The Asian Teachers Christian Conference

This morning I received by email an invitation for my presence for dinner at the Asian Teachers Christian Conference. It was sent by a former colleague of mine Ms Lam L O.
The venue was the Girls Brigade Hq at Upper Serangoon Road. In 2006, I was similarly invited and because the Singapore delegates specially requested for my Ukulele accompaniment for their performing segments, I roped in fellow ukelelist Richard, a close friend of mine.

We were there today, in the evening. And the 2 of us, with much time on our hand, jammed together many of the oldies and tried out some newer

songs too. It was something that was easy and relaxing to do.
When the participants of the ATC came down to the mess hall for their early supper, Richard and I went from table to table to serenade them.

Besides Singapore, the other participants were from Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar,Cambodia etc..

At this table was the Director-General of Education, Ms Seah Jiak Choo and Dr Low Guat Tin from the NIE. We sang for them the very lovely, " Cindy oh Cindy"and "Just a closer walk with Thee".

Our DGE, listening and enjoying the beautiful sounds of our combined ukuleles to the music and songs of the '60's.

Traveller's Tales...Ukelele: One man's faithful travel companion

The 2nd episode of Travellers Tales was aired on 13th August 2007 at 8.50 pm on 93.8 Live. In this segment,Yvonne Gomez asked about my faithful ukelele on my travels.
The very 1st time I saw someone play the uke was around 1960. He was from the Geylang Methodist Church and had brought along the uke to a picnic. I was about 12 years old then. There is nothing quite like the soothing strains of a ukelele being strummed by a good uke player, by the sea shore and accompanied by the sea breeze, sand and gently rolling waves.
I was mesmerised.
Until then, the only other musical instrument I had tried was a small, cheap Harmonica which I experimented with and taught myself some tunes.
All that changed in 1963 when a classmate of mine sold me his ukelele. It was a gift from his pastor father but he could not play it.
That was how I started on with ukelele playing. I bought a chord book and invented my own strumming style. Over the years, my uke collection increased. Today, I have a handmade
genuine Kamaka ukelele made in Honolulu, Hawaii which is more than 25 years old.
You can hear the sounds of it as I play and sing " The Hukilau" from this segment.