turned to my wedding nearly 50 years ago.

There was no wedding dinner, not even at a small restaurant, for my relatives and friends. There was only a simple tea reception for my guests after the wedding ceremony, and it was held at a school hall without much decoration and using only available tables and chairs.

When Helen and I decided to get married, we had very little savings... only a few hundred dollars. So I sold my car, a bone shaker.... a British-made car called Mayflower, for about $1,700. After settling the car loan, I had only about $800 left to spend on my wedding. I bought the necessary pieces of furniture for my small bridal room. My father gave me $400. That was all the savings he had. He didn't have much money because he had given almost all his savings for my elder brother's big wedding dinner about 6 months earlier.

What about angpows? I can't remmember receiving them except the 400 dollars from my father. But I did get a number of wedding presents in kind ... tea sets, bedspreads, some jewellery, table lamps, photo albums and other household items.

We were married on the 14th of December, 1957.

A few days later, we went on a honeymoon trip to Malaya. With about 500 dollars in my pocket, we "tonpan" (hitched a ride) in my friend Chye Hock's Mini Minor to Taiping, a small town in Perak about 500 miles away from Singapore. On the way there we spent one night in Kuala Lumpur's Federal Hotel, then considered one of the few luxury hotels in the KL.

We also visited Ipoh before arriving in Taiping and stayed one night at a small hotel above a coffeeshop. The next day we took a day train to Penang. At that time, the Penang Bridge was not even planned, and travellers crossed the sea from the mainland to Penang Island by ferry.

We reached Penang's Georgetown at about 6pm and found to our dismay that all the hotels had been fully booked. We went to Rev. John Chua's parsonage for help. (Before Rev Chua was transferred to Penang, he was our pastor in Klang where I lived for quite a number of years.) As he had not been told of our trip earlier, he could not put us up at his parsonage, but he arranged for us to sleep at a small room in the church. That was how we spent our third honeymoon night in a church room with two canvas beds!

The next morning, we rented a car for our tour of the island. I was familiar with the roads and therefore had no problem driving around the island. That evening, we stayed at Park Hotel, a beach hotel located at Jalan Batu Ferringhi on North western coast. For the first time, we really could relax and enjoy our honeymoon. We visited some places of interest such as Kek Lok Si the Buddhist Pagoda, Snake Temple, Penang Hill and the Botanic Gardens. We were in Penang for three days.

On the last day, we took a ferry back to the mainland, and a connecting train took us to Tapah where we boarded a bus for the Cameron Highlands. I remember clearly the long bus journey up the mountains. It was an old and noisy bus, and the roads narrow and winding. Halfway, Helen was feeling faint when the bus suddenly stopped. The driver came out and opened the bonnet. He examined the radiator and slowly unscrewed the cap. There was loud hissing, but the driver wasn't worried at all. He took out a small pail and started collecting water from a little spring nearby to top up the radiator. The little break gave the passengers a chance to come out to stretch their limbs.

We arrived at a small town called Tanah Rata after 2.5 hours, and checked into a small hotel.

Our stay on the mountain resort was an enjoyable one. We wished we could stay there longer

than 3 days.

Our journey back was less hazardous. The same bus took us back to Tapah. We boarded a train to KL where we switched to a night train to Singapore. We arrived in Singapore early in the morning.

On the whole we had an enjoyable honeymoon.

We also had no regrets that we only had a tea reception on our wedding day.

What is important is that we spent within the limits. And we didn't owe anybody anything!

By all means, have a grand wedding if you can afford it, but its grandeur does not necessarily a happy marriage make.

Not So Right

2005-09-26T10:42:00.000+08:00

My cousin and his wife visited us. They came mainly because they wanted me to read and explain to them some documents sent by a well-known insurance company.

They had just sold their HDB flat and is loaded with ready cash. Their property agent, who doubles as an insurance agent, saw this as an opportunity to sell them a life insurance policy. With much persuasion, she, the agent, managed to get my cousin's wife, who has only Primary educaiton, to sign in the agreement form on her laptop.

According to my cousin's wife, she had repeatedly told the agent that all that she wanted was to put the money, $50,000 , in a bank fixed deposit and did not want to buy any insurance policy.

This high-pressured way of selling life insurance policy to a 70-yr-old lady who doesn't need one is not right.

Nothing Is for Free

2005-09-19T13:25:00.000+08:00

We Singaporeans, whether young or old, are often exhorted to work hard because nothing is for free. That is, anything that you want, you have to pay or work for it, and for any work that you do for anybody, you expect to receive something in return. This blunt and down-to-earth advice seems to be accepted by Singaporeans as the guiding principle in our everyday dealings with one another.

I'm not here to debate the rights or wrongs of this advice. What I want to point out is that such a mindset of ours has helped make Singapore very successful but has also helped us Singaporeans become rather calculating and cynical: calculating because we weigh the pros and cons before agreeing to a deal ... any deal, whether political, business or social ... to ensure that we have something to gain, the more the better; cynical because we assume that all Singaporeans will not do things for free, and so if anyone says he is doing something for free you find it difficult to believe him. "Doing it for free? I don't believe it!" you would say. "Surely he has some ulterior motive for doing it free!"

Yes, if you want to have a bright future, you have to work hard for it.

Of course, generally you have to pay and expect to be paid for any work or service done.

Kiasu (afraid to lose out) Singporeans, being told that nothing is for free, obediently follow this guiding principle. So, children study very hard and adults work long hours to better themselves, so much so that they have little time to inculcate good manners. Many as a result become self-centred, uncaring and calculating. You want good service? Pay for it. The more you pay the better service you get! Otherwise, don't expect me to serve you nicely. Neither would I expect to receive anything free.

We must understand the reason for telling people that nothing is for free. It is to make them realise that they should rely on themselves, not be on the dole, if they want to live a useful and meaningful life.

But if this attitude of nothing is for free is carried too far, to the extent of wanting to make a profit even when dealing with friends or when 'volunteering' to do community work, then I don't think Singapore will ever become a gracious society.

An IT Programme for Senior Citizens

2005-08-09T05:34:00.000+08:00

I was the chairman of Tembusu Alumni from March 2003 to April 2005. The alumni was formed by us Life Inspiration award winners a few months after our return from Shanghai in late 2002. (For more details please go to www.tembusu.org )

Soon after the formation, I mooted the idea of setting up an IT centre for senior citizens keen to improve their computer skills and knowledge. I asked CS CDC (Central Singapore Community Development Council) to support Tembusu Alumni in setting up an IT centre. My reason is that the centre will enable senior citizens who have completed IDA's basic computer course ( NITLP) to practise what they have learnt and to continue to improve their IT skills under experienced trainers who are seniors themselves. The centre will also be used to train seniors good at IT to become trainers themselves.

The idea was thought to be a good one, but the request to set up an IT centre at CS CDC's headquarters at Toa Payoh was turned down mainly because of space constraint.. The Alumni also tried but failed to find a community club in Toa Payoh with an IT centre available for Tembusu to run training and practice sessions for seniors..

Though disappointed, I did not give up the idea of finding an IT centre suitable for seniors to practise their computer skills. To cut the story short, some time in May, 2004, we managed to get the manager of Bishan North e-Club to agree to meet up with me to discuss the possibility of conducting weekly learning and pratice sessions for seniors. After holding several meetings with the eClub manager, the board of management and chairman of Bishan North Senior Citizens Executive Committee, I managed to convince them to collaborate with Tembusu to try out the IT project.

After a long delay, the first three-hour learning and practice session was finally launched at Bishan North e-Club at 2.30pm on Thursday 30.09.2004 with 16 participants, 1 trainer and 4 tutors. There were no hitches and the participants were pleased and satisfied with the 3-hour lesson and wanted to come again to learn more. As more seniors came to know of the IT class, another class was opened early December to meet the good response. Since then, the eClub has reserved Thursday afternoons and its two IT rooms for seniors to learn more and practise their computer skills.

Today, nearly one year after the launch, our IT project at Bishan North is still going strong with two classes running at the same time. Our concern now is how to get new trainers. As you know, I and my fellow trainers are not young and cannot go on manning the classes forever. Sooner or later we have to call it a day. And who will take over? It is for this reason that I'm developing a suitable train-the-trainers programme and a 36-hour course for beginners. I plan to train the students who have been learning from us for nearly a year to be helpers and later trainers. And the 36-hour course notes will serve as a guide for the new trainers. In this way the project will go on even without us the first lot of trainers.

Here are some photos showing you some of our activities.

Pix1: Typing in lyrics using Hanyu Pinyin method Pix2: From left: Trainers Messrs Cheah, Baey, Chan, Tan
and Chairman of SCEC Mr Wu

Pix3: Tea Break Pix4: Presentationof certificates by MP
Mr Zainudin Nordin

Memorable Happenings: 1. Wedding 2. Tasmania Tour 3. Shanghai 4.Mother's Day

2005-08-07T05:00:00.000+08:00

My Golden Years is exactly one year old today and I have posted only one article. Does it mean there are no happenings worthy of my recording all this time?

There are of course many happenings that I should have recorded, but...but there were also other commitments that took away a lot of my time. Ahh...just excuses, you would say. Maybe you are right!

Here are some happenings I should have written about:

1. My second son got married in September last year and moved out to his own apartment after the wedding. Since then only my wife, I and my second daughter are living in our big and old semi-detached house. OK with me, but my wife missed his presence very much at first but has gradually accepted the reality of life....that children will sooner or later leave you and set up their own homes, and you are lucky if they come to visit you now and them.

2. In February this year, instead of celebrating Chinese New Year in Singapore as usual, we for the first time went overseas during the festival. "We" means my wife, my five children, my two daughters- in-law, one son-in-law and one grandson....altogether 11 of us. We went to Tasmania and toured the island for 12 days. We had a wonderful time on the whole. We enjoyed visiting the Salamanca market in Hobart, and Sorrel Fruit Farm where we picked apples, pears, strawberries and cherries. We had delicious Devonshire tea at a tea house and enjoyed taking pictures at its beautiful gardens. On Chinese New Year Eve , we had a Chinese dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Launceston. Another unforgettable happening happened on our way from Launceston to a lavender farm. On our way there we went into the wrong road because the road map we had did not show the roads clearly for that area, and so we ended up in a pine forest valley with lumberjacks and huge trucks carrying logs of timber. We couldn't find our way out and in the end had to back track our way for more than half an hour before we were able to get back to the main road that led to the lavender farm. There were anxious moments when we were lost in the woods with rough tracks that have no names! What if one of our cars broke down? Thank God we were able to get back without a hitch except that all the three cars were covered with dust.

3. I went to Shanghai in April with my wife, my cousin Ah Lin and his wife. My intention was to stay at my Shanghai apartment for a few days and to try to sell the apartment if there was a buyer and the price was right. Unfortunately, just as I had decided to sell, the China government started to impose a number of rules to curb property speculation. As a result, the booming property market in Shanghai suddenly stalled with the buyers adopting a wait-and-see attitde. So no buyers!

Anyway my wife and my cousin and his wife had a wonderful time in Shanghai. Compared with Singapore, Shanghai is a much greater shopping paradise. Most of the goods there, such as clothes and shoes, are 4 or 5 times cheaper. Food is also cheap. If you want to read more about my trip to Shanghai, please go to my website www.dbytan.com and look for the link to Recent Happenings.

4. Mother's Day Sunday May 8 2005
Like in previous years, my children asked where we should go to celebrate Mother's Day this year. Which restaurant should we choose this time? And should we go for breakfast, lunch or dinner?
Mother was quite firm when she said, "Don't want to eat outside. What's the point when I can't eat much?"
So I suggested celebrating Mother's Day our way, not swayed by what restaurants' ads wanted us to do. "Have it at home," I said. " All of you come to the house at three, each one bringing something for tea, and we can have an enjoyable time together....easy and free!"
That was exactly what we did, and we had a wonderful Mother's Day get-together at home. Unlike dining at a restaurant in Orchard Road area, we had no traffic jams and car parking problems; and we need not have to confine ourselves to just the one table for one hour or more waiting to be served! We had a variety of food for tea...Chinese, Malay and AngMo types, for the children brought with them different kinds of food. We could move around freely, relax and enjoy our food and drinks at a leisurely pace. We could chat and laugh loudly without worrying about diners at other tables!
So, next year, when Mother's Day comes round, and you want your aged mother to really enjoy herself, don't pressure her to go to a restaurant and make her spend one or two hours confined to a table, eating something she may not find suitable but does not want to say so because you have already ordered it. Ask your mother what she wants on Mother's Day, not what social convention dictates, and NOT what you think your mother should eat on Mother's Day!
Truth is: It is your coming home to see her and talk to her that makes her day.

August 6 2005

GoldenYears

2004-08-07T14:50:00.000+08:00

Hi, just got my Blog set up!
Had wanted to create one for some time but didn't get to doing it until now.
Thought for some time about what my blog title should be. The first one that came to my mind was "Shiok" for I find blogging new and exciting. It gives me a venue to express myself without caring whether people like what I say or not. To me it is really "shiok'! By the way "shiok" is a Malay word meaning "great!" or "wonderful" or "tasty". Unfortunately "Shiok" is not available.
The next one I chose was "GoldernYears".
Why "GoldenYears"?
I looked up several dictionaries for the meaning of "golden years". None of them has this
expression. But I wasn't worried for I was thinking
in Chinese! "Golden years" is the literal translation of the Chinese expression: 黄金年华 (huang jin nian hua) meaning "twilight years like the golden sun shining with all its glory before disappearing into the horizon!
By now you must have guessed that I'm an old man!
Let's now turn our attention to this expression "Golden Years".
Let us take a look at the people in their so called golden years.
Are they all having a glorious time, like the setting sun's golden beams piercing through the clouds, before fading away?
No. The majority of them do not have a golden time.
The flattering term is used just to make elderly people feel good.