It was a rejoicing gathering in Lei Garden
Restaurant, Shatin on 12 Oct 2013 .
Joe (張敏德) came
back to Hong Kong , and we took the chance to invite the
presence of Ma Sir to join our lunch gathering. We had 10 of us present.
While seeing Aliana’s (楊家旅)
presence, without any prior coordination, we all asked the same question to
her. An old idiom, 有輕於鴻毛, 有重於泰山. But
these were not what we wanted, it is something a bit heavier than the feather.
Some years ago, in a gathering, Aliana brought us some self-planted fruits, the
dragon eyes. Not too plenty, but so delicious that recalled all our memories.
Yes, very delicious, confirmed by麥小玲. Aliana then told us the adventures the dragon eyes met in these
few years. While this year may have a good chance, and she kept some as
personal reserve. But then her husband’s friends came in, after winds curling
the clouds, even her secret reserves were gone. We may have to wait for one or
two years.
Joe said that this time coming back was joining
a contest, the 17th 世界華裔長青盃足球賽. There were total 20 teams from many countries.
This year was held in Hong Kong . He was in the Vancouver
team and joining the group of ages 55 & above. If you will see Joe in
person, you will know that he kept himself very fit and he can play all the
four games, and these were 11-11 full court matches. A little regret, he said,
didn’t make any win over the other teams. Which position he was playing? A hard
one, the goal keeper. Who played football well when we were in TPS? Joe
remembered clearly a few, and that Stephen was one of the strongs. Yet Stephen
said it was difficult to play football now, and easy got hurt at our ages.
As Joe met NaiNai years ago in Vancouver
and got the link again, we were curious how that happened. Joe said that when
that day NN came to buy 义燒, NN didn’t recognize him, but he felt that the shape of NN was so
familiar. He then imagined that if he put on a hat, and that’s it. So he asked
NN a few questions on Tse’s brothers, and bingo. Joe’s memory is terrific. Joe
told us that he was a bit naughty at TPS time. This does not seem to get a
recognition in the table. He said that he had had a fight with 萬里程 (or 程萬里?),
and got hurt on the mouth. None of us realized this happened. What should be
the real name? 淩煥儀 &
麥小玲 both
said that he has a sister called 萬里花, so his name actually is 萬里程.
When we talked about the TPS years, we all knew
that it was difficult to enter TPS at that time. But the 升中試
result was not so satisfactory to many of us, and that was not reasonable. Sau
wah put forward a cause that we might have missed the last page of the paper
which also printed with exam questions. Stephen put forward another cause that
the Headmaster might not have the capability to get the exam questions for us
to do the exercises. He remembered there was a tutorial after school and an
idiom 克紹箕裘 came
out in the Chinese subject exam. OMG! I still don’t know the meaning of this
idiom yet. This might happen as at that time fairness was not yet popular and
if other schools got it, then we were in disadvantage. So we entered the
Secondary schools as it was. Some of us entered the nearby one, 黃肇枝中學. Ka
Koo said he was in it, but 淩煥儀queried about this, as she never saw him in school.
Joe said that this time coming back together
with the wife and two daughters and a baby grand daughter. He then showed us
the photo of his grand daughter. Ma Sir also showed us the photo of his grand
son. Tomson has two now, and I also have one, but we did not have the pictures
on hand. Joe said that his wife & sister & daughter were somewhere
outside the restaurant, and we immediately invited them to come in. We took
some photos before we went on our own trips. I got the time that day and
volunteered to be their tourist guide to have a visit to TPS again.
Ralph
