Photos taken at the Aug 1, 2009 dinner

Julia Li, Elke Lau and Hannah Tang ready for their university life after summer.
The beautiful wives.

Timothy, the quitarist; Alvin, the soloist. Watching at the back is Sam.

Sam and Brian, the 2 second generation sons.

Sam the quitarist and Cindy taping the enjoyable moment.

Report from Ralph on the August 1, 2009 dinner at Lei Garden Restaurant, Wanchai

Dear All,

A brief report of the dinner on 1 Aug 2009.

I did not make any counting of the numbers, but the atmosphere was so happy that the room seemed to be filled up with people. It was really unexpected that nearly all the 2nd generations did come with the parents. Quite a number of photos were taken, and I don't know which should be sent into the group, so I make a decision to enclose all the photos, except a few which were of mal-quality. There were many ladies present, and many youngsters present. Will you please guess who is who?

The names (If I made mistakes in the spelling, excuse me, & please amend for me) of the 2nd generations are:-
Alki Lau, Brian Lam+ Lilly Lam, Hannah Tang, Janice Lam, Julia Li, Samuel Poon, Tammy Poon.

Timothy brought us some precious photos of our young days, while we were surprised to see that we were so lovely when we were young. Samuel brought with him a guitar, and we all sang together a song "Today". Timothy also played the guitar, with Koon Tai offered his first song to all of us. Believe it or not, Koon Tai's voice was very suitable for singing. Then Samuel sang a lovely song which was written by him. Was this the beginning of "Green comes out from Blue" ?

How many "Golden Flowers" were there? Who was the happiest one in the dinner? Who was the one laughed most heartily?

Please see the photos and the answer is there.

Ralph

Email from Ralph after his son's wedding

The TPS classmates congratulating Ralph during the banquet.
Ralph giving his lecture or whatever.

The newly expanded Lam family.

The Lams with the TPS classmates.

The Lams with the in-laws.

Dear All,

It seemed a very exciting wedding dinner, 19-7-2009 my son Brian's marriage with Lily. Nobody knows the weather is quite good before that day as the typhoon is imminent, and everybody is wondering whether the wedding party can go on or not. I believed many of you must have prayed for us, and we thanked very much for your prayers which God must have heard and directed the typhoon to ease the blowing. This made my son's wedding party more memorable, and I was accordingly titled "Lo Yei".

I would like to express my sincere thanks to the kind participation to all of you joining the dinner, to some of you who couldn't join the dinner, and should apologise that not all of TPS classmates were invited due to limited seats. We are terribly sorry that my wife and I could not spend good attention to all of you, though I would very much like to bring my wife, my son, my daughter and my now daughter-in-law to see you all before the dinner or during the dinner, and really regret that even the planned photo taking before the dinner was also interupted. They are now having their Honey Moon, and the photos of the night will then be ready after they come back, and I shall gladly let you share with me the joys of the happy moments captured. This is really an exciting moment to all of us and cannot imagine.

Looking forward to seeing you in next gatherings.

Kind regards

Ralph

More photos from Vancouver

They are blooming in my backyard tonight, too bad they won't last long. Alexander

尋人

下列同學曾於１９６０至１９６４年間就讀香港新界大埔官立小學，如有連絡資料，請電郵﹕tps[at]drinkeat.com

譚美梨, Rosita Tam, 黃瑋, Grace Wong, 鍾譚芳, 黎碧玉, 古敬華, 方兆麟, 溫玉蘭, 黃開平, 廖浩波, 李長有, 董潔文, 郭傑華, 簡耀雄, 簡振雄, 張嘉猶, 李萬雲, 陳火貴, 許玉華, 鍾素秋, 鍾隸湘, 連潤妹，蔡梅, 劉少雄, 劉國榮.

Email from Mr. Ma summarizing a 40-year history

Dear All,

I can still remember the phone call I first received from Cheng Kai Ming years back ( likely in the 80's ) to tell that there was a TPS64 gathering and ask if I would like to join. In this way I got back to line. Thereafter phone calls of similar nature from Sau Wah, Stephen and Tomson followed. And I take this opportunity, in response to Nainai's email below, to thank them all.

I was 24 when you were about 12 in 6A. Being your senior by about 12 years, I'm in a position to further stress to you that you should make hay while the sun still shines high. Though too much an old saying, it's very true. My sun is getting much lower because of the 12 years span. I can now feel clearer than anytime before that the decline in physique can actually be measured by year, ie, last year I could do this, but this year not any more. In 1999 when I first retired and visited Vancouver, I chose to walk, together with my wife, all the way from the UBC campus to Yale town where I stayed, just to get a better feel of the beautiful city. It was at least a 3-hour walk. If at that time I knew that Au Wing Yee worked in UBC I would certainly have gone up to her to say hello ( I told her this in our subsequent email exchanges ). But now 10 years later while I could still do the 3-hour walk I don't think I could stand the long flight. Likewise, much as I would have wished to revisit LA where I had stayed for 3 months to do a project in 1981, 28 years back, the opportunity is now lost to me due to physical limitations. Despite that Alexander had so kindly offered to be the LA host. And I wish to thank him here again for being so nice to me. His English teacher for only 1 year in his 5A. All this is to echo Nai nai's point of seeing more of each other when you can. And go places when you can.

Knowing the value of good health, I now exercise for 2 hours a day on average. Comprising swimming, brisk walking, and general body moving exercises. These activities, plus the needed cleaning up and reading newspapers after breakfast already take up 1/2 a day. There then leaves only 1/2 a day for other pursuits. And so a retirement life can also be very busy. And not unmeaningful. As there is an aim, which is to keep as fit as possible.

Thanks to Nainai's and Alexander's special mention of me in association with the Aug/Sept gathering. Much appreciated. I'll try my best.

Best wishes to you all.

KW Ma

Alexander Lee's Transcript

Through this little piece of paper, Alexander parted ways with us. He went to St. Joseph and didn’t see the TPS folks for the next 40 over years.

You don’t see some of the subjects in schools anymore but they bring back a lot of memories.

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

Vancouver Visit June 28, 2009

Dear All,

I've gone through 2 security and document checks at Vancouver, one at the airport and the other at Delicious Cousine where our meeting took place. Both passed without a scare.

Happy is an understatement to describe my feelings to see Stanely and Wing Yee after all these years. After the initial hesitation, ice starting to melt and we settle down for a nice chat and delicious dinner. I will have a problem to respond if you ask me how was the food as I really did not pay enough attention to the meat and fish that Wing Yee ordered. I was too excited to notice and there's a big possiblity that I might had swallowed a fish bone or two.

After the dinner, Stanely was nice enough to invite us to his newly remodel home for coffee and Joe Cheung was being summoned to join us after his soccer game. As we were waiting for Joe, Stanely impressed all of us by his amazing memory. He recalls all the details as names were thrown at him. He even remember the name of my childhood sweetheart and the fact that I lived somewhere in 廣福道.

Joe finally show up and was discovered that my St.Joseph classmate played soccer with him in the over 50 years old league. I have to thank Joe for giving me a ride home later that night. We took some pictures and were attached here and Stephen mostlikely will post them on our blog. I enjoy every single minute of this Vancouver gathering and looking forward to meet more TPS classmates come September in Hong Kong.

Alexander 李國榮

---------------------

Dear Alex

Thank you for coming all the way from LA to our mini TPS reunion at Vancouver.

It was so nice to see someone who has disappeared for over 40 years and suddenly emerged in front of you especially someone of your size.

Your second document check at the restaurant did ease off our classmates' doubt in a way. You produced a transcript from TPS issued when you moved out to St. Joeph.

For all classmates info, Alex was in 3B, 4B and 5A and the teachers were Mr. Yeung Yuen-ning, Mrs Chung Wong Wan-wah, and Mr Cigarette- Ash CHAN. Alex, please scan this transcript to our TPS Blog at your earliest convenience.

We shall see each other again in early September in HK.

Regards

Stanley

Email Exchange between Alexander and Ralph

Dear Alexander,

I missed quite some emails these days, and lucky to find back.

Stephen provided a good platform for us. Years ago, when we were still teenagers, Kai Ming sometimes arranged picnics once a year, or two to three years one time, exactly I cannot remember. Each time he had to call every classmate by telephone, some may present, some cannot. Now it is much easier. Everyone of us having a computer, may have the information in a much easier way. And most of us enjoyed being a silent majority. Sometimes they may sent in a PPS for us to share. 1 or 2 may begin to speak, or keep on enjoying. This is very leisure.

Last year (03-2008), TPS had conducted a "Home Coming Day" in the new School Campus, had some functions including basket ball game, table tennis ball game, planting of a new Cotton Tree, and welcome all TPS present & past students to join. We joined all the functions, including the ball games. At our age, the youngest is 50+, and we played the matches with the young ones. Win or loss is not a matter. We are glad that we do have enough people and enough energy to play full match, enough energy to help set up the new Cotton Tree and we did enjoy the whole day. Some cannot come, but we can understand they are all glad that we can join.

Glad to see you come back. And hope that you can join with NaiNai & others in Vancouver, a place I longed to go but still do not have the plan to go yet.

Ralph
______

Hi Ralph,

Yes, I am absolutely impressed by how you guys can managed to hold on together for so many years. Obviously Cheng Kai Ming is the one who started it all in the very beginning and he had to do it the hard way. My hat's off to him for an incredible achivement. I do wish to visit the old school site again in September and I am awared that one needs to make an appointment to do so. Some says it does open on Sunday for the public, I'll have to find out. Stephen brought up the idea of an overseas reunion trip, please let me know if I can be of any kind of help.

Alexander
_______

Dear Alexander,

Kai Ming really did an important job. Not easy, particularly there must be a lot of occasions being yes, and no, and whether proceed or not.

The School site is still beautiful, but smaller. It is now changed to "國民教育中心" "National Education Centre". I hope I did not make it wrong. Your information seems to be correct. What I heard is also like this, but I cannot confirm.

The idea of an overseas trip is a good suggestion. This idea was brought forward since the gathering on 27 July 2007 (provided if my memory is still correct) when Raymond came back to Hong Kong from England. That night Yeung Ka Lui brought us very delicious Dragon Eyes planted by her & her better half. The Dragon Eyes still can be seen as Stephen has put it to the blog. It was planned to go to 黃山 or 九寨溝 or Japan or ...(Wong Shan or Jiuzhaigou) in 2008. You know, information is that everybody went to Wong Shan & Jiuzhaigou all uttered admirations, other than the difficulties they might have encountered. This was nearly succeeded. If you have time & like travelling, you may take part in this planning. This may not be easy, as this is not like mahjong playing which you get 4 legs and the table is set up. Arranging group overseas picnics would be more difficult, but it would be great if this is succeeded. On the other hand, Vancouver may be a starting point for this venture.

Ralph

Email from Mr. Ma to Lee Kwok Wing

Alex,

Thanks for the 2 emails.

Indeed the 2nd one brought specail happiness. Because I really want to know if Vagabond is still there. And how nice of you to tell me it is. And the cost too. At US$70 per night should not be expensive. My impression is that it was clean and tidy enough. At the time the charges were met by my employer the HK govt. . Having lived there for 3 months makes me feel more or less that it is a landmark for my stay in LA. Reminding me of the joggings I did in the surrounding streets and once a black kid girl telling me that I need jogging because I was too skinny, my walking over to the USC campus practically every day to meet people and attend sessions and bringing books back to read, my crossing the Figuaroar Rd to Mcdonnald to buy burgers... Well, all flashed back. All sweet memories. All because I was young then and had ample time ahead. And all because I don't think I can ever revisit the place as I said earlier. Despite that at less than 120 lbs the econ seats would not give me a problem.

Thanks for the accommodation offer. Much appreciated even though no way of taking up.

I agree that the pension serves us ex civil servants quite well. Not having to worry about livelihood is a big plus for a retirement life. By the way I'm now 69. Should be about 12 yrs your senior.

I can see that you would have a very happy mini reunion in Canada shortly. And I'm happy for you to be able to add new old friends.

Real nice chatting with you.

Ma Kai Woon

Lee Kwok Wing

Lee Kwok Wing and his wife Polly in Kobe China Town in 2007. After half a century, more fat and less hair.

尋人

下列同學曾於１９６０至１９６４年間就讀香港新界大埔官立小學，如有連絡資料，請電郵﹕tps[at]drinkeat.com

譚美梨, Rosita Tam, 黃瑋, Grace Wong, 鍾譚芳, 黎碧玉, 古敬華, 方兆麟, 溫玉蘭, 黃開平, 廖浩波, 李長有, 董潔文, 郭傑華, 簡耀雄, 簡振雄, 張嘉猶, 李萬雲, 陳火貴, 許玉華, 鍾素秋, 鍾隸湘, 連潤妹，蔡梅, 劉少雄, 劉國榮.

Email from Lee Kwok Wing after more than half a Century

Hi everybody, I had never dream of contacting my primary school classmates until coming across Stephen's blog some 2 weeks ago. It darns on me that it really has been almost half a century ago that we shared some of our best moments on that beautiful hilly schoolyard.

As I read on, the names and faces became more vivid and somehow my fading momory has start coming back to life. I remember bits and pieces as I look at those old school pictures and my heart start pounding like a drum in a marching band.

I applaud all you people in particular Stephen to set up this blog so that we can recall the old days and share the new ones in the future.

I left TPS for St.Joseph College in 1962/3 and later moved to LA in 1973 to further my studies. I stay in LA until these days and now been retired almost 8 years and a grandfather of 4 children.

I do visit HK twice a year as most of our family and old friends are still there. Hopefully we can meet up in September during my next visit. Yes Stephen, please add my email address to your group and I can not wait to hear from all you people again.

Alexander Lee 李國榮

_____________


Hi Stephen,

Yes, I remember you also, so as Poon, Tse and Hui. I do remember these two teachers Ma and Yeung as Yeung was my P3 class master. Mr. Ma was quite young at the time and I did not have the chance to go to picnics like you guys did since I did not attend P6 in 1963/4.

I did play soccer in the school and no, I wasn't that good. I did play for St. Joseph College later on and was in the school team and won a few medals in both soccer and track and field events in inter-school competitions. I do maintain contacts with the St. Joseph classmates all over the world and will attend our 40th graduation anniversary reunion in HK next year.

I will try to attach some photos next time as I screw up my album in this new netbook. Anyway, please forward my regards to all our classmates and keep in contact.

Alexander

____________

Dear Alex ,

Thanks very much for your ptompt response. I have added your phone no. to the list but I will wait for a while for other inputs before I send out the updated list.

We are really glad to have you back to our community. I have tried very hard to figure out how you look like but failed. But for sure, we must have played lots of football games together in the TPS muddy football field; those were our happiest days together. However, we would recognize you when we meet you in HK ( very soon ?). By the way, it would be great if you could send us an old photo during the time in TPS or any other.

We look forward not only to a happy gatherig in near future and also a big re-union of TPS " Ball 牛 " .

Wish you a great week
Tomson

Wedding photos of Holly, Wing Yee's daughter 2008/8/8

I should also share some photos with you guys re my daughter Holly’s wedding last year (August 8, 2008) – better late than never. Here they are – attached! The second pic includes all three children.

Wing Yee

Wedding of Tomson's daughter, Yvonne

Dear All ,

I am very excited to announce that my daughter Yvonne has just got married last Saturaday and I am extremely proud of myself being accredited the title of " father-in-law". To let you share with my joy, please use the link below to tour through the pictures capturing some of the happy moments.
http://www.soundsfromabove.com/Yvonne/7th_March,_2009.html

I would also express my sincere thanks to the kind participation of some of you to the dinner party and was terribly sorry that my wife & I could not spend sufficient time & attention to you all. I also apologize that not all TPS classmates could be invited due to limited seats available. For compensation, I hope to invite you " Yum Cha" in near future.

Let's look forward to the next happy occasion within TPS family, probably it's the turn for Ralph to be the great " Lo Yei " in July !

Congratulations !

Kind Regards

Tomson

Dear All ,

Thank you all for your kind compliments on my daughter's wedding and I try to respond to some of answers raised:

Kai Ming, Yeung Ka Sing was in the party because both my daughter & son-in-law worked as the management trainees in Town Gas Co. after they came back from UK. Yes, I am also looking forward to "Moon Yuet" party but not likely soon, youngsters have different sets of values nowadays.

Koon Yan, I missed your smiling face too in the party; how wonderful if you could join! For sure, all parents nowadays have their jobs done well, always more than enough.

Ralph, you will also be crowned as big "lo yei" soon; I already discovered the kind of sweetness emerged in the way you talked & smiled.

Raymond, no need to apologize; your heart is in mine. no need to envy me, you will have your big day not so far away!

Mee, both Mariae & I really missed you & Deedo in our party; when will you be back to HK to have a re-union with all "ching mui chuk ma" TPS classmates? Yvonne is almost 30 now and if further delay in marriage, she will soon become a "lo goo por". I always believed I was strong enough to ride the emotion and I was okay all the days leading to the wedding. On Sunday morning, the next day after the marriage, I just could not hold the tears in my eyes when I passed by Yvonne's room which was of course empty; Mariae also burst into tears. After all, we are just the normal parents and kids are your "bone & flesh" that you want to keep in your custody always, Ha Ha !

For those joining the party, I attached the photos we took together and hope you like them. Once again, thank you all for the nice words.

Kind Regards

Tomson

Dinner for Pak Suen in 2005 during her return to HK

Dear Pak ,

Thank you very much for your kind compliments. Indeed, we need more happy events to off set the cloudy days at the moments. Ralph will also do a good job to cheer us up soon! By the way, your last return to HK was many years ago (2005) and we had a nice gathering in Tsim Sha Tsui. It's more or less the right timing to have you back in HK again, okay?

Cheers
Tin Sung

尋人

下列同學曾於１９６０至１９６４年間就讀香港新界大埔官立小學，如有連絡資料，請電郵﹕tps[at]drinkeat.com

鍾譚芳, 黎碧玉, 古敬華, 方兆麟, 溫玉蘭, 黃開平, 廖浩波, 李長有, 董潔文。譚美梨, Rosita Tam, 黃瑋, Grace Wong, 郭傑華, 簡耀雄, 簡振雄, 張嘉猶, 李萬雲, 陳火貴, 許玉華, 鍾素秋, 鍾隸湘, 連潤妹，蔡梅.

大埔官立小學校友會 2009 通訊

2008周年大會已在2008年6月28日下午十二時三十分在母校大埔官立小學舉行。母校李慧珠校長、陳綺紅副校長及校友共一百五十一人出席。

大會通過修訂下列會章:
Clause 14 及 Clause 15: 執委人數由 11人改為 7 人。
Clause 23 : 執委會法定人數由不少於7 人改為 4人。
Clause 59: 由於大會在六月或7月舉行, 財務截止日期由 每年之6月30日為 每年之4月30日。
會中選出下列校友為新執行委員會成員:
Chau Kam Sang
周金生 (主席)
Lau Chi Keung
柳志強 (副主席)
Mok Kwai Sang
莫桂生 (義務秘書)
Li Shai Hung
李世雄 (義務司庫)
Chan Kung Pak
陳拱柏 (康樂)
Lau Yung Sau
劉容壽
Lee Tat Hong
李達康

校友會選出周金生先生代表校友會出席母校之學校管理委員會。

校友會成立己有二年, 過去一年聯絡畢業校友, 增進校友間之聯系工作。目前已有五百二十多人為會員, 此工作仍需大力推廣, 更需要一班在社會工作中之校友參加執委會工作, 發展會務 。

為了減少行政工作, 校友會只設入會費, 不設年費, 校友會一切開支由在社會工作之校友捐助補貼。過去一年校友會由校友捐款中撥出港幣二千元給母校作獎學金之用, 並在2008年6月28日畢業禮中發放。校友會亦已在2009年2月捐助二千元贊助母校舉辦之粵北文化交流團。

如果校友能能夠捐助, 校友會將每年發放獎學金, 長遠目標為設立一個基金, 用基金利息作獎學金。在此呼籲校友捐助 或用私人名譽在母校設立獎學金, 獎勵後輩,協助母校發展。校友如能捐款協助, 可和母校或校友會委員聯絡或直接存入本會戶口
中國銀行(香港) 有限公司
大埔官立小學校友會有限公司
Tai Po Government Primary School Alumni Association Ltd
012-364-0-001432-2
給校友會的支票抬頭必須用 大埔官立小學校友會有限公司

在過去, 大埔官立小學除提供學位給大埔區之學童外, 並接收上水、粉嶺、沙頭角、沙田及九龍區之學童, 六十年來春風化雨, 畢業生在社會有不少成就, 部份已退休, 安享晚年。相信校友都會熱力支持校友會, 回饋母校。

母校1946年創校, 在大埔租用民房為校舍(四個課室), 1952年在大埔運頭角建獨立校舍 (共有8個課室), 1999年遷往大埔太和路現新形校舍, 在運頭角之校舍已由政府改作其他用途, 不會隨便開放。各屆畢業生都會自行舉行聚會, 如果校友希望參觀運頭角之原校舍一遊或聚會, 可和母校或和校友會聯絡, 和現機構安排。

校友日
2008年3月1日在母校舉行之第一次校友日, 超過二百校友參加, 多人參加隊際籃球比賽、個人羽毛球比賽、個人乒乓球比賽 和個人立定投籃比賽, 活動非常成功。第二次校友日將於2009年5月9日舉行,請留意 校友會發出之通訊 或母校網頁。

(校友會 email address : tpgpsaa@yahoo.com.hk )

校友會聯絡地址:香港新界大埔太和路8號大埔官立小學
母校網頁: http://www.tpgps.edu.hk/

Lunch at Sai Kung on Feb 22, 2009

Time runs fast, a week has gone since our last gathering, but it seemed yesterday to me. Is it we can retain time nowadays, or just only me ? Timothy's photos let us have a good memory of the day.

22-2-2009 is a nice day. Everything starts with a good day. Temperature at about 20C,no rain, not shiny, but quite foggy. It has been long time we didn't see so foggy, soon we find ourselves on a Spring journey, and realised Wing Yee has sent us emails about how to drive on wet snow. We can see every car is driving carefully and slowly if not they would use a chain to tie up the wheels on the long slope down to Sai Kung, our picnic destination with our years long classmates & teacher and the joy which made me stayed awake all through the night before.

Sai Kung is now like a small town & like Cheung Chau Island, with shops & restaurants which travellers & visitors can easily find a place to eat and enjoy the sceneries. Stephen is doing the shopping of the sea food in Sai Kung Market. We stayed aside and looked around the stalls. There are fish like deep sea creatures, and I showed to Celine. Celine is Sau Wah's daughter. There are also rock side shells like mini oysters/scallop which I
think those fond of eating should be very exciting with these.

Soon we gathered all, 17 of us, and have our seats ready in a small room in the restaurant named Day Day Good. The first dish came, amazing, it looked like scallop, shell... something like this but I haven't ever seen in my life. It is a clam with a "mini elephant" inside. We don't know when Stephen bought this in the market, and we didn't realise this exists. Taste very good. Next came the favourite of the ladies, the local fish, simple and won good valuations.

Then came the Grouper. Koon Tai said they have yesterday eaten a Sumi, and wondered how they know that they will not catch the Ciguatera poisoning. Timothy freed them from the worry that if you don't have the
symptoms within 24 hours, then you will not be that lucky one. And that if you really caught this poisoning, you will have an opposite direction in your feeling, which is: when you feel this is hot, but this is cold in fact, and vice versa.

Then 2 big porgies came while we are talking about Chinese Tea Dragon Well. Soon I found that the porgies were eaten up remaining the bones in the plate, and I have not eaten any. Who ate it so fast ? I realised reading the book "Old Man and Sea". This book tells the ending of the fish finished with the skeleton of the bones only, same as now well displayed in the plate. I wondered if the author has had a meal with some of us before writing this book. Somebody asked me if the fish is good taste. I said yes, if not how come it was gone so quick.

We chattered along, and talked the gathering in last year. Nai Nai asked if Mr Ma will join to play mahjong game this year. While Ma Sir intended to give the reply, Koon Tai was so kind to make a stop loss for Ma Sir that Nai Nai should not make the win in last year, less but equally important that Nai Nai should not win them the day before. Nai Nai, being the real winner, humbly said that this is not his wish. Guess that if he can control the game, he would elect the opposite.

Ka Koo said that he has had a letter from the now President of United States of America, Barack Obama , signed by him, telling Ka Koo that he was just elected Presidency. We all share this joy with Ka Koo as this letter is really precious.

We finished the lunch with everybody filled up with so fine food. Walking down the praya, there were more and more people, and we proceed with our separate journeys.

Ralph