ORA Charity Golf 2007 - October 3rd

Seh Chong's report from Raffles Country Club 19th hole

Once a year, a bunch of our diehard cohorts would dust their golf clubs to get together for a round of golf ... all in the name of charity this time. Don’t be mistaken, the golf was only incidental, something to do whilst we catch up with old friends. Judging by the greying hair and bulging torso, ‘old’ is probably the right adjective. But appearance aside, once we met, we were all back to the RI days and very much ‘young’ again.

Reliving the good old days, the conversation invariably was about the teachers, the tuckshop food, the canal (at Bras Basah) and trying to recall who was chief librarian, who was in Red Cross, who did what to whom …etc. These things happened more than 35 years ago and yet through our reminiscing, seemed like yesterday. Forget about work and stress, we were all schoolboys again for that afternoon.

Even though the golf was incidental, it was great fun. The informality, the constant ribbing as everyone tried to put their opponents off their game for the sheer pleasure of taking some money from old friends and to be able to boast about it. All the etiquette espoused by the Royal & Ancient gets thrown out the window and in its place the schoolboy competitiveness surfaced. Just like all the makeshift football, ping pong games played outside (and inside) the classrooms at Bras Basah.

Rumour had it that there would be no meat or veg at Chong Hua’s table for a few days because Chin Leong had not given him enough strokes and won $30. I had to remind Chong Hua it was the same $30 he took from me some weeks back. Its all ‘swings and roundabouts’ – what goes round comes round. But the main thing is to enjoy the journey. That we all did, judging by the conversation over dinner.

In case people cannot recognise the folks in the picture through all the distortion in the lens which made everyone looked ‘fat’ and ‘grey’:

(L-R) Koh Kok Tiong; Naresh; Mathivanan; Remy Chan;

Jackson Loy; Lim Chin Leong; Kong Eng Huat; Ong Chong Hua;
Tan Seng Chee; myself and Loh Yan Hui.
Missing: ( we always had 1 or 2 of these in NS)
Wong Chin Aun and Tan Tor Cher.

Chong Hua said ...

“Many thanks for organizing this golf get-together amongst our cohort.

It was fun but I still feel very sore losing $30 to Buaya Lim in our flight – they never taught the students in the Science Stream about ’compassion and integrity’.

Nice to touch base with all of you even if it’s for once a year. Cheers”


And Yan Hui replied …

“Wa.... Chong Hua, how can?....all the very good & up-right
students in the Science Stream got whacked by you like that??.........

Anyway, I empathise with your $30 lost, ... I lost $20 yesterday too. It still pains a bit, all rather our pride that is, to lose even though that's life, like Seh Chong says. Actually, in the case with Chin Leong, I lose monies everytime to him even when he gives me lots of strokes .. some people are just so blessed in life that they play golf once a day, everyday of the week! How not to be good! ... :-)

Thanks to Seh Chong for organising and all other "old" chums for joining in, we all had fun yesterday while doing a bit of charity. ... Cheers!”