. As they were all teachers representing the teaching profession, they made the 2nd decision to train a small party of students and make it the first student-teacher group to climb a reputable mountain outside Singapore.Read the FULL story of Singapore's 1st Gunung Tahan Expedition 1969 in the pages of this blog beginning...here.
There were just 10 of us. The 4 teachers and 6 students that we picked after a gruelling selection process. The 6 students all hailed from the only Junior College then in existence...the National Junior College ( NJC ).
The principal of the JC was then Mr Lim Kim Woon and the Head of the PE Dept was Mr Seah Lye Huat, a known badminton player.
Today, May 16 2009, NJC is having a big celebration in their college grounds.
They are celebrating their proud 40 year history and achievements.
They have much to celebrate about...being the country's 1st and premier college in the early days.
Many of our top leaders in government and industry hailed from there...including
our Prime Minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong.
Unk Dicko has accepted a Dinner invitation by the Project Sweet Sweet Team for the function. This team, comprising some very devoted and dedicated members of the 1st batch of NJC students from 1969, got together 5 years ago and made a promise to write a special book documenting their student life and the founding of the college. It was no empty promise. The special Commemorative Book titled," And they called us car park attendants "documenting the "original " people of the founding year 1969, has been produced and will be officially launched at the grand dinner. Inside will be a featured account of the "1st NJC Tahan" story of 1969. Most of the photos came from my personal archives...which I had enhanced
before sending to the key members of the Project team namely Wong Moh Keed, the Editor and the Project Co-ordinator Julia d'Silva ( aka Pau Ka Liau ).
It was Moh Keed who first contacted me after she chanced upon my blog while doing some research on Gunung Tahan and NJC last year. The rest as they say is history.
I am looking forward to meet some of my fellow Tahaners and others.
I have not seen some of them since 1969!
40 years ago!!!
3 comments:
I am so sad becos I just learned about this dinner this morning. Somehow my name was missed out in the invitation. I wrote 2 pieces in that book but I still haven't seen it yet :(
I was actually looking around for you among the tables in the hall. But somehow could not locate you. I'm surprised they missed you. Your story is featured in the special Book which should be sent to you..I hope.
By the way Chun See, I was seated next to Seah Lye Huat at my table. He's still the same lean and sprightly man as before albeit with all white hair now and has a severe hearing problem. On my left was Helen Choo a 69 niner..and present principal of Tampines JC. Then there was Julia the key person behind the book.
All in all it was a night of unforgettable nostalgia.
I'll probably blog a little about this event soon.
My fellow Friend of Yesterday.sg, Dr Tan Wee Kiat a former NJC teacher was also missed out. Like me, he was at the last NJC gathering where a teacher from the organising committee gave us an update on the ongoing preparations. He too was looking forward to the dinner :(
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