Birthdays and new lens! : Apr-19

Hong, Thea and Ally birthdays are all very close, so Dor took the opportunity to combine them into a grand birthday party celebration too!  Just nice, I also just gotten myself a new prime lens, a good 50mm f/1.2!  So that day, I use it to shoot all the things happening during the party. Because of the bokeh effect which the aperture can easily achieve, I find it difficult to shoot using the 'P' setting.  Nevertheless it is a great lens and I am sure I can take some great shots when I start to get familiar with it.

District YMD MD Fan Dance : Apr-19

During the March Zandankai I had promised to dance like the bodhisattvas of the earth in the Lotus Sutra in the next meeting.  So, as promised, I came back with a fan dance, not alone but with a bunch of bodhisattvas. :-)

 

NYJC Pugilistic Alumni Gathering : Apr-19

This was a gathering of a few closest batches in NYJC Pugilistic Society, mainly batch 9, 10 and 11.  Many of us were looking forward since quite a number had not met since graduation about 30 years ago.  I was from batch 9, where we had merely a total of 11 members.  It was a struggle to even put up a decent performance with such few people.  That was why we put in a great deal of effort to recruit more member in the club when we were in our second year, and we were very successful.  A total of 24 members joined during batch 10!  That year, we held the Pugilistic night performance, consisting a good 2 hour show with all sorts of performance, Southern & Northern Lion dances, Beijing Opera, Flag acrobatic, Chinese dance etc.  Probably that was the event that held us well in memories too. So, when Avis suggested a gathering, most people tried their best to come.  I also suggested using XinYang as the gathering venue as it would be meaningful to 'return' to the root of where we once enjoyed doing together.

Strong woman, Ling : Apr-19

It must have took at least more than a year of consistent practice before Ling can finally pull up a few times... She is a strong woman now...

Pa’s CCHS Alumni Concert : Apr-2019

On the same Saturday as Xuan’s College Day but in the evening, was Papa’s Chung Cheng High School alumni choir concert. Papa spoke to Victor one Sunday afternoon at home and casually passed him the concert tickets for us to attend. Victor and I did support Papa previously in his concerts.. at SCO and also some Pasir Ris CC. 

While waiting for the concert to begin, we couldn’t help but notice that most of the other concert goers were Pioneer Generation.. if not Merdeka Generation!!


Anyway, since we were there, we would stay. And to make sure we stayed, Papa even asked a ride home from us after his concert!! 😅😅

We waited in anticipation and trepidation.. and these were among the more impressive first items that evening!

After the first few items of combined choir, the rest of the evening was solo by the individual choir members, and also their conductors.

Finally Papa’s turn was up.. Compared to many of his choir mates, I must say I was pretty proud of his selection of song as well as his singing capability. Although I’m not familiar with the song he’s chosen, it seemed pretty much like an arty song unlike others’ selection of love songs or popular tunes which turned the concert into a karaoke instantly!!😅

The chairperson for this fundraising concert, and even the GOH, a minister, took to the mic!! Karaoke indeed.. 😓😓

Finally it was over!! And we managed to catch a together shot before we leave..😊😊

Xuan’s NYJC Award Presentation : Apr-2019

It’s a Saturday afternoon, and as parents, we were invited to attend Xuan’s NYJC College Day!! 

It’s a day where they give awards to their students who had performed well for their A-level exam the previous year. We knew because we attended when Qi did well enough for her As to receive an award at the College Day! Last year it seemed that NYJC students did extremely well for their As..

College Day is also a day where they award their previous year’s Year 1 students who did well..

Because Xuan topped her cohort in Art, Victor and I were invited by the school to witness her significant moment!!


In addition, Xuan has another award due for collection in May..

When I asked Xuan what commendable CCA contributions did she make for AEP Club, she simply said, “All office holders were given this award!” I see.. Xuan was the president of the AEP Club! So proud of her.. 💕

Our first district gohonzon conferment this year : Apr-19

It had been a while since our district member received their gohonzon and thus we were grateful and happy that Rishi and Radhika received their gohonzon on 21-Apr-19, marking our first one in 2019.

Congratulating Rishi at Senja Centre

Gather to enshrine Gohonzon at Rishi's place

Solo cycling trip : Apr-19

It was good Friday and originally I had planned to join Shin Yang to hike at Bukit Timah hill, however I did not join eventually as it seemed like it was a WD gathering. :P  Nevertheless, I did not laze around that morning, I took out the bike and went for a slow ride to Coney Island (about 17km).  It was a long time since I cycled, the feeling was nice but it also left me with a back ache the next day.

Met Poh Lye on my way back

My final Japan work assignment : Apr-19

This was my third time going to a manufacturing site to rescue their IT operations there, first happened in 2016 in Boronia (Melbourne), second in 2017 in Jurong (Singapore) and then in 2018 in Imaichi (Japan).  While these repeated assignments reassured my capability in ‘fire-fighting’ a troubled site IT operations, they did also incurred additional stress on top of my existing role in the company.  My assignment in Japan had finally ended in Apr-2019 when they eventually managed to recruit a new manager to the role and I could go over to transit the knowledge and duties to him.  As usual, this final assignment was generally ‘sweet’ as I could at last offload the additional burden on my shoulders and transfer the responsibilities.

This final assignment in Japan had a bonus in it too, it coincided with the Japan Sakura blossom season!  This was my second time watching this blossom, the last one was more than 20 years ago, where there wasn’t any digital camera yet.  The scenery was simply enchanting and captivating when I went to Ueno Park and Meguro River.  Nature had such amazing phenomena where all the trees would blossom together, as if agreeing to a timeline. 

Sakura at Ueno Park

Sakura at Meguro River

Sakura at Hall of Great Vow

There was another strange and pleasant encounter in this trip too, snowing in Utsunomiya!  So while entering Spring, I was still able to experience snowing one night after finishing dinner, it was completely unexpected, nevertheless interesting and nice.  Unfortunately, it also indicated how the earth’s weather had radically changed due to global warming.

 

Finally, apart from work, there were plenty of dinners for farewell or thank you, allowing me to escape from dining alone, something I did not enjoy.  As I said, I always like the final assignment trip. 😊

Dinner with the site leadership team

Lunch with the IT team in Imaichi

Dinner with Miyuki who helped a lot

Dinner with new IT manager, Misawa-san